Today - I watched the war begin.

 

Haven't seen many Australian films but this wasn't a bad start. This film has some gorgeous scenery with some rather breath taking pan shots. The film being based in the outback of Australia really gives a great feel of the isolation and inpendence which they have to with hold through out the film.

The film crew chose a very good selection of actors for this film such as: Caitlin Stasey, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Lincoln Lewis, Deniz Akdeniz, Phoebe Tonkin, Chris Pang, Ashleigh Cummings, Andrew Ryan and many more. Most of these actors having experience in the Australian soap Home and Away.

I find that the film erupts too quickly into a burning bloody mess of bodies, jets, helicopters and tanks. Also i find it rather strange that simple teenagers seem to be able to quickly a mass into a fully fighting elite squad that seem to be able to dodge the never ending enslaught of forgien men with fully equiped body armour and modern guns. But yet perhaps this is what makes the film so individual to its category of action-adventure.

 With good credit to Stuart Beattie (Director) and John Marsden (Author of the book) i belive this film has more of an underline content about how the Asian boy in the film Lee is slightly isolated from the group because he is different to the others yet once they start to work as a group the others then start to realise a quality that they are equal are in the same mess together. This shows a moral or message from the film that everyone is equal and has a right.

Now with linking this in with games. This film as a some what direct story line to the lately realised game Homefront which is about North Korea slowly dominating every where which slightly links to the film where a forgien force i slowly taking Australia and its people.

Now to conclude i would give this film a 5 / 10 this is because i enjoyed the conflict scenes and the parts were they show the stunning landscape but i was dis-heartented by the speed of the story. But if you do massivly enjoy this film then you'll be excited to hear that they have enouced a number 2. So feel free to comment if you have anything to say or counter :D .

Mafia 2

   I'm really into the Mafia style Games and Films at the momment as my recent review of  'Goodfellas' showed.

   Anyway onto Mafia 2. I really enjoyed playing Mafia because it had an amazing story, From chapter 1 - 15 i really felt like i was part of the story with when your in the army at the begging to the dramatic ending (not spoiling it if you haven't played it.)

   I found that the characters in Mafia 2 are sum what a bit too stero-typical of an Italian American Mafia member. Heres is a quick summary of some of the characters:

Vito Scaletta - The main character the one who always has too get his friends out of trouble or get his family out of trouble. As the story goes on this character gets into more and more trouble intill the story just erputs into a mess of rotting corpes and dead memories.

Joey Barbaro - Vito's main man, the other headlining character of the story the one who starts Vito off with making some 'Sweet Dough' and Introducing him to some very important contacts who subsequently come into the story when you need to make some money or Find out the truth (no spoilers there.) But Joey as a character is a very run in and all guns blazin' sort of guy, who also gets all the ladies (well from the 'cathouse' that is.)

Franco Vinci & Alberto Clemete & Carlo Falcone - The three main don bosses of Mafia 2 and there isn't much to say about them although they don't do much but order around there bum buddies to do all there work for them.

Bum Buddies Being - Leo Galante, Luca Gurino and Eddie Scarpa.

   Ok so we have cleared most of the chracters now but there is so many more characters in the actual game. If you are abit of a sad geek when it comes to getting acheivments on the xbox or trophies on the ps3 like me your going to love this game it is jam packed with really easy acheivments / trophys for you to get i don't no about trophys but it is up to 1000 gamerscore on the xbox with 47 'chevos and it you get the DLCs it goes up to 1500 very nice if you like your gamerscore.

   Onto too the DLCs i purchased both the DLCs earlier this month and found that they are quite different to the actual full version of Mafia which is good if you like a little break from the full game of Mafia. The two DLCs are 'Jimmy's Vendetta' and 'Joe's Adventure' they are both 800 microsoft points currently on the Xbox Live marketplace. Back on to the DLCs i personaly think that 'Jimmy's Vendetta' is a better DLC only because i love to shot and blow stuff up and be rewarded with points for doing it whats better than that. On the other hand though 'Joe's Adventure' is very good because it is actually linked in with the story of the full version.

   To my conclusion i think that Mafia 2 is an excellent looking game with some amazing shoot out and character features with some cool clothing gear to go with it. Personally i think the only down fall is that fact that there is no free-roam after you finish the game and also the lack of an online ability, but don't let that put you off because the story and DLCs do make up for that also the Playboy collectables which i must say once you've got all 50 like me you will never be bored again. :D






   

Goodfellas...

   Started watching Goodfellas the other day, What an amazing film. From start to finish your on the edge of your seat especially when Joe Pesci is on one of his vicious rants. The most some what scary rant was about a quater to half way into the film where Pesci is told he is a "funny guy" and he just snaps. Then causing a very sudden akward silence upon fellow "Fellas". Pesci then carrys on to ask questions such as "Do i amuse you? I am i funny to you like a clown uh!" The reply then being very akward. Then making the scene very dramatic and great for the viewer.

    Another great factor about Goodfellas is the brutality of some of the scenes such as when the main characters girlfriend is being picked on by the bloke over the road and as cool as the main character is he simply walks over and pulls his pistol out then buldgens the bloke with the butt. Simple yet effective.     
  
      Back on the the great Pesci, and another of his brutal scenes. This scene is the scene were Pesci walks into the main characters bar, and one of Pesci's "friends" are there. This friend starts "busting Pesci's balls" over when Pesci used to shine shoes and Pesci just shuts him up and shrugs it off. Then the friend says "Go get your shoe shine box" then Pesci goes on a rage out and kicks the living shit out of this guy.

     The story to this film is a moderatly good, yet fairly predictable. I think that the story to this is more for just shootin' and blowing stuff up the way alot of people like films. So if you watch this film hoping for an amazing in-depth story its not for you just enjoy the shoot outs and the heists.

     This being a quick little review, I have to summarise Goodfellas is an excellent film and if you have'nt seen it it is a must see! If you're into Action and Shooting this is a great film to sit down and see!!!!