Buddha's Rhubarb Of Opinions On Media

Glib Reviews Of DVDs that are Coming Soon! No, really. The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug Directed by Peter Jackson Working in a video store, the movies show up a few days before you put them on the shelves, so that you can have time to enter them into your inventory, and more importantly, for staff to view a few flicks to give people recommendations, which is a big chunk of your day. Some folks know exactly what they are looking for at the video store. But, a lot of people come to the store, because they don’t know what to watch, they check out the staff picks, and they ask for recommendations. So you have to keep up at least a little bit with the new releases. Due to some inventory days at the distro warehouse, The Hobbit, Desolation of Smaug showed up well early, and I got to end my weekend of watching movies about D&D nerds with the 2nd movie adaptation of the really short book that got many of us into D&D in the first place. I’m in the camp, that To...

Glib Reviews of New Releases NerdFest Day 2 Continuing my Nerd-Sploitation festival with the almost traditional tale of of the out of control Game Master. Earlier examples of this sort of the tiny Nerdsploitation genre includes Gamers, (and it’s sequel) or any of those movies that I don't watch, that involve video games. Zero Charisma - Directed by Katie Graham , Andrew Matthews Is a surprising solid portrayal of the aging Nerd, or Fan. The main character is in many ways a painful reminder of what its like to be so obsessed with a game (or any fantasy) that it ruins the rest of your life.  Scott The GM in question ( Sam Eidson ), may in fact be a triggering presence for many gamers, or ex gamers. Be warned, the interplay of the players and GM struggling through a ridiculously overlong campaign is more realistic than the things the players do ‘in game.’ People being talked over, outside noise causing havoc with the flow of the game, the omnipresence of snack...

Glib Reviews of Vaguely New DVD Releases Before I do my next Mini-film fest, (Swashbucklers) starting Monday, I am having a new release Nerd fest. Movies about gamers have a tiny niche in the quick to video world of modern indie cinema. My favourite is the film “The Wild Hunt” an indie film from Quebec a few years ago. It was funny, serious, and a bit of a kitchen sink drama. Hidden Gem, it is.  On Saturday I plan to watch Zero Charisma, and will have a review of that, Sunday morning, or I may watch The Desolation of Smaug, and watch Zero Charisma, on Sunday. Either way, those two movies, and a third - The Knights Of Badassdom, make a little mini-D&D-esque movie weekend, punctuated by my afternoon Sunday actually playing in a tabletop RPG. My game logs for that game can be found on my RPG/FIC blog . My character’s name is Rosie Ramses. But on to the movie which was much more likeable than I thought it would be. A decent Nerd Comedy. Knights Of Badassdom...

Glib Review of vaguely new release DVDs Last Days On Mars - Directed by Ruairi Robinson I’m really glad that there are so many Sci Fi movies getting made these days, speaking as a big fan of all (well maybe not 'all') things Sci Fi (and Fantasy) ... I just wish that more of them lived up to their potential. The thematically similar recent Europa Report does a better job despite using the so hackneyed found footage trope.  There are no such conceits in this gritty thriller that wants to be an Alien , The Thing kind of movie. Bacterial life is found, and what could possibly go wrong. There are some good characters in this film, and the premise is solid if predictable. There’s not anything wrong with predictable, if it is done with style.  Last days On Mars has some style, but not enough to keep it from making me almost nod off occasionally. I especially enjoyed Olivia Williams playing the Ice Queen Scientist as well as we all know she can. The ending, not...

Glib Reviews Of New DVDs (Blu Ray in this case) 47 Ronin Directed By Carl Rinsch Not the update of a classic story that I was hoping against hope, for. After being pleasantly surprised recently at Keanu’s solid directorial debut with the cliched in all the best ways, old school Kung Fu movie, Man Of Tai Chi. Where that movie exceeds expectations , this one falls short. Sad Keanu shows up for monosyllabic action, and scenes of being tortured, not the cool and hard as Agent Smith Keanu from Man Of Tai Chi. Maybe it’s unfair to compare the two.  But on its own 47 Ronin still is a so-so effort in the Let’s get our honour back genre. Far too long is spent setting everything up, the fantasy elements are okay, and the CGI is really good, but it doesn’t make up for the odd pacing and complete lack of snappy dialogue. The whole point of these movies where you have several anti-heroic types banding together, is to showcase some of those actors. There should be some actua...

Glib Reviews Of Vaguely Recent DVD Releases Enough Said - Directed by Nicole Holofcener ‘Enough Said’ is a lovely movie. Gandolfini shines in one of his last roles, but really for me, this was Julia Louis Dreyfus’ movie. I love her on TV, but in this she really gets to act, not just be the funny dorky lady she always is on TV. She gives a nuanced, wonderful performance, and holds the film together as the most fucked up of a wonderfully fucked up cast of characters. Catherine Keener makes the wealthy poet single mom thing believable (almost) as she rants about her ex-husband, who sounds a bit of a putz. But all the characters in this film have that putz quality show up at some point. They are all jerks to each other at one point or another. Well, Albert(Gandolfini) maybe not as much as the others, but he’s as human as they are. It’s refreshing to have a script where people are, like in the real world, mostly nice, but sometimes not. Sometimes we are selfish, rude, th...

Glib Reviews Of Vaguely Recent DVD Releases Man Of Tai Chi - Directed By Keanu Reeves Keanu took a break from being an internet meme and directed a very old school martial arts picture, with some nice modern plot points to keep it fresh. It’s no “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” though there is a bit of wire work, and the main character is named Tiger. Keanu sets us up right away with the knowledge that he is the Big Bad in this movie, as he dons a Dr. Doom mask and kills two people himself in the first few minutes of the picture. Keanu is a Super Villain on a mission for high ratings. Tiger Chen, who is a floppy haired underdog, delivery boy and almost a Tai Chi Master gets Really Really Ultimate Secret Fight Club Billionaire really excited when he uses his almost non violent tai Chi moves to win a competition in Beijing. The narrative twists nicely between Tiger figuring out how to weave his Tai Chi around a gazillion different styles of Martial arts, the tough ...