How I Feel In Pictures #6

Good day to you ladies and gents and welcome to the 6th edition of How I Feel In Pictures. In these posts I’ll upload a piece of art that I’ve drawn that basically represents how I feel at that current point in time. These days I’m in a strange point in my life where I’m totally excited for the future in terms of my dream career, however, I’m not in the best of places in my life either, so I’m glad that I have my art to help keep me together in times of crisis.

Check out my latest picture below:

“You’re Too Slow!” That quote never gets old.

As you can see above, I’ve drawn another Sonic picture. I’m a massive Sonic fan and since this video game character is the main reason I draw, I always end up coming back to him as a source for my drawing. I’ve been doing a lot of work on Adobe Photoshop since the summer and I’ve been trying to find ways to make my pictures better by experimenting with colour and lighting, and I feel like I’m finally making some progress in that department. Getting the right colours for Sonic has been a very important element of the colouring process and I feel like this is my most complete digital piece of art so far. While I’m still not too sure about the lighting and shadows, for a first time effort I do think it’s half bad.

And like my picture back in How I Feel In Pictures #4, this current picture is based on an old sketch. Have a look below:

As you can see, the main line work from the original to the new version is pretty much the same with a few variations here and there. The old sketch on the right is one I did back in 2007 and after seeing the picture in an old sketchbook I thought I’d upgrade it.

All in all I think it is a success and I’m looking forward to making more technical stuff in Photoshop in the near future. Thanks for reading yo 😀

 

A Walk Among the Tombstones Mini Review

Yo people of the internet, time for another mini review and today I’ll be talking about A Walk Among the Tombstones. Now Initially I wasn’t going to watch this film purely because it looked like Taken 3 from the way it was advertised and while I love Liam Neeson, I’m tired of the whole ‘I’m a hard man who runs around with a gun beating up bad guys and stuff.’ But then I started hearing good reviews about the film which surprised me, so last night I watched the film with my dad to see what the fuss was about.

So the story goes like this:

“Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife.”

The story is a familiar one within this genre, but it does enough unique things to stand out from other films and is entertaining for the most part. I was surprised by how many people came into play with the main murder, I thought it would be a similar case that just involved one party, but there were many people tied together because they were in the same line of business and had suffered similar losses. It was pretty cool to see some detective work being done and see how so many pieces of this crazy puzzle came together. I do feel like the story did drag its feet a bit and some things came together very conveniently for my liking.

When it comes to the cast I feel like they all did a great job. Liam Neeson was great as Matthew Scudder, the reason why I liked Neeson’s performance was because he had to do more than just talk tough and beat up people, he actually had to try and do some acting and this film reminds me of why I love the guy in the first place. Scudder is a man who is scarred by the actions of his past and now tries to do right, even if his methods aren’t always legal. I like how he is detached from people and operates on his own, but has some great interactions with other people in this film. Brian “Astro” Bradley was also good as TJ, this kid is someone who sees the world for what it is, he’s smart, blunt and only cares for himself, however, once coming across Scudder and having interactions with him, he finds more to do with his time. I thought Bradley was cool, interesting and very funny at several points in the film.

A big shout out should go to David Harbour and Adam David Thompson, who play as Ray and Albert, as they happen to play two of the creepiest individuals I have come across in a film in a while, they play quite despicable and disturbing individuals who really are the lowest form of human beings (if you can call them that). Especially when it comes to Ray, that guy, just the look on his face, the way he speaks and conducts himself is just unsettling in every way. Other good performances came from Dan Stevens as Kenny Kristo, Boyd Holbrook as Peter Kristo and Sebastian Roché as Yuri Landau (who I liked very much, but if was distracting how much he reminded me of Gordon Ramsay).

In conclusion A Walk Among the Tombstones is a nice thriller with Liam Neeson giving a good central performance. The film is a bit of a slow burn and some Neeson fans will be disappointed by the lack of action, but if you’re willing to give this film a chance then you’ll find a smart, dark and interesting thriller here.

Rating: 7/10

So, A Walk Among the Tombstones, have you seen it and what do you think of it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and I’ll see ya on the next review. Laters. 😀

 

Three Year Anniversary On WordPress! Woo!

Howdy ladies and gents, just a quick post today about me and this blog of mine. Yesterday marks my three-year anniversary since I joined WordPress back in September 2011. Yeah, I’ve been lurking around for that long lol.

Even though I knew that I would be doing this blog for longer than three years, it is still pretty mental to think that I’ve been blogging consistently for this long. This started out as a pastime and than evolved into something I take a little more seriously, like a serious hobby, if that makes any sense. Instead of just doing film reviews and talking about random things in my life, I’ve done month-long film and video game marathons, I’ve down reviews of TV shows and music, I talk about news relating to film and sometimes TV and video games and I have a series of rants as well. As you can see this blog went from having just one primary function to a whole load of other functions.

I’ve also learnt a lot about blogging, grammar in general (which I’m still trying to improve) and overall I’ still trying to figure out how to make this blog a successful one. Oh and obviously I’ve made some lovely online mates along the way who are such beautiful people and have cracking blogs of their own which have given me great amounts of reading material too.

So what’s next? Well I have a lot of summer plans that fell through due to me not have a laptop for almost a month, so I have a month of film reviews coming, some music album reviews and some other random blogs and rants on the horizon, so look forward to that when it comes.

In conclusion, thanks to all my blogging peeps and anyone who has read this mental blog for the last three years and here’s to three more or ten! Cheers! 😀

 

My Impressions On Super Smash Bros. 3DS Demo

Howdy ladies and gents, today I’m gonna do something a little different when it comes to my blog posts as I am going to give you my impressions on the demo for Super Smash Bros. 3DS. Now wouldn’t usually do a review for a demo of a game, but this game in particular is pretty much one of the biggest games of 2014 especially for Nintendo fans and after several lucky punks got the demo early, I thought I would just give my thoughts.

Gameplay

When it comes to the gameplay, it is just the same as ever, anyone who has played a game in this series will be able to jump right in and play. When it comes to the demo you can only play 2-minute matches with 1-3 other CPU’s at level 1-9 and you’re limited to the Battlefield stage (with the option to play it normally or without platforms). As for characters, veterans Mario, Link and Pikachu return, while Villager and Mega Man join the fray as the newcomers. The old characters are pretty much the same (especially Mario), but there are subtle changes to Link and Pikachu’s movesets where some of their attacks have changed, either hitting harder, changing in range or having slightly different hitboxes than before. As for Villager, that guy is crazy. He’s good for close range combat and all of his moves are based off of the activities and items from the Animal Crossing series and to see him pulling weeds to swinging umbrellas to dropping bowling balls is a delight and his taunts are just the best thing ever. And then there’s Mega Man, his move set is more long distance and unconventional, all of his moves are based on the robot masters powers from Mega Man 2 and 3 (I believe) and they work better from a distance, that’s not to say that Mega Man doesn’t do well in close combat, it is just because he doesn’t have any strong A attacks or powerful special attacks. That being said, when you get the hang of him, he’s hella fun to play as.

Controls

For the most part the controls are fine as the 3DS button layout is very similar to that of a GameCube controller (the standard controller for a SSB game), the only thing that is missing is a C-stick. But even without that little convenience, the game controls well with your A and B buttons being used for standard and special attacks, Y and X are the jump buttons, R being your shield and L being a grab button. The 3DS Slider works for the most part, however, it isn’t as precise as your classic control stick and sometimes the Slider misreads a tap for a dash movement or an upward smash for a jump and it can mess with your flow a bit. And while the button layout is great, any veteran of this series may find that buttons are a bit too close together as well, but maybe that’s just me.

Presentation

One thing that SSB doesn’t skimp on is the presentation which is bloody impressive. Visually the game is incredible and the screenshots online do not do the game justice at all. While this is not the HD glory that is the Wii U version, the 3DS version sports a great cel-shaded look and the level of detail in the animation, character models, backgrounds and foregrounds is nothing short of incredible. In addition to that the game runs very smoothly at 60fps and the 3D in the game is great too with a nice level of depth. The only issues I found was when certain assist trophies, Pokemon or items would be used, there was a noticeable amount of lag and I think that’s mainly due to those items being limited to 30fps. But other than that snag everything works fine.

Summary

Pros

• Gameplay remains unchained for the most part
• The speed of battle is better than
• The new items and assist trophies are awesome
• Mega Man and Villager are great new additions
• Visual and audio presentation is excellent

Cons

• Some changes to veteran character moves feels off
• Hit boxes feel a bit off for certain attack
• The 3DS Slider misreads movements
• Button layout feels a bit cramped

In conclusion, while it definitely feels different Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS feels great and while I am still adjusting to the subtle changes to the basic game system, overall it looks awesome, sounds great and plays wonderfully. I’m still getting to grips with this game, but if this a taste of what’s to come with the Wii U version then I cannot wait at all! I really want it to be October 3rd so I can play the full version with all the other characters, stages and play online with other gamers.

 

The Fantastic Four Gets Delayed & Assassin’s Creed Film Now In Limbo

Howdy once, again people, I return to this blog to update you all on some comic book film news and this one is both disappointing and funny at the same time. The following information comes from ComicBookMovie:

It’s not a major delay, but the wait for Josh Trank’s The Fantastic Four has now got a little longer as Fox have shifted its release date from June 19th, 2015 to August 7th, 2015. The reason for the change isn’t quite clear, though as filming has already come to an end, it’s likely more of a strategic choice than for reshoots or post-production issues. A six week delay is a shame, but nowhere near as disappointing as the fact that Assassin’s Creed is now undated. Michael Fassbender is attached to star in the ambitious project which will bring the popular video game series to the big screen. Ubisoft are also hoping to turn Splinter Cell into a movie starring Tom Hardy, and while that all seems fine (it’s at a different studio anyway), this isn’t particularly good news for Assassin’s Creed.

So after the great news about Deadpool, this happens. Wow, seems like 20th Century Fox really have problems going on right now. Firstly, let’s talk about Fantastic Four, bloody hell, that the film just isn’t in the best state. With a young cast not many people are keen on and a severe lack of information and visual material for the film, this delay in the film doesn’t make the production of this film any better. For me, I want to see this film prove me wrong, but there hasn’t been anything released about this film that I’ve been excited about. I love how most fans on the internet are actually happy about this news because it pushes the film further away from being released. As for Assassin’s Creed, that is bad times. While I’ve never been super stoked on the idea of a AC film, I have been interested in seeing how it would turn out with Michael Fassbender’s involved. When a film is in limbo that is never a good sign and since there is no sign of a replacement date, that puts this film in an awkward place. Will it get a replacement date or will it go into development hell or will it get cancelled altogether? I know those are some extreme options, but they have been known to happen before.

In conclusion, this news isn’t good for either film, however, I can’t help but chuckle a little bit at the FF’s situation, that film is not having a good time and I don’t think anyone cares. So what do you think about this news? Be sure to comment below.

 

The Deadpool Movie is Really Happening, Set For a 2016 Release

Good day to you ladies and gents, time for some film news relating to superheroes and this is a very important news story for me. For the longest time most comic book fans have been waiting for a live-action version of Deadpool from 20th Century Fox to be made, however it has been in limbo for years. But now it seems like that is about to change… The following information comes from IGN:

The merc with a mouth finally has a date with the big screen.

20th Century Fox officially announced a February 12, 2016 release date for the long-awaited Deadpool movie. Yes, Deadpool is a Valentine’s Day weekend release!

Deadpool’s competition on that release date includes the genre epic Gods of Egypt, the animated Pets, and the romantic comedy How to be Single.

Ryan Reynolds, a fan of the character who played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and has been attached to star in the solo film/reboot, was recently asked about the leaked test footage of him in the Deadpool costume. “The movie has been in a state of limbo for a while. There was such an overpowering reaction to the footage, you sort of feel like, ‘Oh, so we weren’t crazy for our reasons for loving this character, for loving this role.’ It’s interesting to see the power of the Internet. It’s awe-inspiring, actually,” Reynolds said to the Niagara Falls Review. “And it’s neat that Twitter and Facebook and Instagram can move mountains when used in the right way.”

Tim Miller will direct Deadpool, and The Hollywood Reporter says that, while no deal is in place for Reynolds to star, “Bets are that he will.”

When saw this on the internet, I just had to check out another site to confirm that it wasn’t some kind of joke, but it is true and I am a happy man. I mean there’s been talk of a Deadpool film for AGES, since 2009, but no one at 20th Century Fox seemed like they were totally committed to the idea of creating a film about the crazy Marvel character without first sorting out the age rating, Ryan Reynolds’ involvement and where it would fit in the X-Men timeline, if at all. Needless to say more X-Men films got made and Deadpool drifted away into nothingness. That is until now. We have a release date and while they can always change, this if the first time this film has had anything solid and official happen for it, and I’m totally cool with that. The only question now is, what will be the rating? Are the filmmakers going to commit to a full-on 15/18 (R) rating, giving us Deadpool as the comics intended or are they going to dilute him and give us a 12A (PG-13) rating? While you can get away with a lot with a 12A rating these days, I feel like it would be difficult to give fans the best version of the hardcore character at a nerfed level, but hey it is still early days, we’ll have to wait and see at this point.

 

LATE NEWS: Skull Island Adds Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and Actor Tom Hiddleston

Good day to you ladies and gents, time to talk about some later film news that went online a few days ago that I just had to talk about on my blog yo. The following information comes from superherohype:

Legendary Entertainment has announced today that the recently-announced King Kong prequel film Skull Island now has a director in Jordan Vogt-Roberts and a leading actor in Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston!

Vogt-Roberts directed and executive produced the Sundance darling The Kings of Summer. He has also directed the pilot and multiple episodes of FX’s new series “You’re the Worst” and is set to direct Metal Gear Solid for Sony. His other credits include directing the pilot of “Cocked” for Amazon Studios and directing and executive producing the concert documentary Nick Offerman: American Ham.

Appearing to be a sort of Kong “origin story,” Skull Island looks like it will explore the life of the classic movie monster before he was taken to civilization. Previous works have touched on the island, but staying and exploring this mysterious and dangerous place offers Legendary the opportunity to take audiences deeper inside this rich world with a style and scope that parallels other Legendary productions.

Skull Island will be released on November 4, 2016.

Well, this was certainly a surprise for me, but definitely a pleasant one. When Skull Island was announced at Comic-Con this year I thought it was still a ways off from getting any major announcements, but here we are with a director and lead actor. Firstly I‘ll talk about the director, now I haven’t really heard of Jordan Vogt-Roberts and I have never seen any of his films, I know of The Kings of Summer and will probably check that out at some point, but since I haven’t seen any of Vogt-Roberts material I can’t say whether this is a good fit for him or not. That being said when it comes to Tom Hiddleston I am totally down with that idea. Hiddleston is a fine actor, he’s shown us why he is brilliant in three Marvel films already (Thor, The Avengers & Thor: The Dark World) and in Only Lovers Left Alive, the man is clearly talented and I feel like this is the kind of role that will propel him further into stardom. Right now, as much as I love Hiddleston, I feel like he needs another big role in another franchise to help break him away from Loki and Skull Island seems like a step in the right direction.

In conclusion I‘m happy about this news and I’m curious to find out what other news will be going down about this film in the coming months. So what do you think about the latest news relating to Skull Island? Be sure to comment below and give me your thoughts yo! 😀

 

Chef Mini Review

Howdy ladies and gents and welcome to another film review, today I will be reviewing Chef, a film that was released in the summer that I really wanted to see, but due to limited film screenings I missed it. However, thanks to Cineworld’s “Take 2 Thursdays” I got the chance to check it out and now I will pass judgement in this small review.

The film can be summed up in the following premise:

“A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.”

I thought the story for the most part was pretty good, it did take a while for the film to find its feet and there were some tonal problems here and there, but for the most part this was an interesting film that deals with the pressures of life, pride, reconnecting with your past and doing what you love. The film’s main story surrounding Carl was pretty interesting and emotional at times, but I felt like it worked best when his son and co-workers were involved. The dramatic elements were the best parts of the film as I they felt genuine and were better executed than the humour which I felt wasn’t as snappy or witty as some other comedies I have seen this year.

When it comes to the cast they are all very good. Jon Favreau as Carl Casper was very nice, I haven’t Favreau in many films, however, this is probably the best performance I have seen from him. Carl is a man who has been through a lot, he loves food and is very passionate, but has a hard time doing things his own way and finding a way to connect with his son. The man goes on a journey which is very emotional and Favreau brings his A-game. Emjay Anthony as Percy was really good as Carl and Inez’s son. Percy’s a boy who wants to be part of his father’s life, however, because the nature of his parents’ relationship and his father’s work, he does feel lonely. Anthony was pretty good in this role and I believed in his struggles and emotions when it came to his father and his cooking. John Leguizamo was awesome as Martin. This man is Carl’s friend and partner, they both share the same love for food and he has Carl’s back when they go off on their food adventure. Leguizamo is a man who I’ve really started to like over the last year and that continues in this film as he is very charismatic and funny.

Sofia Vergara as Inez was good, she was beautiful and funny, Scarlett Johansson was gorgeous as Molly, another friend of Carl, who always supports him and wants him to strive for more. Bobby Cannavale was hilarious as Tony, he had a lot of good scenes and it was great/strange to see Cannavale in this role after his appearance in Boardwalk Empire. Dustin Hoffman is great as Riva, while Robert Downey, Jr. as Marvin, could have been played by anyone, that being said RDJ’s contribution to the film was greatly appreciated because of his charm and finally Oliver Platt as Ramsey Michel is very good as the online food critic.

In conclusion Chef is a feel-good film with a good if somewhat familiar story with fun performances, beautiful food and a lovely soundtrack. It isn’t perfect and the humour’s a bit off, but overall it works.

Rating: 7/10

So have you seen Chef, and if so what did you think of it? Leave your comments below and I’ll see ya on the next review, laters!

 

Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass Return to the Bourne series!

Good day to you ladies and gents, time for some film news and boy is today’s story an interesting one. I just woke up around 20 minutes ago and scanned the internet as usual, then I see a news story about Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass returning to the Bourne film series, at first I think it is just another rumour, but to then see it on other sites as well, I realise that this is real and that I have to talk about it on my blog. So here I am! 😀 The following information comes from IGN:

Jason Bourne is back! Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, who teamed for the second and third Bourne films (The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum), are in the process of cutting deals with Universal Pictures to return for a third film together in the series.

Deadline has the report, which confirms Latino Review’s scoop from months ago that Damon would return to the titular character. Damon had always said he would not return without Greengrass, while the director had made it clear that he felt he had nowhere else to go with the character. Now, apparently, he feels differently.

Interestingly, Universal already had a Bourne film planned for a July 16, 2016, release, though that was to have been the Jeremy Renner-starring sequel to the spin-off picture The Bourne Legacy. But now the plan reportedly is to go into production first on the Damon/Greengrass film for the 2016 date and then follow up with the Renner sequel, which is to be directed by Fast & Furious franchise stalwart Justin Lin. This will enable Lin to focus on Season 2 of HBO’s True Detective, which he is in talks for.

Well, this is unexpected and I mean unexpected because I didn’t think it would happen. Now of course there have been rumours, whispers and conversations about Greengrass and Damon returning to this franchise for around 2 years now, but it was all just talk and I believed that both of them were done with this series and wanted to move on to different projects. But I guess it must have been a money issue or something that would have brought these 2 together again. Now, while I have been adamant about there being no need for any more Jason Bourne adventures, at the same time, this is Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass, they make magic together and if there was ever a trusted set of people you would want to have in a series like Bourne, it would be them. I guess this means that Justin Lin will be out of the director’s chair  and while that sucks because I would have been interested in seeing what he brought to the series, it is Greengrass at the helm, this guy has yet to make  a bad film. So I wonder how this will affect Aaron Cross’ character, obviously The Bourne Legacy was his film and the way that film had ended it was clearly left open for a sequel, but now that Jason Bourne is coming back does this mean that Cross will be pushed to the side or will both characters have equal screen time? And will they team up or will they clash? There’s a lot of questions and possibilities in the air now, I guess we won’t know until Universal post an official story synopsis or if Greengrass, Damon or Renner have something to say in an interview at some point down the line.

In the end this is good news, I wasn’t overly interested in this franchise going forward with Aaron Cross, but now know that my boy Jason Bourne will be back makes me giddy with excitement. So what do you think of this news? Are you down with  Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass’ return to the Bourne series or does it not sit well with you at all? Whatever your thoughts are be sure to leave them in the comments below. Laters. 🙂

 

For The Days When You Can’t Be Arsed.

Howdy ladies and gents, how are you all doing? Today I’m just gonna do a quick blog post outlining my current feelings about life at the moment and would you believe that it is back to the topic of being lazy, again.

Yeah, I know I go on about this kind of thing a lot for those of you who have read this blog for a while, but to be honest it’s hard not to talk about it as a topic for blogging. Every once in a while you just feel that lack of effort in life, whether you don’t want to get out of bed or if you don’t want to go outside or if you don’t want to deal with work, it can be any number of things. One could argue that being lazy or not putting in any effort is not the best way to go or will try to say bad things about you because of that attitude, but in the end it is your life and only you can decide what’s worth doing and what isn’t. And of course, there will always be that moment when you’re just like “Fuck it, I’m done.”

For me, I haven’t been that bothered to do much since August ended. With summer over and pretty much nothing to go back to (I mean education-wise), I’ve been feeling empty and bored. I have felt no need to go to the cinema or when I’m at home, I feel no need to do any of my basic activities like gaming, watching my backlog of TV shows or even blogging, yeah it has gotten that bad. September really is a rubbish month if you’re not in education or have any plans to go on holiday. While there’s some good TV, video games and conventions on the horizon, it is still a few too many weeks/months away and this month feels more like a barrier to better times than a month full of good times. I’m basically playing the waiting game until October now and it is really boring. I may as well just sleep of the next few weeks and wake up when September ends… Haha, I will laugh and give points to anyone who gets that reference.

So that’s my mini blog post done, now I open the floor to you lot. Have you ever had a point in life when you’ve just not felt like doing anything or if like time is taking ages to get to better events in the future? Whatever you have to say drop it in the comments below and I’ll see ya on the next blog post. 🙂