Reviews

I think this may require some context first, before I put my thoughts out there as if I was extracting a tadpole from behind my eyeball. I'm no genius, I'm not exactly what one may call a hardcore video game fan, or someone who plays games all the time. I have my few games I play, and that's about it. I am also quite fond of really difficult games, that require lots of focus or else you get a sword between the shoulder blades.

Hard games aren't bad per se. You can have a lot of fun when a hard game feels rewarding.

I won't lie, writing this feels like I'm walking into someone else's party and slamming the cake with a hammer (a tiny one, maybe), or running the risk to paint myself a target on the back of my head. After all Baldur's Gate 3 is the new sacred cow of the industry. A game that's gotten lots of awards, millions of fans, years of development, and a critical response that's overwhelming to say the least.

I was ready to hop on this and agree with everyone else, because on first contact that's exactly what I got. And then Act 3 happened.

Here's the TL;DR for each act and I guess you can skip ahead to the bottom of this wall of text.

Act 1: Really good intro, perfect way to present the characters, the world, and the conflict.

Act 2: Excellent. Some of the best high fantasy I've seen in any story, told masterfully well.

Act 3: Actual torture.

Lets break it down, because I think there's some explaining to do.

Act 1.

The introduction to this game is perhaps one of the most memorable things about it. It's scary and atmospheric, it throws you off immediately and feels like you're stepping into an Alex Garland movie, with the body horror, and the off-putting feel of the whole thing. This is the best way to present you with the characters, because you're all in this situation together and from survivors you end up growing to become friends.

The starting area did drag on a little bit, but it was hanging out with Karlach, Lae'zel, Asterion, Wyll, Halsin and Gale that made the situation better.

The encounters were also pretty good, and were only enhanced by the super tight game play. I will never forget the moment I realised you can cut the spider web while the spider is on it, and cause it to take fall damage and kill it that way. Or when I split the party to attack the goblin camp and effectively make a simultaneous triple attack on all goblin leaders with some alchemist fire and a few barrels of fire wine. It was some plan made by a medieval version of the Joker.

I wasn't getting much into the story though, and I found there was too much combat, but I was really enjoying it!

Act 2.

Perhaps the best way I can describe Act 2 is by saying it's The Alamo in Silent Hill. I love Alamo situations, small group of peeps fighting against impossible odds, trying to keep going. It's a classic trope, and I find it deeply enjoyable. The environment is oppressive but not boring, interesting while staying mysterious. I made my way through those woods feeling dread while also having the time of my life.

Meeting the Three Thorms is perhaps my favorite bit of the entire game. Are you telling me I can have three boss fights entirely in conversation!? This was an absolute treat, if you excuse the pun. Their dialogue was great, and at no point did I feel railroaded or cheated. Clearing those three encounters, first try, entirely with dialogue, might've been one of the most satisfying moments I've ever had with a video game in the past decade.

On top of all of that, the big bad guy of Act 2, Ketheric, is voiced by J. K. Simmons. Come on guys, give me a break, I can only love you all so much!

This was also the act where I started using my favorite spell in the game, which is talk to animals. I loved having those conversations with the cats, learning about the cow that had outlived generations of its family, and seeing the spiders discussing political matters. What a wonderful spell.

I was then very sure why this game was getting so many awards. This much goodness cannot go un-awarded.

And then Act 3 happened.

Act 3.

Ok. Look. I'll put it this way. If it hadn't been for the characters, I would've given up on this game the moment Act 3 started. The moment your camp gets raided and you have to rush to a portal, or you become Illithid and get an instant Game Over, was an advent of things to come.

The moment I arrived to Baldur's Gate, the game fell apart to me. Combat became more persistent, battles went on forever, my spells and my attacks became less accurate, and even the smallest enemies could've taken me down with a few fortunate turns. The conversations became less interesting, and I found myself skipping several dialogue bits, because all of a sudden I stopped caring. I was hitting a sunk fallacy cost sort of situation with this game. It's way too long, and the story in itself could've ended comfy about 20 hours earlier. I didn't do that many side-quests either, as to not get sidetracked, and even with that I found myself trapped in this game's rhythm. To the point where I did something I hadn't done until that point: I pulled out a guide.

I try to play games without the use of guides, because I like to take a moment and read what I have to do and where to go from what the game gives me. That's how I played Acts 1 and 2, and it went incredibly well, it flowed naturally. But Act 3, I was with a guide open on another monitor, hoping against hope that this quest would lead me one step closer to completion. At times it felt like the game was moving the goal post, especially towards the end where the final battle is more like four final battles combined.

I played the game on easy. I am not looking for a challenge. I am not trying to prove anything here. I just want to be told a story. By the end, I was so burnt out, I didn't care for the story, the city, the tadpoles, and the stupid Absolute. It took a lot of restrain not to sod it all and let the place burn down,

Not to say everything in Act 3 is garbage, though.

I think Asterion might have the best companion quest in the entire game. I didn't care much for him, but by the end I wanted him to be well and survive, and boy did we kick Cazador and hacked him into puddles of jelly. That felt good. That's what it comes down to, the characters. I loved these guys so much I wanted to keep going forward for them, which one might argue is pretty thematic.

The character of Orin is a very fun villain to face, that is until her boss fight happens, but otherwise she is very memorable.

But again, Act 3 went and did an Act 3. The combat became repetitive and boring. The situations so stiff and inflexible it made me feel like someone swapped games with me at some point. Long gone were the experimentation and moments of "Oooo I can do that!?".

But perhaps the worst aspect of Act 3 is the difficulty spike, and I'm going to blame the level cap, and the limitation to 4 party members. There's difficult, and then there is "Screw you, you're gonna play by my rules or go back to your Animal Crossing!". Well, I say this in the most constructive way possible but, if Baldur's Gate 3 was a Dungeon Master, I would've requested someone else DM this game. Baldur's Gate 3, when Act 3 starts, gets tired of you solving their encounters and decides to throw at you everything without letting you become stronger.

In conclusion.

If Baldur's Gate 3 was a trilogy in and on itself, I say it suffers from the second sequel syndrome. Acts 1 and 2 are excellent, but all the good feelings were gone by the end of Act 3, where you're put on a railroad of torture heading towards the end.

I can see why this game won so many awards. It must be because most of those people stopped playing after Act 2.

6/10.

There is a problem with this TV show, and it's big enough to weigh it down like a rock on a paper boat: The script.

This show doesn't follow the basic principles of story-telling, aiming for vignettes and disconnected scenes that end up adding to an incomplete picture. Season 1 of any show should stablish the world, introduce the characters, and give an idea of the threat.

By the end of season 1, all we know is that the Harfoots are hypocrites, who leave others behind, cheat, steal, and back stab each other. Galadriel fell for Lord Sauron and had a short romance with him, before she realized he was Lord Sauron and then had a shouting match with him. Celebrimbor is conniving with Sauron, maybe. The Mysterious Man might be Gandalf? And that New Zealand has very pretty landscapes.

The rhythm and pacing of this show is like a spirograph. You might be having fun while watching it, but you're just going around in circles, and the end result looks pretty but it's an utter mess, barely worthy of being stuck on the fridge's door.

We are supposed to have four more seasons of this, and I don't see this ending any other way than with a sunk-cost fallacy. They might as well just keep going, doing this bad fanfiction to the point nothing of Tolkien's lore or feel is left.

There is a problem with this TV show. It's not the casting. It's not the visual effects. It's not the acting. It's none of the technical aspects of it. It's the baffling disastrous writing.

I was looking forward for this movie since it was first announced.

I enjoyed Adam McKay's previous movies, especially "The Big Short" and I quite liked "Vice" even though it was far from perfect. His energetic editing style does fit his satirical tone, and using such a threat as an asteroid to represent a real life problem (be it global warming, a hurricane, a pandemic) is fitting for his directing style.

The first hour of this movie is very much perfect, has good moments, good commentary, good set ups. And then the movie continues for another hour and a half, repeating itself (we didn't need a second TV interview), treading old ground, and most baffling in its intentions, trying to make the characters likeable. The biggest problem with "Don't Look Up" is that none of the characters is sympathetic, likeable, or even close to relateable. McKay's style of writing characters is more fit for cartoons than real people, so when everyone's gathered around the table at the end, waiting for the impact, I felt empty and uninterested.

Good intentions squandered by how full the movie is of itself, with a scoop of excessive running time (could've been one hour shorter).

Short. Intense. Explicit. That's how .Rec is, an authentic adrenaline shot that will leave you wanting for more even after you have finished it. Directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza know their business very well, and they demonstrate it with this terrifying pseudo-documentary turned into survival horror. There are roots from the Resident Evil franchise, especially when the movie reaches its final part, lights go out and you can only see what's on the spotlight of the camera. What begins like a regular night for a TV channel crew turns into a nightmare, when they are taken into a building following a firemen squad and the Sanitary Authorities seal the building because it's filled with an infection that turns dead people into zombies. So if you want to describe it somehow in a mathematic formula, this is The Blair Witch Project plus Zombies and into a closed building instead of an open environment. There's no suggestion here but full explicitly as you see blood spurting from open wounds and jaws crunching onto bones. .Rec is certainly the best horror movie of 2007, incredibly original and genuinely terrifying. Even if you consider yourself the toughest human being on the surface of the Earth, you will find yourself screaming like a little girl at its most tense and so indelible moments.

Blunt as a weapon, roaring as a lion and hot as a tank of flaming gasoline. Reign of fire has no space for character construction, either back story or feelings. It's just humans dying and dragons roaring. Isn' that awesome!? Dude, it's Dungeons and dragons with balls and fire weapons. If you take that out, you can kiss bye bye to this wannabe epic production. This is a use and throw movie, fun as you see and easy to forget, but that can turn into a future cult movie as Outland became. Rob Bowman was the right yet wrong director to make this (I wonder what could had happened if Stephen Hopkins would took the director's seat) so he is an expert in monsters. Matthew McGonahey is the best one them all, he is cool, harsh, brutal and violent. Christian Bale is a weak boy who wasn't sure of what he was going to be in the future, and I prefer not to mention Scorupco. To finish with this: Reign of fire is a great trash movie, which you will enjoy a lot while you watch, and if you love monsters you will have it in your DVD preferences. Don't care about the performance quality, all goes for the flaming lizards.

This is (after Grave Danger) one of the best episodes dedicated to Nick Stokes, performed delightfully by George Eads. A Hanssel and Gretel kind of story mixes with the CSI team investigating a brutal three going to four murders case in a derelict house in the middle of nowhere.

In that place Nick finds himself in the same situation his friends and companions were in the past looking for him, but now he looks for the lost little girl. Although the chapter has plenty calm scenes, the rhythm is unstoppable, and the Emmy to best cinematography is perfectly delivered, although George deserved another for his performance.

The best episode of this season by far, everybody (fans or not of CSI) should watch it. Twice.

If Guillermo would have born in the past, eh would be the friend of Goya or of the Brothers Grimm. Why? Because his imagery and the aesthetic is unique. Del Toro knows perfectly how to transport the people to his own personal world, only existing inside his "insanily brilliant" mind.

Using a historical reference as a point of start (somehting he did in Devil's backbone) he builds a story of fantasy that happens in/outside of the girl's head.

Having Sergi Lopez as a kind of Kroenen (from Hellboy of course) armed with a bloody gun and his bad mood, perfect as a franquist lieutenant who enjoys killing reds. The little girl makes a great performance far away from what we saw on Narnia (which has a lot of opposite things respect to this nightmarish movie), and the creature design is award worthy.

The story is perfect. You cant add something else, or take something else, is a perfect story for a great movie. The rhythm is kinda slow with some scenes, but without them, we wouldn't have such memorable images. To resume, if you take Hellboy, The Devil's backbone and Silent Hill, you will get this movie. But much much better.

If you saw The Terminal, you have 50% of the chapter made. The prove that Super House can save the day even not being in the office. With Foreman in charge, is House the one who controls the situation. Investigating some more aspects of Greg's relationship with Stacy is a good part of the episode, without being too "sweet" or "cute" about their about-to-stop-being-so bitter sweet relationship.

Worth mentioning, interesting case the one of the man who can't say what he thinks. Sometimes we are like that too. Maybe the director chosen is not the correct one, so all the quality falls in the actors. But is a good chapter, what the hell.

Weak about his humanity coming through that shell of irony and cane. House shows himself more vulnerable in this chapter, as well as the story and the plot, which starts weirdly in the fashion show and finishes up in a way I didn't even understand. Then the girl is not a girl but is a boy but is a girl, but is both things at the same time!? Weird enough to be interesting and good, with a good work made by the make up department and good performances delivered by all players, specially, of course, Hugh Laurie.

Good House episode, recommendable for all the family, and I am not kidding. Think on The Beauty and the beast, but in the same character.

From the memorable quotes to the amazing performance, this is the real pusher for the beginning of the season. House finds finally a counter part to hi way of see the world in this little brave girl that has no shame and a lot of heart. Funny and dramatic in both sides, this episode is described in one adjective: Balanced.

From the moment where Chase confesses he had kissed the girl (a very funny one and great for Jesse Spencer's performance) to when the girl is informed by House of what's going to happen in the autopsy.

And the quotes are memorable. "Is it illegal to make an autopsy to a living person?" or "She is a rock!" are marvelous. Memorable to the end.

Down the drain deserves a lot of admiration, because of what shows. The search of a body being drowned in a huge water channel takes the CSI team to the found of some little human bones in a small drain in a residential area of Las Vegas.

What happened? Easy, the most loath-able and spit-table family of the entire world (the squirmy father, the son of a ***** kid, the stupid mother) all guilty not just for murder but for put in danger the neighborhood. In one point Brass says "are you like Timothy McBaine?" what reminds of Bowling for Columbine. So you know the way I am going with this.

Great episode for performance and plot, I repeat myself, it deserves all admirations.

At first sight, this episode is one of those you either hate or love. I love it of course, because is veeeery funny. Marg Helgenberger's performance is the best part of this episode, her innocence as watching the shocking (and true) events in furry conventions with memorable quotes ("This is weirding me out" or "What had happened to normal sex?") and memorable face expressions. The other best bit is William Petersen's fascination for furry community, and looking himself comfortable among all the furry lovers.

In resume, a great episode. And the side story with Nick and Sarah is funny as well.

Tom Cruise rocks. Yeah, he does, why don't admit it? He made this series of movies what is now, a lot of fun to watch. Just look at the action packed in less than two hours and you will understand that, sometimes, third pats are good.

Why? First reason, a great director trained in TV series media like Lost who is expert in character construction and flashbacks. Second reason, a squirmy loath able villain with the face of Seymour Hoffman (far far away from his Dusyt in Twister) and the mannerisms of Blofeld. Third reason, The Cruiser.

Because Tom is the star of the movie. He saves the day, he fights three guys in an elevator with handcuffs! He runs more than a Cheetah with steroids! And knows how to take a human soul in the middle of all those awesome (awesome=noisy) action sequences (take into account the windmill chopper chase). Take the plot out of the equation (what the hell is the rabbit's foot?) and you will get the best action movie of the year.

We can say that a cult movie is not built as a cult movie, the audience makes the cult around it. Probably SoaP can be considered the first precedent of cult movie made for the fans and by the fans. The internet phenomenon made this movie a lot of good, not any evil at all, and launched it's crazy plot like the venom of a copperhead.

Without being pompous or "made-to-get-money", this movie is based on honesty and truth. The title says everything, and you will get nothing else. There is a plane. And there are crazy offidious in crack lurking for fresh Hawaiian collars humidified in reptile pheromone, AKA, Snakes! And that's it. No political plot, no sub-texts about racism or co-operation between the passengers, not 9-11 hysteria, just fun, lots of fun, lots of tons of fun and much more, and only in 105 minutes. Is not the best movie of the year. But is the cult movie of the decade.

I was like this. "Ok, now you will be disappointed, you will feel the sickness for two hours while they make you feel like in the video game without achieving that". After watching the movie I was like this. "Let's go to the next screening". And I did. Had watched a movie twice in a premiere is something I never did, but I did. Because Silent Hill is a very good movie. After watching it the second time it makes you forget about it's based on a video game, because is so savage and wild is just too good for a video game based kind of movie. Christophe Gans is the right director. Radha Mitchell is the right actress. Maybe the studio is not the right one, but they did a great job also. The town is the town itself! In it's three different shapes, it makes you feel like you are there. The plot is of course changed to fit the screen, but is one of those movies that makes you think that 2 hours and 4 minutes is not enough. Can't wait to see the director's cut for more gory moments and more Piramid Head.

First of all.

I refused to criticize this movie without having watched it. OK. Everybody said is bad. My best friend said is bad. All the critics all over the frigging world said is bad. But I refused to think that this movie is bad. So I was brave, and I decided to rent it.

And I did.

And O my god, I want to get my money back.

I played the video game, I love the video game, I love it's characters, and I love it's atmosphere. It is a intense game where you really need the brains and the guts to get out of it alive. Well, Mr Uwe "I think I am smarter than anybody else" Boll decided to turn this classic cult video game into a gun firing fest, but using sunglasses to make the movie "dark". The screenplay is awful too, it never looks like the game, and maybe that's why Uwe does such a bad movie. Maybe that's why he makes bad movies, because he has bad screenplays. But what am I saying? If Uwe Boll says he is like Sergio Leone or Steven Spielberg then this means that, maybe around 2009, and asteroid will collide with the earth. Maybe Uwe Boll will like to be next to it to make a remake of Deep impact. Who knows?

I swear, I had never seen such a bad movie as Half Caste is. Not only because it just makes no sense, is a huge piece of egolatry and self-confidence that makes me puke.

Sebastian Apocada (in Spanish Apocada has a similar pronunciation to "apocado" which means "out of life and happiness") makes here a one man army movie thinking he is Sam Raimi or the boys who directed the Blair Witch project. This is the Blair Kittie project, with an expensive low budget.

The story, a couple of American Filmmakers that go to Africa to make a documentary of the Half Caste, is just no-sense. The way of filming, inserting high speed shots with slow motion shots, just revolts your stomach more than the stupid lines (what the hell is that dialog about Bestiality?) or the lame performances. By the way, I don't believe this cast (or caste?) is American, they all look European to me.

To finish this, just say that the filmmakers made an intelligent move about selling the movie. They put a fake award achievement (as most original film) and a nice cover (in Spain the cover had the Half caste image in negative), so I feel now unhappy, because I can't demand my 14 Euros back.

We are not sure if cheer up or cheer down about the decision of cancel Firefly. If they didn't canceled it, we could had been enjoying that awesome TV series right now. But thanks to that we can enjoy this great, superior movie made with the heart more than with the wallet.

Joss Whedon is what George Lucas should had been. And I am not going to say what he is because there is no available adjective yet for this fantastic film maker that goes beyond the boundaries of originality.

OK, now to leave the cheese part of this review, is as simple as say that if they make me choose between this movie and any other Sci Fi "spaceship-crew members-evil force in the shadow" movie I choose this one. No doubt, few movies made me gave them the 10 stars treatment. Not even Alien got that high rate in my value scale.

Just try to think this before watching the movie. It says Hannibal. This is not kids ground, this is something you can love, or something you can hate with all your soul. I love it.

Ridley is my favorite director, so that's a negative point to this review, because is not objective. I can be one of the few who sees his movies as beautiful paintings, made with a lot of heart but with a lot of brain, and its' difficult to find that tin a modern director (because Ridley had been all his life a modern director, even when he did The duelists).

Taking the original novel and making it all his, I advise that both are completely different (yeah, they have the main characters, but the comparisons end there). As I read around there, is not all brain food, but oh my gosh, that scene is just the visual description of evil. Don't mess up with Hannibal.

Darkness (Balaguero's movie before this one) had a very basic plot. This is to shot 54673 frames (some for them in white) to the viewer so he or she can get scared.

Not succeed. Like in Matrix nobody accepted that (old) idea and then he decided to move to another ground. This is, the classic modern horror movie.

Fragile is a horror movie that moves the heart and gives cold sweat with very evoking images, rocking music and shocking scares. Calista Flockhart is even doing something with her performance, but the little girl and Richard Roxburgh really buy the movie. What could had been a stupid remake of another Japanese movie in the hands of the wrong director, it turned into a beautiful story about weakness and love.

Or just that my silly opinion.

We can say that Slither didn't achieved any of the goals it wanted to get. Well, maybe two or three.

Is funny, is very grossey and it's original. But for that, nothing else is new. James Gunn's directorial debut has the feel of old classic horror movies with repulsive makeup effects and silly (which is intelligent) humor. We see Nathan Fillion fighting an alien invasion that converts people into giant squids and King-sized beach balls.

It wanted to be the "sickest movie ever made". Thank god that the title still remains to "The evil dead", because Slither is so exaggerated is not even scary, but funny, cartoony and not recommended for weak stomachs. Horror is much much different than terror.

Just saw it just commenting it.

Ice Age 2 starts in the same premise as the original. The Squirrel is that Apocalypse Angel, armored with a deadly nut. The meltdown happens both in the movie and in the theater, as the jokes are not as hilarious and original as the ones on the first movie, the "love" affair between Manfred and Ellie is funny and believable enough to satisfy adult viewers.

Technically the movie is not better than the first one, as it's low and rush design is a card on favor of this, soon, franchise. You wont find better water textures or amazing creature designs. Just the classic characters we saw and that we all know. A positive point: There is no humans, so the connexion with the old cartoons is completely lost, and this is more based on a screwball comedy.

Negative point to finish: It doesn't reach the heart as much as the original did. But is worth it to enjoy it in the theater.

If we go back to Spirited away, and more backwards to Mononoke Hime, we discover that Miyazaki has done with Howl's moving castle like a testament of his artwork. It has all the elements that made him what he is right now. The young hero (Sophie in this case) fighting against events that are over it's understatement, the cursed prince, the war feeling, the evil witches, the bizarre monsters, the charming characters... Is like a crossover of all his movies, like a gallery of paintings where you walk and you see each frame of his devious imagination. With the aid of Joe Hisaishi mesmerizing score, Miyazaki takes us to another ocean of original ideas, without being completely original (well, not every animation movie has a moving castle, and such a twisted plot of spells, curses, war and conspiracy). In a year full of Tripods, remakes, polemic movies and some flaws in the box office, Howl's moving castle is a relief. As they said in a Spanish comic book: I think like go to heaven is like enter in a Miyazaki movie. With Howl's moving castle that's a reality.

Alien Resurrection is like a too much European movie. The director is french, Jean-Pierre Jeneut, what a master, what a maestro of the camera angles and the atmospheres. This man who lives in his own world of imagination enjoys showing his madness to the world and he gets paid for it. That can't be legal.

The last Alien-Ripley movie is not: A suspenseful movie (despite some quite scenes), an action movie (despite so many weaponry), or a tragedy (despite the creepy and magnify clone room scene).

Alien Resurrection is: A comedy (very black but still the funniest Alien movie, you can have a really fun time watching it), a gore movie (blood, guts, exploded heads, freeze people, more brains and guts, etc...), a nightmare (is a nightmare, no more twists, is like a french nightmare, very Gothic, not very intelligent).

For the performances, let's forget about sexually behaved Ripley (that mixture of Alien and human really affected her). Ron Perlman, Gary Dourdan, Dominique Pinon and even Winona Rider give perfect performances that will never be forgotten into the Alien universe.

In general is another Alien movie, better than Alien 3 of course, but that is far away from Alien and zillions of Light years away from Aliens. But for the ones who are French or Spanish (in Spain the movie was a good success of critics) it still a fantastic horror-fantasy movie.