The opening standoff in Once Upon A Time in the West
After writing my earlier post about the most memorable scenes in films I decided to watch Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in the West and nearly punched myself afterwards for not including the above scene. At the start of the film you’re not greeted with grandiose credits or title cards but rather 3 seedy looking cowboys that proceed to stake out a railway station. There’s no dialogue, only the sound of a fly, a rusty windmill and the odd gust of wind. After 8 minutes of this (its seen as the longest opening sequence in film) a train approaches and the 3 cowboys jump into action and start watching the train intently. As the train starts to pull away without anybody disembarking from it they begin to turn around and leave only to stop in their tracks as they hear the sounds of a harmonica. As they turn around they find themselves facing Charles Bronson’s character who then asks if any of them are a character named Frank he is after. They shake their heads and smile ruefully at him while preparing to gun him down. After an opening with hardly any sounds or dialogue there are a several loud shots as they all draw their guns with Bronson gunning them all down but not before one gunmen manages to wound him with a sawn off shotgun, causing him to fall to the ground as well. This juxta positioning of silence and violence is beautifully constructed by Leone and manages to set the tone of what is the greatest Western film ever made.
As a fan of Fallout 3 and its unique post apocalyptic 1950s setting I’m overjoyed to see that Bethesda has released the first trailer for their new game, Fallout New Vegas. not much is known about it but for fans of the Fallout world, we can look forward to joining up with Pipboy and co in later this year. If you haven’t had a chance to play Fallout 3 yet then now’s the perfect opportunity to grab a cheap copy of the GOTY edition that contains the game and all its released DLC.
Its time for another reviews update. The end of 2009 was quiet in terms of game releases but I did manage to get two reviews out during December and January:
Left 4 Dead 2 – If you have a fondness for zombie films and you love playing co-op then Valve’s zombie shooter will be as close to heaven as you can get without growing wings and playing a harp.
Army of Two: The 40th Day – It’s loud, brash and oozes pure machismo but its a fun shooter that doesn’t try to be anything else.
Give the reviews a read if you’re interested and as always comments on the site are more than welcome!
Rockstar has just released the second in its series of gameplay videos for the upcoming Western game Red Dead Redemption. I’m getting all the more excited for this game after watching Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West. April can’t come soon enough!
Being a Western fan is tough if you’re a gamer, while there have been more WW2 FPS games than you can count there have been so few Western games that only two spring to mind, Call of Juarez and Red Dead Revolver. It’s been an especially lean time as both games came out several years back, but Ubisoft and Techland are looking to keep the passion burning by releasing a prequel to their first Call of Juarez game with Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Continue reading ‘Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood review’
Being a film fan I’ve come to realise that there are certain scene in movies that stand out in one’s mind as being representative of what the film stands for. Many times that picture is imprinted in your mind long after you’ve forgotten the film’s name. With this in mind I though I’d list a few of the scenes that stand out in my mind with a short description of each.
Blade Runner LA cityscape
When you first enter the world of Blade Runner you’re greeted with a site that looks anything but futuristic. The Los Angeles cityscape is polluted and drenched in rain and manages to convey the idea that Earth is a desolate place with blimps floating overhead proclaiming that a better life awaits people off world. It’s no wonder that Rick Deckard is determined to quit the police force.
Blade Runner city scape
Up close the city in Blade Runner looks even worse and seems to look strikingly like modern-day Tokyo with gigantic neon advertising boards and crowded sidewalks all winding their way through the film’s future version of Los Angeles. It’s unlike any other film noir setting out there but it manages to fit the characters and plot as perfect as a glove.Futurist Syd Mead’s vision of a futuristic LA has to be applauded and many modern-day director’s have paid homage to it from music videos through to animé.
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
Most of the scenes and settings from the Lord of the Rings movies are superlative to say the least but it was really the Battle of Pelennor Fields that stands out in my mind as the defining scene from the film. Bringing to a head all the film’s separate plots and characters to battle it out in one huge battle between the forces of good and evil is always enough to get the adrenaline flowing but it is especially great when the special effects and computer generated wizardry all combine to create one of the most memorable big screen battles in recent memory.
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Mexican standoff
At the end of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Sergio Leone makes use of a widescreen shot to capture all three the film’s protagonists as the face off in a duel to see who walks away with the treasure they have hunted for the whole film. Where this scene excels is that it lingers over the fighters and carries on for several minutes intercut with extreme close-ups of the characters’ eyes as they look at each other to see who will draw firs, all the time upping the anxiety levels of both viewer and character. Add in a track from Ennio Morricone that perfectly matches the tempo and feel of the scene and this is one of the best 5 minutes in cinema.
If there’s one thing that all superhero and licensed titles have in common it is that they are universally terrible. Sure there have been some games that haven’t been exactly terrible, but at best you’d say they were decidedly average (X-Men Origins: Wolverine I’m looking mat you) and as a fan of comic books you’d be left wondering if your favourite hero would ever feature in a game worthy of his or her talents. Enter Batman: Arkham Asylum stage right. What Rocksteady Games has done with this game is nothing short of miraculous. Not only have they managed to make the best licensed game I’ve ever had the pleasure to play, but they’ve also done justice to one of the most complex and interesting superheroes out there. Continue reading ‘Batman Arkham Asylum review’
Being a kid in the 80s meant I grew up watching one of the all time cheesy action shows, The A-Team. Following a group of Vietnam veterans who were on the run from the Army for a crime they didn’t commit as they helped anyone who could afford to hire them. It was perfect to watch as a kid with explosions and gunfire that never seemed to kill anyone and with almost no blood shown even though almost everyone had a gun of sorts. It also seemed as though every show had some point in it where the A-Team would get captured and locked up, only to bust out in a home-made tank they built from seemingly innocuous odds and ends that they found lying around.
Fast forward to 2010 and you have the new movie attempting to bring back the A-Team with Liam Neeson starring as the team’s leader, Hannibal and Sharlto Copley playing the part of Howling Mad Murdock in his first big role since District 9. While I was initially a bit worried at the idea of seeing a beloved show from my childhood getting the Hollywood treatment my fears have been silenced by the first trailer for the movie. The last 10 seconds of the trailer make this film a must watch for the year
Its time for another reviews update. The end of 2009 was quiet in terms of game releases but I did manage to get two reviews out during December and January:
Recent Comments