Post Tagged with: "Reviews"

Twisted Metal

Twisted Metal
TWISTED METAL
SONY (PS3)

You’d expect monster vehicles, inventive weapons, 16-player online matches, and sprawling battlegrounds in a reboot of the road-rage-fueled franchise that perfected offensive driving on the consoles, but Twisted Metal offers at least one surprise: cooperative gameplay, where teammates can combine their cars’ potential for vehicular manslaughter. Pull your hot rod into the trailer of your buddy’s 18-wheeler, for instance, and you can man its turret for extra drive-by destruction. A new helicopter gunship—the first airborne vehicle in the series—is equipped with a magnet that can pluck teammates to safety. Plus, new destructible environments make for satisfying collateral damage, especially during road trips through the malls.

Colombiana

Colombiana

Colombiana
This underappreciated action flick stars the delicious Zoë Saldana as Cataleya, a sexy assassin seeking revenge on the mobster who murdered her parents. And of course the only thing better than watching a catsuitclad Saldana pick off bad guys is watching her do it in high-definition clarity. The bonus featurettes on the Blu-ray disc include “Cataleya’s Journey,” “Assassins,” “Training a Killer,” and “Take the Ride.”

Child Gambino

Child Gambino

CHILDISH GAMBINO
Camp
Glassnote
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

“Is there room in the game for a lame who rhymes?/Who wears short shorts and tells jokes sometimes?” Valid questions in the insular world of hip-hop, and it’s admirable that Community star Donald Glover asks them on his debut full-length as a rapper. Unfortunately, Glover mostly comes up shorter than his pants: Camp is an uncomfortable mashup of big-timing braggadocio and emo self-laceration. On “Bonfire,” Glover Hulks-out his reedy voice like Lil Wayne, but his subject matter is strictly Bruce Banner, all shout-outs to UCLA coeds and NPR. He’s best when he swaps dick talk for real talk, as on the racially charged “Hold You Down.”

Kate Bush

Kate Bush

KATE BUSH
50 Words for Snow
Anti-
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

You’d be forgiven if you didn’t realize this was the first time Kate Bush sang a ten-minute song from the perspective of a snowflake. Bush has been a witchy, spectral presence haunting the fringes of pop music for more than three decades now, her proggy piano ballads giving voice to nineteenth century heroines and natural phenomena alike. Even so, these seven wintry warbles spread out over an hour are notable for their sheer Kate Bush–iness. On the faerie fable “Wild Man,” she woos an ursine lover (“You’re a big brown bear!”), while on the title track, an unknown warlock recites all 50 words for the white fluffy stuff while Bush eggs him on (“Come on, man, 44 to go!”).

War Horse

War Horse

War Horse
Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Tom Hiddleston

Expect big things from this kid, Steven Spielberg. Okay, so he’s not such a kid anymore. But if you heard about this project without knowing he was onboard—it’s an adventure about a boy, his horse, and a world at war—you might automatically plug in the young director of E.T. or Empire of the Sun; that’s how perfect a match of material and maker it is. Accordingly, you can expect the trademark Spielbergian schmaltz to be laid on thick and heavy, but, still, don’t bet against this one for Best Picture come February.

Older Entries