Movie review: Iron Man

My husband, my daughter and I went to see Iron Man on Saturday. At first, I was worried about whether or not my 6-year old would enjoy the movie. She liked Transformers but it was too loud for her and I was concerned that this movie would have the same problem. Luckily, it did not and she had a great time. For those of you that live under a rock, here is the basic plot. Tony Stark is the billionaire owner of Stark Industries, a company that mostly makes weapons for the United States government. He truly believes that his weapons are protecting people by removing terrorist threats. After a demonstration of one of his new technologies, his transport is attacked and he winds up being kidnapped. During his captivity, he finds out that his weapons are being used by the terrorists. The terrorists force him to replicate his newest weapon. Instead, he creates a huge iron suit so he can escape. Once he is back home, he tries his best to change his company into a more responsible entity. However, the board of directors overrules him and forces him into vigilantism. He creates a new, better robotic suit, transforming into the superhero, Iron Man.

In my opinion, the movie was wonderful. Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect choice to be Tony Stark. I even liked some of the small changes they made to the characters. Of course, there are some people that would nitpick at the choice of villain for the movie. On the contrary, I think that it was a really good decision since this movie needed to establish Tony Stark and his motives for becoming Iron Man. He isn't like Spiderman or Batman where most people are at least vaguely familiar with the character. There needed to be a villain that wouldn't overshadow the transformation of Tony Stark the businessman to Tony Stark the superhero.

I hope that everyone stayed to watch the scene after the credits. All I will say is that I am very excited for the future of the franchise and some of the other Marvel franchises.

Game review: Youda Camper

Youda Camper is a really fun adventure game. You are the owner of a new campsite and it is your job to load up the campground with things that would attract campers to your site. There are different types of tents, utilites, buildings and other items that different types of campers enjoy. I didn't think I would like this game at first. However, the more I played it, the more I loved it. It was fun trying to fit as many different types of things into your set amount of space. I think I just might buy this one.

Game review: Cooking Academy

Cooking Academy, much like Family Restaurant, is a time management game similar to Cooking Mama. You are given a set of cooking instructions, such as chop the carrot or fold the pastry, to complete within the set time limit. When the recipe is finished, you are graded on how well you prepared it. As much as I don't like cooking, this was actually pretty fun. It's not as difficult as Cooking Mama since everything is controlled by the mouse yet it was more enjoyable than Family Restaurant. The instructions are very basic so anyone should be able to understand them easily. I was able to make all of the appetizers and most of the breakfast dishes with no less than a C grade. And I'm pretty bad at games like this! For some reason, I can never get the little line to stop in the green spot, which means I end up burning a lot of food.

While I didn't let my daughter play this one, I think kids might enjoy this game as well as adults. I know my daughter likes Cooking Mama on the Wii and this was definitely easier than trying to manipulate the Wiimote into doing things like stirring a pot. Unfortunately for them, their parents will find the game too fun to share!

Game review: Kindergarten

Way back in October, I played Carrie the Caregiver 2, which was nothing spectacular. Figuring it was going to be along the same lines, I tried Kindergarten. Let me start off by saying that my daughter is currently in kindergarten so I have a pretty good grasp on what kids that age can do. This game should have been named Daycare or Babies or something. Parents drop off their little darlings and it is your job to feed them bottles (?), change their diapers (?!) and put them down for naps. While kindergarten kids do take short naps, they definitely are not bottle-fed nor are they wearing diapers. It's rather offensive to kids to put a kindergarten title on a game about babies.

The game itself is boring. In the early levels, you spend a lot of time standing around waiting for one of the babies to want something. Then it gets annoying when, for example, one child is playing in "the box" and another one immediately wants to play in it. Well, the thing only fits one kid at a time so you have to wait for the first kid to stop playing in it. Of course, this upsets the second one. It is also annoying to have to click on the rug to put one child on the floor before picking up another. You should be able to click on the second child and have them switch places. It would have made the gameplay a lot more streamlined.

Also, about this clicking on the rug thing, there are no "slots" for the kids to fit in. They basically sit wherever you click. This makes it possible for you to have two children sitting directly in front of each other. Then, if the child in the back wants something, you can't click on him/her. You need to move the front child in order to get to the back child. This could have easily been avoided by dividing the rug into invisible slots. Each child would automatically fit into the slot closest to your click. Since the children don't move around on their own, there is no reason to not have a specific spot for them to sit in.

I think that there were a lot of good intentions with this game. However, the developers just didn't pull it off very well. There were so many problems with the gameplay that I quit the game halfway through my 60 minute trial. That says a lot right there. While I would like to see the problems listed here fixed, I'd rather see them fixed as an entirely new game instead of a sequel. They need to get rid of the Kindergarten title on this one.

Music review: Gackt - Noah

Artist: Gackt Album: Moon Release date: 6/19/02 Video link: Via YouTube

About the song: Noah, the first track on Moon, is a beautiful instrumental piece. There is such a variety of sounds that I couldn't even place what instruments were played where. It really sets an almost supernatural feeling for the album. In my opinion, it's perfect as an opening track.

Game review: Sprill: The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle

Despite it's cartoony appearance, I decided to play Sprill: The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle without my daughter. This was a good thing. Sprill is a sort of cat-looking creature. It's possible that he is a cat but I'm not sure why a cat would be doing this. What is he doing? He's searching the sunken wreckages of boats that have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. You need to find objects in each wreckage in order to open new boats and planes.

This was so much more difficult than it needed to be. Each location is jammed full with various objects so there are times that an object on your list will be mostly hidden behind another object. Of course, that makes the game extremely aggravating. There are some easier levels, which are pretty fun. But overall, the game just isn't worth all the unnecessary effort it needs. There doesn't seem to be an end to it....you just keep searching more and more sunken boats and they all seem the same after awhile. There must have been a better way to do it.

Movie review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

My husband and I went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall today. Here's the premise of the movie: Peter (Jason Segel) has been dating television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) for the past five years. One day, Sarah suddenly breaks up with him. It turns out that she has been dating rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). In an attempt to forget about Sarah, Peter goes on a Hawaiian vacation, only to find out that Sarah and Aldous are at the exact same hotel. Peter befriends most of the hotel staff, including customer service rep Rachel Jansen (Mila Kunis). With their help, he realizes that he is more than just "Sarah Marshall's boyfriend." I expected Sarah Marshall to be funny. However, I didn't expect it to be this funny. The script, which is absolutely brilliant, was written by Segel. There are also a few original songs he wrote for the movie as well. All of the actors gave amazing performances, though I have to admit that I loved Russell Brand the best. This isn't a movie that you can go see with your kids though. There are a lot of sex jokes and quite a few penis shots. (It is rated R, in case you weren't paying attention.) But if you are of age and have a good sense of humor, I think you will really enjoy the movie. I know I'll be buying the DVD the day it comes out.

Movie review: Cloverfield

No, I didn't see Cloverfield in the theater. It was probably a good thing considering the shakiness of the hand-held camera work. I felt nauseous just watching it at home. I can't imagine how people made it through the movie on the big screen. There will be spoilers in this so if you haven't seen it and you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading now.

OK. Let's talk about this thing. I've been looking forward to Cloverfield since the teasers started coming out last year. Unfortunately, my husband and I just didn't get the chance to see it on the big screen. However, friends of ours saw it and said the graphics were really nauseating. I completely agree. I understand why they used a hand-cam for the movie but I really think it detracted more than it added anything to the film as a whole. Sure, you got the "in the midst of the battle" feeling...but you couldn't SEE anything half the time. It was just a jumble of pictures while the main characters were running. The only time the camera was still enough to see anything was when the characters were standing or sitting still, which wasn't very often. I think it might have been a bit better if they had mixed steady-cam shots with the hand-cam shots. Show an outside view while the characters were running but then switch back to the home video when they are sitting around talking. Not only would it have made the movie easier to watch but we would have been able to keep track of the characters better.

My next problem with it was how the monster was handled. In the DVD extras as well as in many interviews, J.J. Abrams kept talking about Godzilla and how he wanted to make an iconic monster for America. I don't think he's ever seen a Godzilla movie. Those movies focused on the monster as well as the humans. Not to mention that, since Godzilla was created thanks to some hydrogen bomb testing, there are quite a very environmental messages in there too. In Cloverfield, we learn nothing about the monster. We don't even know where it came from! According to the interview with Abrams, the monster is a newborn. There isn't anything in the movie to indicate this nor is there any explanation for the parasite-type creatures that the monster drops. So that negates classifying this as a "monster movie." The monster is only there to act as a catalyst to move the human characters into motion.

Ah, the humans. There's Rob (the guy going to Japan), Hud (Rob's best friend and the cameraman for the movie), Beth (Rob's sorta-girlfriend), Jason (Rob's brother), Lily (Rob's girlfriend) and Marlena (Lily's friend). At no point in time are we compelled to feel anything about most of these characters. Rob is a douche and he tries to make up for it by trying to save Beth after treating her like crap. We don't learn a whole lot about Hud, beyond the fact that he hits on women a lot, because he's generally behind the camera. Jason kicks the bucket early on, leaving Lily to hold the group of friends together. Poor Marlena got the short end of the stick since she wasn't even supposed to be at the farewell party for Rob in the first place. Not only did I not care about these characters, I was actually rooting for their death by the middle of the movie. There was no real emotion behind any of their actions. The only reason Rob wanted to save Beth was because after having sex with her then not contacting her for two weeks, she decided to move onto another relationship when *BAM!* Rob realized he loves Beth. Yeah, Rob, you didn't love her until she found a new man. Douche.

And that is the entire plot of the movie. Rob and his friends try to rescue a girl that he realizes, in the middle of a monster attack, that he loves. I don't even believe that he loved her. I believe that he felt badly about the way he treated her. I believe that he cared for her a bit. However, I mostly believe that the only reason he wanted to save her was to save himself from being the big dickwad of the movie. Too late, Rob.

After all of this, I can't say that it was a bad movie. It just wasn't a good movie. It definitely wasn't a good monster movie. If Abrams was aiming to give the American audience an iconic monster to identify with, he failed miserably. Yes, the monster was cool looking but there was nothing about it for us to identify with. There was nothing to make the monster endearing to us. Nothing to make us want to buy a big plushie Cloverfield monster for our bedroom. There are rumors that there will be a sequel. I can only pray that they do a better job than they did with the original.

Game review: Ice Cream Mania

Heading back into time management games after a short break from the genre, Ice Cream Mania caught my eye. After all, I like ice cream so it can't be that bad, right? And, to tell the truth, it's not. You play Cindy, one of the heirs to an ice cream mogul. Cindy is competing with her sisters to win her deceased father's fortune. The gameplay is fairly easy. Make a scoop of ice cream in your machine, put it on a cone (or in a bowl, whichever the customer prefers) and top it off with some flavored cream-type stuff. As the levels get harder, you'll gain the ability to add things on top, such as orange slices or gingerbread men. The customer will also be able to order two scoop sundaes as well.

For the most part, the game is easy. It gets a little more difficult when you get to the two scoop levels but that is mostly because it can be daunting keeping track of which order the scoops go in. Otherwise, the game is fun. I found myself buying new toppings instead of upgrades to my ice cream machines, which may have hindered my progress a little. Considering I made it to the second store before my trial ran out, I didn't notice any hindrance if it existed. Since your character doesn't move around any, the graphics can get a little boring. It's basically just a row of customers sliding into place in front of you with either a daytime or nighttime beach background. So it wouldn't be a game that you could play for hours on end. But it's a nice time distraction for a half hour or so at a time.

Game review: Fashion Solitaire

I thought Fashion Solitaire sounded interesting so I gave it a try. Basically, you are given a deck of cards with various types of fashion on it. Some cards are dresses, some are pants/skirts, some are tops, some are jewelry and so on. Three models at a time are presented to you and you need to properly attire them with the cards you have available. As with all solitaire games, not all of the cards are available. You need to uncover the cards by using the ones on top. If you put a skirt on model #2, the card under that will become available to you. However, each model has a preference of what they would like to wear. Perhaps model #3 wants to wear something white while model #1 wants some jewelry. You get bonus points for fulfilling these wants. After each round, you get the opportunity to create your own fashions and you'll get more bonus points for using those cards in the game. This game was a lot more fun than I expected. To be honest, I expected something along the lines of Greek Goddesses of Solitaire but this was nothing like it. You end up being focused more on the fashion than the solitaire portion of the game. It's just as much fun designing your own pieces as it is dressing the models. Granted, the game had some annoying parts. For example, I got stuck when I needed some shirts for my girls but all I had available were pants and skirts. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to rearrange things to get the unavailable cards to pop up. So, while it was a little aggravating, I think it gave the game that needed bit of difficulty to keep it from being tedious. I might actually have my daughter try the game out. After all, she likes dressing up her dolls. This isn't all that different really. Dress up is always fun!