X-Men: First Class Review

The X-Men franchise has been enjoying a pretty good run in the live action movie stakes. The trilogy, kicked of in 2000, stayed respectable throughout and even the less favoured follow-up, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, managed to avoid flop status. Truth be told, I actually enjoyed Wolverine more than the third movie in the trilogy. Ok, so I have a man crush on Ryan Reynolds. So what? Now we have X-Men: First Class, a prequel to the X-Men trilogy which depicts the collaborative period of Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier - better known as Magneto and Patrick Stewart - and the birth of the X-Men alliance along with it's evil twin, The Brotherhood of Mutants.

Faux Fact: The original X-Men comic series was to be called Men+, but had to be renamed at the last minute due to the existence of a men's sexual virility supplement of the same name.

Limbo Review (XBLA)

LIMBO is a puzzle platformer available via the Xbox Live Arcade and represents the first game produced by Playdead, an independent game studio out of Denmark. The tagline for LIMBO simply reads: "Uncertain of his sister's fate, a boy enters LIMBO." and that’s all you need to know. This is a game that is best discovered and not explained, so if you’re reading up on this game to help you determine whether or not you should buy it, you can stop right now. You should buy this game. "I don’t know; it’s pretty expensive." Just shut up and help support independent developers already.

Continue reading this review on AusGamers

Knight and Day Review

It was a slow week at the cinema this week. It was a choice between The Karate Kid or Knight and Day and since I wasn't ready to sit through an unnecessary rehash of a cherished childhood favourite just yet, I opted to see Knight and Day. You might be surprised to hear that it's a fantastic film. And you'd be right to be surprised because I don't usually tell such blatant lies.

Knight and Day is the story of rouge federal agent Roy Millar and all-American tomboy June Haven whose fates become entwined after a chance encounter at an airport. Roy in is possession of a kill-worthy⁺Is it hyphenated? Then it's a real word.  plot device and his pursuers idiotically assume that June is in cahoots with him. And so, not only does Roy have to evade an army of bad guys, but he also has to keep a useless, screaming June alive too. If I were Roy, her role would have been downgraded to "Female Human Shield 1". Bullets are fired out of guns, people in cars chase other people in different cars and everybody goes to Europe. Good times.

Toy Story 3 Review

How 'bout that Toy Story, huh? Crazy successful. Back in 1995, Toy Story wasn't just Pixar's first crack at a feature film; it was the fist full-length movie in history to be comprised solely of CGI. Amazingly, as much as computer-generated imagery has evolved since in the past fifteen years, Toy Story still holds up today and is as well received by the current generation of youngsters at is was by kids "back in the day". It is, without question, a classic.
Four years later - after releasing A Bug's Life in 1998 - Pixar delivered a solid follow up in Toy Story 2. Thankfully, rather than trying to capitalise on its success with instant sequels, Pixar set aside the property and created a variety of equally enjoyable movies. And now the time has come to return to the franchise and find out what has transpired in the eleven years since we spied in on Woody and his friends.

Futuretronics Mini Remote for the PS3 Review

At my house, all media centre duties have been delegated to the PS3. Sure, it's not as flexible as a dedicated media centre/PVR, but you just can't go past something that puts network shared videos, music and photos on your TV, plays Blu-rays and DVDs, and plays PS3 games all for under $500.

Until now, I've been using the wireless PS3 controller as a remote when watching movies and such, but this has its drawbacks. In order to minimize the number of recharges and therefore prolong the life of my controller, I have it setup to turn off after a short period of non-use. So, say the phone rings and I have to pause the movie I'm watching, I'll have to hold the PS button for a few seconds to turn the controller on, wait for it to sync with the PS3, and then press pause. Annoying. Also, one hand operation can be awkward.⁺That's not a joke. 
"Sony makes genuine PS3 remotes. Just go buy one." Yes they do, and no I won't. See, the PS3 remote Sony offers - for around $39 - uses Bluetooth like the PS3 controller and must be "always on" as opposed to a standard infrared remote which only uses power while a button is being pressed. This means Sony's PS3 remote chews through its AA batteries much faster than your average TV remote. On the up side, you do get a full featured remote that, thanks to Bluetooth, works without being pointed at the PS3.
But all I want is something cheap to pause and rewind videos without needing its batteries changed every other week.

Enter Futuretronics' Mini Remote.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Review

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first instalment in a series of books known as The Millennium Trilogy written by the Swedish, and now quite dead, author Stieg Larsson. The original title of the book (and also the film) is Män som hatar kvinnor, which translates to: Men Who Hate Women. And How! I haven’t seen this much non-consensual sex in the one sitting since I had jury duty.⁺I mean, I’d just gotten broadband at the time. 

The story begins with investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist(Michael Nyqvist ) being found guilty of defamation against Hans-Erik Wennerström. Mikael had printed some rather accusatory statements in his magazine, Millenium, and earned himself three months in prison. But before his sentence begins, he is summoned by Henrik Vanger(Sven-Bertil Taube ), retired CEO and head of the Vanger family dynasty who beseeches Mikael to use his journalistic powers to investigate the disappearance of his great niece some thirty-five years prior.

Iron Man 2 Review

Ever since the huge success of "Iron Man 1", enthralled moviegoers have been eagerly anticipating its sequel. While I enjoyed Iron Man's first big screen outing, I wasn't particularly excited about the prospect of a follow up. I've always been a little wary of sequels, and the disappointment of The Dark Knight proved a bitter pill to swallow. I mean, they didn't exactly kill themselves making that story all it could be. So I didn't hold out much hope for this latest big-budget boasting, all-star cast wielding, summer release with something to prove. Was I right to be sceptical or was I pleasantly surprised with how good Iron Man 2 proved to be? You'd better read the review and find out.