The band of the week this time is FEATURES!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oBeL9xQOSw

Fans of the Arcade Fire will like this bands quirky sound mixed with good lyrics and catchy melodies. I got into them recently and I am really liking their weird and catchy sound.

1. Saints Row 2- I know many people will disagree with me here, but this game is so ridiculous, over the top, and fun that I loved every minute of it. It is a bit glitchy and the story isn't as involving as my other choices, but when it comes down to the fun factor this is my favorite.

2. Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl

3. The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind

4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

5. Viva Pinata 2- I should hate this game, it is so revoltingly cute yet I find it addictive.

The film of the week this time is Revanche!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1173745/

This is one of the best films I have seen in ages. It is a real character study about an ex con Alex who wants to start a new life with a Ukranian prostitue Tamara, so he decides to rob a bank to erase his debts. Unfortunatley, Tamara is shot during the bank heist and Alex flees to his father's farm. He finds out the policeman who shot Tamara lives nearby, and he thinks of revenge. I was going to post a trailer, but the first couple of seconds of the trailer show a topless girl and I don't know if GS would let me post that. If you guys think it is safe then I will post it later. Anyway I highly recommend this Austrian film.

Coco before Chanel is about Coco Chanel's love life when she was young. Problem is, the actress playing her is over 30 and she is playing someone who is about 18 or so. I think Audrey Tautou is a fantastic actress and one of the most beautiful, but she looks way too old here. If you can look past that though she plays the role very well, she has the kind of almost tomboyish beauty that makes Coco Chanel stand out. First lets get to the good parts, this film is beautiful to look at. The french countryside is delightful, makes me want to visit there sometime. I don't know much about Coco Chanel, so I can't say truthfully how accurate this film is. Not knowing much about her did not help the film, it is pretty much a fairly standard love story with the Coco Chanel name attached to it. If you didn't know she was then you probably won't find this very interesting. The story works well enough, little girl abandoned by her parents to live with her sister grows up to be a singer in a sleazy bar doing a duet with her sister. Then of course she meets a rich man who she lives with in his rich house outside Paris. Then a love triangle is introduced, and mixed in is Coco's strange sense of fashion at the time. She dresses up in clothes that people find odd, and she sometimes gives fashion tips to other women.

The fashion part is almost unimportant, the film focuses a lot on the love story with the fashion more as a background. When the fashion is there it is used more often to make Coco seem different from all the other women. Everything in this film works, but it just isn't really interesting enough if you don't know or care about Coco Chanel. It is a pleasant love story set in France with amazing scenery and a good cast. If you are looking for a nice love story that you don't need to think about too much then this will work. It just doesn't have enough to make it stand out. Like the clothes Coco eventually designed, the beauty is on the outside, but it's what inside that makes is more important. This film is beautiful and has a fair amount of heart to it, but it doesn't have much inner beauty that could have made it much better. It doesn't tell you enough about Coco Chanel to make you care about her much beyond the typical poor girl with rich man scenario. I recommend it, but I would also recommend the film Coco Chanel from 2008 with Shirley Maclaine. This film may feel more French, but the other film Coco Chanel gives a bit more depth to the character. Coco before chanel is still the superior film overall though despite it's beauty being only skin deep. If you want a pleasant romance film you can watch with your girlfriend or wife, then you can't get much better than this.

Overall I give it a 7.5 out of 10.

Took me a while to watch this one, but I finally did and for the most part I was not dissapointed. The entire cast is great, especially Zack Galifiankis. I tried to ignore the hype for this, but after a while I just had to see it. The story starts vaguelly normal, but then gets so ridiculous that it was impossible to take seriouslly. Which I know was the point. Bradley Cooper kept reminding me of Ryan Reynolds throughout the film for some reason. Some people may find the story a bit too silly, but to me it just added to the charm. I am not a fan of the director's other films, but I think he has really done well with The Hangover. Everything in it works very well, more so than I expected. I found most of the parts in the film funny, even the really immature ones. There really isn't anything wrong with this film unless you dont like the kind of over the top story and humor.

While I prefered I Love You Man from this year, The Hangover is still a solid comedy. It doesn't change the face of comedy, and it isn't the funniest film I have seen this year. But for what it tries to do it does well, nothing more nothing less. It is simply an enjoyable and predictable silly comedy. It may not have the charm that I love you man has, or the satirical wit of In the loop, but in this case it doesn't need to. Heck I ever vaguely cared about what happened to the characters, expect maybe Phil. All the characters are unique and stand out in their own flawed way. I loved watching them get into ridiculous situations and how they reacted. Alan especially since he is the best character in the film. I recommend it.

Overall I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

I started getting the academy award nomination movies from the academy. I already got Whatever works, Coco before chanel, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, and the Damned United. Lots more to come.

Whatever Works is the new Woody Allen film starring Larry David, and Evan Rachel Wood. This is one of the best Woody Allen films I have seen, and his films can be very hit and miss. I get the feeling this film is very autobiographical, Larry David's character is a bitter and cynical man who is suicidal and a self proclaimed genius. At first I found his character annoying and self indulgent, but then after a while I found him strangeling endearing. He surrounds himself with this idea that he is a genius and that the human race is a lost cause. Really though he is a very sensitive man who is looking for love just like all of us. When it comes to love he thinks whatever works is the best way to think, and this film shows it. Characters fall in love left and right, some make major changes in their life when they fall. Larry David is good, well he is pretty much his character from Curb your enthusiasm.

The real star though is Evan Rachel Wood, she is one of the best actresses around. Ever since seeing her in Thirteen I have been consistantly impressed by her. She brings all the heart to this film, which is good because Larry David isn't the most cheery guy in the film. This film is everything about Woody Allen I like, with very few of the parts I don't. It does nothing new with the romance genre I can think of, but it does everything so well that I really don't care. It is a glorious tribute to love, with every bit of joy and despair it brings. Love is a mysterious thing that not even a genius like Larry David's character can understand. He tries to explain everything as human behavior and how awful we are as a species, but while he may be right a lot of the time even he can fall in love. Some may find the story of him falling in love with Evan Rachel Wood's character a bit creepy, but hey whatever works right:P I highly recommend this film, for the loveless cynics like myself, to those who have love in their lives. I hope Woody Allen makes more films like this and less films like Match Point. It may be a bit mean spirited and self indulgent at times, but I can forgive that.

Overall I give it a 8.5 out of 10.

The band of the week is FUN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qMXBUjm8tM&feature=channel

For fans of the band The Format, this is the new band that Nate Ruess started. They are very ridiculous and over the top, they throw in different sounds almost at random. Still worth a listen though.

First of all I want to applaud the director of this film. For less than 20,000$ he has made a film that has made millions, and made more than the new Saw film in it's opening weekend. This film is about a couple who think their house is haunted, well the girlfriend does at least. The boyfriend films the house and what happens to them at night. I really liked the characters in this film, while they made a few silly choices like leaving the door open every night, they still felt more like real people rather than characters. This film takes a while to go get going, it takes a long time establishing characters and small creepy scenes. What makes this film work so well to me though is the gradual build up of suspense. This is one of the few films that really nails the suspense and gradual build up of dread. The hauntings at night start small, but then they get worse and worse. I'm not sure how well this film would have worked if it wasn't filmed like a documentary, but I think that adds something too it. This film works better than something like The Blair Witch project, to me that film was an interesting experiment but I didn't care about anyone it so I didn't like it much.

The main strength of this film is the characters and how their relationship slowly falls apart throughout the film. The boyfriend doubts her even when things get crazy, and she gets angry at him for filming her. The daytime scenes are mostly there to show how the characters relate and to describe some vague backstory. That is the only fault with the film that detracts slightly, when they try and develop they plot with a psychic coming to the house it works mostly, but later on the psychic's reaction to the house is pretty poorly acted. Also the ending is pretty cheesy, though from what I know it isn't the ending the director wanted. Overall this is a horror film worth seeing, I personally think it is one of the best of the decade. It reminds me of the classic ghost films like The Changeling, The Legend of hell house, and Burnt Offerings. I highly recommend it.

Overall I give it a 9 out of 10.

My last list has a few films that didn't really come out in 2009. They may have come out this year near me, but I dont know if that counts. Anyway here is the new list that might change eventually.

1. A Serious Man

2. In The Loop

3. The Damned United

4. Paranormal Activity

5. We Live in Public

6. You The Living

7. Lorna's Silence

8. Revanche

9. Looking for eric

10. Moon

11. Seraphine

12. The Merry Gentleman

13. Bright Star

14. (500) Days of Summer

15. Amreeka

I also really enjoyed Big Fan, which showed that Patton Oswalt can act. Katyn is also an amazing film, but Im pretty sure that came out a while ago. Same with Hunger, and Everlasting moments, both of those were on my last list.