07.07.06

I know this is a gaming site, but for once I have to rant about a movie. Having studied in Japan as an exchange student, I have to say that this movie absolutely nailed it. I didn't exactly have high expectations towards it when I walked into the theatre, but as the credits rolled, I was totally blown away by it. This movie is by far the best movie of the summer so far, and the best part of the series so far. I have not seen Superman yet, but I fail to see how that movie can involve me as much, although I hope that I am wrong.

"So what makes it so good, then?" you ask. Justin Lin and his crew (both behind the camera and in front) absolutely nailes what made the first movie great, and adds a whole new dimention upon that. For once, I felt that they almost got the feel of Tokyo right. Especially being a western movie, made primarily for a western audience. The only "jaggy" part was when the Japanese spoke English in situations where they had no reason to, i.e times when there were no foreigers around (why can't people learn to read subtitles?). Other than that they did a great job of painting the feel of the metropolis onto the big screen. Having been there multiple times myself, I recognized some of the street names where they raced. I know parts of this movie was shot on a U.S backlot, but they made sure to hide that fact well.

CARS. No, not the animated flick from Pixar. Forget that. If you want to see some truely awesome cars doing some crazy, yet possible things, look no further. "Tokyo Drift" has the best display of rides in movies ever, given that you fancy pimped-out JDMs. Easily the main attraction.

The acting wasn't half bad. Quite good in fact. Lucas Black in the lead role of Sean Boswell fit quite well, even if his Japanese could do some trimmin'. Nathalie Kelley also made an impressive big-screen debut. Bow Wow did his part right as the comedic sidekick. The bad guy was also welcome, after a rather bleak Cole Hauser in the second part. Brian Tee was at times quite menacing in his performance. You definately would not like to meet this guy in a dark back alley alone. No, scratch that. You would not like to meet this guy at all. Still, the actor that impressed me the most was Sung Kang, in the role of Han, Sean's mentor. He is so cool and relaxed, yet he comes across almost as a bodhisattva, in his thoughts concerning life and loyalty. He put loyalty in front of money, women ahead of the need to be the fastes driver in town. Being no boyscout, dealing with criminals, he still manages to make you root for him.

Lastly, I have to give credit to Justin Lin. Not having seen any of his previous films, he was an enigma to me. The only thing I knew beforehand was that he has been picked to direct the re-make of "Oldboy", one of the best films of recent years. After seeing "Tokyo Drift", parts of my concern has vanished, and that is saying a lot. It will be an aweful hard task to re-do "Oldboy" in the right way, yet he might just do it justice. Maybe.

For now, I can't wait to get hold of the inevitable HD-DVD version of "Tokyo Drift" due this fall. It will be awesome! Wakatta ka?

CCH

05.10.06

My first blog post here on GS.
And what better way to do so, than to comment E3 06?

After seeing all the company presentations, I have to say that picking a winner has never been harder. Then again, why even bother? I mean, in the end, it doesn't really matter what console you are playing, as long as you are having fun. Many of you critics out there will end up bying all of the systems anyway.

The games are what's most important. And everyone contributed in some way or form.

Still, I have to say who made me most disappointed. Microsoft. The 360 presentation was not as impressive as I had hoped. Crysis looked awesome, but that was for Vista, not 360. Oh, for the record, yes, Gears of War still looks mighty good. And Halo 3 will hopefully tie up some knots.

Nintendo did fairly well in conveying their idea for the future. I hope the Wii controller is as accurate as it looks. I mean, everything falls upon the accuracy of the controller, since Nintendo this time around doesn't have jawdropping visuals.

No, visuals are Sony's department. And they also did OK.
The card game might be good, although not for everyone. MGS4, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Eight Days all blew me away.

Even though it isn't possible yet to say how fun these games are to play, thus revealing what you should spend your money on, one can make a list of games that looked fun.

Best of Show (so far):

PS3: Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIIIs

360: Gears of War, Halo 3 (no gameplay, but it's freakin' Halo)

Wii: Zelda, Red Steel

PC: Crysis, BioShock

DS: Steel Horizon

PSP: MGS, Loco Roco

PS2: God of War II, Guitar Hero II, Final Fantasy XII

Xbox: Rouge Trooper, Just Cause

GC: Zelda

GBA: Final Fantasy V Advance, Final Fantasy VI Advance

Game of the Show, any platform:

Crysis, PC