Strangers in the House: Review

The Turkish film is a well-observed character drama that also illuminates the troubled history of the region.

 The long history of conflict between Greece and Turkey has generated a lot of bloodshed in the real world and a fair amount of potent drama in literature and film. A fresh approach to the subject invigorates Strangers in the House, one of the most affecting movies shown at this year’s Istanbul Film Festival. The film may be too specialized to achieve much exposure beyond the festival circuit, but it’s a small gem that will stir audiences who have a chance to see it.

The film begins as Agapi (Melpo Zarokosta), a stubborn, spirited woman in her 80s, travels from Greece to a small fishing village on the Aegean coast of Turkey, accompanied by her granddaughter Elpida (Romy Vasiliadis). At first she refuses to explain the purpose of her visit, except to say that she wants to return to the town where she grew up and in particular to the house where she was raised. When they arrive, the two women encounter Yasar (Fatih Al), who now owns the house and dismisses the old woman’s insistence that this house still belongs to her. Yasar’s mother has recently died, and he hopes to turn the house into a hotel. But he is intimidated by Agapi’s ferociousness — and unmistakably attracted to Elpida — so he agrees to let them stay in the house until Agapi can conclude the mysterious business that she claims to have in town.

The older woman’s back story is parceled out in small bits of exposition. Eventually we learn that she was forced to leave Turkey during the massive population exchange that followed one of many Greco-Turkish wars at the end of World War I. Is it just nostalgia for her homeland that has led her to return, or does she have another purpose? The answer to that question is delayed until the very end of the film, but when it comes, it packs an emotional wallop. The population exchange forced Agapi to leave a Turkish man whom she loved, and the two lost contact, though she has never forgotten him. The film is a powerful but subtle indictment of war, reminding us how ordinary people’s lives can be drastically altered by momentous events swirling around them.

But the film is shrewd to couch its larger political statement in a well-observed character drama. We really get a feeling for the single-minded Agapi, the lonely Yasar, and the group of cronies who hang out with him and complain about the constrictions of village life. This is a town where everyone knows everyone else’s business, and Yasar does not quite fit in with the local louts and gossips. He once dreamt of a different life in the city, and his house is crammed with books and old phonograph records that his buddies have trouble appreciating. He finds a more sympathetic ally in Elpida, and despite the language barrier between them, she is intrigued enough by his melancholy nature to make us feel there might be a mutual attraction.

All of the performances are first-rate, though Zarokosta as the iron-willed Agapi invevitably dominates the movie. Directors Ulas Gunes Kacargil and Dilek Keser bring the town to life with vivid images.  The handsome cinematography is a major asset, and it adds complexity to the film. We recognize the beauty of the landscape that entices both Agapi and Elpida, but we can also understand why the isolated town oppresses Yasar. At times the film is reminiscent of Fellini’s I Vitelloni, though a nice modern touch is that one of the members of Yasar’s gang of malcontents is a young woman who hangs out with the men. The low budget, however, may have contributed to the film’s somewhat confusing sense of time. Presumably the story takes place in the 1990s rather than the present day, but the details of costume and sets never quite establish the exact period when the story unfolds.

But these dissatisfactions are minor. Welcome bursts of humor punctuate this sharp slice of provincial life, and the emotional climax — when Agapi recalls the lost love who inspired her to make this arduous journey — may move audiences to tears. This haunting, elegant film lingers in the memory.

Venue: Istanbul Film Festival
Cast: Melpo Zarokosta, Fatih Al, Romy Vasiliadis, Cem Bender, Ferit Aktug
Directors: Ulas Gunes Kacargil, Dilek Keser
Screenwriter: Ulas Gunes Kacargil
Producers: Ozkan Yilmaz, Serkan Cetinkaya, Dilek Keser, Ulas Gunes Kacargil
Director of photography: Turksoy Golebeyi
Art director: Isil Caglar Narler
Music: Ulas Gunes Kacargil
Editor: Hande Sakarya
No rating, 90 minutes

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 review

Precision, stealth, and timing are the essential traits of a sniper. One mistake can mean the difference between life and death, and knowing when to pull the trigger can determine whether a mission is a success or a failure. There’s no margin for error. Developer GI Games attempts to simulate the pressure of being a real-life marksman in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, bringing players to exotic locations to take down global threats with a single shot rather than a barrage of gunfire and grenades. But while this long-range, FPS strikes the nail on the head with its sniping mechanics, it misses its target entirely when it comes to creating an overall engaging experience.

In Ghost Warrior 2, you take on the role of mercenary sniper Cole Anderson as he works with the CIA to stop a biological weapons dealer. The story takes you through dramatic twists and turns, flashbacks, betrayals, and contrived plot devices like keeping the protagonist on a need-to-know basis. The narrative passes as a decent excuse to shoot terrorists in the head for a few hours, but the characters’ cringe-worthy dialogue and overly grizzled voice-acting makes paying attention almost unbearable. The mission commander–who orders you around over the radio during missions–in particular is angry to the point of being comedic. Almost every time characters open their mouth, they take you out of the immersion, turning an otherwise passable shooter story into a goofy distraction.

Corny dialogue isn’t the only fault you’ll find in Ghost Warrior 2. The visuals don’t do much to help keep players focused on the mission at hand. Textures are often blurry up close and pop-in far too regularly when peering down your sniper scope. On top of that, enemies and characters look bland and have robotic animations that don’t even remotely resemble trained, military soldiers. When compared to the motion-captured animations of other modern shooters, watching the characters in Ghost Warrior 2 feels like you’ve stepped into the 3D animation Stone Age.

The 6- to 8-hour campaign has few high points and rarely features any memorable set pieces. The missions take you through a series of sneaking and sniping sections in environments like the present day Philippine jungle and the war-torn city of Sarajevo during the early 1990s. The action is slow-paced, with mission paths that are incredibly straightforward and linear. Breadcrumb objective markers guide you every step of the way. They take all the fun out of sneaking through enemy-infested battlegrounds, leaving you without the ability to discover your own path through an enemy compound. Instead, every stealth kill and hidden path is neatly laid out in front of you, making levels feel like a guided tour.

If Ghost Warrior 2 excels in one aspect, it’s the sniping mechanics. With every shot you take, you’ll have to compensate for a number of factors, including bullet drop, travel time (when aiming at moving targets), and wind speed. Your posture (crouched, prone, or standing) and heart-rate, as well as how slowly you physically pull the controller’s trigger, also affect each shot. All of these elements combine to make a realistic-feeling sniper experience every time you set up your bipod and aim down the scope. It’s extremely satisfying when you correctly line up a shot or take down an entire guard patrol without raising an alarm. On top of that, the camera will occasionally follow your bullet from the end of your barrel to the terrorist’s cranium in slow-motion, rewarding you even more for your precision.

Ghost Warrior 2 also accommodates those who don’t want to calculate every trigger pull by providing a helpful red-dot bullet-impact indicator to get you through engagements. On easy and medium difficulties, a red dot in your scope shows where the bullet will hit, essentially doing all the math for you–which comes as a relief at excessively long ranges. This simplifies each engagement significantly–which is great for players with a little less patience–but those who want a true sniping challenge will find that wiping all assists clear on the hard difficulty is the most satisfying experience.

Outside the single-player campaign, the multiplayer offering is incredibly disappointing. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 drops its competitive mode in with the bare minimum of features. Team Deathmatch is the only match type, which has a measly two maps to duel other snipers online. The action is (once again) slow-paced, so instead of running-and-gunning, you’ll have to strategically move about the map to get the best vantage point on other players. The hide-and-seek game is initially entertaining, but once you score a few kills on each of the two maps, you’ve essentially seen everything there is to see.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 misses its mark when it comes to being an overall fulfilling sniper experience. All of the sniper mechanics that go into making a precise, one-shot-kill shooter create some thrilling moments as you play through the campaign. However, everything surrounding the long-range shooting makes this far from a satisfying experience. The muddy visuals, cheesy dialogue, predictable level design, and lacking multiplayer leaves plenty to be desired.

Tomorrow You’re Gone: Film Review

A brooding Stephen Dorff and frequently unclothed Michelle Monaghan star in this modern exercise in film noir.

Tomorrow You’re Gone may be a good title for a modern-day film noir, but it also describes the inevitable commercial fate of this stilted stylistic exercise starring an endlessly brooding Stephen Dorff and an often semi-naked Michelle Monaghan (hey, every cloud has a silver lining). Long on mood but short on just about everything else, this would-be thriller directed by David Jacobson is as boring as it is baffling.

Straining for an air of mystery, the thin plot has to do with Charlie Rankin (Dorff), a recently released ex-con whose life was saved in prison by a mysterious, aphorism-spouting figure known only as “The Buddha” (Willem Dafoe, slumming it). Now it’s Charlie’s turn to repay the debt, by killing someone that his benefactor has targeted.

Before he can complete the task, he’s picked up the sexy Florence (Monaghan) on a bus. Apparently having no regard for her own safety, she immediately invites him to her apartment and tries to get him in an amorous mood by showing him one of the porn films in which she’s starred.

But despite his presumed period of sexual deprivation, Charlie is in no mood for romance. Later, after he botches the hit by leaving a witness behind, he goes on the run with Florence, who sees something in him that neither he nor the viewer can.

The endless exchanges between the two — in which she babbles on effusively and he responds with one-liners delivered in a monotone — forms the crux of the proceedings. That Florence may or may not be a figment of Charlie’s imagination, even though it’s hard to believe he has one, is but one of the film’s many stylistic conceits.

Based on screenwriter Matthew F. Jones’ novel Boot Tracks, the dreamlike film never achieves any narrative momentum or suspense despite its melodramatic plotline. Dorff mainly relies on his chiseled, stubble-laden features, while the vivacious Monaghan is unable to make her character remotely credible … although maybe that’s the point.

Opens April 5 (Image Entertainment)

Production: Deed Films

Cast: Stephen Dorff, Michelle Monaghan, Willem Dafoe, Tara Buck, Robert LaSardo, Kerry Ruossall

Director: David Jacobson

Screenwriter: Matthew F. Jones

Producers: Scott Donley, Peter L. Kaufman, Dan March, Madeleine Molyneaux, Larry Ratner

Executive producer: David Jacobson, Judith Barrett Lawson, Michael Rosenblatt, Leonard Shapiro

Director of photography: Michael Fimgnani

Editor: Stan Salfas

Production designer: Jennifer Klide

Costume designer: Carol Beadle

Not rated, 91 min.

BattleBlock Theater review

 

Co-op games are all about working together with your friends to clear a stage or beat up some baddies, but what happens if you have the option to backstab them too? The answer to that question lies coupled with a slew of hilarious scenarios in BattleBlock Theater, a quirky platformer involving deranged cats, frenemies, and betrayal featuring The Behemoth’s familiar brand of humor. So yes, BattleBlock Theater is utterly ridiculous, but also seriously fun.

Part Running Man, part satirical play, BattleBlock Theater tells the story of a crew of best friends who get shipwrecked on an island inhabited by weird cats and are forced to perform in deadly games for said cats’ amusement. The little prisoner you control needs to survive the theater’s various deathtrap-ridden stages and collect gems to unlock more rooms, getting him closer to freedom and his friends. It’s essentially a tale of heroism narrated by a hysterical and cynical narrator that chimes in every so often. He’ll tell you how your hero and his friends ended up on this island, but he’ll also throw in some personal anecdotes that turn the game’s narrative into something of a stand-up comedy routine you can’t help but laugh at. And when he starts to comment on how many times you’re dying in the same exact spot, you’ll learn to laugh at yourself too.

 

“…BattleBlock Theater is utterly ridiculous, but also seriously fun.”

The game is a platformer but also features plenty of subtle puzzles in the environment that require you to stop and think about your next move, especially when you’re figuring out how to get all the hidden gems and balls of yarn (more on that later) in each stage. It is also a brawler, and so you’ll sometimes need to fight off enemy cats that exist only to make your life miserable. As you progress through the game, stages introduce new obstacles, enemies, and time trial challenges that help keep the journey fresh and exciting. Even after spending a few hours and playing through dozens of levels, you’ll run into new situations that will put a smile on your face.

BattleBlock isn’t a hard game nor is it one that constantly punishes you for missing a jump. Instead, it rewards you for knowing how to use your surroundings (and your teammate) to your advantage. The game’s Story mode can be enjoyed solo, but get ready for a whole new experience if you play it locally or online with a buddy. The stages in co-op mode have been tailored for two players and require teamwork to complete. Throw your buddy onto a switch, help him climb up a ledge, or mercilessly throw him into some deadly water and jump on his flailing body to hop across. Just like the game’s solo stages, co-op levels get more challenging and creative as you progress. You’re both still working together to find every collectible and receive the best grade possible, but a little friendly fire adds to the fun and insanity of BattleBlock’s interpretation of teamwork.

Collecting stuff not only gets you an A+ on your report card, but it also lets you purchase items and extra characters to play as. Bribe the cat guards with all those balls of yarn you picked up and you can buy weapons like a vacuum, fireballs, or a suction cup gun, all of which make getting past certain areas a little easier. These items are especially useful when playing the game’s hardcore mode where one life is all you get to clear a stage. Gems, despite being tricky to get, only let you purchase new heads for your character, offering nothing more than a cosmetic upgrade to your hero’s expressionless face. You can also trade items and heads with others via Xbox Live, but this system, and items altogether, don’t add much to the game’s already rich package.

 

 

“…filled with absurdity, fart jokes, and curious characters that will easily suck you into a colorful world.”

In addition to the co-op stages, BattleBlock Theater also features plenty of additional modes that give you a reason to actually bash your friend across the head into a wall of spikes. Your usual King of the Hill and deathmatch-style gametypes make the list, but there are also some more creative arena games that require you to kill your enemy and steal his soul or run around painting every block you touch your team’s color. These stages may lack the cleverly design seen in Story mode, but they do have the satisfying component of letting you play quick matches with friends in a free-for-all setting where anything goes. And if you’d rather get creative, the game offers an impressive level editor that lets you make your own evil stages and share them with others online. You can play with nearly every texture and object you see in the game, so your possibilities are wide open.

BattleBlock Theater is filled with absurdity, fart jokes, and curious characters that will easily suck you into a colorful world. Its stages are creative and get more complex as you get used to its mechanics and controls and offer enough challenge and funny dialogue to keep you amused. Play it alone and you’ll laugh; play it with a friend (and push him off a ledge) and you’ll laugh even more.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation: Film Review

Jon M. Chu’s action-packed sequel starring Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum follows the elite macho soldiers in a worldwide battle against the bad guys.

So fetishistic about high-powered weapons that it qualifies as an NRA wet dream, G.I. Joe: Retaliationpretty accurately reflects the franchise’s comic book and cartoon origins, which is both a good and a bad thing: good if you’re a 12- to 15-year-old boy, bad if you’re just about anyone else. Still, Hasbro’s concept about elite macho soldiers fighting weird, elusive villains has hit the mark with target audiences over the decades, and Dwayne Johnson‘s presence atop this sequel to the 2009 action nonclassic likely will propel it past its predecessor’s $302 million worldwide box-office take.

After spiriting a defector out of — where else? — North Korea, Duke (a returning Channing Tatum) and Roadblock (Johnson) relax by — what else? — playing a video game. However, there’s more trouble afoot. When last seen, the president of the United States had been displaced by a look-alike imposter installed by the sinister world domination-seeking organization Cobra, and now it’s time to cash in on the charade. Sending the G.I. Joes into Pakistan to remove some nukes, the faux president then betrays America’s best fighters by attacking their base, leaving just four survivors: Duke, Roadblock, Flint (D.J. Cotrona) and Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki).

While the president calls for global disarmament, the better to victimize those who might comply, more bad guys materialize, including Snake Eyes (Ray Park, of Darth Maul fame) and the ferocious Firefly (the imposing Ray Stevenson from HBO’sRome). A whole Japanese subplot involving ninjas and a strange guru (RZA of Wu-Tang Clan) seems like filler to allow the Joes time to lick their wounds and figure out how to get to the alleged president. But no matter what, director Jon M. Chu (the last two Step Up films, the Justin Bieber concert filmNever Say Never), never forgets that his primary obligations are to whip together some sort of action sequence every 10 or 15 minutes and to make sure to provide close-ups and, if possible, practical demonstrations of as many fancy pieces of artillery as possible to make the heavy-ammo crowd drool.

So in the midst of cartoonishly scripted and indifferently presented scenes devoted to good-guy intelligence work and bad-guy thuggery are two big scenes that are eye-popping for different reasons. The first, nearly an hour in, is one that makes the whole Japanese side story pay off; opposing teams of fearsome ninja fighters treat sheer rock mountainsides almost as parkour athletes use walls, jumping down into voids, throwing zip-line cords across great distances in order to slide from one cliff to another, many of them plummeting to their doom. It’s like Spider-Man times 10 in a dazzling sequence in which conceptual novelty is strongly served by visual compositions and action choreography well beyond anything else in the film.

The other scene is equally arresting but in a rather more dubious way. Having agreed to help the G.I. Joe squad get to the evil president, retired Joe founder Gen. Joe Colton (Bruce Willis) invites the warriors to his home to offer them access to his personal arsenal. In every drawer, cabinet, closet and desk is a hidden trove of ever-more awesome weapons, a veritable candy store of firepower that’s photographed in the lethal-hardware equivalent of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The sequence climaxes and epitomizes the film’s extreme idolatry at the altar of the gun, a posture that will be a massive turn-on for the target audience but might give pause to those who still care to remember that the Dark Knight Rises shooting happened less than a year ago.

Chu and screenwriters Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (Zombieland) clearly know their intended audience and what it wants: a less mechanized, more human-based younger brother to Hasbro’s other cash-cow franchise Transformers. Injecting the ever-personable Johnson into the proceedings helps a good deal, the returning Tatum and Byung-hun Lee (as Storm Shadow) are easy on the eyes and, for nonfans, it’s by some distance easier to take any of the Transformers entries.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation was held back from its original 2012 release date so it could be converted to 3D. Perhaps the bean counters know best as to whether this was worth the effort, but aesthetically the effect is negligible and sometimes, especially when the framing of action is tight, quite awkward and off-putting. This is 3D that does not enhance a film that was not originally intended for it. The visual effects and CGI are highly variable, with one brief sequence toward the end of a major world capital being destroyed looking laughably cartoonlike.

 

Company of Heroes 2 closed beta dated, detailed

 

Sega will launch a Company of Heroes 2closed beta on April 2, showcasing the strategy title’s competitive multiplayer and skirmish gameplay. Players will be able to test out six maps, 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 competitive matches. They’ll also be able to play alone or with friends against the AI and have access to the first 40 levels of progression.

Set to be hosted on Steam, the beta will initially only be open to eligible pre-order customers, although a second phase will welcome more players “in the coming weeks”. Company of Heroes 2 producer Greg Wilson said: “We invite our fans to help us test and balance the game prior to launch, as well as see the changes we’ve already made since the Alpha test in December.”

Sega recently delayed the Company of Heroes 2 release date from this month to June 25, 2013 in North America and Europe. The publisher acquired Relic and the Company of Heroes franchise from THQ for $26 million in January.

Get our hands-on impressions of the game’s online component in this Company of Heroes 2 multiplayer preview. We also said of the title’s campaign in this Company of Heroes 2 preview: “CoH2 feels like the Company of Heroes you know and love, with more strategic wrinkles – like body temperature and cracking ice – to keep you on your toes.”

DuckTales Remastered coming this summer

Everyday WayForward’s out there remaking DuckTales, ohh-oh! That’s right, the NES classic from Capcom will reappear as DuckTales Remastered on PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Xbox 360, via the developer of Mighty Switch Force and Shantae: Risky’s Revenge.

This is no port–the 1989 platformer has been remade from the ground up with hand-animated characters and 3D backgrounds. Remastered will hew close to the original game, with the same layout of treasure-laden levels from Transylvania to the Moon. A few new areas will bolster the selection, including Scrooge’s beloved money bin–you can, of course, jump in and roll around in it. You got served, Wario.

The remake will even feature much of the animated series’ voice talent, including Scrooge McDuck voice actor Alan Young. Clear out your summer calendar for life-threatening levels of nostalgia when this $15 downloadable title lands

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 review

The transformation that the Tiger Woods franchise has gone through this generation–not unlike that of the man himself–is astounding. What started as a slick-looking arcade-style golf game with simple mechanics has evolved into a meticulously designed labor of love that focuses on the best of the sport today as well as its storied past. In many ways, it symbolizes the top aspects of sports gaming in the waning years of the PS3/360 era–as well as one of its worst.

The difference between a Tiger game several years ago versus its latest incarnation is stark; a completely different mechanic that allows exponentially more shot-making opportunities is backed by the inclusion of all four major championships on the PGA Tour, a fully realized women’s tour, a new difficulty mode to challenge the best players, a bona fide historical mode that combines legendary players with old-timey equipment on wildly different courses, and an online social community that encourages play with and against friends. As recently as two years ago, none of these were present in any real capacity. In many ways, Tiger 14 feels like the ultimate fan service for longtime players of the franchise.

It’s impossible to ignore the elephant in the room, however. Even as the game comes jammed with content for the $60 price tag (or the special edition with a few more courses for $10 more), a staggering amount of expensive DLC in the form of additional courses also awaits. Even worse, any courses that were purchased last year do not count towards this season’s selections. If you were to purchase all of the courses, it’s conceivable you would come close to doubling your investment; considering that many of these courses are key to integral parts of the game, it feels unnecessary to demand so much from customers.

“In many ways, Tiger 14 feels like the ultimate fan service for longtime players of the franchise.”

What is on the disc at launch is certainly impressive, though. In career mode–the heart of any Tiger game–you have the ability to tailor your golfer out of the gate to your preferred play style. Big hitters can choose Power players, while precise golfing surgeons can go in the direction of Control. The modified Total Swing Control mechanics provide instant feedback to your input, all of which is controlled with the left or right stick. That’s right–there’s no three-click method anymore. Everything is managed by moving the sticks up and down in time, with precise measurements that directly impact where your ball will go off the tee, fairway, rough, sand, or green. If you haven’t played Tiger in a while, be prepared to spend some time learning. It’s the best Tiger control set yet, but it takes some practice.

Legends of the Game is the newest mode, featuring all types of challenges set throughout golf’s history. Borrowing from NBA 2K13, the presentation will reflect the era; when you’re walking the courses of Scotland in the 19th century, sepia-toned hues awash the screen. As you move forward in time, presentations will change accordingly. While it’s an interesting feature, the much more impactful aspect of early eras is the different equipment being used. It forces you to take a different approach–obviously, you’re not nearly as long off the tee nor as accurate in rough spots–but more than anything will have you longing for current-day gear. By far the best aspect of the Legends mode is the carefully crafted men themselves, as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and many others have their distinct mannerisms beautifully captured.

For the first time ever, all four PGA Tour major championships are licensed and playable. This is simply huge for all fans; imagine if Madden didn’t have the Super Bowl, but rather a “Football Championship Game?” That’s no longer an issue, as the Masters, US Open, British Open, and PGA Championship, as wel as their respective courses, are in the game. As it has for several years now, Augusta permeates the experience of Tiger Woods; not only is the present-day course still a major attraction, but the famous Par 3 course and 1934 layout are also available. However, they are only on the premium Masters Historic Edition or as DLC.

“Tiger Woods 14 stands as a terrific example of a sports franchise that has continued to evolve itself in the direction its fans want it to go.”

Online play also continues as a focal point, as Country Clubs–groups of friends that can congregate with aggregated stats and their own tournaments–are back and expanded this go-round. Entire communities sprung up around these Clubs last year, and it was a wise decision to boost their membership from 25 people to 100 for this season. While many players will never head into online golf, those that do have a way to find like-minded people with similar skill levels and desired experience–something all sports games could benefit from.

Tiger Woods 14 stands as a terrific example of a sports franchise that has continued to evolve itself in the direction its fans want it to go. Better mechanics, a deep historical mode, expanded online capabilities, and multi-gender careers highlight a huge game with much to offer its fans. However, it’s difficult to view its desire to exact even more money after purchase by offering enticing course content as payable DLC that directly impacts your ability to play core modes of the game as anything but questionable. If you go in with eyes wide open, chances are you’ll get exactly what you want out of Tiger this spring.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

The Croods: Review

Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds lead the voice cast on DreamWorks’ 3D animated comedy-adventure about a prehistoric family leaving cave life behind.

Two of the principal plot drivers in The Croods are an athletic Neanderthal chick with a wild titian mop top and a rockin’ bod packed into a tiger-fur sheath and a brainy boy babe with skater-dude hair, perfect pecs and the waistline of a supermodel, not to mention a pioneering flair for accessories. But the core audience for DreamWorks’ 3D animated prehistoric family adventure is probably less the tweens and teens those adolescent lovebirds would suggest than the younger tykes who flocked to a comedy franchise situated elsewhere on the paleontology chart, Ice Age.

The humor and charm in Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco’s film is too uneven to help it approach that series’ mammoth market share. But its mostly fast-moving roller coaster of kinetic action and its menagerie of fantastic creatures – from cute to menacing – should keep kids entertained. They’ll also have no trouble grasping the simple message to face your fears and embrace change.

The film evolved out of a project first announced at Cannes in 2005 under the title Crood Awakening, which was to reteam DreamWorks with artisanal British toon shop Aardman Animation after successes like Chicken Run. That earlier version was being co-written by DeMicco with John Cleese, who retains a story credit here.

While his neighbors steadily have succumbed to the perils of the Stone Age, Crood brood patriarch Grug (Nicolas Cage) has kept his family safe by sticking to the simple rules mapped out in the cave paintings. His credo is: “Fear keeps us alive. Never not be afraid.” (Grammar obviously isn’t his strong point.) “No one said survival was fun.” Curiosity, for Grug, equals danger.

The hell they have to go through for sustenance is outlined in a dizzying hunting sequence near the start that’s like an over-caffeinated pro football game with a giant bird egg in place of the pigskin. Everyone in the family plays a role on the team, from wife Ugga (Catherine Keener) to plucky teenage daughter Eep (Emma Stone), lunkhead son Thunk (Clark Duke) and leathery Gran (Cloris Leachman), Grug’s barely tolerated mother-in-law. Even the feral infant, Sandy, is deployed on cue with the battle cry, “Release the baby!”

But despite their tight synergy, the Croods’ world literally is crumbling around them. Eep’s growing rebellion against the physical and mental darkness of cave life also is causing friction with Dad. When she follows the light one night and meets Guy (Ryan Reynolds), with his mysterious invention of fire and his warnings of the destruction to come, Eep propels the family onto a quest toward the higher ground of tomorrow. Once she’s seen fire and she’s seen rain, there’s no looking back.

Aside from the earth opening up beneath them, the boulders flying and the predators at every turn, the chief conflict is between brawny Grug’s belief in his strength and Guy’s revolutionary reliance on ideas. The protective father’s anxiety over his daughter’s first crush adds to this still-somewhat-undernourished friction. Guy has a de rigueur animal sidekick in a sloth named Belt (“voiced” by co-director Sanders), who serves to hold up his pants as well as bring a cheeky sense of the dramatic.

Sanders and DeMicco’s script doesn’t have the robust plotting, consistent wit or flavorful character development of the best family animation. And some of the voice actors have too little to work with. Keener’s Ugga, for instance, is a strictly standard-issue caring Mom, while much of the humor built around Thunk’s obtuseness is soft. And like Betty White’s raunchy oldsters, Leachman’s ornery crones are starting to get as tired as those funky rapping grannies from ‘90s New Line comedies.

With his weary rasp, however, Cage makes Grug a touching figure — a knuckle-dragger at first and then steadily more resourceful as he sees the light. Stone’s smoky-voiced sweetness is nicely paired with the character’s butt-kicking physicality (it’s refreshing to see an animated teen girl more strapping than the cookie-cutter slender-princess model), and Reynolds brings the right note of earnestness to his forward-thinker.

Basically a journey tale with its erratic momentum pumped up by Alan Silvestri’s hard-working score, The Croods has its share of rambunctious episodes and frantic narrow escapes. Notable among them is the threat of a tornado-like flock of vicious Piranhakeets, razor-toothed birds that can strip a beast to its bones in seconds. “Stay inside the family kill circle!” warns Grug as they descend.

There’s a large assortment of fantasy animals to keep the merchandise division busy, among them parrot-hued giant felines, dogs with crocodile jaws, land-dwelling whales, monkeys with killer right hooks and owl-headed bears that owe a debt to Maurice Sendak. These critters give the film more in common with the slapsticky Looney Tunes era than with animation of recent vintage.

The Croods mercifully refrains from leaning too hard on anachronistic dialogue for laughs, settling for the occasional “awesome” or “sucky.” And it’s light on pop cultural cross-referencing, which also is a blessing. But especially after so many animated movies have raised the bar, the shortage of sophisticated humor likely will narrow the appeal here chiefly to the 4-to-10 age range.

There are some decent gags built around inventions and accidental discoveries, such as snapshots, shoes (“Aaahhh!!! I love them,” squeals Eep in her prototype Uggs) and popcorn, in a crowd-baiting wink to the multiplex populace. Other touches, like the birth of the hug (rhymes with Grug), tap into an innocuous vein of schmaltz. But another polish or two to punch up the script wouldn’t have hurt.

Aside from teen dreamboat Guy, the character animation is not the prettiest; even Eep is slapped with rough-hewn features on an ultra-wide face. But there’s considerable imagination in the rendering of the landscapes, ranging from barren rock to lush jungle vegetation full of vibrantly exotic flora. Cinematography luminary Roger Deakins is credited as visual consultant, his influence perhaps discernible in the glow of stars, sun and fire, which is fitting given the thematic centrality of stepping into the light after hiding in darkness.

Premiering in Berlin ahead of its March 22 rollout via Fox, the film screened with incomplete credits, indicating that its final running time might gain a few minutes.

 

BioShock Infinite review (You’ve got a friend)

Companionship. It’s one of the strongest emotions you can feel in any work of fiction. Your connection with an imaginary character seems real, born organically through a shared experience and the challenges you overcame at each other’s side. It’s the presence of companionship that elevates BioShock Infinite from being a great game to an astounding one, imbuing the exhilarating FPS gameplay with a sense of genuine humanity. Elizabeth is your only friend in the airborne city of Columbia, a twisted vision of a utopia floating in the heavens. And seeing the sights in an unfamiliar city is always more fun with a friend.

The year is 1912. You’re Booker DeWitt, an ex-Pinkerton agent with the machismo of Harrison Ford, sent to extract a woman from the dizzying heights of Columbia’s aerial metropolis. As with the previous BioShock games, this fantasy environment is stunning to behold and layered with an incredible ambience. The simple act of walking its cobbled streets and browsing through gift shops turns into a mesmerizing experience, where propaganda posters, eavesdropped conversations, and children’s toys all give you a glimpse into this society’s warped sense of patriotism. Columbia feels like an inhabited world, and your curiosity into its inner workings will be rewarded–and built up–at every turn.

 

“…this fantasy environment is stunning to behold and layered with an incredible ambience.”

You’ll also find yourself in awe as you explore Columbia. The city is downright beautiful, with striking colors and brightness in some vistas and an ominous duskiness in others. Going from a cheerful, vibrant street fair into less congenial settings (like a church of raven-worshipping cultists who idolize Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth) is surprising in all the right ways, and no two environments feel alike. The pacing of the level design is excellent, never dawdling on any one set piece for too long but giving you just enough time to appreciate their magnificence.

Blended into these gorgeous locations are messages of repugnant bigotry, and the stark contrast between the idyllic cityscape and the prejudice that pervades it tells a story all by itself. Racist caricatures aren’t used for cheap shock value–they help sell the idea that most citizens in Columbia think that skin color dictates status. But Infinite’s narrative stretches far beyond a mere face-off between the forces serving the self-righteous Father Comstock and the freedom fighters of the zealous Vox Populi. The 15-to-18-hour campaign doesn’t limit itself to the ideas of right and wrong, or force you to make dichotomous moral choices; instead, it’s the kind of tale that subverts your expectations time and time again.

“…the stark contrast between the idyllic cityscape and the prejudice that pervades it tells a story all by itself.”

Central to this story is Elizabeth, your strong-willed, super-powered ally who dreams of escaping her life in captivity. Through a combination of affecting voicework, convincing facial animations, and brilliant AI, Elizabeth feels like a completely autonomous companion–a friend. Her body language delivers emotion without words; a glimmering smile at Booker when he makes promises, an averted gaze and crossed arms if he breaks them. Elizabeth’s behavior makes you forget she’s a video game character: She’ll explore environments all on her own, humming to herself or beckoning you over to point out something you might’ve missed. When patiently waiting for you to finish surveying a room, her gaze will shift to sights beyond the player, rather than fixating on your head like so many video game NPCs. Once you’ve grown accustomed to Elizabeth’s mannerisms, the vacant stares and limited reactions from lesser characters can make them feel lifeless by comparison–though no worse than any other great game.

Her incorporation into the FPS gameplay is downright ingenious. Too often, companions become a detriment in combat, in constant need of baby-sitting or instructions. But Elizabeth is the polar opposite, able to fend for herself and assist you with her supernatural abilities. You’ll be grateful when she opens inter-dimensional tears in the environment, altering the layout of a level to give you cover or create an enemy-attracting diversion. When you die, it’s Elizabeth who worriedly revives you. It makes the bond between you and Elizabeth feel that much stronger–when she’s happy, you’re happy. When she’s hurt, you’ll want to personally slaughter whoever it was that hurt her.

“Elizabeth feels like a completely autonomous companion–a friend.”

Elizabeth’s presence also brings the tone firmly into action territory and away from survival horror. Knowing that you won’t have to face your enemies alone will make you feel empowered–quite the switch from the original BioShock’s desolate, chilling atmosphere. Elizabeth is a reliably helpful partner, seeking out the items you need and tossing them to you just in the knick of time during an intense firefight. Her companionship acts as a lifeline instead of a liability, and effortlessly generates thrilling moments during battle.

Picture this: you’re nearing the bottom of a machine gun clip, heart pounding as swarms of Comstock’s goons charge at you. Then you hear Elizabeth shout your name, spin around to catch the ammo she’s thrown, quickly reload, and blast your assailants in the face with hot lead. These moments will overwhelm your adrenal glands, and feel like incidental heroics instead of manufactured, scripted events.

Speaking of adrenal glands, Infinite’s combat will be satisfyingly familiar for BioShock veterans. The gun-in-one-hand, magic-powers-in-the-other formula delivers exciting shootouts one after another, and lets you play to your strengths and approach enemies however you see fit. In place of Plasmids are some imaginative Vigors, which open up even more avenues for combo-based traps, and the gunplay offers a satisfying range of close-quarters firepower and long-range artillery.

“…Infinite’s combat will be satisfyingly familiar for BioShock veterans.”

But sky-lines, the suspended tracks you can use to ride through levels like a rollercoaster, turn the first-person shooting into a first-person thrillride. It delivers a new FPS experience entirely, where you hold your breath at the apex of a sky-line before screaming down the rail so fast that no bullet can touch you. You won’t have access to sky-line mobility in the lion’s share of the fights–but when you do, it’s an absolute rush.

Incredibly, BioShock Infinite delivers on your years’ worth of expectations, then exceeds them. Regardless of your affinity for the FPS genre, Infinite deserves your attention, and it’s the kind of landmark experience that happens only a few times in a gaming generation. Even after the game is over, Elizabeth–and Columbia–will stay with you.

This game was reviewed on PC.