The Box is a 2009 film that is adapted from a short story, that was also adapted for an episode of The Twilight Zone. It stars Cameron Diaz and that annoying guy that played Cyclops, and it was directed by Richard Kelly, the guy that directed Donnie Darko. Its premise starts pretty simply: a man shows up at their house with a box, and an offer. If Cameron and whiny Cyclops boy push the button that's on top of the box, two things will happen: they'll receive one million dollars, and someone that they don't know will die.
Being that it's a Richard Kelly film, I was expecting it to dovetail into a total cerebral mind tease, but it didn't get out of hand. Actually, between Donnie Darko and Southland Tales, The Box is easily Richard Kelly's most easily swallowed film. It does a great job of building suspense but still keeping Kelly's signature style. I have a feeling that a lot of people went into this film expecting your typical Hollywood suspense flick, and were probably pretty angry. With that in mind, I enjoyed this film ten times more because of it.
The Box is a heady, confusing film that's not as heady or confusing as you'd expect. I liked it.
Regular listeners to the Easy Mode podcast will be aware that I recently played through Bioshock 2, and that I am currently writing up a review for it. However, due to being entirely conflicted about the game, I have decided to play through it again, before writing the review, to get a better feel for the game. As such, the review won't be ready for some time, so in order to tide you over, I have decided to share some Bioshock related media with you. Most of the pictures are captured off-screen with my camera, and are things that I spotted on my way around Rapture that made me smile.
I may not say this often enough, but I'm a big fan of Rogue Wave. There's a Shins-esque vitality to them that just keeps me coming back for more. I've always considered band leader Zach Schwartz (who goes by Zach Rogue, even though no one else in the band uses that last name, bless his little heart) to be an unspoken genius of the indie music world; he's taken songs that could be slightly mediocre, and adds just the right twinge of style and inventiveness to keep it afloat. It's an inspiring gift that has waned as of late.
Permalight is the fourth album by Rogue Wave, and if you ask me, it's their second bad album. 2007's Asleep At Heaven's Gate suffered from about 15% too much reverb, while lacking about 64% of the inventive melodies the band had touted during their first two records. The end result was a meandering and useless statement that wasn't pop, wasn't rock, and wasn't very good. I'm happy to say that Permalight isn't lacking in catchy melodies. Instead, it suffers from a lack of focus, or rather, the wrong focus. These are songs that sound like they're trying to appeal to an OC-watching crowd; problem is, The OC was cancelled years ago. These pop songs have sacrificed quality for accessibility, and it leaves me with a shallow taste in my mouth. In fact, b-sides from the first two Rogue Wave albums fare better than Permalight - if you were a fan of the first two albums by this band, you'd be better off spending your time looking up those old b-sides than listening to this album.
Faithful reader and occasional Twovue writer Kim turned us on to this fairly entertaining website - neverseenlost.wordpress.com - in which someone who has never seen an episode of LOST writes about their experiences while watching the final season of our favorite TV show. You'll see some funny things like mishearing Jack's name as "Jake" for an entire episode, or some pretty spot-on racial profiling. It's spoiler heavy for anyone that isn't keeping up with the episodes *cough* Mark *cough*, but it's worth checking out for a few minutes.
The Invention of Lying is the co-directorial debut of Mr. Ricky Gervais, that funny pudgy man behind The Office, Extras, and that one podcast. I've followed everything he's made except for that movie where he was a ghost. This film takes place in a world where nobody lies at all. Just think of it - no white lies, no flattery, no excuses - it starts to make my brain feel mushy after a while.
The film does a good job with poking fun at its premise, although my wife pointed out one point: just because you can't lie, doesn't mean you HAVE to tell everyone what you're thinking. There are all sorts of moments when people say things that are mildly inappropriate and therefore amusing, until you consider the fact that there is no way that the person should just blurt that out. Maybe if this was a world where everyone told the truth and they had no self control.
Secondly, although this film definitely has some new and clever ways of being funny, at its heart it is a romantic comedy. There is such a focus on finding happiness through finding love that there are so many avenues that don't get explored. Seriously, Gervais' character could have done all sorts of funny things like becoming a superhero or supervillain; instead, he gets misinterpreted as a religious figure and pines away for the ever-mediocre and buff-armed Jennifer Garner. I wasn't expecting for my world to be rocked with The Invention of Lying, but I think its preoccupancy with love and not much else left it a little too shallow for my tastes. Not a bad date movie, though.
Clocking in at just under 2 hours we have the third episode of The Easy Mode Podcast with the whole crew present: Giang, Steve, Mark, Russ and moi. So sit back, dim the lights and make sure to swirl your brandy as you listen to our latest.
This week is all about BioShock 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, A Boy And His Blob, Mass Effect 2, P.B. Winterbottom, Darwinia, Aliens Vs. Predator, Plants Vs. Zombies, Heroes of Might and Magic and Assassin's Creed: Lineage.
Here in the UK, we have a television show called Harry Hill's TV Burp, in which the host, Harry Hill, goes over bits of the previous week's television shows, and rips them to shreds in the most sarcastic way he possibly can.
Now I personally have been a huge fan of Harry Hill for a number of years, and his ultra-sarcastic sense of humour rarely fails to crack me up. However, what I want to know is: do you, the reader, find his antics funny?
Check out the video below, and leave a comment to let me know whether you think this is funny or not.
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is the first release by indie developers The Odd Gentlemen, and follows the exploits of unscrupulous pie thief, P.B. Winterbottom, on his quest to catch the mythical Chronoberry pie. What follows is a very charming, simple, puzzle game, much in the same vein as indie darling Braid. In fact, the game unapologetically apes many of Braid's mechanics, though it manages to do so while retaining enough individual identity to avoid being derivative.
This sense of individuality is most noticeable in the game's unique art style; a beautiful, black and white, silent movie-esque style, set against the backdrop of a Victorian-era city. Combined with the character design, the game not only feels fresh, but also exudes an air of comedy and silliness. This silliness even carries over to the story, which is another area where the game tries to differentiate itself; where Braid was lauded for its clever and poignant story, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom isn't nearly as clever. While there is a lesson to be learned, the game just doesn't try too hard to be clever.
As for the structure of the game, the premise is simple. Much like Braid, the game is split up into different chapters – referred to as movies – and each movie revolves around a different puzzle mechanic, which must be mastered in order to solve the puzzles, and progress to the next movie. The puzzles themselves are well thought-out, and are difficult enough to be challenging, without being frustrating. As such, you'll probably blow through all of the puzzles in around three hours, but there are challenge modes to extend the life of the game.
If anything, it is this brevity that is the game's only real fault. However, given the quality of the content on offer, this fails to be an issue. All told, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a charming, well made game, with a lot of character. While it may be lacking a little of the finesse and polish of Braid, this is a sterling first effort by The Odd Gentlemen. Take into account the fact that the game only costs a mere 800MSP, and there really is no reason why you shouldn't check this game out.
Something, Something, Something, Dark Side is many things. It's the season eight finale of Family Guy. It's a spoof of The Empire Strikes Back. And it's the sequel to Family Guy's season six finale, which is a spoof of A New Hope, called Blue Harvest. These episodes are so popular that they are released as standalone DVDs, so I decided to check this one out. I liked Blue Harvest when it came out in 2007; as much as I have grown tired of Family Guy's constantly berating pop culture references and side jokes, I love a good Star Wars spoof.
It's funny, because The Empire Strikes Back is easily the best Star Wars film, yet somehow the people behind Family Guy couldn't make this episode very funny. There are seriously only a handful of truly funny moments in this episode (like use of the Cookie Monster as the cave-dwelling monster on Hoth), and though that might be okay for an hour of TV, we are also faced with 58 minutes of moments that are not funny. This imbalance left me looking forward more to the end of the show than the next joke.
Maybe I've just grown tired of this series as a whole, but it really felt like Family Guy was grasping at straws, even with a foundation of content that's ripe for the picking.
The Easy Mode Podcast #5: This week is all about Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Heroes of Gaia, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, FEAR 2, and Prince of Persia.
Russ Crandall Senior Editor Mark Hill Associate Editor, Podcast Host Tyler Miller Associate Editor, Artistic Director Steve McKay Contributor, United Kingdom Giang Cao Contributor, Australia
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Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!