Tag Archives: Review

Frieze Art Fair 2011

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I have a theory on art which is this: If something makes you ask if it’s art, it’s art. Because it made you ask the question and think. There are a few exceptions to this rule, for example, putting a fire extinguisher on a wall and saying it’s art, isn’t. It is just lazy.

My first thought on the Frieze was how awful the queues were – luckily being press I bypassed them. The second was irritation at having my bag searched going in and out.

When you are inside, the main thing that strikes you is the sheer size of it.

There are over 1,000 artists and 177 exhibitors from 33 countries. With the right online school your art work could be showcased in art fairs like this one.

It’s an art lovers dream. I walked around the vastness thinking: “Recession? What recession?”

Artists that really stuck out for me where Rashid Rana, Nathalie Djurberg, Elmgreen and Dragset -them of the morgue art – and Karl Holmqvist.

Neon letter art is popular. One even bears the words ‘Who runs this mother?’ taking inspiration from a song by Beyonce.  I also loved ‘The Neme Sims’, an extraordinary project by Muntean and Rosenblum for Georg Kargl. The  Austrian duo made a grey house with a garden, furniture, and art.

I love art fairs, and the Frieze is one of the biggest there is. Definitely worth going to.

The Frieze was sponsored by Deutsche Bank for the eighth consecutive year. Proves that banks have at least some purpose.

The Frieze runs from 13th to 16th of October every year.

Frieze.com</

Midnight in Paris – Review

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It’s hard to go into a film fresh, viewing it as a single work, as opposed to comparing it to similar films or previous films from the creator. Especially when it comes to Woody Allen.

 

He is a writer/director who has had, in many critics’ eyes, a very specific golden age. There’s been many calls of a ‘return to form’, but these are often followed up by huge flops.

 

Sweet and Lowdown was followed by Small Time Crooks, Match Point by Scoop and Casandra’s Dream, Vicky Cristina Barcelona by Whatever Works.

 

Everyone wants to see him hit his heights again, and so are constantly comparing his recent output to early greats like Annie Hall and Manhattan. However, this is unfair to Allen, and it’s a point he makes well in his most recent ‘return to form’.

 

While many could see Midnight in Paris as a love letter to a bygone era, it can also been seen as a dig at critics who are always looking for something greater in the past.

 

After all, it’s about a screenwriter who has been successful in the Hollywood system but who is trying to break out in writing something real, a true work of art, his great American novel.

 

Allen has been doing this his whole career – yet he’s been trapped by mainstream success. Even in Annie Hall, Alfie suffered a similar problem.

 

Like the critics who endlessly long for the days of Hannah and her Sisters, Owen Wilson’s Gil longs for Paris in the 1920’s. And, through one of the most simple time travel devices ever, he manages to find it.

 

Hemingway, the Fitzgerald’s, Dali, Picasso and many more all happen to be holidays in Paris and Gil takes a tour of his dream world with the greatest hosts he could imagine. However, it’s when he meets Marion Cotillard’s ‘art groupy’ that things start to get real for him.

 

Not only does she highlight the problems he’s facing with his soon-to-be wife in the real world, she, too, also longs for a different era, declaring Paris in the 20’s to be boring.

 

As a movie, it’s the most fun Allen has been in a while. While not really touching upon some of the bigger issues Allen has handled in the past, it doesn’t matter as its so funny, charming, and beautifully shot.

Doctor Who 'The Wedding of River Song' Review

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And so The Doctor goes to meet his fate by the lake in Utah, bringing Season 6 of Doctor Who full circle and wrapping things up in a satisfying and rewarding conclusion.

That would’ve been nice.

Sadly, that’s an entirely different episode to the one we got – and that got on my wick, I’m afraid.

Now don’t get me wrong, ‘The Wedding of River Song’ was a fun episode full of beautiful visuals, cracking dialogue, sweet in-jokes, and nice ideas; it was far from rubbish. Indeed, had it been placed mid-season I’d probably be lauding it as a classic.

It was just as barmy and lovable as we’ve all come to expect, with Pterodactyls chasing kids, Charles Dickens on the BBC Breakfast sofa and a pit full of carnivorous skulls. I was also pleased to see the return of Dorium Maldovar – a brilliant, brilliant character who I was heartbroken to have seen killed earlier in the season. There was even a poignant and touching tribute to the late, great Nicholas Courtney. Good stuff.

No, the problem lay in the basic DNA of its existence. The point of the episode, the whole reason for its being; to resolve the death of the Doctor,… and it is here that I felt it fall flat.

Firstly, while the alternative universe is fun and clever, it is essentially a massive distraction to the business at hand. We’ve had 12 episodes of “Doctor’s Death” foreshadowing so far this series. To me, the enjoyment of all that grandiose myth-building was guessing and wondering how the Doctor could possibly escape. This is, after all, Doctor Who; he was ALWAYS going to escape.

But Stephen Moffat wasn’t interested in telling that story. Indeed, so un-troubled was he by the resolution to this 13-episode jigsaw puzzle that he tossed it away in the final 5 minutes. He was more interested in telling us the tale of,… well I’m not actually sure. It certainly wasn’t “How Amy met Rory” – he’d already done that one in the finale to Series 5.

By creating an alternate reality with a giant re-set switch, and throwing the Doctor’s death away as a cheap and obvious trick, nothing that anyone does at any point in this episode makes a blind bit of difference to the place we end up when the credits roll.

Had River not cocked things up, the Doctor would still have survived his “death”, the Silence would still be patting their collective squidgy backs at a job well done and Amy would’ve continued her lucrative perfumery career.

In fact, the only difference that the alternate reality plot made to the conclusion of the season was that River and The Doctor got married, and blabber-mouth Melody Pond could tell all and sundry that the Doctor was still alive. And I really can’t help feeling that they didn’t need 45 minutes to tell that story – 10 would’ve done.

And that’s this episode’s biggest mistake; although it was exciting and pretty and whiz-bangy, it was, ultimately, pointless. Like a cheap fairground ride, I enjoyed it while it lasted but, having stood in the queue for an hour eating candy floss, I left the podium feeling a little dizzy and wondering whether it was worth all the fuss.

It didn’t help that the climatic reveal of how the Doctor survived his date with destiny turned out to be a rather dull and obvious get-out-jail-free card. From the very second the Tessalector popped back at the start of the episode, I knew how the Doctor was going to survive. It was so blindingly obvious that I convinced myself that it was actually some kind of cunning double bluff. Imagine my crushing disappointment when it turned out to be nothing of the sort.

As a resolution to the “final end” of the Doctor, it felt cheap and unworthy. Indeed, much like the rest of this episode, it felt like Stephen Moffat had written himself into a corner with his dazzling story-arc shenanigans,… only to bottle on the finishing straight.

This has been an outstanding series of Doctor Who, easily the best since the show returned in 2005 – and potentially one of the best single seasons of the show since it’s heyday in the 1970’s. The conclusion deserved to be as epic and clever and thoughtful as the rest of the run.

But sadly, despite the craziness, the adventure and the laughs, ‘The Wedding of River Song’ left me wanting more. And not in a good way.

Doctor Who: 'Closing Time' Review

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,… or Two [Cyber]Men and a baby.

In my eyes Season 5 of the new Doctor Who was a weak and uninspiring slog, and easily poorest series since the show returned. But there was a real diamond in the rough; ‘The Lodger’.

Gareth Roberts’ adaptation of his own Doctor Who Magazine comic strip was a joyful, warm-hearted and spirited comedy episode that I loved to bits. So when it was announced that he would be penning a sequel I was pretty excited. But did he deliver? Well, yes and no,…

The Doctor is on a farewell tour, flitting around the universe to catch up on events and experiences that he’s missed out on over the years. He knows that death is on its way and he’s going to make the most of the time he’s got left. Which includes, it seems, a visit to his old mate Craig – now the proud but overwhelmed father of baby Alfie (or Stormageddon; Dark Lord of All, as he likes to be known).

But, this being Doctor Who, The Doctor’s flying visit is derailed by his discovery of Cybermen stalking around the ladies changing rooms at a local department store (ooer!) Cue slapstic monster fighting, Laurel and Hardy level bickering and frolics in the lingerie isle!

Now, for the most part, this episode is a fun and chucklesom romp; it’s Doctor Who; the Situation Comedy. All that’s needed is a wryly named coffee shop, a contractual visit to a bowling alley and a barely plausible laughter track and you’re away!

This isn’t, to my eyes, a bad thing; the programme has been many things in its time – Hammer Horror, surreal Buddhist morality tale, James Bond-esque action adventure – why not a sitcom? It wouldn’t work every week but I’d argue that the occasional flat-out funny episode is no bad thing. I mean it’s not Battlestar Galactica is it?

And it is, indeed, very funny! Matt Smith and James Corden have a brilliant chemistry, with Craig being the straight man to the Doctor’s geeky funnyman. The moment when Craig realises that they’ve been teleported to the Cybership is comedy gold, beautifully played by both. His ham-fisted interrogation of the shop girl had me in stitches.

However, the best lines were handed to young Stormageddon, ably translated by the Doctor – who speaks baby (yeah, right!) “and everybody else?,… Peasants. That’s unfortunate.”

It’s a great script of terrific comic moments and spanking dialogue.

And Cybermen. Damn, I knew you were going to bring them up.

This was not the Metal Men from Mondas’ finest hour. In fact the story would’ve probably worked better without them. All they do is stomp around the place looking mildly pathetic. Their presence is undermined by the revelation that they’re low on juice and low on spare parts. They’re not a fighting force, they’re Dads Army.

Which is a shame because they look wonderful. And the Cybermat is a welcome return from a classic series stalwart. But they’re entirely peripheral to the story and to throw away Doctor Who’s second biggest enemy as, essentially, comedy goons does nobody any favours, least of all the brilliant Gareth Roberts.

So, to me, the story didn’t deliver everything it promised; the comedy was brilliant but the action and threat were sorely lacking. Compared with Craig’s first outing, where his life, his relationship with the love of his life and, ultimately, the fate of the world was in jeopardy,… well this was a bit of a come down, really.

But as come-downs go, ‘Closing Time’ is one I’d watch again.

DRIVER: San Francisco Game Review

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I don’t know about you but when I first heard about Driver:San Francisco I was almost bi-polar about it. I mean; the last Driver game was awful in so many ways – things could only get better on third generation hardware. However, on the other hand, I had heard that they were going to do some mad ‘supernatural’ thing with Tanner, having him ‘jump about’ from ‘body to body’ at will. Now hands up who actually thinks that, that is going to work? Er…yeah…me neither.

So begins another entry into the Driver Franchise and perhaps the most outrageous premise in computer game history seen in a decade. Man, I would have loved to have been at the developers table at Ubisoft when they thrashed that idea out; I am guessing that they would have been more raised eyebrows than a Roger Moore convention. Yet for some insane reason it got the go ahead and here we are, Driver:San Francisco is a reality that has had gamers raving. But is it as good as they say?

Well I might as well cut to the chase and blatantly say DRIVER: San Francisco is not a ‘10/10’, a ‘gaming masterpiece’ or a ‘must buy’ like a lot of reviewers are/were saying and I don’t care what anybody says the multiplayer is never going to be a ‘Call of Duty killer’ but as far as a single player driving game goes it does hold up to provide an enjoyable race experience. Once you get past the aforementioned ludicrous storyline and clichéd scripting the only negative thing you are left with is the terrible handling of the vehicles. Yes – Burnout, Split-Second, Need for Speed, even Motorstorm Apocalypse fare better when it comes to the handling of the incredibly weighted vehicles of Driver which sporadically felt like I was steering a tank at times through quick drying cement.

Other than those ‘facets of joy’ though everything else is largely excellent; San Francisco is a beautifully glossy, detailed vista and the whole jump into another person’s head idea – called ‘Shift’ despite being an absurd idea actually works quite well; thrusting you into the mainstream driving, racing, chasing and crashing scenarios with ease.

Now hands up if you want to know more on this whole ‘shift’ thing? Thought you did. Well, fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) the first 60 minutes of game play is taken up with the storyline and ‘mere reasons’ to justify the plot. John Tanner the undercover cop from the main game has finally tracked down his long time nemesis Charles Jericho. In an attempt to take him down he is forced into a near fatal collision and ends up in a coma. This means the vast majority of the game takes place in Tanner’s head and in which he continues to track his nemesis down; mind jumping from person to person in order to get close enough to stop Jericho once and for all.

Just in case you couldn’t tell – I had huge doubts about the whole ‘shift thing’ but in play I found what it brings is some real immediacy to the proceedings and a kind of ‘cocky but coolness’. What it also gives is options; trying to chase down a target? Hey why not just jump into a bus driver coming in the other direction – he-he laugh out loud as you say ‘any more fares’. What’s more every crash, every explosion happens in beautiful slo-mo so there is always a reason to do it; the game delights in bringing you thought out destruction.

Being a sandbox game there is a fair bit of exploration to be had and as typical for this type game alongside the main missions you have a plethora of side missions. However fortunately Driver: San Francisco has the least boring side missions I have seen this year besides perhaps those seen in LA: Noire. One such mission sees you jumping into the body of a young weedy chap, nervous as anything about his driving test. Do you think the idea is to help him pass? Nope…the idea is to put the fear of the devil into the test instructor by driving as insanely as possible.

Other than this though for most of the time you have standard Driver fare; follow this car, get to x in x amount of time, come first in this race, smash this car etc. Of all of these though the most exciting is shaking off the police and it has to be said that for all of the faults synonymous with driver of the past, one of the things that they have got right here is the police AI. No longer can you shake off the police by just bombing it down a road or even driving into oncoming traffic, they really do keep up the pressure and you have to be good to get away from them.

Longevities is sadly not a strong point of this game; the whole title taking me just over 6 hours to get through resulting in an ending hardly inspired enough for me. Although completing the game opened up some challenges and online multiplayer which in all honesty was not too bad and I am sure enough people went out there to buy this so there is hardly going to be a drought online. There are issues with balancing out gameplay between players of different ability so my advice is be the best you can be before you go online or else you will lose…a lot. Quite controversially I read the developer stating in interviews that no DLC (Download Content) has been planned which is an incredible shame.

My Verdict

Despite my initial concerns about the whole shift thing I do have to say it brings a level of originality, even if it makes serves to make the script clichéd and downright weird I would be lying if I said that I did not enjoy this game. I am hoping that further patches will be released to improve the atrocious handling and fix balancing issues because once those issues are resolved the game will go from great to being fantastic. At the moment I would say whilst it is a great purchase it is far from essential and for some hardcore gamers I would even say wait until it comes down in price before giving it a long hard look.

8.0 / 10

 

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

This is a hard one as although there are other racing games, none have the ‘shift’ feature and so are not the same and can’t be compared.

Equal to: Need for Speed – Hot Pursuit (only just)

Better than:  Burnout Paradise

Worse than: None

Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine Review

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Life can be truly strange when you think about it; I mean if you had asked me anything about Warhammer years ago I would have probably recalled memories of having my tie ‘peanutted’ and being resigned to the geek crew in school. Playing this with a closetful of outcasts who shared similar experiences, arguing whether chess was better than Dungeons and Dragons – this was the age of what could only be called the ‘original tabletop RPGs’. Now here it is brought dynamically and almost eagerly up to date on the latest console hardware and many would fail to agree that in the trailers at least it looks good – real good. Turning this into a console game is bound to bring positives and negatives. Gone are the cards, the dice and the makeshift boards that take an hour to put together and bring to life, gone are the 100+ interpretations of different rules, but do the positives of late nights and hardcore action remain? That’s exactly what I wanted to find out.

Warhammer Space Marine, takes the transition from board game to a visceral brutal third-person shooter/beat ’em up that has blood, more blood and monsters which I will fondly refer to as ‘greenies’ which you will blow to bits – yes with more blood. Yes, no dice and scorecard needed here to tell you whether you are going to hit or miss, all you need is the R2 button, and hey in this environment you don’t even need a cover button because this game is geared towards consistent ‘lets take them on from all corners’ type game play that even ‘Team America’ would be proud of. So table-top RPG this is not, and world of Warcraft this is not, but what Warhammer removes, it replaces with action and above everything else it captures the spirit of the universe epitomised in the board game.

A fantastic opening sequence sets the pace nicely, looking like it could have been pulled from a summer blockbuster and it really looks amazing, but once you press the start button any delusions you may have had that you are playing a game with in-game graphics the quality of God of War quickly dissipate. That’s not saying the graphics are poor, they are just standard fare and to be honest at times – below standard.

The Ultramarines’ are gung-ho, nicely voiced and still wearing the same huge armour from their board game counterparts years ago. The storyline is hardly worth going over and is almost non-existent – ‘humans versus aliens’ is about right. Aliens aren’t nice and the good guys aren’t nice enough not to shoot anything that gets in the way of getting the job done.

Gameplay is pretty straightforward too; stepping into the boots of Captain Titus – a member of the ultramarine squad it is your job to basically kill the alien forces and that it is really. The action is a mix of third-person shooting and melee.  You have guns, you have chain-swords and later you have rocket packs; all which carve a path of destruction through the enemy hordes. You fight in trenches, on the alien’s machinery, and you basically work your way up through the food chain until you get to the big fry, which in this game are aptly called ‘the forces of Chaos’.

I would be lying if I said the action was not satisfying; you do get the feeling that you are up against the odds.  When you take down the enemy forces and emerge victorious, the feeling of success in the initial stages at least is solid. It is a shame then that the game falls into a repetitive pattern. When the big cheese of the enemy arrive – ‘the forces of Chaos’ – it’s almost too late as at that point you have been subjected to a multitude of sequences each feeling like the one before. There’s just too little to break up the pace. The boss fights are few and far between, with only the final boss fight offering something different.

Online Multiplayer should extend the game’s longevity and appeal but it doesn’t. I honestly think that the melee combat approach here isn’t too well suited for competitive online play. The ranged combat ‘lets get a bigger gun’ idea though, works just fine, as does the game class and goal objectives. Needless to say Warhammer doesn’t try to re-invent the wheel or bring anything new to the table when it comes to online play which, considering the sheer number of fans out there I would say is a total shame.

My Verdict

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a fair attempt at crossing a genre and bringing a franchise to life. The result is a likeable title, but one that falls foul of repetitive play. When I think of all the other titles being released this week such as Resistance 3, Star Fox 64 3DS andDeadIslandI know which one I would rather spend my money on. But fans of the original and gamers that decide to take that plunge and splash out their pocket money on this one will find a solid third-person action/shooter at its core. Just don’t expect miracles. Smart gamers will wait for the price drop.

7.5 / 10

 

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

Equal to: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Better than: Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team

Worse than: Vanquish, Red Faction, Resistance 3, Resident Evil 5, Dead Space

 

Doctor Who: 'Night Terrors' Review

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After last years’ dismal ‘Victory of the Daleks’, renaissance man Mark Gatiss returns to his writing duties on Doctor Who with ‘Night Terrors’, a straight out fright-fest complete with spooky dolls and a creepy haunted house. Gatiss famously delights and revels in the macabre and the gothic, so “Night Terrors” should be a triumphant return to form…

It wasn’t.

Now don’t get me wrong, ‘Night Terrors’ has a great deal to recommend it. It’s beautifully shot and the art direction throughout is marvellous. There’s a fantastic atmosphere of gloom and mischief in the opening scenes and, at its heart, it has a decent, fairly solid sci-fi idea – a cuckoo in the nest. There was also imagery in there that I’m sure sent many of the nation’s little darlings scurrying into their parents beds, smelling faintly of wee.

But this was not enough to save it.

Firstly, the episode – with its monster in the wardrobe, parent at the end of their tether, ‘alien’ child causing mayhem, random old lady, and love-will-conquer-all ending – gave me a distinct and unsettling feeling of déjà vu. Hadn’t I seen this before? Yes I had, in the Season 2 Doctor Who story ‘Fear Her’.

While not a direct retread, it bore enough similarities and repetitions to make the story feel highly derivative and, as a result, deeply unsatisfying.

And then we have the pacing of the story which was nothing short of bizarre. New-era Doctor Who gives you 45 minutes within which to tell your story. To spend a whole 20 of those minutes on set-up and exposition is a brave move which, in this case, failed completely.

The problem was that the story doesn’t introduce an actual threat to any of the characters for half an hour. HALF. AN. HOUR. In 45 minutes of screen time!

Sure, people were occasionally whisked off to a spooky house but, once there, they roam the halls unmolested and unthreatened. Meanwhile, the Doctor, rather than actually talking to the kid at the centre of the trouble (or realising there was any trouble to be had) has a very long chat and a nice cup of tea. It took him even longer to turn his attention to the obviously dodgy wardrobe and, when he did, he got scared and… had another cup of tea and another long chat with Dad. Are you bored yet? Because I was.

Indeed, no one opens the sodding wardrobe at the centre of the story for a whole 35 minutes, leaving just 10 scant minutes for the Doctor to diagnose the problem, get chased a bit and finally convince the alien cuckoo child to stop throwing silly tantrums. This he does with a cunning combination of yelling at the child (which really works on scared kids, so I understand) and convincing his Dad, who has just found out that his son is a) not his and b) an alien, to give him a hug.

Now that all sounds like a bit of a rant on my part and, indeed, I may be being a little unfair. The aim of the episode was surely to scare the kids silly and I’m sure, in this regard, ‘Night Terrors’ was a roaring success. I’m probably being a little churlish and miserly to expect anything more from it.

But my issue is this. Mark Gatiss is a brilliant writer. A truly, hands-down, brilliant, wonderfully creative mind capable of structured, intelligent and inventive comic drama. So why is ‘Night Terrors’ such a dramatically dull, highly derivative, poorly-paced mess? This is Mark’s favourite show, his dream job, an opportunity that he’s dreamt of since he was a nipper. It should have been brilliant.

And that’s what’s so frustrating.

Doctor Who: 'Let's Kill Hitler' Review

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Doctor Who has never been more bonkers. And there are some who would argue that it’s never been better. After a storming opening run to series 6, I’m beginning to think that they may just have a point.

So, Let’s Kill Hitler. Rory and Amy, impatient at waiting for news of their daughter (the soon-to-be River Song) form a crop circle to bring the Doctor back into their lives. When it works, we’re off into another adventure into Steven Moffat’s, frankly potty, Scottish head. And what does he give us to delight us on a Saturday night? Numbskulls vs. Hitler.

Let me repeat that, just in case it hasn’t sunk in.  NUMBSKULLS vs. HITLER!! It shouldn’t work, it sounds awful, it should be cringe-worthy trash,… but it wasn’t. It was brilliant.

Of course, that was just a side show really. This episode was really about two people, Mel and River Song. Who were, in fact, the same person (keeping up? Not for long,..). Y’see, Amy and Rory have been living with their own daughter since they were children at primary school together. Indeed, their bessie-mate, Mel, was not only young Melody Pond all along, but was also the person who brought Rory and Amy together in the first place (still following? We’ll see about that…). And, of course, she wanted to kill the Doctor. Then Hitler shot her and she turned into Alex Kingston.

Let’s face facts. Even if you put Numbskulls vs. Hitler to one side (Numbskulls vs. Hitler!!), it’s still completely insane.

That it worked was testament to the ‘human’ story at the centre of it all – the rehabilitation of the psychotic River Song into the Doctor’s future missus, and the Doctor’s struggle with his own inner demons (“Is there anybody in the universe that I’ve not screwed up?”). Matt Smith and Alex Kingston put in truly superb performances in this episode, helped enormously by a cracking script that fizzed with energy.

Their intellectual jousting was a joy, with the Doctor disarming every weapon that River could pull on him, but failing to foresee a deadly kiss.

And what of Amy and Rory? Well, we have a lovely bit of backstory early on in the episode and Arthur Darvill gets to put more meat on his ‘action man’ persona after smacking the Fuhrer in the mouth and nicking a motorbike from a Nazi (very Indiana Jones). Apart from that, however, Mr. and Mrs. Pond stay on the sidelines for most of the story – inside robot Amy’s head (I know!).

But that’s the great thing about the rejuvenated Doctor Who, it’s the only show on television that has the balls to be quite this loopy. And I like loopy. In today’s world of dreary crime dramas and celebrity-obsessed talent shows, Doctor Who has become a beacon of light to those of us who don’t want to be talked down to by our Goggle Box. It’s insane, confusing, quick, fun, and it doesn’t make any concessions for people who can’t keep up.

It trusts that you will.

Which makes it the best thing on TV.