I’ve finally got round to playing the Just Cause 2 demo, I’ve got to say I’m strangely but pleasantly surprised by it.

Just Cause 2 cover.

Demo

Having not played or heard of the first game I looked upon this game with an open mind, The demo features an area of 35sq miles located in the desert. There are light aircraft and many civilian and military vehicles available. The demo begins when Bolo Santosi, leader of the rebel group known as the Reapers, issues instructions to the player to cause chaos. There is a 30 minute time limit, but this can be extended by achieving several goals, such as 10 headshots, 5 melee kills, base jumping or climbing great heights with your parachute using the grappling hook.

So far from what I have played the idea of the game is about pure destruction, causing as much chaos as possible, the grappling hook is an unusual gimmick. It reminded me of he ‘Long shot (?)’ in Zelda, but it works quite well in the game and is easy to use.

Rating

Just Cause 2 looks like a very unique game, whether it’s unusual style will put gamers off remains to be seen. Personally I wouldn’t go out and buy this game full price, if I would it in the pre-owned sections then it would be worth picking up.

From the short 30 minutes I got to play it, I would give Just Cause 2 a 7.5/10

*Drum Rolls* The one you’ve all been waiting, for My Top Werner Herzog film!

1. Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

Encounters at the End of the World poster.

Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica to shoot a film as part of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. This is no ordinary travel documentary, if you haven’t noticed by now Herzog does not do ‘ordinary’, Herzog states at the beginning of the film that

‘The National Science Foundation invited me even though I made it clear I would not be making another movie about penguins.’

Herzogs fascination with the Antarctic was through Henry Kaiser, whose underwater footage we see in ‘The Wild Blue Yonder’, he meets physic professors, who at the Antarctic are fork lift drivers and bankers who become bus drivers. Undeniably the stars of this film are the Antarctic itself and it’s creature above and below the ice. One of the strangest moments of the film is when we see a penguin heading towards a mountain range, completely in the opposite direction of the feeding grounds or nesting areas, the penguin researcher explains that even if they were to capture the penguin and bring him back he would always walk that way towards the mountains, toward his inevitably death.

The reason this film gets the no.1 slot over any other is simply because the underwater footage is absolutely breathtaking, It’s a part of nature that we never get to see. We all to often focus on the animal swimming within the sea where as Herzog focuses on so much more. Herzogs unusual interview technique allows us to see the real character of the people he’s interviewing, he’s not bothered by what they have to say but the story behind the person.

I highly recommend this film, If you want to explore the world of Werner Herzog this is a great starting point. Watching it in HD is also a must.

Enjoy the trailer below.

If you haven’t read Part 1, Click Here

3. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

Aguirre, the Wrath of God poster.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God is about a group of Spanish conquistadores who trek through Peru in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. When the 1000 strong group become stuck the leader orders a group of forty to scout ahead, with Don Pedro de Ursúa as leader and Don Lope de Aguirre as second in command. After encountering difficultly, power hungry Aguirre proposes a coup against Ursúa when he suggests they turn back. The soldiers follow Aguirre, as they slowly float down the Amazon, Aguirre, becoming more and more insane the further they go.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God contains, in my opinion, some of the greatest scenes in film history. The opening and closing scenes are visually stunning. Aguirre, the only man alive, on a sinking raft with 400 tiny monkeys. And just as his own men were scared of his insanity the monkeys scatter when he comes near then.

‘I, the wrath of God, will marry my own daughter and with her I’ll found the purest dynasty the earth has ever seen.’

2. The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)

The Wild Blue Yonder is a sci-fi/documentary film about an alien who came to earth decades ago from a watery planet (The Wild Blue Yonder). The film consists of re-contextualised documentary footage of the STS-34 space flight and Henry Kaiser under water footage at the Antarctic. We see interviews from scientists who explain the science behind the story of the film but always with context of the film as if the incidents were real.

The draw of this film is definitely Herzog’s ability to use other footage to tell his story, but don’t be mistaken in thinking this is lazy film making. The music works seamlessly, the eerie, sensual music flows as the water flows under the Antarctic, it floats as the astronauts float in zero gravity. This is one of Herzog visual delights, I admire the story telling of this film, you could so easily take this film as fact, as with many of Herzog’s film, even his fictional feature films, they are often shot in an almost documentary style.

Let me start off by saying that choosing my favourite 5 Herzog films was hard enough but putting them into an order was doubly hard. Also note that although I will give a brief synopsis of each film, it certainly doesn’t justify the artistic merit of the films themselves.

5. Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)

Little Dieter Needs to Fly is a documentary that tells the story of German/American Pilot, Dieter Dengler who, during the Vietnam war, was shot down over Loas by the Pathet Lao. He was taken to a prison camp in North Vietnam where he was starved and tortured until the day he escaped.

Dieter Dengler is the driving force of this film, we learn about his curious habit with doors and his permanent supply of emergency food under his house. Herzog decides to take Dengler back to the place of his capture to re-enact the scenes of his life. Dengler does not crave fame nor recognition for what happen in Vietnam, when asked a question about what he thinks of people who call him a hero he says ‘”Only the dead are Heroes, I’m not a Hero”

Herzog directed a feature based on the actual events, ‘Rescue Dawn’ starring Christian Bale. I would certain skip Rescue Dawn and just watch Little Dieter Needs to Fly, it will be a far more satisfying experience.

4. Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Scene from Fitzcalrraldo.

‘Fitzcarraldo’ is the semi-biographical tale of a would-be rubber baron named Fitzcarraldo. Fitzcarraldo wants to build an opera house in his city of Iquitos (Peru). This requires money, and having one major failure already under his belt, the bankrupt Trans-Andean Railway company. Fitzcarraldo decides to get into the rubber business as it’s the biggest business in Peru. The only land available to rent off the government is deemed ‘in-accessible’ by other rubber barons, as the river next to it contains treacherous rapids. Fitzcarraldo plans is to carry the 300 tonne steam boat a couple hundred metres across the rainforest from a adjacent river.

This film is in itself a documentary of itself as the filming is the tale of Herzog’s own journey to film this epic story. Herzog actually moved the 320 tonne ship, without special effects, through the rain forest, where as the real ‘Fitzcarraldo’ moved a 30 tonne ship by taking it across in peices and reassembling it at the desired location. Scenes that were shot on-board the ship while it crashed through rapids, resulted in injuring three of the six people involved in the filming.

Klaus Kinski acting is phenomenal he really brings the character of Fitzcarraldo to life. This is surely one of his greatest roles.

For Part 2 Click Here

Don’t know who Sarah Killen, 19, is? Well you’re right not to know, she has become the sole ‘followee’ of talk show host Conan O’Brien.

Sarah Killen Twitter photo.

Since Conans departure from the ‘Tonight Show’ he has turned to twitter to keep in contact with his fans, he has amassed a following of 627,000 followers but until recently was not following a single person.

On Friday 5th March Conan tweeted ‘I’ve decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change.’ Since then the 19 year old, who is planning on getting married, has received a new iMac computer and offers to help pay for a dress from a New York designer and drinks for her wedding. She was gaining followers at the rate of 150 a minute and now has 24,564.

Sarah fiancée John Slowik Jr. has asked Conan to be his best man at their wedding.

Follow Conan
Follow Sarah (LovelyButton)

So it has come to the end, Film Dash 2010, what a tiring but exciting weekend it has been.

Filming on the Saturday was good, we got everything done. The only bad thing was the weather, it was freezing cold, by the end I could barely move my fingers they were just stiff and frozen.

As you’ll see in my previous post our criteria for the film were;

General theme: Happiness

Line of dialogue: “It’s not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It’s far, far away.”

Prop: Blue Balloon

We decided instead of just having the prop something that appears once in the film, we would make it one of the main features. Editing was fairly painless some things we couldn’t do but the film worked without that.

So have a look at it below if you haven’t seen it already.

Along with Studio 279 (David Poole) we signed up to take part in the 48hr Film Contest, Film Dash.

Film Dash Logo.

Film Dash is run by Chris Unitt and Ian Ravenscroft and consists of a challenge where “Teams of film makers will script, shoot and edit a film in 48 hours.” Each team has different criteria, which they must include in their film. The things we had to have in our film were;
General theme: Happiness

Line of dialogue: “It’s not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It’s far, far away.”

Prop: Blue Balloon.

After coming up with several ideas we came up with an idea that we all decided was fantastically brilliant. I think giving away the plot line would spoil the film so you will have to wait until tomorrow at 7pm to see the film.

But here are a few stills from the shoot to tide you over.

An amendment to the Digital Economy Bill could see sites like YouTube and Vimeo blocked from the UK.

YouTube Logo.

In the new amendment we will see big TV and music companies having the right to demand their material be taken down, the copyright holders will ask the ISP and the website itself to take down their material. If it is not taken down, a court order can force the ISP to block the site.

The law is aimed at sites which host a ‘substantial’ amount of copyright material. It is, however, unclear as to what ‘substantial’ means and we could see entire sites being blocked over some minor claims.

Secretary-general of the Internet Service Providers Association, Nicholas Lansman, said: ‘Our members are extremely concerned that the full implications of the amendment have not been understood.’
As ISPs will have no other choice but to block these sites as not doing so would result in huge lawsuits against them.

This is indeed another stake in the heart of democracy, where we see multi-billion dollar organisations ruling governments.

Jafar Panahi, 49, an award winning Iranian filmmaker has been taken into custody late Monday evening by Tehranian security forces.

Jafar Panahi.

Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabad said the detention was not political and that the filmmaker was suspected of committing some unspecified “offenses,”.

Jafar PanahiPanahi has openly supported the opposition to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the widely disputed summer elections which sent to country into turmoil. The director has previously been arrested when he visited the graves of the victims of Tehran’s post-election disruption and was later banned from travelling abroad. Some of his films have also been banned in Iran.

Panahi is seen as one of the most influential filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave movement and has won several awards including Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The Prosecutor also said “The detention of Jafar Panahi is not related to his artistic profession and has no political aspect,”

It appears obvious to me that Iran are holding him exactly for the reason they say they are not holding him, so lets hope they just let him go, sooner rather than later.

Photo: Flickr

Take Only Photographs, Leave Nothing But Footprints’ is to be shown at the smallest cinema in the world(tbc).

Brixtons Smallest Cinema: AIAV

I am extremely pleased to say that AIAV (Art In A Van) have chosen our film to be shown at the 4 day long event in Brixton starting on the 2nd March and ending the 6th. The film and will be screened alongside a variety of films, from short films to feature length, documentary, video performance, Art, animation or narrative.

Who are AIAV?
“Artinavan// collective have converted an empty shop in a 1930′s indoor Brixton Village Market into a weekly rotating installation space. The shop 72 // 4TH AVE. will be displaying contemporary works from the Artinavan// collective as group installations, individual shows, collaborations with emerging and local artists / curators in the south London area and also visiting artists spaces. The not-for-profit project will be running for 8 weeks (Jan. – Mar. 2010)”

If you’re interested it going along; The Brixton Village is on the corner of Coldharbour Lane and Atlantic Road.

Address to the shop:
Unit 72, Brixton Village, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton
London, SW9 8PS

For more information go to artinavan.co.uk