Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Jackie Chan Christmas Part 2: Operation Condor

  In my last post I talked a little about Jackie Chan's Armour of God. Which is considered the second Asian Hawk film in the US, even though it's actually the first one. In this post I'm going to talk about Operation Condor, the actual second Asian Hawk film.

  Operation Condor follows Asian Hawk, aka Jackie, as he's hired by the United Nations to find Nazi vault from World War II filled with gold. He teams up with three women who seem to get into more trouble than help any situation, and a chase starts with multiple organizations fighting to be the ones to find the gold.

  This flick I enjoyed more than its predecessor. That might come from my reference point of watching Operation Condor before Armour of God, which could have possibly skewed my opinion. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed both films, just in my opinion I believe Operation Condor to be the better film. I was completely engulfed in the movie. I laughed, and/or chuckled at every little comical situation while still being impressed by each crazy stunt. It also felt more like a complete movie, with a more thought out story, and an ending that gave a better message than what I was really expecting from a movie like this.

  Overall I have to give Operation Condor a 4.5 out of 5. The fun, and great action sequences, along with the little comical additives that Jackie Chan put into this movie makes it worth while. This is a flick I plan on watching multiple times.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Jackie Chan Christmas Part 1: Armour of God

  I watched a couple Jackie Chan movies I just got for Christmas from a good buddy of mine. I'm going to talk about both of them but in different posts. This post we're going to talk about Operation Condor 2: Armour of God. Why talk about Operation Condor 2 before talking about Operation Condor? Well that's because Operation Condor 2, was actually filmed and released as Armour of God before Operation Condor outside of the United States.

  Armour of God is about Asian Hawk aka Jackie an ex-singer turned fortune hunter. In a plot to get Jackie to find the rest of the actual Armour of God, a cult kidnaps his old flame, and the fiance of his former band-mate, and uses her as ransom. Well Jackie, his old friend, and a rich guy's daughter go to help save the girl, and Jackie Chan shenanigans ensue.

  As with pretty much all Jackie Chan movies, there are a bunch of crazy martial arts, and car/motorcycle stunts, with many of them consisting of a comical twist. Actually that's one thing that I do like about Jackie Chan movies, is that they are very light hearted. You can just sit and enjoy them. Armour of God was all of that, as you would expect. It was a fun filled ride all the way through. Once in a while Jackie's buddy would start to get annoying from him going back and forth from acting like a tough guy, to being humbled, and not having the ability to learn from any of his lessons in the flick. The one thing that actually made me pause was how it ended, it felt like it happened too quickly, but the crazy jump to the hot air balloon was pretty cool. Overall I give Armour of God a solid 3.5 out of 5. I enjoyed it all the way through, and it was a true Jackie Chan flick from beginning to end. I definitely suggest anyone to watch it at least once.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Walking Dead Season 4 Mid-Season Finale

  The Walking Dead season 4 mid-season finale has come and past. Season 4 thus far has been one of the best seasons of The Walking Dead, and I really enjoy the show from the very first episode to now. The reasoning for my opinion is episode six "Live Bait", and the actual mid-season finale episode eight "Too Far Gone". To give fair warning I'm going to give a few spoilers if you haven't watched season 4 yet.
  Episode Six, "Live Bait", follows the Governor in flashbacks to what happened after his massacre of the Woodbury Army. That episode felt like a well done short film, that could practically stand alone all by itself. He barely says a word all episode, which in my opinion contributes to the talent of David Morrissey, the actor who played as the Governor. In this episode he becomes this post-apocalyptic drifter until he runs into this family who slowly bring him back to a state of caring about something. There's a little girl in this family who truly contributes to this due to her being about the same age as his daughter was before she died, and came back as a walker. It's my favorite episode since the beginning of the series.

  Episode Eight, "Too Far Gone", is one of the most emotionally rough episodes I've seen in a while. The Governor is now leading a new group of people along with his new found family. They decide to invade the prison with a tank, and kick out Rick and his crew. After Rick and the Governor exchange words, Rick basically saying they all can make things work and live together, and the Governor stating that, that can't happen, and if Rick resists he's going to kill Hershel, and Michonne, who he took hostage before he decided to invade to use as leverage. Well the Governor really does end up being "Too Far Gone" and chaos ensues after the Governor decided to take Michonne's sword to Hershel's head.

  After episode eight, the mid-season finale, we are left with the prison in shambles, the Governor dead, Hershel dead, Carol has been kicked out for murdering a couple sick people, Rick's baby "little ass kicker" possibly dead, or at least missing, and everyone else completely split up, and running from the prison. This episode felt more like a season finale, not a mid-season finale. Now we have to hurry up and wait for February to see what happens next.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Batman: Arkham Asylum

  I finally had a chance to play Batman: Arkham Asylum. Yes I know, I'm a little behind the times, but none the less, here are my thoughts on the game.

  Batman: Arkham Asylum takes place at Arkham Asylum. If you don't know much about the Batman universe, I suggest that you look it up. The actual story and game play were great. It kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. In Batman: Arkham Asylum you go through Arkham Asylum trying to capture The Joker before he executes his crazy plans in which you need to figure out, while you're also trying to contain everyone else he sets free to run amok in Arkham, or to do his bidding.


  I played on the PlayStation 3, and the controls on that were great. There was only one part where I got annoyed with how the controls worked. It involved my needing to get over a little fence type thing, that was on a platform, and I couldn't just run and jump over it, I actually had to stop and then hit the action button when I got to it, just to climb over it. But as I said, that was only an issue on one part of the game.

 The random Easter eggs, or secrets, are what they are called in the game, were a cool addition. I kept going back and forth trying to find as many secrets as possible while still wanting to continue the story in the game itself. Using Arkham Asylum as the location for the game allowed the developers to include a bunch of the Batman Villains without making it feel like they were trying to hard to include them.

  I tried my best to talk about the game without giving spoilers. At this point I probably should care due to how old the game is, but if someone had told me how Arkham Asylum went, I probably wouldn't have played the game, and enjoyed it as much as I did. Overall I have to give Batman: Arkham Asylum a 4.9 out of 5 on my gaming list. It's definitely a game worth playing.