When I first heard about The Hunger Games last year, it sounded familiar. Sure, it's got the murders=ratings reality show elements of The Running Man and The Condemned, but it was the kids-killing-kids core that got my attention the way an ultraviolent Japanese cult classic called Battle Royale did about over a decade ago. That controversial bloodbath of a film was never even given a stateside theatrical run until an extremely limited one that only started a few months ago. There's bee... Read More »

With Resident Evil 5 failing to improve upon anything from Resident Evil 4 and the Dead Space series perfecting the survival horror genre, Capcom needed to make some improvements to the Resident Evil series to win back some of their fans. In a move that nobody saw coming, the developers behind almost completely killing the SOCOM series before Zipper somehow made it even worse, Slant Six, were hired to shake things up a bit by revamping RE's gameplay and shifting the focus to a faster p... Read More »

It looks like a joke, and it probably should've stayed as one. Casa de mi Padre is the new Will Ferrell comedy that's subtitled in English... because it's mostly spoken in Spanish. Sounds like a joke, right? While it's a gimmick that could be really funny (and occasionally was), Casa de mi Padre also sounds like a hard sell, so it's no surprise that the film, which tries to imitate the style of telenovelas, has only gotten a limited release. The low-budget production is full of deli... Read More »

I gotta give Jonah Hill props. After failing badly to carry The Shi--I mean, The Sitter in his first solo headlining role (and his last "not-so-Slim-Shady" one), he's moved way beyond one of our finalists for Worst Movie of the Year and instead has been sailing on a wave of success that's included Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his performance in Moneyball. And now his newest film, 21 Jump Street, is an early candidate for best comedy of the year. Emphasis on his. Hill, who ... Read More »

Promising the sun, moon, and stars in the form of a game featuring a fully alive universe with a story driven by the choices of a player, BioWare's original Mass Effect seemed like an idea that could no way would live up to the hype. But after its amazing debut in 2007 and even better sequel in 2010, nobody was left questioning what BioWare could achieve in their Mass Effect games. Many epic gaming trilogies have come and gone in recent years, but none as unique and memorable as the Ma... Read More »

Take sci-fi elements from Star Wars, the aliens from Avatar, and the style from Prince of Persia, mix them all together, and what do you get? Disney's latest blockbuster, John Carter, which on the surface might seem like the world's most expensive knockoff with a rumored $250 million budget, but is in fact a film adaptation based on a series of Edgar Rice Burroughs novels that date back to 1912 and helped influence legendary film creators George Lucas and James Cameron create the billi... Read More »

If you thought Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! was eye candy as I did, wait until you see the little mustached orange guy. Its beautiful animation, colorful vibrancy, and awesome 3D make The Lorax an early candidate for both Best Animated Movie and Best 3D Movie. From the makers of Despicable Me, including Academy Award-nominated co-director Chris Renaud, Illumination Entertainment's adaptation of one of beloved author/illustrator Dr. Seuss' children's books matches, and maybe surpasses... Read More »

With yearly installments to slower-paced modern day shooters, it’s a damn shame that the once dominant arena twitch shooter genre is now becoming extinct. Being a huge fan of both Unreal Tournament and Quake, like many others I've been dying for a new fast-paced futuristic shooter ever since playing 2008's Unreal Tournament III to death with friends on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Enter Nexuiz, a downloadable remake of a popular fan-made free Quake mod and a throwback to a generation of hyp... Read More »

It’s been a while since the riders of SSX have seen fresh powder. Not counting 2007’s Wii exclusive, the latest in the series, simply titled SSX (formerly SSX: Deadly Descents), is the first real sequel to debut on current generation consoles after EA Sports’ BIG line of games ceased production. Now with a revival of over-the-top sports games, Electronic Arts has brought the beloved franchise back with some big changes but sans the BIG theme, which has been replaced with a more s... Read More »

After they each had a strong performance in their last movies, Paul Rudd (in My Idiot Brother) and Jennifer Aniston (in Horrible Bosses, our pick for Best Comedy of 2011) have teamed up to mixed results in Wanderlust, a movie about a married couple experiencing and experimenting with the all-sharing and free-loving lifestyle in a hippie commune as opposed to the concrete jungle that's recently spit them out. It's a couple steps down (at least) from director David Wain's previous film, ... Read More »

Yet another classic franchise that's jumping genres and switching into the first person perspective is Syndicate, a futuristic cyber-punk FPS that's being revived after almost two full decades since the original was released as a real-time tactical game. Now the same studio behind breakout hits like The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and The Darkness, Starbreeze Studios, has taken over the series with a completely revamped approach. So is Starbreeze's reboot of Syndic... Read More »

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island marks the second Brendan Fraser franchise (The Mummy) that Dwayne Johnson started to take over (via The Scorpion King), but this time The Rock was much more successful as it looks like he's permanently supplanted Fraser, whose character I don't think was even mentioned in this sequel, as the adult male lead in the Journey series. I wouldn't blame Fraser for jumping ship because I actually saw Journey to the Center of the Earth (hey, free admittance than... Read More »

Surprise. It's another crapfest starring Nicolas Cage. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is an early candidate for Worst Movie of the Year, but it's not nearly as disastrous as the first Ghost Rider (possibly the worst superhero movie in recent history and definitely the worst in the Marvel universe at least). Um... win? It had potential to turn the laughingstock of superhero franchises around, especially when the badass trailer looked promising, Neveldine/Taylor were directing, and one... Read More »

It's been over a decade since we've last seen Sweet Tooth and the rest of the Twisted gang on a major console. After releasing one of the best and most mature games on the PlayStation 2, the Eat Sleep Play team behind the best games of the Twisted franchise has finally returned, and they're serving up a sequel with everyone's favorite killer clown taking the spotlight. Twisted Metal is officially back and better than ever on the PlayStation 3 with new modes and features that revive... Read More »

As fans of both actors, I'm all for Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds (minus Green Lantern) and machine guns and fast editing, but Safe House was a big disappointment. The generic action thriller, Swedish director Daniel Espinosa's first US film, actually put me to sleep for a second or two. During an action sequence. That's how generic and "thrilling" Safe House was, as well as considerably predictable. I was waiting for a more ruthless, badass-mofo version of Denzel (which the p... Read More »

Emerging from the darkness after being released during the early days of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, The Darkness series is finally back with a new developer, new features, and a brand new look. Just like its predecessor, The Darkness II will hook you right from the start with a very brutal and memorable action-packed sequence of events, only to slow things down midway through the game with a massive new plot twist that will blow your mind and have you dying to know what’s going ... Read More »