Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

With fewer games being released on the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) it’s difficult imagining every new release will become an instant classic. Konami’s long running “Metal Gear Solid” series makes a return to the PSP in the form of “Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.” Hideo Kojima is behind this latest effort but can the legendary video game producer squeeze the last bit of magic from the PSP?

Naked Snake (David Hayter) returns for “Peace Walker,” another title within the “Metal Gear” universe set in the early 1970s. Snake is recruited by Costa Rican patriots to uncover a plot to deploy a secret weapon developed by the CIA on Central America.

No longer affiliated with any government, Naked Snake’s private military corporation, Militaires Sans Frontières (Soldiers without Borders) is the perfect solution for this covert operation to defend Costa Rica.

However, Snakes interest in the operation is instead based on his personal quest to find the truth behind his deceased mentor, who may have cheated death and might be apart of this new CIA scheme.

“Peace Walker,” like all “Metal Gear Solid” games before it, eschews traditional action with a focus on avoiding confrontation with enemy combatants. Snake has all the tools that an ordinary soldier will have. He has an armory that can be built up through research via in-game menus. The weapons are all there. But “Peace Walker” is about avoiding enemies as much as possible.

Players will crouch, peak and run away from enemy soldiers. The best way to beat “Peace Walker” is to avoid being seen. “Peace Walker” is one of few video game titles in which the main character can go throughout the entire game without having to execute an enemy combatant.

The game feels much more rewarding as Snake goes through the game knocking out enemies with a special tranquilizer gun and by using Close Quarters Combat (CQC) than using direct violence.

By knocking out enemy combatants, Snake can recover them and recruit them to be a part of his private military corporation. It might be unrealistic but it sure is addicting.

Lush jungle scenery presents a mysterious view of Costa Rica. The lighting effects are wonderful, daytime and nighttime are well represented in “Peace Walker.” Snake will expertly traverse a variety of terrains from mud to military installations.

Spectacular boss battles with immense tanks, sometimes hundreds of feet taller than Naked Snake is thrilling on the Sony PSP’s 4.3 inch screen. “Peace Walker” sets a new standard in graphics for the PSP.

Cinematic touches are included in “Peace Walker.” The story is told through dynamic comic book style drawings that are entirely black and white. When characters speak, speech bubbles fill the screen. Close up shots of Snake’s grizzled Che Guevara like face go hand in hand with terrific voice acting.

Several times Snake references his fondness for birds and radio messages from his support staff talk about the meaning of nuclear deterrence and the introduction of computer AI in the field of weaponry.

“Peace Walker” is about the Cold War a period of time filled with fear and tremendous uncertainty. It’s a thoughtful video game focusing on themes, exposition and analysis of our reality told through the fiction of a mercenary for hire.

Although published on Sony’s smallest platform, “Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker” feels like a complete entry to the “Metal Gear Solid” series. Stellar visuals, great voice work and gameplay all make “Peace Walker” fun to play and great to own.

It has a high replay value. Completed missions can be replayed to secure new items or to recruit enemy soldiers for Snake’s private military corporation. Players will be immersed by the quality graphics and atmosphere. It’s a portable adventure that plays out like the bigger ones found on full-featured consoles like the PS3 and the Xbox 360.

Nov. 26-28 Film Previews

Burlesque
(PG-13; 119 min.) Yes, this is a real movie. Small town girl (Christina Aguilera) dreams of belonging to a bigger world, confusingly moves to Los Angeles to have her dreams realized. Instead of quickly filling her inner emptiness, she gets funneled into waiting on tables at a burlesque theater. Then acknowledging her passion for risky business, she attempts to impress the owner Tess (Cher) for a run at a life of lights and jazz as a burlesque dancer.

Faster
(R; 98 min.) Dwayne Johnson plays Driver, a man out to avenge the death of his brother through sheer bicep size alone. Fresh out of jail, he concocts a plan to bring some Charles Bronson-syle vengeance and anger on the bastards responsible for his brother’s murder. Thematically reminiscent of late 1970’s revenge films, Johnson wields firearms of all sizes and drives muscle cars to go for additional cool points.

Love and Other Drugs
(R; 113 min.) Based on the book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, the plot follows a young pharmaceutical salesman’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) rise to the top. But when the confident man encounters a damsel with potential wife qualities, he succumbs to true love – and keeps the Viagra pills just in case of an awkward moment.

Tangled
(PG; 100 min.) Beautiful Rapunzel (Many Moore) is locked up in a high tower until a blundering thief helps her escape. With long blonde hair in tow, this computer-animated flick is a light-hearted reimagining of a classic tale.

Your Highness Trailer

Normally I wouldn't post trailers, but this particular comedy seems well worth breaking the rules. Hit play for the red band trailer.

Skyline

--Crew--
Director...Greg and Colin Strause

--Cast--
Eric Balfour as Jarrod
Scottie Thompson as Elaine
Donald Faison as Terry
Brittany Daniel as Candice

--Review--

Someday people will come across the DVD of “Skyline,” chuckle to themselves and think about renting the film they intelligently avoided in theaters. “Skyline” doesn’t do much of anything to warrant a theatrical release, it’s dull, substandard and features laughable dialogue. In the “alien invasion” film genre so highly populated by quality films like “Independence Day,” “Cloverfield” and “District 9” there simply isn’t a reason for “Skyline” to exist.

A group of four friends living in Los Angeles awake to discover beams of light pulling humans toward it. As they plot to escape they discover that aliens have invaded planet earth and the beams of light act as a tractor pull toward alien space crafts. The plot sounds interesting but the execution is where the film falters. Nearly the entire length of the film is spent having the characters discuss about the next course of action and then failing to accomplish anything.

The special effects for the aliens are well executed, as they should be; directors Greg and Colin Strause own a special effects production company.

Everything else is done horribly wrong.

Most of the film’s budget was spent on the special effects and every computer-generated creature appears highly detailed and looks near photo-realistic. There’s terrific design in the creatures, or rather alien vehicles, since we never get to see what the aliens really look like. But for all the victories of the CGI, everything else is just below the standards of general filmmaking.

With only four actors to attend to, this is a film highly dependent on the abilities of the actor and script. Both continually amaze audiences with an inability to understand the fundamentals of good writing and delivery. Some of the dialogue is downright laughable, as one character argues back and forth with another one, it simply seems like everyone lacks some true motivation. One character is angry and then attacks another character. Yet, it’s difficult to care who comes out on top of the fighting because we never got an opportunity to really know the characters.

Surprisingly, Donald Faison who played Scrubs’ Christopher Turk has a supporting role as a character with an undetermined occupation. We are led to believe he is some type of musician, perhaps, a rapper or even a successful music producer. But no one knows, because the script doesn’t make it clear what he does for work. All we can go on is that he has an assistant and a blonde trophy wife living in an apartment complex in LA. What’s his personality like? What’s his motivation for existence? Where did he get all of his money?

From one scene to the next, audiences are fed the dull appearance of an apartment complex. Over half of the film takes place in a 20 by 20 foot room in which characters uninterestingly converse about their next course of action. That’s it. Other major set pieces take place on the rooftop and some action occurs in a car garage. For a film set in a vast city like LA, it’s difficult to swallow the filmmakers approach to only shoot inside a room and not the larger city.

“Skyline” looks like it’s been shot using a bad digital camera. The image is often full of visual noise, muted colors and is poorly lit. Bad filmmakers.

Because of the limited number of locations in which “things can happen” the movie revels in having nothing happen. What we are observing is simply ordinary people doing absolutely nothing against the alien invasion on a large scale.

Maybe it’s because of the script that nothing happens, maybe it’s the budget. But the JJ Abrams’ produced “Cloverfield” adeptly shows how to shoot a film in a large city with a monster menace and features ordinary characters with motivation while creating a story worth getting into. “Cloverfield” feels like characters surviving a large-scale catastrophe while “Skyline” feels like a claustrophobic event happening to only four people.

The best parts of “Skyline” are when none of the actors are present on screen. When several fighter jets strike against the alien menace we start to get an interesting sense of action, but that, too, is limited. We never learn how the attacks against the alien invasions are being coordinated. We’re simply witnessing it, just as if we were to look up and watch an air show. We learn nothing about what’s going on or get an explanation of it. The action just happens with no consequence or reason.

For a film to be moving emotionally and thematically, there has to be something more than just visual effects, there has to be purpose, progression and above all, a point. “Skyline” has nothing going for it despite pretty pixels, because that, too, is sub par compared to “Transformers” and the other impending LA alien invasion film “Battle: Los Angeles.” “Skyline” looks like a straight to DVD release with a plot lifted from an unimaginative TV show. It isn’t quality filmmaking, it’s trash.

Nov. 19-20: Previews

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
(PG-13; 146 min.) Harry Potter gets into some deep shit.


The Next Three Days
(PG-13; 133 min.) Written and directed by Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace screenwriter Paul Haggis, this Russell Crowe thriller isn’t what it appears – it’s a remake of the French film Pour Elle (Anything for Her). An ordinary man with the perfect life has perfection ripped away when his wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) is arrested and sentenced for murder. But is Lara capable of committing such a crime? Lara says she didn’t do it and John (Crowe) believes her, overcome by a massive desire to have the perfect life restored –and post-prison coitus- he plots to free her from jail.