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weresmurf
Reviews
First Blood (1982)
A movie that though aged, is still as relevant as ever... *Very minor spoilers*
My father served in the Vietnam war at the age of 21, much like John Rambo would have had he been real. In real life, my father endured a hell hole, a place he to this day, will rarely speak of without tears in his eyes, stories have been told to me about watching his friends die over there, of seeing atrocities done by both sides, a horrible horrific situation that no man woman or child should ever have seen.
He spoke to me once, of returning to Australia, to a country he loved, called home. He spoke to me of feeling proud, in his uniform, having completed his tour, of stepping off the plane.
And then he told me of the ridicule and scorn he received from the general public upon his return. A return where he was called a baby killer, despite never having actually killed anyone himself surprisingly, where it was simply assumed he was the one at fault, that the public would scorn him, forget he was human, treat him like a social outcast. Treat him, like an animal.
Which is part of the reason he and I bonded so well over this movie when we first watched it. Sure, it's an agrandised tale of a badly treated Vet, a man forgotten by his government, much like my own father.
When we see Stallone performing as Rambo in this movie, he's not fantastical, he's not superman, he's a man who's been wronged, who fights back the only way he knows how.
When you see this movie, understand that this is, despite the fantastical elements in this film, a very accurate portrayal of how our veterans are treated. They're forgotten, they're given over to an ill equipped health system, be they in Australia or America, they're treated like outcasts.
The beautiful thing about First Blood, when you watch it, is it's so easy to identify with Rambo, so easy to see he's just a good man, having a bad time, who reacts in possibly the worst way to whats happening to him... but that worst way, is the only appropriate way. The torture he endures under a biased prejudiced sheriff, the lack of respect for serving his country, the health system that should've picked up on his quite obvious PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), none of it was there for him.
When it hits the fan, and Rambo goes on his escape, ask yourself, is he really hunting them? If they had've let him go, wouldn't it have been better for them? Didn't he just want to be left alone after all? The one message this movie, less than subtly puts across, is something we all need to learn. Whether its WW1 or 2, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm 1 or 2, you're not expected to agree with the war, you're not expected to support the war. But for gods sake support your troops. Next time your national day rolls around, like in Australia for Anzac Day, take the time to show a veteran, no matter if they're 25 or 95, show them they're appreciated, let them know they made a great sacrifice, that you respect what they did.
Rambo succeeds on this level, especially Stallones final speech to Richard Crenna, which absolutely tears you apart, realising this man was plucked from obscurity, trained to be a god amongst normal men, then, when the machine of war was done with him, tossed out like a little spring from the machine, useless, unneeded and no longer wanted... where was he to go? What was he to do? It's a realistic situation that many, many veterans go through, google War Veteran Suicide rate sometime, it's an eye opening somewhat depressing look at the reality of the situation regarding our beloved Vets and the torturous return to mundane civilian life they have to go through...
Don't respect the war, don't necessarily respect your government. But never, ever, disrespect the men and women who fight for your right to freedom. When you disrespect our soldiers, you disrespect everything our nations stand for. And that, is criminal.
Dead Rising (2006)
Dead Rising... is it your kettle of fish?
Dead Rising, from Capcom, the masters of survival horror, is the first true Next Gen game for the xbox 360. Any other game out there, its questionable that they could've been done on a lesser console. This one however, is the first 'must buy' if you want to show off your consoles prowess.
The first time you run into the mall and see two hundred to three hundred zombies shambling around in front of you, your jaw will literally hit the ground... simply because the game does this with ease whilst keeping a truly solid frame rate and an excellent level of graphics.
The concept is shockingly simple. You're a journalist, dropped into a town overrun with zombies, specifically at the mall, you have to survive 3 days. Sounds easy right? Hell no.
Dead Rising is unfortunately going to draw comparisons between two properties. The first is George Romeros zombie movies, and fair enough, it does borrow the concept of the Dawn of the dead movie. The second, the Resident Evil games for some reason.
Let me assure you, the only thing Resident Evil 1 2 3 and 4 have in common with Dead Rising is that there's zombies. But in Dead Rising however, the zombies are much more threatening.
We're not talking modern day running zombies though, we've got the old style swarming zombies. Ever see a zombie movie and wonder 'How the hell did they get eaten? They could've just walked around them!' or something? Get your ass into the maintenance tunnels of Dead Rising, where literally hundreds of zombies pack the halls and you have to wade your way through.
The game play is third person above and behind, the controls are fluid and intuitive, response time from Frank, the journalist, is superb. Capcom have really outdone themselves. The controls are simple, not complicated and every time you get a new skill, it's something to add to your arsenal to turn Camera from Camera toting wimp into Zombie masher extraordinaire.
The weaponry in this game, is incredible. Every sound seems spot on for whatever you're using. You can use things from knives to katanas, pistols to 50. cal machine guns, from chainsaws to fence post hole diggers called Excavators. Each weapon affects the zombies in an individual way for the most part. The Katana will slice zombies in half with whatever angle it hits. It may be from the shoulder to the groin or the head to the leg, it doesn't matter, no hit seems to be exactly the same. The Excavator is just pure gold but I won't spoil that one, it's got to be seen to be fully believed.
Dead Risings only missteps, are minor ones. Well, maybe one major one and the rest are minor. So what are they? 1. People complain about the one save slot. However, Capcom ensure you'll never have to truly start again as any progress in a previous game, if you're killed, can be taken over into a new game. Personally I found a way around only one save slot. I use a memory card and a hard drive in conjunction with each other. This allows me essentially two.
2. No true Free roaming mode. There's a survival mode you can unlock and thats nice, but there doesn't seem to be a true 'free roam' mode as such. Not that that's such a bad thing. The game might get a tiny bit tedious if that was all you'd do...
3. Unforgiving plot. In this game, you have main cases and side cases. Side cases are optional, they're usually rescuing people or defeating psychopaths. Main missions are the ones you must do to progress. Miss one of these and you're done.
4. Time goes by way too fast. An hour goes past in 4 minutes roughly. The game lasts 72 hours, you're looking at between 5 - 6 hours game play. But thats a truly MINOR quibble. The game has that much re-playability it's not funny. If you can get through this, or even half way, in your first few days, I'll buy you a beer :D So to conclude. Dead Rising isn't without its faults. Pobodys Nerfect as they say. It's my cup of tea and then some, but it's not someone elses, but they're not writing this review. My recommendation is this... if you want a showpiece for your 360, a game that you can either stuff around in for hours or play seriously, if you want something that's surprisingly deep for such a shallow concept, check out Dead Rising, you won't be disappointed.