Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
Reviews: film&game
MOVIES
Just Like Heaven
1 hour, 45 min, PG-13. South Wind 12
★★★★
Reese Witherspoon's new romantic for the handful of great one-liners
comedy asks its audience to take a leap of faith and logic from the very beginning. Witherspoon plays an absolute workaholic doctor, Elizabeth, who while obsessed with getting a promotion, has no time to live alongside Mark Ruffalo, who plays David, a confused and gentle everyman with a grieving heart. Both actors give their characters warmth and sadness with ease.
John Header, who won
fame in Napoleon Dynamite, plays a kooky bookstoreowner with telepathic abilities. It is a throwaway part albeit
has over cola and spills. No doubt, Dynamite fans will be pleased to see he hasn't lost his unique delivery of lines. As their characters, Elizabeth and David, both seem to be paralyzed within their own lives, Elizabeth gets in a car accident. When the two leads meet in Elizabeth's apartment, we discover that she physically and he emotionally, are dead to the world. The two begin to piece together her past
because she can't remember anything, which allows him to emotionally discuss his. So begins the main plot of the film,
which is sprinkled with Ruffalo's great comedic timing, Witherspoon's charm and a great set of music. As David and Elizabeth slowly realize mistakes about their "former" lives, they end up falling for each other. However, despite a few weak and unnecessary lines of dialogue, the last half hour surprisingly deals with the right to die and all of its ramifications.
Ruffalo is absolutely delightful and truly shines throughout the film, grounding it in honest heartache with grace, charm and sincerity. Witherspoon gives a fun yet bittersweet performance and Header is great for a few laughs. If you are willing to take such a leap, the pay off is a charming, poignant and unique romance comedy.
- Sarah Tucker
A History of Violence
96 minutes, R, South Wind 12
★★★☆★
Viggo, Viggo, Viggo. It has been too long. After becoming used to a Lord of the Rings film, prominently featuring you, each year, it's been a long time coming that you were in another film to satisfy your legions of fans. And what a film to choose (yes, I am forgetting Hidalgo and for good reason)
A History of Violence is complex, twisted and beautiful all at once. Complex in that it asks big questions such as how do we become the way we are? Also, how well do we really know the ones we love? Twisted in its unabashed depictions of violence, gore and surprisingly simple beauty. A History of Violence is heady stuff. But that's what makes it work.
Viggo Mortensen plays Tom Stall.
simple family man. Stall owns the small town diner and is married to the town
Jayplay 10.06.05
lawyer (Maria Bello). Everything seems perfect in Tom's life until two inexplicably bad men turn up and he has to defend himself and his employees in an uncharacteristically (or so we think) brutal fashion. Local fame befalls him and cause unwanted attention from a creepy Ed Harris and random thugs. They come to town because they believe Tom to be a former acquaintance aptly name Joey. The rest of the
film follows Tom and his family as they struggle to deal with the ramifications of this meeting, drudging up past memories, lies and, yes, more violence.
The film is determinedly different.The
first half hour works as set up for Tom's perfect life and ends up feeling like old-fashioned movie-making. This could seem awkward, which is what I thought at first, but it serves the story later when his world comes crashing down. Mortensen, Bello, Harris, newcomer Ashton Holmes (as Tom's son) and a cameo from weird old William Hurt all work together to create a fascinating character study. One that delves deep into
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the reasons for violence and the role it plays in man's struggle for survival.
- Lindsey Ramsey
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects Gameplay PS2 Xbox
Gamecube, PS2, Xbox
I was surprised when I tried out Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. When I first heard out the game, I was expecting a somewhat traditional fighting game. But when I began to play it, it was completely different. It's really more of an action game with some bits of one-on-one fighting built in.
An alien force has come to Earth and have been taking out the superheroes. (It has a cool scene of Captain America getting blasted and even the Hulk being smashed by the remains of a building.) Now all the Marvel Heroes are trying their best to stop the alien threat and during their fights, a faction of super-powered beings called The Imperfects are trying to stop them.
The one-on-one fights were not what I expected, but they kept me entertained. The battle takes place in a free-roaming arena, so players can use objects like cars and mailboxes to deal additional damage to their opponents.
☆☆1/2
The game is pretty decent. However, when I expected one thing and got another, I was left asking, "Why did they do it this way?"
Chris Moore