Reviews

Well wasn't this a load of crap, never have I seen a Doctor Who episode fail so badly not even Moffatt could create an episode this bad and inconsistent. What can I say that hasn't already been said about this joke of a story, well let's start with a little synopsis.

The Doctor and her crew arrive in Sheffield 2018 Yasmin Khan offers the Doctor some Tea back at her mom's place which The Doctor gleefully accepts. The Doctor along with Graham and his son in law Ryan talks to Yasmin's mom who has been fired from her job due to cleaners been unable to clean the hotel rooms which makes no sense as Yasmin's mom is the manager of said hotel so why is she getting fired? To cut a long story short The Doctor and crew find large mutant spiders at their neighbour's house which Yasmin's mom links back to the Hotel that she formerly worked at. They find out that the Spiders have been mutated by landfill which the CEO of the hotel built over, The Doctor lures the Spiders into the panic room of the hotel by playing Ryan's god awful hip hop music and well the spiders basically suffocate, we don't see this happen of course but this is what we are led to believe. Either Chris Chibnall couldn't find a conclusion for the Spiders or he simply just forgot about them, whatever the case it shows just how inept he is as a writer.

The story is pretty flat and boring there is very little things happening to keep you entertain. If it's not boring then its excruciating Chris Noth who plays the CEO is particularly awful as he is basically playing Donald Trump, Bradley Walsh who plays Graham is the only decent actor here and does his best in what he is given. Tosin Cole who plays Ryan is so bored and uninterested that in one scene he begins doing Hand Shadows during a boring conversation between the Doctor and some Spider expert. Jodie Whittaker gives us her worst performance yet, went she meets with the CEO of the Hotel she does these weird facial expressions and keeps calling him Ed Sheeran for some unfunny reason. The rest of the cast are just forgettably dull, even the Spiders are dull.

The Episode is focus more on the CEO who is nothing more than a parody of Donald Trump, if it's not evident that the SJWs (or NPCs as we called them now) have taken over the show it definitely evident here, people do not want to be lectured by political ideologues or been told how bad Trump is, they watch these shows like this so they can escape from reality, so we don't have to think about Trump. Moreover, I fear this maybe the beginning of the end for Doctor Who as it seem to be more focus on ideology and personal opinions rather than good story telling and it's very likely that the show could be cancelled for a second time if things don't improve.

I just want to say right off the bat that I quite enjoyed the first Blade Runner film it was the first of its kind, a Neo-Noir tale that take place in the future. The film (which came out in 1982) was so influential that the theme, style and setting that Blade Runner establish was use in other films like A.I, Judge Dredd, both the original and remake of Total Recall and Ghost in the Shell (which has been recently remade). However despite been a fan of the original, I couldn't get into this film, it was overly long and both the story and plot were very weak.

Going through the story as spoilers free as possible, the film takes place 30 years after the events of the first film. A Replicant by the name of K who is also a Blade Runner task to hunting down other Replicants like himself, after one mission he finds a box hidden under a dead tree which leads him to a bigger investigation about Replicants as well as finding out more about himself. Of course there is more to the story but that's as far as I can go without spoiling it.

The problem that I find with Blade Runner 2049 is that it has very little substance in its story add this along with a paper thin plot and lack of proper character development and you have gotten a pretty boring film. It also doesn't help that the trailers for the film makes it look like an action heavy film when in reality is more of a poignant film a poor one at that. Speaking of misleading trailers Harrison Ford who is show prominently in the trailers is barely in the film, he doesn't even show up until the last 30 minutes of the movie serving only as a Damsel in distress for K to save.

Everything else about the film is great from the special effects to the ambient music to the sound design. It feels like you are watching Blade Runner and doesn't feel like another movie with the word Blade Runner slap on it, it's very faithful to the original. The cast for the most part are really good in their roles and work well off one another. The only actor I thought was miscast was Jared Leto who I am starting to hate as an actor. He does nothing in this role other than giving us bland dialogue making a somewhat interesting character dull, kind of like what he did with the Joker in Suicide Squad. Having said that I do give the movie high praise, in an age in which nearly every movie is been rebooted this doesn't feel like a cash grab.

Howling 2: Your Sister Is a Werewolf also known as Howling 2: Stirba Werewolf Bitch is a 1985 Horror Film directed by Philippe Mora whom has directed the Communion starring Christopher Walken and the sequel to Howling 2, Howling 3. The film is a direct follow up of the 1981 Howling film however the Dark Tone and Realism is nowhere to be seen. The Werewolves themselves don't look near as real nor as scary as the 1981 version, in fact when you do see them up close they look rubbery and fake, most of the time the werewolves are just people with added hair and latex which looks very goofy and inchoate. The film is credited as the Worst Sequel to a Horror movie and after the release of the abysmal Howling 3 all other sequels to the Howling series were made direct to video.

Despite the films falls it is actually very entertaining, hence why I gave it a high score. No other film would show a woman ripping off her dress seventeen times to show us her boobs, have a awkward Sex scene involving werewolves which would make Furries run for their money, a climactic battle involving disco rays and a small puppet dragon. Not to mention the fact that they get Werewolves and Vampires mixed up in this wonderful train wreck of a film, examples including stabbing a werewolf's heart to kill them and werewolves been allergic to garlic along with the fact that they have a character call Stirba who is the equivalent of Count Dracula and live in a castle in Transylvania. Oh, and she is also a Witch who has magical dark powers, yeah this film has everything.

The story is convoluted it begins at the funeral of the girl who was killed in the previous movie who was investigating a secret society of werewolves which she was briefly a part of. Lee meets up with the Brother of said girl and tells him and his love interest (Annie McEnroe) that she was a Werewolf, later on the trio meet up again and after showing proof that the dead girl was indeed a werewolf they go to Transylvania to hunt and kill the Werewolves' Queen Stirba, and the movie just get sillier from then on.

Christopher Lee looks annoyed throughout the film in fact if you look carefully you can kind of see that he really doesn't want to be in this film. Sybil Danning who plays Queen Stirba is clearly enjoying herself with this film overacting to the max. Annie McEnroe acts and talks like a Baby always wondering what Christopher Lee's character is doing or where he went to, he's probably suing his manager for making him star in this film. The extras who are supposed to be Romanian are actually all Czechs, interesting fact they couldn't film in Romania due to the political problems they were facing at the time so they instead filmed in Prague hoping no one would notice that many of the extras are speaking Czech and not Romanian. What can I say the film is pure Entertainment it never slows down or becomes boring, it is the perfect film to watch on a drunken Friday afternoon with friends.

This is one of the first mockumentary movie I saw when I was a Teenager at a time when I was very interested in the American Civil War. The idea of a parallel reality was very new to me at the time so when I watched this film in early 2010 I very quickly became interested in the concept of an alternative reality in what would later become a genre

known as "Alternative history" and C.S.A: The Confederate States of America was the Spear of what captivated me into that genre. However, as I got older and started to look into the film in great detail I realize that the film has too many factual, historical and some global errors. The one that stands out the most is the Confederate takeover of the United States. At no point in the Civil war did the South wanted to conquer the United States and replace it with the Confederate States. The American Civil war was a war of Secession, the south wanted to become Independent from the union due to the north's abolishment of slavery in 1861 which was a source of income for many southern states.

Even if the South did subjugate the North it wouldn't hold it for very long. The North hated the Confederacy believing them as traitors to the people who fought and died in the American Revolution, if the Confederates somehow annexed the union the northerners at some point or another would have rebelled against the CSA and reclaim the union. The Movie focuses mostly on slavery which probably wouldn't have lasted as long as this movie predicted and show us a divergent reality in where the CSA has taken over the USA as well as Central and south Americas. The film tells how the Confederates won the Civil War (which ended in 1864 in this timeline) and how they brought slavery back to the North. In this timeline Abraham Lincoln never published the Emancipation Proclamation and thus the Confederacy gain support from Britain and France. By the end of 1863 the Confederacy successfully advances into the Union strongholds winning battle after battle. After a few months a defeated and broken United States eventually surrendered and was force to join the CSA due to their costly defeat. By the end of the War the United State Ceased to Exist and the Confederate Battle flag (not the national flag of the Confederacy) becomes the National flag of America. Towards the end of the 19th Century and the end of the Reconstruction of the North the Confederates begins their expansion into Latin America as well as the Caribbean, enslaving local Blacks in the Caribbean and creating a Racial Segregation System in Mexico and Central America. By the 1920's the Confederates successfully annexed all of the South Americas by divide and conquer. However this put the CSA in a financial derp causing the Great Depression in the 1930's (similar to our timeline). In 1933 the German Nazi Party seized power which makes no sense whatsoever since there was no mention of Confederate aid to Britain and France during the First World War and also the fact that the Confederates were at war with South America.

Although the CSA and Nazi Germany are neutral and maintain a friendly relationship with each other, the CSA decides to go to war with Germany's ally Japan in fear of Japanese expansionism in the Pacific. The Confederates Defeated the Japanese after Launching a Nuclear attack on Japan, and also enslaving the Japanese civilians, not long after Nazi Germany is also somehow defeated and falls to the Russian and British. Years later a Proxy War starts between the CSA and Canada which continued past the 21st century. During the 1950's the CSA build a concrete wall called the "Cotton Curtain" across the Canadian Border whilst an international embargo on the CSA takes place, South Africa becomes the only country to maintain diplomatic relations with America. By the start of the 21st Century the Confederates invade the Middle East in a Moral Crusade to eliminate Islam by converting the populace to Christianity whilst simultaneously taking over Oil productions. Along with the ludicrous back story on how the Confederates came to be, there is also a side story about John Ambrose Fauntroy's presidential election campaign. However his Character seems somewhat pointless and the twist ended in which it is revealed that his great grandfather (John Ambrose Fauntroy the first) and his servant's great grandmother had sex, just went nowhere for me.

The movie barely uses any historical facts other than the Confederates plans to invade South America which was plan during the Civil war, there is also no mentions on the Second Mexican Empire which was established in 1864 nor is there any mentions of what happen to that regime. The CSA's History is too much like the US's history, things like the Great Depression, America's war in the Middle East, the Cold war (though with Canada instead of the Soviet Union), The Political unrest of the 1960's and the Vietnam War (again makes no sense in this timeline) is way too identical to our timeline that it makes the history kind of boring. Realistically had the CSA seceded from the US it wouldn't just have affected the Americas but the world. Example of this would be Mexico be rule by a Monarchy, Europe becoming the dominant power of the world, The United States remaining Socialist, Russia not becoming Communist and so on. To be honest, there are way better stories that tell us what would have happened if the Confederates won the war. Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series is by far the best one, since it shows the Confederates in a divergent history in a more realistic scenario, unlike this film which seems that the people who made it knows absolutely nothing about Confederates.

Command & Conquer: Generals was the last game that Westwood Studios developed as the company was liquidated by Electronic Arts (EA) shortly before this game was released. The game came out at the height of Bush's War on Terror. At the time the game was heavily criticized due to the similarities between the fictional GLA (Global Liberation Army) and the Iraqi terrorist group known as Al-Qaeda, this even cause a temporary ban in Germany as well as a full scale ban in China as the Chinese in the game are depicted as a brutal army that use heavy-handed tactics such as leveling the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and destroying the three gorges dam. Which I find somewhat Ironic seeing how this is the only western game I can think of where the Chinese are actually the good guys in the game. Fun Fact: Command & Conquer: Generals came out in Australia just a week after the US led Invasion of Iraq.

Playing it now I can't help but think that somehow this game predicted the future seeing how alike the GLA is to ISIS, the game itself is also base in the not too distant future where the Global Liberation Army a large well-organized terrorist organization declares war on the two main superpowers of the world, the United States and the People's Republic of China. In response the two Nations form a Coalition against the GLA whom controls most of the Middle East, parts of China along with Central Asia and the whole of Kazakhstan. You play as one of three the Chinese, the United States or the GLA and that's really about it. There are no Cut scenes or any story behind the missions you are given and very little backstory on how the GLA came to power in the first place. Similar to the first Command and Conquer game (nickname Tiberian Dawn) is set in a divergent reality, however done in a more realistic setting and style.

Now that the game is 12 years old I found it to be limited compared to its predecessors like Red Alert 2 and Tiberian Sun which had more depth and detail with both the game mechanics and plot. It is no means a bad game but it is somewhat lackluster and compared to Red Alert 2 (release in 2000) it hasn't really age that well.

All in all it's an alright game and I give it a 5 out of 10

After the success of command & conquer 3: Tiberium wars, EA (who took over the command & conquer franchise from the defunct Westwood studios back in 2003) decided to make a third red alert game this time adding a new powerful faction called 'the empire of the rising sun' a militarized and futuristic version of japan. the game isn't a direct sequel to red alert 2 released in 2000 instead it focuses on its own time line. The Soviet Union is falling apart and in one last ditch effort colonel Anatoly Cherdenko (played by Tim curry) and general Nicolai Krukov (played by Andrew Divoff) goes back in time with the aid of Dr. Gregory Zelinsky's time machine. Zelinsky (played by Peter Stormare) tells the men not to touch anything fearing that it may disrupt the space time continuum but anatoly Cherdenko disregards his orders and shakes hands with Albert Einstein which disintegrate him — thus giving the soviet union an advantage over the allied forces in his time line. They leave 1927's Brussels and head back to their time line which they discover that the soviet union and the world is significantly different from theirs. Anatoly Cherdenko is premier that makes Krakov jealous the soviets are far superior in this time line marching across western Europe from the weaker allied forces, all seems well until a message from Emperor Yoshiro (played by 'oh my!' George Takei) threatens the sovereignty of the Soviet Union and masses an army to invade it. Now the USSR has two mortal enemies and without nuclear or atomic weapons their dreams of a socialist utopia is in vain.

The problem that i had with this game isn't so much the game itself (although I would prefer it if they didn't shrink the infantry units to just one rather than what they did in the Tiberium wars where you had 20 or so soldiers in one unit.) No, it's more the storyline which is littered with plot holes, I don't understand why they didn't just continue on from red alert 2 acknowledging the fact that the events of the second game had devastated and exhausted both the allied forces as well as the soviet union, the empire of the rising sun would of come to power anyway due to their counterparts weaknesses and would of taken over the whole of Asia with little response from the allied forces whom are already at war with Soviet Russia. Adding the time travel story done better in the First Red Alert Game (First Game was getting rid of Hitler before his rise of power) so they) can have the empire of the rising sun is really pointless.

The other problem I had was the Characters, they are just so goofy and silly so much so they are irritating. Granted this is a tongue in cheek series from the command and conquer games but when you have badly over acting from otherwise well respected actors like J.K. Simmons (who plays the president of the United States) and Jonathan Pryce (playing as an Allied field Marshall) it's not a good thing. The females characters especially the military advisers are over sexualized to the max, I keep half expecting that one of them is going to bring me a cup of coffee mid game wearing a bikini and high heels. The military advisers for both the soviets and the allies have shirts and outfits that reveals their cleavage as with most of the women characters in the game, Speaking of the costume design, they look fake as hell. The second red alert game the outfits look real convincing and didn't look overdone. Yet in this game the outfits all look like they got them from a fancy dress shop. Examples: The Allies generals and commanders wear bright navy blue sometimes blue camouflage clothing – the Soviets wear an awful black leather outfits with red stripes on it and Japanese wear mostly samurai like outfits with plastic looking armour on them.

I probably sound like I really hated this game but in honesty I actually enjoyed it. there's nothing wrong with the game itself, the quality is good and the military in all three factions are interesting from unit types to technological advancements and disadvantages, but the story acting and even the dialogue is just cringe worthy. Still it is nowhere near as bad as Tiberian twilight which pretty much destroyed the Command and Conquer series.