My Digital World

Favorite Movies: Fight Club, V for Vendetta, Saving Private Ryan –––––––––––––––––––––––– Music: AC/DC, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Flipsyde, Avicii, Aloe Blacc, The Beatles, Queen, Bob Marley, Macklemore –––––––––––––––––––––––– Comedians: Russell Howard, Noel Fielding, Tim Minchin, Frankie Boyle, Milton Jones, Jack Whitehall, Richard Ayoade, Simon Amstell, Ross Noble, Paul Foot –––––––––––––––––––––––– TV Shows: Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Sons of Anarchy, Arrow, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, Revolution

[jakreviews]

I feel like not enough people are paying attention to the Motorola Moto X. It's like any other Android, but cheaper and customizable and it just works wonderfully.

[jakreviews]

Gravity: Review

Alfonso Cuarón's latest thriller does not disappoint. Gravity stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as Dr. Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski. Stone, a mission specialist and on her first time in space, is portrayed perfectly by Bullock, showing you that Dr. Stone is anxious and nervous, but at the same time determined. Kowalski, however, is a veteran astronaut on his last mission, totally relaxed and in control. The movie starts out with Stone, Kowalski and Shariff, another mission specialist, performing maintenance on the Hubble telescope. Mission control tells them of a Russian exploded satellite, which the remains of are hurtling through space, but that they should not interfere with their mission. The debris, of course, does interfere and Stone is sent spinning off structure as the debris tears apart everyone besides Stone and Kowalski. 

This movie is action packed and suspenseful, and your heart never stops pounding. But where this movie truly succeeds is that it perfectly blends action with scenes that give you an insight into the physical and psychological stress the astronauts are going through, and their feelings of loss and hopelessness. The effects don't hurt either. When experienced in 3D IMAX, this movie displays the best use of 3D and effects since James Cameron's Avatar. The long shots of the Earth and space stations are breathtaking, and hyper realistic. 

Bottom Line: This movie is a winner for its stark portrayal of the stillness and emptiness of space, while brilliantly contrasting that with danger and emotional drainage that serve to make this an inspirational and visual masterpiece, and the best movie of the year so far.

My Rating: 8.5/10

[jakreviews]

The Internship: Review

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson team up once again, this time as middle aged unemployed sales men. After their company gets shut down, the guys are accepted into an internship at Google, despite their total lack of coding or other technological knowledge. Vaughn and Wilson are enjoyable and funny, and the movie is interesting and engaging, and leaving you intrigued and wanting to find out how they're going to survive the summer at Google. Just as the story is developing, however, you start finding clichés in some scenes. Then, all of a sudden, every single fucking scene is a cliché. The movie is sometimes watchable and funny, as a quick one-liner or other joke interrupt your cliché induced misery. That is this movie's single biggest problem. It has all the points to succeed: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and a setting not yet explored by Hollywood. The movie is a good idea, ruined by overused situations and character interactions. There is the smug bad guy who everyone hates at the end, the boss who is strict but at the end goes against everything he believes, the girl who ends up liking the guy she thought was a jerk (the whole love thing isn't developed enough, by the way), the unlikely ally/mentor, the bad guy approaching and appealing to the good guy, the good guys separating. I'm going to stop because I've been going for too long, but the list goes on. The credits are the best thing about the last half hour of the movie, but even those are used to get more screen time of Will Ferrell. And the only reason this movie gets an R is because of the 15 minute strip club montage.

Ultimately, this movie had potential, but squandered it away when it filled 90% of the movie with clichés.

My Rating: 5.5/10

[darthvaders]

The King; the ultimate goal— but can’t do the work itself. Need the strength of others to keep standing.

The Knight; the irrational piece, it moves by leaps of intuition, choosing a route entirely unique to himself, hardest to predict.

The Bishop; the piece that is held back by only being able to move on its own color - it can surprise you.

The Rook; who guards the king, the watcher and protector.

The Queen; the most powerful piece. Has full freedom of movement in any direction and is the most valuable. She moves in any way she pleases to win the game.

The Pawn; the least powerful piece on the chess board, but has the potential to become equal to the most powerful - with the right move.  

[jakreviews]

Visit Original Link

I don't know what to say. It's just so good

[jakreviews]

Have been messing around with the Jager Maker. What do you guys think?

[feyminism-blog]

CAN YOU SMELL THAT? IT’S THE SMELL OF ALL MY SHOWS COMING BACK

[jakreviews]

You're not afraid of the dark, are you?

Riddick

[jakreviews]

Ocean's Thirteen: Review

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Released: 2007

This is one of those cases where the third movie is better than the second. That's because I think the second one was a bit more focused and serious, whereas Ocean's 13 gave off a more relaxed vibe. The biggest thing to remember in this movie is to not take it too seriously. It's a brilliant and entertaining way to end the Ocean trilogy, bringing together preposterous and extravagant effects and story, while letting each character shine and do what they do best. Al Pacino was a great casting choice, and the lack of Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones didn't matter at all. Danny Ocean and his accomplices went out with a bang in arguably the best movie of the series. Some may argue that the story was just so improbable and unlikely, but in the end that is all part of the charm and wonder of the series that makes it so good and entertaining. The Ocean trilogy is something everyone should see, and if you didn't see Ocean's Thirteen because of the disappointing second movie, you've made a big mistake.

My Rating: 8.1/10

[jakreviews]

Dredd: Review

**spoilers**

Released: 2012

Director: Pete Travis

Thank god this movie is only 95 minutes long. It's a cool concept and all, but excessive use of slow motion and an overused plot get tiring quickly. The best part of this movie is Lena Headey (Mama). She perfectly pulls of a tired junkie mixed with a ruthless killer who doesn't like intruders. She's built her own empire in the block of Peach Trees, a 200 story skyscraper that she uses to produce the drug known as SLO MO, which does exactly what its name suggests. You see a lot of people taking the drug, which leads to a lot of slow motion scenes. They are cool and gory and detailed, but kill all action and suspense in fight scenes and show movie mistakes, such as the way-too-obvious green screen during Mama's fall at the end. There is no glaringly obvious mistake with the movie that makes you hate it forever, it's just completely ordinary. There is nothing different or distinct about this movie. With  its easily identified objectives and voice controlled weapons, this movie can only ever hope to make a semi-successful video game. 

Conclusion

Casting and a futuristic setting prevent this movie from being totally terrible, but it's otherwise completely ordinary, lackluster and non-inspiring.

My Rating: 6.4/10

[jakreviews]

Pacific Rim: Review

Released: 2013

Director: Guillermo del Toro

You know shit's real when someone uses a cargo ship as a club. But Pacific Rim is not a movie with all action and no story, although many people have dismissed it as such. Writer Travis Beacham and director Guillermo del Toro have put together a plot that is easy to understand, but not boring, and in that way let the viewer enjoy the movie so much more. There are no complicated of twists or and exceedingly complex background. It is extremely easy to tap into everything that's going on and not have to worry about if you know what's happening (that's you Inception). The action and CGI is, in one word, epic. Unbelievably huge robots (jagers) fight the even bigger beasts (kaiju) from a dimensional fissure deep in the Pacific Ocean. Awesome as these scenes may be, no fight is excessive, all of them are relevant to the plot and move the story along. The two scientists in this move play a major role in saving everybody and in explaining what it is that the kaiju are. Del Toro and Beacham twist the traditional view of extraterrestrial and it works brilliantly. A very fast paced movie, Pacific Rim doesn't fail to deliver on the comedic front either, but it doesn't try too hard to fit funny scenes in (*cough* Iron Man 3 *cough*). All in all, Pacific Rim is a greatly satisfying movie and one of the biggest surprises of the year. Well worth watching My rating: 8.6/10

[jakreviews]

The Lone Ranger: Review

- Released: 2013

- Director: Gore Verbinski

This high budget, high expectations summer movie tanked magnificently, and I was skeptical of its entertainment value, but I went to see it anyway, for Johnny Depp. Despite a running time of well over 2 hours, the movie never felt that it was filling time. There was always something going on, and the calm bits were filled with Johnny Depp and his humor. Depp rises above his co-stars and conveys the emotion and character of Tonto very well, though at times it was a bit too much Johnny and less of Tonto, but the humorous parts complimented the action scenes nicely, like the beginning, the canyon ambush and the grand finale. The story was well written and the background information and plot twist with Butch and Colby worked very well. 

The most annoying thing for me about this movie is how everyone gets conveniently saved at the last second, which happened at least 4 times in the movie. The second thing that bugged me was the women. Helena Bonham Carter and Ruth Wilson portrayed their characters very well, but they didn't have a great impact on the story, and with 150 minutes of movie, they had plenty of time. The relationship between John and Rebecca is never clearly developed and is always just in the background. Helena Bonham Carter is in about two scenes, and though you do get to understand her and her hatred towards Butch, she gets about 10 minutes of screen time.

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Overall, this is very much a Western for the modern world. Though only a slightly above average story, the execution by the cast and the humor makes this a fun movie that makes a good option for an entertaining night out.

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My Rating: 6.9/10

[jakreviews]

Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX Review

Posted my first review today! Check it out on YouTube

[shirakiphoto-blog]

2014 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder Dry Lake Bed Drift

[jakreviews]

Star Trek: Review

- Released: 2009

- Director: JJ Abrams

Plot

The movie does a great job of explaining the relationships and personalities of the major characters, making this movie watchable by people who haven't seen Star Trek before. It was also funny, but in a more witty and casual way than some movies that tried too hard to be funny. The humor was fitting and appropriate to the characters, especially Scotty. The future and present realities are a nice addition to the movie. The movie also does an awesome job of showing Spock's struggle with logic, emotion and his human side. I don't have many criticisms for the plot, just some minor gripes. Nero says exactly what he's going to do in the classes bad guy cliché, but it didn't end up affecting anything as Pike couldn't do anything anyway. For a medical chief, Bones spent a lot of time on the command deck. Also, why is it that when something almost gets destroyed (or does), the Golden Gate Bridge is always no further than a hundred meters away? Last thing is that Kirk nearly falls off twice in the same way. The first time, on the drill, he got his fingers crushed before Sulu stabbed the guy. The second time, the same thing would have happened, had the Romulan not done a victory speech.

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Casting

Was great. My main concern watching this movie was the fact that not many people can replace the original crew, but my worries were not realized. Captain Kirk wasn't too hard, the main challenge was Spock, who Zachary Quinto pulled off very well. Karl Urban and John Cho were good choices, as was Simon Pegg, who brings a realistic and comedic aspect to any movie. Leonard Nimoy was a treat for the trekkies. Eric Bana pulled of his villain role brilliantly, convincingly conveying his pain and struggle.

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Execution and effects

The set and props were perfectly adjusted for the 21st century and emulated the Star Trek feel very well. The effects were perfect; impactful and modern, without being over the top. The future and present realities could have been confusing but were pulled off well, and didn't leave the viewers lost. The ending was especially good, but I have to go with Youtube on this one. HISHEdotcom make alternate endings to movies that are usually goofy, and this one was too, with the Enterprise being annihilated by the Death Star, but before that the Enterprise went through the black hole, instead of leaving it, which I think would have been a more realistic ending and a better match for the final dialogue, as the black hole could spit them out anywhere, free to explore and conquer outer space.

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Conclusion

A successful reboot of the Star Trek franchise that is well worth seeing.

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My Rating: 8.3/10