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Tag: 5 stars

Once Upon a Time in the West
Entertainment

Once Upon a Time in the West Review

William McPherson2 Comments

When I think back on the elements that most of my favorite westerns share, a few things come back time and time again in nearly each of them. First, great cinematography and epic settings. Check. Then you must have a memorable score such as the whistling in the “Dollars” trilogy or the old standard title songs from “My Darling Clementine” and others. This movie has one of the most dramatic and enduring scores of any movie ever. What makes it even more effective that it goes against the grain of…

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Grand Theft Auto V
Game Reviews

Grand Theft Auto V (PS4) Review

Gary Smith1 Comment

Rockstar wowed the majority of us a year ago when they released Grand Theft Auto V on PS3 and Xbox 360. Even on old hardware, it was an excellent looking game that still looks better than some games released on the new systems. Now that Rockstar has released the game for PS4 and Xbox One, it looks even better. For starters, there's increased detail for everything. Textures are better, overall image quality is greatly improved thanks to anti-aliasing. There's greater draw distance, and even…

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The Last of Us
Game Reviews

The Last of Us Remastered Review

Gary Smith4 Comments

The Last of Us was an undeniable hit when it landed a year ago on PS3, both with PS3 owners and critics. The game received perfect scores galore (including from me) and over 200 Game of the Year awards (again, including mine). For me, it was one of the swan songs for the PS3. It was no surprise then earlier this year when The Last of Us Remastered was announced for PS4. After all, the system has been selling very well, and a lot of PS4 owners never owned a PS3. With the updated and more powerful…

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Easy Rider
Entertainment

Easy Rider Review

William McPherson

One of my favorite mini-genres of movies is the latter day western. In these types of movies, set normally in the early 20th century, you see the last of the true cowboys fighting the expansion/encroachment on their way of life that was surely coming with the rapidly advancing technology and population boom of that time. There’s indeed something quite romantic about being the last of a particular breed, at the closing epoch of a famous era. Easy Rider is that kind of movie, but for the 1960s…

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Nebraska Review
Entertainment

Nebraska Review

William McPherson7 Comments

I, along with many others, have harbored a deep irrational and unfair grudge against Bruce Dern ever since his role in “The Cowyboys” back in the 1970s where he became forever known as the man who shot John Wayne in the back. Other men had done the same deed over the years, but thanks in part to Dern’s memorable lanky facial features and his signature drawl, he was the one who would be immortalized for the deed. Now finally, at age 77, it appears Dern has finally found “redemption” from his past…

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Bridge on the River Kwai
Entertainment

Bridge on the River Kwai Review

William McPherson1 Comment

“Madness! Madness! Madness! “ That is the enduring battle cry of ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’, a movie about stubborn obstinate people who stick to their guns regardless of the consequences. It is a war movie in the sense that it takes place during a war, but it has more in common with Indiana Jones than it does with Saving Private Ryan. ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ was made in 1957 by David Lean, the great movie maker also known for directing the epic ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ as well as many other high…

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Assassin's Creed Black Flag
Game Reviews

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Review

Eric W.2 Comments

I am a huge fan of the Assassin's Creed games so admittedly I approach these games with a healthy benefit of the doubt and positive bias in place. I hope I'm not an outright fanboy and I don't think I am since I can harp on some quibbles and nitpicks I had from previous games, whether it be the KBM controls on the first one or the utterly ghastly first person platforming that was in Revelations. In complete defiance of the normal trend of sequelitis, this series continues to expand and improve…

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Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
Entertainment

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles Review

William McPherson4 Comments

We all have our little rituals that guide us through our life. These are the things we do every day, week, month or year depending upon what it is we’re talking about. For every year since I was a small child around this time a year when it is approaching the Thanksgiving holiday I always make it a point to block out some time to sit down with my entire family and watch Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. It is one of those movies I find I simply cannot do without. I’ve long since memorized all the…

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Life Itself
Book Reviews

Life Itself Review

William McPherson2 Comments

When Roger Ebert passed away last April the web saw an outpouring of tributes and well wishes normally reserved for the most beloved heads of state. Ebert’s final years were plagued with pain and peril, such as the advanced cancer that deformed his face, and took away his voice, thus ending his twenty-five plus year run of being a television show host of a major film criticism program. Although it took away his actual physical voice, that loss lead him to focus even more on refining his inner…

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Untold History of the United States
Entertainment

The Untold History of the United States Review

William McPherson

“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” - Samuel P. Huntington With this ten part documentary series (now with two additional episodes on the new DVD release) The Untold History of the United States, Oliver Stone has cemented his spot as America’s most affable raconteur of…

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Before Midnight
Entertainment

Before Midnight Review

William McPherson2 Comments

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their roles as the love-struck couple of Jesse and Celine here in this third installment of Richard Linklater’s “Before” series. Before we get into anything else, as expected, Hawke and Delpy continue to have astonishing chemistry together and are both very fine actors who deliver knockout performances here. In the previous two movies, they were still getting to know each other and playing a tantalizing and torturous game of romantic cat and mouse. In this…

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Grand Theft Auto V
Game Reviews

Grand Theft Auto V Review

Gary Smith2 Comments

This has proven a hard review to even begin. Not because I don’t have anything to say about Grand Theft Auto V, as a matter of fact I could say plenty about the game, but rather because I haven’t wanted to stop playing it. We’ve seen some truly amazing games this year: BioShock Infinite and The Last of Us standing out for most folks (myself included), and I’d personally add Saints Row and LEGO City: Undercover to the list as well while others would include Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell, and Rayman…

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Splinter Cell Blacklist
Game Reviews

Splinter Cell: Blacklist Review

Eric W.1 Comment

Splinter Cell has finally “come back.” That's my short teaser for the theme of this review and many others reviews out there for that matter. This game brings the best aspects of Splinter Cell Conviction and previous pre Double Agent Splinter Cell games and merges those aspects together in a new and extremely satisfying whole. What Blacklist does it does very well. It feels like Splinter Cell taken to the next level in a lot of ways and I'm pleased enough with it that it will very likely be…

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Before Sunset
Entertainment

Before Sunset Review

William McPherson1 Comment

Before Sunrise begged the question, would you be willing to alter your entire life around one fateful night’s chance meeting? In that movie two twenty something’s met-cute on a train, wandered the streets of Vienna, and fell in love all the while walking and (endlessly) talking about everything under the sun. This movie asks basically the same question now that these two reconnect ten years later, this time in Paris, except now the stakes are higher and they both have more emotional baggage than…

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Before Sunrise
Entertainment

Before Sunrise Review

William McPherson5 Comments

A guy (Ethan Hawke) and a girl (Julie Delpy), both in their early twenties, meet on a train bound for Paris in summer 1994. It doesn’t take them very long at all to discover that they have a remarkable chemistry together, and as such they begin a conversation on that train that will last the rest of the movie, and for two more movies following that. A huge torrent of dialogue flows between them as they discuss everything from their childhoods, past relationships, religion, romance, and any and…

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The Last of Us
Game Reviews

The Last of Us Review

Gary Smith13 Comments

I’ve gone back and forth trying to decide how I wanted to handle this review. The Last of Us released this past Friday, and of course, it was a hugely anticipated PS3 exclusive. Reviews from the larger Metacritic outlets went up weeks ago, and so by now people who may have been on the fence before will have seen dozens and dozens of all positive reviews and have likely purchased the game. So with that said, I’m going to do something different with this review; I’m going to talk spoilers. Don’t…

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Rio Bravo
Entertainment

Rio Bravo Review

William McPherson4 Comments

Has there ever been a movie that more effectively utilized a ‘cold opening’ better than Rio Bravo? We start with a dark and murky but still well crowded bar, a down on his luck and desperately drunk Deputy and a smug Gunman who first jokingly offers the Deputy a drink, and then tosses a silver dollar into a spittoon for him on the floor. These are the first images we witness in this classic Howard Hawk’s western released all the way back in 1959. The Deputy, played here in a show stealing…

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Amusing Ourselves to Death
Book Reviews

Amusing Ourselves to Death Review

William McPherson4 Comments

I shall open this review with the original foreword to the late, great Neil Postman’s most famous and enduring work ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business’ written and released way back in 1985. “We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian…

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Call of Juarez Gunslinger
Game Reviews

Call of Juarez Gunslinger Review

Gary Smith11 Comments

It’s a funny thing when a franchise can have three retail games available, the last of which is widely considered to be quite bad, and then have a fourth game be reduced down to a cheap digital only title. Now you may be asking “well what’s funny about that?” and the funny thing is the $15 downloadable title with almost no promotion whatsoever is easily the best game in the franchise. And it’s not even close. After the horrible decision to take Call of Juarez to the present day with “The…

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Tombstone
Entertainment

Tombstone Review

Gary Smith1 Comment

I don’t know why I’m writing this, everybody should already know this is a fantastic movie…what? There are people that haven’t seen this? You’re kidding…my God, those poor bastards. Ok, for the six people in the universe that haven’t seen this movie, allow me to give a brief summary. Tombstone is the story of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp (Russell) and his brothers (Elliott and Paxton), who have moved out west to Arizona in order to make their fortune. The Earps’ reputation precedes them…

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