Angry Birds (Playstation Network) (2011)

Eons ago, or as them young people say, a fortnight ago, while I was frequenting the nearby happening discothèque, an inebriated fellow was prattling on about his iPhone as all iPhone owners do and he told me the only reason he bought it was to play Angry Birds. Now, he may have been joking or exaggerating, but if true, then Angry Birds must be serious business if someone is willing to pay over £200 for a phone that Apple will eventually make obsolete within a week just to play one game. I know many people buy a console just to play one game and eventually play more, but still consoles have a long life before being replace by a successor whereas Apple make their products obsolete the minute they release them. Therefore, I got the game, but not on the iPhone. Because I am a free spirited rebel who doesn’t do what the Man tells me, so I downloaded it onto my PS3, which is so deliciously counterintuitive to the idea of portable casual games; like putting ketchup on your Lobster Thermidor.

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

If you consider yourself a "cineaste", then you need to know Edward D. Wood, Junior., named the ‘Worst Director of All-Time’ in 1980 by the Golden Turkey Awards and his entire filmography is a list of the worst films of all time, the most infamous being Plan 9 from Outer Space, a Sci-Fi B-movie (Well, it’s more of a Z-movie) flick made on a budget of $60,000 and unrelated footage of Bela Lugosi. Despite the fact that the film has been named by numerous critics as the worst film ever made and is about as culturally bankrupt as a television series that celebrates Paris Hilton’s “celebrity” lifestyle, it is still an enjoyable film. It is the quintessential ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ film, where you laugh at the film’s incompetence and awful special effects and you should really see it, because words are hard to describe why this film is good, which I will try.

The Other Guys (2010)

While many people may see the ‘80s as the age of John Hughes and teenage films, I always saw it as the age of the “buddy cop” films; an era of police detectives (usually never police officers) being forced to pair with their complete opposites who eventually become good friends through killing multiple bad guys. Do you want proof? Lethal Weapon, 48 Hours, Red Heat, Beverly Hills Cop, Alien Nation, Turner & Hooch, K-9, Tango and Cash and the Miami Vice TV series were all released in the ‘80s and are considered classics of the genre, though, of course, there was oversaturisation with other crap like Collision Course. Now, much like the pseudo-Exploitation films of recent years, the genre is trying to make a modern comeback with some mixed success, with the good end of the spectrum containing Hot Fuzz and the bad end containing Cop Out. So, let us see where Adam McKay’s The Other Guys stands.

Cyrus (2010)

I hope you’ve never heard of the “Mumblecore” film movement and genre of the independent film world or this diatribe will be entirely pointless. Mumblecore is one of the many forms of independent filmmaking, with many directors being acolytes. The first film considered a Mumblecore film was Andrew Bujalski’s Funny Ha Ha. What defines a Mumblecore film is a low budget, use of non-professional actors, although Jay and Mark Duplass (the directors of this review’s subject) use professional actors, and a lot of improvisational acting. The plot and story usually revolve around a post-college relationship between two White (Not always; Medicine for Melancholy used Black protagonists) heterosexuals. Now, that all that copy and paste from Wikipedia is out of the way, let us review Mumblecore comedy-drama, Cyrus.

Limbo (Playstation Network) (2011)

The video game industry is becoming increasingly identical to the film industry, in more ways than one; when something successful comes out, studios will demand something similar in order to cash into the public's admiration for the aforementioned success; however, to find artistic and innovative films/games that take risks, play with the genre and give credence to either industry, there’s the independent, or “indie”, market, that has little to no promotion. And playing Limbo from Playdead help remind me of the necessity and artistic value of the independent market in particular and the video game industry in general.

Flight Control HD (Playstation Network) (2010)

Being a flight controller must feel, in some sense, like being a god; choosing the destiny of hundreds of thousands of lives, whether they live and enjoy paradise or die in a hellish inferno and control where men may fly. If all flight controllers viewed their job as thus, rather than the challenging, demanding, nerve-wrecking occupation where the slightest hiccup can cause massive, irreversible damage that it is, then maybe the suicide rate will drop dramatically. Thankfully, Flight Control HD takes out the months of training, stress and guilt of all the holiday-makers you sent to a slow and melt-y death and trying to use a Arab looking passenger as a scapegoat.

L.A. Noire (Playstation 3) (2011)

Remember when those absolute idiots who probably think the height of comedy is a fart, called Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Horse? Because a game company can only makes one type of game if that game is the only popular one, even though I remember Rockstar releasing a racing game and a puzzle game. It is a stupid assumption, like saying Valve only make First-Person Shooters. But people won’t really be able to “cleverly” nickname L.A. Noire, Grand Theft Noir, because it is a different kettle of fish, while their may be driving in a large, open world, L.A. Noire is more reminiscent of classic Adventure games, with a mixture of Open-World games and a dash of Third-Person Shooters.

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

The 1950s should have been a time filled with peace and prosperity, a time where humanity would finally realise their inhumanity to each other and live in brotherly harmony together at last after such a destructive and horrific war. Unfortunately, it was an era of paranoia and fear, especially in America, of the newest "evil": Communism. The paranoia was fuelled by four factors; The Soviet Union’s conquest of Eastern Europe; the spread of Communism in Asia; the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, two American Communists who were convicted as committing espionage and giving information on atomic bombs to the Soviet Union; and the most important element in exploiting the fear of Communism and creating a nation of paranoia was Joseph Raymond “Joe” McCarthy, a US Senator who made the claim that Communists were infiltrating the country and were working in the highest levels of government. Many would not dare criticise McCarthy due to fear of being labelled a Communist by McCarthy, however, one man did stand up against the McCarthy witch hunts, a journalist and broadcaster more famous for his wartime broadcasts from London during the Blitz, Edward R. Murrow. Through the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), he would criticise and fight against McCarthy’s wild accusations and is believed to be instrumental in both the downfall of McCarthy and the rise of television’s responsibility to inform and illuminate the thoughts and minds of people and not hide the uncomfortable and ugly truths. And so, his struggle to do both is presented in the excellent Good Night, and Good Luck.

Black Dynamite (2009)

Spoof films haven‘t exactly been anticipated with admirable gusto from audiences recently, but who can blame them when most Spoof films are made by the sultans of shit, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. That’s right, the fuck-tards who made the Scary Movie series, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans and Vampires Sucks, all of which are about as entertaining as being stabbed with a knife made of salt and hepatitis. Each of their films are just terrible and unfunny; what they think is a clever comedic spoof of something is just a pop culture reference with a dick and/or fart and/or sex and/or MILF joke, also known as ‘unfunny Family Guy sketch’. And because each film made ridiculous amounts of money (some make triple their budget), those two assassins of comedy have a poisonous grip on the Spoof genre, so it is no surprise that most Spoof films just fly under the radar of audiences for fear of being the same as the cinematic abortions of Friedberg and Seltzer. A fact that is a shame for Black Dynamite, because it is a brilliant and funny Spoof film that completely trumps Friedberg and Seltzer’s entire filmography.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Joel and Ethan Coen, better known as the Coen Brothers, are possibly the masters of the cult film. Every film they have made has never reach a large mainstream success; I could ask anyone in the UK if they ever saw James Cameron’s Avatar and every single one would say “yes“, but only a few would answer in the affirmative to seeing Fargo, Miller’s Crossing or, this review’s subject, The Big Lebowski or to even knowing who the Coen Brothers are. This is a shame because, not to sound disparaging to Avatar or James Cameron, they are brilliant films and filmmakers that trump many over-hyped mainstream films. Especially with The Big Lebowski, a surreal, eccentric and humorous film that has become one of my all time favourite Comedy or Film Noir or Mystery Thriller and one of my all time favourite films.