Elementary my dear readers

There’s something of  Sherlock theme in the air i cant think why. We Just reviewed the Sherlock Holmes movie sequel, the excellent Sherlock is showing on the BBC and now it seems Benedict Cumberbatch will be starring as the villain in the Star Trek sequel. Benicio del Torro has recently dropped out and the crew at the new film were quite pleased with Cumberbatch’s performance. so i guess the speculation begins as to whom or what he will play. forget about it being KHAAAAAAAAAAN, thats already been crossed off. Apparently it will be a new villain equal to KHAAAAAAN’s uh villainy. So what do we reckon, more of those pesky Romulans? its possible Benedict has the face for it in my opinion. Klingons? Borg? WOOKIES?!

News that didnt slip us by or something we didnt comment on was the Hobbit, now throughly in production and starring another Sherlock stalwart Martin Freeman. you can catch the trailer on the viewscreen below if you havnt already seen it

Things are looking good for the Hobbit Jackson has split it into two parts, im not going to doubt anything at this point The Lord of The Rings was a modern classic in my opinion and just watching the trailer gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside its like seeing an old friend.

importantly dont rush either films guys!

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – Review

A game of shadows is the sequel to the eponymously titled first Sherlock film by Guy Madonna Ritchie, which actually surprised me because it was quite good. Being a somewhat cynical Brit, I get slightly irritable when one of our own actors isn’t good enough for a title role of a British caricature but, Robert Downey Jr (or RDJ if you’re lazy) makes Holmes his own in a very eccentric fighting mad detective sort of way. So, hopes were high for the second outing especially since the end of the first film teased us with Holme’s one and only arch foe, Doctor Moriarty. The story is an adaption of the Original Conan Doyle story “The Final Problem”, and it even has a surprising homage to that story. More on that later.

It’s the waning years of the 19^th century. Doctor John Watson will soon be getting married and Holmes, well Holmes is doing apparently the same sort of stuff, like preventing bomb’s from going off in a London auction house, bomb’s delivered by his lover Irene Adler, and originating from Moriarty himself. Displeased with the outcome, Moriarty unceremoniously bumps off Irene not even ¼ of the way into the film. You begin to wonder if the movies have caught call of duty syndrome and want to kill off the protagonists willy nilly just for the sake of drama(!) and that the implacable “Character shields” of yesteryear had been cast aside? There is some amusing echoing of future history in the film as even at this early stage in time Europe is a tinderbox and just one thing could start a war, so the game is on to save not only Europe from war but Watson and the life of his new bride.

Fry'd Gold

I enjoyed Game of Shadows but it felt watered down or spread too thin in places. The first one was surprisingly intense, like mistakenly drinking undiluted Robinson’s cordial. It’s not a bad film, the characters are still great and RDJ still amuses and makes Holmes his own. Jude law is the still continually suffering Watson but certainly a man apart and not a sidekick. There is even a wonderful surprise in the form of Stephen Fry as Mycroft, Holmes equally batty brother. I’m not sure there isn’t a role Fry steps into he doesn’t turn into fried gold (or should that be Fry’d?). I’m somewhat disappointed with Moriarty though. The first villain in the series, Lord Blackwood, was a great bad guy, depicted nicely by Mark Strong (who voiced Captain Titus in Space Marine, for teh Emperah!). But I can’t quite figure out Jared Harris’ performance, he gives a good show of being cold and calculated but I was hoping for a bit more panto villain from him considering how loony Holmes can be. Maybe that’s just me. I actually thought Sean Pertwee’s turn as Moriarty in (Ow OW OW! Stop hitting me Tom! Ow!) League of Extraordinary (ow!) Gentleman (OW) was quite decent; then again that poor bloke is almost typecast as a bad guy despite his old man playing the Doctor for a while.

The next Iron Man suit proved a dissapointment...

What I did enjoy was the visual effects, the editing and direction during the action sequences. Credit where its due to the films production team. Bullet time from the matrix has been done to death but somehow this film creates something new, there are jarring tracking shots freeze frame panning sequences and the return of the wonderful “pre planned attacks” that Sherlock cooks up in his head, one that is also turned ON its head in the final duel between Moriarty and Holmes at Reichenbach Falls. Ah yes that finale, it took a while to click but once I realised that a waterfall and Switzerland were involved I began to realise exactly where the film was headed. Although I was surprised they decided not to leave it on a cliff hanger. Also not forgetting Hans Zimmers great soundtrack as well nice to see the continuation of the Sherlock Holmes theme, a sort of big screen chamber music effect that works exceedingly well.

Maybe Guy Ritchie wanted to draw a line under this film in case a third wasn’t produced? I just hope it wasn’t a cop out to the “happy ending crowd”. I’m certain a third film will make its way to us, let’s just hope it’s not watered down anymore. Maybe a Baskerville adaptation would be good, it’s my favourite Sherlock story, with allusions to horror and the supernatural. It’s pretty cool. Despite the minor criticism, it’s a nice adaption of Arthur Conan Doyle’s material. It’s a different take on the source material just like the excellent “Sherlock”, currently showing on the Beeb.

Verdict: WIN

Also if your interested check out the wonderful recent BBC adaption of that featuring Richard Roxburgh, Ian Hart and Richard E Grant, great stuff! And also try to find a animated version called curse of the Baskervilles’. Its what first got me into it, and also convinced me there was some demonic hell hound running about the country lanes of west Yorkshire where I lived at the time…

This review was first published at the mess-hall.co.uk

Its been a while

Burn Them!!!!!

There’s no two ways about it folks, we’ve been away for a while! but were hoping to post more in the new year, not just on hear but we’ve been kindly asked by the guys at www.mess-hall.co.uk to contribute to their blog as well as their forum. That doesn’t mean we will be abandoning the good ship GS9. shoddy as she is we’ll keep the old girl at station keeping for the moment and hopefully we can push out a few posts to the blog this month!

Battlefield 3 Gamescom Footage

Here is some fabulous new footage of multiplayer action in DICE’s new game and oh my it looks eye achingly astounding. Set in a map named Caspian Border, I can only guess this is some border region in the southern part of Russia by Georgia and the Caspian Sea.

Fair enough, it’s on the PC, so the console will be toned down a bit, and there will be fewer player,s but look at it, LOOK AT IT! Jets, helicopters, on foot combat, and what appears to be a bomb disposal robot! It’s really shaping up to look epic, the co-op mode also sounds intriguing. It leaves many alpha testers wondering “why the fuck couldn’t we play that?” Well it’s not to hard to imagine why.

I realise we shouldn’t lump Battlefield 3 and Call of duty into the same fight, after all they play differently. However, if I was Activision right now I would be very very worried….

Life Imitates Art

Judge Dredd, not so futuristic now is he?

A Judge on patrol in Mega City 1 (London)

Uncharted Twin Pack arrives

Shiney!

The royal fail finally delivered my platinum twin-pack of Uncharted today in a box that just about fit through my letterbox, unusually because unless the royal mail cant fold it in two they usually stick a “you were not in” note and bugger off despite all signs of the house being inhabited like windows open music drifting out and a car on the drive, sigh. Thats another rant though

So have i played it yet, no. “Why not?” i hear you shout, because im off to work in a bit like the prole i am but i did have time to do a little un-boxing for you, obviously you get both Drakes fortune and Among thieves in the pack but what of the extra DLC, is it some cool new missions? outfits? weapons. No for your troubles you get 2 PSN avatars and a dynamic theme. which is a bit rubbish but as a freebie you cant really complain when the pack is seventeen of the queens pounds sterling. PSN avatars are a bit naff i think, because you cant upload your own, then again i suppose that opens a pandoras box of potential smut, then again you do get cock faced Miis on the Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii (see what i did there).

Either way ill give Uncharted a bash tonight when i get in

Happy Yorkshire Day

makes you weep, especially if your from Lancashite

not a very geeky subject i know but the 1st of August is traditionally Yorkshire Day, usually just in yorkshire, because everywhere else isn’t yorkshire and therefore usually shit. Originally founded to celebrate the Historic county of yorkshire before the Local government re-organisation in 1974 which broke up the Three original riding’s of yorkshire, West, North.

So what does one do on yorkshire day? usually the oath is recited for the hard core

I, being a native [ or resident as appropriate] of the West [or one of t'others, as appropriate] Riding of Yorkshire declare that Yorkshire is three Ridings and the City of York, with these boundaries of 1133 years standing; that the addresses of all places in these Ridings is Yorkshire; that all persons born therein or resident therein and loyal to the Ridings are Yorkshiremen and women; and that any person or corporate body which deliberately ignores or denies the aforementioned shall forfeit all claim to Yorkshire status.

The national anthem is also sometimes played or sung “On Ilkley Moor Baht ‘at”

so should the rest of the United Kingdom be bothered about this provincial celebration, no. dont worry we are not about to declare war on the south were quite happy within our own borders, for within is everything that we need, and were too busy keeping Lancashire in check.

if you would like an amusing and irreverant look into What Yorkshire is you can read the Uncyclopaedia entry hear which amusingly states the national army keeps its thermonuclear weapons in gaping gill and the Yorkshire TV chevron is a WMD.