Movie Reviews

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
By Sandor Hugert

This was probably one of the best movies of the summer. Everything about it was very well done. The story and action both delivered. The actors still did a really good job. Even all of the new actors that came in to the movie all portrayed their parts perfectly especially Imelda Staunton who played Dolores Umbridge and Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood. This was probably one of the shortest Harry Potter movies, which just made it flow a lot faster and provide more excitement in the movie. It still had some somewhat boring parts like all of the times they were just showing them train in Hogwarts when Harry was teaching them. The ending provided a great action scene, which was really cool, and we even got to see Dumbledore and Voldemort face off. There were some really funny parts in the movie as well just like in the other Harry Potter movies. I thought that this was probably the best Harry Potter movie yet, but the fourth one comes in really close.

Score: 9 out of 10

Game Reviews

Madden NFL 07
By Sandor Hugert

This is probably the best football game made to date. The graphics are absolutely jaw dropping, but somehow EA Sports manages to make better graphics each year. The game play really hasn’t changed much, but it’s still really fun. The franchise mode is deeply compelling, and very well done. I mainly just enjoy playing online with the game, which is still really fun especially that I really haven’t experienced any lag in the game while being online. It’s pretty obvious that if you want an official NFL game then you have to pick this up since EA managed to be the only company allowed be making any NFL official games after the NFL agreed to this deal. There really isn’t any problem with this game, except for the fact that these Madden games really hardly change every year. Another little problem that I found with the game is just that it can get a little too frustrating if you’re not having a lucky day with the game, and therefore you will just get bored of the game very easily.

Score: 7 out of 10

Game Reviews

Call of Duty 3
By Sandor Hugert

This is probably one of the best first person shooter games ever made. It was so cool to immerse yourself into this whole setting of the World War 2. Activision did an awesome job of creating this whole world of this tragic war. It really made you feel like you were part of this whole war. There were some extremely cool parts of the game like when you have thousands of enemies charging straight at you. It really is too bad that Resistance: Fall of Man came out considering that this game just isn’t as good as that masterpiece. This would have been probably a much more popular game if it didn’t come out at the same time as Gears of War (Call of Duty is better) and Resistance. It’s just weird how Resistance had many of the same settings as this game and somehow managed to just make the game more enjoyable. Like I said though, this game is an awesome game as well with some amazing graphics and driving in vehicles was also really fun. Activision nailed the feeling of having a sniper in the game as well. In the end, the game was very good, and when I beat it I thought that this game would be my favorite first person shooter for a long time, but somehow Resistance just improved on this game.

Score: 8 out of 10

Game Reviews

UEFA Champions League 2006-2007
By Sandor Hugert

This soccer game for the XBOX 360 is very well done. This soccer game isn’t any different than the Fifa games considering that it has the same teams and they are both made by EA Sports. However, the only difference is that in this game you get to play the Champions League, which is a positive, and a negative point. It’s nice to actually play with your favorite team in the Champions League, but there really is no other mode in the game that is actually really fun, other than this new mode called Ultimate Team. In this mode you get to basically be the manager except instead of the cool setup of the manager mode in Fifa 07, you play with cards to trade and buy new players in this mode. I had way more fun with the manager mode in Fifa 07 than this mode. Obviously the Champions League tournament mode is very well done since that’s what the whole game is about. It really makes you feel like you’re playing at this awesome tournament, the graphics are amazing. The online for the game is also really fun except for the fact that many players quit during the game once they are losing by like three goals. At tines the game does lag a bit too much when you’re online, but that doesn’t happen too much to ruin the game. I really wish that they made a manager mode in the game where you start out in let’s say the Premiership and you have to get in the top four after the season is done, and then you could take your team to compete in the Champions League. It’s still a really good game and definitely worth at least a rent if you enjoy playing soccer games, or just love the sport like I do.

Score: 9 out of 10

Movie Reviews

Transformers
By Sandor Hugert

Out of all of the highly anticipated movies that have came out, this one was probably one of the most anticipated and in my opinion the most disappointing. It was pretty obvious from the previews that the whole movie was just going to be about huge explosions and things falling apart while these huge robots are fighting each other. I thought that there would actually be a good story line behind these amazing fight scenes, but I was wrong. There is hardly any story line to be found in the whole movie. The fight scenes were pretty cool, but at times you really couldn’t see much considering that the camera was focused on Sam (the main character), and the robots were just in the background fighting. There were some actually really funny parts in the movie though even though the movie wasn’t meant to be a comedy. The actors and actresses did a wonderful job portraying their characters. One weird thing was that some characters such as a woman who tried to find these robots that hacked into their system, really didn’t serve any kind of role in the movie except just the fact that she was actually there to help out. The robots looked really cool, but it just seemed like at many times they were trying really hard to advertise the new cars that transformed into robots. There were times when the cars were moving, but the camera was mainly just focused on the Chevrolet symbol. I don’t mind advertising in movies, but in this one they just took it a little too far. I was pretty disappointed with this movie since I thought that it was one of the worst movies of the summer, but it was better than Evan Almighty. I hope that they make the sequel a lot better since it’s pretty obvious that they will make a Transformers 2 after the great box office success that this movie had.

Score: 5 out of 10

Book Reviews

The Great Gatsby
By Sandor Hugert

This book was quite entertaining, but somehow I found the book a little too boring for my taste. The story line was great, and quite unexpected. It was full of interesting twists and turns as the story unfolded. I thought that it was just a little weird how there was really not much happening in the first six chapters of the book, and the last three chapters were full of unexpected turns, and full of intense action. The characters were really well done as they all had some really interesting characteristics, and the author did a great job to make the last few chapters very dramatic as he got the readers to actually understand these characters and even have feelings for them. I’d say that just about everything in the book was very well described, and it gave me a great picture in my head of the whole city where they lived and worked. Gatsby himself was a great character that was indirectly characterized many times in the book by other characters. He was a great mysterious character that we really didn’t find out too much about him until like halfway through the book. Overall, it was a great book, but it was just a little too boring at times.

Score: 7 out of 10

Movie Reviews

Shooter
By Sandor Hugert

I was extremely surprised with this movie. I just thought that this movie would be a total rip off of The Bourne Identity, but I was totally wrong. The story line of the movie was extremely good, and the action was very intense. Mark Wahlberg did an awesome job as the main character in the movie. I’m very surprised that this movie didn’t do too well in the box office because this movie totally deserves a sequel. Both the story and the action were actually better in this movie than the Bourne movies, but I’m sure that The Bourne Ultimatum might change that. The sniper scenes in the movie were very well done. There were some really cool twists in the story line that made the movie so much better since you really don’t expect these twists at all. There were times when the movie was bit too unbelievable on how the main character survived everything, but it was still an extremely cool movie, and definitely worth at least a rent.

Score: 9 out of 10

Game Reviews

Resistance: Fall of Man
By Sandor Hugert

This game for Playstation 3 was absolutely amazing. It was probably one of the best games ever made. The graphics were really good and the game play was really cool. The story actually made sense, which hardly ever happens in my opinion. This has to be one of the best launch games ever for any console. The guns used in the game were so cool since they even had guns that shot through walls and some other cool stuff like that. You even got to drive in some unique futuristic vehicles. The graphics had to be some of the best graphics I’ve seen in any video game. I really hope that they make a sequel to this outstanding game. It was also so cool how you got to play in all types of weather conditions: snow, rain, and obviously sunshine. The online feature of the game was also sort of cool even though there have been way better online games made before for death match game play. It was still a nice feature to just have online game play for a launch title.

Score: 9 out of 10

Game Reviews

Rainbow Six: Vegas
By Sandor Hugert

This game is very well done. The single player campaign is sort of cool, but you really should play it with other people over online. The game would get really boring without the online capabilities that it has. The cooperative game play is okay, I guess, but it could have been a lot more interesting if they added a better story line to it instead of just terrorists taking over Vegas. It would have been a lot cooler if they actually had some type of story line to it, but they didn’t have that. Where the game really shines is the death matches over online that is up to 14 players (not 16 which the game claims). It is extremely fun as you can customize you character as you get points for playing online and winning. There are many types of game modes, but your ordinary 7 vs. 7 is still the best one. The levels are very well done as they give you an opportunity to hide in many locations, which is my favorite thing to do in these types of games. I sort of wish that they made the game into a third person shooter instead of a first person shooter considering that the customization really doesn’t make much of a difference if you can’t see your character. The graphics are really sharp and clear, but they don’t necessarily compare to a game such as Gears of War. It still has pretty good graphics just not the best when you compare it to other big title XBOX 360 games. Overall, the game is pretty well done, but it could have been a lot better if they put some more effort into it.

Score: 7 out of 10

Movie Reviews

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
By Sandor Hugert

I myself never really liked these Pirate movies, but I guess that the third one was a little better than the other two. Let me start of by saying that the special effects and the fight scenes were amazing in this movie, but to me that was about it. The whole story line was a little weird, and it was basically just about double-crossing other characters. This was okay for a little while, but I mean a three-hour movie about double-crossing is just overdoing it a little. The actors all did a good job, but I personally don’t see what’s so amazing about Johnny Deep as Jack Sparrow. I was also pretty bored with this movie considering it’s three hours long. I did think that this movie ended the trilogy pretty well, but I mean there are thousands of rumors circling around on the Internet about a Pirates 4. I’m sure that they will make one after the huge box office achievements that the trilogy made.

Score: 6 out of 10

Great Bands

One of the Best Bands Ever
Guns n’ Roses
By Sandor Hugert

Guns n’ Roses is probably one of the best bands if you like hard rock. Axl Rose did a great job of being the vocalist as he added an extra little something to each song just with his voice. The drummer and the guitarists were all outstanding. Obviously one of the best guitarists of our time, Slash, did an awesome job in this band just like he did in Slash’s Snakepit and now in Velvet Revolver. In my opinion, Slash is probably the best guitarist in the world. They had four outstanding albums with Use Your Illusion 1 probably being the best with great songs such as “Don’t Cry”, “November Rain”, and “Live and Let Die”. Their most popular song that is “Welcome to the Jungle” is found on the Appetite for Destruction album. It’s really too bad that they had to split up and form new bands that are also good, but it will never be the same as Guns n’ Roses. If you have some time on your hands then definitely download songs from this band or just purchase their awesome albums, you will not be disappointed with doing either of those.

Game Reviews

Mario Party 8
By Sandor Hugert

This new game for the Wii doesn’t disappoint, surprisingly. The mini games are still really fun even after this being the 8th game is this long franchise where I taught that no sequel could beat the original Mario Party. This game actually does beat it, mainly due to the cool new controllers that the Wii came up with. It doubles the amount of fun to be had in these party games. You obviously need at least one other friend to have some fun with this game considering it is a board game. If you have a four-player party then you’ll have even more fun in this game. This is where the main flaw comes into place, which is that there is no online play in this game. Nintendo promised us that there would be a lot of online games for the Wii. They haven’t released one online game yet, so that is very disappointing on Nintendo’s part. Overall though, this is a very fun game and is a must have for your Wii collection.

Score: 8 out of 10

Movie Reviews

Live Free or Die Hard
By Sandor Hugert

This movie was really good. It had to be one of the best movies of the year. The action was terrific and nonstop. It was probably the best Die Hard to date. Bruce Willis did an amazing job once again as John McClane. I was even surprised to see that Justin Long did a good job as well in the movie considering that I’ve never really seen him in any action movies. The villain also acted pretty cool most of the time. The movie at many times was totally unbelievable with all of the action scenes that Bruce Willis pulled off and there was this one villain who just wouldn’t die, plus he did some amazing stunts like jumping from buildings and other totally unbelievable things. It was just a little too much at times considering that these characters hardly even had a scratch on themselves after falling on cement like twenty times. In my thoughts, there was hardly a story line to the movie, but you can quickly get past that like I did after seeing all of the perfect action scenes. Overall, I thought that the movie was awesome, definitely one of the best of the summer after all of the other disappointments.

Score: 8 out of 10

Game Reviews

God of War 2 for Playstation 2
By Sandor Hugert

This has to be one of favorite games ever made. It had everything that a person wants to see in a video game. It had the best action in a game, great story, interesting and challenging puzzles, and even awesome boss fights. The length of this game was also just about perfect considering that I never really got bored of the game, which rarely happens. I really liked the first God of War, but surprisingly I thought that this one was actually better than the first one. Towards the end of the game, I thought that Sony went a little overboard with all of the boss battles. It just seemed like someone at Sony just realized that they didn’t have enough bosses so they decided to add like five of them at the end of the game. Also, this isn’t really a flaw but at times the puzzles might be a little too difficult to do, I constantly had to find walkthroughs of the game on the Internet to beat those puzzles. The boss fights were extremely fun and the difficulty was just about perfect for most of them anyway. I don’t really understand why Sony didn’t just make this game for Playstation 3 as well considering that many more people would buy it if God of War 2 came out for it. They could have way better graphics for the game for Playstation 3. I honestly think that this might me one of the best games ever made. Great job Sony!

Score: 9 out of 10

Movie Reviews

Ghost Rider
By Sandor Hugert

This was just an average superhero movie. We should be used to these types of movies after Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Hulk. This one was basically the same thing just with an amazingly awesome character. I have to say that Ghost Rider is probably one of the coolest looking characters ever made. The story line like I said is just like others: average guy gets power to save father, father dies, hero doesn’t want power, he fights evil, he wins, and then decides to keep power to fight more evil (sequel time!). This movie wasn’t really bad at all, but it’s just we’ve seen these movies a bit too often lately from Marvel. I can’t say that that’s a bad thing considering that there really haven’t been any horrible Marvel movies other than the Blade trilogy, but even that was somewhat acceptable. Nicolas Cage does a wonderful job portraying the Ghost Rider, but now he’s saying that he doesn’t want to do a sequel, which just sucks. The action in this movie wasn’t really up to par to lets just say 300. I was expecting really cool fight scenes since Ghost Rider has easily become one of my favorite characters, but that didn’t really please my expectations. The special effects of the motorcycle were amazing. I think that this movie sort of ended up just like Spider-Man 3, you would think that they would both be really cool movies with all these interesting characters, but somehow they both ended up being a little disappointing.

Score: 7 out of 10

Game Reviews

Gears of War
By Sandor Hugert

This was probably one of the highest anticipated games of 2006 for XBOX 360. I personally didn’t see how it was that good, but that doesn’t mean that it was a bad game. The single player game was very short but the graphics were perfect and so were the level designs. The action in the game is just as amazing as you saw in the trailers. In my opinion, cooperative online play for the single player game was the best part of the game. It was just extremely fun to beat the whole game with my friend while we were just chatting about random things with our headsets. The normal online death matches are just not that fun since most people playing that are experts and you’ll just get killed really easily. It is just way more enjoyable to play with your friends that play on the same level as yourself. I actually wouldn’t have even really liked this game if it wasn’t for cooperative gameplay. Another problem that I had was how I really only had fun with the game for like 2 weeks due to the short length of the game.

Score: 7 out of 10

Movie Reviews

Evan Almighty
By Sandor Hugert

I was a huge fan of the first movie, Bruce Almighty, but without Jim Carrey the second one had no chance of being even nearly as good as the first one. I was right; Evan Almighty wasn’t good at all. You can get over the fact that Jim Carrey didn’t come back, but this movie just wasn’t funny at all. At most I had like two or three good laughs during the movie, but that is extremely sad consider how Bruce Almighty was just hilarious. The whole Noah’s Ark plot didn’t really grab my attention at all either, just because the only laughs you get out of that is when he hits his finger with a hammer. The whole time when the animals were following him was just a bit weird. I suppose some people might find it funny how Steve Carell started looking more and more like Noah. I just taught that we have seen that type of comedy way too much before in movies such as the Santa Clause trilogy. The whole movie just wasn’t that funny. I’m just wondering how much more sequels will they make to Jim Carrey movies without actually having Jim Carrey in the sequel. There has been three movies so far: Dumb and Dumberer When Harry Met Lloyd, Son of the Mask, and Evan Almighty. These movies all did horrible at the box office, although Evan Almighty isn’t doing that bad but not nearly as good as Bruce Almighty. I did not like this movie at all, even if you enjoyed Bruce Almighty (like me) the sequel has no elements linking it to the first one.

Score: 3 out of 10

Arcade Games

Best Arcade Games
Doom
By Sandor Hugert

This in my opinion has to be one of the best games ever made to date. It had just about everything that a person looks for in a game. It had great action, game play, and it was just a really cool looking game. Obviously the graphics weren’t all that great, but what do you expect from a game that came out like 10 years ago. The weird thing is that this game was so ahead of its time that even the graphics are still acceptable when you compare it to great new first person shooters such as Half Life. The levels were designed just about perfectly when you see how many little secret areas there are on each level. The little face that you see on the bottom of the screen is also really cool, and that little excited face that he makes when he picks up a weapon is priceless. The music in the game matches it perfectly; it’s basically all rock music that just fits the game really well. If you happen to see this game being sold for any console make sure you buy it, or probably the best version of the game is available on the XBOX 360 arcade shop. If you own an XBOX 360 that make sure to buy it because you won’t be disappointed, I guarantee you. This has to be one of my favorite games ever made.

Score: 9 out of 10

Game Reviews

Crackdown
By Sandor Hugert

This game for XBOX 360 was okay but I had higher expectations for it. A month before the game’s release I couldn’t stop playing the demo of the game with my friend, but somehow the game just didn’t deliver once I bought it. The demo had one full city in it while the whole game just added two more cities. The sad thing was that the best city was the one in the demo (Los Muertos). The other two cities: The Volk and Shai-Gen. The Volk was just weird considering that in the whole city construction was taking place. Shai-Gen was sort of cool, but it was just annoying to get the Agility Orbs considering that every building in the city was a skyscraper. By far the most exciting part of the game was collecting Agility Orbs considering that the more you get, the better your jumping skills will be. The cooperative part of the game was also quite fun, but I just wish that they had up to four player cooperative play since then more of my friends could have played. The missions in the game very quite dull since each mission’s goal was to just take down the boss any way you can. The graphics were fine but not quite up-to-date with other games such as Gears of War. The game also got quite boring after a while since there was really nothing to make you want to keep playing. I must say though that the ending was unexpected which I’ll give credit for in my overall rating, I won’t tell you the ending cause I don’t want to ruin the game for you. I hope that the game makers will fix all these little problems and make an awesome sequel because I truly think that it’s possible to make this game a lot better.

Score: 7 out of 10

Arcade Games

Best Arcade Games
Contra
By Sandor Hugert

This has to be one of the best arcade games ever made up there on the rankings with Doom. This game really just shines with its cooperative game play as you and your buddy battle soldiers and aliens right next to each other. It also has some pretty unique weapon upgrades and some cool jumping levels where you have to jump from one ledge to another. Playing this game alone really isn’t nearly as fun as having your buddy help you out. It’s an extremely fun game to play with your friend, it’s really too bad they didn’t have up to a 4 player cooperative game. It’s still a really fun game with just one of your friends helping you. This game is also available on the XBOX 360 arcade to purchase so make sure to buy this one if you own this console.

Score: 8 out of 10

Game Reviews

Call of Juarez
By Sandor Hugert

I had very high expectations for this game for the XBOX 360, considering that I had a lot of fun playing other western games such as Gun and Red Dead Revolver. Sadly I have to say that I was a little disappointed with this game. The story line is really cool how you are switching between two characters as Reverend Ray is chasing down Billy. This gets sort of weird how you basically play every level twice, once as Billy and then as Ray trying to find him. Thankfully the gameplay is different for each character as with Billy you are trying to be stealthy on every level considering that you basically get shot three times and then you die. I found that being with Reverend Ray is way better considering that it’s more of a run and shoot type of gameplay. I myself never really found that being stealthy in a game is too much fun since we play video games for enjoyment. There were a few very weird puzzles in the game where you’re not really sure what to do, and jumping on ledges with a rope is just a bit weird in first person camera angle. They could have at least given you the option to switch between first person and third person camera angles. On the other hand, this game has some of the best graphics seen up to this day when you walk around near waterfalls. I advise people to try this game out, but if you want an awesome western experience in a video game then buy Gun, not Call of Juarez.

Score: 6 out of 10

Movie Reviews

Blades of Glory
By Sandor Hugert

This had to be one of the funniest movies ever made. Will Ferrel and John Heder make a great team together. I could hardly stop laughing during the entire movie. It worked so well since the two characters played totally different characters, and it was just really fun to see them try to get along with each other. The ice skating parts were absolutely hilarious especially when Will Ferrel took the ice. It’s pretty obvious that a movie like this only has good laughs, but other than that the plot was extremely weak. I don’t think many people will actually care about the plot though since they are going to be too busy laughing during the movie. There were also a few sort of creepy parts of the movie for example basically every time John Heder’s fan in the movie was on screen. Even that can be overlooked as well just because of the good comedy in this film.

Score: 8 out of 10

Best Bands Ever

Bands that Rock
By Sandor Hugert

Slash’s Snakepit
This has to be one of my favorite bands of all time. Their album Ain’t Life Grand has the best songs ever created. This band formed as Slash (guitarist) quit from Guns n’ Roses. He gathered some other awesome members and simply just created the best songs ever. Some of their best songs are “Landslide”, “Speed Parade”, “Ain’t Life Grand”, and “Serial Killer”. The songs sort of sound like Guns n’ Roses, but overall they are way better. In my opinion, Slash has to be one of the best guitarists in the world. I highly recommend you buying Ain’t Life Grand by Slash’s Snakepit. The singer in my opinion is almost as good as Axl Rose from Guns n’ Roses.

Score: 9 out of 10

New Music

A Great New Band
Velvet Revolver
By Sandor Hugert

Velvet Revolver is a really good band. It would be pretty hard to actually not be a great band since Velvet Revolver regroups all of the Guns n’ Roses members except for Axl Rose. The new singer isn’t all that great, but it’s easy to get passed that once you hear the great music. With songs like Slither, Dirty Little Thing, and She Builds Quick Machines, it’s hard not to like Velvet Revolver. Make sure to go pick up their new album, Libertad, which comes out July 3rd. The only sad part is that in my opinion Velvet Revolver is probably the worst band which Slash has been in, both Guns n’ Roses and Slash’s Snakepit were better.

Movie Reviews

300
By Sandor Hugert

This has to be one of the best movies of the year in 2007. It had a very well done story line, even though you would think that the whole movie is just pure action. Obviously all the action that you were waiting for was all there. This movie probably had some of the best action scenes ever created from any movie. The actors all did a wonderful job of portraying these warriors of Greece. This movie also had a great feel of adventure to it, which was absolutely amazing. The whole comic book look to the movie was also extremely cool. The only thing that is somewhat a flaw in the movie is that there is way too much screaming in it as the actors try to portray the characters correctly. Basically every sentence that Leonidas says, he is purely just screaming. Overall, this is an extremely good movie.

Score: 9 out of 10