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