2011: films and tv-series

I haven't seen many films in the cinema, so this is going to be fairly short.

The standout film for me this year was La piel que habito (the skin I live in), a film by Pedro Almodovar. Almodovar is a bit hit-and-miss for me, while Todo sobre mi madre is one of my favourite films ever, I wasn't a fan of La mala education - which was also the last time I saw an Almodovar in the cinema. But I decided to take my chance on this one, and I'm very glad I did.

It's a typical Almodovar in many ways, but also a very 'modern' film, it starts a bit slow but there really aren't any superfluous scenes. Almodovar slowly unraps the film, with 2 surprises - one surprise basically turning the entire film on its head. It makes you think, but it's also silly, unbelievable, disgusting, horrible, laughable... I didn't know how to react.

And when the film forces you to think about sexuality and morality, there's no way you won't be confused. But that's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned, it's certainly better than handing you everything on a platter. And like with most things, the less you know about the story, the better, so if you still need to see it, avoid trailers and such.

The only bad thing I can say is that the ending is very cliché, and almost makes it feel like a comedy. There is humour here, sure, and some parts are ridiculous, but I thought it didn't really fit an, in essense, very dark film.

But still, it's not like anything I've seen this year, so La piel que habito is my favourite film of 2011.

As for the rest: I very much enjoyed the Marvel films. Thor was great, very entertaining, and X-men: First Class had such a great Xavier-Eric dynamic. And I personally would've chosen Eric at the end, even though I always like the "good" guys more. I also felt there was a certain sadness to the film, like the sadness of lost innocence, which I quite enjoyed. Captain America was far better than I thought it would be, the weakest of the three maybe, but still good fun.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was also very good, I thought it would be another dumb action film, but the pace of the film surprised me. Of course there was also Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, probably the best HP film.

I should also mention The Eagle , not really a great film but I enjoyed the relationship between the two main characters. And it combines two things I like: Scotland and Ancient Rome!

The last film I've seen in 2011 was Tintin. I enjoyed it, but for me, some scenes almost made me facepalm because of completely unbelievable cartoony sillyness. They try to be super-realistic for most of the film, but then suddenly there's a stupidly silly chase scene with Snowy being a sort of superhero dog. Maybe I've become too cynical, I don't know. They probably put in scenes like that so the under-fives don't fall asleep.

As for tv-series, um...let's see...well, having the memory of a goldfish certainly doesn't help. I saw season 4 of The Big Bang Theory, and I enjoyed most of it. The episode with Levar Burton is definitely a classic. And the one where they go to a science conference. And the one where they dress up as the Justice League. And... well, plenty of good eps really. And I must say I love Amy Farrah Fowler.

I gave up on House MD around the 5th season, but somehow I ended up watching season 7 when it was on TV. And I enjoyed it. I don't really have much else to say about it... I liked Masters, but I was also very happy when 13 came back. Although that ep with her prison friend is probably my least favourite. I'm in no rush to start season 8, I'll probably wait until it's on tv.

I saw season 5 of Dexter at the start of the year, but it was easily my least favourite season. I'll probably watch season 6 when it's on tv, but I'm not excited about it at all.

I also finished watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand. I saw the first half last year, but only saw the second part last month. To be fair, there's a huge difference between the two parts. First part is mostly about Spartacus killing people, second part is more about Batiatus backstabbing other people, and politics and treason in general. First part was cool, yeah, but the second part is so good it almost rivals Rome. I always enjoy seeing Lucy Lawless, and John Hannah is brilliant in this, he has all the good lines. Like the time he sends Spartacus to please a woman. "Bring her to satisfaction, and see our fortunes rise along with your cock!" Good stuff, good stuff.

I'm sad that the guy who played Spartacus, Andy Whitfield, died of cancer a couple of months ago. They're doing season 2 with another guy, it's probably going to be weird...

Not a 2011 series or season, but I finished season 7 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. DS9 is the true connaisseurs choice of Star Trek series, of course, with the infamous In the pale moonlight episode as a highlight of how un-Star Trek the series really is (ie. the Good Guys do Bad Things, humans are -how shocking- not perfect). It also has the best Star Trek character ever, Garak (I even bought Robinson's book about Garak, A Stitch in Time, and it's great). I don't know if DS9 is my favourite Star Trek series, but it probably has the highest great/rubbish ratio of all the series. It has its share of weak episodes, but never as bad as early TNG/Enterprise and Voyager (in general). And let's be honest here, 99% of TOS is pretty laughable when you watch it now. 1930s gangster planet? Oh-kay...

Speaking of Enterprise, Season 3 and 4 are pretty good. Season 3's Xindi eps are good and have a great conclusion, and season 4 has several great mini-arcs. The Andorian arc is probably my favourite, especially since it gave me several nerdgasms (come on guys, it was the very beginning of the United Federation of Planets! A Human-Vulcan-Andorian-Tellarite alliance! Four races that mistrust each other unite against a common enemy! It doesn't get any better than this!)

Yes. I better stop here. Coming up: music, videogame and tennis entries.

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US Open post-mortem

Okay, 2 weeks late, but I have an excuse! I was in Austria the last 3 days of the tournament, without internet access, so I only saw the matches when I came back last week. Granted, it took me a week to watch 3 matches, but whatever.

I guess the biggest "story" at this year's US Open was the rain, and the consequences of it. Third year in a row the final was played on monday instead of sunday. More "the US Open needs a roof!" discussions. Players (and fans) complaining about a variety of organisatory woes.

Of course, they have a point. Personally, I think the 3 days of rain/lack of roof showed just how inflexible the US Open is. I heard one of the reasons why there's no roof over Arthur Ashe is that the roof would just be too big and too heavy. Not sure if it's true but it makes sense, a roof over Louis Armstrong would be easier. I'm thinking it would probably be cheaper to build a brand new court with a roof than refit Arthur Ashe with one.

Anyway, on to the actual tennis.

There were a lot of withdrawals and retirements, not surprising at the end of the year. The big one was Soderling not even participating "due to illness". Later it turned out he had (still has?) mono. Too bad, he could've done some real damage. My boy Nishikori retired in his first match. Actually, in the first couple of days, there were at least 2 retirements each day (on the men's side alone).

As for early matches...well it was fun seeing Cilic destroy Tomic in a very impressive way (6-1, 6-0, 6-2). Tomic, of course, being a bratty little shit who deserves every beating he gets.

Personally I didn't think there were that many memorable matches in the first 10 days or so of the tournament. It was nice seeing Federer struggle a bit against Cilic, but then he completely destroyed his opponent in the next match. The Tsonga-Fish match was nice, as expected, and Djokovic-Dolgopolov had a really good first set. Djokovic-Tipsarevic was a very interesting match for the first 2 sets, but we all knew Tipsarevic was going to retire at some point, right? And Federer beating Tsonga rather easily was a certainly a relief for Federer fans.

But the two best matches of the tournament were definitely Djokovic-Federer and Djokovic-Nadal. As a Federer fan I was upset that he again gave away a 2 set lead, but in the end Djokovic was of course the better man. It was a good match to watch though, but I'm actually glad I wasn't able to watch it live heh (I was on a bus to Austria at the time), I'm pretty sure my twitter feed wouldn't have been pretty. But yeah, the first 2 sets (and the last set) had pretty, clean, efficient tennis, the sort of tennis I enjoyed very much.

A difference with the final then, which was a total grindfest. Long, sometimes very long rallies with almost every point. It was almost the complete opposite of the Federer match, which also shows how Djokovic can adapt his style to the opponent he's playing. In the Federer match, Djokovic mainly had to outsmart his opponent by playing textbook tennis. Against Nadal, he didn't just have to outsmart him, he also needed to outrun and out-hit him. And even though it's not my style, it was really great to watch these two go at each other, in a true test of skill and atlethicism. If Federer-Djokovic at Roland Garros was the best semifinal of the year, then this was easily the best final of the year. Mostly one-sided, yes, but the tennis on display was certainly very exciting and on a level rarely seen before.

As for the women, I haven't followed it as much as I usually do - like I said, some tennis boredom sets in this time of year, and it didn't help that Kvitova went out in the first round. One of my other girls, Petkovic, got pretty far, but I was disappointed she couldn't win against Wozniacki. Good thing Serena showed her who's boss. And I was honestly quite surprised Stosur won against Serena. Serena again showing her ugly side, by attacking the umpire with some nasty comments ("you're ugly on the inside" - how is that not a personal attack?), and of course she always gets away with it - some silly, . Sickening really. I like Serena's tennis but I have zero respect for her as a person.

Okay, that's all I have to say about it. Next tennis update will probably be about the World Tour Finals.

more film reviews!

These are all films I've seen on tv or whatever, I do these every month or two, and keep the reviews (if you can even call them that) short. If you want more info about the films, just google/imdb/wikipedia them. Okay? Okay.

La Tourneuse des Pages (The Page Turner)

I've heard of this film and wanted to see it in the cinema, but my local cinemas are useless. Anyway, it's a french film, about a girl wanting to take revenge on a jury member who made her fail her entrance exam. It's a typically french film I guess, it's somewhat slow, with a minimum of dialogues, but the tension (sexual and otherwise) and atmosphere in this is awesome. The way events are played out are great, how Melanie (the girl) does these little things that eventually end up having big consequences. Really loved this.

Lust/Caution

I love Ang Lee!! But he tends to make his films too long for their own good. And start really really slow. This is no different. I ended up liking the film, but it wasn't easy, if you know what I mean. I like it more because of the performances and the (WWII-)atmosphere, but overall I thought it was rather forgettable. Well, apart from the sex scenes. At first I was all "OMGWTF?" a second later I was all "more, MORE!" What can I say, I'm a pervert.

Into the Wild

THAT ending. Very much a kick in the stomach. But it's a really, really good film. It's pretty and I was never bored with it. I liked all the secondary characters as well, especially the hippie couple. It was like they were his substitute parents. Loved them, and for me, they had the scenes which made me the most emotional.

Mysterious Skin

It has Gordon Joseph-Levitt as a gay prostitute, what more do you want?? The film is actually quite uncomfortable to watch at times, since it involves pedophilia and other rather yucky sexual subjects. But I definitely enjoyed watching it. It's one of those films that you still think about days after you've seen it, and that's not a bad thing at all.

House of 1000 Corpses

I was starving for a horror film, and this just happened to be on tv. It has a couple of disturbing scenes, but it doesn't really flow well together. I loved the Captain Spaulding character, but in the end the film is nothing special.

D.O.A. Dead or Alive

Based on the blockbuster videogame!! Hehe. It's one of those so-bad-it's-good (sorta) films, the film is quite shallow but with a fair amount of eye candy -- just like the games, amirite? Hell, it even has a beach volleybal scene, full of slow-mo scenes and close-ups of you-know-what. If you're a (straight) teen boy, this film is masturbation heaven. Well apart from that Aoki woman, can't see why people think she's pretty. Special mention to Jamie Pressly, who is basically playing her My Name is Earl character here. But she does a good job at, and is actually the only one who at least tries to do some acting.

But yeah, I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I know I shouldn't, so let's just call this one of my guilty pleasures.

Back to the Future Trilogy

Yeah, I probably saw at least one film as a kid, but I couldn't really remember much of any of them. They showed all three of them on tv, so I was able to watch them in order. My favourite one is actually...the third!!! And my least favourite the second - well apart from the first half an hour or so, that was good, but then it starts getting "ugly" and fairly complicated, they forgot to the make the film actually fun. First one is probably the best, I guess. Overall though, I didn't really enjoy the trilogy as much as I thought I would, so personally I think it's a bit overhyped, and people are probably watching this with nostalgia glasses. Cult classic? Probably, but not for me.

Jamon Jamon

Look, it's a spanish film, and you get to see Penelope Cruz' tits, that's all the explanation it needs.

La Piscine

I actually thought this was the original version of Swimming Pool (a film I can recommend), but the story is different. Again, french film, sexual tension, dialogues that are about nothing at all (but somehow still sound cool), etc. It's a fairly long film though, and by the end I was bored with it. Still, the first hour or so is very entertaining for a frenchofile like me, but trop c'est trop.

Kinsey

Interesting film for perverts like me. I mean, people interested in sexual psychology. Actually, Kinsey himself and what he wrote/researched is interesting, but the film is sometimes a bit of a mess. It's like, in the first part of the film, the filmmakers try to tell you what an exceptional and clever man Kinsey was. In the second part, they try to tell you what an immoral pervert he really was. It makes the last half an hour of the film really messy, like they didn't quite know what to do anymore. It's still worth seeing, especially if you even have the slightest interest in sexuology, just be aware of the huge drop in quality towards the end of the film.

Right, that's it for now.

I went to the cinema and stuff

some cinema film reviews:

Cars 2

Typical soulless Disney drivel. Okay, I laughed at all the country/racial stereotyping - oh those crazy Japanese with their crazy toilets! Oh those Italians who are all mobsters but worship their "mama"! And so on. Well that got pretty old towards the end of the film. I also wonder how many people will actually get the plot. My 4-year old cousin considered the Italian F1 car as the "bad guy". Also, is it just me, or where some scenes just real-life pictures, just overpainted in some way to look like a cartoon? If not, some backgrounds actually looked real, if it's all computer-generated it's quite impressive.

But compared to the first one, it definitely lacks "soul". I actually liked the first one (an animated Disney film I like, I know, shocking), it was simple and charming. This one is flashy, fast, and other things that don't even matter if we're talking about quality.

Well anyway, at least my cousin was entertained, and I didn't fall asleep.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I didn't really follow the hype and only saw one short trailer, and as usual it was for the best. The tv ad falsely advertises it as an action film though, and it's really not. Well, not for the first 80 minutes or so.

It's a good summer blockbuster, and it has a really nice - if predictable - build up. Caesar/Andy Serkis was awesome, just as the relationships between the apes, but the humans were rather boring. Although I always like seeing John Lithgow. And whats-his-name, Draco Malfoy, got to say the "get your stinking paws off me" line, awesome. It made me laugh out loud in the cinema. I was the only one with that reaction. Awkward.

Anyway, really liked it, and there's obviously a sequel incoming.

Captain America

Yet another Marvel film. And guess what? It's great. Of all the recent Marvel films I think I slightly prefer Thor, but this and X-Men First Class are easily 8/10 films, really fun to watch.

I can't say I really enjoyed Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, his accent was too Hollywood-german, should've just kept his native accent, with the backstory being that he can fluently speak 12 languages or something. I thought the Erskine guy had a more convincing accent. Oh, and as cheesy as it sounded, I do approve of that "people forget that the first country the nazis invaded was their own" statement.

Small spoiler next I suppose: I thought it was pretty obvious that...some dude isn't really dead, but was transported into another universe...it certainly looked like one of those transporter thingies from Thor, and a similar constellation. But maybe I've seen too many Marvel films recently heh.

Oh, a little Tem Trivia: in the scene at Times Square at the end, you can see some Roland Garros footage on one of the screens!! True story.

Anyway, I look forward to The Avengers film. 3 great Marvel films in a row, I wonder if they can make an even better one.

Cowboys & Aliens

Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde in one film! MUST SEE!!!

...It's a shame the film doesn't live up to the 'star' cast though. It's entertaining enough, but looking back at it, I could've waited until it came on tv. Also, as with most films nowadays, I tend to avoid trailers and such, and I thought the film would be action-comedy like (why so serious?). I mean, Cowboys, and aliens, what a silly combination! I really feel like this was a missed opportunity to make something like Men in Black, or Ghostbusters, there really aren't enough scifi-action-comedies out there.

So I guess part of why I didn't think it was awesome is because it wasn't what I wanted. Ignoring that, there are other smaller things that didn't agree with me. The aliens themselves look far too cartoony, or even like LOTR troll rejects, only with stupid pointless extra arms. I found it really hard to take them seriously, instead of scary evil aliens they looked more like something you find as a toy in a Happy Meal. It contrasts with the seriousness (and occasional brutal violence) of the film.

And while Daniel Craig is pretty good in this, both Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde were rather replaceable. Harrison Ford's character only has about one good scene at the end, if not for that the whole character could've just been left out. I thought the backstroy of Olivia Wilde's character was pretty predictable - plus it's also the most plothole-y part of the film if you start thinking about it. But you shouldn't, I guess, it's just a summer film right?

Overall, the flow of the film is a bit weird at times, it's definitely half an hour too long for what it really is. I still enjoyed it, but I'm not going to recommend it, especially not if they still play Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Captain America in your cinema.

Okay, that's it for the cinema reviews, I'll do some non-cinema film review next!

US Open draws!

Yes, time for some craaaaazzeee predictions!

The men

first quarter: don't see many problems for Djokovic here. 4th round against Gasquet might be good, QF should be against Monfils or Berdych. I'm going with Bird-itch.

The only other notable name in that quarter is Dolgopolov, and he might take a set of Djokovic in the third round, but I don't see him or anyone else doing an upset in this quarter.

second quarter: another brilliant draw for Federer *rolls eyes* I'm not that worried about the early rounds - Tomic might be a problem, but he's just as likely to lose in the first round. Same with Cilic. Federer really should reach the quarterfinal, but that means a match against Tsonga or Fish. Since that 1/8th of the draw has 5, yes, FIVE qualifiers in it, a Tsonga/Fish 4th round is pretty much a given. Unless Verdasco or Llodra suddenly decide to win more than 2 matches in a row.

third quarter: quite a few yummy seeds here. Soderling, Del Potro, Simon, Wawrinka, and Murray. Isner-Baghdatis is a first round, might be good. Del Potro-Simon is a possible 3rd round, but otherwise I can't see any big upsets here. I'm expecting a Del Potro - Söderling and Wawrinka - Murray 4th round, and I'm going with a Murray - Del Potro quarterfinal.

fourth quarter: the one with Nadal. And some other people. Should be a Ferrer-Nadal QF, unless one of the peasants decide to surprise Nadal (not impossible, with his recent lack of self-confidence). Ljubicic or Nalbandian might face him in the third round, if they believe in their chances it might be a 5 setter...but I still expect Nadal to reach the semis.

So, the quarterfinals:

Djokovic-Berdych
Federer-Fish
Murray-Del Potro
Nadal-Ferrer

semis:

Federer-Djokovic
Nadal-Murray

final:

Murray-Djokovic

winner:

Murray

Yeah that's right. Although I'm really not ruling out Nadal, I get the feeling the winner of the US Open will come from the Nadal-Murray match. If it is a Federer-Djokovic semi, I expect another 5-setter, which will leave either man tired for the final (blame this stupid "Super Saturday" thing, ugh). I know a lot of people doubt Nadal's current mental strenght, but at slams he's a different person. Doesn't mean he's invincible, but still.

As for Federer...no, I can't see him winning this, he'll probably have a tough QF, and an even tougher semi, and I just can't see him play 3 great matches in a row. I want him to win, otherwise this will be the first year since 2002 where he hasn't won a slam! End of an era. Unless he suprises everyone here.

As for Djokovic, I get the feeling he'll either win here, or lose in the semi or the final, and then goes on to win the WTF.

Women

Do I really have to do the quarter by quarter analysis, even if we know it's going to be a S.Williams vs. Sharapova final? Heh.

Okay fine. First quarter: Wozniacki might already get Kuznetsova or Hantuchova in round 4. She'll no doubt fluke-win again, but Petkovic will not be that easy. Petko will have to get past Li Na first, but I'm still going with a Petkovic - Wozniacki QF.

Second quarter: a more interesting quarter, with Azarenka, Serena Williams, Schiavone, Ivanovic and Jankovic in it. Azarenka-S.Williams might be a 3rd round, but I don't think Serena is going to have any trouble with her. 4th round should be Williams-Ivanovic. Other 4th round should be Jankovic-Schiavone, I'm going with Jankovic winning that match. So, a Jankovic-Williams QF.

Third quarter: Wimbledon winner Kvitova on one side, Wimbledon runner-up Sharapova on the other side. Bring it on! There are some dangerous floaters in this quarter, but I'm still going with a Kvitova-Sharapova QF, and Maria taking revenge for her Wimbledon loss.

Fourth quarter: probably the most open quarter. Bartoli-Zvonareva would be the logical QF choices, but this quarter also has Venus Williams, Petrova, Lisicki, Stosur and Cibulkova. Zvonareva - V.Williams and Stosur-Bartoli are likely 4th round matches, so let's say...a Zvonareva-Stosur QF?

semis:

Serena Williams -Petkovic

Sharapova - Zvonareva

final:

Serena Williams - Sharapova

winner:

Sharapova. No wait, Serena. On second thought...Sharapova. Maybe. I don't know. Okay, you know what? Sharapova. There.

Anything else? No. Bye.

Pukkelpop is broken

Normally this would've been a review of a fun day filled with music, but fate sure decided otherwise.

I'll try to tell things chronologically.

So, thursday, around 4PM, I get off the train in Kiewit. I'm there because I have a ticket for the Pukkelpop festival for friday, and I'm able to stay with a friend of my mum's, who lives a few kilometers from the site. She's going to pick me up a kilometer or so away from the station, since the festival camping and entrance is basically right next to the station.

So I walk past the entrance, not a lot of people there since the festival already started 5 hours ago. Next to the entrance and close to the main road I was on is my favourite stage of the festival, the Chateau. There was a band playing there, and the bass was really loud and deep. I smiled, looking forward to spending most of friday in that tent, and I was especially looking foward to Planningtorock, knowing that the bass would probably destroy my ears.

I briefly thought of the great gigs I've seen in that tent over the past 7 years. Fat Truckers, Jamie Lidell (in 2005 - nothing but ultra weird glitchy electro), The Rapture, Riton, Los Campesinos!, Health, The Bug, and one of my best live experiences ever, Liars in 2007. Oh yes, I was very ready to add another band to that list on friday.

So I found my mum's friend after a few minutes, we both complained about how hot it was, and went to her house. I was half-planning on going back to the entrance, because you can see the main stage and obviously hear the music from a couple of stages. I couldn't get a ticket for thursday (or for the weekend) since they sold out so early, but on this day I definitely wanted to see Skunk Anansie amongst others.

But I noticed that some very dark clouds were coming in our direction, that was going to be rain for sure. So I stayed inside, went on the pc, and noticed they were doing a live stream of the Skunk Anansie gig. Yay! So I watched it. Towards the end of the gig, it started raining, but nothing that bad. But it started getting heavier, and soon the frontstage was all wet. It was a really heavy thunderstorm, and I was happy I was inside. Kept watching the livestream, until Skin, completely wet, said "we can't go on!" and ran off the stage. It's then that I saw that there were branches and other stuff flying through the air, hadn't seen anything like this at festival, it looked like a hurricane.

After 15 minutes or so, I start reading things on twitter and newssites saying "tent collapsed at Pukkelpop - several injured". First thing I thought was "oh crap, please don't let it be the chateau!" I watched the news at 7, and yes, chateau collapsed, reports of severe damage to other tents, at least 1 dead, several heavy injured. Crap.

Kept following the news, of course some false rumours were spread (aparently there were 6 people reported dead at some point - stupid newssites taking over this rumour as fact). Videos started to appear, there were extra tv broadcasts, and so on. It all became a bit of a blur, and I'm not sure I actually felt anything at that time. But I was still thinking about the next day. If they don't cancel the festival, will I go? Even if it's not the "full" festival? I decided to go bed around midnight.

I had a very uncomfortable night - kept waking up, every time with another Pukkelpop-related dream in my head. It was nothing bad, mostly about what was going to happen on friday. At around 8PM, I took my phone to check some updates. Festival was cancelled. Good.

I think it was only after I woke up properly that I started to realise what happened, and the impact of the events. Dead people, injured people, traumatised people, at a music festival. At "my" music festival. At one of the biggest and best festivals in Belgium, even Europe. A place where people were supposed to have fun. A place where -I- have been having fun for 7 years now.

I decided to go home at that point, I couldn't stay so close to the place of the disaster. It was physically hurting me. So in the afternoon, my mum's friend drove me to the station. Yes, past the festival site again. I felt like I had to do this, to see it for myself. I saw the chateau tent - broken. Several other stages and constructions - broken. The look on people's faces who were coming from the camping, sitting on the side of the road - broken. Crushed.

On the train, I looked for a quiet spot. I got emotional several times, thinking about what happened, and worrying about what was supposed to happen now. What will happen to my favourite festival? Will it still go on in 2012? At the same spot? Somewhere else? Will it still be the same organisation? What will be the financial consequences - both for the organisers, and me, as a ticket buyer?

When I got home, I gave my mum a big hug. She didn't realise at first I was very upset with the whole thing. I still needed to watch the news, and read the stories of the "survivors". I read some nice and true things, but got very upset at people blaming the organisation, and all the "couldn't this be prevented?" questions. If you were actually in that storm (or in my case, near it) you realise this was an extreme, brutal, exceptional storm. I've been at the Pukkelpop site during several storms, but what I've seen on the videos, and experienced myself, it just doesn't compare. So no, this couldn't have been foreseen. And if you have to evacuate 60.000 people because there might be a heavy storm coming... you know that won't be possible.

But on the positive side, the organisation received a lot of support from the locals, bands, and other festival organisers. The people in the neighbourhood of the festival were great as well, twitter was full of people offering festivalgoers a place to sleep, give them food, etc. There was really a great sense of community. From what I hear most of the people who live around Pukkelpop want it to go on next year as well. This was the 26th edition, so it has really become a symbol for Hasselt, Kiewit and even the province of Limburg. And not just that, apart from Wercher it's the biggest festival and attracts a lot of foreigners as well.

Today is about the first day where Pukkelpop hasn't constantly been on my mind actually. I think it's why I decided to finish this post today, I'm not sure I could've done it before. I also saw some footage of Lowlands, the "sister" festival of Pukkelpop that has a lot of the same bands. At first it felt all wrong, but life goes on. Related to that, Foo Fighters (who were supposed to perform at Pukkelpop that thursday) said a few words at the Frequency festival in Austria (see it here). Basically: "every day you wake up is a good day".

And I'm going to end with that. I had more to say, but it's time to move on. Be grateful for what we had, and be grateful for what we have.

Just Cause 2 and Need For Speed Hot Pursuit

The 2 games I played the most this summer, reviewed!

Just Cause 2

Heard some good things about this game, but I was a bit cautious because I generally get bored very quickly in sandbox games. I played the demo until I ran out of time. Then I played it again. And again. So I decided to get the game. Found it very cheap on bee.com (and I got it 3 days after I ordered it - never get stuff this fast from the UK).

So, the full game then. First of all, I have to say something about the graphics. They're AWESOME. Sunsets/sunrises are always pretty special in games, but I've never seen them as beautiful as in this game. It has "God rays" (there's some fancy name for this, but I forgot - anyway it's pretty!) Textures and everything also look great. There is some pop-in, as with most-open world games, but it's only really noticable when you're flying low over the ground with a plane or parachute.

Also, the map is HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE. I saw a comparison with other games, and it's about 30 times larger than GTA4. You can see it here. The only thing I don't like is that they added an unrealistic amount of scenic variation. You can basically drive from tropical paradise to snowy mountains in a matter of seconds. I would've prefered if it was just a tropical setting, combining the tropical/alpine/desert settings in one map just feels "off". Yeah it's a videogame, but still.

The grappling hook/parachute combo is a lot of fun, and it's my favourite way to cross fairly short distances. It's also the best way to escape 'heat'. Car/plane/boat/bike handling is pretty well done, some vehicles definitely have a unique feel to them. I loved flying sports planes around the island to discover new locations, and it's cool to see the sun rise and set when flying as well. I love exploring the island, there are some random unique locations like the Mile High club (awesome music!), tourist resorts, old temples, etc.

As for the gunplay, it's far from perfect, but I honestly think it's better than in GTA4 (which is about the only non-RPG open world game I've played this gen). It has some crazy weapons as DLC, but just upgrading a SMG or assault rifle already makes you some sort of Terminator.

Anyway, it does suffer from my sandbox fatigue, especially since there are no minigames present, and the missions are all pretty similar (although there are some really fun ones - that "mystery island/bermuda triangle" mission was great). There also aren't any shops or anything, the money is only used for buying weapons or vehicles.

All in all, I'm really impressed with this game. It only has a couple of minor flaws, and like most sandbox games it gets repetitive after a while, but the overall package is great. It's really a must-play, and it's now in my top 3 of games released in 2010.

Oh yeah, there's Just Cause 2 website, where you can link your Gamertag/PSN iD/Steam profile, so you can see all the in-game stats (and there are a lot!) online. Sadly, it no longer works. On the forum I read they'd fix it, but it's been over a month now. Boo.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit

So this gen, the Need for Speed series has a bit of a "dudebro" image, BUT I remember when Need for Speed was a brand new series on PC. I'm pretty sure I played either 2 or 3 (which was called...Hot Pursuit, believe it or not!) on PC, or at least a demo of it. I played Hot Pursuit 2 on a friend's PS2 (and borrowed the game for a week, I wasn't really into racing games back then but liked this one). None of the other recent Need For Speed sub-series interested me much, but since I always liked the Hot Pursuit games, I had to buy this one. Well, when it got a price drop, but still!

And I'm not disappointed. It's one of my favourite racing games this gen. Lots of content, good graphics (especially on pc, check out some of the pics in this NeoGAF thread), good online, and I quite like that autolog thing. Especially because I can show off my progress to non-gamers like YOU. Looky here: http://hotpursuit.needforspeed.com/uk/autolog/career/Temujinski STATS STATS STATS omg I'm drowing in them. And liking it. Every game should have this, really. Not just the stats, but the ability to take pictures and post them online.

The stats also betray that I'm mostly a copper. Tis true, I like the chase. It's just a lot of fun to pursue and take out those dirty racers!!! It's really why I always liked the Hot Pursuit series over "normal" racers.

One (of two) things I don't like about the game is the difficulty. The Hot Pursuit mode is pretty easy (especially as a cop), but the time trials, rapid responses and stuff were you race against the time are awful. I guess this is party because of reason number 2: visibility. I don't know what this is, but I had this in Burnout as well: I just find it extremely hard to see what is ahead, and when it involves other cars, at what speed they move. I'm probably a minority, but I've seen other people complain about this as well. I think it's because, compared to other games, you can't really see ahead that much. Like, most racing games have about 1/3rd of the screen dedicated to what comes ahead, while I feel that Hot Pursuit and the Burnout series only have about 1/5th or 1/6th of the screen with the road ahead. This...probably doesn't make much sense to a lot of people, but I swear it's true! Also, there are too many lights on screen! That light in the distance...is it just part of the scenery? Is it another car? Is it an indication there's a turn ahead? By the time I figure it out, I've already crashed into it.

I know that part of this is because my brain is stupid, but really, even stupid people should be able to enjoy games like this! And how come I never had this problem, in, say, Outrun 2 or something? It really is something specific to Criterion and how they make their games.

...But other than that, great game! Heh. I had to replay the last three or so rapid responses about 20 times, and nearly threw my controller outside the window...but actually finally getting a merit on all events is so worth it. I'm pretty much done with the cop side of things, but I'm not sure if I'll be so obsessive about the racer side. It actually seems harder overall. And racing is just...racing you know? Hot Pursuit is so much more fun. I really hope they continue making Hot Pursuit games. Rest of the NFS series can die in a fire as far as I'm concerned.

That's it for now. Next update...film reviews! Or, games reviews. Haven't decided yet.

Harry Potter - Deathly Hallows part 2 review

Non spoiler review:

It's pretty good.

Spoiler review:

I cried, a lot :( I mean, there was a lot of dust in the cinema! Or, things that set off my allergies, or...yeah. Well, I had to stop reading the book at certain parts, I couldn't go on because of the above reasons.

Anyway, some random things I remembered:

- I liked Longbottom's heroic act(s) in the book more.

- Snape's scenes were pretty good. Nagini's attack was brutal! Very cool scene.

- I like how a lot of people died :D But I still mourn Lupin and Tonks. Although they hardly had any scenes in the films I guess.

- THAT hug. I think it was actually quite clever. I mean, Voldy obviously never hugged anyone in his life, so of course it looked awkward! And I'm sure it was done in a sort of "isn't that what you losers do all the time?" way.

- Epilogue. It was about as good as it could be I guess. Obviously it looks weird, but tell me, person-who-hated-it, how else could they have made it better? (other than cutting the scene altogether that is)

- I was pretty upset when Mc...what's her name ordered all the Slytherins to be locked in the dungeon. I mean, Slughorn's a Slytherin, and he's a "good" guy. And, you know, the REAL hero of the Harry Potter saga was a Slytherin (Snape). I'm sure there were some kids who wanted to fight against Voldy, but didn't get the chance because of the bad name of their house. I mean, that's just sheer discrimination, and that really rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not sure if that was in the book as well, but it's definitely something I didn't like. Especially since a lot of things in the HP world aren't 100% evil or 100% good.

- Related to that, compared to the books, Dumbledore got off pretty lightly here. Aberfort said something negative about him, but Abe just sounded like a whiney, spiteful bastard, and the whole Dumbledore family history was summarised into "oh yeah, shit happened in his family, and he's probably maybe to blame. Maybe." Lame. At least Snape said that thing about Dumbledore "breeding" Potter to let him die at the right moment.

- Half-naked Ron. *Duff-man OH YEAH* But surely there's a spell to dry clothes? Enclothesdryo! Or something. And If You're A Wizard Then Why Do You Wear Glasses? (I'm capitalising that because it's a Liars song).

All in all, I think I every so slightly prefer part 1. Part 2 has a lot of action and emotional scenes, and obviously it's The End, but...Idunno. Meh. I enjoyed the last couple of films about equally I guess, I don't have any clear favourite.

That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to abuse the comment button.

games games games omg I'm drowning in them

Yes, let's talk about my current-gen game collection!

Xbox360:
(you can click on the picture to see it full size)

+ Just Cause 2, which came in a few days after I took this picture, + Fable 2, which I somehow forgot. That's...53 retail games, and since Xbox.com says I have 100 games, add 47 XBLA games. Owned it since early september 2007. I bought a PS3 a year later, but since I prefer the Xbox360 controller and Xbox Live to PSN, I still buy most multiplatform games on 360.

Not sure what else I'm supposed to say about it... there's 3 special editions in this pic (Alan Wake, Mass Effect 2 and Modern Warfare 2), but Fable 2 is also a special edition. I got Modern Warfare 2 really cheap though, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it really.

I think there's a fair amount of diversity, I don't really have one favourite genre. Most games would fall under the "action" genre I guess, but that's a pretty meaningless word in videogames. If you make subgenres though, "3rd person action" would be the dominant genre, with Bayonetta, Vanquish, Dead Space, Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, etc. I also have a fair number of racing games (Blur, Ridge Racer 6, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, Sega Rally), RPGs (Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Lost Oddessey, Mass Effect), first-person shooters (MW2, Halo 3, Bioshock - although I personally consider that an action adventure game that just happens to be in first person, a bit like Metroid Prime - but that's a discussion we'll have another time), some sports games (well, just tennis really: Virtua Tennis 3 and Top Spin 3 & 4), and hell, even some strategy games!! (Halo Wars - bought for €5! - and Civilization Revolution - which is awesome by the way). Oh, and a bunch of fighting games of course (SoulCalibur IV, Street Fighter IV, Virtua Fighter 5, etc.), one of my favourite genres.

As for the games I played the most: probably Fallout 3 and Mass Effect. Replayed Mass Effect about 3 times, Fallout 3 twice. Not surprisingly, they're also 2 of my favourite games this gen. I wish the Xbox360 had a built in game timer like the Wii has, I'm sure it would show some interesting results.

PS3:

PS3 has basically been my Rock Band/Guitar Hero/DJ Hero/Singstar console from the start. I have some PS3 exclusives, but only God of War and Demon's Souls are my thing really. Some fighting games as well, mostly because I have people on my friend list that are into them. And even though football games aren't really my thing, I got World Cup so I could play online with a friend. I think we played about 3 games in total -_- Which is why I started buying most multiplayer games on Xbox360 again.

I also have some games I downloaded - the big one being WipeOut HD/Fury. I also prefer Tekken Dark Resurrection to Tekken 6.

Wii:

+ Tatsunoko vs. Capcom - weird that I forgot to include it, since it's pretty much my favourite Capcom vs. game EVER, and my second most played game on Wii (first being Zelda).

I think I own about 90% of all Mature/18+ Wii games haha. But seriously, Dead Space Ignition, Madworld and No More Heroes are awesome. Although I really prefer the first NMH to the second.

You'll also notice I don't have any Mario games - I'm probably the only Nintendo fan who doesn't care at all about Mario. But then I don't care about platformers in general, so yeah.

There's actually quite a lot of "hidden gems" on the Wii. Games like Cursed Mountain and Deadly Creatures might not be for everyone but I quite liked them. Also, EA's Grand Slam Tennis is the second best tennis game this gen (first one would be Top Spin 4).

I downloaded quite a lot from the virtual console the first couple of years - but I pretty much have everything I need now, and nothing on Wiiware turns me on.

Anyway, I freely admit that Wii has been my least played console, even though I owned it the longest (since launch!). There's still plenty of games I want for it, but somehow I always prioritise 360/PS3 releases.

Right, that's all I think.

Edit: the title would've been a lie if I didn't do this, so, on popular demand, here's me drowning in games:

Yeah. I only took about 50 pictures like that. And it gets quite hot being burried under a pile of games...

Portal 2 review

Finished the single-player part of the game today. I have to say, it's my GOTY (that's game of the year for you non-gamer geeks reading this) so far.

I enjoyed the first Portal, but mostly because of a) the humour and b) the last 2 or 3 chapters. Oh, and c) that ending credit song of course. I thought the game was a bit overhyped for what it was - a clever, funny puzzle game - but then puzzle games aren't really my thing, which makes me enjoying the game all the more special. Though the hype surrounding the game still amazes me. Especially when it comes to the companion cube. I mean, it's a cube with a heart on it!!!!!! I felt worse taking out the turrets ("...I don't blame you") than I did pushing that cube into the fire. Seriously, gamers can be such...girls sometimes! And don't get me started on all the "the cake is a lie!" memes and internet stuff. I mean, all the above was a really clever move by Valve (creating a game with its own "mythology" so to speak), but that doesn't mean I have to like it. The average gamer's reaction to it, I mean, not the game, which I like a lot.

Anyway, rant over, on to Portal 2 then.

Just like with the first game, I lol'd several times in the first couple of hours. It wouldn't be Portal without GLADOS' sarcastic remarks (yes, she's...STILL ALIVE!!! Sort of). But just like the first one, I felt the best moments of the game happened outside the test chambers. Chapters 6 and 7...oh man. SO GOOD. For a variety of reasons, but I won't spoil anything. Actually, I went in completely spoiler-free myself (didn't see any trailers or anything), and I think it made the experience all the better for me. I went in with no expectations at all, and came away impressed with the story, characters, game progression, etc.

The game is also quite a bit longer than the first one (I finished it in about 9 hours). I also have to admit I got impatient and looked up some solutions to certain puzzles :/ Also, on several occasions, I was making things far too complicated for myself, and the actual solution was something as simple as going back one room and change one portal. Like I said, puzzle games aren't really my thing, but I think I did fairly well at this one. I also finished the game in basically 3 big sessions, but it was probably better to play it in short bursts so I could tackle the puzzles with a clear mind. I thought it was pretty strange that I had some trouble with a couple of puzzles in the middle of the game, but in the last 2-3 chapters, I could figure out most puzzles with relative ease. It's also weird that solving larger test chambers towards the end of the game went easier for me compared to some smaller ones - which made me think how interesting it must be to see stats of how fast people solved every test chamber. It'd be even more interesting if there was also a way to register how left-handed and right-handed people solve things. Because I'm quite sure there is a difference. Then again, I guess people could always cheat and look up the solutions before they start a chamber. Meh.

The music and sound effects in the game also impressed me. Every test chamber object now has its own unique sound, so a big part of the music in the game is basically from different objects resonating. It makes the whole experience weird, but in a good way, and it reminded me a bit of Rez/Child of Eden.

I was looking for some sort of official soundtrack to the game, and, guess what? It's available for FREE!! There are already 2 volumes up on the official site, with a third one underway. Awesome. I have to say though, the end credit song isn't as good as "Still alive" from the first game, but that was to be expected I guess.

A review wouldn't be much without screenshots, amirite? Okay, I'm wrong, but have some anyway. I took a bunch during the game, mostly from all the warning signs and stuff, you can see them all here. Here's a selection:

Right, that's all. This was an unusually long review by the way, normally I do a bunch of short reviews per entry, but this game was worth spending some more time on.

Also, it made me think that a lot of my favourite games have mute protagonists. The Half-Life series, Portal, Bioshock series (sort of), the first Dead Space (which I prefer to the second one, by the way), Fallout (yes, there are dialogue options, but you never HEAR him/her speak do you?) and uhh, Zelda, if that counts. I wonder if it's a coincidence that I like these game so much, or does a silent main character really add to the immersion of the game? I don't know, but it's interesting to think about. Maybe.

Why did I make this blog?

Well, mostly to talk about videogames, films, music I like, tv series, and so on. It's mainly going to be an entertainment review blog, but it's not supposed to be serious or professional in any way. I might post some entries and pictures not related to anything above, but I mainly want it to be a drama-free blog (I have a secret livejournal account for all my "oh no life sucks!" talk), and hopefully some people find at least some posts interesting/entertaining.

Also, the background is art from the Every Extend series (in particular the Every Extend Extra Extreme game - now available on Xbox Live!). I came up with my blog name first (I wanted it to be videogame related, in a lot of games that have checkpoints, you often get a "time extended" notification - and since this blog was made to give me more "time" to talk about stuff compared to twitter, I thought it was a good reference.)

When looking for a background for the blog though, I stumbled across this one, and remembered that this game also has a "time extended" notification. Hurray! So it all makes sense really.

I try...

New blog!!!

The background is a bit too much isn't it?

... :(

Maybe things will look better once I make more posts and fill up the page...

no?