Back to the 1940s: "LA Noire and Back to the Future: The Game" Review

INTRODUCTIONS: LA Noire is Rockstar Studios newest game. The gmae follows Cole Phelps, an LAPD detective as he solves cases and catches criminals. Back to the Future: The Game follow Marty McFly as he goes back to the 1930s to rescue Doc Brown. This reviews the PS3 versions.

THE REVIEWS: LA Noire is obviously drastically different from Rockstar's other games Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto 4. In those games, for the most part, you played what many people would think as "bad guys'. In LA Noire, you play as a police officer, which is clearly a welcome change. Long story short this game is good. Noire does an expert job at actually making you feel like a detective. The graphics, especially the famous face animation, is fantastic. The characters are likable and the ending is quite possibly Rockstar's best yet.
    However, the game does have some major flaws. Like, even though the characters are good, they are definately the least memorable protagonists in a Rockstar game. The game may also be Rockstar's shortest. With 21 cases to do, all at varying lengths, the games, while a decent size, does feel a little short. However, that may be because the sandbox in this game is not very interesting. There just isn't enough to do. The game also has problem with variety. The game tends to have you work basically the smae cases over and over with only minor differences.
    Back to the Future: The Game was somewhat cleverly broken up into 5 downloadable chunks. The good news is that the game feels like the long-lost fouth movie. It's every bit as smart, funny and exciting as the other three films. However, gameplay-wise, the game can be a little to boring and repetitive to satasfiy some gamers.

THE VERDICTS: LA Noire is one of the most gripping and fun game when it's good. However, when it's bad, it's boring and lazy. Overall, it's THEATER-WORTHY. Back to the Future: The Game captures the spirit of the movies very well, but faulters when it comes to gameplay. Overall, it's Recommended (Just Not At Full Price).

A Crazy, Crazy Movie: "Crazy, Stupid, Love" Review

INTRODUCTION: Crazy, Stupid, Love follows married man Cal (Steve Carrel) whose life is turned upside-down when his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore) tells him he cheated on him and wants a divorce. While drinking at a bar, Cal meets ladies man Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who helps Cal become a ladies man himself. The film also stars Emma Stone, Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei.

THE REVIEW: Crazy, Stupid, Love may not be the movie I normally review, but the trailers look funny so I figured I'd give it a shot. And while, yes, it did have it's fair share of problems, in the end, I liked it. Let's get the good out of the way first, shall we.
    The best part of this movie is the cast. Everyone brings their A game. The movie accomplishes one of the hardest things to do in film well, and that's having a large cast of A-list actors and develop each one to the point were the audience actually really cares what happens to them. It also help that the film is very funny. Scenes like when Cal first meet Tomei or the backyard scene at the end are turely hilarious.
    However, when it comes to cliches the movie does faulter a little. Some cilches are humorously turned on their heads, while other are played straight. There is no real surprises as to how this movie will play out. And while all the characters feel developed, that doesn't mean the movie shouldn't have been cut down. The film is overly long. It's 107 minutes long, but the film could have easily been cut down to 90 minutes. The whole story between cal's son and his babysitter could have been cut out and the film would be no different.

THE VERDICT: Crazy, Stupid, Love too long, cilched and a little cluttered. However, the film is undeniably funny and sweet, with a great cast and developed characters. Overall, Crazy, Stupid, Love is 5.5 out of 6.