Fracture for Xbox360.

Reshape the battlefield—and the fate—of a broken nation in Fracture™. In the 22nd century, the United States has been devastated by a catastrophic flood of the Mississippi River. It has torn the nation into two parts, and separate governments arise to control each half of the country. The Atlantic Alliance controls the area east of the river, and they put their restorative faith in the field of cybernetics. The Republic of Pacifica controls the western half, and they flourish by modifying their own genetic material to improve their citizenry. The Alliance finds this morally reprehensible. There is no compromise. There will be another Civil War.

Players take the role of Mason Briggs, an Atlantic Alliance soldier, who has the capability of terraforming land. With his advanced weapons, he can destroy and shape the land around him to his strategic advantage. But he must be on the watch for the genetically modified Pacifican forces, for they also have amazing and deadly abilities. It's the war of the future, and it's not pretty.

The biggest advancement to gaming in the past few years is the ability to interact with the world around you. Such as moving objects, or blowing something up and objects around the explosion reacting to it. With this new game, the weapons will actually change the geography of the battlefield in-game.

To watch the trailer, you will need to enter your date of birth.
It is pretty bad ass looking.

Alien vs Predator - Requiem

Holy shit, this looks bad ass!
So much better than that gay pyramid buried under teh Arctic circle crappy movie they put out.

Neglect!

I know, I've been totally neglecting this blog.
It's not for lack of great content that I had found, movies I watched etc, I just ended up with a lot to do and didn't get this site.
I promise to have a review or news story up here soon.

Death Sentence starring Kevin Bacon.

Death Sentence comes out on August 31st, and is looking to be incredibly bad ass.

Synopsis: Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life, until one gruesome night when he witnesses something that changes him forever. Transformed by grief, Hume eventually comes to the disturbing conclusion that no lentgh is too great when it comes to protecting his family.

It stars Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston, John Goodman, Aisha Tyler, Stuart Lafferty, Garret Hedlund, Matt O'Leary, and Leigh Whannell.

You can watch the trailer and clips on the site, it looks really good.
I have always been a fan of Kevin Bacon.
He's starred in over 60 movies including Animal House, Footloose, She's Having a Baby, Tremors, Flatliners, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River and The Woodsman.
His tv credits are just as long with over 70 appearances.
He has had and continues to have, an amazing career as one of the most well known and respected actors in the industry.
He has always, always, been a favorite actor of mine.
Mystic River was outstanding, The Woodsman, was a very controversial film, but what an incredible performance he gave.
He doesn't just play his part, he becomes his character no matter what role it is.

Death Sentence is a film that looks be an emotional roller coaster, digging down into the depths of a man, and just how far that man would go to avenge his son's death, and protect the rest of his family.

Black Snake Moan (2007)

Black Snake Moan stars Samuel L. Jackson as Lazarus, a man who has lost his wife to his own brother. Broken down and bitter, he finds Rae, played by Christina Ricci, on the side of the road near his house, broken down, beat down, and filled with the "itch."

The itch is a sickness, it drives her crazy, sex crazy. She was abused in horrible ways as a child and by men all her life. The pain starts in her head where the memories are, and it works it's way down her body. The only thing that has ever made the pain go away is sex. It releases her from the nightmarish memories that haunt her.

Rae lives with her boyfriend Ronny, played by Justin Timberlake, who wants to be a soldier and heads off for basic.
Ronny suffers severe anxiety attacks, and is eventually sent home.
But while he's away, Rae can't handle it on her own, Ronny used to be able to calm her down so she didn't go crazy with the itch, and go out looking for sex.
Rae used to help Ronny with his panic attacks, they were good for each other.
So while he's gone, Rae goes out and parties, tries to find peace, and what she finds is Ronny's best friend who abuses her and uses her, just like pretty much every other man she's ever known.

Lazarus finds her after this, and first heals her wounds and her nasty bad cough, then he aims to cure her of her evil ways.
He chains her to his heating radiator.
He cannot be moved on this.
He believes God has set Rae in his path for a reason.
Turns out, they were both set in each other's path.

This is the kind of movie you go in thinking it's going to be one kind of movie, and you come out realizing you just saw something else.
You see Lazarus and Rae help heal each other, and then Lazarus with the help of his preacher friend and some good ol' blues, help heal Rae and Ronny's nearly broken relationship.

There is some incredible blues on the soundtrack. I mean just downright soulful blues, the kind that hits your core.

Over all, this is a very decent movie, definitely not recommended for anyone under age 16 in my opinion. It starts with Rae and Ronny having sex, that is the opening scene.
There's bad language, graphic sex and violence, not a kids movie, and not for the faint of heart.

But there is a beautiful message in this film of love, forgiveness, and redemption.
They all help each other find their place of peace, and they all are able to move on with their lives and let the bitterness go.
For Lazarus, that means he lets his hatred of his ex-wife and brother go, and opens up his heart again to find love.
For Ronny and Rae, they belong together, they fix one another when they each need comfort that only the other can bring them.

Deliver us from evil

Tonight, the teens and I watched Deliver Us from Evil.
Film synopsis:
Moving from one parish to another in Northern California during the 1970s, Father Oliver O'Grady quickly won each congregation's trust and respect. Unbeknownst to them, O'Grady was a dangerously active pedophile that Church hierarchy, aware of his predilection, had harbored for over 30 years, allowing him to abuse countless children. Juxtaposing an extended, deeply unsettling interview with O'Grady himself with the tragic stories of his victims, filmmaker Amy Berg bravely exposes the deep corruption of the Catholic Church and the troubled mind of the man they sheltered.
________________

I told the teens going in, if they got bored or uncomfortable, we could shut it off, or they could go play games in the other room.
At first, they were bored at the idea of a documentary, but as soon as Father O' Grady started discussing his crimes against children in such a matter of fact way, they became intrigued by the film.

It was heartbreaking to watch for sure.
We sat riveted to each family tell the story of how they came to know Fr. Oliver, and how they trusted this priest with their lives, their families, and welcomed him into their homes to stay with them.
They all believed he was a good, honest priest, who could be trusted.
As their stories unfolded, it became clear he had abused their trust, the trust of his parish's, and mostly, all of their children.
The most heartbreaking moment is when the mother and father of one of the victims, retold the story of the day they found out their then 5 year old daughter at the time of the molestation, now in her 30's, and how that moment impacted their lives.
The father was so torn up, full of anger, rage and guilt.
He blamed himself for allowing Fr. O' Grady into their home, let him spend the night, and while they slept, he molested their 5 year old daughter.

His molestation wasn't aimed at just boys, but boys and girls alike.
They estimate Fr. Oliver's victims range in the 100's from the 30 years he remained, and was shuffled around, as a Catholic priest.

The documentary doesn't just take aim at O' Grady, but at the entire Catholic church from the diocese in LA where O' Grady was serving under, all the way to the Vatican in Rome.
The families, film maker, and one priest, Fr. Thomas Doyle, all believe that the Catholic church knew O' Grady was a pedophile, molesting children at every parish they moved him to, and covering up his crimes.
The Catholic church has paid out over $1billion dollars in lawyer and settlement fees, in regards to children being molested by their clergy.

There are never been seen before depositions from LA Cardinal Roger Mahoney, and Monsignor Cain, where they discussed the file the Catholic church had kept on O' Grady, and other Catholic priests.
They knew he had been taking advantage of mothers and fathers in order to get to their children, and raping and sodomizing those children since 1973, with the full knowledge of his Catholic superiors.
If a report from a family came in, they hushed them, and then moved O' Grady to a new parish less than 100 miles away from his last victims.

On the official site, you can view the trailer, and a national map of all the states abuse by clergy has been reported in.

The most amazing thing about this documentary, is that Father O' Grady agreed to it. He agreed to be filmed, and confess all of his sins.
It is a look inside the mind of a pedophile priest, his arousal triggers, his tellings of what he did to his victims, and how the Catholic church helped him avoid prosecution for 30 years.

This is an amazing documentary, but agreeably not for everyone. It contains graphic recollections from the victims, and graphic recollection from O' Grady himself.
I would highly recommend people watch it though.
It is not light fare, it's hard to stomach the details, but it makes you incredibly angry at the church for covering it up for so long.
And as the end credits rolled, it gives another reason for anti-Bush supporters to hate him.

President GW Bush, gave Pope Benedict XVI a free pass. He can never be convicted in the United States for the role he played in covering up not only Fr. O' Grady's crimes against children, but all the other Catholic priests the Vatican helped cover up, as well as while he worked as a close associate to the late Pope John Paul II.

Puscifer, October 2007

Puscifer, Maynard Keenan's (TOOL) other band/project/voices in his head, will be releasing their debut album in October.

The title so far?
"V is for Vagina."
Ha! I love his sense of humor.
I imagine myself walking into Boogie Woogie, and rather than just go find the cd, I would have to ask for it because well, I would just have to. *laughs*

You can get a sample of the music on the myspace page, censorship is cancer, and visit the official site for Puscifer for other goodies like shirts, wallets, beanies hoodies etc.

I am so totally excited about this new cd. I have been listening to the same sample songs for what feels like ages now.
I am dying to hear the whole thing!
If you are a Maynard fan, check out the myspae page and listen to the tracks up, and let me know what you think.