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Capt McNeely

1,404 stories

Review: Dark Horse Comics’ “Midnight Society: The Black Lake #2”

I reviewed the premiere issue of Midnight Society: The Black Lake here and was looking forward to reading the second installment. The first issue blew me away with it’s masterful storytelling, other-worldly artwork, and it’s alluring dialogue. I was sure that the second issue would be just as good, if not better. I was wrong. The suspenseful storytelling was there, the artwork was wonderful again, and the dialogue was brilliant. However, dialogue is basically all there was. The two main characters in this story essentially just talked to each other the whole comic. The buildup to the climax of the story was so long that when the big reveal actually comes it is kind of disappointing. There was very little action whatsoever even though the suspense had you suspecting it at every turn. This issue also left me with more questions than it did answers. The last issue had just enough mystery to keep the reader engaged and wanting more.

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Capt McNeely

Sep 1, 2015

Reviews

Resident Evil HD combo pack announced

A little while back I wrote an article about how Capcom is re-releasing “Resident Evil 2” to new-gen consoles. Later on they announced that they were remaking “Resident Evil Zero”, a prequel to the original “Resident Evil”. Now Capcom has announced that they are bundling together “Resident Evil Zero” with the HD remaster of the first “Resident Evil” game that was released this January for Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC. Titled “Resident Evil: Origins” it is set to release January 22nd 2016 for an asking price of $20. Both games are being made to run in 1080p and 60 frames per second. This new bundle is also adding a “Wesker” mode which allows players to play as Albert Weskers and Rebecca Chambers in a story mode that leads up to the events of the original “Resident Evil”. So to recap; the first “Resident Evil” is available for purchase now, it will later be bundled with “Resident Evil Zero” this

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Capt McNeely

Sep 1, 2015

Reviews

“Zombi” available right now on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC

“Zombi-U” was a rogue like survival horror game that had you surviving in a zombie apocalypse in London, England. The twist though was that there was nothing special about your character, every time you died you would not re-spawn but become a brand new character and with your new character you would have to trek back to where you last died, kill the now zombified character you just were, collect your things and continue on surviving in the zombie apocalypse. Whether or not there was an actual story to it I’m unsure of but I will get to that later. “Zombie-U” was released exclusively as a Wii-U launch title until now where Ubisoft has released a port of the game to Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC and has aptly named it “Zombi”. It is available now for $19.99 and includes ungraded graphics and a brand new overhaul for new-gen and PC players. I actually own the Wii-U version of

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Capt McNeely

Aug 28, 2015

Comic Books/Graphic NovelsReviews

Review: Dark Horse Comics’ “Death Head #2”

I reviewed the premiere issue of Death Head here and was excited to read the second installment. I was not disappointed as this title from Dark Horse Comics just keeps getting better. The comic opens up with two utility company workers going down into the sewers to investigate water levels rising due to backed up drains. They find that the tunnel is chock-full of ravenous rats and one of them meets a grisly demise. Next we see Niles at the doctor’s office after coming back from their babymoon. He has a piece of bone embedded in his leg that has to be removed, although it is not his own. He then makes a call to the Shadowcliff National Park Service’s Ranger Station to complain about their vacation from Hell. He is obviously and reasonably upset by their brush with death at the crematorium. Instead of getting some sort of apology, they accuse him of trespassing on private property, and sell

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Capt McNeely

Aug 27, 2015

HalloweenIndieMoviesProductReviewsStreaming TV

Consuming Cynema PART II

The Remake The road to the remake is a winding one. There is no clear pathway toward the answer of whether they are good or bad, needed or unwanted. They exist. They will continue to be made because there is demand. My previous article opened with a quote from George Bush’s post 9-11 speech which hinted at “living life” is a series of consuming events that follow an image that has been dictated to us by a media assault that has shaped us since birth. So what does that have to do with filmmaking and entertainment? Does art imitate life or the other way around? Why is Disney the Mecca of family vacations? Who said women are to look a certain way, smoking is glamorous, drinking a soda makes you like Michael Jackson or Beyonce? We have a new generation growing up with incredible access to entertainment. Cell phones, tablets, video game systems and computers allow instant access to everything,

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Capt McNeely

Aug 24, 2015

BooksDocumentariesEventsHalloweenIndieMoviesReviewsStreaming TV

Consuming Cynema PART I

Go Shopping A persistent misconception immediately after the 911 attacks in 2001 is that President George W. Bush urged Americans “to go shopping.” This was not the case. Over the years it’s been simplified into that message. In reality The President said this, “It’s to tell the traveling public: Get on board. Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America’s great destination spots. Get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.” George Bush, White House Archives Not once was the word “shop” or any form of it used. This is not a political defense. Rather, something in that speech to a shocked nation did stand out to me, and can be applied to the entertainment industry. While we were not directly urged to “go shopping” the simplistic picture of consumerism congruent to the picture of American life was apparent. We have accepted an image of

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Capt McNeely

Aug 23, 2015

Reviews

Video Game Review: Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

“Wolfenstein: The Old Blood” is a stand alone prequel to 2014’s “Wolfenstein: The New Order”. Set in 1946 it features our main protagonist BJ Blazkowics (the shirtless man pictured above) sent undercover into Castle Wolfenstein in order to steal an important file that holds top secret information containing the whereabouts of the evil leader of the Nazi army General Deathshead who’s technical advances are destroying the Allied forces. Finding this file is the miracle the Allies need in order to turn the tide and hope to defeat the Nazis once and for all and it’s all up to BJ and you but of course soon after you infiltrate Castle Wolfenstein everything goes awry and the mission that ensues is fantastic! For those who are unfamiliar with the “Wolfenstein” franchise, It’s considered the king of first person shooters and is always allotted as being the actual very first FPS to ever be made. The story and concept itself are very straight

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Capt McNeely

Aug 22, 2015

HalloweenInterviewsMoviesProductReviewsStreaming TVTrailers

Big Apes, Big Cynema

Dino! “When Jaws die, nobody cry . When my Kong die, everybody cry.” – Dino DeLaurentiis, producer Younger viewers have almost no idea who legendary producer Dino DeLaurentiis was. Some saw him as the Italian forerunner of Michael Bay; creator of expensive, big budget, soulless films followed by similar producers like Alexander and Ilya Salkind, Peter Guber and Jon Peters, Jerry Bruckheimer as well as Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. DeLaurentiis said this about his humble beginnings in film: “After the war, there was no industry. We lost the war. We had our whole city destroyed. No money. No studio. No film. No camera. No equipment. We would shoot in the street. We had no actors. Nothing. But we wanted to do movies. And we did the best movies in the world. If you lived in a provincial town like Torre Annunziata, where there was nothing to do in the evening but go to the movies with your friends, the

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Capt McNeely

Aug 21, 2015

IndieInterviewsMoviesProductReviewsStreaming TV

Cynema: Godzilla vs. Gino

Go Go Godzilla “We spared no expense.” – Sir Richard Attenborough, Jurassic Park Rumors circulated Hollywood since the early 1990’s of an American Godzilla movie. Writers and directors left the project and by 1996, Toho and Sony/Tri Star came to terms and the producing team of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich were anointed to bring a full fledged American Godzilla film to the US masses. He would attack New York City; it would boast a big name cast and incorporate state of the art visual effects. There would be no man in a giant rubber suit in this film since Jurassic Park raised the bar for giant reptilian creatures. Toho Knew In the wake of the successful 2014 reboot (which had its own issues), it seems like a cheap shot to take yet another swipe at the much maligned (and deservedly so) 1998 mess. This time it’s to see how this film fits the Cynema paradigm. It’s not Godzilla, it

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Capt McNeely

Aug 20, 2015

BooksHalloweenIndieMoviesReviewsStreaming TV

Cynema: Fright Night or…Why Remake When You Can Retitle?

A Valentine To Old School Horror Remaking a film falls under the old adage: “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.” Netflix reviews or more accurately, article comments are dotted with such phrases like: “the film is old” or “it’s dated.” Better yet, “it’s foreign.” All three signify a concern in American pop culture: a fixation on the superficial and a refusal to give anything deemed “old” a chance, largely by a generation that prides itself on ignorance and is unappreciative for the previous work done by others that affords it the indifference it treats anything deemed unworthy of its attention. Horror is a breeding ground for remakes, but the focus of this article will be the 1985 horror hit “Fright Night.” The recent 3D remake of yet another 80’s horror film underscores not just the needless exercise in remaking films, but shows that audiences have become truly cynical in the product they pay for. There is

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Capt McNeely

Aug 19, 2015

Capt McNeely

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