CinEffect Podcast Episode 111

Wouldst thou like to listen to the podcasts? Wouldst thou like to listen… deliciously??

To listen to this episode, click here.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and a traditional RSS feed, as well.

Follow Chris on Twitter & Letterboxd
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EPISODE TIMELINE

(0:00) Angel of the Morning by Juice Newton (Deadpool OST)
(1:10) Intro

GAMES
(4:09) Firewatch

MOVIES
(47:21) Deadpool
(1:12:13) The Witch

(1:33:05) Coming Soon…
(1:39:00) Links/Outro

CinEffect Podcast Episode 110

We could listen to this podcast if we just had… had… FAITH! ARGH!

To listen to this episode, click here.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and a traditional RSS feed, as well.

Follow Chris on Twitter & Letterboxd
Follow Alex on Twitter & Letterboxd

EPISODE TIMELINE

(0:00) No Dames (Hail, Caesar! OST)
(0:36) Intro
(2:48) The FP Incident

GAMES
(13:09) The Witness
(1:13:30) The Division Beta

MOVIES
(1:36:11) Hail, Caesar!

(1:55:25) Coming Soon…
(2:00:50) Links/Outro

 

CinEffect Podcast: Top 10 Games of 2015

Hey everyone! We’re posting our Top 10 Games of 2015! Join us as we remember the best of the best in the interactive medium, including guns, robots, plant-stalks, queer kids, raptures, car-soccer, Cthulu, and TEMMIE!!

To listen to this episode, click here.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and a traditional RSS feed, as well.

Follow Chris on Twitter & Letterboxd
Follow Alex on Twitter & Letterboxd

EPISODE TIMELINE

(0:00) Last Goodbye by Toby Fox (Undertale OST)
(0:24) Intro
(1:53) Remembering 2015

(36:23) Honorable Mentions
(52:03) Number 10
(1:00:52) Number 9
(1:09:36) Number 8
(1:14:11) Number 7
(1:22:57) Number 6
(1:32:17) Number 5
(1:40:32) Number 4
(1:51:37) Number 3
(2:09:03) Number 2
(2:24:58) Number 1

(2:40:01) Links/Outro

RIP Roger Ebert (1942-2013)

You are one of my biggest inspirations and heroes, when it comes to writing, film taste, and life itself (pun not intended). You will be missed.

CinEffect Podcast Episode 2: Bioshock Infinite & Spring Breakers

The theme of this week is The American Dream. On one end, a film that depicts the state of American youth and its culture gone completely mad, as we dissect Harmony Korine’s latest vulgar art-house project, Spring Breakers. On the other end, a city in the sky in which infinite variations of the American Dream are birthed from free-will and choice. We get highly analytical as we spend a long, long time getting into a huge, spoiler-filled discussion with Irrational Games’s Bioshock Infinite. Look at our shit.

To listen to the episode, click this link.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, as well.

EPISODE TIMELINE

(0:00) God Only Knows by The Beach Boys
(0:42) Introduction
(7:58) Spring Breakers
(30:37) Brief Thoughts on Stoker
(31:38) Bioshock Infinite
(47:31) Bioshock Infinite SPOILER DISCUSSION
(1:43:15) Upcoming Game Releases
(1:46:30) Upcoming/Current Movie Releases
(1:53:44) Links
(1:55:55) Beast by Nico Vega
(1:57:19) “Poop-sock’d”

The Darren Aronofsky Retrospective: ‘Requiem for a Dream’

What’s that? A new post from yours truly on Movie Mezzanine? Why, yes it is. Click here for my analysis of Aronofsky’s notoriously grim Requiem for a Dream.

What Makes Spec-Ops: The Line So Revolutionary

[Warning: The following analysis contains some mild spoilers. While you can still safely read this analysis without having played the game and still be surprised by its main twists and turns when you do decide to play it, there are still some things that I give away, most notably its message. So while it’s not required that you play Spec-Ops: The Line before delving into this analysis, it’s still recommended that you play through it first. Not just so you could read this post, but because it’s an incredible, underrated game that should be experienced by anyone that thinks of the medium as an art form.]

 

2012 was a very interesting year for video games. Between fanboys complaining about Mass Effect 3’s ending, games like The Secret World and Guild Wars 2 redefining the MMORPG, and tons of the usual independent works continuing to dominate Steam and XBLA/PSN and introduce stunning new visions, there’s been a lot of incredibly fascinating stuff throughout this year to compensate for the boredom of waiting for the big games to come out, and the disappointment of many delays. 

 

There was so much interesting things, in fact, that I found there to be three games that I felt really did incredibly revolutionary things to the medium. Two of them, you most definitely heard of. One is a mainstream blockbuster and the end of a beloved trilogy, the other an astoundingly experimental indie game that was formed from a mod. Both have received tons of acclaim. However, there is a third game that I feel hasn’t gotten enough attention from the gaming populace, which is especially undeserving because it is most likely to go down as one of the defining games of the medium 20 years from now.

 

I’ve decided to spotlight these three games and describe how each one offers something revolutionary and ground-breaking within this budding medium, starting with one of the most profoundly underrated games of this generation so far: Spec-Ops: The Line.

 

The Upstairs and Downstairs of The Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods is now out on Blu-Ray and DVD, meaning I finally have enough of a reason to splurge about it all over again without fear of spoiling people now that they all have a chance to see it. If you recall, I mentioned in my review that it was one of my favorite films of 2012, and it still is. However, due to the amount of secrets and surprises found in the film, I couldn’t really explain “why” exactly it was so good without giving anything away. Well, now I can! Cue the maniacal laughter! This is my in-depth, insanely spoiler-filled analysis of Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods!

 

 

The Master Movie Review

[The Master
Written & Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hofman, and Amy Adams
MPAA: R – For Sexual Content, Graphic Nudity and Language] 

The Paul Thomas Anderson Retrospective Part 5: There Will Be Blood

The Paul Thoms Anderson Retrospective concludes! Last time, I splurged about the stream-of-consciousness filmmaking techniques employed in Punch-Drunk Love. Now, we’ll see Anderson, once again, going on a wildly different direction with his period-piece about oil tycoon Daniel Plainview: There Will Be Blood.

There will be spoilers in this There Will Be Blood analysis (heh), and I will go into some detail on the film’s wild finale, so it’s better suited if you’ve already seen the film (Which you should). If you haven’t read the previous three installments of the retrospectives, you can do so by clicking these links for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Also, a variety of clips will be employed, so be sure to have a good connection to see them all. And fair warning to the squeamish: There is some violence in one of the clips. It’s off-screen, yet somehow remains brutal due to the sound-effects and the terrifying look on Daniel Day-Lewis’s face.

With all that being said, let’s drink some milkshakes as we dive right into There Will Be Blood.