Author: Jason Zingale

When “Gears of War” was released back in 2006, it was hailed as the successor to “Halo.” Of course, despite its obvious similarities to the popular sci-fi shooter, “Gears of War” was much more than just Microsoft’s next killer app. The next- generation of gaming had finally arrived, and along with it, my obsession with Epic’s down and dirty (and oh so bloody) shooter. So when it came time to announce the game’s sequel, the fanboy inside me squealed like a little schoolgirl at lead designer Cliff Bleszinski’s promise that “Gears of War 2” would be “bigger, better and more…

After successfully taking over the “Guitar Hero” franchise when Harmonix split from RedOctane for greener pastures, the next logical step for Neversoft was to expand their new musical empire. But with the arrival of “Rock Band” seemingly rendering guitar-only games insignificant, the question on everyone’s mind was what that meant for “Guitar Hero.” It didn’t take long for publisher Activision to realize that they’d have to evolve in order to survive, but while their multi-instrument debut, “Guitar Hero: World Tour,” looks the part of a “Rock Band” clone, it fails to bring anything new to the rhythm game genre. That…

If you thought Woody Allen was the biggest paranoid hypochondriac in Hollywood, you’ve clearly never seen anything by Charlie Kaufman. The Academy Award-winning writer of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Being John Malkovich” might be a bit of a head case, but he’s also freaking brilliant. That’s the trouble behind his directorial debut, “Synecdoche, New York,” a character-driven dramedy with an amazing concept that’s easy to appreciate, but impossible to judge after only one viewing. Some will call it the best film of the year, and others will call it the worst, but in truth, the movie is…

It’s never good news when a movie studio has so little confidence in your film that it goes through two years’ worth of release date changes before finally being unloaded into theaters. For Gavin O’Connor’s “Pride and Glory,” however, it’s exactly what the movie deserved. It’s not quite “Street Kings” bad, but it’s loaded with so many tired clichés that you might as well be watching any old police thriller. Not even Edward Norton – who elevates the quality of the picture every time he’s onscreen – can save it from mediocrity, because when all is said and done, “Pride…

Peter Molyneux has always been one to talk a big game, but it rarely ever translates to big results. Sure, the original “Fable” was pretty groundbreaking in its utilization of the good and evil alignment system, but the fact that you couldn’t operate somewhere in the middle left much to be desired. With the release of “Fable II,” however, it appears that all of the pre-game hype was completely warranted. Not only has Molyneux succeeded in including everything he wanted the first time around, but he’s also managed to make good on all of the promises he made for this…

It’s been over a decade since director Barry Levinson last made a great film (“Wag the Dog”) and he’s long overdue for a comeback. Unfortunately, “What Just Happened” isn’t the movie that’s going to get him there. Though it definitely has its moments as a behind-the-scenes look at doing business in Hollywood, the film is simply too much of an inside joke to have any kind of mainstream appeal. That doesn’t mean it isn’t any good, but while the first half of the movie is loaded with laughs, the second half is so wildly uneven that you’ll be left wondering…

Continuing in the Hollywood tradition of making bad movies based on good video games, “Max Payne” suffers from being worse than it probably deserves to be. It’s not like director John Moore didn’t have access to examples of what not to do when adapting a beloved video game for the big screen, and yet the film still lacks certain basic elements that even a dud like “Hitman” got right. After all, you don’t make a movie called “Max Payne” that’s almost completely void of action for the first hour, and though Moore’s movie is more crime noir than shoot-‘em-up, it…

While Electronic Arts’ other sports titles have all laid down a solid foundation, to which they can make minor adjustments each year, the company’s “FIFA Soccer” series seems to always be in a state of flux. Hopefully, that has finally come to an end with the release of “FIFA Soccer 09,” which expands on the progress made in last year’s edition with a deeper and more enjoyable Be A Pro mode, advanced AI and shooting mechanics, and a more fluid all-around playing experience. When Be A Pro debuted in “FIFA 08,” it was little more than an undeveloped add-on that…

There’s a widespread belief that Hollywood is rapidly running out of original ideas, and though the situation isn’t as bad as some people might think, it’s movies like “Quarantine” that lead them to make such dramatic statements. Not only is the film a remake of the Spanish horror flick, “[Rec],” but it’s also the third movie this year (after “Cloverfield” and George Romero’s “Diary of the Dead”) to implement a “Blair Witch Project”-style approach to storytelling. For as great as the setup may be, however, “Quarantine” never makes the most of its interesting premise due to a series of problems…

The war on terror may be far from over, but Hollywood has already made quick work of the subject matter with no less than ten different films in the last two years. It probably would have been wise for Ridley Scott to wait a while before making his own political thriller, but if there’s anything positive to take away from the film, it’s that “Body of Lies” is one of the best post-9/11 movies ever made. That might not sound like much when you consider its company, but it’ll go a long way in the future when studios look back…