It doesn’t matter if you are a hardcore or casual watcher of professional wrestling, Wrestlemania is that one time a year that all wrestling fans hold dear. Ever since I was a kid, Wrestlemania was always been the one show that I knew never to miss. A great Wrestlemania would redefine the status quo, change title runs or just special moments would happen that would be remembered for decades.

Last years Wrestlemania was decent with the main event being John Cena vs. The Rock, talked about as “Once in a Lifetime.” Flash forward a year and Wrestlemania 29 is once again headlined by Rock and Cena, this time the match is for Rock’s WWE Championship. With other promising matches on the card, unfortunately, it never lives up to those promises.

Intercontinental Title Match: The Miz vs. Wade Barrett(C)
Winner and new Intercontinental Champion: The Miz
Only shown as a Pre-Wrestlemania match on there site, it felt like a match that didn’t need to be on the main show. Being the 3rd meeting between the two in last month, this just felt like another random match from the duo. I wish I could be excited for Miz being IC champ, but currently he has to be the worst good guy in the company with every putrid second he’s on TV has been pure agony.

Shamus, Randy Orton and The Big Show vs. The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns)|
Winner: The Shield
This was a pretty fun match but it fell short. From seeing them wrestle in front of a crowed of 100 in a school gymnasium, it was pretty great to see Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins finally make it to Wrestlemania. The Shield continue their undefeated streak and have now officially beaten everybody. I’m curious to see where they go from here.

It also looks like there doing a Orton/Show feud which doesn’t sound exciting.

Ryback vs. Mark Henry
Winner: Mark Henry
Ryback as WWE would like for us to believe is one of next big stars from the company. Each week they show him beating a bunch of nobodies and continue to show him as this powerhouse. The problem is that whenever it comes to him fighting someone of merit, he loses and really, he can’t beat Mark Henry? It makes no sense whatsoever and it makes Ryback look like the biggest loser in the company. The match is pretty bad and ends in hilarious way with Ryback dropping Henry on himself and being pinned. It’s almost like they should have added a “Ker-Ploop” sound effect when it happened. Then after the match, Ryback destroys Mark Henry with his finisher and walks away which begs the question, why did Mark Henry win if Ryback was going to walk away?

WWE Tag Team Title Match: Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston vs. Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) (C)
Winner: Team Hell No
Like the IC Title match, I felt like I’ve seen this match a lot recently between them and there was nothing special added to this particular match. Team Hell No is a fine team and I’m sure they’re going to be feuding with The Shield next so that’ll be pretty fun. Dolph is one of the best wrestlers in the company. I hope they’ve got some big plans for him soon.

Fandango vs. Chris Jericho
Winner: Fandango
Not a bad debut from Fandango. He had some cool moves and his character is really goofy and I’m a sucker for goofy characters like 3MB. Jericho is a great guy to have Fandango to go against because Jericho brings the best out of a lot of wrestlers and Jericho as usual was great.

World Heavyweight Title Match: Jack Swagger vs. Alberto Del Rio (C)
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
To start, Jack Swagger gets a loser entrance. Everybody has an entrance with music and fan far or boos or something. After a video package, they just cut Swagger in the ring like he was a nobody. Moving on, I liked both competitors but they seemed to be missing something that would make them into stand-out stars. Another thing that didn’t help was the lack of a cash in from Dolph Ziggler. Currently Dolph is in the ownership of the Money in the Bank contract that allows him a World Title shot at anytime he wants. You would think that if some had a contract like that, they would do it on the grandest stage of them all.

Undertaker vs. CM Punk
Winner: Undertaker
This was easily the best match on the card. Undertaker only does one match a year these days and each time he makes the most of it, and CM Punk is one of the greatest wrestlers going right now. It was a really great moment when Living Colour performed “Cult of Personality,” CM Punk’s current theme song. This was the first match in the night that I saw the crowed really getting in to it and I think that helped with the excitement in the match. So many great moments and the story told in the match was really good. Paul Hayman in the corner of CM Punk added in extra bit of fun with his outside antics.

Of all the matches on the card, this will be the one I watch again.

Brock Lesner vs. Triple H
Winner: Tripler H
If there was a star of Wrestlemania it was Brock Lesner.

The Lesner plays this insane wildman so well.  Every match he’s been in since being back has been fun because of his persona. In saying that, Triple H’s offense was really boring and the match started to drag towards the end. What I don’t understand is if WWE spent all this money getting Brock Lesner and trying to make him in to this monster why is he continuing to lose matches like this. Like the Ryback match, I just don’t get what they’re trying to do.

Again, Paul Hayman was very fun.

WWE Title Match: John Cena vs. The Rock (C)
Winner and new champion: John Cena
These two have absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. Last years match wasn’t that great and a year didn’t help the matters. When Cena is working with Brock Lesner, CM Punk or Dolph, he has talent and puts on some great stuff but his stuff with The Rock doesn’t work. The last 10 minutes just devolved in to them kicking out of each others finisher. After the fifth kick out, I just wanted the match to end, I didn’t even care who won.


The overall problem with this show was lack of a Wrestlemania feeling. The crowed seemed bored through most of the night, there were massive pacing problems to the point that a match was cut from the show and nothing special happened overall. Besides Cena’s win, it didn’t seem like anything changed and Wrestlemania needed to do that.

Is it the worst Wrestlemania? No, but it felt like it should have been a different show.

Overall this sums it up

Further notes: Monday Night Raw happened the next night and Raw is what Wrestlemania should have been. It was one of the best episodes of Raw of the last decade. Now that was a show.

There were several factors that went into missing last years Academy Award show including having not seen a single film nominated for best picture and Billy Crystal being the host, last year’s Oscars were not for me.

This year though, I was pretty pumped. I saw most of the nominated films, I was excited to see what they did for 50 years of James Bond and despite not being a huge fan of Seth MacFarlane, I was still interested to see what he could bring to the table.

Here are some of the thoughts I had on the Oscars:

Seth MacFarlane as a host:

After last year’s safe choice of Billy Crystal, it was great to see someone like MacFarlane who is willing to push the limits of what can be on that show. He told some very funny jokes and his song “I saw your boobs” was pretty entertaining.  It was typical MacFarlane. For every joke that works, he has a ton of stuff that doesn’t. William Shatner was right in saying that we wish it was Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting, but I guess we could have done a lot worse.

Brave winning best animated film:

This was the only award that I thought went to a completely undeserving film. Brave had some good moments, but the film never lived up it’s potential. It seemed like Brave won because it was a Pixar film and Pixar hasn’t won that category since Toy Story 3. It also seemed like they picked Brave because Paranorman and Wreck-It Ralph were genre films and the academy hates genre films.  At least Paperman won for best animated short film.

50 Years of James Bond and caliber of the music:

It seemed like since it was the 50th anniversary of James Bond and music is such a huge part of  Bond history,  they would put all the stops out. Well apparently not. Not a single Bond actor took the stage. They couldn’t even get Timothy Dalton. I’ll tell you who they did get: Halle Berry, the  worst bond girl ever who was also part of the worst  Bond film ever. The caliber of Bond music was also half-assed. They only played three songs, but was salvaged when Shirley Bassey sung Goldfinger. Well, I can’t wait until 25 years from now when the Oscars do the same thing, but for Fast and Furious.

Presenters:

Presenter banter was the worst, the absolute worst. Every joke told felt stiff and forced. The worst joke of the night was when Mark Walberg and Ted from Ted came on stage.

Caliber of Movie Music:

The big theme of oscars was music in films and they showed live performances from Chicago, Dreamgirls and Les Miserables.  It seemed odd that with the history musical’s have with the Oscars, nothing over 10 years old was highlighted. Catherine Zeta-Jones sang All That Jazz, the Dreamgirl that wasn’t Beyonce came out and sang a song from Dreamgirls and the cast of Les Miserables sang One More Day. Even the awful Russell Crowe sang with everybody. Not bad, but I don’t understand why more musicals weren’t highlighted.

Adele’s Performance of Skyfall:

Next to Shirley Bassey, this was the best performance of the night. The set was really well lit and it was just a cool looking performance. It was also great to see her win best original song for Skyfall.

The Jaws theme being Cutoff song for speeches:

This was insane. Inocente, a story about a young homeless girl becoming a famous artist, won best short story. While accepting their award and talking about a sick friend , the Jaws theme started to play. This was the walk-off song chosen to get people off the stage. It was funny, but also a little awkward.

Onion Tweet about Quvenzhane Wallis:

This was the biggest story that seemed to come from the awards show. The Onion tweeted this  during the show and later deleted this tweet. I understand why people thought it was offensive. However, the Onion being a satire site, I thought the joke was funny because it was satirizing the cattiness that you usually see on awards. Red Carpet Journalists are always talking down and making fun of people for wearing certain clothing and I saw The Onion trying to make a joke based off that.

And  finally Jennifer Lawrence:

This was her night. She won Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook.

She met Jack Nickelson.

And took jokes in strides.

She is defiantly one cool lady.

Overall, the great moments were great, and the bad moments were putrid. Still, I can’t say I wasn’t enjoying myself watching the show. There’s something about the Academy Awards that still feels important and prestigious that you don’t seem to get from the other big awards and I hope next years continues that feeling.

Distributer: Summit Entertainment
Director: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry and Dave Franco

Young teen romance with supernatural creatures genre seems overplayed. During the previews for Warm Bodies, I saw three other trailers for films based on teen novels that felt like they were trying to take over  the Twilight market Directed by 2010′s 50/50, Jonathan Levine, I was hopeful that  Warm Bodies would rise above the usual, but still was suspicious because of the book’s  demographic. With reworking the tropes of those genres and a great direction, Warm Bodies rises above its competition.

The film centers around a zombie named R played by Nicholas Hoult, who has no memory of his name or previous life. R wanders around contemplating the life As a zombie.While looking for food, R and his zombie friends run into a group and lay waste, but in the mayhem, R meets a girl named Julie and falls in love with her. Despite being afraid for her life, Julie warms up to her captor over time and better understands what zombies go through R starts regressing in his zombification.

This story comes off cheesy and sickeningly sweet, but  fits perfectly for a film like this. I think in any over director’s hands, Warm Bodies would have become an empty hulk trying to trick teens in to thinking it was the next Twilight, but Levine brings much needed life to the project. One of the cooler ideas of this film that I haven’t seen in most zombie fiction was adding an inner monologue. In past zombie fiction, you’d never go into the mind of a zombie,  but R’s monologues throughout the film is funny how he talks about living day by day or rationalizes why he eats people. It may not seem that big, but I like whenever people try to change up a stale genre with new ideas. Warm Bodies also has a Shaun of the Dead vibe although it’s  not as funny or a horrific as Shaun, Warm Bodies still offers a great cast.

With most Rom-Coms; the formula is all fairly standard so you know that everything  works out for the best in the end. This is not only as standard as standard gets; the film is filled with insanely cheesy dialogue at times that I felt my eyes starting to roll out of my head. However , it all seems to work out in the end. Nicholas Hoult as R was goof at times that I surprisingly found myself rooting for and Julie played by Teresa Palmer was a fun love interest that seemed to be channeling Kristen Stewart in a tongue and cheek performance. The only actor I felt was sub-par was John Malkovich, who gave a phoned in performance as the father of Julie but every line he gave was emotionless. By far though, the best performance of the film was by Rob Corddry as R’s friend M as a great support to R as the story goes along giving out one liner on the side of hilarious to sad. Warm Bodies would not have I think been as good without Corddry’s contributions.

The soundtrack of the film is also pretty great and helps the emotional impact with well-known artists such as Bruce Springsteen to Indie acts like Feist and The Mynabirds.

Warm Bodies is a weird film and does so many things that should work. The story is cheesy, it hits you over the head with its analogies to Romeo and Juliet and the dialogue made me scoff at times. Some how, Warm Bodies walks this fine line and works I think in a successful way. It’s not the best zombie film ever made, but it’s not necessary trying to be so. It tries to be its own think and I like it for that. I would have never thought that this would be the first good film I would have seen in 2013, but it was.

Also, apologies for the zombie puns. I’ll lay those jokes to rest.

Spoiler Alert is back  this semester for more previews and reviews of the biggest things in media. Before we get back to the usual, I would like to take some time and write about my favorite games, movies, comics and TV shows from 2012. There were lot of things to love in 2012, but I’ve narrowed it down to my absolute favorites.

Favorite Film: Django Unchained
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio

Another fantastic film from Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained was his love letter to classic  blacksploitation and spaghetti westerns. Jamie Foxx plays freed slave Django as he travels with Dr. King Shultz played by Waltz to find Django’s wife, Broomhilda. I can’t point out just one  great performance  because the main cast is so amazing and each person plays there character to perfection. Tarantino creates an amazing soundtrack that highlights all the emotions of each scene. Since I love most of Tarantino’s films, it’s hard to say if this is my favorite of his work, but this was defiantly my favorite film of 2012.

Runner Up: Wreck-It Ralph

Favorite Game: The Walking Dead
Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games

Not since Mass Effect 2 have I felt so emotional while playing a game. Set within in zombie infected Atlanta, the gamer plays Lee, a convict who escapes a police car after an accident. After rescuing a young gild named Clementine, the gamer  and Clem try to find her parents. Playing like classic point and click adventures, The Walking Dead’s biggest strength is the story and the character interactions. With each choice, the story becomes tailored to your every tough decision. One decisions that I found difficult was having to ration out food for 10 people, but only having enough for six. One of the moments. I was more tense playing this game then anything else this year and by the end I was a wreck. This will defiantly be one of the best games of this console generation.

Runner Up: Hotline Miami

Favorite TV Show: Avatar: The Legend of Korra
Network: Nickelodeon
Starring: Janet Varney, JK Simmons and David Faustino

Being a huge fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, things were looking pretty dire for the franchise after M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. Then a miracle occurred and the original show’s creators bestowed fans with The Legend of Korra. Set 70 years after the events of The Last Airbender, Korra, a young water tribe girl and the new avatar, travels to Republic City to learn airbending and stop a new threat known only as The Equalist.  The Legend of Korra has some of the best animation to ever come from an American TV show, a voice cast and characters that are just as strong as the original and a fantastic soundtrack. With Book Two débuting sometime in 2013, it’s going to be fun to see what they do next.

Runner Up: Gravity Falls

Favorite Comic: Chew
Writer: John Laymen
Artist: Rob Guillory
Publisher: Image

Hit by a couple delays in 2012, it didn’t stop Laymen and Guillory from producing one of the best books in comics, Chew. Most writers wouldn’t remove the main character from the story for an extended amount of time, but not John Laymen. With main character, Tony Chu, beaten in to a coma, led side characters, Olive and Toni Chu to take the spotlight and added another view of events in the story. One of the many things I love about this book is that each issue can handle many different emotions at once and not feel out of place.  The events after Chew #30, marked the official halfway mark to the series and a shocking change that’s going to make the next 30 issues interesting.

When most people think of pro wrestling, they think of what they see on TV every week, but there are companies that are trying to offer something a little different.

Chikara Pro, is a Philadelphia based pro wrestling promotion that borrows wrestling styles from all over the world and creates something unique and fun. With the emphasis on family friendly atmosphere, it showcases so much without the feeling of talking down to its audience. A single show could offer high flying tag team bouts, sinister ice cream luchadores, hard hitting single bouts, inter-gender singles match with the best competitors in the world and much more.

Sunday, Dec. 2, Chikara will be running an event from Philadelphia called “Under the Hood” that will end on season 11, their 11th year in business. In years past, the event would end year long feuds, leave cliffhangers for next season and have exciting moments and this year seems like the most exciting season ending yet. For people who cannot see it live, Chikara is running an internet pay-per-view and viewers will be able to see it live and own their copy after the event.

“Under The Hood” boasts seven big matches including current Grand Champion Eddie Kingston vs. Tim Donst. I talked to Donst about several things including:

• His career in Chikara
• His history with Eddie Kingston
• His grand plan
• and more

“Under the Hood” can be seen Sunday Dec. 2, at Smartmarkvideo.com with a noon start time.

Listen to the interview here and find the event here.

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman (Repo: The Genetic Opera)

Starring: Terrance Zdunich, Sean Patrick Flanery,DaytonCallie

Release Date: Out now on DVD

In 2008, Darren Lynn Bousman teamed with Terrance Zdunich and released the fantastic “Repo: The Genetic Opera,” a dark musical with bits of cyberpunk, blood and gore. After going there ways on different projects, they have re-teamed for The Devil’s Carnival.

The musical follows three people as there about to die. John, committing suicide after the loss of his son, Tamara, who’s being killed by an abusive boyfriend and Ms. Merrywood, a thief who is shot by police. As they walk the grounds of the carnival they have to face there personal demons.

Much like Repo, the songs that connect the narrative is the highlight the film. As the characters continue through the carnival, the songs tell the story of there gilt and sins. John wanders as he tries to find his son in the twisted carnival. Tamara frees The Scorpion who she instantly becomes infatuated with and agrees to be in her knife throwing routine. For Ms. Merrywood, greed gets out of control as she tries to win a gigantic diamond. Each character slips deeper in to damnation as they break the 666 rules that were laid to them.

as songs go, John is the weakest simply for being the biggest difference tonally to the other songs. Tamara and Ms. Merrywood stories while dark are told in this Danny Elfman-esque kind of goofy and silly way. John’s though is dark and grim and not particularly great. It probably also doesn’t help that his songs are the worst of the film.

It’s also nice to see the return of certain cast members from Repo throughout the film. Alexa Vega, Bill Mosley, Paul Sorvino to name a few all return to fill out a pretty stacked cast.

The costumes and set pieces are also impressive. Each character had a great design while they performed a pretty elaborate stage. Terrance Zdunich as Lucifer particularly had a pretty great look.

Only 55 minutes, The Devil’s Carnival is a short but enjoyable experience. The film brings this up as a part one of a three part story with filmmakers saying filming starts late this year. If I cant catch the stage show, I hope to see part two soon as possible.

Directed- Various
Starring- Various
Release Date- Out Now

As a kid, I loved anthology horror stories. Whether it’s a TV show like Tales from the Crypt, movies like Creepshow or books by Alvin Schwartz I think horror lends itself  to a short story format.

I heard about V/H/S when it debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival to news stories of people fainting at the event. Naturally, I had to see what this was enough to put it on my top five list of the fall.

From five different directors, V/H/S is an anthology film that features six different tales that are all told from a found footage esthetic. The story that ties them all together is Tape 56. Tape 56 is about a group that is tasked with breaking in to a house and finding the mysterious tape. As they search through the house, they pop in different tapes which brings us to the next story.

The stories range from impressive narratives to impressive visuals. By far my favorite story was “The Second Honeymoon.” The story is about a married couple on a cross-country road trip and is visited at night by an intruder. Director Ti West uses the grittiness of a VHS quality film  to his advantage creating  a tense experience.

The story “Tuesday the 17th” was a play off of classic slashers, but the hook was that you could only see the killer through the camera. This leads to some cool static effects of the killer stalking in the background.

The other story  that stuck out to me was the last short, “10/31/98.” This story is about a group of friends that go to a party but demonic things start to occur. I was impressed with the changing of the house as the story goes forward with doors closing and arms coming out of the walls. The other stories, “Amateur Night” and “The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger” were okay, but nothing not worth watching for either not great characters or confusing story beats.

Over the years films like “Paranormal Activity” have disenfranchised people with what a “Found Footage” film could be, but “V/H/S” uses it in a different way. While “Paranormal Activity” is a pretty clean looking film, “V/H/S” is a dark mess, in a good way.  The filmmakers take advantage of the low-res quality of a VHS tape and make one of the best looking horror films out there.

From the low rent look to a great direction on some of the shorts, “V/H/S” is one of the best horror films this year.

Marvel Now! Most Anticipated list

Publisher: Marvel Comics

With the end of Marvel’s big event book of the year, Avengers vs. X-Men, the beginning of a new chapter of the Marvel Universe starts. Unlike last years “New 52” from DC Comics, “Marvel Now” will be a new jumping on point for new fans that won’t disregard prior story lines. Besides being a new chapter for characters, this is also a new start for a lot of creators. Veterans like Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers) and Ed Brubaker (Captain America) are moving on to other titles, while new blood is stepping in to put there spin on iconic characters. With more books being announced of the next couple of months, the following are what I’m most excited to read.

1. Young Avengers #1
Writer- Kieron Gillen (Journey into Mystery)
Artist- Jamie McKelvie (Phonogram)

With Gillen finishing his run on the amazing “Journey into Mystery,” “Young Avengers” is easily the book I’m looking forward to most.  Re-teaming up with his Phonogram partner, Gillen and McKelvie are the current masters of telling teen storytelling. With a blend of current members like Wiccan and Hawkeye with new teammates like Loki and Miss America Chavez, it looks like a huge blast.

2. Avengers Arena #1
Writer- Dennis Hopeless (X-Men Season 1)
Artist- KevWalker (Thunderbolts)

This is one of the more polarizing books of the Marvel Now. Arcade has kidnapped teen characters from The Runaways, X-Men and Avengers Academy and forces them to fight to the death. People have made the comparison to “Battle Royale” with negative intent, but with the amazing art of Walker and a great up and coming writer in Hopeless, I think these characters are in good hands.

3. FF #1
Writer- Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man)
Artist- Mike Allred (X-Statix)

One of the things that got my back in to comics was Mike Allred’s art. He’s become an artist that I’ll buy any project he’s a part of, and this book sounds like a Mike Allred title. With the Fantastic Four in space, FF (Ant-Man, She Hulk, Medusa and Miss Thing) takes over as the earth’s protectors.

4. Captain America #1
Writer- Rick Remender (Uncanny X-Force)
Artist-  John Romita Jr (Kick-Ass)

I never was a big Captain America fan, but this looks to good.  Rick Remender has been one of my favorite writers in comics and putting his spin Marvels main hero sounds promising. In interviews with Newsarama, Remender has brought up that he’s going more for a big adventure, Sci-Fi with spy fantasy, which sounds like my kind of thing. Also, the early art that has come out from Romita looks fantastic.

5. Deadpool #1
Writer- Brian Posehn and Gerry Dugan
Artist- Tony Moore (The Walking Dead)

This was the biggest surprise so far of the Marvel Now. This I believe is Comedian Brian Posehn’s first comic work teaming with Gerry Dugan (The Infinite Horizon). Along with the phenomenal Tony Moore, this looks more and more like a Deadpool book I can finally get in to.

Honorable Mention: Journey into Mystery #646 by Kathryn Immonen and Valerio Schiti

Directed: Pete Travis

Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey

Release Date: Out Now

It seems like the cool thing right now is to rip on remakes. Don’t get me wrong there have been some atrocious remakes in the past that completely undermines what was special about the original, like last years remake of The Thing. This year has been different though with my personal favorite comedy of the year, 21 Jump Street, and the surprisingly entertaining Total Recall. This year has been fun for remakes, and the momentum continues with Dredd 3D.

Based on the 2,000 AD British anthology series from creator John Wagner, most people know this character from the 1995 camp-fest film “Judge Dredd” starring Sylvester Stallone. I love the original Dredd because it’s a goofy, stupid film. I didn’t have to feel bad for liking the new Dredd movie though.

The movie is set in a dystopian world where the majority of the earth has been radiated and the 800 million survivors live in the violent Mega-City One. The city is full of riots and violent crimes, and the only law is upheld by a police-like group called “The Judges.” Judge Dredd (Urban) is put in charge of a rookie named Anderson (Thirlby) to see if she’s worthy of being a Judge. After a simple murder case goes array, Dredd and Anderson must fight their way to the top of a 200 story slum-tower and take out the drug ring leader known as Ma-Ma (Headey).

The tone is one of the biggest changes between the old and new films. Unlike the old film, this film is a brutally violent and bleak experience. Dredd isn’t the most developed character, but he really doesn’t need to be. Through the film, he’s this merciless force of nature, wherever he goes death and destruction follow. It’s a fun change from the current crop of comic films. As cool as Dredd is though, Anderson is better. As the story goes, she evolves from rookie to something more. In a genre where the female co-star is forced to the damsel role, Anderson never becomes that role. It’s great to see a film break out of that. The villain played by Lena Headey as Ma-Ma is unlike any villain seen in awhile. She is set up as a cold, brutal and fighting figure. She’s not the brains, but everybody follows her because of how cutthroat she is. As threatening as Dredd is, Ma-Ma is equal to that.

One of the cooler aspects of the film is the drug Slo-Mo. The drug is supplied by Ma-Ma and it cuts down brain activity to a snail crawl. In most action films, slow motion is a device that is used somewhat pointlessly. This film uses Slo-Mo as only a story point and highlights the brutality of the action scenes, as bullets pass through heads and bodies.

With a great cast and amazing action, Dredd is up there with The Raid: Redemption and The Avengers as one of my favorite action films this year.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Developer/Publisher: Atlus
System: PS2
Release Date: Out now

During the long summer months, there’s usually a dry-spell of games that come out. Because of this, a lot of gamers tend to play things from their “stack of shame,” a stack of purchased games you haven’t played yet.

Released in late 2008, Persona 4 was the swan-song of the PS2 era.  You play as high school exchange student Yu Narukami, who is in the city of Inaba for one year. As you arrive, the body of a disgraced TV announcer is found hung upside down from an antenna in the city. As another body is found Yu and his friends discover that it may have something to do with the mysterious “Midnight Channel.” What’s pretty great is that the Persona series as a narrative is self-contained to each entry with only minor characters and themes carrying over which helps if your new to the series.

What I really like that set this apart from other Japanese Role-Playing Games is the social links system and the use of a Persona, your main weapon. During the day, you’ll go to school, hang out with friends and do certain jobs and this will affect certain social links to create more powerful Personas. At night, based on your social links, you have the ability to create a higher level Persona. Most dungeon crawlers run in to the problem of feeling repetitive, which does at times, but art and character design of Shigenori Soejima keeps things different.
The main thing I love about the game is the characters that you meet during your journey. At first glance, these are characters that you’ve seen before in other Japanese games or anime, but what sets them apart is the great voices these characters have. Through the game they slowly break out of their stereotypical molds and are one of my favorite casts in gaming. Persona 4 also has one of the best voice translations of seen in a genre that is usually plagued with bad voice-over work.

With the stellar soundtrack from Shōji Meguro and 60 hours worth of game play, this game is up there with some of the best RPGs out there. With the pseudo-sequel/fighter Persona 4: Arena and the remake Persona 4: Golden coming out for the Play Station Vita in November, it great to see this game get a second chance.

John Seiler hosts Spoiler Alert, a radio talk show about games, Movies, Comics, Wrestling, TV and anything else that may come up.  Tune in on KSUA 91.5 FM every Tuesday from 8 – 10 p.m.

September has started and that means the start of the fall movie season! Just like past years, this fall is pretty jammed and here are the following films that are on my radar.

1. Django Unchained
Director: Quintin Tarantino
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo Dicaprio
Release Date: December 25, 2012
From the first trailer, I fell in love with this film. Much like Quentin Tarantino’s other genre blending films, Django combines classic blacksploitation esthetic with Sergio Leone’s westerns. Jamie Foxx plays the title character Django, a freed slave turned bounty hunter as he searches for his wife who was sold off.

2. Wreck-It Ralph
Director: Rich Moore
Starring: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch
Release Date: November 2, 2012
This is the gamers’ version of Toy Story. John C. Reilly voices Ralph, the villain of the game Felix Fix-It Jr., who gets tired of being the villain. Chock full of game cameos and a great voice-cast, this movie looks to out Pixar.

3. Seven Psycopaths
Director: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell
Release Date: October 12, 2012
From the director of “In Bruges”, Farrell plays a screenwriter who gets caught in his friend’s plan to steal a dog from the wrong gangster. I’m a huge fan of “In Bruges” and this film looks like it’s casted from the same mold with a great ensemble cast from Christopher Walken to singer Tom Waits.

4. Argo
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Brian Cranston, John Goodman
Release Date: October 12,2012
During the Iranian Revolution, the CIA puts a plan together to save six Americans under the guise of a movie production company. Usually I’m not in to espionage films, but something about this seems pretty engaging. Also, you can’t go wrong with John Goodman.

5.V/H/S
Director: Various
Starring: David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid
Release Date: October 5, 2012 (Limited and On Demand)
This has been on my radar for about year now. First shown at the Sundance Festival, V/H/S is a found footage film about a group who plans to steal a VHS tape from a house. Not only do I think the grittiness of an old VHS fits the esthetic of “Found Footage,” but I like the anthology presentation that’s reminiscent of Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow.

John Seiler hosts Spoiler Alert, a radio talk show about games, Movies, Comics, Wrestling, TV and anything else that may come up.  Tune in on KSUA 91.5 FM every Tuesday from 8 – 10 p.m.