Furiosity06 Reviews

Redline (2007)

Classic Need for Speed: brought to Life

[4/10 · 29 November 2009]

Now I am a big revhead. I always have been, and I love a good car movie. Especially racing movies but The Fast and the Furious series didn't really satisfy me. I'm not for a moment going to suggest that Redline is better than FnF because it's not. But I personally was never into the whole Import scene. My favourite car of the entire movie was the 69 Charger. What's more a week after that film came out, every teenager with a FWD Honda or Mitsubushi blew their entire bank accounts on trying to make their cars look better and failed, dismally.

I enjoyed watching Redline because it reminds me of the Need for Speed video game series. NFS was all about driving the finest driving machines on the planet to the very limit of speed (on the track and off) but the Underground came along with the whole 'Urban exotic' idea and let all of the Supercar fans down.

I think this film could've been the film adaption of Need for Speed and been a lot more successful.But since that isn't the case I'll simply conclude with this. This is not a film for serious film buffs. This one is for the revheads (or gearheads or petrol heads or whatever they call them in the country that you're reading this) who just want something to watch of a Saturday night. It's just something you can sit back and switch your brain off to with some explosions, fistfights, no real story and some of the finest cars of today raced (and crashed) then Redline is an alright choice.

Driv3r (2004 Video Game)

You're a driver, so drive!

[4/10 · 5 September 2009]

When I first played Driv3r, I was, in a word, disappointed. I expected a lot more from one of the biggest GTA rivals of all time. It has got a ton of problems and I'll start with the basic stuff.

The plot had potential. It had a lot of great and talented voice actors. Thing was that the entire plot just felt abit like a bad TV action show. It's just a vehicle for car chases, gun fights and explosions. The worst bit though was the ending. If you have actually finished, you'll know what I'm talking about.

The gameplay itself wasn't half bad. The environments were fantastic. The hidden back alleys and shortcuts just seem unfathomable and they bear accurate resemblance to their real life counter parts. The driving physics are fantastic as well. The loose feel of the cars allow you to do massive 360s, 180s and drifts (the burnout button helps with this too) and there are plenty of jumps to find. Although, as soon as Tanner steps out of the car, things take a turn for the worse. Unlike other games of this type, the camera is constantly behind tanner. In other games like GTA you can move the camera around so you can see the whole character. Maybe they just didn't want you to see how badly he was modeled. The shooting in this game was also a last-minute job. There's no auto-lock and no cover system. All you can do is crouch behind conspicuously placed objects and pop out occasionally. When the reticule focuses on an enemy with a gun, it turns red, when focusing on a civilian or cop, it turns blue. So all in all the on foot action is crap. And it gets worse. This may be an open world game, but there is nothing you can do between missions. No side missions, no hidden areas to discover and no alternative, non linear path, you just have to plow straight through the main story.

The missions do genuinely feel like a Hollywood action film. But not in a good way, when you fail and retry a mission, it's basically the same as a director yelling "Cut! let's do it again!" because no matter how many times you retry a mission, nothing changes. Guys pop out of the same places, the same cars chase you. It all feels a bit, well, set up and fake.

So, yes. I did have high hopes for Driv3r. But I was disappointed. I can't seriously recommend it as an alternative to Grand Theft Auto. Only if your parents don't allow you to buy GTA or if you are a really big fan of the series would I suggest that you actually buy it.

xXx: State of the Union (2005)

Boyz in the hood meets Tom Clancy

[6/10 · 5 September 2009]

xXx The State of The union (or The Next Level as it was called in Australia) is quite interesting in a way. It is a military spy film, a Conspiracy thriller and a ghetto gangsta movie all rolled into one. It's a pretty unique combination and one that's not exactly well put together.

At the start, when the film jumps genres, you can see and hear it in the visuals and soundtrack, but at the end, it all comes together although rather disappointingly. The man 'suit' turns out he didn't always wear a suit. A secret Ghetto Chop shop raids the white house and 'jacks a tank. It all becomes a bit of a mess. Although the characters are very distinct and all play their part in the story rather well, but all of them seem to have a history together which is never fully explained or shown. It does get annoying after a while to watch characters make continuous reference to something that you had no idea what happened or when.

This movie reminded me of a video game (like Grand Theft Auto or a James bond game) that have you going for goal after mindless goal, but it kinda works. It's like 'Gone in 60 Seconds' or 'Speed' where you can just lay back and switch your mind off for an hour and a half. You don't need to think about why who's doing what. Just watch some kick butt action.