He's a 2-Bit Game. He's the...
Vidiot
Week of July 27, 2018
Video games taught a generation how to
dodge turtle shells. First up...
Ready Player One
People play online games so they can escape
the callousness of this world and just cyber-bully in peace.
The troll in this sci-fi film, however, is
actually the head of a tech conglomerate.
When the fan-boy creator of OASIS dies, he
bequeaths jurisdiction of said online virtual reality world to the player that
can locate three keys – or Easter eggs – hidden inside of his referential
universe.
Accepting the challenge is an improvised
gamer (Tye Sheridan) trying to escape his real world existence; a famed Easter
egg hunter (Olivia Cooke); and a CEO (Ben Mendelsohn) looking to enslave OSAIS
avatars.
Crammed with references to movies, video
games and other pop-culture touchstones, this half live-action, half
computer-animated production from director Steven Spielberg relies on nostalgia
and eye-candy to keep viewers distracted from its toothless villain and
predictable plot.
Moreover, who wants to rule a world that
has so many character copyright and licensing agreements? Yellow Light
You Were Never Really Here
The best thing about killing people for a
living is that you get to wear whatever you want to work.
Mind you, the hit-man in this thriller
enjoys doing it as an outlet for his anger.
After the army, mentally unbalanced Joe
(Joaquin Phoenix) now makes his living hammering heads of anyone he’s hired to
eliminate as a means to sustain his ill mother. But when he’s paid to rescue
the daughter of a Senator from a sex-traffic ring, Joe’s actions lead to even
worse consequences for him.
Fueled by hallucinations, Joe risks
everything to save the teenager from threats real and imagined.
A gritty, unflinching look at the sad life
of a lost veteran, this art-house take on the New York anti-hero has it’s
moments of touching brilliance thanks to Phoenix, but also many bouts of
bewilderment and boredom.
Furthermore, crazy hit-men are only good
for offing fictional characters. Yellow
Light
***Select Two Players***
Virtuosity
If real life were like a video game you
would get gold coins and eternal life for committing mass murder.
Unfortunately, as the avatar in this sci-fi
thriller is about to find out, the real world has real consequences.
SID 6.7 (Russell Crowe) is a VR composite
of serial killers, including the man who murdered the wife and daughter of Lt.
Barnes (Denzel Washington), who is now serving time for his retaliation. So
when SID escapes the virtual world and goes on a killing spree, it only makes
sense to send Barnes, and a criminal psychologist (Kelly Lynch), after the
astute android.
Ahead of its time, this action-heavy, tech
savvy cat-and-mouse cavort with a memorable performance from Crowe is crippled
only by its clichéd cops and robbers script and by the clunky special effects
of the mid-1990s.
Incidentally, there would’ve been more
bloodshed if Ask Jeeves had escaped into our reality.
He's a Re-Bootlegger. He's the...
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