The VidZone Network Blog

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Midnight in Paris

Carl — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:20:18 +0000

The annual Woody Allen film can be hit or miss, but this year’s Midnight in Paris is a comedy-with-a-message homerun. Owen Wilson’s character is a Hollywood screenwriter trying to go “legitimate” and write a novel. He romanticizes 1920s Paris and lost after a night of drinking, takes a seat on a set of stairs. The [...]

Something for Nothing: Premium Editions Didn’t Always Charge a Premium

Carl — Mon, 23 May 2011 05:33:12 +0000

Now that I’ve indulged in Amazon Prime’s everything-ships-free plan instead of having to find filler to reach the $25 mark for free shipping, I get a lot of individual movies or games in the mail–small, light boxes instead of larger, denser boxes with three or more things packed inside. On Friday, I received one such [...]

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance

Carl — Sat, 21 May 2011 04:59:42 +0000

Whereas Evangelion: 1.11 You Are [Not] Alone was essentially a re-tweaking and fresh coat of paint over the now 15-year old series, the second in the movie reboot trilogy(/quadrilogy?), Evangelion: 2.22 You Can [Not] Advance, is a whole new animal, barely recognizable from the events in the original anime. Similar to another strong second installment, [...]

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Thoughts on Thor

Carl — Fri, 06 May 2011 19:39:52 +0000

Ultimately, it turns out Thor is a movie about love (not strictly romance) and respect. With a throne at stake, sibling rivalry, and corruption within the kingdom, perhaps Kenneth Branagh–better know for his Shakespearean work–is the appropriate director for this particular “summer blockbuster.” That said, this is a more introspective superhero movie, reminding us that [...]

Jammed If You Do, Jammed If You Don’t

Carl — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:02:17 +0000

Oh, hey, a writing prompt I can knock out real quickly! Let’s do this. (Important note: I write this not as a representative of EA Sports (past, present, or future) but rather as *just* a game producer.) While browsing Kotaku and the sea of fan whining, I saw this article about EA officially saying there [...]

The audience for webcams?

Carl — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 07:54:02 +0000

With the exception of that time in college I hooked up my PS2 EyeToy to my PC (just because I heard you could), I haven’t ever really paid mind to using a webcam. For the most part, IMs got the job done, and if I wanted to talk to someone, I had a phone in [...]

Favorite Video Gaming Moments (1st Edition)

Carl — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 07:04:54 +0000

I really do enjoy writing, whether or not anyone ultimately reads the result. You should see my backlog of posts that I’ve started but haven’t yet finished because of my inability to stop rambling on Tim-Rogers-style. Thank goodness for 1up’s article about their writers’ favorite gaming moments; it serves as a good bite-sized writing prompt. [...]

Me, My Car, and LA

Carl — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 05:37:33 +0000

Last week I went with some buddies to attend a friend’s wedding. We were flying in and out of LAX, the wedding was in Santa Ana, and there was a party downtown. We needed to rent a car. Early in my undergrad, I’d joined a group of students on a trip to LA to see [...]

My Gaming “Blind-Spots”

Carl — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:32:36 +0000

I find it amusing they used what appears to be a Countach for the car. [Image credit] I took the opportunity during my drive back to Orlando to catch up on some podcasts. One of which was the Kotaku podcast regarding “gaming blind spots”–games or genres that one just hasn’t experienced, unintentionally or otherwise. I [...]

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Alice in Wonderland

Carl — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:27:44 +0000

Tim Burton’s take on the Alice story seems to have all the right parts: A vibrant, committed, perfect-fit cast, spectacular costuming, and a focused end-point from the get-go. But somehow all these parts didn’t seem well-edited together. Taken individually, the scenes are fine, but I often found myself asking “is this what I’m really concerned [...]