Presents & The Departed

I received a plethora of presents for my birthday – of which I was very grateful, including:

A variety of DVD’s: Vengeance Trilogy, X-Men 3 & Imagine
Disgaea 2 for PS2
Numerous (mainly Beatles related) CD’s
And a selection of John Wyndham books.

On my birthday I watched Oldboy (again). It really is a startling film, which reminds me in many ways in both style and content to French cinema, rather than Asian cinema, most of all the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The sad thing is that although the film is by far the best film that I have seen in recent years, and blow Hollywood films out of the water, I know that it will only be seen by a handful of people and of those that do watch it only a few will “get” it in the same way that I “get” it. I know I’m not making much sense, but what the hell.

Games played:
Disgaea 2
This is exactly the type of game that I absolutely love (that and Advance wars). Something that relies on your brain rather than pure reflexes. If only something like this came out on the DS, portable SRPG’s would just be fantastic.

The graphics in the game are frankly rubbish, but then again, Disgaea has never been about graphics, it’s always been about absorbing and highly complex strategic play (with a dash of humour), and it has this in abundance. It’s a shame the most of the characters from the first game are not present, although it would seem that Etna will be making an appearance at least in the not too distant future.

Roll on Disgaea 3 (pretty please)

Film watched:
The Departed
I had very high hopes for this film, being a big fan of Martin Scorses films, especially Goodfella’s and the thought of another gangster related film was just to good to miss.

I have to say, however, that I was very disappointed. Apart from great performances by Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio and an interesting first half, there is little to recommend. In fact, the ending just fell a little flat and at times, the violence in the film just felt like violence for violence sake, i.e. to try to outdo Goodfella’s.

6.5/10