So we have been hard at work here in the land +2 Comedy. The Podcast is happening! It will be every Monday at 7PM at Jesters and you are not just invited to be in the audience, but perhaps win the chance to join us on the podcast panel and win prizes! Hope to see you all there!
Okay quick update on what is going on here. I do not have time to post a full on review of every movie on the list and still have time to watch all the movies. So I am going to plow through the rest of my list and unload a monster post at the start of May. We will all be happier that way.
But this movie needed its own post because I have a lot to say about it. And that movie is Rubber!
Now let me start by saying that this will be a super spoiler full review. So if you have not seen it go watch it, or be resigned that this movie will be ruined for you. It is okay, chances are you are not going to like this movie.
Okay, thanks for sticking around. This is more of an analysis of my interpretation of the film, rather than a review. So be prepared. You see, this movie is billed as a horror movie about a killer tire. So most people go in thinking this will be a fun, campy, gore fest. You know something like an attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
That is the wrong way to go about it. This is not a a campy horror flick. No. This is a pretentious indy film. Think something more like… Adaptation.
So not only is this an indy film, this is a bad indy film. Horrible really. The acting, writing, all of it, garbage. And that is the point. You, watching the movie, is part of the movie. Let me explain. Take a look at the opening of the movie:
Let’s breaks this down. We start by destroying the chairs of the audience. This is meant to represent that you, the audience, are not meant to simply sit and watch the movie. You are a part of it. Sure you are removed from it but you still play an important active part. Now in the movie there is a character that represents you. They are an audience of people watching the same movie about a killer tire that you are, and that is who is being addressed in this scene, but more on this later. Lets talk about this speech on, “no reason.” We are asked the questions “Why is the president assassinated in JFK?” “Why can’t we see the air around us?” and “Why do some people like sausages while other people hate sausages?” and the answer we are given is “No reason.” But stop a second. That is not right. I can actually answer all those questions. JFK is assassination, because that is what happened in history. The air around us in invisible, because if it wasn’t we wouldn’t be able to see anything else. Some people like sausage because of personal preference and up bringing. So when he says that the movie has an element of no reason, he is lying!
SO WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF THE FIRST SCENE: You are part of this experience. If you sit there and don’t think about a deeper reason, this movie will appear to have no reason and be meaningless. However, if you are actively a part of this, there is so much more.
So now the movie really starts and there are two parts to the movie. Part one is the story of tire that blows stuff up with it’s…. mind? Take a look.
The second part is the group of audience members that are meant to represent us. They are watching the movie through binoculars. Again representing that the audience is removed from the events of the movie yet a part of the movie. After every few minutes they check back in with the audience which are meant to mirror the feelings we are having. And to be honest, I was impressed about how accurate it was. Many times I would make a joke only to watch the movie audience make the same comment. Now it is clear that the audience is us, the big difference is the audience in the movie is being staved.
As they are being staved they continue to watch the movie of this tire, which going out of it’s way to be a super pretentious indy film. There is no dialogue. There are very few characters other then the tire. The tire is basically the movie. So what does this tire do? It uses its psychic power to make people’s heads explode…. Or rather it blows your mind! Get it?! This movie is gonna blow your mind!
WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN: The audience in the film are staving. In the same way we are starving. Not for food, but for something worth wild to happen. The movie is intentionally starving us of a decent plot, the way the audience in the film is literally starved.
So at this point the movie is actively trying to get you to hate it. Sure you see something explode every now and then, but it is quickly getting old. The tire decided to shack up for the night and is just watching TV in a hotel room. This is painful. The audience in the film is then given a turkey, so they are finally able to eat. All but one person, the guy in the wheelchair, eats the turkey. We later discover the turkey was poisoned. So now the entire crowd is dead, except the man in the wheelchair, who is still watching.
Meanwhile the tire has killed a maid, and the police have been called in to look into it. The sheriff from the beginning of the movie is on the case and questioning witnesses. There is a young boy who knows the tire did it, but as always no one believes him. Then suddenly, the sheriff announces that the poison has taken effect and that they can all stop and go home. Yeah. It is really abrupt, but suddenly he decided that all of the people that were watching are dead, and there is no point in continuing. He then stresses that it is a movie, explaining how the patches on his uniform are fake, how nothing in the movie is a brand name, and even going as far as being shot to prove this is a movie. Then, he is informed that someone is still alive and that they have to keep going. Reluctant and shocked that someone is still watching. He watches the tire roll away and is disgusted that he now has to utter the line “My God, the kid is right. The killer is a tire.” Take a look.
SO WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS MEAN: This movie is trying to be awful. At this point in the film the movie is guessing that you, the person watching at home, has given up on the film, and shut it off. This movie is so bad, that the average person would not keep watching. The Turkey is representing what we want. It represents something of interest happening, but it is not. It is going to be more BLECK that will kill the film. More cinema poison. However the person in the wheelchair is not waiting for something to happen. He is just watching it for what it is. He represents us. Unlike the average person we are still watching.
This is what makes this movie special. I have come across a few people who have seen this film, and most of them say that they either gave up on the movie, or have fast forwarded through most of it. Little did they know if they had stuck with it, they would have been let in on the joke. The movie is bad on purpose. By continuing to watch you are actively breaking the movie. Nice work!
So the tire discovers a tire fire and goes on a mad killing spree. We of course do not get to see it. No, that would be far to interesting. That is all off screen. Instead we join the story once the cops are out side the tire’s… home? The have this awful plan where they have a dummy strapped with explosives shooting insults. The plan is, and these are the sheriff’s words, we want the tire to blow up the dummy and would blow himself up. It is kinda poetic. The man in the wheelchair calls him on the bullshit. The sheriff has had enough at this point and goes off with a shotgun and kills the tire. He does not care about the story. No one is suppose to be watching at this point, but instead he is getting criticism. So he just ends it. Or so he thinks. After handing the corpse of the tire to the lone spectator he says, “The end. Good bye.” Then this happens.
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON! You are the man in the wheelchair. By continuing to watch, you have also allowed it to continue. So when the man in the wheelchair says “I am not a character, I am just watching.” He has missed the point that I expressed at the start. By watching the movie you play a part in what the movie is! You are very much a character in the movie. So to say you are not, that is just wrong, and the movie makes a point to involve you. In the case of the wheelchair man, blowing him up.
So how does it end? The tire, now a tricycle, takes off down the road, leading the way as other tires spring up and follow it. They take a long journey and end up at Hollywood. Then it ends. Really, that’s it. Watch.
SO WHAT THE HELL WAS THE POINT OF ALL THIS! Sure it looks like it ends with a bad sequel hook, but there is a deeper message here. In the last scene the tricycle represents the movie as a whole. This movie has head the way for other films now. Rubber lead the way to Hollywood. In other words, this movie has now lead the way for other “tired” movies like Rubber to be made. Why did it do that? Because you actually watched it. You could have turned it off. You could have stopped Rubber, but you didn’t. You let it continue, and now, other movies like it can exist. Way to go asshole!
So in short. The message of the movie is to support the arts. I know it sounds like a jump but that is the simple message. Support the things you want to see. As long as we keep watching garbage there will be more garbage, because we are telling them that is what we want. Show them that we want better. We want quality. Watch something real. Watch something that matters. Watch something that has something to say. Watch Rubber…. or wait, don’t watch it…. shit now I am confused again! But you get my point…. right? Or did I just blow your mind!?
Will is still going through withdrawal as the History Channel stops airing it’s doomsday predictions, since the Mayan Calendar turned out to be such a flop. He’s looked every where for a new source of doomsday predictions, and this time he’s probably gone too far….
WOW! Wrestlemania really put me behind, but I will write about all the business later. I also plan to finish my 30 movie mission this month. We go from time crime to real crime in the buddy cop parody “The Other Guys”.
WHAT I KNEW GOING IN
-The typical action movie is about the huge, action packed, super cops. This movie is about the other guys.
-Will Ferrell is in this movie and is thankfully not playing a sport.
SPOILER FREE REVIEW
I honestly don’t know why I never saw this movie. I remember really wanting to see it, then I guess some horrible person said it was not good, and then it just slipped through the cracks. It is a shame because this movie is hilarious. It maintains a interesting and logical plot (at least for an action movie) and yet the comedy is shades of Airplane! or Naked Gun. It is the over the top ridiculousness that I just love.
The plot is basically what would happen to Mark Wahlberg’s character if he had not been promoted but demoted. Think about that. It is very true. We then join him as he tries to get a taste of the spotlight as he and his reluctant partner tries to blow open a huge crime scheme while learning what friendship is.
Despite all of the wackiness the credits are very interesting. It is a power point on cooperate corruption. It was actually very informative.
SPOILER REVIEW (if you have not seen this movie score passed the Spoiler Peacocks.
I AM A PEACOCK! YOU GOTTA LET ME FLY! (It is a comedy, what can I really spoil?)
RANKING
This movie is funny. Super funny. But super funny will only go so far.
1. The Departed
2. The Other Guys
3. Safety Not Guaranteed
4. In Time
From going back in time to running out of time. Movie number three is the Justin Timberlake Sci-Fi thriller In Time.
WHAT I KNOW GOING IN
-This is a universe where money has been replaced by time. You get more time for working, and then can spend time on food and shelter. -Your time is kept on your forearm and is always counting down. If you run out of time, you die.
-Justin Timberlake does not sing in the film.
NON SPOLIER REVIEW
So I decided to add this movie to the list, despite its mediocre reviews, because it was highly recommended to me by my sister. My sister is not known to be a fan of the Science Fiction genre so it made me curious why she liked it so much. Also the concept is pretty interesting. Time is money takes on a literal meaning. It is an odd concept to wrap your head around, so let me fully explain it in more detail.
In this world, everyone is engineered to be born with these clocks on their arms. When they are born they have one year on their arm, but the clock does not start ticking until the person turns twenty five. When you turn twenty five, the clock starts ticking. If the clock hits zero, you die, but you can work to make more time. As long as you have time on the clock, you are alive. Not just alive, but alive and twenty five. You never age past twenty five, so right then you know that all the women in this movie will be hot, which is nice. Now you can still be killed by being shot, or drowning, and the time on your arm cannot be taken if you are dead. So you could have a hundred years left, and it can all be lost because you cut yourself really bad shaving. Also, you can give or steal time from other people by rubbing your wrists together. Look, it is all kinda confusing. I wish one of those nerds from the Big Bang Theory was here to explain this a little better. Oh here comes one now!
That’s right Johnny Galecki AKA Leonard is in this movie. To be honest, this is actually a star-studded cast. Did you know Cillian Murphy is in this movie? Cause he is, and for some reason is billed higher then JT on IMDB for this movie. So yeah, Scarecrow is like this police officer who has to handle of the crimes of people stealing time. They call him a “Timekeeper.” Why a Timekeeper? Because they don’t want to call him a…
But that is not all. Olivia Wilde is Justin Timberlake’s mother. Will Harris makes an appearence and Mean Girl’s Amanda Seyfried shows up in what appears to be an Emma Stone costume.
Ok, so let’s get to the film itself. Let me start by saying that if you like puns, man is this movie for you. We are wee moments into the movie before the pun lines come out. “Who has time for a girlfriend?” “Hey Will, you got a minute?” “I don’t have time for this?” On and on and on. The worst by far is at one point someone actually says. “At this point, I would say, your money or your life, but in this case your money is your life.” Why would anyone ever says this. At one point we meet a character that is actually 108 years old. So that means that the time as currency has existed for at least a century. NO ONE WOULD EVER SAY THIS.
Alright on to the plot. JT is your basic good guy. He works hard, gives time when he can, doesn’t take part in underground time fights. He is a good guy living in the poor section of district 12. Not to self, district 12 is always super poor. He then is given a century as a gift. So he is now rich and runs off to live the high life. This is the first of many holes in this movie. He spends I want to says over two years just traveling to the rich area. He is already down to ninety eight years, and he has not bought anything yet. The is no way that 100 years makes you rich. It costs so much to do anything, and you are constantly burning money. It just is impossible to live. That is kinda the point, but with the robberies and such, everyone would be dead in a year.
That is the other issue. Now I am not sure if everyone in the world lives like this or if it is just part of the world, but lets just say that it is everyone. That means there are seven billion clocks ticking down. That means that is everyone loses a second every second, that means 222 YEARS are lost every SECOND and not in any way recirculated into their time economy. So eventually everyone is going to run out of time, unless they can create time. Which they can, since every baby is born with a year on their clock. So they say a baby is born every eight seconds. That is simply not enough. That means every eight second their world has a net loss of 1775 years! This world is doomed to collapse!
Now, I am being critical. This is actually pretty interesting if you don’t think about it too hard. There are also so really interesting elements to it. For example, in this world, moving fast is a sign of being poor. The rich move slowly because they have the time to spare. (It is hard not to make the puns actually.) Also, I have to double check this one, but I don’t think I saw a clock at any point in the movie.
Over all the concept alone is interesting enough to carry the movie, and is really interesting if you are willing to accept it with no question.
SPOILER REVIEW (If you have not seen this movie, please do not read what is between the spoiler clocks)
Okay, I did really enjoy the movie for the most part. There is a constant suspense where someone’s clock could go empty at any moment. I liked that since a poor man became rich, the timekeepers or police, assume that he is a criminal. The first half of this movie is basically Titanic. Justin Timberlake, like Leo, is able to rub shoulders with the upper class because of the winnings from a poker game. At the time he does not know it will lead to his downfall. He then meets a woman that for some reason longs to be poor. The second half of the movie is then Robin Hood. JT runs around robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. It is a fun concept, but the ending was stupid.
The timekeeper, in pursuit of JT, noticed that he only had 45 minutes left so he asks for his “per diam.” Then he happens to see JT and decides he no longer needs the time, since he was about to arrest them. Why? Arrested or not he still only has 45 minutes left. He did not need to stop to download the time. There is no reason why he should not take the time other then so JT can get it when he needs it. Dumb.
Also, what was the deal with his dad? We know he was dead. We know that the timekeeper knew him…. just not sure why that was important to the story.
RANKING
I will say it again, In Time is a cool idea, and fun, but only if you don’t think about it to hard…… But I like to think.
1. The Departed
2. Safety Not Guaranteed
3. In Time
It looks like every movie I watch will just be worse than the last.
Yes it is day two, we go from the gritty Departed to the indy romp Safety Not Guaranteed.
WHAT I KNEW GOING IN
-A magazine is doing a story on an ad they saw in the paper. The ad was asking for a conpainion to go back in time with him. They want to do a story on if this guy is nuts or just joking around.
-The main character is the super hot Aubrey Plaza. You probably know her best as Julie Powers from Scott Pilgrim VS The World. She is crazy hot. Like super hot. She may be my celebrity pass. God I love her. I mean did you see her WOW ad?
Oh my God the shorts. *non creepy nerd boner* Moving on!
NON SPOILER REVIEW (Makes more sense to have it first.)
So in this movie Kenneth is the guy looking to go back in time with a companion. Yeah Whovians, it is a time traviler looking for a companion. They are trying to get you guys. Darius, trains to be said companion but is actually doing it to write a story for her boss, Jeff. Jeff on the other hand really doesn’t care about the story and is using it as an excuse to look up his high school sweetheart.
This creates the obvious parallel of two stories of men, and the different ways they want to go back to experience their better days. It is actually very effective and well done. It is a little tough at first because so much time is spent making Jeff unlikeable just to have him run off and have his own story were are suppose to care about, but over all is is great storytelling.
So we see Kenneth and Darius’s relationship change and grow as they train and prepare for time travel. We also see the growth and change of Jeff’s relationship with his high school sweet heart as they relearn about each other. The whole time we are left unsure if Kenneth is a genius or crazy, which makes the movie a lot of fun. Now I won’t go much further than that in this part of the review because I don’t want to spoil stuff, and you can read that in the spoiler section. But this needs to be said. This is an Indy movie. Like a super Indy movie. Really look at the checklist.
-Long opening where the directer breaks the rules of film making in an attempt to develop a “directing style” that never comes up again. CHECK! In this case we have a conversation where the character’s look directly into the camera as if it is the person they are talking to. It makes the audience feel awkward and it never happens again. To be honest, the directing is very inconstant. There are set up shots with a steady camera, but the next scene it is handheld and shaking with items in the foreground interrupting the shot. Is this suppose to look like a movie or a reality show? No one can be sure.
-Relationship growth shown through montage. CHECK! TWICE!
-Indy song trying to use this movie as a vehicle. CHECK!
-Lots of Chekhov guns that never fire, in an attempt to make it seem more like “real life.” CHECK! What I mean by that is that there are a lot of things that get set up, that you feel are setting something up for something later, and they are just not. For example, Kenneth has a fake ear. Sounds like a spoiler. Not the case, because it never comes up again. It is just part of life, man.
SPOILER REVIEW (This is for people who have seen the movie. If you have not don’t read what is between the spoiler time travel booths.)
Okay, lets talk about this ending. There is really only two ways this movie can end. 1. We find out if Kenneth can time travel or not or 2. we are left unsure if he can. Some how this movie manages to have it both ways. The last scene we see our two heroes enter the time traveling air boat (which I named “The S. S. Archer’s wet dream”) and boom they vanish going back in time… or they just vaporized themselves. We never see if they arrive in the past, or change anything. They are just gone. It leaves me really confused, because I want to see what happens next, because I have no idea what their next step in the plan is. I mean Kenneth says that he is going back to save a girl, but he says that he is now going back for Darius. So what is the next step. Are they saving Darius’s mother? Is he trying to meet her sooner. I just wanted a little more closure then I got.
Oh and real quick, go-karts representing youth? Hey Colin Trevorrow, You know Kevin Smith already did that and did it better right? Don’t ripoff the Jersey boy, we will cut you.
RATING
I did enjoy this film quite a bit. It was hard for me to watch a a super fan of time travel movie, so I kept wanting it to be more Sci-Fi then it was ever going to get, but that did not get in the way too much. I do recommend this movie, but sadly the only movie it is up against is The Departed, so I think you know how this is going to go.
For the month of April I will watch one movie a day and write a quick review of the movie. The rules were that they all had to be movies that I have never seen that people said I should have in order to be a real person. Here is the list. Remember movies will not be watched in this order.
1. Red State
2. The Departed
3. The Artist
4. Boondock Saints
5. Empire Records
6. The Fall
7. Tucker and Dave VS Evil
8. Iron Sky
9. Fanboys
10. Super 8
11. Rubber
12. The Other Guys
13. Argo
14. Interzone
15. VHS
16. Eraserhead
17. Zorro: The Gay Blade
18. Dark Crystal
19. Brick
20. Safety Not Guaranteed
21.My Neighbor Totoro (I know)
22. Snatch
23. Equilibrium
24. Rodger Dodger
25. Fried Green Tomatoes
26. Perks of Being a Wallflower
27. In Time
28, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
29. Oldboy
30. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Onward to the first movie!
The Departed
WHAT I KNEW GOING IN
-This movie is apparently awesome.
-There is a rat.
- We are heading off to Boston.
-The Simpsons did a Departed episode.
-Since it is a good movie, chances are Leonardo DiCaprio dies. I mean really think about it. Every movie where Leo is in a lead role it is only a good movie if he dies. Go ahead try to argue with me because The Beach sucked ass. BTW Leo does not star is What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and the awesome power of Tom Hanks makes Catch Me If You Can so good that Leo can live. Also he gets hit by a train in Inception so your arguments are invalid.
SPOILER REVIEW (If you don’t want to read spoilers, don’t read between the spoilers rats.)
This movie was not what I suspected. I knew it was a movie about a rat, aka an informant, but I went in thinking there was a gang of Irish criminals and we spend the movie trying to figure out who the rat is. That is not the case. DiCaprio is the a cop who is under cover in Jack Nickolson’s gang. Mean while Damon is a cop who is actually a rat for Nickolson. The movie is then a long chess match between the two where each is trying to stay one step ahead of the other. By the end of the film we see that Dicaprio and Damon are actually two sides of the same coin. Throughout the movie both are dressed some what similar, and you see their tactics in tipping of their side mirror each other. They also met their end the same way, they open a door and are shot in the head. They are also banging the same woman.
See that is where the movie kinda lost me. This was something I just could not buy into is that fact that out of every woman in Boston, they and up with the same one. She was a shrink at the police office that Damon worked at and DiCaprio was in some desperate need of some therapy, so sure it is logical that they both could end up with that girl. Still I find it unlikely, even in DiCaprio’s failing mindset, would talk to a therapist that he know has connections to the police. I know that is was more for symbolic purposes, more than logic, but it did bug me.
Also at this point I am sure you have noticed that I have been saying “Damon” and “that girl” in this review. Well I have always had a simple motto when it comes to the difference between a good movie and a bad movie is good movies you remember the characters’ names can’t say that I can with this move. Granted it might just be because of the overwhelming star power and the thick Boston accents making them tough to remember.
NON SPOILERS AND RANKING
This movie is really fantastic. While not a movie I feel like I could watch over and over again, I can say I was entertained from start to finish. All two and a half hours about it. Yes I know that sounds look, but for a 151 minute movie, the plot moves fast. High recommend this one. And can I just that for all the love the lead actors receive for this film Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin have awesome performances. If you are a fan of mob movies, suspense or Jack Nickolson, see this movie.
Now this is how the rankings will work. Instead of giving it a score I am going to rank all the movies from 1-30 as I watch them. Little boring at the moment, but here is the ranking so far:
The gaming gods have finally shined down on us and had delivered on to us Bioshock Infinite! Yet I must admit, I never played the original. So I played it recently. Did it live up to the hype.
TO THOSE WHO HAVE NOT PLAYED AND KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE GAME
Yes, it does live up to the hype. Now would you kindly do yourself the favor and go play it?
TO THOSE WHO HAVE PLAYED SPOILERS AHOY!
Guys, this was rough going in. I knew about “would you kindly.” I knew that Atlas would turn on me and I knew I would murder Andrew Ryan. So with very little to blow me away story wise it all fell onto game play.
The game play in Bioshock is solid. This is a first person shooter with RPG elements done right. Leveling made sense and was rewarding and not frustrating, the effectiveness of different ammo types creates strategy elements and weapon choice is a major factor in the way you play. For example, you have a group of splicers in a puddle of water. You can zap them and kill them all, but you have a buff that killing them with the wrench will get you some health back witch you need. So you pick to cover the enemy’s in bees then wench them. Little did you know that while you did not see the Big Daddy in the background the bees did…
Which brings me to the Big Daddy. The silent guardian of the Little Sisters. Okay, silent is not the right word. These things are loud as hell. But they are gentle beasts until threatened. This is such an interesting dynamic that brings me back to Shadow of the Colossus. These creatures are only attacking you when you give them a reason to, but you have to kill them if you want to move forward in the game. Very well done… even if I could not stop thinking of this guy:
So everything seems awesome right? We I must say that it didn’t all work for me. Now I know this is mostly my fault for knowing to much, but I was not captured by Rapture like most. Firstly, I kept being told that this was the scariest game. That is unless you have a shotgun then you can just plow through. Now this is also my fault in part because I played on easy, which I know is stupid, but I didn’t have time to get killed and restart. There were a few moments where they create a really scary situation, but one of which is also in there to basically teach you how to blow people away with the shotgun. Once I made it though that part the fear vanished and I felt like I was unstoppable, and I was basically right.
I will admit to jumping at times, but never really out of fear, more of a “oh you jerks!” kind of jump, when the statues came to life, or splicers were playing dead. Nothing that made me quiver in my boots, and as some one who doesn’t like to be scared, I am cool with that. However this is not did Noah like the game. No this is “Did it live up to the hype,” and it does not meet up with the scariest game hype for me.
I also felt very disconnected. I just wanted someone to talk to, to interact with. Sure I knew Atlas was a jerk already so that hurt our friendship. You have your time with Brigid, but it is basically a very lonely game. Every person you meet you end up murdering or watching die. It creates this feeling of “something big WAS going on here” rather than “Something big IS going on here.” The closest you get to having actual interaction is Sander Cohen, since you have the option to kill him or not…. so you can kill him later and get better stuff.
So overall this is a fantastic game. I enjoyed every minute of killing, safe cracking and upgrading. (Okay maybe not safe cracking.) The question is does it live up to the hype. Well the hype is huge. It has been called the scariest game of all time. The best argument that video games are art. A deconstruction of the player’s relationship with video games. G4 even named it the 3rd greatest game of all time. That is a crap ton of hype, and sadly it just can’t live up to it. It does not mean the game is bad. Quite the contrary, it is awesome. But the hype for it is now so high, that you can’t help but feel a little disappointing, because the criteria in which you judge it by going in are impossible high. I mean at this point every one says Bioshock 2 is one of the worst game ever made. I am sure if I play it I would think it would be okay. There is no way that game will live up to the negative hype it has. Same goes for the high hype for Bioshock. Great game. Glad I played it. Did not live up to the hype.