Honky dory TAB

Story:
Walter Fielding (Tom Hanks) and Anna Crowley (Shelley Long) have to start looking for a new house- but there's not much they can afford! This soon changes when they meet a lonely old con-artist who sells them a beautiful mansion at a ridiculously low price. Only there's a catch. The second Walter and Anna move in to the house it falls apart, starting from the stairway, to the bath falling through the roof to eventually the chimney falling into the house! Finally, they have to renovate the house before the frame collapses but the renovations also prove to be a disaster. This creates strains on their relationship as well an a former ex husband, Max, still chases Anna..

So having just bought a house for myself and done some much needed renovations, plus loving 80`s Tom Hanks, I decided one day to watch this gem from the golden years.

Just following this couple through the different strains thats put on their relationship was worth the watch along. Both Tom and Shelly are top notch actors and certainly know how to do subtle anger and god ol slapstick often at the same time. Stepping in as the evil ex is Alexander Godunov playing Max Beissart, the Orchestra maestro with a god complex and not only is he a ex. He`s also Shellys musical director since she`s playing in the orchestra that he`s directing (brilliantly showed but not explained)

Thats one of the reasons that I wanted to see an "older film" Ive grown tired of not really being challenged and having the characters explain what they are thinking. 80`s and 90`s movies are more complex, adult, and don't make a fool out of the audience-member.

Every home owner will recognize some of the situations they encounter. All from bad electrics to shifty carpenters. The damage done to the house is small at first the then gradually gets worse and worse... But the funny bit is also just seeing them handle it without loosing it

The ending is a bit to simple in my taste. But it does round up the movie and isn't way out there to cliché in terms of overdoing it.

8/10



Here`s a small scene from the movie to give you a sense of the destruction and absurdity of whats happen. His body language in most of the scenes are spot on despite being in a very young age. Great acting

Who? No, he`s not a pornstar..

You might not know his slightly skinnier "Seth Macfarlane mug" from this single photo alone (unless you watch "Port Charles" or "General Hospital") but if you have played any big game the last two years his voice is highly recognizable.

He`s mostly know for the Uncharted series but he`s also been the voice star of Assassins creed, Army of Two, The Saboteur, Dragon Age, HALO ODST, Red Faction Guerrilla, Gears of War 2 and Prince of Persia... Complete list here

It was when I started playing Dark Void that my mind started to recognize his voice. I thought to myself that the main character of Dark Void (who`s name slipped my mind and aren't particularly interesting) looked an awfully lot like Nathan Drake in both modeling and volume wise. Although a bit more cartoony. I thought to myself: My god, even the characters are starting to look like each other in todays games.. First it was the brown/gray, overly parallax mapped environments, now this? Whats next? Will they use the same voice actors also?

And then the character spoke......

SAME DUDE!

Ile admit that it did take couple of minutes before I recognized his voice.. but once it clicked, a flash of characters rushed before me.



Me beef is not with him (although I do want to send him to a "Just Say NO" - course) plus having the same character in a huge blockbuster AAA game in your small production do cast a little light on the product and is not a totally new concept. Just look at Ron Pearlman, Dennis Hopper, Ben Kinglsy, Udo Kier! HECK, any Uwe Boll movie!

My main beef is with producers of the games. Don't they realize that they undermine the players and their own games by doing such a dick move? It breaks the illusion that thousand of artists creates and gamers experience!

I'm pretty sure getting a good voice actor is nothing if not a daunting assignment and therefore its pretty tempting to just go with a guy hows already got a long run of voice-acting but the same dude for several MAIN characters?

I'm slightly disappointed and more offended, but then again the gaming suits couldn't care less about that..

I just wanted to make sure more people got the news... Now if you will excuse me, Ile play some Just cause 2.. At least there the dialogue is so overplyed and terrible that Ile forget about Nathan... At least until Uncharted 3 comes out..

Labels: games, other