Review by Gokhra
The plot:
Tobey McGuire is a good old boy throughout the previous Spidey movies. He even has that image that can't be anything other than a goody two shoes. So he gets a real big helping hand this tie around to indulge in his bad side. And that too to the relief of the viewers.
The movie opens with Peter and his girlfriend, Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), ecstatically in love. He is comfortable being Spidey while her stage career has taken off.
After the opening night of her new musical, they lie on a web doing what lovers do best. Stargazing. Things can't go on nicely for too long. A glowing meteor blazes softly to earth and a black blob oozes out. Peter and Mary Jane are gleefully oblivious, driving off on his motorbike, as the goop affixes itself to the fender.
Then there is Harry (James Franco), whom we saw last seething at Peter/Spider-Man for killing his father, the Green Goblin. Here they have a big fight scene that leaves Harry with a memory-erasing concussion that temporarily rekindles their friendship.
And then there is the big bad villains. Peter faces, Eddie Brock (played by Topher Grace), whom Jameson will grant a staff job should he find incriminating photos of Spider-Man. With the new black suit which, for Peter, becomes a freeing id catching naughty Spidey could get easier.
The verdict:
Phew! That pretty much covers most of the stuff you will be expecting. So is it as good as everyone hopes? Well, a decent print is yet to be out. Sam Raimi's direction of all the Spidey movies made sure that the story was about the characters psychological and emotional ups and downs. It was always a tale about the lives behind the fight scenes. That's what made this superhero franchise such a notch above every other flick. This sequence continues in the tried method of character development but it also adds a lot more action. The stuff that goes ka-bloooey! This is a intricately plotted tale where Peter Parker grows up a bit more.
The villains are great especially the riveting performance by Thomas Haden Church as Sandman. Even their human sides are well expressed.
The movie has a lot of high flying action with Peter always on the move. He is either facing his own demons or other demons. With several villains to play with, he has his hands full. Unlike Daredevil or Elektra, having several villains doesn't leave you short of breath. It makes for a nice sequence of events without leaving too many plot holes like in Superman.
Mcguire is perfectly cast as Spidey and makes it all look like the easiest acting he's ever done.
The film lasts well over two hours but it hardly gets to be tiring.
The last time I was this dragged into a movie was SinCity. I watched the epic and kept praying it would not end. Same case here.
It's difficult to disagree (and very few dare to disagree) the fact Rabindranath Tagore is probably the biggest idol in Bangla literature. Be it with soulful musicals, heartwarming poetry, captivating drama or eye-opening, unforgettable short stories and novels; Tagore has made his mark in various angles of literature and stolen every Bangali's heart. Artists here and abroad have voiced Tagore's lyrics and music and a recent addition to this long list is Sahana Bajpaie.
Sahana Bajpaie debut release 'Notun Kore Pabo Bole' explores Tagore's compositions and reminds us what a great songwriter he is. Of all the well-known artists professing in Rabindra Sangeet, this particular album has captivated my attention and left me craving for more. The numbers give Tagore's pieces a new-age feel, which I believe the so-called X-Y-Z generation can relate to. On a personal level, I've rarely been mesmerized by local re-making of Rabindra Sangeet. I always felt none could properly portray Tagore's musicals and thus, only a rare few could bring his brilliance home to listeners of my age. Smooth, sophisticated and edgy, Sahana's album, in my opinion, fills that missing gap, breaks out of the typical depiction of Tagore's work and can be wholesomely enjoyed by all age groups!
What makes 'Notun Kore Pabo Bole' a favourite of mine is the perfect combination of sensuous vocals with a range of instruments. Mixed and arranged by Ornob Chowdhury, the album discovers the soul-soothing chords and notes of esraaj, khol, flute, harmonium and tabla. The depth of Shahana's voice carves the offbeat instruments beautifully, thus giving each composition a refreshing dimension. In a generation of fast drumming and guitar solos, this album offers variation and a breakthrough for young musicians and listeners in terms of instrumentization.
If you're familiar with the idea of 'thinking outside the box', then I'd say this album gave its listeners a decent interpretation of the concept. Shahana's influences root back to Santiniketon, and her debut release will allow everyone to rediscover the magnificence of Tagore's work.
'Notun Kore Pabo Bole' has been produced by Bengal Music Company Ltd and is available in local shops now.
True Mom Confessions
http://www.truemomconfessions.com/
True Mom Confessions is a website where Mums around the world gather to talk about and confess what it's really like to be a mother. Sure there's the joy, but there's also the exhaustion, guilt and a lot more negative sides too that we all seem to forget with the flood of over-sentimental write-ups and opportunistic marketing around Mothers Day. Not that I don't like my mum or anything, (My mum rocks!), but before going overboard with all the emotions, head over to this site to get a slightly better idea of what it's really like to be a mum.
The Happiness Formula
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/(Alternative shorter link: http://tinyurl.com/pw98s)
What makes us happy? And why? Why doesn't more money lead to more happiness? How much importance do we put on being happy? Here in this project, BBC tries to find out. Learn why the increased wealth of countries hasn't necessarily translated into greater happiness, and decide for yourself if the government of Bhutan has figured out the balance between good cheer and wealth. Find out if joyful people are healthier, and how levels of fulfillment change throughout our lives. Then take a test and see just how satisfied you really are. If the results are a little lower than you'd like, the site's got good news for you: joy is something we can all afford - and is easily within our reach. :)
Encyclopedia of Life
http://www.eol.org/
This upcoming project aims to list and categorize ALL the animals and insects and plants and every kind of living things on the planet. It's still not properly started yet; all the “real content” is going to be available from next year, but the way they are planning everything, it looks super cool. Not only are they gonna have professionally laid out pages full of pictures and text, the site's even gonna have cool tools like “diversity explorer”, where you get to find out other similar animals and how they relate to each other. Cool stuff. This is exactly what something that calls itself the Encyclopedia of Life should be like! Good thing it's soon going to be.
By Tareq Adnan
Burnout is one of those senseless games that everyone loves and admires for the simple reason that it offers plain simple fun (unlike games like NFS Carbon that dump a stupidly hard boss race on you on regular intervals). Burnout Dominator is the latest offering from EA even though it's not technically a sequel to Revenge since Burnout 5 is currently being developed as a sequel for the PS3.
Dominator consists of features and driving mechanics of previous games all put together. Unlike its predecessors however, this game is more based around skill based driving than just crazily bashing into every other opponent. The actual burnout feature which has been missing from the game since Burnout 2 is back. By filling the set boost meter until it turns blue (which indicates the fact that you can now supercharge) and then boosting until the meter is empty gives you burnout. There's also a second meter which fills up while you're are boosting, the point of this meter is that if you can fill it up before your boost runs out, you get a full boost once you achieve burnout. By doing this you can maintain continuous boost throughout whole races. But like I said before, this game is more about skill, maintaining boost throughout a race can require quite a bit of maneuvering and crazy driving.
The races are all what we've come to expect from Burnout. The score based races that give you points on dangerous driving are back, along with the timed lap races and the road rages. The only complaint I have is that they've omitted Crash Mode, which was the epitome of Burnout insanity. The game feels curiously incomplete without it.
The graphic, although spiffy, aren't what I've come to expect. The overall visual outlook is smudgy in a way and the car models aren't what I'd call beautiful (some I'd call plain uninspired ugly). The crashes aren't as beautiful (or insane) as they were in previous games and the cars, no matter the amount of bashing they take, just don't look battered enough.
I've had the privilege of trying this game out on a PSP, and the impression it left was that the game was meant to a PSP only and then in the last moment they decided on a PS2 version as well. Even though the game has drawbacks (the biggest of which is the Crash Mode omission), if you want crazy insane driving, then this is for you.
