BYTE: Super September

I'm Paul ... and this is Paul & The Popcorn - welcome to Super September!

As the we leave the summer behind, September springs forth with a number of confusing weather patterns and darker nights - but also my birthday, a few more cool movies at the cinema and the transfer window closes on the football which means only one thing - FIFA is out and people are playing it!

But before we get to the computers let's look to the cinema - now blockbuster season is waning, there is still lots more to look forward to - films such as October's SPECTRE (the latest James Bond outing for Daniel Craig) and November's Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and December's Star Wars offering, the movies of 2015 haven't quite finished blowing your mind just yet. One on my "to see" list is Matt Damon's latest The Martian which looks superb - but at first I thought it was a sequel to Interstellar. If you've seen that movie, you'll know what I mean.

Let's get to the computers - the Star Wars themed next exciting installment of Disney Infinity 3.0 is now available and not only are we treated to some classic Star Wars charactes to play but also the new ones from the new movie are there too. Mickey & Minnie Mouse are also available as are the cast of Pixar's latest movie Inside Out. This expands the game somewhat and to round it off the Hulkbuster and Ultron are also available for the playset. Cool huh?

I also visited York comic-con which was a fantastic adventure at York racecourse. There was plenty of things to see and buy - and I came home with Jack and Sally Pop Vinyl's from Nightmare Before Christmas.

Looking at the latest stuff as well:

>   Xbox Live:  Games with Gold this month includes the full games of Crysis 3 on XBOX 360 and for the posh 'uns who have XBOX ONE you are treated to The Deer God and, surprisingly, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition to download free if you are a subscriber.

>  PSN: PS Plus this month is as follows:

PS4 has:
Driveclub: PlayStation Plus Edition
Grow Home
Teslagrad
Super Time Force Ultra
Xeodrifter

PS3 gets:

Teslagrad

Twisted Metal

Vita receives:
Super Time Force Ultra
Xeodrifter
La Mulana Ex

Of course usual rules apply in that if you stop your subscription those games'll stop workin'.

Origin have another Game On The House which is Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2.

As always we have Loot Crate and Nerd Block unboxings to look forward to...

...AND Marvel Collector Corps in October.

It's time to go now but - have a super September and I'll see you soon.

Keep being awesome!

Until next time

Paul

REVIEW: American Ultra (15)

American Ultra stars contemporary starlets Jesse Eisenberg as Mike Howell and Twilight's Kristen Stewart as his long suffering girlfriend, Phoebe Larson. In a small town, Mike Howell is in a "perfect" relationship with his girlfriend. He works at a small convenience shop, is pursuing his dream of being a comic book artist and everything is going great. Great, until a new director of the CIA comes into play and decides that Mike is on his hit list to be eliminated. The former director takes umbrage to this and decides to warn Mike about his impending doom. Then the story unravels to find that Mike is actually a highly trained and genetically modified super soldier that has been deactivated. So, naturally when the CIA goes after him, the former director reactivates him. This then gives him heightened senses and abilities - not bad for a guy who likes to get drunk, stoned and suffers panic attacks.

What could be best described as Trainspotting meets Salt, American Ultra has the graphic violence of a manga comic or anime with a black comedy undertone. I found Eisenberg's character hard to like, and spends most of the time running away or cowering in the corner. But when he does fight it is both gruesome and quite gripping. What could have been an edge of your seat action flick becomes more of a run and hide operation and we only see flashes of this guys abilities. He is almost a superhero in his own right but we don't get to see enough of that.

Topher Grace plays a fantastically smarmy bad guy as the CIA director Adrian Yates and is as smarmy as he is dangerous. The ever reliable John Leguizamo is fantastic and basically plays himself - which is what he always does and it's great. It's also nice to see Bill Pullman in the mix too. Eisenberg plays a decent Mike - but the character himself doesn't really have much going about him. Kristen Stewart doesn't do bad acting here and is sometimes (I said sometimes) endearing but generally joins in the with run and hide/getting caught mould for most of the movie.

Although the movie is full of bloody violence, drugs, sex references and bad language there is one awesome moment where one of the head henchman called Laugher, has a moment with Mike after trying to kill him. He asks Mike who controls him. Mike replies, "No-one," and Laugher shows some real humility by replying innocently - "that must be nice." It was a fantastic and moving piece of cinematography which was probably one of the highlights of the film. The other spark of brilliance was when Mike is pinned down by a gun man in his own house and he throws a pan in the air and shoots a bullet to ricochet off it. It's things like this that make you think a bit more thought and this could be downright awesome!

The zero to hero storyline and the basic premise have been seen a million times before, but the movie is really strange but I can't put my finger on why. It's seems to be a bit all over the place and I was desperately trying to think what score I could give it and I found it difficult. I though 6/10 but that is totally doing it an injustice because it's actually ok as an action movie. Then 7/10 is being too generous. Even 6.5/10 is not quite right so, for the first time ever I'm giving a movie:

POPSCORE: 6.8/10

What am I talking about? American Ultra the movie
Where can I find out more? http://www.americanultrathemovie.com
If you liked this try: The Bourne Identity, Salt, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Hot Fuzz