I'm going to try to make this a weekly thing with Virtual Viewpoints where I talk about the major games, DVDs, TV shows and movies coming this week. Before I was writing for Console Gold I did writing for DVD Talk reviewing DVDs and theatrical movies. I also wrote movie reviews when I was back in college and I still wish I had them around, I wrote some pretty good ones. Anyway, onto this week's releases.
Games
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Xbox/PC): yep, the game finally comes out tomorrow for systems outside of the PS2. Supposedly the graphics are improved much like they were for the Xbox double-pack (GTA III and Vice City). I never picked this game up for PS2, but I may do so for the Xbox or PC...we shall see.
Medal of Honor: European Assault (Xbox/PS2/Cube): the next game in the series. From early reviews it sounds like Electronic Arts Los Angeles has righted the ship somewhat after it took a sharp left turn with Rising Sun on the consoles and Pacific Assault on PC. There is no multiplayer though on any version, which kind of makes me disappointed. Medal of Honor used to be the top WWII game out there.
DVDs
Sopranos Season 5: We're still almost a year from new Sopranos episodes and the recent rumors are that there will be an abbreviated 7th season of Sopranos since David Chase has supposedly come up with more scripts than would fill the final 6th season. Season 5 brought the series back up to top form in my opinion, although I've heard many people saying it didn't. I personally think this is one of the best shows on television and it's worth it to pick up the DVD.
Be Cool: The sequel to Get Shorty starring John Travolta and Uma Thurman (trying to re-create the old Pulp Fiction magic I guess). Why did it take so long to make this movie? I reviewed the original when I was in college, it's been 10 years. I never saw the movie in the theaters, I'm not sure I'll rent it either given the bad reviews.
The Machinist: Christian Bale lost a lot of weight to be in this movie. He then bulked up to play Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, one of the bigger summer movies I am looking forward to. Never saw this movie and it is probably geared more toward the art flick crowd than the mainstream. It is just cool to see Christian Bale as almost a skeleton on this DVD and then see him 2 weeks later as the buff Bruce Wayne.
The X-Files: Abducted: 16 episodes from the first 3 seasons of X-Files. It all centers around the mythology of the X-Files and the episodes are shown in order. This is probably a pretty cool set if you don't already own all the season sets and want to understand the whole mythology behind the show.
TV Shows (all times in Central)
Six Feet Under (Mondays, 8pm - HBO): The final season begins tonight. I wasn't too enthralled by last season, although it ended both surprisingly and disturbingly. I'm not sure I want to see Nate and Brenda together at the end of this, but I know one thing for sure: Ruth better get rid of George in the first few episodes! James Cromwell is bringing this show down IMO
Entourage (Sundays, 8pm - HBO): I note this only because the season opener was last night. I liked this show last year and I liked the first episode last night. I was sad to see that Samaire Armstrong is no longer Ari's assistant (she was also on The O.C. for a time) and Piven is still the best actor on this show.
The Comeback (Sundays, 8:30pm - HBO): I say "put it back". The opening episode was crap and I can't believe the guy that made Sex and the City thought up this crap with Lisa Kudrow. I will watch next week just to see if it was a weak opening episode and I'm missing something
The Dead Zone (Sundays, 9pm - USA): Oh yeah! Johnny's back! Season 4 opens this coming Sunday and it will be interesting to see where they go after last year. Technically the producers didn't think USA would want them back for a 4th season, so they had written the series ender, which would have been part 2. Now they've written a new part 2 that is the season opener for this year. I love this show and think Anthony Michael Hall has established himself very well.
Movies
Mr. and Mrs. Smith: I will be honest, I am really interested in this movie after the preview I saw before Star Wars Episode III. Even with all the hooplah surrounding the movie (are Brad and Angelina an item?) I think this movie could be good. We'll see what the critics say late Thursday.
This was quite a long post, I think I will stop now.