With 2012 I personally doubt more postings will be done, though we will try to aim to post more than 2011. In the years of 2012 and early 2013 I’ll be focusing on my studies, trying to be the best I can, and being the best you can means sacrificing a lot of time to write.

But to not let 2011 go out with a sizzle, I’ll try to summarize the most important things in media, gaming and events worth mentioning. And no I will not be talking about the Arabian Wars or the Economic Crisis, expect to read things about Steve Jobs, DOTA 2, DRIVE and perhaps a little Harry Potter.

We’ll start with cinema:
Looking at a list I found on internet I must say that 2011 has been quite a decent year for moviegoers. Some great flicks like CAPTAIN AMERICA, DRIVE, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2, WINNIE THE POOH, X-MEN FIRST CLASS, CRAZY STUPID LOVE, PAUL, HORRIBLE BOSSES, PAUL, PUSS IN BOOTS and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL. (That’s quite a list already isn’t it?)

The titles I mentioned here are those I all saw and thought were worth my time. Some of these movies I even watched several times even though they will probably not win any awards. I will not go through them all, but will mention a couple which you should definitely watch if you ever come around to it. I’m quite sure many of them will be on TV in the coming year.

First movie I want to mention is DRIVE. This movie already won many awards, but I want to tell you why I think this movie is so great. Nowadays when an action movie is made it has lots of special effects and they tend to show you a lot in very few seconds. Like cars exploding, some briefcase being grabbed and the main character shooting down a dozens of bad guys. This is your average action sequence in a random action movie. With DRIVE you are looking at an action sequence in which nothing happens, really nothing, but you are on the edge of your seat waiting, watching and wondering what will happen. Ryan Gosling does an excellent job in playing the dark and mysterious guy, fighting for a righteous cause.

Yeah I'm a serious driver

Second movie worth your time is HORRIBLE BOSSES. I have seen this movie two times and during the first screening I really did not like the movie to be honest. But during a flight back from my vacation I decided to watch it again. Looking at the movie again I could understand why people like it so much. Everything which happens to the three employees most of us will recognise in their own work. If you have experienced similar situations, you will love this movie, if not you will probably see it as a cliche comedy offering nothing special.

Last movie I want to mention is CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. Looking at the trailer and movie description most of you will judge this movie as your average standard romantic comedy. And yes this movie is just that, but the story being told is a good one. In CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE we follow Steve Carrel while his life goes down the drain, losing his wife, house and connection with his kids. He then is given a choice, start a new live as a playboy (with the help of Ryan Gosling) or fight for the love of his wife. The reason I would recommend this movie is because of the truth it contains. I often hear couples ending their relationship saying “yeah the love was gone”, but remember you always have a choice to fight for it instead of just starting over (or being unfaithful).

My penis is indeed in your face

Next up games:
Even though I play my fair amount of games, when it comes to 2011 I hardly played any new games. The ones I can recommend are SKYRIM, DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION, PORTAL 2, L.A. NOIRE and BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY.

Other games worth checking out are of course MODERN WARFARE 3 and/or BATTLEFIELD 3 if you are into those kind of games. STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC – the new MMO of EA – is my honorable mention for this year, since pretty much everyone I know and their dog is currently playing and enjoying it.
You might ask then “but NrFive what do you play then?”, well good that you asked. Some of you might know that Hi-Rez Studios bought the Tribes IP from GarageGames and have released a beta of TRIBES: ASCEND. My other site (www.gameshrine.org) focuses on Tribes: Ascend and leading a community requires you to play the game and since we know and love the Tribes franchise since 1999 we are forced to play this game and give the developers our feedback. With the little time I have left to even play games, this time is divided between STARCRAFT 2 and random single player games like PORTAL 2 and BATMAN.

Discover if the cake still is a lie in Portal 2

Last but not least, major events:
One of the biggest events this year was the gaming convention in Leipzig, GamesCom. The reason I want to mention this event was the tournament hosted by Valve for their upcoming game DOTA 2. Even though the game was still in an alpha stage and buggy as hell, the amount of attention it gained was enormous. Everyone was talking about it and everyone wanted to see how the game looked during real competitive play. In my honest opinion Valve dropped the bomb on us and the entire gaming community by staging such a tournament, kudos to them.

Hackers are among us, yes it felt like the movie HACKERS with Angeline Jolie all over again this year, but 2011 will go down as the start of an online war. The fall of many regimes in the Middle-East also contributed in the uprising of many hacker-groups, but the hack of PlayStation Network was the most noticeable one, leaving the network down for months. Now I do not approve what hackers do, but the reasons behind their doings are (mostly) the right ones. The problem with society as it is now, is that nobody can really stand up against the greedy corporations who think they can pretty much do anything they please. Like LinkedIn suddenly using pictures without your permission, or Sony stating that they cannot be sued even if they are wrong. I know many people will say “ you are not forced to use their products”, but remind yourself that as time goes on you are eventually forced to use their products since alternatives do not properly exist. Yes we are still talking about luxury products here, but this does not mean that companies (and even governments) can do as they please. As a consumer you should always be aware for what you are signing up, what information you are putting online and with what products you want to work with. As time goes by we can only hope for proper alternatives so consumers have a choice.

Power to the People (or something like that)

This also brings us to the last big thing I want to write a little about, which is the death of Steve Jobs. Many of us suspected his demise for months / years, since he was on and off again, showing up thinner each time a keynote presentation was held. Though many will like the way he did things, nobody will deny the impact he had on the technology sector. He inspired new generations of hardware and even though the only thing of Apple I own is the iPhone, holding any of their products really is a joy. Going through his biography and following the rumors, Apple is on the verge of causing another stir in the tech-world. First it was the MP3, then the Phone followed shortly after with tablets, the next step… the TV?
All I can say about Steve Jobs is that he really pushed the boundaries of technology development, even though the way Apple work isn’t always nice, the enormous drive to keep improving is always a good one.

2011 was a year in which a lot has happened and 2012 is looking like it will continue the way 2011 is ending. I hope everyone will be able to withstand the crisis, survive the several ongoing wars and try to stay positive whenever possible.

On behalf of criticasm.com we all wish you a Happy New Year and try to be safe when shooting them fireworks.

In Jim Jarmusch’s latest feature THE LIMITS OF CONTROL the underrated Isaach De Bankolé is playing an unnamed  lone wolf assassin purposefully on a mission that throughout the film will remain almost completely unintelligible to the viewer. Right from the start it’s made clear this will not your typical killer-for-hire plot. De Bankolé’s modern day sharkskin suit wearing cowboy is seen gliding through Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he gets his mission instructions from two peculiar gangsters uttering cryptic phrases such as “Everything is subjective,” “The universe has no center and no edges; reality is arbitrary,” and “Use your imagination and your skills”. Our protagonist seems to access the unexplained mission and sets out for a journey to an undisclosed destination, meeting up with a variety of very out equally peculiar people in cafes and on trains along the way.

Never order two espresso's, before you know it you're trading matches with a stranger

These meetings are the core of the film and each one follows the same basic pattern. The Lone Man simply orders two espressos (No, not one double espresso, TWO separate cups of espresso!) and waits for his contact to arrive and ask him ““Usted no habla español, verdad?”, to which he stoically responds “No”. This then leads to the contact telling him some peculiar story and ends with them exchanging matchboxes. A code hidden on a small piece of paper inside each matchbox is quickly memorized and swallowed with the remainder of his second espresso. These coded message together with the cryptic phrases uttered by the strange characters somehow seem to lead The Lone Man onwards to his next rendezvous. Occasionally he will make curious trips to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, where he seems to be able to make sense of some of the code words he received by looking at pieces of modern art.

Throughout the movie Lone Man travels through some of the Spain’s most beautiful locations (Madrid, Sevilla and finally Almería), but he never is distracted by his surroudings or the people he meets. Not even by a gorgeous horn-rimmed glasses wearing Paz de la Huerta, who has apparently carved a nich for herself in today’s Hollywood as the go-girl for roles requiring carefree nakeness. Our protagonist always sticks to his mysterious assignment and never forsakes it or his daily routine of Tai Chi, which we are shown every time without fail. In fact, the whole movie is full of these constantly recurring moments and Jarmusch never discrupts them. Together with the breathtaking images shoot by Chistopher Doyle (known for his work with Wong Kar-Wai and Gus van Sant) and an atmospheric soundtrack courtesy of Japanese drone gods Boris it allows the film to convey a pleasant “groove” that can totally absorb the viewer. This is definitely a movie that one needs to want to get lost in, and like a great piece of music you might just need to let go and follow the vibe, absorbing Jarmusch’s conjured up sense of tension and space.

Although far more more enjoyable then the suspiciously similar themed, but in this writer’s opinion far inferior, Anton Corbijn/George Clooney flick THE AMERICAN, watching these kind of films can still be a trying experience for some viewers. That said, even for the most impatient of viewers there is more than enough to enjoy. Jarmusch’s famous iconic deadpan humour as known from GHOST DOG or DOWN BY LAW is again in full-display here. And while THE LIMITS OF CONTROL sometimes can feel like an excuse for Jarmusch to have his best hipster friends (Tilda Swinton, Gael García Bernal, John Hurt, among others) come over to Spain, get dressed up in weird outfits and talk philosophic trash, their monologues are mostly funny enough to ignore the glare reflecting off their designer sunglasses.

With THE LIMITS OF CONTROL Man Jarmusch has delivered us somewhat of a modern day western or gangster film, one that respect the iconic traits of the classic genres but challenges then as well. As the Lone Man De Bankolé is every bit as self-surviving as Lee Lee Marvin’s Walker in POINT BLANK or Clint Eastwood’s Joe in A FISTFULL OF DOLLARS, but as far as I know The Man with No Name never spent his time admiring the works of Antoni Tàpies and Juan Gris or doing daily Chinese martial art exercises. Jarmusch effectively plays with our expectations of the genre and by playing homage to films such Orson Welles’s LADY FROM SHANGHAI Jean-Luc Godard’s CONTEMPT with our knowledge of cinema as a whole as well.

Overall THE LIMITS OF CONTROL is a lot of post-modern fun with a fantastic center performance by Isaach De Bankolé, quote-worthy cameos by Hollywood’s coolest cats and absorbing cinematics and score. It might be slow, but it is definitely worth making the effort and seeing it through so you might also understand where the limits of control really end.

When looking at the numbers of movies, which have been released it has been quite a big year with the number passing the 600 mark. That’s almost 2 movies a day! With this many movies, we feel it is hard to write about all of them, so we pick them as we go. Besides that, we really need more time for writing!

My personal favorite for this year was INCEPTION and I believe many will agree with me on this. Also I cannot wait for the final chapter of the Harry Potter series, even though we all know how it will end.
For gaming my vote goes to STARCRAFT II, but I am biased on that. I have been a long time STARCRAFT I player and played quite competitively averaging 5 games a day at least!
When it comes to music, I didn’t really notice anything special, but perhaps you guys and girls have suggestions for me.

With 2011 some great titles are planned, think about DIABLO III, L.A. NOIRE and PORTAL 2 when it comes to gaming. As for movies part 2 of THE DEADLY HALLOWS has my attention and of course the latest movie by Danny Boyle 127 HOURS, which will be released in Europe early January.

So has 2010 been a year of great titles? And what has been your favorites? Let us know in the comments below. And of course with 2010 ending, careful when it comes to fireworks!

We will try to update this page as often as possible with content for all of you to enjoy. Always keep in mind that the views expressed on this website are the views of the author, whom will try to be honest in his judgment. Of course not everyone will like the views, so do not lose any sleep over it!