The Transporter Refueled

By: Robert Murphy

It's often hard to tell just what makes a movie work when it comes to the category of action since they can often be seen as nothing more than nonstop adrenaline fueled rampages, but for some reason they end up being great. When it comes to The Transporter series, I always felt that it was leading man Jason Statham that brought the certain charm that the films needed to be worth while. Now though a new leading man aims to take his place and continue forward without him at the helm of the classic Audi and introduce a fresh young face to the game with Ed Skrein (former Game of Thrones actor for Daario Naharis). But, whether or not he has the chops to knock the big guy off of the throne that started Statham's early action career was something I was determined to find out. 

The story starts off with a brief introduction to the main villains that you will be "hating" throughout the majority of the film. In a hail of bullets three men usurp themselves as the top dogs of the French Riviera by killing of their competition and replacing them with their very own call girls. Flash forward some fifteen odd years later and an odd plot for revenge begins to take place with one of the downtrodden girls from the beginning of the film. Where Frank Martin (Skrein) comes into play is with the first phase of the operation doing what he does best which is drive and drive really well. This along with the fighting scenes are the only true moments that continue to transfer over from Statham's day as the illustrious transporter. We see a fast paced chase scene through the streets of France with cops hot on Frank's tail but with some excellent maneuvers and a clever use of fire hydrants, he makes his escape with the former call girl and her two partners in the back seat.

This made for a wonderful turn of events as the first half hour of Refueled left little to no resemblance of the former series left to be enjoyed. Ed Skrein failed to pull off the same dead pan style of delivery that his counterpart had given in the earlier films but he did have what it took to make some enjoyable action sequences. The first and by far the best of which was during the night club scene where Frank took down three goons that were ten times his size with some rope and clever use of some drawers down a narrow corridor. Then it was outside to knock some guys out while the car enters some sort of auto pilot mode. When it came to revamping things, the car was what benefited the most from some fine tuning. The resident favorite Audi makes it's return with all new gadgets to show off such as self opening doors, interchangeable license plats and finger print recognition on the wheel to name a few. Not that The Transporter car ever needed these James Bond spy tools before or to such a degree but they were nonetheless an appealing on to be sure.  

In terms of overall appeal however these moments of action and excitement were short lived as things pushed forward. Outside of Ed Skrein, dialogue for the story moved along at a snails pace and was never worth the reward of not knowing what exactly our former call girls were up to. The ringleader of the four girls, Anna (Loan Chabanol), put together this payback scheme against her now former bosses for tormenting her for years and sentencing her to a life of prostitution. Her group oddly is modeled after some deranged version of The Three Musketeers (they even say, "All for one and one for all at," one point) and without Frank it would all fall apart. This leads to them kidnapping Frank's retired father Frank Sr. (Ray Stevenson) in order to make sure "Junior" stays with them to the end. 

Excluding the various junior jokes, Frank Senior was perhaps the most engaging among the cast and even made Ed Skrein shine for his role too. The two had great chemistry with one another as they both secretly know that there is more to the other than meets the eye. Frank Senior was supposedly a former retail salesman that just so happened to go to the most dangerous parts of the world for work. The fall of the Berlin wall and the Korean war to name just a few that were mentioned. His obvious history as some sort of spy though does not explain why he gets kidnapped not once but twice throughout the story. After Frank finally gets away with his father in one piece, the main bad guy finally shows some gumption and decides to kidnap Frank's father to get the money that Anna and her friends had stolen.

Arkady Karasov (Radivoje Bukvic) Arkady Karasovplays another lack luster cast member who never seems to have any real drive to catch the people responsible for stealing from his partners. Every portion of on screen time the actor had was spent silently brooding over each scene that Anna and her team left for him to find. There was a decent attempt to try and make his role more prominent as it turns out that Frank has some sort of history with Arkady but this to leads nowhere, even when the two meet face to face and confront one another, it amounts to them basically growling at one another. There was no build up at all to the films final concluding moment where the two battle on top of a rock with their fists like something out of Highlander where Frank is left standing victorious at the top saying "There can be only one!!"

The Transporter Refueled should have stayed in the garage where Statham left it in the concluding trilogy to the original series. This new revamped story doesn't do much of anything in expanding upon the work of the original films and in many ways it is a step backwards when it comes to image of the gruff and fearless transporter that people have seen before. There were some excellent action sequences and fight scenes, seeing Frank drive his car through a boarding platform and through an airport was perhaps one of the best car scenes I've seen this year. But, outside of the sparingly placed action moments, Refueled is not the successor or the retooled film it should have been. 

Good:

- Ray Stevenson as Frank Senior

- Fighting sequences

- The Audi's new look and wonderful gadgets

Bad:

- Poor acting across the board

- A flimsy story that somehow realize on an unreliable lead actor

- Dialogue is flat and you can hardly believe this people act or behave as they do

Scully Rating: 3.0 out of 10

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

By: Robert Murphy

There have always been a vast amount of video games that tell the stories of past wars and it has been awhile since I have seen one about World War I but that isn't even the most significant aspect to Valiant Hearts: The Great War.  The story is represented in a charming cartoon like manor although it definitely has it's darker tone to it. War has brought for individuals and a dog together in a story of love, loss and conflict the likes of which the world had never before seen up until this point in 1914. The game however doesn't revolve any sort of gun play and instead features a puzzle solving adventure that you will embark on as your four main characters or five really, try to survive this harsh time in world history. 

At the beginning of the war, German citizens living in France were asked to leave their nation and return home as the conflict began to break out. This is where Karl, a German born man comes into our story as he is forced to leave his wife and newborn son to return to his home country. From here we meet Emile, who is the grandfather to Karl's young son and is called into service for the French army quickly moving through boot camp and sent out to fight when we meet another man character Freddie. Freddie is an american solider who befriends Emile early in the game and is a man who has volunteered to fight for the French as the Germans have taken away what he holds most dear to him and seeks revenge against them. Even though this is all taken into a 2D and relatively simpler narrative to what happened during this time, it is no less powerful in it's story telling. It was a heart jerking moment to almost immediately see Karl taken away from his wife and son and then being sent along with Emile to fight in the war where artillery fire, gas attacks and mounted machine gun fire would kill thousands of men on the field. The imagery is exceedingly well done and brought to life here with all that occurs and will make you forget any notion of the game being childish for it's initial representation. 

The games 2D platforming style works very well as it uses both a foreground and background affect that comes into play with enemies as well as the other character you may have along with in certain parts of the story. Where it often comes into play is when you must hide from enemy AI in the game as you won't spend a lot of time fighting as I said earlier. Bushes, bookshelves and other items can be hidden behind while you wait for a patrolling French policemen to move out of the way or distract him with something you're holding. Perhaps my favorite fleeing moment came later in the game while playing as Karl escaping from a prison camp, moving a scarecrow across the field while waiting for patrolling soldiers in the foreground to move along their path. While most of the time the game is fairly simple with it's puzzles, I still very much enjoyed them. There are a variety of puzzles to face in Valiant Hearts many of which involve doing a series of events to get to your underline goal of the level where you help one person get something to get what you want in the end. Also though in the unlikely event you do get stuck on a puzzle or array the game provides hints, a carrier pigeon in the corner will appear after you spend to long in an area and it will have an envelope with a clue for you which I thought was a fun addition to the game.

Each character also has their own unique sort of skill and little attributes that will contribute as you play as either one of them. Freddie carries with him a handy set of wire cutters to cut through fencing on the battlefield while Emile carries with him a shovel to move dirt and maneuver to areas you can't get with others. Ana, who will come a bit later to the first chapter of the game is looking for her father who she hasn't heard from and is believed to be forcibly helping the Germans. Ana is a young girl who knows quite a bit about medicine will patch up soldiers in the game with a medical mini game and also plays feature to a few taxi mini games as she drives her handy vehicle all across the front lines and must dodge enemy bombs, gun fire and just about everything else. Our last character is a furry little hero named Walt who helps all of the characters at one point or another in the game whether it's flicking a switch or distracting an enemy so you can sneak by, he is one handy pup to have around. 

In conclusion, I really loved Valiant Hearts, it was a game that I had heard nothing about but is something that I am glad to have played through once I had bought it. Despite it's appearance, it gives a very hardening tale of not only World War I but also the characters who were all around favorites for me, each with their own story to tell and each very enjoyable to play through. The puzzles may not be too much of a challenge for most but each was unique and entertaining for me as they all worked together in some way, one thing led you to get another and reach your goal. They were not tedious tasks for me to complete, they were fun and quirky and fit the story. 

Good:

- Very powerful story telling

- Incredible design and artwork

- Enjoyable characters all around to play as 

- Solid puzzle solving and adventure side scroller

Bad:

- The somewhat demeaning moments for the German soldiers which occurred time to time especially with the games central enemy 

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10 

Le Chevalier D'Eon

The story takes place in Paris 1742, when the body of a woman named Lia de Beaumont is found in a casket floating along the Seine River as day breaks and the only clue regarding her death is the word "Psalms", which is written in blood on the lid of the casket. D'Eon de Beaumont, Lia's younger brother and a knight in service of King Louis XV, takes it upon himself to investigate his sister's mysterious death, along with the strange disappearances of a number of French women all across Paris that bare similar characteristics to his sister’s death. Driven by revenge D’Eon begins to unravel the mystery of who is responsible for murdering his sister but the plot begins to unfold even deeper as her death links to a plot that threatens the very future of France. D’Eon comes face to face with a shadow organization of people known as Poets that use the power hidden within Psalms to wield God like power and preform hanis acts to achieve their goals. Once a wielder of these powers, Lia returns from beyond the grave to stop the Poets by possessing her younger brother and two begin to unravel the mystery behind her death and the plan of the Poets. Most noticeable among these users is Maximilien Roberspierre, a French Poet with connections to the Psalms, as well as Lia's past as well as Count Cagliostro, who doesn't use Psalms but sees how powerful they are and uses his teenage partner Lorenza, who does use them and she isn't afraid to kill people with them when she needs to. Aiding him in his efforts D’Eon is accompanied by Robin, a young boy who is very close to the Queen of France Marie as well as Anna Rochefort who is D’Eons childhood friend as well as his future wife and is dedicated to him heart and soul.  Durand, a dashing man whose is highly adept in the Florentine fencing style, wielding a rapier and main-gauche at the same time is also aiding D’Eon on his journey. Durand's loyalty seems ambiguous throughout the story, but he appears to have once had affections for Lia, he eventually develops a fondness for Robin, taking the boy under his wing and even bestowing upon him his treasured pocket watch. And finally there is Teillagory who was once D'Eon and Lia's fencing instructor and is a well-respected knight from the days of Louis XIV, he carries an antique sword which was given to him by Louis XIV, and still holds onto the days of knighthood and honor. Their battles stem across the world as the four travel all across Europe as well as traveling to England and Russia in the pursuit of answers behind the plot that threatens all they know. 

“Le Chevalier D’Eon” is one of those animes that you do not see every day in the respects that is a very serious anime, it doesn’t come chocked full of bloodshed and gore or have some giant chested girl walking around that have guys drooling all over. This is not at all a bad thing however the dramatic and sometimes violent nature of the show makes the anime what it is, D’Eon, Robin, Durand and Teillagory each have strong convictions in what they believe in making them all compelling characters to watch. These characters also come across compelling antagonist; Maximilien Roberspierre is the classic character who you cannot tell if he is truly a bad guy and gives of a cool, calm demeanor that steals the show. If there can be only one complaint it would be that the show is wordy and full of dialogue that won’t be a hit with those who are seeking a more heavily action based or less serious anime.

Good:

-Compelling story

-Characters with depth and intriguing history

-A perfect mix of serious and action

Bad:

-A bit wordy with many episodes of mostly dialogue

Scully Rating: 8.5 out of 10 

Watch "Le Chevalier D'Eon" at: http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/le-chevalier-deon-online