Now Playing Review – The Woman In Black
“Here comes the Woman in Black / Murderous Offender / Here comes the Woman in Black / She’s hard not to remember.” Yes, those are the catchy lyrics to Will Smith’s “Men in Black” with a few alterations of my own, but it is hard not to manipulate the lyrics of the chorus to fit this film even though they →
HST Discusses: Chronicle
Hello boys and girls! In this edition of HST Discusses, Alan and Lauren break out the fighting words over Chronicle, the new film about a group of boys who gain superpowers. Don’t worry, no one was harmed in the making of this (spoiler free) discussion. And if someone was harmed it would be Alan. No, Lauren did not write this →
Now Playing Review – Man On A Ledge
Not just any movie gets one of the stars to do a commentary track over its trailer, so Man On A Ledge must clearly be something special. Right? At least for we feeble minded individuals, anyway. A fellow reviewer said this to cap his review: “Man on a Ledge sets out to be a crowd pleaser and it might succeed at →
Now Playing Review – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
A few years back it became a hobby to make fun of the trend in marketing to describe things as extreme. Extreme sports are one thing (you aren’t going to see me jumping out of a helicopter into the middle of circling sharks while wearing a suit of meat with the goal of safely swimming back to shore. Way too →
HST Discusses: Haywire
Hello Boys and girls! Here at HST we are always thinking of you, and as you may have noticed we have been slowly introducing co-reviews between some of the writers here. That’s right, we are saving you time from your obligation to read three Haywire reviews this week by only providing two on the site (and this is more of →
Book Review – Heat Wave
Castle is easily one of my favorite shows on TV right now, thanks in large part to Nathan Fillion. As the title character, he brings so much glee to crime fighting (comparable to Po in Kung Fu Panda at times) that it is not hard to love the man. Not only that, but he brings humor and a lightness to →
HST Reviews: Contraband
Zac: So Lauren, you and I both saw Contraband this week, the new film staring Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster and Giovanni Ribisi about a bunch of smugglers trying to iron out a family debt; what did you think? Lauren: I think that I am rather impressed with how easily you were able to narrow down that plot. Smuggling is →
Looking Ahead to 2012 – Quarter I (January – March)
With our lists of favorites of the past year done, it is now time to look ahead to what is to come this year. [Takes a gander] Holy F there is a lot! Did you read year? No, I said year through March. Silly you. Here is the list from your favorite writers at HST for what we are most →
HST’s Best of 2011: Video Games
Last but not least, here is HST’s list of favorite video games from the past year. And what a year it was, with huge titles coming out and an epic fall season to cap off the year. Plenty of sequels and a few new IPs to boot, so there are plenty of games to mention even without the honorable title →
HST’s Best of 2011: Television
With so much of my (Lauren's) personality constructed by Television, from PBS shows of my childhood to everything Joss Whedon that influenced my sense of humor and sarcasm, it’s no surprise that every year I get pretty excited for the pilots making their attempt to gain viewers. Not only that, but sometimes I go crazy fanatic for those shows I →
For Your Renting Pleasure
As the year winds down to an end, I find myself trying to squeeze in a bunch of films that I haven't seen from the past year, all while rewatching some of the highlight films in order to compile a best of list (Be on the look out for those to start the first week of January!). Click more to →
Gaming Review – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Despite his effeminate, childish looks, Link is actually older than me, as the screen full of 25th anniversary excellence will inform you when starting the game. Yet somehow he still manages to be far more active. Granted I have a really comfy couch, and am not the one destined to save the world. He can keep that burden, which he →
For Your Renting Pleasure
A few weeks have passed since my last compilation post of movie rentals, and I should be ashamed at my lack of movie watching, but I have still spent a large percentage of my time wisely! We're talking playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on that stupid Wii and rewatching all three previous seasons of Parks and Recreation on →
Soon To Be Playing – Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
I was trying to come up with a “picture this” experience to start this review to give you an idea of just how big the 4th installment of the Mission: Impossible series is, but everything is just dwarfed in comparison. It is that intense. Usually there comes a point in an action film where you just have to stop and say: →
Now Playing Review – Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Though it is still debatable if Robert Downey Jr. or Wishbone makes a better Sherlock Holmes, the memorable quality of Downey’s performance two years ago as the classic detective will be impossible to forget. He made what I assumed to be a stodgy, pipe-smoking British guy eccentrically cool, something that I couldn’t help get enough of. “But Lauren, why is the →
HST Discusses: Young Adult
While discussing Young Adult after a screening a couple weeks ago, Alan and I realized that we didn’t quite see eye-to-eye on this one. Here are our (spoiler free) thoughts on this movie. Also be sure to check out Zac’s review as well to see where his opinion lines up with ours. Lauren: I hate to do this, and I should →
Book Club In Session – Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse
WARNING: This is a full-blown discussion of the book, so as such there will be spoilers throughout. Proceed with caution! If you would like to read a spoiler free review, follow this link! Lauren: Oh robots. We lean on them like a crutch so much so that when they step aside, we inevitably fall, crack our heads open, and die (well →
Gaming Review – Rage (Campaign)
It is obvious why the title Rage was given to this video game. Two seconds out of the pod and some angry albino is trying to shove a knife into my chest. Clearly there is some much needed anger management on this planet. Or times have definitely changed from when I was last awake. Let’s set the scene. In a post →
For Your Renting Pleasure
With giant food babies resting nicely in your stomach following Thanksgiving, renting some movies to help the lounging around become a little more entertaining sounds like a pretty good idea, right? Well, here are some ideas on what to get. (Batman: Year One; Crazy, Stupid, Love; and [Rec]2 for those too impatient to wait until after the break) Batman: Year One →
Gaming Review – Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (Campaign)
With the number of Assassin’s Creed games that have been released in the recent past, I am starting to wonder if they are trying to outdo The Sims with that series's affinity of releasing expansion packs. Thankfully each game is a full adventure on its own, with this 3rd installment of Ezio’s trilogy within a trilogy finally bringing two characters →
Gaming Review – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Campaign)
I don’t mean to brag, but when I was little I was decent at climbing trees. I mean, I would get at least 10 feet off the ground. Ok, so that’s not that grand, but I had sensitive hands, and bark is all scratchy… The point is that for people with childhoods like mine, living vicariously through characters like Monkey →
Now Playing Review – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Two nights ago I had a dream that winged creatures were attacking my school, which for some reason looked like a castle. As my friends were devoured in front of my eyes by hungry jaws (RIP Cassidy), I could not cower in fear because I had a mission. That’s right, thanks to weeks of seeing Breaking Dawn – Part 1 →
For Your Renting Pleasure
In this week of rentals I found myself disappointed with many of this years "better" comedies, where two other films ending up where I expected them to be. If you're considering renting The Alphabet Killer, Horrible Bosses, Your Highness, or Win Win then read my thoughts before making your choice this coming weekend. The Alphabet Killer (2008) Last week was Case 39, →
The Breakdown – The Hunger Games Trailer
Sometime within the last year my sister bought the three books that make up this trilogy. Starting with book 1, The Hunger Games hooked me right away, and I was already tearing up 20 or so pages in because of how quickly I had attached myself to the characters. It is an addictive read, to say the least, as the →
