HST Reviews Battleship
Lauren: I have to admit something right now, as a child I got really competitive when it came to Battleship. Each time I would swear I came up with the best distribution for my ships to trick my opponent, and would gleefully laugh in my mind when I would get to put a white peg of fail in the waters →
Now Playing Review: The Avengers
Over the past few years Marvel has been wracking up a slew of great films based on their universe’s superheroes. Starting with Iron Man, Marvel moved though the Hulk (The Incredible Hulk, just so there's no confusion), Captain America, and Thor, each with quite a bit of deserved success. In addition to Hawkeye and Black Widow, these characters make up →
Now Playing Review: The Raven
“It’s a mystery what happened in the few days prior to Poe being found near death on a park bench.” Oh really, movie!? I’m pretty sure had Edgar Allan Poe been a part of a pretty notorious crime spree there would be record of that. PREMISE BLOWN! Phew, got that out of my system. Let’s just say that if you want →
HST Reviews The Five-Year Engagement
Lauren: Having the tagline “from the producer of Bridesmaids” splashed all over the TV spots and poster is quite the stamp on a project. Well, maybe not the producer part, but definitely the word Bridesmaids. But don’t let the name-drop fool you; The Five-Year Engagement is quite a different beast from that non-stop laugh fest of comedic poo jokes and →
Now Playing Review: The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods has had a while of waiting to get through before finally coming to the big screen. Trust me, I know. As an avid Joss Whedon fan (he co-wrote this one), I have been waiting for what seems like forever. We’re talking The Sandlot’s reading of the world “FOR-EH-VER.” And now, the wait is finally over. Most →
Looking Ahead to 2012: Quarter 2 (April – June)
Hello internet perusers! We are back with round 2 of the four part year break down of things to come. Between April and June, the writers on HST have plenty that we are looking forward to in movies, music, and games,, and we want to share them with you. No, none of these are April Fool's jokes. Zac is actually →
Now Playing Review – Wrath of the Titans
2010’s Clash of the Titans may not be the best film by far, but for a blockbuster with quite the action and visual effects filled center, it is a movie I honestly don’t get sick of watching when I just want to get lost in something. With this base and quite the exciting trailer, Wrath of the Titans was looking →
Now Playing Review: The Hunger Games
A child crawls out of the forest, looking for help that will never come. Instead he is skewered and beaten to death. Because he didn’t have the conch. Yep, that’s how Lord of the Flies worked. Ok, so maybe not, but this was still a rather gruesome thing to read even as a high schooler. The Hunger Games had a →
Book Club in Session: Ready Player One
Heather: For our latest book club installment, I chose Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, which I hoped would win me some points with my game-obsessed fellow book club members. Why exactly did I think this? Well, if the title wasn’t enough, maybe this brief summary will clue you in. (Be sure to check out the review I posted previously →
HST Discusses: John Carter
Lauren: Before Pandora became more than the name of a box thanks to a little film called Avatar, before Star Wars became a space opera deserving of more than just cultish, nerd admiration (I’ll include Episodes 1-3 for Zac), there was a man named John Carter who found himself fighting for the inhabitants of Mars. Yep, Mars; just because we’re →
Now Playing Review: Act of Valor
Act of Valor starts with a brief video intro from the directors explaining that in order to create something so authentic to an actual military experience, both in and out of combat, real Navy Seals were brought in to play the main characters. An interesting choice for sure, ends up quickly polarizing the action and the drama with the pros →
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 →
