SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden

Everyone knows that Osama Bin Laden was a very naughty man, so naughty in fact that this country called the "United States of America" spent over 10 years tearing up the middle east looking for him, along with help from some of their chums from Europe and Asia.
Eventually, the American types finally figured out that Mr. Bin Laden was hiding out in Pakistan, and not Iraq or Afghanistan (Oops!, all those people dead for nuthin), much to their chagrin being as the Pakistanis were supposed to be Americas chums. So, in order to set things right, they sent in some very angry soldier types to fetch Mr. Bin Laden to see the headmaster for a stern talking to!.

"SEAL Team Six : The Raid on Osama Bin Laden" is a 2012 TV Movie made by National Geographic which serves as both a documentary and a dramatisation of the events leading up to the raid on Osama Bin Ladens hiding place in downtown Abbottabad on a May night in 2011.

The operation, codenamed "Operation Neptune Spear", was carried out by two squads of US Navy SEALs, using two special "stealth" blackhawk helicopters (one of which crashed due to a mechanical error and had to be blown up before the SEALs ex filtrated the area in order to prevent its secrets being looted by some DIRTY FOREIGNERS!1!!!1) in a completely unauthorised incursion into Pakistani airspace.
The films plot shows that over the course of approximately 6 months, the CIA had received various bits of intelligence, both via direct "questioning" (*coughyeahrightcough*) of suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists and via remote observation of Bin Ladens known hangouts and associates.
During this time, the eventual members of SEAL team six are shown being recruited and trained, and at various points they speak to the camera as though giving an interview (This is artistic licence, being as the real identities of the special forces operatives involved in the raid are a closely guarded secret. In total 79 human and 1 canine operatives were involved in the operation).

The film watches like an eclectic mix of a spy movie coupled with an action movie, a bit like a sort of "James Bond lite" type affair, with documentary elements thrown in to fill in the gaps of things that are "Classified".
The quality of acting is pretty good considering that the only people in the film I've ever heard of are Xzibit and Eddie Kaye Thomas , and the film makers go to great lengths to ensure that as many technical details are correct as possible when showing military installations and equipment.
The SEAL team operatives themselves are all military stereotypes, theres a couple of gung-ho patriots, some introspective ones, ones with tragic backgrounds etc, this is to be expected form this kind of film though, especially so being as the real people who took part in the missions identities will probably never be known.

The film does embellish some details, for example, Bin Laden is shown to be carrying an AKSU assault rifle when the SEAL operatives encountered him, when in reality, bin Laden was unarmed at the time of his death although during the examination of the building that was carried out immediately after the operation had ended, both an AKSU rifle and a Makarov pistol were found in the room), the film also does not show that just before bin Ladens death, one of bin Ladens wives was shot as she tried to attack one of the soldiers (the scene instead shows the lead soldier pushing a woman out of the way, with the second soldier to enter the room killing bin Laden).

All in all though, this film is pretty good, much better in fact than Zero Dark Thirty , a film which was released in cinemas in December of 2012 which essentially tells the same story, although with it being a Hollywood film, it embellishes the story a lot and goes more for "general" appeal.

SEAL Team Six is available on DVD and via many streaming media outlets and is a pretty good film if you like military films that concentrate on story rather than pyrotechnic effects and dodgy character building scenes.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - The Movie: Stand up!, Vanguard! (2012)

So, feeling a little drained after watching the "Asia Circuit" series in the space of 3 days, I decided that the best way of having a rest from watching Cardfight!! Vanguard was to..... watch a movie based on the same thing.....

Just a warning before you read on, this review/recap contains spoilers, so if you haven't seen the film and don't want the storyline completely ruined, go watch it first.



Ready?, Ok....

This 2012 "Movie" (although like many Japanese movies based on popular TV shows, it is actually more of a TV special than a cinema piece) was made following the success of the first TV anime series.
Unlike the anime series however, this is a live action presentation, and, oddly, the actual card game is simply used as a springboard to tell a story, rather than being a critical part of the storyline overall.
That's not to say this is a bad film, but it certainly isn't a good one either.

The storyline goes as follows:
Hiroki is a shy young boy who is bullied a lot at school. One day, he is attacked by a gang of bullies and attracts the attention of a mysterious stranger called "Daigo" (translates roughly as "great power", played by the Japanese musician/voice actor of the same name, who is playing an exaggerated version of himself). Daigo, in an attempt to save the boy, and impress an attractive teacher from Hirokis school, ends up getting himself beaten up by the kids, however, after the bullies run away, he finds out that Hirokis teacher, Maria, is worried about him, so Daigo takes it upon himself to help the boy come out of his shell.
Daigo gets himself appointed as a "Special teacher" at the school Hiroki attends, by saying he is a "Genius" and a graduate of Harvard University (although the diploma/certificate he shows to prove his credentials is from the "HarvardA university", and is obviously fake), and embarks on a campaign to cheer Hiroki up and get him to do something other than sulk.
As it turns out, Hiroki is a fairly depressed kid, as he is regularly left home alone by his workaholic father, and his mother died some years previously, which deeply affected Hiroki emotionally. To make matters worse, Hirokis father, on the rare occasion when he does actually see and speak to him, is very dismissive of Hiroki's hobby, which is playing the CCG "Cardfight!! Vanguard", dismissing it as a stupid waste of time and not the activity of a man.
Daigo finds that Hirokis passion for Vanguard helps him gain confidence, and that Hiroki is pretty good at the game, so he encourages him to challenge the lead bully, Teru, to a game, Hiroki reluctantly does, and suffers a humiliating defeat.
Daigo however, doesn't give up, he learns as much as he can about the game and then offers Hiroki encouragement in pursuing his hobby, even though Hirokis father is still disinterested and abusive to his son about it.
Daigo, along with Maria, encourage Hiroki to enter a Vanguard team tournament, in order to prove his worth and get revenge on Teru for his bullying by beating him in fair competition. The first few rounds go well, and "Team Hiroki" manage to get through to the finals against "Team Teru", which will be held the following day, however disaster strikes when Maria (who is also pretty good at the game herself) is injured in an accident, and is left unable to play in the finals. Daigo approaches Hirokis father to replace her, but again he is dismissive, and Hiroki is angered by his fathers uncaring attitude. Via a flashback sequence, we learn that Hirokis mother was the one who bought Hiroki his first Vanguard starter deck, and regularly played the game with him, even when she was in hospital dying from some unspecified illness. Hiroki says that his father was never there for him, or his mother, and that he has never once shown any emotion over the mothers death.
The tournament comes, and Hirokis father attends, at first though pleading that he cannot participate because he is busy with work, but is eventually persuaded to put work second, just for once.
The final gets underway, with Hirokis father going first, using the deck that Hirokis mother built, he is defeated.
Daigo goes next, and manages to beat Terus "Special Teacher", who throughout the film has shown himself to be a bit of a sadist and spent his time teaching Teru to be the same, which causes the teacher to make a childish outburst before fleeing the building screaming like a child because he lost.
Finally, Hiroki plays against Teru, and, after a very tense match, Hiroki again loses, meaning Teru is awarded the prize for overall winner, however, Hiroki earns Terus respect and friendship by showing he can stand up for himself, Hiroki also learns that unlike what he had previously thought, his father did visit his mother shortly before she died, where they discussed Hiroki and how his mothers illness was affecting him, but he was unable to show his emotion because he dealt with his wife's death by throwing himself into his work rather than confront what had happened.

After father and son are reconciled, Daigo announces that Hiroki no longer needs him, as he has learned everything he needs to, but just as he leaves, Hiroki challenges him to a game of Vanguard....







This film is very, very Japanese, and was never really intended for consumption by non-Japanese audiences, so is somewhat difficult to watch in places unless you at least have a basic understanding of Japanese custom and culture.

I do like that the film takes place in the "real world", and not the "Anime world", with the characters being believable and not over the top anime stereotypes, and quite simply, the story boils down to one of an emotionally scarred boy reconnecting with his cold and distant father over a shared interest.
The fact that this interest is Cardfight!! Vanguard is purely incidental and only included for marketing reasons, hell, Hirokis passion could have been for playing chess, creative writing or even freestyle disco dancing, it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest.
I also like how during the scenes where the game is being played it is portrayed as the game would be played in real life, without all of the anime trappings of holographic characters, burning justice backgrounds and so on, and I also like how the game play scenes are kept brief, showing only "important" parts of play and the match outcomes.Similarly, I also like how they didn't go down the route of portraying the game as a worldwide phenomenon, with thousands of fans watching games in ridiculously oversized stadiums, instead portraying the game as it really is, namely small groups of people getting together to play a game as a hobby, and not as a lifestyle choice. Finally, I like how the film is expressly NOT used as a marketing vehicle for selling cards to viewers, as although cardfight cards are shown, very few of them are specifically named, and none are really described as being "ultimate awesome unbeatable" etc etc.

The film does not benefit from its short run time of 80 minutes, as the scenes in which Hirokis back story are filled in are somewhat rushed, and in some cases a little bit non-sequitur, also, Daigos being there and backstory isnt explored at all, but that can be excused being as that he plays the role of "mysterious stranger/mentor", as explaining his background would remove some of his mystery.
On the subject of Daigo, it is rather strange by western cultural standards for a strange man to take such an interest in the life of a child he barely knows, however this is a fairly standard trope in Japanese entertainment (hence "mysterious stranger/mentor") but it is not without any kind of equivalent in western fiction, Doctor Who being the first one that springs to mind.
I think this film suffers badly from the limited budget and poor writing imposed on it by being a niche TV special.

So all in all, "Stand up!, Vanguard!" isn't a bad film, it isn't a good one either, and certainly wouldn't be recommended to those who are looking to get a taster of the Cardfight universe.

Anime Review - Cardfight!! Vanguard - Asia Circuit (Eps 66-104) 2012

So, following on the heels of the first series, "Cardfight!! Vanguard - Asia Circuit" forms the second series of the Cardfight!! franchise. At only 39 episodes in length (probably because by this point there was no need to spend many episodes explaining game rules and card types) the series is shorter and much more to the point than the original series.
Again, this series is Available to watch for free on Youtube

The series begins a couple of weeks after Team Q4 is declared victorious in the national Vanguard tournament. Aichi, Kai, Kamui and Misaki have all gone their separate ways, in order to have some "time off" from the game.
One day, Aichi goes to Card Capital to find the shop deserted apart form a mysterious boy whom says he has an interest in playing Vanguard, so Aichi plays a game with him to teach him the basic rules. Throughout their battle, the boy keeps making cryptic statements about Aichis cards being "retro", and that Aichi needs to find his "Limit Break". Then during one turn, the boy speaks Aichis name, despite Aichi never actually telling him it, the next thing, Aichi wakes up and finds himself standing alone in the shop. He also finds that his deck, containing both Royal and Shadow paladin type cards has been replaced by a new deck containing cards from the new "Gold Paladin" clan, and the mystery gets stranger when his friends insist that he has always used a Gold paladin deck
Aichi seeks out Kai and tells him about the mysterious boy, and finds that Kai's Kagero deck has also been replaced by a new deck themed around the Narukami clan, and he too doesn't remember Aichi's old deck, or his own. Kai challenges Aichi to a game there and then, saying that if Aichis story is true, then he will need to practice with his new deck. During play he stumbles over what to do with the unfamiliar cards, however Kai points out that Aichi needs to stop behaving like a spoilt child and open himself up to new gameplay strategies, and with that, Kai demonstrates the new game mechanic of the "Limit Break", which utterly defeats Aichi in a single move.
Later, Aichi finds out that Team Q4 have been invited to participate in the VF Circuit (Vanguard Fighter) , an international level competition with teams from all over Asia meeting to play Vanguard to decide which team is the best.
He initially has some trouble forming a team, as Kai has completely disappeared, Misaki is indifferent towards playing, and Kamui has joined Team Handsome instead. Aichi however is successful and manages to take Team Q4 initially to the Singapore leg of the championships, then on to the Korean leg, Hong Kong leg, and then finally to the Japanese leg.
During the tournaments, Aichi makes it his goal to find the mysterious boy who swapped his deck and find out just what is going off, both here on Earth and on the planet Cray, along the way meeting up with old friends and making some new enemies. The battles they participate in are also made difficult by the addition of random game conditions, such as limiting the time that can be taken over turns, randomising attack targets etc.
Eventually, the mystery is solved, although the story of the battle for planet Cray is far from over....




This series is much better than the first series, as it benefits from actually having a decent and coherent story arc that stretches over the run.
In a brilliant marketing move, the series not only both makes sure it maximises sales of cards by prominently featuring a new card set with a new game play mechanic, but also encourages RL players to buy more cards by having Aichi face a problem encountered by most CCG players, namely having to change their play style to accommodate changes in game play and learning to adopt different play styles as opposed to just building and playing the same deck all the time.
That said though, once again, most of the on screen action takes place at the gaming tables of the tournament, however unlike the previous series, effort is made to make the games, and the characters dialogue whilst playing, interesting to watch and listen to.

So, I'd rate this series "quite good"

Aint War Hell? - The Divide (2012)

The Divide is a 2012 sci-fi/psychological thriller type film, dealing with the trials of a group of survivors who hide in a basement to escape a nuclear war.

The film is somewhat different to most "post nuclear" films as it makes no effort to explain how or why the war happened, or indeed how life goes on in the fallout riddled aftermath, instead, the film concentrates on the breakdown of human morality following a harrowing and extremely life changing event.

Although the film gets a little slow in places, which is unsurprising given its subject matter, and lacks any kind of deep meaningful scenes or action packed edge of your seat type bits, the whole aspect of people "going rotten" is well explored and realistically portrayed.
The film itself also doesn't make use of "A-list" actors in much capacity, the only names in this film I recognise are Michael Biehn and Rosanna Arquette, both of whom play pivotal characters and do so extremely well.

The film begins with nuclear missiles raining down on New York City. Eight residents of an apartment block force their way into the ex-military survivalist caretakers fallout shelter in the basement of the building hoping to live through the terrible events going on above ground.
The "survivors" are an eclectic mix of people, a young couple, a mother and her preteen daughter, two brothers and a shy reclusive man.
Very quickly, the caretaker (Biehn) tries to assert his dominance over the group, but ultimately fails due to the combined efforts and wills of the younger men.
Shortly after they lock themselves in, the shelter is invaded by masked soldiers of indeterminate origin (it is never explained who these soldiers are) who kidnap Wendis (Arquette) daughter. the survivors successfully manage to repulse the invaders, killing one of them and taking some of their weapons. One of the men, Josh, volunteers to dress in the dead soldiers uniform and go outside to see if he can find a way for them all to escape, when he does so, he instead finds that the outside is a series of plastic sheeting corridors, which lead to some sort of laboratory, in which he finds Wendis daughter seemingly having medical experiments being performed on her, as well as other children all locked in deep freeze units. His disguise is rumbled quickly by one of the other soldiers within the bizarre complex and he beats a hasty retreat back to the shelter, killing some of the soldiers as he flees.
After he returns, the soldiers weld the metal door of the shelter shut, thus preventing their escape.

Resigning themselves to being trapped within the small basement shelter, the survivors begin to lose hope, and over time, begin turning somewhat insane.
Firstly, after arguments over food and supplies begin breaking out, the survivors find that the caretaker has a secret room which is crammed full of food and clean drinking water, his punishment for not revealing this, as well as for killing one of their number in "self defence" is a lengthy torture session, carried out by Bobby and Josh, who emerge as the dominant members of the group, followed by him being tied to a chair and left to starve in a back room.
Bobby also begins physically and sexually abusing Wendi, as she has become completely apathetic upon learning her daughter is dead, even going so far as to tell Eva, the only other female survivor, that she should begin allowing the men to have sex with her on a regular basis in order to make themselves all feel better.
As time passes, Bobby and Josh become degenerates, and begin indulging in various bizarre sexual rituals, while all the time very obviously suffering from the early stages of radiation poisoning, for example, Bobby begins wearing Wendis clothes and make up, while Wendi is usually seen wearing only a dressing gown or makeshift clothes made from gaffer tape.
Eva and Adrien try and figure out another way to escape, and their breakthrough comes when the caretaker reveals that they could escape by swimming through the septic tank and going out through the sewers.
Things come to a head when it is discovered that Bobby and/or Josh have killed Wendi in the process of abusing her, and open fighting breaks out.
The caretaker reveals he has another gun hidden in his safe room and it ends up getting used to kill Bobby, but then Josh immolates himself, leaving Adrien and the caretaker scrambling to escape the flames, while Eva locks them out of the toilet, and, taking the dead soldiers NBC suit earlier worn by Josh, she escapes through the sewers, leaving the other two men to be burned to death.

The ending of the film is somewhat depressing, as all through the film Eva and Adrien struggle to maintain their relationship, but she happily abandons him when it looks like she might be killed, and the final scene shows her walking through a completely destroyed New York, whose streets are litters with the skeletons of people killed by nuclear blasts.

This isn't a bad film, but its really, really hard going in the middle, as the films subject matter is wholly dependant on character development, which fortunately, this film does really well.
This film will most certainly NOT appeal to all, especially those looking for action scenes etc or mystery, but its a nice enough film to get you thinking about human nature.

I give this film 6 megatons out of 10