Cowa-Sequential

There's something oddly relaxing about going to an art museum. For me personally, it offers me a moment to both unwind and focus on the intricacies of the art on the wall. I feel that paintings greatly benefit from being seen in person as opposed to viewing on a computer screen or on a print. I can see and follow the brushwork and ultimately come away with a greater appreciation of the artist's skill and creativity. Last Friday, I went to the Barnes Foundation as a part of Philadelphia's 100 year celebration of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It has long been on my list of museums to visit and while I have visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art,  I have never visited the Barnes before. Now on a cool September night, I decided to take that plunge. The Barnes Foundation building houses the art collection of  Philadelphia native Dr. Albert C. Barnes a chemist, physician, and businessman who lived in late 19th through the first half of the 20th Century. The collecti...

For millennials of a certain age Dragon Ball Z was a significant part of our lates 90s and early 2000s experience.The franchise was everywhere from the anime show to video games to the monsoon of related merchandise. Goku and friends return in the sequel to 2013's Battle of Gods film. The Z warriors must contend with the return of Frieza, one of their deadliest ones in  Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F. The anime film had a limited edition run in select theaters in North America and I knew I had to go out of my way to give it a look. Let me start by saying I have loved Dragon Ball Z for years have several volumes of its manga, making a critical review quite difficult. I watched the film in a packed theater on the last night of its limited run with with a big smile on my face. The environment could not be beat with ages ranging from kids to 20-somethings like myself. The movie starts with Frieza's former minions using the wish-granting DragonBalls to bring their master back ...

Animated films have always held a certain place in my heart and while my interest mostly peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s I still keep an eye on certain films. When I saw Despicable Me a few years ago at a free outdoor screening and I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was. Gru was funny, the kids were charming, and the minions were fun side characters. In the time since their 2010 debut, Gru's yellow pill-shaped minions have taken a life of their own. Minions is the first feature length spin-off of the Despicable Me franchise showing the history of the Minions and briefly, how they met Gru. The film takes place in the 1960s and involves three Minions Bob, Kevin, and Stuart who are  looking for a new boss. The Minion horde has wander through decades of boss-less leadership to the point where their very existence is at stake. Bob, Kevin, and Stuart leave their home at the North Pole and eventually find their way to a Super-villain convention in Florida where t...

The summer movie season is here and once again I am struggling to catch up. However that has not kept me from seeing Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's newest film San Andreas . The Rock has had an interesting transition from football player to professional wrestler and now to headline action star. He stars as a rescue helicopter pilot who's mission has him trying to save his family from a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault in California. I feel that the disaster movie genre has fell on hard times despite advancing CGI technologies and ballooning movie budgets. Following the disappointment that was Cloverfield and the over the top destruction of 2009's 2012 apocalypse, I felt my own interest in the genre waning. Will  Mr. Johnson be able to save his family and keep my interest for the film's entire run time? The movie begins with Ray (The Rock) and his helicopter rescue crew rescuing a young woman tho was trapped in a car on a cliff.  He is estranged fr...

Over the last decade, the bicycle riding scene in Philadelphia has been growing leaps and bounds. This has paralleled the rise of neighborhoods such as Fishtown that are near adjacent to Center City Philadelphia. Philadelphia tight grid street layout and system of bike lanes makes bicycling a rather convenient mode of travel. Last April, Philadelphia deepened its relationship with biking culture with the launch of its bike share program called Indego . Indego is the newest bike share program created by a partnership between the City of  Philadelphia and Independence Blue Cross. The program features many stations spread across Central Philadelphia where riders can rent out bikes using either cash or credit cards. When I was in Washington, DC I was sorely attempted to test their bike share program but could not due to time constraints. When IndeGo Bike Share opened Philadelphia I jumped at the chance to give it a go. The ride itself was rather smooth but it was hard t...

Super Smash Brothers is back and now portable with Super Smash Bros. 4 3DS. Super Smash Bros. 3DS is the portable version of the Wii U console game that has just been released. Not having yet taken the plunge on Nintendo's newest console, I am left with the 3DS version. If what you wanted was Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the go, Mashiro Sakurai and Nintendo have delivered exactly what you have ordered. I can't help be impressed by the sheer amount of content that has been put into this game. The character  roster is expansive as is the stage count with special attention to the F-Zero Super Nintendo themed stage. In actual overall content, I would place it between Melee and Brawl. While the game is lacking Brawl's expansive adventure mode, Smash Run, Classic, and All-Star modes provide a quick but familiar burst of fun. The graphics are among the most fluid I've seen during my limited experience with the console and the 3D effect does provide some added depth. H...

Besides Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel's other great success in 2014 was the launch of  the new Ms. Marvel comic series. Ms. Marvel, the newest incarnation of the titular hero stars Pakistani-American Kamala Khan. Kamala Khan is a Muslim high-schooler from Jersey City who gains superpowers upon encountering a mysterious gas. While I am weary of Marvel's other attempts at 'diversity', Ms. Marvel is an interesting series in both tone and art style. In a medium often accused of one-dimensional characterization, and gender objectification, Ms. Marvel oozes personality, and creates a world which feels far more real than the rather cardboard Gotham City. The comic art is drawn in a way that gives the comic a somewhat grungy feel that one can reach out and touch it. The cartoonish style matches a hero who's primary power is shape shifting.   The series has also been a critical and financial success for Marvel and Kamala Khan proves to be a worthy entry into Marvel...

T he Legend of Zelda is one of gaming's oldest and most esteemed franchises. Originally appearing on the NES in 1987, the series has appeared on every Nintendo console and portable machine with entries such as 1998's Ocarina of Time be lauded as one of the greatest games of all time. I have played the majority of the series and am a solid fan of franchise, however lately something seems amiss. My most recently completed Zelda games are The Minish Cap for the Game Boy Advance and Twilight Princess on the GameCube released in 2005 and 2006 respectively. The Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks for the Nintendo DS remain unfinished as does Wii's motion controlled entry Skyward Sword. Is the Legend of Zelda series losing its spark or did I just lose the motivation to complete these titles? P hantom Hourglass is the touch screen controlled sequel to 2003's Wind Waker. Sailing remains a key element in this film however instead of controlling the ship directly, players c...

Scarlet Johanson has enjoyed an impressive string of success thanks in part to her role as Black Widow in the Avengers movie franchise.In her newest film Lucy , she stars as a woman who is implanted with a drug that allows her to access up to 100% of her brain. Lucy is a French film starring Johanson, Morgan Freeman, Mar Waked, and Choi Min-Sik. Lucy is kidnapped by ruthless Korean gangsters who operate a human trafficking ring that uses tourists as drug mules. During a fight with her captors, the drug pouch implanted inside her ruptures and she is inundated with the potent pills. As explained by Morgan Freeman, this allows her to manipulated objects with her mind, learn information rapidly and even travel through time. The film revolves around Lucy gradually unlocking greater portions of her brain while hunting down the Korean gangsters that kidnapped her. The main theme of Lucy is the passing down of knowledge to the next generation. The cycle of lif...

Not a Selfie When all is said and  done about the Millennial generation, it is my sincere and honest hope that we are not defined by the word selfie. It is unfortunate that selfie is now even a word according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Selfies are narcissistic but then one can say the same for other forms of self portraiture. However  I feel that smartphones have made the an individual selfie picture worthless due to the sheer volume of pictures taken. They are taken to be looked at for a moment and then cast aside for the next one. Artistically rendered self-portraits take more time and care and are ultimately more valuable than a photo file that is lost among the millions online or stuck on a forgotten hard-drive. According to Google's spell-check, the word selfie auto-corrects to both self and selfish and I feel that this is particularly telling. I look forward to the day when this selfie craze dies down as a feel that the word is reaching its saturation point. ...

Guardians of the Galaxy is one of Marvel's more out there properties that I could not believe would reach the big screen certainly not before a Justice League film. However it is 2014 and here we are. Guardians of the Galaxy stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, David Bautisa, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel though Diesel and Cooper are voicing CGI characters. The story is simple. A band of outlaws must work together to stop a fanatic from using the ultimate power to destroy a planet. However unlike other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the plot is loosely connected excluding brief cameos from The Collector and Thanos.  Chrus Pratt starrs as Peter Quill, a human thief  who comes across a mystical orbof unfathomable power. Soon he is joined by Groot and Rocket Raccoon voiced by Disell and Cooper who are bounty hunters attempting to capture him and Gamora an alien assassin who is trying to kill him and recover the orb. Pratt is great in his role but...

The Purge was one of 2013's biggest surprise movie successes. While it didn't draw the box office numbers of The Avengers, it did recoup its budget many times over. Unsurprisingly a sequel, The Purge: Anarchy is releasing this month and due to that, I decided to give the The Purge a try to see what they hype was about. In The Purge, the crime and unemployment rates in the United States have plummeted in a seemingly perfect society, however once a year for 12 hours all crime is legal and all emergency response is suspended. People are allowed to take  out their violence, anger, and hate on whoever they want during this period and suffer no legal consequences. In the film it is explained to be a release and a way to cleanse themselves of their sins however in actually is cleansing society of the sick, weak, and poor.  In an affluent Los Angeles suburb a security systems salesman played by Ethan Hawke and his family must survive an assault by crazed bands of 1%ers. Hawke work...

The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has gone through many changes over its two decade existence. From its birth on the SEGA Genesis and transition to 3-D on the SEGA  Dreamcast to its struggles throughout the last decades, many wondered if Sonic would ever be good again. Since Sonic Adventure  2, I have played several newer Sonic games including Sonic Heroes and Sonic and the Secret Rings however theses titles were mediocre at best. A new game would be announced raising fan expectations and the final product would be a disappointing mess and this same cycle continued for years. Sonic Colors for the Wii and along with Sonic Generations for the Xbox 360 and PS3 helped change this perception. Sonic Colors' plot is fairly basic, Sonic and Tails visit Dr. Robotnik's interstellar amusement part and have to rescue the aliens that the doctor has captured there. The overall tone of the game is similar to those of Saturday morning cartoon shows with voice acting that fits. Unli...

In Seth Rogen's newest film Neighbors he stars as a new dad who's life is turned upside down when a college fraternity moves in next door. He and his wife played by Rose Byrne have to deal with the frat's antics as well as the their newly-found responsibilities both as parents and a married couple. Zac Efron plays the frat leader who initially appears mild-mannered and friendly but eventually devolves into a hard partying frat boy. Efron makes and agreement with Rogen to keep the noise down and partying to a minimum In exchange for Rogen not calling the cops when they have a'few' friends over. When that inevitably fails Rogen calls the cops on their parties setting up a series of increasingly disastrous pranks. When I think of funny movies, I usually don't think of Seth Rogen. While I liked last year's doomsday comedy This is the End, I believe that James Franco provided most of the humor and that Rogen was merely there.  Fortunately you can tell that th...

Following Nintendo's presentation at the E3 computer and video game exposition, select Best Buy electronic stores hosted Smashfest where fans had the chance to try out Super Smash Bros 4 .  Super Smash Bros is a party fighting game that brings together characters from several Nintendo franchises. that debuted in 1999 on the Nintendo. Since then its sequels Super Smash Bros Melee and Super Smash Bros Brawl have garnered skilled and passionate followings on the GameCube & Wii respectively. I originally got into the franchise after seeing a commercial for the N64 which my ten year old self thought was out of this world. Super Smash Bros 4 is being released this year for both the 3DS and the Wii U making it both the first portable Smash Bros. game and the first HD version of the game. I went to my local Best Buy an hour early  expecting a minimal line however what I was met with was the oddest mix of bros high-schoolers, and parents with a few children mixed in t...

I have very mixed feelings on the Amazing Spider-Man movie series. The 2012 film reboot came 5 years after Spider-Man 3 so I felt that retelling the same origin story was unnecessary.  Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are excellent in their portrayals of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy and they have a high level or chemistry. While the original Amazing Spider-Man felt like a unnecessary rehash of the original Sam Raimi directed Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 brought some more elements of the franchise. In addition to the villains Electro and the Rhino, the movie also adapted part of the famous comic story 'The Night Gwen Stacy Died'. There are several things that the film did right but I feel that the overall final product is less than the sum of its parts. The beginning scenes were very well done with Spider-Man jumping off a building an the camera zooming out to follow his fall. The part with first person web-slinging was rather unique. In this film, Peter is haunted m...

The film Noah starring Russell Crowe in the title role is an intriguing film and caused a variety of emotions both during and after I saw it. From protests from Christian groups and scientific debates Noah was a large source of controversy across very diverse groups of people. I can tell that the movie takes certain liberties with the Biblical text and certain scenes show the clear influence of the Lord of the Rings trilogy but the basics of the story are abided by. The movie has a distinct visual style at points especially in the scenes detailing Creation and the Fall of Man. While the CGI effects could have been better overall, I felt that the creation scene was particularly memorable for its fusion of biblical Genesis and evolution theory. God tells Noah through a series of dreams and visions that due to the depravity and corruption of man, he will destroy the world a start anew.  He instructs Noah to build an Ark to save the innocent (the animals & his family) fro...

The month of March 2014 concluded  with several rounds of swift revelations in the world of  Philadelphia professional sports.The Philadelphia 76ers finally ended their 26 game losing streak by beating the Detroit Pistons while the aging Philadelphia Phillies kicked off their season with a surprising win over the Texas Rangers. The Flyers are still in a good position for the hockey post-season. This leaves the Philadelphia Eagles who's big move was releasing Pro Bowl wide receiver DeSean Jackson . Jackson and Eagles coach Chip Kelly clashed several times during last season and in the months since. There was a report released about Jackson's possible gang ties but I feel like the receiver's ticket out of here was punched months ago. Personally I feel that letting him go will certainly negatively impact the Eagles' upcoming 2014 season. He was a leading all star receiver on a team that throughout its history, has not had many notable receivers. Letting him go withou...

Liam Neeson has had career arc, starring in films such as as Schindler's List, Star Wars, and Taken. His latest film Non-Stop is a high flying thriller that banks off of his popularity from the Taken films. Neeson stars as Bill Marks, an alcoholic Air Marshall on a trans-Atlantic flight who receives cryptic messages from someone on board claiming that someone will die every twenty minutes. As the deaths mount, he is forced to turn to desperate measures which then leads the majority of the flight to believe that he is the one hijacking the plane. The movie's release is further complicated by real world events like the disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370 This contributed to the film being a bit more chilling than it in normal circumstances. Julianne Moore is also a major character in the film and recent Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o also has a role. While I predicted a fair amount of the plot twists, I felt that a major one at the end really set the film ...

M Night Shamaylan's live action adaptation of the hit Nickelodeon show Avatar the Last Airbender was released in 2010 to poor commercial and critical reception. Being a fan of the show, I saw The Last Airbender in theaters and held a reasonable level of expectations. I did not expect to be blown away by any means and for the first 30 seconds i was thrilled. It was simply the intro to the show done in live action. However after that, the whole film fell apart.  The film follows the story of a young monk Aang who must master all four elements (air, water, fire, earth) and stop the warmongering Fire Nation from taking over the world. He is the Avatar which is a person who can control four elements in a world where everyone else can master only one. The plot roughly  follows a stripped down version of the first season of the show where he is freed from a hundred year slumber in an iceberg by siblings Katara and Sokka  and is being chased by Zuko, the son ...