andPOP » Reviews

Miley Cyrus Eaten Alive by Critics for ‘The Last Song’

Graham Slaughter — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:36:20 +0000

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For your reading pleasure, we have compiled a comprehensive list of just how terrible Miley Cyrus is in Nicolas Sparks’ forgettable cheese-fest – AKA, The Last Song.

New York Post: “Displaying approximately 1½ expressions, the teenage Cyrus pouts her way through a fire, a wedding and a funeral — not to mention intervening in an abusive relationship, digging out guilty secrets and resisting overtures from her dad, whom she’s never forgiven for her parents’ divorce.”

Associated Press: ”Her dramatic abilities largely consist of two moves — scrunching up her face and staring wistfully into the distance.”

Metromix Chicago: “The worst movie star since Dane Cook. Her emotional range includes happy and mad and nothing in between.”

Boston Globe: “Allegedly, this is the film in which Cyrus gets all, like, dramatic. If by “dramatic’’ one means pouty, sullen, and cute, then OK. But it’s not tragedy you sense behind those big brown eyes. It’s a party in the USA.”

USA Today: “Miley Cyrus sulks and sneers her way through her first dramatic role. There is a modicum of chemistry between the rebellious Ronnie and the polite and ecologically minded Will (Liam Hemsworth). But, perhaps to hedge her shaky dramatic bets, about halfway through the movie, Cyrus bursts into song along with the radio.”

Cyrus admits that after watching the Last Song, she’ll probably seek out some professional help, reports Perez Hilton.

“”I’ve not taken like acting lessons or anything, but it doesn’t mean I don’t need to because I’m sure I do. Once I watch this film in the theatre, I’m probably going to go book an acting coach.”

Those may be the wisest words that have ever lisped their way out of Cyrus’ mouth.

Backstreet Boys Are Back Again

Sara Harowitz — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:25:51 +0000

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Backstreet’s back, alright!

Only this time, critics are not grooving to the music.

The Backstreet Boys have returned with their seventh studio album entitled, This Is Us. But reviews are in, and they are not in favour of the boy (er, man?) band.

The album was released on October 6, and music critics across North America are in agreement: that sure, the Boys deliver a few catchy tunes, but that at the end of the day the album just sounds like a regurgitation of their previous hits.

“Though the Boys were one of the biggest pop acts of the ’90s, they largely hand the reins off to their producers here, who include Lady Gaga’s hit-maker RedOne, Jim Jonsin and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder,” writes August Brown of the Los Angeles Times. “Cuts like ‘Bye Bye Love’ and ‘Straight Through My Heart’ have au courant hotel-lounge decadence to them, and ‘She’s a Dream’ benefits from the light melodic touch of guest T-Pain. But when the boys extol a lady’s virtues because ‘she don’t even know I’m a celebrity,’ the lyric rings of self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Other critics agree.

Elysa Gardner of USA Today writes that the album’s songs don’t ”provide the Boys — now grown, thirtysomething men — with a distinctive musical persona, outside that of an aging teen act. These frothy, synth-laden love songs — co-written and produced by a predictable posse of studio professionals, from old collaborator Max Martin to the now-ubiquitous Ryan Tedder — are basically ghosts of singles past, updated with some contemporary flourishes.”

The Backstreet Boys hit superstardom in the 1990′s, with hits like “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”, off of 1997′s Backstreet’s Back, and ”I Want It That Way,” off of 1999′s Millennium. The group took a break after 2000′s hit album Black & Blue, and reunited in 2005 to release Never Gone, which drove BSB fans wild with the hit single, “Incomplete.”

After a successful comeback tour, band member and co-founder Kevin Richardson, decided to leave the group in 2006 to start a family. That left his cousin and co-founder Brian Littrell, as well as AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, and Nick Carter to keep the band going. They did so with 2007′s Unbreakable, which, much like This Is Us, was an attempt to re-ignite a flame that burned in a much-different musical era.

The new album features only the four members.

Still, the Grammy Award nominated band enjoys bringing back that 90′s pop sound, and infusing it with more current approaches.

“We made a conscious effort to go back to being ourselves,” says Littrell on the band’s website. “It’s important for the fans to remember what was, but it’s also important for them to know where we’re headed.”

Nick Carter says, “We always want to top our past albums. That’s always our objective, to create an album where every song could be a single.”

While the chances of This Is Us topping the massive success of the Boys’ early albums is unlikely, perhaps USA Today’s Gardner says it best: “If you’re a band that’s nearly a decade past your commercial heyday, it takes either considerable courage or enormous hubris” to do what they’ve done.

Account Edge, CANADA, for Mac: Welcomed by CBC’s

Rick Levine — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:08:54 +0000

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Until now, current Mac Users who wanted to run a pro level accounting software package on the Mac platform in Canada, CBC’s (Canadian Bean Counters), had precious little to choose from. CBC’s could install the US version of AE, however, the effort was, by and large, futile. Not being able to obtain current tax table updates or easily account for and track dual Canadian taxes such as the GST/PST really left MacCanadians, right out in the cold. As of September 2009, Acclivity Software has picked up the ledger, where MYOB/ Account Edge left off in 2001, with the release of a Canadian Edition of Account Edge for Mac. AE for MacCanada, is a number crunching powerhouse with a pretty face, and straightforward enough to grasp. AE verson 13.4.1 is Snow Leopard compatible.

Financial Information at Your Fingertips

If you are installing AE for Mac Canada for the first time, you will find AE to offer a friendly, easy-to-navigate interface. The AE software is ‘Mac like’ and intuitive, affording anyone, with even a little Book Keeping experience and a bit of purserverence, to be ‘in business’ almost immediately. The individual with absolutely no Book Keeping experience will probably have to count on AE’s excellent, knowledgeable support team and the Acclivity’s 30 Days Free Technical Support Service to get up and running. Although it is no simple ‘walk in the park’ for the non Book Keeping types to configure the entire accounting package, once Account Edge for Mac Canada and its selected modules are set up/configured, entering the day to day data is pretty simple and the incredible variety of Reporting features will make the practice worthwhile. Complete up-to-date accounting information, including receivables, quarterly tax remittance amounts (just a fraction of AE’s abilities) will literally be at your fingertips. The practical minded will appreciate AE’s modular approach.

To get started with AE, you would use the AE ‘New Company File Assistant’ to help create an AE data file. To generate this new company data file, you would enter some basic information about your company, such as your Fiscal Year End, Tax Numbers (PST & GST numbers) and Account Lists. Once this Company Data File is created, you can modify the ‘Chart of ACCOUNTS’ that will allow you to keep track of your Assets and Liabilities. For those who aced their way through high school book keeping, it will be a breeze and you will be crunching your company’s financial records in no time at all. If the words ‘Debit and Credit’ used in the same sentence cause you to glaze over, zone out or hyper ventilate, then you will most certainly need to hire the services of a Book Keeper or Accountant (with some computer skills) to get you past any initial barricades. AE provides a link to the a PDF called: Accounting 101 Guide

Massive Power in a Minature Package

The AE online ‘context sensitive’ help system is the next best thing to having a book keeper with Mac computer skills right at your side. Although the Canadian version of AE Mac is packaged in a slender box with a slim ‘Getting Started’ Guide, the Context Sensitive Help system is super impressive. While performing a task, the user can click on the circular, purple ‘Question Mark ICON’ located on the lower left hand corner of the AE home screen to generate Context Sensitive Links leading to answers that were surprisingly well written and more helpful than expected. Flanked by the excellent AE context sensitive help system, the online AE help menu and Acclivity’s telephone/email support, most issues can be resolved effectively. The AE Partner’s Program pledges to provide a list of Certified Book Keeping consultants around the country whose professional level services may be contracted should one be in search this type of assistance. AE provides a number of on-line resources including and ‘Easy Setup Guide’ for users.

There is no Accounting for the Unpredictable – It’s been EIGHT years!

Catching that first glimpse of all of my MYOB/AE data in this newest release of AE was a truly impressive moment – honest! With a little help, I had all my custom designed INVOICE forms printing out as slick as ever from AE v13.4.1. If you are migrating from an earlier version of Account Edge (which is compatible), with the push of a couple of buttons, the upgrade prosess can work seamlessly, but each person’s upgrade experience may vary.

AE is certainly robust enough to be a reliable, full-fledged computer accounting package for small to medium businesses. The program has Eight integrated modules covering Accounts, Banking, Sales, Time Billing, Purchases, Payroll, Inventory and Cards. The BANKING module is where you keep track of your Bank Deposits and Withdrawls. In this MODULE you can accomplish all your banking needs and set the program up, to Print Cheques as well as Reconcile Bank Accounts. The TIME BILLING, PAYROLL, INVENTORY and PURCHASES modules are all pretty much self explanatory and certainly versatile enough to fulfill the requirements of most businesses. You will need to dedicate yourself learning the technical ins and outs of AE and to subscribe to AE’s company updates should you wish to utilize these modules. If you choose to utilize just the SALES module of AE for the purposes of generating INVOICES and keeping track of GST and PST remittances, you will find the REPORTING capabilities of AE to be very helpful. Once properly set up, these handy reporting features are simple to use and quite convenient. Of course you could just stick to using good old EXCEL in order to generate simple numbered invoices, tally the sale totals and tax figures, but AE has style, elegance and provides room to grow in the event you want to take the time to learn integrate and utilize the next module.

The CARD FILE module is certainly the easiest module to understand and to maintain. Most of the other modules rely on the CARD FILE module to function, therefore you would need to make use of and maintain the CARD FILE module even if you only using the SALES MODULE for example. The CARD MODULE is ultimately a real time saver because once you enter the contact information of your Customers and Vendors, repetitious tasks such as creating Invoices and printing cheques can be much less tedious. AE Card File always worked well in the old version and this newest release of AE has been modernized to include email and website information fields so that emailing an invoice is now only a click away. In addition to being able to import customer records from other database programs, the CARD FILE module can also integrate with Apple’s Address Book.

This new release of AE has what is labeled the TASK DRAWER whose usefulness can only be truly appreciated by those who had used a previous version of AE that did not have the TASK DRAWER feature. The TASK DRAWER is a handy sliding module that glides out of the right side of the AE window and is a place to store previous tasks such as a GST Tax report. This is the type of report that has to be generated several times a year and the TASK DRAWER is the place to be able to re generate the report with out having to reconstruct all the technical details. After adding a task to the TASK DRAWER and eventually creating a list of common TASKS, just click on the TASK that you want to generate in the TASK DRAWER, put in the current date parameters and voilà, the report appears. The TASK DRAWER is brilliant and a real time saver.

Crossed Platforms – Will Gates do the Job?

In a perfect world, everyone would be using the same OS (operating system) – preferably Macintosh of course, but it is understandable and certainly of no surprise that WINDOWS is the platform of choice for the Book Keeping/Accounting profession. This compatibility issue is probably not a huge deal in the long run, but the Mac/Windows situation could raise a number of immediate questions: For one, to what extent should this compatibility issue be of concern? Presently, your up-to-day Macintosh AE data file will not be accessible by WUBA’s (Windows Using Book Keepers/Accountants) until a PC version for Canada is released and adopted by the Bean Counting Community.

In the meantime, to bridge the gap, AE has excellent Importing/Exporting features which include the ability to Export/Import directly to EXCEL Spread Sheets. The work around would thus be, to Export any necessary Modular Data Files to EXCEL which is reliably cross platform. You could eMail your exported EXCEL worksheets to your WUBA for inspection and professional analysis, providing your accounting professional with all the numerical information needed to complete your business’ financial records and formal tax submissions.

Attention all CBC’s (Canadian Bean Counters)

For the Canadian Macintosh Business Person in need of a solid, feature rich, modern account program on the Mac, AE and AE Network Edition is a must see program. Time is money, so sharpen your pencil and visit the link below to find out for yourself just how much fun it can be to do your own book keeping, by obtaining the 30 day free trial version of the Account Edge Canada.

Canadian Pride – Aclivity held to account

Why in the world the CANADIAN version of Account Edge Canada is listed on the Account Edge WEBSITE in US funds ($399.00 USD) is something I cannot account for, but it is worth reporting that AE is willing to offer $100 rebate, also in US Funds, to Canadian Mac Users upgrading from any previous version of MYOB or AE.
For further information contact: customer.service@acclivitysoftware.com

Game Review: Tak and the Guardians of Gross.

sarge-ak47 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:03:07 +0000

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JUJU MAKE ME GO CRAZY.
Alright lets get one thing out of the way, I enjoy video games regardless of the age and gender they are created for. If it is a good game then I will classify it as a good game. In my books there is no such thing as a ” I guess for a kids game this is alright.” You wanna know why? Because even simple kids games have to abide by some sort of standard. And don’t get me started on those pre-preschooler games… at that young age you shouldn’t be playing games in the first place. I played Super Mario Land for the Gameboy when I was 6, it was challenging, immersible, and got me to love games ever since.

Now that’s not to say Tak and the guardians of gross is a game designed for kids, I honestly wish that were not the case but tons of things within the game lead me to believe the only person to get some mild joy out of the title would be someone around that age.

The game is the third story iteration in Tak series and after a long hiatus now returns to the Wii. Developed by Blitz games and published by THQ this game sports the nickelodeon splat right on the box letting us know that this is a fine game based on the cartoon based on the game.. In fact one of the special extras on the disc is an episode of the cartoon.

So on to the game, this third story driven iteration now finds Tak on his way to clean the temple, where upon he tries to do it the easy way and what should have been as easy as sweeping dust under the rug turns out unleashing four GIGANTIC monsters that embody everything gross. Tak tasks himself to once again seal these monsters via the help of some new JUJU masters. Each new master offers him a new magic and the motivation to take the monsters down. from there on in its about a 6 hour journey (even faster if you avoid the non-checkpoint fights and run past the baddies) through some cool looking environments and some interesting design choices. Players are generally going to be doing a lot of platforming, light fighting and a couple of aiming and driving missions. It’s key to note that most of the crucial cinematics are cartoony CGI with in-game cut-scenes every now and then. Despite the horrendous witting the voice work is passable. It’s sad and a bit unfortunate that we get to hear so little of the awesome Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld’s David Putty), the man’s voice is always welcomed and I was surprised to hear him in the game..seeing as I don’t watch the cartoon he voices.

Presentation wise things are pretty clean and simple. The Graphics are some what ho-hum, granted the Wii is not a powerful machine and this isn’t a triple A title- still we could use something that does not look like a PSP port. Honestly some areas of the game sport such dated texture work and effects that its hard to understand that this came out recently. But there is something really cool about the game, and that lies in the design of most of the levels. Some of the later stages are pitted on the actual gigantic monsters themselves, and some of the sights are truly unique and cool. The environment design gets kudos as well for picking gross themes like trash, slime, melted cheese, and what could be best described as a gassy jungle. Whats even more cool is that its apparent right away that these touches are so akin to titles like God of War (remember getting Pandora’s box?) and Shadow of the Colossus. So what at first seems like dated visuals gets a notch up in terms of creativity and some truly cool scenes in the game.

Sound wise things couldn’t be worse. I’ve mentioned how I only loved the voice work of David putty.. besides that everyone sports a passive delivery of the horrible lines. It’s an audio assault to hear Tak yammer on about how he can use his wall running skills.. or how he can hit that.. or how he is afraid of heights. The music on the other hand is a surprise, with noticeable ambient sounds and subtle music that kicks in at the right moments. In fact one of the tracks seems so familiar to what I’ve heard in God of War. The soundtrack is a definite plus and probably the most polished thing about this game.

Game play is a mix of light linear platforming – with the occasional cool element that is oddly placed once every hour. The combat is light, very light, in fact you don’t even have to utilize the very few moves at your disposal. I found myself just bashing B over and over until the guys dropped. Occasionally I ended up using an area clearing supermove which is charged by the orbs of fallen enemies. Sure there is a vault move.. a charging tackle.. but really all you gotta do is bash B for the majority of encounters. There are some cool context sensitive take downs that result in some very God of War moments (they really love that game from the looks of things) that just scream excitement, but they’re few and far in between. The boss fights are as linear as the levels with only a couple of places that had me scratching my head- then I realized it was the fact that I could not see that ledge due to the games poor camera. Wii platform games are running into a lot of problems. Aside of Mario Galaxy, no one has seemed to nailed down the camera, and it’s rather sad since we all know how intuitive and hassle free galaxy’s camera was. But the camera will cause a lot of frustrations by positioning you in odd perspectives that will make your jumps seem like leaps of faith and moments were your next objective is not visible due to a poor vantage point. I should note that the simplicity of the game and it’s linear nature make it ideal for young kids, but they deserve better camera and gameplay if you ask me. And God forbid should any of those young ones pick up Tak and his annoying phrases, that alone would be disastrous.. that’s assuming they are not fans of the cartoon. If they are, they will love the game and it’s farty sense of humor.

This is a wii game and controls are very important. Granted I have given up on finding new and innovative control solutions via most third party devs, I still wont knock on a control scheme that isn’t broken. In Tak the controls are relatively simple. You run via standard nunchuck and press A and B for jump and attack. the Z button is mapped for vaulting over enemies, context sensitive actions, and wall running ala Prince of Persia. The only gripe I have is that the magic button is mapped to C on the nunchuck. It gets a bit tricky when you have a context sensitive action followed by a magic display. But besides that the controls work well and don’t require intense use of gestures and awkward motions. There are a few minigames that take advantage of the IR sensor and one that requires you to shake your Wii-mote, but things are relatively cool.

There isn’t much here in terms of replay, the game gets you a solid 6 hour session with mini games for a multiplayer session, the mini games are a bit shallow and ridiculous, but there are one or two out of the handful that might make you smile. There is a standard challenge mode designed to revisit some of the games areas, some cool picture mini games that are used to unlock and view the games concept art and as I mentioned before, an episode of the show.

Ultimately Tak is a game that leaves one confused. Can kids really like stuff like this? Well it’s worth a rental to the die hard fan of the show or previous games, defiantly worth a try to see some cool colossi monsters moving as you scale them, but in the end the series has refused to evolve and fix some of the problems of the original. The game feels dated and at times really lacks any of the depth of modern and classic platform titles. Go play Mario Galaxy, try out Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, the Jak and Daxter series and then if your really bored or if your young sibling/cousin/child has played them all and loves them TAK cartoons.. rent this one for them.

Game play    2/5
Graphics    2/5
Sound          3/5
Replay         2/5