Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 20th, 2010
As a kid, I was subjected to all sorts of soap operas whether it be during the day or during the night. During the day, it was a steady stream of Young & The Restless or General Hospital. At night, it was two shows as well. The first was Dynasty, which could better be described as a Joan Collins vs Linda Evans wrestling match. Then there was Dallas: J.R. & Bobby at the forefront of oil, cattle, deceit, and general debauchery. How sweet it is.
The twelfth season of Dallas starts with the eleventh season cliffhanger. J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman and Nicholas Pierce (played by Jack Scalia) get into a fight in J.R.’s penthouse. Nicholas Pierce happens to be Sue Ellen’s (played by Linda Gray) new boyfriend. Except that she is still married to J.R. Anyhow, in the struggle Nicholas goes over the balcony rail and falls to his death. Sue Ellen then picks up a gun and shoots J.R. several times before phoning the police to call in a double murder.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on January 20th, 2010
Beatles Rock Band Sales Figures, Video Games: the 5th Network, & Video Games survive Recession? - Welcome to the column that survived the recession and shot itself in the arm to boot known as Dare to Play the Game.
Someday I’ll learn to keep playing the characters I have in World of Warcraft and not create new ones. For anybody who hasn’t tuned into this column (or read my facebook page), I have about half a dozen characters in WoW. Noteables include a level 71 Troll Rogue (Combat) and a level 65 Dwarf Priest (Shadow/Disc). The rest of the characters include 2 hunters, 1 warlock, 1 mage and 1 druid ranging from levels 13-35.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 18th, 2010
Robin Hood is a fantastic tale, and one that can be re-told again and again without fail. The story begins with a man that steals from the rich and gives to the poor. This is a great way to give us a hero to cheer for and has worked for Errol Flynn and even Kevin Costner. This summer, Russell Crowe tries his hand at making the arrow stick for a successful box office run. But will Jonas Armstrong make a viable enough Robin Hood for a third season of this BBC series? We will just have to see.
The second season of Robin Hood ended in a shocker: Marian (played by Lucy Griffiths) has been murdered at the hands of Guy of Gisborne (played by Richard Armitage). Robin Hood (played by Jonas Armstrong) is outraged and seeks Gisborne’s head on a silver platter. His only desire is vengeance and he won’t be held back by anything to achieve his revenge.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on January 13th, 2010
Target Says No to Minigames, Kids Taught thru Video Games, & What the heck is DLC again? - Welcome to the column that is working on world domination one red-ringed Xbox at a time (if only it were that simple) known as Dare to Play the Game.
This week, I can safely say I didn’t game all that much. I did continue to play some on the Wii and muddled around with my Xbox 360 as well. On the Wii, I actually bowled my first 200+ (210) game on Wii Sports Resort. I still wonder if that translates to any improvement in a real bowling game. The last time I really bowled I was somewhere in the 170’s. I’m guessing I’m probably in the same place.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 7th, 2010
High school was a nightmare for me, I try to forget most of it. For me, there was no 10 year high school reunion and I was glad I never went. Speaking of ten & high school, this is the 10th year anniversary of 10 Things I Hate About You, a Gil Junger comedy that helped launch quite a few careers. As such, they made the leap to Blu-Ray with a well-done anniversary edition. But how does the movie hold up?
Cameron James (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is new to Padua High School. He is assigned another student, Michael Eckman (played by David Krumholtz) to show him around. Michael introduces him to the various groups of kids and they start to develop a friendship. Cameron then spots a girl, Bianca Stratford (played by Larisa Oleynik) and his life would never be the same.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on January 6th, 2010
Tiger Woods Makes a Boxer into a Golfer, Sega says no to M rated Wii titles, & The Return of NBA Jam? - Welcome to the column that was a smooth operator with Tom Gugliotta on his team known as Dare to Play the Game.
Another week with the Wii and I believe I have reached an understanding with the machine. Nintendo-made games & Virtual Console make me happy. Third party games to this point make me very sad. Puzzle Kingdoms remains one of the few games I have played and then promptly looked for the auction pile in hopes of never seeing that horrible interface for a game.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 4th, 2010
On February 11th, 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from the Victor Verster Prison is often seen as the symbolic end of apartheid in the country of South Africa. However, the apartheid was not fully removed until the elections of 1994. Furthermore, the story was way more complex than the African National Congress leader’s freedom. The story that was more focused on Willie Esterhuyse, Thabo Mbeki and Michael Young. These names might seem foreign to most of us, but they are perhaps three of the most important names to the recent history of South Africa.
Michael Young (played by Jonny Lee Miller) is a British businessman who is secretly working for Consolidated Goldfields, a firm who has particular interest in the affairs of South Africa. The film starts with him visiting a poverty stricken part of South Africa where he is trying to help with funding for the education of their youths. Unfortunately for Michael, talking with the locals puts him in danger of his life. After one particular incident, he decides to aim in a less direct but more ambitious approach.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 4th, 2010
Parker Lewis Can’t Lose as anyone could guess was heavily influenced by the cult classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It lasted for three seasons and seventy three episodes. It actually did a fair amount of decent ratings (as far as Fox was concerned) during the run. The living cartoon as many have described it has kept its fans through the years. As a result, Shout Factory has decided to go ahead with the release of the 2nd season. Hopefully it still keeps its charm after all of these years.
For those who are not familiar with the show, let me spend a few moments setting up the show. The three main characters of the show are Jerry Steiner (played by Troy Slaten), Mikey Randall (played by Billy Jayne) and of course Parker Lewis (played by Corin Nemec). Parker is the quintessential slacker and cool attendee at the Santo Domingo High School.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on December 30th, 2009
Xbox Live Goes Mobile, Rebuilding Atari Chips, & Warcraft gets its own Magazine? - Welcome to the column that will have a happy new year even if he has to gag & tie up several game executives to do it known as Dare to Play the Game.
Christmas has gone by in the Kedrix household and it turned out to be a very nice holiday. For Christmas as most of you know, I gave Sarah a Wii with all the trimmings and fixings. On Christmas day, I also took the opportunity to download for her the original Super Smash Bros. For myself, I received the original Grand Theft Auto IV which I have wanted to play ever since I got my hands on the Episodes DLC disc. I also got two awesome shirts, one of TMNT and the other, a Horde Warcraft shirt that looks pretty bad ass.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 29th, 2009
By day, this reviewer is not just a writer but a glorified cubicle jockey. For lack of a detailed job description, I am a computer software administrator. So as many cubicle jockeys, I've watched Office Space. To be honest, I'm not in love with it. I did find it mildly funny and there were a few “I've been in that situation before” moments. But interestingly enough, I was pretty excited to see Extract (Mike Judge had directed both). Perhaps it was my infatuation with Mila Kunis or seeing how Jason Bateman has progressed in comedic films or maybe I just wanted to see Ben Affleck in a full grown beard.
Joel (played by Jason Bateman) built the Reynolds extract factory from the ground up. His is still in charge of the factory but does yearn to sell the factory to somebody like General Mills and retire. However, he has other issues more pressing at the moment. His wife, Suzie (played by Kristen Wiig) works at home and once she puts on the sweat pants (8pm), Jason has no chance of getting any from his wife.
![10 Things I Hate About You (10th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/10-things-i-hate-about-you-10th-an-large.jpg)
![Extract [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/extract-blu-ray-large.jpg)
