Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on May 27th, 2009
Warner Bros wants to buy Midway, Thoughts on new hardware for Nintendo, and Bill Clinton in Fallout 3? - Welcome to the column that offered $9.95 for the rights to the TNA Impact series and was turned down because I bid in pesos known as Dare to Play the Game.
After playing 15 games in the franchise mode of NHL 2k9, I am a strong 11-4. Most of the games are very close, common scores being 3-2, 5-4 and the like. Overtime is a frequent occurrence as well. However, my luck in overtime has been very solid so far. By the way, I do the old traditional Sudden Death overtime, no pansy shootout for me.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 25th, 2009
Galaxy Quest is an odd movie. It opened on Christmas Day of 1999 and did alright in the box office gathering roughly 71 million and some change. It was one of those movies that you went to go see and would laugh a lot but wouldn’t tell anybody in fear of people making fun of you. So it did respectable sales, but nobody knew the full potential of the movie until it hit the video format. The movie found a considerable audience and after many years, the movie holds up. Possibly better than it ever did nine years ago in a tiny theater. Now, with the release of a deluxe edition many years later, the movie can reach new audiences. Hopefully, they will be able to appreciate it as much as I did.
Once upon a time, Galaxy Quest was an entertaining space drama. It lasted only four seasons but found an audience that lasted many years later. The cast however has for the most part not been able to find reasonable work, reduced to conventions and lowly promotional work. There is Gwen DeMarco (played by Sigourney Weaver in a blonde wig) who played Tawny, the Computer Officer of the Protector and served as the beauty on the ship. Alexander Dane (played by Alan Rickman) plays Dr. Lazarus serves as the resident Spock/intelligent alien and is positively sick of his catchphrase (By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!).
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on May 20th, 2009
Free Realms Draw a Million, Tatsunko vs Capcom and Wal-Mart Goes Gamestop? - Welcome to the column that will open up a used video game store and only take Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt combo NES carts known as Dare to Play the Game.
Still playing NHL 2k9. I did pop a few achievements this week. Nothing special, just more of the win this many games, score this many assists and sit in the penalty box for these many minutes types. I stand at 200 achievement points and in franchise mode I am currently 6-2 on the middle of the road difficulty with the San Jose Sharks. Not bad, not bad. But even though I do like the game a lot, it doesn’t come without its faults.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 19th, 2009
My history with Westerns isn’t exactly a vast one. I watched a bunch of Westerns with my dad growing up and I continued to watch the bigger ones of the modern era like Tombstone and Unforgiven as I progressed through my teenage years and young adulthood. John Wayne is kinda a mystery to me. He’s a huge gritty guy with a lot of patriotism and a funny way of talking. For lack of a better analogy, Sylvester Stallone is my generation’s John Wayne. Or Chuck Norris I guess. El Dorado is an interesting western flic because it was shot later in John Wayne’s career but he had still had the swagger of earlier pictures. A true classic revisited by the minds at Paramount.
Cole Thornton (played by John Wayne) is a gunslinger for hire. He’s been hired by Bart Jason (played by Ed Asner) for some help in a ranch dispute with the McDonald family. Cole rides into El Dorado and is approached by his friend: Sheriff J.P. Harrah (played by Robert Mitchum) who tells him the real tale of the ranch dispute. Cole also finds out that Jason eventually would have put him in a gunfight with the Sheriff. This is something that he didn’t want to do.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 14th, 2009
British comedy for me has always been big hit or big miss for me. There really is no between. Monty Python & The Holy Grail – big hit. This movie makes me laugh from the first second until the closing credits. But some of the Monty Python sketches or all of Meaning of Life – big miss. Same thing with television, the Black Adder is simply awesome. Absolutely Fabulous? I never got it and found it completely droll. So I was eager to see Gavin & Stacey and find another wonderful British hit. I was totally pleased.
Gavin (played by Mathew Horne) and Stacey (played by Joanna Page) quite like each other. There is one problem though, they haven’t really met each other in person. They have a budding phone romance and have decided that they finally need to meet. Each of them takes a bud along. Gavin takes Smithy (played by James Corden), a large friendly guy who loves beer and food. Stacey takes along Nessa (played by Ruth Jones), a large not so friendly girl who loves beer, food and apparently tattoos.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on May 13th, 2009
Guitar Hero Smash Hits Setlist, Rock Band & Pearl Jam Unite, and Duke Nukem Forever ever? - Welcome to the column that is considering a petition to ban Rush from any Guitar Hero/Rockband title going forward known as Dare to Play the Game.
More NHL 2k9 greatness. I have moved up in difficulty, it is obvious harder but not too overbearing. However, it creates for a much more exciting game which is what I was looking for. There isn’t too much going in the achievement part due to a little bit less scoring and more competitive play. The penalty minutes are still racking up though. I’m certainly not getting tired of it but my gamerscore isn’t going to jump up overnight unless I go ballistic on it. Then, I run the risk of hating myself while I’m at it. I do plan to start a franchise and hopefully I will be able to knock down the amount of games in a season. I’m not looking for a full 80+ game schedule.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on May 6th, 2009
EA Sports Predictions, Turtles in Time Remake and Video Game Hall of Fame in Iowa? - Welcome to the column that will donate its copy of Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust & Magna Cum Laude(as I’m probably the only guy who will admit owning both) to the Video Game Hall of Fame known as Dare to Play the Game.
Well, last week I was debating what to do with my time besides Rock Band, Poker & Bowling. I finally decided on NHL 2k9. It didn’t take long to crack it open after that and install it to my hard drive. I went with the weakest difficulty to start and turned off the part to call off-sides (always hated that call). Even though I had some trouble figuring out controls in my first game, by the third period, I was mastering skating and blowing shots by goalies.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 4th, 2009
As the times change, so do the plots of movies to stick with the time period. But in the same sense of keeping with the time period, the film usually sticks to an old theme. Take for example, the movie of Incendiary. There is the notion of terrorists, especially after 9/11 and this can show up in quite a few films like this one. However, throw in an old theme, let us say adultery. Then we string them together a plot line of what happens to a mother who has an adulterous affair and something that involves terrorists. Well then you hopefully have a hit movie on your hands. Or a giant waste of time.
A young woman (played by Michelle Williams) is finding it hard to cope with her married life. She has a 4-year old son (again not named but played by Sidney Johnson) and a husband named Lenny (played by Nicholas Gleaves). Her husband Lenny is rarely home since he is part of the bomb squad for the London police department. One day, the woman meets up with a news reporter named Jasper (played by Ewan McGregor) at a local pub.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 1st, 2009
Citing personal history, I don’t do really well with horror films. As mentioned in other reviews, my parents let me see scary movies such as Exorcist & Poltergeist (as well as R-rated action films) when I was no more than ten years old. While, Poltergeist sits proudly in my DVD collection, I still have trouble to this day with Exorcist. Yes, I can be a scaredy cat at times. To be also perfectly honest, I was a bit worried when I received The Uninvited in the mail to review. After all, it proclaims proudly on the cover that it is made by the producers of the Ring(which I absolutely hated) & Disturbia. By the end of the movie, I was very pleasantly surprised.
Anna (played by Emily Browning) is out with her boyfriend Matt (played by Jesse Moss) at a local beach party. They start to kiss when Matt tells Anna he loves her and he has a condom. (Wow, that screams love) Upset, Anna decides to leave. She passes her sister Alex (played by Arielle Kebbel) on the way back to the house. Through the woods she goes until she encounters three filled garbage bags. She opens them and the dead body of a redheaded girl spills out. The redheaded girl’s head snaps and speaks. Anna runs again in the direction of the house.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 30th, 2009
The day of October 31st is usually Halloween to most people. However, back in 1992 it was the day one of the best cartoon superhero shows premiered on the Fox Network. It was simply called X-Men. The show would last seventy-six episodes and five seasons while rising to considerable popularity. I’m not one to toot personal bias, but this is probably my second favorite comic book related animated show next to Batman: The Animated Series. Most of us X-Men fans have been waiting for these episodes to be released for as long as the dvd format has existed. Finally that time has come and I couldn’t be more delighted to watch these again.
Two parents sit in a living room wondering if they did the right thing. Their adopted child: Jubilee is a mutant. They have felt the best thing to do is file her name with the Mutant Registration Program, a privately funded program with ties to the government. The Mutant Registration Program is supposed to be a peaceful group helping humanity and the mutants carry on in their existence. However, things are not as they seem.
