Regular Columns

Some Notes on Black Emmannuelle/White Emmanuelle

Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on November 17th, 2007

So I’m in the middle of working my way through Severin’s latest Black Emanuelle box set, and a screening of Black Emmanuelle/White Emmanuelle (actual title Black Velvet) has prompted these musings, which I inflict on you here rather than in the review itself. Now, European sexploitation movies from the 70s aren’t exactly the deepest experience going, but there’s plenty of food for thought in this film, even despite (or because of) its flaws.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, Regular Columns by Michael Durr on November 14th, 2007

Dating in WoW, Hacking in Orange and 360 goes VC – Welcome to the column that pretends to go by an acronym but then realizes it just isn’t quite cool enough known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another addition of Dare to Play the Game. I’m addicted to Puzzle Quest. Big time. So much, Sarah and I are two achievements from finishing up the whole bloody thing. Lord Bane and Level 50 are the only things left. I would venture to say Lord Bane goes down long before level 50 since we are both about level 35 and just finished rebuilding Sartek. In fact the only thing I’m really messing with in other games besides that is Smackdown vs Raw 2007 and working on some small achievements there. I’m pretty determined to crack open Half Life Orange by weekend time. I’m split on Mass Effect, I know it looks awesome and I do want it in my collection but we’ll see if I can hold out until Christmas.
Read More

The Last Word on Exploitation Cinema?

Posted in Brain Blasters, Regular Columns by David Annandale on November 9th, 2007

Many a month back, I talked about some essential reading material for fans of the cult/exploitation scene. Time (past time, actually) for an update on that subject, because there’s a recent book out there that, while taking nothing away from the excellent Sleazoid Express and Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!, at the same time sets the bar impossibly high for anyone else wanting to contribute to the field.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on November 7th, 2007

Hacking through Manhunt 2, Germans censor corpse desecration and Maniac Mansion censorship revisited – Welcome to the column that is unedited and contains plenty of swear words like *£ïΘ, &$%*, & *$&# known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Nope, still didn’t get to Half Life Orange. *sigh* The girlfriend and I played a whole lot of Guitar Hero 3 which is why you got a handy dandy review so quick. That and I couldn’t break my Guitar Hero streak on this site. No sireee bob. A lot of Puzzle Quest was also digested as my character has entered the mid 20’s and the girlfriend is in her 30’s. Just like our ages except in reverse. Damn, I’m old; but my girlfriend did turn 24 yesterday. Muhahahaa, perhaps it isn’t nice to point and stare. But heck I do that anywhere on a daily basis. She also reads this column, I worry for her sanity.
Read More

Twisting in the Wind

Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on November 2nd, 2007

It must stop! Somebody has to take a stand, and I guess that somebody has to be me. But surely I will not be alone. Surely I will have comrades aplenty in my march to justice. Surely the day of victory cannot be too far over the horizon. With courage and determination, we can stamp out the scourge. What scourge? Surely I don’t have to spell it out. Surely you know I am referring to the twist ending.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on October 31st, 2007

There is a Mutant Storm brewing, Doritos brings XBLA snacks and the Wii shows up forgetting beer and a HDD – Welcome to the column that shows up early and then stays way too late (and doesn’t clean up) known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to the spooktacular edition of Dare to Play the Game (no you probably won’t find any other Halloween related material but it will be spooooky). No, I didn’t finish Halo 3 (stuck halfway thru stage 8 ) and I didn’t even start Half Life 2 Orange. I’m a very sad panda. We (my girlfriend and me) are hopelessly addicted to Puzzle Quest. My girlfriend is nearing level 25 with her character and I’m around 15. However, I have to admit I like my wizard very very much. Fireball and Hands of Power are a deadly combo. I was able to finish my PQ review naturally. I also finished a couple of dvd reviews (The Lair – Season One and The Reaping) and have three more on tap (The Tripper, Red Road, and Poltergeist 25th Anniversary). I also went out and bought Guitar Hero 3 Wireless Bundle for the 360. *keep telling yourself, I will get to Half Life 2 Orange*
Read More

Double-Dipping and Rewriting Film History

Posted in Brain Blasters, Regular Columns by David Annandale on October 26th, 2007

I know that some of what I’m going to touch on today is going to overlap with past topics, and so I beg your indulgence. But recent DVD releases have prompted some thoughts on the phenomenon of double-dipping. This is not something that is by any means exclusive to the cult movie scene, but plenty of it goes on here. Consider the umpteen “definitive” editions of Halloween that Anchor Bay has trotted out. But I want to look at a three cases, two of which are admittedly mainstream (though not unrelated to this column’s field), with the third representing an overt stab at cult immortality.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on October 24th, 2007

Mass Effect LE only available online, DS only releases 21 games this week and there can only be one console – Welcome to the column that only decides to sling mud after they washed their hands completely of it before known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I want to teach the world to sing. Seriously, because most people are just tone deaf! I did end up getting Half Life: Orange Box for 360 and will start playing it as soon as I get off the silly Halo 3 single player. Sure I would occasionally touch the multiplayer but I want to be done with the single one once and for all (provided I don’t go back and start playing for the skulls). Everytime I read about Orange Box; I just really really want to play it.
Read More

Better Than A Poke In the Eye With A Sharp Stick … But Not By Much

Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on October 19th, 2007

When, in the 1950s, television became widespread and began to take a serious chunk of the audience away from cinemas, the movies fought back in a number of ways. Gimmicks were rife (hello, William Castle). Colour became standard. Widescreen arrived. But other than colour and widescreen, every other innovation turned out to be a brief novelty, never to be seen again. There was once exception, a gimmick that was more popular than most, never became a standard, but refuses to die, resurfacing again and again after periods of dormancy, and that’s 3-D.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on October 17th, 2007

Lost is found in Half Life, Xbox 360 Elites Selling Out (In Japan), and a TurboGrafx CD game available for download – Welcome to the column that is one oxymoron away from a plate of jumbo shrimp known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. This past week, I became addicted to the game known as Puzzle Quest. Except it was the trial version. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t pay down the 1,200 points required for the full version. *sigh*. Everyday I come home I want to pull the trigger. But I know if I do I can kiss my girlfriend, work and normal social life goodbye. But wait, I’m mature now! *laughter in the background* Well I hope so anyhow. When you sport Evil Dead posters in your living room and Daredevil switchplate and figures in your game room, you start questioning maturity.
Read More

Brain Blasters — Shatner As You’ve Never Heard Him

Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on October 12th, 2007

Buy at Amazon.com

One of the great oddities of film from the 1960s (or, indeed, ever) is a modest little horror film by the name of Incubus. Emerging in 1965, it was shot in Big Sur, and tells the mythic tale of a young soldier returning home to become the target of a female demon. His innate goodness, however, winds up seducing the demon instead, and the titular male demon vows revenge, specifically targeting the soldier’s blind sister. This is already a somewhat odd tale for a mid-sixties American horror film, and the fairy-tale setting is even more unusual. But the real oddities are yet to come. The lead is played by a William Shatner (in his last film before Star Trek). And all of the dialogue is in the artificial language Esperanto.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on October 10th, 2007

Manhunt 2 Re-Rejected, PSP Rejecting SDTVs, and the Yaris rejecting decency – Welcome to the column that is like the girl you always rejected in high school for the pretty cheerleader known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. If you were paying attention after my post last week; I also posted the Halo 3 review. Initial feedback has been positive but I always like to hear more. Naturally, I have also played a lot more of Halo 3 including a really cool Energy Sword duel that I was a part of. In fact, for those who have Halo 3; go to your fileshare and add me as a friend (Kedrix) and then check the clips. I have two cool clips of me in action with a gravity hammer and then an energy sword. Good times, good times.
Read More

Brain Blasters — Fear of a Seven-Foot Chicken

Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on October 5th, 2007

Bert I. Gordon. Now there’s a man who knew no shame. Here was a director who combined the hucksterism of a low-rent William Castle (who wasn’t exactly living on the Boardwalk of Monopoly board of producer-directors, if you catch my drift), the willingness to pile on the spectacle of an even lower-rent Cecil B. De Mille, and the technical competence of a slightly (but only slightly) higher-rent Ed Wood. Here was a director who not only did his own special effects, but for some unfathomable reason thought they were good enough to show for extended periods of time. Perhaps he thought his back-projection techniques in The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People and Beginning of the End (grasshoppers!) were actually impressive. They weren’t. But they had a certain goofy charm.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on October 3rd, 2007

Missing Resolution in Halo, Missing Wii’s for Christmas and Microsoft soon to miss Bungie? – Welcome to the column that is missing pants and dignity (if we had any to begin with) known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Okay, okay so my review of the pretty Halo Tin isn’t quite done. I’d say it is about two thirds done to be exact. It is looking quite good; but I’ve got the replay section mainly to go over with a fine tooth come. One thing that Halo 3 has a lot of and that is game modes. So I’ll have to be careful and be meticulous. At first I was rather meh about the game, but I kinda like it now. Now keep in mind, I’m not one of those gah-gah Halo is king guys but I’m having fun with it. Played three stages to completion and messed with multiplayer for a good long time. My girlfriend and I are still both addicted to Bomberman Live. We aren’t really good at it (though we have our moments) but we have a great time playing it.

Read More

Brain Blasters — Blobs! Elements!

Posted in Brain Blasters, Regular Columns by David Annandale on September 30th, 2007

Returning to Sinister Cinema’s roster of Drive-In Double Features this year is an offering that distinguishes itself by the rarity of the two films in the pairing, and so it is my bounden duty to bring this to your attention. The two films in question are Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959) and The Magnetic Monster (1953).
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on September 26th, 2007

Halo 3, Halo 3, and Just say No To Transsexuals – Welcome to the column that is overloaded with hype and sexual indecency known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. In my hand I have the Halo 3 CE Tin. It’s pretty, it’s sexy, I want to have relations with it. (okay not really). In my other hand, I hold a 20 ounce of Halo 3 Mountain Dew Game Fuel. Feeeel the hype. I have not played the game yet; I will soon and hope to have a review on this site by Sunday. Sure, the other reviewers had it up on Tuesday. But I have a job, and I don’t get the game early. The tin looks great seriously, but my only complaint about the tin is how the discs are held inside. Its flimsy and they should have used the harder plastic pegs we are accustomed to. I’ll have to be careful with it so my Halo 3 goodness goes undamaged. Apparently there is already news about this.
Read More

Brain Blasters — Teruo Ishii Is Making My Brain Bleed!

Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on September 21st, 2007

Buy at Amazon.com

My very first horror film book, acquired in Grade 3, was Denis Gifford’s A Pictorial History of Horror Movies. Among its many stills were a number for films identified by title, but with no other information provided. The result was rather tantalizing. One of those stills was for a 1969 Japanese ditty called Horror of Malformed Men. At long last, thanks to a new release from Synapse (with the title pluralized to Horrors of Malformed Men), my curiosity has been more than satisfied.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on September 19th, 2007

Turbo Cd’s on the Wii, Gamestop Manager on Suspension and a Washer on the way to my house – Welcome to the column that is always on even if the writer is somewhere between a wounded animal & rigor mortis known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I finally started playing my Xbox 360 again. Played a smattering of Dig Dug (good stuff) and Gauntlet (I forgot how frustrating this game is) and I also started playing WWE Smackdown vs Raw 07. Getting used to the new grapple system is interesting but I’m already having fun with it. Unlocking some of this stuff will take some major time but outside of the crazy achievement where you have to beat everybody on legendary or the online ones where you have to win 20 in a row (unless somebody is willing to boost for me); I think I’ll be playing this for a while.
Read More

Brain Blasters — Sometimes, the Final Cut Really Should Be Final

Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on September 14th, 2007

The current issue of Rue Morgue has a retrospective look at Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead, just ahead of yet another DVD release (September 11). Over the course of the interview with O’Bannon, interviewer Dave Alexander asks the director how much he had to do with the new release. This is his response:
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on September 12th, 2007

The Wii Saber, A Smaller PS3 & some Sonic fun – Welcome to the column that promises to push innovation and technology but in the wrong direction known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Well since last week, the 360 service center people have been doing things a little differently. I received two phone calls. The first was from the manager lady that said she was working on my signature issue and wasn’t able to change the address but she would get me a tracking number once it was fixed. So yesterday, I’m sitting in the car and get another phone call.
Read More

Brain Blasters — Children Are EEEEEEEVILLL!

Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on September 7th, 2007

A little while ago, I looked at a recent (and very strong) example of the Evil Kids movie. I mentioned some of the big names in the field (The Omen, the original Village of the Damned, The Bad Seed), but today, for your consideration, a half-forgotten effort from 1974 (smack in the midst of the golden era of grindhouse and drive-in sleaze): Devil Times Five.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on September 5th, 2007

PS3 might go even cheaper, Fatal Fury Special at mad prices and Command & Conquer free beeotches – Welcome to the column that slashes prices and then sends you a bill every seven days known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Called the 360 repair people; talked to them for roughly half an hour over the signature jazz. They basically told me they can’t do anything right now. Ummm, okay. I even got to speak to a very nice female manager who I tried to wow with my seductive ways. That didn’t work too well; not that she was mean but she wasn’t willing to bend over backwards anyway. Which is a nice trick when you can get the girl to..errr nevermind. So I’m still stuck playing the PS2; at least I’m finally playing a decent wrestling title again (Smackdown vs Raw 2006). It’s been forever since I played it, and for some reason Chris Benoit was still the US Champion. *fwap* Changed that in a hurry as Finley obliterated him in a Last Man Standing Match. No, I’m not bitter.
Read More

Brain Blasters — Why Does He Keep Coming Home?

Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on September 4th, 2007

It seems to me that it was around this time last year that I was lambasting the desperately misconceived remake of The Wicker Man. Here we are again, then, with another entry in the disastrous remake sweepstakes. Halloween may be a little more mainstream than is, strictly speaking, the concern of this space, but when has that ever bothered me before? While Rob Zombie’s atrocity is in the theatres, I feel it is my solemn duty to warn you off.
Read More

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on August 29th, 2007

Ultima re-born, Super Puzzle Fighter makes a comeback, and My 360 might take a little longer – Welcome to the column that every time it gets posted, a XBOX 360 gets its wings known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Well I finally got my 360 XBOX Shipping Box last friday. For those who haven’t had this experience, Microsoft does their job. Almost too well. They include the box, the foam crates, a shipping bag and the tape for the box. Of course a shipping label is also provided. The tape, that was the true kicker. So I get it about 4 pm that day, have it packed within minutes and trudge it off to the UPS store before 6pm. The ladies took it and I was done. However, on the return trip I might have to get them to change the shipping address to my place of work. See they require signature and I’m never home, soooo; if I don’t; I might be s-k-e-w-e-d. A good note though, since the 360 was gone; I did play my PS2 some. Mostly NFL 2k5 and Guitar Hero 1. Kinda rough on the HD; but certianly playable. Of course I watched some movies too.
Read More

Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, Regular Columns by Archive Authors on August 28th, 2007

It’s been a week since the Paramount/HD DVD exclusivity announcement, so what’s there to be learned from the reaction?

Well, for one thing, it’s that Bill Hunt can be a overreactive shrill when he wants to. The immediate reaction was to call Microsoft “Money$oft” in a blurb, which was subsequently changed. Bill, seriously, when did you start foaming at the mouth about this shite, because it’s lost you a lot of credibility among a lot of people. Think about it rationally or just clam up. Or give yourself a week, like I did.

«< 13 14 15 16 17 >»