Regular Columns

Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on August 22nd, 2007

Super Metroid goes VC, Bioshock goes Letterbox, and My 360 goes Boom – Welcome to the column that comes and goes just like that chalupa from the mexican roadside eatery known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Guess what, I join the thousands and thousands of XBOX 360 peeps. My 360 go boom. It had been glitching here and there for a few weeks. Not too troublesome, but a pain. Well this weekend, it decided to go postal. It would freeze in the middle of the session, give four red lights, beep for no apparent reason, etc. Then it happened, the dreaded three rings. Nine months into owning the console, thank you have a nice day.
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Brain Blasters — The Abandoned

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

Nacho Cerdá made his name on the underground horror circuit with Aftermath, a short feature that made everyone’s worst surmises about autopsy tables look hopeless optimistic. The question that looms around his feature debut, The Abandoned, just out on DVD, is how on earth he might top Aftermath’s taboo-busting calling card. Wisely, he attempts no such thing. Though there is one notable moment of “yeeeurrrrgggh” in the film, it otherwise marks a very different approach to horror, as well as making clear that Cerdá is the kind of talent that horror desperately needs at this juncture. It’s a criminal shame that the film received to theatrical distribution to speak of, but here’s hoping it will find the audience it deserves on DVD.
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Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on August 15th, 2007

Metroid – VC, XBLA – The Reality, & Halo 3: the Box Office Smash – Welcome to the column that lives in the dream and only participates in the reality as needed known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Gaming, well I fired back up Rainbow Six this weekend; I did make it to First Sergeant (the one after Master) and played it for a good long while. Of course this was Saturday morning or whereabouts where my connection does nothing but good things. I played a ton of the Stranglehold demo and to be honest I’ve very impressed. Outside of that, I won a poker tournament online that I should never have. Competitive tournament, one bad beat later I’m left with $4. Somehow, I scrape on; thick and thin until it is me with about $150-$200 and this other guy with $900+. I win the next seven hands to beat him, climaxing with a Queen High flush. Get the achievement as well which was nice. I even played some Guitar Hero 2/80’s to pass the time. Got 230k on Message in a Bottle, my hands hurt very badly. I think once the last Lost Planet pack goes free on August 16th, I will start playing that. But anyway, we dispense and move straight into:

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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined by Archive Authors on August 13th, 2007

So in between the anticipation for Madden 08 and convalescing at home with a big arse fever, there’s not a lot for me to go over in this installment. Really. I’m waiting for my Pioneer Elite to come in in a couple of weeks, but the only other thing to talk about is more disc announcements. Knocked Up is going to come out on HD DVD on 9/25 from Universal (and Evan Almighty comes out two weeks later) while Ratatouille comes to Blu-ray on 11/6. Disc releases this week are fairly blah, as Blu-ray serves up Doctor Strange, The Lookout, Vacancy and Wild Hogs, while HD-DVD buyers get their choices of Dragon’s Lair, Erin Brockovich, Meet the Fockers, Mercury Rising and What Dreams May Come.

That’s it for me this week, and as always high definers, keep the brightness low and the resolution high!

Brain Blasters — Towards A Theory of the Badfilm

Posted in Brain Blasters, Regular Columns by David Annandale on August 10th, 2007

All right, some musings on basics now. I have spilled a fair bit of verbiage over the course of this column about films that are so bad theyâ€™re good. But there are questions going unanswered, and, dare I say it, unasked: how exactly does this come to pass. How does a bad movie achieve a certain form of perverse greatness? Why do we enjoy watching these things? I could go on.
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Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions, Regular Columns by Michael Durr on August 8th, 2007

Crash for Cancer, 360 Internals examined & Quake: DS Time- Welcome to the column that is often alarming like that heart attack you received when you caught your parents in the act known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Life is strange. But in the same breath, it is awesome. I am happy to report that “the girl” said yes to the baseball game on friday, and I will be going to see the Astros and Brewers with her. I am a fan of neither team (I’m a Phillies fan actually) but I could care less about baseball for once, I am going for the ummm..atmosphere. The atmosphere is about 5’4 with blond hair and blue eyes. That’s all that needs to be said. Today this article is brought to you by Jackyl (the band I’m listening to currently) and I just wonder where the heck is my copy of Chainsaw Hero? Whew I need help. That poor, poor girl. Speaking of girls who suffer from the Kedrix touch, we move right into:

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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, Regular Columns by Archive Authors on August 6th, 2007

This is one of those weeks where I donâ€™t have a catchphrase. Except in talking about it, this is probably the catchphrase in particular.

Well whatâ€™s new in the world this week? Well, to answer it with a shred of obviousness, Spider Man 3 is coming out on Blu-ray on 10/30, right next to the other two films as part of a trilogy set. No word on if the first two films will port over extras, but the third film includes making of featurettes, bloopers, commentaries and the usual bells and whistles. Sony is also trying to slam dunk things in the fourth quarter, as the first and second Hostel films will come out on Blu-ray one week before also, with Lionâ€™s Gate releasing King of New York. That same day, HBO will release the final part of The Sopranos series on both platforms. HD DVD supporters will see Inside Man, Seed of Chucky and the Carlitoâ€™s Way films on 10/23 as well.
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Brain Blasters – Multiple-Stage Nostalgia Analyzed

Posted in Brain Blasters, Regular Columns by David Annandale on August 3rd, 2007

Part and parcel of loving cult movies is a profound sense of nostalgia. This melancholy ache for the past is not necessarily limited to periods one has actually lived through. The shape of the nostalgia also takes on different forms, and can often wind up feeding on itself. This is a phenomenon that the bargain-basement DVD can help perpetuate. Allow me to attempt to explain myself a little more clearly.
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Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions, Regular Columns by Michael Durr on August 1st, 2007

Missionaries Online, 360 Price Drop and Live Chess? – Welcome to the column that promises to abuse its readers for cash and prizes known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Life just keeps on rolling for me. I bowled last friday, did fairly well. I also won 4 tickets to a future astros game(8/21) as a door prize. But yet, I have nobody to take. I mean I asked “the girl” if she wants to go but she doesn’t like baseball. She might end up going and that would take care of the two tickets I already had from a company event thing (8/10). But the four are something of a mystery and I’m honestly thinking that they might just go to waste. Sad, because actually those 4 are really good tickets. I’m a Phillies fan by choice so while I like baseball;watching the Astros play isn’t really all that entertaining. Unless you like trainwrecks.

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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, Regular Columns by Archive Authors on July 30th, 2007

Want to know the perks of working where I do? I get discounts to places. So I walk into Best Buy, and order a Pioneer Elite 92 for the insane price of cost plus 5%. That works out to a little under $700 for a $1300 receiver. Itâ€™s good to be the king baby. Once I get it locked and loaded, Iâ€™ll let you know what I think of it.Â

Hardware wise thereâ€™s been a few surprises, the pleasant one appears to be the details on Samsungâ€™s dual format player. The BD-P2400 includes BD-J, HDi, DTS-HD and other little goodies to warm the heart, and at a SRP of just over a grand, might actually help rein more folks into the high defi, er, next generation video format. In lesser but still notable news, the PS3 got a firmware upgrade that included 1080p/24Hz, so now we can all see the films just like in the theater, or something. Oh, and the 360 HD DVD add-on got its price cut as well, down to $179. So, you know, yays all round.Â

Brain Blasters

Posted in Brain Blasters, Regular Columns by David Annandale on July 27th, 2007

A little theory, which is mine, regarding film. This theory, at its simplest, holds that the following is a self-evident truth: that the film has not been made that cannot be improved by the addition of dinosaurs. The corollary is that there are strict limits to how bad any film with dinosaurs can be. by extension, the replacement of dinosaurs with a monster of some sort of description is acceptable. I can tell by the skeptical rise of your eyebrow that you donâ€™t believe me.
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Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions, Regular Columns by Michael Durr on July 25th, 2007

Rock Band breaks the bank, The Wii and HDD?, and why I’m not getting Guitar Hero 80’s this week – Welcome to the column that knows no shame and promises to bring it to the rest of you known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I am the unfortunate guinea pig of the new website and blog format. I’m sure the administrators are pure pros at this but I feel all out of sorts. Hey, you know that Wednesday I talked about in my last column; you know the special lunch. It went very well thank you. No, there is no immediate fallout from it; but there is hope for the future and at the very least I gained a very close friend who will probably look differently at me now. (cause I’m a sexy beast…okay not really but it sounds good!) Sorry if I’m a bit weird; I blame it on the new format of the website. It makes me feel crunchy :).

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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on July 23rd, 2007

So who knows how Harry Potter ended?

The big disc news this week is New Line’s announcement that they’ll be coming out with next-gen titles, even if the first title is the current musical of Hairspray. Lord of the Rings, here we come? Aside from that, the biggest disc release news appears to be related to discs that don’t have street dates attached to them yet. Warner says that there will be a box set of the first five Harry Potter films on HD DVD and Blu-ray, and there’s even pricing f…
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Brain Blasters

Posted in Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on July 20th, 2007

Buy at Amazon.com

It’s been a fairly commonplace activity over the last few years to compare our current troubled era with that of the late-sixties/early-seventies, with special attention paid to discussion of parallels (and to what degree they are or are not justified) between the Iraq and Vietnam wars. In that context, it is interesting to consider the way popular culture has dealt with those conflicts, with particular reference to genre offerings.

This is by way of making a bit of a case study of Deathdream (AKA
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Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on July 18th, 2007

Bomberman XBLA style, Paper Mario VC, and the bait & switch of the PS3 – Welcome to the column that is about to have a price drop on our old column but only if they soon discontinue it for malicious puns known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Business has kinda picked up since last week. The situation I referred to last week regarding speaking up will come to be realized at lunch today. I am exci…
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on July 16th, 2007

Hey, guess who showed up on time?

Yes, you guessed it, DirecTV showed up on time Saturday, installed my MPEG-4 dish and receiver (well, to be more exact, they just did the former), so now when the ESPNs, Discoverys and History Channels of the world all get into HD (which should be occurred starting in September), I’ll be ready to enjoy millions and millions of high definition broadcasts like I should.

Anyway, moving onto news that doesn’t pertain to me, Samsung appears to be on the verge of releas…
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Brain Blasters

Posted in Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on July 13th, 2007

A few years ago, Blue Underground released a spiffy edition of The Final Countdown. At first glance, the move seems counterintuitive. The premiere specialist in grindhouse flicks putting out a special edition of an big-budget effort with major stars? What’s going on here? In fact, the release makes sense in more ways than one. In the first place, the associate producer is none other than Mr. Troma himself, Lloyd Kaufman, here involved in a film whose budget probably exceeded that of the entire Troma catalogue….
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Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on July 11th, 2007

Obligatory Oblivion GOY, PS3 Price-Cut & Booth Babes gone? – Welcome to the column that believes you can never get enough hot women promoting video games known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. This week I give you a little insight into my soul (be afraid). For those of you who might not believe it, I am a pretty quiet person in real life. Sure if you are a friend or loved one and I’ve known you…
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2007

Happy belated fireworks day for everyone in the US, happy belated Canada day to everyone up north, and all that jazz. And my thanks to all for indulging me last week about my gripes with DirecTV. As I lube up the ole’ bunghole and prepare to get screwed out of another service call, I celebrate the news, notes and announcements of the past week’s high definition forum.

The big news this week is that Samsung started to leak out some more news about their dual format player, including a release date sometime i…
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Brain Blasters

Posted in Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on July 6th, 2007

I recently reviewed Warner’s first volume of the Cult Camp Classics box sets, and had a number of kind words to say about Attack of the 50-Foot Woman. I thought I would expand on those remarks, going on at a bit more length as to why this film is so oddly endearing.

First, to re-iterate the review: “I quote Jeff Rovin: ‘If Attack of the 50-Foot Woman was intended to be taken seriously, it’s the worst film ever made. If it was intended as a put-on, it’s one of the great science-fiction satires….
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Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on July 4th, 2007

Finding a Wii to take home, PSP Homebrew no longer brave, & Rainbow Six Vegas DLC free – Welcome to the column that believes that cherry pie is more american than apple will ever be (and tastier too) known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. It’s the 4th of July, yours truly gets to host a patriotic U.S. edition of Dare to Play the Game. What makes it patriotic you say? Do I wave a flag and sing patriotic songs? Or do I just …
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2007

Read on about a minor gripe with a major satellite provider.

I’m going to skip the usual news about what comes out this week because it’s The Untouchables, The Patriot and very little else, and tell you a story about how I, as a loyal DirecTV customer, have been trying to upgrade my equipment.

On/about 5/29, I set up an equipment upgrade appointment from the 3 LNB H10 setup to the 5 LNB H20, so I can get the new HD channels running through MPEG-4. I set up the appointment for 6/16 be…
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Brain Blasters

Posted in Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on June 29th, 2007

Buy at Amazon.com

Okay, kaiju fans, there’s another real treat that recently hit DVD. While Classic Media has been releasing one definitive edition after another of the initial Godzilla movies, Tokyo Shock has stepped up with a non-Godzilla Toho effort: 1965’s Frankenstein Conquers the World. Present in the 2-disc set are the US release (so if you want to hear Nick Adams speak English, that’s the one to watch), the Japanese version, and the international release. These versions feature a rather different, and utterly bizarre, e…
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Dare to Play the Game

Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on June 27th, 2007

PSP Games Not Creative, Video Games not Addictive & Shaq not too Bright – Welcome to the column that wishes it was addictive as crack is to plumbers and their ex-girlfriends known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. This past week hasn’t been exactly kind. I had two very close friends both get into car accidents and then the Chris Benoit tragedy happened over the weekend (yes I’m a wrestling fan). …
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on June 25th, 2007

Shouldn’t you be out at the beach right now?

I don’t know about you, but I burn easily, so I can’t spend as much time at the pool as others, so I get to watch movies, and I watched Ocean’s Thirteen at a theater that just opened down the road from me. The theater itself is pretty nice, the film delivered what it’s supposed to do, which is be fun, so you can’t ask for too much more I guess. Overall, there really isn’t that much to pore over, other than surveys which reiterate what everyone already know…
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