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.
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.
Not that a moment’s thought wouldn’t convince most sane individuals that remaking Halloween is a terrible idea in the first place. Sure, and we’ve been down this road before, there have been very good remakes, and what has distinguished these efforts is that they bring enough new to the table that they stand on their own merits as original works in themselves. Just bringing something new isn’t enough, of course. Plenty new was brought to The Wicker Man, and it was all rubbish, demonstrating a total lack of understanding as to what made the original work.
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.
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.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on August 24th, 2007
Ils (“Them”) is another recent bit of cinematic nastiness from France, and worth a look from horror fans. Lucas and Clémentine are, respectively, a writer and a teacher who have recently moved to Romania. Their house is big and isolated, and one night, intruders close in, leading to a grueling night of terror. If that sounds like a pretty simple plot, it is, but the film is very tight (a mere 73 minutes long), essentially functioning as one long suspense set piece once the home invasion begins. The DVD boasts solid picture and sound, but has no subtitles, forcing non-French speakers to contend with the English dub. Fortunately, much of the film is devoid of dialogue, so this isn’t a deal breaker.
All right, I’ve been a little coy as to what this column is going to be about, and that’s deliberate. I’m going into some spoilers here, so if you haven’t seen the film, stop reading now, and come back some other time.
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. I had bought a warranty through Microcenter in addition to the manufacturer warranty that I thought would cover the replacement. That way I would not have to go through the hassle of calling Microsoft, waiting for a box and sending it back. After fighting with Microcenter on two seperate occasions about their warranty, we culmulatively decided they should go rot in a very unearthy place. (Well I decided that for them). Even though they would not come out and say it, their warranty is essentially useless because of recent Microsoft legislation. So I called Microsoft, that did go pretty easy, I was told I would have a box sent in about 10 minutes after I got on the phone. It should be there Thursday or Friday. Maybe it will make it back by Halo 3, maybe not. One slight advantage, the repair center is in McAllen, Tx about half a dozen hours south of here. So here is hoping.
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.
The ominous prologue is set in Russia (played by Bulgaria) in 1966. A mortally wounded woman drives a truck to a farm, where the inhabitants discover a pair of newborn twins in the seat beside her. In the present, one of those twins, Marie (Anastasia Hille), determined to learn more about her birth parents, has arrived in Russia from Los Angeles. She is given directions to her ancestral farm. Once she gets there, a malevolent supernatural trap slams shut. She meets her twin, Nicolai (Karel Roden), who is just as caught in the web as she is, a web spun by patient and merciless past.
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:
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!
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 they’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.
A look at the patterns that emerge from consistent viewing of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is helpful here. Wonderful as that series was (and equally wonderful its continued preservation on DVD), not every episode hit comedy gold. The shows where Joel, Mike and the ‘bots had more trouble with the material they were working with confirms, for me, a long-held theorem: that any type of film, if bad enough, turns into a comedy, with one exception: comedy. The sad fact of the matter is that no comedy, no matter how bad it is, becomes another form of comedy. It might almost approach the status of a horror film, but it remains a resolutely dismal experience, as I’m sure anyone foolish enough to line up this week for Daddy Day Camp has learned.
