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:
Posted in: Highly Defined, Regular Columns by Archive Authors on August 6th, 2007
This is one of those weeks where I don’t have a catchphrase. Except in talking about it, this is probably the catchphrase in particular.
Well what’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 Lion’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 Carlito’s Way films on 10/23 as well. Hardware wise, the only real news of the week is that Toshiba will be releasing third generation players in the October timeframe, with specs to be announced and pricing in the $300-$500 for all three models. In terms of releases this week, TNMT and Disturbia come out on both platforms, while Blu-ray exclusivos get to choose from Final Fantasy, Arlington Road and Are We Done Yet?
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.
Our starting point is the grindhouse cinema of the 1970s. As I’ve mentioned before, I was too young to actually go to any of those dubious houses, or ever see any of their offerings theatrically. But I am just old enough to remember the ads for these films in the paper. As my friends and I started going to movies on our own in the early 80s, the grand days of exploitation were drawing to a close (and we were still too young to be allowed in to many of the titles out there). So that is Stage 1 of the particular form of nostalgia I’m tracking today: the longing for a past that was witnessed from a distance.
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.
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. It’s good to be the king baby. Once I get it locked and loaded, I’ll let you know what I think of it.Â
Hardware wise there’s been a few surprises, the pleasant one appears to be the details on Samsung’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
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 don’t believe me.
I invite you to put the theory to the test. Let’s use Steven Spielberg as a case study. A great many people have found flaws of one sort or another with Jurassic Park. Fair enough. But if you are one of those not overly fond of the film, consider how much more you would dislike it if there were no dinosaurs at all in it. See? It would completely suck. On the other hand, let’s think about Schindler’s List. Sure, great movie and all, moving, powerful, yadda yadda yadda, but what if the climax had seen a T-Rex show up to stomp that nasty death camp flat. Now that movie would have rocked.
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 :).
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...r them, but a date has yet to be announced, along with he extras (although expect lossless soundtracks for at least some). Much is the same for Blade Runner as well, including a massive five-disc treatment. For more normal material, Black Book comes to Blu-ray from Sony on 9/25 (along with Underworld and Memoirs of a Geisha), and a week later, Starz/Anchor Bay drops Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead 2, Day of the Dead and Halloween. They also bring Volumes 1 and 2 of the Masters of Horror sets on 10/16, with Volume 3 coming out on November 13 and Volume 4 on December 11. Speaking of fourth quarter titles, the classic 20 Million Miles to Earth comes to Blu-ray on 12/4. Format neutral parties get to decide what version they want to see the Warner films The Wild Bunch, Gods and Generals and Wyatt Earp, all of which will be appearing on 9/25, along with Gothika. And finally, Cars will finally arrive on 11/6. Discs this week are an eclectic bunch, with HD DVD exclusivos seeing Scent of a Woman, Streets of Fire, The Bourne Identity, The Contract, In Good Company and Nutty Professor 2. Blu-ray campers decide if they want to pull the trigger on Season Two of Weeds, while format neutralities can decide on Purple Rain, Out For Justice and The Host.
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on July 20th, 2007
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 , The Night Andy Came Home,Dead of Night and The Veteran), a 1972 horror film directed by the late, lamented Bob Clark. The film was a bit of a first in a couple of respects. From a genre perspective, it marks the beginning of Tom Savini’s make-up career. But it was also, it seems, the first film to directly deal with the domestic cost of the Vietnam war. It tells the story of a young solider killed overseas, but who nevertheless comes home, thanks to his mother’s intense desire for him to do so. She refuses to recognize anything is wrong with her son, and at first, things seem relatively okay. But decay gradually sets in, as do murderous impulses. You see, he must drink blood in order to avoid disintegration. His father realizes what’s up, but is too weak to do anything about it, and his mother is in total denial. Much has been written about the film’s critique of the patriarchal nuclear family, but of more interest here is the movie’s depiction of the costs of untenable beliefs, and of the damage war does to the home front. 1972 was pretty early for such subject matter. The mainstream of Hollywood wouldn’t really deal with these issues until some years after the war, and so here is another prime example (among so many) of a low-budget horror picture blazing the controversial trail.
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.
