Regular Columns

In what universe is a weekend jail visit considered a “family emergency” when it comes to missing your job? Can anyone answer this for me? By all means, send your answers (or curious situations) to yours truly. I’m curious to hear what the responses are.

The big news in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle is that Training Day, Rumor Has It and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang arrived on Blu-Ray this week, after being available in HD-DVD for a little while now. And the verdict? Well, at least according to Pet...

Without question, the most celebrated bad director is Ed Wood. He is the portal through which so many people discover the joys of the terrible film. He stands out from so many contenders because his films are not ordinarily bad. They are deeply felt, deeply earnest. He meant what he was saying, whatever that was. And his style, particularly his screenwriting style, is unmistakeable. Insanely purple, banal, and incomprehensible, it cannot be mistaken for anyone else’s work. It is as individual as the writing of the Co...

Rising from Your Grave, You're about to Die, and E3 coming to an end, Welcome to the the family pet corpse that you keep buried in the backyard known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I'm your host that knows Stone Sour is a condition that you encounter with eating gummi worms while you are smoking pot. Seriously, go get their new cd this week, its called Come What(ever) may. Supposed to be pretty good. I tried win...

What’s that thing on your shoulder? Oh yeah, it’s almost the end of fricken summer, go out and play already!!!

Well, after my proverbial guts had been spilled on the floor last week, let’s look at news and notes on the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray fronts, shall we?

Warner Brothers teased HD supporters by promising a release of Good Night and Good Luck on the same day as it’s Blu cousin, but is holding off for now, for reasons unbeknownst to be as of this writing. At least there will be a Blu-R...

Let us sing a hymn in praise of bad movies. Not ordinarily bad, of course. There is very little joy to be had in anything touched by Martin Lawrence. No, the crap that brings warmth to the heart of the badfilm fan can be the B-movie so inept that the set falls down. But there is also the big-budget, A-lit pic that pulls a Hindenburg, and those are to be treasured as well.

I have this latter type of badfilm in mind because I saw Lady in the Water over the weekend. Now, I cannot recommend this film if ...

Busting your Shinobi, Squaring yourself up to abuse, and Smacking yourself down, Welcome to the blistering quart of Vaseline known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I'm your host who is always two cents short of well, two cents. Seriously, we need to keep the penny; cause that's about all I got. Yesterday was also my wife's birthday, everybody rejoice.

OK, so after a brief disruption of service, there’s a new blog author in town for the Highly Defined column, and he’s me. To just do a quick intro on the author of the column: this is me!

No wait, that probably won’t suffice. But to assuage those videophiles in the house, here are a few things about the gear I watch this stuff on. I’ve got a Toshiba HD-A1 (I had the XA1 for a couple of weeks, then I came to my senses and realized that this was WAY too much money to spend on a DVD player, hence the ex...

In our last thrilling episode, I talked about Vampyres as being one of the pinnacles of European erotic horror. I felt that I couldn’t very leave the topic without saying a few words about the man whose lengthy career has largely been built around this form: Jesús (Jess) Franco. Cult movie connoisseurs will already be very familiar with him, and should feel free to stop reading now. For the rest of you, consider this a brief, guarded, introduction.

The word “prolific” hardly begins to describe Franco...

Phantasy,a Monster release and Wrestling with something huge, Welcome to the carafe of luke warm coffee known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I'm the beetle with the skeetle, YO! I kinda feel like I'm one California roll short of a sushi plate. This would assume of course I tried sushi and if I ever had the notion to discover asian food outside of chicken or crab ragoon. Well, what are you waiting for, lets check out relea...

Well, let’s skip the pleasantries (besides, I’ve got a whole big introduction lined up and can save for a week anyway) and let’s get down to business.

The last couple of weeks have seen a decided uptick in HD and Blu-Ray news and notes, perhaps most significant among them is that Warner Brothers has decided to release some of the same already available HD-DVD titles on Blu-Ray, so come August 1, there will be a lot of people frantically getting their screenshot comparisons up and ready to go. Of course, tho...