Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 5th, 2008
Denys Arcand’s conclusion to the loose trilogy whose first two parts were The Decline of the American Empire and The Barbarian Invasions takes place in a near-future Quebec of soulless bureaucracy and nonexistent human relations. Our hero (Marck Labrèche) is a civil servant with a wife whose job leaves no time for him, two iPod-dependent teenage daughters, and a giant suburban house that is not a home. He retreats from his dead-end life into a series of fantasies which see him as hero, shiek, rock star, celebrated novelist, and so on, always with women rushing to have sex with him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 5th, 2008
There has to be something wrong with anyone who doesn’t have at least a small soft spot in their hearts for Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas. The film will assuredly earn its rightful place as a classic as more years roll by. The film just works on so many levels. Danny Elfman deserves as much credit as
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 5th, 2008
NCIS is a spin-off, of sorts, from the popular military lawyer show JAG. You could say that NCIS is the Order to JAG’s Law. The NCIS is a real government agency that deals with criminal activity inside or involving the US Navy or Marine Corps. The series has an incredibly global feel and honestly looks damn good for television. Production values are high, and the location stuff is out of this world, or at least all over it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 5th, 2008
Chris Rock has been one of those comedians that either hits a home run or strikes completely out. I’ve seen quite a bit of his stand-up and found I loved it or hated it. He’s not afraid to play the race card. Hell, Chris plays the whole dang deck at times, and Everybody Hates Chris is no different. The comedy is based, loosely I’m sure, on the young adolescent life of Chris Rock. It’s a black comedy that will bring back memories of those 1970’s shows we all watched as kids. Like Good Times and even Sanford And Son,
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 5th, 2008
<>“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
To Date 42 men have taken that oath to become President Of The United States. While our current president is #43, Grover Cleveland’s terms did not run consecutively and so he often is counted twice.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on September 3rd, 2008
Learn by Death, More Fable items on the Web, and Europe becomes the real place for gaming? - Welcome to the column that thinks the more you punish a player, the less likely they are willing to take up bondage as a vocational hobby known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. The Labor Day weekend was full of watching various web pages to determine whether or not Gustav was going to come anywhere near by backyard of Texas. Thankfully, it did not and Louisiana despite damage avoided a tremendous disaster.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on August 30th, 2008
A few weeks ago, I nattered on about how Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace differs markedly from the very slasher genre it helped create. The same is true of Bay of Blood, though the comparison is rather more complicated.
The connection between Bay of Blood (AKA Twitch of the Death Nerve) and the slashers is one of the purest examples of superficiality one could think of. Many of the murders in Bava’s film were lifted holus bolus by the first couple of Friday the 13th films (machete to the face, love-making couple speared in bed, and so forth).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 29th, 2008
Spinoffs are nothing new in the world of Hollywood. Take a successful film, take some supporting or bit actor from the film and put them in a situation that is like the original but not quite and boom you got a spinoff. However, these movies or series usually take time to develop. On rare occasions, they might be released after a mere six months in some cases. For Get Smart’s Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control, it was released a mere 10 days after the parent remake found itself in theaters. Could they capitalize on a market that was eager to go see the remake or would the parent bomb and leave this kinda movie in a bargain bin tucked far far away in the back of a Big Lots?
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on August 27th, 2008
Y’s makes it to Virtual Console, Fable Pub Glitch to be patched, and Space Invaders recreating 9/11? - Welcome to the column that thinks bad ideas are fine as long as you take that rental chicken suit to the proper dry cleaners known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Last Friday, I went to go see the Dark Knight with my girlfriend & one of our mutual best friends. What did I think? It was very awesome, however not as uber-awesome as my girlfriend and the best friend would lead you to believe.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 26th, 2008
Man, has television come a long way in just over 50 years. There was once a pretty strict code that applied to television programs. Men and women, even when married, couldn’t be seen to have shared the same bed. Anything stronger than a “golly gee” was strictly forbidden. You couldn’t even show a woman’s belly button. And the good guys always had to win, while the bad guys got their comeuppance in the end. Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first to push those boundaries by telling mystery stories where the bad guys often appeared to get away with their evil deeds.
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