Last night I attended the Chicago premiere of James Nguyen’s Birdemic: Shock and Terror and got to shake hands and chat with the director (pictured above… he’s the one with the menacing claws). Birdemic is a movie that has to be seen to be believed. It’s an ultra-no-budget “romantic thriller” filled with tons of cheap digital bird effects, brain piercing eagle screeches, scenes of driving, hilarious dialogue, more driving and lots of, how shall we say, “creative” film editing choices.
Okay, it’s a bad, bad movie. But, I can’t deny that it is incredibly fun to watch—especially with a rowdy midnight movie audience. Much of the film’s charm is the sincerity and enthusiasm of its director, James Nguyen. He seems to be loving the attention he is getting, and, despite the howls of unintentional laughter, Nguyen has the guts to stick to his guns regarding his seriousness his film and its mangled message. I highly encourage everyone to check this film out while it is still in theaters and bring as many friends as you can!
The first full length release from this band is just more of the same. Impotent Killing Joke with a Chris Connelly’s David Bowie wannabe vocals. I like a couple of the songs (Last of the Urgents is quite good) and I am always glad to hear Martin Atkins’ tom-heavy drumming, but, like the EP, this material is just average.
Murder Inc. is basically early 90’s Killing Joke with Chris Connelly singing instead of Jaz Coleman. Without the nervous energy of Coleman the band is just sort of blah. The songs can go on too long and never really seem to go anywhere interesting.
So, 1/3 of Nonagon posts in the Internet forums of Electrical Audio and, as a result, we will be playing at the super-secret underground music festival called the Electrical Audio BBQ (or something like that) on Saturday, June 12th at 1:40pm. We are not supposed to tell anybody about it but I figure no one reads this Web site, so I will promote it here. The address is 3722 W. Chicago Ave. Bring $15 and some raw meat, ear plugs and kevlar, I hear the neighborhood has its share of ruffians wandering the streets.
Mass Effect is another BioWare RPG that I picked up on Steam for five bucks during their holiday sale (along with Jade Empire). This is a fantastic looking game. The Citadel (screen shot above) is an absolutely spectactular environment in which to roam around. This is also one of the first RPGs I have played in which every line of dialogue is voiced—a big help for me and my poor reading skills and short attention span.
The story and the rich universe in which it takes place is top-notch (as far as video games go). The game does a good job in pointing the player in the right direction so I rarely felt like I was lost or didn’t know what to be doing. This means the game can be a bit linear at times, but, as a lazy gamer, I don’t mind that at all.
I don’t think I ever quite got the combat system. I never really felt like my tweaks to the characters really did anything better than just ignoring all the complexity and just shooting everything in sight. My only major complaint with Mass Effect is the horrible inventory management system in which you are forced to trash items you find if your inventory is full. This just doesn’t make any sense. Otherwise, a terrific game and I can’t wait until Mass Effect 2 goes on sale for five dollars.
An all-girl Japanese punk band that I saw at Japan Nite 2000 at the Fireside Bowl. Music varies from catchy, fun cutsey-pop (which I like) to standard, screamy eighth-grade punk (which is not as good).
The faceless LASER-bowman who threatens Ocron in her writhing sleep.That symbol on my head means I have no friends, only enemies… and the friends you will meet in the next reel.Random innocent killed so our heroes can steal his food.The movie appears to have been filmed in smoke-o-vision.Okay, I have to admit these cobwebbed zombie ghouls are pretty cool.
The Spanish/Mexican/Italian answer to Conan or Clash of the Titans. This one feels more like the latter except with lots of topless cavewomen and signature Fulci close-up gore. It was not as horrible as I was expecting, but it is still loaded with cheesy costumes and feathery (male) hair. The whole thing seems to have been filmed day-for-night, through fog and out-of-focus. There were even some pseudo-zombies near the end!
Another movie that has no reason for being enjoyable, and yet I thought it was pretty good. This could have turned into a 00’s running zombie crapfest but, fortunately, plays more as a better-than-average Aliens clone.
This should be an awful movie. The fact that it is produced by Adam Sandler should be enough of a deterrent. But it turns out, as long as Adam Sandler is nowhere near the front of the camera, with his terrible delivery and annoying baby-talk voice, a movie has a chance to be funny. Kevin James knows how to play the title character earnestly, without the Sandler-esqe winks to the camera after every joke. The stupid premise actually works as both a parody of Die Hard or Rambo and as a goofy SNL-type character skit movie.
