Just Like You is a really solid EP. The band is slowly moving away from their drone-laden “Champaign ’92” sound an becoming more daring in their use of studio production. I love the fade in and reprise of the opening track at the end of the disc and, although it is cheesy and cute, “What’s Inside the Box” is a nice change of pace. This EP not quite there, but is a good lead-in to Junior Citizen – their best record in my opinion.
It took about a year of on-again / off-again playing, but I finally made it through this DS remake of Chrono Trigger. Unlike Final Fantasy III on the DS, this is more of a straight up port of the game rather than a 3D re-imagining. Also unlike Final Fantasy III this game isn’t a dismal, frustrating bore with random battles and the other annoying trappings of Japanese RPG games. With its quasi real time battles, the combat is much more fluid, fast and fun. The story is as convoluted as any JRPG but the time travel aspects at least keep it more interesting than your typical “there are monsters everywhere because of a big bad wizard” plot (unfortunately, there are still plenty of unnecessary “…” dialogue boxes to click through). I still prefer western style role-playing games like Fallout and Mass Effect to this, but I think I am no longer completely JRPG adverse. I am actually tempted to buy Phantasy Star IV on the Wii Virtual Console next.
“Leathermen don’t get nervous… leathermen don’t get nervous” The immortal words of Glenn the Leatherman from Village People movie, Can’t Stop the Music. Resident Evil 5 puts that wisdom to the test as you face a giant throbbing, oozing worm beasts with only your pistol, some potted plants and Beyonce to help you.
Resident Evil 5 follows the formula that was established in RE4. It is similar almost to the point where it feels like the exact same game. That’s hardly a complaint, RE4 was one of the best games on the Wii and my opinion of it only improves every time I go back to it. I played this on the PC so (especially compared to the Wii) the graphics are spectacular. Also, the mouse aiming controls feel a bit more natural to me. There is still some clunkiness to the character movement controls, but I found them to be better than Dead Space (which was essentially Resident Evil in space… with kicking).
The story gave just enough narrative to keep me wanting to progress through the game. Like most video games, this ain’t no Hamlet but it suffices. The only thing that I really disliked about the game was the reliance on quicktime events during cut-scenes. That stupid mechanic needs to die. Other than that, one of the best PC games I have played in quite a while.
There are about three hundred movies named Hercules (usually with “vs. <insert name here>” after the name). This is the 1983 version starring Lou Ferrigno and directed by Italian horror/sci-fi cheese legend Luigi Cozzi (a.k.a. Lewis Coates of Star Crash fame). Make no mistake, this is a bad movie by just about any standard. However, it makes up for its shortcomings in spades with its over-the-top (low-budget) effects and aspirations—the film is trying ever so hard to be Clash of the Titans. Where else can you find chariots in space, Jazzercise outfitted villains, Lego Mindstorms quality animated robot monsters and bear punching? Worth watching for the aforementioned bear punching scene alone. As an added bonus the DVD includes the sequel on the other side of the disc. Fantastic!
This was my third journey into the world of Grand Theft Auto and I am starting to pick up on the formula. So, this is essentially the same game mechanics as GTA: Vice City but with better graphics. I’m usually not a graphics wonk, but this game is jaw-droppingly spectacular. Every little detail has been captured, the environments are incredibly convincing and the city truly feels alive. There is so much to see in Liberty City that you could spend days just exploring (especially if your NPC buddies didn’t keep nagging you to go play a round of virtual darts every five minutes). I’ve played the game for 50+ hours and still feel like I haven’t seen everything.
I made this point in my Vice City review, but the great thing about GTA games is that they fulfill a classic gamer’s dream of being able to just drive wherever you want in a racing game. Imagine how awesome it would be if you could drive off the track and go explore the mountains around Fuji raceway in Pole Position! However, for a game that has driving as a key game play element, the driving controls sure do suck. Every car you drive feels muddy and weightless. It takes hours to get used to the mushy controls and you will still find yourself cursing the game as your car rolls over on a slow speed turn.
The plot is nothing groundbreaking, but the various characters you meet along the way are well-defined and interesting. There is just not enough urgency to your main over-arching mission of revenge do motivate you to keep taking on missions. When the time finally comes to end it all, you just don’t really care any more. In any event, when a game lets you just roam around and do whatever you want, does the main mission really even matter? Go nuts! Drive a moped into a hospital and do wheelies in the hallways!
This is a 4-song CD single that includes two tracks from Tool of the Man and two new songs. “Everything Burns” is a light and peppy number that would have fit in well on the LP. “Matter Crush” isn’t bad but it’s a bit drab compared to the other three tracks.
Blow Up is a movie that I have often heard referenced in relation to other movie’s I love, most notably Deep Red. I went in not knowing what to expect other than that it involves David Hemmings photographing what he thinks was a murder. The title is a reference to a long scene in which he enlarges the photos to see the details (parodied so well in Mel Brooks’s High Anxiety). My expectation was that this was going to be an intense thriller. I was wrong. The film is more of an art film about perception: can we always believe what we see? I would have preferred a thriller, but as it is, the film makes its point well in its rather heavy-handed use of anarchist mimes(!). Aside from highbrow intentions, the real reason to see this film is the Mod-era fashion, art, music and locales. There are tons of wonderfully memorable moments that seemingly have nothing to do with the plot such as Verushka’s photo shoot or the Yardbirds playing for an apathetic crowd of mods.
After the Poster Children moved to a major label they began to sound tighter, punchier, less-droney and they started mixing their albums louder. All of this was a great improvement and for a while it seemed as though they would just keep one-upping themselves with each new release. This CD also contained the first “Magic-Eye” 3-D image I ever saw. It literally took me hours before I was able see the dorky “PC” logo they embedded in the visual-noise. From the moment that the image converged in my eyes I was able to see beyond the bounds of time and space.
I went into this film not knowing anything about it and ended up liking it despite the slow, SLOW build-up. The retro, early 80s mom-jeans style is great. Did I mention that this one takes its time to get rolling? However, once things start happening, all bet are off. This is one of the rare low-budget films that satisfies the Joe Bobb Briggs’s standard of “anyone can die at any moment.” The final act feels a bit over-the-top after the quiet creepiness of the second act, but it was not so crazy as to make it seem that out of place.
This is the first Poster Children CD that I bought at the time of its release. This was back when they were quickly becoming the kings of the Champaign-Urbana music scene (or maybe arch-dukes bested only by The Didjits). Now, in hindsight, I know that this would not be their best recording, but it certainly felt like the bar by which any following release from the band (or any other Cham/bana band for that matter) would be judged. The sound of the record more or less encapsulates the droning wall-of-guitars sound of the scene from which they emerged. This disc has some of my all-time favorite tracks from the band: “Love,” “Water,” “Space Gun,” and the list goes on.
