Barbarella
The French comic upon which the movie was based. Stunning 60’s stylized artwork, but the story is just a series of bland sci-fi episodes with a little titillation thrown in here and there.
Aliens Omnibus
This is a collection of the Aliens comics that were released by Dark Horse in the late eighties. These came out before the awful Alien 3 went and killed all the characters we loved from Aliens. The plot picks up shortly after Aliens with characters returning to LV-426 to explore the crashed alien ship. I think I would have preferred it if the later movies took this direction, but the comics are just poorly written fanboy garbage for the most part. They try to be deep and end up just being a confusing mess of clichés and movie re-quotes.
Giallo
Giallo isn’t quite the return to form I wanted from Dario Argento, but it’s a much better movie than the majority of his post-Opera films (I still think The Stendhal Syndrome and the Masters of Horror episode Jenifer are much better). Gone is the visual style that really was what made Argento’s best movies so great. Instead, we have a good Italian-style thriller with the usual graphic violence, bad acting and plot holes. Generally, this is enough for me, but I always want more from Argento.
Video Games Are Derivative? No!! Okay, yes.
Ya know, I love me them video games. I would go so far as to argue that video games are, well… can be, art. However, I have to admit that even the best video games are a bit lacking in the originality department. Take, for example, this screen shot from Yahoo showing three upcoming games:
Stubble-faced muscle men abound in the video game world.
Klonoa on Nintendo Wii
This was a cartoony and fun side-scrolling platformer with nice2.5-D graphics. A bit easy and lacking the exploration and precise control of a Mario game, but enjoyable and worth playing through especially for the unexpected ending.
Une vieille maîtresse
A somewhat miscast French costume drama based on a 19th Century erotic novel. The male lead is played by a creepy man-boy / Macaulay Culkin look-a-like who is like a kid playing dress-up in his ill-fitting costumes. Asia Argento is good as usual, but I don’t think tattoos were that common among Parisian society women at that time.
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
A bit of speculative fiction showing how the world would deal with a zombie apocalypse. The book is written as a collection short vignettes, each told by a different character. Overall, it was an interesting read, but I would have preferred a bit more of a continuing narrative structure to keep me turning pages. Although, thankfully, it avoids the “the real monster is us humans” zombie fiction clichés.
Canada
I just got back from a short little weekend excursion to visit my cousins up in Windsor, Canada. Windsor can be described as Detroit’s Gary, Indiana… if Gary had weird money and lots of Tim Horton’s donut shops (or do they say shoppes in Canada? Or doughnuts for that matter?). One area where Windsor has Gary (and Chicago) whipped, is great Lebanese food (El Mayor). On the other hand, the whole “Beer Store” thing is really, dare I say, stupid and backwards. We got to witness a little bit of the Canadian healthcare system when we met our cousins at the E.R. while they had their son treated for his fevery sickness. The free thing is great and all, but they definitely had a much longer time waiting than you would see in most U.S. emergency rooms. They did manage to treat the fever and all was well by the end of the weekend. Other notable events: full monty vehicle search at the border coming home, vandalized key-drop at the Enterprise car-rental return and a guy with tourettes at the Swiss Chalet who would be an awesome back-up vocalist for Naked Raygun!
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on Nintendo DS
Aside from the hour or two of GTA 2 that I played on the PC years ago, this was my first Grand Theft Auto game. I don’t find that whole gangsta thing terribly appealing. However, mature rated games are very hard to come by on the DS so I decided to try this out. Having finally completed the main storyline, I have to say this one of the best games on the DS by far. The world is massive, with tons of little nooks and crannies to explore and distract you from your main goal. There is just so much attention to detail here. Every corner offers some new sights and sounds. Liberty City feels alive within those tiny screens.
Even though at its core every mission is just about either driving or shooting, there is plenty of variety in things to do. I have finished the game and there is still tons to accomplish. My only gripes are with the mediocre story and dull, trying-too-hard-to-be-funny dialogue. Otherwise, I loved the psuedo 2-D perspective, the music / ambience, and all the crazy mini-games to accomplish basic tasks. Virtual scratch-off lottery tickets? Awesome!
The Ultimate In-Box Notification Noise
I have discovered the best sound to use for a new mail notification in your e-mail client. It’s the object pick-up noise form Atari’s Adventure for the 2600. I’ve attached the WAV file to this post so that you to can feel like you are grabbing the goblet next time you get a v!@gr@ ©ialis spam in your in-box!