Random Film of the Week(end): The Boys From Brazil

Posted on February 8, 2014 by geelw

Depending on your frame of mind, The Boys From Brazil will either creep you out of make you laugh a wee bit too much. It will do both if you’re somewhere in the middle on the mental front (or are a first time viewer), but I’ll leave you to let this one settle where it lands. Franklin J. Schaffner’s signature directorial style is on full display here as this semi sci-fi/dramal/horror flick does its thing with some interesting casting choices, dialog ripe with amusing yet nasty situations and a number of creative demises for a few characters.

Granted, the subject matter is a bit touchy to some, what with the book and film positing real-life Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck!) as alive and kicking and still working on a pretty outlandish experiment that involves almost a hundred little Hitlers. But the film pulls you in right from the start and keeps you watching as the bad, mad doctor’s plans slowly but surely come to fruition. Well, sort of…

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Oh, Yeah: The Walking Dead Is Back (In A Few Places)…

Posted on February 8, 2014 by geelw

I still haven’t gotten around to playing Season Two of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, but I’ve been a bit busy/crazy lately. Now I’ll have even LESS time to get to it thanks to the second half of Season Four of the hit show popping up tomorrow. Thankfully, it’s not a long half-season, but on the other hand, I’d love it if shows didn’t split into halves where you wait around staring at a wall for months between episodes. I don’t like binge watching too much at all (I save it for shows that are dead and gone), but I do like regularity. I say feed prunes to the writing staff, cast and directors on all these shows so they can grasp the concept of a season starting up and not being over until we get a week to week set of shows without minding the gap.

Yeah, I’m talking to YOU, Mad Men (already shot and done as a series, but keeping us waiting what, a year more for those final shows? Yeesh. I don’t even think I’ll be interested when it kicks off again)…

Crow Pie Chronicles (Or I’m Glad To Be Wrong About): The Lego Movie

Posted on February 7, 2014 by geelw

YUM! I said I’d eat a crow pie if I was wrong about The Lego Movie not sucking and yep, I’m a man of my word, although I had to substitute some of my not yet world famous chicken for “crow” and a few slices of whole grain bread for “pie”. Anyway, it’s good to see this one netting nice notices so now I need to see it at some point and make sure all those critics weren’t sucking in the happy gas WB pumped into those free screenings I didn’t get an invite to (boo!). Since I’ve been ignoring the film for the most part, I’m going in blind other than what I’ve seen on those TV spots popping up all over the place every few seconds. I still think it’ll be well over the heads of anyone over ten years old who won’t get all the references and in-jokes, but that’s probably me underestimating the kids of the hipsters and boomers taking them to see this.

And wait, wha-whaaaat? There’s a video game based on the film as well? I did predict this last year or earlier, but I’m actually surprised that there was one made because that’s just TOO meta at the end of the day. Anyway, you KNOW a movie is going to be worth seeing when Fox News has a shit fit about it for all the wrong reasons. They seem to believe that a movie made to get people to run out and spend money to see it (and the tie in toys AND the game that’s made for the same purpose) is somehow teaching kids to be “anti-capitalist” (wha-whaaaat?)… despite the OBVIOUS hundreds of millions this will rake in for a few big corporations. As the kids say, DERP.

Yeah, they’re quite stupid over there and I wish they’d stop it. But it’s interesting watching them hang themselves by their own rope every day they keep the blood pressure of their viewership headed through the roof over trifling nonsense. Perhaps they all need to chill for a bit and actually go see some of the stuff they bitch and moan about as bad for Amurrrrica? That would be my prescription…

Ah, The Things You Don’t Notice Unless You’re Paying Attention…

Posted on February 7, 2014 by geelw

So, I was about to recycle the box D3Publisher of America sent me when I got another big laugh. I’d not noticed this yesterday in my giddy state (and it was a bit dark in the room where I opened the box), so imagine my surprise when I went to clean out the box and saw this:

Now, ten or so years back, I’d had to have been peeled from the ceiling with the Jaws of Life, but as I went through some nice bug therapy a while back, I just roared with laughter because I didn’t even think they’d stick fake cockroaches in that box. For one thing, even the developers won’t go that far because they don’t want to freak people out (which makes me think that giant spiders must be seen as really cute in Japan!). Anyway, for some reason, I can’t upload the fuzzy close-up image I shot of me holding one of those rubber roaches, but that’s probably good for you readers who’d also hit the ceiling if you saw one (real or fake). I’ll try again later. You’ve been warned…

EDIT: it’s later! Yay! (You were warned)…

RoboCop “Man and Machine” 1 & 2 (Or: Oh Man, What A Machine!): Get Me Rewrite Edition!

Posted on February 7, 2014 by geelw

Aha. I see what happened! I accidentally overwrote this post somehow thanks to having TWO “Add New Post” tabs open, using one to post these trailers, closing up shop for the night and restating today to use that second window. WordPress recognizes multiple windows open as the SAME post, so if you try to be slick and do multiple posts in different tabs, you’re going to simply overwrite the first post as you think you’re publishing NEW ones. Blargh. I haven’t done that in a while, so I’ll need to NOT do that again. (gives self Vulcan memory pinch): “REMEMBER.” Any-way, here we go again (and I HATE rewriting stuff, so it’s a bit different this time:

As you can see, there’s a new shiny metal sheriff coming to town, so you’ll want to be extra good while hoping this film is as well. I think it’ll do well on its own merits, but you know some of the die-hard who want that R-rating will be going after this one for anything they see as not as good as the original. On that note, I say as long as you guys cling to that classic, it’ll live on forever. But don’t poop on this reboots’ parade if it manages to get stuff right and isn’t a bad film at the end of the day. Granted, it’s going to be headed to home video in what, four to six months from now and possibly hit cable before the end of the year, right? So you can see this without paying that ticket price. I guess if you average in whatever you pay for cable or whatever streaming service you use, you’ll be buying this for LESS than a dollar soon enough. Ha and ha ha.

Meh – I like the old post better, but this will have to do. At least I dug up a third clip I just noticed while recovering the other two. The FUNNY thing is I had a tab with the old post in it open, but closed it, so I could have copied and pasted the darn thing if I’d caught the error! Ah well… Love me, love my dumb mistakes!

Time Escapes Me, But It’s Not My Fault!

Status

Ho-kay. I just posted something (that deep down article below) and it shows up as posting YESTERDAY. Wow. Hmmm… I’ll leave it as is, but I want that power to pull this off at will, not via some funky WordPress shenanigans. I only had half a cup of coffee in my system and I really thought today was Thursday for about half a minute after I ran that post (until I double checked by flipping NY1 on and seeing that yes, it IS Friday the 7th). Hey, it’s happened before where I’ve had THAT vivid a dream about a mundane day, woken up and thought it was a day later than it was. Oh, come on, you KNOW you have too. I like to spread my kind of crazy around, folks. Anyway, let me get back to work – this is a test post to make sure it’s Friday. Back in a bit…

Capcom’s Beautiful『deep down』 Depresses Me Because It’s Doomed To Impermanence…

Posted on February 6, 2014 by geelw

As a closet game historian and collector, every time I see Capcom’s 『deep down』, I shed a tiny tear because this amazing-looking in progress PS4 exclusive is going to be online ONLY, and lose a lot of potential sales from people like me who prefer the option to play offline and enjoy all that hard work without worrying about the usual crap ALL online games suffer from. Once interest wanes down the road or worse, sales don’t impress the shareholders (which shouldn’t determine ANYTHING, I say), those servers will slowly shut down and that game you paid good money for as a keeper becomes a bunch of beautiful and USELESS data that fades from memory.

This sort of thing is pure nonsense, I say. Game making shouldn’t consist of developers working in mist settled on a bathroom mirror or making paintings with clouds thinking they’ll still be around for all to see in the future. I’m hoping Capcom wises up and gets this one playable offline at some point (as with its incredible Dragon’s Dogma), because it’s looking so gorgeous that I want MORE people to experience it and not a select few hundred thousand or more with the proper and perfect setups. Art should have SOME permanence, specifically if it’s interactive and made to be enjoyed with others as a mandate.

Bugs (And More) In A Box, With Love From D3Publisher of America…

Posted on February 6, 2014 by geelw

So, I got a nice package today from D3Publisher of America that had me laughing for a good half hour or so. For those curious types reading this, it’s a pre-release Valentine’s Day box full of fun Earth Defense Force 2025 goodies: A fake rose (that lights up when you press a button. It’s strobe-y!) Three sets of four Valentine cards (one for each class), Four dog tags (one for each character class), three packs of tasty looking traditional composition hearts and (wait for it…) a plastic heart with what looks to be three actual chocolate covered insects inside (Eeeeek!).

Well, the label inside that heart SAYS “Chocolate Covered Insects”, they sort of LOOK like they are as opposed to chocolate shaped insects from a mold, and I tend to believe everything I read the first time (well, sometimes). These days, small bugs don’t bug me and I DO like chocolate… so I’ll file this under “I’ll try anything once!” Anyway, I stuck the chocolate in the fridge for later, as it’s too hot in the home office. Those will go good with a cup of coffee, I’d imagine. Some of you have fainted dead away I see. Sorry about that! New experiences make me smile, that’s all.

Okay, let me go find some dinner, as I actually went out for a walk after the box arrived. If I have a bug or two for dessert, I’ll let you know. I may hang onto them for a little bit just to keep you in suspense… we’ll see.

The Expendabelles? Yikes. Shoot Me Now (Or At Least Hope Some Major Changes Are Made)…

Posted on February 6, 2014 by geelw

According to some sources I refuse to acknowledge because it just might happen, it looks as if there’s a female version of The Expendables in the works. Ugh, for a few reasons you’ll see if you read those links. Sure, it’s a fun idea and SURE, it’ll get ladies working in an action flick as something other than screaming eye candy or victims, but that current synopsis is awful, that fake poster tagline is WORSE and I can’t see this being anything that’s going anywhere but straight to Blu-Ray/DVD unless some of these potential cast members have a hand and foot in the rewrite room.

On the other hand, this IS a Hollywood project, so I can expect the casting to be a nightmare if this goes through, the shooting to be pure hell and the final product to be on par with the rest of this series, which is awful but campy fun as long as it’s not taken seriously. I guess the ONLY great thing here is no one is talking weekly TV series yet on either Expendables project. I’d have to head to California with a folding baseball bat in my suitcase if that ever happened…

Double Dragon Neon Now On Steam: Get Yer 80’s Fix On (With A Bit of A Paradox)

Posted on February 6, 2014 by geelw

Double Dragon Neon is a throwback game for sure. It’s going to appeal to your backwards baseball cap, neon sunglasses wearing faux punk side while sporting nicely updated visuals, an awesome soundtrack and yes, won’t work on any computer rockin’ an OS older than Windows 7 (oops, an opportunity lost there, I say!). WayForward Technologies (again!) did a stellar job on this one on PSN and Xbox Live Arcade, so it’s a total no-brainer that today’s newly released the Steam version is as good or better in a few respects.

In a way, it’s also too bad this never got a retail release in some “retro” packaging from Midnight City (Majesco’s digital indie label), as it’s exactly the sort of game that could benefit from (and sell a few limited edition copies because of) some sort of box with a funky 80’s cover painting. Ah well. Anyway, if your nostalgia meter is tingling away, you know what to do, right? I’ll let you get to it then…