GOG.com Shows EA How Free-To-Play SHOULD Work With Dungeon Keeper…

Posted on February 14, 2014 by geelw

Okay, so it’s probably being done with EA’s approval partly to appease fans of the original and new players ticked off at the recently released mobile/tablet remake that’s been seen by some as a wallet draining arrow to the heart, but hey, gog.com is doing it up right.

You can boogie on over to gog.com NOW and get the original Dungeon Keeper Gold (which contains the Deeper Dungeons expansion pack) for FREE this weekend. In addition, you can grab Dungeon Keeper 2 for a paltry 1.49 (!), making this quite a sweet deal on Valentine’s Day. Amusingly enough, I snapped up this as soon as I saw it earlier this morning and got the following message:

BIG SUCCESS MY MINION! You’ll get your game soon! Minion, due to high demand, we will tell you when your free copy of Dungeon Keeper is ready via email in a little bit.

So, yeah… like the remake that has you wait HOURS if you choose not to pay your way into the game, it seems that it’ll take a bit of time before I can see the fruits of my clicky labors. Still, at least I’m getting an entire game and expansion for nothing here and not a grumpy face because some pay wall popped up and wants my credit card number. I guess this also shows that the classics never die (which is always a great thing) Thanks, gog.com!

Oh, there’s also a VERY nice sale happening, but you’ll see when you hit that front page…

Random Film of the Week(end): Repo Man

Posted on January 26, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, spamanator666!)

“Never broke into a car, never hot-wired a car. Never broke into a truck. ‘I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let the personal contents thereof come to harm’ It’s what I call the Repo Code, kid!”

Even when I saw it back in 1984, I never considered Alex Cox’ outstanding first film Repo Man a purely “punk” movie. Sure, it’s got one of the best (if not the best) soundtracks of any film of that year (some say “ever”, but they’d be dead wrong) and yes, it’s got characters who play “punks” as well as enough of a vibe that makes you think it’s a dopier film than it actually is.

Then, as you’re being entertained by what’s onscreen, one of a few unexpected things happen as the film pops into different genres. As Emilio Estevez’ bored punk Otto Maddox goes from getting fired from his crappy minimum wage job stocking supermarket shelves with generic food to making bigger bucks as a repo man and characters toss out priceless lines like “The more you drive, the less intelligent you are…” or “I don’t want no commies in my car. No Christians either.”, the next thing you know you’re hooked in for the duration… Continue reading →

Random Films of the Week: Some Unconventional Holiday Movies? Sure, Why Not?

Posted on December 26, 2013 by geelw

So, I was sitting around with a few friends a few weeks back talking about movies and such when the subject of Christmas and holiday-themed movies came up and yes, everyone agreed that It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story and a few other classics were all going to be watched at some point during the Season of Greetings. Interestingly enough, a few very unconventional titles got mentioned during this conversation to the point that I decided to toss a few of these films at you in a post and see what you think.

For some strange (well, not so strange) reasons, there are a lot of very non-holiday films on some people’s Holiday viewing schedules with most set during the winter or with cold weather as a big part of their plots (but not always). Anyway, as I see you’re wearing those dodgy jammies and overly fuzzy slippers you got yesterday as gifts and have that cup of “eggnog “at the ready, let’s get started with three or four for now and pick up some others in a future post…

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How Do You Say “Play Ball!” In Japanese Again?

Posted on December 8, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, springdraco!)

So, yeah – someone decided to partially translate this classic Abbott and Costello routine from English to Japanese and somehow, I found this more hilarious than I needed to, so here you go. This clip is from the great old flick The Naughty Nineties, by the way. I think I was thinking of seeing this in full reverse with a pair of Japanese comics doing this bit in Japanese and having English subtitles done up. That would be pretty darn spectacular, as Japanese baseball has some oddball rules you don’t see here that make it a more exciting game in a few respects. Granted, I’m not a HUGE sports fan at all (yeah, yeah – I’m soooo unpatriotic it hurts YOU more than it does me), but I know funny when I see it and appreciate a good laugh a hell of a lot more than a well thrown, hit or caught ball of any type.

Oh, yeah – here’s a longer version of the famous routine below – enjoy!

(thanks, ClassicTV789!)

The Chaney Blogathon Day Four: The finale!

Posted on November 18, 2013 by geelw

Oops! I’ve been SO busy that I forgot to plug my own work elsewhere. Well, it’s HERE you’ll bounce back to when you click my reviews of Indestructible Man and The Defiant Ones, but you beans and banes can do with some other reading on the two Chaneys and their fine bodies of work, I say. Enjoy!

The Last Drive In

Well, it’s the forth and final day of our celebration of the great CHANEYS! And it’s been quite a turn out.

I’ll be taking it from here as host but my brilliant & witty co-host will be lurking around helping to showcase all the fantastic contributions. We’re so pleased with how the event has gone and grateful to all of you who either contributed, helped tout or chimed in to show love to two memorable men and support us… unflinching Blogathon mistresses’ who pulled this all together!

I want to especially thank Fritzi of Movies Silently for quietly asking me months ago if I’d like to help co-host this event. I was flattered and honored and as excited as Quasimodo hanging from a gargoyle on the side of that Cathedral! Although my hump is much smaller.

So without any further asides from yours truly- Please stay seated as here’s the…

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Super Fighter Team Reissues Two Classic PC Fighters As Free Downloads

Posted on November 9, 2013 by geelw

Super Fighter Team has been quite quietly busy these days, what with Nightmare Busters getting ready to ship out for the Super Nintendo soon (and yes, it’s simultaneously awesome and hilarious in the best possible manner to be typing this in 2013), but there are also some nice surprises you can grab for free that should greatly interest fans of classic 2D arcade fighting games.

Super Fighter Special Edition, a VERY nicely reworked version of the ancient PC fighter and Sango Fighter 2 are up and downloadable now, so if you’re into fighters, LOVE big, colorful animated sprites and wonderful pixel art backgrounds, yup, you’re already clicking away and getting yours I bet. Additionally, you can check out some music from Super Fighter HERE – it’s another pretty cool bonus that will get your ears grinning while you’re waxing nostalgic over either game’s old-school charms…

Random Film of the Week: Horror Express

Posted on November 1, 2013 by geelw

(Thanks, Garbage Cinema!)

To me, Horror Express is an excellent example of a perfect “B” movie. Not FLAWLESS, mind you, but perfect in the solid manner it locks you into your seat right from the beginning and takes you on a nearly non-stop roller coaster ride that’s terrifying, amusing and very, very satisfying by the time the credits roll.

Granted, the version I first saw on New York City’s WOR-TV (Channel 9, to those in the know) had no end credits at all and subsequent countless viewings on that channel (where the film seemed to be in heavy horror rotation every few months) led me to believe this was the way the film was in its initial theatrical release. However, when checking this horror classic out recently on a borrowed Blu-Ray, I discovered the film did indeed have credits, but they were in Spanish, meaning whomever prepared the US version or television edit saved some money (and about a minute or so of time) by merely chopping off those end titles and that was that…

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Random Film of the Week(end): MARTIN

Posted on October 13, 2013 by geelw

(thanks albademorti!)

I think I like MARTIN the best out of all George Romero’s films because despite its age it still holds up one of the best modern takes on the vampire genre (even though the titular character only thinks he’s one) and is about as uncompromising as it gets from beginning to end.

It’s also an extremely hard to watch film if you’re squeamish about a few things like needles, fresh razor blades and blood, but everything clicks on multiple levels and there’s a powerful payoff at the end that offers up a bit of slyly amusing social commentary common to Romero’s work. If all you know about vampires is that tween sparkly Twilight crap or even the used to be interesting before it went into fairy fantasy crazyland True Blood, this one will stake a claim in your brain as soon as you meet the titular character doing his version of the bloodsucking thing he needs to slake his thirst…
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Creepy Archives #17: Nostalgia is Sheer Terror, NYC, Hot Pants, and Sharks…

Posted on September 30, 2013 by geelw

Dark Horse Comics has been compiling every issue of Warren Publishing’s excellent horror anthology magazines CREEPY and EERIE for some time now and I’ve finally had the chance to sit down with a few volumes. I had most of these mads back in the late 70’s and early 80’s when my comic collecting was getting seriously out of hand, so these reprints have been kicking me right in the nostalgic bits and it hurts so good.

Creepy Archives #17 is available as a pre-order from Things From Another World (buy it!) and among the other fine and frightening tales in this tome drawn by some great illustrators, by the way) are a few I recall quite fondly for different reasons Creepy #83 (October 1976) featured “Country Pie”, an interesting tale from workhorse writer Bruce Jones about a small town’s police trying to track a serial killer using a psychic’s clues as the killer meets up with his latest victim. While far Jones’ best script (it gives up its secret too soon and some will guess the twist right away), the story is remembered for its art from the unusual pairing of Carmine Infantino and Berni Wrightson (yes, it’s as weird as it sounds, but it works wonderfully). Infantino gets to ink his own work later in Bill DuBay’s somewhat average “The Last Super Hero”, but you’ll need to be a huge fan of his quirky artwork to truly appreciate it…

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Random Film of the Week(end): The Bad Sleep Well

Posted on September 21, 2013 by geelw

(Thanks, Criterion Trailers!)

Of all Akira Kurosawa’s films set in contemporary Japan, The Bad Sleep Well (Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru) and High and Low (Tengoku to Jigoku*) are probably my two favorites. Nope, I can’t choose between either as better thanks to both doing what they do so darn well in the hands of the master director. I’ll get to the latter film in a separate post, so let’s get to some “Bad” business from this point on.

In addition to powerful performances from a great cast led by Toshiro Mifune, the film packs one of Kurosawa’s most abrupt and shocking twists in exactly the right spot that’s still one of the best collective gasp moments I can recall in a film that wasn’t a jump-scare packed horror flick. I first saw this during its revival in the 1980’s and the big twist sucked all the air out of the small theater and had people talking about it afterwards in a coffee shop afterwards as they debated the scene’s impact and how “un-Hollywood” it was.

While it clocks in at a hair over 2 1/2 hours, Kurosawa’s assured direction makes every single moment count. A great deal of intriguing ground is covered as the film lets loose on Japan’s corporate culture of the era, mixing in film noir, romance and detective story elements before a quietly dramatic finale that demands you’ve paid attention to everything that came before. If you’re one of those types who hops up to hit the restroom or get snacks at home, make sure to stomp on the pause button on your DVD player, as missing a few seconds can mean you might not grasp another scene’s impact later on…

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