Electric Dreamstate

Update yur links!

2009-06-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

Update your links: Electric Dreamstate has moved to:

Kaszor.com

New article on the Ryerson Review of Journalism website

2009-01-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

A Q&A I did with Jesse Brown of CBC's Search Engine has just been posted on the website for the Ryerson Review of Journalism.

In the article I ask Brown about the transition of his show from CBC Radio One to being a podcast. Here's a sample:

I knew the show wasn’t coming back. If CBC didn’t bring classical music back, after the kind of response it got for the changes to Radio 2, Search Engine wasn’t coming back to FM radio.

You can find the article here.

Review: Speed Racer

2008-05-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

The Wachowski Brothers mark their directorial return after a five years off with the kid and LCD-user friendly Speed Racer.

The Plot:
Speed Racer, looks up to his brother Rex Racer who races cars. However, Rex Racer gets killed and then Speed Racer needs to race to win. Or something. The plot is inconsequential when it isn't incomprehensible.

Good:
• This movie REALLY looks like a cracked out acid trip. There's a weird hyperactive energy here that's all over the place. The final race where Speed wins (spoiler I guess, sorry), ends with a 2001-esque sequence that plays out like a hyperactive visual orgasm. It takes the style of the old cartoon and ramps it up.
• The movie is at it's best when it's really pushing how over the top it is. Whenever their crazy shit is going on you can't tear your eyes away.
• The kid and the monkey are distractingly annoying less often than you would expect (although they are still distractingly annoying).

Bad:
• The plot.
• Any sequence where the hyperactive style goes away and it becomes more like a regular movie. There are two scenes in particular where Speed is getting a pep talk from his parents that just DRAG.
• The kid and the monkey.
• The idea that Racer X could be anyone BUT Speed's brother Rex. Seriously.
• It was too long.

Overall:
It was impressively insane. I don't know if it was enjoyable though. Not really.

Review: Iron Man

2008-05-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

The first summer movie hits, and it features one of the more interesting Marvel heroes and the Robert Downey Jr.'s second coming (or third coming, or maybe fourth).

The Plot:
Tony Stark is a super-genius and a playboy, making billions as the head of Stark Industries, the world's largest weapons manufacturer. After a successful sales call in Afghanistan, Stark is kidnapped and taken captive by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings. They want him to make them a bomb. He makes a suit of robotic armour instead, and then escapes. Having a crisis of conscience, he decides to make a new better suit and become a superhero. Iron Man is born.

Good:
• Hits all of the necessary superhero story points perfectly.
• RDJ portrays Stark as capable, narcissistic, caring and a little crazy. It works.
• The suit is pretty bad-ass.
• The movie has a sense of child-like wonderment tempered with a realistic gravitas. Only not that pretentious.
• Simply fun from start to finish.
• Best post-credits Easter-egg ever.

Bad:
• Jeff Bridges's bad guy seems a touch too over the top and buffoonish in the movie.
• The stereotypical terrorists.
• Not quite enough Iron Man.

Overall:
Very few summer blockbusters hit the sweet spot of FX, characterization, cheezy fun, seriousness and pace as Iron Man. Although may not be the best summer blockbuster coming out this year (although who knows), it may well be the most easy to enjoy without reservation. Worth seeing on a big screen.

Review: Forbidden Kingdom

2008-04-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

Jackie Chan and Jet Li are the pillars of the Hong Kong and Chinese marital arts flicks making there way to North America in the last fifteen years or so. Too bad that they waited until they were old to team up.

The Plot:
Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano, the poor man's Shia LaBeouf) is a kid from Boston who likes Kung Fu movies. He gets roughed-up by street thugs, finds a magical staff and falls off a roof. When he wakes up he's in The Forbidden Kingdom, a version of ancient mythological China. Now, with the help of a drunk and possibly immortal vagabond (Chan), a kind-of assholish monk (Li) and a love interest who talks only in the third person (Yifei Liu), he must return the magic staff to the Monkey King (also Li) and defeat the evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou).

Good:
• The action is better than most American produced martial arts movies (this is probably because of the Chinese funding and choreography).
• It's certainly Jackie Chan's best American movie.
• The pace is somewhat breezy. It doesn't drag.
• It plays the hero's quest angle fairly well.
• It's kind of fun how they explain Chan and Li playing multiple roles.

Bad:
• You can really see the political aspect between how much presence Jackie Chan and Jet Li have in the film. About 20 minutes in it seems strange that Li's monk character hasn't been introduced yet (although he has showed up as the Monkey King), and I realized that it was because that would have unbalanced the movie towards Li and away from Chan. On the same note, the fight between Li and Chan is quite good (considering how old they are), but ends in such a draw as to seem pointless.
• The story arc of the movie is fairly predictable.
• The white lead is bland.
• When kung fu shows up in the "real world" at the end of the movie, it seems out of place.

Overall:
Not something to go out of your way to see if you aren't a fan of the genre, but not crazy terrible like some were predicting it would be. It does work fairly well as an actiony kids movie.

How am I going to get people to go to these movies with me OR The Electric Dreamstate Summer Movie Preview

2008-04-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Unlike other times of the year, summer movie season has a certain imperative to it. While I can rent a copy of Zodiac months late and still have the same enrapturing experience I would have had in the theatre, a summer movie is really best enjoyed on the largest screen possible and with a somewhat rowdy audience. This summer is absolutely packed with movies, and some of them are so mindbogglingly stupid that I might have to use tricks to get people to come and see them with me.

May 2:
Iron Man
This one will be fairly easy. There's a good amount of buzz going around about it and people seem interested. Also, as the first blockbuster of the season, people aren't fatigued yet.

May 9:
Speed Racer
And we run into trouble right here. Ostensibly a kids movie and a crack dream at the same time, Speed Racer doesn't appeal to everyone. Personally I really want to see the epic acid-trippy primary-colour car-orgy being sold here, but others might not be as interested.

May 16:
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Eh, I could take or leave this one, but I'm kind of interested because I absolutely do not remember the plot of Caspian. There is fighting, and this is where the talking mouse Reep-a-cheep shows up I think.

May 23:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
This one is easy, everyone wants to see a new Indiana Jones movie. The real challenge is getting them to wait until Saturday to see it (I work Friday nights).

June 13:
The Incredible Hulk
A few weeks off (the Sex and the City movie is in between) leads us to our first double week. I secretly really want to see the new Hulk movie. Yes the directing will be workman like compared to Ang Lee's Hulk (by far the most visually interesting modern superhero movie regardless of what you felt about the overall product), and the movie is supposedly 1/5th fight scene (set on Younge Street, New York). But that doesn't matter. The 13-year-old inside of me wants to see Hulk Smash.

The Happening
Even harder to sell than The Incredible Hulk, The Happening is the latest from pretentious genre auteur M. Night Shyamalan. I found something to like in three of Shyamalan's major releases (with two being good movies), and I'm interested to see if he can pull his career together.

June 20:
Get Smart
I think that Carrel can make this work. And I have a soft spot for the Rock. Also I don't want The Love Guru to win the weekend.

June 27:
Wall•E
This Pixar animated movie has almost no talking (or characters at all other than the titular Wall•E) for, supposedly, the first third to half of the film. Hopefully I can convince people that to go to a kids movie with no talking. I think the novelty may do it.

July 4:
Hancock
The good-olde July 4th Will Smith movie. Sure this looks stupider than stupid ... but he picks up a whale and throws it into a boat! Woooo! Woooo!

July 11:
Hellboy II
Being sandwiched between Hancock and The Dark Knight isn't the greatest for Hellboy II's chances, either in the box office or for getting my friends to see it with me. The first movie was fine, if unexceptional, but the second doesn't have to be bogged down by introductory origin crap. Also evil Nazis and Cthulhu.

July 18:
The Dark Knight
This one won't be a problem. Even those who didn't like Christopher Nolan's 2005 take on Batman will probably want to see Heath Ledger's final role. Next!

July 25:
X Files: I Want To Believe
The problem here is that a) many people left the X Files with a fairly sour taste in their mouths (people say it was the last two seasons, but it was really the last four or so) b) the show has so much baggage from the mythology episodes that no one knows what's going on and c) many people are unaware this is coming out. Getting people to care will be tough, even if the movie is a "monster of the week" type story in the style of the early seasons.

August 8:
Pineapple Express
The problem with Pineapple Express isn't that people don't want to see it, it's that I don't think they really understand what it is. As far as I can tell it's fully an action-comedy with an emphasis on the "action" part. Audiences seem to think it's another Apatow stoner comedy. Will the bait be pulled away too soon for the switch to work?

Review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

2008-04-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

The summer movie season is almost upon us, and once again I return to this blog. Let's start out with a nice point form review of last weekend's Judd Apatow Brand™ comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

The Plot:
Peter Bretter (Jason Segal) is a music composer on the CSI-esque show Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime and dating one of the stars of the show Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). She dumps him and he goes on vacation to forget her ... only she's at the same resort as him with her new boyfriend.

Good:
• Some hilarious moments, many related to full-frontal male nudity.
• Did a good job making the sentimental scenes have jokes in them, and remain funny.
• All of the leads acquitted themselves well. Surprisingly Mila Kunis was probably the stand-out, having finally outgrown her Jackie character from That 70s Show.
• Stays funny throughout, despite being a bit long.

Bad:
• Unfortunately the plot focuses on several sitcom like contrivances (the fact that they're at the same resort, they have rooms next to each other, ect).
• It is a little bit long.
• Although it fulfills the Apatow formula fairly well (R-rated jokes, characters with depth, kind-of more sincere than you expect), it has become a formula at this point and isn't as surprising.

Overall:
The film is hilarious, but will be just as worth while on video.

My Favorite Movies of 2007

2008-01-08T18:20:00.000-08:00

This list is fairly mutable. Next week I might rank another movie in a different slot based on my mood. I also haven't seen the following movies: Gone Baby Gone, The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford, Into the Wild and Knocked Up. Any of these might end up slotted in somewhere. Additionally, I walked out of the room about halfway into my room mate watching Hairspray.

Honourable Mention 4 - Beowulf
I'm not sure that I would put this on a "top" list, but it hangs together fairly well and the final fight between the dragon and Beowulf was the best spectacle scene in a year of spectacle. I don't know how this will look without the big screen and 3D though.

Honourable Mention 3 - Juno
The movie just seems to be a bit to pleased with itself to really slot into a top spot, but I did enjoy the movie for all the reasons that everyone else did. The film is already being hurt by its own success and it has already become cool to dislike it for its forced quirkiness. I might also just be putting it here just because my list below is so dude-centric.

Honourable Mention 2 - Wristcutters: A Love Story
You know how much money IMDB says Wristcutters made after it was "released" in theatres in November? $231,551. It was getting good reviews coming out of Sundance. In 2006. I have no idea why this quirky comedy about love after suicide couldn't find its way on the indie scene, and I wish it luck on the DVD circuit.

Honourable Mention 1 - Charlie Wilson's War
This breezy (in a good way) movie is about a real senator who was integral in getting the US to supply the mujahadin against the Soviets. It stars Tom Hanks, was directed by Mike Nichols and was written by Aaron Sorkin. It was also a good ending away from being my top film of 2007. As it is it's not quite good enough to get into my top five.

5 - The Bourne Ultimatum
The best threequel in a year of threequels, the third Bourne movie still somehow maintains the series's trademark of tense action and intelligent thought. Personally, I liked the fact that almost two movies later, Bourne is still messed up by his girlfriend getting killed. The thing does lose a bit of the realistic mayhem that the previous movies got so right (it ended up being quasi-realistic mayhem), but I think that's okay as the series built to its conclusion.

4 - Hot Fuzz
About two-thirds of the way into Hot Fuzz I didn't know if I was sold on it. It seemed less like a parody of a cop/buddy movie and more of a weird quasi-comic remake of The Wicker Man. Then everything paid off in one of the most hilarious and over-the-top sequences I've seen in years. I want to see it again right now.

3 - There Will Be Blood
There are problems with There Will Be Blood (the final few scenes with the son seemed a bit off to me), but the movie is relentless. This is mostly because of the central performance by Daniel Day Lewis as a man who's obsession with succeeding over all others feeds his seething hatred of humanity.

2 - Zodiac
This is the only movie that I can remember seeing on home video where I was captivated as if I was watching it on the big screen. It's a weird movie that stands between a fictionalized account and a straight-up reenactment of events. It's long and meanders, but damn if I didn't get absolutely caught up in the slice of history presented here. It's too bad this came out in March and no one saw it.

1 - No Country for Old Men
The first note of music in No Country for Old Men comes quietly and ominously as the end credits begin to roll, and it feels like the movie is finally allowing you to let out the breath that you've been holding in for the whole two hour running time. The Coen Brothers' last couple movies have been disappointments, but the filmmaking here is so confident and outright perfect that it's almost impossible not to become enraptured by it. Some people have poo-pooed the ending of No Country, but the more that I thought about it the more that I couldn't see it any other way.

WGA Strike: Day One

2007-11-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know, the Writers Guild of America went on strike at 12:01am this morning. If the strike lasts a week, we won't see many effects of it. If it lasts a month or two pretty much every new TV show that hasn't found its audience will be cancelled. If it ends up lasting until June, when the contracts with the Actors and Directors guilds are up ... well then it's a whole 'nother ballgame.

To put this in perspective I will use an obscure reference. Do you remember the season two finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation? For those who don't here is a refresher. Riker beams down to a planet and then gets pricked by the stinger of a creature that looks like a log. He then goes back to the ship and has a clip-show in his head. If the Simpsons episode where Bart shakes Homer's beer too much is the best clip show ever, then this is the worst. Clips are arranged in a nonsensical way and the entire proceeding is almost impossible to sit through. It was also, as mentioned before, the season two finale. The episode completely derailed the narrative momentum of the show. It was an episode created because there was a WGA strike.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I'm personally on the side of the writers. The fact that they don't get any money for shows sold on the internet is ludicrous (if someone is profiting, the writers should get paid), and it smacks of terrible Hollywood accounting. If there are any big updates I'll post 'em here.

Because clean is better than dirty, and dirty is meaner than clean

2007-11-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

To commemorate the fact that Super Mario Galaxy is coming out very soon (Monday officially I believe), I'm posting this video for the last true Mario game, Super Mario Sunshine.

(For those of you reading this on facebook, you will probably have to click through back to the blog, I'm pretty sure Facebook won't import the movie)

EDIT: Galaxy isn't coming out until the 12th. Sorry guys.

Books I "read" over the summer

2007-10-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

The word "read" is in quotation marks because I actually listened to most of these via audio book. They were universally unabridged versions though, so it isn't like I missed anything.

In chronological order the books that I finished in the time between when I left Edmonton on April 27 until now.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

In the audio book version of Fragile Things Neil Gaiman narrates superbly. So well, in fact, that it makes you hate him a little bit. He's good at that too? The story collection itself is a mixed bag (as most story collections are) and flits from being engrossingly fantastic to disturbingly psycho-sexual. Enjoyable if you're a fan of his work, but not a great place to start if you haven't read him before.

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Fun and forgettable. The story of a messed up girl who becomes a bail bondsman. A true airport book.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Unfortunately I never saw the movie, but the book is quite a nice little read. It isn't especially heavy and it has a very pre-Tolkien vibe to its fantasy. Unlike Fragile Things, this is a good place to begin if you want to start reading Neil Gaiman. One could also say that it's like the Princess Bride, except that it really isn't anything like the Princess Bride except that it's more like it than anything else that I can think of.

Illium by Dan Simmons

This one is sort of a cheat since I read the first half back in Edmonton, and then read the second half in spurts while doing my laundry after I got here. It's essentially about a group of technologically advanced post-humans recreating the battle of Troy on Mars. Sort-of. The book is dense and a bit imposing, for example there is a chapter which entirely consists of robots from the moons of the gas giants considering the finer points of Shakespeare's sonnets as they compare to the writing of Proust. However, it's worth picking up and giving a glance through to see if it's your thing. Simmons' earlier series of books (starting with Hyperion) is perhaps a bit more welcoming and emotionally satisfying though.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Yes another Neil Gaiman book. This one follows two brothers who are the sons of Mr Nancy (also known as the god Anansi the trickster and storyteller) and their trials as they find their place in the world. It is tangentially related to American Gods which had Mr Nancy as a side character. The book has a sense of playfulness that befits the trickster nature of Anansi although there is rarely a true sense of danger. Again a fine read, but probably not a great place to start reading Neil Gaiman.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The last Gaiman book I promise. This was the second time that I read American Gods and it was still an excellent book the second time around. It's a fine merger of folklore, genre fiction and the modern literary novel*. In fact, this second time around made me realize that the genre fiction stuff was really subdued here, and that Gaiman is just one book about his mid-life crisis and wanting to bang Katie Holmes away from a Pulitzer. Also the book has zombie sex in it. Kind of.

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clark

A strange alien vessel enters the solar system and some astronauts go and check it out. The documentation of their perplexing and unknowable findings takes up most of the book. The novel is notable for two reasons: First, like most eastern European Sci-Fi (and especially Stanislav Lem) one of the main themes of the book is the unknowability of the alien. Second, the characters are all astronauts who confront the unknowable and don't go crazy, or turn on each other or otherwise act so unprofessionally that you wonder how they got trained. It's quite nice actually.

Ringworld by Larry Niven

I read this when I was 16 and I loved it. Reading it now, I can see what I liked (the amazing world building), but a lot of new issues popped up. First off, the prose is ... underwhelming. I didn't think that the overuse and misuse of "presently" could irk me so much. And then there is the underlying (and most likely unintentional) dismissal of female characters. Still a fun read, but not the borderline hard Sci-Fi that I remember.

The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven

A classic unnecessary sequel, The Ringworld Engineers is like the first book only not quite as good. The healthy doses of retcons don't really detract from the first book too much, but the introduction of the concept of "rishathra" which is ... well lets just say that the writers on Futurama had to get the idea for "snu-snu" from somewhere. I didn't read the third or fourth in the series.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

by J K Rowling

I listened to all of these back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back. I think I'll talk about them in a future post.

Dune by Frank Herbert

A fun little number about a guy taking LSD and then taking over the Universe. Dune is another novel that I read when I was 16 and it holds up much better than Ringworld. In fact I don't think I really liked Dune back then. The novel drops you into a foreign culture and then assumes you can fill in the blanks. The use of full third-person unlimited omniscient narration is a change from most genre novels and gives the book an almost psychedelic feel.

Yup done.

*You can tell these books because they say "a novel" on the front, and the cover is usually textured in eggshell. Also the cover is usually something abstract or takes a picture of a person and makes it austere. Sometimes this differentiation between literary novel and genre novel is a bit strained such as in the case of books like The Time Traveler's Wife which is marketed as a literary novel but could have easily been sold as either a sci-fi novel or a romance novel. Also the movie version of the Time Traveller's Wife is shooting about a block from my apartment.

in ur base dieing ur hard

2007-07-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

I saw Live Free or Die Hard tonight and I'm of confused by it. It isn't Die Hard 4. It's not really a Die Hard movie at all. It's as if the Die Hard movies were translated into an internet meme and then reconstructed into a movie. Just like Chuck Norris' never really was like the persona that embodies Chuck Norris jokes, neither did John McClain ever act like the unbeatable super-hero shown in LFoDH. John McClain is the guy who gets his feet all cut up by glass and then bleeds everywhere and limps into the final showdown. Not the guy who jumps out of a moving car at 50mph and then shows no ill effects five minutes later.

Additionally, the Die Hard movies have always had a keen sense of location and locale. Nakatomi Towers had a logical layout. It felt like a real building. Die Hard 2 might have been downright silly, but the airport also felt like a real place that had logical rules applied to it (even if the plot didn't). Die Hard 3 gives a sense of New York (and specifically 1994 New York) better than almost any mainstream movie I can think of. Little touches — like the fact that when they exit Central Park heading south they end up in Columbus Circle (exactly where they should end up), even though they don't mention where they are and any anonymous intersection could have worked — made the entire city of New York into one of the tightly controlled locations featured in the first two movies.

In LFoDH there isn't any of that. This is LA standing in for New Jersey, DC, Baltimore and South Virginia. Everything shot feels like it's of a loose sketch of a place or an over produced set which can be changed to fit the whim of the plot (such as it is). You never really get a sense of anything.

Further, the much talked about move from the R to PG-13 rating certainly hurt the film. What the movie really lacked was a visceral quality. It felt canned and overly-manufactured. A bit of blood and some swearing would have reached out and jostled the audience and added a few rough edges to everything. I'm sure there will be a blood and swears version coming out on DVD.

As for the plot ... well it's pretty dumb. I'll just say that it kind-of felt like a rip-of the plot of The Net. You know, that movie starring Sandra Bullock? Where they were like "OMG I'm ordering pizza on the internet!!!". But whatever, the rest of the movie felt too pasted together for a logical plot to really make much of a difference anyway.

That being said ... there were some pretty awesome explosions. And McClain does act pretty badass in a few places. And there are some stunts that look pretty cool. And there are more cool explosions. And then McClain kills some dudes and makes a joke or two. And then there are more explosions. So on that level it's worth seeing. Just wait for the blood and swears version.

Downloadable mini-reviews

2007-05-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

I purchased a Hard Drive for my Xbox 360 and downloaded some games over the last couple of weeks. I also downloaded Ninja Gaiden for the NES on the Wii.

Ninja Gaiden on the Wii Virtual Console

Still as bloody hard as I remember it being way back in the day, the game is helped immensely by the fact that the Wii allows you to turn off your game and save your progress. Although it's frustrating in a few ways that it's sequels aren't (the fact that you can grab onto most walls but can't climb them leads to situations where you just postpone your inevitable death), the platforming action is tight and when you do succeed it feels like you've accomplished something. Worth $5.

Settlers of Catan on Xbox Live Arcade

This is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the hit German board game Settlers of Catan. I've heard Settlers mentioned on numerous video game websites as being a "hard core" game, which confuses me a bit. As far as board games go, it's really more of an entry level game designed to ease people into games more complicated than Sorry. Something like Risk is more complicated (though not better designed) than Settlers. Compared to the even the most basic multiplayer online-game it's actually amazingly simple and new player friendly.

As for the port itself, the game is given more audio and visual fidelity than I think it really needs, but I'm not complaining. The trade interface is elegant and the A.I. is actually amazingly smart, although it's sometimes annoying when an A.I. won't trade with you from the very beginning of the game (that happens with real people too though). If you're going to play the game online and not in Real Life this is the best version by far. The game flow plays elegantly and you never feel like you're waiting around for other people too much. Anyone who likes board games and has Xbox Live gold should get this game.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on Xbox Live Arcade

This was an excellent game when it came out on the PS1 ten years ago and it's an excellent game now. In fact, I would have gladly paid two or three times the amount the asking price for it.

The game is, quite simply, a copy of Super Metroid with a Castlevaina skin pulled over it and some light RPG elements added in. It never achieves quite the level of absolute excellence that Super Metroid did, but that isn't especially surprising because Super Metriod is one of the best games ever made. However, C:SotN is one of the best games for the PS1, and is better than most of the Xbox 360's full priced library.

The negatives: 1) the game is still a bit short (but for the price it's actually quite long), 2) the graphics are the best 2D that 1997 could offer, so they are excellent, but a bit dated and 3) The game really feels like it should have more than 200 Achievement Points.

If you have a 360 and a Hard Drive, you should download Symphony of the Night.

John Rambo Trailer

2007-05-19T11:03:00.001-07:00

Hmm, John Rambo always seemed like a crazy stupid idea for a movie (hell First Blood II: Rambo and Rambo III are stupid ideas for movies too). I don't know if this footage to sell the film to distributors changes my mind on that. But it could be okay. I guess.

EDIT: Oh yeah. NSFW

This post feels like some sort of viral marketing

2007-05-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

The first good trailer for Transformers just came out. One that actually makes me want to see the movie.

If you haven't seen it yet you get get it by clicking here. It's the one marked "Exclusive".

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some sort of crazy transfan who's up in arms that they added flames on Optimus, but everything I had seen from the movie so far looked shitty regardless of how closely it stuck to the premise of a 25-year-old toy line.

Though I guess it doesn't matter what I think so much, because I was going to see the movie anyway. That's just the kind of nerd that I am.

Hot Fuzz

2007-04-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

Many of you haven't seen the latest movie from the producers/writers/stars of Shaun of the Dead. You should; it's awesome. I'll post more when I'm not at work.

I saw two movies today

2007-02-16T00:19:00.000-08:00

I saw two movies today.

Ghost Rider

Do any of the following apply to you?
• You saw the cover of any Black Sabath album, or the cover of any album with the words "Bat", "Out", "of" and "Hell" in the title and thought "man I want to see that made as a movie?"
• You're interested in seeing a movie about Ghost Rider.

If you answered yes to either of those questions then you will like the Ghost Rider movie. Otherwise, not so much.

Smoking Aces

Probably my favorite of the post-Pulp-Fiction Pulp-Fiction rip-offs, Smoking Aces is worth seeing if you don't mind a bit of violence. Much better than the last major attempt at a pPF Lucky Number Slevin. Those staying away because they don't like Ben Affleck shouldn't worry. He isn't in it much.

Was your vagina drunk?

2007-02-01T15:37:00.000-08:00

E.R.

2007-01-29T18:52:00.000-08:00

So I've been fairly negligent of this blog. Sorry about that for the five to ten of you who are still reading this.

Anywho, Best Buy offered the first four seasons of E.R. for $15 each, which is crazy low. I ended up purchasing all four during various trips to Best Buy during the holidays.

Generally the show is fairly good. Not great (although it does have its moments), but solid above average story telling. Sadly you can tell that the original concept, which was perfectly portrayed in the pilot episode, of mixing big stories (OMG breakup!, this man is GOING TO DIE!, AIDS!, ect) with small stories (working 80 hours a week is hard, growing up is confusing, I feel overwhelmed by life, ect), was almost completely discarded by the end of the first season in lieu of just telling the big stories. If that makes any sense.

So yeah, if you see E.R. on sale for $15 a season, it's worth it, at least for the first season.

Daniel it's your birthday. Happy birthday Daniel.

2007-01-13T00:44:00.000-08:00

So I'm 26. Yeah.

I've left this blog off mostly because I had about 700 words of a Zelda review which I wasn't happy with. So I'm just going to post all the review you need: the game is good: play it.

I'm going to post a video later today when I'm less drunk.

Review: eragon

2006-12-15T14:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I caught a preview screening of eragon. It's the new fantasy FX-fest that's coming out today. It's also based on a book written by a sixteen-year-old. Additionally, it's probably one of the most derivatively made movies I've ever seen.

First off, you know how Star Wars, especially the first one (A New Hope), is really based so much on other movies and archetypes that it would be almost impossible to call anyone out on ripping it off with a straight face? Yeah, eragon impresses in this regard, because it straight up rips off the entire story of the first Star Wars almost scene by scene. Yes, they do mix it up a bit: for example when ~~Luke~~Eragon is going into the analogue for the Death Star, it looks like Jabba's palace in Jedi. And at the end when they get to the rebel base it looks like Faramir's camp from The Two Towers. And in the middle somewhere, they take the scene from Empire Strikes Back where Vader kills an Admiral and promotes his underling and play it out almost word-for-word. Oh yeah, and there is a scene where this Shade character is asking all of his minions who look like Urk-Hai (Saruman's minions in Lord of the Rings) who they serve and I was sure they were going to bust out a SA-RU-MAN!

That isn't to say that eragon just steals the entire plot and character set from Star Wars, the look and feel of Lord of the Rings, and then plays it out in a hackneyed and over-obvious way. No sir, they seem to get a whole lot of Dungeons & Dragons vibe as well, though I think that was unintentional stealing. Shittyness by association if you will.

This isn't to say that this movie won't play well to kids. Most sub-twelve-year-olds will probably love it, especially if they haven't seen Star Wars, and the final Dragon fight is pretty nice looking in a I'd-rather-be-playing-this-on-a-PS3 kind of way. Really, it's the kind of movie written for young children by trying to fool them into thinking it's a movie for older audiences. Sort of like Willow. But not as good. This is the opposite of movies that seem to be for children, but are actually for older audiences (like Labyrinth or Dark Crystal).

Anyway, if you're reading this blog, you probably won't enjoy eragon. Your 11-year-old sister might though.

Zelda review still coming

iTunes music store sales go to shit. Apple doesn't give said shit.

2006-12-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

That is to say that they don't give a shit that the iTunes store isn't selling that many songs, they probably do care about the negative press that the sales downturn has riled up. You can read the story of the music store's "collapse" if you haven't already.

Just in case anyone doesn't know, Apple doesn't make money off of the iTunes music store. Well that isn't completely true, but they get, at most, a few cents on each song, and the total profits they get from it are, to use the lexicon of one Bill Gates, a rounding error in comparison to the money they make selling iPods (or Macs for that matter).

The purpose of the music store isn't to make money, the purpose is to get the record industry off its back about how machines like the iPod are only used to carry around pirated music. Of course, one could argue that the primary source of music on most iPods isn't downloaded music of any variety, illegal or otherwise, but tunes ripped from CDs. But the record industry has done its damnedest to make ripping music from CDs impossible, so that can't be true.

But that's just my humble opinion on the news. I don't have a PhD in online-musicology or anything.

Anyway, it seems that the doomsaying about the music store were a bit premature.

Wii Virtual-Console Mini-Reviews

2006-12-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

You may have noted that this blog has gotten a whole lot nerdier in the last little bit. That's probably not going to change. However, I am, generally, trying to write most of these entries so that people who know little or nothing about videogames can understand them and appreciate them.

I already talked about Sonic. Here are some reviews of other games I downloaded onto my Wii.

F-Zero
System: Super Nintendo
Genre: Racing

F-Zero came out around the launch of the SNES and blew away pretty much every racing game that had come before it. Using "mode 7" graphics (essentially something the SNES did to rotate 2D images to make them into a quasi 3D plane), F-Zero gave a real sense of motion. And it was fast. So, very fast.

Now, fifteen years later, it still plays fairly well, though 3D graphics have advanced the racing genre more than any other and it shows in a quasi 2D game like F-Zero. And, though the racing aspect of the game is still fun, there is nothing to unlock, and the courses get hard much to quickly. F-Zero's spiritual sequel, Mario Kart was a better game because in addition to having the Mario characters it also added weapons and the ability to play 2-player.

Was it worth 8 bucks US?: Only if you have feelings of nostalgia towards it, or are interested in the history of racing games, or are really hard up for a racing game.

Bonk's Adventure
System: TurboGrafx-16
Genre: Platformer

This is another artifact from the late '80s early '90s that I had to try out because I couldn't play it on my SNES back in the day. Much like Sonic it seems to rip Super Mario Bros. off fairly heavily. Unlike Sonic, it isn't that fun to play. Yep.

Was it worth 6 bucks US?: Only as a historical footnote.

Ice Hockey
System: Nintendo Entertainment System
Genre: Hockey

Ah, the eternal question: fatties versus skinnies. If you haven't played the NES classic Ice Hockey here it is in a nutshell: You must play as one of several countries hockey teams in a match of simple four on four hockey. Each team is made up of any combination of fast "skinnies", jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none "mediums", and powerful "fatties". Of course no one ever plays as mediums or even mixes and matches their teams at all. It's always all "fatties" or all "skinnies".

Ice Hockey actually does stand up in that it replicates not so much the game of hockey as it does those hockey-boards with the players all on twisty turn spinner things. You know what I'm talking about. And it plays much better with two people. By the way: "fatties" for the win.

Was it worth 5 bucks US?: Yeah, actually. It's quite fun.

Gunstar Heroes
System: Genesis
Genre: Shooter/Platfomer

This is one of those classics that no one actually played, for whatever reason, but the small number of people who did absolutely swear by. I was fully expecting to be underwhelmed by the game, as many of these classics-that-no-one-has-played end up having a slough of neat ideas and then falling flat when criteria like "fun" or "playability" are factored in. Boy was I wrong. This game is totally boss.

Gunstar Heroes isn't really like any other game. It's sort of a hybrid between a Shoot 'em up (or shmup as they have become known) and a Mario style platformer. There are definitely elements of Contra in there too (it was made by the guys who made Super Contra, except you only have one life, but you don't die after one hit.

All I know is that it's amazing. This is the most fun I've had with an old-school game (that I hadn't played before) in a long time, and I'm still amazed at how well something this old can make me smile and go "damn that's cool". I think specifically when I first got to the level two boss "Seven Force" which is a series of seven very creative boss fights all in a row.

Was it worth 8 bucks US?: It's probably worth closer to 20 or 25 even. An amazing game.

Next up: a review of Zelda.

They Never Listen

2006-12-12T00:51:00.000-08:00

Pete Townshend agrees, this is the ONLY reason to watch CSI: MIAMI:

ALSO:

Impressions: Sonic the Hedgehog on the Wii Virtual Console

2006-12-11T01:32:00.000-08:00

I never played Sonic back in the day. I was a Nintendo kid. I had a NES, and then I had a Super NES. So the first time that I really played a Sonic game was when I played through Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast.

I always wanted to play Sonic, just to see what all of the fuss was about. Though, even then, the games struck me as being more attitude that substance.

After purchasing the Wii and having the requisite $8US to download the game to the console, I decided to give Sonic a try.

I've played it for a while, and it certainly is one of the best non-Mario platformers from that era, but it certainly doesn't come near to even being in the same weight class as any of the old Mario greats. Though it is quite fun in a 1991 kind of way, almost everything that it does well is copied verbatim from Super Mario Bros 1 and almost everything that's clunky (such as combining the concept of "coins" with the number of times you can get hit) is a Sonic innovation.

It's also notable that it doesn't rip-off concepts from Super Mario Bros 3, probably because it was mostly through being designed by the time SMB3 came out.

Now I want to play Sonic 2 to see if they fixed most of the annoying bits in Sonic. I'm sure it's coming out on the virtual console eventually.

Review: Nintendo Wii Hardware

2006-12-08T00:23:00.000-08:00

I already posted how I got my Wii over in the comments of this post at the Crap Shack, but it's repeated below my review of the Wii hardware at the bottom of this post as well.

Just over two weeks ago Nintendo released its fifth system, the Wii, and I was able to snag one. As you probably know the Wii uses a controller that looks much like a remote control. The controller acts as a pointer on the screen as well as a motion tracker (with tilt, roll and yaw).

Also, you can attach a little dongle onto the bottom of the remote that looks like a nunchuck called, creatively enough, the nunchuck. It allows the use of an analog control stick. Most of the games are designed around the controller.

Here are some more info-bits.

• The graphics are like Nintendo's fourth console, the GameCube, but maybe a little bit better. If you really care about graphics this isn't the system for you. However, the graphics certainly aren't distracting.

• It seems the most fun when played in groups. The included game, Wii Sports, has an almost perfect recreation of bowling, and a fun recreation of tennis. They can lead to hours of fun in a group, though they get a little bit boring solo.

• The Zelda game that came out with the system is truly excellent, though a bit easy. If you haven't played a Zelda game since Ocarina of Time or even Link to the Past, this is a great game to try out, though it doesn't really use the Wii controls that creatively.

• The interface is very elegant and iPod like. In fact it's probably easier to use than most Apple products.

• The Virtual Console download service allows you to pay a small fee and download NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and Turbo Graphix-16 games. You can play most of them by turning the controller sideways. The emulation is for the most part, excellent, better than almost anything you can get on a computer, and probably the best way to play old games on a newer TV.

• It generally seems to be the perfect system for people who haven't owned a Nintendo system since the Super Nintendo or NES days.

• If anyone else has specific questions about the system, I can answer them in the comments.

Here is the story of me getting the Wii.

People were lined up for the Nintendo Wii all night. Although they didn't need to be. Here's my story of getting one:

My friend and I went to Best Buy/Wal-mart/Superstore/Future Shop Sunday morning at around 1am to guestimate how early we would need to line up. The fact that there were almost 100 people at the Best Buy and almost as many at the Wal-Mart, but that other lines weren't full made us ballsy enough to decide that we didn't need to get anywhere until 8am. So, anyway, I went home and watched Battlestar Galactica and then went to bed at like 4am.

We got to the Superstore on Calgary Trail at 7:50 or so and there were only about 20 people waiting. Cha-Ching. Or so we thought. It turned out that there were only 12 units at the Superstore. So we went to the London Drugs on 51rst. No one was there. The lady at they door asked why we were lining up (at least 5 people from the Super Store came with us). We said we were waiting for the Nintendo Wii. She said "what's that?" and then went to see if they had gotten any. Now this place had gotten five PS3s so we were pretty certain that they would have Wiis. As it turns out that certainty was ill placed. They aren't carrying the Wii.

One of the guys in who was waiting there with us said that EB in Southgate might be getting extra units beyond the 15 they had set aside for pre-orders. We thought it was a long shot, but what the hell, it was only about 5 blocks away and the hard part wasn't waiting it was the getting up early and we had already done that. So we went to Southgate and went in the door (now this is key, since it was only about 8:20 at this point and every door to the mall was locked except for the one we tried, although we didn't know that at the time) and we made our way inside to the EB.

There were two guys waiting there already. They worked in the mall and had used an employee entrance. We sat down and started waiting. The EB manager showed up and told us that he didn't know how many units extra he had, but there were certainly enough for the four of us.

In the end they had 26 extra units and you could have gotten one if you had shown up at around 9:30 or so (although the line was full after that). Beyond that most of the waiting was waiting for the EB guys to get done ringing in the presales.

Edmonton: Boomtown USA

2006-12-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

I was driving home today and as I crossed Whyte Avenue (between Chapters and When Pigs Fly) I saw something that I'd never seen before (in Edmonton): two homeless men on opposite street corners arguing over territory.

This just shows how much the Albertan economic boom is effecting everything here in Edmonton. Not only is the starting rate at Taco Bell $9.50 (a rate at which they still can't find enough people to stay open past 9pm), but the number of unemployed and unemployable have risen as well. You notice it here every day, because Edmonton has classically had a very low hobo to not-hobo ratio in comparison to cities of its size (especially in the winter). Another hot-spot for activity is in front of the Mac's on Whyte. Without hyperbole, nine times out of ten you will be accosted by someone on your way in. Last night there was a guy with a just a blanket shivering and asking for funds to everyone going in.

Now to those of you who live in big cities this will seem somewhat quant, but in Edmonton it seems like there's an extra layer of desperation as the homeless who came here seeking greener pastures in the summer realize that it gets really fucking cold here in the winter.

Whoppers: The Ultimate Weight Loss Candy

2006-12-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

If you ever get a craving for chocolate, but don't actually want to eat chocolate, do yourself a favour and buy a bag of Whoppers.

Whoppers always seem like a good idea at the time, but after you have about three of them, and taste the rather unappealing malted centres and wax like "chocolate" coating, you don't want to eat any more of them and don't really want chocolate anymore. Yet the next time you want chocolate the bag is still there, and just like a meal at Ho Hos you forget how much you disliked them the first time around.

Man I could really go for some HoHos.

Review: Final Fantasy XII

2006-12-05T13:57:00.000-08:00

Final Fantasy XII has been reviewed in numerous places (like here), so I'll just rifle off some points about the game that aren't covered everywhere else.

• The new battle system is really the same underlying engine as the old one, but with an entirely new system of how that engine interacts with the player. It really reminded me of Knights of the Old Republic, only that the Gambit system of assigning tasks to your characters (such as "heal if your ally has less than 50% health") gives you much more control over the proceedings.

• Although the different races you find in the game world have different basic temperaments, there is a great deal of variety in their presentations. For example the Banga race have characters as varied as an evil group of bounty hunters who chase you to the lovable merchant Migello. This is different from the basic "Vucan's are all logical" examples of races given in most games.

• The world is huge. This is partially because of the fact that most of the zones are designed in a relatively non-linear fashion, and partially because there's simply so much real estate to cover. Although the large zones are broken up into several smaller ones hurting the seemlessness of the world, (an area where, say, World of Warcraft or Dragon Quest VIII beat FF XII), that doesn't stop everything from feeling quite expansive.

• I like how the "hunts" are optional and nicely compliment the easier story missions. It simply makes the world feel more intricate since there is so much more to do in it. The hunts are pretty hard to do when you first get them (especially the elite hunts), but it adds a challenge to the game and you can just pass them by and come back later if it gets frustrating.

• I like the fact that the different classes of weapons do generally different things in different ways. Though it's sometimes hard to figure out what their actual damage-per-second is, as opposed to simply what their attack power is, it's nice that they give you different types of stuff for different characters with different stats needs. Not that you'd easily find out what the differences are between the weapon types in game.

• This is the first FF game that I can remember where the characters aren't all emo all the time. It was refreshing.

• The game is long. It took me twice as long to finish this one as to finish a regular FF game.

Overall FF XII feels like a game that has evolved with the breakthroughs in the genre in the last five years since FF X came out. You have to remember that in that time period two Elder Scrolls games, KOTOR, and Dragon Quest VIII have all come to consoles, notably altering what people expect from a console RPG. I'm glad that FF XII has followed the series tradition of always reinventing itself to remain relevant.

Failure most embarassing

2006-12-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

So do you remember how last month I said that I was going to compete in the NaNoWriMo? Yeah, well, about that. That didn't work out so well. Despite the fact that most people assume my failure was due to to the launch of Final Fantasy XII and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess this November, I personally attribute my failure to the freelance projects I took on this month. Not that they took up that much time, just that I when I was procrastinating about doing writing for the freelance project, I couldn't be doing other writing. It's a shame I didn't get further into it too, because the Edmonton WriMo community seems fairly active.

So, when the next unofficial NaNoWriMo happens in May, I'll be all over that.

Welcome to the new Elecric Dreamstate

2006-12-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

I've moved Electric Dreamstate to blogger beta, which is a much more versatile service. You can still find the old Electric Dreamstate archives at electricdreamstate.blogspot.com.