MK:A is a fascinating failure for how it tries to shoehorn in every element from the video game possible, on a budget gathered from recylced aluminum cans, and still maintain some semblance of a "plot." But far from being artistically ill-advised, the City Hunter scene is the anti-MK:A: it recognizes the game's shit…

I have a strong preference for practical effects. Look at something like John Carpenter's The Thing - the autopsy scene (or rather, what interrupts the autopsy) is still amazing after 30 years. It's stylized, but its physicality makes it so visceral, for lack of a better term 'real'.
Practical effects may become…

I never understood all the hate for Castlevania 64, either. I remember it as a fun, well-balanced 3D action game with, like you mentioned, gauge, great boss fights and some non-linear opportunities - different paths to take through the game, levels to play, and even bosses to fight, based on your decisions / skills.

He also helmed Hardball movie the now-largely-defunct Film Snobs site was obsessed with. Regrettably, the only remnants of their numerous reviews and commentaries on its commentaries is this meager page:

Transmorphers: Turn Off the Dark

My thoughts on Snyder are that he knows how to hire a good cinematographer and visual effects people to make compelling images, but danged if he knows how to use them to build and service compelling story (which is, of course, what the director's job is). As for Goyer - he's had has hand in some good projects over…

Whichever superhero movie Aronofsky directs, I shall see
As for the other project - perhaps the most iconic superhero of them all, with a script that's "a bit of a mess," and Zack Snyder is the one they hire to establish order in the thing? We may have the makings of a Fiasco, friends.

From the visionary director of Across the Universe comes… Sorcercy!
As much as I'd like a Julie Taymor-directed version of the Tempest in theory, the trailer seems designed to make the movie look like a Percy Jackson-grade Harry Potter knock-off.

I don't recall opting out of the CD of the month with BMG, though I do know at some point they stopped attempting to send them. The deal was you'd buy one CD and get 11 free. After that, you could watch the monthly 'deals' - occasionally, they'd have one where it would be something like "'buy one CD at 1/2 price, get…

I appreciate Steven's defense of this stuff that would be hipsterly-derided as mainstream as in fact being revelatory for many people. I also grew up in a small town, pretty far from any 'scene', and in those dark largely pre-Net days it certainly took a while for anything 'underground' to work its way there. When I…

I, too, believe all elements - text included - should be given care and attention. Where we may disagree is that I think the excesses of the movie Titus enhance the effect of the play (and, by extension, its text). Taymor took a gratuitously violent play and adapted it in an over-the-top and wanton way. The style was…

Supposedly, Myst as one of the things that made people want to buy PCs with CD drives in them, and though the reality is probably a lot more complicated, yada yada yada, it probably deserves credit for helping to popularize technology and move it forward.

@Pretentious. I didn't see your comment before I posted mine, though they make nice counterpoints. I agree that Luhrmen's Romeo and Juliet's biggest problem is its conspicuous soundtrack, the album for which the movie seems conceived as a commercial for.

I like my Shakespeare adaptations unconventional and, where appropriate, oozing blood and other bodily fluids. Julie Taymor may be a costume designer calling herself a director, but in the case of Titus, it translates to PURE OWNAGE. I love The Tempest, and am expecting enough ownage out of the movie to make it…

I watched and enjoyed the Hi Sally's on Death Proof, and multiple viewings of Inglorious Basterds helped me appreciate just how well-paced the movie is. For someone in the entertainment industry who I've mainly thought of at those two points, I'm fairly saddened by her death. She'll be missed.

Dr. No: http://www.youtube.com/watc…

Being There
http://www.youtube.com/watc…

Midwestern rural radio is mired in the past
We have great classic rock stations (which is good), though the contemporary pop stations are stuck circa 2000. The Millenium was a terrible time for pop, but a consolation is that I have been able to thoroughly avoid ambiently hearing songs like California Gurls, Tic Tock,…

From the one or two episodes of BBT I've seen, it struck me as pretty much an average, boring sitcom with a coat of nerd thrown on to distinguish it from every other standard sitcom. I think its broad popularity speaks to the willingness of society to embrace 'geeky' things - provided these things are immensely…

For some reason, about a year ago, after having played the thing at nearly every social get-together for the previous two, all my friends stopped playing Rock Band. Myself, I moved on to jamming more with non-plastic instruments. That being said, it was a great party game - enjoyable in ways that more 'game-like'…