Back!

Well, haven't been on in a while. I fell into this weird no-pop-culture hole. Anyway, roaring back with three movies in one day! Saw Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, and Shark Boy And Lava Girl.

Anyway, War of the Worlds first, since the other two are old news. I don't know what to say about this movie--first off, I really did not enjoy it. Not for the usual reasons, either: I really have nothing bad to say about the acting or effects. The ending really, really needed some work, but it's about 2 minutes long, so whatever.

I just found watching this film to be a harrowing experience. The characters, who are not astoundingly likeable, are hunted constantly, endlessly. The action is almost too intense, as their continued survival is pretty silly at times. Also, the machines have bad physics... their forcefields make grenades explode for some reason, and the forcefields just don't work later, for some reason.

The ending needed work... sure, it's classic. But, microbes were edgy back in the day, and not so much anymore. Remember how much the joke in Toy Story about Buzz Lightyear wanting to keep his helmet closed? Too bad the aliens here are too dumb. Actually, the re-telling here really hurts... now, instead of it being almost a whim when the aliens invade, it's been planned since before human civilization. Which makes it a thousand times stupider that they didn't keep their helmets on, because they've been on Earth before and somehow didn't notice all of the microbes.

At least before it seemed to be a first contact. Not, they're coming back, and they're still shocked by viruses. Waah waah wahhhhh.

You probably ought to see this movie. It's amazing and affecting and blah blah. Really, you should. It's harrowing, though.

Oscars of Adventure Gaming Announced

As you may or may not know, this weekend is the weekend of the Origins International Games Expo. This annual event kicks off the Summer Convention season for the Adventure, and recreational, Gaming industry in the United States. The convention is organized by the Game Manufacturers Association and highlights the best products of the past year and hints at the products in the upcoming year. In essence the Origins show is an event run by the Gaming industry for Gaming fans.

While shows like GenCon, the largest gaming convention in the United States, are the first place that most games are released to the public, the Origins show is where most games are advertised one month before the massive wave of releases.

More importantly, Origins is when the American Gaming industry rewards excellence in achievement for last year's crop of Gaming Products.

That is why I am happy to provide this year's list of winners, with commentary (if you don't want my comments, you can merely see the results and the full ballot here):

Origins Awards 2005 Winners
Congratulations to all the winners! Thanks to everyone who participated this year!

Best Play-By-Mail Game

Enlightened Age Entertainment
Fall of Rome

I don't have any knowledge of this game, but it does look quite interesting. I am not the hugest PBM fan, especially with the innovations of online gaming, but I am a fan of turn based strategy games and most PBM games are of this sort. In fact, the only PBM game I have ever played is Hyborian War. I will have to defer to the expertise of the jury on this one.

Best Historical Board Game
GMT Games LLC
Sword of Rome

It is not surprising that GMT games won this year's top Historical Boardgame Slot (my personal choice would have been Memoir '44) as GMT makes games of consistant quality play. Their Card Driven Games are quite enjoyable, and the company supports internet play by including Cyberboard support. So you don't need a nearby friend to play.

One of GMTs drawbacks is their reliance on traditional "counter" mechanisms in the gaming format. Modern gamers tend to like "pieces" rather than counters both due to visual and pragmatic reasons (counters are very easy to lose). But this drawback wouldn't be much of one if the cost of GMT games was kept down. Sadly, The Sword of Rome comes in at $65.00. Not a bargain, but the gameplay is innovative and enjoyable

Best Historical Miniatures Line
Brigade Games
WWI: Western Front 28 mm

These are nicely scultped pieces by Michael Owens and are useful both for diorama and miniatures wargaming use. My own gaming tends toward fantasy or "ancients", but these are a fine looking batch with broad applicability.

Best Historical Miniatures Game
Clash of Arms Games
Dawn of the Rising Sun:
The Russo Japanese War 1904-1905

No comment

Best Board Game
Days of Wonder
Ticket To Ride

This game won last year's prestigeous "Spiel des Jahres" in Germany and it would have been a shock if it didn't win the Origins award for best board game. Ticket to Ride and it's sequel Ticket to Ride: Europe are innovative an enjoyable games for the whole family. What is remarkable in both of them is their ability to create a game with sufficient strategic challenge which is also playable by the entire family. As the saying goes, "five minutes to learn...a lifetime to master." The simple mechanics and high end playing components make for an almost ideal gaming experience. Go and immediately add this to your board game closet. You will play it far more frequently than Monopoly. Though Betrayal at House on the Hill and War of the Ring are fantastic games, it is the combination of complexity and accessibility that make this stand out in my mind.

Best Miniatures Game
Ad Astra Games
Attack Vector: Tactical

Innovative and extraordinarily complex. I just don't know if it is fun yet. I only have a few friends with sufficiently advance mathematics capabilities to play this game with. See the word vector in the title? This uses vector movement, a realistic addition to be sure, but too realistic? Still it is good to see innovation win in these categories.

Best Miniature Line
Dark Sword Miniatures, Inc.
Elmore Dragons

Balderdash! This demonstrates pandering fanboy-ness beyond belief. It's not that these are bad miniatures, they most certainly are not, it is just that they don't compare to the Rackham stuff coming out of France. The Rackham miniatures are so beautiful that I am afraid to even attempt painting them.

Best Collectible Card Game
Z-Man Games, Inc.
Seven Masters Vs. The Underworld

This won more from a refusal to accept commerical success than anything else. I have been playing Shadowfist for a while and I do like the game, but I have to say that the "Vs." game system is hands down my favorite from the past year.

Best Traditional Card Game
Atlas Games
Cthulhu 500

This game is fun, but I really believe that Atlas' other major card game last year, Gloom, deserves the award. Gloom was innovative in two ways. First, card design. The translucent cards allow for card/effect stacking with great fluidity. Second, it is a game where you try to make your opponent live a less tragic life than your own. You want to suffer more and die horribly. Gloom could best be described as the card game most likely to become a Tim Burton film. Cthuhu 500, while fun, just didn't live up in my mind to Gloom. Tragically, Gloom wasn't even nominated.

Best Role Playing Game
Atlas Games
Ars Magica: 5th Edition

Great game, great company. One problem. No one plays this game.

Best Role Playing Game Supplement
Wizards of the Coast
Eberron Campaign Setting

Maybe the best "campaign setting" ever. I currently use this.

Best Fiction Publication
Guardians of Order
Path of the Bold

Umm...okay, whatever. I couldn't read past page 6. This was dull and trite fiction

Best Non Fiction Publication
Steve Jackson Games
Pyramid Magazine

Best Game Accessory
Steve Jackson Games
Cardboard Heroes Castles

Inexpensive and useful.

Vanguard Award
All Wound Up
Twilight Creations, Inc.

Intrigueing innovation to make a boardgame using wind-up toy zombies. On that alone they should get a prize. But the rules are ambiguous and the pieces have trouble staying erect.

Flames of War
Battlefront

Fire as She Bears! 2.1
Starboard Tack Press

Pirates of the Spanish Main
WizKids, Inc

Gamers’ Choice Award

Legends
Harlequin Games

Desert Rats – British in the Desert
Battlefront

Axis and Allies D-Day
Avalon Hill

A Call to Arms (Babylon 5)
Mongoose Publishing

VS System
Marvel Origins and X-Men VS The Brotherhood
The Upper Deck Entertainment

Cthulhu 500
Atlas Games

World of Darkness Storytelling System Rulebook
White Wolf

Betrayal at House on the Hill
Avalon Hill

I'll add more comments later.

Stop What Your are Doing Immediately!

And head on over to the King Kong Trailer. Like Kong, the trailer is huge and will take some time to download, but it is totally worth it.

I know, I know, you're saying, "But this is just the umpteenth remake, why should I watch this one?"

Good Question. Quick answer, Peter Jackson, and not because he directed Lord of the Rings, but because his has directed numerous exploitation films. Remember Meet the Feebles? You should. Dead Alive? Bad Taste? No?

Well get off your ass and stop watching that Mark Dornford-May (U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha ?)film you have been told you must see by your overly pretentious friends told you is a must see. After all Roland Emmerich, you know of Godzilla fame, was the jury president for the Berlin Film Festival, so Dornford-May's adaptation of Carmen can wait. (Anyone with any sense knows that King Kong beats Godzilla! Especially a giant iguana Godzilla!) And go to the video store to see these classics of true independant cinema.

Then come back and watch the Kong Trailer after which you can return to the intellectual story. But we do have to do things in the proper order now...dont' we?

Just Got Back From DC

Sorry that I haven't posted over the weekend, but work had me trapped in the nation's capitol. Thus I was unable to see my typical weekend movie dose. In fact, my review of Land of the Dead will have to wait until next week. So much for deadlines. At least the review will be in time for the DVD release.

On Thursday I promise to post about Herbie Fully Loaded and Bewitched both rehashes of longstanding franchises. I hope to like both, but don't expect to. We'll see.

In the meantime...

"Consider the relationship between Kant's Logic and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs..." Discuss amongst yourselves.

Prepare to go insane!

Quick, but important news today.

Fantasy Flight Games will be shipping their resurrection of the classic Arkham Horror boardgame in the next few weeks. As soon as I get it I will write a review.

Attack of the Memes

Okay, I have been tagged by David Scott with a meme he was given by LYT. The questions relate to Books and Movies, but David Scott's wife has extended the meme to include CDs as well. So I will answer all three memes, which will take way too much time.
So here goes.

Books

1. The total number of books:

Well over 2000. But before you rebuke my claim as a mere fiction, or collapse in awe of my academician bibliophilia, understand that at least 130 of these books contain the adventures of one Man of Bronze.

2. The last book I bought:

Did I mention that I don't buy books "one at a time?"

Who the Hell's in It : Portraits and Conversations by Peter Bogdanovich. This book is a great read. Just enough insight into each of the featured personalities to make you want more.

and

Dungeon Master's Guide II. I have been playing D&D since 1980 and will continue for the forseeable future.

and ironically enough:

The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby. This is essentially a book long version of this meme.

3. The last book I read:

The Press edited by Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Actually, I am only about half way through the book right now, but that is only because I was reading The Cube and the Cathedral by George Weigel at the same time. I have finished Cube so should be finished with Press soon.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me, in no particular order:

a) The Republic by Plato. No Socrates...No Philosophy. No Republic...No Public Opinion, No Lord of the Rings (or at least the Ring of Geiges parts). Besides without this book, my bookshelves would be a bit more empty.

b) A Princess of Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs made me want to read. If I never read this book, I would probably been a garbage man today.

c) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This is the book that helped me transition from "escapist" reading to "literature."

d) The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Sword of Shannara is just a retelling of Lord of the Rings with the "innovation" that evil, as external power, is an illusion, but Elfstones is a pretty innovative novel which took me for quite a ride as a young reader.

e) Lost in Place by Mark Salzman. While Mark's personal choices were different from my own, this memoir of his youth really touched me and helped me to understand myself a little better. Salzman is about a decade older than me, about the age of my friend Sean's older brothers, and the way he represents himself combined my image of myself and how I understood my friend's brothers to be. It was as if Salzman was writing a "what if", I had been a part of the "experimental" part of Gen X rather than the "pop cultural" part. Interestingly, many of the events I would have experienced were the same.

Honorable Mentions: The list would be too numerous, which is why these things are ridiculous. But the list would include Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Micheal Moorcock, Lord Dunsany, Robert Herbert, St. Augustine, Cicero, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Lester Dent, Robert E. Howard, Howard Philips Lovecraft, Manly Wade Wellman, Clark Ashton Smith...

Movies

1. The total number of Movies I own:

Well over 500, but that is just a guess. I own a lot of DVDs and still have some VHS hiding around the apartment as well.

2. The last movie I bought:

Boogeyman: I liked it in the theater and I still do.

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. The soundtrack features acoustic cover versions of Bowie tunes from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and in Portuguese no less. Wow!

3. The last movie I saw:

Cromwell
Mr. and Mrs. Smith The Pitt/Jolie.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith The Hitchcock. No murder, no mystery, but plenty of suspense. If you consider romantic tension to be suspense. This Hitch romantic comedy displays Hitchcock ability to create wonderful human realationships at its best. You can see similar relations in Lady Vanishes and Stage Fright.
High Tension Picture Identity meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre and that's the vibe.

4. Five movies that mean a lot to me, in no particular order:

a) A Clockwork Orange This film made me re-evaluate everything I had ever thought. It is so shocking, not in the way you are thinking, and radical.

b) Ride the High Country Maybe, just maybe the greatest Western ever made. This film captures all the tropes and makes a truly realistic Western and shadows of Peckinpah's anger (which is best seen in Straw Dogs and The Wild Bunch) are everywhere. But Ride focuses on what it takes to become a hero in a lawless land, and it takes a great deal. Other great Westerns include, Red River, The Searchers, and Rio Bravo. In fact, a list of great westerns with reasons for their greatness could easily fill a small encyclopedia set.

c) Gallipoli. The first Australian "new wave" film I had ever seen. It was one of my grandfather's favorite war movies and he took me to see it in the theater. Peter Weir captures the horrors of war at the same time that he captures the hopeful spirit of the young man.

d) Five Million Years to Earth. Seeing this Hammer Production led me to two of my great entertainment loves, Dr. Who and the Cushing/Lee horror films. Lee will always be Count Dracula to me and not Count Dooku. He is the lord of the undead dammit!

e) Singin' in the Rain This film made me love musicals and Gene Kelly. It is a celebration of what films were once, were at the time of the film, and what they would become in the future. Stanley Donen directed this masterpiece, as well as one of my favorite Cary Grant films...Charade.

Honorable Mentions: Stagecoach, The Quiet Man, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Star Wars, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Excalibur, Ladyhawke, Blade Runner, Tron, Ace in the Hole, Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon, Swingers, The Breakfast Club, She's Having a Baby, The Lost Boys, Disney's Tarzan, Akira, Kill Bill vol. 1, Five Deadly Venoms, Hard Boiled, Zu: Warriors of Magic Mountain, Big Trouble in Little China, Elmer Gantry, The Music Man, The Blob, The Thing, Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, The Howling, Superman, The Wrong Man, The Hidden, Scanners, The Hills Have Eyes, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Permanent Midnight, Father Goose, An Affair to Remember, The Three Musketeers (w/Gene Kelly), Yankee Doodle Dandy, How Green Was My Valley, On the Waterfront, Barry Gordie's The Last Dragon...

CDs

1. The total number of CDs I own:

200+ and a 20 Gig Hard Drive of mp3s.

2. The last CD I bought:

Better Than Ezra: Before the Robots

T Rex: Electric Warrior

3. The last CD I listened too:

Toad the Wet Sprocket: Dulcinea

4. Five CDs that mean a lot to me, in no particular order:

a) Prince: Purple Rain

b) The Cure: Three Imaginary Boys. My friend Ron and I would listen to "Fire in Cairo" as we drove through Reno. We would sing along as Robert Smith belted "F-I-R-E-I-N-C-A-I-R-O" with our best "worst" English accents. After my friend Ron shot himself in the heart in the Spring of 1999, this song helped me focus on the happy times we had together rather than on the big "why" question.

c) Hotel California

d) Metallica: Ride the Lightning

e) Peter Gabriel

Yes!

From the unlinkable IMDB news...

Skywalker As The Joker? It's No Joke


Original Star Wars star Mark Hamill has joined the shortlist of favorites to play The Joker in the Batman Begins sequel. The actor, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, has become a fan favorite to play Batman's colorful foe. He joins Crispin Glover and Aussie actor Lachy Hulme on the three-strong internet shortlist. Hamill became an obvious choice for some Batman fans after voicing The Joker for the Batman cartoon series. A spokesman for top Batman website Darkhorizons.Com points out, "The net basically picked Christian Bale to play Batman, so who knows." Batman Begins opens across America and Europe this week.

Yes! Mark Hammil deserves another chance... it's been 20 years! Besides, he was an awesome Joker in the Animated Series. He's a talented guy... don't make him Luke Skywalker until he finally passes on.