September 29, 2003 10:19 AM

Why won't you go see Anything Else?

So I saw Woody Allen's latest movie, Anything Else, last night in an empty house. Just my two friends and I. No one else. And while I do appreciate having the ability to make remarks at the screen without having to worry about bothering the other patrons I've got to say you guys are missing out on a good movie here. I guess the 6-16 year olds I saw "The Rundown" with are truely the driving box office force. There may be no more room for subtile works such as this, however I do recall there being a ton of old people when I saw "Lost in Translation" last week. And I assure you, they were more confused than they normally are coming out of that one. So I guess the point is, as always, people are stupid.

b-ruce

September 28, 2003 11:08 AM

Back to the Future!

There is now a small flash intro available on Final Fantasy 12. And from the looks of things Square-Enix is taking us back to a more futuristic world, like that of FF 7 & FF 8. Personally I think this is a good idea since those two games are my favorites of the series. Visually it’s reminiscent of the Renaissance, but all those skyscrapers lead me to believe that we will see our share of robots and cars and whatnots.

Also, what kind of Chicagoan would I be if I didn’t mention how awesome the Cubs are? They clinched the Central division title yesterday by winning both games a in a double header. For the first time in 14 years the Cubs are division champs. Congrats and thanks to them. Now they have the unenviable task of playing the Atlanta Braves, who have the best record in baseball, in the first round of the playoffs. Go Cubbies.

b-ruce

September 26, 2003 8:52 PM

Dis and dat

Happy Friday, y’all. I caught a matinee show of “The Rundown” today (we were going for “Anything Else” but the 5 o’clock traffic in a heavy rainstorm made us a bit tardy) and I must tell you that with it I was well pleased. The Rock is turning out to be a fine movie star. I hope this does really well because both he and Sean William Scott (good in this, great in “American Wedding”) need to get a lot of those roles Hollywood is giving the loathsome Vin Diesel & Jack Black (ok, Vin’s not that bad but Jack Black is not funny people, how many broad, over-the-top performances do we really have to see from this guy before you get it straight?).

Back to the movie, only 3 negative things I wanted to bring up:

1. They stole that Brazil nut joke from The Simpsons, actually that’s not a bad thing but I would have liked to see some props given on that.

2. The pilot’s character is a blurry mess of ethic problems, he’s got an Irish accent, yet he plays the bagpipes with a kilt on (Scottish). Was that a joke of mass stereotyping? If so then it was terribly unpronounced.

3. This film feels too long, it’s only 90 minutes (which is the bear minimum for feature films) but certain scenes should have been edited out. If they were running short they should have just given Chris Walken another speech or two (you could tell he was having fun with this one and would have stolen the show ala Johnny Deep in “Once Upon a Time…” had they given him more face time – maybe the studio wouldn’t allow that since this is supposed to be a vehicle for The Rock.

I also wanted to tell you that I had finally reached the end of “Disgaea: Hour of Darkness” today. I really thought the game as a whole was great but was disappointed but an uncharacteristically somber conclusion. From what I can gather I received the “Normal” ending as apposed to the good or bad endings or any of the other 5 that the game offers. Learning that I would have to play the game from scratch was a bit disheartening, however after describing the game to John I must say that I really really like this game and so I’ll probably be starting my second run tonight. Which means I should have a review in a week or 2.

b-ruce

September 25, 2003 11:12 AM

Square-Enix to starving masses: “Let them eat movie”

Well, well, well looks like all of the rumors of a Final Fantasy 7 sequel weren’t that far off. IGN has reported a new straight to DVD movie entitled: “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children”

The reaction from the IGN Final fantasy Board is a bit mixed. Some people don’t care what format it’s in, they just want to know what else Square has in store for Cloud, Sephiroth and friends. Other folks, me included, are disappointed that it isn’t a game. As I posted on their board:

“…I feel hurt by this because it seems to somewhat legitimize claims by critics of the video game genre that say games are inferior to Movies. I don't believe that for a second and I would hope that S-E doesn't either.”

“It feels like a betrayal from the one company I used to point to as an example of the untapped potential in games and what great heights they've reached so far.”

“I hope this turns out to be a short movie, meant to be a teaser for the upcoming game.”

I guess all we can do at this point is wait for further news.

b-ruce

September 24, 2003 7:44 PM

How low can you go?

So now the Gamecube is now selling for a whopping $100.00. This news just hit the wire shortly after Atari declared they were pulling its moderately anticipated title “Driver 3” from the Cube. All year various game developers have been pulling their games from the Gamecube, probably because there are only 5 million Cubes out there, making prospective sales slim indeed, because you know not everyone with a Cube is going to buy every game out for it. I’ve also heard tell of rigid Nintendo policies that once made Squaresoft remove the word “Blood” in a game.

Reading the old gamers talk of the dark days before the original Nintendo saved the industry, I’ve often wondered how many systems the market can support. In my early gaming days it was all Nintendo and Sega, sure there were a couple of other home gaming platforms out there from time to time, like the Jaguar or the Neo-Geo, but Nintendo and Sega dominated the market. Then along came Sony and Nintendo has been on a nosedive ever since. Thinking back on those days I really wish it Nintendo crashed before the Cube saw the light of day and that the Dreamcast was still around to be the low-man on the platform totem pole. Perhaps in that alternate reality I would have been played a completed “Shenmue” series and Americans would still be humming the tune from that bizarre commercial for “Chu-chu rocket”.

*sigh*

b-ruce

September 21, 2003 1:09 PM

Lost in Translation and hard disks

I must apologize, dear readers, for my week of inactivity but you see I lost the use of my larger hard drive and have spent the last few days trying to recover. But I’m back to 80% capabilities now and look forward to a week full of unless posts.

I also must tell you that I saw the much talked about “Lost In Translation” yesterday. And while I must give this 3 out of 5 stars (which should be translated as a weak recommendation) I must also tell you that this is not another “Rushmore”, there are some very funny scenes but overall it moves very slowly and feels like a foreign film – on purpose I would guess. I also think it’s very reminiscent of the beautiful “In the Mood for Love”, but isn’t quite as good in my opinion.

b-ruce