I enjoyed Tropic Thunder very much. And the film community has been a little split on the merits of the film. Either way a lot has been said about Tom Cruises performance. Everyone can some what agree that he was very funny in the film and I agree with that myself. However I keep hearing that this performance could possible save his career that has been spiraling downwards.
Honestly I like a lot of Tom Cruise films, I think he's a lot of fun to what on film. I didn't really enjoy MI:3 but Minority Report and War of the Worlds were a lot of fun. His career has been going downwards not because of the quality of his films but because of his belief in his religion Scientology. The arguement against Scientology is another article but due to his involvement with that religion he has been forcing it onto other people and personally attacking everyone that disagreed with him.
When you go around calling everyone an idiot and that they should convert to your way of thinking its going to rub people the wrong way. No one really wants to work with him, he literally got fired from an entire studio and is only making films out of the studio that he owns. Not to mention he is firing people that has worked for him for decades.
Public opinion is not being kind to Tom Cruise and with what he stands for and represents I am not kind to him either. Right now he is standing for everything I disagree with in our society. But does this film save him. No way in hell. He has a lot more to prove, Tropic Thunder is only a stepping stone showing everyone that he doesn't take himself to seriously. Right now Tom Cruise is a dick and needs to grow up. All Tropic Thunder has done is show us that maybe he's trying to redeem himself. Time will only tell.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Monty Python: Films vs TV
For years I've watched the television series and the films produced by the British comedy troop Monty Python. And most fans of them enjoy the series just as much as the films but I seem to be on a different side. I'm not a fan of the series but I enjoy the films. Maybe because of the eradicate nature of the series, jumping from one skit to the next without any cohesiveness. I have the same complaints about SNL and MadTV which are very much the same in concept.
However when it comes to the Monty Python films I'm laughing my ass off. Of course there is The Holy Grail but its The Meaning of Life that I find even more relevant to this argument. Like the TV series The Meaning of Life is nothing more than a series of skits looking closely at some of lives important moments and general experiences that we all share.
Naturally one can say that I like the films more based primarily on the fact that the films follow a story or theme that I can easily latch onto. This is probable true but I think it runs deeper than that. For me it seems that the films are much more reflective on human theme's and concepts. They just aren't tied together by a plot line but by what they are trying to say. This is why I've mentioned The Meaning of Life. Throughout the film Monty Python points out the ridiculousness of religion, childbirth, obesity, corporations, the military, and just basic human concepts like happiness, self righteousness, and sex. And all of this is bound together by a simple question, "What is the meaning of Life?"
And essentially they do answer that question unlike most media that simply brushes over it as a great unknown that doesn't matter in the end. But the film states that it does matter in its closing minutes by stating exactly what the meaning of life is.
"Well that was the film, and now here is the meaning of life. Well its nothing very special. Try and be nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book every now and then. Get some walking in. And try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations."
Really I don't know a better response to the question, "What is the meaning of life?"
However when it comes to the Monty Python films I'm laughing my ass off. Of course there is The Holy Grail but its The Meaning of Life that I find even more relevant to this argument. Like the TV series The Meaning of Life is nothing more than a series of skits looking closely at some of lives important moments and general experiences that we all share.
Naturally one can say that I like the films more based primarily on the fact that the films follow a story or theme that I can easily latch onto. This is probable true but I think it runs deeper than that. For me it seems that the films are much more reflective on human theme's and concepts. They just aren't tied together by a plot line but by what they are trying to say. This is why I've mentioned The Meaning of Life. Throughout the film Monty Python points out the ridiculousness of religion, childbirth, obesity, corporations, the military, and just basic human concepts like happiness, self righteousness, and sex. And all of this is bound together by a simple question, "What is the meaning of Life?"
And essentially they do answer that question unlike most media that simply brushes over it as a great unknown that doesn't matter in the end. But the film states that it does matter in its closing minutes by stating exactly what the meaning of life is.
"Well that was the film, and now here is the meaning of life. Well its nothing very special. Try and be nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book every now and then. Get some walking in. And try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations."
Really I don't know a better response to the question, "What is the meaning of life?"
Monday, August 25, 2008
Hangin' Out
The first three posts here are from my blog on Destructoid and I just copy and pasted them here. I'll eventually get to posting other things that aren't just videogame related. More later.
Wii will ruin everything!!
"Wii will change everything."
This was the motto of nintendo when they released the name of their new console. The Wii blew onto the scene with a mix of cheers and boo's. Some hated the name and other praised it for being a "Revolution."
I have to admit when I first heard of Nintendo's little box I was skeptical. Mainly because I didn't think Nintendo was in its right mind when they came up with the name of their new console. But I kept my feelings in check. I've always loved Nintendo, they were the ones that gave me some the first games I ever played on the NES. But still I'm one of those people that sits back and waits for the right moment to make a major purchase. I didn't bother getting a 360 until Dead Rising came out and my PS2 was purchased mainly because I wanted to watch the Matrix on dvd.
However Nintendo has dropped the ball again. The Wii has become a sess pool of bad games. It seems that only Nintendo is allowed to make good games for the system and they'll do that whenever the fuck they feel like it. And that's the thing, they don't even need to make games for the Wii anymore. You can't find the damn things on shelves, middle aged mothers everywhere are buying them faster then they can be made. But why? Because there looking for a great gaming platform? Because they want to bring the family together? Or because little Timmy won't stop screaming until he gets a Wiimote in his hands and practices jacking off to High School Musical 3: The Game?
Now I'm not against casual gaming, hell anyone that has played solitare on their computer could be considered as a casual gamer. I'm all for more people playing games, I think it unifies us and takes away this negative stigma towards gaming that's been creeping around in the minds of these ill informed parents. But at least make these games good and appealing. Boom Blox is one of the few games that can achieve this. The rest of the crap is non sensical waggling that doesn't promote good gaming.
What's worse is that Nintendo doesn't care. They couldn't give a shit because they are making money which is the only thing that matters. Once upon a time I believed Nintendo did care back in the NES, SNES, N64, and even the GameCube days but they don't anymore. Now they have opened the doors for Microsoft and Sony to follow suit in producing crap video games and selling them to a target demograph that doesn't know any better.
Right now it isn't that bad but it is going to get worse unless something drastic happens. And personally I think that drastic action will happen with the next gen of consoles. What they will be I don't know. What games they will have is anyone's guess. But the matter of the fact is that everyone will be marketing to this uneducated demograph resulting is bad games, destroying the gaming world as we know it. The hardcore gamer is now the minority we no longer matter.
read more
This was the motto of nintendo when they released the name of their new console. The Wii blew onto the scene with a mix of cheers and boo's. Some hated the name and other praised it for being a "Revolution."
I have to admit when I first heard of Nintendo's little box I was skeptical. Mainly because I didn't think Nintendo was in its right mind when they came up with the name of their new console. But I kept my feelings in check. I've always loved Nintendo, they were the ones that gave me some the first games I ever played on the NES. But still I'm one of those people that sits back and waits for the right moment to make a major purchase. I didn't bother getting a 360 until Dead Rising came out and my PS2 was purchased mainly because I wanted to watch the Matrix on dvd.
However Nintendo has dropped the ball again. The Wii has become a sess pool of bad games. It seems that only Nintendo is allowed to make good games for the system and they'll do that whenever the fuck they feel like it. And that's the thing, they don't even need to make games for the Wii anymore. You can't find the damn things on shelves, middle aged mothers everywhere are buying them faster then they can be made. But why? Because there looking for a great gaming platform? Because they want to bring the family together? Or because little Timmy won't stop screaming until he gets a Wiimote in his hands and practices jacking off to High School Musical 3: The Game?
Now I'm not against casual gaming, hell anyone that has played solitare on their computer could be considered as a casual gamer. I'm all for more people playing games, I think it unifies us and takes away this negative stigma towards gaming that's been creeping around in the minds of these ill informed parents. But at least make these games good and appealing. Boom Blox is one of the few games that can achieve this. The rest of the crap is non sensical waggling that doesn't promote good gaming.
What's worse is that Nintendo doesn't care. They couldn't give a shit because they are making money which is the only thing that matters. Once upon a time I believed Nintendo did care back in the NES, SNES, N64, and even the GameCube days but they don't anymore. Now they have opened the doors for Microsoft and Sony to follow suit in producing crap video games and selling them to a target demograph that doesn't know any better.
Right now it isn't that bad but it is going to get worse unless something drastic happens. And personally I think that drastic action will happen with the next gen of consoles. What they will be I don't know. What games they will have is anyone's guess. But the matter of the fact is that everyone will be marketing to this uneducated demograph resulting is bad games, destroying the gaming world as we know it. The hardcore gamer is now the minority we no longer matter.
read more
The Space Between Era's
Right now the shift to digital media's is very apparent. Movie's are being shot with digital camera's. Your fav TV shows can now be seen anywhere on the internets. Even comic's can be found online with the most recent example being the digital version of the Watchmen on itunes. And as we all know the shift of hard copy video games to digital distribution.
One shift that is occurring right now is video game journalism. As a kid and throughout my life EGM has always been my main source of information of the gaming world. I'm sure I'm not alone when their issue with FF7 on the cover will be a day we won't soon forget. Each month I would pick up their thick, funny, informative issue with a lot of anticipation.
Even when I started checking my news on the sites like this I still enjoyed my monthly issue of extra insight and always got a good laugh from their captions on screenshots, Seanbaby's articles, the Hsu and Chan comic, and the ingeniously written reader response section. However things have changed and not for the better.
The first sign of EGM's downfall was the redesign of the the magazine. Don't get me wrong the redesign was needed but it always gave me a suspicious feeling. Then Ziff Davis, the publishing company in charge of EGM, declared bankruptcy which nearly confirmed my suspicions. That event I believe started a avalanche of events, first being the resignation of the backbone of EGM Dan Shoe. But it was the most recent issue that I have decided to cancel my subscription of this once great magazine. Not only was the issue extremely light on content that really said anything but there are only seven reviews with only one reviewer attached four of those reviews. Ontop of that the Hsu and Chan comic just issued its last comic, even though the comic hasn't been funny for quite some time it was still a reminder that EGM is still EGM. Not to mention two page interview with Itagaki that had no relevance on anything.
Now what does that mean "still EGM?" By all accounts EGM is the only magazine out there that can even be taken seriously. GameInformer to me is a sell out mag that will take bribes for high reviews. And any magazine that has a major company in its title is a biased report to begin with. I'm not going to believe anything Nintendo Power or Playstation magazine or OXM have to say. EGM has always been the staple of what game journalism should be. You may disagree with them but you can't say they pull their punches. EGM has always been unbiased in my opinion and ask the hard questions to people who think their just doing a fluff piece.
I'm just sad that I'm seeing a magazine that always held up a standard for everyone else being slowly and quietly whittled away to nothing. I know most of that team are a part of the 1up network and that's all good and fine, but the symbol that was EGM is disappearing and when its gone it will be the passing of an era in video gaming.
One shift that is occurring right now is video game journalism. As a kid and throughout my life EGM has always been my main source of information of the gaming world. I'm sure I'm not alone when their issue with FF7 on the cover will be a day we won't soon forget. Each month I would pick up their thick, funny, informative issue with a lot of anticipation.
Even when I started checking my news on the sites like this I still enjoyed my monthly issue of extra insight and always got a good laugh from their captions on screenshots, Seanbaby's articles, the Hsu and Chan comic, and the ingeniously written reader response section. However things have changed and not for the better.
The first sign of EGM's downfall was the redesign of the the magazine. Don't get me wrong the redesign was needed but it always gave me a suspicious feeling. Then Ziff Davis, the publishing company in charge of EGM, declared bankruptcy which nearly confirmed my suspicions. That event I believe started a avalanche of events, first being the resignation of the backbone of EGM Dan Shoe. But it was the most recent issue that I have decided to cancel my subscription of this once great magazine. Not only was the issue extremely light on content that really said anything but there are only seven reviews with only one reviewer attached four of those reviews. Ontop of that the Hsu and Chan comic just issued its last comic, even though the comic hasn't been funny for quite some time it was still a reminder that EGM is still EGM. Not to mention two page interview with Itagaki that had no relevance on anything.
Now what does that mean "still EGM?" By all accounts EGM is the only magazine out there that can even be taken seriously. GameInformer to me is a sell out mag that will take bribes for high reviews. And any magazine that has a major company in its title is a biased report to begin with. I'm not going to believe anything Nintendo Power or Playstation magazine or OXM have to say. EGM has always been the staple of what game journalism should be. You may disagree with them but you can't say they pull their punches. EGM has always been unbiased in my opinion and ask the hard questions to people who think their just doing a fluff piece.
I'm just sad that I'm seeing a magazine that always held up a standard for everyone else being slowly and quietly whittled away to nothing. I know most of that team are a part of the 1up network and that's all good and fine, but the symbol that was EGM is disappearing and when its gone it will be the passing of an era in video gaming.
The Dark Knight Videogame: Necassary?
Let's face it we're all nerds and all of us have seen the Dark Knight in movie theatre's about three times now. But has anybody really been saying, "Hey! Where's the video game for this? "
To my knowlegde there has been no nerd outcry for the video game version of this film. And as we all know most of the time they aren't very good. Batman Begins was a great batman film and a game was included in the marketing package at the time but the game was panned over as bad just as most game tie ins are. Do I need to mention Enter the Matrix?
Just today I was passing over a ton of articles and came across this one on Yahoo Movies asking were the game tie in for the Dark Knight was. Evidently they could have made even more money, around 100 million, in addition to a record breaking millions that the Dark Knight has already made.
At this point I'm sure that the studio is scrambling to get a game out since the film surpassed all expectations of how much money they would make. But my point is that we don't need movie/game tie ins for every major release. Lego Batman I'm sure will do well but the movie doesn't benefit from it and the game has nearly nothing in common with its darker brother.
In the end movie's should be made with the idea that a audience member will sit down and enjoy a movie. It's not a commercial for someone to go out and purchase the game. The same goes for games, they should be made for someone to enjoy with a controller in hand and not be a commercial. If you're going to make a game do so for the sake of the game and not for taking away more money from some poor mothers pocket book because its only these twelve and younger kids that are buying these games to begin with.
read more
To my knowlegde there has been no nerd outcry for the video game version of this film. And as we all know most of the time they aren't very good. Batman Begins was a great batman film and a game was included in the marketing package at the time but the game was panned over as bad just as most game tie ins are. Do I need to mention Enter the Matrix?
Just today I was passing over a ton of articles and came across this one on Yahoo Movies asking were the game tie in for the Dark Knight was. Evidently they could have made even more money, around 100 million, in addition to a record breaking millions that the Dark Knight has already made.
At this point I'm sure that the studio is scrambling to get a game out since the film surpassed all expectations of how much money they would make. But my point is that we don't need movie/game tie ins for every major release. Lego Batman I'm sure will do well but the movie doesn't benefit from it and the game has nearly nothing in common with its darker brother.
In the end movie's should be made with the idea that a audience member will sit down and enjoy a movie. It's not a commercial for someone to go out and purchase the game. The same goes for games, they should be made for someone to enjoy with a controller in hand and not be a commercial. If you're going to make a game do so for the sake of the game and not for taking away more money from some poor mothers pocket book because its only these twelve and younger kids that are buying these games to begin with.
read more
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