tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117797632011-04-21T12:45:40.080-05:00Welcome to Casa de Skim. I'm your host Mitch so let's play our game. This blog is devoted to the personal musings of a film and video game critic, writer, and dad. Any and all comments about people alive, dead, or somewhere in between is purely intentional.Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.comBlogger2621100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-29421738189279249872008-12-23T13:57:00.002-06:002008-12-23T14:00:25.599-06:00

In a move that has been too long in coming, I have transferred Casa de Skim over to a new URL. The new address is NowPlayingAt.Blogspot.Com. Or http://nowplayingat.blogspot.com. All posts have already been moved and everything is good to go. The short of why I moved is on account of how this blog was set up, which gave me limited control. Also, the name I liked but was not conducive to anyone

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-90365118334244196912008-12-16T13:01:00.000-06:002008-12-16T13:02:01.358-06:00

I have my stomach! I was sound asleep this morning. Dead quiet throughout the house. All of a sudden I hear this:Brrrrrrrp. Mmmmmmrrrrppppp. Repeat.I snap awake. Angry. I roll over. That only muffled it slightly. Whatever else, my stomach was running on empty and apparently felt it was its solemn duty to inform me of its displeasure.At 5:50 a.m.I get up and scarf down a piece of bread. Lay back

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-28320872111444819182008-12-12T15:37:00.001-06:002008-12-12T15:37:59.043-06:00

One thing I love about my office is the abundance of sweets that find their ways into our hands. Someone is always bringing cake or cookies up here and it rules on a number of levels. However, a co-worker offered me some cake recently and I had to decline.“What’s in it?” I non-chalantly asked.“Oh the good stuff. Vanilla, and raspberry, and…”I cut her off with a stern head shake.“Nope, can’t do it

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-13191828270771489062008-12-09T09:20:00.000-06:002008-12-09T09:21:53.331-06:00

Max 0.05 entered our world on 11/20/08 and our lives remain uprooted. But in a good way. Sorta. Right from the start, evidence surfaced of him one day evolving into a clone of Yours Truly. This is both a good and bad thing. The good thing is I feel I’m a pretty level headed individual who could have been better were I less shy and more self confident when I was younger.The bad is I was a holy

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-60338012067224224152008-12-09T09:13:00.000-06:002008-12-09T09:15:06.139-06:00

A co-worker observed in the lunch room the other day that I got a haircut.“No,” I replied, “I got a lot cut.”“Well, it looks really good.”“Thank you. I just wish they got the white ones too.”I recently found three white hairs on my head. These were not gray, or pseudo-white. These were Anderson Cooper white.“Why don’t you just pluck them?” my co-worker asked.“Are you crazy? They plan for this.

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-56193364608282764062008-11-26T09:38:00.002-06:002008-11-26T10:19:49.510-06:00

I feel like I’ve aged 5 years from the last week.We checked My Fair Lady into the hospital Tuesday night and she began the fluids necessary to initiate induction. The induction proper commenced at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. When no progress had been made by noon, Doc burst the bag of waters (yes, with an ‘s’) and out flowed enough water to render My Fair Lady a tributary.“Oh wow, we’ve got a

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-38828122263526595642008-11-25T13:28:00.003-06:002008-11-25T13:40:52.230-06:00

I've written up a much longer post than this but it's on a flash drive at the house so I'll have to post it later. But for the world of the internets, I now have a son named Max 0.1 and he's an absolute doll. Sort of like a Chatty Cathy only everytime you pull the string it screams bloody murder at you.For the most part, he's pretty laid back considering he's only five days old at this point.

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-77685693005275907652008-11-05T21:45:00.000-06:002008-11-05T21:49:45.362-06:00

Note: This tale is from April, 2008. Enjoy.This weekend, My Fair Lady and I drank from The Keg of Glory. Waaaaaay back in 2002, a race of sorts popped up in Dallas. It was called the "Urban Challenge" and it was a scavenger hunt of sorts. The point was to start the race with a set of clues which you would need to decipher in order to find certain locations scattered across the city. Only public

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-60623654708431232602008-09-17T20:14:00.001-05:002008-09-17T20:49:47.163-05:00

I’m nearing completion on my feature (the first draft going out for review, any way) and I thought it might be time to do a quick run down of what exactly has transpired to bring it to this point. My Fair Lady has a tendency to underestimate the massive amount of work that goes into a feature screenplay, and my parents (good natured though they are) remain baffled that someone, let alone their

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-3871928250464435492008-08-25T19:03:00.001-05:002008-08-25T19:05:31.740-05:00

The Times They Are A Changin’ Come Nov.My Fair Lady and I purchased our first house last July and closed mid-Sept. Right around one year later, we finally have improved it enough to where we’re satisfied with it. That’s not to say we didn’t like it to begin with. One thing everyone says who sets foot in the house is a variation on this sentence: “Wow, you’re place is so homey!”It’s even more so

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-22897185805498169982008-08-19T20:12:00.000-05:002008-08-19T20:12:58.380-05:00

I find it amazing when a film is heralded as one of the best of "Insert Year Here" yet it succeeds only in repeating a previous film from the writer. In this case, writer-director Stephen Gaghan ripped himself off by retooling his script for "Traffic" and replaced the international drug trade with the international oil trade. Change the character names and he was good to go.Overall, "Syriana"

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-22013833649528847522008-08-11T21:24:00.004-05:002008-08-11T22:07:51.091-05:00

Holy crap.Talk about time flying and so forth once you get busy. It helps when your personal life spirals damn near out of control and by that I mean it totally consumes you. So let's hit a few highlights before moving on, shall we?1) Last year I left my job on account of not getting paid for the three months prior. That would be too many pay periods by far, for those keeping score at home. A

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-35400546609093094282008-02-05T23:12:00.000-06:002008-02-05T23:23:59.412-06:00

Look at that. Not a single post in close to a month. At some point I honestly may stop trying to convince myself that I'll post with anything resembling frequency but until that day I'll do what I can to remember I have a blog in the first place. I'm working on what can only be described as life-changing work at the moment, hence my temporary departure from the land of the living. It may not seem

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-89665408398914989462008-01-09T10:09:00.000-06:002008-01-09T10:11:36.518-06:00

You know you're behind on your reviews when you have to pull up your Netflix queue history just to remind yourself of everything you watched in the last month. Plenty of reviews are coming over the next few weeks along with a some more stories and possible change of Blog title. "Casa de Skim" struck me as an amusing personal joke but not one any body outside of me is likely to find funny. As such

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-78877023783249595392008-01-09T10:03:00.004-06:002008-01-09T10:05:11.644-06:00

My Fair Lady queued "The Talented Mr. Ripley" this weekend and decided to watch it yesterday. She made it a grand total of 13 minutes in before declaring, "This is stupid!" That beats my record of making it 25 minutes into the film before deciding it was awful.Yet for some inexplicable reason both my mom and Diva enjoyed it. Go figure.

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-2215409295299494072008-01-09T09:54:00.001-06:002008-01-09T09:54:57.883-06:00

Why not start off the New Year with a video that's just hilarious. And I mean that in the strangest possible way.

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-41143315588914929122007-12-14T15:31:00.000-06:002007-12-14T15:43:48.321-06:00

"The pain train's coming for you! Woo-woo! Woo-woo!"Whoever came up with this ad campaign at Reebok is hopefully running the company now because it was nine kinds of genius. Terry Tate - Office Linebacker is iconic and the ads are so blasted funny it is physically impossible to keep a straight face through any of them. Each spot has is packed with quotable lines so picking one or two favorites is

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-62344772049546919232007-12-14T09:12:00.000-06:002007-12-14T09:13:21.431-06:00

Harrison Ford, why hast thou forsaken me?This is Indiana Jones, Han Solo, and John Book. Anyone that grew up in the 1980s idolized him, yet his last genuine hit was the over-amped Air Force One 10 years ago (and I’m not counting the awful What Lies Beneath because that film, like this one, sucked). Instead of using his 30 years worth of clout to only work with the best, he apparently doesn’t care

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-18822325650979239752007-12-13T09:45:00.000-06:002007-12-13T09:44:33.559-06:00

"Petey... Carol... Petey... Carol..."Albert Brooks walks a fine line for me. Sometimes he’s funny while others he comes off as annoying. I think it depends on how likable he is in his films. Witness Finding Nemo or Defending Your Life where his schtick works because the characters are genuinely heartfelt, sweet characters who try their best but are held back by their personal fears.I bring up

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-10852326360600516712007-12-12T08:55:00.000-06:002007-12-12T08:55:58.877-06:00

“Sometimes you have to go through something to find out why you did it.”“If you know anything about Kiefer, organization is not his middle name.”I Trust You To Kill Me is a brilliant documentary about what happens when you take a well-known actor and make him the road manager of a band on the verge of success during a two-week road trip across Europe around Christmas. Throw in a metric ton of

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-8331184923060832812007-12-11T11:38:00.000-06:002007-12-11T11:39:01.941-06:00

Danny Boyle knows how to direct a thriller, no doubt about it. His introductory film, Shallow Grave, remains the single most malevolent film I’ve ever seen. There’s no other way I can think of to describe it, not even as a descent into madness. Boyle knows how to build tension and wring ever last drop of sweat out of his audience but far too frequently he’s undone by those very same talents.As

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1773538017025372452007-12-10T14:07:00.000-06:002007-12-10T14:07:30.270-06:00

After watching this documentary two things are abundantly clear to me. The first is that MPAA former honcho Jack Valenti was an absolutely brilliant politician and the second is that Kirby Dick is my new hero.Dick set out to make a documentary on the MPAA which is considered a very shadowy organization, an obvious irony very much at the forefront of this documentary. Every film maker has to

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-33107877600037241092007-12-06T09:43:00.000-06:002007-12-06T09:45:51.855-06:00

Martin Scorsese recently directed a wine ad. Of course, it being Martin Scorsese he didn't just shoot a 30 or 60-second spot. Oh no. He has an entire story devoted to it and the brilliance is a testament to both him and to Alfred Hitchcock. You'll know why the second you start watching the video which is mandatory viewing for film lovers.Check it out right here.Also, the music that kicks in

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-80969264206202823142007-11-30T09:10:00.000-06:002007-11-30T09:11:09.733-06:00

I must not be the obsessive fan boy that others in the Internet-based film geek community are (which would explain my disdain for "Serenity") because I watched this with the understanding that it was a kick ass monster film.Instead, it’s a flat, slow, over-the-top monster film with bursts of greatness followed by loooong stretches of boring. I won’t argue that the film does itself a great service

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-88153617638830183152007-11-30T09:05:00.000-06:002007-11-30T09:09:49.541-06:00

"Oh God! Are we being audited?"I never watched Bernie Mac’s show when it was on but he seldom fails to make me laugh. He seems to specialize in the get in and get out style of cameo, which is perfect. Here he carries the film, which is no mean feat considering the weight includes the lifeless Ashton Kutcher.I have yet to understand who in Hollywood decided he was A-list material because his utter

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-21466199170602973652007-11-29T11:00:00.000-06:002007-11-29T11:01:40.259-06:00

This is the monster that cost me a month of my time.You wouldn’t think it would take so long to watch 17 one-hour episodes of anything but it did. I almost didn’t make it though and I’ll tell you why in a second. But for now, let us get on to what has been heralded as one of the most important shows to ever hit the television medium. Prior to actually sitting down and watching it, "The Prisoner"

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-36098035005572667352007-11-27T09:15:00.000-06:002007-11-27T09:14:59.676-06:00

I shouldn’t even post this but I’ll go ahead and explain what happened when I sat down to watch Unscripted. This is a series Steven Soderburg and George Clooney came up with that focuses on three actors all struggling in Hollywood trying to make names for themselves. It’s a series based on a mixture of real-life and scripted events but the majority of it is improv.Considering the powers behind

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-53138708786640023192007-11-27T09:10:00.000-06:002007-11-27T09:14:05.923-06:00

This little crime flick from Hong Kong surprised the heck out of me. For one thing, the entire opening shot and resultant action sequence are stunning. For another, the way the film unspools kept me guessing. While I think the lead cop, played by the director, was a little short on character development, the cast was uniformly excellent. I dug the camaraderie and banter between the two gangs, the

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-61523885015169214702007-11-26T08:47:00.000-06:002007-11-26T08:47:29.205-06:00

I don’t think it’s unfair to compare all subsequent Chinese fantasy films to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon considering how massive an impact it had on the genre. Basically everything afterwards is a variation on a love triangle in ancient China followed by tons of wire-fu all set against gorgeous backdrops while a haunting score plays.Actually, that pretty much sums up every epic film made

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-64215253583677369762007-11-26T08:45:00.000-06:002007-11-26T08:46:47.718-06:00

I had this sitting on my desk about two years ago and never got around to watching it. So I threw it into the Netflix queue again and when it showed up this time I decided to plow through it.I’m glad I did because there’s some genuinely funny material in the script. This was one of the early films in Robert Zemeckis’ career (before he went all digital all the time) but even considering that it’s

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-5478361360464148862007-11-21T09:05:00.000-06:002007-11-21T09:06:14.064-06:00

The upcoming remake starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe caused me to look up this 1957 Western to see what the fuss was all about. I can understand director James Mangold’s affinity for it since it’s essentially a two-man character drama set on the frontier. One man is a notorious bandit and violent criminal and the other is an upstanding citizen trying his best to do what’s

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-5466348107596628602007-11-21T08:16:00.000-06:002007-11-21T08:16:53.573-06:00

I’ve never been a fan of Uma Thurman and it’s not like I never gave her a chance.I saw her in her debut film Dangerous Liasons and thought she was odd looking and an uninspired performer. That train of thought never changed until I saw someone actually use her to her full potential in Kill Bill Vol. 1 and yes, that includes her appearance in Pulp Fiction. Quentin Tarantino obviously saw more than

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-13194001388537509092007-11-20T16:22:00.000-06:002007-11-20T16:23:22.006-06:00

I think Justin Long could have a long career ahead of him if he learns how to branch out. He’s deliriously funny as a put upon teenager but eventually he’s going to grow past that and right now I’m not sure he has the amount of talent, say, Michael J. Fox demonstrated over his career. Long’s comic timing is spot-on though and even in a simple flick like Accepted it shines through.He plays a kid

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-70318729219667269382007-11-20T16:14:00.000-06:002007-11-20T16:15:05.374-06:00

I have to confess that Will Smith is a much better actor than what people give him credit for. Sure, more times than not he comes off as a smarmy, care-free, wise-crackin’ sidekick promoted to leading man, but even when he’s in that mode he impresses by being able to touch the soul of the character he plays. Regardless of how shallow a character may be, Smith infuses them with more soul than what

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-64808563439844033822007-11-13T16:19:00.001-06:002007-11-13T16:21:38.935-06:00

So I still haven't posted in about a month. There's something synchronous about this. Like clockwork, every month on or about the middle of it, people can check back to find an apology regarding my absence, which is made all the more ironic considering I'm working as a freelance writer and should therefore naturally have the time to blog like a madman every morning.Upon writing that, I now

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-49530791994100642662007-10-10T14:42:00.000-05:002007-10-10T14:48:35.868-05:00

So apparently I haven't posted in about a month. I was planning on changing that for the last week or so but I've been hunting for a job which has sort of kept me from blogging even though I'm stuck at the house. I will say that now that I have my computer back up and running I feel more like my old self and can work on multiple levels again at the same time without having to wait for things to

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-31317841101890560392007-09-11T18:11:00.000-05:002007-09-11T18:16:26.891-05:00

So after not being paid for many, many moons and throwing in the towel and going through little else but chaos (separate blogs pending) I finally have my first freelance corporate video script... and it's due tomorrow morning. I've worked on it since last week including the shoot itself (which was way cool) but today I've been hit with a cold hard dose of reality.Normally in a corporate video

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-37187331870876859412007-08-25T14:25:00.001-05:002007-08-25T14:26:42.582-05:00

I've been jacking with the templates since some yahoo on Google's end opted to make alterations to the design I've used for the last three years without notification. As such, my profile was splashed all over the top of the screen instead of on the right hand side where I preferred it. Pardon my mess while I go through additional templates to find one that doesn't annoy me.

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-25106307024527168502007-08-25T14:15:00.000-05:002007-08-25T14:27:25.243-05:00

Alright, in no particular order here are the following things that have happened to Yours Truly since the first week in July:1) I quit my job since the fools running it hadn't paid me since April. Some might call be an optimist for hanging in there that long sans pay check and they wouldn't be wrong. You just keep hoping and hoping that the people running things will get their act together, but

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-18962209474511738122007-08-20T16:02:00.000-05:002007-08-20T15:02:08.547-05:00

As I've said in the past, I don't think that Penny Arcade is a funny comic. Well, lo and behold they actually made me laugh this afternoon courtesy of this gem. In short, it's funny if you're a) a gamer; b) a guy who loves action movies.The reference is to the upcoming John Woo Presents Stranglehold which is the video game sequel to legendary action film Hard Boiled. Both star Chow Yun Fat as

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-59319249975320060752007-07-27T02:21:00.000-05:002007-07-27T01:21:38.324-05:00

Still here, albeit buried under more frustrations/issues/giant locusts than I know what to do with. I prefer not to speak of personal things unless I can bring the funny to it(see also any story here referencing law) but big things are afoot in my life. The result is I've completely neglected this blog and that will change. Here's a slight hint - it's taken me the last month to get through the 10

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-81840651303149666782007-06-22T14:18:00.000-05:002007-07-27T01:16:47.567-05:00

I have a serious man-crush on crime cinema from the 1970s. I love the genre, I love the feel of everything, I love the funky music, and I certainly love the actors. Quentin Tarantino obviously loves this genre as well considering how much he rips off pays homage to it in everything he does. There is just something about seeing how things were back then and the naturalism used by film makers at

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-15264531088309395462007-06-06T22:42:00.000-05:002007-06-06T21:42:36.272-05:00

In short, the point of the following commentary is that I don't think the website/comic Penny-Arcade is funny in the slightest. I'm stating this right from the outset so you know where I stand regarding their sense of humor. One, I don't think it's funny at all (I can count on one hand the number of times I've laughed at their comics) and two I think they're more than a little high on blatant

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-53068713282845284712007-06-04T10:14:00.000-05:002007-06-04T09:15:32.526-05:00

"IGNORE ME!"Season two picks up right where Season one left off, with the Venture clan not especially torn apart over the last-second deaths of sons Dean and Hank. Heck, even the opening credits star Venture patriarch Rusty along with bodyguard Brock Sampson and neighbor/necromancer Dr. Byron Orpheus. The show basically hits the ground running and the hilarity is out in full force this year.Once

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-72540381032366180362007-06-02T16:50:00.000-05:002007-06-02T15:51:08.326-05:00

The first Godzilla film hasn’t been available in the United States since it was originally released in Japan back in 1953, and the only way we’ve seen it since then was the hacked together Hollywood version starring Raymond Burr. Last year it was finally released as a two-disc DVD set with the original, uncut film on the first disc while the Hollywood version was put on the second disc. A

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-70758921860576116812007-06-01T12:15:00.000-05:002007-06-01T11:15:07.149-05:00

I’ll tell you what is truly stranger than fiction: The fact that I loved a Will Ferrell movie. Personally, I don’t find the man funny in any capacity but I was amazed at how exceptional a performance he turned in here as Harold Crick, a lonely tax auditor who starts hearing voices. Actually, he starts hearing one voice that belongs to a woman who appears to be narrating his life. It bothers him

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-49973920922793378792007-06-01T11:00:00.000-05:002007-07-27T01:11:47.613-05:00

To my dying day, I will swear that this film was undone by a weak marketing campaign and a bad (though appropriate) title. It’s a shame such an excellent film practically vanished at the box office. I remain amazed at how ultra loud, obnoxious films like Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End continually find vast oceans of unassuming film goers yet a true classic (yeah, I said it) like

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-63531559341056337702007-05-30T13:43:00.000-05:002007-05-30T12:43:33.397-05:00

Dallas/Fort Worth just had a hurricane blow through which blackened the skies and dropped roughly three tons of water on us inside of half an hour. Oh, and the wind was so strong and vicious that trees weren't the only victims. I drove home at lunch in case my house was flooded (fortunately it wasn't) only to get the feeling I was driving through a war zone. Trees, billboards, road signs, and all

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-80816691305998932942007-05-25T14:47:00.000-05:002007-05-25T14:51:12.980-05:00

I've told this story before in a review or two but I'll repeat it here. I first saw Star Wars at my grandparents' lake house in Shreveport, LA. Prior to this my dad took me to see The Empire Strikes Back but since I was 3 years old and had no context for what the hell was happening in front of me I just sort of sat there watching it and not understanding a single thing. I asked dad if we could go

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-40053777268123204732007-05-16T12:01:00.000-05:002007-05-16T11:04:38.165-05:00

My Fair Lady recently revealed a side of herself to me that I’ve historically found annoying in other people: She’s a "Clicker." These people are the bane of IT personnel the world over because of their incessant whine, "It’s not moving faaaaassssttt enough!"As such, they open a single window on their computer screen and when that window takes more than five seconds to open (whether it is an

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-17822363957310091452007-05-02T16:09:00.000-05:002007-05-02T15:09:58.239-05:00

Confession time: I'd never seen a Wallace & Grommit short prior to seeing the full-length feature Curse of the Were-Rabbit and am now kicking myself for it. The film itself is a loving tribute to the horror classics of yester-year that starred Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Bela Lugosi and that passion for the subject matter is evident in every frame. The film is stop-motion claymation which

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-46406379160271949112007-05-02T14:23:00.000-05:002007-05-02T13:23:36.736-05:00

Normally I don't fall asleep during action movies, but "Tears of the Sun" was different. First off, it commits the cardinal sin of being a dull film which is tough to imagine when you consider it stars Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, and a heck of a lot of bullets. Yet somehow director Antoine Fuqua ensured everyone stared off into space for the two hour running time including Willis who primarily

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-52793755515960010622007-05-02T13:52:00.000-05:002007-05-02T12:52:26.553-05:00

This is absolutely one of the coolest videos ever made and posted on the internet. Its basically what happens when Nazi Germany buids a giant fighting robot and sicks it on Pearl Harbor during World War II and the awesome only builds from there.Of course, it also brilliantly pulls music from the repertoire of John Williams (specifically from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as well as from

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-81205120526645682122007-05-02T12:12:00.000-05:002007-05-02T11:12:58.481-05:00

Normally I don't post about things like this because I'm an elitist snob who considers himself above most frays. The key word in the preceding sentence is "normally" because the following story struck my funny bone in just the right way. On Tuesday, Digg.com received a story containing the 16-digit code to crack the HD-DVD encryption scheme. In short, this lets people to play HD-DVD movies on

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-80052278084981027152007-05-01T15:38:00.000-05:002007-05-01T14:48:08.414-05:00

You know it's bad when you have to re-order your Netflix queue to favor your other half because you're so far behind on reviews that you need a breather to catch up. Right now I'm in the queue stacking the deck in favor of My Fair Lady so as she's watching Monster-in-Law or Sense & Sensibility I can be upstairs with my headphones on catching up on the stack of discs we've burned through in the

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-32842546691929535672007-04-27T10:34:00.000-05:002007-04-27T09:34:31.216-05:00

So I'm writing up another Odyssey-esque post regarding the trip to San Francisco My Fair Lady and I took in mid-March when my latest copy of Writer's Digest arrives on my doorstep. In addition to the usual bon mots of wisdom and pointers in how whatever I'm doing now, it's not working on my novel/screenplay/short story, I see their annual contest and figure it's high time I enter it just to see

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-18194644248950796752007-04-17T11:52:00.000-05:002007-04-17T10:56:56.803-05:00

I was a bit hard on the first God of War for a number of reasons but I'll just right to my favorite for the sake of brevity. Precisely at the 2/3 mark, the game goes off the cliff of stupid and never recovers. Old school gamers all know when programmers can't come up with a quality challenge with regards to game bosses because all of a sudden the boss is a cheating bitch.You heard me right - a

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-51108707833331124472007-04-13T15:59:00.000-05:002007-04-13T14:59:46.180-05:00

You know that sinking feeling you get when something is about to go terribly wrong and there is not a single thing you can do to change it? Some might call it a premonition, others might label it "second sight" while still more people would say it's nothing more than one's instincts essentially smelling danger on the wind.None of that happened Thursday morning as I was driving to work and the

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-16697110111646424602007-04-09T09:00:00.000-05:002007-04-09T01:00:09.776-05:00

If you're looking for a book that spoofs collegiate life with an emphasis on student journlism, I highly recommend not reading Prot U by my former newspaper advisor, Eva Rumpf. If you want an exercise in how to write a poorly told, wafer-thin story which involves equally thin, borderline non-existant characters, some of whom don't ever interact with the primary storyline, told by someone clearly

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-85022080447720563362007-04-06T10:48:00.000-05:002007-04-06T09:48:59.522-05:00

This was one of those movies I'd always heard about but never actually managed to see. This is why Netflix was invented - to grant me the ability to catch up on flicks I've otherwise missed. Then I watched The Eiger Sanction and realized why I'd missed it.I wouldn't go so far as to call it obscure but it's not on the tips of everyone's tongues when they mention classic 70's cinema. This one finds

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-21475881945242934872007-04-05T12:12:00.000-05:002007-04-05T11:12:34.085-05:00

One thing I like about Arnold Schwarzenegger movies is they're honest. You know what you're going to see right from the second it starts. Arnold is going to face a crisis, usually personal in nature, then is going to kill a ton of people before squaring off with the ultimate bad guy and killing him/her/them. Good wins out over evil. It's comfort food in a way. Sometimes you get a three course

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-83448609332744080932007-04-05T00:09:00.000-05:002007-04-04T23:09:26.033-05:00

Speaking as a native Texan, the Enron disaster caught us by surprise as much as the next person. One minute we're hearing stories about one of the top 10 companies in the world and how many billions it's making daily, and the next we're seeing live news shots of the corporate HQ in Houston as employees are vacating in a mad scramble. Over the next few months, story after story came out about how

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1793810685322730602007-04-04T12:40:00.000-05:002007-04-24T13:18:04.295-05:00

It's funny to look back on your childhood and recognize that momentous events from your formative years are seldom among your personal memories. I have no recollection of President Ronald "Ronoldus Magnus" Reagan being shot by John Hinckly, nor do I recall the bomb that was "Ishtar" when it hit theaters. I do recall the Challenger explosion but that's because I was watching in Dr. G's third grade

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-6972142273590459562007-03-22T00:09:00.000-05:002007-03-21T23:10:08.765-05:00

Steven Spielberg frustrates me sometimes. Last year was a banner year for him with the crowd pleaser War of the Worlds and the deeper, and more emotional Munich. I hated the first, and have just seen and loved the second. The last time he did a double feature in one year was back in 1993 with Jurassic Park and Schindler's List and I love it when he cranks things out. When he's working on a harsh

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-52808803438547232922007-03-21T13:49:00.000-05:002007-10-10T15:13:51.392-05:00

Sometimes a movie comes along and knocks the wind out of your sails. It's been a long, long time since one has done that to me (what can I say? I'm hard to surprise.) but The Constant Gardener left me floored, stunned, angry, and emotionally wrecked. In short, it kicked my teeth in and for that alone I loved it.To say the least, the movie is an emotional drain as British assistant diplomat to

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-65890947352423553972007-03-15T17:40:00.000-05:002007-03-15T15:41:07.292-05:00

I hadn't bothered with the alarm clock since dad is usually up at 5 a.m. anyway and I figured, rightly so, that he'd knock on the door when it was time to get up. Knock he did right at the stroke of 5:15-ish. Oddly enough, I didn't have any trouble waking up and just throwing on clothes, but I did feel somewhat out of place when I saw both dad and Brother G wearing the same camo shirts while I

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-37012872148498965722007-03-15T10:29:00.000-05:002007-03-15T08:29:46.424-05:00

A few weekends ago, my dad, brother (Brother G) and I (Yours Truly) headed south of the metroplex in search of big game. By "big game" I mean "tiny ducks that are crafty buggers" and the weather couldn't have been nicer for the last weekend of the season. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was in the mid-60's.If you know anything about duck hunting, this is the absolute worst

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-33298844629263808632007-03-14T23:27:00.000-05:002007-03-14T21:27:29.712-05:00

So it's been brought to my attention recently that I need to divulge with greater frequency the goings-on of My Fair Lady and Yours Truly's lives. Rest assured that when such interesting bon mots should surface they will soon appear for your viewing pleasure. Simply commenting that My Fair Lady worked late one night while I sat at home and watched TV or vice versa does not strike me as

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-56806482186603827212007-03-06T12:18:00.000-06:002007-03-06T10:18:51.062-06:00

What you are about to read is a story told to Yours Truly this morning by the Travelling Man. I have altered the screen names but otherwise this is as it happened, shocking in its immediacy...Travelling Man: dude, i should tell you about my failed trip to Tahoe last weekTravelling Man: it's a good storyYours Truly: do shareYours Truly: /loves story timeTravelling Man: well children, once upon a

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-77747360348944374032007-02-20T17:30:00.000-06:002007-02-20T15:30:23.171-06:00

So I go into the weekend of my thirtieth birthday blissfully unaware of the dangers in store. Upon reflection, I'm far too trusting which I find ironic considering my past stance on believing everyone had their own agenda.Maybe I'm growing soft in my old age.The week before, My Fair Lady was laid off by her law firm. Apparently this is common place among both law firms and manufacturing jobs

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-80974724588516943382007-02-13T12:24:00.000-06:002007-02-08T11:51:47.657-06:00

For the record, I haven't owned a Nintendo console outside of a GameBoy Advance since the Super Nintendo Entertainment System waaaaaay back in the day. By "in the day" I mean before the interweb took over our lives like the nefarious octopus it is.So it was a shocker to me when I started falling for the Wii at last year's E3. As noted previously, I was not a fan of the name nor am I one now

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-72548379930039611772007-02-07T17:25:00.000-06:002007-02-07T15:25:49.529-06:00

This show brings up some pleasant memories from long ago. This aired back in 1993 while I was in high school, and it was on Friday nights before a little-watch sci-fi show called The X-Files. My sister and I watched this double-bill every week together and according to the Nielsen ratings it seemed, and felt, like we were the only two watching it. We kinda preferred it that way because while we

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-32131569876435189882007-02-07T16:37:00.000-06:002007-02-07T14:38:16.195-06:00

Everyone who the tag "gamer" applies to knows the feeling. The sense that no matter what you play you just do not care. Regardless of which console you switch to or whether you pull out the old stand-by's (break glass only in case of emergency) nothing seems to capture your imagination. The chances of this frequently happening are magnified ten-fold if you work for a video game site because

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-50408200406214861482007-02-04T23:29:00.000-06:002007-02-04T21:31:15.337-06:00

... in my post regarding My Fair Lady playing a Wii...She read the column tonight and pointed out how I never said anything about her playing two games at once, one on the Wii and the other on the DS. I looked through the column and sat there dumbstruck that I'd completly breezed right past that.It was, after all, the point of the column itself that My Fair Lady was willingly, gleefully in fact,

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-16206985931709910792007-02-02T17:03:00.000-06:002007-02-02T15:03:53.919-06:00

One thing I learned while watching the lastest season of The Shield is not to watch another TV show at the same time and expect to get anything done in the interim. While watching this and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. I soon realized I wasn't going to have time to do any blogging until they were finished but now that they are I'm switching over to movies for a while. Those are far easier

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-4739757807749443492007-02-02T16:45:00.000-06:002007-02-02T14:46:21.985-06:00

This past Saturday saw a funny thing happen on the way to the asylum. My Fair Lady and I went over to Crayola Smoker's house to celebrate his 30th. Already there were Fireball and The Librarian so it was a full house of fun, especially when Crayola whipped out his Wii and told us to have at it.No matter how many times I write a variation on "ha ha, I said Wii!" it will never get old. It's the

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-51738106806715072122007-01-19T16:40:00.000-06:002007-01-19T14:40:14.594-06:00

About 10 minutes into Jason Reitman's brilliant Thank You For Smoking I was gasping for air on account of how hard I was laughing. After seeing this I've become even more disenchanted with the usual bluster of awards talk because none of the Best Actor discussions I've seen have brought in Aaron Eckhart for his potrayal of Nick Naylor. Per the norm, at least several brilliant performances go

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-5168129367679936802007-01-16T15:56:00.000-06:002007-01-16T13:56:43.498-06:00

So the other day a few storms blew threw north Texas and brought with them a 30+ degree drop in temperatures across the state. The meteorologists were jockeying for position on top of the pile to claim that it was the worst disaster to hit the metroplex in forever. If there was ever any doubt that the media at large thrives on bad news (the more horrific the better) then please bear witness to

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-40223794260582402672007-01-12T18:52:00.000-06:002007-01-12T16:53:01.875-06:00

One thing we all know about the "inspirational sports film" is exactly how things will play out. Start to finish we know the hero will face adversity, join something he/she believes in, will find themselves beaten down some more, then will find a way to win when they need it the most thus inspiring not only themselves but also their friends and family.Absolutely nothing is different about

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-64528520879552052732007-01-12T15:22:00.000-06:002007-01-12T13:23:41.783-06:00

One of these days I'm going to stop leaving Netflix discs laying around on my shelf for a month gathering dust. I really am. Honestly. Cross my heart and the whole bit. My reasoning is I'm now two-for-two on friggin' awesome movies that have sat unattended to on my shelf for far too long all the while a host of other gems piled up in my Netflix queue.Some might not consider Virgins From Hell a

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-33744977426897310082007-01-09T18:19:00.000-06:002007-01-09T16:20:04.098-06:00

As you can see from the title, this will be a gaming-related article so if you're not interested then skip on to something else.According to VG Charts, Nintendo's Wii is smacking the crap out of both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. How do I arrive at such a conclusion considering the 360 has double the sales numbers of the Wii? Simple.The Wii has been out for roughly six weeks.Now, will the Wii

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-44412890500025057352007-01-09T12:28:00.000-06:002007-01-09T10:35:42.754-06:00

Previously on 24...Jack Bauer fought valiantly against evil terrorists led by the charismatic Habib Marwan (Arnold Vosloo) and encountered/defeated many foes, including a cameo by Naked Mandy. Yet it all came down to the newly sworn in President Logan's right hand man Walt Cummings who sent a loyalist Secret Service agent into CTU to bring in Bauer. Of course by "bring in" I mean "kill the hell

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-6908507856362135062007-01-09T10:08:00.000-06:002008-01-09T10:09:18.595-06:00

Over the Christmas season, My Fair Lady ran short of hose and dispatched me forthwith to yon Macy's. Women's undergarments do not normally faze me, yet standing in the middle of an open room surrounded by them while two women stood behind me in line I started mentally humming a song from "Sesame Street":Which of these things is not like the other....Word of advice to all men everywhere - when the

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-48220290050732583542006-12-31T12:50:00.000-06:002006-12-31T12:57:23.178-06:00

So I received a package from GT the other day and it was two other games for review. I burned through Eragon on Xbox in about six hours so that brings the final tally for the year up to 36. There's almost no chance of me ever hitting this high a number of completed games again so I'm just going to take a moment to bask in my nerdiness. Thank you for playing, you've been a wonderful audience this

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1161629465918364182006-12-29T01:08:00.000-06:002006-12-28T23:08:17.294-06:00

The reason for the addendum on the title is that's how long this gem has been on my shelf. Around this time last month I believe Netflix actually called off the search and shifted resources towards recovery. It's given me a great joy to finally sit down and watch it if only out of pride that it be sent back by the close of the year.Dear God why did I wait so long to watch this magnificent albeit

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-38098307614008866632006-12-27T12:20:00.000-06:002006-12-27T10:24:25.378-06:00

While 2006 may not have wrapped itself up just yet, I have decided to retire from gaming for the duration. I finished off The Thing last night finally and it seemed a good enough way to go out. Fortunately, my backlog didn't explode over Christmas as I was afraid it would. The two games I received I'm anxious to tear into but since they're both 40+ hour affairs (easily twice that in Final Fantasy

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-25463824827779253922006-12-21T17:50:00.000-06:002006-12-21T15:50:17.972-06:00

So the other day I downloaded and installed at work and home AIM 6.0. Having tried out their Triton beta this summer, I knew they were on the right path with a few things (such as all IM conversations in one window) and absolutely on the wrong path with others (inability to use any buddy icons other than ones bought from AOL). One thing I didn't try was their streaming radio stations because

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-47176595133338734592006-12-20T12:35:00.000-06:002006-12-20T10:35:22.206-06:00

This was beat up a lot when it came out by fans of Alan Moore's graphic novel and it's easy to see why. Moore's book was reverent about the literary sources it cribed from and Moore's usual dedication to the finer points of character, which he then twists inward as hard as possible, was evident from the first frame. Now compare that to the movie version which is a bombastic Cliffs Notes version

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-60334394442687262662006-12-19T13:10:00.000-06:002006-12-19T11:10:10.225-06:00

There's something about WWII movies from the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s that just click for me in ways that the glut of WWII-based video games never do. For every Call of Duty I can point to The Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape, Patton, and so forth. Up until recently the most I'd ever seen of Where Eagles Dare was the last five minutes. For whatever reason, whenever I would catch the

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-57224178361794214532006-12-18T18:30:00.000-06:002006-12-18T16:33:10.497-06:00

Note: The following post is related to video games so if you have no desire to read about them then rest assured the "Now Playing" column will resume shortly.It won't last past this coming Monday (aka Christmas 2006) but for right now my console backlog is nearing completion. I finished off Voodoo Vince this past weekend and now my backlog sits at five titles.Five. Four of which are for the PS2.

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-67241932944071128172006-12-12T13:40:00.000-06:002006-12-12T11:41:56.767-06:00

This is a cartoon series that first aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block a few years back and was meant to spoof the old "Johnny Quest" and "Scooby-Doo" franchises. But what it really does is so much better. It provided Yours Truly with at least a half dozen laugh-out-loud moments per episode and with 13 episodes total... well, you can do the math.In short, The Venture Bros. Season 1 is a

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-9005178086166388612006-12-11T14:40:00.000-06:002006-12-11T14:12:24.815-06:00

So My Fair Lady accompanied Yours Truly to get my hair cut on Saturday and from there we went to Lowe's to pick up a Christmas tree. Somewhere in between there my wallet grew a pair of legs and wandered off.By mid afternoon, the few credit cards in the wallet were cancelled and the respective accounts notified that I was who I said I was and no one else was me. Now it's just a matter of getting

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1165417720713784382006-12-11T14:05:00.000-06:002006-12-11T12:05:49.143-06:00

I've mentioned before how one of the things I love about the internet is how easy it is to stumble onto gems you wouldn't otherwise hear about in daily conversation. One of the places I frequent is Aint-It-Cool-News and despite the regular idiocy on display, their star contributor puts out a DVD blog every so often and it's always chock full of great finds. One of those happened to be a

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1165417642773651392006-12-08T14:05:00.000-06:002006-12-08T12:09:53.660-06:00

First off, that title is one of the greatest ones I've ever heard and I've heard plenty of them. Second, the film is an absolutely silly cartoon of a flick that will either make you howl with laughter or righteously test your patience. For me, I was definitely laughing start to finish. Just look at the cover art and you'll either want to see a flick like this or not.SARS Wars: Bangkok Zombie

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1163140940716345272006-12-08T13:20:00.000-06:002006-12-08T11:22:12.430-06:00

I usually find horror films to be fairly vapid experiences. All blood and no guts, if you take my meaning. When the word came down that George Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead was going to be re-made I didn't even have the heart to find contempt for it. While the original is not held close to my heart, it did have plenty to say about the consumerist mentality of the time. Or so I'm told.Truth is

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1161992569405850372006-12-07T14:20:00.000-06:002006-12-07T14:20:49.473-06:00

I'll confess to never having seen a single minute of the Project: Greenlight series that aired on Bravo for three seasons. Funny considering how into film I am but I just never gave it any thought. Part of that is my literal zero interest in anything even remotely approaching "reality tv" up to and including an in-depth show based on the film industry. This reasoning will most likely lead me to

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1161992295030095992006-12-06T09:20:00.000-06:002006-12-06T09:19:59.146-06:00

I completely missed this one this summer yet somehow I managed to stay mostly spoiler free. Oh sure, I heard about the "big character deaths" but when I did I shrugged them off as more corporate level decisions instead of creative ones. Oh how right I was...From the word go, you get the sense the franchise is in new hands. When Bryan Singer and his team were thrown off the 20th Century Fox lot by

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1164047065353871882006-12-05T14:35:00.000-06:002006-12-05T14:35:57.490-06:00

My friend CrayolaSmoker lent me this for PC a few weeks ago and after playing it for roughly 30 seconds, My Fair Lady demanded to join in. CS lent me his USB controller which I handed to her, then I quickly found out that controlling the characters via keyboard sucks.The next week I swung by CompUSA and picked it up for Xbox and we've been playing it ever since.As maligned as the prequel trilogy

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1161629181351591992006-12-05T09:42:00.000-06:002006-12-05T09:41:42.666-06:00

I decided to use this poster I found on Google instead of the actual DVD cover art because while the film may have been sold as an action flick, the art you see at left sums up the film in an infinitely superior fashion. Make no mistake about it, The Matador is about as far from a James Bond flick as one can get. If anything, the film is about two men from completely different worlds, yet both

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779763.post-1161992144785596082006-12-04T13:40:00.000-06:002006-12-04T13:42:52.840-06:00

Previously on 24...A personal vendetta from the past culminating in the murder of Jack's wife... a nuclear threat against the city of LA culminating in Jack's daughter terrorized in the wilds of California... a viral threat culminating in a franchise spinning its wheels out of control...These are the personal trevails of Jack Bauer. His continuing mission: To explore strange, new hostiles. To

Mitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04546155561600873981noreply@blogger.com1