Welcome to My Nightmare

I spent the better part of this afternoon playing Undead Nightmare, the downloadable expansion to the Red Redemption Game, something strange is going on throughout the old west and the dead are rising to devour the living.

This has been a lot of fun so far and I'm kind of surprised this idea hasn't been done before, cowboys vs zombies is sheer elegance in its simplicity, ammunition is scarce as you move from town to town cleansing the undead infestation and if you thought grizzly bears were a pain in the ass just wait until you meet the undead variety.

Zombies have made a bit of a comeback in popular culture over the last few years ( it'd be hard to not to have noticed ) but in my opinion they have rarely been used well or in a creative way and I suppose that's also true of Undead Nightmare but the world they have been dropped into has made this a lot of fun, from what little I've read online I'm already approaching the end Undead Nightmare and I find myself wishing it was full length game rather than just mini single player campaign and a few new multi player elements.

Caitlins 18th Birthday

Well we survived Caitlin's 18th birthday but I guess more importantly she survived it.

I heard her arrive home at about 4:00am this morning and she has to go to work soon, can't say I'm all that sympathetic.

Sarah Jane Adventures: Death of the Doctor

When I first heard Katey Manning would be playing Jo Grant ( Jones ) again I wasn't sure what I thought about it to be honest but within about five seconds of her being on screen she'd won me over, Jo Grant was back and it was like she'd never left.

The chemistry between Jo and Sarah worked rather well I thought and the look on Jo's face when she found out that Sarah had seen the Doctor a few times since she'd left the TARDIS while he'd never gone back to see her was heart breaking, and the look the Doctor gave Sarah when she asked if his last regeneration hurt and the reveal that during The End of Time as he was dying The Doctor actually visited all of his companions, not just the ones we saw on screen.

There were some really nice Jo moments, like when she discovers the Doctor is travelling with a married couple and she tells him she only left because she was getting married and later on when he doesn't tell her that all the Timelords are dead.

507 ?!! oh how I laughed when I heard that, I just bet the fanboys are going into fits over that.

All those flashback and references, heaven for fans of the classic show.

Liz Shaw runs the UNIT (?) moon base, Tegan is back in Australia fighting for Aboriginal rights, Ben and Polly are in India running an orphanage, Harry went on to develop several vaccines and saved thousands of lives ( Sarah speaks of Harry in past tense like he's died as has Ian Marter the actor who played him ) and Dorothy ( Ace ) is alive and well ( you can't have everything ) and runs a company called Charitable Earth and has raised billions for the needy and finally Ian and Barbara are married and Professors at Cambridge who apparently haven't aged since the 60s (?).

I know Nicholas Courtney isn't well but it would've been nice to see the Brigadier, Sgt Benton and Mike Yates reuniting the surviving members of the UNIT family.

Russell T Davies has received a lot of flak over his time as writer / producer on Doctor Who but this was a lovely little gem of a story, hopefully we'll get to see some more like it and I wouldn't mind seeing the return of Jo Grant at some point in the future as well.

M.A.N.T.I.S

I guess it must be at least a year since I picked up the M.A.N.T.I.S complete series DVD boxed set but I've only just this week started to watch it, as far as I can recall the series was never broadcast in my area however the TV movie pilot was released on VHS to rent so I did get to see the pilot but that was some time ago, at least 10 years ago and I suspect it was more like 15.

I could only remember a little of the pilot movie but I do remember really enjoying it at the time, the pilot was included in the DVD set but it hasn't aged well, either that or I've gotten fussy in my old age.

I did remember that the show featured a black superhero who was in a wheelchair when he wasn't fighting crime but when he donned his exoskeleton he became M.A.N.T.I.S and he stalked the streets of Ocean City fighting crime.

There were elements in the pilot that struck me as a little odd, now this film was made and set during the 90's and in this movie the various gangs seem to be ( mainly ) a black problem, in fact the pilot seems fixated on the fact most of it's cast was black and it clumsily tries to address what I guess were issues at the time, even the hero weighs in with an opinion on affirmative action ( it doesn't mean anything unless you earn it ), maybe the writers were trying to be sensitive to race issues but that just didn't work for me.

The pilot was written by Sam Hamm and Sam Raimi but after the pilot was aired they had a disagreement with the network about the direction the show should go in so they left the project and the show went into production without them, apart from the central character the show was a reboot with it's first episode serving as a new ( and inferior ) pilot with an altered origin story, new supporting cast, redesigned costume and based on the few episodes I've watched so far worse writing.

The movie's preaching about social issues was slightly annoying but when Bruce Zabel took over as show runner the show apparently became much more of a light-hearted romp that limped on until it's cancellation at the end of it's first season.

While the pilot movie was far from perfect I felt there was a lot of potential there for a good series and I just don't understand why the producers decided to change virtually everything for the TV series, I've really enjoyed some of Bruce Zabel's other work but so far his work on M.A.N.T.I.S leaves a lot to be desired, I truly hope the show improves over the course of it's first and only season, I've read a lot of mixed things about the show online but I live in hope that things will get better before the end.

The Philadelphia Experiment

I hadn't seen the movie in at least 10 years ( probably longer ) and I'd only ever seen it on VHS so it was somewhat of a revelation to see it in widescreen on DVD, I really enjoyed seeing it again even with the leading couple's terrible acting and dodgy special effects.

The Return

Life is too short to waste on movies like this, I doubt even the most fanatical Sarah Michelle Gellar fan could find anything good to say about it, I had to watch it in three sittings it's so dull and it has a running time of less than 90 minutes.

The Host

This movie starts out well but instead of getting on with the story we get family melodrama and light comedy, it's like the director wasn't sure what type of movie he was making for a while, things do eventually get back on track but by then I just wasn't as interested as I was when the movie first started - I do think film makers need to focus on the story they are trying to tell instead of getting side tracked by different elements, there was room for a little comedy and maybe even some family melodrama if it moves the story along but when it stalls the action like it did in the The Host it only hurts the final product.


I did like the monster design and while the music wasn't bad it did seem a little out of place at the time, there have been some interesting movies coming out of Korea and this had the potential to be a great monster movie instead of merely a good one - a shame.

Goodbye Facebook

I've never had any real use for social networking sites like Facebook and to be honest I can't see many real uses for such sites, I know this is the Internet age and online social networking has become insanely popular but I just don't get it - if I want to catch up or get back in contact with someone I actually do rather than try and add someone to a friends list - does having a list of friends sometimes including celebrities you'll never meet actually make anyone feel good about themselves ?

Today I was actually on Facebook which is pretty rare in itself for me and I found myself thinking that this isn't fun, it certainly isn't useful so why am I bothering ?

I'm a member of several online discussion forums and I really enjoy those but Facebook does nothing for me so with that in mind I deactivated my account - if I could delete it altogether I would but I have no intention of going back, I'm pretty sure I won't be missed since I was rarely on there anyway.

Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2 Demo

I downloaded the demo of Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2 for Playstation 3, I wasn't overly impressed with the first game but I've been reading a lot about the supposed improvements made to the second entry in the series.

Well it's certainly prettier but it terms of game play it seems to be more of the same, of course the demo is only the first level of the game so there is hopefully a lot of fun to be had later on but based on this if I buy the game at all I'll be waiting until it's had a price reduction or is on sale.

If there are better levels in the game it's a shame they didn't release one of those as the demo since the first level is just kind of bland, you do start with a whole bunch of force powers but the actual level itself is just dull.

Bond, James Bond.

I have all the Bond films on DVD and I've re-bought several of them on Blu-ray but I while back I was given this three movie boxset which seems to have the theme of Gold ( all three films feature the word gold(en) in the title ) so the movies included are Goldfinger, Goldeneye and The Man with the Golden Gun.

Basically it was just sitting there and I wanted something to watch so it was a bit of a Bond marathon for me today if for no other reason than I was too lazy to get something else out of the 'to watch' pile.

Heart of an Empire

A documentary about a Star Wars costuming group who do charity events, things turn for the worst when the founder's daughter is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

I must admit I do enjoy these fan made documentaries, most of them try to portray their extreme fandom in a positive light ( and often fail ) but at least they're not hurting anyone ( other than perhaps themselves ) and in this case they actually manage to do something positive.

If this sounds like your type of film it's well worth a watch and it's better than most similar films.

One of those days

Just recieved a massive bill in the mail in regards to the lawsuit, it seems someone is going to make money out of this even if it isn't us.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vagas

I consider myself to be a fan of Terry Gilliam's movies but I'd never seen this one due to lack of interest in the subject matter, I finally watched it and I was entertained for about an hour, it's a shame the movie runs for nearly twice that.

Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro both deliver excellent performances but given the fact that basically nothing happens for most of the movie other than the main characters going on a drug fuelled bender for the entire film I found myself getting bored even with Gilliam's unique visual style.

Shopping

Fiona and Caitlin went away for the weekend and I got bored and was randomly looking at DVDs on ebay,  of course bought a few - still not sure if that was a good thing but it's too late now.

Here's what I got:

The Host - 2 disc version 

The Exorcist ( Japanese release that includes the original version and the newer one that's out on DVD now).

Gladiator - region 1 signature edition

Jackie Brown - 2 disc version

Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade

The Killer - 2 disc version

Blade - Japanese version with English DTS soundtrack

Police Story Box set - Korean release with DTS versions of the soundtracks

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance - 2 disc version

Taegukgi

Suspiria - The rare 3 disc American version with the soundtrack cd.

The Descent: Part 2

It was probably a mistake to watch both of the Descent films back to back, I really like the first film and the second one was OK, the problem with a lot of sequels is that they are just more of what you got in the original film, with The Descent: Part 2 there wasn't a lot more that could be done without pretty much ignoring the rules set up in the first film so in this case you spend most of the time re-treading familiar ground.

The Descent: Part 2 wasn't a horrible movie but they need to stop now, the last thing movie viewers need is another series of poor sequels to a good movie, I don't know if the stupid twist at the end is intended to set up a third film but that idea has been done before and done better.

Not a bad movie as such but this is hardly essential viewing even if you are a fan of the original.

Rob Zombie's Halloween 2

I wasn't a huge fan of Rob Zombie's remake of [b]Halloween[/b], I didn't hate it but it really didn't impress me either however nothing could have prepared me for his sequel.

Now that he had gotten his version of the Michael Myers origin story out of the way I had hoped he might do something new with his sequel and I guess he did but it's a shame it was something terrible.

This movie was a mess from beginning to end but worse than that it was boring, I guess Laurie might be the killer in the third film if it ever gets made based on how this film ended but after this who really cares ?

Be Seeing You

I watched the recent remake of The Prisoner last night, to be honest I thought it was a bit of a mess, I did think there were some interesting ideas in play but in their attempt to try and be at least as clever ( and confusing ) as the original series the producers of the remake failed to tell a gripping and interesting story which is a shame.

I did like the new version of the Village and the nod to Patrick McGoohan in episode 1, I also thought Ian McKellen was rather good and I was pleased to see that they kept the original concept of Rover but the story was a mess - such a shame.

Serpico

It's funny, I know this movie is considered to be somewhat of a classic but I'd never seen it before today ( well that I remember ) and I liked it but I felt it lacked in detail.

Serpico obviously takes place over an extended period of time but it felt like watching a movie on fast forward, you can get a basic idea of what is going on but the fine details are lacking and thats how the movie felt to me, it lacked detail.

I think they could've easily added an hour to the running time and used it to flesh out the story, as it is I thought it was a good movie but it could've been great.

If it bleeds we can kill it.

I just finished watching [b]Predator[/b] on Blu-ray, this was the original Blu-ray release and not the new one where they screwed up the remastering.

The only complaint I have is the lack of extras, they could have at least included the extras that were on the 2 DVD special edition version of the movie, as to the comments that there was film grain and some other issues well yes there were but you had to really look for most of them, for a film of it's age I thought [b]Predator[/b] looked really nice and the sound was also rather impressive.

It's a great movie and this was the best version of it I've ever seen it.