JunkerSeed

I also really wanted to like pan's labyrinth but didn't love it. I liked the "real life" stuff and didn't feel the fantasy element was all that interesting or creative. I like his first two, Cronos, and Devil's Backbone, I especially like Devil's Backbone. I can get behind Mimic a little bit. I'm very glad I like this, cause GDT is a cool guy and I love to read what he has to say, it just hasn't translated to things I want to see for teh most part until now. I think the character was written boring and the actor was boring. It was like I was looking right through that motherfucker. I also hope people pay money for this. When I saw it, people in the theater (not a dorky crowd AT ALL, theater full of total Brooklyn italian bros) were loving it, cheered during the fights and such. I have no doubts that "normal" folk will enjoy this movie if they actually sit down to watch it.

Uh, SHARKNADO. The syfy original stuff is generally pretty fun and this definitely takes it to a new level of ridiculousness. It's pretty fun, and definitely delivers on its title. The last 20 minutes or so are particularly nuts. It's not as intentionally so bad it's good as something like piranha 3d, which is actually really well directed and has really funny "bad" performances, but it gets the job done. Also saw the movie about a man with a red cape moping around like a goddamned loser. I hesitate to call it Superman, because the film also hesitates to call him Superman. It is simply misguided and downright silly to bring the Nolan-style "grounded in reality" bullshit to the most naive superhero we have. It doesn't work. The idea of superman is stupid, so in a "serious" movie, it comes off as even more stupid. Superman should not scream while he flies, he looks and sounds stupid when he does. The effort to make Superman "dark," "tortured" or whatever is laughable. This is a children's movie trying to dress up in grown up clothes. I thought the trend of successful superhero flicks proved that we're perfectly capable of suspending our disbelief. You can say interesting and thoughtful things about an "unrealistic" character. You can have him do unbelievable things without trying so hard to convince the audience that he's real. You can make adults interested in him, but still let him tell a couple of jokes. You can let him smile every once in a while. You can even call him Superman.

DA OUYA (Pronouced oo-ya) So, I've been playin the hell out of this cube thing for the past couple of weeks, so here are my thoughts: First thing you notice when you bring home the Ouya is how small it is... no actually the first thing you notice is the giant red sign that says "AND SO BEGINS THE REVOLUTION..." then you notice how small it is. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/98979749@N08/9291379896/" title="revolution by junkerseed, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2849/9291379896_4d31cb3671.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="revolution"></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/98979749@N08/9288606167/" title="controller and cube by junkerseed, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3721/9288606167_f61e732ca3.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="controller and cube"></a> It has usb, miniusb, hdmi, power, and ethernet ports, one of each. What's important about that is that there is only one usb port, so if you plan on getting one of these, it would be very smart to get a powered usb hub. A lot of what you want to do with the Ouya will involve a third party controller/s and/or a flash drive/external harddrive because dear old Ouya only has 8 gigs in him. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/98979749@N08/9291378642/" title="side view plugs by junkerseed, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2871/9291378642_1cf8253d57.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="side view plugs"></a> The ouya is little and minimal looking, but then you realize that all of the stuff basically plugs right into the top of it, so it actually ends up looking pretty messy no matter what you do. Lets play spot da ouya <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/98979749@N08/9291388540/" title="console set up by junkerseed, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/9291388540_ee7fca7192.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="console set up"></a> I have a minor issue getting Ouya to stay on my wifi (which has admittingly been shit recently) so I use the ethernet port and we're all good. Pairing the controller is a breeze and in about 10 minutes total I'm up and running. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/98979749@N08/9291385494/" title="ouya menu by junkerseed, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3735/9291385494_53284c98b7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="ouya menu"></a> The main activity you do with your Ouya is figure out what to do with your Ouya. Browsing the "store" (all downloads on the store are free as all Ouya games are required to have a free component to them. The store goes as far as not listing the prices to unlock the full games. Da Ouya is the first freegan gaming system.) is actually pretty fun. For day one of a console, there sure was a lot of shit on there to dig through. I would rate the quality of the content in the Ouya store as better than the Xbox live indie section, which is impressively bad, but not as good as apples app store, or even google play. Certainly not as good as Xbox arcade. As you can imagine, there are some great games and some awful games. Sorting through them right now isn't too hard, and I really like that the store has recommendations from folks like Ben Kuchera of Penny arcade Report and my favorite snobby game mag, Killscreen. Unfortunately the search function sucks, and you can only search a word in the title, not a developer or any other useful tags, so once the store gets more crowded, good games may get lost in the shuffle. The main focus right now seems to be on excellent local multiplayer games. I think this is smart because it's an area mostly neglected by the current gen systems. If you want to have people over to play Towerfall, Bombsquad, Hidden in Plain Sight, or Get on Top, you'll have a full night of awesomeness and have no complaints of a lack of launch games or exclusive titles. With bombsquad, which is 8 player, you can even use your smartphone as a gamepad; that's a fackin revolution right there. A current problem the selection has is a lack of in-depth single player games. Some of the single player stuff is a trip, but being games built for android, too many of them are designed to be played in intense 60 second spurts. The whole point of the Ouya is that you're playing on your couch. While it's been a blast to play super crate box with a controller on a big screen, when I'm sitting on my couch I like to play something that has some progression past high scores and unlockables. There's a good port of FF3, but I've already played that so I don't have a lot that I want to play for more than 15 minutes. To answer the question about touch controls and android games, well, you don't exactly have the whole google play store available to you. The stuff on the Ouya store has been ported and works well. Most of those are games like super crate box that had annoying virtual gamepad controls on the phone/tablet and are a much better fit for a controller. You can sideload other android apps, meaning you can use the web browser (or your flashdrive) to install them from outside the Ouya store, but you'll find that some stuff works well (especially games with something like icade or other gamepad support), and some stuff doesn't. The Ouya gamepad has a laptop-style touchpad on it, a la the PS4, but it's mostly useful for menus, you'd never want to play a game using it. So, you can continue to play fruit ninja on your phone or your Kinect (do people actually do that????????) So why have I been playing nothing but the Ouya for the past 2 weeks? EMULATION! Maybe I fit into a strange, rare corner of the market, but I think the Ouya is worth it in spades for it's function as an emulator for every system up to and including PS1 and n64. I have computers that can run these emulators, but I just don't enjoy sitting in a computer chair with a gamepad and playing a jrpg or an old platformer. I could certainly hook a PC up to my TV and use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse or something like that but I don't have an extra computer lying around to permanently attach to my television, and I generally don't like the ghetto rig pc/TV setup. I also have retro game consoles, but I don't own all of em nor do I own every game. My PS2 (and therefore PS1) is broken, so since I've had the Ouya, I've played through Parasite Eve and Tail Concerto, and wrecked some friends in Bushido Blade. While I've always played my SNES and even Sega CD a bunch, it's never occurred to me how important it is that I can play any older game I want to, in a format/setting in which i can enjoy it. Imagine not being able to watch older movies or listen to older music, or only being able to watch older films on your laptop. It's silly. Since getting the Ouya, I feel like I have the same access to games as I have to films and music. Granted, a lot of this access is due to piracy, but there's prolly a whole thread about that. I'm about 700% ok with piracy. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/98979749@N08/9291381776/" title="psx games by junkerseed, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5450/9291381776_a83762a0f2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="psx games"></a> So, think of it this way, da Ouya is a $99 machine that recognizes your wifi and pairs up with your PS3 and Xbox 360 controllers so when your friends come over, you can boot up Alien vs Predator arcade for MAME and play 3 player with controllers you already have, then when they leave, you can chill on your couch with your companion animal and finish your playthrough of the translated Seiken Densetsu 3 rom. Every once in a while, they'll put out a cool game that's actually for the Ouya, like, Gunslugs, Towerfall, or Amazing Frog, and you'll remember it's its own game system, but for now, Lester the Unlikely isn't on the Virtual console, and I've gotta play it somewhere! This is definitely not for everyone. If you have your PC hooked up to your television, you have plenty of indie games and emulators in your living room as is; you probably don't need the meager library of Ouya exclusives that will come into being. That being said, a lot of folks seem to be knocking this thing for not being as powerful as most newer android phones and having some lame stuff in the store. People seem to be missing the point, the Ouya isn't about how powerful it is, or even it's exclusive titles. It's about THE REVOLUTION man. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tips if you actually plan on buying one: A powered USB hub will seriously be helpful. You will want a flashdrive or external HD plugged in pretty much at all times so if you want any wired gamepads on there you'll need extra ports. If you plan on using you wired Xbox 360 controller,s you'll need the Microsoft wireless usb receiver to recognize your controller. Microsoft has fucking proprietary wireless tech so the Ouya's bluetooth (and your PC for that matter) won't recognize your 360 controller without it. Thankfully one receiver will recognize multiple controllers. PS3 controllers work out of the box. INPUT LAG. So, apparently, this is mostly a kickstarter issue, but Ouya is replacing controllers due to a lot of input lag. I absolutely experienced it, and it made stuff pretty much unplayable until I started using my 360 pad. Interestingly enough, there is no input lag at all with xbox and ps3 controllers. My Xbox controller is better anyway, but I'll be sending my Ouya controller back and I think folks have been saying it's not an issue anymore for the most part. Aside from that, the Ouya controller is serviceable, but for gods sake, don't buy and extra one. You can hook your cat up to this fucking thing, I'm sure you have a gamepad somewhere laying around you can use for multiplayer stuff.

I thought this was a lot of fun, and I don't particularly like Gullermo Del Toro. I've wanted to like this guy's movies for the longest time because he's such a smart dude, but Blade 2 and the Hellboys don't really do it for me. I wasn't realy expecting to like this but I very much did. The effects are wonderful, There's clearly a lot of practical stuff as well as CG, and the robots look old and beaten and the action is very well directed and super creative and fun. It's not too tongue in cheek and most of the characters and performances are perfect. Idris Elba is awesome, commanding, and hilarious. My only issue with it is that the main character is boring as fucking toast. My god, not only is he the whitest, blondest dude in the world, but I just forgot every word he said after he said it and could just give one fuck about him at all. Thankfully the supporting cast was very memorable; give me a movie about the Japanese girl.

Holy fucking shit, I need to get my ass back to Miami! This is fucking amazing. Speaking of the more obscure/novelty stuff, Is there any part of you that would be interested in a Phillips cd-i? I have one stuffed in a closet that I've plugged in a few times and fucked around with, but I don't have the shelf space/ inputs to justify having this thing hooked up all the time.

errrr, late to the party on Binding of Isaac and regular Far Cry 3. Binding of Isaac is fantastic. I've always wondered if there could be like an "arcade rougelike" and they fuckin NAIL IT. When I first died in that game after picking up all this cool shit, I was like, "wait a second, do they expect to do all that shit again?" no, they expect me to DO IT BETTER. Far cry 3 is great for the same reasons far cry 2 is... I shoot one guy, the next guy tries to sound an alarm so I burn the brush between him and the alarm and dudes try to flank me so I toss a grenade and run up to them in the confusion and serious tactical shit is going on. Eventually I make it out by commandeering a speedboat and getting the fuck out of there and into another crazy situation. All the while some fucking AWFUL meta-deerhunterish storyline is going on where my bro-dude is getting more brodude-like because he's starting to like killing people. If this is what "meaningful" games are like count me the fuck out! Even the loading screen is pretentious! Along with "loading" you see flashes of words like "lick," "father," "fuck," and "kill." Far Cry 3 is at best written like a god-awful student film. And this is coming form someone who would love to see a game that comments on the shooter genre in some meaningful way. Its honestly embarrassing to let the cutscenes for this thing play out in my apartment. That being said, shooting people in the throat with the bow is pretty rad, so I think I'll finish it. I actually look forward to Blood Dragon because it has no pretenses to something that it absolutely is not capable of: ie some grand statement on games. Anybody know if SpecOps: The Line is less stupid about this kind of thing?

Lots of fun! Does Shane Black actually like christmas this much or was somebody like "Hey, Lethal Weapon boy, set this shit during christmas. Jump, monkey!" I mean, it's getting kind of silly. After watching this I'm surprisingly absent of any kind of "superhero movie fatigue" that people write about. I could watch plenty of great looking, well acted, fun movies like these. With the Marvel movies, it's getting to be like an awesome, incredibly high production value TV series with different writers and directors but the same basic look and feel that give a satisfying sense of continuity and a reliable stream of awesome. Please conglomerate, make more product!

Playing this goddamned candy box game. It basically takes everything about the idea of "progress" and "grinding" or something and organizes it into a completely minimal system with really nice moments of discovery. I think I'm getting "good" at it? I don't know what this thing is, but I'm enjoying it. Definitely one to go into knowing veyr little about it. http://candies.aniwey.net/

It's finally summer! It's been so fucking cold. First warm day of the year, pop/punk all day Also a lot fo the Undertones and not just because of this song:

Very interested, but since I got a Galaxy III phone recently I'm kinda like "wtf happened to all the great mobile games!" I still break out my ipod touch to play the fantastic indie games like Punch quest, mages gauntlet, 100 Rogues, Hero Academy, Every Jeff Minter game (llamatron guy) etc and I get to the Android market and there is JACK SHIT worth of anything. I'm basically playing super hexagon and emulators all day Only the biggest of the big games get ported and there is nothing android specific that is really great that I can't get on IOS. Sure, google doesn't screen the aps, but apparently that hasn't resulted in one single indie game worth playing on Android that doesnt exist on the heavily screened ios app store (I feel very similarly about the xbox 360 "indie" section; I have never seen anything remotely interesting on there, it seems that all the good indes make it to the "arcade" seciton) I play the shit out of emulators on my droid, but I have an actual SNES genesis etc for that at home; I don't need a console for emulation. I hope the Ouya is successful enough to push developers to make shit that is droid specific or at least port more IOS games over (I'm very happy to see 100 rogues as slated for Ouya release) also, how will all these touch screen games play on that controller?

Fantastic game. The combat really does get more fun as it goes along. Vigors are a lot more fun to use that Plasmids were in Bioshock. A lot of it is the level design. There's a good mix of wide open and enclosed spaces so I'm often switching my weapons, vigors and tactics. There are tons of opportunities for cover, skylines, multiple elevations, and lots of interactive stuff lying around giving you options for how you want to wreak havok. I felt like I was choosing how I wanted to play, and that there were certainly a dozen other ways I could have approached combat successfully with different weapons and vigors. Skylines are awesome, but I I think they were underused. There were a bunch of times I had the option of a skyline in a smaller area, but not many times where I had to use the skylines. Not enough crazy roller coaster fights for my taste. The story was a blast until the end and as folks have been saying, the ending is certainly intriguing and exciting. 1000 times better than the lame Bioshock 1 ending. I did find it a bit easy though, I played on normal, and while it was nice to choose weapons based on what I thought looked cool (handcannon and shotty for me) as opposed to what worked best, I found that I could kind of annihilate anyone without much trouble, and without much incentive to change up what I was doing. Eventually there are a couple of enemies that were tough, but I rarely ran into much trouble. I'm playing through on 1999 mode now, and while it's fun and definitely hard enough, I think some of Infinite's flaws as a shooter show a bit more. My main complaint is the AI. They don't do anything. I could stay behind a piece of cover for an eternity and these guys would just hold back for ages, until they eventually run directly into my sights. They don't do very much to flank you or have any interesting abilities of their own. The vast majority of enemies just shoot straight at you from various distances and with various amounts of armor. Instead of the harder difficulty forcing me to be more creative, find new ways to use vigors and weapons, etc, I'm actually just sniping everyone from super far away and spamming the same two vigors when anyone gets close to me, where in normal mode I was doing crazy vigor combos to knock people off columbia, gathering enemies into crazy big clusters to blow em all up/ have their eyes pecked out, etc. Not that it's meant to be played on the harder difficulty setting, but sometimes on normal mode I felt myself thinking "maybe if I didn't set them on fire and blow their brains out the minute I saw them, these enemies would do something more interesting!" but that's not really the case. This games basically has the AI from DOOM. Anyway, good shit, lived up to the hype, though I think it's better to think of the Bioshock franchise as games that's really smart for a shooters rather than really smart games with some shooting in them. Maybe more plot specific comments later after I kill it on 1999. A lot fo the plot is even better the 2nd time through.

JP over here too. Goddamn if it isn't one of the best movies ever made. It's very strange seeing something from the 90s and something by Spielberg in 3d. It's shot in such a specific way, It looks a little weird at first but you get used to it and it looks great. The 3d doesn't detract at all, as it's mostly the "into the screen" type that seems to be more prevalent now.If there was ever a movie made to be seen on the big screen it's this one. It sounded awesome it looks incredible, and Laura Dern fucking rules.. I knew the special effects hold up, but I still can't think of anything Hollywood has produced. that looks better than the T Rex in this film., The combination of CGI, animatronics, stop motion, and GUY IN FUCKING RAPTOR SUIT is just shit that people don't do anymore, and it boggles my mind that we haven't done any better in 20 years. I would love to catch this again before it's out of theaters. Also, it really made me wanted to play my Genesis, SNES, and Sega cd Jurassic Park games.

Finally someone is makin' some sense around here.

I loved it! SO much better than I thought it would be. I saw it just because the movie time matched up with a hole in my day and I was thoroughly entertained. The last thing we need is for a movie like GI fucking Joe to be a self serious/morose bore like Nolan's Batman movies (flame war!). It's refreshing to see an action adventure movie not take itself too seriously and still be exciting. I actually think this guy is shaping up to be a super fun director. You can actually follow what the fuck is happening in the action scenes, it's not all just super fast cutting; the camera does some very neat panning around to follow the action and people do actual stunts. It's no coincidence that this guy has done a few dance movies and then this. He actually knows how to film movement on camera in an interesting way. I think the action in this was filmed in a way that blows something like Michael Bay's most recent stuff out of the water. It's incredibly fun and completely ridiculous (any scene where we see snake eyes walking around in the real world is fucking preposterous and funny as hell to me) but never winks at the camera and generally plays it straight. The little bit of interplay we get between the rock and Channing Tatum is legitimately endearing and fun and I generally think the humor hits. I think it gets a lot of this right where the expendables faltered. The jokes are jokes within the movie, they are not jokes about how stupid it is to be watching the movie. Bruce Willis gets to play kind of a character with a couple of good lines that aren't just about him being Bruce Willis! I don't know shit about the cartoon or comic, I'm sure they messed around with a lot but that wasn't really something I was concerned with. I will say this was almost the equivalent of watching a really rich kid play with toys for 2 hours, and I was very pleased with it. Anyway, I don't mean to rave so much about the sequel to the GI joe movie, but my ladyfriend and I were both beaming as we left theater, incredibly surprised with how much fun we had.

First impressions: first no spoilers, then tagged spoilers Whoa, this thing looks great! It's refreshing to play something bright and colorful, and the design is just nuts. Columbia is gorgeous and these guys have actually lived up to creating a place that outdoes rapture. I am just taking forever walking near every group of people to hear what they're saying, reading every bit of text, etc. The sort of "big idea" is very off putting and interesting and I'm excited to see where they take it. I cannot understate how much fun it is just to walk around and check out what they made. Every room tells a story, every object is relevant and every peek around every corner is rewarding. I find myself just running in the opposite direction of my objective arrow to make sure I've seen every little thing before I move on. Then I remember it's a shooter. When I replayed some of bioshock 1 recently I remembered that what I love about the game (its setting, most of its plot, the bigger ideas it tackles ) is secondary to what you actually do in the game, which is shooting the fuck out of everything that moves. If you asked me what Bioshock 1 was "about" I would want to say "oh, it's about the flaws of objectivism and the impossibility of a utopia" but really it's about circle strafing giant monsters while shooting them in the face. So too with infinite, I was initially excited to see some nonviolent NPC interaction and longer stretches where I talk to folks or find stuff, but I also remember that this is a shooter, and about half an hour in, I found myself circlestrafing a big monster man and shooting him repeatedly in the face. The combat is fine, it's getting more fun as I get more weapons/abilities but it actually seems to be a little bit at odds with what the game is really trying to do. I feel like when I tell someone "Wait, videogames have some really interesting things to say!" I will have to be like "Wait, well, first gouge this guys eyes out with your hook, then headshot those guys with your machinegun... eh forget it." That being said (very early spoiler, 1st hour) and (eh like 4 hours inish) PS I am really glad this game came out during my spring break.

Dan Deacon's new album is great. A lot like his last one, but there ain't nothin wrong with that. Fun idea for a video, too.

People were smoking weed in the fucking movie theater while I was watching Ted. That is all.

This is what bugs me about this one. The movie can't just pretend that it has interesting ideas in it, it has to actually have them. I'm all for being an active audience member and engaging with a film/story, but you guys are doing some heavy lifting that Nolan and co. sure as fuck didn't help very much with. Believe me, when Bane was like "Occupy Wall Street, revolution rah rah raaarrrr" my ears perked up, and then the movie went "stupid,, stupid, boom bam! Good guy, bad guy!" and I was like "oh, ok. nevermind". I wish the film were half as interesting as what you folks are discussing.

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LksGNgOgLsY?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LksGNgOgLsY?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LksGNgOgLsY?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> The man has a pretty phenomenal track record when it comes to dramas shot in Brooklyn. Come to think of it, looking over his filmography, Spike Lee is still going pretty goddamned strong. I don't know what this Oldboy remake bullshit is about, but this could be excellent.

trrrrrolllllllspam? Or legitimate human with only 6 posts pimping his band already? eh..... trolll......? Anyone? If you are a real person... hello! Anyways. Very soon... this! <object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP7NJ6zB-wY?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP7NJ6zB-wY?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP7NJ6zB-wY?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> Seeing these guys live is fucking insane and wonderful. I will report on whether I live through it.

Seeing a hell of a show tomorrow! Very glad that Carrie Brownstein is doing more than making fun of Portland these days. The WIld Flag album is great. Super catchy and rockin'. Not a bad track on there. <object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrtaMTYBU-A?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrtaMTYBU-A?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrtaMTYBU-A?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> Very very pumped to see Mission of Burma. They have no business putting out albums that are still good, but it's all pretty solid and I hear their new one is quite good. I'm finding it kind of impossible not to loop their first record, "Signals, Calls, and Marches" continuously.

I think he has actually kept it relatively sensical in terms of what's called what and why. I say so because his solo album is so fucking different from anything labeled SP including Adore. Like Oceania or not, it definitely sounds like SP, almost to a fault. (Seriously, the fucking octave interval on The first song, Quasar is what every SP song in the world is: Cherub Rock, Silverfuck, Jellybelly. etc etc etc) Zwan didn't count because the guys from Slint and Chavez probably actually had some say in writing some parts, and they probably wouldn't have done it if they were just joining an existing band. I think that album is just fine, again, this is coming from someone who listens to Machina B sides so I don't think my opinions count on the quality front.

Ehh.... Cloud Atlas kinda looks like The Fountain with more ass kicking in it. I fucking hated the fountain, and I kind of can't handle the "Everything is Connected" wankery that some people think passes for being deep. It does look pretty, and I'm all about Speed Racer, so I think the Wachows deserve a shot and I'll see it. Umm, the Master anyone? <object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pALMMIoxTzY?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pALMMIoxTzY?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pALMMIoxTzY?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> I missed if this has been posted about, but this is all I can think of until Sep. 14th.

I'm a pretty huge SP fan and given the loss of Jimmy (who is a great drummer and was definitely integral on every SP album but adore) I was not expecting to enjoy this one but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't hate Zeitgeist as much as most did; I thought the more rockin tracks like Tarantula, Bring the Light, and United States of America were pretty great, but it was super uneven and the softer moments were kind of intolerable. On Oceania the softer moments might be the highlight, and the guitar theatrics on stuff like Chimera and Quasar don't disappoint. It just seems that for some reason, Corgan's song writing chops were on point for this one. Of course, his lyrics are still pretty cringe-worthy, and you will have to stomach him singing "Krishna, ride on!" just 5 seconds into the album, but that's never been his strongsuit. If you have any interest whatsoever in hearing what SP sounds like now, this is a breath of fresh air. Here's a standout for me. <object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liy517_9II8?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liy517_9II8?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liy517_9II8?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6kb3_A7rI?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6kb3_A7rI?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6kb3_A7rI?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> This is why nothing in the Batman Trilogy looks completely stupid or like a cartoon. Nolan only uses CG combined with things that he actually shot. It also helps the action maintain the look of the rest of the film because everything is actually shot by the director and lit by the same crew that has been lighting everything else. Between his approach to VFX and his "fuck you it's shot on film and it's not in 3d" attitude I definitely have mad respect for Nolan; while I definitely have my issues with his movies, he does seem to have some serious integrity for a guy who's making enormous budget films about Batman.