Thor's Hammer entire store up for grabs?

Apparently Thor's Hammer went under and the entire stock is up on the auction block. Here's the ad on craigslist.

Yet another Dune remake and more!

Saw on Variety that there's going to another Dune adaptation in the works. This one will be directed by Peter Berg (The Kingdom). Apparently the producer just got rights to the story and they are looking for a writer. I guess that's cool but I have to wonder who's going to be in it. I predict Shia The Beef will be Paul Atredies. You heard it here first. 2:1.

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On the right is one of the music players from GTA IV. Looks like this particular world/funk station is being hosted by Femi Kuti. All signs point to the fact that this game is going to be more awesome than...well anything.

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Well I didn't know that the terms bobbie and peeler (both British terms for police) originated from the name of British Home Secretary Robert Peel. Robert Peel was instrumental in helping Parliament create the London Metropolitan Police Act in 1829. Now the line, "He's a Peeler 716 come to arrest the Zulu." makes much more sense.

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Why are people so surprised when I know off the top of my head wether or not we have a book in stock? I only look at the fucking things day in and day out for months on end. If there was anything interesting or good in stock I'd know about it - and it probably wouldn't be out on the shelves for people to get all grubby. Perhaps people doubt my cognitive abilities because of the dunce cap and rope of drool hanging from my lip.

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More shouting and jumping up and down to be continued. Stay tuned.

The Strangers (May 2008) - Trailer

The Strangers - Official Trailer.
Uploaded by LivGirl47

Bully: Scholarship Edition (2008)

Rockstar blah blah blah fanboy blah blah blah. Bully blah blah blah fanboy blah blah blah w00t! Haven't tried the multiplayer blah blah blah.

Pick this up because GTA IV doesn't come out for another month. It's actually a really fun (and funny) game - despite the freezes a.k.a. "technical issues". Just save often and restart if there's a freeze up. It doesn't happen very often.

10,000 B.C. (2008) dir. Roland Emmerich

I wouldn't have wanted to see this movie except for the fact that I love insane prehistory tales, weird adventure tales, and ripping yarns. Historically inaccurate? Hey egghead go back to your learn-a-terium. What kicks more ass? Cavemen digging around in their own filth or cavemen being enslaved and using mammoths to build pyramids? If I wanted science and crap I'd watch National Geographic.

10, 000 B.C. is pulp. Pure, stupid, stare slack jawed at the moving pictures, "Oh, what the hell." fun. Does it suck? Yes. Is it awesome? Yes. It's the kind of movie you go see when you visit the family. We saw it on vacation at the only theater in Nacogdoches, TX. Frankly I think the best way to have seen 10,000 B.C. would be at a drive-in theater. Plus if it had been rated R it could have been totally awesome - as is it lacks both nudity and gore.

If you've seen the preview you know what you're getting. This ain't Chekov but it doesn't need to be. I think part of the reason I like the movie so much is because I am imagining Roland Emmerich talking people into making the movie. Sitting around with his producers and saying, "You know, I've always wanted to make a prehistoric movie." It makes me laugh thinking of the pitch and people working on the movie having a good time and saying, "ROFL, we're making a caveman movie!"

Another plug for Chromehounds and assorted minor items.

I am going to plug Chromehounds again because I am addicted to it - like a fat kid loves cake. I've actually started watching videos of 'Hound builds and combat. It's a good thing I have an understanding woman because I would never get one - this game is one the verge of preventing me from sleeping or leaving the house.

I did pick up a copy of Bully: Scholarship Edition for the 360. I couldn't help it. The previous incarnation for the PS2 was a solid and fun Rockstar outing. This edition is more of the same plus some new additions. A review will be upcoming.

In other news...well...there isn't really any other news. Hope you guys are doing well.

Diary of the Dead (2008) dir. George A Romero

"When there's no more room in Hell the dead will blog."

That's kind of how Diary of the Dead felt. The movie wasn't bad - it was better than Land of the Dead - but in no way was it even remotely close to the original. If you've seen the rest of Romero's zombie movies you know what you are getting: paint by number zombies, some gore - though this one was a lot less gory than I was hoping for, a touch of humor, and heavy handed social commentary. Pretty much you are either going to see this movie or you're not.

The basic idea is that some film students are out filming when the zom-pacalypse breaks out. Most of the movie is shot from a docu-aspect with the maker keeping the camera stuck to his face even when zombies are attacking his friends in front of him. He keeps filming because "people have to know the truth". Film maker, assorted fellow students, and drunken Professor drive around Pennsylvania filming the truth, dispatching zombies, and checking in on relatives. When I think about it Diary of the Dead is pretty paint by numbers. The heavy handed social commentary consists of the Government/Media lying to us, Homeland Security being a joke, if the way humanity treats itself when the chips are down (terrible) is humanity really worth saving (I don't need a zom-pacalypse to answer that), and it's up to the digital culture to carry the shining torch of truth. Oh yeah and Romero has a cameo as a government/military official telling us, "Everything is going to be okay."

At least it was better than Land of the Dead. I guess. The more I think about it the less I like it.

Gary Gygax: HP 0. Resurrected in better plane.

Gary Gygax has passed on at the age of 69. He was one of the guys in the USA to develop what we know of as RPGs. If you're familiar with the game Dungeons & Dragons - or any of the many TSR (formerly TSR) products - then you have Gygax to thank. Pretty much RPGs wouldn't be jack without his contributions. Cheers to you Gary Gygax, cheers to you.

Hedgie pic Monday.

As some of you may know I love hedge hogs. I don't know why. Normally I am a cat person but there's just something about hedge hogs. In any case thanks to Jenna for the picture.

Rating!

Check it out. Over there on the right. A rating from blogged.com. Not too shabby. You should go over there and shamelessly plug my site. Or not.

Chromehounds (2006) - Initial thoughts.

I am only a couple of hours into Chromehounds and already I am hooked. It wasn't really all that great until I linked up four assault machine guns to fire at once. In the immortal words of Clarence Boddicker, "GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!". Then I started really tinkering with constructing - with what limited resources I have - a mech or 'Hound as they are known in this game(sidenote: If you're not familiar with the term mech then just think about big fucking robots with big fucking guns).

I really dig this game and look forward to seriously putting some time into it. Basically the whole premise is "Blah, blah, blah, war. Blah, blah, blah, mercenaries. Join a squad, train, get better gear, blast the living hell out of other squads. Attempt to win war. It's the customization and squad combat on Live that I'm looking forward to. I just have to keep building my funds and supplies so my 'Hound is the equivalent of a soapbox racer at the Indy 500.

If I can get a screen capture I'll put it on here.

Rise (2007) dir. Sebastian Gutierrez

Rise lasted about a week in the theater and it's easy to see why. Vampire movies are a tough sell that seem to come into their own when they are available to watch at home. I don't know why and that may be a whacko guess but it seems true. The general public just doesn't really seem to care or it might be that most vampire movies are pretty bad.

Rise isn't bad. It's not great but it's not bad and the amount of nudity and blood definitely improved it. At one point I joked that the movie should've been called "Lucy Liu doesn't wear a shirt". One of the high points of the movie is Cameron Richardson in lingerie. Seriously.

The acting isn't bad at all. Some of the best scenes are between Michael Chikilis and Lucy Liu. The score is fairly forgetable. Amanda noticed that the sound editing was off or needed to be dialed back - footsteps sounded absurdly loud.

Amanda enjoyed this movie a lot more than I did but then again she's a vampire movie fan.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, assorted news & notes.

Hope you folks had a good weekend. We laid low and since chores were done last weekend there wasn't anything pressing that needed doing. I jumped back into Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and polished off the main story line of Shivering Isles and the Knights of the Nine quest. I still have a pretty ridiculous amount of gameplay left in it if I really wanted to get my money's worth but really - do I really care that much about closing all sixty Oblivion Gates? What sucks is I'd like to create a new character but I don't want to have to go through all the work - to the tune of 230+ hours of gaming.

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Picked up Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the DS Lite - basically a point & click puzzle game. I really enjoy it but occasionally the puzzles make me feel like this Penny Arcade comic. I really do enjoy the puzzles. They range from "move the matchstick..." to optical illusions to word problems to "How the fuck was I supposed to know that !?!". I kind of like the fact that it's as challenging as it is but there's often a straight forward solution if you don't get frazzled. The game also has a really unique look to it - almost as if it were in Triplets of Belville-verse. I can only play the game for brief periods of time before getting frustrated because I am lunkhead who can't remember the Pythagorean Theorem.

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I have been hankering for a mech game but as far as I can tell there are only two for the 360: Chromehounds & Armored Core 4 - neither of which really sound all that awesome. Chromehounds does sound better - it focuses on online mech squad play. I often wonder why there's such a serious lack in the mech department. Who wouldn't want to play a game with giant robots bashing the shit out of things?

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That's it in a nutshell. Started taking medication so we'll see how that works out. Hope all of you are well and have a good week.

It's funny because it's true.

Acheivement Whores - Watch more free videos

007 and the modicum of chillax: first look at the teaser poster.

Netflix & XBOX Live or how I pooped on myself even more.

So there was an article on MSNBC about a possible merger between Netflix & XBOX Live. I'm a big fan of being able to download movies from XBOX Live so expanding the collection available would be pretty darn neat. While I do miss special features more often than not the special features are worthless anyway - unless it Guillermo Del Toro. I hope this comes to pass.

Movie Review Query Engine or how I just pooped on myself.

I was looking for reviews of Death Wish and came across the Movie Review Query Engine. As some of you may know I love reading reviews - good and bad. It's pretty cool to be able to check out reviews from all types of sources not just the few on metacritic.com

The Brave One (2007) Dir. Neil Jordan

It's very difficult not to make comparisons between The Brave One (2007) and Taxi Driver (1976) or Death Wish (1974). The Brave One plays like a combination of the two but can't really make the movie gel. There are other vengeance movies but these three in particular use New York City not only as a location but as a character. Unlike the NYC of thirty years ago today's NYC is a "Disneyland, safe for tourists and out-of-towners" and "the safest big city in the world." The Brave One chips at this new and shiny veneer but never really gets past it.

The basic premise of The Brave One is pretty simple. Jodie Foster plays Erica Bain, a public radio talk show host who wanders the city recording ambient sound and saying public radio stuff about the changing city, etc, etc. If you listen to NPR you'll know what I mean. Her fiance is the Indian guy from Lost - Naveen Andrews. I was worried there would be some sort racial hate crime factor but there wasn't. I was also glad to see that Jodie Foster wasn't a lesbian - that would have been too heavy handed and would have turned the movie into a preachier IFC movie. One night Erica and her fiance take their dog for a walk in Central Park. A gang of hoodlums take the dog, beat the fiance to death, and put Jodie Foster in a coma. It's actually a jarringly violent scene - as it should be - but it's also given a eerily realistic quality by the fact that one of the assailants is digitally recording it. I don't know why that aspect made me uneasy - possibly because sick fuckers actually do this and rewatch it for fun. Bain ends up in a coma for weeks, wakes up, and is a total mental trainwreck who can't leave her apartment. Then one day she buys a pistol and we all know what happens after that.

Foster is pretty good in The Brave One and Terence Howard is hands down one of my current favorite actors. The cinematography is solid and Neil Jordan is still a pretty sharp director. Unfortunately the script and story are pretty weak with and ending that pretty much flushes any message or credibility the movie could have had. I was actually looking forward to a film about the effects of intense violence on a person - mentally, spiritually, ethically, and morally (what I was hoping to get from A History of Violence)- and the effects of her vigilante rampage would have on the general public. These were all touched upon in the movie but only in passing, Bernie Goetz is mentioned even. I guess I was also expecting a "bad old New York" feel - a.k.a. beneath all the lights and sparkle there's a festering sewer of humanity. The first half of the movie is actually pretty good now that I think about it but the second half is a complete and total cop-out. The ending seems like it was tacked on because test audiences didn't like the real ending.

In the end The Brave One falls pretty flat and doesn't put any real focus on any of the issues that could have been addressed. Disappointing at best.

Upcoming games I think I will purchase...or rent...

The Long Kinda Sorta Maybe Good Friday.

Kind of a quick rundown today - nothing major that I know of:

• Was sent an email by Mike this morning directing me to a link on Ain't it Cool about the digital editing of the US trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. At first I was pretty annoyed but the annoyance has shifted over to, "Well that's fucking typical." Apparently MP40s (German submachine guns) are not supposed to be pointed at our heroes. I rewatched the trailer with a more critical eye and realize that the CGI doesn't really look all that good. I'm a little disappointed but remember that the Indy series has some terrible FX. I guess I'll just have to get over it.
• One of my favorite webcomics Questionable Content has taken a sort of surprising direction. Not to say that I didn't see it coming I just didn't think that it would actually happen. Hey, some people watch WB shows. I read webcomics.
• I'm working on adding/tweaking/fiddling the links at the bottom of the page as well as some of the feeds and good stuff like that. Trying to make it a little more one stop shopping.
• BCIII has been adding more trailers and good stuff over at http://pihytrailers.blogspot.com/.
• If any of you have a copy of James Horner's score for Krull please let me know. Don't mock just because it's Krull - it's a really good score.
• The GTAIV site is live. I am torn between devouring all the info I can and just avoiding any and all news about it.

That's all for now folks. Hope you guys have a good weekend. I'm gonna be on lockdown because the house is a shambles and I'm wearing my emergency clean clothes.