I finished watching My Bloody Valentine, but in 2D this time. It kind of sucked without the 3D gimmick, and I'm glad I was able to catch it in its recommended 3D experience.

A lot of the shots done just seem so cheesy, ie. the multiple shots of stuff flying at the screen. Its very obvious that they were done specifically for the 3D effect, but it just comes off as bad when its 2D. Also, the way they shot the movie, without the 3D effect, it looks like another DTV horror flick shot on a bad HD camera.

Anyhow, hopefully when its released on DVD, they'll have a 3D version intact, with glasses included. Later geeks.

Categories: horror , movies , my bloody valentine

My friends, there's been a lack of gaming updates on my blog. The sole reason is Grand Theft Auto 4. I started playing it right after I finished Prince of Persia last month, and I'm still tackling it. I'm aiming for 100% game completion (a paramount achievement if I can do it), and if you're familiar with GTA games, then you'll know how crazy this undertaking is. Well, I'm almost there!

Anyhow, Metal Slug Anthology. This game is a collection of SNK's Metal Slug series which includes the first six numbered games plus Metal Slug X.

If you enjoy old school side-scrolling shooter games (like Contra) then surely you will love Metal Slug. It has a distinctly unique uber-violent cartoon style, chock full of blood and guts.

Throughout the series, you get to fight an eclectic mix of bad guys including soldiers, zombies, mummies and aliens. The first few games focuses more on fighting a faux-Nazi-type army led by a Hitler-like dictator. As you progress through the series, the style begins to bend more to the sci-fi theme more than the war theme.

If you're looking for a challenging side-scroller, then MSA might not be what you're looking for. The game is simply too easy by the fact that you're offered unlimited continues. You can play as recklessly as you want and it's no better than playing carefully. Also the gameplay suffers repetitiveness, so its probably best to leave gaps of time between each game (instead of finishing one per night, eep).

If you have a friend with the game, the PSP version allows you to connect with the ad-hoc to play co-operatively which can be fun. It's too bad there's no integrated wireless network to allow you to play with people worldwide.

I can't really recommend a 'buy' here, unless you really love Metal Slug. But if you should choose to buy it, I say wait until you can find a used copy for $20.

Later geeks.





Categories: gaming , metal slug , psp

Well, needless to say, I watch a lot of movies but most of them don't get reviewed on my blog because either a.) the movies suck too much and not worth my time, b.) were too mediocre or c.) not geeky enough. So in the interest of fairness, from now on, if any movies I watch fall into any of the above categories, I now reserve the right to write (homonyms yay!) short haiku reviews of the movies in question instead of a full fledged review. On to the fun! And here... we... go.

The Uninvited

Korean remake;
Was better than expected;
Not too much on scares.

Banks played a good bitch;
Browning pretty good in lead;
Kebbel is a babe.







The Day the Earth Stood Still (remake)

Shames original;
It tries to make a statement;
Felt very hollow.

Reeves was good in role;
Jaden... let dad do acting;
John Cleese was surprise.







The Spirit

What a crock of shit;
Waste of talented actors;
Lion's Gate, you fail!

Fell asleep for half;
Frank Miller, stick with writing;
No more films for you!







Punisher: War Zone

Tried to be Batman;
Acting... story... all were bad;
Marvel, stop this shit.

Action was gory;
And Stevenson looked the part;
There ends all the goods.

Categories: movies , punisher , review haikus , the spirit , uninivited

It's been a few years since Copeland last came to Toronto. Last night they returned to play The Opera House to a packed crowd. This is the third time I seen them and This Providence play live and both were not a let down. It was pretty cool in that all the bands on the bill were scene Christian-based bands; the faith connection always makes things feel a step deeper for me.

The show opened up with Brooke Waggoner, who until last night, I never heard of. I think it took the crowd by surprise as they walked on stage with a few stringed instruments. She plays a folksy-indie-jazz style, which is pretty unique compared to the music I usually listen to. Her little ensemble consisted of a pianist, synths, a violinist, a cellist and a guitarist. It was definitely an interesting way to start off the show.


Paper Route then came on stage and added a more upbeat tempo to the night's music. With drums and a synth set, the mood was changed to upbeat rock compared to the more mellow approach by Brooke Waggoner. I wasn't too into them, but the crowd was, so I'll defer to them on this band.


After a relatively short set, This Providence took the stage. They hit the crowd up with a bunch of straight up rock tunes ranging their whole discography. It was a pretty good set and on par with what you'd expect from them.

Finally, Copeland took stage. If you're not familiar with their style, they have a kind of atmospheric indie rock style to their sound. Their first two LP's were a bit more pop, while their last two have been more mellow and melodic. The highlight of their set was when they covered Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight". But it must have been over the heads of all the kids at the show, I think I was only one of the few singing along. A good show altogether, they didn't disappoint.

You can check out all the other pictures (here). I recorded a bunch of videos, below are two of them:

This Providence - That Girl's a Trick


Copeland - Tonight, Tonight



Links to the other videos:
Copeland - When Paula Sparks
Copeland - Brightest
Copeland - Pin Your Wings

Categories: brooke waggoner , concerts , copeland , music , paper route , this providence

Two new shows that have really caught my attention this season are Kings and Eastbound & Down.

Kings is a modern day retelling of the story of David from the Bible. It takes place in a fictional city called Shiloh within the country of Gilboa who are at war with the rival nation, Gath.
The story focuses on the ruler, King Silas and his family as they deal with all the issues of being in royalty and the public eye. There's a struggle for power and each member has his/her own personal agenda at the top. A young soldier named David is introduced and shortly after becomes a hero for taking down some "Goliaths" and saving the King's son from the Gath army. David becomes beloved by the Gilboa nation and is skyrocketed to celebrity-status. The story then focuses on David's eventual ascension to power and his headbutting with the current King.

So far, the story stays pretty true to the Bible, but of course some artistic liberties are taken. If you're at all familiar with the story, then you pretty much know where things are going, it's just how they get there that causes the intrigue.

The show stars Chris Egan (who bears quite a resemblance to Matt Damon) as the hero soldier, David Shepherd. He does a pretty good job as our immaculate hero and holds his own with other heavyweights on the show. The ultimate bad-ass, Ian McShane (of Deadwood fame), plays the illustrious King Silas and he's everything you would imagine him to be in this role. His level of acting clearly stands out from this show's ensemble.

What I love about the show is the dialogue. It's in modern english, but there's a certain flair or characteristic about it that makes it unnatural, almost as if you were watching a David Mamet play or something. It helps to keep the dialogue sharp and the characters sharper.

Catch it on NBC on Sundays at 8pm. There's a good chance that the show won't get a second season due to the lackluster ratings but it's still more original than all those police-drama-shit shows that seem to fill up primetime television.

The awesomeness of Danny McBride continues in Eastbound & Down. Following his acclaim in 2008's The Foot Fist Way and Pineapple Express, McBride
finds himself as the frontrunner in this show as a former major league baseball pitcher, Kenny Powers. He resides with his brother and his family in a smaller town, as he takes a job of being a substitute teacher. The show follows him as he tries to train and make it back to the major leagues.

The show's collaborators include Jody Hill, David Gordon Green and Will Ferrell (who also makes a few appearances as a Ric Flair-like car salesman named Ashely Schaeffer). If you're at all familiar with their style of comedy, then you'll know what to expect with EB&D. It's vulgar, raunchy and juvenile all at the same time... there's no stopping the Kenny Powers express.

The first season finished in March and is only 6 episodes long, so it won't take you long to get through them all. So far, all of my friend's who I've recommended this show to have loved it. And the good news for fans is that last week HBO renewed them for a second season.

If you're internet savvy at all I'm sure you can find either of these shows on some website. Check either out if you have time. Later geeks.


Kings trailer:



Eastbound and Down clip:





Categories: danny mcbride , eastbound and down , kings , tv

When I was 16, I worked at Canada's Wonderland, the amusement park here in Toronto. I worked a bunch of the food stands/booths; booths where you bought slushies or snow cones or ice cream, and even a few popcorn booths. Those days were so slow; imagine 8 hours standing at a booth selling people shit. Man, I don't know how I did it. There were a few games that I played by myself to pass the time. One such game was to do my best to not look at my watch, and see how long I could last (I don't think I did better than 3 hours at my best even though it felt like 8). Another one I tried was to see how long I could fall asleep for before getting caught (I had sunglasses on to avert any attention). I was never caught, but the naps were no longer than 10 minutes at the most. And of course I'd oggle the tightly-clad teens whenever they'd pass by. The best was when... wait... I'm not gonna tell that story. Hey I was 16, I was raging with hormones. Ahhh, the memories.

Anyhow. What was I going to talk about again? Ahhh yes, Adventureland.

Adventureland follows a group of young 20-somethings as they work through the summer trying to make money for the upcoming college semisters. We mainly follow a young man named James, who had to bail on a trip to Europe because of the lack of funds, ends up moving away to Pittsburgh and picks up a job at an amusement park, so that he has enough money for grad school. He goes through all the mundane motions of working at the park, when his attention turns towards a fellow co-worker named Em. All the other guys at the park drool and long for a buxom young girl named Lisa P., but not James. James has his eyes set on Em, because she is witty, more mature and seems real, all things considered. The movie explores their relationship and all the ongoings at the park, and how every little incident affects everyone around them.

This is Greg Mottola's sophomore theatrical release, a follow-up to his 2007 hit, Superbad. If anything, Adventureland proves that Mottola is a great story teller and one who is able to draw the emotions out of the viewers to care for the characters. Characters make mistakes and we feel for them, we don't blame anyone because we can see it's a shitty deal for everyone. There are no heroes or bad guys in this movie, just people living out their lives.

The trailers for this movie fooled me. I was expecting some raunchy, dirty filled comedy. I wish they didn't market this movie as that kind of comedy, because instead its focused more on its dramatic side and is more of a thoughtful film. There are lots of funny moments scattered amongst it's 102 minute runtime, but I think the movie is more concerned with showing this piece of life, how it's like as a young 20-something year old.

Jesse Eisenberg took on the lead role as James. Admittedly, I haven't seen any of his other movies, but I found that he was able to bring the charm out of this character, so it was all good. The only thing that seemed awkward to me was that either his character or his performance seemed to be emulating Michael Cera (in any of his movies), and so I have to wonder if this role was originally written for him. Kristen Stewart of Twilight fame was quite the fetching young lass as Em. She was perfect in this role, and I couldn't think of another young actress that could have filled this part as she did. She just has that spacy or stoned look in her eyes that worked for her character. SNL's Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig played the two zany amusement park owners and were the only two truly funny people in this movie. The few scenes they were in were pure gold.

I really enjoyed this movie, it had a feel good feel to it. I will say that I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped to, only because I was convinced that it was going to be this laugh out loud comedy (that's not to say I didn't enjoy it though, far from). I'm going to pick it up on DVD when it comes out, and I have no doubt that it will grow on me after repeated viewings. You can view the trailer here (Youtube / Quicktime). Later geeks!

Categories: adventureland , comedy , drama

This weekend my friend Lorna treated me as her guest on a visit to the Metro Toronto Zoo. You see, she is a teacher, and on Sunday it was teacher's day where you were allowed free admission for yourself and a guest. It's been 18 years since I've been to the zoo here in Toronto, so when we planned it out a few weeks ago, I was majorly pumped! I mean I was going to see all sorts of wacky animals; most likely a bunch of animals I've never heard or knew existed... who wouldn't be pumped? But man, the place is expensive. If you couldn't get in free, you were looking at $21 CDN in admissions for an adult, or $13 for any children. So if you have a 5 person family, you'd be pushing $100 just to get into the park. Shit man. Them animals must be eating expensive shit.

So after a night of partying and clubbing with some school chums, I woke up early on Sunday to meet Lorna for our day at the zoo. I will say this. The day was awesome, but as we saw more and more animals, I began to feel sadder and sadder for them. Just seeing these animals confined to small spaces really put things into perspective. It made me think of the movie Madagascar; I wanted these poor fuckers to collaborate and form a plan to bust free of this joint... of course with penguins driving the ship.


So many animals were sleeping or were sluggish. They seemed so finished with the place. It got to the point where, if an animal did something so mundane as stand up or walk around, we'd get excited because we got to see something. One such example is when we got to the "African Savannah" area. There were a bunch of lions sleeping and at one point, the male lion stood up roared a few times to please the crowd, and immediately plopped back on the ground for some sleep. What a worker. Can't fault the guy. He gave us what we paid for.


The star of the whole show was this baby orangutan that they had in the Indo-Malay pavilion. The little dude was climbing ropes, swinging on poles, and just having the best time of his life. And it was awesome because it's mother joined him on all the swinging action once she saw what he was doing.


For some reason, whenever me and Lorna hang out, we tend to see various people (or characters, I'd like to say) that entertain us with their comedy. For example, we went to see this rhino at one of the areas, and there was this family there beside us. I nicknamed the father, Deadbeat Dad. Anyhow, here is the conversation that transpired:

Little Girl: "Look daddy! It's a hippo!"
Deadbeat Dad: "No hun, it's a rhino."
Little Girl: "It's a hippo!"
Deadbeat Dad: "Fine. Call it whatever you want. I don't care."
*cue in my laughter*
*cue in Lorna's laughter*
*we both look at Deadbeat Dad, and Deadbeat Dad looks at us*
*cue in his laughter*

Maybe it's just us, but afterwards we couldn't stop laughing. And I'm still laughing now that I'm thinking about it. Anyhow, you can see the rest of the photos (here). Later geeks.

Categories: life stuff , nostalgia , zoo

Wrestlemania has come and gone for the year 2009. It was the 25th anniversary of their biggest PPV, but they certainly did not make it seem like they achieved this milestone. For the most part it was quite the snore-fest this year. I'm not going to go into the "whys", but if you watched the product in the past few months, I'm sure you know why. Anyhow, here are the results with some thoughts (bold highlighting winner):

Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy Extreme rules match: I can't comment on this match because I fell asleep.

JBL vs. Rey Misterio: And I woke up to this. It was "19 seconds" so there wasn't much to it. JBL retired. Rey Misterio was in some sort of strange Joker costume.

Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker: Match of the night! Clearly the only reason to order this PPV. It was great. Lots of counters, lots of near falls, and a few scary spots to boot. These two vets worked their asses off and the crowd drunk it all in. This is definitely a match of the year candidate. Just like everyone else says, this should have been the main event of the evening.

HHH vs. Randy Orton: Horrible.

Overall, the PPV was a thumbs in the middle. If not for the Taker/Michaels and the MITB match this would have been a thumbs down. The whole show sort of reminded me of Gabe Sapolsky's booking style in ROH shows. They'd be really long shows where everyone tries to pull off a main event style match, but in the end, the audience gets too burned out because the show is too long. This show clearly peaked at the Taker/Michaels match, and fell off a cliff afterwards. At least in ROH shows, the matches are still full of dynamic even though the crowds might be drained.

Anyhow, that's it for now. Later marks!

Categories: wrestling , wwe

Now this was a great movie!

Dead Snow (or Død snø) is the new Norwegian horror flick about the Nazi undead. It has garnered much attention at film festivals around the world, including becoming part of the Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival this year.

Dead Snow is follows a group of medical students who go away on a snowmobile/ski vacation up in the mountains. In the middle of all the fun and games, a mysterious stranger stops by their cabin and informs them that the area they're in is cursed by Nazis from World War II. It's not long before the undead soldiers rise from their cold graves to exact terror on the helpless vacationers.

This movie was a thrill ride from top to bottom. There's just something creepy about undead Nazis in full regalia. Amidst all the gore and scares is a lot of humour. Yes it might be a bit dark, but its funny all the same. What plays into a lot of the humour is that the Nazis are never confirmed as zombies. We're given more hints than not, that they aren't, but the poor vacationers just assume they are, which in the end causes more trouble to themselves than the "zombies".

I think what helps make it good is that the makers of the film are also big fans of American cinema particularly of horror. There are a lot of visual cues and nods to Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, April Fool's Day, Braindead and heck, even a nod to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Fans of gore will be more than satisfied by this movie! There's blood, guts, brains, and oodles of intestines to go around. Some of the kills are just so outrageous and over the top that you can't help but cheer. My favourite kill would be of a dude getting his whole head ripped in half vertically. Now I don't know how it's even possible, but it happened here and it was awesome.

All the effects and make-up are great. The American horror auteur should take a cue from this movie... stop using CGI! Practical effects are so much better, both more raw and gritty. The costumes and make-up on the undead are great too.

Anyhow, definitely, DEFINITELY check it out if you can! This is definitely my first favourite movie of 2009. You can see the trailer here (Youtube). Later geeks!

Categories: dead snow , foreign , horror , movies , zombies