Month: June 2014

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Jodorowsky’s Dune

It’s a crime against humanity that Jodorowsky’s Dune was never made. This is an absolutely fascinating documentary – possibly the best film I’ve seen this year – and you can’t help but feel excited as Jodorowsky walks you through what the film would have been like. The whole time watching it I couldn’t help but think that it would be great to get an animated version of it, and at the end of the film he says that he’d in fact be happy to have that happen – so come on, why hasn’t this been done yet? Again, an absolute must-see documentary, and now I’m really excited to re-read The Incal and The Metabarons.

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Eighty

Lordy, lordy, look who’s… 80.

The next edition of PauseTalk is just over a week away (happening on Monday, July 7), and not only is it the Vol. 80, but it also marks the 8th anniversary of the series.

(Well, last month would have been the true anniversary, since I started it in June, but you know, close enough.)

You never think that something will have a long life until you get there, to that point where, well, it’s fucking old. 80 events over a span of 8 years is a lot, and although there have of course been some sessions that were better than others, the thing I’m most proud of is the fact that I’ve been doing this consistently for such a long period of time. Also, I’ve met a ton of interesting people during that time, making connections that certainly would have never happened if it weren’t for PauseTalk.

So thank you, PauseTalk, for being in my life all this time.

As I mentioned, PauseTalk Vol. 80 will be held on Monday, July 7, and that’s of course going to take place at Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro. Since there will be no event in August (due to the holidays), this will be the last edition of the summer. The photo included in this post was taken by Jared Braiterman at last month’s Vol. 79.

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Sound City

I like documentaries like this, that for the most part tell a story that has happened, but then cap it by actively adding an extension to the story. It reminded me a bit of Jack White’s It Might Get Loud documentary, which I also really enjoyed. But yeah, what a great story, of this little sound studio that could, with of course some terrific music throughout – as they highlight the many albums that have been recorded there. But my favorite part was towards the end, when you get to see Trent Reznor, Josh Homme, and Dave Grohl jamming together, creating a track. 

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Shut Up and Play the Hits

I was late getting into LCD Soundsystem. Sure, I’d heard some tracks over the years, but it was really when he announced that he was stopping the band that I took attention, and watched a stream of that final concert, and have been enjoying the albums ever since. This documentary, which is a mix of performances from that concert as well as some behind-the-scenes stuff and interviews regarding the “ending,” is really quite good. It does a great job of highlighting the emotional feeling of putting an end to something that is still loved by many – including the sadness and uncertainty felt by the person who is ending it all. 

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Shovel Knight

Imagine an NES game, but done if the NES had kept evolving a few more years. I’m having a blast playing this, and I’m doing so mostly playing it on the Wii U controller – there’s also a 3DS version, but since I play even my 3DS games at home, I figured the Wii U version was the way to go, since it gives the option to play on the big screen as well. I’ve only played a couple of hours so far, and I have a feeling it’s going to get challenging – especially the boss battles – but there’s just so much to love here in terms of presentation, music, and gameplay that I think I’m going to have a lot more fun playing this. Oh, and you gotta love the fact that it constantly taunts you with the life of the next boss you’ll be facing in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

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Snowpiercer

What a great piece of sci-fi, and so original. Based on a French comic, it’s the story of humanity surviving an apocalyptic occurrence by living on a train that is constantly in movement. Yeah, the setup is super weird, but it’s a really neat concept to explore, and some of the characters here are so interesting to watch, especially the amazing turn by Tilda Swinton, who steals every scene she’s in. More stuff like this, please.

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The Punk Singer

This was just so great to watch. I’m a huge fan of Kathleen Hanna’s music – mostly Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin – but I didn’t really know much about the health issues she was dealing with. The film itself does a great job of telling her story, and of course, you get to enjoy an awesome soundtrack the whole time.

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Foul Play

I’ve been thinking of going back and watching some of the top grossers of the 80s, year by year, and as I was coming up with titles for 1980, a couple of friends suggested I go back to this movie, which came out in 1978. It was pretty fun to watch, and wow, what a nostalgic trip to see all of those character actors of that era that used to be so familiar, but that I haven’t thought about (or seen) in ages. And yeah, Goldie Hawn sure was cute back then. The funniest scene has to be the two old ladies playing Scrabble, and you gotta give them props for using real Japanese actors to play Japanese tourists in one of the sequences, something you didn’t really get much of in Hollywood, especially back then. Kojak! Bang, bang!

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Legion

This is not a good movie. Since I enjoyed the pilot for the sequel series, Dominion, I figured I’d finally give this movie a try. It’s actually interesting to see that they’ve come up with a cool concept for a TV show, but the movie that inspired is just boring and lifeless. It takes so damn long for anything to happen, and even once it starts happening, it’s just stupid action. There’s no good story, and the characters are dull. You definitely don’t miss anything by skipping the movie and just sticking with the TV show (and I’m not even convinced yet that I’ll be watching it for long).

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Resident Evil Revelations

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I picked this up on 3DS last week because it was on sale for $10, and I’m sure glad I did. I have a hit-and-miss relationship with the series: I have fond memories of playing the first one, and maybe a bit of the second one, the last one I really enjoyed playing was Code Veronica on the Dreamcast, I tried Resident Evil 4, but just didn’t really get into it, and although I had fun playing 1 level of Resident Evil 5 in co-op with a friend, I never got the chance to play more of it (tried solo, and wasn’t really enjoying it much) – and I skipped Resident Evil 6 altogether. This one though, I had heard that it was pretty good – back to the ol’ confined horror of the original – and so far I’m really digging it. It really does look fantastic on the 3DS – with the 3D effect being fun in this context – and I also like the Metroid Prime-like scanning that you do in the world. And who says tank controls can’t work? You sort of get a version of it with this, in that you can’t move when you’re shooting, because you suddenly go in a first person view. I really like it, and I’d recommend picking it up, as it’s pretty cheap now. UPDATE: I was informed by my Resident Evil sempai, Alex Aniel, that you can in fact move while shooting, by holding down both L and R.