Video game DLC strategy

Should be similar to HBO - subscription based, or more than that, similar to Tales of Monkey Island (pay upfront, get release over time). In fact, this strategy should be incorporated into the price of the original game (if bought on disc), in that say you bought Fallout 3 when it first came out, then you would get the first year's worth of DLC for free.

In this regard, DLC should be used as an incentive to lure in late adopters, and a reward for those who keep their discs.

Basically, treat DLC as a TV show - make them have an interest to come back every so often.

Trigun anime review

Excellent Western marred only by a few of the standard anime WTF gripes. Good music, great characters and voicework. Would have been better to have lengthened the series by another 13 or so episodes if only to prolong characters' screen time.

Very satisfying overall (though I don't really care for the visual style).

Will modify soon.

The Prisoner (1967) review

Brilliant series. Patrick McGoohan kicks ass. Absurb, but awesome, ending. Sure there are some filler episodes, but they're not bad (they're the same type of bad that a bad Pixar film is). The standout episodes are just some of the tops that television has to offer. Way ahead of it's time.

Will revise soon.

Pixar's Up movie review

Up is a delightful story - beautiful, touching and powerful.

As much as I'd love to support Pixar, I'd be more inclined to recommend Up as a film that people watch privately in their homes, if only to make the film more of the intimate experience that it is. Believe me when I tell you how unfortunate it can be when some of the most heart-wrenching moments of the film are interrupted by the shuffling of feat of other little noise distractions that are exacerbated in the open-forum nature of the movie theater.

As intimate and touching as the film is, it almost seems like the film is trying to purposely manipulate you into sadness. Take for example the character of Russel the child. I will. not say how, but they keep tacking on things into his background that try to squeeze every last drop of emphasis out of your emotional grab bag (probably not the best way of putting it, but hopefully you get the idea).

Indeed, even the opening 10 minutes of the film are some of the best 10 minutes in film storytelling in years. Notice how I didn't say animation, as Pixar (and indeed the medium in general) has moved beyond the restrictions of "master animators" and stepped into the forum of "master storytellers" (though the starting point of the latter could be argued for some time, i.e. they've been master storytellers for roughly the past decade).

It's a solid tale that has plenty of mild humor, if not a constant comedy tone. Up's humor is more light-hearted in nature.

Probably the best way to describe the film is a mix between character study and coming-of-age, even if the characters aren't all children. Up is a very human tale, with a rather human presentation and it makes it all the better.

Not surprisingly, the film is excellently scored by composer Michael Giacchino, who only gets better with each project he takes on. He's often been called a modern John Williams, and listening to Up you can definitely hear that as the film sounds and feels like Star Wars.

Speaking of which, Up does a very good job with it's action scenes, becoming very reminiscent of Star Wars. The opening of the film even has a Citizen Kane vibe to it. Considering how those two films are held in such high regard, any combination can only be considered good.

As great as Up is, if you have to see it in theaters, do yourself a favor and wait a couple of weeks for the crowd to die down. Otherwise, just wait until the Blu-ray for that purely intimate experience.



For those curious, my order of favorites for Pixar films is Incredibles, Ratatouile, tie between Wall-E, Up, and probably Finding Nemo (need to rewatch), followed by the Toy Story films, then A Bug's Life (haven't seen Cars yet; shame, I know)

Drag Me To Hell movie review

Sam Raimi's latest film is a return to his comedy-horror routes. Take note the order and emphasis on which genres I put the film in (comedy first, horror second).

The film is a nonstop joyride of shock horror thrills. But, surprisingly to those uninitiated to Raimi's horror styles, it's all in good fun.

As far as the plot/story goes, all you need to know is that a girl wanting a promotion, and in an effort to show leadership, refuses a loan to a gypsy, angering the gypsy who then places a curse on the girl. What entails thereafter is some of the most enjoyable 90 minutes of movie-going you'll probably experience this year (or maybe have experienced in the past several years).

Drag Me to Hell is a rather tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek horror satire, where Raimi, a master of his craft, perfectly sets up the audience for the standard horror shock thrill, but tweaks it just enough to surprise the audience every time. To clarify, some of the tricks he uses is that he will set the audience up thinking that the scare is in one frame, but delaying it to the next. Or having something happen in the peripheral. Subtle tricks that keep the audience on the edge of their seat in anticipation of the next thrill. But the beauty of it is that it's never so much as scary as it is fun.

Special acknowledgment to composer Christopher Young who is in top-notch form for the film, yet again bringing his beautiful musings to another horror film.

Drag Me to Hell is one of the most enjoyable PG-13 films to come out in some time. It's nearly 100 minutes of pure, unadulterated, theme park ride-type thrills, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Seriously, go see it now. It's the type of film you absolutely have to see in theaters with a group of people to properly enjoy it.

Entertainment unions alternative

With the current economy and the SAG conflict, several business strategies are proving to be less sound than initially thought. While some actors were able to command up-front fees of multiple millions of dollars, that is no longer the case since studios aren't tightening their budgets.

To help curtail the rising costs of actors, writers, directors and the like, I'd like to propose a new hiring strategy: salaries. This will do away with unions, as there won't be a need for the people to have voices (they'll already be able to talk with HR/representation) and possibly get much needed benefits.

It's something that's worked very well in the business world for years, so there's no reason why it shouldn't work in the entertainment industry. As an example, let's look at the video game industry (granted, it depends on where you work). Odds are, if you work at a publisher or publisher-owned developer, you have a salary and not a project-based income. With this, you have the comfort of steady work and benefits, while still being able to work on multiple projects.

Going back to actors, directors, writers and the like, if they are salaried, they can act as pool of talent, lending their abilities to multiple projects, be they TV shows or movies. While some of the more top-dollar players may be opposed to this, I'm sure there are a number of less-demanding, but still very talented people that wouldn't mind this.

Also, to put it one way, for those who really enjoy money, there should easily be a way to factor in residuals into the salary (e.g. bonuses). I'm guessing that Pixar probably has a strategy similar to what I'm thinking of, as most of the players should be salaried by Pixar, and since their films are highly profitable, they should be getting amply compensated. But then again, this is all speculation.

In any case, thanks to SAG's predicament, perhaps it's time to rethink unions in the entertainment industry.

Soundtrack pricing strategy

In an effort to add extra value to consumers, and to help sell more soundtracks, with the rise of digital distribution consumers should have the option to a special "deal" wherein when they buy a product, such as a DVD or video game, they can purchase a digital version of the soundtrack for only $5. This way, it's cheap enough for people to pick up on a whim, even for those who aren't normally into soundtracks. It also adds value to the initial purchase for those who feel they are entitled to everything contained within the purchase.

A good soundtrack will enhance the initial experience while still being able to stand on its own, and a strategy like this will hopefully increase sales and support. Not to mention, with digital distribution, production costs are very minor, limited mostly to the bandwidth of the purchasing website.

Movie theater pricing strategy 2

A second option that movie theaters should consider is the "All Day Pass" where a theater goer will pay $20 for all the movies they can watch in a day. Sure, it may screw up seating and attendance, but it would provide a good value for consumers and make it more legitimate to hop between movies.

One method to counteract the seating would be for the consumer to pick out their movies in advance, and then just issue out individual tickets for those movies.

Another benefit about the viewer being at the theater all day is that it can turn into a fun adventure like a trip to a park. For example, if a person is at a place all day, odds are they'll get hungry and want to eat something without leaving. Therefor, introduce some higher-end meals in the theaters (or have a special deal with McDonalds, Burger King, Arby's, Starbucks, etc.) to have mini-versions in theaters.

With the right minds, this strategy can be done in a logical way that is beneficial for both the consumer and the venue.

Movie theater pricing strategy 1

Like almost any consumable product, movie theaters should change their pricing policy to something more akin to an early adopters with gradual decline strategy. With this idea, a person who really wants to see a movie will play a premium price (e.g. $10, nothing too expensive), then, after two weeks (would say longer, but films don't last as long in theaters), the price drops to $5. It would be this way for every film. While this is a pipe dream, below are some of the benefits and disadvantages of this strategy:

Advantage 1: More money for the theaters. With lower prices, comes more people. With more people, comes more money/spending, meaning more seats will be full over a longer period of time, and more concessions will be bought.

Advantage 2: Better value for the consumer. If a person really wants to see a film and be able to talk about it with their friends, they have the option to see it at a higher price. However, if they're patient and don't care as much, they wait a few weeks for the price to go down. They may even see multiple movies since it's so cheap. On the other hand, if a person did go see the movie right away and would like to see it again, they now have the option to see it a second time for a much more reasonable price/value.

Disadvantage 1: Less money for the studios. I'll be honest, I have no idea about the details for pricing strategies between studios and theaters (I'm guessing it's all the studio for the first week or two, then a split for a few weeks, and eventually all the theater). This would hurt the sales for the studio, as they wouldn't make as much money. But at the same time, a lower price would increase people's incentives to go, so the money may possibly even out.

Bottom line: Movie theaters should not be a way to milk the most of the few (aka 90-10, where 90% of business comes from 10% of the market). Movie theaters should be all about mass consumerism, where getting more people is the goal, not necessarily getting the most money out of the few people that do come. If you look at trends, where ticket prices become higher and attendance becomes lower, you would think that studios and theaters would see a connection, but they don't. I pretty much guarantee you that were a theater to drop it's prices while still providing a nice environment (stadium seating, good sound, nice neighborhood), it would be one of the most popular places.

Battlestar Galactica R.I.P.

Last night, Friday, March 20, 2009, aired one of the most satisfying ends to a spectacular television series - the 2003/2004 revival of Battlestar Galactica.

For the past 5+ years the cast and crew of BSG have been providing a solidly entertaining character drama with thought-provoking moments of existentialism, politics, race and religion. That, combined with the rather transcendent music of composer Bear McReary elevated BSG beyond the scope of television. Oddly enough, though, these kinds of themes can often be found in modern anime, and, to me at least, the BSG revival often times felt like a Western, live-action take on anime (complete with filler episodes and gaping plot holes). Regardless, this incarnation of BSG was, for the most part, incredibly well-written and acted, often times leaving the viewer in a state of either 'what the hell just happened?' or 'what the hell is going to happen next?!' The show will be sorely missed.

Kudos to you, the cast and crew of BSG for providing something that pushes the medium.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure movie review

Having not watched the films in awhile, I decided to have a double-feature and watch the two Bill and Ted movies back-to-back, and it was quite the experience. Below is a review of the first film: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

I was pleasantly surprised as to just how well the first film holds up. It's hard to think of Excellent Adventure as a hallmark of cinema, but it is indeed a masterpiece of what it's going for - it's competently directed, creatively written, and joyously acted, not to mention there's so much energy and just an all-around positive vibe throughout the film that you can't help but not like it.

The film's time travel elements follow their own logic, which, while at times can have elements of deus-ex-machina (e.g. Bill saying they'll do something in the future to go back into the past to affect the present), works well, to the point that you really don't care about how absurd it is (see the previous example). Granted, there is a general lack of concern by the two leads about the implications of time travel (they do comment at one point to Billy the Kid that he's handling time-travel incredibly well), but, again, there's just such energy and whimsy that it doesn't matter.

It aids the film's enjoyment that the two titular heroes are such well-intentioned bone-heads with a startlingly intelligent vocabulary (think of The Dude from The Big Lebowski and how he mimics other's lines, and I'm sure that's what these two have done). It's inclusion of the early 90s California surfer-ditz stereotype may, on the surface, date the film, but the time travel elements counteract that, as the focus is really on the characters and not the time.

Speaking of the other characters, the film has a great cast of supporting characters, from Socrates and the previously mentioned Billy the Kid, to Bill and Ted's parents, to the school teachers; everyone does a solid job and adds to the grand scheme of things.

Of course, these great characters wouldn't have been possible without the great writing done by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon. The two crafted a highly creative and entertaining film that stands the test of time and repeat viewings (I immediately wanted to watch it again when I finished it). Not to mention the many, many, many fabulous lines.

Music selection was another very enjoyable aspect of the film, right from the start of the film with Big Pig's "I Can't Break Away" (which sounds a bit like John Carpenter's "They Live" score, which is a very good thing) to the closing "Two Heads are Better Than One" performed by Power Tool. Quality music throughout the film.

While Excellent Adventure would never get nominated for any Oscars, it definitely deserves props for several categories: the originality of the script, and costumes (this is a time travel movie, after all, with upwards of a dozen different period set pieces). The crew who worked on the various costumes easily deserve some recognition for pulling off all of the different eras so smoothly, even if the costumes are relatively generic/stereotypical of the times.

If you've never seen Excellent Adventure before, you owe it to yourself to watch such a highly engaging, entertaining, and overall memorable film that, while it's inclusion in the pantheon of higher films may be overlooked, did have some influence over stoner comedies and is just a solid source of creativity and refreshment. If you have seen EA before, then perhaps it's about time to take a refresher course.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!

Watchmen movie review

It's disappointing how average Watchmen the movie is, though the film itself isn't necessarily disappointing; After all, it's already a given that no film will ever come close to the masterpiece (but not necessarily perfection) that is Watchmen the graphic novel.

The film starts out with the death of the Comedian, adequately played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, followed by the opening sequence - if there's any sequence that could sum up my opinion of the movie, it's the opening. If you love the opening, odds are you loved the movie, and visa verse. I didn't particularly care for the opening; granted, I enjoyed the idea of doing a "historical summation" of the characters, but it failed to impress me, particularly with the music - this being the first offense that is the mostly horrendous music selection in Watchmen. Continuing with the idea that this sequence is the defining sequence of the film, director Zach Snyder's now trademark time manipulation is solidly present (a tactic, as done in 300, is present throughout the whole film; again, this is love/hate, however, it's much more tastefully/efficiently done in Watchmen than it was in 300).

Roughly the first half hour of the film was nigh unbearable. The acting (Nixon was absolutely terrible), pacing, dialogue and general direction were all shoddy, over-the-top or just poorly done. One example of a problem I had was with the scene about the Comedian's funeral. It's a long take that starts with a medium shot of a cemetery, then slowly zooms out to reveal a caravan of limos and hearses. This long take was completely unnecessary and failed to use the abilities of the medium; a problem that occurred throughout the film. I have no problem with long takes, but it seemed too much as if Snyder was trying to pay respects to the panels drawn by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons, rather than move the film at an appropriate pace.

The film finally starts to turn around during a flashback that featured Night Owl II (hammily played by Patrick Wilson) and the Comedian controlling a riot in NYC - one of the best scenes in the film. In this scene, nearly everything meshes together: the acting, directing, dialogue, pacing, music selection, and time manipulation. While it made me hope that the film would pick up a lot of steam, it unfortunately didn't, instead alternating between scenes of complete mediocrity, ridiculousness (Dr. Manhattan's "revelations" and the Night Owl/Silk Spectre sex scene), faithful adaptation but still not amazing (scenes towards the end of the film, particularly Antarctica), and of brilliance (Dr. Manhattan's origin).

However, there are several more major problems with the film: the aforementioned poor music selection, the plot holes/writing, and the general lack of interest for the characters. In regards to the last one, the film on the whole feels like a parody or big budget homage to the source material, rather than trying to become something entirely its own. While the inclusion of music could have helped differentiate itself for the better, it instead did the opposite, often selecting pop songs that were neither relevant to the time period, trying to take advantage of dissonance (e.g. classical music set during a Vietnam War, a la Apocalypse Now), seemed more along the lines of an in-joke (All Along the Watchtower towards the film's climax), or just generally out of place. In all, the music choices brought too much attention to themselves, distracting from the important messages found within the film, and generally trying to be much more inspired than they actually were.

As for the writing and plot holes, that can also be combined with a rather poor sense of pacing. Watchmen moves at a pace that just plateaus/flatlines from beginning to end; there is no buildup whatsoever. To put it one way, what happens in the beginning bears little impact on what happens in the end. Indeed, during roughly any scene in the film, it only feels as if you need to know what happened in the previous 10 minutes to understand what's going on (either that, or have already read the source material). There also doesn't seem to be any actual importance placed on any of the plots (death of the Comedian, rape of Silk Spectre I, Dr. Manhattan's distance/loss of humanity, and the Cold War, to name a few). Everything just jumps from point A to point B, and if anything important/relevant needs to be introduced, then it's done in the previous scene (again, the 10 minute rule). There is little to no foreshadowing whatsoever; which itself wouldn't be a problem if the attachment to the characters or emotional/psychological impact of the plot were present. Whether or not the story is convoluted or easy to follow isn't even a question, since the importance doesn't matter at all. Which raises the question: What was the point of this film? Was it the visuals? The time-manipulated fighting sequences? The music? To add another notch on Snyder's list of accomplishments? Or to simply show that Watchmen is film-able?

Any and all of those questions, and even the reasoning behind it, is very subjective. In regards to the last question, I'd like to think that Watchmen is indeed film-able, but it has to be done under much more competent hands that utilize that medium; it has to be a proper adaptation and not just a poor translation. If anything, I would love to see Watchmen done again in 10 years time as a 6-episode miniseries on HBO. This way, the serialization will give more impact to both the plot and characters, and severely improve the pace and structure of the story. While I will readily acknowledge that there are several scenes of brilliance, the general mediocrity and haphazardness of the rest of the film far outweighs those few moments of transcendence. Granted, I'd be curious to see the movie again, this time on Blu-ray, but if I had a choice between that and reading the over-sized Watchmen: Absolute Edition, I'd choose the latter any day of the week.

Things liked: the action sequences, Dr. Manhattan's origin, Night Owl II/Comedian NYC riot flashback, the visuals, the trailers/marketing
Things disliked: a big portion of the acting, the camera work, the sex scene, Dr. Manhattan's wardrobe (or lack thereof), the direction, a majority of the music selection

Rating: R
Runtime: 2 hrs, 43 min.
*Special thanks to the LA Times for the advanced screening

The Pedobear

*Please refer to disclaimer on bottom

While it originally came out close to two years ago, I only recently discovered the wonderful internet meme that is the Pedobear. Originally founded on 4chan, a site which you should pretty much never visit, several websites have luckily compiled a number of the pictures, videos and general jokes that comprise the Pedobear meme. Two of which can be found here (be sure to check out the video at the bottom; for added bonus, it's accompanied by the highly enjoyable Oingo Boingo song "Little Girls") and here.

For more information on the Pedobear, check out this site.

Good times.

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of loli or pedophilia, however, the mockery of it. As well, if anything, it is an endorsement of Oingo Boingo. Because they rock.

Oscars tribute 2009

One of the first things I want to mention about this year's Oscars, and previous ones as well, is the Academy's constant failure to do proper recognition to those in the industry who have passed away. These are people who have devoted large portions of their lives to this industry and the least the Academy can do is highlight them for a few seconds in a tribute. Forget time constraints, for people who have pushed the industry, they need to make the time. Case in point, this year the Academy dropped the ball big time by overlooking one of the most recognized and prominent voices in the industry: Don LaFontaine. How do you pass up someone like that? They even put some PR guy in the tribute instead of him! Not to mention Eartha Kitt, one of three women who played Catwoman in the Adam West "Batman", among many other film and TV appearances. Also, Patrick McGoohan, of "Avengers" (TV) and "A View To a Kill" fame, and comedian George Carlin, who goes without description.. I'm getting tired of the Academy ignoring recognizable people while including people who have probably had an impact, but nobody knows about. A few other ignored names over past years are Brad Renfro (2008), and Shirley Walker (2006). The latter is especially disappointing as she was a pioneer in the industry (one of, if not, the first major female composers). It's already a shame that the Academy continues to reduce these talented people's lives and work to mere seconds, but outright ignoring some people is just unforgivable. More memory and highlighting, and less self-congratulating and bland musical numbers.

Petals Around the Rose

Kotaku posted an article about Mensa teaming with Empire Interactive on making a new game(s). One of the comments had a link to an old Mensa game that's rather cute once you get the hang of it. It's not terribly difficult, but can be tricky in the wrong mentality. It's called Petals Around the Rose and can be found here.

Math puzzle

When does 10 - 11 = 11?

Answer in the comments. First to get it right gets +1 Internets.

Batman the Animated Series soundtrack!!!

I'm not sure how I missed out on this (as this is something I've been wanting since childhood), but I unfortunately did: La-La Land Records has released an official soundtrack for "Batman the Animated Series" in the form of a 2-disc limited edition. It features the music from 11 different episodes, plus a few bonus tracks, totaling around 2.5 hours of quality Shirley Walker (and Lolita Ritmanis and Michael McCuistion) music, and is conveniently sold-out.

No matter.

No matter?!?!?! Missing out on one of your most anticipated soundtrack releases is no matter?!!? Reason being, that fact that it sold out so quickly (released Dec. 16th, 2008, sold out by end of January 2009) is a sure sign that either a future version will be released, or we may even luck out and get a re-release. Maybe we'll even get soundtracks for Superman: Animated, Justice League, or JLU eventually. (Just be sure to contact La-La Land by sending them an email or two requesting these titles.)

In any case, glad to see the series and its music finally getting the treatment it deserves. It's a shame that composer Walker never got recognition from the Academy Awards when she sadly passed away two years ago.

Heat movie review

Michael Mann's "Heat" is an interesting film - two kindred spirits on two sides of the law living two different lives; or are they?

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro star in what is a very good, though not necessarily great, film.

First things first, props go to the whole cast, who did a solid job acting out what is an above average script, though dialogue is something else (this film does to metaphors what "Gilmore Girls" and "Juno" do to quick/snappy wit). Slight tangent - the use of metaphors is almost on the level of pretentiousness found in Paul Haggis' more recent films; more on this complaint later. Going back to the actors, there are a lot of recognizable names and people in the cast such as Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, William Fichtner, Dennis Haysbert, Jon Voight, Danny Trejo, Natalie Portman and even a cameo by Tom Noonan. Solid.

Second prop goes to composer Elliot Goldenthal and his score for the film, which adds some nice background melody (though no real themes) that really enhances the scenes.

Third prop goes to the research for the film and how it's based on real events/people.

Complaint time: as previously mentioned, I have some issues with the dialogue in the film. Most of the dialogue from Diane Venora (Pacino's film wife) doesn't really seem to fit the character, or if it does, it still doesn't sound very human, i.e. it's trying to be too poetic/dramatic/etc. In particular, one of the first argument scenes between Venora and Pacino seems rather out-of-place in terms of dialogue.

Issue two: length. I have no problem with a 3 hour film, so long as the pacing and everything is fine. For the most part, the pacing is OK, but the first hour tends to drag, and numerous scenes had me either questioning their significance or if the pacing could have been better. For instance, the hospital scene towards the end - I understand the point (that Pacino's character will never change), but couldn't it have been done in a fast/more interesting way? Of course, there's always the possibility that some of the more superfluous scenes were added to make others stand out more. Considering how this is Michael Mann, and his films tend to have a few good brilliant sequences among an outnumbering OK ones, I doubt it's him so much trying to build up a future scene as it is his writing skills.

In any case, "Heat" is definitely a watchable film, and for the most part picks up a lot after the first hour. There are several amazing sequences throughout the film, such as the single take that starts with a shot of downtown LA at night then transitions down to a moving van (when they are hijacking security, or whatever), the finale (of which the ultimate ending feels a little cheap), Pacino and De Niro's diner encounter, and, of course, the bank sequence (though how they all managed to survive so long is anybody's guess).