By Justin, on June 30th, 2010
The Ten (imdb)
The Ten feels like a movie time forgot made by a pissed director to fill out his contract, wherein he spends the studio’s money freely to make a sloppy, pieced-together film full of sight gags and in-jokes that make him and his friends laugh but isn’t likely to ever achieve anything other than cult status. Of course, that isn’t the case here, but The State alums Ken Marino and David Wain (both of whom wrote and the latter of whom directed) have delivered a film packed with their friends and former co-stars whose main audience will be comedy nerds who will appreciate the appearances of familiar faces if not necessarily the experience itself. In addition to nearly the entire cast of The State appearing in either full or cameo roles, there’s Paul Rudd, Rob Corddry, Winona Ryder, A.D. Miles, Jon Benjamin, and even some actors generally known for more serious work. Unfortunately, an impressive cast does not a great movie make, as the script falls flat too often and the framing of the stories hosted by Paul Rudd never pays off or provides much in the way of laughs.
I don’t mean to be entirely harsh, particularly because there are some clever sequences and the film does manage to get better as it goes on. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that from the middle forward is where the film really shines since by that point the Paul Rudd interludes become less apparent and the stories begin to drift into one another. Working in the film’s favor as often as it does to its detriment is the film’s willingness to present an outrageous scenario, often dwelling on it for longer than it remains funny, and then ramping up the silliness by returning to it in a later sequence. Ultimately the film feels like a collection of long sketches that are rather balanced in their tendency to either be humorous or to fail to register anything more than a smile. Comedy nerds will probably find bits and pieces of The Ten to be enjoyable, but if you’re not already familiar with and appreciative of the shows populating the resumes of its cast (The State, Reno 911!, Stella), then it isn’t very likely to do much for you.
By Justin, on June 14th, 2010
I’ve had a pair of Sennheiser HD 212 Pro headphones that have been out of commission for almost two years thanks to my dog getting ahold of them as a puppy. Thankfully he only chewed up the wire, which is easily replaced via Sennheiser’s laughably out of date, clunky, and understocked web store (seriously, it has “2002″ in the page title and the only non-replacement items for sale there are aviation headsets). So I ordered a replacement cable and some replacement cushions, but while I was waiting on those to arrive, I decided to check into repairing my current cable. I’m somewhat technically competent, but I haven’t soldered before and had no intention of buying a soldering gun to attempt to repair something with a functional replacement on the way. After some trial and error (and some frustratingly useless search results), I’ve successfully repaired the cable with no soldering and for only $3.99 plus tax. Here’s how:
Supplies
- 1/8″ Mini Stereo Phone Plug (or 1/4″, according to your preference)
- Scissors or pocket knife
- Lighter
- Phillips-head screwdriver (small/medium)
The first thing you’ll need is a replacement tip. I’m sure there are plenty of options, but for the sake of time and convenience, I just went with one from Radio Shack (Model #: 274-869). To save you some time and from having to deal with the idiots that staff most Radio Shack stores, the part you need isn’t on the shelves, but is in one of the pullout drawers. Hopefully you won’t have to deal with an employee who asks what you’re looking for, takes the model number, and proceeds to gawk at a trailer for some video game playing on an HDTV at the back of the store before asking you if you’ve found what you’re looking for a few minutes later while his two cohorts stare at a sales terminal together like a pair of dogs that have just been shown a card trick.
You’ll want to cut your headphone cable to whatever length you desire (I’m probably going to go back and make mine much shorter so it’s more appropriate for portable use). You will then want to strip about an inch of the cable so the underlying wire is exposed. Before moving on it’s a good idea to go ahead and slide the outer shell of the plug and the plastic sheath around the headphone cable so you don’t get ahead of yourself.
The replacement plug itself comes with no documentation, so the user reviews on Radio Shack’s site are actually somewhat useful in that regard. The problem is that all of the user-supplied instructions assume you’re working with three different pieces of cable and upon stripping the Sennheiser cable, you’ll discover that it has four. My 212′s had a green cable, a red cable, and two gold cables. As anyone who has ever hooked up any audio equipment will know, red is the right channel, so by the process of elimination that makes the green the left channel (which is more typically either white or blue). The remaining two cables are grounds and can be twisted together to form one. Before attaching the cables to the three terminals, you’ll want to make sure they can achieve a good contact. Using a soldering iron, this is a process referred to as “tinning,” but as I’m solder-free, I just took a lighter to the exposed cable, burning off the twine wrapped with the cable. Give the cables a twist and you’re ready to attach the cables to the terminals. They are attached as so:
Short terminal: Green (left) cable
Medium terminal: Red (right) cable
Long terminal: Gold (ground) cables
Go ahead and plug in the headphones and make sure everything sounds good before sliding the sheath over the wires and screwing the outer shell into place. Once you’ve screwed the shell in, you’re done. Hopefully this helps somebody out since most of the search results I found assumed soldering skills and weren’t specifically for Sennheiser headphones with their “extra” wire.
By Justin, on January 23rd, 2010
I was a bit apprehensive about Brutal Legend despite creator Tim Schafer’s respected pedigree in the gaming world. As a fan of heavy metal I could appreciate what he was trying to do, but I was pretty sure that it would come across as either heavy-handed or pandering in execution. And, it seems worth mentioning, as a decided non-fan of Jack Black–who lends his voice to protagonist Eddie Riggs–I had another potential hurdle in the way of what enjoyment I might conceivably get from the game.
Those nit-picks were mostly a moot point, as Brutal Legend does far more right than it does wrong, and is ultimately a very enjoyable experience with the fine layer of aesthetic polish that Schafer has built his following and reputation on. The art direction and music are both very good, and I’m glad to hear that in most cases those responsible for the soundtrack dug respectably deep and didn’t go with lazy, obvious choices that a less dedicated developer might have chosen out of laziness. What we have instead is a respectable mix of new and old tracks that are both semi-popular and relatively obscure, and though there’s an occasional head-scratcher in there (KMFDM, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson), the fact that bands like Brocas Helm, Slough Feg, Budgie, and Angel Witch made the cut is enough to let the inclusion of a few less “true” metal bands slide.
The gameplay itself is divided into a few different types. The core of the experience is a console-friendly real-time strategy game where you command an army of metal-heads in an attack on another leader’s army. You start out with a stage that serves as a base of sorts and build merch tables, which earn you fans that can be spent on new units and upgrades. Kudos to Double Fine for making console-friendly a genre best suited for PC gaming, but it’s still a little hard to control when things get hectic. When you’re not moving the plot along in these battles, you’re free to explore the world, taking on side missions, searching for relics, and earning “fire tributes” (the game’s currency) to unlock new moves for Eddie and new weapons and upgrades for his hot rod, the Druid Plow. The side missions are a mixed bag, as there are only a handful of mission types, and most of them become a chore as the game progresses. The repetition of similar missions also brings out another nitpick: there should have been a bit more recorded voice work so you’re not constantly hearing the same lines over and over. There were also quite a few instances where I became stuck thanks to driving around and becoming entangled in the scenery and had to either load my last checkpoint or try and wriggle free from parts of the scenery that should have probably been destructible in the first place. A small nitpick, but one that nonetheless detracts a bit from the experience.
Overall Brutal Legend remains a satisfying experience whose charm helps outweigh its flaws. The game is short enough that it could be beaten over a weekend if you’re dedicated, but there are enough things to hunt down and unlock in the world (which you are free to roam after beating the game) that achievement/trophy hounds will have reason to come back well after the credits roll. There’s also online multiplayer, but I didn’t give it a go.
By Justin, on January 10th, 2010
Tyson (imdb)
I’ve wanted to see Tyson since a trailer first surfaced for it over a year ago, though now having seen it I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed. “Tyson” may seem like a minimal title in an age where it seems like everything needs a subtitle, but it’s very appropriate considering that everything in the documentary comes straight from Mike Tyson himself, with no friends, family, or acquaintances interviewed or even heard from outside of some stock footage. I’m a little confused as to why this was released by Sony Pictures Classics, which is Sony’s prestigious banner usually reserved for foreign/arthouse-type films, while Tyson feels like an ESPN documentary with a finer layer of polish. On the subject of that polish, some of the presentation choices are a bit annoying; in particular, the idea to show 3-4 different clips at once with the sound fading from one one frame to the next feels like a film student showing off for a project, not an editing technique used in a release by a major studio.
Based on the trailers I was expecting to come out of the film with a new perspective on Tyson, but the result is largely a clarification of my previous understanding of the man: A not-so-bright but talented individual who has suffered the consequences of a series of bad decisions. Tyson definitely humanizes its subject, but a lot of times that sympathy seems to be marginalized by some of the inane things coming out of his mouth. To hear him tell it, the reason he lost most of his later fights is because he was lazy or wasn’t expecting much out of his opponent. That’s all fine and good for a time or two, but you think you’d figure out you need to prepare if you’re getting your ass beat time and again. Tyson isn’t a great documentary, but it’s a pretty good one and gives a nice timeline and background that should be interesting if you lived or grew up while he was routinely making headlines.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (imdb)
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Behind the Mask, but I can’t say I share the enthusiasm for the film. The premise of a psuedo-doc where a film crew follows a slasher inspired by Jason Voorhes, Freddy Kreuger, and Michael Myers as he prepares for his killing spree is pretty decent, and automatically lifts it above the level of dreck that typically occupies the realm of direct-to-DVD horror. Unfortunately, I’ve seen Man Bites Dog, which almost instantly nullifies anything cool that this film could have hoped to accomplish. Then again, I’m definitely not a fan of slasher movies, so if you dig ‘em, your mileage may vary drastically.
While the premise is still executed fairly well, the acting is pretty mediocre and the film fails to achieve the same level of emotional depth and sincerity that Man Bites Dog does as its film crew begins to realize how invested they are in the proceedings. The bit parts given to Robert Englund and Zelda Rubinstein serve as little more than a wink and a nudge to genre fans, as neither bring anything special to their roles outside of a bit of fan service. Taken for what it is, the film is ever-so-slightly above average, but if you only see one ‘film crew follows killer around’ film, make it Man Bites Dog, which is ultimately funnier, darker, and more entertaining.
By Justin, on January 8th, 2010
Mirror’s Edge (along with Dead Space) represents a shift in philosophy for EA, a company long—and rightly so—dogged by accusations of resting on their laurels, content to merely update their existing franchises. Not only is Mirror’s Edge a fresh game from an unlikely publisher, it’s a first person game with a unique visual style based on parkour, which is a great idea on paper, and remains a pretty good one in execution. Unfortunately, Mirror’s Edge has a handful of shortcomings that keep it from achieving greatness.
The key failing of Mirror’s Edge is shoehorning in first person shooter gameplay where it just . . . → Read More: Mirror’s Edge (Playstation 3)
By Justin, on August 17th, 2009
Identity (imdb)
Identity is enjoyable enough, but you can’t help but feel that it’s the movie equivalent of a mass market paperback by some bestselling mystery/thriller author with a pinch of M. Night Shyamalan thrown in for spice. Perhaps the greatest strength of Identity is that they somehow made John Cusack a somewhat convincing badass, something that has never really happened before, and was made even more difficult after the mopey and vastly overrated High Fidelity. It’s not a great movie by any means, but it’s reasonably entertaining.
Crooks (imdb)
I couldn’t finish this one, but I did manage forty minutes, which is more . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 8/17: Identity, Crooks, Interview, The Deer Hunter, Hitch Hike, Double Game, Head Trauma, & Heavy Traffic
By Justin, on July 11th, 2009
So I haven’t updated in a few months, and all of these reviews have just been sitting on my hard drive for a few months. Anyway, an update’s an update I guess…
Observe and Report (imdb)
I’ve been a fan of Jody Hill since I first saw The Foot Fist Way, and while TFFW was rough around the edges, it was refreshing to see a film focus on a character that was such a bastard, but a bastard who is just charming and falsely confident enough to remain sympathetic. With Observe and Report, Hill focuses on a head of mall security . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 7/11: Observe & Report, Timecrimes, Dancing Outlaw, Dancing Outlaw II, Gumby Dharma, Joe, Lady Vengeance, & Night of the Hunter
By Justin, on April 7th, 2009
The Street Fighter (imdb)
First a bit of background on how I saw this: there’s a new screening room in Greenville called West End Movies, where they screen “classics” for $3 a pop, coupled with a cartoon and “topical newsreel”. I got there just as the show was about to start, meaning that unless the info concerning future screenings is what they consider a “topical newsreel”, I missed that part. The cartoon ended up being a machinima made with World of Warcraft characters dancing to the extremely-overdone “Numa Numa Dance”. I have yet to see anything considered machinima that . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 4/7: The Street Fighter, Who Can Kill a Child?, The Midnight Meat Train, Edmond, & Gumby: The Movie
By Justin, on March 29th, 2009
Rambo: First Blood Part II (imdb)
As far as sequels go in action franchises, Rambo II (as I’ll refer to it for clarity’s sake) is a pretty damn good one. One of the greatest strengths of the First Blood/Rambo series, and all great action movies in general, is that they don’t fuck around with pacing by dragging out unnecessary subplots, love interests, or melodrama. There’s a split-second where you think a romance is about to bud, but a second later it’s cut down in a hail of bullets, serving as a fuel to John Rambo’s raging inferno of vengeance. . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 3/29: Rambo II, Rambo III, The Willies, Cocaine Cowboys, & Puzzlehead
By Justin, on March 21st, 2009
Cool Air (imdb)
H.P. Lovecraft adaptations aren’t nearly as sparse or deserving of hype as a lot of Lovecraft fans might have you believe, but the good and worthy adaptations are few and far between. There has been quite a resurgence of interest lately thanks mostly to Lurker Films and the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, whose The Call of Cthulhu is both a worthy adaptation and an homage to the silent film era that Lovecraft himself would have been familiar with. Cool Air doesn’t seem to be one of Lovecraft’s better-known works, largely because it doesn’t contain much in the . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 3/21: Cool Air, The Castle of Cagliostro, First Blood, Super Inframan, & The Trials of Henry Kissinger
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