Launched in June of ‘02, Sony put out a new music game called Frequency that they felt would be popular due to the popularity of the DDR franchise.  While they were wrong about its popularity, the game did spawn a sequel (the also unsuccessful Amplitude) and got Harmonix out there and working.  The game itself is great, I just think that it was ahead of its time.

While the game is more of the electronic/dance genre than rock, I still had a lot of fun with it due to the unique gameplay.  You will see the track with gems that need to be hit much like with their later Guitar Hero/Rock Band games, but this time it is just one track whether it’s guitar, bass, drums, synth, etc.  So you will play a section of a song and once you do it without missing a note that section will be “cleared” and you will then use the D-Pad to switch to another track.  You hit the notes with either Square or L1 for the left note, Triangle or R1 for the center note, and Circle or R2 for the right note.  It may seem simplified for what we are used to by only being 3 possible “notes” but they come at you fast and you will have to switch tracks constantly throughout a run so you’ll be happy with the lesser notes.  Once you get through all the sections of a song and clear a certain percentage, you will complete the song.  It sounds more complicated than it is and you will get the hang of it after a couple play-throughs.If all of this sounds familiar to you, it’s because Harmonix went ahead and tweaked this a bit to make their PSP game Rock Band Unplugged.  The reviews are great on that game just as the reviews for Frequency were, but I have a feeling that Rock Band Unplugged will do better even with it being on the PSP.

The game is setup like Guitar Hero was in terms of progression where you will have to complete a certain number of songs in a group before moving onto the next.  You can play them in any order within that group except for the last song which can only be played once you’ve completed all the previous songs.  There are also multiple difficulty levels to complete.  You will always have just 3 notes to work with no matter what difficulty but you will be dealing with more complex patters and more notes total when playing on the harder difficulty levels.

On top of the single player experience which will definitely keep you busy for a while (you can always go back and try to beat high scores) there is a multiplayer component as well.  You can play up to 4 player (using split screen) with everyone either competing against each other (complete with the ability to pick up power-ups and items to mess with your opponent) or to work together to create a remix of a song.  This was something that I would have loved to have played more of, but just could never find enough friends that could enjoy it at the time it came out.  Now that people play music games more they seem interested and they check it out, but still want to get back to a game that has them use a fake plastic instrument instead of the regular controller.  When the Playstation Network Adaptor was released for the PS2 it included a demo of this game that had online play and could let you swap in the full game disc to play the other songs online, but I am unsure if those servers are still up to this day.  I used to play online a lot but when I sold my PS2 to get my PS3 I did not keep the disc to try.

The graphics to the game consist of the tracks and notes with trippy background animations going on.  As you progress through the game you will also unlock more of these backgrounds which was cool, although pointless since you’re going to be paying attention to the actual game anyway.  The sounds are all going to go along with the music which is of high quality and great to play through a good sound system.

This game is easy to find and dirt cheap now.  If you have interest in music games that don’t involve specialty controllers I highly recommend you check it out.  You will definitely get your money’s worth in the end.

4/5 Stars – The beginning of a music game company’s dynasty.  Great to see where they started and what ideas spawned from this game.  Can still be played with 4 people so if you can get your friends to play too you’re still having a music party.

Despite the similar titles, Night of the Comet and Night of the Creeps really have nothing in common.  In Night of the Creeps there are these slug like creatures that crash from outer space and take over human bodies, alive or dead, and control them to spread to other bodies so they can breed.  While I guess comparisons of the two movies could be made since they can be zombie-like, everything else is just completely different and all for the better.  Unlike Comet, you get to see the creatures and you see them frequently and it’s also just more action packed and funny.

This is an 80s horror movie through and through so you’re going to get the typical jocks vs.. nerds and not to spoil things, but the nerd gets the girl.  I know, I know, shocking, right?  The nerd in question this time is Chris played by Jason Lively who you may remember as Rusty from National Lampoon’s European Vacation.  For you genre fans out there you will also recognize the main detective investigating the murders as Tom Atkins who has been in classics such as Creepshow and Maniac Cop.  He is just constantly spewing one liners in this once again proving this is an 80s movie.  It is also directed by Fred Dekker who did the amazing Monster Squad and there’s even a reference to the movie in Creeps (see if you can find it for yourself, it’s pretty obvious).  Dekker also performed writing duties and don’t worry it is more along the lines of Monster Squad than If Looks Could Kill.

The story, if you care, other than what I said before about the creatures trying to take over is that Atkins is a cop who witnessed a girl he liked get murdered back in the 50s and has never been the same since and knows that somehow that murder was related to these recent murders.  Story isn’t important as you will find plot holes and unrealistic situations even for a movie about alien slugs that take over your body.  You’re going to watch to enjoy some old-school creature effects and gore with lots of humor mixed in.  In the end this movie truly is a classic and I can see why there was such a high demand for it to come to DVD.  Those that have seen the more recent movie Slither will see lots of connections/inspirations/rip offs from this movie so if you enjoyed Slither you owe it to yourself to check this movie out.

Now it is on DVD and Blu-Ray and although they could have got away with releasing a barebones edition much like Night of the Comet, they instead went all out with a 2 disc set on DVD and all the extras available on the same 1 disc Blu-ray.  I only watched the Blu-Ray so I can’t comment on the DVD picture quality, but in HD this movie looks great for its age, especially since it was a movie that the studio has not seemed to care about for years.  I was very impressed with the quality and I’m sure the DVD is top notch for a 480p picture.  Unfortunately I cannot comment on the extras either since I did not have time to watch any before writing this review, but based on what my friends are saying they are worthy additions and again it was great to see such effort put into this release.  I will gladly update my review as soon as I check them out.

For those wanting to watch the movie but don’t want to buy or rent it, you can also  watch on Crackle.com completely free by clicking here.

4/5 Stars – This is what 80s horror/comedy is all about to me.  Great effects and humor mixed with gore.  It is just plain fun to watch, especially with a group of fans of the genre as well.  Highly recommended, especially with this great Blu-ray version.

It’s a rainy Thursday night, your Xbox is overheating and the pizza delivery guy just arrived with pepperoni, hamburger, and bacon pizza (mmmmm… bacon). What do you do while you eat? Why, pop in Slaughter High on DVD, of course. What, that wasn’t your first choice? Yeah, I guess I can’t blame you. This is the situation I found myself in today though, my friends wanted to watch a horror movie and there it was sitting in my collection still yet to be opened. Why was it there? Simple, it was $5 and I remember the cover being in every horror section of every video store in the 80s and 90s. It was released by Lionsgate as part of their new “Lost Collection” line of movies. None of us had seen it, so we figured what the hell, it should be good for a laugh. I really can’t explain any better than that as to why were were watching, but in the end, I’m glad we did. Was it a good movie? No, but we DID laugh.

For those that don’t know, Slaughter High was a by the numbers slasher flick released in 1986.  The basic idea is one that you’ve seen a million times before: Nerdy kid is picked on in school, pretty and popular girl pretends to want to do something with him in the girls bathroom only to be setup for a prank.  It’s April 1st so it’s April Fools Day (which was actually the original title for this movie but Paramount was about to release a movie with the same name so they had to change it) and they torment this kid.  After they get caught and have detention for doing the prank, they decide to get back at him with an even bigger prank.  You see, it was HIS fault they got in trouble.  Long story short, it goes very wrong.  He’s badly burned and is wheeled out on a stretcher.  Flash forwards a bit, the popular kids come back to school for a reunion or party or something (I won’t lie, we weren’t totally paying attention) and people start dying one by one.  For those of you watching for people to get killed be foreword – it takes about 40 minutes before anything happens.  It is a LONG setup for what is going done but once people start dying it picks up the pace at a decent rate.

After the long setup you will get some decent kills with some ok special effects, but you’re better off watching it for a good laugh.  It is a cheesy movie with some bad acting and ridiculous plot points.  Most likely if you’re watching this movie though you’re expecting that and can just enjoy it for what it is.  Another aspect of 80s slasher movies is nudity and that is there as well complete with 80s grooming habits (I’ll leave it at that).

The DVD is part of Lionsgate’s semi-new line of “Lost Classics” as mentioned and due to the “lost” nature of the movie the only print that existed was an old VHS print.  It is great that the movie despite all the production companies and rights holders changing throughout the years is finally available on a digital format, but it’s a shame that it looks so poor.  It is exactly like watching a VHS with the washed out colors, lack of detail, and a 1.33:1 (“pan and scan/full screen/full frame”) presentation.  At least with it being on DVD it will no longer degrade in picture and sound quality after each viewing, but that’s about the only positive to this transfer.  At least this particular VHS print was the uncut print, so it is actually better than what most of us may have seen growing up in the 80s.

The Only extra on the DVD is a trivia track which is done through the subtitles with various tidbits of information popping up through the movie.  After watching for a half hour it seemed that only 4 or 5 bits popped up, but at least it is something.  With that said it is more than Kickboxer got on DVD and Blu-Ray (also from Lionsgate) and I’m sure that will sell way more than this DVD ever will.  I just decided to go to IMDb and look up the trivia for the movie and found out things like how the lead actress was actually 36 years old at the time of filming.

On a side note, while my friends and i were watching we found a “goof” during the face melting scene.  It has been submitted to IMDb but as of this posting has not been posted yet.  we could tell it was done through stop motion animation so a friend of mine suggested we watch it frame-by-frame.  By doing so we saw that in one frame there was a nozzle pouring the dry ice to give the smoke effect, but was gone the next frame.  We didn’t notice it at normal speed on our first viewing since it was just one frame, but once we knew what to look for we could tell.  Just a little something extra to laugh at in this cheesy movie.

I thought that none of us had seen it, but after the opening scene I realized that I had seen it, but thought all these years that I had seen “April Fools Day" but I’m glad we watched it since I finally got to see it uncut and we got to laugh from it.  I applaud Lionsgate for even taking the time to release something like this at all.

3/5 Stars – Watch it with a group of like minded friends for a good laugh.  You’re getting a poor quality DVD of a poor quality movie, but the price is right and you’ll at least be entertained if you’re into that sort of thing.

Let’s be honest here, if you’re still reading, you agree with that last statement.  If a cast like that says to you “yes, I need to see that” then you do.  If you groan when seeing that list, nothing I say in this review can change your mind because you are not the audience this movie is for.  It is pure late 80s/early 90s martial arts action, sometimes referred to as “chopsocky.”  You have bad acting, bad writing, bad music, martial arts, shooting, and explosions.  Oh yeah, and boobs.  It’s the kind of movie that Spike TV would be proud to show on a Sunday afternoon when they aren’t showing UFC or 007 movies.  Here is a clip from the movie for a good example:

Ready for the plot?  Like it matters, but here is the genius of it all.  A badass cop played by Lundgren is trying to bring down some Yakuza in Little Tokyo.  He is given a new partner who he doesn’t realize is his partner at first, so they fight each other! I know, never been done before or since, right?   So they realize they are on the same side, they are partners that hate each other, and then grow to like each other!  Ok, I’m done with the sarcasm.  So just by chance the guy that killed Dolph’s parents right in front of him is the new head of the Yakuza in the area and buys a brewery so that he can distribute “ice” and make more money.  That is not a typo, it was Dolph’s parents that were killed.  You see, the writers felt it would be a twist by making it so that he played someone raised in Japan while Brandon Lee was someone who was 100% American raised in Malibu.

Like I said, story doesn’t matter, it’s about the action, and this movie is full of it.  It is nothing extraordinary, it is exactly what you would expect it to be, and if that is something you normally enjoy you will be entertained by this movie.  It will not blow you away, it will not change your life, but you won’t be bored (and you’ll get some laughs along the way too).  There’s a scene where Dolph Lundgren grabs a dude by the balls after punching through a door and then pulls him out the doorway.  Yeah, that’s what you can expect from this.

NetFlix Instant has the same full frame presentation that the DVD has, but I never saw any panning and scanning with the picture.  They knew this was something that was more for the home video and cable TV market when they shot it so I’m sure they either kept all the action in the center of the frame or shot it open matte.  Either way you don’t miss anything and as far as picture quality it’s on par with other movies from that time frame with that kind of budget.  Again, not something to show off what your new HDTV can do, but it gets the job done.  I did notice some slight choppiness to the picture when panning despite having a full speed connection so I figure that’s just how it looked as well.  It was mostly in the beginning and a bit distracting at first but after a while I didn’t notice it and/or it went away.  Click here to watch it if you have a NetFlix account.

3/5 stars – Typical late 80s/early 90s martial arts action movie.  Guns, swords, punching and kicking, drugs, boobs, and Yakuza.  Throw in some bad dialogue and you have a movie that is entertaining if you are into that sort of thing.   This is probably the most that has been written about this movie in a long time.

Back in high school and college DVD was a brand new format that let me discover all kinds of movies I missed out on as a kid. I would frequent many forums and one of the top movies that always showed up on people’s most wanted lists was Night of the Comet. It finally came to DVD and I finally got to see what all the fuss was about…

Night of the Comet is the story of a comet coming near Earth that everyone around the world wanted to stand outside and watch fly by. It stars Catherine Mary Stewart (many will recognize her from Weekend at Bernies and The Last Starfighter) who happens to be a girl too busy getting it on at the movie theater she works at to watch the comet. Said theater is lined with lead to protect the film. Why is that important? Well, you see, the comet actually killed everyone outside watching it: they all turned to dust as soon as it came around. She wakes up the next day to everyone but the boy she slept with being dead…. or so she thought. It turns out some of them have survived but have essentially become zombies and her boy toy of the night is the first to be eaten (that we see anyway) and she thinks she is alone. It is now up to her to find out what happened and/or survive.

It is not a spoiler to say she runs into her sister since it happens relatively early on and she is on the cover. The reason she survived is she slept in a tool shed. Yeah, that’s the kind of logic we’re working with in this movie. What follows is a very 80s zombie movie that is not going to quite be as awesome as you want it to be since it only PG-13. There isn’t really any gore and you really don’t see too many zombies how you would expect them to be (can’t say much more without giving up more plot points). It takes a few more random turns with an underground think tank coming out and trying to help as well as other nuttiness that will keep you saying "only in the 80s." For those that have seen 28 Days Later and felt like you had seen a lot of bits before in other movies, this is another one it seemed to borrow/pay homage to.

In the end, I did not see why there was all the love for this movie after all this years, but that could be due to my not growing up watching it. I am sure that something like The Last Starfighter may not be as "cool" to people watching it for the first time now, but since I grew up watching and loving it I can still appreciate it today. Or maybe Night of the Comet is just overrated. Unfortunately I can’t totally judge that for myself other than to say that I felt that the movie kind of dragged and had a lot of wasted potential. Zombie movies are easy to make: have lots of zombies, have zombies kill people, have people kill zombies. Really simple and yet this movie doesn’t really deliver on this and instead decides it wants to be something else that is definitely very Cold War influenced. Despite all that, I still enjoyed it and was glad I watched it.

This movie took a while to get to DVD and came out as a budget DVD that has no extras at all. The picture quality is pretty good considering the age, budget, and history of going through different studio hands (part of the reason it took so long to come to DVD). If you were to buy this movie, you’re not going to get any kind of crazy special edition to own, just the movie on DVD.

3.5/5 stars – A cult classic that was long awaited for DVD. Now it’s finally out and may not live up to expectations due to some odd story elements. In the end more worth a rental than a purchase especially with a barebones DVD being all that’s out. Can be found cheap if you do want to own though.

Wonderfalls was created by Bryan Fuller who also did Dead Like Me on Showtime and most recently Pushing Daisies on ABC. Notice a trend with his shows? He also was a “creative consultant” on the first and third seasons of Heroes which many regard as the better seasons. Wonderfalls is about a girl named Jaye who is a college graduate yet lives in a trailer park and works at a small retail store in Niagara Falls dealing with tourists. Fans of Dead Like Me with recognize the sarcastic tone and attitude of the lead female, but different enough that it doesn’t feel like he is ripping off his own characters. The hook of this show is that inanimate objects speak to her and tell her to do things. These directions are usually for her to do some good in her life and give her direction but instead of being specific they are cryptic and she has to figure out what they mean and why she has to do it, usually making some missteps along the way. It also makes her seem crazy and unreliable to her family and friends leading to further struggle.

Unfortunately my describing it cannot do it justice and I feel that Fox had the same issue which made it hard to market. The lead actress labeled the show as “Joan of Arcadia on acid” in an interview and I would say I have to say I agree. This is far from anything else seen on TV and I’m sure that is why it did not do well, much like Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies. These are great shows for people looking for something new and original, and unfortunately it’s just too “out there” for your average audience. I highly recommend checking out the DVD set, which is usually sold for around $15-20 and deciding for yourself.

As for the quality of the DVDs themselves, they look just fine on a standard definition TV but the extra compression to fit more episodes on one disc becomes very apparent on an HDTV. The episodes are roughly 45 minutes each so to fit the 5 or 6 per disc they had to make sacrifices on the video and sound quality by using lots of compression. It looks grainy and blocky at times, with colors being more washed out and “bleeding” but overall watchable. I am sure this was all done as a way to produce the DVD set at a cheaper cost to use less discs and since this is the only release I’m sure the show will receive it is the best we will get unfortunately. I cannot fault Fox for this since releasing the show was a risk with it being a canceled show, but at least now people can own it and see 9 episodes that were never aired.

4/5 stars – An extremely well written and acted show that was canceled before its time. Highly recommended for those looking for something unique in their TV watching. Not the highest quality DVDs, but well worth the price.

UPDATE 2: The movie has been added to NetFlix Instant.  Click here to watch it for yourself.

Watch this trailer and see what you think.

If you watch it and you think it is cheesy and you won’t like it…. It’s CHEESIER and you will hate it. Do you like movie that are just ridiculous, well, read on.

Never heard of this movie? I’m sure there are some people that would like to keep it that way. This was a Bruce Willis creation, and, well, it didn’t do so well for them. The movie bombed horribly in theaters and I think they all just want to move on and forget about it. This movie is just purely ridiculous and over the top, but in a way you can tell they were just having fun making it.

The story revolves around "the world’s greatest cat burglar" played by Bruce Willis. He is released from prison and is immediately asked to do another job (by his parole officer for some odd reason). His old partner talks him into it and they go for it. As you can expect, things don’t go as planned, and the job isn’t quite what it seems at first. All I will say is that it involves Leonardo DiVinci before The Divinci Code was even thought of.

As I mentioned, it is just over the top. It’s full of cheesy one liners and totally unrealistic situations, but if you go in with the right mindset, or just love "so bad it’s good" kind of movies you will love to just shut your brain off and enjoy it. To see Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello singing while they do their thing (they don’t use watches, they have specific songs for each time frame they have to work with) or David Caruso having a role where he doesn’t speak (another genius idea!) as a mute that carries around a card for each thing he wants to say, and the stereotypical dumbass muscle head that says stupid things and reads Green Eggs and Ham is quite the amazing sight. How this got made, I don’t know, but I’m sure glad it did.

I saw it on Showtime as a kid and loved it, I had taped it and watched it so many times I wore the tape out. I made sure to make everyone I knew watch it too. I got older, took a break and kinda sorta forgot about it. Then college comes around and it’s around the time I started dating my fiancée. She mentions her love for the movie and brings it with her one time when she came to visit and I fell in love with it all over again. Of course, any woman that feels that this is one of the greatest movies ever, of course I had to marry her.

The movie was an early release on DVD but there were constant rumors circulating of a Special Edition coming out.  The movie obviously had enough of a cult following that Columbia Tri-Star was willing to re-release it.  After many MANY delays, it finally came out and you better believe that we bought it right away.  After years of watching it on VHS we now had our own copy that would not wear out, was in widescreen, and had BONUS FEATURES.  You would think that after all the years we waited that we would have rushed to watch said bonus features, but instead we have owned it for a couple years now and have never watched them.  I know, I know, what a poor review, can’t even comment on bonus features.  Well, I recently had friends over that I made them watch the movie and they all loved it so it made me realize I needed to get a review up ASAP.  I will watch them and update the review accordingly   What I can say though is that the DVD picture quality is great and one couldn’t really expect it to look any better without making the jump to Blu-Ray (oh, I can’t wait for that day).

4/5 stars – As I said, that trailer is a good barometer for if you will enjoy this movie. It is not a "good" movie, it is "so bad it’s good." If you enjoy over the top situations with cheesy one liners and Frank Stallone getting killed, this is for you. If it’s not for you, then this will easily be 1 (or 0!) stars. I can’t say anything more without giving away what makes this movie so good.  Little side note, they made an NES game for it too.

When this game was released back in September of 2006, many were surprised that SEGA even took a chance at releasing it stateside. A good way for Yakuza to be described is an “adventure brawler” because the story is just as important as the gameplay, almost like an RPG brawler. You will spent lots of time talking to people and watching cut scenes, but then also spend a lot of time beating the crap out of each other. This is something not normally seen in video games, either you’re just mashing away at buttons with a few short breaks here and there, or you’re watching cut scenes in a 60 hour RPG that has more strategy involved with the gameplay. To try and make this an even more high-profile title Sega hired voice actors such as Eliza Dushku, Mark Hamill, Rachael Leigh Cook, and others to do the voices for the characters. What you get is a highly polished story that is every bit as interesting as any other Yakuza movie, with some fun fighting. Unfortunately for SEGA, it didn’t do as well as they had hoped.

I do not have any exact numbers, but I have heard nothing but the fact that this game was a disappointment. The sequel was released here in the US as well, but to cut costs it was the original Japanese voice acting with English subtitles only so as to not have to pay all those actors again. From what I hear that game did even worse. Yakuza 3 came out on the Playstation 3 in Japan and SEGA has said they have no plans at all to bring it here in the US.

As for the game itself, you will play it much like other brawlers where it will be just you against a group of people.  You start off with very few moves, but as you progress you earn XP and unlock more moves.    Combat is controlled rather simply with just square and triangle for your attacks, X for dodge, and circle to throw.  Although simple, it is rather deep after you start upgrading and adding moves and it breaks it up enough with the story so as to not be super repetitive.  There are specific battles that you have to do as you get from point A to point B, but sometimes wandering around the streets you may bump into someone by accident and piss them off and that can start a fight.  The city feels like it’s alive with people everywhere in the crowded streets and people all have different kinds of personalities.  You may also find rival Yakuza families and they will try to pick fights with you as well.  On time of the very linear story progression you can spend some time wandering around and doing side quests as well.  Some can be fun and helpful like gambling which can get you money, but there are others like going to Host Bars that just feel pointless and a waste of time and money.

The story deals with a Yakuza boss being killed by your best friend.  He has too much to lose if he is caught as the killer so you take the blame for him.  You are sent to jail and while you are away a lot changes within the Yakuza families, and with your friend as well.  Ten years pass, you get out and many people do not want anything to do with you.  As your character finds out all the things that have gone on while you were away, more bad things start happening and you investigate and try to make things right again.  I won’t say too much else so as to not give much away, as giving away plot points in this game is like giving away story of an RPG: it’s a major reason you are playing the game.

The graphics are not the greatest you will see on the PS2, but they do get the job done.  There are sometimes a lot of characters on screen at once, so they went with a more simple look to prevent any performance issues.  In this age of HDTVs and next-gen systems it may be hard to go back to a game like this, but I was able to look passed the simpler graphics due to the great story and gameplay.  The sound is top notch with great voice acting and sound effects.

Since this game was passed over, it is not readily available in stores, but you can find it online rather cheap, and it is well worth it. I finished in around 23 hours, but I did a lot of wandering around and side-quests which are optional. Want a little more thinking and entertainment with your butt kicking, look no further than this game.

4/5 stars – Enjoy this game, then enjoy the sequel, only to be disappointed that is where it stops for us in the US.  Great for fans of Yakuza movies and brawler games.

Thanks to GameFAQs for the screen shots until I can make my own.

This is the perfect example of a “Rainy Sunday Movie.” By that I mean the type of movie that most people only see because it’s being played by their local TV station on a Sunday afternoon since it’s cheap programing. You are only partially paying attention to it, but there isn’t much better on TV at the time.

So, what are the specifics of the by-the-numbers BioPic? Well, he was a famous rodeo cowboy that became world champion and inducted into the hall of fame younger than anyone else before. He is played by Luke Perry so you can see the time that this came out, but it did nothing to help his career. The events I explained in the first paragraph happen and then a few more things I won’t spoil in case you really do decide to watch. I was just glad I had a blog to work on while it was on, because it really did not keep my interest at all, but maybe there are people out there that would be interested, but it just wasn’t for me.

It is available on NetFlix Instant only until Monday August 24th, click here to check out the page for it. It is in HD and the picture quality was very good, but I found the dialogue hard to hear at times. If you really must watch this movie, Instant is the way to go, because going out of your way to wait for this to show up in the mail would be a waste of time.

2/5 stars, have it in the background while doing something else.