Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Yep Still Alive; Part 2

Well yesterday was about comics, so today's blog won't be.


The Warriors:


The Warriors is quite possibly my favorite 70s movie and favorite cult movie (excepting, in both cases, the original Dawn of the Dead). There is just something about urban decay and blight as a visual setting that I just can't help but be attracted too. And The Warriors showcased this in spades. Add to that the over-the-top nature of the gangs and characters and you're guaranteed to appeal to the comic book fan in me. But, as great as the movie is, I'm writing to talk about the game based on it.

Movie licensed video games tend to, putting it lightly, suck massive amounts of ass. Only rarely do we get games that prove the exception to the rule. Fortunately The Warriors is one of them. Right off the bat, the game is able to avoid one of the major traps that most licensed games fall victim to. Most games of this nature fail by trying to stick too closely to the source material. Not realizing that stretching a 2 hour movie into a 8+ hour game is going to just lead to monotony and poor gameplay. The story of the game opens about 3 months prior to the story of the movie. Allowing for a significant amount of gameplay (easily 7+ hours) to play out before you even embark on the movie's storyline.

Bottom line, if you're a fan of old-school brawlers (Streets of Rage, Final Fight, etc) the game is definitely worth playing. And if you, like me, are a fan of the cult classic film, it's worth owning.


Bond. James Bond.

Like most from my generation, I grew up on the Bond movies of Dalton and Brosnan. And, as a kid, I was never a huge fan of the Bond films. I mostly watched them because I thought it was what guys were "supposed to" do. I never really got into the Bond films until I saw Casino Royale (which I initially hated, but have come to love). After that I bought one of the James Bond Ultimate Collections to try and give the Bond series a shot as an adult.

The collection I bought had a nice sampling of Bonds. Connery (From Russia With Love), Lazenby (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), Moore (Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only), and Brosnan (GoldenEye). Only Dalton was missing, but I'd already seen both of his Bond exploits as a kid, so it was no big loss.

The Collection was a revelation. I had always been under the impression that the earlier Bonds were exercises in extravagance and way too overblown to be believable. But of all the movies in the collection, only For Your Eyes Only failed to hold my attention. And even that wasn't because the movie was too over the top. It just didn't pop for me. Granted I still haven't seen some of the more hated entries (The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, Tomorrow Never Dies, etc.), but I have to say that I'm looking forward to pouring over the remaining Bond movies.

And for the record, my list of favorite Bonds is as follows:

  1. Craig
  2. Lazenby
  3. Connery
  4. Brosnan
  5. Moore
  6. Dalton

2 comments:

Trevallion said...

I had never seen a Bond movie in its entirety until Quantum of Solace but I really enjoyed it, and I've been meaning to see more. I've also never seen The Warriors. I've got to get out more, apparently!

Akira said...

The Warriors is such a great flick BUT it can be an acquired taste. Definitely worth netflixing though if you dig movies that walk the line between campy and cult.