The Man Who Wasn't There

Seems like Cloverfield is just the start of a new wave of cinema verite fiction. I had linked earlier to the Diary of the Dead, George Romero's next zombie film that is about a filmmaker who ends up catching on film the living dead.

Then there's The Poughkeepsie Tapes which doesn't look very good, I don't think. But again, same style.

Then there's the Spanish movie [REC] which I think looks awesome and from what I've gathered from reviewers and people who've watched it, it will be pretty damn amazing.

With the success of Cloverfield already sparking discussions about the sequel, I'm wondering if filmmakers will try to cash in on this style of filmmaking.

Saw Cloverfield Friday night. I'll write about it soon. But I wanted to post a link to this bloody disgusting.com article as it is very interesting. The origin of the Cloverfield monster is revealed...IN THE FILM!

I totally missed this key scene; and if you stay until after the credits, there's an audio portion with some additional news. All of that is in the linked article. VERY interesting!!

I'm glad I'm still under thirty! Does anyone else find this review incoherent?

"Not For Anyone Over 30" it proclaims, making me glad I'm only 27.

As the week progresses, it's getting harder and harder to get out of bed. I'm feeling like crap and have been since Monday. Drainage for the lose. It's in my chest, so I'm coughing like crazy, my nose is plugged so I can't sleep. And when I do finally start to drift to sleep, I start coughing like mad. Then there's the once-in-awhile chills. Blech. So, last night I woke up around 3:30 and it took me forever to get back to sleep. There was a point, when I was staring at my alarm as it read 4:15 that I thought about saying screw it and just get up. But I didn't.

Whine whine whine.

Cloverfield is turning into what I expected it to be: a good, fun old monster movie dressed up in hip clothes. Reviews are coming in with people giving it positives while saying it's an old film looking new and with others dogging it for being the same thing. Still looking forward to it; I think it'll be fun. Movie's at 68% with 22 reviews counted so far.

Every time I see Lisa Schwarzbaum's name, my lip curls.

Supposedly, a Turok demo is on Live. Haven't looked yet. Might check it out. Also, apparently a Devil May Cry 4 demo is also inbound, hopefully prior to the game's release. I really wish they'd release the TGS demo of Lost Odyssey.

Next week, PixelJunk Monsters will be out on the PS3's Playstation Network. I absolutely love tower defense games (like in Warcraft 3) and this game looks to mesh cute story book graphics with tower defense gameplay. I can't wait! Here's some info about it; hopefully it'll be just as addictive as the other Tower Defense games I've played. Now...to find someone else to play this with.

Now that Age of Conan looks to be really and truly sticking with its March 25th release date, my excitement is growing by the day. I really wish I were in the beta right now. I want to build cities, wage war, dismember my foes, partake in "drunkin' brawling" in the taverns and go around yelling "CROOOMMM!"

...okay, maybe not the last one.

First off, I want to wish cry_gaia an amazingly awesome birthday. Enjoy your day off! :D

So, I guess Super Smash Brothers Brawl is going to be orgasmic since it's the 7th (I think) game that Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has ever awarded a perfect score of 40. Speaking of ratings, I saw something on the RSS feeder bloody-disgusting.com (but unfortunately that site is blocked where I'm at) of a screening of Cloverfield. I went to Rotten Tomatoes to see if any reviews had been counted (this is how it ties into ratings) and discovered two things.

One, the site's gone through a redesign. Two, Cloverfield is sitting at a very puzzling -1% at the moment. I'm guessing there's some glitches that need to be worked out. I like the new site layout, though. It's very fresh.

...that wasn't a pun. I don't pun.

At any rate, the point is that the guys at bloody-disgusting both said they loved the movie. But not only that, "the usually silent press all clapped (a very rare moment)." So that's a good sign, I'd think. Unless it was a press room completely filled with fanboys and girls. But, I'm looking forward to the movie this Friday. I think it's going to be pretty darn cool.

I watched American Idol last night. Yes, I can admit it. I watched it. While also playing DDO as we tackled a quest that was not only "very long," the first quest we've done with that label, but also only had one...one rest shrine. We died so many times that, for some of us, we had a -80% XP penalty. When all was said in done, we only did that one dungeon last night and even with the -80% penalty, we still received 2,400ish XP. I can't imagine how much XP that'd be if we didn't die so much. Not that that was going to happen.

Well, first review is in for Cloverfield. It has minor spoilers, but doesn't really ruin anything thankfully.

A few quotes:

"Having seen the film, I can tell you...[it] will knock your cinema-going mind into the floor of the theater."

"The movie is a landmark genre film. A true milestone in film."

"Folks – CLOVERFIELD is worth the obsession, worth the months I’ve had to put up with fans wondering what the hell it was – worth having to deal with reporters asking me what it was – and I didn’t know either. This is a towering movie. A complete reinvention of the disaster movie, the giant monster movie and even the love story. I absolutely love this film and the only thought I had when it was over was how I wanted to watch it 5 more times today."

High praise, indeed. But this is also the same guy who went just as insane over Hatchet, a movie I thought was okay. But not as amazingly awesome as Harry did.

At any rate, I still can't wait to see this movie next weekend!!

You know, I wonder if the internet existed en masse when Jaws was released, would people be as "omgneedtoknow" about the shark as they are about Cloverfield's monster?

I kind of feel bad for the filmmakers (though they did bring this on themselves a bit) because chances are there's no way their monster is going to be as awesome as every little internet geek boy and girl has embellished it as being in their heads.

I forgot to mention that I picked up Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law for the Nintendo Wii this week. Last month, I purchased one of the Ace Attorney games because I had never played one and needed something to compare Harvey to...well, so far (and I'm not very far in either, actually) I like Harvey better. They share a very similar structure, though the way they're handled are very different.

For one, Harvey plays like an episode of the TV show, complete with cutscenes voiced by the same actors and all the usual trimmings. Fans of the show will enjoy the game. It's of close-to-the-same caliber as the show (written by writers of the show) but there are some things that are missing. The hammer falls as jump cuts (does that make sense?) are here, but they lack the music zing and the "WHIPPA!" Lots of characters are showing up, so it works great.

One thing, though, is that the game kind of lacks the neurotic feel of the show; you know, where characters pop in and out, say things, act incredibly random, etc. That feeling is kind of missing right now. It could change...I've only finished one of the five trials and it was a short tutorial.

I'm going to hold my opinion on the difficulty. The first mission was too easy, but we'll see; it was the tutorial after all.