B-Roll

Couldn't resist sharing these utterly trashy, but oh-so good trailers for late 70s early 80s grindhouse cinema.

Galaxina (1980)


Star Crash (1979)


And then we have TORSO! A shambolic slasher flick seemingly about confused Freudian terminology mixing with semi-naked ladies and the occasional hacksaw. Hilarious right down to the briming-with-positivity way of calling the movie's title in the trailer (listen to hear what I mean). TORSO! Be prepared to have your screen saturated with terror.

Torso (1973) (defintely not safe for work and surprising that its even on youtube!)

Some DVD Hardware

No idea how I missed this the first time round, but shlock horror classic 'Hardware' is now whistling its way onto DVD this month. Following a review in Total Film, I've been digging around for more info on this chunk of 80s scifi-horror-action genius which (apparently) draws favourable comparision with 'A Clockwork Orange', 'Aliens' and 'The Terminator'.

Here's how Wikipedia describes the premiss:
The 21st century world is a radioactive wasteland as a result of a nuclear war. A travelling scavenger comes across the remains of a cyborg named Mark 13 in the desert, and salvages pieces of it. The cyborg head ends up with a metal sculptress, who is unaware of the cyborg's infamy as a governmental killing machine project that was scrapped due to its defects. Mark 13 reconstructs itself utilizing household appliances and metal parts, and goes amok.

Need more convincing of its simultaneous brilliant and dodgy appeal? Check out the trailer below:



Can't wait to get my hands on the dvd version of this!

S.

Potentially worst video game to movie adaption announced

There have been quite a few stinkers so far (Mario Brothers, Dead or Alive , Doom , Alone in the Dark
Bloodrayne… in fact most films by Uwe Boll)

But this could top the lot. Universal has secured the film rights to the classic Atari video game "Asteroids”.

It’s the 30 year old game featuring the little triangle that fires missiles at 2D, um, asteroids. I’m not sure what’s more surprising, the fact that it’s being made at all or that Universal had to fight three other studios for the rights.
According to Comingsoon.net, Universal is also developing movies based on Hasbro board game properties such as "Battleship," "Candyland," "Ouija," "Monopoly" and "Clue."

Seriously! Sadly it seems Michael Jackson died just as unfathomable weirdness was becoming cool again.

B is for...

Good to see the folks in Belfast have taken the new city logo to heart and truely made it their own. Great artistic subversion.

Death of a legend

Enigmatic, flawed, outrageous, genius, troubled...
Just some of the words I imagine the press will use as people wake up tomorrow to reports of Michael Jackson's death:

http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/michael-jackson-dead-4723/

Regardless of your opinion of the man, he was something of a cultural icon and his passing leaves three children without a father. Sad news indeed.

S.

Bike race in Belfast

Stopped off on my way home to watch a host of bikes racing through Ormeau Park. Not really sure why they were there, but the crowds and weather made it a great spectacle.

Corporate Geek

Today saw my first major venture into using Facebook as a corporate tool for a client. I’ve seen a few business pages online which pitch perfectly into the social media site’s demographic (Tourism Ireland being a good example) and was keen to try my hand at it.

Surprisingly it lacks the comfortable and user-friendly experience that you’d expect from setting up a personal profile. For a start you’ll need to install the latest version of Flash to do even the simplest of things. Not normally a big problem provided your IT admins allow you permission to download and install utilities.

The layout of the edit pages are cumbersome and awkward to navigate your way around, for instance trying to edit the name of the page is down right impossible even after navigating through a maze of similar looking pages with dead end links.

Most frustratingly of all, to upload images you can either install the ActiveX control (which I avoided given the need for more admin authority) or use the ironically named ‘Simple uploader’ perhaps ‘freeze every 5 minutes uploader’ is more wordy, but it says it like it is.

In the end perseverance paid off and I got the page finally online. The end product is pretty good and I’m impressed with the ease of putting said client into the reach of key audiences. But is it worth pulling your hair out as the edit page crashes again and again? …only just!

S.

WTF E3

E3 is underway and with more than a passing interest in the big announcements I was expecting details of Metal Gear on the Xbox 360. But all is not as it seems, as Gamespot recounts...

LOS ANGELES--As a game developer, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima can usually be relied upon to do something unexpected. So with rumors flying that his PlayStation 3-exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots would be announced for the Xbox 360 at Microsoft's E3 2009 media briefing, the developer stayed true to form.

Appearing onstage at the media briefing, Kojima told the audience he was indeed bringing the Metal Gear Solid series to the Xbox 360, but in an all-new game. Titled Metal Gear Solid Rising, Kojima's new project won't star Solid Snake. Instead, it will apparently star another of the franchise's famous faces. According to the tagline, "Lightning bolt action… Raiden is back!" Unfortunately, details about Metal Gear Solid Rising will have to wait for another day.

"I can't say more now," Kojima said, "but I can promise you that it will be a completely new experience."

Damn if only my Xbox wasn't busted!

S.