Pirate Journalism

Sailing the High Seas of Words without a Flag

Are you Game? Coming Releases Put New Twist on Video Game Movies

Video game movies, as a rule, are bad. Sure there are a few exceptions like “Mortal Kombat” and “Tomb Raider,” but for every Lara Croft movie, there are a dozen Super Mario Brothers and Street Fighter movies that were so bad that they actually generated negative box office numbers when they debut. (Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration)

However, on the other side of the coin are movies about video games. Movies such as “Tron” and “War Games” are considered classics, at least among the geek crowd.

This fall, two new movies are taking a different spin on the video game sub-genre, and both look like they are going to be the bomb with audiences—that is one good flick that is going to be “the bomb” and one that is going to bomb.

gamer_xlgGAMER

(Lionsgate, Rated R, coming Sept. 4) www.gamerthemovie.com

“Gamer” tries to be original by taking two classic sci-fi genres and twisting them together. They take the “future gladiators,” a.k.a. prisoners being used and abused for entertainment as seen in “Death Race,” “Running Man,” and a host of others, and rewrap it for the Xbox generation.

Kable (Gerard Butler) is a super soldier put on death row for the wrong reasons, and his only way out alive is to survive as a character on Slayers—a combat video game where players like Simon (Logan Lerman) have complete control over their living video game avatar. If Simon can win 30 games, Kable gets to go free.

While the premise pushes the boundaries of disbelief, the movie promises to be an action-packed shoot’em-up, directed and written by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the mad men behind the action overdoses known as “Crank” and “Crank: High Voltage.”

Avataravatar_poster_00

(20th Century Fox, not yet rated), coming Dec. 18) www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/hd/

Geeks love a good “VS.” argument. Star Trek VS. Star Wars, Batman VS. Iron Man, Smurfs VS. Snorks. It doesn’t matter what the subject is as long as there are reams of background material, quasi-science and misunderstood references used in a single episode of a show that came out 30 years ago, geeks will pick a side and fight it out till the end.

James Cameron’s “Avatar” feeds on this hunger for geek battle between video game worlds. Now, it doesn’t come out and say it, but from looking a the trailer, this CGI/Live action blend (like “Beowulf”) takes Halo and World of Warcraft and sets them against each other.

Jake (Sam Worthington) is a disabled vet that agrees to travel to another world for a special project that promises to free him from his wheelchair. Using a strange merger of cloning and “Gamer” technology, Jake is put into the body of a blue skin alien that looks a whole lot like a Night Elf from World of Warcraft. He is sent to infiltrate the local tribe, falls in love with a native girl and then must help them fight off the evil humans in very Halo-like gear using only the primitive bows and arrows and pet dinosaurs.

Avatar's Alien Elves

Avatar's Alien Elves

This maybe too wild to be a big hit, and a lot is depending on the quality of the CGI work. Personally, if there is a Night Elf wizard dropping fireballs on the Master Chief’s helmeted head (or close as Cameron can get without being sued), then there might be a chance for this movie to live up to the hype.

Christopher Huff is a self-confessed and unrepentant geek who as been living, writing and playing on the Grand Strand for several years. You can learn more about him and his writing at www.piratejournalism.com. Comments can be sent to chris@alternatives.sc.

August 28, 2009 Posted by Christopher Huff | On the Geek Strand | , , , , | Comments Off

Michael Franti ready to ‘Say Hey’ to Myrtle Beach Aug. 20 at HOB

Michael Franti & Spearhead join Counting Crows at House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach on Aug. 10

Michael Franti & Spearhead join Counting Crows at House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach on Aug. 10

Michael Franti, creator and lead singer of Michael Franti and Spearhead, said he is looking forward to visiting Myrtle Beach for the first time when his band joins Counting Crows and Augustana at the House of Blues on Aug. 20.
“I am looking forward to getting in the water,” Franti said. “I had a ruptured appendix and had to have emergency surgery. I am just now getting back out on the road. It feels good to be playing for an audience again. This trip will be my first time in Myrtle Beach, so I hope I will get a chance to hit the water after the show.”
Franti’s recent song “Say Hey (I Love You)” has recently hit the charts, bringing his unique style of music into the limelight.
“There are so many influences to my music — rock, reggae, punk rock — it is hard to pick a single genre,” Franti said. “So now that I have a song on in the top 40, I just tell people I play Top 40 music.”
Songwriters and the guitar provide Franti with the inspiration for his music.
“It all comes back to the acoustic guitar,” Franti said. “I start with that first, and it is the songwriters who worked with the guitar — John Lennon, Bob Marley, Johnny Cash. Take John Lennon for example. He did his songs in so many different styles and ranges.”
Many of his songs have a political side to them, but Franti isn’t just about protesting what he sees as wrong, but making a positive change.
“I believe all of us have an opportunity to make the planet a better place,” Franti said. “Yes, I have my political beliefs, but they are not necessarily right. Other people have their beliefs, and they might be right.”
Not just singing about his beliefs, Franti puts them to the test.
“When the Iraqi war started, I went there,” he said. “I didn’t go with the USO or anything. I got a plane ticket and went there on my own. I was singing on street corners to Iraqis and American troops at the same time.”
Franti continued: “It is better to get involved. I play prisons a lot. I play for the warden, the guards and the inmates — all sides of the problem.”
Franti grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, an African American adopted by second-generation Finnish Americans.
The unique upbringing has taught him the importance of solidarity.
“I have always felt like an outsider,” Franti said. “I try to use music to bring solidarity among all those outsiders, to create unity. I play in New Orleans a lot, and I see how music brings people together. This is a place that has been hit hard with problems of all kinds — weather disasters, political corruption — and then I see how all these different people come together for music.”

August 17, 2009 Posted by Christopher Huff | Myrtle Beach Herald, music, writing | , , , , , , , | Comments Off

A Look at G.I. Joe’s newest agent!

Check out my look at Agent Helix at my Examiner.net page.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18371-Columbia-Comic-Books-Examiner~y2009m8d16-Triple-Helix-GI-Joes-newest-secret-weapon-comes-with-threeprong-attack

August 17, 2009 Posted by Christopher Huff | writing | , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Good Geek TV

Sure, everyone knows the easy answers to that question—anything on SyFy, anything on the educational channels, and anything on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, especially if it is made with old toys.

However, it takes more than flashy special effects and big explosions. Star Trek: Enterprise proved that. It takes originality, compelling plots, sex appeal and…well, something geeky.

Here are two of the best TV shows to geek out about on TV now.

TRUE BLOOD (HBO)

True Blood: This show's got bite!

True Blood: This show's got bite!

This show has everything a growing geek needs to become big and strong. Based in a world much like ours, except that Vampires, werewolves, demons, shape shifters and mystical things of all natures live side-by-side with humans.

Unlike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or other vamp tales, Vampires have come out into the sunlight, so to speak, and thanks to a artificial blood that can allow them to survive without feeding on every lovely neck that tempts them, they are now struggling to overcome prejudice and earn the rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

Of course, not all Vampires want to give up their shadowy scourge-of-the-night lifestyles, and there are a lot of God-fearing people who don’t want to share the supermarkets and suburbs with Count D, Last at and Angel.

Even mild-mannered Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), who has tried to live among humans peacefully for years, has trouble getting by. Converted against his will just after the Civil War, this relatively young vampire has finally returned home in Bonn Temps, La.

There, he falls for a waitress named Sooki (Anna Paquin), who can read everyone’s mind but Bill’s (and other vamps). Of course, a psychic Southern girl dating a vampire brings up all sorts of problems.

And if that isn’t enough get geeky about, being on HBO, the show guarantees a lot of wild sex magic and other naughty parts (including nude scenes of Paquin, who X-men role as Rogue guarantees all the comic book freaks are tuning in).

BURN NOTICE (USA)

Burn Notice: James Bond couldn't handle it this hot!

Burn Notice: James Bond couldn't handle it this hot!

James Bond never had these problems.

Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) worked for the CIA as a highly trained operative, until he got burned. In the spy business, being burned is worse that being declared a traitor. You are dumped in a city, stripped of your rank, clearance and funding, left to fend for yourself—an outcast. For Weston, he is dumped in Miami and warned not to leave or he will be rushed to the top of the Terrorist Watch List.

Despite the beautiful bathing suits and scenery, Miami is not where Michael wants to be. It’s home. His mother (Sharon Gless) still lives in the house he grew up in, and began learning his craft to avoid a bad relationship with his father.

Also in Miami are two friends of Michael’s that he wasn’t ready to hook up with—Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell), a mojito-guzzling ex-SEAL and current gigolo, and Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), an Irish hottie whose turn-ons include C4, Automatic weapons and yogurt-eating ex-CIA operatives.

To make ends meet, Michael and friends help out need causes in a cross between MacGyver, Mission Impossible and James Bond, and Michael proves to be better than all three: He can out build MacGyver, and isn’t afraid to pick up an UZI, He doesn’t need special masks to help him infiltrate the bad guys, and instead of getting his gadgets from Q, he builds them himself. The things that he can do with a cell phone can really make you think before you place that next call.

Throw in Campbell with his Army of Darkness geek-cred and the lushish Anwar, who makes you wish the show was on HBO, and you have geek bait that has made Burn Notice one of the top shows out there for the last couple years.

Christopher Huff is a self-confessed and unrepentant geek who as been living, writing and playing on the Grand Strand for several years. You can learn more about him and his writing at www.piratejournalism.com. Comments can be sent to chris@alternatives.sc.

August 14, 2009 Posted by Christopher Huff | On the Geek Strand | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Yo Joe! IDW brings the Real American Hero to your iPhone.

August 12, 2009 Posted by Christopher Huff | writing | 2 Comments

Wrong Decade, Wrong Audience and Wrong Price

August 3, 2009 Posted by Christopher Huff | writing | 1 Comment