Paul Constant, at the Stranger:
There has never been a good movie based on a video game. Think about that for a second. For twenty years, Hollywood has been trying to adapt video games to film; Wikipedia lists 29 adaptations made in that time. They’ve never successfully made a good one. And so I am highly nervous about the news that Duncan Jones is going to make a World of Warcraft movie. Jones’s first movie, Moon, was a home run. His second movie, Source Code, was not very good at all, although it was at least ambitious and demonstrated his craftsmanship. But this is going to require a lot of work…
Read the whole thing (it’s short, but includes some interesting details). Opinions in the Stranger commentariat seem to be all over the grid. Disclaimer: I’m not a WoW player — I’m not even a gamer — but as a lifelong sf/fantasy geek I’m alway open to the possibility that a particular brick of Hollywood sci-fi might be worth watching…
***********
What else is on the agenda for the remnants of the evening?
General Stuck
From General Stuck’s Believe It Or Not files.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
People should stop writing “There have never been any good ___/That was a great ___” stories.
I thought Source Code was a pretty good movie. Actually, I think Source Code is three good movies: The first ends when they figure out who the bomber is, the second when the two kiss, and the third at the end of the movie.
As for video game movies, I thought Mortal Kombat was pretty good.
Corner Stone
Searing a small filet in a cast iron pan on the stove and some home made fries in the oven with a bunch of spicy spices.
Just baffled that Chuck Hagel hasn’t straight fucking punched some silly mofo’s yet. I would if I were he.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): People should stop writing “There have never been any good ___/That was a great ___” stories
Agreed. It’s trolling.
Corner Stone
Ummm, Lara Croft anyone?
penpen
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): There seems to be this odd segment of people who talk about Source Code like it was an objectively bad movie. I liked it, you liked it, 91% of critics on RT liked it.
Groucho48
One could argue no one has ever tried to make a good movie from a video game. They’ve made quick buck movies.
catperson
I’ve gotta disagree with the premise. Mortal Kombat is v entertaining and I like the first Tomb Raider.
PsiFighter37
After listening to him talk, I cannot stand the sound of listening to the new clown from Texas, Ted Cruz. He sounds as deeply uneducated and as simple-minded as the last chickenhawk who came from that state. He seems like the kind of turdball who’d probably shit himself, then cry softly with chattering teeth if he were to visit Afghanistan.
What is wrong with the people of the Lone Star State? Why do they keep electing buffoons and morons to represent them?
It’s a semi-serious question…because I don’t think the answer “because they’re morons, too” quite explains it all…or maybe it does.
I’m no huge fan of Hagel, but it really gets in their craw that he criticized the Boy Prince’s war. Sure, forget about Bush wrecked the economy, but also pretend like the surge made everything A-Okay in Iraq.
shortstop
Rasmussen just robopolled me. This lifelong conservative and enthusiastic Tea Partier thinks Barack Obama is doing an outstanding job.
ranchandsyrup
Dennis Hopper put in some solid work in Super Mario Brothers as King Koopa.
Making some yakisoba and taking the hounds for a walk tonight.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@PsiFighter37: He was born in Canada. I could claim it’s in the Texas water since I won’t drink it.
Suffern ACE
@PsiFighter37: as someone keeps mentioning, Ted Cruz went to Princeton and was always that way. So the question is who keeps putting him on Republican Party tickets?
Scuffletuffle
@shortstop: Made me laugh…I woke the cats!
dmsilev
Apparently today’s wingnut conspiracy theory is that the University of Chicago is planning to knock down an old apartment building (to make room for some new hospital facilities) which happened to be the home of Ronaldus Magnus when he was four years old. It is therefore obvious that this is being done to make room for the inevitable Obama Library and …cue the frothing at the mouth.
My favorite part of the story is that the Reagan-worshippers went to the local landmark commission to try to get this building declared a historical landmark and therefore protected. In other words, they’re calling on big government to restrict the ability of a private property owner to do what they want with said property…
Also, too, I walked by the building in question every day for a few years on my way into work, and there’s absolutely nothing special about it, just another three story brick apartment building of which there are umpteen thousand in Chicago alone. Not once did I hear angelic trumpets singing the praise of the Great Man as I walked past.
shortstop
@Scuffletuffle: I also accused the GOP of blaming America first…more in sorrow than in anger, of course.
Little Boots
cornerstone,
I apologize.
for every bitchy thing I said the other night.
Gravenstone
@Corner Stone: Does not support your argument.
PsiFighter37
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): He may have been born in Canada, but he has that incredibly irritating Southern drawl that both Dubya and Rick Perry have and seems to belie a certain amount of idiocy, not to mention bullshit hawkishness that sounds like something from the Keyboard Kommando Krew.
Why does everyone in the MSM call this guy a rising star? Does all it take for you to be called a ‘rising star’ in the GOP these days mean you don’t drool on yourself, you’re young, and you’re one of their token minorities?
Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches
@shortstop:
You’re doing God’s work.
dmsilev
@shortstop: Skewed polls!
FourTen
@catperson:
Agreed on both counts. Pure entertainment.
Now the problem with a WoW game movie, is that WoW isn’t a video game.
Really.
Proof: Who’s the hero of WoW? Not Warcraft, World of Warcraft.
shortstop
@dmsilev: Ha! Another tasty angle strikes me: Saul Alinsky, oversized evil genius whose name is smeared by every jackass cracker who can’t read enough to look him up to see what he did, also liked to petition U of C to stop acquiring and knocking down buildings for purposes of expansion.
Just so many things to love about this story.
dance around in your bones
One pretty ok movie was made about a kid playing a video game (ok, an arcade game) – The Last Starfighter. I kinda liked it back in the day.
I believe it spawned an actual video game later, just to bring it full circle.
Gian
@PsiFighter37:
I think Bush’s accent was fake, just like the ranch was a prop. In fact it was one of the things that made me despise him early in 2000, the Connecticut kid, who was a cheerleader at yale was such an obviously phony “cowboy” and “brush clearer”
But people ate it up.
I think the venn diagram overlap with people who like overdone fake accents in country music and Bush voters is near 99.44%
Little Boots
@Gian: @Gian:
we didn’t really elect that dick, did we?
flip, flip, flip.
no, okay good.
dmsilev
@shortstop: I didn’t know that about Alinsky, but it doesnt surprise me in the least. The University has long had a …complicated relationship with the surrounding neighborhoods. It’s better now than it used to be, but in the sixties and seventies, it was pretty dire.
Fluke bucket
@dmsilev: I thought the Obama library was going to be built in Kenya.
Little Boots
@Fluke bucket:
that’s the birthplace museum.
shhhh.
Little Boots
no one will engage. is it me? anne, is it me?
MattR
@shortstop: I’ve always wondered if they would filter out responses like that as fake.
I also think it is more efficient to skew a poll by supporting the liberal position/politician while claiming to be an independent moderate.
dmsilev
@efgoldman: To some extent, BU is still that way (I grew up in Brookline, and my parents still live there). Not as bad as when John Fucking Silber was running the place, of course.
dance around in your bones
@efgoldman: Oh yeah, that one was pretty cool too.
♫ Kids – what the hell do ya do with these kids today?♫
eta: tic-tac-toe FTW.
Ken J.
The first LARA CROFT movie was such a mistake. The Croft character could work pretty well, and in Angelina Jolie they had the great female action star of our era (see the movie SALT, dir. Philip Noyce***). All they needed was a script at the level of an average James Bond movie.
But instead the story meandered while Ms. Jolie had to insert part A into tab B to collect magic tokens to get some geegaw. I gather this was derived directly from the game. What a yawning bore.
*** anytime I mention Philip Noyce, I have to put in a plug for his great movie NEWSFRONT, about the days of the newsreel business in Australia. Anne Laurie might have seen that one?
shortstop
@MattR: That’s what I usually do. Tonight, I felt like entertaining myself.
Closeted epistemic (formerly Lojasmo)
@Corner Stone:
Laura croft sucked.
Source Code was great, though.
So, column sucked.
Hill Dweller
@PsiFighter37:
Anyone that took thirty minutes to look into Cruz would know he is a crazy scumbag.
The feckless, corrupt hacks in the Village are doing what they were told. The same thing happened with Ryan, Rubio, Christie, Jindal and now Cruz. But the saving grace for our side is every time one of these “rising stars” gets in front of a national audience, they recoil in horror.
Corner Stone
@Gravenstone: Sir/Madam, say what you will of me. But disdain the fine, subtle and yet powerful performance of kind gentlewoman Miss Angelina Jolie and you and I shall meet on the fields of honor.
The fields of honor, suh!!
Little Boots
well, whatever our problem is, it ain’t a lack of videogames.
NotMax
Catskill doesn’t refer to just the mountain range…
Allen
Personally, I don’t trust anyone who didn’t like “Source Code”, even if they did like “Moon”. “Moon” is excellent, no doubt, but “Source Code” was too, and Rotten Tomatoes tells me that 84% of top critics liked it, and 91% of all critics.
I frankly wouldn’t trust a Paul Constant movie review now, even if the movie were free. (And not only that, while they were hardly masterpieces, the first two Resident Evil movies were entertaining guilty pleasures, although I’m having trouble coming up with any other video game-based movies that were even remotely good.)
Anne Laurie
@Fluke bucket:
Hawaii, but the 2015 Birther rumor will be that the Dem candidate plans to tear down the White House & build Obama’s Library/Mosque on the site.
Frankensteinbeck
I’m on the ‘Mortal Kombat was fun’ wagon. I thought matching fast paced martial arts fights to the rhythm of techno music was a great idea.
Also, the Pokemon movies are pretty good – you just have to be the target audience, someone who likes cute children’s movies and is into Pokemon in general. Pikachu getting bitch slapped by his clone remains a treasured memory.
danielx
@PsiFighter37:
You mean like the guys (Tony Snow and Dan Barlett) in this picture who appear to be totally pissing-in-their-pants scared? You’d think the mere mention of the name…oops, I almost mentioned He Who Must Not Be Named (*cough*W*cough*)…would have terrified away the bad guys, back there in 2005. You know, that other epoch that Republicans forget about every day. Alas…
As to what’s going on, a shout out for Flying Dog Brewery of Frederick, Maryland. Their Gonzo Imperial Porter is to die for, and not just for the reproduction (signed even) of Ralpah Steadman’s portrait of Hunter S. Thompson on the label. Have to go a long way to find a beer that tastes as sublime as this with an alcohol content of 9.8%.
Yes, this is a totally shameless plug and encouragement of substance abuse. Of course there are absolutely NO BJers who will make any note of it.
MattR
@shortstop: I would love to do it to a live person, but I don’t think I could keep it together
shortstop
@Anne Laurie: It ain’t going to Hawaii. Pullease.
Anne Laurie
@Ken J.:
Not yet, but I just added it to the Netflix queue, thanks!
Ken J.
More for Anne Laurie: from the promos and ads, there appear to be a pile of Real Science Fiction movies lined up for this year. Leading the pack: Tom Cruise in “Oblivion”, Will Smith and his son in “After Earth” (looks kinda dumb but?), George Clooney and Sandra Bullock marooned in orbit in “Gravity.” And, from the director of District 9, “Elysium” is a tale of the 99% living in squalor on a trashed Earth while the 1% enjoy a tidy clean space station.
Jay in Oregon
There are several good stories that can be told from the World of Warcraft universe. The Warcraft games had a pretty rich backstory.
* The stories of Thrall the Orc and King Varian Wrynn; Thrall grew up in essentially an Orc concentration camp and freed his people, eventually leading to the creation of the Horde. Varian was captured by orcs and forced to fight as a gladiator before he escaped. Where Thrall is largely concerned with the protection of his people, Varian is sworn to wipe out the orcs.
* The tale of how Arthas becomes the Lich King and leader of the undead Scourge, and the first Scourge invasion; the destruction of the kingdom of Lordaeron, the rebellion of Sylvanas Windrunner and the fugitive undead that become the Forsaken. The paladins of the human kingdoms re-forming as the Argent Dawn, the xenophobic anti-undead zealots of the Scarlet Crusade.
dmsilev
@efgoldman: Hah! Small world. I grew up about halfway between Coolidge Corner and Brookline Village, though a generation or so after you (BHS ’92).
General Stuck
Kasich unleashes GOD card on his critics.
“are going to have to answer to a much higher power than me” Koch bros?
shortstop
@MattR: The key to doing it live is to really embrace the character you’re doing. For a few minutes, become the insanity you’re spouting. Resist all temptation to overplay your satire hand.
MikeJ
@NotMax: Yet bird feeders cause bird overpopulation. I help feed the cats, indirectly.
Little Boots
@efgoldman:
my cat was missing for a week. I went all over the neighborhood, and everyone was like this. “Oh I love that cat, it killed those damn gophers/chipmunks/squirrels” it was really interesting.
Corner Stone
@Ken J.:
Without knowing anything at all about the backstory of this, shouldn’t it really just be a pr0n parody? If you have a couple of relatively attractive people trapped away from salvation wouldn’t they just bone non-stop until dementia set in and they tried to kill one another? And then had monster make-up sex until the cycle started again and they tried to kill one another. And so on.
Aet
Wreck-It Ralph was awesome, but that’s the only one I can think of that was ‘good’. And that was less a movie about a video game, than a movie set in a video game’s version of reality.
PsiFighter37
@danielx: You’re preaching to the choir. Huge fan of Flying Dog here…have had a lot of their beers and have always been a fan. Still think my favorite is Raging Bitch, out of all of them. 8.3% ABV for a Belgian-style IPA…I’ll drink that any and every day. Have their K-9 Winter Ale in my fridge as well – pretty decent, although a bit on the nondescript side, as far as their beers normally go.
NotMax
But won’t they have to make two WoW movies?
One Horde players, the other for Alliance.
Csating Roseanne Barr as Princess Theradras in Maraudon (pic) might be kind of neat.
Little Boots
@NotMax:
One Geek. Two Worlds.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Corner Stone: Wasn’t that a Michael-Janet Jackson video?
Sayne
I’ve been listening to the Morrowind theme on YouTube for about the last 40 minutes. It really just makes an old gamer like me smile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCqrmqatK-4
Skyrim was awesome, but Morrowind is home.
BethanyAnne
WoW has tons of stories that could be made into movies that didn’t suck. I don’t think I’ll see that happen, but the potential sure is there.
Walker
There is some hope for the Mass Effect movie in production. Honestly, if you cannot make a game that cinematic into a decent movie, I am not sure what it is going to take.
FlipYrWhig
@Suffern ACE: I’m the one who keeps mentioning that. Just because it’s one of my only “before he/she was famous” stories. Even if it’s by proxy.
Anne Laurie
@efgoldman:
My paleolithic & thoroughly reprehensible take on Silber’s campaign for governor is that he never got punched for being an arsehole. It is wrong to punch people, but some individuals (especially straight white Protestant men growing up in the golden age of SWPM) only learn social boundaries through the application of spontaneous, indignant physical force. But Silber had that highly visible (not in the media) physical handicap — the stunted right arm — so he never got punched when he was a young, mouthy dick. And since apparently nobody ever told him, “I would punch you for saying that, if you weren’t a cripple”, as an old mouthy dick he assumed that his blatantly bigoted statements about all non-straight non-white non-Protestant not-males were so obviously correct that the stunned silence indicated agreement….
Could not stop giggling on election night, when Silber kept insisting he would not concede until “the votes came in from Chicoopee and Fall River”. At that time, Chicopee was all over the local news for the murder of several prostitutes, and of course Fall River is best known for Lizzie Borden. So, at least Silber recognized that serial killers & ax murderers were his best demographic!
Corner Stone
Scott Pilgrim vs the World was the absolute fucking balls. Period. Done.
General Stuck
Here in the land of enchantment, our wingnuts doing their duty to corrupt democracy through the bathroom window.
They have run many witchhunts in this state, like other to uncover the vast incidence of voter fraud, even firing a GOP AG because he wouldn’t follow Rove’s demand for pre election bogus indictments.
As the stomach churns.
Little Boots
cornerstone, you totally know how to play it, don’t you.
Suffern ACE
@Corner Stone: yes. But it’s based on a comic book.
Little Boots
@Corner Stone:
no, no it wasn’t.
NotMax
Had he lived long enough to see the acceptance of movies based on games, can absolutely envisage Andy Warhol making a Pong movie.
shortstop
@FlipYrWhig: it’s a good one. The only secondhand one I have is Billy Zane whacking off on the back of the 36 Broadway (dmsilev will know that bus), which hardly compares.
Michael
I don’t know if anyone else has posted this, but if not, then totally obligatory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVY7HDMg9zs
Maybe they haven’t made a good video game movie, but they sure did make a good trailer!
Mnemosyne
My mother-in-law and brother-in-law are supposed to be flying out here from Chicago on Sunday and, right on schedule, my Vicodin addict sister-in-law (the daughter and sister of the above) has started whining about how much pain she’s in and will probably have herself admitted to the hospital late on Saturday night to try and prevent the trip. Because that’s just the kind of self-aggrandizing asshole she is.
The family is pretty much fed to the teeth with her at this point, so I’m not sure that anything short of an ICU admission will stop the trip (and G says even that wouldn’t stop it at this point), but it’s still pretty annoying even though we all predicted this would happen from the moment we started planning the trip for my MIL.
TGC
Corporations and religious nuts teaming up to beat up on working people with very little power is what the modern American Right is and here’s a great example:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/applebees-waitress-fired-pastor-receipt-193820748.html
Little Boots
@Mnemosyne:
sorry for your gaim.
shortstop
@TGC: the pastor is a black woman. I admit I didn’t see that coming.
Little Boots
did I really not say gain?
JasonF
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but President Obama condemned the Holocaust and as sure as night follows day, the National Review stood up to proudly defend the Nazis.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/339003/president-obama-commemorates-senseless-holocaust-eliana-johnson
Buckley would have been so proud.
Little Boots
@JasonF:
they are … so interesting, sometimes.
tofubo
i love the 1st resident evil, the rest have been exponentially sucky
maybe if they reintroduced the multi-pass ??
TGC
@shortstop: Oh, great. Not only is the pastor a jerk, but she’s added to the notion that black people don’t tip.
Rathskeller
I never read the NY Post editorials, because, you know, I’m sane.
But I just stumbled across this editorial strongly championing Gabby Giffords over Wayne LaPierre. How long as this section of the Murdoch empire been pro gun control??
Little Boots
@TGC:
heh.
shortstop
@TGC: is there such a notion? I didn’t know. In my table-waiting days, black people were the best tippers.
shortstop
@Rathskeller: It was first noticed after Newtown. The Post called LaPierre crazy on its front page. Murdoch has been tweeting pro-gun control comments. So far Ailes is unmoved.
Jack the Second
Is it just me or does the “video game” genre heavily overlap with the “action model” genre?
Little Boots
@Jack the Second:
It does, badly.
Little Boots
and it’s cornerstone’s fault, apparently.
JasperL
Was reading about a bill introduced in my home state of Tennessee that would declare any new gun control laws null and void, and make felons out of any Feds who tried to enforce those laws.
Thought to myself, that’s pretty dumb, even for Tn legislators.
Then noticed it was introduced by Sen. Beavers and Rep. Butt…
Ha ha, it was a joke!! Like Beavis and Butthead, an Onion story… LOL.
Except no, looked up the bill, it’s real and that is who introduced it. Can’t believe these people make our laws….
Diana
@danielx: of course not! of course not!
Little Boots
we need to dance in the moonlight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMc8naeeSS8
PeakVT
@shortstop: I’d love to see Murdoch fire Ailes over the issue, but somehow I doubt Murdoch hates guns more than he loves money.
jurassicpork
It’s more or less my 8th anniversary and all I got was disillusionment.
Nick
“Source Code” was absolutely brilliant up until five minutes before the end.
shortstop
@PeakVT: I think you’re dead right on that.
Little Boots
@jurassicpork:
you should dance. in the moonlight.
Jamey
@Rathskeller: Rupert doesn’t own the News; Mort Zuckerman does. News skews populist/labor lefty and jerks to the right when battling the News for readers.
But please continue…
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@JasonF: well that’s not really accurate. They aren’t defending the nazis. They just don’t like the idea that a non controversial statement made 100 times before isn’t controversialised when the president says so. What the president should have done on holocaust Memorial Day is give a lecture on the roots of nazism in a way that stressed the finer points, like unifying all Germans, that might have made the whole 1000 year reich a positive force people could get behind.
Plus we can then slam the president for Benghazi.
Little Boots
yeah, cause nobody here falls for celebrities.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Jamey: well I was surprised that the post suddenly seems to think handcuffing 8 year olds over lunch money disputes isn’t necessary. But there it was on the front page this week. And they weren’t calling for the death sentence either.
Little Boots
i’m always right and nobody responds.
it’s weird.
Comrade Dread
Source code was pretty good. At least I liked it.
Also, Mortal Kombat was fun. The sequel was total crap, but the original was at least fun.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Little Boots: not anymore. Because the ones they have these days just don’t stack up to the ones I had in my youth.
bago
@Frankensteinbeck: Did you see “bitches” by mindless self indulgence, the Pokemon video? Its all about the pikachu bitch slap.
Little Boots
@Or something like that.Suffern Ace:
it’s true. there’s something sad about justin biebder and beyonce.
really? really???!!!
Zifnab
@Nick: They kinda took the easy way out with a pseudo-happy ending.
That said, I’m torn on video-game inspired movies. It’s a dangerous game. You want to bank on nostalgia and get the game’s crowd into the theater. At the same time, you don’t want to be a slave to the video game “story”, which can often be quite thin.
I should note, Pixar just released “Wreck it Ralph”. Perhaps not a video game movie in the strictest sense, it was still a solid film. Also, there was the “Red v Blue” fan made films, which have run for 4-5 seasons. Clearly its not *impossible* to take a video game franchise and turn it into good television.
BethanyAnne
I think this is the 3rd director for a Warcraft movie in 6 years. Maybe they can make a Duke Nukem Forever movie and call it a double feature.
Steeplejack
If anyone gets the Movie Channel, they’re showing Source Code at various times over the next week.
dance around in your bones
Has anyone heard from ulee since last night? I worry about that dude.
ulee if you are lurking, please check in?
Mnemosyne
@Zifnab:
Just because it’s CGI and good doesn’t mean it’s Pixar.
Little Boots
or cherokee nation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojRQ15My7s
Little Boots
cornerstone, you’re still pissed at me?
really?
handsmile
@Steeplejack:
(finally, we’re on the same thread….)
I realize it’s now several days past and I imagine all the cake’s been eaten, but Happy (belated) Birthday! Best wishes for a fulfilling year!
Carnacki
@Corner Stone: Also Silent Hill
Steeplejack
@handsmile:
Thank you! I’m off to a slow start, but I’m gathering momentum. Really.
Pinkamena Panic
WoW, the great time-and-money sink of the masses, the modern home of the elitist fuck, the pseudo-hardcore one-game asshole, the scammer, the goldfarmer, the misogynist creeper slime, and the ganker, gets a movie.
The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, both cinematic enough to be great films if they were only handled right (hell, Metroid was directly inspired by the Alien movies) still don’t have movies.
Justice there is not in this world.
Michael
@JasonF: That is truly hard to fathom, even for the NRO. Posted to facebook
Little Boots
yup, still pissed. which is …
really?
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Michael: yep. Of course the first time some liberal tries to understand horrendous violence, that is met by cries of coddling the evil. I’m sorry “Evil” and moral decay that is supposed to explain everything bad so let’s leave it at that.
Bush said there was evil and freedom hate afoot. I’m sure the corner was delving into the real,root causes.
pattonbt
What, no Leroy Jenkins reference yet? Hopefully, if the movie is made, they have some shout out to that.
Randy P
Have to weigh in with those who loved Tomb Raider. I was appalled at myself for enjoying it so much, but I did find it fun, start to finish. No other word for it.
Not too long after I saw that, I saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith, another one that kept me grinning all the way through. It cemented my view that I love Jolie in action films. Heard about Salt, haven’t seen it yet.
handsmile
@Rathskeller:
As shortstop noted above (#95), the NY Post has become more emphatically and graphically pro-gun safety and anti-NRA leadership since the Newtown massacre. But in fact, the paper’s policy on gun issues is and has been related to the close, albeit wary, relationship between Murdoch and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, two media tycoons.
As Bloomberg has increasingly taken a national leadership role on gun control measures, the Post has been supportive, particularly on the issue of police department advocacy of legislation to cut down on the availability of certain guns and ammunition.
A key figure here is Joel Klein. Under Bloomberg, Klein served as Chancellor of the Department of Education, in charge of the nation’s largest public school system. In November 2010 he resigned his position to become executive vice president of Murdoch’s News Corporation. Among his responsibilities since then, he oversaw the internal investigation of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
Bloomberg and Murdoch are deeply committed-in principle and in capital-to education “reform,” as defined by charter schools, corporate management of public education, and the enfeebling of teachers’ unions. For both his bosses, Klein has been an active player in these efforts.
Thus on New York turf, Bloomberg and Murdoch are allies. For his national media property, Fox News, Murdoch is perfectly content to let Roger Ailes enflame the crazies on guns and all else.
amk
So is the hagel “hearings” clowns show over? Who won?
Little Boots
@amk:
hagel.
ShadeTail
The first Mortal Kombat movie is a good popcorn flick. And I’ve always felt the Super Mario Bros. movie is entertaining in that “so bad it’s good” sort of way. And I think Wreck It Ralph counts as a video game movie, what with all the references, and it’s really good.
On the other hand, the Street Fighter movie was so horrible, it killed Raul Julia.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Nick: I’m also a fan of the book Permutation City, so I liked the ending. But, as I said earlier, the movie could actually be considered three movies, each a continuation of the previous one. Think of it as a better ending for LotR.
PeakVT
@amk: Stupidity “won the morning” but I think Hagel will be confirmed nonetheless. I’d still rather see a Dem in the slot, but Hagel has all the right enemies from my POV.
Little Boots
hagel gets it. really.
all else is stupidity.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Randy P: Mr. and Mrs. Smith was a lot of fun to watch. The two of them played off of each other very well.
PeakVT
Fallows on the hearing.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
We really have been ruled by stupid people posing as an elite for quite some time now.
Michael
@Pinkamena Panic: Zelda could be an awesome movie
amk
@Little Boots: @PeakVT: So the thugs were shooting blanks per norm ? Did he clear the stupid committee yet ?
amk
@Or something like that.Suffern Ace: Not stupid by any stretch.
ruled by corrupt to the core, lying mofos is more like it.
aangus
Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz8_H5m6ymA
Peter
@Randy P: Salt was complete shit. The bizarre Cold War-era paranoia about Russians could be understandable if it was from the 80s, but it isn’t.
WarMunchkin
What the fuck.
Yutsano
@WarMunchkin: From the culture that brought you the schvatrze…yeah. Sometimes my people suck.
WarMunchkin
Don’t think it has anything to do with culture, we did it too with Tuskegee. But holy fucking fuck.
TenguPhule
Hey now, Super Mario Brothers was so bad it was good!
Origuy
It’s a documentary about making games, not a movie based on one, but Indie Games was very good and worth seeing. It showed three groups of developers trying to get their games ready for a big industry convention.
aangus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8s9dmuAKvU
joel hanes
While there may arguably be no good movies from videogames, videos from video games are abundant, and some are amusing
I think there’s a pretty great SF movie to be made from the Halo ringworld universe someday. h/t Larry Niven
“It looks like a ring around a star. What is is it?”
aangus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8s9dmuAKvU
:
aangus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzr_GBa8qk
aangus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8_M8PjoAxs
: )
aangus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8_M8PjoAxs
ruemara
@Randy P: I watch Salt like it’s a religious sacrament. If you enjoyed Raider and Mr & Mrs, Salt is going to seem like pinnacle.
Joseph Nobles
I don’t really like shooter/fighting games, though Skyrim has pulled me in. I played Gabriel Knight games back in the day, and the first one especially should be a good film.
TheMightyTrowel
Since a lot of you are gamers (and be prepared, I’m sure I’ll post this again because serious 160 posts already??)
joel hanes
@aangus:
Thank you. I did not previously know Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I will not forget.
MikeJ
@TheMightyTrowel: An interesting quirk of copyright law. What’s bizarre is that car or computer manufacturers pay millions to be included identifiably in movies but firearms manufacturers demand payment for use of their name.
Of course you can make a movie with cars in it and show close ups of the name plates identifying the car and there’s not much the automaker could do about it, even if you gave the bad guy their car. If the movie implied the car was bad or unsafe I suppose they might have a case, but I can’t see one for documenting its existence.
I wonder if the same would apply in a video game? Somehow I doubt it. The law still sees games as something new and different. The GTA series doesn’t use brand names, but very, very obvious knockoffs instead.
Villago Delenda Est
@Pinkamena Panic:
You left out the homophobic connecting to the ‘net from deep in their closets.
WoW trade chat is often a sewer of wingtards, homophobes, and misogynist twits.
Fortunately, there are good people you run into, too, so it’s not all bad. But geeze, I’d hate to imagine what a movie would be like if it picked up on anal (linked item here) chat.
The Tragically Flip
Never played the games, but i enjoyed the Final Fantasy computer animated movie.
Raven
@The Tragically Flip: I never know what the hell any of these threads are about.
Raven
Ed Koch died.
MikeJ
@Raven: 88 is a decent run.
HeartlandLiberal
I beg to differ re: “Source Code”. As a fan of time travel and paradox themes in literature and movies, I found the movie incredibly well done and entertaining.
mai naem
@Raven: Well, maybe now he can come out of the closet. I lost respect for him and Ferraro when they came out against Obama in a racist way.
mai naem
@WarMunchkin: See now you’re being anti-Jewish. Gotta hang you for being an anti-Semite.
Raven
@mai naem: Yea, he was pretty goofy.
third of two
ban check
amk
rc form of ‘justice’. strip the cardinal of his ‘powers’ once he retires after a quarter century of catholic version of dadt.
third of two
ban check because I just opined how Pitfall is comparable to Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was deleted on submission
gene108
Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Apocalypse were pretty damn good movies.
Rotten Tomatoes can suck it.
Southern Beale
Not true. I thought the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movies were very good, especially the second one, which they play on cable all the dang time. Isn’t that a video game? Or is it a comic book?
I’m a grown-up. I get those confused a lot.
Crop Dusted
I agree with the commenters who appreciated Source Code. At the time it came out, a number of reviewers decided that, because they didn’t understand it, it must have had an illogical narrative.
Oddly, Moon might be Bowie Jr’s “better” film, but SC is the one I’ve seen more than once and will see again, while with Moon once is enough. Sam Rockwell rocks well, though.
mikej(droid)
Woody Allen’s Wimbledon was actually about Pong.
JPL
@Raven: Did Joe complain about Hagel’s performance?
Alex S.
Huge Bowie fan, huge sci-fi fan, retired hardcore WoW player here…. This movie cannot possibly fulfill my expectations. I remain cautious.
tworivers
Add me to the list of Balloon Juicers who liked Source Code.
Raven
@JPL: Well, he’s rightfully reflecting on Chuck’s weak performance but he’s hammering the pukes.
Scuffletuffle
@NotMax: Cat got your balls?
Raven
@NotMax: We have a big conflict in the area about loose cats and now it looks like coyotes may be thinning the herd.
JPL
@Raven: Cruz is the Republican that scares me the most.
edit.. thank you for keeping us informed.
Elizabelle
Remnants of the evening? The sun’s up on the East Coast. And we have a fresh dusting of snow in Northern Virginia.
Ed Koch: yeah, heard he’d been returned to ICU very recently.
@amk: Still reading up on this, but it seems huge to me. Wondering if church abuse victims can sue Mahony personally now, in a criminal suit (yeah, perhaps this is happening after statute of limitations has expired). And see that Bishop of Santa Barbara has lost his post.
Schlemizel
@third of two:
Wasn’t Bancheck an ’80’s TV detective show?
Cassidy
WoW will be easy to make if they go back to the storylines from the original RTS days. Hell, they can make a whole series of movies.
Street Fighter was fun, as was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun LI. Horrible movies, but fun.
Mortal Kombat, Double Dragon, Tomb Raider, even Uwe Boll’s Farcry wasn’t horrible. House of the Dead was just bad.
I really enjoy the Resident Evil series, especially the first one, and thought Silent HIll was a helluva movie. They need to make a Parasite Eve and Devil May Cry movie.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Schlemizel:
“Banacek”
Cassidy
@Raven: Heh…my oldest remarked that there seemed to be stray cats all over the place. I think about half are just outdoor cats that are roaming, but anyway. She asked why, noting that we never saw stary cats in Colorado. I waited a moment and then reminded her that in Colorado we had moutain lions and coyotes. She stewed on that for a second and told me she really wished she hadn’t asked that question.
Schlemizel
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Yeah, that was the joke B-{D
@Cassidy:
Poor kid! Its not always fun growing up – I know a ton of shit I was happier not knowing . . . like the name of an ’80’s TV detective show, which is one of the least painful things I learned
TomG
I have played World of Warcraft for years, and I guess my main concern over a movie is that there are a LOT of potentially good stories…I don’t trust Hollywood to pick one of the more interesting (subtle) ones. But it’s too early to really be sure. I’ll take a wait and see attitude.
I’m in agreement with those pointing at Mortal Kombat as an actual good movie.
Cassidy
@Schlemizel: True, but one of the perks of being older is I let her have Starbucks, so I guess that balances out somewhere. I think she’d have worked it out eventually, anyway. She’s got her Mom’s smarts.
Schlemizel
@Cassidy:
Thats just begging for the joke:
Mom can’t be too bright – look who she married B-{D
FOr some inexplicable reason I am in a giddy mood this morning & looking for trouble. Sort of a nice change
Cassidy
@Schlemizel: She has the patience of a saint…or a predator. Depends on what day it is.
I hear ya. I’m leaving work early today and then hydrating for a climb up 42 flights of stairs for my class’s service project tomorrow. I’m trying to decide if hard cider counts as hydrating.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cassidy:
It’s liquid.
Cluttered Mind
I liked Hitman well enough. It wasn’t a great cinematic achievement or anything but I found it thoroughly entertaining in the same way I did X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Sometimes you just want to watch a movie that won’t require the use of your brain cells and will just provide mindless entertainment, and Hitman did that for me.
Cluttered Mind
I liked Hitman well enough. It wasn’t a great cinematic achievement or anything but I found it thoroughly entertaining in the same way I did X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Sometimes you just want to watch a movie that won’t require the use of your brain cells and will just provide mindless entertainment, and Hitman did that for me.
Cassidy
@Cluttered Mind: Compeltely forgot that one. It wasn’t bad.
LarryB
Wow, Anne, I’m seeing you snickering, “heh, that’ll stir em up” as you hit the send button.
I don’t see any shout outs for “Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within”. Flawed, but interesting enough that it held the interest of my wife, who’s not that into either Sci-Fi or anime. Hitman+1 I really liked that movie.
Mnemosyne
@Cassidy:
All alcohol is dehydrating since it suppresses vasopressin, the antidiuretic hormone, so you’ll actually lose more liquid than you drink. That’s the one genuinely useful thing I learned from a geriatrics class I took in college (general ed requirement that fulfilled biology and didn’t require any dissection).
On the other hand, that cider will taste really, really good after your climb. :-)
TomG
@LarryB:
The trouble with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was that it was a brand new story with only tenuous connections to the games. I’ve played most of the series (through FF X) and there are 3 or 4 games whose stories are held up as excellent. Combine any one of them with the graphics in FF:tSW and you’d have yourself one helluva movie. Both Final Fantasy 2 and 4 would have been pretty damn good movies.
Urinated State of America
Good movies sorta kinda about video games:
Wreck-it Ralph
TRON
But can’t think of an above mediocre film that came from a video game.
Conversely, I can’t think of a movie tie-in game that wasn’t derivative crap.
kelrian
@Zifnab: 10 seasons and counting on RvB, actually. And that’s less about video games and more about “morons in a box canyon bickering with each other”.
Personally? I’d love to see a Fallout movie. I mean, look at New Vegas or Fallout 2. That’d make for a great movie!
Cluttered Mind
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within may have been entertaining but to call it anything other than a dismal failure would be inaccurate. It was catastrophic for Squaresoft, losing so much money that the only chance they had for survival was merging with Enix, and it cost Hironobu Sakaguchi (the creator of the Final Fantasy IP and director of the first 5, and the movie) his job.
Heliopause
Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t video games create a universe that never resolves itself, or resolves itself only after a very long, hard slog, and most dramatic movies create and resolve a problem in two hours or less?