“Halloween does not need a “reimagining”. And specifically not by Rob Zombie. To remake John Carpenter’s trademark cold but skillful direction with the scratchy warmth of the current look of contemporary horror is exceedingly depressing, and Rob Zombie’s sympathy for his villains (did anyone else laugh through the endless ‘Freebird’ section of The Devil’s Rejects?) is entirely unsuited. But oh well.”

I don’t hate Rob Zombie or anything, but with The Devil’s Rejects he came really, really close to making an interesting horror film that made the viewer think about their response to on-screen violence but then pissed it away completely. I’m not entirely sure he was even aware of the subtext I read into it by the end.

He’s an alright director but by gum I’m sick of the samey bloody look of all these recent horror films. It’s got to the point where you can’t tell the difference between Saws and Hostels, which can be incredibly dangerous if you’re taking a backpacking trip around the logging areas of Europe.

Anyway, the Toronto International Film Festival starts next week. Hooray!

“The Independent Games Festival is proud to present the first-ever IGF Mobile competition, a brand new contest set up to promote innovation in handheld games, from cellphone games through other mobile devices from Windows Mobile to Palm and beyond, all the way to PSP and DS titles.

The IGF has appointed Mathew Kumar as Content Director of IGF Mobile. Kumar is also the editor of the CMP Game Group’s Games On Deck website, the mobile game industry’s leading source of news, features and information, and will work closely with the IGF organizers to launch this new venture. In addition, the IGF Mobile judge panel, including leading journalists and industry personalities, will be announced in the near future.”

So, basically, this is why I’ve been so busy this summer. As content director I’ve been heavily involved in the creation of the festival and its website, and I’ll be working on it from this point on, confirming judges, finalists, updating the site and then doing all kinds of stuff at the event itself. It’s very exciting!

It’s worth noting that I’m not doing it all single handedly, though – the excellent Simon Carless has done a lot of work, as has CMP’s PR folks – not to mention any number of people I’ve probably forgotten already.

Anyway, what are you still doing here? Why aren’t you submitting your game already?

“We’ve mentioned the Bicycle Film Festival a few times before, but we’re going to give special mention to it again today because tonight at 7 p.m. is the screening of the festival’s first shorts programme, featuring Warriors: The Bike Race.

The Warriors is basically one of the most excellent films ever, and in August of 2002, 89 gangs of bicycle riders took an all-night race from the Bronx to Coney Island in a sort of crazy tribute to the film. No one important ever rides a bike in the original film (er, to our memory), but still, it sounds great. They should do it every year. We’d love to take part, but as they don’t do it every year, we can’t. If you wish you could take part too, make do by checking out the festival at the Royal Cinema.”

I have been so busy, and yet this website has been so quiet. Hopefully I’ll be able to explain all very soon.

(Also, like everyone else, I am currently enraptured by BioShock.)

“They’re trying to hypnotise us, people. They’re trying to brainwash us and subdue us by bombarding the television with adverts and by using the media to confuse us, and they’ll never stop… Until Superbad is the number one movie this weekend.”

I have been to Brampton, where Superbad star Michael Cera is reportedly based. But I did not see him.

(No matter how long I hid in the bushes outside his house.)

“Last week, because we were completely distracted by Dock in a Box, we didn’t mention our sadness at the loss of both Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. We also couldn’t think of a director bad enough to lament the continued existence of in the same breath.

Thanks to a viewing of Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour 3, we have that man! We really think that Lars von Trier missed a trick in his recent satire The Boss Of It All by creating an automatic director that created random shots—he should have created one which made the most mundane shots possible and called it ‘Ratnervision.’”

More Brett Ratner bashing, but more interesting (in my opinion) is my post about the exciting news that the Into the Pixel exhibition of video game art is coming to Toronto as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. I’m looking forward to it.

“There’s something almost charming in how bad the latest sequel in the Rush Hour franchise is, finally emerging six years after the last installment.

Director Brett Ratner and writer Jeff Nathanson have unintentionally crafted a film that manages to parody itself. It represents the confused, simplistic view of the world that we imagine an American in unfamiliar waters would possess as they attempt to mock that very conceit.”

I think it would be easy to say I’ve over-analysed Rush Hour 3 in this review. It is, after all, just another bad movie. However, I felt it was kind of worth exploring why I found it an interesting bad movie rather than a boring bad movie. Not to say it’s “so bad it’s good” or anything – it isn’t. It’s a bit of a stretch to even call it charming, as taken straight it’s quite offensive.

Really my position in this review is one of condescension, which is a bit mean, but if you’re going to make a film this willfully stupid then you probably deserve it.

“The summer months are a traditionally barren time in gaming, with most publishers judging the average video game consumer is more likely to be going to be out in the sunshine or spending their money to see the latest Hollywood blockbuster than they are to be clamoring for something new to play.

The only service which continues to lag, for no apparent reason, is the Playstation Network. With 14 PS One ports released this month in Japan, that there’s only one port released in North America (one already released on Xbox 360) is another black mark against a system that really needs to try harder. “

Capsule reviews of Paper Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe, Bomberman Live and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (as it made an appearance on the PS3 this month.) Um, don’t bother to read if you’re annoyed by people who don’t worship Symphony of the Night. It really isn’t as good as the later titles in the series (and don’t get me started on Rondo of Blood, please.)

The last word on downloads this month: If you own a Wii you need Paper Mario. It’s absolutely amazing.

This is the article I mentioned a little while ago in my post about my Film Friday, “King Kong Fever“.

It’s mostly about how addictive I find the Xbox 360′s Gamerscore, even though I’m well aware it’s completely pointless. You gain absolutely nothing from it other than the joy of seeing numbers go up, and yet I’ve performed some of the most obscure and ridiculous tasks just to feel that rush of endorphins that comes when I hear the “plink” of another unlocked achievement.

If only Microsoft would convert Gamerscore points to Microsoft points at a rate of 10 to 1 or something. Then I could excuse myself.

In general, though, I don’t think it’s a very good thing. It adds another layer of abstraction that reminds you that you’re playing a game, and titles have to work extra hard to capture your imagination. I was completely surprised to find that King Kong was a title that managed to capture my imagination, considering it’s most well known for being 1000 easy achievement points, but it did. And I’m rather glad I played it.

You can read the full article, in Danish, as part of the PDF found on the Game Reactor website.

“The names Frankie and Annette probably aren’t the most recognisable ones to be added to the MGM Movie Legends Collection. Even if we were to mention their full names, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, the likelihood is that the average person on the street would respond with, at best, ambivalence, unless they particularly noted Frankie Avalon’s appearance in Grease. There are, however, some really good reasons to consider picking up the collection. Those reasons are most easily seen in the five included Beach Party films: Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Muscle Beach Party, Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.”

I don’t think that much of this cheapo set, but I heartily recommend that if you ever have a chance to see a Beach Party film (and you’re not already familiar with them) that you check it out. They’re incredibly weird and an excellent guilty pleasure.

“Recently, Torontoist went canoing in Algonquin Park (we got 34 mosquito bites). However, arguably the most amusing thing to happen during our entire trip was passing a billboard on our way into the park advertising a “Dock in a Box.” We instantly became distracted by a lengthy fantasy that the company knew exactly what it was doing and included a YouTube video on its website about how it created the Dock in a Box (you know—”One, we cut a hole in the box; two, we put our tech in the box!”), but were recently disappointed to find that there’s nothing funny at all on the company website.”

My favourite SNL Digital Short is probably “Dear Sister.” It still makes me laugh.