Flavours of the Month: September 2010...

LOOKS:

Mafia 2 - for a sandbox game it's pretty restrictive, and the plot isn't all that original (but was it ever supposed to be anything but a loving homage to The Godfather et al?), but I had a lot of fun with it regardless. The setting is involving, there is a lot of appropriate humour throughout, and the collectibles are a nice touch.

Robot Chicken: Season 4 - great as always, but the incessant Obama-love-in littered throughout some of the extras (which were shot on election day) is eye-rollingly blunt and self-congratulatory (something which is annoying regardless of politics).

The Warriors: Ultimate Director's Cut (Blu-Ray) - the only changes are utterly pointless 'comic book transitions', which provide no worthwhile information, nor do they make the movie make more sense. Fortunately they're not that common, and only the last two are genuinely intrusive. The flick's still cool though, and it looks good on Blu.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Blu-Ray) - being an utter whore for making of documentaries, I finally got to see the story of Fincher's sentimental yarn (the UK didn't get a 2-disc DVD, and the R1 was decidedly over the piffling UK import limit).

Sweeney Todd (Blu-Ray) - having recently been in Edinburgh, where I visited The Dungeon, I found all the featurettes concerning the myth and the possible reality to be quite fascinating (especially as Sawney Bean was connected to the creation of the Todd myth - Bean being one of the segments at the Edinburgh Dungeon).

Dead Rising 2 - as enjoyable and as frustrating as the original game, but with some nice additions, the best obviously being the weapon combo mechanic. Using Gems and a Flashlight to make a light sabre is my personal favourite way of dispatching the undead hoardes around Fortune City.

SOUNDS:

The Black Angels - "Passover"
Rammstein - "Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da"

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Holiday - straddling the end of August and the beginning of September, I had great time doing all the touristy things. Seeing some events at the Festival before it ended, doing The Dungeon, the Castle, a bus tour, visiting North Berwick for a real nostalgic trip, and everything else was a very welcome and enjoyable change of pace.

Decorating Room - I've been avoiding this for years, and my room was last done ten years ago, but with me out of the house I had a 60 Minute Makeover pulled on me (but not literally).

Chuck Palahniuk - "Tell-All"

Flavours of the Month: June 2010...

Continuing on from last month, my obsession with Prison Break Season One exploded and I'm now eager to see the remaining three seasons. Initially I was sceptical as it does take a good four or five episodes to get you into the groove of the show, but after that you're totally sucked in and fascinated by how every single problem that arises gets solved ... and the last two episodes are nothing but awesome.

I read Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, as I'm a big fan of the film adaptation, and naturally it was ruddy great, and then I simply had to watch the movie yet again - inspiring another mini-Cusack fest complimented by another viewing of Grosse Pointe Blank.

There's been a lot of script writing going on, what with Summer Road (comedy drama, now onto Draft 2.2) and Allen Bridge (drama mystery with a somewhat supernatural tint, now in the planning stages).

I also got the Season 1 through 3 box set of Robot Chicken, so it was nothing but that for a couple of weeks as I gorged myself on the extra features - and yes, season 4 is pre-ordered.

I finished Red Dead Redemption, which was a ruddy good game, and is Rockstar's best game to date, I'd have to say. You really care about John Marston and you end up caring about his family too, and what's more you really feel involved in the setting - that of the dying days of the wild west - and wow, the ending really packs a punch (just remember, the game ain't over till you've seen the credits roll). Speaking of the credits, the soundtrack to the game is tip-top, especially those two tracks on the credits which leave a memorable mark in the context of the ending.

As such, there has been a bit of a soundtrack festival on my CD changer - the soundtracks to Red Dead Redemption, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and The Road - two are westerns, two are by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and all three are excellent.

Finally, a hot topic for discussion over on Homepage of the Dead at the moment is the forthcoming TV series The Walking Dead, and having never read the source material before, I've now gone and gotten myself into that. At the time of writing I've read Vol. 1 "Days Gone Bye", and I've just started Vol. 2 "Miles Behind Us".

...

And there we have it, a whole year's worth of Flavours of the Month - to see the first one, follow this link:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/07/flavours-of-month-junejuly-2009.html