Published on
January 27, 2006 in
Movies.
Today we talk about a game that influenced my life profoundly in as much as it sparked my passion for making games. Today is Wasteland Day. Exactly 19 years ago this little jewel was created by Interplay, which sadly closed its doors permanently last year.
January 27, 1987: Wasteland is programmed at Interplay Productions under the leadership of Alan Pavlish. It is distributed by Electronic Arts for the Apple ][ platform. According to the Interplay programmers, the game shipped on January 27, A.D. 1987, “or thereabouts.” Wasteland is also released for the Commodore 64 platform.
1988: Wasteland is ported to the IBM platform by Michael Quarles in A.D. 1988.
Wasteland becomes the number one best-seller of the year.
And you know what? “Wasteland” is still fun to play! Of course, Fallout and Fallout 2 – the de facto successors of Wasteland – are on my all time favorite top ten list also and I sincerely hope there will be a Fallout 3 at some point, even though it will be without Tim Cain at the helm. Pity.
‘Ha ha ha foolish human, we do not share that weakness!’
- Fallout ‘Standard mutant model’ response when shot in the groin.
Many have read C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and now even more people have seen it. There has been a BBC production in the 80s but they did not have the CGI power of WETA at their disposal to make this tale come alive. Aslan (spoken by Liam Neeson) is simply amazing and so are any and all fairy creatures in this movie.
The costumes are stunningly beautiful, too and everything is just … shiny; too shiny in fact. So shiny that the scenes emit sterility and suffocate any real emotion. Emotion wise the movie also suffers slightly under the crux of child actors such as Lucy who only have one expression on their face even when crying. It is understandable that Georgie Henley was swept away by all this and the work on set must have been overwhelming for her and it shows throughout the movie, esp. when she leans her head on the dead Aslan and cries.
Continue reading ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)’
So there are people who want to see a second season of “Firefly” and I wager the number is numerous! Browncoats are everywhere and since Fox and UP are not getting the message (the signal apparently was stopped right before their office doors) someone else is trying to put Serenity back into the ‘verse over at fireflyseason2.com. Wait until Joss Whedon hears of this.
I find it amusing to think an “independent” production company could acquire the rights to the show let alone pull this off without Joss Whedon on board. What are they thinking? Money? Cha-Ching? Get real, smell the humus! As much as I want to see “Firefly” in the air again, it cannot happen without proper financial backing from a studio that let Joss do his thing.
Jack Bauer is back. This weekend Fox will air the 4 hour season premiere on Sun./Mon. Jan. 16th. Don’t miss it!
“Don’t Come Knocking” is one of those slow movies you need to take your time to watch and relax, let the imagery work on you and soak up the atmosphere, dive into the characters and join them on their journey. If you do that you will be well entertained.
We follow Howard (Sam Sheppard) who once was a big Western movie star on his journey to find himself. He decides to cast aside everything and disappears from a movie set over night, taking refuge at his mother’s place whom he hasn’t seen or spoken to in over 30 years.
While there is a deep melancholy cast over the whole journey it is not depressing, it is just life. Howard is a burned out cowboy who does no longer know what to do with himself, helplessly meandering through life without home or purpose. Arriving at his mother’s place he finds out that he may have a son up in Montana where he shot a movie once. Driven by the small glimmer of hope to finally find “meaning” he continues his journey still uncertain and mortally afraid of what lies ahead and what to do once he get’s there.
Continue reading ‘Don’t Come Knocking (2005)’
