MOVIE REVIEW . The Myth

Jackie Chan has been in more than his fair share of misses these past few years. The Tuxedo. The Medallion. Shanghai Knights. Even his HK effort, The Accidental Spy proved more than a little disappointing. After being mired in Hollywood purgatory he made his triumphant return to Hong Kong cinema in last year’s New Police [...]

MUSIC REVIEW . RJD2 . Since We Last Spoke

Although I liked his more concise hip-hoppy debut Dead Ringer a lot more, Since We Last Spoke is still tops. Challenging the art of digital compositions, painting it on pudding-thick once again, I can best describe RJD2’s latest as: “throes of denomination, not domination”. Each layer, each instrument meshes and merry-go-rounds another. [...]

Carpets: The New Delicacy

Controversy over Memoirs of a Geisha

From the Associated Press:
Although it features an almost entirely Asian cast, Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha has evoked anger and calls for a boycott among some of those who have seen advance screenings of the film in Japan and China, Reuters reported today (Monday). According to the wire service, some Japanese are outraged [...]

Who Named These Companies?

MOVIE REVIEW . Initial D

When it comes to manga adaptations, much like American comic book adaptations, you run the full gambit of hits, near-misses, and absolute bombs. For every Ichi the Killer, there’s more than a few Eko-Eko Azaraks. Furthermore, when filmmakers of a country other than that of the source material’s origin decides to adapt the piece, [...]

MUSIC REVIEW . Cibo Matto . Stereo Type A

Ah, fizzy J-pop with its perky jumpbeats and relentless optimism. Broadcasting from a technological mecca, laced with so much expected escapism from a turbulent, demanding society, pop music from Japan embodies either pungent cutesyness or the exact opposite– raunchy overuse of misused curse words –but only one thing can be certain: behind every foreign [...]

MOVIE REVIEW [GUEST no. 2]. Spirited Away

Child labor, murder, and criminal use of magic. Bratty Chihiro greets us from the start of this film in a car ride to her new home. Having been forced to move, she is every bit as upset as you could imagine a little girl could get. But through a navigation error, she and [...]

XBOX 360 Release Tomorrow

So tomorrow is the release date for XBox 360, though don’t expect to get your grubby hands on one for some time well after that. Although the release is one of the most hyped of the year, many Game Stops’s have received calls from Microsoft to stop taking preorders for the system. Major retailers, including [...]

MOVIE REVIEW . Jarhead

Sam Mendes is a big meanie. Or else he just knows how to make actors cry. He even made sullenly stoic Peter Saarsgard bawl in Jarhead, the most accurate modern war adaptation since Thin Red Line. I say its accurate because war is not all about action and heroism. Many soldiers of [...]

My First Time… Ice Skating

Japan’s Eco-Friendly Bra

Take that IPEX! Japan has a new technically advanced bra that offers both lasting support and warmth for the winter. Yeup. Warmth.
Check out the story from Tampa Bay 10 News below:

Japanese company creates heated bra
Tokyo, Japan - An environmentally conscious Japanese firm has decided to do its part to conserve energy.
Triumph, a leading lingerie [...]

MUSIC REVIEW . Supreme Beings of Leisure . Divine Operating System

Erotic electronica. Voluptuous vocals. Simple-set rhymes with often Yoda-esque messages of empowerment and rich avid description. Brave beats and originality. Oh, Supreme Beings of Leisure, you had it once but came up short this round.
Obviously honoring the classic greats of jazz and soul with an added twist of crisp post-modernistic precision, [...]

Jessica Alba’s Inflated Sense of Self

In an interview with UK magazine, ZOO, Alba states:
I’m going to have to face [nudity]. When a big director who I really respect has an amazing story, it might be necessary to do a nude scene, but I probably couldn’t sleep well at night being naked in [a movie]. My father would lose his mind. [...]

MOVIE REVIEW . Derailed

Kris and I actually snuck into Derailed after watching Jarhead. Smart, subtle, engaging, it was everything this film was not.
Derailed is the story of The Clive (Clive Owen), former teacher, Chicago ad exec (ugh….business people), engaged in a sexless marriage to a beautiful woman and father to a diabetic brat. One day, [...]

Free games from CNet

Cnet.com has an updated list of free, full version games for download. These are older titles, but nevertheless are quite fun.
Some of the games include Starsiege: Tribes, Hidden and Dangerous Deluxe, Wild Metal Country, and Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2. Check it out here.

MOVIE REVIEW . Shogun Assassin

Take the first two Lone Wolf and Cub films. Remove 90% of all story exposition. Keep all the best and bloodiest action scenes, and fit them to ultra-wide Tohoscope, regardless of original aspect ratios. Now set the fight scenes to groovy moog synth music, craft a threadbare English narration to tie the sequences together, [...]

Morons in San Jose

So the San Jose City Council approved a plan this past week to spend $5 million of taxpayer’s money to purchase land for a potential stadium for the Oakland A’s. Nevermind that the Oakland A’s have repeatedly stated they have no intention of relocating their team to San Jose, nor would they think about moving [...]