Reviews of things.

Back when I was in college, I was introduced by my buddy Steve to this new computer game he'd gotten (from his brother, I think.) He was acting like this game was the second coming or something, and after playing it for a few minutes, I decided he was pretty much right. That game was Doom.

Thin on plot, but big on violence and mayhem, Doom was the game that propelled the first person shooter into the mainstream. I think Wolfenstien came out before Doom, but apparently shooting demons from Hell was more fun than shooting Nazis, and Doom (at least as far as I remember) was what really popularized the genre.

Fast forward about 10 years. That video game market is filled with the FPS, some good, most not. But Doom returns with a vengance. Doom 3 is one of the best looking games I've played in a while, and the reason I bought a X-Box. And pretty damn scary, too.

And, of course, video game movies are all the rage nowadays, so a Doom movie wasn't far behind.

I went on Saturday, expecting little, and getting more than that.

The look of the movie is very much the look of Doom 3. People that have played the game will recognize immeadiately the world they're thrown into. The plot, however, is not the plot of the game. The plot, in fact, is rather thin. (As it is in the game.) But this is Doom, you're not there for plot, you're there for demon-killing good times and a BFG. And there was a BFG< although it was really under used.

Essentially: A group of marines is sent into the UAC facitlity on Mars after receiving a distress call. Mayhem ensues. That's pretty much all you need to know. Where do the demons come from? Transporter to Hell is gone (bummer) and replaced with the usual scapegoat of genetic testing. But does it really matter? A little. The idea of an actual Hell spewing out these creatures is somewhat more scary than the whole "folly of man" thing. But whatever. You have to realize going into a movie adapted from a video game what you're getting yourself into. Academy award winning scripts and direction? No. Fun Saturday afternoon popcorn flick? Hopefully. And that's pretty much what it was. Would I see it again? No. Rent it? Maybe.

The other selling point of the film was the FPS view. If you saw the commercials, this was the big selling point. You'd think that most of the movie was presented in the first person view. However, it's really only about 10 minutes, if even. And for a gimmick, it's brought in a pretty smart way (in relation to the plot) and at the right time in the film.

The Rock does a good job playing a tougher character than I've seen from him in other roles. Word was when he started his acting career that he was supposed to be the next big action thing. I haven't really seen it in the roles I've seen him in, and while this role wasn't a real stretch, it di give him a little extra something that I hadn't seen from him in other roles. There's no real groundbreaking work in any of the other marine characters either, but at least a little effort was expended in giving them some unique personality traits. Again, for this type of film, was it necessary? Probably not, but it was nice. And as for the eye candy (because Hollywood's probably not going to put out a movie that's all guys), Rosamund Pike is definitely sweet enough to give you a toothache. Although I found her to be a bit cold looking in that terrible Bond movie she was in, the name of which escapes me, in Doom she was definitely all kinds of hot. I'm reminded of Ron Burgundy when he said: "I want to be on you."
...
Last night I did something strange. i left the house. Yeah, yeah, I know, it was Sunday. Football day. And I left. But, you see, it was Nikka night. Nikka Costa was playing over at Axis, and I wasn't missing that. So scant minutes after Dallas blew the game against Seattle, I threw on my jacket and out the door I went.

Nikka, how to describe her? Funky, rocking, hot and sexy. That sounds about right. And it describes both her and her music.

As planned, I got to the club just in time to miss the opening band. And shortly therafter the F,R,H,&S began. This is the third time I've seen her; twice "headlining" and once opening for Lenny Kravitz. I'm not sure if it was my favorite time---her Paradise show a few years back was awesome---but this was pretty badass. Most notably for the fact that the set list seemed pretty much tailor made for me. Sure there were a few songs of hers that I really like that she didn't play, but there wasn't anything she played that I didn't like. "Till I Get To U," "Like a Feather," "So Have I For You," "Fooled Ya," "Everybody's Got Their Somethin,'" "Happy In The Morning," "Push And Pull," "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter," as well as a few others all made an appearance. The band, featuring a Charles Manson looking drummer, a keyboard player that looked like the lost Doobie Brother, and a bass player that looked like he was moonlighting from his union carpenter job, was right on. And aside from a really strange keyboard solo, and a broken string from one of the guitar players, there were no apparent mis-steps.

Pretty much just a night of good ass-shaking music. Not that I'd do that, because...well, no one wants to see that.
...
Oh, I also saw Dog Soldiers over the weekend. Low budget werewolf flick. Really quite good. Quickie synopsis: Soldiers have training exercise. Soldiers encoutner werewolves. Werewolves shred soldiers. Couple of twists, only one real important one. Good vibe. And for all that they were low budget, the werewolves were actually kind of creepy.