While today I can wish that I was in London in seeing The Clash, The Damned, and the X-Ray Spex in 1977, in truth I was 8 years old at the time and thus the perfect age for the debut of Star Wars that summer. Like legions of burgeoning scifi and fantasy fans, I loved Star Wars instantly. I don't think I ever saw a movie in the theater more than ( Read more... )

Back in the 90s, when people asked me to recommend a good starter roleplaying game, I'd always give the same answer: West End's Star Wars. I said that because the game had a premise that new players could instantly understand and a setting they knew from the movies. "You are part of the Rebel Alliance." And you're off. The rules also featured ( Read more... )

Excalibur was the first R rated movie I saw in the theater. I guess I was 11 at the time. I think my father took pity on my brother and I because there were so few decent fantasy movies movies in that era. Sure, Hawk the Slayer was fun, but I wouldn't call it good. Anyway, I went on to see Excalibur dozens and dozens of times. When I was in college ( Read more... )

Whenever a new Harry Potter book came out, Nicole would get it right away and plow through it in a day or two. She said she felt like she had to do that before the internet ruined the book for her. It was defensive reading in a sense. Now watching practically everyone I know talking and writing about the Watchmen movie, I know how she felt. I could ( Read more... )

I haven't had much to blog about lately. Or rather, I can't talk about the things I'd really like to blog about and the other recent developments (like, say, going to the dentist) aren't worth going into. I suppose I could talk about the GSL but I seem to change my mind every other day. That's why I'm going to let my thoughts gel before I say ( Read more... )

Before No Country for Old Men I saw a preview of an upcoming film called Charlie Wilson's War, based on the book of the same name. The trailer perplexed me. The movie is being marketed as one of those classic Hollywood "plucky visionary bucks the system" stories. Tom Hanks plays Charlie Wilson, a Democratic congresman from Texas who was ( Read more... )

I watched Sympathy for the Underdog by director Kinji Fukasaku (who would direct Battle Royale 30 years later) on Sunday and I’m glad I did. If you like crime dramas, this 1971 yakuza flick is a winner. It’s about a Yokohama gang that loses its turf to a big Tokyo outfit. The leader, Ginja, spends 10 years in prison. When he gets out, he puts the ( Read more... )

We’ve had a heat warning here in Seattle for the past couple of days. Supposedly it’s going to top 100 today. Tuesday nights are usually game night but we called it yesterday because many folks were out of town or unavailable. Rather than sit around a hot house, Nik and I decided to take advantage of the Noir film festival running at the SIFF ( Read more... )

I made a real effort to get some work done today and was largely successful. I worked for three hours this morning, and then took a break for a few hours so Nik and I could see our last movie of the Seattle International Film Festival. It was an amusing and dark comedy called Little Book of Revenge. After some of the so-so films we had seen this ( Read more... )