Darek's Dungeon

I am very pleased to say that the long anticipated third installment of the Resident Evil movie series does not suck at all. Contrary to some of the rather stupid reviews of the movie, I found the Extinction movie to be infinitely better than the idiotic second version, where my home town of Toronto Canada was dressed up as "Racoon City" and then nuked. Don't worry, RE3:E is no dud like Matrix Revolutions. 

 

Another fine video game turned action movie that just hit DVD is Dead Or Alive. Based closely on the Xbox video game series, the movie should not be taken as seriously as RE3. Dead Or Alive is pure eye candy, shot on the same set where the movie Hero took place.

 

One absolutely awful movie that I do need to warn you about is the new 2007 release of the Body Snatchers ripoff called "Invasion of the Pod People". This low budget garbage is quite possibly the worst movie ever made. Somebody needs to teach director Justin Jones how to hold a microphone. The audio sounds like I recorded it on a 1980's era Sony camcorder. The video quality made me want to keep adjust the brightness and contrast on the television. The plot line is ridiculous. Avoid this painful movie rental.

 

If it's June again, it must be time for another trip to Europe.

 

This month there is a stunning convergance of hard rock bands in Europe. Not only is Metallica returning again (their Sick Of The Studio Tour will hopefully feature some songs from their upcoming album) but so are Slayer, Iron Maiden, Mastodon, Queens Of The Stone Age, and others. Yikes! My ears are bleeding just thinking of it.

 

Needless to say, Slayer's 2006 Christ Illusion album was the best album of the year, and one of Slayer's best ever as well.

 

Hope to see you all in Dessel and Bilbao and elsewhere this summer. Stay tuned for pictures.

 

Darek

 

At the stroke of midnight here in Seattle last night, Bill Gates appeared at the local Best Buy to hand out the very first retail Xbox 360 unit. I was sound asleep already, knowing my buddy the Master Chief was prodding the elves down on the assembly line to save me a special Xbox employee Launch Day limited edition unit with the special faceplate and engraving.

 

Got it hooked up to my plasma monitor, stereo cranked, it's an A-W-E-S-O-M-E little device. Now if I can just figure out Perfect Day Zero.

 

Want to come work at Xbox? Then click here: http://members.microsoft.com/careers/careerpath/technical/games.mspx

 

 

I had the pleasure last night (November 15th) of being at SBC Park in San Francisco and seeing Metallica, I say METALLICA open, OPEN I say, for The Rolling Stones. As Lars put it, this was the start and the end of Metallica's World Tour 2005.

 

The evening started off at 6pm sharp with Portland's Everclear opening up to the sound of crickets chirping. Why? Because NOBODY CARES about Everclear. They dragged on for 30 minutes.

 

At 6:45pm, as the full moon rose above the San Francisco Bay, Metallica came on stage to a mostly packed house. Now it was a little weird. This was my 13th Metallica concert and certainly the only Metallica concert I've ever attended where I was surrounded by grey haired women. It was a strange mix, almost like both the soccer moms (who came to see flamboyant Mick Jagger strut his stuff) and the sons of the soccer moms (who came to see Metallica) were in the audience at the same time.

 

Metallica rocked on for a full 75 minutes, until strangely enough, the full moon was centered directly over the stage. Crazy.

 

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and gang came on stage at 8:45pm sharp. After the little gimmicky choo choo train of a stage rolled into the field, I left and had a drink. Metallica was better.

My imagination runs wild between movie screenings. Perhaps some people can fill in the blanks here...

 

The Bull Ring - ??

 

The Bull Fighter - Red Bull, tequila?

 

The Bull Balls - Red Bull with large black olives and ...?

 

The Bullseye - a favorite in New Orleans I'm sure.

 

ok, I'm really curious now. Last night while attending a VIP party at the AFF, I was drinking a can of Red Bull. Red Bull is naturally a sponsor of this film festival. A good idea, given the endless hours of movies and parties one needs to stay awake for.

 

So I started wondering, besides Red Bull and Vodka, are there other Red Bull based cocktails? Think of all the names one could come up with - the Bull Rider, the Bull Dozer, the Bullshit, etc.

 

Here are some suggestions for cocktails some bartender out there should try out:

 

The Bull Whip - Red Bull, whipped cream, and three shots of Wild Turkey whiskey. That'll leave marks!

 

The Bullshit - Red Bull, Bailey's, and Coffee

 

The Bullemia - Red Bull and Jagermeister, the perfect drink to make you throw up!

 

The Bullet - Red Bull and six shots of Jack Daniels - it'll kill you.

 

Mmmm, thirsty, feel free to email me suggestions or tell me about real drinks that already exist.

 

After a hectic week in Toronto at the TIFF I was whisked off to Halifax Nova Scotia this weekend to attend the opening of the 25th annual Atlantic Film Festival. Featuring many of the same movies being screened in Toronto, the AFF is a smaller festival truly for those of us who are fans of cinema. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride just screened here to rave reviews. Definitely a movie for the whole family when it opens in wide distribution on Sept. 23rd.

 

Opening night of AFF was on Thursday, opening with Lucy Liu's new AIDS drama 3 Needles. This is not a movie for the squeamish. Featuring an all star cast, this movie follows three parallel stories of AIDS victims in Africa, China, and Canada.

 

Friday night was the premiere of Thumbsucker, the new feel good movie featuring Keanu Reeves as a new age dentist who falls off a bicycle. The movie centers around a teenage boy who just can't stop sucking his thumb and then things he does to try to stop. if you liked The Simpson's episode where Homer sticks a crayon up his nose, you will enjoy this movie. Although Keanu is quite funny and not too annoying in this film, the funniest scene in the movie involves a spoon and a bleeding anus. I've said enough, you just have to see it.

 

Tonight, also a full moon night, I'm attending the 25th anniversary of My Bloody Valentine appropriately enough as the city of Halifax waits for the arrival of Hurricane Ophelia to slam ashore. George W. Bush, where are you now to rescue me?

 

The AFF runs for another week, so if you live on the east coast of Canada or the U.S., consider popping up here to Halifax and checking out some films!

 

 

Helloooooo from smoggy Toronto. I'm here on the red carpet at the Ryerson Theather where filmmaker Madonna's Husband has just screened his new movie Revolver. I myself caught a screening of Tim Burton's new "The Corpse Bride" and quite enjoyed it. It is mostly a kid's movie, but certainly far more enjoyable than the awful Shrek 2.

 

With 5 more nights of movies ahead of me, I took a quick ride down to Niagara Falls to enjoy the sights, and even ran into the MSN dog himself.

 

More Film Festival news to come!

 

Greeting from the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

 

I'm here at the Rio Hotel cheering on a friend of mine who is in the tournament. As I told him, is he wins any of the top million+ dollar prizes, he needs to throw a big party upstairs in the Voodoo Lounge atop the Rio, and give me first dibs on mooching off his millions.

 

Here are pictures from the main ballroom where the grueling 16-hour poker games are taking place...