Vista Experiment, Part 1

Well to start off, the name of the this post is a bit of a misnomer since I haven't been able to successfully get it up and running on my computer yet. I'm trying one more disk before I go tried and true with XP. So far, three different versions of Vista have failed to even boot for me, BSOD'ing after the initial load from the disk.

Granted, if this had happend with a linux distro, I'd probably been able to scour forums and find at least something relevant to whatever issue was causing the system to lock up before it even got interesting. So I'm just waiting on the next discs to arrive, and I'm thinking I might just go the complete opposite direction and load another linux distribution onto the extra partition I've left on my new 500gb SATA drive. I'd forgotten that non-ancient harddrives run whisper quiet compared to the grinding cacophony that comes out of my older hardware.

So Vista, you're losing the challenge of making me ignore all the bad hype. The only reason I have to run Windows anyway is that I want to have issue-free installs of the newest Adobe Products on my desktop, because doing graphics-anything on my laptop really sucks.

Also, after spending a few days getting acquainted with our editing comp at the office, I desperately want to bring some sanity to its heavily disorganized workflow. Multiple User Accounts on one machine running OS X = bad.

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Flock Makes Me Feel like I'm Cheating On FireFox

Flock is a newish browser based on Firefox 3 that has a plethora of social networking and web 2.0 tools integrated right into the browser. With feature rich extensions for sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and Flickr, Flock attempts to reshape the web browsing experience with new layers of functionality. By taking advatage of the various APIs, Flock delivers social networking like status updates and photo uploading without having to browse directly to the site. Using the good ole sidebar and a spiffy media stream pane that appears above your tabs, I've got to give it to Flock for taking a new approach for using the internet.

There are a couple of things that bother me though. First, I've gotten so used to the minimalist Firefox theme in OS X that the bright colored buttons and generally shinyness are a bit distracting. Second, I couldnt get the Digg functionality to work, but admittedly I gave up when it didn't work automatically like everything else did. Other than that, Flock seems very well packaged, and could definitely displace Firefox for a good deal of my daily browsing.

Also, Flock includes a great RSS aggregator and a pretty decent blog editor (which I happen to be using), which are both something that you can incorporate into Firefox with a good deal more custimaztion.

Overall, this is a browser that has a lot of potential and can hopefully inform some future upstream development in Firefox. I'm definitely sticking with Firefox as my go-to browser because Flock seems a bit distracted by all of its features at times. It's great for anyone that relies on a social networking addiction to get through their work week.

Oh and the branding on their website is lame :P

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Can I possibly write about anything other than the election?

Along with being the most important day of for the future of our country (ed. note: failing at mission statement), it also marks the release of the third Futurama movie, Bender's Game!

I feel like the decision to produce direct to dvd 90 minute features was overall a good decision for Futurama. Although it was done out desperation after being dumped for inferior programming, the movies have turned out to be refreshing explorations of the hysterical, often non-sensical universe of the year 3000.

Bender's Game was announced with the release of the last movie, The Beast With A Billion Backs, and delves deeper in the machinations of the series. Also, it includes the first break from the sci-fi setting and into the fantasy realm of Dungeons and Dragons. Major nerd points for that, to possibly one of the biggest nerds in the country, David X. Cohen.

Unfortunately, Bender's Game is possibly the most stale of the movies thus far. Now, that's not to say that it's not funny per se; it has a lot of great lines from a wide variety of character's, but my dislike of most Mom-centered episodes easily carries over to the movie. Without revealing the plot its hard to discuss the main points of my criticism. To sum it up though, Mom isn't a very interesting character, and the arc of the main plot revealed itself a little too early.

The advantage of the first Futurama movie, Bender's Big Score, is that it was full of u-turns and plot points that make the ending a complete surprise and repeat viewings a must. The Beast With A Billion Backs was interesting enough, but felt a little light in comparison to some of the strongest episodes. This is starting to come off as an argument against the movies, but bear with me, I'm getting to my point. The Futurama movies work because they take the best elements of the series and combine them with the show's flare for long form absurdity. It's a joy to watch the writers take multiple premises, in-jokes and bizarre settings and stretch them out for 90 minutes at a time.

What's left will be a great box set to own, and a wonderful possible end to the too-short run of the series. In a different world, The Simpsons could have gotten this treatment too, but they're doomed to run forever at this point.

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7 Reasons Why Roadhouse Is the Best Movie Ever

1. Patrick Swayze's strength is derived entirely from Thai Chi.

2. Zen philosopher who earns $500 a night to 'clean up' rowdy bars? Yes.

3. Patrick Swayze includes his alma mater in his medical records.

4. The gratuitous nudity (e.g. The Swayze's butt shot).

5. The idea that the main protagonist is rich from "running" such a small town. It has like three businesses total.

6. Sam Elliot's glorious silver mane.

7. Nobody wins a fight.

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Sometimes, it takes a while: LOTR extendo edition box sets review

So LOTR is old news in 2008, unless you're talking about The Hobbit. But I finally purchased the Extended Edition DVDS (second hand and at a severely reduced price, of course) and after a hell of marathon viewing, watched all of the features and good deal of the special features. I'm already like 16 hours in and I don't know if I can hang on for the commentary tracks unfortunately.

As far as each of the features extended scenes go, I'm all for it. I always hated it when people bitched about how long the theatrical cuts of these movies, because it really takes all the meat off the bones when you're doing an adaptation and have to cut it down. The bits and pieces that weren't in the original edits are generally seamlessly integrated, and often explicate continuity across the films of the series.

Aside from the deleted scenes, the thing that sticks out about these movies is just how damn good they are. Well made movies have so much more staying power than their b and c-movie counterparts. Thank god that Troy happened in response to the Lord of the Rings trilogy instead of in place of it. The care and technical perfection that went into the final product is astounding--and its really well documented in the special features discs. As below the line memeber of the film industry, I know how much work it takes to make something look as good as these films look, and I can't imagine the endurance it took for a production on such a grand scale as this. I think its safe to say that shooting three films concurrently is feat saved for the most badass of badddassss crews and production team.

That's all I'm going to say about the movies, because by now if you haven't seen them I doubt you'd be reading this or know what the internets is.

Peter Jackson's other movies (that aren't King Kong) are simultaneously great, twisted and weird, and are all worth checking out. Meet the Feebles is one of the single most derogatory piece of anything with puppets in it. Dead Alive is a gory suspense-zombie-comedy with perhaps the most over-the-top violence ever. The lesser Jacksons are worth it too, but less notable.

And yay for another uninteresting post without pictures!

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"The Time of the Preacher"

Just finished Preacher. Now I own all nine anthologies! It only took six months to get through all of them. At first I read them one at a time, but after the fourth issue, I was compelled to buy multiple issues at once. It's turned into an expensive little habit, but I suppose it's probably about equal to what I used to spend at the bar, which I don't miss.

Preacher turned out to be just as fantastic as I'd been told it would be. It's great and surprising when you find things like this in sources that you wouldn't expect it from. I don't know how I managed to not turn into a comic book geek when I was a kid, lack of access is probably the best answer. Growing up in suburban florida was such a cultural letdown when compared to what's here, or how things could have been different. The grass is always greener, or something.

But back to Preacher. There were definitely some lulls in each volume of the series, but that's really unavoidable when you consider its original issue based format. While most issues flow together seamlessly with periodic punctuations of backstory, there are usually one or two issues in each volume that are, say, more forgettable than the rest. The sum does end up being the whole of its parts, etc, and the less adventurous episodes contribute to the novel-like feel of the series as a whole. Garth Ennis really gets into his characters, and by the end of the series you know an awful lot about everyone, which is a difficult thing to do.

Looking back at the series as a whole, the writing just stands out as being so tight and ultimately conservative but at the same time retaining a vast amount of character density and intertextuality. Hitting on a broad range of topics from Irish history to 90s grunge rock parody, Preacher masterfully Garth Ennis' prowess as writer.

Tonally, Preacher proudly stands on the broad shoulders of John Wayne. A fantastically modern take on the difficult questions the duke managed to answer without ever having to say too much, Preacher applies the allegory of westerns to the "comic book" universe. (Granted, Jesse Custer isn't by any means a superhero, but its use of the fantastic elements grounds it secondly as genre-piece. The question of comic books being there own genre is a difficult one, and something to be approached with trepidation. Comic book fans are nothing if not thorough and loyal to the extreme, so marginalizing "comic books" into a single genre term is unfair. The myriad examples of comics that don't rely on what I would call "comic book" conventions stand as a direct rebuttal of the term previously used. But as a casual fan of comics and a scholar of literary criticism, the distinction must be elucidated.) The level of textual maturity is matched by that of the tone. I really wanted to avoid the "comics aren't just for kids anymore cliché," but Preacher is not for children. God only knows how cool I would have thought this was when I was 13, but any younger than that and it probably would have been a bit scarring.

Its funny to read other bloggers opinions of the series too, because its now being called a classic. I guess I don't really realize how fast the comic book cycle moves--the last issue of the series is less than ten years old!

Now here comes the inevitable comparison to Watchmen: Preacher ultimately accomplishes more than Watchmen because of how much longer it is. Watchmen is great because you can read it in nearly a sitting. Preacher is great because you can't. Watchmen will make a great movie; Preacher a great series. Why the comparison to Watchmen? I don't know, chalk it up to inevitability: it seems to me that Watchmen has come to symbolize everything positive in the realm of modern comics, and its becoming one of the most widely read comic by non-comic readers. I've seen more issues of Watchmen crop up in more and more unexpected places recently, and the buzz for the movie is really starting to intensify.

Even if you've never been interested in comic books, Preacher exists as an interesting and great piece of literature, and a great starting point for a comic collection.

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22 Worst James Bond Movies - The Final Installment

8. Never say Never Again

While Never Say Never Again isn't a canonical Bond movie, it is pretty fucking bad. Getting Sean Connery to come back was a big coup in 1982, and it went head to head with Octopussy. What makes this truly a sad piece of crap is that its a remake of Thunderball, without all the pert originality which made the original fodder for proper entertainment. And on top of that Sean Connery's head had already started to spread out horizontally, but before he was white and bearded.

7. The World Is Not Enough

Denise Richards is a rocket scientist. Anything else?

6. You Only Live Twice

Is there anything more offensive than putting Sean Connery in asian-face?

Answer: No, no there's not. By far the weakest Connery Bond (not counting Never Say Never Again, but that's a whole different ball game), which by comparison makes it lower than perhaps it deserves to be. But I've never felt the need to placate anyone I don't know.

5. The Living Daylights

So people think that Timothy Dalton made an ok Bond, comparable to George Lazenby (who?). Not me. Not me at all, sir. He just doesn't have the charm necessary for Bond to be believably entertaining. He nails the first part of that description but not the second. He's just not fun to watch. Truth be told, The Living Daylights does have a better plot than its place on this list would lead you to believe, but I just don't enjoy it.

4. Die Another Day

This one wins the title of worst theme song, with Madonna's titular track. Brosnan's last outing is an attempt to mature the Bond character for him, which unfortunately backfires into absolute ridiculousness. You kind of forget about Bond the tortured and fragile POW when he starts driving around his invisible through an ice hotel to save Halle Berry.

While Die Another Day isn't the single reason for the franchise reboot, it is definitely one of the prime suspects. Pierce, we really liked you in Goldeneye, why did you let us down so?

3. Octopussy

Gypsies, for the most part, aren't very interesting. They just steal your stuff and ruin your James Bond movies.

2. License to Kill

Timothy Dalton on made two Bond movies, and this piece of trash is the reason why. The plot is weak, the bond girls are weak and Dalton is dismal. And it had to go up against the first Tim Burton Batman, Last Crusade and The Abyss. Needless to say, it didn't fare too well.

1. Tomorrow Never Dies

Now don't get me wrong, I'm down for the whole women's empowerment thing but not when it involves James Bond handcuffed to that one asian chick thats in everything riding a motorcycle through a stereotype. Especially because the whole effect really falls flat when you're able to tell that a) pierce brosnan has no business on a motorcycle and was only too happy to delegate this one to a stuntman b) said stuntman isn't actually handcuffed to a asian chick, but its a prop fake sleeve with the asian girl actually holding on to his arm, and c) why is James Bond handcuffed to anyone? Roger Moore would've never let that happen to him. Its just embarrassing.

James Bond is known for over-the-top set pieces which only exist for the stunts preformed around them, but some are definitely far inferior to others. And this has to be by far the worst example.

So that about wraps it up. This was done mainly in anticipation of Quantum of Solace, the 22nd canonical Bond movie and the second with Daniel Craig. Quantum will be unique in that it is the first direct sequel of the franchise. Expect Bond to kick some ass finding out who was really behind Vesper Lind's betrayal. I'll end this with my favorite Bond quote, one which doesn't actually appear in any of the films (to my knowledge), but rather the closing line of Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale: "The bitch is dead."

Here are the previous two posts:

Worst Bond Movies 22 - 16

Worst Bond Movies 15 - 9

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Spore for iPhone

So last night I broke down and actually paid for something in the
iPhone apps store. Wretch. I'm generally against paying for smallish
software (there's usually a superior open source alternative anyway),
but Spore seemed too good to pass up.

I grew up on SimCity 2000 et al., and I've been casually following the development process of Spore. Unfortunately for me, the creature creator demo refused to run on my macbook (lame!) and I doubt the full version of the game will be any more reliable. And it comes with some pretty nasty drm I hear.

My first impressions of Spore: Origins are fairly positive, although it is a bit frustrating that I haven't been able to add more crazy shit to my creature. But I tend to be impatient with games.

Anyway, Spore: Origins has already provided me with about three times as much gameplay as any of the free games I've downloaded from the app store, and I'm not even halfway through it. This is shaping out to be well worth the $9.99 I shelled out for it.

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22 Worst James Bond Movies Part 2

Trailer for the 1996 VHS box sets

14. The man with the Golden Gun

This is the one with the midget and christopher lee, right? Yep, that's the one, and its kinda crap. Not really bad, but just enough into the Moore-era Bond to seem pretty laughable. Oh, and Lee's villian, Scaramanga has a third nipple.

13. The Spy Who Loved Me

This is one of Roger Moore's better films, despite not being as memorable as Moonraker of Live and Let Die. Although it does feature a car with submarine mode, a feature only appreciate by the überüber-rich and super-spies alike.

12. From Russia with Love

Now don't get me wrong, there are a lot of reasons to place From Russia With Love higher on this list, and its got a lot of good qualities. But for me, the sillier James Bond is tops, and this cold war espionage tale can get a bit grating.

11. Diamonds Are Forever

Ahh, the return of Sean Connery after a disastrous turn from George Lazenby. 007 seems disinterested in the overly-ambitious plot and punctuations of over-the-top silliness that would soon become a staple of the series.

10. For Your eyes Only

I remember For Your Eyes Only being the first James Bond movie I watched a lot when I was a kid. For some reason this is the only one we owned on vhs before the box sets came out, maybe because the amount of skiing in it--but I can't be sure. Something about a greek shipping heir and him visiting his wife's grave. Snore.

9. A View To A Kill

This one has Christopher Walken acting extra crazy as a blonde in this post-Deer Hunter role with also-creepy Grace Jones as his sidekick. I can't really remember the specifics of the plot of this one, but I'm sure it has lots of explosions and shit to keep you midly entertained for 90 minutes. Too bad like most Bond flick this runs around 2 hours, leaving 30 minutes to sit on your hands (or dick around on the internets).

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22 Worst James Bond Movies

Like srsly, this week erry time I turn on the teev I swear theres a Bond Movie on. And an off the cuff remark to Amy about The World is Not Enough only being the 16th worst Bond flick made me actually flesh out my list. I figure I'm gonna have to do this in a few parts, because I'm working on a film this week and my schedule's all effed up. Here's the first seven though, more to come in a few days! (Ed, I expect feedback)

22. Goldfinger

Sean Connery really hits his stride in Goldfinger, which is packed with iconic scenes, witty repartee and lots and lots of Pussy Galore. Also, this is the first Bond film to use the convention of the non-plot cold open (From Russian with Love's teaser ties in with the plot, so I discount that as a technicality). By far the least sucky Bond film.

21. Live and Let Die

The first vehicle for the star turn of Roger Moore as 007 takes James Bond across the pond in this voodoo-tastic, Jane Seymour-packed exemplary 70s Bond flick. Sucks way less than the 20 others.

20. Casino Royale

Daniel Craig inherently doesn't suck. And rebooting a faltering franchise is always a good idea and it serves James Bond well here. With most of the decadence and ridiculousness of the latter Brosnan films stripped away, Bond is humanized without any proselytizing about female empowerment screwing up the action set pieces, which is another welcome relief.

19. Dr. No

Firsties=Besties, right? Not necessarily, but Dr. No is certainly good. Sets the tone of flamboyant action mixed with the right amount of humor, gravity and scantily clad women. Everything Bond should be. Superior to its also Caribbean counterpart, Thunderball.

18. Thunderball

Ends up losing control of itself because of how fucking long it is. The plot meanders around for a bit, there a sharks and few sexy 60s chicks, but by the time the 20 minute underwater battle royale ensues you're definitely checking ur watch. Still, a lot less to complain about than almost anything lower on the list. And lots of Sean Connery in semi-bikini briefs.

17. Goldeneye

Following suit with the post-Connery Bonds, Pierce Brosnan's first outing is by far the most memorable, if only for the countless hours of my life I wasted playing the eponymous videogame. One of the best plot related cold opens of the series.

16. Moonraker

Ok, I know what you're saying. "Moonraker sucks. There are way better Bond films." And this statement is quite true. The Bond movies that are better than Moonraker are listed above. Keep in mind that there a lot of the eff-ing things, and that at least Moonraker keeps its sense of humor. Not at any given point is the plot or anything that happens is meant to be taken seriously. There's a lot more suck to come, trust me.

15. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

This is the least interesting Bond film from the standpoint of what would normally classify a Bond film as being good (see: Moonraker). But every now and then, Jimmy needs to remind his audience that there's more to being a super-spy than hot bitches, little guns and quippy sexual innuendo--there are wives and kilts and shit too.

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The Venture Bros. Season 3 Finale

I got around to watching the season finale of Venture Bros. last night, and there were loads of surprises. Another season ending cliff-hanger and a two part episode capped of the third season of Cartoon Network's flagship Adult Swim program. It featured all the usual players (as opposed to some of the episodes from this season which left some of my favorite characters), including the Moppets, 21 & 24, and the OSI Guys.



I was really looking forward to season 3 earlier this year, and now that its over I'm excited for season 4! Its nice to see a good show actually stay on the air long enough for things to get interesting, especially on Adult Swim, who's known for unexpectedly short runs of good shows and frequent programming changes.

That said, most shows on Adult Swim don't usually make it past a fourth season, but hopefully Venture Bros. will buck this trend, or at least have a badass final season.

This week's episode introduced a few new elements that I really enjoyed. First, "The Cleaner" comes to rescue Brock, Rusty and the boys is like a murderous Mr. Clean, and supposedly leaves "a lemon-y fresh scent."

Oh, and he melts peoples faces off with acid-based cleaning supplies.

Also making its debut in the season finale was the Monarch's new super weapon, the "Death's Head Panoply," which is essentially golden armor the monarch wears (which he can't really move in) that releases a deadly shower of clone-killing lasers. Unfortunately, the Monarch hasn't successfully tested it yet.



I was pretty impressed with this season on the whole, and will definitely purchase the DVD (or BluRay?) when it's released later this year.

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Out of the Box DVD reviews: Lost Boys: The Tribe

Wow, I actually stooped to watching the sequel to one of the most laughable movies to come out of the zeitgeist set of mtv inspired that dominate the mid and late 80s. Can't say that I'm not a fan of the original Lost Boys, but it lends itself well to producing a crap sequel, especially nearly 20 years later when putting reality tv staple Cory 'Feld-dog' Feldman is an insult to the audience. Add of bunch of goth-sufer-biker-jock-douchey vampire dudes and it doesn't really get any better.

It meanders around a premise similar to the original, but updated with modern, frivolous profanity laden dialog and unnecessary action set-pieces. And blood drinking, lots of blood drinking.

In other words, try and avoid this sequel at all costs. And don't steal this movie.

Later this week: Starship Troopers 3!

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B-Moive Marathon: Stone Cold

Stone Cold has to be on of my favorite movies of all time. I was introduced to it a few years ago by a friend in film school at University of Colorado and have sworn by it since the first time I saw it.

We we're in a group production class together and spending an intense amount of time on writing and shooting a short film for nothing. Literally less than $100 was spend on what we ended up making, which didn't turn out to be very good, but it was a good experience at the time. To blow off steam that semester, in addition to drinking copious amounts of beer, we would watch this movie.

From the opening scene the madness ensues. Large and cheap-looking-but-you-know-they-were-expensive set pieces dominate most of the action in this movie; a grocery store, a motorcyle chase, the seige of the capital of Alabama, a biker rally complete with beer can-handgun William Tell, a Viking Funeral pyre with a motorcycle (and dead biker) on it and a fucking pet gila monster make this the greatest fucking movie of all time. Period. Point blank.

Oh, and it stars Lance Hendricksen. Yeah, Bishop from Aliens. Not to mention the stunningly homo-erotic yet obtusely sexless performance from former NFL burnout Brian Bosworth. At the helm of this monstrously ridiculous spectacle is former stunt coordinator and seasoned B-movie director Craig R. Baxley (who presumably was only able to get Hendricksen to do this because of their Aliens connection).

Suffice it to say, the practical special effects in this movie are so gaudy and over-the-top that you lose track of how many stunt dummies they blow up, throw from helicopters or hit with cars (both of the latter also involve explosions).

And then there's The Boz. Not only did he ride his custom made motorcycle with his own skull with flaming mullet emblem airbrushed on the gas tank (the same patch is found on his biker jacket), but he stoops to deadpanning some of the most ridiculously ill-concieved b-movie dialog, like explaining to his straight-laced partner that (in a strip club) "truckers get their rocks off watchin' the girls dance."



There are other great lines too: "Tell Chains to keep his castles out of my sandbox," "He's either gonna be my bulldozer, or the biggest steak I ever ate."

Great homo-eroticisms like "Is that a piece in your pants?" and later in the same scene, refer to the Boz's time in the pen: "Pretty boy like you must've done some real hard time."

To balance that out, there's copious amounts of R-rated nudity. Who knew biker gangs insisted on public showers for their old ladies? Coupled with all the ridiculous violence, Stone Cold is one of the most amazing cultural documents to emerge from this country in the last two decades.

Srsly, do yourself a favor and go watch this movie. Previously only available on video tape and bootleg DVD (Thanks Thomas for letting me steal that from you), Stone Cold got its very own fancy DVD release last summer. Its on Netflix, too.

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B-Movie Marathon: Westworld

James Brolin stars in 1973's Westworld in my second entry in this weekends B-Movie Marathon. Again, thanks to my Roku Player this little gem is a great piece of 70s scifi.

I had never seen this before today, probably because it came out 13 years before I was born, but it is definitely one of my favorites from the era. Its filled with lots of suspense inducing clichés, with lots foreshadowing of all the bad shit that goes down.

Like most things I like from the 70s, Westworld was parodied by The Simpsons. The Simpsons have a habit of doing this; familiarizing me with pieces of culture years before I otherwise would have heard/seen them. Examples include Soylent Green, The Omega Man, All the President's Men and the list really could go on a lot further (I'd of course, have to consult my local library).

So, another movie in set in the future, this time with customized vacations complete with robots! These vacations are set in a variety of themes including, you got it, Western World! James Brolin, et al., go to western world and interact with the cast of robotic western staples like the man without a name gunslinger, western bartender in bowler hat and bodiced and corseted robot hookers.

But behind the scenes the guys in the white coats who keep things running start noticing that things are starting to be a little glitchy in their theme parks. When your robot snakes start attacking guests, you should really considering closing up for a few weeks to figure things out. If you ignore my advice, you get a robots-against-James Brolin scenario. Typical for scientists to eff things up like this. No wonder why people think that the LHC is going to create a black hole.

And the movie marathon continues!

I'm probably going to take a break for a little bit, recharge with some beer and dinner and then get started watching some totally awesome flicks. Next up is Brian Bosworth's pseudo-nazi-biker-gang-of-drug-dealers ass kicking Stone Cold from 1991. One of my all time favorites!


And here's a screen grab from The Simpsons episode I mentioned.

The Simpsons vs. Westworld:

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B-Movie Marathon: Twisted Justice

Troma Entertainment's 1989 future-cop extravaganza, Twisted Justice is first up in my B-Movie Marathon this weekend. Written, directed and staring David Heavener as James Tucker, the gun-toting, onsie-wearing futurecop with a bad attitude and a five o'clock shadow. Also staring Shannon Tweed, Erik Estrada and former NFL superstar Jim Brown, Twisted Justice delivers exactly the kind of flashy excitement that is promised on the box-cover.

So, its the year 2020 in Los Angeles and guns have become so dangerous that cops can't even use them, but James Tucker doesn't care about laws that limit his ability to kick freaky-criminals to the ground before he shoots them with his homemade "hand cannon." Also, criminals in the future mostly enjoy attacking women and mutilating them with knives and shit before they kill them. This really pisses off Tucker, but he feels reigned in by Commander Erik Estrada, who lectures him about how using his gun is bad for PR. This allows Tucker to act like a standoff-ish weirdo, especially to the foxy-but-toned-down-for-effect district attorney.

Like a few other B-Movies slated to air in this weekend's marathon, the antihero protagonist displays some quirky / borderline antisocial behavior in his home life. See, Tucker is filthy, lives with a pet rat and is continually accused of smelling badly (something which probably isn't aided by the fact that he wears stained and dirty looking one-piece long underwear the entire movie. Like, under his clothes and when he's sleeping).

The plot is a bit hard to follow. Something about drugs and this creepy-looking maniac guy whose been attacking women. Then Shannon Tweed shows up, and I really had trouble keeping track of what was going on after that. The movie has a pretty-good-for-a-b-movie car chase, a few explosions and some pretty decent (read: giant squib packs) old-school f/x. Also in the future theres like softcore POV pornography on a channel opposite It's A Wonderful Life, which is fairly unsettling when you sit down and think about that.

Twisted Justice is low budget and it shows. But thats not to say that its laden with any obvious mistakes, its just campy and fun. Much higher production value than Redneck Zombies, another Troma flick, which looks like it was shot without a DP, gaffers, or any porduction staff besides a camera operator and some sort of art department pa to throw together myraid crappy and uneccessary special effects.

All in all, Twisted Justice was a worthwhile B-Movie experience--which I wouldn't have been able to view without my glorious Roku Player.

Redneck Zombies was the next movie I was going to watch today, but after about five minutes I had to bail because it was so unbearable. Quick thinking pointed me onwards 1973's Westworld staring Josh Brolin!

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