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Runner-up: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Did Memento come out this year, or last? I can't seem to remember... (And no, this isn't a bad joke on the movie's main character- I really don't remember). In either case, the Academy Award people snubbed it something fierce, so I really don't give a damn. Memento, much like Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, and Unbreakable before it, is a movie that demands repeat viewings, as there's so many small details and little things you don't see the first time that it's amazing how well-put together it is. Also amazing is that the film was put together in a matter of weeks by an unexperienced director, based on a short story written by his brother- and it's so damn good. Memento takes the "Amnesia" storytelling cliche and makes it new again- the story's protagonist is a man with no short-term memory, able to remember everything that happened before the accident that caused his disability, but unable to remember anything after that for any period of time longer than a few minutes. To further propel the story, the audience is put in his shoes, as the movie plays scene-by-scene in reverse. What could have been a silly gimmick turned out to be one of the most intruiging parts of the story, as people that seem like friends at one part of the story, we might later discover to be taking advantage of this constant memory loss. It's a head trip so beautifully designed and terrifically acted that it's one of the best movies I've ever seen. |
Runner-up: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Memento owns you. It's a fantastic, incredible, momentous, gorgeous, amazing CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE like NONE OTHER. Memento DEMANDS your full attention, it demands your MIND!! You will have Memento on the brain looong after the initial viewing, and even then, you will have to see the movie tons of times afterwards to feed the crave. Yet, it was completely fucked over by the Oscars. Do this movie THE JUSTICE! SEE IT! Show your family, your friends! Spread the word! And remember to mercilessly beat the fucking shit out of any lowlife dreg with the audacity to taint Memento's good name. Goddamn, I love the Internet. Without it I wouldn't be able to register my seething opinions to the masses. Now excuse me as I wipe the drool off my chin. |
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Runner-Up: The Emperor's New Groove: The Ultimate Groove (As long as you don't watch the god-awful Llama-Llama song) Arguably the best action movie ever made gets the full royal treatment, along with it's not-so-spectacular sequels. When Die hard came out, it rocked. When we saw knockoffs on boats and trains and planes and whatnot, it still reigned supreme, and now, more than a decade after the movie's release, it still rocks. And if you haven't seen it, you suck. Starring Bruce Willis as everyman John McClaine who through dumb luck gets trapped in a skyscraper with a bunch of terrorists (And without shoes, no less), this was the movie that spawned the "Siege action movie" genre. That's right- without this, Under Siege, Air Force One, Speed- they might never have existed. And as good as those three movies are (And all three ARE damn good), they don't come close to Die Hard. And though it had a pretty good DVD before, this new one has enough commentary and extra features as to be worthy of the great movie it features. Difinitive movie plus difinitive DVD equals DVD of the year as far as I'm concerned. |
Runner-Up: Die Hard: Special Edition (5-Star Series) Ignore some of the wonky dialogue and the total negligence of its fanbase and Final Fantasy is a good movie. What's great about this DVD is that it makes Final Fantasy a pretty good movie, showcasing tons of special features like multiple audio commentaries, storyboards, loads of making-of features, production art, interviews, and the like. Aside from the film's gorgeous visuals, the thing about this DVD that got me were the friggin' awesome storyboards. Egads, why can't I draw like that? Commentaries and behind-the-scenes stuff really make me respect the movie even more. So much work was put into something that, while flawed, was largely ignored. Get the DVD! |
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I've never seen the original to compare it to, so this isn't nostalgia biting me in the ass. In all honesty, it seemed like it might work. A wierd sci-fi flik modernized by a modern visionary (Tim Burton). In the end, Burton's aesthetic style certainly did the job, and well too. But... Well, Do you remember my plot summary? It goes something like this: Human: Ack! I'm on the Planet of the Apes! Guy Ape: Humans suck! Girl Ape: Humans aren't that bad! Human: You guys suck. I'm leaving. Guy Ape: Humans suck! Don't let him escape! Girl Ape: Humans aren't so bad! I'll help him escape! Human: I was having more fun being tortured by Iraquis in Three Kings... Trust me. This movie sucks. Don't watch these damn dirty apes. |
This was a tough call. Between crap like Fast and the Furious, Evolution, and many other shitty summer movies, it was a very tough decision. But I ended up picking Driven anyway, because this drek would've most likely ended up on Mystery Science Theater 3000. In fact, two friends of mine and I gave this stinkburger the 'ol MST3K treatment as we watched it. It was bad enough that Sylvester Stallone was in it, but he had to act (read: look beefy) alongside whiny halfwits and whiny halfwits with awful accents...for a REALLY long time. That, and a car set a tree on fire for no reason. Playstation 2 ads and Japanese babes couldn't save this dogpile. |
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Although the series started release in 2000, it didn't reach it's completion until mid-to-late 2001 (And the movies are still a ways away). Both Tim and I are obviously big fans of the series (As Mognet's been-running-far-too-long EVA arc shows), which is one of the most influential and controversial animes ever created (As Ish himself says in the comic). But as incomprehensible as it gets in the end, it can't be denied that the series' character design and development is superb, where the series really holds it's strengths. Though the series may be depressing as hell, characters like Shinji, Misato, Asuka and *Snickers at Tim* Rei made it engrossing all the way through 'till the end. |
Love Hina takes an idea ^_^ made famous by Tenchi Muyo, strips ^_-;; away any space opera qualities, and replaces Tenchi with ^___^ Keitaro, a collegebound loser in charge of a womens' ^_^;; college dorm. Thing is, Keitaro made a 0.0 childhood promise with a girl -_^;; that if they both make it into Tokyo University, they'd marry each other ^___^;;. And Keitaro believes one of the ^-^ dorm girls to be that very girl! GASP!!! Hijinks ensue. ^-^;; Entertaining hijinks! What's obviously a ^_____^;;; shoujo anime actually turned out to be quite an =^-^= entertaining show (even though I'm only...halfway through it) with one FRIGGIN' AWESOME episode that ^^;; spoofs RPGs! This series is coming stateside now, so *_*;; be sure to catch it! |
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Funny, I've seen tons of people claim that Daft Punk was trying to rip off Cher. Bullshit. One More Time bears at most a few similarities with Believe (The song most point to as the one they jacked), namely the computer voice that has, along with their rediculous robot costumes, become Daft Punk's signature. Forget all that. To me, One More Time was simple in purpose and form- Fun. Joy. Good times. It's sad that shortly after it gained such wide recognition that the terrible acts of September 11th took place. Still, listening to it reminds me of how innocent and carefree America was before we were forced back to reality. And it helps that in all the chaos and confusion, I can still take comfort that something so positive and joyful still exists at the heart of humanity. Or something like that. |
Final Fantasy X's a great game with GREAT music. I'm not sure if the overall soundtrack ranks up there with Final Fantasy VI and Xenogears, but this image song, sung by Yuna's Japanese voice actress, certainly does. A version of the Hymn of the Fayth, the song combines that song's melody with a neato pop sound and rad instrumentation. I feel rad whenever I listen to it, it's so rad. Rad. Ah, rad. It makes for good walking music too. |
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We all knew Napster couldn't live forever. It got too popular too fast, and scared the record companies into thinking the new trend would be consumers stealing money from music artists (from the "Hey, that's our job!" dept.). Now, Napster is a hollow shell of what it once was, and countless other services have sprouted up in it's place. Some, like Music City Morpheus, are decent, but lack the variety Napster once had. Audiogalaxy, on the other hand, has succeeded in doing what I never thought possible- ressurecting the principles behind Napster with the same widespread focus. Although a bit unorthodox (Users search for songs on the website and download them with an application), Audiogalaxy is more than worthy of the title of successor to the dead king. |
It fills the void Napster left behind, and it beats the shit out of Kazaa and Morpheus. Download music. Yeah. That's pretty much it. |
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IGN now officially sucks. It rivals porn websites for most advertisements on a website, it's reviews are always late, often biased, and more often than not reviewers only review games they want to. How was Blade for PSX? "Aw, it sucked, so we decided not to review it." Gee, thanks. And it's odd, but another unbiased all-platform game 'site I never much cared for has improved exponentially in place of it's tainted cousin. Gamespot used to be only worthwhile for it's features (History of Street Fighter, History of Castlevania, etc.), but by and by, it's news coverage keeps getting better and better, and it's reviews more well-written. In the wake of the dot-com crash (Congratulations, that's the billionth time you've heard that term!), Gamespot provided pay services like IGN, but rather than shove it down it's reader's throats and force them to miss out on content they should have gotten anyways (Like... well, IGN), it provided useful services that I'm sure are worth the money for those who paid for them (And I wish them the best of luck with it all). Meantime, Gamespot has taken up the role of the best website to read up on games quickly, efficiently, and informatively. I doubt it'll ever be as good as IGN once was, but it's close enough. |
Yeah, this seems to be the king now that The GIA is dead and IGN sucks. It's an okay website. The reviews seem to be pretty accurate and there's a ton of coverage on every game out there. Still, I can't wait for Gameforms. |
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Runner-Up: RPGWorld Although there have certainly been some good comics this year, none of them have so consistently been able to do what they originally set out to do- in 8-Bit's case, be funny. And I mean, c'mon, swordchucks! Swordchucks! Hehehehehehehe.... |
Runner-Up: 8-Bit Theater I can't think of any other consistently hilarious webcomic out there. Penny Arcade, in-jokes aside, nails its punchlines on the HEAD. From the rampant XBox bashing to philospohical discussions of MGS2's ending to sex with fruit, PA kicks ass. |
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