Bonus ACE OF MOVIES! - Dylan Dog: Dead of Night

Hey folks. Mike here, and last night I went to go see two movies. One was an energetic thrill ride that gave me exactly what I expected and new how to use it's limited resources incredibly well.

That was Fast Five. The OTHER movie I saw was Dylan Dog: Dead of Night.

First of all, let's start with some positives. Brandon Routh is a good actor, and can do very well in a movie where he's given good direction. Witness Scott Pilgrim. There are also times where the movie had the kind of style and epicness you expect from an urban fantasy flick, mostly in the first five minutes. The conceit behind the film (which I'll explain in a second) and the script were actually pretty good. It's everything else where the film falls apart.

The idea behind the film is that Dylan (is Dog his last name? They never say.) is a private investigator. He used to be something more: an impartial investigator that keeps the peace between the vampires, werewolves, zombies and demons that inhabit New Orleans. It's implied at one point in the movie that these supernatural creatures are, in fact, ONLY in New Orleans, but that's never made clear. You see, the supernatural creatures appoint a human as this impartial investigator to keep from tearing each other's throats out. Dylan's idea of the world is that the undead (or still living, in the case of werewolves) have as much right to exist as we do, and it's the actual monster hunters of the world that are the bad guys. So far, pretty cool, right?

Here's another quick positive: Like Super Bad, this film has a sub plot that's far superior to and more interesting than the main plot. Dylan's best friend, Marcus, played by Sam Huntington, is killed by a zombie and begins to turn into one himself. Sam has to deal with rotting, getting his limbs replaced, learning to eat bugs, and all the other fun things that come with being the living dead. It turns out there's even a thriving living dead community in New Orleans, and he can attend a support group for the recently deceased. This is a FANTASTIC idea for a movie, and I want to see one that's just about this guy. It helps that Huntington is one of the shining points of acting in the film, and manages to be believable and even somewhat funny while being the goofy comic relief.

Ok, now to the bad stuff, AKA, everything else. The film is written as if it were a noir.  There's a helpless female who's not what she seems, a dead partner, and even a corrupt and manipulative club owner. Combining all that with the supernatural sounds like a great idea, and it should have been. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the cast to bloody ACT. Routh narrates the entire film, sounding as if he were sitting in a soundstage incredibly bored the entire time. The female love interest alternates from bored to confused to bored again. The werewolves were told, inexplicably, to growl all of their lines, making every scene with them hilarious. And the two romantic scenes in the movie have less chemistry than Anakin talking to Padme in Episode II.

Then there's the effects. The film made the admirable, and money saving, decision to use very little CG. That's great, but then you gotta get someone who knows their shit to do your practical effects. The werewolves have a really interesting transformation, then the camera cuts away, and suddenly we're looking at something out of a mid-90's Power Rangers episode. At two points in the film Dylan fights giant monsters played by hulking, seven foot dudes. They look like something out of a theme park for goths. And then...the vampires.

It's hard to be original in Hollywood these days. It seems everyone is always remaking something, somewhere. But when you use the EXACT SAME VAMPIRE MAKEUP FROM BUFFY, there's a frickin' problem. Actually, this problem is all over the film. Dylan hates technology and drives a Blue Beetle. The vampires in the film are all called, I shit you not, True Bloods. It's like someone took a big can of supernatural popular stuff and shook it up, and then said "Meh. Just...stand there and do...something."

And that's really how the film feels. From beginning to end, everyone involved seems to think the film is crap and they shouldn't be doing it. Every time the film has a chance to do something interesting, it fails to do it. There's a scene where Dylan marches into a club and takes out ten vampires with a succession of flare guns being handed to him by Marcus. The camera proceeds to stay on his face the entire time while he slowy marches down the hall to the tune of some crappy song. The sad thing is, Dylan Dog had potential to be something interesting. Urban fantasy is one of the most popular book genres right now, and the time is right for it to be made into a great movie. Dylan Dog is not that movie. I feel like if one person (maybe THE DIRECTOR) had given a crap, it could have been.

Thanks for reading, folks. Stay tuned for the next podcast, with a review of Portal 2, and after that....THOR!

Mike

Episode 13 - In which we talk about Bioware a lot

Welcome back! After a couple week break, the Ace of Geeks Podcast returns with a fairly Bioware-themed episode. In this episode, we review Dragon Age 2, talk about Mass Effect, and our Ace of Geeks this week fits the theme, too. We also review Bradley Cooper's new movie Limitless, and talk about possibly the greatest cartoon of all time.

Episode 13! 

Episode 12 - Superman and Sucker Punch

The twelfth podcast, filled with hilarity and arguments about Superman! In this podcast, we review Sucker Punch and Bulletstorm, we've got a ton of news, and our first ever Deuce of Geeks!

Episode 12!

Erin S. on the Westfinder Gaming Troup

My first larp was at DunDraCon, and was either a Firefly larp or a Buffy larp. I'm inclined to say Firefly because of how new at it I was and how awkward I remember feeling, and how I was basically playing Jayne and ended up asking this chick out as one of my objectives, which was rather entertaining because me, the person playing this character, was a thirteen-year-old girl. I'm also inclined to say Buffy, though, 'cuz I know my stepsis specifically introduced me to larps, and I remember her telling me I should sign up for that one, and I had a blast because I was the slayer (Victoria Winters, original, right?), and she was a vampire, and I was out for her and for this really creepy guy with whitish hair and sunglasses who seriously reminded me of the Corinthian from the Sandman graphic novels (rambling a bit, I know, but bear with me). A few years down the road and I'm getting more comfortable with them; I end up playing a gunbunny (literally; I had ears) in a cyberpunk larp, which is the first time I remember seeing Jarys around (he was Boombox), and I remember running into him in the halls a lot that year and actually remembering who he was. And then last year with the train and the killing and the fun (and the Jarys and Xavier thinking there was a party in my room for some reason XD). The curious thing about the last two was that, by then I was part of my own larping group, a bunch of middle and high school kids (and some college ones because we keep coming back) called Westfinder, and it'd given me rather a unique perspective on it.

The thing about Westfinder is that it was founded by high school kids, and a lot of the players are kids who've never had any other larping experience (besides maybe Wayfinder, which is what it's based on), and this leads to some interesting situations. We have a staff that is composed of members of Westfinder, and are therefore the same age and have had the same experiences. And games are written by anyone in the community and then submitted to staff to be chosen or not. We run a game per month throughout the school year. And our gamewriters have pretty much only been influenced by what books they've read and the games that have come before. We've had everything from Dresden File larps to pure high fantasy, to high fantasy taking place in the mind of a young girl who was in a coma due to driving her car into a tree because her mother was regaining custody of her, and therefore by the end of the game the princess with the evil queen mother and the layabout father who is being attacked by embodiments of her own fears is encouraged to wake up by all the friends around her because they've realized that even if she wakes up and that means their death, as they're only figments of her imagination, they care about her and know that it's that important that she goes on and faces the world at large. We've had some recurring settings Nolix%Uul and Nolix%Uul 2, 4.5 and 5.6, but for the most part we have one-shots. And only getting a 20-player turnout is low for us.

We have our issues - people are typecast, or the newbies are given bit parts and don't have a good first game - but we've found ways to deal with those; I love playing evil roles and don't mind being typecast, and because of our system in which we e-mail a teaser out about the game a few weeks in advance, encourage people to send in a survey with such questions as "rate from 1 to 10 the appeal of the following characteristics for you: evil, good, betrayal, loyalty, ambition, wisdom, magic, stealth, etc" people have been getting really good at making tailored characters such that everyone who plays has a really fun experience, and there's something in there for even people who don't affect the plot at all.

I know that this is vastly different from con larping because of the small registration time and the impossibility of creating tailored characters or really getting to know the people who will be playing unless you actually know them already, but I thought that it could offer a bit of perspective, and I hoped that you would appreciate hearing about it. And not become too annoyed by the ramblings of someone avoiding schoolwork >.>

Keep podcasting, I'm really enjoying it!

Erin

[Editors note: the Westfinders Gaming Troup is a section of Wayfinders. Westfinders is open to youth only. Check them out HERE ]

Episode 11 - We now return to our regularly scheduled format

Back to our regularly scheduled format, the Ace of Geeks crew reviews some new types of entertainment, and introduces a few new segments! Make sure you email us to vote on the name for our mailbag segment, and with any questions or comments as usual.

Episode 11!

Also, see below to donate to this week's Ace of Geeks, the Super Hero Time folks who are raising money to help Japan in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. They've given so much entertainment to us over the years, let's give them a helping hand.

So a woman called me by mistake today.

When I told her I wasn't the person she wanted to call, she started explaining the frustrations she's had with getting her call through. What followed was a thirty minute nearly one way conversation with a sweet old woman where I learned the following:

-Gypsy in italian is Zyngareta. Or something like that. She used to run from California all the time from her mother, who called her that. Also, women ruin the workplace, she used to only work with men and that was much better. :)

-The title of the book about her life will be "Don't you ever call me up if you need a ride." Because she's "A God Damn Taxi Driver, Jesus."

-The Pope blessed her personally once! And her friend was jealous because she goes to church more.

-On Marriage: "You know what you got, you don't know what you're getting into."

-The cops never came to her house because her mother was loving and tough.

-She's bemoaning the divorce rate in America. I think.

- She loves Irish dancing at the nursing home.

Episode 10 - We made it to ten episodes!

Here's a day a lot of people never thought would come - ten episodes of The Ace of Geeks Podcast in the bag! Thanks for sticking with us, folks, and see you at 100!

The Tenth Podcast!