Stupid Films That I Love - Event Horizon

This instalment of SFTIL features a Paul WS Anderson movie, Event Horizon. No, wait, come back! It's really quite good. You see, years before Mr Anderson made a mess of Alien Vs Predator (and the Resident Evil franchise, and made a movie where Kurt Russell says bugger all), he made an entertaining horror movie.

Event Horizon stars Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne (who admittedly seems to sleepwalk his way through this movie) as a scientist and spaceship captain, respectively. Their mission is to travel to Neptune to retrieve a missing ship, the Event Horizon, that has returned to the solar system after spending seven years missing. Laurence Fishburne and his crew of stock characters travel to Neptune where they discover the price the Event Horizon crew paid for meddling with black holes.

Needless to say things do not go well for the intrepid crew of stock characters (look, it's Sean Pertwee playing a gruff cockney! Oh, and over there is the wisecracking crewman who gets all the catchphrases! If you peek around the corner you can see the inexperienced crewman who will do something stupid and get into trouble! And there's the guy who works for the government and therefore cannot be trusted!) The ship seems to be possessed and has it in for the retrieval team, cue lots of dark, space corridor porn and loud bursts of sound designed to make you jump.



Despite its faults there's a lot going for Event Horizon. The ship itself has an interesting design, especially the engine room with its pool of coolant and spherical gravity drive. The effects work is good (the shots of the space station orbiting Earth and the Event Horizon orbiting Neptune are great) and the technology looks solid and largely plausible. The stock characters are entertaining in their own sub-Alien way and Sam Neill puts in a fun performance as the scientist who, SPOILER - goes a bit loopy and serial killerish.

I have to mention the soundtrack, it's a combination of Michael Kamen and Orbital and it works very well. The blending of traditional orchestra sounds with techno elements creates a pulsing soundtrack that gives the Event Horizon an ominous, growling, pulsing heart beat.

Event Horizon is a fun B-movie and, as with all the Stupid Films That I Love, not an example of cinema as high art but it is an enjoyable and occasionally frightening way of spending an hour and forty minutes. Also, the film ends with a Prodigy tune over the credits which always scores bonus points in my book.

"Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see."

Game Review - Dragon Age (Late Impressions Edition)

Dragon Age is big. Really, hugely, massively big. Bigger than a big whale balanced on the shoulders of an even bigger whale who has put on some weight. This is a fantasy RPG that attempts to be every bit as epic as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and GRR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

You take on the role of one of six origins, human noble, dwarf commoner, dwarf noble, city elf, Dalish elf, and finally, mage. Each origin has its own unique beginning to the game where you learn the ropes of combat and abilities whilst suffering some heart rending tragedy which forces you to leave home and join the Grey Wardens. The origin stories do a marvellous job of setting the scene and providing you with a unique political viewpoint of Ferelden. A human noble will have a very different view of the world to a Dalish elf, for example. The origins serve not only as a functional tutorial but also as a taster of the moral choices that you’ll be making later in the game.



Your character becomes a member of the Grey Wardens, an elite unit of warriors charged with saving the world (yes, just like the Spectres in Mass Effect.) It’s a trope that serves well within the setting and provides the impetus and motivation to save the world from the coming Blight. The Blight is an invasion of hideous monsters (the Darkspawn) that rise up from the subterranean depths of Ferelden (the fantasy land you inhabit) causing misery and destruction wherever they roam. The Blight is led by a demonically possessed dragon which must be put down in order to stop the rampaging Darkspawn army. In order to achieve this not insubstantial objective you’ll need to wander the length and breadth of Ferelden recruiting forces for your own army as you go.



Cue visits to remote locations such as an extensive underground dwarf city, a forest populated by elves and werewolves, remote castles and fortresses, and a sprawling capital city. The design of each zone is unique and contains some stunning views of the local landscape. It’s a pity that although attempts have been made to add unique wrinkles to each race and location, it’s pretty standard fantasy fare. Dwarfs live underground, elves live in forests, and humans live in vague approximations of medieval villages and cities. Dragon Age doesn’t try to subvert genre expectations; it creates a familiar but engrossing fantasy world and is largely successful.

Combat is tough, especially so if you choose not to include a mage in your four man party. Mages provide the usual assortment of ranged damage, healing, ability buffs, and crowd control. The robed spell flingers are absolutely essential to your progress through the many combats dotted throughout the game. It is essential that you use tactics if you play at the default difficulty setting, the game facilitates tactical thinking via its pause and play system which will be familiar to any players of previous Bioware RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate. For those who haven’t, you can pause combat at any time, issue commands to your party members and then unpause to see the results. Combat occurs in real time but can be paused at any point in order to issue commands. There is also a new tactics feature which allows you to set default behaviour and commands to your companions. Tired of manually activating all of your fighter’s abilities? You can use the tactics tool to set the character to switch on his abilities at the start of a fight, have him use a health potion when his health drops to a certain level, or give you a hug when the Darkspawn kill one of your loved ones. One word of warning though, ranged combat tactics seem to be hard to instil in your companions, they have a tendency to draw a blade as soon as anyone gets even slightly close, despite what you may have told them to do.



Alternatively, if you don’t want to play with combat tactics you can set the difficulty to Easy and breeze through fights with little effort. This may be an attractive option to some as the sheer amount of combat in some areas (especially toward the end of the game) can get a little tiring. It certainly doesn’t take anything away from the story if you decide to make things easy on yourself and reduce combat difficulty. If anything it’ll stop you from getting fatigued in some of the more combat heavy areas.

Dragon Age doesn’t have a morality system as such. This means that every quest involving a moral choice can be resolved without the game judging you by adding or docking points on a morality bar. However, this new freedom to make any decision without judgement is hampered by the reactions of your comrades. Some of your followers will approve of heavy handed tactics and harsh decisions whilst some prefer the softly, softly approach. Your decisions and dialogue choices will either improve or reduce your influence with your buddies. If you increase approval high enough, your pals will gain access to stat boosts and offer side quests. So far so good, but then the game introduces something that makes a mockery of inter party diplomacy – gifts. You see, your followers are very shallow, very shallow indeed. Did you offend someone in your group by constantly kicking puppies and thrashing peasants? Why not offer the offended party member a shiny bauble? They’ll instantly forget what a massive idiot you are. It’s a shame that the game works so hard to create relationships via dialogue options but cheapens it with this slightly ridiculous gift system.

Another thing that bugs me is why the hell do people drink poultices in this world? I guess Bioware wanted to use a different word than potion but they could have at least chosen a word that was accurate. You place a poultice on a wound, you don’t ingest it.

Minor carping aside, Dragon Age is a fantastic piece of work. I spent about 80 hours wandering around Ferelden and enjoyed pretty much every minute of it. This is the best fantasy RPG of recent years, and is sure to be regarded as a classic in future lists. I’m looking forward to how Bioware will develop the Dragon Age franchise, especially in light of the huge positive reaction to the RPG statistics lite approach of Mass Effect 2. Will a Dragon Age sequel retain its stat crunchiness or will it drop some of the stats and inventory management to become a more streamlined experience? Ultimately, I don’t care how many statistics are in my game as long as the high standard of roleplaying storytelling and decision making is retained. Dragon Age is the nerdier, acne ridden cousin of Mass Effect 2 but that doesn't make it any less remarkable and absorbing.

Oh, hey! The game only costs £14.99 at Play.com right now. Give it a try.

Game Review - Mass Effect 2 - Also Things What Happened In My Game

This is going to be a gushing review. Absolutely gushing. Sickeningly gushing. So gushing you'll wonder if you've come to the right blog. Look at the image above, it's pretty kick-ass and that's what Mass Effect 2 is all about - kick-ass moments. I'm not talking vacuous Michael Bay moments (although there are explosions and gunplay aplenty), I'm talking emotional, impactful, kick-ass moments. Moments that had me cheering one minute and cringing in anticipation the next. This is the thing, Mass Effect 2 is possibly one of the most engaging game narratives ever created. HYPERBOLE ENGINE ENGAGED.



Look above these words, it's Shepard in the Afterlife. He's obviously dead. OR IS HE?

Mass Effect 2 begins with a fantastic opening sequence. Part cut-scene and part interactive, the game opens with a bang and engages you emotionally from the outset and provides you with sufficient motivation for the rest of the game. After this introduction you can make changes to your Shepard if you've imported him/her from the first Mass Effect. You can then change class or alter your ugly face. I still have the PC that ran the original game and so my save game was still available but I understand that this may not be the case for most PC gamers, so I recommend this site if you want to import a Shepard close to your own experience.



I could waffle about the story but I don't want to spoil anything - well, apart from at the bottom of this post where I'll be throwing spoiler bombs around as I reminisce about my experiences in the game. The story is such a joy to experience fresh that I wouldn't wish to spoil anything for anyone. The main storyline focuses on Shepard's efforts to hire a Dirty Dozen-esque collection of space bastards in an effort to defeat a new, terrifying enemy. It's a story you can play through pretty quickly if you just want to recruit squad members and blast off into the unknown. But I don't think anyone would want to do that because each squad member has his/her/it own quests which are all engaging stories in their own right. As in the first game you can roam around your ship, The Normandy, and chat to your crewmates, each time revealing something about each character until eventually they'll ask for help in some serious matter they'd like to resolve. Even the sidequests are all different this time - gone are the cookie cutter space dungeons of the first game. This time sidequests all take in unique environments and include their own little narratives.

Conversations can be influenced by your rank in Paragon or Renegade alignment. As you make decisions in the game your Paragon and Renegade ratings will increase. It's up to you where most of the points will fall. I admit that I played as a Paragon Shepard but when I maxed out my Paragon rating I did start to choose Renegade options to spice things up. What makes the morality of Mass Effect great is that there is no black and white morality. Renegade Shepard wants to save the universe just as much as Paragon Shepard, it's just that the Renegade version acts like angry Jack Bauer at the beginning of season two of 24. A new feature in ME2 is the Paragon/Renegade actions that you can take during conversations. Paragon actions involve saving lives whereas Renegade actions involve sudden, hilarious violence. They're a fantastic addition to the Bioware school of conversation.



Combat is much, much better than in the first Mass Effect. Mass Effect 2 is now an efficient shooter that, for me, matches the twitch shooting thrills of Gears of War. The tropes of the third person shooter are present, chest high walls for cover, firefights in areas filled with said walls, enemies that dart between the walls, and melee enemies that induce terror because cover does absolutely no fucking good against them and OH MY GOD THEY'RE SCREAMING AND MOANING AS THEY APPROACH! GET THEM OFF ME! Sorry. To spice things up, you are now equipped with a host of powers, for example, Soldiers can slow down time to line up a perfect shot and have different ammunition types to suit any occasion. Other powers such as invisibility and telekinesis are available depending on which class you choose. Your squadmates are fairly competent as semi-autonomous allies. You won't need to frequently pause and issue commands as they'll generally go about the business of butchering your enemies with little input from you. They're even capable of using their powers without encouragement and spout one liners as they do so (Mordin has the best lines here).



So the story is all kinds of wonderful and the combat is greatly improved but what about the RPG elements? Well, they're downsized. But I would ask the question, "what do you consider to be RPG elements?" Because if you mean stats and numbers then that's roll playing and *role* playing. ME2 is a fantastic role playing game because it presents you with characters and decisions that are immersive and engaging - not because you're armed with a +5 shotgun. Think back to the first game, did you really enjoy managing your inventory? Do you miss sorting through tens of items, converting them to omni-gel and selling them to the crew member who refused to just give you stuff? The tedious number crunching is gone, now when you find a new, superior, weapon you just equip it. No fuss, you just do the sensible thing and pick it up. You no longer have to buy weapons and armour from one of your own crew, now you research better technologies and use elements hoovered up from nearby planets to fund the research. Once you've created the new item, it's available for use straight away. It's a lot less tedious and fits into the fiction of the universe.

Character progression is slightly simplified from the first game but is no less interesting. You will have only a handful of powers to choose from and only a certain number of points to spread amongst them. You can specialise some powers and will need to make the decision as to how you will focus your abilities. It's not dumbed-down, it's just more simple and elegant. Gone are the largely meaningless numbers and levels, now the numbers are crunched down into 4 levels of skill in each power.



I love this game. I think it can be completed in about 20 hours but I invested just under 50 because I didn't want to leave. The final hour of the game is thrilling and the decisions made will obviously cause repercussions in the third game. I can't wait to see what Shepard does next.

Okay under the load screen I will be discussing my experience in the game. DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE GAME. I'm serious, people.


SPOILER TOWN


Oh man, that last mission.

I passed it with flying colours. Only I didn't. You see, nobody died on my team (because I am great) but my entire crew, including the cute and lovely Yeoman Kelly was pulped by the Collectors. I was horrified that my attempt to explore every square inch of the galaxy had led to the death of my favourite minor character. Dr Chakwas survived and she asked why I took so long. Commander Shepard gave some platitude about needing to be ready before going on the suicide mission but I knew the truth - I was dicking about looking for easy credits and XP that I didn't need. I've never felt so guilty in a game. What really killed me was my return to the Captain's Cabin after finishing the game and finding my fish tank full of dead fish. Fish that Kelly used to feed. *sob*

Bioware tricked me. Normally the plot will say that you only have 24 hours to save the universe but will then allow you to tit around to your heart's content. Only this time it doesn't apply, the longer you take, the more crew members die. I have since gone back and replayed the conclusion to the game and saved Kelly because I want her to appear in ME3. But man, that image of dead fish will haunt me for a while yet.

I also rejected Tali's romantic advances, and felt like an utter bastard. Her reply was along the lines of "Of course, why would you be interested." It broke my heart. Of course I was kind of interested but I'd already pimped Shepard out to Yvonne Strahovski. I mean, come on, it's Yvonne Strahovski! Tali's dejected response was heart breaking. But let's face it, I couldn't figure out how we'd get up to any inter species hanky panky anyway - Tali lives in a special suit which stops her from dying of the common cold. A romantic dalliance would be all kinds of unhygienic.

In one scene I took a Renegade action, thinking it would be oh so cool and hilarious. The only problem is that I felt like an utter dick afterwards. In one mission you encounter a few scared Salarian construction workers and one of them pulls a gun on you. The Renegade action button appeared and I duly pressed it thinking that Shepard would disarm the panicking alien. What he did was punch the scared guy out and then made a pithy comment. I was shocked. Shepard was acting like a big, dumb, jock, bully and I'd told him to do it. The other Salarians looked more frightened and worried than ever but unfortunately I couldn't select "Apologise profusely" as a conversation option. Man, I'm such a dick.

I didn't learn my lesson from the Salarian though, as later on in the game I wanted to extract some information from a young street hood called Mouse. Mouse was reluctant to give up some information on an assassination and when the Renegade option flashed up, I took it. I punched the poor kid in the face and threw him to the ground, he instantly gave up the information and I felt like a bully. This time there was an apology option but the kid brushed it off and limped away, blood covering his face. Man, I'm such a dick.

Those moments were depressing for me but one moment made up for it all. A moment that had me laughing like a mad man. I headbutted Worf in the face. Michael Dorn was moaning and talking smack, the Renegade option came up and I headbutted him. It was so unexpected, so brilliant that I couldn't believe what just happened. That memory more than makes up for all the poor decisions I made.

Game Review - Football Manager 2010

I hate West Ham. Virtual West Ham mind, not the real life club. They are my nemesis. Every time I’m drawn against them in a cup, I lose. If I play them in the league while on a good run of form, I lose. It’s maddening but I always say to myself, “next time, West Ham, next time.”

Football Manager 2010 fuels the fantasy that every football fan holds, that he/she is a motivational and tactical genius capable of winning trophies with any club, even Accrington Stanley. The romantic vision of prowling the touchline in a tracksuit whilst shouting at millionaires is alluring to almost every fan. Sports Interactive know this which is why they've even incorporated actual shouting into the game. Yes, SHOUTING. Sadly the shouts are not the same as the four letter curses I fling at my screen.



The latest version, FM2010, does have one major change that represents progress from the last incarnation – the new tactics screen. No longer do you have to fiddle with sliders in order to set just the right frequency of long balls, crosses or shots. Now you simply assign roles to your players. You choose a formation to suit; 4-4-2, 4-3-3, or 4-5-1 (if you’re some kind of beautiful game hating troglodyte.) Within that formation you select the role each player will take. Fullbacks, for example, can be assigned as purely defensive or attacking wingbacks that charge up and down the pitch. The new system then assigns the slider settings in the background so you don’t have to worry about number crunching in your tactic. The new system is a lot friendlier and encourages experimentation of your own rather than dashing off to certain Football Manager websites and hoping that a killer tactic has been posted which will do all the tedious slider work for you.



So the new tactics system is a winner, but what about the 3D match engine? The inclusion of 3D to the traditionally text based match engine was always a controversial topic amongst fans. This year’s iteration is an improvement on the ropey looking effort from last year. Players now have a wider variety of animations and the stadium has now been improved to include a crowd. The match engine still looks primitive but behind the 3D players is the same complex and rewarding simulation of matchday. And if you can't stand the 3D chaps then you can always go back to the old 2D engine with floating disc men.



The game provides a frankly ridiculous amount of statistics and numbers on almost every player on the entire planet. The research and care taken in accurately reproducing every league is obvious on each screen of endless, mind boggling statistics. Once you become a veteran player though, the information is rapidly consumed and processed via a mere glance. Before you reach that level of expertise there is a collection of backroom staff who can advise you on what tactics to use, who to buy, and how to train your squad. This is all very useful for new players and jaded veterans alike.

One major niggle I have with this new version is the new way in which news is presented to you. In an effort to scale back on the sheer amount of information given to the average manager there is a separate news page complete with filters. These filters are designed to reduce the amount of in game mail you receive and avoid filling your head with useless information on obscure events in the gameworld. It's a great idea in principle but it doesn't really work. The filter now hides a lot of information in its news section, including stories about your shortlisted transfer targets. This is news that should go straight to your inbox rather than on a different news page, buried under reams of less important info. Also, the game now seems to avoid informing you about job losses for other managers, maybe it doesn't want to demoralise you or have you worry for your own job safety, but I miss knowing when a manager of a major club has been shown the door (so I can then immediately jump into their shoes.)

Transfers are largely simple affairs of bidding and counterbidding but what does seem to have changed in this version is that players are a little more fickle about which clubs they'll play for. In my experience players don't always choose the most famous club or the one that offers the most money. Loans seem to have become an expensive habit now, I don't know if this is a real change in the actual football leagues but every club wants a cash sum up front before they'll lend you their inexperienced 18 year old striker or grizzled 35 year old goalkeeper. I've always thought loans were free deals where it was accepted that the club taking the loaned player would cover the wages. Not anymore it seems. This can make managing struggling lower division teams a struggle as you now have to scrape together the funds to afford the loan fee.

No other game is as adept at fashioning stories out of spreadsheets. Epic masterpieces are told via a collection of numbers and tables. Triumph, betrayal, friendship, incompetence, noble failure, mind games; they’re all there in the stats. This being the 21st Century Football Manager has attempted to sexify the stat lines with alluring features such as a 3D match engine, press conferences and flashy new skins. The attempted sexiness is unnecessary though; we play Football Manager for its intelligence and personality, not its looks.

Grumbles and niggles aside, FM2010 is still the same management sim that has built an empire. The game is still as accurate and enthralling as it has always been and the addiction can still take hold like an angry python. I've wasted so many days of my life on this game but the stories I could tell about European glory, last minute winners, and glorious defeats are all worth it. In fact I'm sure I can squeeze in a couple of games now. Excuse me...

Game Review - Batman: Arkham Asylum

Everyone knows Batman - you, your mum, your gran, even your hamster. The developers of Arkham Asylum know this and don't waste time attempting to introduce the brooding dark knight. From the very start Arkham Asylum draws you into its story via cutscenes, interactivity and stupendous voice acting from its principal cast.

The game begins at the end of one of Batman's off screen adventures, he's just captured the Joker and is once again taking the Clown Prince of Crime back to his comfy padded cell in the titular Arkham Asylum. Once the cutscene ends, you become Batman. You walk through the halls of the asylum, taking in the security arrangements and layout whilst chuckling to yourself at the Joker's deranged banter. It's not long before things go incredibly wrong and you find yourself trapped in the asylum with an army of thugs.

The true genius of this game is that it's not long before you realise that much like Rorschach in Watchmen, it's not you who is trapped with the thugs. It's the thugs that are trapped in with you. Batman has an arsenal of gadgets available to him and he can use these to terrorise the ever loving piss out of the bad guys. The game encourages you, via its array of gadgets and room layouts, to improvise whilst facing a room full of armed thugs. There is no right or wrong way to clear a room of ne'er do wells (apart from one frustrating instance) and discovering new ways of breaking limbs or rendering men unconscious is a delight. The most amusing method is the inverted takedown which allows you to swoop down from a gargoyle, grab a villain and then hang 'em upside down from the gargoyle for his friends to find. Hearing the frightened cries and worried challenges from the thugs is a joy as you consider your next move.



Combat is a smooth and enjoyable affair as it actually makes you feel like a hyper competent, millionaire, martial artist. It's a simple system, there are no complicated buttons combinations to be pressed, just a simple system of blocking and striking. Whenever a villain tries to take a swing at the pointy eared one, a warning flash appears above their head just beforehand. If you time your button press correctly then Batman will block the manoeuvre and deliver a punishing counter attack. The melee action feels smooth and looks well choreographed, in fact I'd say that the fisticuffs look more convincing than the action in Batman Begins. It makes you feel in control and powerful and you'll find yourself looking forward to facing increased odds in combat as you show off yet more combos and manoeuvres. Instant takedown moves are particularly satisfying as Batman unleashes bone crunching blows on his unlucky opponents.

Arkham Asylum rewards exploration too, there are many clues and trophies dotted around the asylum grounds and it's a genuinely rewarding experience to uncover them all. There is a degree of frustration at first as the game doesn't make it clear early on that some items cannot be reached because you lack the relevant equipment. You will have to backtrack if you want to uncover all of Arkham's secrets and this can be a little tedious once you've completed the main story. It does provide a reward in terms of extra snippets of story and is well worth the effort for the Bat fan.



Mark Hammill reprises his role as the Joker from Batman The Animated Series and he hasn't missed a beat in the decade or so since his last performance as the character. His Joker is funny and chilling at the same time, you'll find yourself laughing at the threats he delivers to his put upon minions and then find yourself shuddering as you realise the threats will be carried out with horrifying repercussions. Kevin Conroy also makes a very welcome return as Batman.

Batman: Arkham Asylum captures perfectly the atmosphere of the comic book and film incarnations of the characters involved. If you're a comic book fan then you'll delight in the many references to be found via the Riddlers clues. There are patient interview tapes to be found (ala Bioshock) which provide background and story elements for certain characters. It's clear that the developers have a lot of love for Batman's comic book world as no reference is too obscure to be included as an easter egg somewhere within the game.

Batman: AA is the greatest power trip since watching your parents die, becoming a millionaire, training with ninjas for years, and using your immense wealth and large armoury to assault the criminal underworld.

Stupid Films That I Love - Big Trouble In Little China

Big Trouble in Little China (or BTiLC) is a comedy rollercoaster action movie where the hero, Jack Burton, is an incompetent, swaggering, truck driver. If you’ve never seen BTiLC then I’ll try and explain what the film is about without sending myself mad. Jack Burton (trucker extraordinaire) visits an old friend in San Francisco China Town and becomes embroiled in a mystical adventure when his friend’s bride-to-be is kidnapped by a street gang. Shit gets unreal when Jack hits a sorcerer called Dave with his truck. There’s a lot of running around, guys on wires, guys shouting into camera, facekicks, a journey into the Underworld, and guns and explosions in that special 80s way where people get catapulted into the air by explosions and automatic weaponry always misses its target at less than 10 feet. The story is also told in flashback but the flashback doesn’t actually frame the story from beginning to end, and it doesn’t really make sense as a framing device as the character telling the story wasn’t present for most of it. The faults don’t matter though as the film is infused with so much energy and enthusiasm that you just feel yourself going along for the ride and forgiving the plot holes.



Jack Burton is played by Kurt Russell, who, after his hard bitten heroics in other Jack Carpenter movies (The Thing and Escape From New York), clearly relishes playing an action man that isn’t quite as capable as he believes. Jack Burton is a trucker, drifting from town to town whilst broadcasting his philosophical pearls of wisdom over a CB radio. Jack likes to think he can handle anything and sees himself as very capable; the great thing is that he isn’t and a lot of the fun in the movie is seeing Jack overcome obstacles through dumb luck and pluck. Jack's bumbling makes his act of genuine skill at the climax of the film all the more enjoyable.

BTiLC is full of great quotes and one liners, almost all of them given to Kurt Russell. The quotes from the movie are so popular, certain blogs have featured them as the sole content in a post. BTiLC quotes entered my teenage nerd lexicon as my friends and I would often quote movies during games and BTiLC was a source of quite a few of them. God, we were annoying.

The special effects are a little creaky in comparison to today’s modern CGI creations but that’s part of the charm. The slightly dodgy effects and costumes give the movie an almost theatre-like feel and add to the action-movie-as-pantomime atmosphere. I especially like the temple draped in neon (complete with giant neon skull) which is something I haven’t seen in an evil cult’s lair since. The flying eyeball monster is still cool though.



BTiLC is a unique film; there’s never been anything quite like it since (probably due to its failure at the box office.) What’s interesting is that the story was initially conceived as a Western with Jack Burton as a wandering Clint Eastwood type. Now that’s a movie I would love to see.