Temporary Bachelorhood

MK had to go out of town, so I was left here alone for the weekend. This left me with quite a quandary. What was I supposed to do with myself? I knew I was going to miss some work next week, so I would need to go to the office for a while, but that still left the evenings to deal with. So, I thought I would do what any self-respecting single man would do. Eventually, I decided that was a bad idea and headed to the video store instead.

To pass a weekend alone, I would need a movie. No, a movie and a video game. Of course, I would need sustenance too, but we can't discuss that because the mention of tortilla chips, Twizzlers or Mountain Dew might actually make me sick right now.

I browsed the video store for a while and eventually decided on one movie, Shaun of the Dead, and one game, The Getaway:Black Monday. I can enjoy the increasing realism of games over the past few years. (I'm not going to get into a discussion of the potential dangers of that, since I am a 28-year old adult with no mental deficiencies that would prevent me from distinguishing between fantasy and reality. I am fully aware that what happens on the Playstation is just a bunch of pixels on a screen.) Unfortunately, I don't think that some game developers are aware that it would be beneficial to improve more than just the realism of the game. The games should be entertaining, first and foremost. Sadly, the team behind TG:BM seemed to miss this. Endless cutscenes, cockney accents, F-bombs and a map of the actual streets of London do not a good game make. I would have found the game much more enjoyable if at least some of the time designing this game, which was meant for people to play, had been spent making the game playable. I think this may have been only the second time I have returned a game well before its due date simply because I couldn't see any circumstances in which I would spend any more time playing it.

Ok, that leaves me with the movie. Shaun of the Dead is an interesting concept. It is at once a horror film about zombies, a spoof of horror films about zombies, and a romantic comedy. It even manages to get a little social commentary in the mix as well. I had heard many things about this before it came out in the theaters, and of course when it did play in theaters, it didn't play here (remember yesterday's rantings). I was worried that my expectations might be a bit too high from all of the hype before it finally reached video. Nope, not an issue at all. I laughed out loud for a large portion of the film. (Remember, it's just me and the dog this weekend, so I'm in the house alone laughing hysterically.) I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It is a zombie film, so there's a good bit of blood and gore, as well as a few good scares along the way, but more than anything it's just great fun. I also noticed that it got in a few shots at another recent British zombie flick, 28 Days Later, which were pretty stinkin' funny. I would recommend this to anyone who would usually want to see a zombie horror movie, and to many people who wouldn't. Finally, for any of you out there who are wondering after seeing this movie: Since my dog was watching along with me, I can tell you that Big Al was wrong. Dogs can look up.

Until later...