Game Review: Batman Arkham Asylum

Since Father's Day my weekend PS3 game of choice has been Batman: Arkham Asylum and I've got to say it's been a lot of fun.  Unlike previous playstation games I've played, this time my 15-year-old daughter was playing the game as well, and she finished the game one day after I did, which was nice because some times I was a little ahead of her and could help her out and sometimes she was a little ahead of me.

The game follows (pretty closely actually) the Grant Morrison graphic Novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth which has the honour of being the first Graphic novel I ever purchased and for introducing me to Morrison and artist Dave McKean.

The game works in a sandbox style (meaning you can either follow the main story or any number of side stories) and focuses on the inmates of the asylum taking over and Batman having to put things back in order.

Honestly this game was tonnes of fun - for the voices they used a number of the same actors from the '90s animated series and the whole look of the game was pretty amazing.

I know I'm pretty far behind the curve with this one (Batman: Arkham City is the current game of the day), but if you haven't tried this one yet it's a lot of fun.

Movie Review: Danger Diabolik

I love how sometimes things just line up to bring awesomeness directly into my life. Case in point; a few weeks back I was reading Supergods by Grant Morrison (a really great book about the history of super-hero comic books and their effect on the culture) when I came across a reference to a comic book movie I had never heard of called Danger Diabolik.

The reference in the book named the director as Mario Bava, who had directed a 1961 horror film I really enjoyed called Back Sunday which mixed some really disturbing imagery with a pretty creepy concept and reminded me that I should really be looking at Italian Horror someday soon.

Anyway, as I had heard of the director and now the film, it was time to research whether or not I could get my hands on the movie when my good friend Ron mentioned he owned the movie on DVD and would be happy to bring it over.

Having just seen the movie a couple days ago here is my unbiased and critical opinion...

Danger Diabolik is awesome.

Yup, that's what all my research into spy films, comic book films and Italian films has got me - the movie is incredibly cheesy - I mean, honestly I can't even begin to describe how utterly ridiculous and at the same time totally awesome this movie is to me.

The main character, Diabolik is a criminal, stealing unbelievable amounts of money and specializing in the ridiculous. The film is filled with action sequences, explosions and some of the most incredible I-can't-believe-I-just-saw-that moments I've come across in a long time.

If you can get a hold of this movie, see it. If not, I'm sorry.

Thanks Ron!