A blog about the road that led us to where we are. And where we are going.

Sunday 27 February 2011

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Fallout: New Vegas

newvegasFigured it was time to write a review of this game since it sucked up two weeks of my life last year – that and another 48 hours for the Dead Money expansion pack. Ever since Fallout 3 was released in 2008, I’ve a redefined idea of what qualifies as a truly amazing video game. I can also see why people probably find games like World of Warcraft so lethally addictive. The experience of Fallout 3 was for me so immersive and addictive that I was literally unable to leave the screen for two weeks and what this means in practical terms is I pretty much lived in front of the XBOX the entire time I was playing the game. I even played for 36 hours straight at one point because fuck it with games like that sleeping can wait. Maybe sometime I’ll post a review of Fallout 3 but the best gaming experience of 2010 I had by far was Fallout: New Vegas. When I first heard about it, I simply couldn’t wait and when it finally arrived I was saddened to learn that it was saddled with bugs – then I released something important – all the Fallout games are and promptly went out and bought it.

I didn’t really expect too many changes from the winning formula of Fallout 3 and there weren’t any really. The game used the same game engine, the same PIP boy interface, and the same sandbox-style quest structure. The game was really Fallout 3.5, the only thing that changed was the location, characters and storyline. I consider the differences to be not unlike the differences between Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. Same engine, same style but everything is tweaked and the number of missions drastically increased. In Fallout 3, there are around 30 main quest lines – each having a different storyline and involving different characters at different locations within the game. New Vegas on the other hand has over 100 quests however unlike FO3, some of them are mutually exclusive so the outcome of the game largely depends on which quest routes you choose – of which there are four competing ways to complete the game. New Vegas feels like a much bigger game despite the game arena being of a comparable size (about 16 square miles) and there seem to be a lot more places on the map that have relevance to the quests unlike in FO3 where the western part of the arena felt more like empty space.

Unfortunately I didn’t find New Vegas to be a better game for a number of reasons:

It isn’t as dark – in FO3 danger seems to be everywhere and what is left of civilisation is severely limited. There are isolated communities here and there but there is no overall governance to the area. New Vegas on the other hand is set in the Mojave wasteland and there is a struggle for control between the New California Republic, Caesars Legion and the mysterious Mr House over control of the only city on Earth that survived nuclear destruction – Las Vegas. The NCR is from all counts a fully functioning stable democratic state and its very existence detracts a little from the bleakness that prevails in the Fallout games. Yes it was there first two games but it was still an isolated faming village in the middle of nowhere. Still New Vegas takes place 204 years after the war so it’s probably to be expected that true civilisation would begin to re-emerge. What New Vegas lacks though and I was really hoping there would be more of them is mutants. In Fallout 3, there are things like the supermutant behemoths to deal with – damn that was scary the first time I saw one. In New Vegas all we get are the Nightkin. Many of the same monsters from FO3 are there but I was really hoping they’d introduce a few more – perhaps we’ll see something like this in Fallout 4.

It isn’t as interesting – FO3 had everything, it was like a vast labyrinth in places, especially the dangerous ruins of the metro system and often it would take hours to navigate your way through the maze to find what you were looking for. There is no comparable complexity in New Vegas which makes the game a little less fun to navigate. People called the storyline in FO3 uninteresting but I didn’t think it was – I thought it was pretty much the same kind of plot that we’d already seen in the first two games. In  New Vegas the plot of the game resolves itself reasonably quickly if you follow the main quest lines and then you’re forced to choose an allegiance before continuing on to the end of the game.

It isn’t as shocking – I’d never played a FPS / RPG hybrid style game before FO3 so the immersive-ness of the game caught me off guard. I was caught off guard by things sneaking up behind me sometimes getting so absorbed into the game it’d make me physically jump when something did that. New Vegas rarely did this save for once in one of the vaults where I was caught off-guard by some of those plant people. There just aren’t as many dark, poorly lit areas where things can hide and jump out on you.

The end isn’t as epic – Face it the end of FO3 was amazing. I’m not talking about the end end because the final cut scene was a little disappointing. I’m talking about fighting your way through the ruins of Washington DC with the enormous Liberty Prime robot on your side. It was even darkly humorous stating “Communism is a lie. Embrace democracy or you will be destroyed”. In New Vegas the ending although quite a battle isn’t nearly as good. And as for the final cut-scenes at the end, it seems impossible to get a truly happy ending which is part of the appeal of the fallout games – the ability to singlehandedly change the world for the better.

There were a couple of other things about New Vegas that annoyed me. As the game progressed the load times between areas became so long that it really started to irk me. I managed to offset this a little by installing the game to the HDD (which I probably should have done to start with) but the load times remained frustratingly long. There were also a few broken quests / glitches in the game where I ended up going round in circles not realising that the quest had glitched. And finally the game froze on me more than a few times. None of these were problems I remember encountering in F03.

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Ultimately though I’m comparing New Vegas to a superior game. Despite the above qualms, New Vegas is in its own right a very good game. The soundtrack is spot on, the dialogue and speech options are far more extensive than its predecessor. The game allows for a lot of weapon and medicine options that weren’t available in its big brother and that on its own in a way made it more fun to play – guns, lots of guns. There’s the usual gratuitous violence for which the series is well renowned and if you’re bored you can always try and make a killing at the roulette tables in Vegas. I also loved the expansion pack – Dead Money – that was especially challenging and in my opinion added a whole new dimension to Vegas that should have been present in the original game.

Age of Empires III

This game is worth a blast on LAN play and is pretty damn enjoyable as well. It’s an RTS game in much the same way as C&C so everything depends on tactics especially in light of the unit count being limited. It runs comfortably on not so powerful machines and setting up a LAN gaming party with this one is reasonably straightforward. It’s not free but worth the expense and the AOE series are arguably the best RTS games ever released by Microsoft – well I can’t think of any others. The graphics are well rendered and the game is highly playable and reasonably intuitive.

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Can’t stop the signal

Africa (N) copy

I never thought I’d ever say this but I’ve been admiring the people of the Middle-East lately. Anyone not living under a rock can’t not be watching the riots breaking out in most of the North African states and wondering WTF is going on? It all started in Tunisia last month and has subsequently spread to several other states in the region most notably Egypt. It’s too early to tell if this is just simply civil unrest or if it’s the beginning of a far more protracted revolution that’s going to forever change the face of the Islamic world. I’m kind of pinning my hopes on the latter because a democratic middle-east would be probably the biggest step towards securing a future for our civilisation and indeed our species in general that we can make this century. Without this happening we’ll forever be locked in the cycle of East-West tensions being locked at boiling point ready to bubble over at any minute.

But why now and what the hell is causing it all? The reason for some of these events is simple – the Internet. It’s difficult to censor, it’s not a centralised network, there will always be ways and means of getting information from one place on it to another no matter how effective attempts to prevent that from happening are. It’s a bit like the tagline from the film Serenity – can’t stop the signal. I would imagine the most effective censorship of the Internet comes from North Korea, who as part of their ridiculously restrictive information controls as an entire country aren’t in the strictest sense even connected to the Internet at all. The media although tightly controlled in many of these countries still can’t prevent that trickle of information coming in through that medium and neither can those governments prevent the organisation of demonstrations through that very same medium. But the fall of one government in one country seems to be triggering the uprising against governments in adjacent countries – the so called domino effect.

400px-Domino_theory.svgSo is the domino effect  - the impetus that saw an extremely paranoid cold-war era United States commit to a major war in Asia even a reality? Recent history would suggest it is – we saw it happen before our eyes in Eastern Europe after 1989. One revolution in country one day, another revolution in a different country the next. There remains only one totalitarian state in Europe now  and the future of that country is anyone’s guess  - probably it will end up being reabsorbed back into Russia at some point. Granted the socio-political situation in those states was radically different but the fundamental theory remains the same. People see neighbouring states with similar economic hardships and restrictive freedoms rise up against oppressive governments and the idea inspires the same kind of actions in their own. 

The biggest problem with the current revolutionary winds of change sweeping the middle-east as I see it is that the majority of the region is hopelessly lost to primitive superstitious minds in the form of radical Islam. And as we all know radical Islam is a über fucked up variant of an already catastrophically dangerous religion. So the danger for these people now is that they’ll be swapping one despot for another and fuck all will change. They’ll carry on hating the Jews and they’ll still be threatening to wipe them off the face of the Earth. I can understand the animosity felt by Muslims against Jews in some ways. To the outside observer it looks like this – Jews are the most economically successful, most educated, most over-achieving people on the planet. Extremist Muslims are the exact opposite of this and they deeply resent it. Why? Because they make a virtue of ignorance. A casual glance at the YouTube videos of Islamic clerics shows very clearly just how profoundly moronic some of these people are. Even as democracies the road forward isn’t clear but I suspect a hundred years of dialogue will achieve more than a thousand years of war. Fingers crossed that some good will come of all this but I won’t hold my breath because I still can’t see it. Only time will tell.

I also saw a fantastic quote by Benjamin Netanyahu on another blog this morning that is only too true:

'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.’

Thursday 24 February 2011

More Graffiti in Sheffield

"Yesterday, as I was on the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
O, When will that man go away."

 - Sheffield City Library
Gents' toilet cubicle.

Pointless Facebook conversations

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My brother is frequently guilty of these…

Idols #1: Carl Sagan

I’ve decided to split the bios I cover during this blog into a further two sections. Obviously we have the heroes and legends categories but there won’t be many people in there whom I truly admire. Sure in the heroes category there’ll be people I respect for their actions and in the Legends category there’ll be people I like in certain ways but would never claim to idolise. The further problem with the legends category is I won’t necessarily like everyone listed in it (someone can be an arsehole and still be a legend) whilst other people in that category will merely just amuse me. So with this in mind I’ve decided to create a separate Idols category – it will consist mainly of people who have genuinely inspired me and whose views and outlook on life I share. The people in this category will also normally possess a wisdom I consider being worth aspiring to or will have otherwise accomplished something remarkable with their lives. I also intend to create a villains category or something similar which pretty much speaks for itself – this category will consist mainly of people I consider to be not only my ideological or moral enemies but enemies of the human race in general.

Carl Sagan (1934 – 1996)

Carl SaganSo I was watching a documentary about the Solar system the other day and figured Sagan was a good place to start with this. He can’t qualify as a legend for me because he simply isn’t one. He did court controversy in his life but ultimately it was because he was a philanthropist. You might think this would conflict with my general misanthropic attitude towards the human race but it doesn’t because if everyone were like Sagan I would have little or no reason to be misanthropic. So what qualifies him as an idol – well for starters he was one of the greatest minds of the last century. He published 600 scientific papers during his lifetime and authored or co-authored 20 books. He was one of the foremost experts in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, space science and astrobiology. Consequently he worked for NASA for most of his life (oh how jealous I am about this). He was heavily involved with the Pioneer and Voyager missions and the time capsules that were sent up with them and lobbied heavily for SETI even turning it around from what many regarded as crank science to one having a modicum of respectability. Sagan came to some unfortunate conclusions about the Fermi paradox arguing that it was likely that technologically advanced civilisations probably had a tendency to destroy themselves rather quickly and this led him to become politically active in lobbying against nuclear weaponry. He was a staunch advocate of nuclear arms controls especially in light of the research he did concerning nuclear winter – he was one of the team that conducted the original study suggesting that a nuclear war would likely bring about a global nuclear winter. Sagan also tried to reconcile the conflict between science and religion in his book Contact by suggesting that perhaps one day science would find the undeniable signature of divinity through mathematics – that signature being at the end of transcendental numbers. In this respect I think his quest may be futile but still it’s an intriguing possibility and I largely agree with the sentiment he was trying to express. The film Contact (1997) starring Jodie Foster although a great film omitted all the core ideas that made the book such a pleasure to read. The reason  - because such ideas would be lost on most people but the book itself explored the issue in considerable depth. Perhaps his most inspiring work though was Cosmos which detailed the universe and our part in it – excerpts shown below.

His death was a great loss for the human race but whilst he was alive – even if only in some small way he certainly made the world a better place.

A few quotes from man of which there are hundreds of great ones:

“If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?”

“Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.”

“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth — never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.”

“I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.”

“The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion and politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has no place in the endeavour of science.”

“Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth. Many of those who run the nations will find this idea unpleasant. They will fear the loss of power. We will hear much about treason and disloyalty. Rich nation-states will have to share their wealth with poor ones. But the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing.”

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Oh so true!

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Graffiti in Sheffield

I saw this quote on a friend’s blog and figured it was worth investigating as I was in the Heeley area of Sheffield the other day. I’m guessing quite a few people who’ve walked across Heeley Bridge have pondered its meaning. This is what we get in Sheffield – nonsensical drivel, why can’t we have some graffiti artists that are familiar with Nietzche or someone like that. At least we could then question the meaning of our existence instead of how many times a graffiti artist consulted a thesaurus. Still though it’s leagues better than the hilarious “Pakis go bak to Afrika” that was tagged on the shutters of the local shop in Handsworth at one point.

So the full quote goes:

“To journey en masse into illusion is to sleepwalk through destination’s wake, along the pre-determined channels of a cyclical stream; to break fear in isolation’s truth is to believe yourself bathing not drowning, forever entwined in the tranquillity of dream...”

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You know what Sheffield really needs? A better class of criminal. The Chavs these days are so inept they couldn’t even successfully steal my Vauxhall Cavalier the other day. And let me tell you failing to steal that car takes incompetence.

Films based on the works of Phillip K Dick

200px-PhilipDickI’ve been wanting to collate these together and write about them for quite some time. Films based on the literary works of Phillip K Dick invariably make my favourite movies list. For those of you who’ve never heard of him – PKD was a prolific science fiction writer and penned 44 novels and 121 short stories during his lifetime. Although up to now I’ve only read two of his books – Do androids dream of electric sheep and The man in the high castle – I expect I’ll work my way through a fair chunk of his work over the next few years and if I ever attain my dream of being a director I’ll probably adapt a few myself.

As an amateur writer of science fiction – many of my own short stories are similar in vain to the themes that run throughout the man’s works such as an interest in the metaphysical, theology, monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered states. Thus I guess it’s only natural that this man is one of my idols. But onto the films based on his work – I’ve never seen one I didn’t love.

Blade Runner (1982) – Directed by Ridley Scott

BladeRunnerFinalCutPosterPeople who know me well know one simple fact about me – that Blade Runner is my undisputed favourite film of all time. I don’t give PKD the credit for this though because the source material for it – Do androids dream of electric sheep is nowhere near as good as the film it spawned making it one of the rare exceptions to the rule of the book always being better than the film. I suspect it’s the brilliance of Ridley Scott that deserves more credit for this film being what it is – over the years he’s directed some amazing films including Alien (1979), Thelma & Louise (1991) and Gladiator (2000). Initially it was a flop at the box office because the production company compromised Scott’s vision and fearing that audiences wouldn’t understand the film included an annoying voiceover. In 1992 a directors cut was released that included the omission of the voiceover and the removal of the uplifting ending and Scott stated at the time that this version was closer to his original vision but the final cut of the film which is now regarded as the definitive version wasn’t released until 2007. Blade Runner: The Final Cut tweaks the film slightly and removes some of the inconsistencies as well as reinserting some of the deleted footage that was left on the cutting room floor. But why is this film my all time favourite – for about 100 reasons really. It takes place in a darkly dystopian future Los Angeles – a city of 106 million people. It features scientific visions such as the existence of arcologies, the future ability of mankind to adeptly manipulate genetics and biology to suit its needs. It features the monopolistic practices of mega-corporations, the future results of globalisation. The film offers subtle themes throughout that aren’t even that obvious to a casual viewer of the film such as a commentary on the disastrous results of overpopulation, environmental catastrophes severely affecting the world’s ecosystems, the emigration of humanity into space. The list of subtle science fiction themes goes on and on and on. Principally the film is about none of these things – all this takes place in the background. The film is principally about the definition of life, what it means to be human, the qualities of empathy and sentience. In this respect it follows a bounty hunter tasked to execute four rogue androids who have returned to Earth in a futile quest to find their maker and request more life. And so all the while this is going on the film is at the same time offering a background commentary on racism and slavery. I didn’t want to write too much more about this film because it really deserves its own article but what makes it so great is its tremendous depth. The atmosphere is beautifully bleak and the soundtrack by Vangelis is one of the most haunting film scores ever composed. For these reasons – this is the best Phillip K Dick adaption of them all and I doubt if there are many Sci-Fi fans out there who would disagree with me.

Total Recall (1990) – Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Total-Recall-poster-1I absolutely love this film. Many would say it’s just a gorefest and they’d be right. It’s definitely similar in some respects to other works by Verhoeven such as Starship Troopers and Robocop but at the same time the Dickensian streak of questioning the true nature of reality is unambiguously there. The film is based on the short story ‘We can remember it for you wholesale’ and involves a construction worker – Douglas Quaid (played by the awesome Arnold Schwarzenegger) visiting a company called Rekall who sell memories of the ideal vacation. Arnie opts for something called the ego trip and chooses a vacation as a Martian secret agent and from the moment the trip begins the film cleverly twists the idea of Arnold’s presence on Earth as being a result of him having his memories erased. In this respect it’s not totally obvious whether Arnie genuinely is a secret agent or if everything he’s experiencing is a result of the vacation he was sold at Rekall. The film keeps this fairly ambiguous so as to offer a dual interpretation of the film’s events. As well as being a good Sci-Fi yarn, it’s also an excellent action film and offers plenty of gratuitous violence. Another solid film based on PKD’s work with this one.

Screamers (1995) – Directed by Christian Duguay

220px-ScreamersposterNot many people regard this as a good film but I certainly do. In fact I think it’s absolutely brilliant so I guess appreciation of art really is a truly individual quality. The film is based on the short story Second Variety and strays pretty far from the source material in quite a lot of ways. For a start Second Variety is set on Earth and features a war between the United Nations and Soviet Union whilst Screamers is set on the distant world of Sirius 6B and features a war between two mega-corporations – The New Economic Block and the Alliance (a miners union). The planet Sirius has been devastated by war and a new weapon was introduced into the mix – the autonomous mobile sword or screamer – a self replicating mechanical weapon. The weapon has no way of distinguishing friend from foe and so attacks anything with a heartbeat forcing all soldiers to wear a device that flatlines their heartbeat rendering them sort of invisible to the screamers. The film centres on Colonel Hendricksson (played by Peter Weller) who feeling betrayed by his superiors sets out to make a peace treaty with the NEB. Along the way they find that the screamers have found a way to evolve into more sophisticated forms and have become sentient life forms in their own right. The film is pretty bleak and I find the soundtrack to be quite haunting as well. Peter Weller as usual just oozes coolness and kind of makes the film what it is. Not the best adaption out there but a must see for fans of Sci-Fi.

Imposter (2000) – Directed by Gary Fleder

220px-ImpostorI really can’t believe how many people this film has slipped past. Let me just say that never having seen Imposter is like never having seen Star Wars. The critics panned it and it flopped at the box office but I still think it’s a damn fine Sci-Fi movie. Based on PKD’s short story the Imposter, the film is set in the year 2079 where Earth has been attacked by a hostile alien race from Alpha Centuri. The remaining cities are protected from missile attacks by electromagnetic domes and democracies have been replaced by a one world authoritarian government desperately trying to ensure humanity’s survival. Gary Senise plays the part of a weapons engineer but it becomes suspected that he is an imposter – a near perfect human clone carrying a biological nuclear weapon in his chest. And so the film follows his desperate attempts to clear his name and prove that he’s not what the authorities suspect him to be. For a film as unknown as this the cast is pretty stellar – it stars Gary Sinise, Madeline Stowe and Vincent D’Onofrio. I can to an extent understand why this film is underrated – I mean the film’s title gives away the premise for a start but this is to a certain extent redeemed by the double twist ending which I don’t think it was really possible for anyone to see coming. There also doesn’t seem to be enough source material for a movie of this length so the film drags its heels and feels a bit slow at times. But the general feel of the film is very reminiscent of both Blade Runner and Total Recall. I guess the film is also guilty of something else but it’s a problem for most films based on PKD’s work. That problem being that he was also a philosopher and the films based on his work often arrive at the very opposite conclusion to the one PKD intended. Blade Runner and Imposter are both great examples of how PKD passionately believed in some intrinsic ethereal quality that separated man from machine but both films seem to arrive at precisely the opposite conclusion – that no such quality exists. I actually agree with the conclusions drawn from both films rather than PKD – that this intangible quality does not exist – the soul is a manifestation of consciousness but at the same time I think if you’re going to base movies on someone’s work you should remain faithful to the ideals of their original vision. Still if you like the other films on this list – this one is definitely worth a watch.

Minority Report (2002) – Directed by Stephen Spielberg

220px-Minority_ReportThis is probably the most commercially successful adaption of all the PKD films – a massive budget blockbuster directed by a well renowned director. The film is based on the short story The Minority Report and is basically about a division of the Washington Police department that deals with crimes before they happen – specifically murders. So in true Dickensian style – the film is about free will versus determinism with plenty of drug abuse thrown into the mix – Dick was after all a massive connoisseur of illicit substances and they feature prominently throughout his work. The mechanism that makes it possible to see the future is children that were born with psychic abilities as a result of their mothers’ consuming a dangerous neurotoxin during pregnancy. Once they are grown up they are set up into a kind of hive mind which allows them to accurately predict the future but the futures they see are sometimes different – hence the term Minority report. The film not only deftly deals with the determinism theme – if our future is predictable then do we truly have freewill? This paradox dealt with spectacularly well at the end. The film also predicts an entirely believable future where advertisement and invasion of personal space has become so pervasive that people are targeted by advertisements on an individual level – a future we are currently hurtling toward with alarming speed. The film is clever in numerous ways – the future is neither dark nor perfect and films that predict a future which reflects our present are bound to be the most prescient predictions though not necessarily the most interesting. This film is slick, fast paced and looks polished. One of the best adaptions overall.

Paycheck (2003) – Directed by John Woo

220px-Paycheck_filmposterAnother one that got panned by the critics but I’ve long since stopped listening to them because they’re usually wrong. This film struck me as being really quite clever but unfortunately doesn’t lend itself to repeat viewings very well as the intrigue of the plot is lost once you know what’s coming. Ben Affleck plays a character called Jennings – a man who will reverse engineer any technology for a company but must have his memories erased afterwards to protect the company’s intellectual property. Normally the contracts he signs up for never last more than a couple of months because the memory erasing technology won’t erase any further back than that. In steps Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart), a billionaire who offers him a substantial amount of money for a contract lasting three years alongside some new memory erasing technology that will allow them to erase that time from his life. Jenning agrees to the contract and then the audience is thrust into the film three years later with a confused Jennings who has given away the 90 million dollars he earned during the contract. Not only this but the FBI is hunting him for espionage, treason and murder. All he seems to have in his possession is a bag of artefacts that are not his own and each individual item seems to come in really useful at fortuitously opportune moments. And so the fun begins as he tries to discover just why the hell he is wanted by the FBI and has seemingly given up his entire earnings for the contract. The conclusion of the film and the reason he gives everything away becomes more predictable as the plot progresses but doesn’t detract too much from the overall enjoyment of the film. It is based on PKD’s short story of the same name.

 A Scanner Darkly (2006) – Directed by Richard Linklater

215px-A_Scanner_Darkly_PosterThis is one of the stranger films on this list – starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr, it is based on PKD’s novel of the same name. Unlike many of the other films on the list, this one actually received favourable reviews from critics which probably means it’s the worst film presented in this article. Set in the near feature where America has lost the war on drugs, the film goes into detail about an epidemic of a drug called substance D which has swept across the country. In response to the epidemic the government has developed an ultra high-tech surveillance network as well as sending out hordes of undercover agents to infiltrate the supply chain. The drug substance D is highly addictive and massively debilitating to users permanently damaging their minds and ability to function normally. The protagonist Bob Arctor (played by Keanu Reeves) is one of the undercover agents however during the course of his investigation he has become addicted to substance D and his life begins to split in two as he slowly forgets where his true loyalties lie even becoming paranoid about the police himself. The plot is fairly complex and very absorbing making this one of the most superior films listed here. It is entirely rotoscoped from start to finish giving a surreal feel to the entire film. It is also obvious that PKD shares more than a few of his own painful experiences from the psychonaut culture within the novel and this comfortably makes the transition to the big screen. This is reflected in the sobering afterword to film which is actually an abridged version from the novel. At the start of the ending credits, the following text appears:
060627_MOV_scannerDarklyEXThis has been a story about people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. I loved them all. Here is a list, to whom I dedicate my love:
To Gaylene, deceased
To Ray, deceased
To Francy, permanent psychosis
To Kathy, permanent brain damage
To Jim, deceased
To Val, massive permanent brain damage
To Nancy, permanent psychosis
To Joanne, permanent brain damage
A_Scanner_Darkly_3To Maren, deceased
To Nick, deceased
To Terry, deceased
To Dennis, deceased
To Phil, permanent pancreatic damage
To Sue, permanent vascular damage
To Jerri, permanent psychosis and vascular damage
...and so forth
In memoriam. These were comrades whom I had; There are no better. They remain in my mind, and the enemy will never be forgiven. The "enemy" was their mistake in playing. Let them play again, in some other way, and let them be happy.

Next (2007) – Directed by Lee Tamahori

Next_2007_03_1024x768I’d forgotten this film was based on PKD’s work when I was reviewing it for the twin films list. The film is loosely based around PKD’s short story – the Golden Man and I’ve never read the book so I can’t comment on how far the film strays from the original premise. The film involves a man (Nicholas Cage) who has the ability to see two minutes into the future and can consequently influence events accordingly. Naturally with an ability like this, he spends much of his time in Vegas at the tables where he never fails to lose. Meanwhile there is a major terrorist threat against America and an agent of the FBI (Julianne Moore) attempts to recruit Cage to track down a nuclear device before it can be detonated. Cage naturally wants no part in this and using his ability is easily able to evade the FBI’s best attempts to capture him. The film also stars Jessica Biel as the love interest and Cage is far more interested in attempting to court her than he is in preventing a nuclear weapon from killing ten million people. His initial attempts to get to know her play out in an amusingly similar way to Groundhog Day and the way the film presents all the various different possible futures is to a large degree quite original. It’s not the best film on this list by far and the critics hated it (no surprise there really) but it’s a good enough action yarn with some interesting ideas about quantum theory subtly thrown in.

The Adjustment Bureau (2011) – Directed by George Nolfi

220px-The_Adjustment_Bureau_PosterAt the time of writing I haven’t yet seen this film since it isn’t due to be released for another week but I’m hopeful that the unknown director George Nolfi will have adapted a decent film from PKD’s short story the Adjustment Team. As this seems to be Nolfi’s first foray into directing, it’s difficult to say what the quality of this film will be like although he did write the screenplays for the Bourne Ultimatum, Timeline and Oceans 12 so perhaps it won’t be too bad. As I understand it the film stars Matt Damon as a politician who glimpses his future and meets the woman of his dreams only to be kept apart by agents of fate who have determined that it’s not his true path. Sounds like another play off between determinism and free will so it will be interesting to see how the film compares to Paycheck and Minority Report in the conclusions drawn. The initial reviews of this film seem mixed although fans of PKD seem to love it so I suspect it’ll be a winner from my point of view (I mean I honestly loved Screamers so it won’t be hard). Other reviews have dismissed it as too cliché but I don’t think cliché is necessarily bad, sometimes life is. I’ll post a more in depth review just as soon as I’ve seen the film.

Other works due to be adapted

At the time of writing it would seem that there are a number of other films in the works based on PKD novels. The Man in the High Castle – A BBC miniseries to be directed by Ridley Scott which could be very interesting given his last adaption. King of the Elves – A Walt Disney adaption to be released in 2012. The Halycon company who developed the Adjustment Bureau is also in the process of developing a film based on PKD’s novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. It’s also rumoured that a film based on the novel Ubik is in the works. Watch this space.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Hail to the King Baby!

Duke-Nukem-ForeverOh finally and I mean finally as in we’ve only had to wait 15 years for this – that is the 4th instalment in the Duke Nukem Saga! I recently found out that this game is scheduled to be released for PC, XBOX 360 and PS3 in the May of this year. So that’ll be another week that disappears from my life – the last time being the release of Fallout: New Vegas. This series of games is now old and I mean old – the first Duke Nukem game was released in 1991 for DOS and will no doubt get its own article at some point as a true piece of computer gaming antiquity. The first two were good old platform games – another awesome genre that has since died a death. The last instalment – Duke Nukem 3D released in 1996 was an instant classic that featured cutting edge graphics and gameplay for its time. Around the time of its release we were promised the fourth instalment was in development and would be released in 1998 and like all good game development projects it never fell behind schedule even slightly.

Over the years this game has been dismissed as vaporware and was even given the lifetime achievement award by Wired News Vaporware awards just so they could get it off the list. It has also earned a fair amount of mockery from fans who have given it various nicknames which are invariably a play on ‘forever’ such as Duke Nukem “Never”, “Taking Forever”, “Whenever”, “ForNever” and “ If Ever”. But the trailer finally hit in 2010 and the game humorously mocked itself for the ridiculous development time – as in DN3D the eponymous Duke is seen taking a piss for ages and is heard saying “This is taking forever!”. When asked if the game is any good, Duke replies “Yeah, but after twelve fucking years it should be.”

The plot of the game is classic Duke – aliens invade Earth (again) and cut into Duke’s leisure time of loose women and cold beer. So the whole game is basically an excuse to run round killing aliens – and Hollywood directors wonder why computer games never make decent films. Duke is still the completely one dimensional misogynistic antihero he always was – a formula that doesn’t need to change to make this a great game. Apparently it will use the Unreal Engine 2.5 so the graphics should be fairly decent – think Bioshock. But ultimately games that spend ages in development hell usually turn out to be pretty good – we waited 10 years for Fallout 3 including the cancelled Van Buuren project and Fallout 3 IMO is the best game of the last decade.

And as if this wasn’t enough for us – a reimagining of Duke Nukem 3D is on its way as well. I’ll post an article about the HRP pack and compatibility with newer versions of Windows for LAN play and include an update on the progress of that project because it looks just as amazing as the new Duke. Epic Win I guess.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

An intelligent design debate...

Moderator: We're here today to debate the hot new topic, evolution versus Intelligent Des---
(Scientist pulls out baseball bat.)

Moderator: Hey, what are you doing?

(Scientist breaks Intelligent Design advocate's kneecap.)

Intelligent Design advocate: YEAAARRRRGGGHHHH! YOU BROKE MY KNEECAP!

Scientist: Perhaps it only appears that I broke your kneecap. Certainly, all the evidence points to the hypothesis I broke your kneecap. For example, your kneecap is broken; it appears to be a fresh wound; and I am holding a baseball bat, which is spattered with your blood. However, a mere preponderance of evidence doesn't mean anything. Perhaps your kneecap was designed that way. Certainly, there are some features of the current situation that are inexplicable according to the "naturalistic" explanation you have just advanced, such as the exact contours of the excruciating pain that you are experiencing right now.

Intelligent Design advocate: AAAAH! THE PAIN!

Scientist: Frankly, I personally find it completely implausible that the random actions of a scientist such as myself could cause pain of this particular kind. I have no precise explanation for why I find this hypothesis implausible --- it just is. Your knee must have been designed that way!

Intelligent Design advocate: YOU BASTARD! YOU KNOW YOU DID IT!

Scientist: I surely do not. How can we know anything for certain? Frankly, I think we should expose people to all points of view. Furthermore, you should really re-examine whether your hypothesis is scientific at all: the breaking of your kneecap happened in the past, so we can't rewind and run it over again, like a laboratory experiment. Even if we could, it wouldn't prove that I broke your kneecap the previous time. Plus, let's not even get into the fact that the entire universe might have just popped into existence right before I said this sentence, with all the evidence of my alleged kneecap-breaking already pre-formed.

Intelligent Design advocate: That's a load of bullshit sophistry! Get me a doctor and a lawyer, not necessarily in that order, and we'll see how that plays in court!

Scientist (turning to audience): And so we see, ladies and gentlemen, when push comes to shove, advocates of Intelligent Design do not actually believe any of the arguments that they profess to believe. When it comes to matters that hit home, they prefer evidence, the scientific method, testable hypotheses, and naturalistic explanations. In fact, they strongly privilege naturalistic explanations over supernatural hocus-pocus or metaphysical wankery. It is only within the reality-distortion field of their ideological crusade that they give credence to the flimsy, ridiculous arguments which we so commonly see on display. I must confess, it kind of felt good, for once, to be the one spouting free-form bullshit; it's so terribly easy and relaxing, compared to marshaling rigorous arguments backed up by empirical evidence. But I fear that if I were to continue, then it would be habit-forming, and bad for my soul. Therefore, I bid you adieu.

Sunday 13 February 2011

SG1 Comedy

sg1

Computer Gaming Antiquity #2: Beneath a Steel Sky

beneath_a_steel_sky_logoThe thing about computer games is that developers normally employ storylines that no one in cinema would ever even contemplate. Often this makes the world of computer games eccentric and bizarre and offers a disconnection from reality that film or television simply cannot. What this also means is that on their own the storylines would never really work and the unsuccessful transition of numerous videogames to the big screen over the years reflects this. Take Tomb Raider, Doom or Mortal Kombat as examples of just exactly how badly the transition usually goes and these are the better examples. But computer games have an additional element to them that makes the storyline far more gripping and immersive – that of interactivity. The user playing the game usually has a degree of control over how the story unfolds whether illusory (such as in the Tomb Raider series) or in actuality (newer sandbox style games such as Oblivion and Fallout 3). Video games also last substantially longer than other entertainment mediums meaning the storyline has to be more intricate and objectives must be achieved that would otherwise be completely irrelevant and boring. Beneath a Steel Sky is a good example of old school gaming, it’s also a good example of a now mostly defunct genre – the point and click adventure game. I’ve always found it a shame that this genre went the way of the dinosaur because it was my favourite genre damn it. I am hoping for some kind of Jurassic Park style revivalist movement in the future but I won’t hold my breath.

bass-linc-500x312Anyway onto Beneath a Steel Sky. Developed by Revolution software – the same company that developed the excellent Broken Sword series (more in the future), the game takes place at an unknown point in future dystopian Australia. A future dystopian Australia where everyone has reverted to using English accents for some reason. The player assumes the role of a character called Robert Foster, a seemingly ordinary man who was abandoned in the harsh outback of Australia some years previously and being too young to fend for himself was adopted by a group of indigenous Australians. The player gets a bit of the backstory surrounding the rival corporations especially that of Union City and Hobart and is then abducted beginning the story. The helicopter he is abducted in crashes somewhere in Union city and the player is thrust into the middle of the action as a fugitive who must evade capture whilst simultaneously trying to figure out why he was abducted in the first place. The player’s only guide on this journey is Joey, a sentient robot with a penchant for sarcasm that provides most of the games great humour.

3_beneathasteelsky_clonesWhat makes this game so playable, in fact all the adventure games made by Revolution software is that the puzzles whilst not always easy to figure out have an obvious purpose. Examples of this are apparent right from the beginning, the security guard must be evaded – create the illusion that you jumped out the window, you need access to a different floor but the elevator is broken – reroute the power to it. Often despite the next move being obvious in this game, it isn’t obvious how you should achieve it and occasionally you may need to cheat and consult the walkthrough, not that I ever had to do this of course.

So the final problem – this game is 17 years old – it was released before Windows 95! And you know what that means – yep it only runs in DOS and also for the Amiga so if you can find an antique machine that runs one of these operating systems you’re home free. Or at a pinch you could employ one of the various work arounds which is probably what you’ll have to do because DOS machines are so old they’re going up in price. Fortunately there are some great solutions to the problems of antique software now – the best one being DOSbox – a DOS emulator that can run on new Windows systems and trick almost any game into thinking it is running in a native DOS environment. I’ve included a link to DOSBOX below. The other solution which works for quite a few games including all those that used the Virtual Theatre Engine is the SCUMMVM engine – a virtual machine that has been released to run on damn near everything including Windows, Mac OS, Linux and most consoles as well.

And finally the best thing about all these things – they’re all freeware including Beneath a Steel Sky which is now abandonware. Links to the downloads included below – enjoy!

DOSBOX: http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
SCUMMVM: http://scummvm.org/downloads/?p=downloads (Beneath a Steel Sky also available on this page)

Legends #4: David Icke

Get_To_Know_David_IckeFor those people who don’t know and it’s probably better if you don’t to be fair, David Icke is an English writer, public speaker, conspiracy theorist, the son of God, posterboy for paranoid personality disorder, not one of the lizard people, closet holocaust denier, complete lunatic and total fucking legend.

As for why I think it could be surmised in the following way. David Icke is an example of a man who can be consistently and repeatedly proven to be wrong 100% of the time about damn near everything and yet still have a massive following of people who believe he’s actually credible. Icke is such a legend that he performed the most epic character assassination in the history of the world… on himself. On the Terry Wogan show in 1991 he publically proclaimed that he was the son of God and that we were all soon to be doomed by a series of natural disasters. Before 1991, Icke was a well respected BBC television presenter and spokesman for the Green party, after 1991 he was none of these things.

The Wogan show incident in itself was pretty legendary but what makes Icke more of a legend is that despite the media crucifixion and subsequent public ridicule that he was going through, the man continued to be a figure in the public eye. And that must have taken cojones. I have to admit this single action alone makes him a legend and thus I have now discovered another quality by which one can become a legend – unparalleled fortitude.

Not content with merely being regarded as batshit crazy by the general public, Icke figured it was high time he published a few books illustrating in vast detail the depths of his insanity. So he went on to pen several books in the 1990s that formed the basis of his core ideas, those ideas being examples of some of the most bewilderingly inane fucknuttery outside the field of creation science. Icke David_Icke_is_your_friendis perhaps unique in the respect that he has compiled the entire series the X-Files into a serious body of work. That work proposes that there is a secret world conspiracy and cabal us naive sheep are obviously forbidden from knowing anything about because it will ultimately be detrimental to us all.

So on a serious note why do people find Icke to be so believable? The answer lies in psychology. Paranoid people frequently link completely unconnected events and facts with a minutiae of evidence or commonality giving the superficial appearance of plausibility to the conclusions drawn. People dismiss most of Icke’s more outrageous claims such as Anunnaki aliens crossbreeding with humanity and many prominent figures throughout the world being reptilian aliens as absurd. But some of those same people then lend credence to Icke’s other ideas such as claims about the new world order and how secret societies such as the freemasons and illuminati are secretly running the world despite those theories arising from exactly the same flawed thought processes.

But ultimately his greatest trick and the one that makes him most legendary is that far from being an object of ridicule the country now loves him. He’s almost a national treasure and to court as much controversy as this man has and turn it all around is what makes him a total legend. Peace and remember THERE IS NO CABAL!!!

Friday 11 February 2011

Another blow for Creationism

It was a virtual certainty that we'd find what the Kepler telescope has now found. Scientists knew with near certainty that exoplanets existed as a matter of deductive reasoning long before they could prove it conclusively. The first proof came in 1992 with the detection of terrestrial masses orbiting PSR B1257+12 but the same creationist argument persisted - that of Earth being the Goldilocks zone and that it must in some way have been purposely created because of this. In 2007, Gliese 581d was found to be the first extrasolar planet orbiting in the habitable zone of its star but since Kepler went up it looks as though they're just gonna keep on coming. With the new data coming in, it now looks as though somewhere between 10-20% of star systems will harbour Earth like worlds.

Gliese 581d habitable BEST

A glance at the universe reveals one undeniable truth - that we are a very very very small part of it. Carl Sagan illustrated this best when he asked that the Voyager probe be turned back toward Earth to take a picture - that picture famously became known as the ‘pale blue dot’ and showed as just a blurry pixel against a vast cosmic background. That some people still have the conceit to think that it was all made just for us is quite simply astonishing. I would ask of them, just look at what's out there, it isn't in proportion. Despite our never having detected life beyond our own world, there's no reason for us to assume it isn't out there and the more we learn about science, the more of a certainty it seems to become. My question for creationists would be this, how would the detection of alien life or even sentient alien life affect your outlook? It wouldn't affect mine, it'd be perfectly consistent with it. 

Darkmatter2525 who is more widely known on Youtube for comedy presents a thought provoking video below:

Twin Films: The Definitive List Part #3

V for Vendetta (2006) Vs Children of Men (2006)

Children of MenOk I’ve seen these two crop up a few times as twinned films but I don’t think they’re really twins at all. They’ve made part 3 of the twin films series because of the consensus held by others but I think the similarities between them are vague at best. Ok so both films are set in a dystopian future Britain which also happens to be under a totalitarian government. But that’s surely where the similarities end? Thinking about it, not really – both films also seem to feature a world outside Britain’s borders that has fallen victim to all kinds of pandemonium i.e. wars, plagues, famines, natural disastersVforVendetta (although this is perhaps uncertain is both as government misinformation abounds), both offer a not so subtle commentary on Bush era politics and both offer terrorism as an important theme. Apart from these things the storyline of these two films really isn’t very similar at all. V for Vendetta is about a vigilante directly fighting the totalitarian government and trying to restore democracy whilst in Children of Men politics really takes a back seat to a much more pressing issue – people not being able to have children anymore. In fact given the circumstances surrounding the subject matter of Children of Men, it’s probably even a good thing that there’s a fascist government in place (or any government at all for that matter). The government in Children of Men is depicted as fascist but otherwise relatively benign merely trying to hold together a crumbling civilisation.
IMDB Rating: V for Vendetta 8.2, Children of Men 8.1
Verdict: I think Children of Men is a darker film and prefer it for this reason but both are pretty good so it’s a tie. Similarity Rating 5/10

Short Circuit (1986) Vs Batteries Not Included (1986)

BNIYou know what it has come to when you’re reviewing films like Short Circuit. Ha ha no not really I love Short Circuit, it’s a fantastic film – a fantastic film that Hollywood are currently in the process of butchering remaking I might add. Like the two films I’ve just reviewed I think these two are stretching what qualifies as a twin film. The similarity between these two is that both are family films about some form of mechanical life and a struggle for survival. ShortCircuitThey are again similar in that both try to qualify exactly what life is and come to more or less the same conclusion. That conclusion being that it doesn’t necessarily have to be any kind of biological definition but more one of sentience. Again I’ve only twinned these films because some people think they’re very similar. If these two are twins I would argue that Flight of the Navigator (also 1986) should feature here as that too is about a mechanical life form. Short Circuit was of course about the eponymous Number 5, a military robot struck by lightning and subsequently becoming self aware. Batteries not included was just weird about a bunch of alien flying saucer robots who had babies and one of them didn’t have a battery. Actually what the hell was this film about? I could say that Batteries not included is a much more sentimental film and perhaps even tragic in many ways – especially the Faye / Bobby subplot but none of this was to its detriment. 
IMDB Rating: Short Circuit 6.2, Batteries not included 6.1
Verdict: Short     Circuit is a more upbeat, comical film not necessarily better than Batteries not included but more uplifting. Similarity Rating 6/10

Saving Private Ryan (1998) Vs The Thin Red Line (1998)

redlineBoth World War II epics released in 1998, both war films wanted to concentrate on the mission of onespr man who has been given a fools errand and the ultimate sacrifice and bravery it took to fulfil that errand. The films also concentrate on the bonds formed between men during times of war and the psychological effects the war has upon them. The Thin Red Line is a much slower film, Saving Private Ryan opens on Omaha beach go figure. Saving Private Ryan really set a new standard for war films, that of being uncompromisingly graphic in its portrayal of the battle scenes. The film was gruesome to watch but no one walked out the cinema with the impression that they’d wasted their money. Another winner from Spielberg. 
IMDB Rating: Saving Private Ryan 8.5, The Thin Red Line 7.5
Verdict: Saving Private Ryan is an above par war film. The Thin Red Line is standard fare. Similarity Rating 8/10

Chasing Liberty (2004) and First Daughter (2004)

First DaughterChasing LibertyI haven’t seen either of these and wouldn’t be majorly surprised if I never do. But they are apparently almost identical twin films. Both films involve the 18 year old daughter of the president of the United States rebelling against the over protectiveness of her father. And she ends up falling for a talk dark handsome stranger who in both films is hiding a secret – that of being a secret service agent – so she ends up getting more than she bargained for. Want to know how similar these films really are? The working title of Chasing Liberty was First Daughter.
IMDB Rating: Chasing Liberty 5.8, First Daughter 4.7
Verdict: You expect me to judge? Although most IMDB ratings below 5 mean the film is absolutely terrible. Similarity Rating 9/10


U571 (2000) Vs Enigma (2001)

u571I’m not really sure how similar these films are as I have never seen either. Both would seem to be in some way about breaking the German enigma codesenigma during World War II. U571 from all counts is a spectacular rewriting of history which coming from Hollywood doesn’t surprise me a lot. It’s also directed by Jonathan Mostow, he had a chance to redeem himself for this travesty by making Terminator 3 a decent film. He failed. Enigma is set around the secret base at Bletchley Park where the Enigma code was actually broken and stars Kate Winslet which in itself should automatically make Enigma a better film. I don’t know, at some point in the future I’ll get round to watching both and decide properly how similar they are instead of going by hearsay.
IMDB Rating: U571 6.5, Enigma 6.4
Verdict: Enigma because no rational sane Brit could claim to like U571. Similarity Rating 6/10

Top Gun (1986) Vs Iron Eagle (1986)

IronEagleTopGunTwo fighter pilot movies released in 1986. One was a smash hit starring Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and Kelly McGillis amongst others and had an excellent song from Berlin while the other starred erm… er… some people who are presumably famous for something. I watched Iron Eagle years ago and have forgot the entire film almost save for a few batshit crazy scenes where the fighter pilots shoot down about 50 aircraft on their own. Top Gun was a great film basically about the bravado of fighter pilots and Tom Cruise trying to shag Kelly McGillis.
IMDB Rating: Top Gun 6.6, Iron Eagle 4.9
Verdict: Anyone who believes Iron Eagle is a better film is insane. Similarity Rating 8/10

Vice Versa (1988) Vs Like Father Like Son (1987) Vs Big (1988)

Vice Versalike-father-son-pochette-avantFor Vice Versa and Like Father like son, they are pretty obviously twin films. Both have the near identical premise of some magic force or power causing the consciousness of an uptight father and laid back teenage son to swap places, hilarity ensuing. I remember Vice Versa as being a far superior film, the role could almost have been written for Judge Reinhold because he carried it so well. Like Father like son is essentially the same film except it stars Dudley Moore and a name we should only say with hushed tones – Kirk Cameron who has since gone on to become a cretinous lunatic – more on him in future. I’ve chucked Big into the mix as well because this eighties comedy has a lot of parallels to both. BigOnce again some kind of magic is involved which turns Tom Hanks into an adult overnight and places him in an executive position at a company in which he is woefully out of his depth but somehow manages to save the day. In this way it is very similar to Reinhold in Vice Versa who does more or less the same thing. Both Hanks and Reinhold were excellent choices in the casting for these films because they played the part so well and that is one of the ingredients that made both so watchable. In honesty there has been an avalanche of films from Hollywood that all work on some variant of the body swapping formula but these three are perhaps the most well known with Big and Vice Versa being the best.
IMDB Rating: Vice Versa 5.4, Like Father Like Son 4.7, Big 7.2
Verdict: Big is clearly the better film but Vice Versa is always worth the ride. Similarity Rating 9/10

Braveheart (1995) Vs Rob Roy (1995)

braveheartApparently 1995 was the year where Hollywood directors were given the task of making a period piece about Scotland. Both are about love and honour and both involve the protagonist fighting for the betterment of their people becoming a fugitive in the process. Braveheart in true Hollywood fashion was Rob Royto a large degree historically revisionist and not unsurprisingly features the English as the baddies. Mel Gibson also seems to hate the English so much it borders on paranoia (see the Patriot). Still though even though we’re portrayed as raping, pillaging black and white baddies most English people enjoyed this film and apparently the Irish reserve forces who made up the extras also quite enjoyed making it as a significant number of them were hospitalised enacting mock battle scenes. Rob Roy isn’t as clear cut at all and involves Rob Roy borrowing a substantial sum of money from a wealthy landowner which is then stolen forcing him to become a fugitive.
IMDB Rating: Braveheart 8.4, Rob Roy 6.9
Verdict: Braveheart is better but Rob Roy is still worth a watch. Not really as similar as people seem to think. Similarity Rating 6/10

Tombstone (1993) Vs Wyatt Earp (1994)

220px-Wyatt_earp_ver1tombstoneTwo fictionalised biopics about Wyatt Earp that were released within a year of each other. I have to admit I haven’t seen either as I’m not big on westerns but the premise of both is very similar, both focus on the story of Wyatt Earp, his relationships and friendships especially his friendship with Doc Holliday and both to a degree feature the battle at the O.K. Corral and Earp’s vendetta against the cowboys. From what I hear Tombstone is a decent film whilst Wyatt Earp is unbelievably slow and spends far too much time covering the back-story.
IMDB Rating 7.7, Wyatt Earp 6.4
Verdict: As I understand it Tombstone is much better. Similarity Rating 9/10

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) Vs Observe and Report (2009)

mallcopobserveBoth of these are comedy films about a hapless and perhaps overzealous mall cops who still live with their mothers and who must deal with some kind of criminal threat to the mall. Both protagonists have aspirations of being real police officers and feel they must prove themselves to the women they like and at the end of the film, both predictably turn those women down having won them over. Both films are basically clones of the same formula and neither is particularly brilliant.
IMDB Rating: Mall Cop 5.3, Observe and Report 6.0
Verdict: Tie, Similarity Rating 9/10