For those unfamiliar with this groundbreaking film from 1927, it’s hard to appreciate how exciting it is to finally be able to see the entire film, uncut in this newly released edition on DVD and Blu-ray. Like many things that have been lost in history, I never imagined the footage would ever be found to re-assemble this film to the original cut. At about 2.5 hours, I’ll be the first to admit it’s too long and drags at points, but I’m also more forgiving of an 80 year-old film than I would be for something released today. I’m actually not going to be an apologist for the length or the hokey aspects of this film either. It’s got so much to offer, the negatives aspects are dwarfed by the positive ones.

You don’t have to worry about not noticing any of the newly discovered footage, as it will be readily obvious what is what when you are watching. The only known complete print, discovered in 2008 in Buenos Aries, is a ravaged 16mm negative which is in terrible shape. They have cleaned it up considerably for this release, but it still looks awful, and has a different crop than the rest of the film. It’s so bad, in fact, and the running time is so long, it’s easy to wonder why they bothered to include it. Especially compared to the rest of the film, which is taken from a 35mm camera negative, as sharp and HD as anything other than an IMAX movie.

Aside from trying to capture Fritz Lang’s original vision, there are two reasons to see this extended version. Number one is that the story makes much more sense with the new material. I haven’t watched Metropolis as often as other movies because the plot seemed kind of choppy before. The second is the music. Since this is a silent film, the music is more important than in most movies today. Having the original score and the complete film, allows us, for the first time, to really get immersed in the world of Metropolis. There is a quote I’ve heard attributed to Stanley Kubrick, that “film is 90% sound”. An amazing admission from a guy who got his start as a photographer and is known for the keen visual style of his movies. The point is you can’t play the complete score of Metropolis without the complete film, and the music needs to be heard in it’s entirety to really do its job right. This is something one can really only appreciate if you’ve seen the edited version and the complete version, because, just as the plot is choppy in the edit, the music is choppy too, and that really detracts from the experience.
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In 1987, director John McTierman dropped Arnold Schwarzenegger, Karl Weathers, and yes even Jesse “The Body” Ventura deep in the jungle to do battle with what would become a modern-day movie monster, the Predator.  The movie featured some classic one-liners, tremendous action, and the most would-be-Governors in cinematic history.  Human-like in form and so very non-human under the mask, the Predator was truly bad-ass.  Grossing over 98 million dollars (and that was a lot back then) the Predator would appear again in subsequent sequels; first battling Danny Glover in the heat of LA, and then against a slew of Aliens in movies that I am sorry to say that I actually watched.  Having endured the later films, I actually thought that would be the end of our beloved cloaked villain. But I was wrong, and boy am I glad to have been wrong. 

This time, Director Nimród E. Antal and screenwriter Robert Rodriguez bring Adrianne Brody and a cast of eight others to a new jungle, although this time the jungles are not in South America, but rather a complex game reserve on an alien planet.  Royce (Brody) wakes up in a freefall high above the jungle.  His parachute opens at the last second dropping him amongst a cast of other nefarious individuals with similar backgrounds.   Mexican drug cartel enforcer Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), Spetsnaz soldier Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov), Israel Defense Forces sniper Isabelle (Alice Braga), Revolutionary United Front officer Mombasa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), death row inmate Stans (Walton Goggins from The Shield ), Yakuza enforcer Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), and a doctor named Edwin (Topher Grace).  None of Royce’s new friends can remember how they arrived, so the mercenary takes charge as the crew of human predators looks for a way to get off the planet.  Can they survive long enough to not kill each other, or will they become prey for a group of Predstors?

I was a huge fan of the original film, and rightfully so.  As a piece of work the film continues to stand as a classic of modern sci-fi horror.  Phrases such as “I ain’t got time to bleed,” and “get to da choppa,” have become popular catch-phrases amongst geeks and non-geeks alike.  It is one of the films I believe every guy needs to see in order to fit in among men.  Despite a very strong presence in the comics (Batman vs. Predator = simply amazing) the subsequent films didn’t do much to advance the canon. 

Predator 2 was pretty good, but lacked the suspense that the original had.  Many complained that Glover couldn’t hack it as the lead and he lacked credibility as someone who could tackle the alien beast.  That film was on television just this past weekend, and while I enjoyed the nostalgia of Predator 2, I must say that the critics were right: Glover is no Arnold.  The film did have one cool geek moment when we see the Alien skull in the mother ship.  Sadly Fox would take this concept and almost destroy two franchises at once.   
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About 2/3 of the way through this abomination I realized that I truly had no fucking clue what the hell was going on. Not because the plot was complex (because it sure as hell isn’t), but because the Terminator lore by this point is so fucked beyond belief that I have no idea what is cannon and what isn’t. I don’t wanna spoil anything, but by the end of the movie pretty much every major plot point of the original Terminator movies has been thrown completely out the window in favor of what I assume is an attempt by the producers to prolong the suffering of fans worldwide. Now we all knew this movie was going to be bad. You might’ve had a sliver of hope because the trailer had a cool song in it, but c’mon: A PG-13 Terminator movie without Arnold (well…) and directed by the schnook who did the Charlie’s Angels movies and goes around calling himself “McG”? What did you think was going to happen? Well I got bad news for ya: I want you to think about how bad you thought this movie could’ve turned out. It’s worse then that.
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Alright, I know the title seems like one of those DS or Wii games we make fun of on Drunken Gamers Radio every week, but you’d be wrong. While looking around the arcade and discovering certain long lost joys, I stumbled on this crazy game.

Brought out by Innovation Concepts in Entertainment, or ICE for short, this is a simple redemption game with a look and feel that really draws in retro sci-fi junkies like myself. Which seems to be this companies thing. Simple redemption games with a little more style than the average. While I’m not a big player of these redemption sytle games, I can get behind a company that wants to up the ante in terms of style. You can check out the ICE website here and peruse their line of products. I’m sure you’ll recognize their money maker, the Deal or No Deal machine. Be warned, the website has a loud advertisement on the front end, so hit hit the mute button before you venture over there.

As far as Rock n’ Moon Rally goes, the whole thing has this neat 1950′s flying-saucer-movie vibe to it with very stylized aliens, a background out of a comic and sound effects out of War of the Worlds. The premise is very simple: two players control their bike riding alien on the moon. The faster the players spin the roller ball, the faster their alien bikes around the track. The winner gets the glory, a victory lap and some tickets.

I guess ICE also had a much larger, four player version of this game called Spacey Racers, so if you really want to get your retro redemption thing on, you can try and track one of these bad boys down. While not being a game I would normally stick any tokens into, Rock n’ Moon Rally’s ultra retro vibe really caught my eye and I had to try it out. It’s fun, simple and really fun to look at in motion and (if nothing else) a nice artistic addition to an arcade full of crap.