The Hit List: End of Summer 07 Edition

Here you have it, the absolute tops of what I've been enjoying lately and would whole-heartily recommend to you all:

Games:
Picross (DS) - Short for Picture Crossword, this is a great little game for those who love puzzle games like Sudoku.

Here's the game in a nutshell: "Like finding the underlining 'picture' in a 'crossword puzzle', the goal in Picross DS is to fill a grid with squares and crosses in order to 'paint' a picture. Numbers at the head of the puzzles' columns and rows signify how the grids need to be filled out, but it will take a sharp mind to figure out the solution - and some speedy fingers to defeat the competition. The game's main Picross Mode offers a staggering 300 puzzles available to play at your leisure."

Ok, it's hard to explain, but once you try it and figure out how it works, it's very addicting. Easy to get into, hard to put down, all at the bargain price of $25 new.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) - Wow, what a great game. I knew it was going to be all along, and it lived up to my high expectations. The controls are really quite wonderful, though they take a while to get use to and it's not quite perfect since there are still a few quirks. I would love to play a multiplayer FPS with these type of controls.

Nintendo finally delivers what all us hardcore gamers want. Finally a Wii game that doesn't have N64-quality graphics. It's not as technically proficient as any 360 or PS3 game, because that's impossible given the hardware limitations, but for the Wii, it looks great. Art direction goes a long way to help too. Also, in what I believe is a Nintendo first, full voice during cutscenes!!! Yay!!! When it's done right, like it is here, it really does help make the game better. Now give us a Zelda game with full voice.

Finally, love or hate these games, all 3 games in this series have some of, if not, the best menu design and accompanying music ever. Actually starting the game can be a challenge because I just load up this game and sit at the menu and just watch and listen. I can lose myself for minutes, easily.

Among disappointments, despite the implementation of full voice, there's still a ton of reading to do. Also, where's the multiplayer? I thought that extra year to finish this game would implement that, but I guess not.

Earth Defense Force 2017 (360) - This is one of those lesser-known titles that you might have heard some people rave about. It's an old-school sleeper title. Basically, giant bugs have invaded Earth and you gotta kill em. It's pretty much mindless killing of bugs with a fully destructible environment (So funny how you're suppose to be saving Earth, but blowing up buildings is just so fun). Add in 2-player coop (offline only, sadly) and you've got a fun game that hearkens back to the old days. It's not deep or challenging, but it's mindless bug-killing fun.

Movies & DVDs:
Hud - here's a movie I've never heard about, and it doesn't seem well known, but the few people who have seen it, call it a classic, which I cannot argue after watching this film.

Watching old films, it's easy to become distracted by the acting. What many perceive to be bad can usually be attributed to the style of a certain era. Having said that, that is not a problem here as all the performances are uniformly fantastic and will stand the test of time for decades and centuries to come.

Everything about this movie is fantastic; there are oscar-worthy performances across the board, gorgeous black and white cinematography, and a really well written script all under the stern direction of director Martin Ritt. Once in a while a movie you've never heard of comes out of nowhere and surprises the heck out of you; this is one of those movies. I'm so happy I stumbled upon it at the library.

The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection - what a complete joy this entire set is. I rented this entire set for free from my local library, enjoyed every minute and would have gladly pay full price to buy it. You all know who Charlie Chaplin is, you probably know Buster Keaton too, but Harold Lloyd, probably not. He is widely considered "The Third Genius" or "The Lost Genius" of the silent film era. The word genius is widely used, perhaps too much or in exaggerated terms, but here, it is completely just.

Even if you haven't heard of him, you have most likely seen his most iconic moment ever captured on film. It is of Lloyd's "Glasses" character, hanging by his fingers from the clock of a high rise building towering over crowded streets below. You know what I'm talking about. This moment is taken from his feature film Safety Last and is one of the many dozens and dozens of gems on this 7 DVD set. The set includes a heaping of Lloyd's short films as well as feature films. If you like movies, you will love this. If you like to laugh, you will love this. Those last 2 statements probably apply to virtually everybody alive, so what are you waiting for?

Extras - Ricky Gervais & Steven Merchant's follow-up to The Office is not as funny as it's predecessor, but The Office was an unquantifyable classic. Still, Extras delivers where it counts, laughs. The first season introduces us to the main characters of Andy and Maggie, best friends and fellow Extras in the movie business, or "background performance artist" as Andy likes to call himself. Maggie is happy-go-lucky and enjoys her place in life, but Andy wants to hit the big time. The second season shows us Andy finally hitting the bigtime as he gets his own TV show, but it's not all that he thought it was, as being a minor celebrity just raises even more problems for him.

Of course, one of the big selling points of each episode is that it features a different well-known celebrity, such as Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Stiller, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, David Bowie, Daniel Radcliffe, etc. Even though the stars are playing themselves, they are clearly having fun with their personas. For example, Patrick Stewart presents himself as a pervert, while many others play themselves as egotistical and foul-mouthed.

United 93 - The thought that crossed many of our minds (mine included) when this movie was announced was most likely "Is it too soon?" But after watching this film and the excellent accompanying documentary on the DVD, that thought quickly turned to "Was it soon enough?"

This is a story of a group of people who personified heroism. The real-time, documentary-style of the film really puts you back into the moments on that fateful day. There are no big stars in this film to distract you, and the entire cast delivers on what was most important: doing the real people they portrayed and their families justice. By the end, it was hard to hold back the tears. It is not an easy journey, but most definitely a worthwhile one.

The hour-long documentary on the DVD is just as compelling if not even more so than the feature film itself. It focuses on the families and their reactions to the loss of their loved ones and immortalizing their memories into a movie. One particularly heartbreaking story tells of one of the passengers who was not supposed to be on that flight, but instead on an earlier flight the day before, which was canceled due to bad weather. How her family can cope with that, I'll never know, and it grates on my soul knowing that such a situation has to exist. Like the film, this documentary is a must-see companion piece and also well worth your time.

P.S. - RE: Vacation stuff, vacation pics and Eric So stories are coming. Patience, piggies.