He’s gone to the Bag of Holding in our hearts. Gary Gygax passed away today and for those of us who grew up (or didn’t) with Dungeons & Dragons it’s a sad milestone. I don’t think anyone’s going to do a spit take to learn that the kids over at the Lab of Madness come from a proud nerd heritage and we always thought of Mr. Gygax as something of a Grandmaster of Imagination. It would be hard to overestimate D&D’s influence on our formative years and even as a thirtysomething company man striving for something like respectability, I’d rather roll some dice and unironically speak like a wizard with my friends than go slickin’ around a club any night of the week.
Thank you, Mr. Gygax. “Cast a fireball.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_en_ot/obit_gygax
Hey: you guys like your rock n’ roll fast and sharp and dirty, dontcha? So why not come on out and see Ain’t Rights play the Rock Star Bar in Brooklyn this Saturday. $5 cover, doors at 8, and Ain’t Rights (featuring Murder Party’s William Lacey) lead a lineup of the Big Apple’s meanest rock and hard core acts. Keep a firm grip on your short hairs, else they shalt be blown right off.
It occurred to me that we haven’t had a good old fashioned User Review Donnybrook around here in a while, so here are a couple of heavyweight contenders representing either extreme of the Murder Party audience, as seen on IMDb…
In this corner, using periods after every word in his headline so that we know he realllly means what he’s sayin, here’s joebuss131!!!
Worst. Movie. Ever., 24 February 2008
Author: joebuss131 from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I wish we could do negative stars, because I can’t believe anyone gave this over a one.
The “plot” of this movie is that some loser goes to a “murder” party sponsored by some avant garde artists vying for grant money. He is promptly tied up and threatened with death which the artists will take pictures of.
Now, mind you, the NEA does some weird stuff with no artistic value, but this would be even below their standards.
After copious amounts of drugs are consumed, the “artists” start turning on each other, until the victim escapes and is being chased by the last two survivors.
There is nothing to redeem this movie. It isn’t scary, it isn’t funny, and it is unwatchable.
Thank you, joebuss131! Hmm…”not scary” I agree with…”not funny” is a matter of taste, I suppose…but “unwatchable” means there’s probably something wrong with your DVD player, cause my copy works just fine. (Try a lens cleaner, Blockbuster has them for cheap.)
Annnnnd in this corner, hailing from the UK: he’s already done the First Step, only eleven more to go….here’s beerismyfriend!!!
Astonishingly Witty little Black Comedy that reveals talent & intelligence, 22 February 2008
Author: beerismyfriend from United Kingdom
Having just read a review that describes this as a “Jerseyites view of the NY art scene”, that is both astonishingly patronising (the whole point of the movie,idiot!)and unbelievably “jejeune” (wink), I have to say how much I love this film.
“Indie” cinema has been relegated to either a kickstart for the career of a middling celebrity, or a vacuum for self referentialism or schlock.”Murder Party” is neither: it is witty,genuinely left field, and kind of touching. It is black-as-black comedy rarely performed well nowadays.
A hapless,lonely but genuinely nice,traffic warden on Halloween gets captured by a group of desparado wannabe celeb artists, after responding to a “murder party” advert. They desperately want to impress a local art impresario,Alexander, by performing a murder on camera as art. I will not ruin this for you but I will tempt: the rest involves sex,drugs, a dog called hellhammer “who is part dingo”, unrequited love, a Belarussian drug dealer, a fry cook, sodium pentathol and “truth and dare”, and of all things, vinegar. Not tempting enough?;a brilliant reference to “The Warriors” and a Horror mask that becomes reality…note “electric chainsaw”.It stabs pretension and Genre expectation with equal abandon. Closest thing to John Waters I’ve seen for years.
This really needs to be seen. Well acted and incredibly well made. Oh yeah, its also incredibly funny. Low budget with few locations or tricks, and shot on DV so most DVD companies passed, and it was released in the UK by a company famous for SOV tackathons. Not fair, it’s brilliant and better than anything Kevin Smith has done for a decade. If You see it on the shelf, Make it a cult.
DING! DING! DING!
Thank you, beerismyfriend! Outstanding!
But which of these two mighty opinion holders comes away the victor today? Well, since all this shit is subjective anyway…I guess they both do! Yay!
(But, for what it’s worth, I’d much rather hang out with beerismyfriend. No question.)
Hey check this out and tell me it’s not eerily accurate…I think I’m #67.
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/
Thanks to JJ in Jamica for that! (She’s #75.)
And have you guys seen Darkon yet? Holy shit that’s the best documentary I’ve seen in a while…although Chris and Jeremy swear King of Kong is the doc to beat…but I haven’t seen that one yet and they haven’t seen Darkon yet so we all have just agreed to hate each other in the meantime.
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Darkon/70079690?trkid=222336&lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=533536717_0_0
Check ‘em out and decide for yourselves!
Welp…that’s it for today, friends. It’s rainy and grey in New York and I’m gonna go home and roll a saving throw versus melancholy. I’ve got a plus one on that but still….gonna have to roll high.
xoxo