"A good mystery flick (or more precisely a good what-the-fuck-is-going-on? movie) is supposed to work on a dog-race principle. The audience is the dog pack and the stuff you're trying to figure out is the artificial rabbit. The rabbit is always supposed to be just ahead of the dogs, but never so far ahead so that they lose hope and start to give up."
From Jeff Wells via Hollywood Elsewhere. (He's talking about Tony Gilroy's Duplicity which I'd like to get out there and see sometime in the near future)
[Edit - the review is up and you can find it here.]
Over at Comics Bulletin I'll soon be doing a proper review of Invincible #60 (you can find a preview here), Robert Kirkman's latest entry in his long-running series.
The issue is for the most part and all-out brawl between evil doppelgangers of the title character and the entire Image Comics Universe. While reading Kirkman's story and seeing a bunch of characters that I haven't seen on a page in years* illustrated so ably by Ryan Ottley, I wondered why this didn't happen more often.
Why hasn't Image done more crossover work in recent years? I imagine some of it could be logistical issues of having all of those creator-owned characters in one title perhaps stepping on the toes of ongoing narratives. Also, it's been years since Image really dealt with any kind of shared universe. Some characters might cross over from time to time, but for the most part the Image creators seemed to keep to their own little corners, tapping out their own self-contained narratives.
Could it also have to do with the fact that the brand identity of some of these characters are kind of hard to pin down? Who knows what Spawn or Youngblood are about anymore? Does seeing the Savage Dragon wailing on some villains alongside Shadowhawk elicit any sort of response from anyone save the most nostalgic fan still clinging to a connection with these properties?**
Kirkman is wise to keep his "Invincible War" to one issue for narrative purposes but it's interesting to think about Image exploiting the shared universe of these characters more frequently.
*Seriously, Pitt?! Did that book even reach a conclusion? ** I was totally happy to see Savage Dragon wailing on robots drawn by Ryan Ottley, so I might be the target audience for this sort of thing.
After getting some time in with Resident Evil 5, I'm glad to say that the game isn't racist*. Instead, it's actually an exploitation game as Stephen Totilo notes on his MTV blog, it trades in cliche.
Here are some other titles that are excellent examples of the exploitation genre - each an excellent game that traffics (well) in sex and violence but not at the expense of the overall game experience.
1. Manhunt (PS2/Xbox) Rockstar Games
The first outing the series captured the Running Man feel expertly with a gritty, grimy world out of a John Carpenter film. The player was implicated in the violence by placing an emphasis on "stylish" kills in order to improve the in-game ranking. The experience is heightened with the terrible-wonderful voice of Brian Cox cooing in your ear the entire time, goading you to "do it... do it..."
The game was of course considered a murder simulator by various pundits and talking heads. The outcry got worse with the (far inferior) sequel which bowed on the Wii and PS2.
2. Twisted Metal:Black (PS2) Sony
This game was like Death Race 2000 without pedestrians (with pedestrians it would be Carmageddon). One gets the sense that this game is what fans of the Insane Clown Posse** see when they close their beady little eyes at night.
The storied franchise started back on the PS1 and has had several enjoyable entries based on the simple premise of "guns on cars." It works and I wonder when we'll get a sequel for the current gen Playstation console.
3. Scarface: The World Is Yours (PS2/Xbox/Wii) Vivendi Universal
It's essentially the adaptation/sequel to an exploitation film. Girls, guns, and blow are all on the screen and in your hands as you take on the role of Tony Montana post end-of-the-move shootout.
Of course, the game is a GTA-clone, a franchise which gets much of its inspiration from the film.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2/Xbox) Rockstar Games
Which brings us to the proof that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Taking cues from Scarface (the film), Miami Vice, and using the voice of Henry Hill himself, the game is an exploitation blockbuster.
As Tommy Vercetti, players don't just wade in the seamy underwold of Vice City, they crawl, swim, and thrive in it. Before the series took a turn for the serious with part IV, this entry would typify the grindhouse experience in games, particularly within the crime genre. The game was just as often taking shots at the milieu as it was exploiting and exploring the tropes of crime fiction.
5. House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii) Sega of America
The game's trailer is a knowing nod to the recent box office failure Grindhouse and the game itself takes shots at the franchise known for its less than stellar production values.
6. Loaded (PS1) Interplay
Another Running Man/Smash TVs-style game, this was one of the more enjoyable games from the halcyon days of the PS1. Instead of style, the game emphasized racking up a hefty kill count. It was followed by a sequel, Reloaded that was actually superior.
Where's our next-gen Re-Reloaded?
7. Mortal Kombat: Deception (PS2/Xbox) Midway
Death match tournaments are a staple of the exploitation genre (see Enter the Dragon or Battle Royale). The Mortal Kombat series has tapped into this for years. Add in a dash of faux-Orientalism, some t&a, and toss in a helping of monstrous bosses and you have a grindhouse hit.
A part of me feels that a filmmaker with the right chops could make this into quite the R-rated (note, I didn't say "mature") movie.
8. Dead Rising (Xbox 360) Capcom
This game is an outright homage to Dawn of the Dead (not to contradict the carefully-worded warning at the beginning of the game). However, alongside the social commentary of the beloved zombie film is a healthy helping of gore and sex which are actually integral to the gameplay.
Making their protagonist a photographer opened up some well-executed gameplay possibilities for the developers. Players were often tasked with taking the most gory, dramatic, or sexually (read those involving panites and lady parts) photos possible in the middle of the zombie outbreak.
9. Dead or Alive 5 (Xbox 360) Tecmo
Boobs and figting.
'Nuff said.
10. Resident Evil 5 (PS3/Xbox 360) Capcom
Totilo shares his views on it far more articularly than I will here. But essentially, it's you and your hottie sidekick mowing down North African zombies as the white man at the top (captial M on "Man" there) unleashes a deadly virus.
It's the stuff of which Sci Fi Channel original movies are made.
* That is to say, I don't think the game has some deliberate racial agenda with bad black vs. good whites. I do think there are some naive and perhaps ill-advised visuals (the grass-skirted tribesmen spring to mind) but it was not the cringe inducing "brave white man saves the coloreds" of Ed Zwick movies.
**I will NOT use the word "Juggalo" in the main body of my work. It's retarded.
