Watching : Body Melt.

Philip Brophy is one of Australia's most widely respected artsy-fartsy types*, making films, soundtracks, curating shows and doing all manner of cool new-media stuff. (*Among people who also do that kind of thing)

Bodymelt is a horror film project that he put together in 1993 in Melbourne which for some reason or another I've always had something of a mental block about. Perhaps it was the scathing reviews I read at the time criticising it's shoddiness or something but of course I should have realised that films like this don't generally review well in the mainstream.

Which is a shame as it is fantastic.

This is the blurb from IMDB

Residents of peaceful Pebbles Court, Homesville, are being used unknowingly as test experiments for a new 'Body Drug' that causes rapid body decomposition (melting skin etc.) and painful death.

The story is told well, spending enough time to get a feel for the characters but simultaneously keeping the action moving and the freakiness on the boil.

It ticks the boxes with the use of tried and tested horror staples (the country mutant family a particular favourite of mine) without being formulaic, there is a thoughtfulness and creativity in the use of gore that reminded me a little of David Cronenberg and his fascination with the body and while the effects (created by the Kiwi team that worked on Braindead) aren't necessarily that convincing they look cool nonetheless.

(Here are some examples of the gore style from YouTube)



The bulk of the story is set in a beautifully shot new-estate suburbia and it's nice to see that while some fun is made of suburban life and it's idealisation in mainstream media (ie Neighbours), Brophy doesn't take the attitude that "inner-city cool" filmmakers often do that suburbanites are mindless whitebread sheep leading lives of quiet desparation. The use of a number of popular actors from Australian soaps (Ian Smith - Harold from Neighbours, one of the Daddo's as well as "before-they-were-famous" Lisa McCune and William McInnes) in horror roles adds to the sense of play with the suburban ideal.

If you are familiar with Brophy's other work, it's nice to see his influences and interests come into the film - the use of (now-primitive looking) 3D modelling and computer voices and his electronic music score and stings - and it was great to see in the end credits that always interesting Melbourne art "identity" Maria Kozic was responsible for Art Direction, giving a unique look to the country mutant family's house in particular.

The performances are solid enough (although Daddo's probably shouldn't act - they are kind of Australia's answer to the Baldwins) and I also quite liked the editing. Shot selection and juxtaposition just had this extra bite for me some reason and everything really seemed to work well with everything else. (Call me a wanker about this if you will - the general rule of thumb is that you shouldn't notice the editing at all in a good film but having done a bit myself, you do pay attention).

If you don't mind a bit of horror with some art mixed in and some nice pointed commentary, check it out.

Watching : Idiocracy

I've been reading bits and pieces online over the last few months about a new Mike Judge film (Office Space, Bea vis and Butthead) called Idiocracy which was given a very limited release by Fox. (Half a dozen or so cinemas for a couple of weeks)

This is the blurb from IMDB

Private Joe Bowers, the definition of "average American", is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program. Forgotten, he awakes 500 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.

As it hasn't been released in Australia yet, obviously I haven't been able to see the whole film :) but there have been a bunch of clips appearing on YouTube.

This one shows us what Fox News looks like 500 years from now - surprisingly similar I'd say. (Wonder if that's why Fox didn't release this film properly?)



The premise is set up well at the beginning - essentially dumb people have far more kids than smart ones and over time they just dominate the world.



Comment online about this film has been pretty starkly divided with people either loving or hating it. (Interestingly, the people posting comments who hate it always seem to be far less articulate and literate than the fans - you get the feeling that they might have taken offence.)

Anyway, there are a fair few more YouTube clips up at the moment (and I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't find the movie online as well) so I certainly think it's worth checking out. I mean, what's not to love about a future society where the number 1 tv show is called Ow My Balls. (Which looks surprisingly like a dumbed down JackAss).

Pimp my pod

A friend was talking to me about pimping her pod - helping her to rip some of her cds to her shiny new iPod (at least I think that's what she meant ;) - and it made me think about the album vs track thing.

Personally I'm a fan of the album as a piece of art in it's own right. An album isn't just a single song (though you may well buy an album for a particular song), it's a collection of songs arranged in a particular way that hopefully becomes greater than the sum of it's parts. Ideally this collection of songs works together to create a mood or tell a story (or a bunch of related stories), with each track working with the next.

This is why I pretty well always put albums rather than individual songs on the iPod.

I've had discussions with track people who make a pretty good point that it's rare to get an album that's "all killer and no filler" (thanks Jo) and why waste space with dud tracks and if you're going to pop it on shuffle anyway, what does it matter. I like switching over to shuffle from time to time - it's kind of like your own personal radio station although without the surprises.

I keep meaning to do an iTunes cull one of these days - create a little more space on the hard drive and weed out some of the filler - but what if a song which is weak in it's own right still plays an important part in an album as a whole?

(Or maybe I'm just a hoarder)

Not sure where this places compilation albums of course - either to a theme or best-ofs - but maybe that's for another time.

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Yes we have no bananas

I don't know what it is about this song that has managed to wedge itself firmly in my brain for at least the last 20 years but it's still there and it still manages to pop up time and time again - most recently this morning when I found ripe bananas on sale for $3.28 kg - the first time I've seen them at a price I was happy to pay for pretty well a year. (Since cyclone Larry wiped out the QLD banana crop)

The other thing with this song is that the version I recall is mashed up with another one (possibly done by Rodney Rude which is set in a pet shop where they don't have any chihuahuas - fragments of lyrics (which I have possibly improvised) come to mind here such as "We've dalmations, alsations, the fruits of a flirtation, and half pint pekinese if you can pay" - or something along those lines anyways.)

I think it's the rhythm of the thing that has made it stick - or the melody perhaps - or do I mean the same thing?

Funny how the mind works.

Ah, good ole Wikipedia tells me that this song dates back to the 1920s and a gentleman by the name of Sigmund Spaeth suggested that the melody could have been derived from a combination of parts of other songs including the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah by Handel, "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" and "I Dreamt I Slept in Marble Halls.

Here's an audio clip if you're curious.

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Playing Scarface : The World is yours.

In the proud tradition of all new years resolutions, I present the triumphant return of Brown Couch - the blog :). (To be followed in about a weeks time by the somewhat less triumphant easing off of aforementioned blog)

So ju focks, listen up - I been playing da fockin game Scarface : The World is yours for the last few fockin' days now (ok, that's enough of the bad Tony Montana impressions for now) and have been absolutely loving it.

(Image from http://screenshots.teamxbox.com/screen/48299/Scarface-The-World-is-Yours/)

I've long been a fan of what are commonly called "Sandpit" games - games where you are given free rein to roam around, drive a range of cars/boats/etc, do side missions, blow stuff up and general indulge the inner criminal. (As well as a curious trend in a lot of games to do a whole bunch of shopping - consumerist training anyone? - though having said that, it is in keeping with the Tony Montana American Dream story).

Rockstar Games have to date been my favourite purveyors of the Sandpit game, with the Grand Theft Auto series as well as Canis Canem Edit (a.k.a Bully).

So yeah, Scarface : The World is yours (or S:TWIY) slots nicely into the Sandpit game genre. In fact, I would probably go so far (though I haven't finished it yet) as to put it on top of the heap.

S:TWIY takes up the story from the end of Brian De Palma's 1983 film Scarface - but where Tony Montana - a Cuban immigrant turned drug lord - dies in the climactic battle in the film, in the game he manages to fight his way out. This sets the scene for his struggle to get back his power, turf, wealth and to take revenge on Sosa, the guy who nearly took him down.

Visually the game is great - sharper than the GTA series and with a pretty good rendering of Tony Montana (played in the film by Al Pacino). It also seems slightly less cartoonish looking than the GTA series. It's probably just faded memory talking but in some ways it reminds me of the feel of the old Driver games. (Though I'm sure if I revisited them, I'd be horrified)

The audio is another high point of this game - a tremendous ingame library of cool 80's music across a range of genres and some pretty talented voice acting as well. The opening credits lists at least a dozen celebrity voices (though I can't say I've noticed them in the game so far) including Al Pacino (though the main voice is a Pacino soundalike), Ricky Gervais, James Woods, Ice T, Cheech & Chong, Elliot Gould, Jason Mewes and Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree.

Audio forms a key part of the gameplay as well - both in earning "balls" from having conversations with random people on the street (which are well written and kept fresh) as well as taunting enemies when you have killed them to work up "Blind Rage".

The story and dialogue have been written by David McKenna, who wrote Blow and American History X, so it's nice to see that story has been taken seriously here as well. (And how could you not love a game where you can swear pretty well non-stop in a thick Pacino-esque Cuban accent - fockin' cock-a-roaches)

The strength of the game truly is in it's gameplay though - all the elements mentioned above provide a very polished game but S:TWIY also delivers with the action. Missions are rarely easy but never seem impossible, the pressure is kept at a high level and there are surprises around most corners.

Missions are as varied as they can be in this kind of game (let's be honest, it's pretty much drive fast, kill these guys, save those guys, deliver these packages) but there are some interesting innovations in the way you deal with people. When you do drug deals or try to intimidate a thug or fast talk the cops, there is a meter - kind of similar to the power/swing meters in golf games I guess - that you need to land a button press/hold within a certain zone to succeed.
This brings a certain unpredictability to your interactions which gives the game extra spice.

I've certainly found that the game has that "just one more mission before bed" factor.

There are a couple of minor faults that will hopefully be sorted out for the next game (you know there will be) - music is a little difficult to switch off at times, (mainly during missions) meaning that it can be annoying when you can't hear the things that people are telling you but this is trivial compared to the major problem which is the map system.

S:TWIY covers a fairly large map and trying to work out where you are on the map at any one time is nightmarish. The streets on the map are white and you are a little white triange (with a small drop shadow). Enough said? There are a plethora of icons on the map at any one time (both in the HUD mini-map and on the fullscreen map) but for the most part, they really don't stand out from the background. Eventually you get a feel for where you are and it gets easier but this really needs some work.

Small whinges aside, this is a truly amazing game.

(And apparently I get to buy a tiger at some stage - what's not to love)

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