Wednesday, October 13, 2010
MUSIC
Chiddy Bang is described as an "alternative hip hop band," but they can also be described as "nerdcore" (inaccurately) or "lamecore" (far more accurately). With a little of bit of Peter Pan, a dash of Super Mario Bros. and a big steaming helping of Lucky Charms, this duo is the musical equivalent of those Facebook groups like "121 Things A True 90s Kid Knows," where the answer to every question is "Urkel" or "Razor scooters."
They're still good, don't get me wrong — I'd certainly pay to watch people rapping about the same subjects 13-year-old me would have. The third track off the EP, "Opposite of Adults," features these lyrics: "Can I please get a little bit of knowledge/Somebody tell Roth that I don't love college/'Cause the real world's kinda like Real World/And it's drama so you are Svetlana and I'm just a rhymer/Swimmin' in the water tryin' to dodge the piranhas and fly to Bahamas." Do I know what all of those things are? No. Do I laugh and clap my hands when he rhymes "piranhas" with "Bahamas"? Of course.
Aside from having one of the most easily turned-into-a-double-entendre titles since Toy Story, How To Train Your Dragon turned out to be one of the better non-Pixar animated movies in what looks to be a tough year to win the Oscar for Best Animated Movie (assuming, of course, Toy Story 3 wins Best Picture). I mean, sure, it wasn't as good as Kung Fu Panda*, but it's hard to live up to what essentially amounts to an animated Chris Farley movie — because everyone knows the beauty of physical slapstick comedy is in the voice-acting.
But I'm getting off the point. How To Train Your Dragon accomplishes the surprisingly difficult task of making animated characters seem real, in the sense that their motivations and inner feelings (which in live-action would be up to the actor) are expressed well enough through inflection and facial expressions. Fun for kids, fun for adults, it's a great movie … until they try to wrap up the story, the premise of which is completely illogical**. Other than that, though, good flick.
Guns! Explosions! Terrorists! Apparently, playing Medal of Honor is a bit like going to a Michael Bay movie: Sure, everything's pretty, but it's not like anyone bothered to think up a story or figure out a way to make the characters interesting in any way whatsoever. Think America's Army, only instead of it being paid for by the government and distributed free, you can pay $60 to play it! Whee!
Unfortunately, the one part of this game that might have made it interesting — being able to play as the Taliban — was renamed after a tremendous amount of public outrage. Because kids playing things in videogames often go out and do them, which is why so many American children joined the Nazis after the spate of WWII games came out in the late '90s/early aughts. I can understand some people don't want to play as the Taliban, but the proper solution was for them to choose the other team when it came time for them to pick their characters. But of course, the people who got all angry about it aren't actually ever going to play the game — they were just bored and wanted to find something new to yell about.
As for the game, like a Michael Bay movie, a lot of money has been put in to making the booms sound BOOM-y and the explosions sound EXPLODE-y. You should not be playing this trapped in the study room by yourself on your gaming laptop — you should be sitting alone in your apartment in front of the enormous TV you bought instead of making friends in the real world, soaking in the uber-realistic body parts flying off the Taliban terrorists.
Tags: this just out , Arts , Image