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Stiq Flicks: Dishonored and Leon The Professional
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Dishonored puts you into the shoes (and mask) of a mysterious bodyguard who has been framed for the murder of his Empress employer. Saved from death by a band of insurgents, he becomes an assassin who stalks in the shadows and kills silently ... or with extreme noise, depending on how you play the game. Whatever way you decide to go at it, Corvo's ultimate goal is to find and protect the Empress' daughter, Emily. Which brings us to our film pairing for the game. In 1994, Luc Besson wrote and directed Léon, which was called The Professional in the United States. It starred French actor Jean Reno as a Léon, a skillful hitman "cleaner" working for the mob who takes a very young Mathilda (Natalie Portman) under his wing after her family is murdered by crooked cops. The character of Léon is a fleshed-out version of a similar cleaner character that Jean Reno played in La Femme Nikita, and Besson himself has said, "Now maybe Jean is playing the American cousin of Victor. This time he's more human." Which is an understatement. Although Léon is a hitman, he's more human than plenty of the heroes of cinema. %Gallery-154130%
Stiq Flicks: Resident Evil 6 and Universal Classic Monsters - The Essential Collection
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Resident Evil 6 infected numerous consoles this week, continuing the storyline of Capcom's flagship horror franchise. This time, the series brings you fresh terror in the form of C-Virus zombies, still bent on your demise. They are extremely persistent, and with any luck they'll eventually overrun the planet and kill humankind. While the undead shamble through plenty of video games, we wonder where the rest of the monster squad is hiding out? Since Resident Evil has the zombie angle covered, we're recommend the seriously impressive Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection Blu-ray set for this week's flick. Yes, it's a huge set, containing eight classic Universal monster movies, but this is definitely a must-have set for any cinephile or horror fan. There's enough material here to keep you entertained through the month of October. %Gallery-162360%
Stiq Flicks: Borderlands 2 and The Good, the Bad, and the Weird
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Loot, treasure, swag, the goods. It's what fuels the pursuit of plenty of video games. But when you boil that essence down into an experience that is extremely focused on the loot experience, you wind up with something that fuels that need perfectly, like Borderlands 2. There might be a firefight raging next to you, but if there's an orange gun on the ground, you'll ignore bullets, rockets, and certain death in order to grab it. In the realm of the movies, there are plenty of films about adventurers seeking treasure, but we wanted something that had an unlikely band of daredevils coming together in order to find fortune and glory. While The Goonies is one of the best treasure-seeking films of all time, there just isn't enough gunplay in it to marry it to Borderlands 2. Then there are the Indiana Jones films, which recently hit Blu-ray. But he's definitely more of a lone gun type of guy, weighed down by sidekicks. So, we turned to one of the most stunning films to come out of South Korea. It takes some liberty with one of the most famous western films of all time, and adds a ton of South Korean flavor and humor to it. When three very unlikely adventuring gunplayers come together in search of treasure marked on a map, you get a gorgeously shot, well-acted film that is The Good, the Bad, and the Weird. %Gallery-160312%
Stiq Flicks: NHL 13 and Goon
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. The US is far from backing professional hockey with the same blind devotion it has for baseball and football, but the NHL's popularity continues to make inroads into homes and bars across the country – though the coming NHL lockout will stifle that progression. Heralding the potential stoppage and/or arrival of the new season comes NHL 13, arguably EA's best hockey simulation to date. Surprisingly, the drama surrounding hockey has often translated to well crafted film experiences: it's hard to tap the sheer essence of Paul Newman in Slap Shot, there's the tugging-at-the-heartstrings true story of Miracle, and plenty of people have a soft spot for The Mighty Ducks, which spawned an entire franchise. You can also choose to go arthouse with Mystery, Alaska, or even indie with the iconic rooftop hockey scene in Clerks, which I'm including just because of Kevin Smith's predilection for wearing hockey jerseys. But if you want to get to the pure heart of old-school, enforcer-focused, cement-head hockey, then look no further than Goon. %Gallery-165522%
Stiq Flicks: Zen Pinball 2 and the Pinball-based films 'Tilt' and 'Special When Lit'
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Earlier this week, Zen Pinball 2 finally made its way onto the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita, updating the genius of the Zen Studios experience and making it mobile on Sony's new handheld. It also brings with it the shambling spectacle of the Plants vs. Zombies table, based on PopCap's botanic home-defense title, pushing to an impressive number of tables available for the digital pinball experience. Alternatively, this piece could have been titled The Pinball Arcade and Two Pinball Movies, in reference to FarSight Studios' equally impressive flipper-flicker that recreates classics such as the Theater of Magic and The Machine: Bride of PinBot tables. With Zen Studios creating original tables and FarSight Studios bringing the oldies back to life, it's a good time to be a pinball fan. But that hasn't always been the case. Pinball, the mechanical godfather to the video game industry, once reigned as the king of quarter-dropping entertainment. Pinball pulled in more money than the US film industry did from the 1950s - 1960s. In 1983, one of EA's early hits was the classic Pinball Construction Set from Bill Budge. Creating these boxes of glass, wires, lights, and plastic where you send a silver ball careening around ramps, toward targets, and through tunnels is and was an art form that nearly died. Though the modern spin on the classic game probably won't bring it near its former glory, it has returned in some capacity thanks to select developers. There are two movies that can help bridge the gap and fill you in about pinball: Special When Lit and Tilt: The Battle To Save Pinball. Both films are well-produced, extremely informative and surprisingly emotional. If you're looking to be a true pinball wizard, both of these films are required viewing.%Gallery-123146%
Stiq Flicks: Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Real Steel
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron rolled out this week and while we wouldn't have such a renewed interest in the franchise without the shudder-inducing films of Michael Bay, thankfully there have been other giant robot movies to turn to. Equally as thankful is the fact that High Moon Studios didn't have to tie their game, which is highly enjoyable, into one of Bay's awful films. When I was working at Jim Henson Pictures, we had a film tentatively titled Giant Robot on our slate, and while it sadly got stuck in development hell (the place where Hollywood projects go to die), working on that script with the writers was one of those perfect geek moments where you get to combine something you love with something you love doing. We would not have been the first to tackle such a project, with a long line of Japanese films and television shows before us, as well as the cheesy yet enjoyable Robot Jox having preceded us by many years. But what tends to boggle the mind is that with a concept as awesome as a massive robot, the best that the movie industry has been able to give us has until recently been The Iron Giant. Heck, they even fumbled the iconic Japanese Astro Boy, which should have been nigh-impossible. Then again, this is Hollywood we're talking about. With Guillermo del Toro's awesome Pacific Rim towering on the horizon, and a possible Transformers reboot (albeit still with Michael Bay at the helm) on the way, there are a lot of fighting robots in our future. But as far as circuits and steel pounding it out in the ring, we're highlighting the fun and often overlooked Real Steel to go with Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. %Gallery-163295%
Stiq Flicks: Sleeping Dogs and Hard Boiled
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Sleeping Dogs is enjoying life this week after a near-death experience as True Crime: Hong Kong at Activision before being resurrected in its current form at Square Enix. But you can't even begin to think about Sleeping Dogs, let alone play it, without mentioning Hong Kong action cinema. Once you've stepped into that arena, you can't go any further without discussing the films of directors Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and John Woo (to name a few). Then of course, you have to bring in Chow Yun-fat. While there are many other fantastic Hong Kong action actors, Chow rose quickly to the pinnacle, and became the actor most associated with the genre on North American shores. It's hard to imagine Sleeping Dogs existing in a world where these filmmakers and their movies didn't exist. Where these directors pulled back the curtain on the seedy criminal element deep inside of Hong Kong, the game picks up and continues. While there are many terrific films that would go along nicely with this title, we're pegging Hard Boiled as the one to go with. In fact, without Hard Boiled, there would never have been Sleeping Dogs.
Stiq Flicks: Persona 4 Arena and The Raid: Redemption
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. The newly patched release of Persona 4 Arena has emerged from the tunnel of video games to steam past us with whistles and bells, heralding the fact that the holiday game onslaught is nearly upon us. In Persona 4 Arena – an RPG series transformed into a fighter – you have different characters battling it out in a televised tournament. There's a story in there somewhere that fans will appreciate, but the Persona games have a history that needs a Ken Burns documentary series to explain. Suffice it to say: despite the genre shift, there's still a lot of fighting going on. But Persona 4 Arena is about chaotic battles with avatars doing your dirty work for you, so we're pairing this with the dirty and gritty fistfights from the excellent The Raid: Redemption. If this movie doesn't inspire you to work out, or at least punch someone, then you might need to check your pulse. (Please don't punch each other – Ed.)
Stiq Flicks: Myst and The Game
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Myst is out on the Nintendo 3DS this week, which now means that the title is available on every machine ever invented. Doubt us? If you're wearing a Casio watch, hit FUNCTION and STOP/START at the same time, and Myst will launch. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but not by much. Since the game came out on the Mac in 1993, it has since been ported to everything from the Atari Jaguar CD to the iPad.Unfortunately, this port of the game is a bit strange as it places the action on the 3DS' lower screen, with static images on the top screen. But despite the layout of the game, it's still Myst in your pocket.Regardless of where you're playing it, Myst is still a great game, especially if you figure in the fantastic sequel it provided with Riven. It's all about mystery, puzzles, intrigue, and murder. Just like David Fincher's The Game.
Stiq Flicks: NCAA Football 13 and Dead Poets Society
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. NCAA Football 13 has been out for a couple of weeks now, providing players with the college football experience more than a month before it officially begins in the real world. For many, the collegiate experience ends and begins with sports. With college athletes being courted, hand-picked and groomed for the pros, the brainier student side has no real equivalent. You don't see tens of thousands of fans gathering in stadiums to watch a team of mathletes work out quadratic formulas by using Lagrange resolvents.We know that the last thing you probably want to think about in the middle of summer is school, but we're pairing this rough-and-tumble game with the cerebral experience of Dead Poets Society in order to provide you with a fully rounded learning experience without the exams. So Blue-47-21, Carpe Diem and read on for this week's game / movie matchup.%Gallery-157683%
Stiq Flicks: Knights of the Old Republic I and II and Cloak & Dagger
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. We're entering the doldrums in the yearly video game release schedule, when the waters have calmed and the wind has stopped blowing. It's all in preparation for the busy holiday gaming season that appears to have spilled over into August, with games like Sleeping Dogs, Darksiders 2, Guild Wars 2, and more brightening the end of summer.With that in mind, we're taking a look at something a little different this week. In case you never experienced the goodness of a Star Wars game done well, the Knights of the Old Republic I and II PC Bundle Pack is out now, providing two classic games in one $19.99 package. Sure, they aren't new, but both games provide a classic experience that still holds up today.Since the light game season inspired us to go retro for the game, let's dip into the archives for the accompanying movie. Our movie pairing to accompany this retro release might not hold up as well as a KOTOR title, but it's a classic nonetheless. Video game movies are nothing new, and over the course we'll hit on some of the best from years past (including Joysticks, a personal favorite that is a terrible blend of Porky's and video games) but what we've chosen to accompany this double-pack is the 1984 classic film Cloak & Dagger.
Stiq Flicks: Quantum Conundrum and Cube
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Quantum Conundrum has already been confounding people on PC for a couple of weeks, and soon you'll also be able to pick it up for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The first-person, puzzle-platformer offers up a more whimsical version of the reality-bending physics you'll find in Portal, with tons of tongue-in-cheek humor.Our film pairing for this title offers up similar brain-crunching puzzles, albeit without the lighthearted humor. Director Vincenzo Natali's excellent movie Cube (Rated R) is a perfect puzzle in a box, but is anything but a cute, whimsical adventure.
Stiq Flicks: Spec Ops The Line and Apocalypse Now
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Spec Ops: The Line is one of those rare video games where the story often outshines the gameplay. Even though you might have tired of pumping bullets into sand-covered foes, it's the story in Spec Ops that will undoubtedly push many players forward.With a story inspired by Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, our film pairing recommendation for the game is obvious: Francis Ford Coppola's iconic Apocalypse Now – a film that has also heavily influenced the Yager-developed video game.%Gallery-157400%
