JBO: Joystiq Box Office, September 22 - September 25
We can't be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we'll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix's Watch Instantly and Blu-ray each week.
This week marks the start of Fantastic Fest at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX, where this writer will be embedded for the next week. It's a celebration of movies in the vein of geek: sci-fi, horror, anime, weird Asian cult movies and more. With that in mind, we're skewing this week's Joystiq Box Office towards the weird.
Recommendation of the Week:
(Xbox Live Marketplace: 1200
($15) HD, 800
($10) SD to buy)
How do you train an orphan to survive? By kicking him into a murky pit full of alligators. If he can survive that, he'll have no problem with the rest of life. That's just the opening scene. The rest of the movie is full of martial arts action, including stunts involving herds of elephants. It's beautifully shot, full of action set in ancient Thailand and goes above and beyond your typical Hollywood fare. Directed, written and starring Tony Jaa, it confusingly has nothing to do with Ong Bak: Muy Thay Warrior. Too bad they didn't give it another name, but rest assured you don't need to see that movie to enjoy this one. In fact, only see that before this if you want to confuse yourself. It's a bit more expensive because it's exclusive online to the Xbox 360 and just hitting theaters as well.
Read for the full list on a system-by-system basis just after the break, where you'll also find a special trailer for Ong Bak 2 to help convince you that you need to give it a shot. As usual, we'll see you at the popcorn st -- well, actually, we won't see you at all. But you catch our drift. Plus, be sure to tell us what you'll be watching, or what you've seen recently that bowled you over.
Xbox Live Video Marketplace (Xbox 360)
(480
HD, 320
SD to rent)
What do you do when you're a hard working employee in Tokyo and you accidentally kill your annoying boss? You bury him in a landfill, of course. However, when that landfill ends up turning him into a zombie, you're in for some serious overtime. Overtime that involves a lot of zombie-killing and saving your own butt. Thankfully, the Japanese have had a lot of experience dealing with monsters. They just tend to be a lot bigger that these. Sadly, no zombie killing electronic gadgets yet existed in Tokyo when this movie was made. Just wait, they'll eventually be shipping them over here, and it'll be a must-have item when the zombie apocalypse happens.
Netflix Watch Instantly (Mac/PC or Xbox Live, subscription required: starts at $8.99 per month)
Chocolate
Not to be confused with the Johnny Depp / Juliette Binoche movie that's missing the "e" at the end, this Chocolate is actually about a young autistic girl who learns how to become a one-woman kung-fu machine by watching old Bruce Lee movies. You might not be able to have a conversation with her, but you can set her loose on 12 advancing henchmen and she'll take them all down in moments. Plus, as indicated by the title, she's addicted to these little M&M candy clones that come in cardboard tubes. Either it's a hell of a sugar rush, or this girl has some kind bizarre ability to channel Bruce Lee. Either way, it's chopsockolatey.
PlayStation Store (PlayStation 3 or PSP)
Crank 2: High Voltage
($2.99 HD, $1.99 SD to rent)
Hitman for hire Chev Chelios had it pretty tough the first time around. Someone slipped inside his apartment and injected him with a custom-made Chinese virus that made him have to run around pell-mell to keep his heart above a certain amount of beats per minute, or else he'd die. Then he freefalls out of a helicopter into downtown Los Angeles and bounces off of a taxicab. How do you follow that up? Well, no shocker, but Chev survives. This time his superheart has been stolen and replaced with an electrical version that he has to keep juiced up ... or else he'll die. It's a tough life, and he finds some novel ways to stay electrified. Be sure and catch the 8-bit credit sequences.
Blu-ray Disc (PlayStation 3)
The Good, The Bad, and The Weird
($26.98 SRP, lower at many retailers)
Get ready to be angry. While this is technically a Blu-ray because it's available in Region B, it won't play in North American PS3s. Unless you've done some kind of techno-magic to it. So unless you have a region-free player, you'll need to enjoy this in "Africa, Southwest Asia, Europe (except Russia), Oceania, and their dependencies." This is unfortunate because It looks spectacular in Blu-ray, but thankfully a normal DVD release is available. It's a Korean film that was inspired by Sergio Leone's classic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. In this, the Good, the Bad, and the Weird are chasing a treasure map, so it's not a huge change, but the action is extreme at times, and you're going to come out of this loving the Weird. Trust me.
