Category: Comics

Truly the most acronym-heavy headline ever to grace this webpage. Last night I was feeling really blog-lazy, and almost posted a review body that just read “sucks.” Then when I woke up this morning, I fought away the temptation to type “D.U.D.”—which I’m sure was used to hilaaaarious effect back in ’84—and leave it at that. I guess what I’m getting at is I watched C.H.U.D. (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers) for the first time on Sunday and didn’t really dig it.

It’s not going to take long to boil down what doesn’t work about C.H.U.D., though, it’s just a completely directionless flick with a great premise and no one capable to deliver on its potential. There isn’t even really a lead to hold everything together. John Heard seems like he might be the protagonist at first, but then the movie forgets about him for a while as it focuses on Daniel Stern, a shelter worker that knows the ins and outs of the underground homeless community, while he helps Christopher Curry solve a missing persons case.

Then it occasionally goes back and forth between the two and Heard, eventually unleashing the titular humanoids on the audience in a couple forgettable scenes of violence. That’s where the real disappointment lies. The creatures themselves look pretty rad, and there are some other good effects like some convincing prosthetic heads and decent, if brief, gore. There’s a lot that could have been done with the simple setup of radioactive humanoids living in the sewers and eviscerating winos as they rise to the surface, but it’s really just boring.

C.H.U.D. is the kind of “cult classic” that should be remade. Not because it’s a movie that deserves the treatment, but because it’s one that needs it.

Much to my and your dismay, it seems as if it’s been much longer than expected between the first entry in the Art of Brent Duncan series and this one, its long awaited followup.

The following entries in this expansive and potentially endless exhibit all act as character studies from his observational period.

“The Gravedigger”

“The Apparatus”

“Of Olde”

“The Return”

Since Jake’s original host location has since expired, and in celebration of the world being filled with the joy of his theme song alone for over a year, there’s no better time than the present for a reupload.

http://media.imeem.com/m/t7guDAriK2/aus=false/

If you close your eyes, you can almost picture his rowdy space adventures in your head. Hey, it’s Saturday, and that sounds like a great way to spend the next couple hours of your life.

Only two days into its existence and my Xbox Live Netflix instant queue is scorching up the charts. The freedom of not waiting for discs allows for some truly bold decisions; some regrettable, some not. I’ll let you closely judge the first three, pictured in some form below. Before you do, though, I should just take a moment to mention how excellent this service is so far. The video quality of Shrooms (not so much the movie itself), specifically, was phenomenal, and it streamed in its entirety without as much as a stutter.

Number three is the real humdinger. Yes, you can watch this right now on your Xbox for free if you’re a member of Netflix. Don’t blame me if you see vapors of Slamm Dunk, blame DIC.

I love the twist at the end. Just when you think it’s all about basketball, hockey and baseball, you learn that “it’s all about helping kids.”

As if Ray Harryhausen himself had been zapped like Captain N into the world of arcade games, SNK’s Prehistoric Isle in 1930 brings antiquated aircrafts face to face with the Thunderlizards of legend.

Booting up Prehistoric Isle should titillate any man, woman or child on some level immediately, but its appearance is more than deceiving. Visually, it looks like a really generic horizontal shooter, but the dangers contained within are unique to this title and this title alone. Much like every stop-motion-filled tale of the past ever filmed, Cavemen coexist with dinosaurs in some fashion, but these aren’t your average Raquel Welch rabblerousers. These cavemen are absolutely suicidal. They hang from Pterodactyls and drop down on your plane from above, gripping tight to your wings in an attempt to weigh you down and end your flight early. If that doesn’t work, they have no problem hanging back and tossing rocks from afar!

The real treat comes when you square off against the boss dinosaurs, which range from normal (relatively speaking) fare like the Stegosaur and Brachiosaurus, to bad mothers like the one above, listed only as [UNKNOWN DINOSAUR]. If they ever find the skeleton of THAT bad boy, then God help us all. Prehistoric Isle frequently volleys back and forth from straight up dinos to gigantic crustaceans and killer bugs from beyond the isle’s most tucked-away valleys. The pièce de résistance, unquestionably, is the final battle with the Tyrannosaurus Rex. He’s a fireball shootin’, plane-chompin’ son of a gun, and he’s not going down without a… BITE!

If you’re bold enough, download a ROM of this game and play through it with a close and trusted friend, because Prehistoric Isle is yet another one of those arcade games I wish I had discovered for myself years ago. Just like last time, I stole a few (read: most) of these images from this site, which also details the adventures you’ll find on the titular isle. Just look at those animated gifs! Oh, and if you want the ending spoiled, click here. Be warned, it is a mighty plot twist.