hours of entertainment

Happy virtual holidays: A guide to video game gifting

Nintendo’s Wii U was released in late November and is quickly becoming a hotholiday item.
The new Wii U console packs powerful hardware along with innovative gameplayusing the new touch-screen gamepad included with every system.
Adventure Time’s story and dialogue were written by Pendleton Ward and hisCartoon Network writing team.
Austin-based Descendants of Erdrick is a well-known act within the video gamemusic scene.

Buying a gift for someone who plays video games is generally a simple task. It usually goes something like, “Hey, if you want to buy me a gift, get me [this particular title],” so there’s little risk of getting it wrong.

Video games are an easy gift because, for the most part, they are widely available and almost always in stock. Plus they’re guaranteed to provide hours and hours of entertainment.

Below are three different categories of video games to consider: the obvious (and most expensive) option, the not-so obvious portable option and the creative interpretation.

The obvious choice
Nintendo’s Wii U was released in late November and is quickly becoming a hot holiday item. The new console packs powerful hardware along with innovative gameplay using the new touch-screen gamepad included with every system. The gamepad, which boasts a 6.2-inch touch screen along with traditional buttons, allows for a unique experience that is so far best demonstrated with the included title Nintendoland.

Nintendoland is a collection of Nintendo-themed “attractions” (think mini-games) that support up to five players simultaneously, each with a different use of the new gamepad. Most of these games pit four of the players — each using Wiimotes from Nintendo’s previous console, which are compatible with the new system, as controllers — against the one player using the gamepad.

Playing with the gamepad generally puts the player at some sort of advantage and requires the four other players to work together against the single player to win. The “attractions” follow simple rules that allow anyone at any skill level to compete, which is one of the most important features of the Wii U: It is accessible and fun for everyone.

The portable choice
Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time is a pretty well-loved show — yes, even by adults — and because its creator is a big gaming fan, it’s no surprise that the series’ first title, Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?! has been a huge hit. The Nintendo 3DS title plays similar to older installments of The Legend of Zelda series mixed with gameplay from sidescrolling games that dominated video games pre-3D.

Most important, the game’s story and dialogue was written by Pendleton Ward and his Cartoon Network writing team. The writing, along with the excellent soundtrack composed by Jake Kaufman, do a great job of capturing the feel and style of the cartoon, adding up to a thoroughly enjoyable experience for fans of the show.

The out-of-the-box choice
If you’re looking to avoid the routine video game gift giving, take a look at the web store to one of the best video game cover bands put together: Descendants of Erdrick, based in Austin.

DoE is a well-known act within the video game music scene — and for good reason. They re-create gaming tracks with highly skilled instrumentation, focusing on less obvious selections (T&C Surf Designs and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest) and exploring their diverse taste in video game music.

Online they sell their newest album, Down Right Heavy, along with T-shirts. If you get the chance, they are fantastic live and a real treat for anyone who appreciates not only video game tunes, but watching skilled musicians play technically complicated music.

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Movie Review

New film I Want Your Sex somehow makes kinky activity boring

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde in I Want Your Sex.

Writer/director Gregg Araki has been making provocative movies for nearly 40 years, releasing his debut - Three Bewildered People in the Night - in 1987. Most of them have had plotlines that revolved around sex in one way or another, and for his latest - his first film in 12 years - he’s putting it right there in the title, I Want Your Sex.

Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) is an aimless twenty-something who can’t even afford the rent for his apartment with best friend, Apple (Chase Sui Wonders). Thankfully, he finds a job at the gallery of artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), who is open with her sexuality both in her artwork and in her day-to-day life. That soon includes Elliot, whom she convinces to enter into a dominant-submissive relationship with her, with sessions taking place both at work and her home.

Elliot, who’s in a going-nowhere coupling with Minerva (Charli XCX), is more than willing to participate, both because it lets him feel something he doesn’t get normally and because Erika offers a perspective on sex that’s much different from people of his generation. But as he gets in deeper with her, he starts to lose a sense of himself, going down a path in which he finds himself talking to police detectives Zem (Johnny Knoxville) and Zola (Margaret Cho).

Araki does his level best to make I Want Your Sex into a broad comedy, and early on it seems as if he might succeed. The deadpan way that sexual objects appear in the film (a penis-shaped rug in Elliot and Apple’s apartment, a vagina artwork with chewed gum as the medium) make for amusing sight gags. He also makes Elliot the bewildered other in multiple twosomes, with Minerva being the funniest, as she’s way more interested in studying than his ham-fisted attempts at sex.

It’s clear that Araki wants the film to be a commentary on the generational differences about sex, but he fumbles his own idea. It starts with an on-the-nose conversation between Erika and Elliot, and continues with the various dalliances, which seem to be more about making Elliot look and feel ridiculous than giving true insight. Their encounters certainly open his mind about what sex can be, but their one-note nature makes them repetitive and frankly boring, odd considering the acts in which the two engage.

The uninspired storytelling makes the 90-minute film drag way more than it should. Araki includes a few other characters to try to vary the tone of the film, including gallery workers Zap (Mason Gooding) and Vikktor (Daveed Diggs), but their early promise yields little results. The framing device of Elliot’s interview with the detectives never works, especially because Araki completely neuters the personalities of Cho and Knoxville for seemingly no good reason.

The cast as a whole goes to waste. Hoffman is showing the promise of his late father (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and even though he’s appealing here, the material pulls him down. Wilde just made her own provocative movie about sex (The Invite), and this one pales in comparison despite her heightened performance. Wonders, Charli XCX, and Gooding are all young stars who deserve to be showcased much better than they are in this film.

A film called I Want Your Sex is announcing itself as daring and alluring, but this film contains almost none of those qualities. Instead, it’s a slog that only occasionally has something interesting to show or say, mostly relying on the power of its actors to hold viewers’ attention - and failing at even that.

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I Want Your Sex is now playing in select theaters.