For the name of the movie "Ichi the Killer"... that's not Ichi on the front cover. That's Kakihara (a completely insane member of the Anjo gang who REALLY enjoys inflicting and recieving pain).

Psychologically, this movie covers a lot of the most base of human desire. The stuff nobody really wants to see in themselves if they're halfway balanced.

This film also glorifies violence against women, torture, dismeboweling, amputation and more...

It sprays more blood than "Kill Bill"; and then takes it a step further with Kakihara using skewers, hooks and scissors to torture his victims as he searches for "The Boss".

I'm glad I watched it, but not so thrilled I'm going to watch it again anytime soon. The plot had a lot of potential if they would have stepped back from the massive amounts of violence long enough to actually explain why several characters are the way they are.

Ichi (which is Japanese for "one", and explains the "1" on the back of his suit) is almost like what would happen if a superhero went completely insane... it does explain around how Ichi became what he is, but all in all, it doesn't do it so well you feel anything for him as a character except that he has issues... a LOT of issues.

Kakihara is a sado-masochist who happens to be the most interesting character in the movie... but it still wasn't enough to really save this movie in my opinion.

I'd probably suggest renting this one...

I basically bought this movie 'cause I thought the front cover was pretty cool (I even have a T-shirt with that logo on it). I read the reviews here, and figured I'd give it a shot.

First thing "Versus" started up, I was already groaning. The film quality was retro "my neighbor's camcorder", the acting was REALLY bad and it wasn't really living up to anything special. The music was okay, but I have a history of liking some strange music... also, sometimes the music is loud enough to where it's kind of hard to hear what is being said clearly.

About twenty minutes in (do try to last that long), the mood changes and it becomes more bearable, and then the story kind of comes together. It starts becoming interesting (which until then, I felt I had just wasted thirty bucks to see this movie).

The main character emerges (first twenty minutes will leave you going "uhh... who am I suppose to be rooting for here?") and they begin to develop what personality he has.

I really feel that this movie would have been better left in Japanese with subtitles. The voice-overs, where-as they match up okay were fairly annoying in general (the bad guy and the good guy were done pretty well, but everyone else sounds like the old Hong Kong flicks from the 70s with the whiny voices)

What I had envisioned was kind of a dark-souled samurai fighting the undead... What it ended up being was more of good/evil battle with the zombies being more of an excuse to fire off a bunch of bullets and to explain later events. Also, don't hold your breath for the sword-fighting, it comes kind of late in the film.

The ending was fairly thought provoking, and aside from the fact blood is applied with a fire-hose, and none of the zombies are really "zombie-ish" (they're live people with a lot of blood on 'em and it shows) Versus really wasn't that bad.

I'd probably suggest renting it, if you can find it at your local video store. This film is more for your die-hard martial arts/horror B-movie fan...

GTA: Vice City is an awesome game. I never seem to get bored of playing it, even though I've had it for awhile now.

Maybe it's 'cause I grew up during the 80s, and between the nostolgia trip, the music from the period and the whole "Me" generation attitude is represented; this game has made it as one of my favorite games of all time...

For you hardcore gamers out there, it's well worth the cost of snacks and fast food for hours upon hours of uninterrupted game play. Load up on caffeine, call in sick and take the phone off the hook!

Aside from the whole period "feel", this is still GTA here. It's all 'bout wrecking havoc with fast vehicles, and Vice City gives you a lot of new toys to play with. Helicopters, Motorcycles, Boats, Planes (that don't suck to try to fly like the Dodo from GTAIII), tanks, and an attack helicopter after you either beat the game, or get all of the hidden packages.

Weapons in the game are decent, anything from a chainsaw to a rocket launcher, you have plenty of new weapons of mass destruction.

One thing to say, you can use cheat codes in this game, but it reduces your infamy factor. Just words to the wise.

Now then, I've beat Vice City so many times, the missions are knocked out quick when I play a new game... the real joy I get from just driving around. It's just kind of cool to run from place to place in this game while listening to tunes off the stereo.

The other plus is when the whole 1980's nostalgia trip wears off, you can load up the MP3 folder with your own music and terrorize Vice City in style.

For other things to say, voices by Ray Liota, Jenna Jameson, Burt Reynolds, and more add to Vice City's "cool" factor. The soundtrack to this game includes a lot of actual music from the 80s, including everything from Joe Jackson's "Stepping out" to Iron Maiden's "Two Minutes to Midnight".

Also, you can buy property in Vice City, which can include businesses. This includes a strip club, a porno studio, a protection ring, your own drug "front", a shaddy cab company, a money counterfitting operation and more. The fun just doesn't stop!

This game rules, and I'm very much looking forward to when GTA: San Andreas comes out for PC (release for the PlayStation 2 is somewhere September according to rumors). I can't wait to see what time period, characters, and cars the new one is going to have!

This was the first "Star Wars" based game I've played, so I'm not gonna compare it to others of the series (although I'm now trying to hunt 'em down due to playing this one).

In my opinion, this game does play out like the movie. It has the music, the sound effects, the layouts, the characters and everything. I got this game as part of a sound-card bundle, and I've been playing it obsessively since I loaded it.

I like using the Force to choke Storm Troopers to death, using dual light-sabers (and you can pick which color saber you want), exploring all kinds of terrains and clipping off people's limbs with said light-saber.

Some of it is a bit contrived (like didn't Boba Fett get eaten by that big worm thing when Luke opened up his jet-pack in the movie? I mean, how is he now chasin' you all over one of the missions if he's supposed to be worm chow?). Also the cameo apperances of most of the cast seemed a bit more like "We were in the movie!" than blended into the story.

Otherwise, great game. Replay-ability is fairly high... I'm planning on playing it through again twice. Once with a character who's almost totally "Dark Side" and another totally "Light Side". You DO get to pick which side your character is on, and you make decisions based off which side you wanna be on... also, your jedi masters will let you know how close to the dark side you are.

Requirements: I was runnin' it fine on a Athlon 1800+, GeForce 4 Ti-4200 and 512 Megs PC-2100 (Windows XP). Very few slow-downs, no mess-ups. I upgraded to a Geforce 5900FX, but it looks good and runs great on a GF4.

Okay, so in all honesty, half the cuts were kind of 'eh...

But the good stuff more than makes up for it! Two best songs on here are "Make Me Believe" and "I Stand Alone" (I've blasted both of a ton of times, and I just don't get bored of 'em).

Most of Godsmack's stuff seems to sound best in your car at high volume. This album is no exception.

If you're looking for a good mix, I tend to find that Filter's "It's Gonna Kill Me", Pantera's "This Love", Nickelback's "Woke up this morning" and Staind's "Pressure" to come together pretty well.

Okay, I'll admit it, I bought this book mostly 'cause I wanted to maybe brush up here and there just to make sure I got a decent score on the test.

I really thought I was the man where WinXP was concerned. I do registry tweaking how-tos for a PC site, I've done troubleshooting and repair for MS products since the 80s. I've gone well past the realms of the new user...

I picked up this book, and after getting through the standard stuff about what to expect from the test, the book then got deep into the kind of things you can expect as a network administrator. Stuff I haven't really had to deal with since the company I worked for went under (back in the days when Win NT servers and 98 terminals were all the rage).

Trust me, if you haven't had to spend a lot of time SERIOUSLY networking WindowsXP, get this book. It probably saved me over 100 bucks for the retest as it is.

Oh, and by "Seriously Networking" Windows XP, I don't mean a home network with a DSL setup, or maybe a small office with a 5-port Router. I mean stuff like what authentication should be used on a VPN running L2TP/IPSEC.

It'll be a few before I head down to take the test. I've had pretty good luck with Exam Cram's books for my last couple certifications. I also recently added another Exam Cram book for my Server+ studies, and it's already covered a lot of ground my more expensive MS-press guide did not.

As for the benefits of this test, an O/S certification is almost a requirement these days. My Comptia certifications alone wouldn't have gotten me hired at my last job, if it hadn't been for my previous experience, I'd have been up the proverbial creek. Also, Microsoft lets you "in" as a MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional), and you get access to more Windows Info. In this day and age, the more knowledge you have, the better off you are.

First off, let me say: don't waste your money on an "Upgrade" disc... Windows XP is a fairly stable O/S... as long as it's not trying to update itself from Windows ME or 9x.

ME I've heard some particularly nasty things about upgrading. If you want any kind of stability, spring for the full version.

For those of you who don't know the difference. "Upgrade" means that if your computer ever crashed, you'd have to load your old operating system first... then Windows XP. The upgrade doesn't stand alone.

Fresh install you'll have less problems, Less time reloading and you won't have to find multiple discs.

Windows XP professional is an awesome O/S, but aside from the slick, new interface and MASSIVE driver base, the CD is pure gold as well.

If you're new to networking, pop the Windows XP CD into any Windows-based computer, and run it's networking application. It'll walk you right through the network setup. Also, if you're more of a hardcore user, XP Professional has a set of troubleshooting software not installed with the operating system. Poolmon.exe (under the Gflags util) is a great way to see what's going on if you're trying to hunt down a memory leak.

As for the operating system itself, I've been running XP for roughly a year and a half. I don't like going backwards. Windows 9x is phasing out, Windows ME was probably the worse thing MS ever put out and Windows 2000 hasn't really impressed me as much as XP (not to mention having to download 3rd party software to emulate "msconfig").

Stability isn't absolute... but NOTHING Microsoft has put out has been absolute since DOS and maybe 3.1

If you're looking for good looks, awesome potential, a full range of supported games and hardware and a lot of power... Windows XP is your bag.

My first reaction was "Is this the right movie"?

If you've read the book, or even seen the original "Bourne" movie, this is sure to disappoint!

I liked a few elements of this movie,.... The action was okay, but the main character was too young to strike you as the ruthless and capable Jason Bourne. Also, to me, he kept whining all the way through the movie. By the end, I was hoping they'd shoot him!

If you've watched the first movie, or if you've read the book... don't bother with this pale reflection...

...

This 'un raises the bar on "B" movies. It was so horrible I laughed all the way through it!

I think that was the aim on this one (God, I hope so). Along the lines of movies like Tremors, Lake Placid, etc... it's so bad it's good.

The story is a barrel of toxic waste drop into a nearby pond, the guy (Tom Noonan) who catches bugs at that pond feeds them to his spiders and the fun ensues! The spiders grow to the size of horses, and disappear into the mines where the males go forth and bring back alive-and-kicking human beings for the female (who is soemthing like five times the size of the males). I'm not sure exactly why the town wasn't over-run by mutant crickets and stuff as well... but hey, it doesn't have to make sense!

The spiders sound a lot like Donald Duck, and the chase scenes are a riot (Yes, it's a B flick). The "Web effects" were kind a trip, and the characters are memorable.

If you like really bad horror flicks (this one has GOTTA make it "Cult Classic"!), you'll love Eight Legged Freaks!

This is the pilot episode to Samurai Jack. The one where you find out who Samurai Jack is, how he becomes a legendary warrior and his attempt to stop the plight of the demon, Aku (which translates out to "Evil" in Japanese).

Jack tries to destroy Aku, and is flung into the future. After adapting (sort of) he attempts to hunt down his immortal enemy in a new, dimensionally-active earth, and/or tries to find a time-portal back home. Also includes a bonus episode where he first meets "The Scottsman".

Unlike most of Genndy Tartakovsky's "Cute" series like "Dexter's Lab", and the "Power Puff Girls" (although PPGs have their moments), Samurai Jack is rather serious. He does have some humor sprinkled in, but in the end, it's usually Jack, his Katana (sword), and some big-bad from the underworld/another dimension/ etc...

Samurai Jack is voiced by Phil LaMarr, who does an awesome job of making Jack sound like a quiet, slightly-accented Samurai. On the other side of the fence, is Mako who voices "Aku". Aku the demon has a deep, gravelly voice that Mako does very well! Both were casted perfectly in my opinion.

However, Samurai Jack isn't for those who like life-like graphics... the pictures on the front cover are pretty much indicative of the series. The real gold of this series is the plot-lines, and just how cool Jack is. If you like sword-fighting, honorable heroes and maybe sci-fi flicks, this is your series!