Hey, it’s Monday! Assuming you didn’t blow ALL of Friday’s paycheck on strippers and booze, you’ll still have a little left over to buy yourself some fine entertainment this week. So what should you pick up? Glad you asked; that’s where The Weekly Top 3 comes in. I'll let you know the Top 3 things you should be picking up from the world of entertainment, and then you take your money, and go buy them. Then, you invite me over to hang out with you.
1. Portal [$20, Amazon]
What The? It’s a video game, natch.
Huh? What? Portal is one of the biggest games of last year, and literally, no-one expected it to be. Initially packaged as part of Valve’s Orange Box, which included the expansion/sequel to Half-Life, and Team Fortress 2, Portal was the little value-added game that could. It’s simple play mechanics, sense of fun, and replayability instantly vaulted it to the front of every player’s queue. Plus, any game that can make an official star out of Jonathan Coulton isn’t half bad. In fact, it’s all good. Portal finally gets released without its two box-mates, but sadly, only for the PC.
2. There Will Be Blood [$23, Amazon]
What The? Two disc special edition DVD
Excuse Me? This was, without a doubt, the best movie released last year. Forget No Country for Old Men, forget Juno, forget all the rest, there was no movie better than There Will Be Blood. Easily. If you don’t like it, you’re actively wrong. Plus, I don’t know that there’s ever been any non-comedic character quite as quotable as Daniel Day-Lewis’ Daniel Plainview. Hey, here’s a fun idea: stalk into your local video store, point to a copy of the two-disc set, and say, “What is this? Why don’t I own this?” The clerks’ll love it.
3. Leona Lewis, Spirit [$10, Amazon]
What The? Debut album from a Brit
Pardon? Yes, she is Oprah’s anointed darling. Yes, her single “Bleeding Love” is vaguely disturbing (“You cut me open, and I keep bleeding love”). Yes, she’s yet another diva-esque chanteuse, Mariah Carey-lite who will most likely fade away after a few years. But goddamn if I don’t keep listening to her songs over, and over, and over again. All the time. All day long. It may have something to do with my Brit-pop fetish, but the production over in the UK is just so much cleaner than here in the US, where Timbaland (though awesome), has forced us into enjoying the craziest crashing beats available. I haven’t listened to the whole album (since, you know, it hasn’t been released yet), but what I’ve heard is pretty damn good. Curse you, Oprah. Curse you to hell.
As a bonus for reading through to the end, here's Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive," the end credits song from Portal:
