Grant-29 Reviews

Interstate '76 (1997 Video Game)

Where I discovered funk.

[8/10 · 15 February 2001]

Interstate '76 is set in an alternate 1976, where the oil crisis hit harder than in our world and lawlessness reigns throughout Texas and New Mexico. Mercenaries and outlaws, called 'Creepers', roam the highways and terrorize the townsfolk.

You are Groove Champion, one of a handful of auto-vigilantes, taking the fight to the streets in your 1972 Picard Piranha, painted in bright orange much like another famous car from the same time...but I digress. With the help of your mentor Taurus and grease-monkey Skeeter, you battle to stop the Creepers and uncover a conspiracy that could send the whole country over the brink.

Interstate '76 has it all: .45s, afros, babes, bell bottoms, CB handles, cool opening credits, a couple of good chase scenes and a funk soundtrack that could have come right out of the mid-70s. There are some problems; Taurus is a more developed character than you and John DeLancie is horribly miscast as the villain - but overall it's a great game and I give it an 8 for artistic content (I only vote on IMDB for that) and a 9 for gameplay.

The Lawnmower Man (1992)

Worth a second look

[7/10 · 1 November 1999]

Last week I had occasion to see this movie again, and I was surprised that it wasn't as offensive as I remember. The Lawnmower man came out in 1992, the year before the Internet hit the big time. Now that these 'VR futurists' have been shown wrong (and you can tell from the interviews that they were serious), one can watch it as a fantasy, rather than science fiction. In this respect it holds up: the computer graphics are beautiful, if a little dated, and a couple of restored scenes (in the director's cut or the DVD) make the story more compelling. Perhaps VR will deliver on its promises someday; meanwhile, there's a fairly good story here.

p.s. Stay far away from the sequel. It was just plain bad.