Screen:
Alias: The Complete First Season (DVD)
ABC's double-agent drama is much more than ass-kicking eye candy. Sure, there are blam-blam costumes and exotic locales, but Alias also has plots worthy of Umberto Eco and a supple grasp of spy tech. The heart of the show is covert-ops coed Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner), yet its sly soul is creator J. J. Abrams, an irrepressible pop auteur who produces, writes, directs, designs stunts, and even composed the catchy techno theme. Not to be missed - even if you never missed a minute of it. - Melanie Cornwell
Demonlover (THEATERS)
Voulez-vous Videodrome avec moi ce soir? A slick, atmospheric update of Cronenberg's smutty ode to the cathode-ray tube, Demonlover begins as a corporate espionage potboiler with anime porn as the prize. Faster than you can say sexslavelaracroft.com, writer-director Olivier Assayas turns it into a diabolique meditation on the post-PC age. (Chloe Sevigny gaming au naturel! Gina Gershon-fu!) Connie Nielsen is the femme fatale who falls from the executive suite into an online execution chamber. - W. O. Goggins
Music
µ-Ziq Bilious Paths
Just 31, British producer Mike Paradinas is already a godfather of innovative techno. Recently his edgy experiments have given way to electronic noise, and some tracks on his new record, like the drum-and-bass burner "Meinheld," still offer hints of menace. But his sixth album as µ-Ziq ("Music") also displays a talent for crafting delicate melodies, as he does with strings and guitar on "My Mengegus." Despite a title that promises the grotesque, Bilious Paths is often downright pretty. - Tamara Palmer
Ween Quebec
Alt-rock's avant-garde satirists Dean and Gene Ween have skewered everything from Zoloft dependency to homophobia. On Quebec, the duo mixes show tunes, art-rock, and honky-tonk with its own demented sensibility, then parses the results with Dadaist brilliance. Nothing is sacred. The Mr. Rogers goof "So Many People in the Neighborhood" sounds like a bouncy children's tune until the paranoid processed voices come in: "Socks and lox and cocks and rocks - stay inside! Stay inside!" - Adrienne Day
Print
Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World Bruce Schneier
Does arming pilots make flying safer? Computer security guru Schneier applies his analytical skills to real-world threats like terrorists, hijackers, and counterfeiters. Beyond Fear may come across as the dry, meticulous prose of a scientist, but that's actually Schneier's strength. Are you at risk or just afraid? Only by cutting away emotional issues to examine the facts, he says, will we reduce our risks enough to stop being scared. - Paul Boutin
Matters of Gravity: Special Effects and Supermen in the 20th Century Scott Bukatman
Gravity is the ultimate takedown. No wonder we want to break away from its insistent pull. Bukatman explains how hallucinatory movies, physics-warping amusement park rides, and comic book superheroes transport people into worlds of simulated weightlessness - the ultimate escape. To Bukatman, gravity is more than a drag; it's a metaphor for the inexorable pull of new technologies. - Mark Frauenfelder
Games
Viewtiful Joe (CUBE)
Back in the day, Street Fighter's 2-D side-scrolling graphics were all the rage. Capcom's latest title spices up the old-school style with comic book illustrations and Hollywood drama. You play an average Joe who's sucked into a movie to save his girlfriend. While in character, you acquire rad superpowers to fend off armed helicopters and brawl angry henchmen. The sweetest effect: Matrix-style bullet time, which slows down your rivals but lets you bust gravity-defying kung fu. - John Gaudiosi
Hunter: The Reckoning Redeemer (XBOX)
Zombies, werewolves, shotguns - what more can you ask of a multiplayer shooter? In this gruesome game, up to four people wage war against an army of undead. Like the original, it's ambitiously aggro, letting you shower bullets alone or alongside friends. But the violence is secondary to the detailed environments, complete with falling snowflakes and sharp visuals. Going solo gets repetitive, so grab some buds and take a load off. Just watch where you aim that flamethrower. - Scott Steinberg
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