{"id":36109,"date":"2014-09-02T20:48:10","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T00:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=36109"},"modified":"2014-09-02T20:49:42","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T00:49:42","slug":"justins-japan-interview-with-james-rolfe-of-cinemassacre-on-angry-video-game-nerd-the-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/02\/justins-japan-interview-with-james-rolfe-of-cinemassacre-on-angry-video-game-nerd-the-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin\u2019s Japan: Interview with James Rolfe of Cinemassacre on \u2018Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"James<\/a>

James Rolfe, left, on the Angry Video Game Nerd<\/em> movie with co-writer\/co-director Kevin Finn: “To me, it\u2019s the ultimate fan-film. It\u2019s made by fans, for fans. It means dreams can come true, with a lot of hard work and personal sacrifice.” (Justin Tedaldi)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/em>JQ<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0editor\u00a0Justin Tedaldi<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(CIR\u00a0Kobe-shi<\/a>, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his Japanese culture page\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for related stories.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

An Internet sensation that debuted as the Angry Video Game Nerd<\/a> ten years ago, filmmaker James Rolfe<\/a> has taken millions of YouTube<\/a> visitors back to the past with his hotheaded, foulmouthed alter ego, who gleefully tears down some of the most notorious titles and accessories (the Power Glove<\/a>, anyone?) from the golden age of retrogaming. (If you\u2019ve ever thrown a controller across the room, you\u2019ll understand.)<\/p>\n

As the creative linchpin of his website and production company Cinemassacre<\/a>, the AVGN<\/em> legend culminates with this year\u2019s release of Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie<\/em><\/a>, a feature-length, years-in-the-making collaborative effort between Rolfe and co-writer\/co-director Kevin Finn<\/a>. A satisfyingly silly sci-fi\/adventure hybrid in the Troma<\/a> tradition, the film enjoyed a sold out<\/a> 16-city North American screening tour earlier this summer, and makes its \u00a0Vimeo on Demand<\/a> debut today (Sept. 2), with a DVD\/Blu-ray release planned for the holiday season.<\/p>\n

In this exclusive, wide-ranging interview, I spoke with Rolfe about everything from the film\u2019s New York premiere<\/a> last month, the Nerd Renaissance we\u2019re currently living in, and the most \u201cJapanese\u201d (i.e., insane) game he\u2019s ever played.<\/p>\n

It feels like we\u2019re living in some kind of Nerd Renaissance\u2014even \u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic\u2019s last album went to number one. How do you feel about all this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nerds were big in the \u201980s. It\u2019s all coming back now. I feel there\u2019s a much broader definition of \u201cnerd\u201d now, and it\u2019s something to be proud of.<\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on the live appearances you\u2019ve had promoting the film so far? Which moments have been the most memorable?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since July 21, we\u2019ve been touring this movie around, city by city. It\u2019s been amazing. The energy from the crowd is fantastic! There\u2019s nothing like watching the movie with live reactions. The best moment is during the opening credits. Everyone cheers. Sometimes they clap along with the music. You can really feel the hype building up to the AVGN<\/em> title screen. Then it explodes, and everyone goes nuts.<\/p>\n

What can you share about the back-to-back screenings held for the New York premiere?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a rowdy crowd. Especially the second screening. I loved it, though it was exhausting. Under normal circumstances, I would be sick of looking at this movie, but the fans make it exciting every time. It never gets old.<\/p>\n

Mount Fuji and Godzilla movies play a prominent role in the film. If you were to ever visit Japan, what would you most want to see and do there?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve always wanted to go. There isn\u2019t one thing in particular. I\u2019d just like to see all around the major cities like Tokyo. Just normal tourist things.<\/p>\n

What are some of your favorite moments of \u201cJapaneseness\u201d in video games that you\u2019d like to give a shout-out to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hmmm. Not sure. Probably Ninja Baseball Bat Man<\/em><\/a>! That game is insane.<\/p>\n

For the complete story, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By\u00a0JQ\u00a0magazine\u00a0editor\u00a0Justin Tedaldi\u00a0(CIR\u00a0Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his Japanese culture page\u00a0here\u00a0for related stories. An Internet sensation that debuted as the Angry Video Game Nerd ten years ago, filmmaker James Rolfe has taken millions of YouTube visitors back to the past with his hotheaded, foulmouthed alter ego, who gleefully tears down some of the most notorious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,263,25,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articlejournalism","category-film","category-interviewprofile","category-justins-japan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-9op","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36109"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36116,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36109\/revisions\/36116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}