“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” ~V
Archive for the 'Movies' Category
05
Nov
09
Happy Guy Fawkes Day
I’m not ashamed to admit that I need to turn my brain off, and just take in some mindless television for an hour or two a week; I find it incredibly relaxing. Without fail, Castle always fulfills my compulsive need for something easy to watch. It’s not a cerebral show, it’s never hard to follow, and you don’t have to remember much of anything from week-to-week. However, the characters are amusing, and the murders stories never cease to hold my interest.
Anyway, this week Castle had a Halloween episode that seriously pandered to the sci-fi & comic geek crowds. The show opened with star Nathan Fillion, formerly of Joss Whedon’s sci-fi classics Firefly and Serenity, suit up in his Captain Malcolm Reynolds garb, bust into his living-room while drawing his pistol, and striking a one of his famous poses. I was amused.
They followed up with a generally geeky episode filled with Buffy references, comic book art, vampires, and the pretty female detective costar (Stana Katic) drawing a distinction between comic writer / artist Frank Miller’s work with publishers Dark Horse Comics & Epic Comics… It was a nice homage to Fillion’s past, and (what I’m assuming are) the Firefly fans that watch Castle simply because Fillion is in the show.
06
Oct
09
Zombieland Slayed Me
The Academy Award for best use of a Metallica song goes to… Zombieland!
It also won the award for best celebrity cameo… but I really can’t tell you who, it would spoil far too much.
Seriously, I laughed so hard in this movie, it hurt. I’ve been out of the theaters for hours and I’m still laughing at it. When I go to work in the morning, I will be shocked if the clock strikes 9:30 and someone hasn’t made a Zombieland joke (I saw it with a number of my coworkers).
I’m calling it now: Cult classic.
The humor in this movie was brilliant and so geeky; I loved every second of it.
They don’t waste lines, they don’t waste scenes, the characters are likable, every odd joke is tied back to the characters in strangely meaningful ways (Twinkines anyone?), and it avoids all of the stupid horror clichés such as:
- The awkward, “we’re going to die sex scene”
- Picking off the cast one-by-one beginning with the funny black guy
- And my personal favorite, “oh no, it’s 2009 and my cellphone can’t get reception anywhere!” bit
Every victim in modern horror films must be on AT&T. Take that iPhone users! …with your cool phone and crappy network.
Go see Zombieland.
09
Sep
09
09.09.09 Odds & Ends
There’s too much going on today to just cover one topic…
- Happy birthday to TGW contributer Jason (TheLisnakFactor). He is now the official TGW tech question responder guy, so send him some questions!
- Happy 10th birthday Dreamcast; the defunct Sega gaming console. Oh Dreamcast… your graphics were so good, controller was freaking odd, and your games were unfathomably easy to pirate. Thems were the good ole days.
The wire coming out of the back of the controller was never a good idea.
- Steve Jobs and the folks at Apple announced a lot of iPod related things that didn’t excite me enough to write something original.
- DC Comics is going through some drastic changes… really it’s a corporate enema.
Over the coming year, I’m sure we will see a variety of good and bad changes as a consequence.
"Four billion dollars... Muwhahaha Muwhahaha!"
(“Thank You Al Gore Thursday” is being delayed to Friday afternoon due to a lack of time)
There are a lot of creepy things floating around the Interweb. Personally, I think this is probably the creepiest, legal thing I have seen online (If you don’t count “Two Girls, One Cup.”*).
Anyway… Crispin Glover (George McFly in Back to the Future) made an album in 1989 called, “The Big Problem ≠ The Solution. The Solution = Let It Be.” One track of this auditory abortion is called “Clowny Clown Clown.” Glove made a music video for the song that makes William Shatner’s interpretation of “Rocket Man” seem like a creative masterpiece. Have a look for yourself…
This might be the best anti-drug add ever created.
Special thanks to Tim Smith for sharing this epic fail with me.
* I will always carry a little bit of hatred for my friend Pete S. for ruining New Years 2008 by showing that disgusting video.
22
Aug
09
Avatar Trailer
Thank you to everyone who sent this trailer to me. I appreciate the thought.
It looks like James Cameron is doing his once a decade movie effects revolution. He pops up, makes a movie, pushes the technology and standards up, then disappears for 10 more years.
I’m not sure what this movie is about, but it looks beautiful. Make sure you watch this one in HD.
05
Aug
09
The Real GI Joe Trailer
This could end up being more entertaining and memorable than the actual movie:
If you are looking for truly innovative thinking, not just in terms of technology, but in terms of political and philosophical thought, try science fiction.
I’m not kidding.
The writing of people like Terry Pratchett and Isaac Asimov, or television series such as Battlestar Galactica and Firefly aren’t some kids fantasy of the future. They are fun and entertaining, but they deal with heavy social issues, issues that our news media usually gloss over or ignore because they are too complicated to explain in a soundbite.
Want proof?
Check this out.
A few months ago, cast members from Battlestar Galactica spoke before the United Nations.
Edward James Olmos at the UN
In recent days, Battlestar’s message that “race should never be used as a cultural identifier,” has actually changed UN language, and in turn, policy.
Halo 3: ODST
I just watched the newest trailer for Halo 3: ODST.
As I was watching, I kept feeling like the voice of the guy narrating was very familiar… then it hit me! It’s the voice of the coolest sci-fi hero since Han Solo; Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of the Serenity. Well, actually it’s actor Nathan Fillion, but you know what I mean. As the trailer progressed, I realized that they are also using his likeness.
Just to be sure that I was correct before blogging about it, I looked the game up on IMDB and saw that Fillion isn’t the only Firefly alum in the game. Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin, as well as Battlestar Galactica veteran Tricia Helfer all play prominent roles in the game. All they need now are a couple voices from Star Trek and Star Wars, and they will have geek “bingo.”
It’s worth watching this one in HD:
Browncoats (Firefly fans) everywhere will be able to follow the Captain into battle when Halo 3: ODST hits store shelves on 9/22/09.
What can I say… Browncoats are excitable, and I am a not ashamed to identify myself as one.
Guitar Hero 5
In other video game news, Activision Blizzard released the complete track list for Guitar Hero 5:
You can view the complete list on GameSpot.
Some of the songs that stand out to me at first glance include:
- Dire Straits – “Sultans of Swing”
- Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
- Queen & David Bowie – “Under Pressure” (coolest baseline ever) (Vanilla Ice sucks)
- Bob Dylan – “All Along the Watchtower”
- The Derek Trucks Band – “Young Funk” (Derek Trucks is the man)
- Gov’t Mule – “Streamline Woman”
- Iron Maiden – “2 Minutes to Midnight”
- Jeff Beck – “Scatterbrain (Live)”
- King Crimson – “21st Century Schizoid Man”
- Peter Frampton – “Do You Feel Like We Do? (Live)”
- The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy for the Devil”
- Santana – “No One to Depend On (Live)”
There are many more great ones, but those really stand out to me, and a lot of them surprise me a bit.
Guitar Hero 5 is due out on 9/1/09.
Marvel’s Kevin Feige spoke with Hollywood.com about the film. ‘This movie is Steve Rogers’ origin story, and I think it is our burden to make Steve Rogers as appealing as any of our other characters … he’s not just the perfect boy scout who follows order every time. He has ideals he wants to live up to,’ said Feige. The film will be sent during World War II. ‘The origin of Captain America is really the origin of the Marvel universe,’ he continues. ‘It’s about that time in history when the idea of the superhero began to emerge.’ (Source: CBR)
There are only a three or four comic book superheros that hold a special place in my heart, and Captain America/ Steve Rogers is one of them. Hearing that this is the general direction that they are planning on taking the movie makes me very happy. Now I just hope they can execute.
The cover of Captain America #1 is my all-time favorite.
I watched the movie Tron with my neighbors this evening. It was actually my first ever viewing of the film.
I enjoyed the movie for what it was, and was deeply impressed with the visual effects (in their historical context)… but I probably wouldn’t watch it again.
Watching the movie made me reflect on where our technology is in comparison with the various visions of the future depicted in science fiction from the 1980’s and earlier.
Two things strike me as interesting about the computers we usually see depicted in science fiction from the 80’s and earlier.
- Computers remain gigantic in the future. It seems to me that it didn’t occur to many people that computers would begin to shrink in size while growing in capacity.
- No matter how powerful a computer gets, they user interface always looks like an Atari game.
In many ways, our technology has far exceeded the imaginations of earlier generations, yet in others, we lag behind… I’m still waiting on my lightsaber and flying car.
I think that the most striking (and possibly the only striking) part of the movie Minority Report was that it had computers that re-envisioned the user interface. Typically future UI’s just talk to the user, and/or the user talks to the interface. Minority Report showed us something different, and I sincerely believe that the movie’s vision of computer/ human interaction has influenced software and web design. I have been in the room with a number of different designers who have referenced that movie when talking about software functionality.
On another note (this is one disjointed post), the trailer for the new movie Tron Legacy looks pretty fun. I recommend watching it full screen in HD.
End of line.
26
Jul
09
Don’t Talk Back to Darth Vader…
I am exhausted, so I am going to leave you with the YouTube classic, “Star Wars according to a 3 year old.”
The last two lines are priceless.
Back again tomorrow with reactions to some of the big news out of San Diego.
25
Jul
09
Geeksploitation in Hollywood
Have they forgotten what original thought and new properties look like out in California?
Over the last decade, the volume of comic book properties that have been turned into movies has been growing.
I reflected over this rapid growth, then I started to list all of the comic book movies that are due out over the next few years.
I made this staggering list off the top of my head in less than five minutes:
(In no particular order)
- Spider-Man 4
- Nick Fury
- GI Joe
- Jonah Hex
- Man of Steel (Superman)
- Green Hornet
- Sin City 2
- Deadpool
- Green Lantern
- X-Men Origins: Magneto
- Wanted 2
- The Avengers
- The First Avenger: Captain America
- Thor
- Iron Man 2
- Scott Pilgram vs The World
- Magdalene
- 300 2 (Yeah, forget the fact that damn near all of the characters died… that gives me an idea. “THIS IS ZOMBIE SPARTA!!!”)
- Batman 3
- World of Warcraft
- Castlevania (Not a comic, but a video game is still close enough. This is only being made because of the current vampire boom in pop culture.)
- The Last Airbender, which is live action movie of Avatar: The Last Airbender (A cartoon, but another geek favorite)
That’s 22 right there, and this isn’t even counting novel adaptations and movie remakes (Twilight anyone?). I think they are all due out within the next two to three years.
I am also fairly certain that I forgot a few.
It’s kind of shocking isn’t it?
My feelings on this are mixed. On one hand, I’m sure a few of these will be great, but on the other hand, a lot will be steaming piles of poo.
Additionally, I am troubled by the lack of original thought. I understand that when the economy is in the toilet, studios (and everyone else in media) want to put their money in a “sure thing,” but this trend began when the economy was booming.
Most of these adaptations don’t add anything to the characters, they usually detract. When they are done well, they usually match the comics at their best.
Make something new, unique and good, and I promise I will go to see it. As far as this current wave of geeksploitation that we are experiencing goes, I think I am going to have to be more picky with the comic movies I support. I hope you will too.
23
Jul
09
Comic Con Kicks Off
This is the big one folks. Geek Mecca. The San Diego Comic Convention.
I have no doubt that big news from the comic, movie, television, and video game industries will flow over the next few days.
One thing you will hear about is how “this is the biggest Comic Con yet.” It’s impressive in that there are so many geeks who flock to the event. However, it’s not a huge accomplishment that this is the “biggest ever,” because every year in recent years is bigger than the previous one.
I will do my best on a busy weekend, to react to the news coming from the event that makes me geek out or hulk-out.
Google marks the start of Comic Con with a special banner from Artist Jim Lee
This copy of the banner is from the typically useless DC Comics blog.
