More rebootings.
Selasa, 30 April 2013
Senin, 29 April 2013
"Mr. Go" Is The Korean Gorilla-Baseball Movie You Didn't Know You Were Waiting For
Hat-tip to BAD and Twitch for putting this one on my radar: "Mr. Go" is a Korean sports comedy(?) about an oversized gorilla who joins a baseball team:
Yup. That's about all that's needs saying, but hit the jump for a... "making-of trailer," I guess (is that a more commonplace thing in Korean theaters?) that shows off their motion-capture tech (anyone who reads Korean care to tell me who Go's mo-cap performer is?) and a little more of the plot - apparently there's a second, presumably "evil" gorilla in there, too...
Yup. That's about all that's needs saying, but hit the jump for a... "making-of trailer," I guess (is that a more commonplace thing in Korean theaters?) that shows off their motion-capture tech (anyone who reads Korean care to tell me who Go's mo-cap performer is?) and a little more of the plot - apparently there's a second, presumably "evil" gorilla in there, too...
Go Big Or Go Extinct
Warner Bros. has released the previously WonderCon-exclusive longer trailer for Guillermo Del Toro's "Pacific Rim," which closes on a shot that - in a just world - should end up being the single most memorable image of the entire 2013 schedule. Holy. Shit....
I remain REALLY worried about the prospects for this one. Oh, it'll almost certainly be a magnificent film... but I feel like the studio and others might be way overestimating the prospects for it. I'm loathe to admit it, but all the military/LeBeouf/Fox douchebag bullshit that Bay etc piled on top of "Transformers" is what got that first movie to open as a mainstream blockbuster instead of a niche nerdstalgia property. "Rim," on the other hand, looks like much more of a "pure" version of what it is - a movie aimed at monster/robot/dinosaur/scifi-fixated 10 year-olds (and adults who never outgrew it) without much interest in getting "Fast & Furious's" (unironic) audience into seats. That's commendable, and will likely make for a better movie... but I can easily imagine Hollywood's precious teen-bro demographic saying "This looks GAY!" and taking a pass.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe "The Avengers" has changed the game already in that regard. Does anyone reading this have kids and could maybe attest to whether or not they're running ads/promos for this on Cartoon Network daytime or Nick or whatever? Because I think what'll make the difference on this one is if it become a pre-release "must-see" among the actual children at whom this kind of material is always best received when done right. We'll see.
I remain REALLY worried about the prospects for this one. Oh, it'll almost certainly be a magnificent film... but I feel like the studio and others might be way overestimating the prospects for it. I'm loathe to admit it, but all the military/LeBeouf/Fox douchebag bullshit that Bay etc piled on top of "Transformers" is what got that first movie to open as a mainstream blockbuster instead of a niche nerdstalgia property. "Rim," on the other hand, looks like much more of a "pure" version of what it is - a movie aimed at monster/robot/dinosaur/scifi-fixated 10 year-olds (and adults who never outgrew it) without much interest in getting "Fast & Furious's" (unironic) audience into seats. That's commendable, and will likely make for a better movie... but I can easily imagine Hollywood's precious teen-bro demographic saying "This looks GAY!" and taking a pass.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe "The Avengers" has changed the game already in that regard. Does anyone reading this have kids and could maybe attest to whether or not they're running ads/promos for this on Cartoon Network daytime or Nick or whatever? Because I think what'll make the difference on this one is if it become a pre-release "must-see" among the actual children at whom this kind of material is always best received when done right. We'll see.
Jumat, 26 April 2013
Escape to The Movies: "Pain & Gain"
Kamis, 25 April 2013
Register Through ME For SGC 2013
ScrewAttack.com's gaming con, SGC, is returning June 21 - 23 of this year and I'll be a guest: Doing some panels, hanging out and I'm hoping to have a supply of books to sell and/or signby then as well.
Registration is still open, and if you do it through THIS LINK you'll be directly supporting me and The Game OverThinker series. So... think about doing that, please :)
Registration is still open, and if you do it through THIS LINK you'll be directly supporting me and The Game OverThinker series. So... think about doing that, please :)
Selasa, 23 April 2013
"Thor: The Dark World" Teaser Trailer (UPDATED!)
This will be showing up in front of "Iron Man 3." There's not especially much to report other than "bigger, darker, the gang's all back, etc.," (7 to 1 odds says Natalie Portman's Jane Foster doesn't make it out of this alive, I'd wager) but we do get a look at Malekith the Accursed, and it's nice of them to wait for the final shot to answer everyone's top question. Director is Alan Taylor, late of a bunch of "Game of Thrones" episodes.
Senin, 22 April 2013
Agent of Good
I can't possibly be the only person who gets what a spectacularly mixed-message implicit in the central joke of this new GE ad campaign, yes? No?
Minggu, 21 April 2013
Directed by Keanu Reeves. For Real, Yo.
Below, the trailer for "Man of Tai Chi," an action film ostensibly American-produced but made for the lucrative Chinese market (I'll be surprised if it gets more than a token stateside release.) Might as well get used to the idea of that, because it's the future. Keanu Reeves directs and stars:
Sabtu, 20 April 2013
"R.I.P.D."
Below, the trailer for "R.I.P.D.," which appears to be based on the premise of "Men in Black" not already being too similar "Ghostbusters." Ryan Reynolds is Will Smith, Jeff Bridges is Tommy Lee Jones, they're deceased police officers drafted into an afterlife law-enforcement outfit that runs down rogue souls.
Jumat, 19 April 2013
Kamis, 18 April 2013
Got This Covered (UPDATED!)
As you might have read previously, I wrote a book and it's coming out soon through the fine folks at Fangamer.net. I still unfortunately don't have a set date date of publication to announce, but I can now officially reveal that we'll be publishing it under the title "SUPER MARIO BROS. 3: BRICK-BY-BRICK", and here on your right you can see the cover-art (UPDATE: Now without unnecessary hyphens) that the fine folks at Fangamer put together for it.The basic premise is a "novelized let's-play." I've re-played SMB3 (my favorite game and my unscientifically-chosen candidate Greatest Game Ever Made) and chronicled not only every step of the journey (along with corresponding noteworthy events of my real life during the months-long experience) but analyzed each and every graphical, sound and narrative element encountered along the journey for their aesthetic, historical and cultural details. Also included: A history of the "Super Mario Bros." franchise and a separate account of my own personal history as a fan, student and critic of this series in particular and video games as a whole.
More details to follow, and YES we're planning an E-Book. Stay tuned.
Rabu, 17 April 2013
What Is Superman Fighting In This "Man of Steel" Clip?
Below the jump (in case this turns out to be some kind of spoiler) are three frames of footage taken from approximately the 2:06 - 2:07 mark of the new "Man of Steel" trailer that seem to show Superman in combat with... something...
(POSSIBLE SPOILERS!)
So! Big swirly vortex, what look very much like tentacles or tendrils of some kind, possibly a glowing "eye" or orb of some kind at the center? Could be mechanical in nature, could be a creature, could be something else entirely?
The "arms" immediately make me think of Starro The Conqueror... but I can't believe Nolan and company would go for that. Brainiac? Some new, weird version of the Phantom Zone?
(POSSIBLE SPOILERS!)
So! Big swirly vortex, what look very much like tentacles or tendrils of some kind, possibly a glowing "eye" or orb of some kind at the center? Could be mechanical in nature, could be a creature, could be something else entirely?
The "arms" immediately make me think of Starro The Conqueror... but I can't believe Nolan and company would go for that. Brainiac? Some new, weird version of the Phantom Zone?
Selasa, 16 April 2013
Captain America's New Costume Kind of Sucks
Aw, Marvel... you were doing so fucking well with this stuff! Bad form. Very bad form.
 |
| Original image: JFX Online |
Too bad. Won't lie - bums me out. Doesn't necessarily indicate a "bad" movie by an stretch (Batman, for example, has had a shitty costume in every single live-action movie he's ever appeared in and those average-out pretty good overall) and maybe there's a story-reason for it (i.e. maybe the good one got damaged? Maybe it's temporary? I can hope?) but it's aesthetically dissapointing: Comics being a largely visual medium, part of the fun of adaptation is seeing iconic imagery played-out in the flesh; and that's significantly diminished when the various characters look not only "not like themselves" but look boring.
FWIW, there have been a few "concept art" sketches seen around showing the same basic new suit for about a week now. I didn't post them before partly because I was really hoping it was a fake and also because I'd seen other official concept-art that showed him wearing the "classic" outfit.
"Man of Steel" New Trailer (UPDATED!)
Well, here's this then:
And that would be why Warner Bros. is supposedly so pysched about this particular movie. Some potentially-spoilery thoughts after the jump...
Interesting that, though by all accounts the film is really, really action-heavy, WB is still mainly leaning on the iconography and the American Pastoral stuff as the selling point.
Equally interesting that they're not going the traditional route of selling the central threat/villain harder than the hero. There's still very little Zod in here - no real sense of what his motives, personality or "plan" are.
So now Lois is hunting around for Superman even before he's put on a costume and publicly declared himself to be such, rather than just meeting him within a week or so of meeting Clark Kent at work. Clever shift, makes her more immediately proactive, wondering how they avoid Superman coming off like a stalker if he decides to put on a human-disguise and get hired at her workplace after this, though.
It looks like Krypton goes down in a war or some kind of invasion this time around. Not liking the idea of that, particularly if Zod or some other "major evil" force is somehow behind it.
That little exchange at the end? Cute. Less cute? The idea that the writer/producer team who decided they needed to jump through seven or eight different hoops to explain whyCatwoman All-Purpose-Crime-Lady wore high-heels and goggles that kinda-sorta-from-some-angles looked like cat ears will now treat us to a tedious, wholly unnecessary explanation for why Superman is dressed like Superman. Yes, I know the comics also like to do the "here's what the S-shield really means" business, but it's usually a toss-off and done in the understanding (an understanding, incidentally, that Team Nolan has never quite managed to grasp) that anyone who'd be seriously bothered by stuff like this was never ever going to watch this movie to begin with.
Still, though... looks good. I'm not knocked-out a'la "Pacific Rim," I'm not comfortably assured of impending awesome a'la "Avengers"... but it looks good. I'm not expecting it to be as good as the '78 movie, or "Dark Knight," or even Snyder's own "Watchmen;" but if the only thing this manages to get right is reminding the world that Superman isn't inherently "boring" by using him to deliver a huge actioner, maybe that'll be good enough.
And that would be why Warner Bros. is supposedly so pysched about this particular movie. Some potentially-spoilery thoughts after the jump...
Interesting that, though by all accounts the film is really, really action-heavy, WB is still mainly leaning on the iconography and the American Pastoral stuff as the selling point.
Equally interesting that they're not going the traditional route of selling the central threat/villain harder than the hero. There's still very little Zod in here - no real sense of what his motives, personality or "plan" are.
So now Lois is hunting around for Superman even before he's put on a costume and publicly declared himself to be such, rather than just meeting him within a week or so of meeting Clark Kent at work. Clever shift, makes her more immediately proactive, wondering how they avoid Superman coming off like a stalker if he decides to put on a human-disguise and get hired at her workplace after this, though.
It looks like Krypton goes down in a war or some kind of invasion this time around. Not liking the idea of that, particularly if Zod or some other "major evil" force is somehow behind it.
That little exchange at the end? Cute. Less cute? The idea that the writer/producer team who decided they needed to jump through seven or eight different hoops to explain why
Still, though... looks good. I'm not knocked-out a'la "Pacific Rim," I'm not comfortably assured of impending awesome a'la "Avengers"... but it looks good. I'm not expecting it to be as good as the '78 movie, or "Dark Knight," or even Snyder's own "Watchmen;" but if the only thing this manages to get right is reminding the world that Superman isn't inherently "boring" by using him to deliver a huge actioner, maybe that'll be good enough.
Big Picture: "Shock Treatment"
Here's a show about Bioshock Infinite, because once in awhile I like to talk about small, obscure things that aren't getting attention from every corner of the internet.
MAJOR SPOILERS!
MAJOR SPOILERS!
FREEEEEEEZE IN HELL, SPIDER-MAN!!!
The Daily Mail has the first snaps of Jamie Foxx in his makeup as Maxwell Dillion aka Electro for "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," restoring equilibrium to the movie-verse by stopping the slow drip of shockingly-NOT-shitty-looking/sounding-stuff gradually being revealed about the project."Hey, Jamie Foxx! Congratulations on headlining one of the biggest and most critically-lauded hits of the year - what are you gonna do next!?"
"I was thinkin' I'd put on Arnold's metallic-blue bodypaint from "Batman & Robin" to play second-fiddle to Less-Expensive-Robert-Pattinson in the sequel to a cheap reboot that even people who liked it largely shrugged off. Sounds fun, right?"
"..."
Here's the thing about Electro: I love the guy. He's one of my favorite Spider-Man nemesis, and he's also one of the more prominent figures in the "powered-up bank robber" tier of Marvel Universe villainy. Problem is, the reason for both of those is pretty-much his iconic costume - without it, he's really just another lightning-throwing electricity baddie - which probably wouldn't "work" in live-action period and definitely won't be a good fit with the po-faced "realism" aesthetic of Gritty Reboot Spidey.
Okay, fine, a redesign is in order (the shabby state of the pants and hoodie indicate they're part of the "costume" at least for this scene, as opposed to "Mr. Foxx is chilly today") but it looks to me like they're going with a variation (almost-innevitably to be augmented with VFX) of his blue "charged up" form from Ultimate Spider-Man. Probably the easiest route to go (in the newer USM animated series he does both looks, but I wouldn't count on that here) but somehow the prospect of "Spider-Man Versus Much Less-Powerful/Less-Interesting Doctor Manhattan" doesn't exactly set my world on fire.
But okay, it is what it is. Now, let's see what it looks like with the glowy CGI lightning stuff... and whatever they have planned for The Rhino.
Senin, 15 April 2013
We Are Alright
For those of you who don't know, this whole operation is based out of Boston. So I just wanted to give a quick head's-up that yes, it's true that two (so far) explosions - apparently now confirmed to be bombs of some type - have exploded at the Boston Marathon. I was nowhere near the incident today, and thus far none of my family/friends are confirmed to have been in the area and are not among the injured.
Those looking to help the victims of this senseless tragedy are asked to make donations to the Red Cross and/or to give blood.
You Are Not Alone
It seems a little late in the game for "Man of Steel" to start in on the viral-video business, but this is a pretty interesting teaser.
I know a bit more than I think is considered common knowledge about "Man of Steel's" basic component parts (i.e. what Zod and Kal-El "are" as characters and what their underlying motivations are) so there's a certain extra level of "Oh, okay, I see how X fits in with Y" in this; but mainly it's a tease for the thus-far only briefly-glimpsed new iteration of Zod as played by Michael Shannon - though from what can barely be discerned here, it looks like he's got some sort of face-obscuring helmet at least some of the time.
I know a bit more than I think is considered common knowledge about "Man of Steel's" basic component parts (i.e. what Zod and Kal-El "are" as characters and what their underlying motivations are) so there's a certain extra level of "Oh, okay, I see how X fits in with Y" in this; but mainly it's a tease for the thus-far only briefly-glimpsed new iteration of Zod as played by Michael Shannon - though from what can barely be discerned here, it looks like he's got some sort of face-obscuring helmet at least some of the time.
Jumat, 12 April 2013
Escape to The Movies: "42"
Um... base hit, I guess? I dunno, pick your own baseball metaphor.
Intermission. More Sam Raimi. Do it.
Kamis, 11 April 2013
Thought For The Day
The problem with discussing issues of "gender politics" online is that the conversation will inevitably be dominated by an ever-expanding subgroup of men who are just lazy enough to decide that they'd rather give up on the prospect of ever having sex altogether rather than undertake whatever steps of self-improvement or even self-awareness might be necessary to correct that condition... yet somehow just motivated enough to project their bitterness and hatred away from themselves (or genetics, or God, or whatever) and instead onto women - to such an obsessive degree that they'll construct paranoid delusions of a female conspiracy* of "oppression."
*My sincere apologies to anyone who clicks that link and has to listen to this guy...
*My sincere apologies to anyone who clicks that link and has to listen to this guy...
Christopher Nolan Will NOT Produce "Justice League"
Here's the thing about the on-again/off-again rumors of Christopher Nolan producing the "Justice League" movie Warner Bros. wants to make if "Man of Steel" is a hit: Warner Bros. wants him to. Warner Bros. will ALWAYS want him to - if you were them, wouldn't you want to be able to stick "From The Producer of 'The Dark Knight'" on as many movies as possible? The question has never been "Does WB want Nolan for this?" but rather "Does Nolan want even more clout badly enough to keep spending time on a project/genre he expressly has no interest in if not outright contempt for?"
According to Entertainment Weekly, the answer now seems to be "no." Nolan already has a big scifi blockbuster called "Interstellar" in production, and WB head Jeff Robinov now tells the inexplicably still-viable movie magazine that not Nolan is not involved with "League" while officially confirming that "Man of Steel" will establish a universe where all manner of other DC characters can exist and may or may not be eluded to in the film itself. He also seems to confirm (lets all keep in mind that all of this contradicts the earliest reports that "Man of Steel" itself was to be a stand-alone film) that the Dark Knight Trilogy will not be part of this new continuity.
Okay. I like the sound of ALL of that. Lets see how this works out...
Rabu, 10 April 2013
Help Me Out Here
Bank of America has a new commercial airing in which a woman uses a smartphone while sitting in a movie theater (during the show.) In the context of the ad she, the phone, and Bank of America are the heroes - isn't she AWESOME for being able to take care of her mobile-banking during the movie?
This makes me angrier than a commercial has made me in awhile, to the degree that I can't even believe I saw it - especially since BOfA doesn't seem to have it posted anywhere. Judging by Twitter, I'm not the only one who saw this on a commercial break during tonight's Daily Show, but I can't find a copy on the web to properly rage at: Internet? I need your help: Somebody find a link to this commercial online (no, it is NOT the thing called "BOfA Movie Theater" from 2000) and post it to the comments here. Thank you.
This makes me angrier than a commercial has made me in awhile, to the degree that I can't even believe I saw it - especially since BOfA doesn't seem to have it posted anywhere. Judging by Twitter, I'm not the only one who saw this on a commercial break during tonight's Daily Show, but I can't find a copy on the web to properly rage at: Internet? I need your help: Somebody find a link to this commercial online (no, it is NOT the thing called "BOfA Movie Theater" from 2000) and post it to the comments here. Thank you.
Hate The Player
So! A day ago, everyone got up in arms about Apple knocking Saga #12 off it's App Store because of a postage-stamp sized gay sex scene. Now, it turns out it wasn't missing from the App Store by Apple specific order but was rather withheld by Comixology themselves for fear of getting slapped around by Apple's silly, arbitrary, draconian censorship policies. So, basically, The Internet got all torches-and-pitchforks furious at Apple for something they were only indirectly responsible for; and now The Internet is supposed to learn a valuable lesson about jumping to conclusions or something and feel very, very bad about it's behavior.
Well, I don't feel bad. At all. In fact, I think that the reflexive rush to bring the hammer down on Apple is an incredibly positive development.
Here's the thing: While this time it turned out to be a false alarm; I'm encouraged by the idea that The Internet was ready to pillory Apple at the drop of a hat. Even when they turn out to be not the "villain" in this or that instance, inherent mistrust is always the proper place to start from when dealing with corporations. Not because they're "evil," or because of "capitalism," or because they're run by Freemason Reptoids, but because that's the proper way to approach an entity that exists to exploit you - yes, even when said exploitation is benign or enjoyable to you.
The history of Apple as a modern corporate entity is a history of a company rebranding itself, largely through the efforts of a charismatic leader-figure, as not just a "cool" and "chic" company but a "good" one. Buying - and remaining loyal to the buying of - Apple-brand products (which Apple encouraged through unprecedented focus on proprietary device-linkage) became, perversely, a way of voluntarily branding yourself: "I'm Team Good-Guy Tech!" This was, of course, back when the cultural dynamic in tech was Jobs the Cool Visionary vs. Gates the Creepy Nerd With Too Much Money (what's he spending it on - pocket protectors LOLOLOLOLOL!) rather than Jobs the Socially-Cold Control Freak vs. Gates the Guy Spending Billions Fighting AIDS and World Poverty.
So yeah, while it's unfortunate that incorrect information got mass-reported as news, I find it gratifying as hell to see some real confirmation that Apple's "sainthood" seems to have passed on with Steve Jobs (and, just to be clear, I've got no "personal" beef with the late Mr. Jobs and own many Apple products.) Assuming that Apple was in the wrong here may have been an incorrect assumption (though lets be perfectly clear here: The reason the book wasn't there is still largely owed to Apple's control-freak content policies) but it was a very correct instinct. Apple is a very large, very powerful corporation that has pulled some really, seriously shady shit over the years - including shady shit involving how they manage (read: control and restrict) content producers through the omnipresence of their digital-retail outlets. That you believed Apple had done something that sounded like something Apple would do reflects much worse on Apple than it does on you.
This is, overall, healthy behavior. There's nothing wrong with prefering one product over another, or having a preferred manufacturer, or liking one company's policies more than another, or any of that. But "loyalty" and "trust" are things you should give to people; and in case you slept through the most recent election it's been rather definitively established that corporations are NOT people, my friends. Paradoxically, when you "trust" a corporation, all you're doing is giving them leeway to make themselves less worthy of that trust.
Love the things you love, absolutely. "Love" Apple, if you want. But you should always be keeping one critical, mistrustful eye on corporations - especially the "good" ones. Because Apple doesn't love you back. Neither does Valve. Neither does Nintendo. Neither does Marvel. Neither do any of the "good" companies the tech world likes to canonize with one hand while absurdly declaring EA (bastards, to be sure, but far less "evil" than Monsanto, the Koch Bros, etc) "World's Worst Company."
This is, overall, a good development.
Well, I don't feel bad. At all. In fact, I think that the reflexive rush to bring the hammer down on Apple is an incredibly positive development.
Here's the thing: While this time it turned out to be a false alarm; I'm encouraged by the idea that The Internet was ready to pillory Apple at the drop of a hat. Even when they turn out to be not the "villain" in this or that instance, inherent mistrust is always the proper place to start from when dealing with corporations. Not because they're "evil," or because of "capitalism," or because they're run by Freemason Reptoids, but because that's the proper way to approach an entity that exists to exploit you - yes, even when said exploitation is benign or enjoyable to you.
The history of Apple as a modern corporate entity is a history of a company rebranding itself, largely through the efforts of a charismatic leader-figure, as not just a "cool" and "chic" company but a "good" one. Buying - and remaining loyal to the buying of - Apple-brand products (which Apple encouraged through unprecedented focus on proprietary device-linkage) became, perversely, a way of voluntarily branding yourself: "I'm Team Good-Guy Tech!" This was, of course, back when the cultural dynamic in tech was Jobs the Cool Visionary vs. Gates the Creepy Nerd With Too Much Money (what's he spending it on - pocket protectors LOLOLOLOLOL!) rather than Jobs the Socially-Cold Control Freak vs. Gates the Guy Spending Billions Fighting AIDS and World Poverty.
So yeah, while it's unfortunate that incorrect information got mass-reported as news, I find it gratifying as hell to see some real confirmation that Apple's "sainthood" seems to have passed on with Steve Jobs (and, just to be clear, I've got no "personal" beef with the late Mr. Jobs and own many Apple products.) Assuming that Apple was in the wrong here may have been an incorrect assumption (though lets be perfectly clear here: The reason the book wasn't there is still largely owed to Apple's control-freak content policies) but it was a very correct instinct. Apple is a very large, very powerful corporation that has pulled some really, seriously shady shit over the years - including shady shit involving how they manage (read: control and restrict) content producers through the omnipresence of their digital-retail outlets. That you believed Apple had done something that sounded like something Apple would do reflects much worse on Apple than it does on you.
This is, overall, healthy behavior. There's nothing wrong with prefering one product over another, or having a preferred manufacturer, or liking one company's policies more than another, or any of that. But "loyalty" and "trust" are things you should give to people; and in case you slept through the most recent election it's been rather definitively established that corporations are NOT people, my friends. Paradoxically, when you "trust" a corporation, all you're doing is giving them leeway to make themselves less worthy of that trust.
Love the things you love, absolutely. "Love" Apple, if you want. But you should always be keeping one critical, mistrustful eye on corporations - especially the "good" ones. Because Apple doesn't love you back. Neither does Valve. Neither does Nintendo. Neither does Marvel. Neither do any of the "good" companies the tech world likes to canonize with one hand while absurdly declaring EA (bastards, to be sure, but far less "evil" than Monsanto, the Koch Bros, etc) "World's Worst Company."
This is, overall, a good development.
Yes, I Saw The Chris Roberts Video
Oh hey, look! Chris Roberts - onetime famous PC game designer turned moderately-successful movie producer turned space sim kickstarter-helmer - used a bit of THIS infamous Big Picture episode as part of a SXSW panel about the non-death of PC gaming (which feels a lot more like a very lengthy live-performance advertisement for his kickstarted space sim "Star Citizen," but whatever; business is business)! Nifty!
I mean, yeah, it's totally out of context and kinda makes it seem like I'm saying something completely opposite what I ultimately was in that episode, and it would've been nice to see some attribution since, y'know, I'm also in business here... BUT! exposure is exposure, and fun to see all the same even though - yes - I understand that he likely intends it's presence to be representative of all the ::ironic quotes:: "EXPERTS!!!" he intends to show who's the boss. Them's the breaks.
And now, for context, the original episode in-full:
I mean, yeah, it's totally out of context and kinda makes it seem like I'm saying something completely opposite what I ultimately was in that episode, and it would've been nice to see some attribution since, y'know, I'm also in business here... BUT! exposure is exposure, and fun to see all the same even though - yes - I understand that he likely intends it's presence to be representative of all the ::ironic quotes:: "EXPERTS!!!" he intends to show who's the boss. Them's the breaks.
And now, for context, the original episode in-full:
Selasa, 09 April 2013
Blomkamp's "Elysium" Is Class-Warfare... With Mecha-Suits
Hooooooly shit.
First trailer for Neil "I Almost Wasted All This Talent On The 'Halo' Movie" Blomkamp's follow-up to the magnificient "District 9" has hit, and it kicks ass. It's another socially-conscious scifi actioner, this time casting Matt Damon as the point-man (leader?) of a team from poverty-ravaged 2159 Earth who use strength-augmenting mechanical exo-skeletons to launch an incursion against the titular Elysium, an orbiting space-station where humanity's wealthy elite have walled themselves off from the rest of us (and, from the look of things, have no shortage of robot soldiers working to keep said rest of us out.)
Yeah, this looks good...
First trailer for Neil "I Almost Wasted All This Talent On The 'Halo' Movie" Blomkamp's follow-up to the magnificient "District 9" has hit, and it kicks ass. It's another socially-conscious scifi actioner, this time casting Matt Damon as the point-man (leader?) of a team from poverty-ravaged 2159 Earth who use strength-augmenting mechanical exo-skeletons to launch an incursion against the titular Elysium, an orbiting space-station where humanity's wealthy elite have walled themselves off from the rest of us (and, from the look of things, have no shortage of robot soldiers working to keep said rest of us out.)
Yeah, this looks good...
Senin, 08 April 2013
Margaret Thatcher is Dead
Headline sort of sums it up: Former British PM Margaret Thatcher, ill for some time now, died today of an apparent stroke. She was most-recently the subject of the Meryl Streep Oscar-Aquisition Device "The Iron Lady," my review of which appeared here and I'll repost below the jump to mark the occasion.
As a student of history, I have my own general outlook on Thatcher's legacy... but frankly the opinions that count for much more at the moment are those of the folks in the UK who lived either during her tenure or lived through the after-effects thereof. The moment belongs to them, and UK folks among my readership (or, y'know, anyone else really) are invited to weigh in in the comments - given the way most of my British/UK aquaintances tended to speak of her for the most part, I imagine the discussion will be spirited to say the least:
As a student of history, I have my own general outlook on Thatcher's legacy... but frankly the opinions that count for much more at the moment are those of the folks in the UK who lived either during her tenure or lived through the after-effects thereof. The moment belongs to them, and UK folks among my readership (or, y'know, anyone else really) are invited to weigh in in the comments - given the way most of my British/UK aquaintances tended to speak of her for the most part, I imagine the discussion will be spirited to say the least:
Jumat, 05 April 2013
Escape to The Movies: "Evil Dead"
Kamis, 04 April 2013
"Carrie" Re-Make Full Trailer
The buzz on the "Carrie" remake was that it's not very good, which may or may not be responsible for it getting bounced to mid-Fall; but you can't always trust those sorts of things. Anyway, now it's got a full trailer which aims to help get everybody who never saw the original classic get on the same page with those who did by giving away the entire story in two minutes...
Well... it's "Carrie" alright. Obviously can't hope to touch the original DePalma film, one of the all-time great horror flicks, but it'll be interesting to see the story (summary: abused/bullied teen has telekinesis, everybody pays) played out with characters who look more convincingly like high-schoolers.
Re-staging the car-flip as a slo-mo/bullet-time CGI gag is depressingly innevitable, though it should be fun to see whether they go even further on Carrie's mother's Christian zealotry (an edgy move for the late-70s) or dial it back for fear of pissing off Flyover audiences; and I wonder if there'll be pressure to tone down the ambiguity of the original finale (yeah, it's supposed to ALSO be Carrie flipping to the Dark Side... but most of her class more-or-less had it coming by that point) now that "misunderstood kid on a rampage" is more of a 'thing' in the popular-consciousness...
Well... it's "Carrie" alright. Obviously can't hope to touch the original DePalma film, one of the all-time great horror flicks, but it'll be interesting to see the story (summary: abused/bullied teen has telekinesis, everybody pays) played out with characters who look more convincingly like high-schoolers.
Re-staging the car-flip as a slo-mo/bullet-time CGI gag is depressingly innevitable, though it should be fun to see whether they go even further on Carrie's mother's Christian zealotry (an edgy move for the late-70s) or dial it back for fear of pissing off Flyover audiences; and I wonder if there'll be pressure to tone down the ambiguity of the original finale (yeah, it's supposed to ALSO be Carrie flipping to the Dark Side... but most of her class more-or-less had it coming by that point) now that "misunderstood kid on a rampage" is more of a 'thing' in the popular-consciousness...
Bad Guys On A Timer
It probably says something about my own wasted youth that I can be watching a trailer in 2013 and my first thought is: "Wait, wasn't this part of the premise for the shitty 'Double Dragon' movie?" (I checked, it was.)
Anyway, the premise behind "The Purge" is that at some point in the near future the United States has turned itself into a well-behaved utopia by instituting an annual one night "get out of jail free" event wherein all police and/or emergency services are suspended and everyone so-inclined gets a free pass to rob, murder, rape, destroy or whatever anyone and anything they want without fear of legal reprisal. In the film, a suburban family takes pity on a guy stuck outside during this year's Purge, inviting the wrath of the Purge-participants who were hunting him.
Great pitch, to be certain - but to be honest I lost a lot of interest once the Slasher Movie crew turned up. The real horror (and real promise) of the setup should be the revelation of what absolute bastards the "nice normal people" of the world turn into when you take away the chance they'll get punished; so having the heavies for this turn out to be a pack of Arkham Asylum goons who'd likely be out pulling versions of this shit in a world without a Purge feels a lot like chickening-out of something more subversive... though to be fair it's extremely likely that the point of the "Strangers"-knockoff masks is so the film can pull "shocking" reveals ("OMG! It's the mailman/grocery-clerk/barber!") later.
Anyway, the premise behind "The Purge" is that at some point in the near future the United States has turned itself into a well-behaved utopia by instituting an annual one night "get out of jail free" event wherein all police and/or emergency services are suspended and everyone so-inclined gets a free pass to rob, murder, rape, destroy or whatever anyone and anything they want without fear of legal reprisal. In the film, a suburban family takes pity on a guy stuck outside during this year's Purge, inviting the wrath of the Purge-participants who were hunting him.
Great pitch, to be certain - but to be honest I lost a lot of interest once the Slasher Movie crew turned up. The real horror (and real promise) of the setup should be the revelation of what absolute bastards the "nice normal people" of the world turn into when you take away the chance they'll get punished; so having the heavies for this turn out to be a pack of Arkham Asylum goons who'd likely be out pulling versions of this shit in a world without a Purge feels a lot like chickening-out of something more subversive... though to be fair it's extremely likely that the point of the "Strangers"-knockoff masks is so the film can pull "shocking" reveals ("OMG! It's the mailman/grocery-clerk/barber!") later.
Roger Ebert: 1942 - 2013
Roger Ebert, who did more than almost anyone to turn Film Criticism into a viable medium/career-path unto itself, has died. Terrible news, especially considering how hard he'd continued working and innovating in spite of his long-running health issues - would you keep doing your day job if you were A.) already rich/famous and B.) no longer had the bottom of your face?
Ebert was the vanguard of new American film-critics who swept into the business alongside New Hollywood in the 70s, a guy who'd grown up a movie-obsessed youth and started out as a screenwriter for T&A maven Russ Meyer. He was said to have grown annoyed with the reductive simplicity of the Thumb-Up/Down gimmick from "Siskle & Ebert," but that bit and he and Gene's natural chemistry made them the first real Superstar Critics - more or less the reason that anyone in my profession has a career or public-profile outside of "guy assigning star-ratings in the local paper. It also cannot be overstated how important it was to the Online Critic community that Ebert was one of the first to take the medium and it's early stars with any degree of seriousness - when Hollywood and the rest of the critical community was still looking down it's nose at us, Roger Ebert was inviting the likes of Harry Knowles to guest on his show.
He is survived by his wife, Chaz, and multiple children and grandchildren. He is irreplacable, and will be sorely missed.
Ebert was the vanguard of new American film-critics who swept into the business alongside New Hollywood in the 70s, a guy who'd grown up a movie-obsessed youth and started out as a screenwriter for T&A maven Russ Meyer. He was said to have grown annoyed with the reductive simplicity of the Thumb-Up/Down gimmick from "Siskle & Ebert," but that bit and he and Gene's natural chemistry made them the first real Superstar Critics - more or less the reason that anyone in my profession has a career or public-profile outside of "guy assigning star-ratings in the local paper. It also cannot be overstated how important it was to the Online Critic community that Ebert was one of the first to take the medium and it's early stars with any degree of seriousness - when Hollywood and the rest of the critical community was still looking down it's nose at us, Roger Ebert was inviting the likes of Harry Knowles to guest on his show.
He is survived by his wife, Chaz, and multiple children and grandchildren. He is irreplacable, and will be sorely missed.
Gritty Reboots: "Calvin & Hobbes"
Thus far, the Gritty Reboots YouTube channel had seemed like a great concept in search of a target, but their "Calvin & Hobbes" is a total slam dunk: Feels very much like a plausible Nolanizing of the strip tonally, but also peppered with exactly the right amount of references for the fans (1:10 - perfect.)
"Only God Forgives"
Here's the red-band trailer for Nicholas Winding Refn's "Only God Forgives," his follow-up to "Drive" once-again featuring Ryan Gosling, who is in turn once again playing up that almost surreal "macho" intensity that befits a guy who had to go through middle school with a last name that literally means "A Baby Goose."
Rabu, 03 April 2013
Marvel Teases "Phase 2"
The Marvel Studios "Phase One DVD Set" that had been delayed is now finding it's way to consumers, and pretty-much every news site is running some variation of reports on the Phase TWO preview materials that came packaged therein. HitFix, in particular, has some good scans up plus a vid (for now anyway) of the video-featurette portion. Take a look:
WARNING: At least one slice of concept-art may or may not show either a certain previously-established character fighting alongside The Guardians of The Galaxy OR one of the Guardians dropping in on someone else's movie. Whichever it is, some might consider it a possible spoiler.
marvelphasetwo by pepsiguy2
The video is heavy on "Iron Man 3," which is to be expected, but for me the big "cool!" of this is that it offers the first non-bootleg look at the "test-footage" for Edgar Wright's "Ant-Man" movie that ran at SDCC last year. I've only seen the footage once before at low-quality, so anyone who knows better feel free to correct me, but it looks like there've been some CGI improvements to the size-changing effects and the overall design of Ant-Man's costume/helmet since the initial version. If so, that supports what many (myself included) have been saying all along: That cheapskate Marvel wouldn't pay for finished-CG "test footage" if they weren't planning to repurpose it as a post-credits tease in some near-future movie.
Also included (in the video and in the various image galleries are first-looks (primarily in the form of concept-art, but those proved pretty reliable in the past) at The Winter Soldier and Falcon from "Captain America 2." and some BTS footage from "Thor: The Dark World." Not loving that Falcon looks to have been outfitted with dull black duds a'la Hawkeye (c'mon Marvel, not only is that era done with - you stuck the fork in it) but he does have his wings, which is the important part. Winter Soldier has his robot-arm, but it also looks like they've given him a bottom-face mask to conceal his identity from mainstream audiences who don't know who/what he is yet (I wonder how that reveal will "play" in the absence of 40+ years of buildup.)
Rounding things out are an expanded look at "Guardians of The Galaxy," aka "Yeah, we're really gonna do this;" confirming once more that Disney/Marvel really seriously is going to drop a talking, gun-toting Space Raccoon into their billion dollar Movie Universe just because they can.
WARNING: At least one slice of concept-art may or may not show either a certain previously-established character fighting alongside The Guardians of The Galaxy OR one of the Guardians dropping in on someone else's movie. Whichever it is, some might consider it a possible spoiler.
marvelphasetwo by pepsiguy2
The video is heavy on "Iron Man 3," which is to be expected, but for me the big "cool!" of this is that it offers the first non-bootleg look at the "test-footage" for Edgar Wright's "Ant-Man" movie that ran at SDCC last year. I've only seen the footage once before at low-quality, so anyone who knows better feel free to correct me, but it looks like there've been some CGI improvements to the size-changing effects and the overall design of Ant-Man's costume/helmet since the initial version. If so, that supports what many (myself included) have been saying all along: That cheapskate Marvel wouldn't pay for finished-CG "test footage" if they weren't planning to repurpose it as a post-credits tease in some near-future movie.
Also included (in the video and in the various image galleries are first-looks (primarily in the form of concept-art, but those proved pretty reliable in the past) at The Winter Soldier and Falcon from "Captain America 2." and some BTS footage from "Thor: The Dark World." Not loving that Falcon looks to have been outfitted with dull black duds a'la Hawkeye (c'mon Marvel, not only is that era done with - you stuck the fork in it) but he does have his wings, which is the important part. Winter Soldier has his robot-arm, but it also looks like they've given him a bottom-face mask to conceal his identity from mainstream audiences who don't know who/what he is yet (I wonder how that reveal will "play" in the absence of 40+ years of buildup.)
Rounding things out are an expanded look at "Guardians of The Galaxy," aka "Yeah, we're really gonna do this;" confirming once more that Disney/Marvel really seriously is going to drop a talking, gun-toting Space Raccoon into their billion dollar Movie Universe just because they can.
Selasa, 02 April 2013
"Hermoine Just Stole All Of Our Shit!"
It trips me out to consider that "This Is The End" is basically the Movie Celebrity version of "Kickassia" - a bunch of buddy-buddy comedy stars and whoever else they could land playing (versions of) themselves in a rude riff on End Times disaster movie that looks to find the sweet-spot between self-effacing and self-indulgent. The new red-band trailer is pretty extraordinary:
Big Picture: "Marvel Mess"
A virtual 90s'talgia non-entity "character" (and that's being charitable) from one of the most overrated comics of all time is being dropped into the Marvel Universe. Believe it or not, this actually is kind of a big deal...
Senin, 01 April 2013
Huh. Forgot This Existed...
I actually really liked the first "Percy Jackson" movie. Yeah, it's a "Harry Potter" clone; but it's not like J.K. Rowling INVENTED the supernatural/schoolboy/hero's-journey hybrid genre and the film had a laid-back 1980s Amblin feel that worked for the most part. Also, I admire how doggedly it sticks to such a specific target audience of "schoolchildren really into Greek Mythology." (Premise: It's "Potter," but instead of a school for natural-born wizards it's a Summer Camp for the half-human offspring of still-existing Olympian Gods.)
The first one made money but wasn't a sizable hit and didn't seem to become a major "thing," so I'd kind of forgotten that they were going ahead with a sequel. But they did, and now MTV has a trailer:
Okay, looks pretty good. That last shot, at least, is exactly what I'm talking about when I say this series knows it's audience and more of the sort of thing that I got a kick out of in the first one: "Oh, I know what THAT'S supposed to be! COOL!"
The first one made money but wasn't a sizable hit and didn't seem to become a major "thing," so I'd kind of forgotten that they were going ahead with a sequel. But they did, and now MTV has a trailer:
Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog
Okay, looks pretty good. That last shot, at least, is exactly what I'm talking about when I say this series knows it's audience and more of the sort of thing that I got a kick out of in the first one: "Oh, I know what THAT'S supposed to be! COOL!"
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