Fallout 3

Ok, how do you follow a review of such an awsome movie like Six-String Samurai? With a review of a video game with a similar style. Welcome to Fallout 3. Sure, the game is set in 2077, but it has a lot of that mid-50's/60's pop culture feel. From the Wolfman Jack style DJ, Three Dog, to all the 50's style graphics, you get the feeling that society ended a long time ago. The game also reminds me a lot of what I loved about Bioshock, but on a much grander, more open ended scale.

You are a survivor who has recently left Vault 101, and are on a quest to find your father, who left before you did. Upon your journey you are beset apon by all sorts of different characters that want you to help them in what unravel to be side quests. The game is similar in that style to Oblivion IV, which I hated. I know it was popular, but I don't give a shit about faries and dragons and shit. "My husband is stuck in a painting." Good, fuck him. He's a dipshit for getting stuck in a fucking painting. "Our town sheriff is a dickbag." Ok, why don't you kick his ass? I just met you. Where Oblivion left me not giving a damn though, I totally care about feelings in Fallout. What a difference a setting makes. "Hey could you blow yourself to fuck so I can write this crappy survival guide?" Sure. Why wouldn't I? "My town is beset by fire ants. I know you don't have any ammo right now, but could you save us?" Fuck. Of course I can. Now you run along little Billy. I've got some fire ants to bludgen to death.

Fallout 3 also has a really good leveling up system. Don't care about stealth and you want to shoot every motherfucker in the room. Cool. You can focus on that. Also, the weapons you use break down with use, just like in the real post-apocalyptic America. So use them wisely or make sure you fix them a lot. Lest you're fucked. So keep your shit clean and fixed. And now you have karma. Want to kill and steal? People will know your a fucker. You can even nuke a town. Seriously. That makes you a real fucker. But say you like to help out and want nothing in return. Well, you're a really nice guy with no money or ammo ever. It's all up to how you want to play it.

What I'm getting at with this game is it's pretty awsome. Yea, it's hard. You really have to work to get through everything, but you can do it at your own pace, and help or hurt anyone you want. I like where the future of games is going. Rather than side scrolling games with only one choice, you now play in a huge open world, where you can do anything you feel like. And if you really want, you can even nuke a town. What more could you ask for in a game?

Six-String Samurai

In 1957 the Russians nuked America. All that remains is wasteland, save for the Lost Vegas area. Elvis is the king of Lost Vegas. Elvis has just died. Vegas needs a new king...

You've got to be kidding? This is the plot of this movie? FUCK YES! Why aren't there more movies like this? But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Six-String Samurai is the telling of the tale of Buddy (Jeffery Falcon, martial artist), a Buddy Holly esque character, who is making his venture to Vegas to become the new king. The movie is directed by Lance Mungia (The Crow: Wicked Prayer), and the soundtrack is composed by the Red Elvises. The Elvises are also in the movie as a Russian surf band and dispatched by Buddy. Along his travels he encounters "Kid" (Justin McGuire), a young boy lost in the wasteland that Buddy begrudgingly takes care of. Also encountered are some really hip adversaries. A cannabalistic suburban family, some weird Area 51 style "Windmill People", a Ritchie Valens style character and Buddy's greatest foe, Death. Death is very slash esque and his goal is to destroy all the rockers headed to Vegas and become the new king, killing Rock & Roll and inserting Metal as the music of the land.

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Made for only $2000, it's not a big movie, but when it comes to quailty, it lacks for nothing. Ok, the voiceovers are kind of crappy, but it's still awsome. I'm a huge Rockabilly fan and it's so nice to see a movie that really captures that style. I love the whole 50's Americana thing. Even more so the post-apocalyptic 50's America that has become popular. This movie has everything for me. Ok, so there's really no hot girl, but not even untill I wrote this did I think that maybe hot chicks make every movie better. So get some two-tone shoes, put the hair up in a pompador and rock out to one of the best films I know of.

His Name Was Jason

It looks like Febuary 2009 will give us more than just a Friday the 13th remake. Also on the slate is the new doc, His Name Was Jason. Lead by Daniel Farrands, the editor of Crystal Lake Memories, and produced by the team behind Halloween: 25 Years Of Terror. The film is slated for release on Feb. 3rd, so it should be a good way to drum up some of the old Friday excitement to ramp up the new remake. Then with Jason out of the way, rumors are that the cameras will be focused on Freddy in a simialar history biopic, rumored to be the herold of a Nightmare remake. I've heard the pitch about the Nightmare prequil/remake so much, I'm gonna need a little more to go on. I believe anything, but still, a biopic would be nice. Reguardless, His Name Was Jason has me champing at the bit. You can pre-order it now on Amazon if you want. I already have.

ReAnimator: The Terrible TV Idea

Transition Entertainment is working on a pilot for Herbert West: Re-Animator The Series, written by Meredith Red & William Butler... God damnit. Ok, I love the Re-Animator Movies. I love Jeffery Combs as Herbert West. I've got this sinking feeling that "A teenage Dr. Frankenstein for the new millennium" will not be anything like the Re-Animator that is one of my favorite movies ever.
Now I've made it clear that I'm not one of those that thinks that every time a horror film is remade a boy band get's a number one hit, I like a lot of the different remakes that have come out. One of the main reasons is that I don't compair them to the originals. You can't. If you want a shot for shot remake check out that awful Psycho with Vince Vaughn. I enjoy seeing characters that I've come to know imagined through someone elses lense. Are the originals usually better? More often than not, but that doesn't mean they don't have a place. The original book is usually better than the movie too, but strangely books are still made into movies everyday. All that said, Herbert West as a teenager with a love interest and some "Jay & Silent Bob" style recurring characters does nothing for me. Turn Beetlejuice into a cartoon. I get it. Turn Herbert West into a smart nerdy kid? Why? I don't see how it can do anything other than a disservice to the original films. I guess yet again time will tell, but it seems like there's more and more that I'm not holding my breath for these days. That Friday the 13th remake better kick ass..

Evil Dead With Feeling

Maybe you've heard of this before. A Canadian theater group got together and made a live musical adaptation of the classic film The Evil Dead. Now I'm kinda pissed I never got to see this. I know it sounds kinda campy, but I don't hate theater, and I love Evil Dead. But sadly I missed the boat on every one of the 400 shows that were put on. Now I know that there's talks that the play is going to tour, but I keep hearing places like Germany, and Korea. I don't want to see it that badly...
But leave it to good old Sam Rami to give me some rumors to get excited about. Now I know that all the rumblings have him signed on for two more Spider Man films, but it sounds like he is very open to the possiblity of Evil Dead The Musical being turned into a 3-D movie. Currently it's slated that the plays original director, Christopher Bond, and the choreographer, Hinton Battle, would be sharing the directors seat. While I hear they're planing on filming in Canada, I don't know if the cast will be the original theatrical actors reprising their roles or not...
I know there have been a lot of rumblings in recent years about Evil Dead remakes and the such, and I know that a musical sounds like a fairly strange direction for the franchise, but I'll wait to pass judgement yet. I love the entire Evil Dead trilogy and would really like to see more done with it. Ash is such an awsome anti-hero and if I have to deal with him singing to get more of him, then so be it. Who knows, maybe this one could get a Rocky Horror like cult following. That said though, if I ever end up in a midnight showing and a bunch of overweight Magik kids are singing and dancing along with onscreen deadites, I know a big part of me will die inside...

Confessions of a Superhero

So I gave in. Thom kept talking about Netflix watch now, and with the new xBox 360 update... Well, I caved. But something good came from it too. The first movie I've watched through watch now is Confessions of a Superhero. This is the perfect kind of movie for me. It's a documentary about people who dress up as superheros on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood. The film stresses that they are in now way associated with any individual buisness and work only for tips.

This Matthew Ogens doc follows Christopher Dennis (Superman), Joseph McQueen (The Hulk), Jennifer Gehrt (Wonder Woman) and Maxwell Allen (Batman). While the movie does bounce around from character to character, it always finds its way back to Chris Dennis' Superman. Dennis is somewhere between a super nice guy and an obsessive weirdo, but in a charming underdog way. Between watching him lecture other superheros like Spiderman & Ghost Rider on proper superhero etiquette we find out about his massive Superman memorabilia collection and his girlfriend. You also learn about his disputed claim that he is the son of actress Sandy Dennis. The segments on Allen do the most for me though. Allen claims to have been a former mafia enforcer, though his wife doubts some of his confessions. I love that Batman is by far the most damaged character in real life. His anger and frailty both in and out of costume make for a great biopic.

I need to say that I could see how maybe this movie isn't for everyone. At the end of the day it's pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be; wanna be actors making money by dressing up as superheros on the Walk of Fame. And that was good enough for me. I like stories of fractured people and underdog stories. So this was a huge hit for me. Come on. Even superheros have fucked up home lives.

I Just Got Ear Fucked By Axl Rose...

And I mean that in a good way. As you all know by now, Guns N’ Roses 14 years in the making, Chinese Democracy has dropped and all I can say is… epic. No strike that. MOTHERFUCKING EPIC!!! It was definitely worth the wait. It’s big and bloated like a Baldwin after a bender. And that’s a good thing. The songs start and stop, then add some strings, maybe a keyboard, with a layered guitar solo, maybe a Cool Hand Luke quote, only to have a choir sing back up, while Axl wails. No strike that. MOTHERFUCKING WAILS!!! There is simply no rock singer like Axl Rose. Yes, Robert Plant has range but no danger. Mick Jagger, c’mon… Emotional Rescue? You got your card pulled there, bud. But Axl, he sounds like he just drank a bottle of Jack, smoked two packs, ate your mom out, drank a 40, and then showed up to the studio at midnight when there’s a full moon out. The motherfucker is a rock n’ roll werewolf.

But the secret to sounding like that is it’s a lot of hard work and Axl is a perfectionist. He’s had 14 years to get Chinese Democracy right and he does. Against all odds, he does. I can’t help but think of the guy at the bar with the fashionably messy hair. He might try and look like he doesn’t give a shit but guaranteed that guy spends more time in front of the mirror than anybody. And Axl has been gazing in the mirror for a long time during the production of Chinese Democracy. And I like what he sees. He pulls it off. Yes, he’s the last original member of Guns N’ Roses standing. But you know what Chinese Democracy sounds like? A Guns N’ Roses album. No strike that. A MOTHERFUCKING GUNS N’ ROSES ALBUM!! I don’t care that it took five guitarists to make one Slash. It sounds good. Axl struts, whines, threatens, and curses at you on Chinese Democracy. It’s almost like he’s daring you to say that this isn’t a Guns album. Well, it is. That said, I would love to hear the original line up back together, but for now this is enough. It’s almost more than enough. This is Guns N’ Roses in 2008. And it sounds good. It sounds real good.

Fallout 3 Has The Nothing Files Left 4 Dead

So you might have noticed a lull in our posting as of late. Sorry about that. Facts would have it that Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead have dominated our free time. Think of it as research. So, trust us, we're trying. But really, have you played these games? It's a beautiful time to be alive. Now I know that Thom and Jon are in love with Fallout. I'm in like with it. I think it's a beautiful game, I just don't know that I've figured it out that well. My greatest skill seems to be getting shot in the head. But I'm still playing it. Haven't given up yet. Then there's Left 4 Dead... Thom and I have been ruining some nights saving each others asses from zombies. I love zombie stuff and this is one of the best game translations I've come across. So if you're getting mad at us for not having enough of your pop culture fix, give us a break. Some of the coolest games in years just came out, and come on, would you really believe guys that could just ignore them and go on buisness as usual? I didn't think so. So keep it tuned in. We've still got more to post, untill I get DC Vs Mortal Kombat that is. And we've got our gamer profiles on this site. Feel free to add us and join in the carnage if you see us online.

Dirty Sexy Cancelled

Ok, it's no secret that I think Dirty Sexy Money is one of the worst shows I've ever seen. And evidently I'm not in the minority. ABC recently announced that Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone, which I have never seen, will not be renewed after the current 13 episodes air. In more hopeful news, the amazing Life on Mars has had 4 more episodes ordered and will switch timeslots in January, moving behind Lost. While no one at ABC is willing to use the term cancelled for either Dirty Sexy or Eli, the whole non-renewal thing doesn't bode well for either show. Looks like unless some other mainstays flop or there is some Jericho style internet backlash, I'm not gonna have to live in a world where Dirty Sexy Money is considered entertainment.

X-Men: The Highschool Years

Well, it looks like it's gonna happen. After the weirdness of X-Men 3: Let's Kill All The Established a new X-Men movie is in the works. By now I'm sure everyone has seen the teaser for X-Men Origins: Wolverine (I'm so exicted to see a Ryan Reynolds Deadpool) and heard the rumblings of the Magneto movie, and while I'm looking forward to both, I really like the characters they've established in the previous movies and would love to see another X-Men group movie hit the screens. Really quickly I'd like to weigh in on the 3rd movie. While it's really visually interesting and gave us some new characters into the movie cannon, what the fuck? How are you gonna have Dark Phoenix kill Cyclops and Prof. X? While the others felt like you were watching an X-Men movie, the third just seemed like Hollywood trying it's damnedest to kill a beloved project with too many twists and turns.

How do you come back from that. Well, it would seem that you bring on Josh Schwartz, known for scripting Gossip Girl, The OC and Chuck to pen a script. Fox also offered Schwartz the directors chair, but he declined, so that door is still open. Looks like Lauren Shuler Donner will produce, so maybe some levity can come from that. So the next X-Men film will be X-Men: First Class, not with the original X-Men young, but following the children of Xavier's school that haven't had much screen time. Most speculation is that the film will revolve around Rouge, Colossus, Iceman, Angel and Kitty Pryde, with the possibility of some older X-Men showing up as cameos.

I would really love to see a movie focusing on these characters. My only worry is I don't want The OC with superheros. Come to think of it, who would? Ok, wait, that's Smallville. Anyway, again, this one could really go either way, but for us true fans, please Fox, please realize how bad X3 was and bring us back to X-Men movies that are fun and blow our minds.

Shazam! A Captain Marvel Movie In The Works

DC comics Shazam, AKA Captain Marvel, is getting a big screen treatment also. Peter Segal, director Get Smart, has moved to Warner Brothers and as part of his deal, brought along his old New Line project, the Captain Marvel movie. John August has scripted the story of teenager Billy Batson who transforms into Captain Marvel when he says "Shazam!". With Get Smart, The Longest Yard, 50 First Dates & The Nutty Professor II under his belt, look for a more irreverent, comedy superhero movie from Segal. I could go either way on this one, but with all the superhero movies in the works, a more comedic styled one could be a nice break. Let's just hope that no one involved in Hancock is even a key grip on this. That movie sucked.

Arrested Development THE MOVIE

While there isn't a script, there is a will! Ron Howard, narrator of the Mitchell Hurwitz created show, has joined other cast members in expressing interest in a big screen adaption of the awsome comedy Arrested Development. Fox Searchlight seems to be on board too, so with any luck this project could get moving forward with some more certainty too.
For those unfamilair, Arrested Development was a documentary style show that followed the Bluth family, a formarly rich family that has fallen from grace after their father was imprisoned. With Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi, David Cross this show had everything a comedy should. It even gave us Michael Cera. I've never been big into comedy shows or really most TV shows in general, but this is one of the funniest I've ever seen. Do yourself a favor and check out the 3 seasons that are out on DVD, then start spreading the word. We want more of the Bluths. Save the Bluths!

I Am Kirk.

Dance of the Dead

This is about the Ghosthouse Underground movie, not the Masters of Horror one. It's a brilliant age we live in when there are so many horror films coming out with such frequency I have to make that distinction.

Dance of the Dead is a zombie take on high school prom. Directed by Gregg Bishop (The Other Side, The Encounter) and written by Joe Ballarini (Father vs Son) the movie takes place at a Georgian high school that's in the same town as a nuclear power plant. Evedently the plants toxic waste has been seeping into the towns soil for long enough that the dead start to reanimate. Begining as isolated instances in the towns graveyard, and delt with by the groundsman, things in the town don't seem anything less than normal to its inhabitants.

The film does leave a lot unexplained, such as why after all this building up of toxins the dead rise in mass on prom night, and what exactly it is about the toxins that is reanimating them. However I will say that I really enjoyed this one. I'm a big zombie movie fan, and I like the different ways that movies have been able to incorporate them into a wide variety of events. That said, thank god there hasn't been a Zombies at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade movie or a Zombies at Family Night At Sizzler movie. Some things just aren't ripe for parody.

In this movie, zombies move fast, and since they seem to have overtaken the town in a matter of hours, there are shitloads of them. The story follows a group of kids that make up the SciFi club in school, the loser kids who couldn't get dates, and so are left unscathed by the zombie attack en mass. There is also a local high school age kinda-punk band that learns that for some reason, zombies don't attack while music is playing. Does this leave a fairly big plothole as to how the zombies attacked the prom when there was a band there too? Kind of. But again, this movie was good enough that I, for one, didn't care. The concept that they like music, or whatever, is weird, but this movie had so much else going for it that I can overlook some things. The kids end up meeting up with their millitant gym teacher and devise a plan to destroy the school with all the zombies in it. At the school they stumble across the prom queen and some of her hot friends cowering in the bathroom and the SciFi club, in a very Luke Skywalker moment, rescues them. Now you know that blowing up the school can't go according to plan. Yes the band comes back into play, and yes, there are some last minute casualties, but in the end, all blowed up the school is. With most principals still alive, the film sets itself up nicely for a sequel, an attack on the power plant.

This movie was just a lot of fun. Most of the actors who played highschoolers were actually Georgian high school students. Unknows that the director just liked, and I agree with his choices. All the actors played there rolls well, and for a horror film that doesn't take itself too seriously, there was enough humor and plenty of gore. At the begining of this I mentioned how happy I am about the amount of horror content that's coming out these days. And I do. But as you know, more content doesn't always mean high quality across the board. It's nice to see a movie like this with a pretty funny concept that's filmed and acted well. At the end of it all I say this is one to check out. I'm really happy I did, and amongst my friends who have seen it, it's thumbs up all around.

Pinocchio

Never with enough projects in the mix, Guillermo del Toro is working on a team up with artist Gris Grimly on a reimagining of the story of Pinocchio. The film will be shot in a stop motion style and produced through the Jim Henson Co. Grimly is working with del Toro on a script currently and got the nod due to the graphic novel he put out about the charicter. Guillermo is also working on The Hobbit, and remakes of Frankenstein and Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde. I can tell you that I'm really looking forward to this one!
Gris Grimly's website is at www.madcreator.com

Who Says There's Nothing Good On TV?

Well, sounds like there's gonna be some new shows in the pipeline that Jon can DVR. First off is the Chris Moynihan helmed project "The Angel". It's gonna be a scripted workplace comedy following the magician Criss Angel. Cause he comes off as funny and not at all creepy and overly serious... Another Moyniahan project in the works is "100 Questions for Charlotte Payne", following the ever popular construct of a comedy in New York about a girl trying to get by in life, helped by her friends. The idea behind this one is each episode will begin with Charlotte at a dating service, and the question she is asked will segue into that episode. Both of these shows are being developed for NBC.
And if that isn't enough to get you blood pumping, Christmas day this year will not only be a celebration for the birth of the Christian savior, but the unveiling of the new Ski Channel. Not only will it focus on mountain enthusiast programing, but it will also air a variety of ski themed movies. Well, if they play "Better Off Dead" I'll at least tune in for that.

The Quantum of Money

The economy be damned! Moviegoers have made the new Bond film, "The Quantum of Solace" the highest grossing opening Bond to date, bringing in $70.4 million. Solace was a critics punching bag, and comes in as the shortest but most action heavy Bond yet in the franchise, but it would appear that John Q. Public could give a damn about the bad reviews. I know that everyone in one way or another is being effected by the current state of the economy, but this shows that visual soma is still an effective opiate for the masses. And I'm behind it. Yea, most theaters gouge the hell out of you, and with a lot of films dropping on DVD meer months after the theatrical release it's easier to stay home and wait for it to show up in the mail from Blockbuster or Netflicks, but when times get tight, there's no better legal way to lose yourself for a hours than bathing in the light of the big screen with the volume up so loud your soda has become decarbonated by the time the trailers stop.
And I'm also sure that a lot of it is that "The Quantum of Solace" just plain kicked ass.

Dieseling

I'm not quite sure what's going on in Hollywood with this Vin Diesel renaissance that's going on right now. When I went to see the new James Bond film on opening night, one of the trailers before was for a new "Fast & Furious" movie. Someone in the theater summed my thoughts up best by saying "Why?" But that's not all the full tilt Diesel coming our way. 2009 will also bring a new chapter in one of the only Diesel vehicles I don't mind too terribly "The Chronicles of Riddick", this one being "Assault on Dark Athena". Evedently becoming the leader of the Necros, as happened in the last movie, was not and could never be enough for the light challanged Riddick. But don't worry, that's not all either... Continuing with this existential "why?" question, Michael Ferris and John Brancato (writers of Terminator 3 & Terminator Salvation, The Game, Catwoman) are in talks with Sony about scripting a new "XXX" film, "The Return Of Xander Cage". My god.

Now I'm not trying to burn the guy down too bad. He could kick the shit out of me. The reason they keep making these films is because people are obviously going to see them, and not just because Hollywood's new idea well ran dry five years ago. You know when I was a young boy I used to really love Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, so I can't throw too many stones. As with everything, you never really know if it's gonna suck like you might worry about, or if it's gonna somehow defy the odds and be a pretty good popcorn muncher. You just don't know. Maybe N-Sync could reform as a death metal band? And hell, maybe they could be the credit roll song for The Return of Xander Cage!!!

Quantum of Solace Review

   Okay, full disclosure. I am a huge Bond fan. I’ve read every Ian Fleming novel, the one Kingsley Amis novel, the John Gardner novels, the Raymond Benson books (the weakest of the series), and the new Sebastian Faulks book (which takes place in the sixties, immediately after the Fleming books and is the best literary Bond in years). I’ve also played every Bond game. Goldeneye? I’ve given weeks of my life to that game. Everything or Nothing? Of course. James Bond 007 for the Sega Genesis? One of my first. Goldeneye: Rogue Agent? Sadly. Every year I hunt down the James Bond movie poster calendar to hang over my desk in my office. I am in the process of buying every Bond film again. Blu-rays this time. There’s been only six released, but I own them. As well as owning them on VHS and DVD. So I’m a fan. Will this color my review of this film? Of course, but at least you know who you’re dealing with.

   And last night a few of my friends and I hit the midnight screening of “Quantum of Solace.” The theater was packed. The crowd was ready. The lights went down and the trailers started. They did run the new Star Trek trailer, and it looked awesome but I’ll write about that in a different post. Quantum starts quite literally in the middle of a car chase. Men with machine guns are chasing Bond as he drives through the narrow streets of Italy. We don’t know why and it doesn’t really matter as it throws you right into the Bond world. He eventually gets away and drives to a Mi-6 safe house. Bond pops the trunk and we see Mr. White, bound and bleeding. This movie starts right where Casino Royale ends and is the first true sequel in the Bond franchise. And if you haven’t seen Casino Royale, I’m guessing you’re going to be lost, as the filmmakers do absolutely nothing to catch you up to speed.

   In this film Bond is following lead after lead to get to the organization that Vesper (from Casino Royale) worked for. He’s still enraged by her double cross and her death, as he was willing to give up everything, including Mi-6, for her. He wants to find out why. He wants revenge. There is a sub plot about Bolivia and its water supply but it serves as little more than to set up QUANTUM as a huge player on the world stage (and this Bond iteration’s SPECTRE).

   Is this movie better then Casino Royale? No. But it’s better then any of the Bronsan, Dalton, and Moore Bonds by a mile. It’s good and has an easy confidence to it. Quantum is violent, fast and brutal. It’s like a big action sandwich. For the bread, you got action. The meat, you got action. The veggies? Oh boy, you better like action. My only complaint is I felt Marc Forster, the director, could have let the film breathe a little more at the beginning. He employs the Bourne technique of editing and shaky cam but seemingly more so at the beginning. He makes some weird choices of inter-cutting a foot chase through some sewers with a horse race and cutting a pivotal scene of Bond fighting Quantum’s henchmen with an opera. Is it stylistic? Sure. Does it feel like it’s being stylistic for the sake of being stylistic? You bet. And this movie really feels like number two in a trilogy. It’s the bridge film. This movie is all about Bond finding out about Quantum and what they do. I assume in the next one he’ll attempt to take them down. But these are small gripes.

   Quantum of Solace, itself, is a fantastic movie and a thrill ride from beginning to end. It’s definitely worth your time and money. I’m planning on seeing it again and soon. It’s not the film that replaces Craig with Connery as my favorite Bond, but it’s the one that should make Connery look over his shoulder.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Ok, if you haven't heard of this one yet, get cracking. Repo! is the new musical, sometimes opera, set in the future where corporations can repossess organs if you can't make payments. Sounds kind of cool, right? Fuck yes it does. And guess who makes up the cast; Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is the Repo Man, Bill Moseley (Night Of The Living Dead Remake, House of 1000 Corpses) is Luigi Largo, Paris Hilton (Paris Hilton) is Amber Sweet, Sarah Brightman (singer Deliver Me) is Blind Mag and Nivek Ogre (singer Skinny Puppy) is Pavi Largo. Yep. Nivek Ogre! Fuck yea. Sadly this cult opus is only releasing in select cities for midnight shows and not yet getting a nation wide release. Lionsgate is evedently worried because critics aren't fans of the film and so are being timid with its release. Fuck that. I would see this movie in theaters at least five times. At least. Everything I've read and heard makes it sound bizzare and esoteric enough that I know I would dig the hell out of it. So would a lot of people if they were only exposed to it. So write to Lionsgate (Kehlmann@lionsgate.com) and let them know that you want this movie in your town. You want midnight shows and if you have one of those cool theaters where you can drink, you want to get hammered and watch this film. This is one worth getting behind. There are too many holiday feel good comidies and other tripe filling our theaters, it's time for another old fashoned cult rocker to remind us how going to the theater can be fun again.

World War Z

Well, there's a working script and they've named a director. Looks like the director of Finding Neverland & The Quantum of Solace, Marc Forster, will be directing the movie adaptation of Max Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. This has been one of my favortie books for a long damn time. I even got the audio book for my iPod. It's got voice actors like Mark Hamill, Alan Arkin & Henry Rollins. If you haven't heard it you should check it out. Nothing like driving across the flyover states at 3am listening to the aftermath of the Zombie War. But I digress, I've been hearing for a while rumblings about this movie, but I'm really excited with the directorial choice. Just saw The Quantum of Solace last night and it was great. I'd be really interested to see what Forster could do with such great source material. This could really have the potential to be a really interesting project and so much more than just another zombie film. I can't wait!

Pipe Wrench Fight

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

This is by far my new favorite video

Shawn Johnson, Olympian

Ok... Where I'm from Shawn Johnson is kind of like the second coming. I know Marylou Retton had the Wheaties box, but did her taco pop?

She's Lost Control Again

I've recently had the pleasure of watching Dutch director Anton Corbijn's Joy Division biopic, Control. I've always been a fan of Corbijn's music videos and also am a huge Joy Division fan, so I couldn't wait to see this one.

Control follows the life of the band Joy Division, and more so, the life of it's lead singer, Ian Curtis. Presented in black and white to help set the tone, it begins with Curtis living at home as a 17 year old, and ends with his tragic suicide at 23 in 1980. Curtis is at a Sex Pistols show when he overhears a band talking about how their lead singer is awful. Enter Warsaw, the begining of Joy Division. The plot follows Ian with his new girlfriend, soon to be wife, Debbie, for quite a bit of the film. I like the choice to really focus on his home life because it gives so much more of a behind the scenes feel to the film, and while there's no way that it's 100% accurate, it's cool to see what could have been going on in his personal life while he was writing his songs. Soon Ian suffers his first of many seizures, and it is really well shown what a toll that took on him physically and mentally. You really start to see the cracks in Curtis, dealing with his epilepsy and strained home life. Alway portrayed as a some what dark and brooding figure, he withdraws more and more into isolation and his lyrics. The movie progresses through his daughters birth, and his extramarital affair with Annik Honoré. As Joy Division fans are painfully aware, the movie ends right before Joy Division was to embark on their first US tour, with Ian's suicide.

Let me state again, I really love Joy Division, and I'm sure that being a fan has colored my opinion of this film. I know the band had a part in 24 Hour Party People, but this one is all about Joy Division, and that's really appealing to me. I like the tone that it sets and the pacing they went with for the film. It really creates this interesting 1970's Manchester area universe that's easy to fall into. Even for non Joy Division fans, it's a cool look into another time that had huge impact on todays music scene. As some interesting factoids, Deborah Curtis, Ian's widow, was a producer on the film, and Curtis' daughter, Natalie, is an extra in the crowd for the Derby Hall live show.

So if you're a Joy Division fan, check out Control, and if you're not familiar with them, not only is this a good gateway into their music, but a super hip movie that you can be cooler than your friends from having seen. From my standpoint a great film.

Enterprise Rising

Ok, I know we've already done a lot with "NEW PICTURES" from this movie, but damn it, I'm looking forward to this one. While I'm not Star Trek fan 1, I grew up watching the different shows on TV and have seen every movie. But come on. It's the new Enterprise.

Captain America is Moving Forward

Ok, after the super awesome Iron Man, and the remarkably not bad The Hulk, who isn't excited for the upcoming Avengers project? Or initiative... Whatever... And guess what's in the pipeline, The First Avenger: Captain America!!! And though there isn't a script yet, there is a director; Joe Johnston! The Joe Johnston who directed The Rocketeer you ask? Yep, same fucking guy! That with the info that the movie will be set in World War II has me champing at the bit to see this film. Only got to wait until 2011 for it too! But you know what, I don't care. The Rocketeer kicks ass and Captain America is a pretty good hero, though my respect for the character had a huge jump during the Civil War series. I'll be keeping my eye on this one and let you know what I find out.

Veronica Mars Review

So I've just wrapped season one of Veronica Mars. Yeah, I'm always way behind the times, but I'm guessing a lot of you are too. I'm not going to say that I was too very excited to get into this show. Some rich teenagers show on the CW? Not really my deal. But after constant pestering from Thom and reading that it was a favorite show of Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon, it only took an Amazon.com gold box deal to get me to finally pick it up. Fuck, I'm glad I did.

If you listen to the podcast, and you should, you might recall me taking Jon to task about his watching of Dirty Sexy Money, the worst show ever. From that I'm sure you can garner that I don't give two and a half fucks about a show that focuses on rich people and their problems. At first glance that's kind of what Veronica Mars appears to be, rich kids with rich kid problems, and at it's heart, that really is a lot of the story drive of the show, but it manages to be so much more than that too. The characters are very well developed and even the heartless super rich can be redeemed in this show. The dialogue can be very "Buffyesque" at times, and I like that. One of the big things that drew me into Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the quick wit of the characters and how well developed even ancillary characters were, and their likelihood to return in later seasons. Veronica Mars has that. The sly wit, and the nod that a seemingly background character will return and be a plot point later on. It's rare that TV draws me in, but I've been sitting for hours rocking Veronica Mars marathons.

Now obviously it doesn't hurt that Veronica Mars is the ignorantly hot Kristen Bell, but she plays Veronica in a way that lets you get past the "hot blond chick" thing and really get behind her. She plays Mars in a great, sly, smartest person in the room style that's hard not to like. As an assistant private detective "working" for her father, a licensed PI, Mars is frequently taking over cases from her father, while through the entire first season, searching for the real killer of her best friend. It's nice to see a show, much like The X Files or Buffy, that has a nice season long story arc, on top of the mystery of the weekly stories. Also, in a darker turn, they begin with a back story of Veronica being raped a year before the first season begins. I think one of the things I like the most about this show is its ability to deal with headier topics, but not get mired down in them. And don't worry, Veronica's rape ends up being much more consensual then it's eluded to. But still, seeing Veronica taking motherfuckers to task over it is great. It's like a Buffy character, but without the super powers. Yeah, she has some cool gadgets and such, but at the end of the day she's an everygirl, and she fights to stand out and be accepted on her own merits. I can get behind that.

The show, also like Buffy, deals with a lot of teenage and self identity issues that translate well into the scripts. Unlike Buffy though, vices like drinking and jumping into bed with different people aren't as demonized. Hey, I'm not a teenager anymore, I want my onscreen heroes relateable.

So if you've never seen it, it is the holiday season, the time when they start basically giving away DVD sets, so pick it up. Even if it's not on sale I would recommend this one. It's well worth the price of admission to go to High School in Neptune and watch the adventures of TV's hottest detective, Veronica Mars.

The Greatest Day.....

For millions of Americans Tuesday was a sign of hope. An event so important that we will tell our children and grandchildren about it someday. It felt that important to me as well.....as I first saw the greatest video game commercial EVER MADE.....



I still haven't played Guitar Hero: WT as of yet, but it is on my radar. As soon as I get my character to a level 35 or so in Fall Out 3, I'll pick it up.

Oh yeah, Obama won. This is great because now I won't be embarrased by our executive branch anymore.

Fanboys Trailer

Fuck. I swear we're not just a video posting website. Sometimes we write actual content. But there's a little game called Fallout 3. I'm playing it so I can write a review for it and tell you if it sucks or not. (It doesn't. Go out and buy it now). And this election coverage has been wasting my time. (Vote!) But until these things are over... just watch the fucking video!

This movie looks great. I know it went through a lot to make it to the screen. And I, for one, can't wait to her the director's commentary on the DVD. But I'm glad the Weinsteins finally pulled their heads out of their asses and set a release.

Vote For Lando

Today is election day! So go out and vote! And after you do, watch this video. Okay... I'm done bossing you around now.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Terry Tate Urges You to Vote.

Please, I urge you to watch the following clip in its entirety. Yes, I know the first 1:22 is very painful. Very, very painful. And scary. And real. That's really her. No, she does not know how to form sentences. Watch the whole clip, you'll be glad you did. And vote on Tuesday, for whichever candidate you support. And, by "whichever candidate," I clearly mean Obama. Otherwise, please, do us all a favor - don't vote.

My Own Worst Enemy Review

So, it’s time to take a look at the new Christian Slater vehicle, My Own Worst Enemy. (NBC, Mondays at 10/9) The basic premises is given in the promotions for the show, Slater is a dude with multiple personalities. Episode 1, 4 minutes in, he shoots a chick in the head right after he got done Slatering her. This alone got me hooked on the show.
Slater’s a super spy guy, until…..WHAMMY, he switches to normal dude. Normal dude – Henry – doesn’t completely know what’s going on at first, but is starting to figure things out. As Henry puts more and more pieces together, it turns out that he is part of some government program to hide agents when they are not agenting. Henry finds out the his alter ego, Super Spy Edward, is the real person and Henry is essentially a character that has been invented by the government. Obviously Henry finds this troubling. Especially when he finds out that Edward sleeps with Henry’s wife every chance he gets. I should take this opportunity to mention that Henry’s wife is played by the super hot Madchen Amick. Some might remember Amick as Shelly Johnson on Twin Peaks; I remember her as Allison, the drunk sister in law on the short lived, creatively named Freddie Prinze Jr. vehicle…..Freddie.
Henry’s whole life is made up, but real to him. His job is mearly a cover for the agent work. His co-worker buddy, played by Mike O’Malley, is also a super spy. Henry’s therapist, played by the also super hot Safron Burrows, seems to be a very important piece to the puzzle but to what extent we are unaware for now.
The series will follow the adventures of Henry/Edward, and the complications involved in sharing a body (and a family) between two men. Quite a bit of violence for a network show, sexy ladies, and Slater’s star power will keep this show on my DVR for a long time. If you’re a fan of Slater, you’ll like the show. It’s Slater being Slater. By the way, he doesn’t seem to age. He looks pretty much the same now as he did 19 years ago in Heathers. Like my other new action/drama series that I’m watching Life on Mars, I give My Own Worst Enemy a 7 on a scale of 10.

Freddy's Shame

What if Mr. Krueger had to register like sex offenders.....

See more funny videos at Funny or Die