Back to the Future?

April 20, 2012 Leave a Comment

One of the touchstones of my youth has to be Back to the Future, yes all three of those glorious films.  My fascination with time travel in fiction, and the wonderful paradoxes that result. Now none of these movies have remained in my top timetravel films, on a strict reading, but they all remain in my list of movies that I can watch virtually any-when.DeLorean, to the point that I almost bought one when the economy crashed and I was all gainfully employed. 2

Now on paper BttF is sort of a nonsense film that really doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, and many a blogpost and podcast has referenced these errors, but today I bring you two good examples. The first is from my personal favourite fragment of the cracked-i-verse, from back in 2010 an early episode of `After Hours’.

Next up we have a fairly recent (April 4) video parodying the production/greenlighting of script procedure, as well as the other large weird part of BttF.

 

Don’t worry, I still love you Back to the Futre, but man are you not who I thought you were… Similar scrutiny doesn’t help us with the other two films either.  Apologies for any bubbles burst folks.

(via Topless Robot, and my past)

  1. For those interested the top of that list is clearly Point Break. ↩
  2. I ended up buying Daisy months later and couldn’t be happier with that decision. ↩

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Avengers Update [Hulk-Size]

April 9, 2012 Leave a Comment

Wow, its been too long since I’ve updated you all with Avengers goodness. What was a planned two video update weeks ago has turned into a plethora of them.1

First let’s take a look of an impressive fan trailer that really outdoes the original trailer which I was drooling over last month. Here the fan, with the oddly apropos handle ‘lazarusreborn’, took scenes from the other marvel movies and avenger media to make a 3:40 grand gesture to exactly what Marvel movies have been building up to all these years. It’s worth checking out the original before seeing just how  crafted this fan-trailer is.2

 

 

Not to be outdone we have the official Polish trailer, which has its own slant on who the real protagonist is. I’m sure the average comic book fan is not really complaining.3  We really shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose, with Captain America being last billed of the male cast and the Russian super-spy (with the leggy attacks) getting a *cough* substantial amount of screen time, but it is worth pondering which traits of the characters may have influenced this trailer’s cut.

 

Now let’s turn to a few TV spots, don’t worry I’m only including those that are either badass or charming4, otherwise this post would really take ages. Here’s a general ‘buy avengers toy swag at Target®’ commercial. It’s cute in just the right sort of ‘remember when you were 8 and your imagination was freeeee’ sort of way. Mostly it just makes me sad that if I tried to do that sort of thing at a Target® we would definitely get in all sorts of trouble. Hey internet peeps, gather your 20-30 something friends and redo this silly video at your ages. I would love to see the Targets (that’s ppl who shop at concentric circle branded stores) watching random nerds play at Avengers… Sorry I digress. Here’s the video:

 

 

There are a couple new TVspots advertising the movie, there’s the one with Captain America telling Hulk to Smash, but that 2seconds are the only newsworthy new ones, so in an effort to keep this a semi-reasonable length I’ll point you in that direction.  I will share the earlier spot which has a nice little piece of dialogic fencing between Loki and Tony, it is only 30s after all.

 

We’ll round the whole thing out with a little more Black widow. The latest scene length spot is a phone conversation between everyone’s favourite S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Poland’s favourite Avenger.

 

(via The Mary Sue, Topless Robot & others I’m sure)

  1. Yes well, I feel they are all welcome, but some may note ↩
  2. Well except maybe the horribly overwrought score, and its almost deafening volume. *Ugh*  ↩
  3. I said ‘average’ knowing some of you wouldn’t be pleased with the invocation of ‘comic book guy’ stereotype, feel free to take whatever offense must be taken I suppose. ↩
  4. Yes nerds its a standard disjunction not a bloody XOR ↩

Filed under Masks and Metahumans, Moving Pictures

ZOMG Avengers trailer

February 29, 2012 Leave a Comment

That’s right folks, its the new Avengers trailer. The past half hour has been littered with links to this thing, so I thought to myself “Why not one more?”

This one is really juicy. All our heroes get enough screen time to paint a picture of who they are and what their motivation is, well except maybe poor hawkeye. We see genuine Hulking out, and a surprising amount of Hero vs. Hero. Also giant space worm.

(via The Mary Sue et al)

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College Recruitment & The Wait

February 29, 2012 Leave a Comment

For some of you its that horribly awkward moment having applied to programs and waiting to hear some sort of response. For the rest of you I ask you to reach back in your memories and recall a similar point. Maybe its when you applied to college yourself, or a job you really-or not really I suppose- wanted. Heck even that split second after you ask someone out and are in angsty anticipation of the response will give you a taste of the no-so-wonderful feeling it is to wait.

This is just a really roundabout way of introducing a couple of reasonably entertaining college recruitment videos. All I’m saying is more PhD programs, and companies, should try to spice up the dull and stressful procedure with some light, or graphic, farce. Ok, so I just hate waiting, enjoy these vids anyway.

Here we go then: the Central Institute of Technology1 released this video about learning to teleport. Be forewarned, the whimsy doesn’t last all the way through to the end.

Next up is a less inventive entry by the university of Huddersfield. Its pretty camp, but the ‘main’ scientist is probably one of their drama students because he pulls of the doctor-esque role quite well, for a commercial. As well, there is a voice cameo by none other than Patrick Earl-grey-hot Stewart.

Now.. back to interview prep… /sigh

(via io9)

  1. Located in Perth ↩

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Toytrailers Mix

February 15, 2012 Leave a Comment

Not to be outdone by mere superheroes of the comic book variety, toys themselves have made it to hollywood. I speak of movies based on properties that originated as toys.  As with the Supertrailers mix these are also ‘old’ by internet standards. The trailers came out during the American TV extravaganza that also features a little sport.

Why post things that are already stale on the internet? Well just in case you, fair reader, may have missed them when they first hit. You know when all your media sites were only posting them, or shit about them. Call it Internet Round 2: Stale but not mouldy.

But I digress.

Now I have to state that although I was a big fan of the toy nothing about the original film, in the leadup or *any* reviews, made me want to approach it with a 12 inch detailed action figure. However colour me in negative if my opinion on the upcoming sequel is not an inversion of the first. I speak of none-other than G.I. Joe. Now with more Cobra Commander, Bruce Willis, and even a possible plot. Rather than just show the superbowl trailer, it turns out the French got a longer and more comprehensive trailer that makes an even more stronger impression that there may actually be a movie underneath all dem ‘splosions. Oh The Rock is in this one, but JGL and the Ninth Doctor are not.

Also Ninjas on Strings.
Right, now that we have got the pleasantly surprising number out, let’s move on to the most talked about movie-based-on-hasbro-intellectual-propertyOuija. Its Battleship! How excited am I for this one? One can only be excited if they had always wanted to see Liam Neeson and Rihanna embarrass themselves on the same stage. If that’s you, boy are you in for a treat.

You remember all the action that takes place on land in Battleship, right? And the unforgettable bits with the unstoppable alien army bent on genocide? Just in case you forgot here is a handy picture of the actual game.

Not the Deluxe Alien version

Let’s not confuse it with the independent short from 2009. It’s got little information and is a merciful 14minutes long. Here’s the synopsis from the always reliable imdb:

“A guy and girl meet on a blind date and attempt to kindle a romance together despite their tendency to cheat… At board games.”

So it seems it wins against the hollywood entry on virtually every level.  Even if embarrassing, script wise, it demeans only people looking to work and be creative. Its 14min long, so fuck it how bad could it be. And of course it has something to do with the bloody board game.

If that wasn’t enough to muddy the waters, it appears that there is a video game coming out to accompany the movie. Judging by the trailer (below if you want to bother) it seems like a much more action packed game than… well  Battleship®.

Read more of this post

  1. Yes, yes I know its Milton Bradley not Hasbro. Knock off you pedant ↩

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Supertrailers Mix

February 14, 2012 Leave a Comment

Well unless you have been under a rock for the past week or so, or you know travel a different internet than I, you have probably seen these trailers but what the hell let’s post ‘em anyway.

 

First up is my most anticipated movie of the year. I am talking, of course, about “The Avengers“.  The newest trailer came out during the superbowl containing mostly new scenes, including a badass one of the newest version of  The Hulk, my childhood favourite superhero. I could wax all nerdical about every scene and how it makes me drool in anticipation, or I could just show it to you.

(via Film School Rejects, amongst so many others)

A pleasant surprise followup is Sony’s contribution to Marvel-character-movies-in-2012, the spider-man reboot.  Honestly I haven’t been paying any attention to this flick, despite liking spider-man and being a fan of Emma Stone. But this trailer actually made me kind of interested in this flick. I mean, there are spies and Science! That’s three of the top S’s. Watch the trailer and see.

 

There are more fun trailers out there, but that’s it for now. As always if you are only interested in this sort of post you can subscribe to specific categories via your favourite RSS reader.

Filed under Masks and Metahumans, Moving Pictures

Community Find!

December 2, 2011 Leave a Comment

For all you community fans out there, I have tracked down that wonderfully ridiculous song that has become another of Abed and Troy’s in-jokes.

 

The adult contemporary, some might rather ‘elevator music’ track is: “Michael Haggin – Daybreak” here in all its glory.


For the uninitiated to the wonder that is Community, first off shame on you, second here’s the first time we encounter the song (I believe, feel free to correct me if I am mistaken).


 
The episode contains other such ‘scary stories’ that allow us to peak into the neuroses of all our favourite dysfunctional characters. Do watch.

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FYI There is an Avenger’s Movie

October 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

In case you have been living under a rock for the past few years, superhero movies are not only in vogue but 2011 may just go down in history as the year hero-flicks choked the boxoffice. Hopefully 2012, with The Dark Knight Rises & The Avengers (more on that in a second), will be the much needed Heimlich for the summer blockbuster. But I digress.

Last week was my birthday, but for the rest of the nerd-net, because there really is partition of nerdy vs. not internet; how far we have come. It was the day the Avengers trailer premiered.

Oh did I mention its being directed by Joss Whedon, as if you didn’t already know.  So this looks like it could be pretty good, and the pedigree of the writer(s)/director certainly seems like we won’t be seeing the theoretical sequel to “The Green Lantern”, which I will have to deal with at some later date.

Ever since the Jack Black vehicle “Be Kind Rewind” sweding has entered popular culture. For the uninitiated this is the artistic approach of remaking something with the production values of bored junior high students, it being the main plotpoint of said film. It may doesn’t sound that entertainnig, but somehow it seems to work. Here then, is “The Avengers Trailer: Redux”

Just in case there are any naysayers who are questioning why I would bother writing a couple hundred words to present a trailer. 1) Come on its film and comicbooks, whose blog are you reading anyway. But more importantly it was important enough for NMA to make one of their hilarious animated news pieces. I really hope NMA isn’t news to you, it is not only always good for a couple visual gags but also a really good measure of the world impact of, usually pop-culture, events. Jay & Conan’s late night strife, and our friends over at Occupy Wall Street.

Ah the wonders of the internet and mixed media remixing.

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Ke$ha, Seriously.

October 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

Now before you immediately jump ship at the mention of  Ke$ha, and increase my bounce rate on gAnalytics as a result, just bear with me for a moment. I’m guessing you are in either of two camps. 1. You have no idea what a Ke$ha is, or 2. You know well enough to think that there is nothing worth seeing here.

For the uninitiated, or those who want a stark reminder go ahead and watch the first 30s of her breakout single from waay back in 2009 “Tik Tok”. Spelling obviously was not her strongest subject in school, though she is still the frontrunner for ASCII abuse for the third straight year.

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? The key line to remember, is the bit about “brush my teeth with a bottle of jack” because WTB? Cultural scholars are still trying tro wrap their heads around her cavalier approach to referencing, and the dentists are just salivating at the idea of her fans following suit…

So now he have the standard pop starlet story, albeit with some more obscure leanings. The moment my opinion slightly turned on our dollar-sign embedded chum would probably have to be when the, usually hilarious, people over at Funny Or Die made this video explaining the source of the ASCII abuse.

Not supremely hilarious, sure, but at least there is evidence of self-awareness. And the premise is highly entertaining. So at least she knows that her persona is ridiculous. If we left it here, I would be with you in thinking that that is definnitely not enough and why have I wasted time reading this mild exposition. That’s why you need to watch the video for ‘Blow’. As a song its what one might expect genericy pop sounds and a decent beat. But the video itself is some sort of amazing mashup of self-awareness and meme-mashing up. It opens with the disclaimer that “No mythological creatures were harmed in the making of this video.” Her costar, and barely love interest (for music video standards), none other than Dawson from the creek: James van Der Beek. And trust me he knows exactly what part of the cultural arena he inhabits in this day and age. To coin a phrase that is already a victim of linguistic inflation: “This video is all kinds of epic.”

Regardless of your opinion, previous or current, of Ms. Ha, you have to admit that this video is clearly the product of the internet circa early 2011 and proof that these silly people probably know exactly what triggers the silly faces you pull when confronted with their particular breed of nonsense.

A final note, for you Van der Douche fans, you should check out his brief role in the otherwise terrible “The Big Bang”, Antonio Banderas vehicle. The man knows his limits, and is seemingly revelling in them.

(Also its really hard not to type ‘s’ after the $ because mentally one is typing ‘Kesha’ and $ don’t make sounds…)

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Positive Nostalgia

March 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

With the horrible spate of remakes/reimaginings that have plagued hollywood for years now, I thought it would be nice to share with you, dear reader, two examples of nostalgia that brought a smile to my face; and hopefully yours as well.

First off you may not know about the movement to erect a statue of Robocop in Detroit. Yes, you read that right. Go ahead, take a moment and absorb that idea.
Now, the current mayor of Detroit doesn’t see the merits of such a monument. Now our friends over at Funny or Die have posted the apeal to the masses of Robocop himself, Peter Weller.
Next up, is a brief clip of the brand-spanking-new anime-inspired Thundercats remake. While it looks all kinds of bad-ass, its unfortunate that strong sources say Snarf will be virtually silent. No doubt in an attempt to preempt any anti-Jar-Jar-like sentiments that would probably occur if the original whinger Snarf remained in tact. 
Here it is:

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