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Posted by Bob Muir on May 9, 2013 in Cinema 
The World’s End is out on August 23 in the US, and it’s looking good, if this hot new trailer is anything to go by! This is the third and final film in Edgar Wright’s loosely-related “Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy,” featuring actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. This movie starts out with old friend’s trying an epic pub crawl again, but soon turns into something out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Judging by the quality of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, this will definitely be one to watch this summer! Read more…
Tags: Simon Pegg
Posted by Bob Muir on May 9, 2013 in Star Trek 
You probably know how to sit in a chair. I mean, at some point during your life, chances are good that you have sat down. But do you know how to do it and look totally amazing at the same time? I’m not just referring to sitting competently, but also being the coolest person in the room. If you’re unaware of the best way to sit, let Commander Riker show you the way. Read more…
Tags: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Posted by Bob Muir on May 8, 2013 in Videogames 
Bethesda has announced that Wolfenstein: The Last Order will be the next installment in the long-running series. It is being considered a reboot to the series, which I’d imagine would normally have them calling it simply Wolfenstein, but since that unsubtitled name was already used for a 2009 sequel, I guess they think that would be too confusing. There’s a new trailer too, and while it’s only prerendered concept stuff, it’s actually fairly cool. The whirring of machinery as the music amps up and then slips into a Jimi Hendrix song is really well done. But for now, it’s just a tease — maybe we’ll see more at E3 in a month. Read more…
Tags: Bethesda, Castle Wolfenstein, id Software, PS3, Xbox 360
Posted by Bob Muir on May 8, 2013 in Videogames 
Kingdom Hearts fans may still be waiting for the perpetually undeveloped Kingdom Hearts III, but at least the wait will be over for an HD update soon. Square Enix has revealed that Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX will be releasing on PS3 this fall, on September 10, 2013. The game includes HD versions of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (a minor update to the game that was previously Japan-only) and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories (a PS2 remake of the GBA original). Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days has also been remade as almost three hours of HD cutscenes, so you get the story without any of the mediocre gameplay from the DS original. Read more…
Tags: Disney, Kingdom Hearts, PS3, square enix
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 7, 2013 in Star Trek 
If you dream of serving on a starship mister then we got your jammies! Show here is the Officially Licensed Star Trek Pajama Set, yes I know you’ve been wearing unofficial jammies for years but these are the real deal. For the PJs you have a choice of Kirk Gold, Scotty Red, or Spock Blue (yes Spock Blue is the logical choice): Read more…
Tags: Star Trek
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 7, 2013 in Animation, Cinema 
Ray Harryhausen didn’t invent stop motion animation, but he certainly made it into an art form. Unlike computer graphics today stop motion animation was a painful art: You had to plan and pose puppets, and shoot them frame by frame. And there are 24 frames per second in film, so you can imagine how painful that sort of work was. Yet Harryhausen turned that tedious work into screen magic with a careers that lasted from the 1930s until very recently. Read more…
Tags: Ray Harryhausen
Posted by Bob Muir on May 7, 2013 in Star Wars, Videogames 
It was a semi-sad day when Disney closed Lucasarts recently — the studio was no longer the home of strong adventure games and other creative experiences, but it still seemed unfortunate. But we all knew that it couldn’t mean the end of Star Wars games; the official statement even said that Lucasarts would adopt a licensing model. Now we know where that license is ending up: in Electronic Art’s hands. Read more…
Tags: Disney, Electronic Arts, LucasArts
Posted by Bob Muir on May 7, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
I think the Marvel Cinematic Universe is awesome, and I love where Marvel is trying to take it. Unfortunately, well before Marvel came up with their own shared universe, they had licensed out rights to certain properties to other studios. That’s why Sony keeps making Spider-Man movies and why Fox definitely won’t be quitting on X-Men anytime soon — they want to keep holding on to these money-making rights in an environment where superhero movies are thriving. But what about some of those other Marvel properties that aren’t being exploited? Read more…
Tags: Disney, Ghost Rider, Marvel, The Punisher
Posted by Ben Huber on May 6, 2013 in Cinema 
The first name I’m going to throw at you will be no surprise: Michael Caine. Christopher Nolan’s “good luck charm” will be returning to act in his next film, Interstellar. That’s not surprising at all, given that he’s been in almost all of Nolan’s recent films. However, a new face in the Nolan-verse is Jessica Chastain, off of Zero Dark Thirty. She seems like a great pick, especially as she’s been recently showing up in a bunch of big films. So now the two new cast members sit with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway – I want to hear more about the story now. But we’ve got a long wait till November of next year. Read more…
Tags: Christopher Nolan, Interstellar, Michael Caine
Posted by Ben Huber on May 6, 2013 in Animation 
I like to try to start off the week with something happy or neat, to beat away those Monday blues, so here’s a great little CalArts film made by Madeline Sharafian. Featuring an adorable little dog who just wants to help prepare food, this film focus on “how meaningful it is to make food for someone you love.” I’m really enjoying how many student films are catching on big with the internet – it’s great to see talented people receive recognition. Watch the video below. Read more…
Tags: Short Films
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 5, 2013 in Tech 
As the hype machine is getting revved up for Twitter to go public, the one question I found myself asking was “why has it taken so long?”. And recently I was watching a really well done special on Twitter on Bloomberg TV and they boiled it down to “great service, but no business model”. Slowly Twitter is figuring out that model, but I think the real issue is why Facebook left them in the dust so long ago? Read more…
Tags: Facebook, Twitter
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 5, 2013 in Tech 
When USB came out it was revolutionary because because it was one format, but as the technology has “matured” it has mutated in a range of sizes thanks to the boom in mobile technology. And thus this USB Swiss Army Knife caught my eye the minute that I looked at it! The idea of not having to run to my box of cables and start searching for “that cable” makes this techie very happy. Read more…
Tags: Gadgets
Posted by Ben Huber on May 5, 2013 in Cinema, Videogames 
Yes, THAT Lloyd Kaufman. The master of shlock and shock, director of Toxic Avenger and Tromeo and Juliet, Lloyd Kaufman, is featured in the latest episode of the Angry Video Game Nerd. Apparently Kaufman is also making an appearance in the AVGN’s upcoming movie, so perhaps he was in town and did this as well. But holy crap, this is an insane episode. Mostly just to see Kaufman hamming it up and pretending he knows how to play a video game (the overactive hand motions had me laughing). And as you can expect, it’s terribly NSFW, and ends in the grossest way possible (puke and feces are involved), but what else would you expect from these two teaming up? Watch the video below. Read more…
Tags: Angry Video Game Nerd, Lloyd Kaufman
Posted by Ben Huber on May 5, 2013 in Star Wars 
As part of the May the Fourth Star Wars day yesterday, SlashFilm got something very cool to show the internet: scans of the original script of The Empire Strikes Back script by Lawrence Kasdan. The original was donated by Kasdan to the Writers Guild Foundation Archive, and they were convinced to scan a few pages online for fans to see. It’s a really amazing piece of movie history to finally see, and if you look closely you can see Kasdan trying to figure out Yoda’s speech pattern, as well as the original scene between Leia and Han before he’s frozen in carbonite (followed by the classic story in which it was changed on-set by Ford). Check it out after the break. Read more…
Tags: The Empire Strikes Back
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 4, 2013 in Tech 
This article at Business Insider is typical of a new breed of backlash articles that bash the unreleased device: “I haven’t worn Glass. While I think it looks neat, I dont see a killer application that makes them worth it.” Read more…
Tags: Google, Google Glass
Posted by Ben Huber on May 4, 2013 in Fandom, Television 
Weird dubbed-over lip readings of existing content has been a long-living subset of internet content, pioneered mainly by the brilliant and also terribly NSFW group, Dayjob Orchestra (apple juice!). Now, newer and uh, more “marketable” YouTube channels have come along singing a similar tune. Bad Lip Readings has been doing content like this for a while, but nothing really caught my attention until now, with their latest video which dubs over the Walking Dead. It’s better than the season 3 finale! Although, I guess that’s not saying much. Read more…
Tags: The Walking Dead
Posted by Ben Huber on May 4, 2013 in Cinema 
Here you go, guys, the first footage of Ender’s Game. It looks alright, I suppose. They kind of drop a spoiler in there, but I guess they’re just running with it. I’m not incredibly excited nor against an Ender’s Game movie, but simply along for the ride. I’m sure someone else has said this too, but dang, Harrison Ford is getting old. He looks so odd juxtaposed with Asa Butterfield. Ford sounds like he hated even saying the word “YouTube.” This is only a short clip to whet your appetite, as the full trailer will be arriving on May 7th. Check it out! Read more…
Tags: Ender's Game
Posted by Ben Huber on May 3, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
A short while ago we heard that the director of Chronicle, Josh Trank, would be helming the upcoming Fantastic Four film. And it seems like Trank might be dipping into his pool of actors from Chronicle for his first big-budget blockbuster – he’s reportedly getting Michael B. Jordan for the part of the Human Torch. While no formal offer has been made yet, it seems like a solid bet, given their previous history working together. I think this could be a great casting choice too, and would help freshen up the Fantastic Four, as it’s been a very stale property to me in recent times. Here’s hoping that this movie turns out well! Read more…
Tags: Fantastic Four, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on May 3, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Here’s a messy story floating around the internet right now: recently Joss Whedon teased that a certain brother/sister duo would show up in Avengers 2. Everyone jumped up in excitement at the idea that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver could show up, and then EW claims a source confirmed that this would be happening. So far so good, but the messiest part will be the rights. Fox owns the rights to X-Men, but Disney with the Avengers rights puts these two companies in the odd position of both being allowed to use the characters. Will Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver simply never mention their past or father? Or is Disney playing the game for the long-haul, hoping to somehow strike deals with Fox eventually? Like I said, it’s messy, and will probably only get worse as time goes on. Read more…
Tags: Marvel, The Avengers, X-Men
Posted by Bob Muir on May 2, 2013 in Television, Videogames 
If you’ve never checked out the series of LEGO videogames being made by Traveller’s Tales, you’re missing out on tongue-in-check, fun homages to the properties they adapt, even if the games are largely bereft of challenge. They’re all largely the same, involving getting to the end of a level with the most LEGO studs (and no real penalty for dying or losing those studs besides a lower ranking and unlocking things slower). Brian Anderson is apparently a big fan of both the LEGO games and Breaking Bad, as he has created a concept video for what a LEGO Breaking Bad game would be like. Read more…
Tags: Lego
Posted by Bob Muir on May 2, 2013 in Television 
Let’s face it: as awesome as some TV has become with incredible shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and the like, there’s a lot of TV that has gotten even worse. Some channels are wastelands of vapid reality TV, pointless competitions, derivative copycats, and other incredibly stupid content. Who better to save us from this than PBS, in an Avengers-style team-up? Read more…
Tags: PBS, The Avengers
Posted by Bob Muir on May 1, 2013 in Videogames 
There’s more downloadable content coming for off-the-wall action game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. On May 14, North American gamers can pay $6.99 or 560 MS points to download the Blade Wolf DLC. It’s a new set of missions allowing players to take control of the former boss prior to his fight with Raiden. The missions show him working for Mistral and reveal more of his backstory, all culminating in a new boss battle. I can only hope it’s longer and more worthwhile than the recently released Jetstream DLC, because for only a few bucks more, you could easily buy a longer, meaty game from Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network.
Source: Crunchyroll
Tags: Metal Gear Solid, PS3, Xbox 360
Posted by Bob Muir on May 1, 2013 in Videogames 
Rockstar is taking Grand Theft Auto V in an interesting direction when it comes to characters. The PS2 trilogy each had their own main character and city, while Grand Theft Auto IV had one main character each for the main game and its two additional episodes (expansions) that all lived and played in the same city. GTAV will have three main characters in one city in the same game, not spread across separate stories. It’ll be an interesting way to explore the world and story, though actual details of how this is implemented are still missing. Read more…
Tags: Grand Theft Auto, PS3, Xbox 360
Posted by Bob Muir on Apr 30, 2013 in Science 
In the tradition of super-science, Alejo Menchaca and his researchers at the Animal Reproduction Institute of Uruguay have modified sheep to glow in the dark, thanks to the addition of green fluorescent protein (“GFP”). This peptide is normally found in the jellyfish Aequorea victoria and causes animals to glow green under ultraviolet light. And they did this because…well, it’s a proof-of-concept, which means for now, they just did this because it’s cool. Read more…
Tags: Genes
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