FRED Entertainment

September 26, 2006

Quick Stop Thingamabobs: 9/26/2006

Filed under: Columns,Thingamabobs — UncaScroogeMcD @ 6:11 am

 

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The web. It’s a big place, full of plenty of distractions ““ some funny, some informative, some ludicrous, some disturbing, some inane, some profound. Each and every weekday, we present links to a few of our favorite finds”¦

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  • Cyber-troubadour Jonathan Coulton nears the end of his epic year-long “Thing a Week” series of songs with #51: “Summer’s Over”. While you’re over there, be sure to check out the other 50 ““ and pick up his CDs. And pledge your life to him. (Thingamabob)
  • Some viral videos you can guarantee, without a doubt, will haunt your dreams. This is one such video. This is a dance of pure, unadulterated evil. (Thingamabob)
  • If you you’re at all like me (or if you are me, which would be terribly disturbing marvel of physics), just the idea of the Richard Donner cut of Superman II seeing the light of day is enough to brighten the day. That it’s coming out on DVD this November is a cause for celebration. How about a preview of Donner’s original opening for the film (replaced by the Richard Lester’s Eiffel Tower sequence in the theatrical release)? (Thingamabob)
  • James Urbaniak (who many know as the voice of The Venture Bros.‘ Dr. Venture, or American Splendor‘s R. Crumb, or dozens of other roles, and can currently be seen as a stone cold hitman on NBC’s Kidnapped) has one of the finest “blogging actor” blogs around, “Voucher Ankles.” (Thingamabob)
  • Comics writer/historian Mark Evanier contextualizing a historical evening in Broadway history, concerning one Ms. Julie Andrews. (Thingamabob)
  • Surely you must know that the 4th series of the best (and most informative) panel show ever to grace a TV set (or computer monitor) begins this Friday, September 29th on BBC2. You know – QI, hosted by Stephen Fry, featuring regular panelist Alan Davies and a trio of top flight comedians and humorists exploring nuggets of “Quite Interesting” knowledge. The show that has yet to find a US network smart enough to pick it up (I’m looking at you, BBC America). Thank jebus for bittorrent. (Thingamabob)

Have a THINGAMABOB? Send it in!

 

 

Toy Box: The Hanging Goblin

Filed under: Toy Box — admin @ 3:26 am

 

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To become a true, card carrying geek, there are certain requirements.  It’s not enough to like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings – God knows, just anyone does that these days.  Oh no, to become truly one with your inner nerd, you must be a master of other films.  And while Monty Python is a good start, you can’t skimp on the 80’s fantasy.

This 1986 film was produced by George Lucas, directed by Jim Henson, and starred the cool geek, David Bowie.  It also starred a young Jennifer Connolly, who went on to star in other top 10 flicks on the nerd-o-meter like The Rocketeer, The Hulk, and even Dark City.

Labyrinth involved goblins, and the Goblin King Jareth.  Not all Goblins are alike of course, and when Plan-B picked up the license to produce some statues based on the film, they had several to choose from.  They are producing a mini-bust of Jareth, as well as status of a sitting goblin and a hanging goblin – we’ll take a look at the hanging goblin today.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me an email at mwc@mwctoys.com.  Now, on to the goblin!

“The Hanging Goblin – Labyrinth”

In the maze that was Jareth’s ‘labyrinth’, the goblins liked hanging out on the spires and columns.  The hanging goblin is doing just that…hanging out.

 

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Packaging – ***
It’s a box – but it’s a relatively attractive box that does job number 1, keeping the statue safe, extremely well.  They use the good styrofoam here, not that crap that falls apart and gets all over the house.  And while the box does lack a window, it provides some reasonably accurate photos of the production statue.

 

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And of course, like pretty much all boxes for statues and busts, it’s collector friendly, allowing you to put the statue back in for transport or storage without tearing anything up.

Sculpt – ***1/2
The goblin is a distinct entity from the column, appearing to be made from completely different materials with a different texture, when in reality it’s all the same stuff.  The stoney texture of the column is offset by the smoother appearance of the goblin, although that doesn’t mean there isn’t small detail texture work there as well.

 

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There’s a malevolence in the eye and expression, something creepy and awful about such a small creature.  They’ve managed to capture the movie interpretation extremely well, and fans of the film should be happy with the likeness.

These statues aren’t big however, and overall it stands just 7 inches tall, with the goblin himself about three and a half.

Paint – **1/2
If I have one complaint, it’s with the paint application.  In the prototype photos we saw some areas with a gloss finish, but here almost the entire goblin is glossy.  While this works well for his eyes and mouth, and to a lesser extent his face, it seems out of place for his clothing and boots.  It reduces the reality of the overall look, by making the entire goblin seem too consistent.

 

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That aside, the basic quality of the paint application is excellent.  There’s little to no slop, and even the smallest details are clean and neat.  It’s also a colorful piece, with lots of variety in the goblin’s outfit.

Design – ***
The design is somewhat basic, but true to the film.  People who aren’t fans, or who don’t remember the movie well, are unlikely to recognize this character right away, but card carrying members of the geek patrol will pick up what Plan-B is laying down right away.

 

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I like the basic black base as well, which is simple yet effective.  It doesn’t take away from the rest of the scene, but in it’s simplicity makes the texturing of the stone all the more obvious and interesting.

Value – **1/2
Suggested retail is $40, which isn’t cheap.  However, most mini-busts are at that price point currently, with some companies pushing things up into the $50 – $60 range.  Considering the likely low runs on these, and the uniqueness of the license, the price is right about where you’d expect it.

 

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Things to watch out for –
Not much.  I’d be careful when handling the goblin that you avoid tapping the spike on his hat on anything, since it’s the single most likely break point.  But other than dropping him on a concrete floor, you should be good.

Overall – ***
The statues are a little small, and the heavy gloss on the entire goblin was a bit disappointing.  But the sculpt is excellent, and fans of the movie have been starved for any product. Combine this hanging goblin with the sitting goblin, and put them on either side of the very cool Jareth mini-bust, and you’ll have one hell of a Labyrinth display.

Where to Buy –
Online is your best bet:

– Plan-B has their own store, where you can pick this up for $40. 

Related Links:
You’ll want to check out some of Plan-B’s other goodies:

– You’ll want to check their own website, of course.

– I reviewed some of their WWII Special Forces figures awhile back.

– They’ve produced several mini-busts for the Dark Crystal license, including the Skeksis.

– the also produced the special Rex Gannon figure.

– and they did the very hard to find Ladder 49 figures, based on the movie of the same name.

 

 

Nocturnal Admissions: Book Reviews, Nicole Kidman and Ava Gardner: “Love is Nothing”

Filed under: Nocturnal Admissions — UncaScroogeMcD @ 3:23 am

 

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To what degree do we need to know about an actor’s life to appreciate his art? Are actors “artists” the way a writer is? Does the more we learn about his background inform our appreciation of the intentions behind the resulting work?

Actors are obviously important to a successful movie, yet at the higher levels of film studies it is the directors and sometimes writers who are granted full length critical studies, examinations of their careers film by film, or even book length studies of individual films. Sure, stars get their books. But they tend to be bios, usually derived, if the star is still living, from old interviews, gossip columns, and other bios.

Yet arguably the only reason ordinary non-academic movie viewing people go to movies is to see stars. Secondary they want a good story, or what is hoped will be a good story, based on the premise hinted at in the trailer or by word of mouth or seasonal lists in Sunday previews. But they use stars – to learn how to smoke, to flirt, to make snappy comebacks, and to hunt for others models. For me, Marlon Brando and James Dean got me through adolescence, providing characters though which to channel angst. From them, I transitioned to Jack Nicholson as an avatar of existential isolation. In my maturity, I’ve turned to a wide variety of actresses, from the obscure (Eleonore Klarwein in Peppermint Soda to the famous (such as Sandra Bullock in While You Were Sleeping), as lures to the exploration of ideas and feelings.

Kidman BMX Bandits

 

David Thomson is to be lauded for at least attempting to explore the weird hold that stars have on us in his new book Nicole Kidman (Knopf, 284 pages, $24.95. ISBN 1.4000.4273.9). It’s not a biography of the actress so much as a book length chronological meditation on her career, its meaning, his intellectual and emotional involvement in it from afar, and his interpretation of what her roles “mean,” and about “what happens to any one beholding an actress.”

It’s new terrain, even though Thomson (author of the Biographical Dictionary of Film, and books on Welles and Selznick, among many others) has done it before, in his book on Warren Beatty. There, Thomson did much the same thing, pondering Beatty’s career and choices film by film, but he also alternated those chapters with a fictional account of a “critic” meeting up with the charismatic “actor” whom he calls Desert Eyes.

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Personally, I like the early, fun Kidman much better, for the most part, than the late Oscar anointed super serious later Kidman. And I wonder if across the board the Australian born actress is really all that popular, lusted after or admired enough to “open” a picture such as, say, The Interpreter, the way that Julia Roberts can open something like My Best Friend’s Wedding. Kidman herself has been the subject of several quickie bios already, including Nicole Kidman: The Biography, by Lucy Ellis and Bryony Sutherland from a few years ago, and a couple since then. I have no idea how many copies these books sold, but I am guessing that they were commissioned on an assumption of popularity not born out by reality. I never hear Kidman talked about the way Roberts, or Meg Ryan, or Uma Thurman or her pal and regional colleague Naomi Watts is talked about, as idle chatter amongst film buffs and civilians. But I am still interested enough to read a whole book about her, especially one by someone with an interesting mind engaged with her on multiple levels.

Kidman Malice

 

This is a confessional book. Thomson is digging deep within himself to pull out all possible reactions, fantasies, hopes, and demands about, for, and of the star. It’s a form of mental mauling, and it’s perhaps understandable that Kidman, on September 11th, publicly announced her disapporval of the book, willfully misinterpreting it as an “unauthorized biography” written about her “after only having one brief phone chat with her,” but anyone who had read Thomson before, especially his “history,” The Whole Equation: A History Of Hollywood, in which he dedicates a chapter to her, an ab ovo version of the current book. Having seen that chapter, some editors approached Thomson to turn it into his next book, but it’s not really a book in the conventional sense, or even the literal sense. Wide margins, a large typeface, and tricks with kerning bulk out a text that is in actuality quite a quick read.

Kidman Eyes Wide Shut

 

And I am not even sure it’s the right time for it. Thomson is just close enough to squeeze in some comments on her next film, Fur, about Diane Arbus, but Kidman has a whole raft of films coming up that could significantly alter what we think about what has come before (as all films do to all careers). She’s got a sci-fi film, The Visiting, about an alien virus, co-starring Daniel Craig and Jeremy Northam (one Bond playing against a should-been); a Noah Baumbach film opposite Jack Black; a role in New Line’s post Rings franchise, His Dark Materials, based on the Philip Pullman books; a Bourne Identity for chicks; a new Baz Luhrmann film, with Hugh Jackman, about a pre-WW II cattle drive; a Kar Wai Wong film, The Lady from Shanghai, again with Jackman; and Headhunters, a Gentlemen Prefer Blondes-sounding comedy. Would Thomson’s views on Kidman be significantly different, instead of ending on the rather low point of Bewitched?

Kidman Birthday Girl

 

Probably not, because Thomson has made it clear that he doesn’t even really like movies all that much anymore. He wrote in the most recent edition of his Biographical Dictionary that he has found that he loves “books more than films,” didn’t appear to update the book fully, and for some of the newer listees didn’t even bother to comment on the young subject’s career. Nevertheless, books on movies sell more than books on books, and he continues to write about movies. Knopf publishes his books every two years or so, and he receives lavish space and, presumably money for appearing there, in Independent, the New Republic, and other publications.

Thomson’s tendency to rewrite old movies or fantasize new ones, as he does throughout his Kidman book, is perhaps a symptom of his dislike of movies rather than a sign that he still engages with the medium. The movies in his mind are better than most of the Kidman films he has to deal with. Thus he imagines kinky remakes of Rebecca and Belle du jour with Kidman in the central roles (does Thomson fantasize throwing mud on a tree-bound Kidman?), and rewrites some of her actual movies, like To Die For and Birth.

Kidman The Peacekeeper

 

A book about Kidman is inevitably a book about Cruise, and here Thomson’s and my taste begin to diverge. They made three movies together, and Thomson argues that the last one ended the marriage, as a love sick Kubrick gleefully needled them by basing their characters on what he observed in their private lives. Thomson undervalues Cruise, but says some clever things about him, such as that “Cruise sounds like a young man still so anxious not to offend he would sooner not think,” on page 44.

He continues to deviate. He doesn’t praise Dead Calm enough, he ridicules the clever Malice than praises the overrated To Die For on grounds for which he just mocked Malice. He doesn’t attack the politics of The Peacemaker enough (does George Clooney look back on it with fondness?), and goes on and on about how much he dislikes Eyes Wide Shut, even putting thoughts in the head of Kubrick and imaginary grins on his face. Early on he quotes the famous Bernstein speech about the girl on the ferry from Kane but later doesn’t even connect it to the similar thoughts that Kidman’s wife has about a naval officer. He loves the bombastic Moulin Rouge, in which Kidman stuck me as terribly miscast as a sex siren, and he spends a long chapter on the atrocious Cold Mountain (it appears that Anthony Minghella has become a friend of his), where he praises the source book’s novelist for attention to detail and patient rewrites, the sort of thing for which he criticized Kubrick earlier. He likes her in the bad The Human Stain. By the end of the book he doesn’t have much beyond simple reporting to say about her recent projects such as The Interpreter or Bewitched.

Kidman The Interpreter

 

We really only agree on admiring both Birthday Girl and Birth, as well as Dogville, a modern masterpiece, like Eyes Wide Shut. I guess he likes The Hours but I came away from that chapter not really knowing (I don’t care for the film, really).

But being thorough, or obsessed, Thomson also critiques Kidman’s stage appearances (though it is not clear if he actually saw The Blue Room), her published interviews and TV talk show appearances, and even some of her photo spreads. He waxes agonistes over the possibility of her having had face work. He even knows her shoe size (six).

He is not above score settling. He complains about a bad review of his last book in the New York Times, and then weaves a weird conspiracy theory about that paper’s treatment of Eyes Wide Shut. He takes potshots at what he lables “beaverish subtextual critics,” without explaining what they are, while sounding like one himself.

Kidman book cover

 

Thomson has taken on the weary mood of the old film buff, growing censoriousness with age, even calling for a moratorium on new films. He can still conjure up the witty insight (“While the medium is founded on fantasy involvement, still so much of its material is held up to shortsighted and depleting schemes of what is plausible,” page 203), but he is too often given over to cliches (“give up the ghost”), or worse, in order to avoid cliche, he indulges in convoluted rewrites of common phrases, such as “pressures on the mouse” for “mouse clicks” and “past their best dates for eating” for “sell-by date (page 223). He likes to list a series of qualifications and then go, “Never mind,” like Roseanne Roseanadana. Thomson engages in whole pages of throat clearing, telling us what he is not going to talk about. He changes tenses, drifting into the lofty future tense. He often has the humorlessness heaviness of John Updike, and sometimes sounds like Kael, as on page 76. Passages on pages 43 and 104 made absolutely no sense to me.

 

Kidman Thomson

 

You can tell he is fed up with movies, viewers, and maybe even readers from his author photo. He stands sideways, his arms resistingly, defiantly crossed, his bearish torso covered in a black sweater. Thomson is a writer obsessed with eyes, and his own are caught in a posture of skeptical impatience with the gazer. They seem to say, “What do you want? What can you tell me? Nothing.”

Gardner book cover

 

Thomson’s book makes an interesting contrast with Lee Server‘s more straightforward biography of Ava Gardner, Ava Gardner: “Love is Nothing” (St. Martin’s Press, 551 pages, $29.95, ISBN 0 312 31209 1). Thomson’s Kidman is a happy narcissist who loves the camera. Gardner was a woman with animal charisma who personally didn’t know what all the fuss was about. Once Mickey Rooney introduced her to sex, her life was changed, and she appeared in movies primarily to fund her hedonism and work in political causes. She rejected America, hated the movie business, and was kicked out of more European hotel bars than a drunken sailor on a binge.

Server, who compiled a terrific book on screenwriters as well as a previous bio on Mitchum, writes in an engaging quasi hardboiled style, and never grows tired of his subject as so many biographers do. Yet Gardner does not thrive in the posthumous pantheon, like Hepburn or Monroe. Today she’s more like an Ella Raines, the object of slavering cults among film buffs. Gardner made “important” films, such as The Barefoot Contessa and On the Beach, but a viewing of The Killers usually makes the otherwise ignorant viewer realize that Gardner was not only one of the greatest screen presences but sadly under utilized, thanks to Hollywood’s inability to showcase her and her own eventual disenchantment with the industry. Server’s book is a wonderful combination of testimonial, obit, and resume.

Kidman is an odd cinematic icon. She is sexy despite herself. There is something icy about her manner. She doesn’t exude sex, she subtracts it, especially in her later roles. Part of the reason she was miscast in  Moulin Rouge is because she does not invite sensuality. She has rarely done love scenes, and when she has, they have been acts of aggression (see  Malice). On the other hand, she is a girl who likes to dress up and play roles, while also being a cunning businesswoman, with a large streak of lovable self-doubt in her (she seems to have backed out of as many movies as she’s been in). She’s a tomboy who wants to be piss elegant. Personally, I like the tomboy, and haven’t favored the elegance. She is the opposite of Gardner, who couldn’t give a damn about her career, and would let it all go for a man. Kidman comes across as someone who holds it all in. She wouldn’t swoon. She seems like a dedicated careerist, and the role of the hustler in  Malice may in the end be the part most like her, the initiator of careful, intricate schemes of profit. I don’t mean to sound like I don’t like her, because I do, a lot. I will always go see the new Kidman film, but these days more in hopes of reclaiming the Kidman of the past.

 

September 25, 2006

Spook’d #96: Extreme Lair Makeover – Secret Room

Filed under: Spook'd — UncaScroogeMcD @ 6:00 am

by Jeffery Stevenson and Seth Damoose with colors by Anthony Lee

Larger sized comic | ARCHIVES | OLDER ARCHIVES

 

Spook'd #96: Secret Room

 

To see Spook’d host Alastor’s blogging silliness and more fun Spook’d stuff,visit the Spook’d Web site!

Check out the preview to…

E-MAIL WRITER | ABOUT JEFF | ABOUT SETH | SPOOK’D BLOG | SPOOK’D FORUM | ARCHIVES | OLDER ARCHIVES

Disclaimer: All material in Spook’d is fictitious and intended solely for the purpose of entertainment. Names are fabricated and any similarity to real people or places is purely coincidental except in those cases where public figures are being satirized.

Widge Goes Off #13: Welcome, Listener – Hope You Survive the Experience!

Filed under: Widge Goes Off — widge @ 5:38 am
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widgepic.jpgHowdy folks. Hope you survived the weekend with a quorum of brain cells intact. Let’s do this.

[CONTENT WARNING] This podcast contains foul language and subliminal advertising for Cheez Whiz.

DOWNLOAD: mp3 Format (25.8 MB)

As for your Monday Morning Quarterbacking session, I’m doing that in the podcast now. Only fair to those listeners in drivetime. Find the full skinnee at Box Office Mojo.

Tuffley’s column at Needcoffee.

Warner Music signs with YouTube.

Special thanks to Exit Mindbomb for letting me use “Godzilla Will Rule You” from their album Happy Accident for my new WGO music. Check them out on MySpace here and I tried to link up as many songs as I could here.

Widgett Walls is the chief cook and bottle washer for Needcoffee.com. He’s also the author of Mystics on the Road to Vanishing Point and Magnificent Desolation. His personal blog is at OneTusk.com, which he updates when he feels like it. He lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. He hardly ever sleeps.

September 23, 2006

Game On! 9-23-2006

Filed under: Game On! — admin @ 10:04 pm

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All right – for me, the gaming season has officially started. This is signified by the release of titles that have seen praise at various trade shows like E3, or games that have a good deal of buzz around them prior to release. This season usually starts around this time anyway, as most publishers release their best and hottest titles just in time for the holiday season. This week, we’ve got a number of goodies for you, including a wolf God with an affinity for painting, a slimy little dude who packs a mean punch, and a look back at a popular series of games, just in time for it’s newest iteration. And also, just because I get to do what I want in this column”¦we’re going to take a look at the new “Weird Al” Yankovic album. Honestly, what gaming nerd DOESN’T like Al? On with the reviews”¦

OKAMI IS O.K.

okami.jpgI hope the state of Oklahoma doesn’t mind me using their slogan for this review’s title, but it was all I could think of. OKAMI, just released for PS2, is Capcom’s big “art” game ““ a game that has significant buzz for the past TWO E3 shows, not just for it’s look, but it’s gameplay. Developed by Clover Studios (the team responsible for the VIEWTIFUL JOE games), OKAMI takes you on a journey unlike any seen in games yet, and will hopefully spark a new age of unique gameplay and non-Western themed storytelling for games in the states.

As the God Amaterasu, you have been revived in the form of a wolf, a hero to the land of Nippon who must once again aid in the banishment of an evil 8-headed creature named Orochi. Supported by Issun, a bug-sized “artist”, you roam the lands, helping out the villagers and eventually working your way to defeating Orochi. As you progress, you learn new techniques for your main “weapon”, the Celestial Brush. With it you can rejuvenate dead trees, create wind, make the sun appear in a cloudy sky, slash at things to break them, and more. It’s application and use in the gameplay comes as second nature, controlling with just the R1 button to access the “canvas”, then square or triangle to paint and the left analog stick for movement. The triangle button is pressure sensitive too, so if you want a thick or thinner line, this is the way to go.

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Visually, the game is beautiful. Looking like no other game you’ve ever played, OKAMI mostly resembles a painting brought to life, as each area looks like a new canvas, freshly covered and not even yet dry, as the blacks and grays tend to run near the edges. Bosses can loom high in the sky, and each area has some new tasks to perform and people to help. The main character of Amaterasu is also animated very well, as she runs from place to place, flowers seem to spring up at the touch of her paws. The game is truly a sight to behold.

The game’s combat and puzzles all utilize the Celestial Brush in one way or another, which is how it becomes an integral part of the gameplay. Slashing at enemies or creating bridges out of thin air to get to other areas sometimes feels a bit contrived, as you can only do these things when prompted, but still the feeling of awe remains, as the lush world and vibrant look of the game retains that “artsy” feel. At the outset, however, there seems to be a good deal of handholding as you learn how to use the brush, and lasts far longer than I would have liked. Still, it’s a small trifle indeed when one looks at the large scope of the entire game. There’s much to do beyond the main story missions, and the various tasks around the towns will keep gamers occupied for quite a while.

So, my review title isn’t quite as apt as I’d hoped. OKAMI is much more than OK. It’s a beautiful, engaging, unique gaming experience that anyone who enjoys fantasy or just wants to try something new should partake in. Once again we have an argument for Roger Ebert that games CAN be a form of art ““ not just for looking at, but an interactive form of entertainment that aren’t just a game, but an experience meant to be had in order to fully appreciate it. In OKAMI’s case, art is a literal term, not just for the style of the images, but how you manipulate the world and the gameplay. This will be one of the best games you will ever play.

One Gamer’s Opinion:
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S(UB)LIME

dqhrocketslime.jpgNext up is an unexpectedly fun little adventure for the DS named DRAGON QUEST HEROES: ROCKET SLIME. In it, you take the titular hero (that would be a slime named “Rocket”) on a adventure to save his brethren. The Plobfather has kidnapped all 100 residents of Rocket’s town and it’s up to him to rescue them. Sounds a bit kiddie-fied, yes, but don’t let the goofy names and cutesy cartoon graphics fool you. There’s an incredibly deep adventure waiting here beyond some simplistic cosmetic functions.

In a bizarre hybrid of ZELDA, POKEMON and FINAL FANTASY, Rocket sets out across the land with one goal in mind: save the slimes. To do so, he has one attack and one attack only, and that is launching his little blue body into things to send them skyward. By holding down the A button and pressing the d-pad in a direction, you can stretch your hero out and slingshot him into his foes. This “elasto blast” in just about your only attack, but works surprisingly well. By positioning yourself under the falling objects (be they items or enemies) Rocket can catch them on his head and throw them at will, carrying up to three things at a time. When rescuing slimes, for example, all he needs to do is catch them on his head, then chuck them onto a rolling platform to transport them back to town. Simple enough, but fun none the less.

When it comes to the main battles, however, Rocket needs a bit more firepower, and that’s where his “Monster Tank” comes in. His Schlieman Tank can fire just about any item Rocket finds for ammo, and these battles to bring down the enemy tank’s HP are both strategic and fun as you decide which items to shoot from which cannon. You can either choose to knock way the opposing tanks attacks, or concentrate or strikes of your own with your heavier artillery. Any item you find in your travels can be send back home and used for ammo, so it makes the exploration all the more fun.

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The POKEMON aspect comes into play even more when trying to find your blobby buddies. There are 100 lost slimy souls in the game, and as you find them, they each reward you with and item that can be used for ammo or help you clear up the mess back home. The game is VERY tongue in cheek, as there are numerous goofy slime references, and even references to other Square Enix games (such as the tank “˜Chrono Twigger”). There’s even some multiplayer, where friends with the game can link up and do battle with tanks outfitted with whatever best ammo you’ve found in the game.

Surprisingly deep and amazingly fun, ROCKET SLIME is goofy, yet full of heart. While the creatures you meet on your travels won’t be much of a challenge thanks to your cool “elasto blast”, the tank fights are where the real skill lies. However, for a DS game, I was surprised that there was absolutely NO touch screen support, even when stretching out Rocket to send him bouncing around in battle. Ah well, it’s still more fun than I ever expected, so I can’t complain too much.

One Gamer’s Opinion:
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VIDEO GAMES 101 ““ SPY HUNTER

Back in 1983, a game hit the arcades with a unique gameplay style for racing fans and shooting fans alike to get into. With its top-down view and twitch action, SPY HUNTER became a quarter muncher almost from the start, and the Peter Gunn theme became instantly droned into gamer’s brains. As the series has progressed through the ages, it has changed and expanded from that simple arcade title. This week, we’re looking at the series over time, culminating with it’s newest entry, SPY HUNTER: NOWHERE TO RUN and see how the series has evolved from just driving and shooting into much more.

SPY HUNTER ““ ARCADE ““ 1983

SpyHunterNES2.gifIt began with a car. The Interceptor. Folks would plunk down their 25 cents and drive the coolest car imaginable. Outfitted with guns, missile launchers, oil slicks and more, this car would make James Bond soil his tux. With the top-down view gamers would pilot this vehicle of ultimate craftsmanship against the evil BADGUYS that roamed the land, and shoot them down without hesitation, all while the Peter Gunn theme played endlessly in the background.

spyhunterNES.jpgYeah, gaming was simpler then. Enemy approaches, shoot it down. But the fast action and twitch gameplay proved to be a challenge as the onslaught of enemies never seemed to let up. The corners became sharper, the supply vans fewer and overall the sense of speed and urgency became greater. While your hero character had no name or face (we never saw who drove the car in the game) you almost empathized with him. I mean, here he is, just driving around when he has to unload his guns on every vehicle that crosses his path. Well, Californians can empathize at least.

With home versions on Atari 800, 2600, the NES, Commodore 64 and more, the game’s legacy had been saturated into gaming history pretty much from the start. Often imitated but never quite duplicated, it was the definitive driving/shooting game, and it was a blast to play on almost any console. Now gamers can experience it again in the collection MIDWAY ARCADE TREASURES VOLUME 1 on PS2, Gamecube and Xbox.

One Gamer’s Opinion:

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SPY HUNTER II ““ ARCADE ““ 1987

For the arcade-only sequel, the angle of the screen dropped a little bit, but the style didn’t change much at all. Using two screen, it became a multiplayer event, with two players battling it out co-operatively to see who could rack up the most points, each using their own screen for the action. The camera was now positioned a bit behind the car, so enemies seemed to be approachable rather than approaching. In the single player game, the second screen tallied your score, showing you bonuses for defeating specific foes.

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While it never made it to the home consoles until recently (with MIDWAY ARCADE TREASURES VOLUME 2 on PS2 and Xbox) it’s still a monument to gaming, as the tradition of the series continued in fine fashion. The weapons were better, the cars seemed faster, and the graphics improved greatly over the original. Still, we could sue some music other than the Peter Gunn theme endlessly. Kind of getting tired of that.

One Gamer’s Opinion:

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SUPER SPY HUNTER ““ NES ““ 1992

This seldom seen sequel the game jumps to the future”¦and even introduces more of a plot. According to the game’s manual, in the year 2525, an international terrorist by the name of ”X” is building an all-powerful war weapon threatening worldwide chaos. The UN sends out several men to try and stop X, but without success. They then send their best agent Rachel (?) in to try and stop X. She fails as well. In one last attempt, they send a rookie, code-named ”Super Spy Hunter” or ”S.S.H”. Contrived, yes, but this was still the early 90’s and gaming hasn’t gotten to the Hollywood levels it is today. Futuristic terrorism was all we had.

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From there on, it was pretty much business as usual. The car seemed a bit more supped up, but beyond that, there didn’t seem to be many innovations. The weapons upgrades were different, but it was starting to feel same-y at this point, which explains why not many know about this title, which was released near the end of the NES’s lifespan. If you’re looking to complete you SPY HUNTER collection it’s worth tracking down, and doesn’t cost much, but only get it if you feel you need to complete the collection, as the gameplay doesn’t change much from what we’ve known. That’s not really a bad thing, as the action here once again doesn’t let up, but it doesn’t offer anything new either.

One Gamer’s Opinion:

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SPY HUNTER ““ PS2, GAMECUBE, XBOX, GBA ““ 2001

spyhunternew.jpgWith nearly ten years behind the last game’s release, MIDWAY decided to relaunch the series in 3D with the current generation of systems. Now SPY HUNTER has stepped into the new millenium and has gotten much more than a prettier facelift. The game now pits you as an IES agent trying to stop a terrorist group known as NOSTRA (no longer the generic BADGUYS) from attacking from space with a giant EMP. How? By driving and shooting, of course! While the game gets a major cosmetic makeover, the core gameplay remains, and it’s as awesome as ever. The Interceptor now has many more upgrades and weapons, which the player can cycle through using the shoulder buttons. Also, the vehicle can change forms, depending on the situation. Jump in the water and the car becomes a boat. Sustain too much damage, and the hull of the car breaks off and it becomes a motorcycle. Finally, the series shows some innovation.

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Control wise, the series had never been better. With it’s step into 3D, the environments, challenges and skill needed to best these have all been amplified, and the game controls well throughout. Of course, the Peter Gunn theme is back, but redone numerous ways so it’s not a s grating as before, with modern rock band Saliva adding it’s own touch to it (with two remakes, and even one with lyrics about the game!). All in all, this iteration showed just how remakes should be done, and once again brought the name SPY HUNTER back into home consoles for millions to enjoy (even with offering the original SPY HUNTER as an unlockable).

One Gamer’s Opinion:

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SPY HUNTER 2 ““ PS2, XBOX ““ 2003

spyhunter2_1.jpgPicking up where the last game left off, you once again battle the forces of NOSTRA in your Interceptor car, only this is the next model number, featuring more upgrades and weapons, including a turret and better armor. While the graphics and control have improved once again, the gameplay has taken a turn for the worse.

Sure, there are upgrades galore and more weapons to collect and shooting to be done, but now the difficulty has taken a strange turn. Each upgrade you get is vital to your progress, as it virtually renders the last weapon obsolete, thereby making it more about collecting the next upgrade AS WELL as defeating the foes. The difficulty is just amped way beyond what we’re used to, and while it still enjoyable, seems to take away from the core gameplay. Still, it’s SPY HUNTER at its heart, and that’s what we truly need: mindless shooting and explosions. The first remake is better, but overall, the series has come a long way.

One Gamer’s Opinion:

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SPY HUNTER: NOWHERE TO RUN ““ PS2, XBOX ““ 2006

spyhunterNTR.jpgNow, with the series newest iteration, we finally get to see who’s been DRIVING the damn car. And apparently, he looks and sounds a lot like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Actually, for this game, The Rock has not only provided the voice, but the likeness and even did the motion capture for the driver’s moves. The driver even has a name, Alex Decker, and a history. As a former test pilot for the CIA he’s joined the IES to rid the world of international terrorist group NOSTRA. The game is actually the basis for an upcoming film starring The Rock, and is the first time an actor has been hired to play a character in the game BEFORE the film.

So, what’s new with this title? Well, not only are there missions outside of the Interceptor, but there’s close quarters combat as well as gunplay. Alex has a variety of moves, though strangely they all resemble wrestling moves. Alex can stun punch an enemy, then chokeslam, body slam or suplex them down for the count. Yeah, ok. Or, he can dispatch them the way most spies do, by picking up a gun and shooting them. Sadly, the controls for these sections is difficult, with the targeting reticule difficult to aim and most foes picking you off from afar.

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Still, what the game does best is the driving sections. This version of the Interceptor I feel is the best yet, with weapons galore and switching from form to form as the situation calls. Oil spills, land mines, spikes on the wheels, missiles, rocket launchers and more, this thing is the Swiss Army Knife of cars. In the levels that feature the core gameplay you’ll have the most fun, guaranteed.

Sadly, they’re broken up by some basic third person shooting missions. While these levels offer either own challenges, most are from trying to mess with the poor targeting system. While Alex is strong enough to take on the foes with his punches and slams, he’s really just not very good with guns. Still, it’s nice to see the series try something wholly new (for them anyway).

It’ll be interesting to see how the movie performs based on this game. The driver of the car hasn’t even had a name until now, let alone the interesting backstory they’ve given him here. While the Rock is certainly charming enough and able to fill the action hero shoes, in the game his wrestling moves seem strangely out of place. Still, all in all it’s a cool effort for the aging series to try and tackle. With some adjustments to the targeting outside of the car, it could truly be as great as it was by trying something new for the series.

One Gamer’s Opinion:

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ALBUM REVIEW ““ “˜WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC: “STRAIGHT OUTTA LYNWOOD”

weirdalSOL.jpgAlright, you’ll have to indulge me here for a second. When the opportunity arose for me to check out and review the newest CD from the prince of parodies, I couldn’t turn it down. I’ve been a “˜Weird Al” fan for almost 20 years, and every new CD from him is an event in my household. This time around, the polka master has found himself with a newest batch of parodies and originals, spanning many different musical styles. While many of the parodies are going for a decidedly more “urban” feel than previous albums, the comedy still hits head on, and there’s lots for fans of all types of music to enjoy here.

The original single was to be a parody of James Blunt’s sappy ballad “You’re Beautiful”, to which Blunt gave permission for Al to do (Al always asks, despite it no longer being copyright infringement for an artist to parody another’s song). However, Atlantic Records (Blunt’s label) stepped in, claiming Al would have to pay royalties to THEM as well as Blunt in order to do the parody. Seeing as they weren’t entitled (only Al and Blunt were as the original and parody songwriters) and not wanting to strain the relationship between Blunt and his record label, Al instead took it off the album and placed it on his website (http://www.weirdal.com) as a free download. This set the album’s release back from July to next week (September 26th) as Al now had to find a new hot song to parody. (In the meantime, sine the song wasn’t to be featured on an upcoming album, and therefore wouldn’t have a video, I took matters into my own hands.)

Now, Al’s album is completed and set to be unleashed upon the world with dead-on parodies of artists like Usher, American Idol’s Taylor Hicks, Green Day, and a lead single parodying Chamillionaire’s “Ridin'” as “White and Nerdy”, a song that I’m sure at least half of my readership can identify with. Al’s rhymes match the original artist’s with such skill and flow that one is amazed that he’s as white as he claims. The video is even better, featuring Al looking much the same way he did in high school, offering cameos with Seth Green, Donny Osmond and Chamillionaire himself. The standout parody, however, would have to be “˜Trapped in the Drive-Thru”, a rip on R. Kelly’s unintentionally funny epic “Trapped In The Closet”. Not to spoil anything, but I hope this 10 minute epic is broken into at least three videos to match R. Kelly’s video opus. It is probably the single funniest song I’ve ever heard, and even if you’ve only heard snippets of the original, you’ll find it quite hilarious.

Actually, that was one thing I was worried about with this release. Many of the artists that Al is parodying this time around, I’m not familiar with their singles. This is no fault of Al’s but rather a fault of mine, as I don’t keep up with pop music the way he does, selecting the most popular songs of the day to satire. Still, despite having never heard of Chamillionaire, or Usher’s “Confessions Part II”, Al’s versions still elicit a chuckle, and are just as catchy as the original, while still containing his trademark outlandish humor.

The originals are no slouch either. Many folks forget that Al and his band are extremely talented musicians, tackling many style of music in each album. Sometimes, while a song may not be a direct parody of an artist’s song, it will ape the style of that artist’s catalogue. These are called “˜style parodies” and in the past Al has managed to sound like Nine Inch Nails, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, The Beastie Boys, Elvis Costello and more. This time around, the focus of his emulation ranges from the mainstream like Rage Against the Machine (“I’ll Sue Ya”) to obscure 70’s pop band Sparks (“Virus Alert”). My favorite original, however, would have to be the love song “Close, But No Cigar”, done in the style of the band Cake. Not only does Al and his band (Steve Jay on bass, Jim West on Guitar, Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz on drums) perfectly capture the sound and feel of a Cake song, but they do it with such ease that you’d almost think Al was performing WITH Cake. Copying John McCrea’s vocal nuances perfectly, he even does that thing where he agrees and disagrees with himself in a song (“aw yeah”¦oh, no”).

The album is actually being offered as a dual disc, with one side of the disc being the album on CD, and the flipside offering DVD features. For this release, Al has gone all out, including animated music video for all 6 original songs on the album, as well as the entire album in 5.1 digital surround sound and even karaoke mixes of the entire CD. The animated videos feature some of the best talent around, from Bill Plympton (“I Married A Strange Person”), John Kricfalusi (of “Ren & Stimpy” fame) and the crew of the Cartoon Network Adult Swim show “Robot Chicken” (who will feature their video for “Weasel Stomping Day’ on their show this weekend).

While this may not be my favorite Al album, it certainly offers a great deal of stuff for fans to enjoy, and newcomers to get into. The parodies may not be instantly recognizable if you don’t spend 24 hours watching MTV or listening to the Top 40 stations, but the comedy is where the action is and the satire is dead on. Listening to the album (and watching the brief “making of the album” video on the DVD side) will show folks that Al isn’t just a comedian with a band, but a talented musician himself, a dedicated producer, and a man with a group of talented individuals with him. Al and his band have been together and performing for almost 27 years, way longer than any of the artists he’s emulated or parodied. It’s that kind of longevity that showcases what an amazing talent he is, only amplified by the quality of his writing and his music.

One Gamer’s Opinion:
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Well, that’s it for another week, kids. Hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for allowing me my brief step into comedy nerdiness. See you next time.

Melonpool Quickcast #14: Melonpool’s a Comic, Too!

Filed under: Melonpool Quickcast — admin @ 9:58 pm
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-By Steve Troop

Based on Steve Troop’s classic webcomic of the same name, the Melonpool Quickcast features puppet versions of Troop’s alien cast, who are desperately trying to make heads or tails out of Earth culture.

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Once upon a time, Melonpool wasn’t just the puppet show you’ve all come to know and love — he was the subject of over 10 years of daily comics at Melonpool.com! Enjoy a few moments, set to the music of Jalea Bates, the hottest protocol droid since Dot Matrix!

Don’t forget to comment on this and other Melonpool Quickcasts over at the official Melonpool Quickcast Forum!

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Melonpool Quickcast #14: Melonpool’s a Comic, Too!:

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September 22, 2006

Weekend Shopping Guide 9/22/06: Instant Karma

Filed under: Shopping Guides — UncaScroogeMcD @ 3:17 am

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The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Quick Stop Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…

I admit that the pre-launch marketing blitz that preceded the premiere of My Name Is Earl turned me off to the show, so much so that I actually let my screener of the pilot sit on my desk, unwatched, for over two months. When I finally did get around to watching it, I realized that I had made a mistake in believing that something must be rotten in Denmark, and Earl was, in fact, a quirky little comedy worth watching – much to my surprise, considering NBC’s recent track record of ignoring its own comedy gems in favor of some real stinkers. If you want to see what I was so impressed by, pick up a copy of the first season set (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP). Bonus features include commentaries on select episodes, deleted scenes with optional commentary, a behind-the-scenes featurette, a blooper reel, and a bizarro “what if” feature that presents an alternate universe version of the show called “Bad Karma.”

One of the more appealing aspects of My Name Is Earl is its use of music – a trait found amongst many of the more memorable shows of years past. Even better, it’s an eclectic mix of everything from Harry Nilsson’s “Joy” to Uncle Kracker covering The Band’s “The Weight” – with stops featuring Sammy Davis, Jr., Jerry Reed, and Matthew Sweet along the way. All of those tunes and more are features on My Name Is Earl: The Album (Shout! Factory, $18.98 SRP). A volume 2 would be nice, too.

Formerly bare-bones, the complete fourth season of The Bob Newhart Show (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) actually manages some decent bonus features in addition to the season’s 24 episodes. Those bonus materials include commentaries on 4 episodes, “A Second family” featurette, and a gag reel.

If that’s not enough Newhart for you, then you’ll also want to pick up his return to the stand-up stage he left in the 60’s in Bob Newhart: Button-Down Concert (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP). What’s great is that even after all these years, he’s still great on stage, and the delivery is every bit as sharp as the material.

It’s always a dicey proposition when an artist returns to a past success and decides to sequalize it. Sometimes it’s a success, and sometimes it’s an abysmal failure – it seems there’s very little in-between to be had. Luckily for fans of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s legendary Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy, their thirty-years-on sequel The Captain and The Kid (Interscope, $13.98 SRP) is a successful return to a once-powerful well, exploring the lives of its creators in the period since their autobiographical epic. What’s more, Elton has retained the less-schmaltzy tunes and production methods of his last few albums, returning to the edgy, memorable sound of his hit-making past – which is perfectly complemented by some of Taupin’s strongest lyrics in years. Together, they produce a worthy successor and a solid listen.

Everyone knows of the various attempts that Salvador Dali and Walt Disney made over the years to work on a project, but did you know that there was also a shelved collaboration between Disney and Roald Dahl? Written by Dahl long before his classics, the wartime story The Gremlins (Dark Horse, $12.95 SRP) was optioned by Disney with the intention to turn it into a full-length feature. That film never came to be, but the Disney artists did wind up lavishly illustrating a hardcover edition of the story in 1943 – an edition that has been unavailable for the past 60 years. Dark Horse has lovingly restored every piece of artwork and is re-releasing that original hardcover (with a brand-new introduction from Leonard Maltin), and any fan of Dahl or Disney absolutely will kick themselves if they don’t snap up a copy of their own.

The sixth and final season of The Flintstones (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$44.98 SRP) may be best remembered for giving pop culture the gift of that interstellar imp, The Great Gazoo. This season also featured a take-off on Bewitched (with guest stars Elizabeth Montgomery & Dick York), movie spoofs, and the return of “Stoney Curtis.” The bonus materials this go wrong are awfully mediocre – do we really need a featurette with Stephen Baldwin? Still, at least we’ve now got the entire run of this classic primetime cartoon.

It can be quite embarrassing to admit a deep, dark secret. Especially one that is so incredibly embarrassing as to make you an instant object of ridicule as soon as the hidden shame is uttered aloud – but to hell with it, I’ll admit it… I actually enjoy watching America’s Funniest Home Videos. Like cocoa on a cold winter night or lemonade in summer, it’s a reliable, comfortable thing to spend an evening with. That, and I still find balls to the crotch, wedding guests tumbling on a dance floor, mugging babies, and piano playing cats quite funny. For those who share my guilty pleasure, there are 6 brand-new themed AFV releases to keep you company as the days grow shorter this Fall – AFV: Sports Spectacular, AFV: Nincompoops & Boneheads, AFV: Love & Marriage, AFV: Battle of the Best, AFV: Looks At Kids & Animals, and AFV: Home For The Holidays (Shout! Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$ SRP each).

While the quality of the work itself varies – and much of the enjoyment stems largely from how you feel about a given artist – there’s no denying that Palm’s series collecting the work of various directors is a must-have investment for any aspiring filmmaker. Collecting their music videos, short films, animations, promos, TV spots, and much more – along with interviews, commentaries, and a deluxe illustrated book – the latest batch of discs to pick up are The Work Of Director Stephane Sednaoui, The Work Of Director Anton Corbijn, The Work Of Director Jonathan Glazer, and The Work Of Director Mark Romanek (Palm, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP each). Trust me – you want these discs.

I admit to really loving the deluxe, hardcover, archival editions that Dark Horse has been releasing of titles I never thought would get that kind of treatment. In the past, it was Doctor Solar and Magnus: Robot Fighter. Now, it’s the entire run – spanning four volumes – of Mike Baron & Steve Rude’s Nexus (Dark Horse, $49.95 SRP), all lovingly restored and presented, and ready for a place of honor on your shelf.

The more I watch of Avatar (Paramount, Not Rated DVD-$64.99 SRP) – whose entire 20-episode first season (“Book 1: Water”) has been released via a 6-disc, feature-laden box set – I can’t help but think that it feels more like a Cartoon Network series than its actual home network, Nickelodeon. Maybe that’s because it’s layered, action-adventure-mysticism-based mythology seems more like the pre-teen boy fare you’d find on CN. Regardless of where it’s berthed, it’s a beautifully designed, engaging show worth checking out, regardless of your age. Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes featurette with the cast & crew, commentary on the pilot, and two making-of featurettes focusing on the sound and the Korean animation studios.

It will probably come as a surprise to many children of the 80’s that Bill Cosby had a sitcom long before he played the head of the Huxtable clan. In 1969’s The Bill Cosby Show (Shout! Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), Cosby played gym teacher Chet Kincaid. It features many of Cosby’s indelible idiosyncrasies and comedic nuances, but is a wholly different experience from his later hit series. This first season set features all 26 episodes, plus a new interview with Cosby.

Battlestar Galactica fans salivating over the impending third season can catch up with the 11 episodes of what is being billed as Season 2.5 (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP). The 3-disc set features an extended version of the “Pegasus” cliffhanger, as well as deleted scenes, podcasts, and producer David Eick’s video logs.

Every time I dig into another set of Dick Cavett Show episodes, I’m left wanting more of his in-depth interviews with the icons of years past. The latest set is The Dick Cavett Show: Hollywood Greats (Shout! Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), featuring 12 uncut episodes from Cavett’s show, with guests including Orson Welles, Mel Brooks, Kirk Douglas, Groucho Marx, John Huston, Marlon Brando, Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Bogdanovich, Bette Davis, Robert Mitchum, Debbie Reynolds, Fred Astaire, Katharine Hepburn, and Robert Altman. Quite a list, no? The 4-disc set also features brand new introductions and an interview with Cavett.

The 70’s was an era of profoundly unhip people hosting talk shows that booked some incredibly hip guests, often providing a forum that many mainstream shows wouldn’t allow decidedly “unique” personalities. These “unhipsters” included Cavett, Mike Douglas, and Tom Snyder. It’s Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow program that has gotten the latest themed release with The Tomorrow Show: Tom Snyder’s Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show (Shout! Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP), which collects interviews with Dr. Timothy Leary, The Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey, and Tom Wolfe. Pick up the disc and pay careful attention to Snyder’s often bewildered – yet somehow delighted – face.

Though often dismissed as a lesser follow-up to Rocky Horror Picture Show, it’s a little bit disconcerting just how prescient Richard O’Brien’s Shock Treatment (Fox, Rated PG, DVD-$19.98 SRP) has turned out to be, with its meta-concept of a small Texas town as reality show… Imagine The Truman Show with Rocky Horror‘s brad & Janet all set to music. The new 25th anniversary edition includes a pair of retrospective featurettes, as well as the film’s theatrical trailers.

Before Oscars and the mountain life found him, Heath Ledger starred in the short-lived sword & sorcery series Roar (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), all 13 episodes of which have made their inevitable way to DVD. Surprisingly enough, it’s actually an enjoyable show that might have grown into another Hercules or Xena if given the chance.

If it wasn’t for the presence of Dennis Haysbert, I probably wouldn’t watch The Unit (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP), about an autonomous special forces unit of the U.S. military operating both Stateside an abroad. I could watch Haysbert read the phone book… And the fact that Robert Patrick is there to read it with him in this series – well, I’m sold. The complete first season set features all 13 episodes, plus commentary on the episode “SERE” and an “Inside Delta Force” featurette.

It’s hard to remember a time when the brand of “National Lampoon” upon a film actually meant a mark of quality (as opposed to a direct-to-video, groan-worthy cheapie), but during the 70’s, Lampoon was a synonym for the highest, and most subversive, comedy to be found. One of the key architects of the Lampoon style was Doug Kenney, a brilliant comic writer and thinker whose far-too-brief life is chronicled in A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever (Chicago Review Press, $24.95 SRP).

In an age of the US “spreading democracy,” then Our Brand Is Crisis (Koch, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) should be required viewing. The documentary follows a team of political consultants – including James Carville – as they head to Bolivia to manage the campaign for Bolivian presidential candidate Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, including everything from ads to speeches to smear campaigns. It’s a sobering view of just what kind of influence we’re bringing to the world stage.

If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I never watched Hart to Hart (Sony, Not Rated, DVD-$49.95 SRP) for the jet-setting adventures of Jonathan & Jennifer Hart (Robert Wagner & Stafanie Powers). No, I used to watch the show strictly for the lovably gravely-voiced retainer of the Harts, Max (played by the great Lionel Stander). Crikey, I miss him. Every show needs a Max. The 5-disc seasoned season set features all 20 episodes, but bonus features are nowhere to be found.

Honestly, any flick that stars Robert Culp has got a leg up in my book. That Eric Fleming’s The Almost Guys (Karma Films, Not Rated, DVD-$15.00 SRP) is also a very funny tale – about a pair of repo men (Culp and Fleming) who find a major league baseball pitcher bound & gagged in the trunk of a repo three days before the World Series and hatch an absurd plot to come out ahead on the deal – is icing on the cake. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, Fleming’s short films, and the theatrical trailer.

Known largely for his hit “Secret Agent Man,” is takes the 2-disc Secret Agent Man: The Ultimate Johnny Rivers Anthology (Shout! Factory, $24.98 SRP) to fully present just how many memorable tunes we owe to Rivers rocking delivery, including “Midnight Special,” “Poor Side of Town,” and more. Give it a spin and find out for yourself…

They’d done the deed, and the fourth season of Moonlighting (Lionsgate, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) is when you could feel the cracks beginning to form, as Bruce Willis’s film career heated up and Cybil Shepherd’s ego began to expand exponentially. At least we got more Curtis Armstrong. The 3-disc set features all 14 episodes, plus commentaries select episodes.

Before he was a superstar with the power to bankrupt studios with his asking fee, Jim Carrey was the star of high-concept, low-budget comedies that struck a chord with audiences, propelling him to the fiscal superstardom he enjoys today. A pair of those early flicks comprise the Ace Ventura box set (Warner Bros., Rated PG, DVD-$19.98 SRP), featuring newly remastered (and widescreen) versions of Pet Detective and When Nature Calls. Pet Detective contains an audio commentary with director Tom Shadyac, TV spots, and the trailer, while When Nature Calls is limited to that flicks’ trailer. The set does, however, contains a 3rd disc with 3 episodes from the Ace Ventura animated series. Aaaaaaallllrighty then.

Packed with trivia, artwork, rarities, and more information about the man of Steel than you can shake a forest full of sticks at, The Krypton Companion (Twomorrows, $24.95 SRP) more than lives up to its name as a veritable cornucopia of Superman trivia and minutiae. As always, Twomorrows has released a tome that will excite and interest fans both hardcore and casual, celebrating comics as entertainment first and foremost.

If you’ve been fretting over exactly how you can pull off the perfect schlock horror filmfest this Halloween, rest your weary brow and snag the first three volumes of Elvira’s Movie Macabre double features (Shout! Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP each). Hosted by the Mistress of the Dark, this 1981 series featured our ghoulishly beautiful host introducing the worst of the worst – films like Count Dracula’s Great Love, The Werewolf Of Washington, The Devil’s Wedding Night, The Doomsday Machine, Legacy of Blood, and Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks.

Although I’m sure the added bonus features – including a sing-along, deleted scenes, interviews with Travolta & Newton-John, footage from the DVD launch party, and more – the real stand-out of the “Rockin’ Rydell Edition” of Grease (Paramount, Rated PG, DVD-$19.99 SRP) is the miniature leather jacket that adorns the DVD case. It’s a truly nifty, very frightening collectible.

The Live at Montreux series of concert releases rolls along with a 1986 Eric Clapton performance and a 1973 set from Canned Heat (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP each).

It was only a matter of time before a book was written that catalogues and celebrated that most popcorn of movie genres – the disaster flick. Disaster Movies (Chicago Review Press, $18.95 SRP) contains write-ups on everything from The Poseidon Adventure to The Hindenburg – no cinematic disaster is too obscure.

I wouldn’t call them classics, but no self-respecting horror fan will want to pass up the five films featured in the 3-disc Boris Karloff Collection (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) – Night Key, Tower of London, The Climax, The Strange Door, and The Black Castle. And with Halloween coming up, it’s time to start lining up flicks for those ghoulish fests.

I have never been a fan or Ron Howard as a director – as a Taylor and a Cunningham, sure, but as a director, not so much. One of his more palatable flicks, for me, was Backdraft (Universal, Rated R, DVD-$19.98 SRP). Honestly, I’m not sure why. Maybe it was Kurt Russell. Either way, it’s now got a 2-disc anniversary edition, with an intro from Howard, documentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and more.

Like an old workhorse, the 6th season of King of Queens (Sony, Not Rated, DVD-$39.95 SRP) is simply a sitcom that knows its characters and its parameters, and is dependable week-in and week-out. No big surprises, just a reliable chuckle-fest that doesn’t feel the need to aim any higher than what’s proven successful.

Adhering closer to the source material than the feature films it spun out of, the animated Return To The Planet Of The Apes (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP) had a trio of astronauts arriving on the simian planet, which now featured a civilization of cars and planes, in addition to Cornelius, Zira, and General Urko. Lasting only 13 episodes, the complete run is now available separate from last year’s mega-box set.

There’s nothing like viewing a low-rent 80’s cheesefest like Hunk (BCI, Rated PG, DVD-$9.98 SRP) to bring back find memories of a simpler time in American cinema, where a pitch like “Faust reimagined as the Devil offering a dweeb the ability to become a hunk in exchange for his soul” gets – not only made, but made with James Coco as the Devil. Oh, the 80’s…

With the 2nd volume of its second season, the complete run of He-Man and The Masters of the Universe (BCI, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP) has now been immortalized on those shiny, data-packed discs for fanboys the world over to place upon their shelves. The 6-disc set features those final 32 episodes – but like previous sets, it’s positively packed to the rafters with bonus materials, including a trio of episode commentaries, a pair of episode storyboards, and 2 brand-new behind-the-scenes documentaries (as well as the two artist postcards). Never in a million years did I think that He-Man – He-Man! – would get this kind of deluxe treatment, but it just goes to show what an amazing company BCI is when it comes to their releases (Disney could learn a thing or three from them).

And speaking of series I never thought I’d see on DVD, add BCI’s complete series release of both Blackstar and Space Sentinels/Freedom Force (BCI, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP each). Not only do we get all 3 series, but both sets also contain commentaries, documentaries, interviews, galleries, and more. Do you hear that, Disney? That’s the sound of another company doing animated series releases *right*. My one gripe, though, was BCI’s use of double-sided discs, which I detest… So kudos on the bonus materials and releasing the series, but nega-kudos for the choice of medium.

Final Resting places of horror luminaries, haunted houses, eerie locales, and more are detailed in Creepy Crawls (Santa Monica Press, $16.95 SRP), author Leon Marcelo’s handy guide to taking a fiendish road trip of your own, following in the footsteps of all things macabre.

When every franchise under the sun is getting its own box set (hello, Leprechaun!), you knew that the killer doll with the overalls wasn’t far behind – which is to say yes, there is a Child’s Play collection featuring all 4 sequels (the first flick is not included), titled Chucky: The Killer DVD Collection (Universal, Rated R, DVD-$29.98 SRP). Containing Child’s Play 2, Child’s Play 3, Bride of Chucky, and Seed of Chucky, the set also features audio commentaries on Bride and Seed, plus featurettes.

Give it enough time, and everything, everyone, and every property under the sun will eventually be made into an action figure. Cinema buffs might want to adorn their desks with Dark Horse’s Movie Icons collection ($24.99 SRP each). Below, you’ll see Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Charlie Chaplin, and Steve McQueen (with baseball – you know the flick). Each figure comes in a film canister package, and is ready for you to finally enact that Chaplin/Laurel & Hardy brawl.

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So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…

Comics in Context #147: San Diego 2006 – Is This Trip Really Necessary?

Filed under: Comics in Context — admin @ 3:05 am

 

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The following events took place between Saturday, July 22 at 6:40 PM and the present.

“You’re still living in San Diego!” exclaimed the Beat in shock (and an admirable metaphor) a few weeks ago. But as Ed McMahon might have said to Carnac the Magnificent, “I hold in my hand”–metaphorically speaking–“the final installment of this year’s San Diego Con reports,” whereupon applause sounds through cyberspace. Some of you may be thinking, “Didn’t he tell us that he’d be spending fewer pages writing about the San Diego Con this year? But in 2003 and 2005 he took only six weeks to do it, and this year it’s eight.” Ah, I reply, sneaking through a well-planned loophole, but you’ll find that most of this year’s installments are shorter than last year’s.

This week, therefore, marks my final attempt this year to persuade my fellow Quick Stop columnist, Fred Hembeck, who, despite being the Consummate Comics Fan, has never, ever been to the San Diego Con, that he should, nay, must go there someday. Fred already replied to my campaign on his blog (http://www.hembeck.com/FredSez.htm) on August 18: “Sorry, Peter–as long as I can’t carry on polish for my Stan Lee Press On Nails, I ain’t getting aboard!” But, Fred, there are other ways to go than by plane! You could follow the example of Lewis (not Lois) and Clark by undertaking a cross-country road trip. Driving out to Comic-Con, staying its length, and then driving back: why it’d only take roughly three weeks out of your life. Bring a laptop and you can blog en route.

SATURDAY 6:40 PM
If you read last week’s report, then you recall that I waited over two hours to get into the San Diego Convention Center’s cavernous Hall H, hoping to see director Sam Raimi give a presentation about the forthcoming Spider-Man 3 movie. (The Comic-Con asserts that being a member of the press does not ensure admission to Hall H. Well, why not?) But instead I got to see this other guy, who looked a lot like that character Silent Bob in those Clerks movies, who bestowed his wisdom about life upon the crowd. For convenience’s sake, let us continue to call him Mr. Smith.

At the point at which I pick up my report, Smith had already been asked
“what made you want to direct?” Smith said it was seeing Richard Linklater’s movie Slacker (1991), which has no plot in the conventional sense and consists of a series of dialogues between different characters. “God, if this counts as a film,” Smith said; the connection to Clerks is clear.

Now another audience member asked Smith, what would he have done if directing hadn’t worked out for him as a career. “Before I wanted to be a filmmaker, I thought I wanted to own a deli,” Smith replied. (This too illuminates the Clerks movies.) “I didn’t really have a backup plan,” he confessed. it’s a good thing that following his dream paid off.

The next fan wanted to know if Smith would be writing more comic books.
“Me and comics, not a great mix,” Smith began. “Mostly because I–Where the fuck’d you go?” The fan had already obliviously wandered away from the microphone. “We were having a conversation,” protested Smith. You can become prosperous and famous and still end up with people walking away from you while you’re still talking to them.

Smith pressed onward: “Because I have a hard time sticking on schedule.” He brought up his Spider-Man/Black Cat limited series, whose final issue was a full three years late. “You’re not supposed to take three years off,” he pointed out. Then he told us the price of missing deadlines: “For three years I was fuckin’ persona non grata at comic book conventions. “˜Where’s Spider-Man/Black Cat, tubby? Jersey Girl fuckin’ bombs and Spider-Man/Black Cat isn’t finished!'”

Smith concluded, “Dude, I’m gonna get you laid and you won’t care about Spider-Man.” (This obviously hasn’t worked for Mr. Smith.) The fan, continuing to demonstrate his lack of manners, asserted that he’d heard Smith say that before. “I do,” Smith retorted proudly: “That’s one of my bits.”

Next Smith was asked what he thought of being badmouthed recently on the HBO series Entourage. “I thought that was a compliment,” Smith contended. But wasn’t that negative publicity? “No fuckin’ such thing,” Smith declared. “They said my name on TV.”

The next audience member in line spoke in praise of Jersey Girl, Smith’s film that centers on the relationship between a widowed father and his young daughter. “People who are not parents don’t get Jersey Girl,” she said. “People who are parents do get it.” Smith thanked her and the others who liked Jersey Girl. Despite its bad reputation, I rather liked Jersey Girl, too, and I’m not a parent. Maybe it’s because I’m middle–uh, I mean, have a mature outlook.

Another fan asked what was Smith’s inspiration for Clerks II. “I opened up my mortgage bill,” Smith said, adding, “Back to the well.” (Smith and Bruce Timm have the same problem.) Then Smith said that he wanted to examine “what it was like to be in my thirties,” since the original Clerks was about life in his twenties. So I wonder if in ten years there will be a Clerks III about entering middle age.

The next questioner wanted to know how “first time filmmaker” could break into the business. Smith said, “I don’t know the way in. I just made Clerks. So my advice to you is just make Clerks.”

Smith wound up by talking about his recent dispute with Joel Siegel, the movie reviewer for Good Morning America. Siegel, Smith told us, “walked out of our movie the other day.” In Clerks II, as the centerpiece of lead character Dante’s bachelor party, his friend Randal arranges for “the donkey show,” which one might describe as bestiality as performance art. (Gee, whatever happened to hiring strippers?) This offended Siegel’s delicate sensibilities. “He said, “˜That’s it! I haven’t walked out of a movie in thirty-seven years!” Smith told us, but Siegel walked out of this one.

Now it seems to me that the strange thing about this is that Clerks II shows us the two participants in the donkey show, but does not actually show them Doing It. Smith knows where to draw the line. So Clerks II is therefore no more or less offensive than The Aristocrats, in which bestiality, among other non-G-rated activities, is repeatedly mentioned but never shown onscreen. Did Siegel walk out of that movie, too?

“It was weird,” Smith told us. “I grew up watching this dude on TV.” What upset Smith was not that Siegel walked out but that he was rude enough “to be disruptive in the middle of the press screening.” Smith was on the Opie & Anthony radio show and they asked him if he wanted to call up Joel Siegel and so they did. “It was one of the rare times I got to confront” a critic, Smith said. “I felt like I was arguing with my father,” Smith told us, “if my father had a big cowcatcher mustache.”

And thus the day’s events in Hall H came to an end, and the campers could at last decamp. I may not have seen Sam Raimi and the Spider-Man 3 leads, but had it not been for my lengthy wait outside, I would not have seen Kevin Smith perform for the first time. Convention presentations should entertain as well as inform. Smith is a master of the con appearance as stand-up comedy act, and his casual way with profanity even gave me a bit of a sense of what it must have been like to see Lenny Bruce perform live.

And then, as we filed out of Hall H, we were all handed Spider-Man 3 caps. It was as if that really had been the Sam Raimi panel after all.

SATURDAY 8:00 PM
But since I stayed to hear Kevin Smith, I was late getting to the restaurant in
the Gaslamp Quarter restaurant where the Comic Arts Conference was holding its annual Saturday night dinner. In fact I arrived just as the Conference attendees were divvying up the check. So I headed over to Horton Plaza to get a quick dinner and then turned back towards the Convention Center.

SATURDAY 9:00 PM
I arrived back in the Sails Pavilion to watch the annual Masquerade, which was already in progress. Actually, the Masquerade took place in Room 20, the site of the Eisner Awards the previous night. But there is such demand to attend the Masquerade that tickets are now required to get in, and people without tickets can instead watch the proceedings on large video screens in the Sails Pavilion and Room 6A. Last year there was only a relative handful of people watching the show on the Sails Pavilion screen, but this year virtually every seat at the many tables arranged in front of the screen was occupied. This was yet another sign of how Comic-Con attendance continues to grow at so rapid a pace. This also set me thinking about why the entertaining but empty-headed Masquerade is so popular and yet the Eisner Awards, which are much more significant, could not even fill half of the same venue, Room 20.

Among this year’s contestants were a group who purportedly enacted the plot of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie within five minutes or so. At the end the names of the masqueraders were projected onscreen, and, to my astonishment, they all turned out to be women! How aware is Disney of the gender-bending appeal of their current flagship films? SpongeBob SquarePants cavorted onstage, perhaps in the vain hope that his number one fan Fred Hembeck would be there. At another point, a human-sized Pikachu was beheaded onstage, to tumultuous applause from the audience. Justice had triumphed at last.

SUNDAY 10:30 AM
There was no crowding at all on the main convention floor when I entered this morning. it’s a pleasure walking around. Well, Sunday is supposed to be a “slow” day at Comic-Con.

SUNDAY 11:00 AM
I returned to the DK Publishing booth to do another signing for my book X-Men: The Ultimate Guide. This time I was seated at the front of the booth. Carrie Fisher wasn’t at the next booth this morning, but directly in front of me, at the Lego display, a Lego version of SpongeBob was grinning at me, as if he considered me the next best thing to Fred.

Again I found myself enjoying doing the signing and experiencing a small sliver of what it must feel like to be famous. Two young women even asked if they could have their photograph taken with me. See, Fred, here’s another reason you should come to Comic-Con: you too could get to feel like a celebrity for an hour!

As I sat at the booth, I saw the traffic in the aisle in front of me grow heavier. It wasn’t even noon yet and the crowds looked like Saturday’s.

On Friday night I’d spoken by phone to Quick Stop editor Ken Plume, and we had arranged that either he would stop by the DK booth between 11 and 12, or I would borrow a cell phone, call him, and find out where to meet him. He didn’t show up, and when I phoned his number, I got a recorded message that he was unable to take my call. This was strange. (Ken later informed me that he had to leave unexpectedly early for Los Angeles.)

Once more I stayed longer than my allotted hour. I had a goal: I would keep on signing until we sold the last remaining copies of X-Men: The Ultimate Guide at the DK booth. And I’m happy to say we succeeded!

SUNDAY 12:30 PM
On Thursday my friend Meloney had told me I should go to the Inkworks area (since she freelances for them) on Sunday to locate her for our traditional Sunday afternoon get-together at the Con. But she wasn’t there, nor did the
people on duty know where she was.

Yet again I was forced to recognize that unless you set a definite time and place to meet someone during the Con, you are likely never to run into that person. My tentative plans for Sunday afternoon–getting together first with Ken and then with Meloney–had fallen apart. What could I do instead?

SUNDAY 1:00 PM
I would have felt my 2006 Comic-Con experience was incomplete had I attended only one of Mark Evanier’s panels. Mark has attended the San Diego Con every year starting with its very first, long before Hollywood publicists discovered it. I consider the panels he hosts to be the heart of Comic-Con, carrying on its tradition of honoring classic comics and animation. However gratifying it is to see movie directors and stars coming to San Diego to acknowledge us as their audience, to my mind they remain a sideshow. Panels like Mark Evanier’s are the main event.

I arrived in Room 6CDEF shortly after 1 PM for Evanier’s final panel of this year’s Comic-Con, “Cartoon Voices II.” I’d attended one of his panels of voice actors for animation back in 1997, and in the intervening years they’ve justifiably grown so popular that this year Comic-Con held two of them, each with a different lineup of actors. Today’s panel had the largest audience in the largest room I’d ever seen for an Evanier-led panel.

Since by his own account Mark has been losing a pound a day, Sunday he was two pounds lighter than when I’d last seen him at the Eisners. But then, we may have all lost weight waiting through the Eisners, and, for that matter, getting through the crush of people at Comic-Con.

Evanier introduced the panelists, who included Bob Bergen, who recreates the voice of Porky Pig/the Eager Young Space Cadet for the Duck Dodgers TV show; Wally Wingert, who does voices for Family Guy; the attractive April Stewart, who performs voices on South Park; Quick Stop editor Ken Plume’s good buddy Billy West, who is not only the original Stimpy but also took over Ren, who performs Fry and other members of the Futurama cast, and who has on occasion been Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Popeye; and another pretty voice actress, Kimberly Brooks, who performs on Mucha Lucha.

Ms. Brooks said that for the direct-to-video animated feature Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003), she voiced the character of Kathy Ducaine, who “kinda sounds like me but very breathy,” as she proceeded to demonstrate. Evanier observed, “There are people who would pay $19.95 to hear that,” whereupon Wingert began breathing hard.

Then the panel turned to some of the odder aspects of the voice acting profession. Take the Hanna-Barbera character Captain Caveman, whose only comprehensible dialogue consisted of yelling his name. Evanier said that Mel Blanc “yelled it once,” and Hanna-Barbera simply played the recording “over and over.” Then Evanier told us how Ted Cassidy did the roars for Godzilla on the character’s animated show. After Cassidy passed away, Evanier continued, the show “auditioned soundalikes until somebody realized” that they had “three hours” of Cassidy’s recorded roaring that they could simply recycle. So, Evanier concluded, “people who auditioned got beaten out by a dead guy,” who, he added, “didn’t get health benefits.”

Bob Bergen recounted how he used to do voice work on Star Wars videogames and “got memos from George Lucas” saying he sounded as if “I didn’t believe in the Force. And I couldn’t argue with those memos,” Bergen said with deadpan irony.

Then came the centerpiece of the panel: the actors would perform an old time radio script that they had never seen before in what Evanier termed an “ice cold reading.” In past editions of this panel, Evanier said, they had performed a Superman radio script, but this time they were doing Flash Gordon. In fact, this seemed to be Flash‘s first episode.

Evanier then assigned the roles. Bergen would be Flash. Wingert would play “Announcer #2″ who should “talk very fast.” Stewart would portray the heroine Dale Arden, whom Evanier characterized as a “good girl” in her “mid-20s.” Evanier assigned Brooks to do Aura, whom he described as “the sluttier woman in this,” whereupon Brooks fixed the audience with a look of understated irony. Evanier told Billy West, “You’re going to be everyone else,” including “Announcer #1,” Dr. Zarkov, whom he described as having “a slight German accent” (But wouldn’t “Zarkov” be a Russian name?), “Slave #1″ (who West made sound something like Droopy) and the archvillain Ming the Merciless.

Evanier explained that in assigning roles his intent was to “try not to have an actor talk to himself,” although he confessed that he once asked the late Paul Winchell if he minded talking to himself (in separate roles) and Winchell said, “What do you think I did for a career for 55 years?” (The answer: being one of the world’s most famous ventriloquists.)

To enliven things further, Evanier introduced what he called “an improv game”: whenever he said “change,” the voice actor would “read the same line again in a different voice,” and then return to the original voice thereafter. Perhaps taken aback by the complexity, Bergen asked, “Are we getting paid for this?”

Since my column doesn’t have an audio track, there is no way I can convey to you just how much fun this reading proved to be. The actors took every opportunity to play the script for laughs. For example, when Flash and Dale’s aircraft was being knocked about, April Stewart emitted groans that sounded somewhat suggestive. “Was it good for you, too, Dale”? ad libbed Flash/Bergen.

Many laughs resulted from Evanier’s well-placed orders to “change.” For example, when West was performing Dr. Zarkov, whose “slight German accent” was, in practice, amusingly over the top, Evanier called “Change!” and Zarkov immediately morphed into a perfect imitation of a laid back George W. Bush, who had just located “a new planet, Ah guess.” At another “Change!” command, Kimberly Brooks’ sultry Princess Aura shifted into a villainous Valley Girl: “You are going to totally love me or you are so going to die.” Similarly, Wingert’s fast-talking Announcer #2 briefly became Paul Lynde, noting about two characters, “They’re both bitches.”

Following the well-received reading, the panel took questions from the audience. Inevitably, the topic of getting into the voice acting profession came up. Bergen asserted that “Everybody in this room has a great voice,” but that is not enough: it’s necessary to study acting. Stewart agreed that the voice alone isn’t sufficient, saying, “It’s like saying I have a pencil, I should be a writer.” West urged people to “Keep trying. Don’t listen to what anyone tells you,” that there was “so much media out there” that are “always looking for voice people.” Stewart warned, “Don’t listen to any negativity” and to “walk out of the room” if you get any. Stewart and Brooks agreed that you should “Believe in yourself,” which is good advice for any field of endeavor.

Evanier then singled out five great people in the history of voice acting for animation. The first was the late Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and so many other Warners characters, “who invented” the “kind of voice acting” used in animation today. Next was the late Daws Butler, whose name was applauded by the audience, the voice of Yogi Bear and the majority of early Hanna-Barbera characters, whom Evanier called “a wonderful actor and teacher.” Evanier contended that the “quality of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon” is “proportionate to the amount of work” Butler did in it. This is not as much of an overstatement as it might at first seem. The third was Butler’s frequent Hanna-Barbera colleague Don Messick, also deceased, whose name also received applause. So did that of the fourth, June Foray, the voice of Bullwinkle‘s Rocky and Natasha and Nell, whom Evanier said he was assisting in writing her autobiography; he said that next year she will be at Comic-Con signing the book. The fifth was Lennie Weinrib, the voice of H. R. Pufnstuf, among many other characters, who had recently passed away.

One audience member told the panelists, “You guys have the coolest job in the world.” Subsequently, Bob Bergen recounted an anecdote that illustrates one reason why. He said that shortly after the 9/11 attacks, “four of us went to Krispy Kreme,” where he ordered donuts in the voice of Porky Pig. They ended up being given two dozen donuts for free, because, one of the Krispy Kreme staffers told them, “That’s the first time we’ve laughed in days.”

By the panel’s end, one could agree with the audience member who told the panelists, “I came here for Billy West and found out I’m a huge fan of everyone else.”

Even so, I was paying particular attention to West, whom Ken Plume has been praising for years in his phone conversations with me. West revealed on the panel that the following week he would start working on a new Futurama series that Comedy Central will air in early 2008, and that there will also be a Futurama movie. At one point West talked about being a Three Stooges fan and did a perfect imitation of Larry Fine’s voice for us. He explained that Futurama‘s “Fry sounds like a 25-year-old me” and described himself thus: “I’m 55 years old and I’ve got the body of a 16-year-old. . . in the trunk of my car.” What an amusing and talented guy.

But it appears that voice acting, like freelance writing in the comics biz, isn’t the most stable of careers. Wingert noted that “videogames have saved a lot of us” when voice work for animation was scarce. West then said, “I didn’t go to college, I feel grateful for any work.”

And then I had an epiphany. Fred and I only know Ken Plume as a voice on the telephone. We’ve never actually seen him. Lately Ken has started to compare himself to Charlie, the unseen boss of his Angels. (Well, Misty looks the part but not Paul Dini, Fred or me.) Mysteriously, I keep missing seeing Ken when we’re both in San Diego, or so I thought. It’s no wonder that when I asked Mark Evanier if he had seen Ken Plume, he gave me a meaningful look and told me to look for Billy West. For all I know, Billy West is moonlighting at Quick Stop to supplement his income, and “Kenneth Plume” is no more than one of West’s innumerable voices. Ken, it is now up to you to prove this isn’t true. The ball is in your court.

SUNDAY 2:30 PM
I decided that before Comic-Con ended, I should make my way across the sections of the gargantuan main floor that I hadn’t yet explored this year, including Artists’ Alley, which was way off to one end, against the far wall. I wouldn’t be surprised if many attendees never found it.

If Sunday is still the “slow” day at Comic-Con, it’s only in the sense of how long it takes to move along the main floor. The aisles were so congested that it was like Saturday afternoon at its height. (Indeed, I learned that the Con stopped selling tickets on Saturday because the Convention Center was so packed with people.)

Amidst this sea of humanity, I sighted a reminder of conventions past. Back in the 1970s, before women dressed in Princess Leia’s slave girl costume at comics conventions, some female attendees came wearing Red Sonja’s iron bikini. There, moving slowly through the masses of fans ahead of me was a shapely 21st century Sonja. Though she was surrounded by male fans, no one, to their credit, was hassling her; on the other hand, no one seemed to notice her either. Are convention attendees becoming too jaded?

I spend most of my time at Comic-Con attending panels, in Hall H or the upper floors, and this year, when I ventured onto the main floor, it was to sit at a booth and sign books. Now, trying to move through the swarms of people on the main floor wasn’t pleasant at all. At San Diego Cons in the 1980s I was rather sad to leave the main floor on Sunday afternoon. This year it came as a relief.

SUNDAY 4:00 PM
The convention would end in an hour, but I was already out of the building.
Instead I was sitting at an outdoor restaurant at the nearby Marriott, looking out over the pleasure boats docked at the harbor, and the blue water and bright sky beyond. I was here for a Publishers Weekly meeting, attended by editor (and Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award winner) Calvin Reid and his wife, manga reviewer Kai-Ming Cha, and the ubiquitous Beat to discuss our coverage of the con for PW‘s online newsletter Comics Week.

It turned out I didn’t get to write any Comics Week pieces about the con. Mark Evanier has sagely observed on his blog (on Friday, July 21 at www.newsfromme.com) that “one of the problems with covering this mega-gathering is that it’s really about forty conventions in one.” Comics Week‘s limited space would be devoted to news about Marvel and DC, manga, and alternative comics from panels I had not attended: those conventions were more important to them than the con I had attended. The Beat used my observation about “pirates, pirates everywhere” observation but that was it. As for what I’ve chosen to report on here in my column, my readers should decide for themselves how significant it is.

SUNDAY 5:00 PM
It was closing time for this year’s Comic-Con, when traditionally a swarm of Daleks are released to exterminate any congoers who hadn’t heeded the commands to Convention Center. Seated in the Marriott’s outdoor restaurant, looking out over the peaceful harbor, I was just too far away to hear the fans’ high-pitched shrieks. I had other things on my mind. Having planned to spend the evening writing Comics Week articles, what would I do instead?

I chose to do some San Diego things I’d never done before. First on my list was finally taking a ride in a pedicab, the combination bicycles and rickshaws that are used as open-air taxis. My pedicab driver was an attractive and strong-legged young woman, who was a much better conversationalist than your typical New York City cabbie. She was from Poland, and had only been in America for six months, but since Europeans put more importance on being multilingual than Americans do, she had become fluent in English before arriving here.

SUNDAY 9:00 PM
After dinner at Horton Plaza, I returned to my hotel on Coronado Island after dark. Discovering that the swimming pool was open at night, and that it was heated, I decided to spend a few hours out there. This was one of my best experiences on the trip. Although the pool seemed nondescript by daylight, at night it was magical, lined by silhouetted palm trees, with the lights of the San Diego skyline, including the Convention Center, off in the distance. There were only a relative handful of other guests using the pool, so it was quiet and peaceful. Wondering where guests kept disappearing to around a corner, I finally discovered the outdoor jacuzzi/spa, and I’d never been in one of them before either until that night.

The whole experience was so soothing and relaxing, banishing the accumulated stress of the Con. Even returning to my room and discovering that the hotel bill had been screwed up again did no more than briefly interrupt my blissful state.

MONDAY
Last year I fantasized that after 5 PM on Sunday the entire Comic-Con is swept up in a gigantic tornado and vanished into a hole in the sky. Looking around on Monday morning, it was if there really had been such a storm. After checking out of the hotel, I was the sole passenger on the water taxi that took me to the mainland. There was not a single person on the sidewalk outside the Convention Center. Indeed, during my entire last day in San Diego, I saw no more than three people who gave some sign like commenting on my Dark Horse bag, that they had been to the Con. (By the way, remember those TokyoPop bags from last year’s Comic-Con, that were big enough to hold small children? They were missing from this year’s San Diego Con, so I had to find substitutes. Warner Brothers’ bags had handles that broke almost immediately. But my Dark Horse bag remained intact until I got all the way back home.)

Did Annette, my new acquaintance from my flight to San Diego, follow up on my offer to show her the sights of the city on Monday. Of course not; I’m not that lucky.

So, since I don’t believe in going to Southern California and spending all the time inside, I went off to the San Diego Zoo on my own. Unusually for San Diego, there was a downpour for an hour, and afterwards some of the animals seemed oddly, ah, frisky. I found myself standing in front of the enclosure for large African tortoises, two of whom were engaged in what Kevin Smith might call the Tortoise Show while another tortoise looked on. He wasn’t the only voyeur. Other zoogoers, some of them children, were watching the Show; photographs were taken. I wondered: what would Joel Siegel think? Life is a Film by Kevin Smith. (Like myself, you may have assumed that turtles have no voices. But now I have heard the grunting of a male tortoise in the ecstasy of love.)

Then it was off to the airport, where in the security line I had my first encounter with one of the new “puffer” machines. They emit bursts of compressed air, presumably to upset any snake that may be hiding on your person in order to smuggle itself onto a plane. I would discover that the friendly white-haired gentleman at the ticket counter had listed the wrong gate for both my departing redeye flight from San Diego and my connection at Philadelphia. As I wearily logged all of my heavy carry-ons all the way across each terminal, I told myself: good thing I brought this laptop with me to no reason, eh?

TUESDAY
When I arrived home I was welcomed by an array of unexpected problems: my phones had gone dead, my desktop computer’s keyboard no longer worked, a record-shattering heat wave was about to begin, and so much more.

NOW
So I think back over all the hassles and hardships I endured preparing for my trip, flying out, dealing with problems at the hotel, missing connections with friends, inching through crowded convention aisles, dealing with more trouble on the way back, and I wonder: Is Fred Hembeck right after all? Is going to the San Diego Con more trouble than it’s worth?

In the line outside the Convention Center on Saturday afternoon, I discussed with people around me how the Con could deal with overflow crowds for Hall H events. Should they pipe the audio outside, as Symphony Space did with the Whedon-Sondheim meeting I missed? Should they telecast the panels into another room, as they do with the Masquerade? (But it was pointed out to me that then it would be harder to stop people from making bootleg videos of the preview footage.) If attendance for Comic-Con continues to grow at this rate, what will happen next year? ( I think of the new stadium across the street from the Convention Center. Could they use that?)

Michael Eury and I were recently commiserating over the unpleasantness of cross-country travel. Ken Plume has told me he doesn’t intend to return to the San Diego Con since it is so hard to get business done there nowadays. (But I bet Billy West will continue to show up.) On her blog (http://trishm.blogspot.com/) in August, colorist Patricia Mulvihill explained why she didn’t go to the Comic-Con this year: “at a certain point last year it became more wearying than wonderful. It was all just TOO MUCH. So when I decided to skip this year, it was as if a giant weight had been lifted.” She pointed out, “So much preparation goes into attending it almost feels like training for an endurance event. . . .just traversing the con floor has become a test of will.”

I’ve already decided that it is simply too expensive to attend Comic-Con unless I can get one of my clients to pick up part of the bill. Besides, within five years, the new New York Comic-Con may evolve into the East Coast equivalent of the San Diego Con, and even Fred is seriously considering attending the next New York Con.

And yet, what little I know about next year’s Comic-Con already makes it seem like something I’d want to see: Neil Gaiman and Roy Thomas as special guests, June Foray publicizing her autobiography.

Mark Evanier, as always, is right about the San Diego Con: “once you get to the convention center here, you pretty much have to find the parts of the convention that matter to you. If you do, I think you can have a very good time.” I really liked the parts of the convention that mattered to me. Maybe one of my publishers will want me to go next year. I just hope that Comic-Con follows Mark’s example: the time has come for Comic-Con to do something drastic about cutting down its size.

ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF
On Monday evening September 25 the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (www.moccany.org) in New York City will hold another session in my lecture series “1986: The Year That Changed Comics.” This time my topic is Will Eisner’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel The Dreamer, about the early days of the comics industry. And my New York University course “The Graphic Novel as Literature” will commence two days later–if enough people sign up for it.

-Copyright 2006 Peter Sanderson

Trailer Park: Greg Grunberg Is Reading Your Mind: Part 1 of 2

Filed under: Trailer Park — admin @ 3:03 am

 

 

By Christopher Stipp

Archives? Right Here…

I thought it was the perfect opening.

It eventually came to me upon high, not unlike suddenly seeing the visage of Jesus on the burnt edges of a fudge-frosted Pop Tart, in that I thought my mind had subconciously fed me the brick that I was going to slam dunk on Greg Grunberg. Sure, it was a little risky because of the dated material on which the joke hinged on but he would get it even if no one else would. I gave thanks and praise and then, just moments before the interview, I had my wit popped like a thick balloon. 

Prior to all of this, though, when I was thinking of ways to approach talking about this show without having seen it, the quasi-serious promos for HEROES being my only guide, I didn’t really know the angle. I had never heard of Greg Grunberg before this interview, I didn’t have a clue he was ever on ALIAS as I never watched it, I knew that just being a dude negated me from being in the target audience for FELICITY but yet, as sweat poured off my head, the contents of his PR packet spilling on the gym floor as the exercise bicycle I was riding with nary a hand to keep me steady, with the exception of Greg’s steely 8×10 that I held in my mouth as I flipped through scads of clippings, photos and a recipe for a sweet looking brisket, I consumed a lot of press articles on the man in preparation for the interview. A shape took form in my head about what this man was all about and it was about that time that instead of worrying about how I was going to carry on a conversation with the man I hardly knew I had the hook.

I had the kind of funny that I wrote down on my mini legal pad and instantly felt it in my gut that it was going to be lead-off hitter of an opener. As well, I thought that this little nugget of merryment was going to set me apart, set my hip sensibilities apart from all the other quasi-journos who were going to write stories on this guy, and there was nothing left to do than let the joke take care of itself.

For those who don’t know much about Greg one of the more serious accents to his character, something that a lot of blowhardy celebrities partake in but forget about as soon as the last bottle of Brut has been popped, Greg devotes a good chunk of his free time and effort into trying make an honest difference in the world. Now, what made Greg’s efforts so grand and made me take notice of, something that not even Angelina and her plight to ostensibly export half the residents of Nambia into her home so she can adopt all of them, was that his ideas on how to get people involved in his work while creating the air that fund-raising could be an engaging activity felt new and genuine; there was also that one reason why it did feel so genuine

Greg has a ten year old boy that is dealing with pediatric epilepsy.

Beyond just feeling bad for his boy, Greg proactively went out and started stumping for this cause if for no other reason than to help his child, and others like him, get the kind of help they need. It would be easy to just dismiss Greg’s solo charity on the behalf of the Pediatric Epilepsy Project but when you see the fruits that have blossomed from his labor it is hard not to be impressed that he was able to get players like Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Sylvester Stallone and even Ringo Starr to help donate their own time as well in order to raise funds for a solid cause.

Beyond that, even, Greg created a movable feast of goodwill with the creation of a super-celeb travelling circus of rock n’ roll. The Band From TV, which you can also see here, is a fund-raiser on risers that is taking to the stage and, with the help of Hugh Laurie from HOUSE and even that Bob Guiney guy from THE BACHELOR, demolishing any pre-conception that The Bacon Brothers were the end-all be-all for famous people who think they can be rock n’ rollers too.

There is a lot that Greg lets me in on as we talk, some things are more personal than others, but even with that one funny moment I thought to myself on how to start things off I found my moment popped by the cruelist of all ironies: IMDB. Some days, from one to the next, you never quite know what or who is coming your way. With Greg, I had no clue what I was in for and, thankfully, he was gentle.

HEROES debuts Monday, September 25th

I’m surprised you’re up this early to do one of these things”¦

(Laughs) Oh, come on, early? I’ve got three boys. I’ve been up for four hours”¦unfortunately.

True. I’ve got two at home, myself.

Ah, girls or boys?

Two girls.

Ah, well, then we should hook “˜em up!

(Laughs) It’d be hard to set up a play date from over here in Phoenix. But, you know, it seems like the older they get the earlier they like to get up in the morning.

Yeah, I know. AND”¦my 10 year old. We don’t want to put him to sleep before he’s tired but he stays up so late sometimes, not so late as some friends of ours let their kids stay up as late as they want, like midnight, which I can’t imagine, but he’ll stay up until 9:30 or 10 but then still get up super early. And it doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t get it.

So”¦then you’ve been up for a while this morning.

Since 6. 6 a.m. as I am the chef in the house.

Ah, yeah, I actually read your recipe for your grandmother’s brisket when I was preparing for the interview this morning and, I have to admit, it made me real hungry.

Very nice! I’ve got to say”¦that brisket, my grandmother’s recipe, is literally the best thing because you cook it three times and by the third time it’s just falling apart. It’s really good.

And what a great segue into HEROES.

Yes”¦

You know, I’ll be straight up with you. I was getting ready for the interview, and I was going to be all funny-funny and glib by goofing on the idea that this show is the greatest looking superhero program that NBC has put out since MISFITS OF SCIENCE. I thought it was going to be witty, no one was going to get it, only to find out that the series’ writer, Tim Kring, also wrote for”¦MISFITS OF SCIENCE.

What?

Yeah. You honestly didn’t know?

No I didn’t know!

I, literally, started laughing to myself and wondered of all the things that could’ve 86’d the joke”¦

That’s hilarious!

He was a writer for MISFITS OF SCIENCE.

You know what’s crazy about that is that I never would’ve expected, I don’t think the network either, would’ve ever expected this kind of a show from Tim Kring. Ever. Because he’s”¦PROVIDENCE, CROSSING JORDAN, I think he had one more show left in his deal, one more pilot, and I think they were expecting a procedural drama, something with a strong female character, whatever, and then this thing comes out of him? Which, I couldn’t be happier but I didn’t know Tim from anything.

Really?

Nothing. I’ve never worked with him before, didn’t know his name and I didn’t even know Damon Lindelof had worked with him. I mean I guess I did realize that Damon came from CROSSING JORDAN but I didn’t put 2 and 2 together.

And when I read the script I was like, “Fuck, this really feels like something JJ wrote.”

Yeah it does…

Just because it is so character slanted”¦you care about these people”¦there’s so many that if you don’t care about one you’re going to care about another, that sort of thing. I just thought it was so well written. I had just gone in on STUDIO 60, which I also thought was incredibly well written, but I wasn’t as excited about that show, for me, as this.

I had also just done HOUSE so I worked with David Semel, who directed the HEROES pilot, and when I read this I called the network and I said, “This is what I want to do.” I was at the end of my deal and I had just done a pilot for them that didn’t fly”¦

Was that THE CATCH or GRAND UNION?

GRAND UNION. THE CATCH was at ABC with JJ.

Ok.

Yeah, HUGE bummer because everyone loved it, turned out really well and it just didn’t fit into the schedule. It was more of a throwback, to like ROCKFORD FILES, than it was”¦It seemed like it from the series’ premise.

Which I love but they really wanted something edgy, and they’re probably right, but, anyway, then we did GRAND UNION which was such a great experience because I LOVED doing a sitcom and that didn’t get picked up.

With NBC these last couple years I got caught”¦like the timing was wrong. I did this Jason Bateman show called THE JAKE EFFECT. We did seven episodes and Jeff Zucker at the time, rightfully so, these expensive, single camera, half-hour shows weren’t doing well so he said, “I can’t pick this up. I just can’t take a chance.”

So, I was like, “Great.”

Then I thought, “Let’s do a multi-cam.” It’s cheap and something really funny so I hooked up with these guys, [David] Israel and [Jim] O’Doherty, these writers that are just awesome. We did this great pilot but, now, half-hour multi-cams aren’t doing well unless there is a huge name like Lithgow or someone attached so they didn’t pick THAT up. And so, once again, I’m like, “Great.”

Then I had about a week left on my deal, I had already fulfilled my obligation to NBC, I know I’m boring you with some of these details”¦

No, no”¦

So, I didn’t have to do another pilot for them and this holding, slash, development deal they had with me and I was like, “Ok, I’ve done what I’ve supposed to do”¦” but I really”¦NBC gets me and I just love Kevin [Reilly], and I love Marc Hirschfeld, everyone over there on the production side, everyone’s great, and we totally get each other but I couldn’t find anything that I loved.

With STUDIO 60 I went in and I read for Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme and I think they already had ideas of people that they wanted because the cast is just unbelievable.

Huge.

Huge and they’re all amazing”¦and I don’t think I ever had a shot at that but at least I got to read for them and it was a great experience for me to go in for them.

Again, the script was great but I thought”¦Well, at least in the pilot the character I went in for”¦It would be developed and you’ve got to trust those guys that they’re going to make an incredible show which I think is going to happen.

Then, when I read HEROES, I was like, “Are you fucking kidding me? Where did this thing come from?”

Right.

But, I did not read a two hour. I only read one hour and the role I read was Milo’s [Ventimiglia] role, the role of Peter, and I read that and, of course, now, I would have never of cast myself. Now that Milo has done it and I’ve seen the pilot there is just no way it was for me but at the time, when you read the script, I go, “Oh, I could do that.”

But I called Semel the night before I was going to go in and read for them, he had just been attached to it, and I said, “David, I am so excited about this, man. It was fun working with you on HOUSE”¦” And he asked me what role I was reading for and I said Peter. And he was like, “Um, I’ve got to tell you, you are completely wrong for this. You’re not right for it at all.” And I being who I am I was like, “Ok, guess what, I am going to come in and just knock your socks off.”

So, I came in and I did it how I do it and Tim, I could just see him squirming in his seat, he had just this second hour of the pilot in his head that he was writing and this role of the cop that he immediately said, “Oh my God, this is my everyman. This is my guy.”

So, as I’m driving home from the audition, and I could tell that the audition went well, but it wasn’t like”¦something was up”¦as I’m driving home, someone called me and said, “You absolutely”¦Really showed Tim a way to explore that character that he wasn’t originally thinking and it’s this other character that you don’t know about.” And so they sent the script over and I read it and immediately is my favorite part and worked out perfectly.

It’s great. Absolutely great. Now it turns out that they didn’t do the two-hour pilot so that’s why I’m not in the pilot.

I was going to say”¦You’re not even in the pilot.

You know what”¦I wasn’t in the pilot for FELICITY, I was on that for years. I wasn’t in the pilot for ALIAS, I was on that for years. As soon as I did the pilot for LOST I was eaten within five minutes.

(Laughs)

So far, that’s the way it should happen.

You bring up a funny point. I know you played a part in LOST, the pilot. Now, with you and JJ being good friends I read that he initially was going to kill off Jack, Matthew Fox, by having him be consumed by the creature and that you were the one who kind of stepped in and said, “No, don’t do that”¦”

Yeah.

Has Matthew Fox ever sent you a Thank You note?

(Laughs)

Yeah. He’s given me several hugs and thanks. I think that everyone was in agreement but I was just one of the people”¦the straw that broke the camel’s back and put it over the top. I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me. This is my favorite character. This is going to be the guy that I think is going to be everyone’s hero. Everyone’s gong to look up to him. He’s a doctor. You can’t kill him.”

And then when they decide to cast Matthew it was just a done deal. There’s no way.

Originally, it was Michael Keaton.

I didn’t know that.

Yeah, JJ talked to Michael Keaton but the problem is that you can’t let the critics and the advertisers be led down a path where they think it was going to be a Michael Keaton show. I mean, he’s unbelievable. Imagine Michael Keaton on an island like that, it would’ve been incredible. And then you kill him? In the pilot? And they buy advertising thinking”¦It’s a coup, but you just can’t break that rule. I don’t think you can lead people down that path but, having suggested that Jack live, JJ said, “Well, good. Then I’ll just kill you.”

(Laughs)

But that’s fine. JJ and I will work forever. It’s just that the timing is not right right now. I talk to him everyday”¦

And I read that. You two really do have a partnership, a kinship, and I have to wonder, because you two have known each other since you were little boys, did you see that potential growing up together? And please be honest because I would drop the hammer and throw old friends under the bus who I knew weren’t going to amount to anything”¦

Oh, absolutely! Are you kidding me?

I’ll break bad on any one of my old friends”¦

You get flashes of it. You got the feeling that this guy was really brilliant, has a great sense of humor. I have friends of mine that are actors and you could just see that when they were kids. That they were goofballs, they stood out, they always wanted the attention and they were smart.

But he, JJ, was always doing”¦we were doing special effects. We made movies when we were nine and ten and making prank phone calls. And he was always artistic, he’s incredible at sketching and clay and can mold a character and can sit down at the piano and play by ear. He’s just like a renaissance guy. He was one of those friends who was like, “Wow, I really want to be close to that guy.” And then, after an hour, you’re like, “I can’t live up to this! I’m inferior!” But he’s never made me feel that way. He was always just creative. I would never be able and compete with him, creatively, but I was right there with him. We were doing everything together. We were making movies when we were ten, and art things and science things”¦it was just a blast hanging out with him.

My parents joke”¦my dad was like, “Why didn’t I make him sign a management agreement when he was 8?”

(Laughs)

My dad LITERALLY says that. He’s like, “JJ, you signed a napkin”¦at the Schwartzenbaum bar mitzvah. Don’t you remember?”

(Laughs)

That’s the thing. This show HEROES kind of feels like a JJ production because it’s being compared to a program like LOST.

I think the comparisons, in my mind, if you really break it down, they don’t compare at all except for the international cast idea but I think what you can compare is the quality.

This genre is unique in that and when it’s good it is really good and that’s what this is. When you read the script it reads like someone who has a story they’ve been wanting to tell for their whole life. They’ve researched it, they know where these characters are headed, they know where they’re from, he has rules of what can and cannot happen and who the evil characters are, and that you can’t just get rid of them right away because they’re going to be around for a while”¦It’s all that great stuff that makes up this genre but where did this come from? With Tim.

He talks about he wasn’t a sci-fi geek, he wasn’t a huge fan of superheroes, he didn’t have comic books when he was a kid yet he writes THIS. So, what he’s done, and it’s really smart, is he’s brought in these guys like Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb, Greg Beeman and especially Jessie Alexander who came over with me. These guys are just fanatical about this genre. They’re so good at what they do. Michael Green. I mean, they are all incredible and so passionate about it.

When I sit down and talk to them about stuff that I get excited about I am talking on such a superficial level like I am going, “Oh, it’s so great when Matt does this thing with the.,.” and they’re just like, “Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, there’s a reason for that and it’s this and this and this and this.” And it’s just like, “Whoa.”

That writer’s room is”¦shit, it’s palpable how the energy is in there.

Really?

Yeah, they’re just all having so much fun. It’s like on a comedy where they’re throwing around jokes and they’re saying, “What about”¦” “Well, how about”¦” “Ha-ha-ha!” These guys keep topping themselves. And it’s not formulaic. That’s the other thing.

And I was going to bring that up regarding the writing. Is there a fear that the writing ever creeps too close to self-parody?

There is always that fear. We had that fear on ALIAS. We were always walking that line. But, no, not on this because you’re dealing with”¦this is much more of an escapist”¦you can really lose yourself in this show because you’re creating, not another world because all these characters are incredibly relatable, but certainly you have to take a leap immediately in watching the show because it’s superheroes and super abilities. Once you go with that, which I think everyone is going to go with it, the rules can be stretched.

So, in ALIAS, the frequent flier miles didn’t make sense on that show. We were flying all over the world”¦an hour here we were in Paris, an hour back, you know, it was crazy. This show, though, is so rooted in the reality that these characters are dealing with in their everyday lives. That’s what I love about my character and Ali’s character and Milo.

It’s like what would happen if, Chris, you woke up tomorrow morning, and suddenly you started to hear these voices in your head. That’s the way they’re writing it”¦is that you would get headaches and you wouldn’t be able to concentrate, it would affect your whole life. You would hear the honest thoughts of your wife and your co-workers and”¦that’s not a good thing a lot of times. At least for me, I don’t think you can find a more sympathetic”¦hopefully I’m playing it that way, it’s sort of the way I play things, it’s empowering and yet a really hard to deal with disability. On the empowering side, it’s really fun and you get a lot of cool stuff to deal with. It’s brutal at times with the stuff this character is going through but that’s what I love about it. It’s complicated.

Are you kind of the Jack/Matthew Fox character in this ensemble”¦

I am more of the Mulder and Scully because I’m a cop who gets roped into investigating just what the hell is going on.

And what’s smart about that is they’ve partnered me up with Clea DuVall from CARNIVALE. She’s an amazing actress and plays this FBI character who kind of recruits me because of my abilities. So, she’s tapped into exactly what’s going on and why all these people with these abilities are being hunted and what’s going on. Who’s after us, why are they after us, we’ve got to stop this killer, who is the killer and no one really understands or has taken the leap that this could be what it is like she has. So, when someone like myself proves to her that I have these abilities she wants to use me, partner with me to solve this.

So what’s great is the audience gets to figure out what’s going on through the eyes of these two people that are investigating everything”¦so far, I have to say. I mean, the Matthew Fox character they’re all inside a bottle on that show and they turn to him because he knows more about fixing things, he’s a doctor.

We haven’t come together yet on our show.

What episode are you on now?

I just got the script this morning for episode number [the tape was a bit intelligible on this number. Apologies]. So, what’s happened is I think at the beginning their idea was that they”¦and you can decide to print this or not”¦the idea was that they were going to [Oops. The tape cut out here. Sorry. It won’t happen again. We now return you to our regularly scheduled interview]

But I can’t wait! All I do is see these guys in the trailer, at the coffee truck”¦

Ensemble cast. The promos have these people deeply rooted in their own thing and it doesn’t seem like anyone can play off each other’s, pardon the pun, strengths inside of a good ensemble”¦

Not yet. There was an episode of ALIAS, one of my favorite episodes, the Ricky Gervais episode, obviously because of him, but in that episode we all had”¦we all worked together in a MOD SQUAD sort of way where we plan this thing, we built this set, it was like a real team thing. And that I can’t wait to get to point [in HEROES] where I’m the guy in the van, like I would be on ALIAS, and suddenly they say, “We have no idea of whether he’s holding or not. Is he holding?” Then they tell me, “Go in, read his mind, and come out.” And I go in and I just have to brush up next to him”¦THAT could be so cool! I love that.

What’s great is that everyone knows how incredible that’s going to be so it’s a nice carrot to hold out there going, “Now when these guys all get together they’re unstoppable.” But they don’t even know they all exist yet so they are just these individual stories all over the world.

And how fast have the scripts been coming?

It’s funny but when we get a writer on the set, whoever is responsible for that script they usually sit and they’re there as the producer/writer, I’ll just belly on up to him”¦kind of just talk to him. “I love this script! Everything is great”¦SOO”¦what do you have in store for me?” Or I’ll throw something out like, “This would be cool”¦” and that usually draws something out and they’ll say, “Yeah, that sounds good but we’re doing this and this .”

They don’t want to give us too much information. But Jessie is one of my closest friends and Tim and I have become close so it’s one of those things where I do try to get information but”¦it’s also fun to not know. On ALIAS, there were periods where I would go for a series of five scripts and I would just read my stuff because I wanted to be surprised and I don’t want it to direct my acting if I know how powerful another character is or what’s going on. My character is supposed to be dark so it’s nice to just go with what I’m given.

 

Nocturnal Admissions: DVD Reviews, Stay Alive and Silent Hill

Filed under: Nocturnal Admissions — UncaScroogeMcD @ 2:43 am
nocturnalheader5.gif

Stay boxWill video games ever translate to the big screen? Since at least Tron in 1982, or more recently Super Mario Bros. in 1993, filmmakers have been trying to capture or recreate, I don’t know which, something about the video game experience. The need has become even more urgent in recent years as video game playing has come to exceed movie going as the youth leisure activity of choice. But then, filmmakers have also been trying to adapt comic books to the screen, too, without much success, be it 1936 or 2006. Though whereas the comic book hero offers the allure of ready made heroic characters and stories, the attraction of the video game to a filmmaker must be something akin to the magic of immersion into a different world, the “fish out of water” theme that was the linchpin of 1980s cinema.

Silent boxDespite the fact that occasionally a filmmaker, such as Robert Montgomery in Lady In the Lake in 1947 or Brian De Palma in the recent The Black Dahlia, embraces the same impulse as one that drives many of the video games available (“you are there” POV cameras, for example), there is still a terrible gap between “movie,” as such, which instills a level of physical passivity in the viewer, and “game,” in which participation is the whole point. But these days even narrative, the bedrock of commercial cinema, is stronger in video games than in most of the movies made, and it appears that when our youth go to spin their stories they do so at Sega rather than Sony Columbia.
But if the video game movie is a thin, dissicated genre, it nevertheless already has its female icon, German actress Alice Krige. She appears in both Stay Alive and Silent Hill, two recent films, the first about gaming, the second based on a game. In the first she has a cameo as a Wicca-style store owner who provides crucial plot-driving information in one scene. In Silent Hill she is the grand matriarch of a ghostly village.

Alice K in Silent Hill
Alice K in Stay Alive

In some ways, Stay Alive is an admirable picture. It is one of some 20 films made at least partially in Louisiana in the wake of Katrina (according to the film’s commentary track, anyway), from the Lindsay Lohan vehicle Just My Luck to The Guardian. But unlike other recent films set in the region, such as Skeleton Key, Stay Alive doesn’t even really feel like it is set in the south. There is a lushly acquitted plantation-like house with a long drive way that opens the film, but the rest is “¦ just anonymous American City.

 

Stay Alive team

 

But then, one is grateful for that simplicity because otherwise Stay Alive can’t even make sense of its own premise. The eponymous bootleg video game, Stay Alive, unofficially based on Fatal Frame, is somehow the ghostly embodiment of Elizabeth Bathory, the 17th century Hungarian serial killer who has been the subject of many a movie from Countess Dracula (1970, with Ingrid Pitt), to apparently the forthcoming Saw III, but who here is imagined to have, instead of dying in solitary confinement in 1614, fled to Lousiana to continue her virgin bloodletting rituals.

 

Stay Alive video team

 

Somehow her spirit went from the plantation seen at the start of the film (and later) into the video game designed by the guy living there. Thereafter, anyone who plays the game dies in the real world the way he does in the game itself, be it by Saw-style mouth pincers to horse drawn carriages. How does this happen? How does the spirit of a killer reach out of a video console to slay victims in the real world? How does a “spirit” inside a video game make car doors and such close in the physical realm? And what are the rules? If Bathory is killed in the demo, as she is finally at the end of the film, will she still be in the final release of the game, shown in the film’s coda on video store walls? Stay Alive raises the same confusing issues that most Asian horror films do, but not because of cultural differences; no, here it is because the concept appears not to be fully thought out.

Stay Alive hero

We first learn of the horror of the game when Hutch O’Neill (Jon Foster) learns that his childhood friend has died under bizarre circumstances. At the funeral the victim’s little sister gives Hutch a box of the friend’s stuff, including the beta or tester version of Stay Alive. Back in “New Orleans,” Hutch meets up with his Goth girlfriend, October Bantum (Sophia Bush), and her offensive “truth”-speaking “witty” brother Phineas (Jimmi Simpson), a common figure in teen comedies and slasher films. Joined by Swink Sylvania – God, the names in this film – (TV’s Frankie Muniz), the team settles in to play the game, joined by Hutch’s lawyer boss and gamer addict Miller Banks (Adam Goldberg), and the waif Hutch meets at the funeral, Abigail (TV’s Samaire Armstrong). The film at first hints that Abigail has inside knowledge of the game and may be an “agent” of Bathory, but in the end, she is just another chick who wants to fuck the somber Hutch, possibly because the filmmakers changed their minds halfway through. When bodies start to falls, Bunk Moreland drops down from Baltimore in the form of Detective Thibodeaux, played by Wendell Pierce, whose real world relatives were struck by Katrina.

Stay Alive’s widescreen widescreen transfer (2.35:1, enhanced) is adequate, as is the Dolby Digital 5.1; it is also closed captioned, and has English, Spanish, and French subtitles.

Stay Alive making of

Supplements are twofold. There is a three minute “visual effects reel,” which is like a music video showing (and then re-showing, and then re-showing again), some of the root imagery built on by the filmmakers. Secondly, there is an audio commentary track by co-writer and director William Brent Bell and co-writer and producer Matthew Peterman, son of the catalog entrepreneur. They don’t exactly make the movie make better sense, and really go wild, though it might be in a mock bloodlust fashion, over the “kills.”

Stay Alive, in its unrated director’s cut, hit the street on Tuesday, September 19th, for $29.95; it’s also available in a full frame theatrical release which is apparently much different from the preferred version.

 

Silent Hill running

 

Silent Hill I reviewed upon its theatrical release . Suffice it to say here that its problems are those of most movies these days, i.e., that it doesn’t make any sense, it feels ad hoc, that it is both boring and unscary. I would argue, however, that it is better viewed on the DVD player than, despite its occasional photographic beauty, on the big screen. Since it is trying to capture the mood of a video game, the intimacy of the little screen in your own home, does contribute to the uneasiness that the movie conspires to recreate, very much so thanks to the unnerving music the movie inherits from the game, by Akira Yamaoka.

Silent Hill Roger Avary

My problem is that I really wanted to like Silent Hill, if not other reason than that it was written by Roger Avary. I don’t think he licked it. I am uncertain how much he really knew or understood or respected the game itself. In the “making of,” he says that he was trying to capture the spirit of the game, but if the film does, it is through the visual affects, camera movements and sound production, rather than the story, which is changed quite a bit from the game’s narrative. Here, Radha Mitchell as Rose Da Silva represents the viewer and gamer, trying to get from one scene to another based on clues unveiled in the current scene. The problem, for me anyway, is that there really isn’t much of a connection from scene to scene, as if the film veered off course numerous times during its making. Why an army of killer nurses? Is it just the creepiness of the image for itself? Or is there a connection with the film’s “solution” to the mystery? If so, why can’t it be clearer?

 

Radha Mitchell in Silent Hill

 

Clarity is not to be had in the nearly one hour, though still informative “making of,” which comes in six parts, but has a play all function. Sadly, the principal emotion I came away with was that no one connected with the film really understood the attraction of the game or of video games in general.

Silent Hill making of

The widescreen image (2.35:1, enhanced) is good, and the film comes with closed captioning, and DD 5.1. In addition to the making of, there are trailers for Ghost Rider, Casino Royale, Basic Instinct 2, The Benchwarmers, Underworld: Evolution, Ultraviolet, Hollow Man 2, Population 436, The Woods, The Boondocks, Quinceanera, and The Fog. Silent Hill hit the street on Tuesday August 22, for $28.95. There is also a full frame edition.

 

 

September 21, 2006

The Fred Hembeck Show: Episode 73 – Super-Ego

Filed under: The Fred Hembeck Show — UncaScroogeMcD @ 2:16 am

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…So there I was, reading my fancy-schmancy Supergirl Archives, when I stumble across that panel up there in the provocatively titled “The Day Supergirl Revealed Herself!” (Action Comics #265, June 1960), and all I can think to myself is, “That is SO Mort!!” Mort, as in Weisinger, the demented mastermind behind a decade plus of the Superman Family’s most fertile, successful, but nonetheless peculiar period. And it’s panels like this that make statements like that hard to argue with…

Let’s just forget about the larger Supergirl story involved here, okay? For the purposes of our discussion, just know that the Jerry Siegel penned script has an amnesiac Girl of Steel – in an adopted civilian identity – wandering into Smallville’s Superboy Museum. That’s where she encounters this bit of young Kal-El’s self-portraiture in one of editor Weisinger’s typical trademark throwaway vignettes. Mort liked to sprinkle his tales with small scenes like this to help illustrate for readers exactly what it would be like to be gifted with all the amazing abilities author Jerry and partner Joe dreamt up for their Kryptonian kreation several decades earlier.

And just what would Mort have his mighty champion DO with his mighty powers? Well, how about seek out the world’s biggest diamond – JUST SO THAT HE COULD CARVE A STATUE OF HIMSELF OUT OF IT!?! Forget about the world’s biggest diamond – apparently, we’re dealing with the world’s biggest EGO here!?! I mean, is this really the BEST way to utilize this incredibly enormous gem?? I wouldn’t think so, and neither, it would seem, did any of his comics biz contemporaries…

Julie Schwartz had the citizens of Central City erect a Flash Museum for their hometown hero, but the speedster wisely left the establishment’s acquisitions to the duly elected board and not to some way-out whims of his own. And Stan Lee? Well, his Fantastic Four had to wait until they hooked up with the blind step-daughter of one of their arch-est of enemies before they found someone interested in sculpting their likenesses. And as for Spider-Man? We all know how J. Jonah Jameson’s Daily Bugle treated the Web-spinner, don’t we? Spidey was hardly considered a diamond of ANY sort by the sour newspaper publisher, although when it came to “World’s Biggest”, JJJ may’ve had some thoughts on THAT, though I’d prefer not to print the less-than-complimentary categories he no doubt considered here. Use your imagination, true believers…

My point is, it’s absolutely ridiculous to think a true-blue hero like Superboy would ever indulge in such an excessive act of self-promotion as Mort had pictured in this perverse little panel. A super-villain might do something like this, you bet – but a good guy? Uh uh. Hard to swallow that notion coming from the white hats.

I mean, try and think about this in real life terms. Maybe some megalomaniacal dictator would fashion a massive statue of this sort as a misguided tribute to himself, but certainly not someone who works for the betterment of mankind. Nope. No way.

After all, what self-respecting role model would EVER stoop to promoting their image in such a blatantly crass manner, I ask you?

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….oh…

Um, well, I guess you could say that while that’s generally the rule of thumb…

…I suppose THAT little theory loses out being a hundred per cent true by…

…er…

…a NOSE…

(or three…)

Hope you enjoyed this little flashback extracted from the October 2003 “Fred Sez” archives found over at Hembeck.com! All new excitement next week! Probably…

-Copyright 2006 Fred Hembeck

Keneteph’s Korner: OCT‘s David Atchison

Filed under: Keneteph's Korner — UncaScroogeMcD @ 1:45 am
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As youngsters (and for many now as adults) it was easy for us to get wrapped up in a movie, comic book, or any art, and get sucked into the author’s story of a world different from our own.  I recently read a comic book called the Occult Crimes Taskforce (OCT) that captured my imagination, and got a chance to interview one of the writers, David Atchison.  Atchison has teamed up with actress Rosario Dawson, and illustrator Tony Shasteen, to introduce the new exciting story.  OCT starts out about a heroine named Sophia Ortiz (whose likeness is Rosario’s) who is recruited to solve crimes of a supernatural nature.  Atchison describes it as CSI meets Harry Potter.

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Atchison and Shasteen originally came up with the concept, and shared it with Dawson’s uncle, comic book artist, Gustavo Vasquez.  They then pitched it to Rosario and she fell in love with the project.  “Rosario grew up on the Lower Eastside of NY, which is a real eclectic area,” Atchison explained, “she’s used to hearing about different philosophies, and thinking outside the box.  Plus she’s huge comic book fan.”  He said that some of his ideas came from when he was in the air force and saw documents that he received no explanation on.  Their combination of experiences and ideas is leading OCT to the unique, magnetic world it is to become.  The first issue came out in July and subsequent issues are to follow, as well as a movie and video game based on the story.  “People are going to be exposed to a whole realm of substories, and plots within OCT.  Eventually Sophia will not be seen as much and other characters will have stories revolve around them.” 

The talent that Atchison, Dawson, and Shasteen bring defiantly satisfies any comic book fan.  Shasteen does all the inking and coloring, and to supplement Atchison’s writing, Dawson’s movie expertise gives the story a cinematic feel.  “Rosario loves being co-creator in this work.  It gives her a more hands on opportunity to contribute to the story as opposed to just being an actress on a set.”

When reading the story one will see a lot of research went into bringing the OCT universe to life.  Philosophers like Hermes Tresmegestus, and Alister Crowley were looked at, as well as a theory called “bisociative thinking.”  Atchison describes it as the idea of taking two unrelated things and finding a common ground between them.  “Many people say they don’t believe in the occult but have their own superstitions – from the baseball player who wears mix-matched socks, to the old man who plays certain lottery numbers.  All I did was take questions and make my own answers to them.”

As far as David’s future projects, next year he will be staring a hip hop comic book project called Clash, as well as another OCT project in the spring explaining more of the story.

-Copyright 2006 Keneteph Entertainment 

 

 

September 20, 2006

Brat-halla #146: Norse Force – Lessons Made

Filed under: Brat-Halla — UncaScroogeMcD @ 8:00 am

by Jeffery Stevenson and Seth Damoose with colors by Anthony Lee

Larger Comic Version | ARCHIVES | OLDER ARCHIVES

Brat-halla #146: Norse Force - Lessons Made

For extras, visit the Brat-halla Web site!

Check out the preview to the Image comic Jeff writes…

E-MAIL WRITER | ABOUT JEFF | ABOUT SETH | BRAT-HALLA BLOG | BRAT-HALLA FORUM | ARCHIVES

September 19, 2006

Party Favors: Damn You, Affleck

Filed under: Joe Corey's Party Favors — UncaScroogeMcD @ 5:18 am

 

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DENNISPORT – Damn you, Affleck!

You wanna know why the Boston Redsox went into the dumpster after being ahead of the Yankees in the standings? Ben F’n Affleck. How is it his fault? During a game against the Los Angels Angels of Anaheim and nearby San Pedro, Affleck was sitting front row with his wife, Jennifer Garner. He was doing his “World’s Biggest Redsox fan” schtick. He had seats next to the Sox’s dugout and yelled his words of encouragement to Manny and Papi. But when it was his time to truly stand up for the team, what did he do? He became a goofy little bitch for the Angels.

While the game was still close, a ball was popped up right at Affleck. Howie Kendrick, the Angels’ first baseman, charged the stands. Both him and Affleck reached for the ball. And who won the grabbing contest? Was it Superman? Daredevil? Jack Ryan? It was Kendrick who snagged the ball and ended the Sox’s inning. And the Sox season also ended at that moment.
 
As a fan, you have the right to block an opposing player from reaching into the stands. You’re not allowed to throw a punch, but you can stand straight up against the short wall and impede his reach into your seat. I’ve been told that you can be like A-Rod and sissy slap his glove away from the ball when he reaches in. It’s your turf. Affleck should have understood that his job is not to go for the ball, but to defend against the opposing defense.

When I go to the games with my wife and sit in the front row, we have a simple agreement: I’ll block the opposing player and she goes for the ball. Marriage is about sharing responsibilities.

Affleck should have should used his stuntman trained skills to block Kendrick. He could have put up his superhero chest and bounced Kendrick back onto the turf. Affleck could have yelled, “Not in my seats, bitch!” And the crowd would have gone nuts. That moment would have probably gone up there with Varitek smacking A-Rod in 2004. This was a season that needed a defiant moment. Instead it was a whimper ending for a season and Affleck’s name deserves to go up there with Steve Bartman. Actually Ben’s name deserves to go up there with Bob Stanley for being able to suck the life out of Beantown. Affleck sunk this team deeper than Babe Ruth’s piano.

And you may ask, why? How can this be possible? Why is one actor responsible for the fate of 25 baseball players and their coach? Luck is a wicked mistress. Think of how much luck played a part in the Sox winning the World Series. And when Lady Luck saw that the #1 Redsox fan in the world wasn’t willing to sacrifice his body to protect the ball, she split town. 

After that moment, it was bad mojo for the Redsox. Jason Varitek went down with a knee injury. Ortiz has his heart trouble. Manny’s knee went nasty. Jon Lester discovered he has anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Closer Jonathan Papelbon gets a shoulder injury. Plus a flu bug infected the locker room. And the infamous five game sweep at the hand of the Yankees at Fenway took place. All this happened after Affleck let Kendrick cherry pick the foul ball.

What’s even more disgusting is that Kendrick signed the ball and gave it to Affleck. That ball is more cursed than the ’86 Buckner ball. You don’t keep a ball like that on the mantle. Do you keep the rubber that your ex-best friend wore when he banged you wife while you were getting pizza? Affleck needs to destroy that ball now so that the rest of us can wait for next season instead of being cursed for generations. It’s only a matter of time before Dan Shaughnessy writes The Curse of Bennifer: Or How Ben Affleck Restored the Bambino’s Hex. Affleck best hire some of his Hollywood effect pals to blow up that ball. And he better videotape it and put it on Youtube to show that this horsehide globe of evil has been annihilated. The fate of a nation depends on it: Redsox Nation.

Affleck is not even close to being the biggest Redsox fan anymore. That honor goes to former Patriot and Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie. He catches foul balls at Fenway instead of assisting the opposition. I bet Flutie would have put his shoulder into Kendrick’s ribcage. Flutie knows how to live as Superman and not merely play him in a movie. Next time Affleck goes to a game, he needs to be seated high above the action in a luxury suite where he can’t destroy the devotion of millions. He ruined this season – not Johnny Damon.

SCREW YAHOO

Have you ever disappeared off the internet? Well those rat bastards at Yahoo screwed me over a few days ago. Without warning or hard reason, Yahoo killed my account with them. On top of that, my groups that I started were pulled down.

I had an account with these people for nearly a decade. Mere minutes after checking my groups, I log in to check my email and get a message reading, “This account has been disabled for violating the TOS agreement.” And they refused to say what I supposedly did. They took the time to destroy my online life. Damn shame they didn’t have a minute to send me a quick note saying what this bad boy did to piss off the Yahoo Gods.

I tried to call Yahoo to get to the bottom of this nonsense. But there is no customer service line for those of us who don’t have business accounts with Yahoax. When I wrote them a nice note asking what the hell happened, I did not receive a reply. And I wrote them a nice second letter which was promptly ignored. What a wonderful way to instill loyalty in the people who use your services, Yahoyo.

What hurt most was having my Yahoo Groups destroyed. People’s lives were torn asunder by this action. My Party Favors group is gone. How am I supposed to show off the pic of me and Katie Couric that caused tongues to wag in Manhattan? And my group that paid tribute to AIP’s Beach Party move series was washed away.

Once in a while, I used to run into the Yahooligans at parties. They seemed nice enough. But now I know that they are minions of Satan. They will all be reincarnated as urinal cakes at the Vince Lombardi RestStop on the Jersey Turnpike. They are pathetic creatures who couldn’t get a maggot to suck their decaying flesh off the bone even if they were wearing a prime rib suit. I hate them. I hate Yahoo. I hate Yahoo so much that I’m just going to do whatever I can to make that company go in the dumpster. I questioned the economics of Krispy Kreme during their heyday when the BBC interviewed me. I told the reporter, it just doesn’t make sense that a company is worth so much and yet here in their heartland, they only have one store in the middle of a bad part of town.  And after that interview, the company’s economics were exposed and the donut maker hasn’t recovered.

It’s hard to do any real damage to Yahoo because they’ve been in the crapper for years. Ever since they made Mark Cuban a billionaire, they’ve been sucking fumes on Wall Street. Back when I enjoyed their services, I didn’t see why their stock was trading for the same price as Ned’s Buggywhip Emporiums? Now that I’ve been shunned like an Amish kid with an iPod, I understand why Yahoo stock bounces around $30 a share. Google is at $400.

After getting shafted and cold shouldered by Yahoo, I know why people don’t like Yahoo. Because they are unlikable. These were the guys who on Trumps’ TV Show wanted their banners to dominate a charity event to the point that few people could name the charity. Nobody actually donated to the charity since they thought it was just Yahoo’s night of a dozen yucks. Do you remember the Head Yahooligan have to cough up a check after the commercial break since he realized that he looked like a Turd Biscuit on TV? Well money can’t cover up my anger at these jerks. 

If you own Yahoo stock, use it for the bottom of your birdcage. At least then it will accumulate worth. Of course my troubles are nothing compared to Shi Tao, who is now in a Chinese prison because Yahoo turned over his email information to the Chinese government. Maybe I should be grateful that I’m not being being butt raped thanks to the Yahooligans?

Next time I’m in a room with Yahoo losers, I’m going to give them my Scanners stare so they’ll lose bowel control.

FATHER IS COMING HOME!

After months of writing letters to the folks at programming, Boomerang (Cartoon Network’s retro animation home) has finally decided that it’s a good idea to air Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. I’m pumped. Are you? As far as I can tell, this was the first series to feature an animated human family in the modern age. Between the Flintstones and the Jetsons lurked the Boyles. The show ran 48 episodes from 1972-74 in syndication.

I’ve never seen the show because it aired in America when I was being an army brat in West Germany. But a few people think Family Guy cribbed elements from Your Father. The only bad part about the revival on Boomerang is that it runs at 3:30 a.m. (Eastern time) and that’s just right after my bedtime. I’ll be setting the recorder clock on the DVD-R so I can finally see the show that I’d only seen in clips during salutes to Hanna-Barbera Studios. And even if the show isn’t as great as Super Globetrotters, I’ll watch every episode because damn it, I asked for it.

Boomerang is also running Fantastic Four and Jonny Quest. It’s nice to see a cable channel that enjoys running different stuff for the night owls rather than rerunning daylight programming. Remember programmers, we will set the video recorder if we cared enough to watch it the first time. Enough with the reruns and marathons.

DAMN YOU DIGITAL CABLE!

I was shocked this morning when my DVD-Recorder refused to dupe a show off HBO OnDemand. At first I feared the player had broken. That somehow after all the recording in the last few months, it had decided to die like most electronic equipment in my life. But it turns out that HBO and Showtime on my Time-Warner cable system have blocked their OnDemand from being digitally duped. This means that those of you with VCRs can still record their programming. But the rest of you that upgraded from analog have been screwed.

A lot of people use the OnDemand channel to record DVD-Rs for friends and relatives that are currently stationed in Iraq. Those troops are fighting for our freedom and their parents can no longer just burn a couple movies to keep their kids entertained after a high stress day of driving around Baghdad avoiding IEDs. The folks at HBO and Showtime should feel really proud of themselves.

THROW A FLAG ON THEM

Who designed the new ref outfits for the NFL? Did they want to make the whistle blowers look more athletic with those fluid stripes and their numbers printed on the jersey? If it wasn’t for the lame new designs to Minnesota Vikings uniforms, the refs would win my award for the “do you not look in the mirror” award. They look like they’re trying to look sexy for a Bananarama video.

SLICED BILL

What had more butchery? The theatrical cut of Kill Bill or what TNT did to the movies in order to air them? And where the hell is the complete cut from Tarantino? I haven’t bought the DVDs because he claimed he was going to Peter Jackson the film. I’m not that big of a fan of the movie to buy multiple versions. Perhaps he too busy trying to make his segment of Grind House come in at less than 5 hours? Who pays tribute to 83 minute b-movies with a 4 hour epic?

WHERE DID JOE GO?

Being down in the South, I don’t spend much time reading Page Six. But I was left wondering why Fox News was no longer pushing Joe Piscopo as the next governor of New Jersey. For a while, Joe was fighting it out with Mitt Romney and Jack Welch for face time with Neil Cavuto. What happened to Joe? Well it turns out he’s in the midst of a messy divorce and his estranged wife claims domestic abuse. This was the woman he first met when she was 11 and babysitting his kids. I never quite understood how FoxNews could push Joe for a political position between this, the rumors of how he bulked up and his time on Saturday Night Live – home of the drugs! It seems that we won’t have to worry about Joe and Arnold clowning up at the governors conference any time soon.

GET IT NOW

Remember to rush down to Best Buy to pick up The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection boxset containing Tarantula, The Mole People, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Monolith Monsters and Monster On The Campus. This is classic thrills from Universal Studios and goes well with the Monster Legacy collections. From what I’ve heard, this is a one shot deal so once Best Buy has sold them, they’re gone. No rain checks. I’m showing up early at the store cause I want my big spider – shrinking man action.

TV IS BETTER THAN EVER

It’s TV bliss this fall season with the return of Weeds, The Wire and Squidbillies. Talk about a trio of greatness. Weeds isn’t having a sophomore slump as it keeps pushing it’s storylines to the extreme without playing it safe. I don’t think Who’s the Boss? ever featured the son putting a hole in a rubber to keep his girlfriend from moving away. The Wire‘s fourth season focuses on the kids trapped in the middle of Baltimore’s drug business. It’s a battle for the soul of the city. And it’s nice to know HBO is giving the series a fifth and final season. Squidbillies is just animated gold. This Adult Swim show should be the first cartoon to win the Nobel Prize.

IRISH EYES ARE SMILING

At Underground (my favorite place to eat in Raleigh), Chef Daniel Taylor topped himself on the desert menu. He made ice cream flavored with Guiness and Bailey’s Irish Creme. Booze and ice cream. It’s like what Leprechauns have for their birthdays. If only it could be put next to deep fried Oreos, I’d probably die of internal injuries from a bliss overdose.

 

Toy Box: Dragons Series 4 – Deluxe Komodo Dragon

Filed under: Toy Box — admin @ 4:53 am

 

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Earlier this week I did an ‘early’ review of the fourth series of Dragon figures from Mcfarlane Toys over at MROTW.  Today the circle will be complete with my review of the deluxe figure from this set, the Komodo Clan dragon.

Mcfarlane first started the Dragons line in 2005, based on an internally developed mythology.  The dragons belong to six different clans (so far) – Fire, Water, Eternal, Berserker, sorcerer and Komodo.  These clans interact with each other and with humans to varying degrees and in varying ways, and a war between the clans is brewing that will eventually destroy them.

In each of the previous regular series, one clan member was pulled out to be the deluxe figure.  For series 4, it’s the Komodo Clan Dragon, covered in today’s review. After series 5 (due in January of 07), we’ll be seeing some new clans, including Fossil, Hunter, Warrior, Ice and Scavenger.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com – on with the review!

“Series 4 Deluxe Komodo Clan Dragon”

Komodo Clan dragons like to burrow underground, but like climbing trees as well.  They’re fast runners, and are definitely man-eaters.  They have plenty of attitude, but that tends to come with ugly and big.

 

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Packaging – ***
While the regular release figures come in clamshells, the deluxe come in boxes.  The graphics are solid, with some explaination of the character and clan on the back.  It shows off the figure well, and holds up to shelf wear pretty good.  It’s not particularly collector friendly, but Mcfarlane packaging rarely is.

 

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Sculpting – ***
The sculpt is technically excellent – lots of small detail work, with a scaley skin and leathery wings.  Plenty of interesting textures, and a nice use of different styles to differentiate between the log, the earth and the dragon.

It isn’t so much a technical issue as an artistic one that tends to interfere with my complete enjoyment of this guy.  In the 50’s, 60’s and even 70’s, when a low budget movie or television show needed a dinosaur, remember what they did? That’s right, they dressed up an iguana, often in the silliest of costumes.  I can say without a doubt that this is the first of any of the Dragons that reminds me of an dressed up iguana.  Maybe it’s the itty bitty version of Rachel Welch down on the base, maybe it’s the pose, maybe it’s the skin texture and wattle under his neck.  Whatever it is, it makes him a tad more silly for me.  Your mileage will vary, probably depending on how many bad 1950’s science fiction movies you’ve watched.

 

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One of the things I do really like about this guy is the cool harness around his neck.  There are a number of real metal chains hanging off of it, although the one actually running down to his ‘masters’ hands isn’t.

The later series of dragons have gotten smaller in scale than the original series.  The scale has always been claimed at 6″, but the actual size of the dragons has decreased a bit.  For some, this is a deal breaker, especially if the price point rises.  For others, the size is still close enough to make for a consistenty and cool display.

Paint – ***1/2
No issues once again here.  There’s the smallest amount of slop on the skin of the human, and there’s some transitions on his skin that aren’t quite as smooth as what I saw in the regular series Dragons, but in general the job is well above average, even at this price point.

 

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Articulation – **
This is one of those figures that appears to have more articulation than he does.

There’s a cut neck, which you can free up with a little work but is a tad restricted by the chain harness.  There’s also ball jointed wings, although they both had some issues.  The left wing was very loose, and had a tough time holding a pose, while the right wing was so tight it was almost impossible to get to move in and out from the body.

 

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It may look like there are joints at the four legs and tail, but with the paws glued in place to the tree, they wouldn’t do you much good anyway.  And no, I couldn’t get the tail freed up, and believe it’s glued in place.

Accessories – **1/2
There isn’t any accessories as you’d traditionally think of them, since the dragon is attached to the tree.  Still, I’m counting his base in this category, and have to admit it’s pretty sharp.

 

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The hot chick on controlling this bad boy is probably the first feature you notice, but it’s the detail work in the tree, branches and roots that really sets it apart.  The much larger size is appreciated as well, and is more in line with what you’re paying than the regular series figures.  Too bad the price goes up as well.

Also included with this deluxe set is a nifty booklet giving a much longer and deeper backstory on the dragons.  Similar to some of the stories included with other in house lines in the past, this was a very pleasant surprise.  You won’t spend hours reading it, but it’s good enough to add some interest and value to the overall line.

Fun Factor – **1/2
Okay, so these aren’t highly poseable action figures with a ton of accessories or a cool license to back them up.  But kids love dragons as much as adults, maybe moreso.  And dragons make for excellent bad guys to battle.  While these aren’t huge, they do work pretty well with 1/64th scale figures, and you can even get away with 3 3/4″ figures battling them.

 

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Value – **
The deluxe has a more intricate and larger base than a regular figure.  Otherwise, it’s pretty much a regular figure.  Considering that they regulars used to cost a ten spot, paying $22 or so for this guy is a less than average value.  Fifteen to seventeen tops feels about right for this guy, but with the retailers drying up and lower production runs, the price increases aren’t surprising.  But can the line survive them?

Things to Watch Out For –
Not a hell of a lot.  Of course, you always want to check the paint, but that’s rarely an issue with Mcfarlane on this line.  Also, if you try freeing up some of those glued joints, take care.  The plastic is soft enough to twist til it breaks.

Overall – ***
While this guy is larger and more impressive than the rest of series 4, he falls in the later half of the group for me.  The iguana like appearance is only part of the reason, and the poor wing joints were perhaps my biggest issue.  Had they worked well, they would have been a great addition, but since neither functioned properly, it was a bit of a let down.

 

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Still, for fans of the line, he’ll make a decent addition.  It’s great to see them giving us once deluxe in each of the five original clans before we get new clans in the sixth series, and I’m really looking forward to the first 12″ dragon they have planned for release in 2007.

Where to Buy –

– Clark Toys has the singles for $13, or the set of 5 for $60 – or a case of 12 at $115.

– Killer Toys has the set of 5 for $65, a case of 12 for $117, and the deluxe for $23.

– Entertainment Earth has the case at $140, or the deluxe at $28.

Related Links –
For the dragon fan:

– the Mcfarlane website has a nice section on these, with their own photos and info.

– earlier this week I covered the regular figures in wave 4.

– I’ve reviewed past waves including the deluxe figure from the first wave, and a guest review of the rest of wave 1.

– and if you’re a fan of dragons in general, there’s the cool Hungarian Horntail Dragon from Gentle Giant, Singe from the long ago Dragon’s Lair line, or even the cool Megablok Dragons.

 

Nocturnal Admissions: DVD Review, Stick It

Filed under: Nocturnal Admissions — UncaScroogeMcD @ 4:50 am

 

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Ever since the show Life As We Know It, the very, very short-lived quasi-sequel to Freaks and Geeks, I’ve wondered what would happen to Missy Peregrym. She was the best thing about the show, the perfect American girl, athletic and funny, endearing yet strong.

 

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She appeared briefly in a few series episodes and had a very small part in Catwoman, but she seemed destined for greater things. On the other hand, she is only 24 with plenty of time to build up a career. On the third hand time moves too damn fast and the next thing you know she’ll be 32 and in trouble.

Stick It title

On the surface, then, Stick It seemed like a good choice for her. A lead role in a youth oriented movie that highlighted both her healthy looks and her comedy skills. A healthy cast. A “sports” story that is, consequently, easy to plot and make jokes for (the credited writer is Bring It On scripter Jessica Bendinger, here also making her debut as a director). But unfortunately, the film is kind of weirdly uneven, like a kid’s balloon twisted in strange ways, big in the wrong places and small in the wrong places.

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Stick It is set in the world of teen girl’s gymnastics, and in her voice over narration, Haley Graham (Peregrym), has some amusingly acerbic things to say about the sport and the judging. The twist of the movie is that competing gymnasts get together at the concluding tournament to act in solidarity, deliberately scratching so as to elevate the one person they have collectively determined is the best in one of the four events.

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This clever plot point is obscured by too much back story about Haley. She starts out as an extreme biker in her Texas home town (the movie doesn’t feel like Texas, by the way), who is arrested for vandalism. Once a promising gymnast, she is remanded by the judge to a gymnastics school the next big town over, run by Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges, who bases his acting process on the nonstop gum chewing). Haley lives with her dad (Jon Gries), and is alienated from her mother. In fact she is alienated from everyone (except her two essentially sexless bike friends, one of whom appears to be gay), recalcitrant, sullen, complainy, and smart-mouthed. And she remains so for what seems like the first hour of this 103 minute movie. The mystery is why? Why is she so dissatisfied with gymnastics and why does she hate everyone? And why did she walk about from competition in “the Worlds” just seconds before going on the floor? When we eventually learn, we still don’t know. The plot point is so obscure and concerns people we have hardly met (a different gymnastics coach who seduced her mother and broke up her family), that it hardly explains anything, and her confession of this trauma to Vickerman seems hardly to have the weight it needs to change her personality in time for the final competition. It was good of the film to try to deviate from the conventions of the sports triumph genre, especially in its various moments of Canadian Film Board visual playfulness.

 

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Stick It arrives in a good widescreen transfer (1.85:1, enhanced), with DD 5.1, French DD 2.0 Stereo, Spanish DD 2.0 Stereo, plus closed captioning, and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.

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There are plenty of supplements. There are two commentaries, the first with director Bendinger and actors Peregrym and Vanessa Lengies, the second with Bendinger, DP Daryn Okada and editor Troy Takaki. The first is fun; the second is technical, with lots of explanations of motivations that make the movie make sense in retrospect; three and a half minutes of “Buttaharas: Outrageous Bloopers and Outtakes”; thirteen minutes of deleted scenes with optional cast or crew commentaries, which explain, among other things, scenes written to explore Bridges’s character, let him improvise, or bring “closure” to certain plot points; “Hard Corps: The Real Gymnasts of Stick It,” a four minute profile of the stunt performers, which features some incredible moves not in the movie proper; “The Elites,” six full gymnastic routines, with optional commentary by the performers, Nastia Liukin and Isabelle Severino, plus three uneven bar routines in slow motion and optional commentaries, by Severino and Annie Gagnon; and two music videos, “We Run This” by Missy Elliott and Jeannie Ortega’s “Crowded.” Finally there are trailers for other Disney product.

Stick It Missy

Touchstone’s disc of Stick It hit the street on Tuesday, September 19th, retailing for $29.95.

 

Nocturnal Admissions: DVD Review, Taps

Filed under: Nocturnal Admissions — UncaScroogeMcD @ 4:44 am
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Taps could just as easily been called Toy Soldiers – its cast of future sitcom regulars, stars, superstars, all look tiny and shiny and new. When it was released in 1981, however, it was a star vehicle for Timothy Hutton, Hollywood royalty (his father was the sentimental favorite Brian Hutton) recently anointed with an Oscar for  Ordinary People. Little did anyone realize that the rest of the cast, which included Sean Penn in his first film (he’d been in plays and some TV episodes and here sounds a lot like his late brother Chris), Tom Cruise in his second film (after having been “discovered” by Franco Zeffirelli for  Endless Love), as well as Giancarlo Esposito and Evan Handler, was quietly power-packed with hungry actors ready for attention.

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Cruise, it turns out, was just an extra – but so impressed director Harold Becker that he elevated Cruise to a third major part, at the expense of a friend of his who already had the role. But casting, if anything, is the key to Becker’s career.

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Becker’s identity is so aligned with the world of Joseph Wambaugh that it is easy to miss the truly defining characteristic of his career: whether by accident or design, Becker was there at the creation for many actors who went on to at least some measure of stardom. The list of future names peeking around the scenery of his movies is impressive: Victoria Tennent in the early  Ragman’s Daughter; James Woods, Ted Danson, and Christopher Lloyd in  Onion Field; Michael Dudikoff in  The Black Marble; Matthew Modine, Daphne Zuniga, Forest Whitaker (and Madonna) in  Vision Quest; Ellen Barkin and John Goodman in  Sea of Love.

Becker brings an almost documentary quality to some of his films, but the attempt at kitchen sink subject matter in  Daughter and strict  Wrong Man-style realism of  Onion is not carried through to the the often preposterous tales he tells in later films. He tends to make dark, grainy works, almost black and white but happening, due to the exigencies of commercial cinema, to be in color. He seems drawn loosely to tales of men in crisis; young or old, his heroes are poised at some crucial moment of transition that will change the rest of their lives.

That few of these movies were star making vehicles in and of themselves suggests that Becker is not tapped into the Zeitgeist and that the flaw of his career is one he shares with so many other directors – absorption of a once original personality (as seen in  Daughter) into the generally commercial and impersonal projects Hollywood offers and proffers. If he is more a casting director than a director, this means simply that actors love him (though he tends to work with them once and no further), and as such he is dependent on good, clever screenplays, such as the brilliant and underrated  Malice, credited to Aaron Sorkin and Jonas McCord, and the initally gripping but ultimately disappointing  City Hall, credited to Ken Lipper and Paul Schrader. When Becker has neither the cast nor the script, you get indifferent paint by numbers works such as  Mercury Rising.

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What’s fascinating about seeing  Taps again after so long is how shockingly inert it is “¦ nothing happens in it. Hutton, as Cadet Major Brian Moreland, takes over his military school at the summer break in response to its imminent closure. The major reason is that the board of directors have deemed the property more suitable for condos. The immediate reason is that the school’s leader, General Harlan Bache (George C. Scott in the kind of Patton-esque role he tends to sleepwalk through), has been arrested for shooting a “townie” in a ludicrously and agonizingly staged incident during the school’s version of prom night. The school itself is multidimensional, training kids and near adults, elite tactical forces, horse soldiers, and other types.

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In the script credited to Robert Mark Kamen, Darryl Ponicsan, and James Lineberger for the “adaptation”), derived from the novel  Father Sky by Devery Freeman, Scott is invited to evoke a kinder, gentler, more elegiac Patton, who also makes an in-joke crack that allude to other earlier roles, such as  Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson in  Dr. Strangelove. But that is about as “funny” as the movie gets. The rest of the film is as somber and implacable as Bache himself. Under Moreland’s leadership the boys turn the school into a fortress, and much attention is paid to the intricacies of their moods and internecine tensions. Action threatens. A tank bearing a flood light rumbles up to the school gate in the dead of night and then – stops. Someone else gets severely burned. In the end everyone who experiences self doubt cries and a few kids are killed. Penn’s character represents the rebellious youth who is competent at what he does but usually takes the moral high ground, while Cruise’s is the gung ho guy who likes shooting people, a figure not all that distant from most of the militaristic or governmentally sponsored heroes he would play later.

Taps Penn

When it was first released at the dawn of the Reagan era  Taps was lumped with other films  –   Raiders,  Stripes,  An Officer and a Gentleman – that seemed to evoke a renewed feeling for militarism, honor, standards, and American exceptionalism. However, the main problem with  Taps  is that as you watch you don’t know what the film is really about. Is it critical of the kids? Or sympathetic toward their ambition? Is the film critical of society? Of militarism? Of bad parenting? Like  Patton itself, it is an “incoherent text” that appeals to viewers at both extremes of the political spectrum. Such a cunningly “incoherent” presentation is probably the only truly “Reaganite” thing about the film,

The Fox disc, the second iteration of the film on DVD here in a special edition, comes with an occasionally muddy looking widescreen (1.85:1 enhanced) transfer with occasional artifacts, and adequate sound selections (beginning with DD 4.0). Supplements include an audio commentary track by Becker that covers now-familiar ground, several TV spots, and two retrospective makings of, “Sounding the Call to Arms: Mobilizing the Taps Generation” with lots of clips from the film plus new interview bits with the producer, with Becker, with Hutton, and with co-star Ronny Cox, and “The Bugler’s Cry: The Origins of Playing Taps,” which is what it sounds like, although taps the melody has only a tangential importance to the theme or meaning of the film, just enough to provide a “label”-like title, popular at the time, and in fact, still a curse upon movies.

Taps hit the street on September 12th, retailing for $19.95.

 

September 18, 2006

Scrubs Blog: My Dog Trouble

Filed under: Production Blogs,Quickcasts,Scrubs Blog — UncaScroogeMcD @ 5:22 pm

 

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VIDEO BLOG #58: “My Dog Trouble” ““
What does a production staff do with one 160-lb. dog on the third floor who needs to go home, but the elevator is down and the dog is terrified of the three flights of stairs? Find out in this week’s video blog…

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Download Scrubs Video Blog #58:          

Widge Goes Off #12: Night of the Pancakes From Mars!

Filed under: Widge Goes Off — widge @ 5:20 am
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widgepic.jpgWelcome back, my five listeners. We are going to set the controls for the heart of the sun, with plenty of side trips to stop for pizza.

[CONTENT WARNING] This podcast contains foul language and a host who can’t stop saying “Um” no matter how many times he shocks himself with a car battery.

DOWNLOAD: mp3 Format (39.2 MB)

As for your Monday Morning Quarterbacking session, I’m doing that in the podcast now. Only fair to those listeners in drivetime. Find the full skinnee at Box Office Mojo.

Cory Doctorow’s commentary on Amazon Unbox.

Jeff Jarvis’ response to Universal Music on the YouTube situation.

Cory Doctorow’s commentary on copyright. Found via Boing Boing.

Top Ten Things That Will Happen to TV and Newspapers.

The whistleblower video and the the update.

Special thanks to Exit Mindbomb for letting me use “Godzilla Will Rule You” from their album Happy Accident for my new WGO music. Check them out on MySpace here and I tried to link up as many songs as I could here.

Widgett Walls is the chief cook and bottle washer for Needcoffee.com. He’s also the author of Mystics on the Road to Vanishing Point and Magnificent Desolation. His personal blog is at OneTusk.com, which he updates when he feels like it. He lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. He hardly ever sleeps.

Spook’d #95: Extreme Lair Makeover – Your Video Update

Filed under: Spook'd — UncaScroogeMcD @ 5:00 am

by Jeffery Stevenson and Seth Damoose with colors by Anthony Lee

Larger sized comic | ARCHIVES | OLDER ARCHIVES

Spook'd #95: ELM - Your Video Update

To see Spook’d host Alastor’s blogging silliness and more fun Spook’d stuff,visit the Spook’d Web site!

Check out the preview to…

E-MAIL WRITER | ABOUT JEFF | ABOUT SETH | SPOOK’D BLOG | SPOOK’D FORUM | ARCHIVES | OLDER ARCHIVES

Disclaimer: All material in Spook’d is fictitious and intended solely for the purpose of entertainment. Names are fabricated and any similarity to real people or places is purely coincidental except in those cases where public figures are being satirized.

September 16, 2006

Game On! 9-16-2006

Filed under: Game On! — admin @ 4:02 am

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Well, as the weeks have shown, we’ve been going through a bit of a slump with games, release wise. That isn’t to say there haven’t been some good things released, just that they’ve been fewer than most. But now that we’re entering the holiday months, things are going to start shaping up with A-list titles and big holiday blockbusters. In fact, just this week Nintendo made the official announcement that it’s Wii system will be released on November 19th, just TWO days after the release of the PS3, for a markedly lower price. As they say in wrestling “it’s on, brother”. With Sony delaying the launch of their system in Europe until 2007 and cutting the US shipment from 400,000 units to roughly 100,000 (not to mention the price difference between Sony’s $600 “computer” and the $250 for Nintendo’s “Revolutionary” system) it looks to be a console war with an already decided victor. And Microsoft, who arrived early to the game? They’re dropped arguably their most anticipated game for 360 (other than HALO 3) just FIVE days prior to PS3″¦GEARS OF WAR. A game versus a system? Oh yeah, that’s balls.

Now, in the meantime, we’re taking a look on some more recently released titles to keep you busy “˜til those blockbusters come a knocking, as well as a feature film that just about everyone who reads this column (or hell, anything else on this site) can relate to.

HEY, YOU GOT YOUR LEGO IN MY STAR WARS!

legoswII.jpgOnce again those two great tastes that taste great together have joined forces to emulate the three Star Wars movies that don’t suck (in block form) with LEGO STAR WARS II: THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY, released this past week on every console that’s currently available. Taking the familiar groundwork from the previous game and kicking into hyperdrive, this new title fixes many of the problems of the first game, while adding a new flash and fun to keep things fresh.

First and foremost, the vehicle stages are greatly improved, not only allowing for more freedom of movement and greater control, but also allowing for 2-player co-op with those missions to not suck. From X-wings to the Falcon itself, every ship flies well and, despite some loop-de-loop hiccups, is pretty fun to do. Also, scattered around other land-based missions are other vehicles, such as land speeders, AT-ATs, or even dewbacks”¦and many of them you assemble before riding. LEGO building is no longer restricted to the Jedi’s and their forces powers, now everyone can pick up a few bricks and build with ease.

Also, the selection of characters can be increased for most of the versions, simply by already having a save game from the previous title on your hard drive or memory card. Not only that, but you can now also swap parts between characters to make wholly new characters; for example, taking the head of a Stormtrooper and placing it on Slave Leia’s torso, with Darth Maul’s hood and cape”¦yeah, it’s crazy, and doesn’t really add abilities to the gameplay, but it’s a kooky little fun feature.

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Completing certain goals within the levels unlocks a Gold LEGO Brick, such as collecting enough LEGO bits to fill the bar to TRUE JEDI status, or finding all the LEGO kits in a mission. Get enough Gold Bricks per episode to unlock bonus goals, such as a Super Story Mode (where you have to beat all the chapters in an episode within a set time limit) or special character or mini kit modes (where collecting a certain number of LEGO bits within a time frame is your goal). Also returning is the Free Play mode, where you can return to levels already beaten to unlock parts of the stages that you had to pass previous in Story Mode simply by not having the proper character until later. This once again greatly increases the replay value, as well as satisfies those hardcore completists out there.

The LEGO idea is a great way to redo the Star Wars franchise in game without having to rehash the same old gameplay ideas that have been done to death already. It’s cute, it’s funny, and gamers of any age can play and enjoy it. It would be awesome if they did it with other franchises as well, such as Spider-man or Harry Potter, since there’s already LEGO versions of those characters in toy form. Ah, if only”¦

One Gamer’s Opinion:
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BREAK ME OFF A PIECE OF THAT

onepeicega.jpgFor the “anime game of the week” this week, we’re looking at ONE PIECE: GRAND ADVENTURE, a sequel to last year” excellent ONE PIECE: GRAND BATTLE, available for both PS2 and Gamecube. Honestly, not much has changed between the two games, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. With great control, a good sense of speed and combat, and combos galore, this new title actually adds value with its new game modes, while still retaining all the fun of the original.

For those not familiar with the story of ONE PIECE, a brief refresher. Monkey D. Luffy, a young boy, has aspirations of being a pirate. Not just any pirate, but king of the pirates. To achieve this goal he’s gathering up the top pirates in the land and adding them to his Straw Hat crew in search of the fabled One Piece, the legendary treasure of the former King of the Pirates. To make matters sillier, Luffy has eaten from the Gum-Gum fruit, making his body stretch and bend like taffy. In fact, many pirates have eaten strange fruit to make their bodies react in odd ways, and that’s what makes this fighting game so much fun. Each character has their own unique attributes and all are used well in battles.

The game’s main battle mode is set up kind of like POWER STONE; a 3D battle environment with many item pick ups that can be used to attack or power up, and colorful fast-paced attacks and combos galore. Many of the combatants from the previous game return, as well as a few others with more unlocked in the game’s secondary Adventure mode. Here, you sail around to different locations and recruit members for your ship (or just partake in random battles with certain set goals for each one) in your quest for the treasure and glory. There are many different quests as you travel, and multiple character storylines to take through this mode as well. While the gameplay here works as a basic “lite” version of the main versus mode, it’s still pretty cool and helps advance the story (such as it is).

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The previous ONE PIECE game was pretty good, even for an anime game, and its cell-shaded graphics were bright and vibrant, though didn’t quite look like the show. That’s not really a bad thing, as they did the job well, and are repeated here. The audio as well is decent, capturing enough of the character nuances without being overly annoying. Fans of the show will definitely have much to enjoy here, as the list of playable characters is a fairly large one, spanning much of the series.

Good battles, fun combos and wacky characters abound in this game, and I couldn’t be happier. POWER STONE is a great game to emulate, and this title does it well, while still keeping the gameplay fresh and fun, as well as adhering to the show’s characters and story. Definitely a good time.

One Gamer’s Opinion:
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EVERY ROSE HAS IT’S THORN

ruleofrose.jpgFinally this week we have RULE OF ROSE, a twisted survival horror-esque game for PS2 full of crazy, creepy children, imps, and a dog named Brown. Set in the early 1930s, you play and orphaned girl named Jennifer who comes to a strange orphanage, only to be abused and mistreated by The Aristocrats of the Rose, a group of girls who filled out the “vindictive” and “creepy” boxes on their applications WAY too fully. With your faithful pooch by your side you’ll collect clues and give offerings to the Aristocrats in order to keep them happy and, essentially, keep them from killing you.

Many of you out there who follow the survival horror genre may recognize this game as being similar to another title, HAUNTING GROUND, which was released last year. It too featured a young girl trapped in a big house with a canine companion. This time, however, the game isn’t nearly as scary as that title. Sure, there are weird imp creatures rather than just scary people, but the imps aren’t really even scary”¦just weird. What makes them even less scary is the fact that you really don’t even need to fight them. Most battles you can just run past them, never needing for confrontations save for the odd boss battle.

More so, the game is more about atmosphere than scares, and while the creepy girl aspect is in full effect, this isn’t a title that playing in the dark with the sound up will enhance. Sure, the cut scenes are beautifully rendered, the music moody and appropriate, and the puzzles are bizarre and intricate, but the game just seems to be bizarre just to be bizarre. The strange Aristocracy of the girls and their requests for items to stave off their seeming harmless bloodlust (“do what we say”¦or we’ll kill you!”) just ends up being creepy, but not outright horrifying. They really don’t act as viscous as they claim they will, and nothing really pans out to terror, just hints of what could be. Basically, the game wants to be SILENT HILL when it grows up”¦full of atmosphere, but not really sure of what to do with it.

So, basically what it boils down to is a pretty looking, creepy feeling fetch quest without that impending sense of doom so vital to the genre. It does weird well, but little else. Combat isn’t really clunky, but it isn’t really needed either, and having the dog sniff out clues has it’s troubles with the pooch getting stuck behind items or forgetting what he’s looking for. All in all, it’s a good attempt, but tries to play it safe more than going for the all out freak factor.

One Gamer’s Opinion:
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DVD REVIEW ““ GAMERS

For those of you out there who still game and role play on table tops as opposed to (or including with) consoles, then there finally is a movie for you. Hell, it’s a movie for anyone with an inner (or outer) geek. GAMERS takes the mocumentary format and applies it to five uber nerds as they strive for a world record of 23 consecutive years of playing the RPG “Demons, Nymphs and Dragons” (cleverly abbreviated as DND”¦gee, I wonder) and profiles each of the players individually, as well as in the game.

The movie is sharp and witty, and sort of slams SPINAL TAP into OFFICE SPACE, with an episode of FAMILY GUY stuck in the middle. Shot documentary style, but featuring flash backs to previous year’s events, the movie’s chronicling of the gamers in question is full of left of center humor and improv galore. While many of the main actors may not strike a chord when you hear their names (though you’re sure to have seen many of them on prime time TV in small roles”¦hell, one of them even was asked to be a company member of a local theater of mine) it does have it’s fair share of stars in cameos. John Heard (Home Alone) and Beverly D’Angelo (the National Lampoon’s Vacation movies) play mother and father to Gordon, a poor cable access cameraman who still lives at home with his freaky swinger parents. William Katt (best known for the classic THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO) plays the boss of lame gamer Reese, who laments the loss of his favorite character Farrah to “Dungeon Lord” Kevin. Even Kelly LeBrock plays the hot mom of a high school love, and each actor revels in the absurdity of the subject matter and their off beat characters. To hear John Heard talking about getting his freak on, or William Katt opining about the bliss of the Franchise mode in the newest madden football game is priceless alone.

Written and directed with ease and flair by newcomer Christopher Folino, the movie has garnered such awards as “Best Indie Film” from Indie Film Nation and rave reviews across the internet and print (even from former MPS EIC Chris Ryall over at www.comics101.com). The scene breakdowns and interviews with each character brings out their own quirks and drives well, and each has their own bizarre moments to shine. The one thing that kind of takes you out of the documentary style of the film is the flashbacks, but honestly, you’re not going to mind, as these moments offer some of the best laughs in the entire flick.

If you’re an old school role player, know someone who is, or are just looking for that perfect film that makes fun of what you love while still holding it up to the light as a legitimate pastime, GAMERS is your HOLY GRAIL (in more ways than one). Check out all the info over at www.buygamers.com, and you can even look for it in the October issue of Previews magazine and order it at your local comic shop for this November. The perfect holiday gift for your RPG fan.

One Gamer’s Opinion:
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Alright. I’m out folks. Next week, more good stuff, including a VIDEO GAMES 101 look at the SPY HUNTER series. “˜Til next time, Game On!

September 15, 2006

Addicted To Bad: Love’s Labor Day Lost

Filed under: Addicted to Bad — UncaScroogeMcD @ 5:57 am

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Everyone knows that holidays and movies go together like monkeys and tuxedos, and yet, year after year, we see the same three or four of them on screen, as though those were the only ones worth mentioning. Is Halloween the only scary holiday? Did they forget Valentine’s Day? Tax day? What about a horror movie set on President’s Day, when all of the mattress and car salesmen come out of their caves to make loud, annoying commercials and feed on unsuspecting consumers?silent.jpg

Admittedly, when Hollywood does try to mix things up, it’s rarely pretty. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is, for all intents and purposes, basically MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET with a few more axe murders (although barely half as many as in the original MIRACLE book), but NIGHT has so far failed to make it onto the schedule even half as much as the feel-good “classic” does. Even worse, IT’S SECRETARY’S DAY, CHARLIE BROWN hardly ever gets played anymore, and the less said about BENJI’S TAX DAY ADVENTURE the better.

Still, hard as it may be to believe, there have been worse:

A FINE MOVING PHOTOPLAY OF LADIES ENJOUYING AN OUT-OF-DOORS PICK-NICK LUNCHEOUN ON THE DAY OF LABOURS (1892): Perhaps the earliest known “holiday” film in existence, this was merely one of Edison’s early cheapies, a depiction of several women eating lunch on Labor Day, which, at the time, actually honored America’s butlers. The film had a short run before being withdrawn over a scandalous glimpse of one of the ladies’ exposed philtrum. Also, in one frame, it was claimed that you could see the silhouette of a child who had died on the site years ago. Later, this was proven to be a cardboard cut-out of President McKinley.

LAUREL & HARDY’S FATHER’S DAY FRACAS (1936): Following a bitter feud, the duo’s legendary producer, Hal Roach, attempted to assert ownership of the characters with this misguided story in which neither Laurel nor Hardy actually appear. Instead, their elderly “fathers” accidentally kidnap Pope Pius XI. The film was never released. Interestingly, this marks the one time that the word “Fracas” was used in a movie title that wasn’t gay porn.Hope Crosby

THE ROAD TO PUNXSUTAWNEY (1947): The only Hope and Crosby “road” movie to take place domestically, the film tells the story of two escaped convicts who systematically murder and then dismember dozens of people in a PCP-fueled rampage as they attempt to make it to Pennsylvania for the annual Groundhog Day festival. Features Crosby’s chart-topping toe-tapper “Where’s My Damn Money, Bitch?”

MEMORIAL DAY VACATION (1995): This ABC “Movie of the Week” starred C. Thomas Howell as Clark, and depicted the Griswold’s trip to Iwo Jima. The film culminates with Audrey being sold into white slavery while Clark is thrown in a Singapore prison for fondling the prime minister. Widely considered the second least funny of the VACATION films.

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD (1998): Although it is never mentioned on screen or the script, and has never been acknowledged by Carrot Top or anyone else associated with the production, the film takes place on Arbor Day. Anyone who says differently is lying, and a communist. And sells crack to infants.Billy

BILLY BOB THORNTON EXPLAINS DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME (2002): Thornton, a well-known time enthusiast, produced, wrote, directed, edited, and catered this feature-length documentary on the benefits of Daylight Savings Time, which, according to the actor, include “improved Japanese-American relations, higher sperm counts in many species of toad, better tasting coffee, and an overall decrease in the number of reported zombies.”

NICK AND JESSICA’S VALENTINE’S ADVENTURE (unproduced): Originally planned to be a modern-day remake of MY FAIR LADY, the script was rewritten several times at the insistence of the soon-to-be-divorced Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson. Jessica insisted that Nick’s character, Rick, change from a promising architect to a syphilis-ridden mental patient. The next draft saw Jessica’s character, Cathy, violently die in a flaming bus crash in the first two pages, never to appear again. After another rewrite, Nick’s character, now called “Rancid Bag of Vomit,” confesses on national television that he is into unspeakable sex acts, many of which involve lighting small animals on fire. He spends the rest of the film being savagely beaten. Subsequent drafts see representations of acts that could never be depicted on screen. The project is currently being developed as a vehicle for Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Melonpool Quickcast #13: Blank Label Comics

Filed under: Melonpool Quickcast — admin @ 5:55 am
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-By Steve Troop

Based on Steve Troop’s classic webcomic of the same name, the Melonpool Quickcast features puppet versions of Troop’s alien cast, who are desperately trying to make heads or tails out of Earth culture.

BLC

Mayberry and Ralph match wits with Blank Label Comics cartoonists Kristofer Straub (Starslip Crisis), Howard Tayler (Schlock Mercenary), David Willis (Shortpacked) and Steve Tripp — er — Troop (Melonpool).

Don’t forget to comment on this and other Melonpool Quickcasts over at the official Melonpool Quickcast Forum!

Melonpool Quickcast #13: Blank Label Comics:

  • Large (560 x 420 – QuickTime – 20 MB)
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Nocturnal Admissions: Movie Review, Hollywoodland and The Black Dahlia

Filed under: Nocturnal Admissions — UncaScroogeMcD @ 4:38 am

 

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Hollywoodland poster

 

 

Black poster

 

Los Angeles, the past, old mysterious crimes still “unsolved.” Would these be the obsessions of movie makers if they didn’t all live for the most part in Los Angeles? If the movie industry had settled in, say, Wisconsin, would films be filled with snow,  reindeer, and Ed Gein? Or perhaps San Francisco, with its fog, beatniks, and alternative sexualities? Of Miami: lizards, go fast boats, and Cuba as a dream – nightmare?

Hollywoodland Ben

 

The other film this year about Superman, as others have pointed out, is   Hollywoodland. Directed by Allen Coulter from a script by Paul Bernbaum, it tells, as is well known, two stories simultaneously, that of the late career of George Reeves – minor actor who lucked into the syndicated role of Superman on TV, a career sustained by his affair with Toni Mannix, wife of the then head of MGM, and which ended with a mysterious suicide – coupled with the tale of a fictional sleazy private investigator, who starts out cynical and mercenary but who comes to admire, identify with, and respect the subject of his inquiries (like James Stewart in Call Northside 777 and Jack Nicholson in  Chinatown).

 

Hollywoodland Brody

 

The connection to Chinatown is almost explicit. Many of the music cues evoke Jerry Goldsmith’s score for that movie, Diane Lane as Toni has a Faye Dunaway look and sound, there is a crucial fight between a man and a woman in a bungalow not unlike the famous one from the earlier film, and there is even a little crux borrowed from it, in this case where the PI, Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), after a brutal interlude, finally takes a moment to rest “¦ and then the phone rings, mirroring a similar scene in Chinatown.

Ben and Diane

 

Unfortunately, the Simo story is boring, and Brody is miscast. He is too lean and cocky to seem like a tough PI; it’s nice that he changes, but his evolution doesn’t seem to have that much to do with Reeves’s case.

Ben as Clark

On the other hand, the Superman half of the movie is poignant and good natured. Ben Affleck is also miscast, but he does something with the part that isn’t just coasting on charm (Affleck won an acting prize at the Venice film festival), but generally doing three things at once: scheming, searching, but also just enjoying himself.

Because Reeve’s romantic complications and depression are unconnected with
Simo’s existential crisis, I think that most viewers find themselves a little impatient with Simo’s half of the movie (unless they are huge fans of Brody’s). A better story would have been to show a PI as an adult investigating, on his own, the crime that troubled him as a youth by running down all the survivors (though I don’t buy it that little kids all over the nation were burning their Superman costumes in grief and disillusionment) .

Black D

If Hollywoodland harks back to  Chinatown for its tone and tropes, The Black Dahlia is unavoidably comparable to L. A. Confidential. But Brian De Palma’s film feels cartoony and unlived in, with its picture perfect settings and its nostalgic wipe dissolves. Many of De Palma’s films feel cartoony, and De Palma manages to tilt the film away from the world of source novelist James Ellroy, where schemes and conspiracies pile on top of each other in spirals of infinity, and to De Palmaville, where naifs wander through a landscape they don’t fully understand, only to be betrayed by the one person they deem a best friend.

Black Josh

Josh Friedman’s script is reasonably faithful to Ellroy’s sweeping, intense novel, which has huge swaths of back story presented as present story, but while the book is told in the first person, the movie, which starts out with narration, becomes quickly third person, and we are looking in on Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) as he gets set up in a boxing match with charismatic fellow officer Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart, the film’s Kevin Spacey equivalent role) as a benefit, then becomes his friend (while Bucky is living in what looks like the  Pretty Woman apartment building), then his partner, during which routine investigation they stumble onto the perimeter of the real life Black Dahlia case (or that of Elizabeth Short, a young woman whose body was found on January 15, 1947, cut in half and mutilated, abandoned to a  vacant lot at the 3800 block of South Norton Avenue in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles). The case was never solved and formed the basis for other popular works, including the book and film of  True Confessions, and even an episode of  Hunter.

Black Lee

Once the Black Dahlia enters the picture, Lee leaves it, for long stretches of time, which doesn’t help us understand his sudden obsession with the Dahlia case (explained at the end, if you can follow it), while Bucky gets mired in affairs with both a hot socialite (Hilary Swank, also miscast) who dabbles in Lesbianism, and with Lee’s mysterious girlfriend, Kay (Scarlett Johansson). By this time, The Black Dahlia has become three movies in one, a boxing film, a murder mystery, and a romance. Plus it throws a lot of names at you – Bobby Dewitt, Nash, Baxter Fitch, George Tilden (87 cigarettes into the film and I still don’t know who this guy is suppose to be, though I recognized the actor playing him as De Palma standby William Finley). This is the kind of mystery where a statement made in passing at a dinner table returns via a flashback to illuminate the whole case at the last second.

Black Scarlett

Though it is fun to see this cast, and others, including Rose McGowan and Mia Kirshner, you have a feeling that they are all second tier. But the cast of  L. A. Confidential was also second tier until the film made stars out of all of them, and that may be a mark of the difference between Curtis Hanson, who wants you to believe his films, and De Palma, who is essentially drawing a cartoon and thinking about the set pieces. It doesn’t help that Swank acts all vampy and sophisticated in an unconvincing way (though she is good in the vulnerable moments), or that Fiona Shaw, as a dipsomaniacal socialite, gives one of the worst performances in a De Palma, or any other kind of film. I was also disturbed that a stag film that figures in the plot was too well lit for a porno film (although there might be an explanation for that implicit in the mystery’s solution), and that people were still going to silent movies – in this case, The Man Who Laughs, from 1928, the  Paul Leni film starring Conrad Veidt. I don’t think that De Palma is much of a film buff, at root, otherwise he would have striven to get these details right. He is a  student of film, but only as a source of solutions to the specific problems of construction he faces on a per film basis. But remembering how much he ridiculed his pal George Lucas over rough cuts of  Star Wars makes me think that essentially he doesn’t really like movies all that much, at least pop culture movies.

But the case isn’t closed.

 

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