We learned this morning that Ray Bradbury, a legend in the world of science fiction, passed away. The Transit of Venus seemed a fitting send off to a man who wrote so eloquently about such other-worldly things and horrifying things so much closer to home.
He was 91 years old.
His best known work, beloved my most, was perhaps Fahrenheit 451. It showed us what a society that didn’t respect books would be like and what lengths intellectuals and book readers like us would have to go to keep our stories alive.
Through his books, Bradbury will stay alive in the same way, we’ll carry him and his books in our heads just like the countless bands at the end of his famous novel carry the works of Shakespeare and everything else worth remembering.
I’ll never forget the impact his stories had on me as a child, and there was nothing like the stories he told about his career at Comic-Con. My favorite story of his, though, was always The Veldt.
As a fitting tribute, here is Stephen Colbert reading it:
This movie is one of my favorite of the year. I would be surprised if it doesn’t make my top five of 2012. It’s fun, it’s well-made, and it’s just great.
I’ve seen it again a couple of times in the past couple of weeks and it just keeps getting better with repeated viewings.
Well, we’ve been given the go-ahead to give away 2 copies of the film on Blu-ray and we’re doing just that. The film comes out June 5th (you should get a copy now anyway) and this contest will run through Friday the 8th.
All you have to do to win is leave a comment below telling me what your favorite scene in the movie is. If you haven’t seen the movie, tell me why you didn’t see it and why you’re excited to see it now. If you happen to mention this on your facebook or twitter, let us know that, too.
Each Friday we will be bringing you weekend-viewing movie picks available for streaming on Netflix! From the popular to the obscure, we will browse Netflix’s Streaming library so you don’t have to, and bring you what we consider to be “Must Watch” selections!
Stephen Fry In America
Since Arse-Bot is busy you are stuck with me for the weeks pick which means we’re going weird with it. A lot of people aren’t familiar with Stephen Fry but I love the man. His casting as Mycroft Holmes to Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock was easily my favorite part of the latest Sherlock Holmes movie. You may also remember him from V for Vendetta and catch watch him at the end of this year in The Hobbit.
Now this pick is a little different because it is actually a TV Mini Series/Documentary. Mr. Fry was almost born in America and he says he’s always and an interest with how different he would have been and for this series he explores all 50 states.
Stephen drives a cab in London and brings that over and drives it through the states, so not only is the incredibly witty, polite Brit sticking out for just purely being himself, he’s also driving a London cab through places that have never seen one. From the Northeast out to the Pacific, everywhere gets a little bit of coverage. I like to see insights from people out of place about what they find interesting about certain areas and to watch someone like Stephen go crabbing in Maine or drink whiskey in Kentucky is almost mesmerizing.
Now if you aren’t a Fry fan or a history and culture fan this may sound boring to you. There is just something about Stephen that makes this all so interesting, when he’s on a reservation near Monument Valley or driving in a brutal rain storm in the South he’s so out of place that I can’t help but be drawn to him. Easily my favorite part of the series is a short clip of him boating in Lake Powell. Usually that isn’t so out of the ordinary but if you’ve ever been to Lake Powell you know that million dollar house boats are the norm and Stephen hangs out in is very small swimsuit in the hot tub atop the boat as it slowly cruises the lake.
The show is six episodes, one for each week he spent here and if you have any interest in him or America I highly recommend you give it a try.
I am very conflicted about this movie; there are certain elements in it that deliver that wow factor and really draw you into the story and the characters, but then moments later, something pops up that just ruins the suspension of disbelief and jolts you back to reality. I guess it boils down to the fact that the movie tries to do a lot of different things, but never really excels at any of them, which is sad since you can easily see the potential this had to become a classic.
Snow White and the Huntsman is an action oriented retelling of the original classic Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. Snow White’s father is wooed and betrayed by an evil queen (Charlize Theron, enjoying her role a bit too much) who then dominates the land with an iron fist and steals the life force of beautiful damsels in order to stay young and beautiful. For reasons unknown, the Queen does not kill Snow White, instead locking her in the dungeon where she is forgotten until years later when the magic mirror pronounces Snow White (Kristen Stewart, who apparently found it too inconvenient to learn an accent or how to act with her mouth closed) the ‘fairest of them all’. Snow White escapes in order to save her life and hides from the Queen’s pursuers in the Dark Woods, a place even evil minions apparently fear to tread. Enter Chris Hemsworth as the drunken Huntsman who is ordered to track down Snow White in exchange for the return of his wife, whose resurrection has been promised as his reward. Needless to say, he tracks her down, learns the Queen plans to betray him, so now it is up to him, the 7 Dwarves and a member of a rebel faction to safely bring Snow White to the rebel camp because she is ‘The One’ who will lead them into victorious battle against the Queen’s army.
I do want to note that this film does some things very well. For starters, it is absolutely beautiful to watch! The sets are extraordinarily well done and the costumes are great. The special effects are fun and top notch, especially the way they perform the changing ages of the Queen. The handling of the Dark Forest is wonderful, and the mythology behind the Queen and why she is constantly looking for ‘the fairest of them all’ is a fun change from simple vanity. Chris Hemsworth does a good job, (and yes, ladies and those so inclined, there is a brief scene were he has his shirt mosty off) and Kristen Stewart doesn’t have too many lines, so you don’t have to hear her speak that much
That said, the rest of the film suffers from being a muddled mess. It’s as of the screen writers couldn’t decide what kind of movie to make, so they just took a bunch of pieces of movies they liked, and stitched them together into a resulting Frankenstein’s monster. Throughout you’ll see glimpses of Willow, the Princess Bride, Fern Gully, Princess Mononoke (that is COMPLETELY shot for shot ripped off in a critical scene), Lord of the Rings and The Matrix; not to mention the dwarves who first appear dressed as Ewoks and then (I swear!) start humming the theme music to Titanic around a campfire. Oh, that’s right, the dwarves. I am completely baffled why they superimposed the faces of Nick Frost, Bob Hoskins and other actors over the bodies of little people to play the dwarves. Were there no little people available for the roles? Was Peter Dinklage throwing a party or something? Seriously, every time one of them were on screen, it jarred me out of the experience. There was no rhyme or reason for this change. Oh, and it’s too bad Kristen Stewart wasn’t able to watch the recent Game of Thrones episode to see how a REAL Braveheart speech should be given, as hers lacked any and all emotion and would have done more to drive the troops home than rally them.
If you can survive all of the above and get over the horrible acting (Kristen Stewart, please stop), the overacting (Charlize Theron), the disjointed plot, anti-climactic finale, horrible writing and try to focus on the few gems hidden throughout this movie, you’ll enjoy it a lot more than many other ‘date’ movies you could get dragged to. You will probable leave wondering, just as I did, what COULD have been and what happened to make everything go so wrong.
The new Green Arrow-based show Arrow, premiering this fall on the CW, launched its first promo trailer today. I’ve watched it five times trying to come up with something interesting to say about it, but to be honest I can’t help but find it to be fairly bland and unexciting in contrast to the recent depiction of Hawkeye in Marvel’s The Avengers. Why do I say that? Well, first watch the trailer and then I’ll explain:
Here we see a young, sexy, CW-ized Oliver Queen’s return to Star City after his island disappearance and subsequent upgrade from playboy billionaire to what I assume given the trailer will be playboy Green Arrow. It’s not that this portrayal is inherently wrong, it just doesn’t come off as awesome and sexy as, say, what I would like to imagine as a fusion between Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye. I want more badass arrow trick shots and footage of Ollie taking down bad guys!
Keep in mind, folks, that Green Arrow is my favorite DC super hero and that I truly wish this show would do the character justice. I’ll be tuning in to watch the premier, but overall I’m just not looking forward to this show as much as I wish I could be.
I really enjoyed Janine Spendlove’s “War of the Seasons: Book 1 – The Human” when I reviewed it last year. I’ve read and advance of the sequel and have enjoyed that immensly as well.
The Human is a very fun read, very much in the vein of the Chronicles of Narnia or The Hunger Games. It has a very strong female lead, an incredibly well-developed world, a fiendish villain you just love to hate, and above all: a love story that doesn’t actually make you want to gag.
Spendlove has decided to let Book 1 go for free on Amazon Kindle for two days starting today and going through tomorrow.
This is the perfect time to get in on this series, you’ll never find it cheaper. And if you read it, my bet is you’ll want to pick up your own autographed copy if you see Janine at a convention, which is entirely likely.
After nearly a decade of development, and Error 37, the next installment in the Diablo franchise has finally been released!….and well, it definitely is a Diablo game. When I start a game, I will usually try out something new rather than Mr. Magic McMissile or Big McLarge Huge (Thanks MST3K) for the hundredth time. Because of this, I chose to start the game with a class I have not seen in other RPG’s, the Witch Doctor.
Well, it was either that or the Demon Hunter but my friend wanted to try Demon Hunter which is bull crap as he has never read anything about Van Helsing or seen any Dracula films. Ugh…
Anyway, turns out that the Witch Doctor is basically a Necromancer, but I am having fun with him anyway and all of his CC/turning people into chickens and sheep. Here is a screenshot I took from act 3 while dealing with a bunch of punk-ass demons:
That’s right. Where are your Arcane Sentry powers now??
Also, I was pretty excited that I got to see my old friend Deckard Cain, not too long after starting the game. I was kinda hoping he’d be dropping sick rhymes to a phat beat though..
The gameplay is what you would expect from Diablo, with a few changes made since the last installment. Rather than being able to choose your own stat progression, Blizzard assumes that we are all idiots and takes control of that for us. Instead of being able to carefully select certain abilities for our classes, leveling them up and having to live with our awful decisions, they just go ahead and give us every ability and allow us to swap any of them in and out. Basically, every single wizard that hits level 60 is going to be exactly the same except for the equipment they are wearing. I guess it makes fighting more fair in PvP (when they do release it) but it severely limits the potential of character building.
Something very innovative about this game is the inclusion of the in-game auction house. This is a place where people can sell their items to other players for gold. It’s a pretty good system, I think, and helps keep people away from selling virtual property for real money, although I doubt that will truly stop. Unfortunately, I accidentally clicked on the sell button that put my entire collected inventory of Essences, almost 800, on auction for way below standard price and they all sold immediately, even though the game told me I had 5 minutes to cancel…
I have to mention how good the graphics look this time around. The environments are extremely well polished and when they are falling apart around you, it add to the intensity. I also like that with every time you visit an area, different layouts and caves spawn so it kind of adds to the replayability if you are a completionist. It’s kind of gratifying just running around and breakin’ shit for loots as well. The in-game cinematics are truly amazing, including some of the most realistic looking characters animations I have ever seen in a game.
Something that is very noticeable upon playing through the game on Normal and now starting my playthrough on Nightmare is that I can no longer easily take enemies and bosses by myself. However, I am not built to be that strong right now but I feel like there is a huge jump between the two difficulties. I do like is, don’t get me wrong, because I feel like I now need to team up with other people to win fights. I feel like more of a support with the Witch Doctor, slowing enemies and summoning things to take hits while another class seemingly just one-hit KO’s everything.
I should probably also mention the recent hacks that have happened. Apparently, if you have even once opened your game up to the public, you could be the subject of invasion by hackers where they take your stuff. A lot of people are getting banned because of this, even the accounts of people who were hacked, not just the hackers. I have an acquaintance who warned another player about the hacks and he got banned just for doing that. So, if you still can, I’d recommend keeping away from the public games until Blizzard fixes this.
Now, I hear of this magical level filled with ponies and Care Bear looking creatures that you get to murder known as “Whimseyshire” so it has become my new goal to find this place.
I’ve got all but two of the items and I am pretty excited to enter, however, I seriously don’t know whether or not I will want to continue playing after I get through this area. It is kind of starting to feel like a grind getting through everything again and if I even get through Nightmare, I’ll be surprised. That being said, I do enjoy playing the game quite a bit while it lasts and I will probably come back to it here and there in the future and for that, I will give it..
It’s time! Toonami returns tonight at midnight on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. I’m here to share tonight’s schedule, and you can be sure I’ll be tuning in tonight!
12:00 AM – Bleach – Long running and varied in style and story – this show brings a little something for everybody.
12:30 – Deadman Wonderland – A post-earthquake Japan meets sci-fi and fantasy in this gritty thriller about a boy named Ganta.
https://youtu.be/ICyghQBiog4
1:00 – Casshern Sins – A reebot of the classic series Casshern – this story mashes up cybernetics, robot wars, and a world where humanity faces the very serious possibility for extinction.
https://youtu.be/Pe5pfGcxUaw
1:30 – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – If you loved Fullmetal Alchemist you’ll love Brotherhood even more. This new series more closely follows the story of the manga and brings a lot of valuable depth to the characters we know and love like Edward and Alphonse Elric.
https://youtu.be/FaazgkzFg7k
2:00 – Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Another classic series that aired on Toonami many years ago, Stand Alone Complex follows a group known as the Section 9 mobile police force as they attempt to track down the infamous terrorist “The Laughing Man.”
https://youtu.be/yz59RhWk-nA
2:30 – Cowboy Bebop – If you haven’t watched Cowboy Beebop this is a must-see as it is one of the greatest anime series of all time.
Each Friday we will be bringing you weekend-viewing movie picks available for streaming on Netflix! From the popular to the obscure, we will browse Netflix’s Streaming library so you don’t have to, and bring you what we consider to be “Must Watch” selections!
Arsenic and Old Lace
Directed by Frank Capra
Starring Song Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Joesphine Hull, Jean Adair, Raymond Massey
This Friday’s “‘Flix Pick” is a film I fell in love with about eight years ago as a senior in high school. I can’t exactly remember why, but our AP English teacher, Mr. Tucker (my favorite teacher from my formative high school years), made us watch Arsenic and Old Lace. Not being terribly familiar with films from the 1940’s, nor that thrilled to be watching some “old, crappy black and white movie”, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. However, a mere ten-minutes into the film I was hooked, and ever since that day this film has always been one of my all-time favorite movies.
Cary Grant plays Mortimer Brewster, a former womanizer and denouncer of the institution of marriage. Brewster reconnects, falls in love with, and marries a woman whom he grew up with in Brooklyn, Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane). After their Halloween wedding, Brewster decides it’s time to take Elaine home to meet the family, his very eccentric family. Still living in his old family home are his two elderly aunts, Martha and Abby, and his brother, “Teddy”, who is under the delusion that he is Theodore Roosevelt. Shortly after the newlyweds’ arrival, Brewster is appalled to find a dead body hidden in a window seat. He confronts his aunts about it, concerned that his brother may have committed the murder while under the influence of his delusions, but his aunts explain to him very nonchalantly that they have developed a “very bad habit” of killing off lonely bachelors with elderberry wine spiked with arsenic and having “Teddy” bury them in the basement under the illusion that he is digging locks for the Panama Canal.
Already concerned about his aunts’ behavior, Brewster’s situation becomes more complicated when his murderous brother, Jonathan, on the run from the police with his accomplice, a plastic surgeon named Dr. Herman Einstein, show up looking to dispose of their latest victim. Seemingly the only sane member of his family, Mortimer Brewster is tasked with avoiding being murdered by his own criminal brother, caring for his other delusional brother, and trying to protect his well-meaning aunts from the consequences of the “charity” they have been providing to the single men in town – all while dealing with nosy, bumbling police officers and the concern that he too will eventually succumb the crazy that seems to run in the family.
Arsenic and Old Lace may sound like quite the dark tale, but this is an incredibly funny film from Capra based on the play of the same name. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair play the parts of elderly crazy women with good intentions so well, they steal nearly every scene they are in and you can’t help but love how intent they are in that what they are doing is a good deed to the lonely men in town. John Alexander provides a lot of laughs as he insists in only taking the stairs in one manner: with a bellowing “Charge!” and a mad-dash up them with sword in hand. Cary Grant is charming as the only sane member of the Brewster family and has many funny moments in his own right as he frantically attempts to corral all the murder and mayhem happening around him. Priscilla Lane looks absolutely gorgeous in this film in a way that only an actress from the 1940’s can. While not given a lot “to do” in this film, she plays a great anchor to Grant as Elaine; she’s sweet, but she’s also a woman who has changed Mortimer’s entire outlook on love, and in over her head with his crazy family.
I couldn’t recommend a better weekend date night movie than Arsenic and Old Lace. It’s a funny and sweet film from a Hollywood long-since gone, perfect for a night of take-out and movie-watching. The best part is that it’s streaming on Netflix Instant, so add this classic to your instant queue, you won’t regret it!
The Men In Black 3 campaign has been in full swing for a while now and an investigative blogger known as BugEyes has been working on discovering the truth about the Men in Black.
We have a look at him in the upcoming film in the video above.
To catch up on the viral campaign, check out the links below…
The viral campaign has followed the investigative blogger, known solely as BugEyes, as he has worked to uncover the truth behind alien life on earth and the Men in Black Suits who appear to cover it up. In his investigation he discovered mysterious clues linked to futuristic vehicles (http://bit.ly/J16ELp), tattoo parlors (http://bit.ly/JW2msu), and even a cake (http://bit.ly/JTAKD9). Even more surprising, he was able to uncover that Arianna Huffington is in fact an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth (http://huff.to/KJMlC3), which became headline news around the country! All the while he has built a group of 100 thousand loyal followers called “MIBelievers” who have helped him uncover clues by posting on his Facebook page (http://on.fb.me/sQ3I9M) and calling in with shocking tips (http://bit.ly/JmTp7p). Everything he has done so far has led to one defining moment when he received his very own black suit (http://bit.ly/JjHPiS) and became an official member of the Men in Black!
