Random Film of the Week(end) – (Summer Edition!): Ball of Fire

Posted on June 22, 2013 by geelw

Imagine this as a movie idea today: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with Snow being an extremely talented exotic dancer type and those dwarfs a bunch of stuffy but eager to learn elderly eggheads she ends up hanging out with to teach them all the things they didn’t know. Once you get your eyeballs above the obvious jiggle-tease material and plentiful opportunities for modern day humor sixteen writers working together come up with, the results would probably be pretty darn terrible.

I can see the trailer now: two minutes, thirty eight or so of slow-mo cleavage shots and some special guest cameo coot rattling off one-liners, plus someone getting hit in the nether regions with a golf, basket or other ball, maybe a nice pratfall, a fart joke, a fat girl joke and some annoying music on that soundtrack that doesn’t even fit. Yeah, that’s not a movie I’d want to see at all. Fortunately, Howard Hawks’ 1941 film Ball of Fire takes the Snow White and thanks to a wonderfully funny and sassy Barbara Stanwyck helping loosen up those old guys (and an even stuffier Gary Cooper), a great script and plenty of screwball humor, it still holds up today as a total riot.

Continue reading →

Late Night Game Week (Final Stage!): Wii, U Get 2 C That Jimmy Still Sux!

Posted on June 22, 2013 by geelw

Ha ha. OK, I had to do that horrid spelling job in the header as a little in-joke even I don’t get and yep, it’s another pre-show title to save time because I just KNOW Jimmy’s going to lose it and fail at another game live on TV. Anyway, saving the Wii U for his final post=E3 Game Week show meant this was either going to be a blowout for Nintendo because more people stayed home to watch OR… a bust because they were all out clubbing or whatever the crazy kids do on a Friday night (har har). Anyway, the 20-Ryu Hadouken/cartridge blowing/toothbrush circle bits was dumb and funny (and all those “World Records” they set WILL be broken over the weekend, I bet). That multiple video games “record” bit was stupidly awesome, though. Jimmy “played” six games all at once for twenty seconds and looked as if he was trying to escape from robbing a vintage game shop and ran into an arcade only to be trapped on a Dance Dance Revolution Supernova machine. Or something like that – just watch the video:

See? Now go break THAT record, Mr. or Ms. Guinness…

Continue reading →

In Japan, There’s A Gatchaman Live Action Movie Being Made. Dance.

Posted on June 21, 2013 by geelw

If you’re of a certain age and did not know this yet (meaning ME), you’re probably a bit too grinny after that minute thirty plus and perhaps either one of these two teaser trailers. Well, we’ll see what it does in Japan and more of what will happen in the near future with a home video release down the road, as it sure won’t be dubbed and show up here anytime soon I bet. How do I know? Well, if I run up to some kid or adult on the street all thrilled at this news and yell GATCHAMAAAAAN! at him or her, there’s a 99.4% chance I spend the weekend in the local lockup until this is all straightened out. Yeah, I went there… even though I have no idea where I went or why I went in the first place. That stuff happens when you lose your thinking cap… Am I out of coffee again? I forget…

Shout Factory Wants You All Howling – I Say Oblige Them.

Posted on June 21, 2013 by geelw

Thank yooooooou, Shout Factory (awoooooooo)! Getting Joe Dante’s classic werewolf flick The Howling back into circulation on DVD and Blu-Ray? Nice. Now I can stop telling folks I run into campfire tales of how awesome (and freakishly LONG) that wonderful Rob Bottin-created transformation sequence was while also rambling on about Pino Donaggio’s excellent score and how the film managed to be at turns scary and silly as well as packed with in-jokes and plenty of references to other films. Huzzah! That and I can stop getting picked up by the fuzz here for setting campfires to lend a scary atmosphere to things whenever someone asks me about the film. Well, and carrying an axe in public, using said axe to chop up the nearest wooden sign for firewood (I don’t go after trees, as we need them around here), scaring little kids by acting out the transformation and a few other minor offenses. Er, um… saaaay, isn’t that some nice *new* cover art on the right up there?

(“Exit, stage left!” Oops, that’s YOUR right. Damn, you Snagglepuss!)

Lost Planet 3 Multiplayer: One Way to Keep Cool This August…

Posted on June 21, 2013 by geelw

And here you go – another piece of the Lost Planet 3 puzzle (multiplayer!) plus a peek at the Best Buy exclusive Assault Pack if you’re one of those folks that goes the pre-order route. The new experience based unlocking system has been done on other shooters, but I think it’ll be nice to see how those LP fans who aren’t wasting time whining about the developer and Capcom doing or not doing this or that without having laid a pinky on a controller take to the game when it launches. I think it will do fine among those who want to see it succeed and will play and enjoy it based on what it gets right as opposed to picking it apart because it’s not the same as the first two installments. Granted, those folks are the ones who still can’t seem to understand this is a p-r-e-q-u-e-l, but I guess they’ll also be the ones missing out on things in a few months…

Pacific Rim TV Spot #5: Wind Them Up & Watch Them GO!

Posted on June 21, 2013 by geelw

And by “Them”, I mean YOU out there watching all these Pacific Rim trailers and such and chomping at the bit for July 12 to wash up sooner than it should. Yeah, Warner Bros. Pictures hears you and sees you and is right behind you all the way (which is a bit awkward when you’re trying to use the restroom, um… a little privacy, here?). Anyway, let’s hope those monsters don’t pop up while you’re all in that movie theater on day one, as they’ll most likely be stomping your way and all you’ll have to battle them are a few tubs of greasy movie popcorn and a bucket-sized soda. Then again, all you need to do is mix them together, toss a couple of those dynamite shaped hot dogs in the mix with a plate of nachos, light a match and there goes trouble… and that multiplex, too. Oops…

NEW Earth Defense Force 4 Japanese TV Spot: Bugs, ‘Bots and Beatniks…

Posted on June 21, 2013 by geelw

If figures. As I’m about to drag my weary bones into bed, D3Publisher in Japan drops this crazy TV ad for Earth Defense Force 4 and of course, it’s my duty to drop it in your lap as well before I drop into dreamland. Sorry about it landing in your cereal, though. Next time, keep that bowl on a table, you. Anyway, I’m too pooped to go poke around to see if another site has translated the description text, so you get some free jazz Bing Translation mess to decipher at your peril below the jump. All you need now is a set of bongo drums, a beret, a microphone and perhaps a hot cup of java and you’re all set to read some “beat” lingo that’s baffling, baby!

Er, “Scoodly Oodly, wah, wah, wah?” (+5 XP for getting that slice of near obscurity)…

Enjoy and good night, er morning!

Continue reading →

Late Night Game Week (Day 4): Jimmy Answers the Call of Duty, Gets Ghosted…

Posted on June 21, 2013 by geelw

I actually wrote the headline before Jimmy’s show kicked off (hey, planning in advance works when you know what’s coming, correct?), but in case you missed it, the proof is above (or will be once NBC gets its act together, grrrr!).

Anyway, the show was a bit more game-centric and snappier than last night’s thanks to Defiance’s Grant Bowler, Jimmy running viewer videos of themselves playing with their mothers (pretty damn funny) and Elijah Wood geeking out with Fallon over The Last of Us before talking briefly about the new season of Wilfred and the remake of Maniac and then some fake video games in a skit.

As for CoD:G, well, it looks great on the Xbox 360 (but I think that dog has a LEAN button… whaaaat?!), but the demo was too short and other than a nice scripted building tumbling down and the novelty of playing as Riley (the dog) for brief bits, it’s looking like a CoD game, which is great to bad depending on your bias in either direction. I only play for the campaign mode anyway, so I may look into this on the PS3 or PS4 in the future. And oh yeah, I was actually wrong up above! Jimmy didn’t suck so much at the game today. Well, other than barking at the screen at one point (OK, it made me chuckle a bit).

Well, tomorrow is Nintendo’s day on the show, although I noted in the teaser for the show, they had “Nintendo Wii” and not “Nintendo Wii U” as the system being demoed. Oops. Er, unless Nintendo has some surprises we didn’t see at E3 planned for tomorrow, that is…

Batman Arkham Origins TV Spot #1: Good (And Slightly Unbalanced) Guys Wear Black…

Posted on June 20, 2013 by geelw

I’d say by now that the older 60’s era campy Batman is no longer the “ideal” version of the character (and hey, I’m old enough to have been around for that original series), so it’s good to see the darker Dark Knight get so fully embraced by the bulk of the fans out there. OK, mostly embraced, as I know there are some REALLY stubborn die-hards who refuse to submit to “gritty” being the new black for their favorite hero. Granted, there IS that exclusive Adam West skin for the PS3 version that’s going to be fun to dink around with (although, I’d also want DLC that adds a ton of those campy full screen sound effects for the combat and you KNOW you want those as well), but I’m going to stick to the cranky newer guy I’m more used to these days. Sometimes, nostalgia needs to have a seat in that comfy chair with its feet up and sleep for a bit in front of whatever old stuff it used to watch on TV…

E3 2013: Deadpool Trailer: Um… Well… I Suppose… Oh, Nevermind…

Posted on June 20, 2013 by geelw

OK, OK, fan favorite or not and guaranteed big, BIG deal to those who know despite the “M’ rating, the kids who want this WILL be playing it, I still don’t get this fascination with Deadpool. I guess he’s so unconventionally non-PC a comic book antihero (basically he’s the insane adult cartoon version of Beavis and Butthead and Bart Simpson with access to all sorts of weaponry) that his antics are immediately appealing to that crowd, but maybe I’m getting old or something. Anyway, if the game is good, I’ll give it a try. I’m not expecting much at all, but that’s actually the best way to go into ANY game, I say. It’s best to end up always surprised by something as it helps keep the jade eye somewhat more closed.