Gallery: Hello Kitty Kruisers (Wii U)

Posted on October 8, 2013 by geelw

I’ve found that one of the big secrets to enjoying life is smiling more and anything Sanrio is usually quite good for getting a grin going, no matter what your mood is. Austin-based Scarab Entertainment knows this, so they’re cooking up a fun family friendly kart racer for the Wii U and mobile devices (with other platforms TBA) called Hello Kitty Kruisers, set for a Q4 2013 release from publisher Bergsala Lightweight.

Granted, I’m betting the bulk of you fist-pumping, caffeine swigging uber-core gamers are probably cringing from all the bright colors searing your eyeballs and rainbow juice splashing onto your keyboards scaring that mouse you were clicking under your seat. But, hey… I say everyone needs a too cute for words game in their libraries just to break up the monotony of grays, browns, greens and whatever color big explosions are.

Besides, EVERYONE loves Hello Kitty – they just don’t all admit it in public. For those of you immune to the charms of Miss Five Apples Tall (weight, three apples!), you’d better put on those sunglasses now if you dislike bright colors in super shiny HD, folks – things are about to get Kitty up in here:

Screens above, press release below the jump.

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Carrie “Get In Your Closet” Clip: Oh, We’ve ALL Been There Before, Right?

Posted on October 7, 2013 by geelw

Yeah, so… who HASN’T had to “go to the closet” at some point in their lives? Poor Carrie above only has those telekinetic powers and a nutso mommy to worry about. I know us folks in the real world need to toss ourselves in and shut the door for a while when we pull off those major boners and need a time out while the walls fall in. Say, did you know a nice clean closet with a few blankets tossed on the floor and lots of long coats and shirts and such makes a PERFECT nap spot? Bill collectors, pissed off parents and anyone else can look up and down and all around for you but that’s THE last place they’ll ever, ever look. Of course, if you have a pet at home, you’re screwed plus tax, as those cute little bums will always sniff you out. Hell, you could have the most stoned out, never ever fetched a darn thing in its life lazy ass Scooby-Don’t as a pet and as soon as you get into that closet, he’s nosing open the door to lay on top of those blankets you’re under. Bad dog! BAD!

Um, oh yeah… Carrie is in theaters October 18. I can’t see it because I have no movie theater near me now. Maybe I’ll go take a nap in the closet instead…

Oops. I Forgot Some Adventure Time 3DS Screens Last Month…

Posted on October 7, 2013 by geelw

OK, this is a sort of filler post, but I did forget to add these to that Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! screenshots for the Nintendo 3DS in that preview I wrote up not too long ago. I’m still flipping a coin about whether to buy a new 2DS or a bigger and more expensive 3DS XL to play this on.

On one hand, cheap is always good and that 2DS and its kid-friendly design (it’s targeted to 5 and 6 year olds!) will make me the envy of the playground parent set (er, not that I hang out at playgrounds or with parents, mind you). On the other hand, that more expensive XL is MUCH better for my eyesight thanks to the nice and big screen. Decisions, decisions… well, it’s not exactly earth-shaking in importance at all, so worry not your pretty little heads about me this time. I think I’ll work it out just fine…

Shout Factory’s The Vincent Price Collection: Timely, Indeed (Warts and All)…

Posted on October 7, 2013 by geelw

Someone hipped me to this upcoming Shout Factory box set of six classic horror flicks featuring the late, great Vincent Price (who’s also Star of the Month on TCM all October) and I had to give it a thumb and a three-quarters up just for that lovely cover art alone. Oh, alright, the six sick flicks here are all top picks (and on Blu-Ray for the first time, I believe). But I’d still have to gripe out a grape sized whine about the total lack of love for Doctor Phibes Rises Again, which SHOULD have been grafted into this sextet just because it’s the darn sequel to The Abominable Doctor Phibes and yes, I’m STILL waiting my ass off for Tim Burton to announce he’s remaking both Phibes philms at the same time like Peter Jackson did with his epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Granted, Phibes’ offbeat mix of camp and 70’s era gore “lite” isn’t anywhere on the same level as Tolkein’s works, folks. But hey, I grew up glued to the tube with many of Price’s films and those two hold a very special place in my still beating heart. Hey, it’s not as if I’m asking for Scream and Scream Again, right? RIGHT? If you ever see that one, you’ll understand, kids…

Anyway, if you’re too lazy to click links, that collection costs $55, features tons of special features and the six films are as follows:

THE PIT & THE PENDULUM

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

THE HAUNTED PALACE

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES

WITCHFINDER GENERAL (aka THE CONQUEROR WORM)

Who needs to go out on Halloween and get a tummy ache from some lousy cheap candy bought at the dollar store? Get this Blu-Ray set, pop up that dried out corn display you’ve had on the table for years and sprinkle some chili powder on it, slap a few razor blades into a pomegranate (apples are SO last century!) pull up a chair and veg out! Friends optional, but go “borrow” some (have some rope and gags handy) so you can show them a good time before you kick them out in a more bewildered but appreciative state (like Maine or maybe California, ha ha)…

GRAVITY Is Number 1, So NWA World Has Some Fun…

Posted on October 7, 2013 by geelw

Of course, when you’re on top of the world (or a few hundred miles above it), your success become ripe for the picking at from a few sources. The folks at NMA World pull no punches here with their take on deleted scenes, but you may need a refresher course on current Chinese news and history in order to get everything here. I still haven’t seen Gravity yet as the movie theater near me is still closed and I’m completely clueless (well, a bit more clueless than usual) as to when it will reopen. If I don’t see any life signs there within a week, I just may need to settle for traveling a bit. I certainly WON’T go for a cheap Chinese bootleg at all (fake outtakes or not), as this is the sort of flick that needs money going where it’s supposed to when all is said and done…

Holiday Gift Guide 2013: House of Horology Makes Me Want To Be a Timekeeper Once More…

Posted on October 7, 2013 by geelw

Alright, I haven’t worn a watch for a few years, but seeing House of Horology’s Bedlam Light and Bedlam Dark line at the last two Rand Luxury Review events is making my wrists kind of cranky with me. The $490 watches are pretty awesome for that price point, built like tanks and don’t look as if you’re flashing your bank account when someone asks you what time it is. Currently, eight colors each of the light and dark variants are available from the company’s HOH flagship store here in NYC.

Meeting CEO Lawrence Leyderman is always a treat, as he’s one of the happiest guys at these events, always smiling when talking about his cool watches and ready with a quick joke. Given that he displays those Bedlams in a small aquarium for hours at a time (they’re water resistant to 330 feet), one of the first questions people seem to ask are either “Hey, where’s the fish?” or “How long have those watches been underwater?” I stuck with the former, as I think I was drinking like a fish at the event (it’s kind of tricky to recall everything I said after that Disaronno punch that packed quite a kick kicked in).

HOH is also working on getting Secret Labs’ Agent Smartwatch out soon and given that device’s Kickstarter raised over a million dollars and interest in smart watch technology is huge these days, it looks as if your dreams of being Dick Tracy Junior or a not-so-Secret Agent Man are coming true sooner that later. I’ll have to take a look at one of those babies once they’re ready for prime time. For now, I just need to get my wrists to stop arguing about which one will wear that Bedlam and whether I go Light or Dark should I take the plunge…

I, Frankenstein Trailer: Me, Annoyed To No End, Actually…

Posted on October 7, 2013 by geelw

I was going to to this whole post in a sort of Solomon Grundy/Chief Wild Eagle “voice”, but that would be SO incredibly non PC that I’d have comic fans AND native American protesters lined up outside the home office. Hey, MORE traffic is good for my site, folks… but not traffic that wants to run you over for real, (ha, ha, ouch!)… ANYWAY, yuk. I do not like this upcoming “horror”/action flick one bit because it reminds me on those increasingly harder to sit through Underworld movies and other so-called horror/action blockbusters that cater to the forgiving crowd that only knows traditional monsters from more modern film efforts. Granted, I could be wrong and this one could be a big surprise. But on the other hand and foot, all those CGI monsters, fiery spiral explosions and fast cuts don’t promise much other than a film that will make your brain feel as if it’s been forcefully removed from your head by a cockeyed hunchback and placed into the body of a person who just forgot what he or she spent that ticket money on an hour and a half ago.

Oh, great… now I have Underworld fans on my ass now. But that’s OK. I’ll fight them in the pouring rain (by not showing up and sending the pack of rabid raccoons and Go Go Gophers I keep in the spare room here), which will wash their goth mascara into their eyes and make the street slippery so they’ll fall on their asses in those cheap shoes they bought from Hot Topic with the no good for rain soles. Yeah, I’m a bad man… but you asked for it.

Random Film of the Week(end): MAROONED

Posted on October 6, 2013 by geelw

While Alfonso Cuarón’s GRAVITY is raking in its massive weekend box office bank and garnering all sorts of critical accolades and yes, awards potential, I thought I’d crack open the vaults and take a look at the first major Hollywood hit about a crew of astronauts lost in space. Granted, the doomed crew of 1950’s Rocketship X-M got lost, ended up somewhere scientifically implausible and came back down to Earth in the worst way possible first. And yes, yes… the crew of the Discovery from Kubrick’s epic 2001: A Space Odyssey don’t quite count because they were done in by a very confused computer in such a low-key manner that by the end their deaths are forgotten in that film’s grander cosmic scope.

But John Sturges’ 1969 film (which won an Academy Award for its visual effects) has the benefit of some much better actors performing in lead and supporting roles, although the film’s science and yes, now dated “by today’s standards” visual effects don’t hold up all that well these days. It’s worth a viewing these days when it pops up on TCM just to see how Hollywood was trying hard to make a timely sci-fi film while chasing (and not coming close to) the higher level of quality Kubrick and his team of SFX technicians spent years crafting…

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Thor: The Dark World Clip: Loki Pulls Joker Mode Off Fairly Well…

Posted on October 6, 2013 by geelw

Alright, for some reason I got a Dark Knight vibe from this clip, but that doesn’t mean this Thor sequel will rise to those heights at all. Granted, I’m also not too thrilled that all we seem to be getting out of Hollywood are more sequels, comic book movies, the same romantic comedies and dramas with different casts and overblown “based on/inspired by a true story” films that in most cases pale in comparison to classics and some foreign films. On one hand, I can just say “oh well, that’s showbiz!” as I stay home and wait for the home video and/or cable TV premiere dates to roll in (which are all sooner than later these days). On the other hand, given that people aren’t going to the movies as much in some spots, Hollywood seems to feel that the best way to get people lining up is to overheat that Xerox machine. Oh well, we almost all love beautiful-looking things (or so the suits who run things hope)…

RETRO Magazine Kickstarter: Old Folks Talkin’ About Games Seems Like A Darn Good Idea…

Posted on October 6, 2013 by geelw

And given that I’m ancient enough myself to actually know and have read a lot of work from these old folks, that’s not an insult above and this KS is right up my alley. OK, I’ll be good from this point on, folks. Anyway, RETRO is a big Kickstarter project by some of he best known names from the gaming press’ best years as you’ll see when you check out that link. I know of a few people who could be potential contributors (well, I’m on that list I have in my head as well), but we’ll see if this mag makes its target. It SHOULD, as there’s way too little gaming history and appreciation out there with all the internet whining and moaning about modern gaming’s many issues. RETRO should be a kick in the pants and head the community clearly needs.