You must have been living under a rock for the past year if you haven’t gotten a hold of at least one of Marvel’s latest series of motion comics. Between Spider-Woman, Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men and the latest installment of Iron Man: Extremis, it’s hard to pick up an iPhone or iPad and not practically trip over them. Using cutting edge CGI animation techniques, comic artwork is brought to life in ways it never has been before.

From Marvel:

Experience Iron Man in a whole new way – IRON MAN: EXTREMIS Motion Comic.  From the story by Warren Ellis & Adi Granov, this incredible epic blends seamless motion, dynamic voice acting, and stunning special effects, bringing to life the story that redefined Iron Man for the 21st Century.  Now you can get a sneak peek at the FIFTH episode of this breathtaking visual breakthrough in motion comics! IRON MAN EXTREMIS episode 5 goes on-sale Wednesday, June 9th!

After thejump, check out the latest trailer for Iron Man: Extremis. In this episode, readers (or is it viewers?) will get a chance to see the motion comic take on the origins of Tony Stark as Iron Man.

For those who haven’t yet experienced a motion comic, check out the most recent issues of Invincible Iron Man, Avengers Prime or various other Marvel comics which come with a free download code usable with iTunes and any video iPod or iPad.

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There are certainly a lot of new shows hitting both network and basic cable TV this Summer and Fall. Some that we’re pretty excited for, and some we can’t wait to miss (looking at you, The Cape). One of the shows that looks to have some promise is ABC’s upcoming half-hour comedy Mr. Sunshine.

The show stars Matthew Perry as Ben Donovan, a sports arena manager who goes through a mid-life crisis right after his 40th birthday, all while dealing with the oddball employees and demands that his job presents.

Helping out Perry is a pretty solid cast of TV regulars like West Wing favorite Allison Janney, Las Vegas’s Nate Torrence and James Lesure, Better Off Ted’s Andrea Anders, and even Portia Doubleday for good measure.

While the cast alone should be enough to get us excited, we’re more psyched by the fact that the show is being written by TV veteran Thomas Schlamme and Perry himself. Fans of Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip know that this team is quite impressive when at their peak, so we can’t wait to see more.

Check out two new clips and a sneak preview of the show after the jump, and stay with ABC this October, as Mr. Sunshine makes it’s debut.

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Now that Marvel has revamped their current state of continuity with the Heroic Age of comics, lots of books are getting a fresh start. One of the books we’re pretty excited for is the upcoming first issue of X-Men.

From Victor Gischler and Paco Medina, this revamp marks the first time there has been an X-Men #1 in nearly 20 years. According to a Marvel press release, the team will start things off with a bang by fighting a threat that will “alter the ENTIRE Marvel Universe!” We’re pretty stoked for it, to say the least.

Gischler is has been one of the lead writers for Deadpool over the past few years, including Merc With The Mouth and Deadpool Corps. He’s also currently working on The Death of Dracula for Marvel. You may also remember Paco Medina’s art from many of the Deadpool books, as well as New X-Men and a few others.

In celebration of this major issue, Marvel is releasing several variant covers, including a blank cover (at right), a varient by Medina, John Romita Jr., and even one by Thor artist Marko Djurdjevic.

Check out a few sneak preview images from the book after the jump, and be sure to pick up X-Men #1 on sale July 8th.

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XBox 360 (Also available on PlayStation 3 and PC)
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Bizarre Creations
$59.99
Score: 8.0

Growing up, we all loved Mario Kart. There was something about getting four friends together and surrounding a TV, playing split screen and systematically screwing over your best friend at the last second with a well timed red shell to capture first place. The series continued to shine as it moved from Super Nintendo all the way to the Wii but at the same time, it didn’t feel like that different of a game. Instead, it was more of a wash, rinse, repeat formula with updated graphics. And we all grew up along the way as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the fat plumber who seems to be stuck in platonic-friend-land with Princess Peach even though he has saved her life a million times. But eventually, go carts don’t do it for me anymore. When I think of a racing game I could walk out of a store purchasing, it has real cars in it. I still want the insane chaos of blowing my friends off along the way though. Enter Blur.

Gameplay:

Blur is everything described above and then some in terms of gameplay. Instead of just mirroring what Mario Kart did well, Blur improves upon it. Instead of straight up races with weapons, Blur features multiple game modes. While it does feature the traditional combat racing, I’ll get back to that in a second. Also included are Checkpoint and Destruction modes.

Checkpoint is pure speed. Players need to cut corners perfectly, time speed boost power-ups to the millisecond and collect stopwatches to add more time as they try to not just finish a race within its time frame, but to have as much time left as possible on their leaderboard score. There is no true opponent in this mode as players are only racing against themselves. For people who love time trial modes, this is where they will find themselves most.

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If like me, you have survived the onslaught of witty repartee between Iron Man and War Machine, time standing still in Robin Hood, and the hot mess of CGI and Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia then you are ready for what awaits you in June. Make no mistake, you may not have the monster in Manolo’s, otherwise known as Carrie Bradshaw, to suffer through but you do have a mêlée of 80’s rehashes that studios happily throw money at.

So, suit up, grab your popcorn, and prepare yourself for the next adventure that await you.

JUNE

June 4th

Ondine

Were you expecting a description of The A Team perhaps? At this point, anyone who is seeing The A Team on Friday already has their tickets, and even my words of wisdom will be unable to stop them. Instead I’ll spotlight a film that deserves attention.

Ondine is an independent film starring Colin Farrell as a fisherman who pulls up a beautiful woman in his nets. His sick, precocious daughter believes she is a Selkie, a Scottish seal who becomes a human wife on land. Time will tell if she is really as she seems.

Geekiness Factor: As a fairytale set in the modern era, it combines Splash and Heroes with a dose of romanticism and second chances. This movie works because it doesn’t use CGI, in fact the only special effects it uses comes from your very own imagination in overdrive. Its sense of wonder on faith, entrances you back to a time when you still believed in Santa Claus.

Screen Steamer: Colin Farrell has served me a heap of B movie bad boy charm in past films like The Recruit, S.W.A.T., not to mention a harmonious turn in Crazy Heart. Here he takes off his shirt only once, but seems well cast as a fisherman down on his luck and striving to be sober. Alicja Bachleda keeps you guessing as Ondine, which means “from the water.” She is alluring with a subtle sensuality in ocean soaked dresses, only coming up for air to coyly flirt with a scruffy Colin.

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Going as far back as 1982′s Rocky III, Vince McMahon and his WWE (then WWF) have been trying to integrate with Hollywood by blending their top performers into mainstream films. The result has been as infamous as Mr. Nanny and as famous as The Marine, with most falling somewhere in between. It seems that their newest venture could be closer to the former, as they delve back into comedy.

In the newest film, titled The Chaperone, the studios are tapping one of the main headliners of the past decade, Triple H, for the leading role. To amp up interest, they have also snagged veteran 80′s comedy director Steven Herek (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure) to take on the film. Given the premise from a WWE press release, it may not turn out as bad as Mr. Nanny.

Ray Bradstone (Paul “Triple H” Levesque ) is the best “wheel man in the business,” but he is determined to go straight and be the best parent he can be to his daughter, Sally (Ariel Winter), and make amends with his ex-wife, Lynne (Annabeth Gish). As Ray struggles to find honest work, his old bank-robbing crew, led by Phillip Larue (Kevin Corrigan), offers him one last job. He agrees at first, but changes his mind at the last second leaving the crew without a driver.

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In the world of Marmadukes and Meet Daves, it was bound to happen that we would see something like the movie Gulliver’s Travels on the horizon. And why wouldn’t they make it even better by adding Jack Black as Gulliver?

In the newest film, from animation director Ron Letterman (Shark Tale, Monsters Vs. Aliens), Black plays Lemuel Gulliver, a nerdy, going-nowhere mail clerk who gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to write for a travel magazine by investigating the Bermuda Triangle. After a boat crash, Gulliver wakes up in the classical land of Lilliput where he’s gigantic and everyone else is tiny.

Black doesn’t really bring anything new to the role that we haven’t seen him do before, from his googly eyes to his outrageous flip outs, it’s all been done. We do get an interesting side cast consisting of Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, and Romany Malco, which could save the film, but don’t have gigantic (pun not intended) hopes.

Check out the newest trailer for the film after the jump. Catch Gulliver’s Travels in theaters on December 22nd, 2010.

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Playstation 3, Sony’s seventh generation console, has been on the market for almost four years now. It’s had two models, two hard drive sizes, a top-of-the-line Bluray player, a motion controller (with another one on the way), and complete connectivity with its portable predecessor. Overall, you could say the system has had an impressive history. But is Sony already working to release a new console? This video certainly hints to that.

Posted by Kotaku earlier today, the video begins in sort of a complex, labeled S.C.E. Principal Scientific Research Laboratory, Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan (coincidentally the same city where Sony has its offices). A woman is talking to the cameraman, then a man in a lab coat, as they race frantically through the facility.

They speak in anxious tones as they make their way to a room, where a man is lying on the floor holding a controller. When they remove his glasses and try to remove the controller from his hands, he begins shrieking. In the background, a television displays the Playstation symbol, and the video cuts to black with the words “PS4 V3.1 – Please Wait A Moment” written in Japanese.

While the video isn’t confirmed to be the work of Sony or Playstation themselves, the appearance of the video as well as the words and images displayed certainly warrant some speculation. The image that appears on the TV certainly looks three-dimensional, but the appearance of the word “PS4″ definitely makes it seem like a new Playstation is what this video is really all about. Check out the trailer for yourself after the jump and let us know what you’re take is.

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Coming on the heels of Jeremy Renner’s casting as Hawkeye in The Avengers comes some more great Marvel movie news: Stanley Tucci has recently been cast as Dr. Abraham Erskine, the creator of the Super-Soldier serum that turns Chris Evans into the titular character in Captain America: The First Avenger.

From a Marvel Studios press release:

In the early comics, Dr. Erskine was a German scientist behind Project Rebirth, the secret experiment that created the Super Soldier known as Captain America. Joe Johnston will direct the film penned by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely.

“Captain America: The First Avenger” will focus on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America.

Not only does this confirm the role for Tucci, but also proves that Marvel is planning on making this film mostly about Steve Rogers’ time before and after taking the Super Soldier serum, rather than his costumed days as Captain America, either during WWII or today.

Tucci joins a heavily growing cast of Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell, and Hugo Weaving as The Red Skull. Expect more casting news to release soon, as the film is starting shooting in London. Be sure to catch Captain America: The First Avenger in theaters on July 22, 2011.

On Friday, Activision brought news of the latest installment to their smash music genre series Guitar Hero with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Instead of just being the traditional formula of playing through various setlists with no context or story behind it, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock looks to redefine the style of the genre using Quest mode. In addition, the game will feature an all knew “rock inspired” guitar controller, the largest on disc collection of any Guitar Hero game to date and an all new Quickplay+ mode as well.

David Haddad, Chief Operating Officer, Guitar Hero said, “Guitar Hero has set the standard for music based gaming and with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’s all-new Quest Mode, robust and authentic set list, over-the-top challenges and rock-inspired new hardware, we are once again bringing the soul and energy of rock n’ roll to fans around the world.”

In Quest Mode, players will use eight Guitar Hero characters in any combination of instruments to help the Demi-God of Rock take down “The Beast” and save rock n’ roll. With “venues” ranging from the punk rock palace of CBGB’s in New York City to mythical lava fields, the game looks to have a fantasy motif under it somewhat similar to that of Brutal Legend. As seen in the trailer below, the game will put lots of focus on these eight characters and the respective beasts they become.

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Now, that’s how it is done. The best show on television gave us one of the best hours of television I can remember. It took me a full ten minutes after the conclusion to pick my jaw up off the floor and compose myself. It was that good. I LOVE THIS SHOW!

I also cannot really talk about this episode without revealing huge spoilers, so please don’t read unless you’ve seen the episode. This is one you don’t want spoiled.

This week’s trademark opening sequence shows the day in the life of a prostitute, Wendy, who is working out of the Crossroad Hotel. She looks rode hard and put away wet, and wears white go-go boots while she orally services dozens of men who pick her up in the parking lot. Her tawdry acts are juxtaposed against the jaunty song “Windy” by The Association. Perfect.

She takes a bag of fast food burgers to the street corner (where Combo died) and gives them to the two drug dealers we saw in the last episode. She hands over some money, and at first I thought they were her pimps, but she was actually buying product, and Jesse is watching the whole transaction camped out in his car.

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In celebration of the Normandy D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, this week’s review is the 1962 “Grandaddy of all war movies” The Longest Day. Legendary producer Darryl F. Zanuck and directors Ken Annakin (British scenes), Andrew Marton (American scenes), Bernhard Wicki (German scenes) and an uncredited John Wayne bring Cornelius Ryan’s 1959 best selling novel to the big screen.

The Longest Day stars over forty two (at that time) of the most acclaimed international actors including Eddie Albert (Colonel Thompson, 29th U.S. Infantry Div.), Paul Anka (U.S. 2nd Ranger Battalion), Richard Beymer (Pvt Arthur “Dutch” Schultz, 82nd Airborne Div.), Red Buttons, (Pvt. John Steele, 82nd Airborne Div.), Mel Ferrer (Major General Robert Haines) and Henry Fonda (Brig. General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., Deputy Commander 4th U.S. Infantry Div.).

It also featured Jeffery Hunter (Sgt. (later Lt.) John Fuller), Roddy McDowall (Pvt. Morris, 4th U.S. Div.), Robert Mitchum (Brig. General Norman Cota, Asst. Commander 29th U.S. Infantry Div.), Robert Ryan (Brig. General James M. Gavin, Asst. Commander 82nd Airborne Div.), and the Duke himself, John Wayne as Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, Commander 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Reg.

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