by Matt Raub, Oct 27 2010 // 7:00 AM
While Kanye may be off producing 30 minute super music videos that don’t make any sense, the band Daft Punk is actually doing an incredible service to the world of geek by producing their newest music video for the song Derezzed completely in the world of TRON: Legacy.
The electronica band is doing all of the music for the film (yes, just like Queen did for Flash Gordon) and if the rest of the songs on the album are anything like this one, you can expect some intense score for the rest of the film.
This new music video gives us some great new shots of the TRON world, including suiting up in the infamous suit, having a light disc battle, and even racing along the endless field of circuits.
Check out the music video after the jump, and be sure to catch TRON: Legacy in theaters in both 3D and IMAX this Christmas.
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Posted in: 3-D · Action · Disney · IMAX · Movies · Music · News · Sci-Fi · Video
Tagged: Daft Punk, Disney, Electronica, Jeff Bridges, Kanye West, Music Videos, Tron, Tron Legacy
by Chris Ullrich, Oct 26 2010 // 2:00 PM
As a fan of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica I’ve been giving the prequel series Caprica as much benefit of the doubt as I can. I’m not sure I’m completely in love with the show or that I just miss the actual BSG so much I’ll take pretty much anything as a substitute. Either way, I’m still watching.
Toniught sees an all-new episode on Syfy and to get you ready we’ve got three previews for the episode to share today. The episode, entitled “False Labor,” has this for a plotline according to our pals at Syfy:
A gloomy theme heats up as Graystone Industries provides an opportunity to never lose a loved one thanks to breakthrough technology. Others are staring down the same path as the deceased when held at gunpoint, and even still others are doing the gun-holding against another life-force. What the frak will they do?
What indeed? Check out all three clips after the jump. Caprica airs on Syfy tonight at 10/9C.
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Posted in: News · SyFy · TV · Video
Tagged: Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Eavid Eick, Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Jane Espenson, Ron Moore, SyFy, TV, Video
by Shannon Hood, Oct 26 2010 // 1:00 PM
Although we haven’t had a chance to see Four Lions yet, we have heard plenty of buzz about the film, and it has all been good. Now Drafthouse Films is sending the director, Chris Morris, on a screening and Q&A tour. The best part? It’s all open to the public.
Four Lions has received high praise on the festival circuit, including Sundance and South By Southwest. Chris Morris has been involved in comedy for over twenty years. He began his career as a BBC correspondant, and later specialized in media satires. This is his first feature film.
Synopsis: Chris Morris’ Four Lions is a funny, thrilling comedy that illuminates modern jihadism through the prism of farce. It understands jihadists as human beings. And it understands human beings as innately ridiculous.
The film will make stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, Boston, and New York. For more information, visit the official Four Lions website. You can watch the embedded trailer after the jump. The film opens in limited release on November 5.
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Posted in: Announcements · Movies · News
Tagged: Chris Morris, Drafthouse Films, Four Lions
by Shannon Hood, Oct 26 2010 // 12:00 PM
More and more movie studios are using unconventional methods to distribute their movies, and it gives us a lot more options than we ever had before. It used to be that if you didn’t live on one of the coasts, or in a huge city, you could never catch an independent or arthouse film while it ran in theaters. You had to wait months and months for the film to be released on DVD.
Now, we are seeing more and more movies getting a “pre-theatrical release” via On Demand. You can choose an outlet, pay a minimal fee, and watch the movie in the comfort of your home.
Ryan Gosling’s latest film, All Good Things, will make it’s debut On Demand on November 5, a full month before it shows in theaters. The movie also stars Kirsten Dunst, Kristin Wiig, Frank Langella, and Philip Baker Hall.
Andrew Jarecki (Capturing the Friedmans) directs and produces the film. Jarecki also produced this year’s Sundance hit Catfish.
Synopsis: Inspired by the most notorious missing persons case in New York history, All Good Things is a love story and murder mystery set against the backdrop of a New York real estate dynasty in the 1980′s.
You can watch the official trailer embedded after the jump. The movie will be available On Demand via Amazon, Play Station 3, ATT Uverse, Xbox 360, and more. For a complete list of available outlets, visit the Magnolia website.
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Posted in: Announcements · Movies · News · Trailers
Tagged: Andrew Jarecki, Frank Langella, Kirsten Dunst, Kristin Wiig, On Demand, Ryan Gosling
by Joe Gillis, Oct 26 2010 // 11:00 AM
This week brings new ones from our friends at Marvel. Among the ones dropping this week that we are particularly excited about are Avengers #6, Captain America #611, Secret Warriors #21 and Ultimate Avengers 3 issue #3.
As they usually do, comics hit stores on Wednesday this week. So, head over early to your favorite comics shop for best selection.
Don’t know where your nearest comic shop is? Use this handy guide to find one.
Check out the list of comics you can get below.
Comics On-Sale:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #646
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #646 SPIDEY VS. VARIANT
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #646 VAMPIRE VARIANT
ANITA BLAKE: CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED – THE CHARMER #5
AVENGERS & THE INFINITY GAUNTLET #3
AVENGERS #6
AVENGERS VS. PET AVENGERS #1
AVENGERS VS. PET AVENGERS #1 HARDMAN VARIANT
BLACK WIDOW #7
BLACK WIDOW #7 VAMPIRE VARIANT
CAPTAIN AMERICA #611
CAPTAIN AMERICA #611 VAMPIRE VARIANT
CAPTAIN AMERICA: PATRIOT #3
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #888
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Posted in: Comics · Marvel · News
Tagged: Avengers, Black Widow, Captain America, Comics, Iron Man, Marvel, Nick Fury, Secret Warriors, Thor
by Matt Raub, Oct 26 2010 // 10:00 AM
With a lot of hope from the fans, zombies are starting to break their way into the mainstream media. If AMC’s The Walking Dead hitting TV boxes across the country in about a week will have as much of an impact as their planning, then zombie fans have nothing to worry about.
As usual, here to play the advocate for all things nerdy and obscure to a network television audience, Community is getting in the Halloween spirit this Thursday night with a special zombie-themed episode. Here’s the breakdown.
Pierce (Chevy Chase) and a few other Greendale students ingest a biohazard substance at the school Halloween Party, causing them to exhibit flu-like symptoms and begin turning into zombies. It is up to the rest of the gang to save themselves and the school when Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) locks them in with the zombie-infected student body.
Awesome enough for you? We didn’t think so. Check out a few clips from the episode that set it all up after the jump, and be sure to catch Community this Thursday at 8pm ET.
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Posted in: Comedy · Horror · NBC · Networks · News · TV · Video
Tagged: Allison Brie, Community, Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, Gillian Jacobs, Joel McHale, Ken Jeong, NBC, Walking Dead, Yvette Nicole Brown
by Matt Raub, Oct 26 2010 // 9:00 AM
Ever wonder how a company that makes purposefully faulty equipment that lands Wile E. Coyote in countless quagmires stays in business? Well, Warner Bros has the same question on their mind, as they just picked up a script for a film that will take place entirely in the ACME warehouse made famous by hundreds of Looney Tune cartoons.
The script comes from Dan and Kevin Hegeman, who’s previous work include Hotel Transylvania and Chris Columbus’ The Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom. They may not have a list of big credits under their belt, but they sure have moxie. Here’s the rundown from THR.
The Hageman brothers came up with the idea to build a feature film around the fictional ACME warehouse — the manufacturer of anything and everything used by many of the Looney Tunes characters, most fatefully Wile E. Coyote in his quest to catch the Road Runner. The writers brought their concept to producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee, who helped develop the project further.
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Posted in: Action · Animation · Announcements · Comedy · Deals and Dealmaking · Movies · News · Warner Bros
Tagged: Acme Company, Bugs Bunny, Cartoons, Daffy Duck, Looney Tunes, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Warner Bros, Wile E. Coyote
by John Carle, Oct 26 2010 // 8:00 AM
Everyone likes to have an interesting toy sitting in their cubicle. Sometimes you need it to help relax after tackling a difficult problem. Sometimes you need a good icebreaker for conversations with new coworkers. And sometimes you just want to play with your balls.
While 99 times out of 100, this would get you fired from a job, Sphereplay allows players to use a custom designed and weighted sphere that can roll and balance across a person’s entire body. What seems like a very basic concept ends up becoming incredibly addicting as each Sphere comes with a instructional DVD tearing 55 moves that can be done with the simple sphere.
Starting out with just rolling the sphere over your fingers, most coordinated people can quickly have it moving over their hands, up and down their arms and ever over their whole body. The company claims that enough time with Sphereplay will help improve coordination, dexterity and balance. From our time with it, that definitely seems to be the case but, a word of warning: Don’t try sphereplay at first next to an expensive computer or television as the sphere sometimes seems to have a mind of its own and will make its way from your hands.
Make sure to take a peek below at one of the Sphereplay experts showing us his moves from NYCC and check out www.sphereplay.com for information on getting your own!
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Posted in: Games · Gear · Geek · News · Tech · Video
Tagged: Games, Gear, Sphereplay, Try Out Toys, Video
by Matt Raub, Oct 26 2010 // 7:00 AM
Yesterday, we brought you 3 awesomely hilarious clips from next weekend’s big animated release, Megamind, and if you didn’t think that was enough, we have 3 more for you.
We have more than enough faith in most things super hero these days, but when the film is opening against Skyline and Due Date, expect it to either blow everything out of the water, or get left behind in a race between Hangover fans and sci-fi fans.
Megamind has enough name credit behind itself to make a big enough splash, but fighting names like Robert Downey Jr. and a bunch of explosions, it may be a tough sell for November.
If you’re still teetering on which movie to spend your $10 on, check out some great new clips for the film after the jump, and be sure to make your decision by November 5th.
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Posted in: Action · Animation · Comedy · Comics · Dreamworks · Movies · News · Sci-Fi · Video
Tagged: Brad Pitt, David Cross, Dreamworks, Due Date, Jonah Hill, Megamind, Skyline, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell
by Douglas Barnett, Oct 25 2010 // 3:00 PM
This week’s pick takes us back into the heart of darkness with Francis Ford Coppola’s riveting Vietnam classic Apocalypse Now (1979). The film was written by Coppola and John Milius, along with brilliant narration written by Michael Herr. The movie was based off of Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness about a man who is sent on a mission to kill a rogue ivory trader in the heart of nineteenth century Africa.
Coppola and Milius loved the story and decided to set the film during the Vietnam War. The film stars Martin Sheen (Captain Benjamin Willard), Marlon Brando (Col. Walter E. Kurtz), Dennis Hopper (Photo Journalist), Robert Duvall (Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore), Albert Hall (Chief), Frederic Forrest (Chef), Sam Bottoms (Lance Johnson), Laurence Fishburne (Mr. Clean), Harrison Ford (Col. Lucas), and G.D. Spradlin (Lt. Gen. Corman).
Apocalypse Now has always been considered the quintessential Vietnam war movie not only for the sheer scope of the film, but because the production was just as massive as the war itself. Coppola had raised over twelve million dollars (eight million of which through his own company American Zoetrope) through investors and outside sources to begin producing the film in late 1975 after the release of the highly anticipated The Godfather II.
Coppola’s two friends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg contacted their friend and fellow film maker John Milius to see if he would be willing to write a story that blended most of Conrad’s themes, and the horrors of the Vietnam conflict into one solid script. Milius had written a Vietnam story in the late sixties and had shelved the idea once his directing career had taken off. Coppola told Milius to “put everything you ever wanted in a war movie before into the script.” The result was an absolute masterpiece.
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Posted in: Blu-Ray · Classics · Drama · DVD · DVD Reviews · Lionsgate · News · War · War Movie Mondays
Tagged: Albert Hall, Blu-Ray, DVD, Francis Ford Coppola, Frederic Forrest, G.D. Spradlin, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, John Milius, Lionsgate Home Video, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Sam Bottoms, Steven Spielberg
by John Carle, Oct 25 2010 // 2:00 PM
Games have just gotten too easy. It’s a fact. Back in the NES days, players were given limited health alongside limited lives in an effort to have players spend more time playing levels over and over again due to the limited amount of space available on the game cartridges.
Now, gamers seem to be all about instant gratification. They want to race through levels in record time so they can move on to the next game. Super Meat Boy bucks that trend by providing one of the most challenging and entertaining games to come to the XBox Live Arcade since N+ or Braid.
Gameplay:
When talking about Super Meat Boy, it is impossible to mention it without discussing the game’s unusually high level of difficulty. In many games, it could be said that difficult stages or areas are unfairly created to hinder a player’s progress, such as the trials during Dante’s Inferno that required unrealistic combo scores and other such tasks. Super Meat Boy on the other hand is a rewardingly challenging experience.
Literally only being able to run and jump, players must traverse levels as Super Meat Boy (or various other unlockable indy characters) to reach their girlfriend Band-Aid Girl. When playing Super Meat Boy, you will die. A lot. There is no health and one wrong move on your part spells splattered meat being rained across the level. It is just how the game is designed. Luckily, most levels can be beaten with a perfect run through in roughly thirty seconds. So while it may take ten minutes to make it through a level, the levels themselves are not long at all.
The controls are basic but very right. Holding jump longer makes Meat Boy jump further while adding in a run first extends the distance even more. Meat Boy can slide down walls and wall jump due to his sticky composition. But our squishy friend has no natural defenses to the buzzsaws, lava, jelly-like creatures or walls of salt and hypodermic needles that cover the maps. One touch and he’s gone. But the way the game controls, it never feels like it isn’t your fault when you die.
A player knows they are to blame for their own demise and as a result, completion of these levels feels increasingly rewarding instead of cripplingly painful. Even more rewarding is watching a replay of all your little Meat Boys traversing the level after completing one letting you see just what mistakes you made during your play through and seeing just what your perfect run looked like.
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Posted in: Game Reviews · Games · Microsoft · News · PC Games · Reviews · Video Games · Wii · XBLA · Xbox 360
Tagged: Band-Aid Girl, Dr. Fetus, Microsoft Games Studios, PC Games, Reviews, Super Meat Boy, Team Meat, Video Game Reviews, Video Games, Wii, WiiWare, XBLA, Xbox 360, XBox Live Arcade
by Nat Almirall, Oct 25 2010 // 1:00 PM
Is there any show that stays as true to its principles as Eastbound & Down?
Last night we finally met Mr. Powers, Kenny’s dad, and he’s played by Don Johnson as pretty much the same trash-talking vulgarian as his son. I knew EB&D wouldn’t go in for cheap sentimentality when they reunited father and son, but I was in no way prepared for this one.
First off, this is easily the funniest episode of the season, which has been hitting hard all throughout. Johnson finds just the right note for Mr. “Eduardo Sanchez” Powers as a crude Jimmy-Buffet-like layabout, and right from the introductions, you know he and Kenny share blood. Likewise, I don’t remember the last time an episode had so many quotable lines (“She keeps me on time, and I keep her wet in her underpants” is just a sampling), and they flew by as Powers and Powers sling bullshit while everyone just sits back and watches.
Even the initial scene where the two are reunited, the conversation is all one-upmanship: “Yeah, I saved up all the money from playin’ ball and invested wisely in stocks and bonds and fine pieces of arts,” “Well, I store all my valuable stuff in holes around here, and only I know where they are,” “Well I know where this one’s buried,” “Nope, because it’s a false hole—I started diggin’ it when you drove up.” The outright obviousness of each man’s lies and their mutually adolescent maturity levels pay fantastically well off—it’s funny and totally convincing.
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Posted in: HBO · TV · TV Recaps
Tagged: Ben Best, Danny McBride, Eastbound & Down, HBO, Jody Hill, Kenny Powers, TV Recaps