The Flickcast – Page 141 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

DC Enters the MOBA with ‘Infinite Crisis’

Infinite Crisis Cover Image

Well one thing you have always got to give DC credit for is they are willing to give everything a shot with their gaming properties. From action titles like Superman 64 and Aquaman (which let’s be honest meant that they could only go up from there) to DC Universe Online and the upcoming Injustice: Gods Among Us, they seem to have no problem trying to figure out which genre their games fit into best. Now, less than a month before the release of Injustice: Gods Among Us, they have announced that they are stepping into the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena with Infinite Crisis for the PC.

As you’ll see in the trailer below, Infinite Crisis isn’t your ordinary DC game. With alternate worlds and the ability to control both heroes and villains, Infinite Crisis is going to lend itself to some creative matchups and hopefully and even more creative art style. Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Zatanna and alternate versions of themselves will face off against the likes of the Joker, Doomsday, Poison Ivy and their dopplegangers in a five on five MOBA style game. I mean, it was a good fit for Lord of the Rings so why not have DC make a go at it as well?

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Movie Review: ‘Stoker’

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Fans of Korean cinema had very high hopes for Stoker, Park Chan-Wook’s English language debut. Thanks to his reputation on the international film festival circuit, in particular with his cult Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), Park had seeming first choice of talent and assembled a stellar cast in Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman. (Interestingly, none of the three principals is an American.)

True to form for Park, Stoker is both visually stunning and psychologically and physically brutal. The cinematography is painterly and the framing sculptural. Every frame merits notice and every still a work of art. In fact it’s safe to say that Stoker is Park’s most strictly art-produced film. Every color and detail bears evidence of obsessive attention, from the color of characters’ hair to the color of the walls, from the stitching on a collar to the scuffing on a shoe.

In large part this magnification of detail effectively reflects the psychological and somatic experience of India Stoker (Wasikowska), whose hypersensitive observations of the world make ordinary life an ordeal for her. On the day India turns eighteen her father Richard dies in a horrific accident. We see her first at his funeral. Relations between her parents have evidently been strained for some time. Her mother, Evelyn Stoker, seems hardly bereaved, nor does she attempt to comfort her shattered daughter.

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Box Office Report: ‘The Croods’ Smashes Into First Place For Another Big Dreamworks Animation Win

bobanner32213There used to be a rule in feature animation. PIXAR was the king of quality and they had a perfect record, Dreamworks had Shrek and a whole train load of Disney and PIXAR knockoffs with star-studded casts. Most of the times those films were turds, and provided a sharp contrast that might have aided in PIXAR’s incredible win streak by providing such horrible comparison.

Well that was the past boys and girls, because the quality gap has been dwindling faster than The Croods just past 100 Million at the international box office. Dreamworks newest animated feature had a solid-to-great opening weekend bringing in over $44 Million. Which puts the film on par with other recent Dreamworks its How to Train Your Dragon and Megamind.

A big weekend was probably expected for The Croods, however, the weekend was not without its shocker. The action flick Olympus Has Fallen surpassed even the most generous of projections to bring in over $30 Million over the weekend. Which is a huge win for an action-centirc film in a year where so many have died horrible box office deaths.

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‘Saints Row IV’ Making It Out in Front of ‘Grand Theft Auto V’

Saints Row IV Cover Image

In the early days of the series, it was a challenge to talk about Saints Row without it being compared to Grand Theft Auto. They were both open sandbox worlds with a criminal undertone. But, the most recent iterations have separated the two with Grand Theft Auto being more realistic with its gritty drama while Saints Row took the over the top and ridiculous path that has become the signature appeal of the series. While in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas you were able to attack someone using a sex toy, Saints Row The Third blew that toy up to the massive proportions of a floppy baseball bat to bludgeon foes to death with.

This past weekend, it was announced by Volition and Deep Silver (who purchased the studio from the THQ auction) that Saints Row IV is indeed coming and it will actually be out before Grand Theft Auto V. With Grand Theft Auto V being delayed until September (being the last major game release before the next generation of consoles presumably), Volition and Deep Silver have slid in a few weeks early and announced their game would be coming out on August 23rd.

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TV RECAP: ‘Grimm’ Episode 215 – ‘Mr. Sandman’

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A new Wesen is introduced in this episode, a man who picks up woman at grief support groups. He gets invited back to their home, and spews a Great Muta (or Tajiri for younger readers) like red mist into their face. This blinds the women, and he then turns into a fly and drinks their tears.

The first woman dies after pulling a giant bookcase down on herself. The second victim survives, as her sister came home while the attack was taking place. The Medical Examiner finds that the victim’s eyes are infected with a type of worm that is normally found in River Blindness in Africa.

Nick, Hank, and Monroe are able to determine that the suspect is a Jinnamuru Xuntee (before I looked it up, I had spelled it Ginimurushuntae), a tear stealing evil spirit. When beheaded, its brain is found to be swollen and infested with red worms. It will also revisit victim’s families, to feed off of their tears.

Based on his M.O. of grief support groups, they are able to track Andre’s (the Jinnamuru Xuntee) car to a high school. He is leaving the meeting with a woman when Hank, Nick, and Sgt. Wu chase him back inside. They split up, and Nick finds Andre in a classroom upstairs. Andre spits the red mist into Nick’s face and jumps out the window.

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Monday Freeview: ‘Planetside 2’ for PC

Planetside 2 Cover Image

Welcome back boys and girls. Today we have a new freebie title for you which is actually the sequel to a game I played years and years ago. After seeing ads for Deuce Bigaglo: Male Gigolo 2 appear as billboards in the futuristic MMO space shooter Planetside, I respectfully backed out. Especially since back then I was paying a monthly subscription fee to play it. Now, a decade later I am giving the sequel a chance because I figure I liked the original and since it is a Free-To-Play model, if I don’t like it at least I am not stuck paying for it.

For those that don’t know, before Call of Duty implemented the RPG elements of levels and unlockables into their multiplayer, Planetside did the same years earlier. The format was a tad different though. Players were given the option to deploy over a map that three controlling factions were constantly battling over. In addition to XP from kills, players could level up by taking over opposing facilities. And there were vehicles too.

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Movie Review: ‘The Croods’

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Silly, silly fun. There’s not much of a plot — The Croods are a family of cave-dwellers whose home is threatened by earthquakes; the dad Grug (Nicolas Cage) is over protective; the daughter Eep (Emma Stone) is curious; they meet up with a smarty-pants guy named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who teaches them the secret of fire, among other things; and they set off to find a new home.

Grug, whose mantra is “Always be afraid!” immediately dislikes Guy while Eep is immediately attracted to him, and in the background are the rest of the Croods, who have their moments but are played for jokes; maybe they could have been something more, but before they can, the earthquake chases them off. There’s two running gags that persist the entire film, and there’s some ugly character design, but those are the biggest flaws.

And they’re easy to overlook because everything else looks so good. Granted, this doesn’t need to be in 3-D, as the lusciousness of the backgrounds, from crags to forests to plains to dried-out oceans encircle and captivate on their own, without added gimmicks. More fun is the creature designs, which must have had even the animators laughing. Each one is a Darwinian nightmare, conjured by a gaggle of mad scientists.

There’s flying turtles, land-whales, two lemurs attached by a single tail and a flock of birds that look like toucans, though their mouths open right below the eyes. Cute at first, then they swarm on one of the land-whales and pick it clean.

Despite that, the emphasis is clearly on the visuals, as are the gags. The talents of Cage, Stone, and Reynolds, as well as Cloris Leachman and Catherine Keener, aren’t necessary. None stand out, but then there’s little the film requires of them. Of course we have the requisite familial tensions and affirmations of love between those who need to hear it — they aren’t earned and slow the movie down considerably whenever they’re brought up, but they’re not often and don’t last long.

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The Flickcast – Episode 204: Insane Stampede Escape

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are back and better than ever. Or, they’re pretty much the same as ever.

But that’s not a bad thing. In fact, the “same” for these two talented dudes is pretty much awesome. So, sit back, relax and enjoy this episode where the boys discuss all manner of topics including the awesome Insane Office Escape video, some visual effects news, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Hobbit, the first day of shooting on Godzilla, new Ant Man footage, Jean-Claude Van Damme in The Avengers and, the most important thing, a fundraiser for their friend Flitz who needs an operation and doesn’t have the money.

Fortunately, you can help right here.

Chris and Matt also made picks this week incluidng Matt’s pick of Justice League Unlimited and Chris’ pick of the iOS app Feedly.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook or via email.