January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Movie Review: Bullet To The Head

Bullet to the Head – just put me out of my misery… no really

Yea, I'm just going to come out and say it. This movie is barely mediocre. The premise of the story is about hitman Jimmy Bobo (Sylvester Stallone) and WDC Detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) looking for the person behind the murders of their partners.

In my opinion, a great movie consists of three important elements, the characters, vivid story telling, and musical score. This movie only has a small piece of the first two, and nothing from the third. The story is being partially narrated by Stallone's character, while he provides adequate back story to his own character, he doesn't really help much in progressing the story with his monotonous voice. Throughout the movie I was wondering what type of tone and direction it's trying to take. Is it supposed to be serious or is it supposed to be funny? It seemed like it did not know where to go. There were plenty of serious moments in the movie, as this is what action movies are supposed to be like, but then, the funny bits were lacking. Even Last Stand was funnier than this movie, and I fell asleep while watching Last Stand. During the second half of the movie I was wondering when I can watch Demolition Man. (PHOENIX!) Leaving the movie theater, I did not feel satisfied with the quality of this production. The Expendables, both 1 and 2 were better than this movie.

This movie is definitely not like Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, Training Day, Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys, or any other 2 person shoot-em up group of action junkies. If you liked those movies, you will not like Bullet to the Head.

Overall: D+ (Do they still give +’s for a D grade? If it weren’t for naked ladies in the film, this grade would be lower)

-TheAgroCraig

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Meet Cory and Topanga's Daughter!

Meet 11 year old, Rowan Blanchard. She will play Riley Matthews in Disney Channel spin-off of Boy Meets World, titled Girl Meets World. You might have seen Rowan in Spy Kids 4 or The Back-up Plan.

“As soon as Rowan walked into the room, I was reminded of why Ben Savage was loved as Cory Matthews,” says Michael Jacobs, who’s producing the Girl Meets World pilot and one of BMW's creators. “Rowan is real and accessible and I am hopeful this girl is about to meet a world that will love growing up with her as well.”

Production on the pilot is said to begin next month and if (when) the pilot gets picked up, it will be added to Disney Channel's 2013-2014 schedule.

The last time we saw Cory and Topanga was May 2000 when the recently married couple were headed off to New York with Shawn and Eric in tow. No word yet if/when Rider Strong and Will Friedle will appear.
We have heard from Lily Nicksay, who played Cory's little sister Morgan in the early seasons. The now 24 year old told TMZ in November, ""I'd love to talk [to Disney] about being a part of it."

We're glad to see that Don Francisco got to touch something.

via EW.com

Monday, January 28, 2013

Spartacus: War of the Damned Ep1 Recap

Spartacus: War of the Damned
Recap - Episode 1: Enemies of Rome

This episode starts and ends with a blood bath. Spartacus, Crixus, Gannicus and Agron are now more successful than ever, leading an army that grows with each battle won. There is no shortage in blood, guts, and swords in this episode, but that we find out that that is not what this episode or this season is about.

Spartacus' rebellion is growing faster than he could have imagined and finds that he must lead more than just his soldiers. One rebel complain about his leader without realising that he was speaking to Spartacus, himself. Spartacus learns the hardships being felt by children and noncombatants and realizes that with winter approaching, he must do more.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this episode is establishing this season's big bad, Crassus. With this being the final season, we want to see a villain who is worthy of facing an even sharper Spartacus. Crassus is a rich noblemen who buys his way into military leadership. Before we can write him off as spoiled petulant child like his son, we find out how far he is willing to push himself in every way possible. Crassus is puts his life on the line just to test himself, and when he kills his slave, he gives him a goodbye you would expect of a fellow soldier.

CONTEST!!!!!
TheNGUonline has two sets of three posters to give away. Each poster is 27"x41".

To win the 1st set, answer the following question in the comments below. The 1st correct response gets the posters:

What is the name of the actor that portrayed Spartacus in the first season, Spartacus: Blood and Sand?

The second set will be given via Twitter!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Otaku-Haven Cosplay Meet-Up

On Wednesday, Terrhimself and I trekked through the blistering cold to check out Otaku-Haven’s massive cosplay photoshoot and meet and greet. Otaku-Haven is a group of designers and cosplayers that are trying to bring cosplaying into main stream and to show everyone that it’s not something you should be ashamed of or hidden. It was our first time heading out to a cosplay meet-up so we didn’t really know what to expect, but we were hopeful. It was held at Teak on the Hudson, a swanky bar/restaurant in downtown Hoboken, NJ. I met up with Terr across the street and we headed inside.

Once inside we headed upstairs to where the event was taking place and upon entering we were met with swarms of cosplayers dressed up in costumes me and Terr were quite unfamiliar with. Girls with long pink and blue hair in elaborate outfits and guys with short, spiky white and blue hair permeated the front area along with some more familiar sights such as Dead Pool, Tony Stark, Ezio from Assassins Creed, Rikku from Final Fantasy, Venom suit Spider-Man and Noob Saibot from Mortal Kombat.

The nice thing the event had going for it, to the delight of the cosplayers were the professional photographers on hand to take high quality, professionally edited shots of all people in costumes. My favorites were the shots of Tony Stark, Spiderman, Dead Pool and others sitting around a table engaged in a game of high stakes poker as well as Ezio about the perform an air assassination from the second story balcony on an unsuspecting victim below.

Everyone there was very friendly and it was a fun night. Terr strapped on his custom made Arc Reactor (stay tuned for a how-to post on that and more in our upcoming convention cosplay how-to series) and had some fun shenanigans with the other present Tony at the bar. We also finally got an explanation to the origins of the wild hair and outfits a majority of the cosplayers were wearing. It’s from a Japanese voice synthesizer program called Vocaloid that’s gaining popularity here in the US and has a large presence on YouTube.

In April, Otaku-Haven is sponsoring a singles cosplayer meet-up, so visit their Facebook page below for more info and make sure to throw them a ‘Like’. Also check out some more pics of the event in the gallery below.

OTAKU-HAVEN | FACEBOOK

GALLERY

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Movie Review: Mama

Guillermo del Toro is synonymous with quality macabre filmmaking. So it’s no surprise that with del Toro as executive producer, Mama gives us a ghost story that is not only very chilling, but also has some heart to it. Too often do we see simple slasher films in which the characters spend the whole film running around, just trying to escape a monster/ghost/psycho killer. But in Mama we get something seldom seen in horror films: actual character development. This mainly comes courtesy of our main character Annabel (Jessica Chastain).

Although at the age in life where most women have started a family and/or a serious career, Annabel is still still enjoying a life mostly lacking in responsibility. With dyed black hair and a gig playing bass in a punk rock band, she clearly prefers the alternative lifestyle to the conventional. When we first meet her she is celebrating a pregnancy test that has come out negative, ecstatic at the fact that she can continue to lead her carefree lifestyle. But her ecstasy doesn’t last long.
Annabel’s boyfriend Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has been bleeding his savings dry looking for his brother and two young nieces ever since they went missing 5 years ago. When the girls, Victoria and Lilly, are finally found in a cabin in the woods they are feral and animalistic. Barely recognizable as human children at first, they are kept in psychiatric care for some time and eventually released into the custody of Lucas and Annabel in hopes that a loving environment will help ease them back into society. However this change is much to the displeasure of Annabel. “They’re already fucked up,” she complains. “I didn’t even get a chance to fuck them up. They came that way.” This leads us to believe Annabel’s unwillingness to have children stemmed not from the freedom she would lose, but from a lack of confidence in her own ability to properly care for another life.

But the question still remains: Since there was no sign of their father upon discovery, how did two little girls girls survive in the wilderness on their own for so long? It is made clear to us as the viewers that this is possible because of a being the girls call Mama. And it is also clear to us that Mama has followed the girls back into the world. We see Victoria and Lilly constantly staring at and lovingly interacting with a menacing presence just offscreen. As the film goes on we get closer and closer glimpses at Mama, each more eerie and frightening than the last.
When the girls are brought back into society, the elder sister, Victoria (Megan Charpentier), is given a pair of glasses to correct her vision. Seeing familiar things she used to know with clarity, she is able to distance herself from the cloudy and obscure world she spent the past five years in and grow closer to Annabel. But her sister Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse), who was only an infant when left in the woods and has never known anything but the woods and the love of Mama, has more trouble readjusting and remains wary of Annabel. The ability of these actresses to portray the development from a completely animalistic nature to Victoria’s loving yet fearful personality and Lilly’s cautious and defiant one is very impressive considering how young they are for such roles.

And just as the girls develop different emotions towards their new surrogate mother, Annabel slowly and begrudgingly learns to accept her new role as a caretaker. Maybe she has what it takes to be a mother after all. But Annabel is tested beyond what she imagined when Mama starts getting jealous.

Just like in any ghost story, details concerning who and what Mama is are slowly unearthed. In this aspect, Mama is undeniably a bit cliché. Whether through nightmares and premonitions, unexplained visions and messages from the dead, or the obligatory superstitious public records worker with all the right information, different characters retrieve individual pieces of the puzzle on their own, but no one ever has enough of the whole story to know exactly what’s going on. And no matter what time of day someone leaves to go investigate Mama’s cabin, they somehow always seem to arrive right around midnight.
But even though Mama is built with some of the classic horror storytelling tropes, they aren’t just thrown together, but are handled with finesse and built upon a foundation of characters that grow and change as a result of their predicaments. Like with some of del Toro’s other projects, we’re given something we’re familiar with that’s raised to another level and has some unexpected twists along the way. The fact that we expect certain things to happen plays to the film’s advantage, upping the anticipation and sense of foreboding that’s present in nearly every scene.

Definitely one of the scarier ghosts in recent memory, the most frightening aspect of Mama is that she is always just out of sight, revealing herself only to the wild children who aren’t scared of her only because they can’t comprehend what she is in the way that we can. For a majority of the film we only see shadows or catch glimpses of the eerie way she moves and hovers. And the unnerving feeling of her presence follows us out of the theatre, causing every small movement we see out of the corner of our eye make us think of her.

Grade: B

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Want to have a Caveman-Baby?

Ladies, would you like a chance at being the mom of a Neanderthal? Professor George Church of Harvard University says that all he needs is "...an adventurous female human."

Professor Church says that he has extracted enough DNA from fossils to reconstruct the DNA of the extinct human species. Neanderthals are believed to have gone extinct about 33,000 years ago.

"We can clone all kinds of mammals, so it's very likely that we could clone a human," he says in an interview with Der Spiegel, a German magazine. "Why shouldn't we be able to do so?" [I'm pretty sure I've already seen this happen on a SyFy channel Saturday night movie and it didn't turn out well]

While the technology for cloning does exist, many countries have already banned human cloning.

Via The Telegraph (UK)

Some famous caveman kids:

Friday, January 18, 2013

Stan Lee sends message to Bulletproof Spider-Man

Our Generalissimo, Stan Lee, heard that one of the teens injured at the recent Taft High School shooting is a Spider-Man fan and sent him a special message.

16 year old, Bowe Cleveland suffered injuries to his chest and abdomen on January 10th after police say he was shot by a classmate at the incident at Taft High School. Students of Taft High School have nicknamed him "Bulletproof Spider-Man" and even wore Spidey shirts and red and blue clothes in his honor when they returned to school.

“You know, I’ve been told that you’re a big fan of mine and I want you to know that means a lot to me. So I’m sending you this message to let you know my thoughts and prayers are with you, as are the thoughts and prayers of all of Marveldom assembled, as well as the brave Brigadiers of POW! So never forget, you’ve got a whole superhero section rooting for you.” Lee also said that he would be sending Bowe some autographed posters and comics so could enjoy them while recovering.

Grandpa Stan, you're the greatest.

via CBR

Movie Review: The Last Stand

This movie is a modern take on a classic western, complete with a small town sheriff, outlaws passing through town, and a whole lot of guns. There are bits of comedy from Johnny Knoxville and Luis Guzman. Most importantly, there is the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a leading man, shooting guns and delivering one-liners like only Arnold can.

Schwarzenegger plays Ray Owens, the sheriff of a dusty Arizona town on the US-Mexico border. Owens gets alerted by the FBI (led by Forest Whitaker) that drug king-pin, Gabriel Cortez (played by Eduardo Noriega) and his men are on the road from Las Vegas and headed straight for his town. Owens gets his inexperienced deputies together (Luis Guzman, Zach Gilford, Jaimie Alexander, Rodrigo Santoro, Johnny Knoxville) and puts up a fight against Cortez and his men.

As an "Arnold" movie, this movie works well for fans because Arnold gives what is expected; one liners, big guns, and taking out the bad guys. Arnold is no spring chicken and he knows it and it works for him because he soldiers on.

What doesn't really work is the under-utilization and hamming it up of some of the actors. Jaimie Alexander gets some tender moments with Gilford, Santoro, and Arnold (and can out-act any of them), but as Deputy Sarah Torrance she doesn't get to be the warrior-woman that modern audiences might hope. Johnny Knoxville is allowed to ham it up to what I assume was the producers and directors take on what he did on MTV's Jackass. Given his role doesn't have much weight to it other than being a goofball gun-nut, but he does teeter on going over the top. Unbearably good looking, Brazilian Rodrigo Santoro feels out of place and miscast. While he looks great on screen opposite Jaimie Alexander and is a solid actor in other films (Che and Redbelt), the role seems too far of a stretch.

Unfortunately, the old man standing up to young bucks thing has been done better (example: Gran Torino). The script and dialogue for The Last Stand is passable at best due to the already low expectations of an Arnold-movie. The move leans on the over exposition of character relationships and action sequences. It's still enjoyable - who doesn't love Arnold? - but the lack of originality hurts the grade.

OVERALL: C+

Still better than Arnold's Junior, End of Days, and The 6th Day.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Wrapping Up the Doctor Who Christmas Special

Doctor Who’s Christmas special, The Snowmen, was just fantastic and brilliantly set the stage for the new upcoming season. It had so many fabulous elements that I had to write my favorites down as a list!! I’ll start with my top favorite element... the magic!!!

Disclaimers: I am a huge fan of Doctor Who and highly biased towards loving everything in each episode. Also, I throw traditional and technically correct forms of writing to the wind. I should also warn there may be a few spoilers sprinkled in. (I daresay it's safe to throw them in by now.)

Without further ado, I give you my list:

Magic!

Invisible staircase. Invisible I say!!! Initially. Once you’re on it you can see that it is actually a beautiful victorian staircase to the heavens, except, without the painfully long climb. Clearly, it had some kind of “something” to it that made the climb to the stars and clouds not quite so long. I repeat, imagine yourself winding upwards through wispy clouds with the universe’s stars as your back drop. That’s magic. The last time I felt that kind of fantastical wowness was when Superman took Louis flying through the clouds.

For the particularly pedantic, I should clarify that none of it was actually magic. As we all know, the Doctor simply employs all kinds of amazing science.

Quotable Lines!

Within a day, Clara’s remark about the TARDIS was all over the internet and is still doing the rounds.

In addition, the cranky banter between the Doctor and the surprisingly returned and newly befuddled Strax totally falls within quotable bounds. It was a bit hard to hear the Doctor be so cutting with Strax, but then again, we all know the Doctor can get rather cross at times. Strax was particularly hilarious and I want to watch it all again so I can include his lines into my every day life!

Also, pretty much everything out of Clara’s mouth is quotable. She. Is. So. Awesome.

Fandom Crossovers!

Sherlock Holmes!! Clearly a nod at BBC’s Sherlock. (Doctor Who’s current head writer, Stephen Moffat, is also one of the lead brains behind BBC’s Sherlock.) He poses as the famous literary detective; and his abysmal attempts at personifying Sherlock were absolutely brilliant! When he saw his opportunity to truly “sleuth” beyond posing as Sherlock, he switched to being his hilariously awkward alien self when he’s working out a problem. (I just love that element of this incarnation of the Doctor.)

Also... “Winter is coming”. Yes, they obviously referenced that. You know of what I speak.

Kick Ass Victorian Lizard Samurai Lady.. err, Costumes!

Top hats!! Three piece suits!! Victorian gowns! With a dash of mysterious veils and swashbuckling victorian jedi with a samurai wear! (A mouthful, I know, but how else could I have possibly said it?) It’s set in old England; thus a costume and BBC lover’s delight. Also, Sherlock Holmes’ classic outfit!! It made me think of that Sherlock Holmes costume worn by the green Sesame Street muppet with a mustache, Sherlock Hemlock.

Intrigue!

More questions! All the necessary fuel for the crazy theory conspirators! (Crack pot theories and the people who invent them are my absolute favorites!!)

Who is Clara?! Why is she destined to repeatedly die!? How does she keep comping back and to varying points in time at that?!! The mystery is wonderfully maddening!

Also, I find Madame Vastra’s rescue of Strax highly intriguing. She brought him back to life!?! What? Amazing. Though, not without it’s flaws in how it’s addled Strax’s brain. I find it fascinating.

MORE to ponder on behalf of the Doctor!

Clearly, he is inconsolable concerning the fate of the Ponds. Much time has passed. (The TARDIS has a rad new console to help indicate this.) As a result of his perceived failures, he’s not helping anybody anywhere. He’s a recluse now. Ironically, that’s the kind of villain he ends up confronting in this episode; it’s a boy who’s isolated himself with his own thoughts projected through a snowman. Anyhoo, what I love about Clara is that she is now clearly predestined to die somehow and it is NOT the Doctor’s fault. At least, not really. I like that. It’s the perfect thing to pull him out of his depression. A grand puzzle and some one to save who’s demise can’t really be at his hands, because she’s fated to die anyway. Plus, he can keep trying each time she dies since she keeps returning to other points in time.

Moral to the Story!

If you are a lonely child, don’t just talk to your pet snowman. At minimum, I’d recommend a dog who can at least cuddle you back and lick your face. Perhaps a cheerful book? Finding another person to chat to is usually the ideal so one doesn’t get stuck in a negative cycle of thought.

There was also a little something in there about dads not being big fat chickens when it comes to their children.

In Conclusion...

...all that now remains are our theories and the agonizing wait until the Doctor returns in April. Speaking of which, I just love theories and would be delighted by links to blogs containing them sent to my twitter. Fire away! And watch Doctor Who!

Till next time, my pretties!

Faithfully Yours,
The Incredible Dork
@she_dork

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Movie Review: Gangster Squad

This is a film we’ve seen before. This is a film we’ll see again. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad film; it’s still quite enjoyable. It’s just not original in the least bit.

Gangster Squad takes us to a city that is under the rule of a murderous crook (seen it before), where crime runs rampant (seen it before), and where the men who can do something about it are either bought out or rubbed out (seen it before). But lo and behold! There is a small group of men who are fed up with the corruption that plagues their city (seen it before). We have:

the police chief who still remains loyal to the cause (seen it before)
the idealistic sergeant who will stop at nothing to bring justice to those who deserve it (seen it before)
the caring (and pregnant!) wife who is terrified for her husband’s safety, but knows she won’t be able to change his mind (seen it before)
the apathetic sergeant who has given up on the idea of toppling the city’s gangsters until the death of someone he cares makes it a personal matter (seen it before)
the vixen who catches the eyes of one of our heroes, but is in dangerously close with the wrong crowd (seen it before)
the family man who wants his child to grow up in a better world (seen it before)
the rag-tag group of police officers with their quirks and special skills (seen it before)
the black guy (duh)

It would be very easy to label this movie is just a recycled storyline with some new packaging on it, but that would be selling it short. What keeps Gangster Squad from slipping into mediocrity is its anything-but-mediocre cast. With a star-studded lineup of Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, and Anthony Mackie, these cookie-cutter characters are given a bit of new life.

Any scene featuring the whole of the titular Gangster Squad is just a pleasure to watch. The actors play off each other extremely well and their sense of camaraderie (and mutual disdain for Burbank) comes across very naturally. On the other end of the spectrum, Sean Penn is able to exemplify the mobster persona to such a high degree that the lack of memorable supporting antagonists in the film isn’t that much of an issue. But it still would have been nice to have more of an evil ensemble than Mickey Cohen, “the guy with the weird eye,” and “the other bad guy.”

Despite the fact that these are the same archetypal characters we’re used to seeing, this talented group of actors, a few awesomely violent action sequences, and some really snazzy outfits are able to provide us with an experience that, while not anything new, is definitely still entertaining. With a better screenplay to work with we could have had something really amazing, but this will do.

Grade: B-

2013 Oscar Nominees

Any surprises here? Think anyone got snubbed? Tweet us! Twitter.com/NGUonline

Best Picture:
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
"Zero Dark Thirty"
"Lincoln"
"Les Miserables"
"Life of Pi"
"Amour"
"Django Unchained"
"Argo"

Best Supporting Actor:
Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"
Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Alan Arkin, "Argo"
Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

Best Supporting Actress:
Sally Field, "Lincoln"
Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables"
Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"
Amy Adams, "The Master"

Best Director:
David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Ang Lee, "Life of Pi"
Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"
Michael Haneke, "Amour"
Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Actor:
Daniel Day Lewis, "Lincoln"
Denzel Washington, "Flight"
Hugh Jackman, "Les Miserables"
Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

Best Actress:
Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"
Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"
Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"
Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Original Screenplay:
"Zero Dark Thirty"
"Django Unchained"
"Moonrise Kingdom"
"Amour"
"Flight"

Best Adapted Screenplay:
"Lincoln"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
"Argo"
"Life of Pi"
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Animated Feature:
"Frankenweenie"
"The Pirates! Band of Misfits"
"Wreck-It Ralph"
"Paranorman"
"Brave"

Best Foreign Feature:
"Amour"
"A Royal Affair"
"Kon-Tiki"
"No"
"War Witch"

Best Visual Effects:
"Life of Pi"
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
"The Avengers"
"Prometheus"
"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Cinematography:
"Skyfall"
"Anna Karenina"
"Django Unchained"
"Life of Pi"
"Lincoln"

Best Costume Design:
"Anna Karenina"
"Les Miserables"
"Lincoln"
"Mirror Mirror"
"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Documentary Feature:
"Searching for Sugar Man"
"How to Survive a Plague"
"The Gatekeepers"
"5 Broken Cameras"
"The Invisible War"

Best Documentary Short:
"Open Heart"
"Inocente"
"Redemption"
"Kings Point"
"Mondays at Racine"
"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Film Editing:
"Lincoln"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
"Life of Pi"
"Argo"
"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
"Hitchcock"
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
"Les Miserables"

Best Music (Original Score):
"Anna Karenina"
"Argo"
"Life of Pi"
"Lincoln"
"Skyfall"

Best Music (Original Song):
"Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice"
"Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from "Ted"
"Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi"
"Skyfall" from "Skyfall"
"Suddenly" from "Les Misérables"

Best Production Design:
"Anna Karenina"
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
"Les Misérables"
"Life of Pi"
"Lincoln"

Best Short Film, Animated:
"Adam and Dog"
"Fresh Guacamole"
"Head over Heels"
"Maggie Simpson in 'The Longest Daycare'"
"Paperman"

Best Short Film, Live Action:
"Asad"
"Buzkashi Boys"
"Curfew"
"Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)"
"Henry"

Best Sound Editing:
"Argo"
"Django Unchained"
"Life of Pi"
"Skyfall"
"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Sound Mixing:
"Argo"
"Les Misérables"
"Life of Pi"
"Lincoln"
"Skyfall"

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

With every viewer already knowing how this movie will end when they walk into the theater, Zero Dark Thirty is faced with the task of presenting the events leading up to that inevitable conclusion in a way that keeps the audience interested. In the end, not only is the story told by this film interesting, it is captivating.

While many other films on this subject may have begun with a series of news clips showing the devastation of the 9/11 attacks, Zero Dark Thirty starts starts with truly chilling opening sequence that surrounds the audience with nothing but darkness and the sounds of real, human fear for over a full minute. This seemingly stylistic choice goes a long way, allowing us to associate our own images of 9/11 with the sounds they’re hearing, already giving the film a much more personal feel. Forcing us to recall our own fear from that day, we’re given a stark reminder of the mindset most Americans were in at the time the film’s story begins in 2003. Remembering and understanding this mindset is necessary when we first meet our protagonist, Maya (Chastain), a CIA intelligence officer who has just arrived in Pakistan and is witnessing the interrogation and torture of a Saudi detainee. This mindset, while not wholly convincing us that what we’re seeing is right, or even acceptable, still helps us understand that the characters performing these actions are still recovering from fresh wounds, and see what they’re doing as a necessary evil in order to bring about justice.

Although she doesn’t speak her thoughts, Maya is visibly shaken by what she sees. However, this unease with how information is obtained quickly disappears. Maya becomes accustomed to, and even proficient in extracting intel using these methods, resulting in her finding the information carries her throughout the entire film.

At a runtime of roughly two and a half hours, and a story spanning nearly a decade, the film barrels through the years with an intensity that doesn’t let up as Maya follows this lead down every possible avenue. Over this time, Maya develops from a clearly capable but fresh-out-of-the-box officer into an accomplished agent whom others in the CIA learn not to get in the way of. Her constant dedication to her theory fosters a personal need within her to see it confirmed, and seemingly nothing will stop her. When she is later asked why her beliefs should be trusted, what else she has done for the CIA, her response is, “Nothing. I’ve done nothing else.” And because we follow Maya on such an intense journey in which she devotes herself entirely to a long-shot theory, the story becomes personal for us as well, making that assured ending that we always knew was coming just as satisfying and emotional for us as it is for her.

Grade: A

Want to go to Mars?

Do you have what it takes to be among the first people to live on the red planet? A Dutch start-up, MARS-ONE plans to start sending over colonists in 2022 with additional screws being sent every 2 years. YOU CAN BE ONE OF THEM!

According to their site, applicants do not need to be medical doctors, pilots or geologists. While education, skills, and real world experience will most likely play a part in the selection process, their base requirements are that applicants are "18 years of age, have a deep sense of purpose, willingness to build and maintain healthy relationships, the capacity for self-reflection and ability to trust." All skills required for life on Mars will be learned during training. Each candidate will undergo a minimum of eight years of training before stepping foot on Mars.

If you were one of the kids at sleep away camp that cried at night because you were homesick, do not apply. MARS-ONE is only issuing one way tickets. Colonists are expected to live out the rest of their lives on Mars. This fact along with the 8 years of training should weed-out would be astronauts from living out fantasies of traipsing around on Barsoom (Edgar Rice Burroughs reference).

For more details on becoming a Mars colonist, check out MARS-ONE's website.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

JGL relocates to SIN CITY

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has officially signed on to a lead roll in "Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For," the sequel to Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's 2005 movie. JGL will be playing a brand new character developed for this film with overlapping story lines with returning cast members Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Rosario Dawson. JGL's character, Johnny, is described in a press release as "a cocky gambler who disguises a darker mission to destroy his most foul enemy at his best game." So, it's clear to see why he's so excited and that it'll be "fun as fuck" as he tweeted earlier today.

Production has already begun, so JGL has his work cut out for him as he plays catch up while promoting his directorial debut, Don Jon's Addiction, at the Sundance Film Festival.

This puts the rumors of Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing Star-Lord in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy to rest.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Magic The Gathering Deck Builder Toolkit 2013

If you've been wanting to get into Magic The Gathering, now is as good a time as any! Don't know where to start? Magic has got you covered. With every new edition that comes out, MTG releases what they call a 'Deck Builder's Toolkit' set which includes close to 300 cards as well as deck building guides and playing rules (as well as a pretty sweet box to hold your cards in) to get even the newest Magic player up to speed pretty darn quick.

The set includes a pretty even array of cards spanning all colors allowing one to build whatever combination decks they want, although my outcome left me with a good 25% more white and black cards than the other colors, so you're collection may differ. What's nice is that not all sets are the same with the 4 included booster packs. With the booster pack cards different in each set, friends can buy the same kit and come out with different cards they can swap and trade to create completely unique decks.

Each color has it's own unique ability and this deck doesn't skimp out on the quality of the cards with some pretty heavy hitters represented in each color that makes it easy to build a solid deck around these cards. The deck builder makes it even easier giving you a lot of good options when it comes to what colors should go together. Overall the Deck Builder Toolkit is a great first introduction to Magic The Gathering and can get even the most hesitant player deep into the game quite quickly. One last note, the price point is pretty tempting to snatch this up as an impulse buy with Amazon selling it for only $18.98. (Less than 7 cents a card!)

Amazing Spider-Man #700!

It's been a week since this was released and I've had some time to sit with it and read it a few times. I completely understand how people have gotten their underoos all up in a bunch and are all sorts of mad at Dan Slott. I, on the other hand, don't hate it and thought the writing, art, and pacing was better than some of the other recent issues of ASM. My only problem with it is that I don't think its entirely worthy of being the "final" issue of ASM.

If you don't like spoilers, you can stop reading now and go check out some other articles or tweet me telling me how much I suck at this or that.

We finally see why "The Amazing Spider-Man" is finished and the "Superior Spider-Man" is being born - the Peter Parker we know and love dies in ASM700. *Cue tears and shouts of anger* I hope you weren't shocked. It was bound to happen. How many other iconic superheroes have died? Spider-Man isn't safe from death either. There's a scene with Uncle Ben that foreshadows the ending and I spent the rest of the book going "Where is it? Where is it? Boom. There it is."

So the guy we know as Peter Parker is currently dead and Otto Octavius is currently doing the meat puppet thing and is inside of Peter's body. He takes up the mantle of Spider-Man and decides he's going to do it better than Peter ever could and be, you guessed it, the Superior Spider-Man. Two plot devices we've seen done before; kill the main character and make the bad guy into a good guy. Not exactly where I would have liked to see a fifty year old title end. After 50 years, 700 issues, we get an arc that lasts 3 issues and ends with 2 cliches. I would go as far to argue that the Spider-Island or Ends of the Earth story lines would have been a better ways to end the title if the numbering had worked out that way.

Despite some really great moments with Mary Jane and J. Jonah Jameson, I don't consider ASM 700 a new high or even a new low for the title. Just another middle.

Which cover did you pick up?

For some info on what you can expect, check out this interview with Dan Slott by Marvel.com

You may request an address to send items for review to NeverGrowUpTeam@gmail.com

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