Monday, November 29, 2010

Leslie Nielsen Passes Away or "You Still Can't Call Him Shirley"


        Sad, sad news to report today. I found out that legendary funny-man Leslie Nielsen passed away in his sleep yesterday in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

       I was 10 or 12 the first time I was introduced to Leslie Nielsen's work. Though I was entirely too young to understand some of the humor in 'The Naked Gun' movies at the time, I still laughed myself silly watching Lt. Frank Drebin blunder into a situation and save the day. And as the years went on, his work continued to delight and entertain me. From "Airplane" and "Spy Hard" to "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" and "Men with Brooms",  this was a man who was always had me laughing, who always brought a smile to my face. He was, honestly and truly, the funniest man I ever had the good fortune to watch!

       Go with God, Mr. Nielsen. You've earned your rest!



(via Slash Film)

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Video of the Day: "Buffy The Animated Series"



       Back in 2002, while the hit show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was on TV, there were plans for an animated spin-off series, set somewhere during the first season of the show. Despite initial excitement and most of the real life cast providing voices (minus Sarah Michelle Gellar), "Buffy the Animated Series" never got off the ground. It's a shame because, judging by this 'proof-of-concept' video, it would have been a welcome addition to the Buffy-verse.

Quickie Comic Book Review #1: "Werewolves On The Moon VS Vampires" or "Who Has Home Field Advantage?"



       Going thru my comic collection awhile back, I came across this forgotten gem of a title. "Werewolves ON THE MOON VS Vampires" was a 3 issue mini-series released by Dark Horse Comics in 2009 that tried to answer the age old question: "Who would win in a fight: vampires or werewolves?"


       Set in the far future, "Werewolves VS Vampires" followed the mis-adventures of Ted, Jeff and Stan, 3 werewolves who travel to the Moon with the fool plan to become kings of the moon. After all, where else would a lycanthrope even attempt to such a foolhardy stunt?! Not only do things quickly spin out of control for the trio while dealing with the human settlers, they also have to contend with the vampire coven lurking on the dark side of the Moon. Hi-jinks and hilarity ensue as our heroes (?) try to survive long enough to figure out what to do.

      

       Art was handled by the brothers Matt and Shaun Fillbach, who also co-wrote the book with Dave Land. The Fillbach's art is nice and solid with great coloring by Dan Jackson. The art style has a nice 'animated' feel without being to loose and goofy, though the ordinary human characters did seem a little bit awkward at times. The story also has a nice comfortable feel, not unlike the old Saturday afternoon 'monster vs monster'  flicks I used to watch as a kid. Land and the Fillbach's balance the action and horror of the tale very well and even manage to mix in some nice humor as well, taking shots at the overly dramatic and gothic aspects of today's vampire literature.

       All in all, I really loved reading this comic. "Werewolves VS Vampires" is so very much a 'peanut butter and jelly' concept, I cannot help but love it! It takes a very basic and somewhat dated concept and gave it a good spin. It's entertaining without being too mindless and leaves you wanting just a little more. Totally worth buying if you can find it at your local comic book store.

"Werewolves ON THE MOON VS Vampires":  out of 5

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Video of the Day: Fan-Made 'TRON Legacy' Mashup Video




Made up from TV promos, movie trailers and music videos, this 'TRON Legacy' tribute was made by movie fan Josh Prescott. Mr. Prescott's ode to the upcoming (and long over-due, I say) movie sequel was so impressive that 'TRON Lgeacy' producer Sean Bailey even gave it props at a recent press conference in Los Angeles.

It's that good.





(Via WIRED)

Custom 'Back to the Future' External Harddrive or "Does It Hold 1.21 Jigawatts?"


This one is for my buddy, Donny.

Flash Rods is a company that produces custom made USB harddrives and flash drives that look like Hot Wheels and assorted muscle cars. This particular unit is inspired by the Delorean from 'Back to the Future III", right down to the hood mounted, 1950's circuitry and white side-walled tires. The price tag on this beautiful example of geekery is $250, which is a little steep in my opinion, and holds a maximum of 500GB of space. Now that is not nearly enough to break the time barrier. Not enough, by far.

But when you plug this baby in, I bet you'll see some serious shit!

(Via Oh Gizmo!)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Video of the Day: Mario Gets Served!!




I wish more of the Comedy Central Celebrity Roasts were this funny!

Mark Valley Dishes on 'Human Target' - Season 2 or "The Human Target Paints A Picture"



FOX's "Human Target", one of my favorite shows currently on TV, returns for its sophomore season this Wednesday. In a recent video interview, Mark Valley, the titular 'Human Target', gave his thoughts on what we fans could expect during the upcoming season.

You can check out the video here.

All in all, it sounds like this season will be just as kick-ass cool as the first one. Which means more singular action hero moments per episode than any other action series currently on TV!

(Via ComicsContinuum)

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Video of the Day: Daft Punk - "Derezzed"



'TRON Legacy' is coming out in a little under a month or so and one of the coolest things about it, besides the fact we're finally getting a sequel to 'TRON',  is the fact that legendary electronic music duo Daft Punk have composed much of the upcoming film's musical score. Here is but a small taste of the acoustic awesome-ness that awaits all us programs this December 17th.


Cast For 'Spider-man' Reboot Grows or "We Got Uncle Ben, People"

The rebooted 'Spider-man' is a ways off right now (it opens in 2012) but info on the cast has begun to trickle out. Already confirmed is Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-man....


... and Emma Stone as the ill-fated Gwen Stacy.



As for the rest of the Spider-cast:



Peter's kindly father-figure, Uncle Ben Parker, will be played by accomplished actor Martin Sheen.



Actress Sally Fields is currently in talks to portray Spider-man's Aunt May.



And Marc webb, the movie's director, has expressed his desire for Zooey Deschanel to perform as J. Jonah Jameson's secretary and potential Peter Parker love interest, Betty Brant.

This all really cool/interesting news. But one thing must be held over from the Raimi 'Spider-man' films.

Alfred Molina must, I repeat, MUST come back as Doctor Otto Octavius aka 'Doctor Octopus'!!



(Via League of Comic Geeks: Link 1 & Link 2)

'Cowboy Viking Ninja' Coming To The Silver Screen or "The Coolest Comic Book Movie EVER!!!"


Image Comic's "Cowboy Viking Ninja" is quite possibly the craziest, coolest, and just plain awesome comic book I've read in a damn long time! Here's the skinny: the U.S. intelligence community has a special unit called the "Triplets", agents with multiple personalities, with each trained in a specific area of expertise. When several "Triplets go rogue, it's up to the deadliest of them all, the titular 'Cowboy Viking Ninja', to take them down.

And now they are making a movie out of it!

This news is, quite frankly, AWESOME!

(Via Bleeding Cool)

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Costumes From The Tim Burton - Superman Movie That Never Was or "Superman Would Have Been Fab-U-lous!"



Tim Burton. I like his work. Well, at least everything pre-"Planet of the Apes". But if the proposed "Superman Lives" movie had come to pass, I'm pretty sure I would have hunted him down and and exacted a terrible vengeance upon him. I mean, just take a look at some of the suits FX artist Steve Johnson worked up for the film.





I think Tim Burton was drinking from whatever bottle Joel Schumacher was hitting when he made his two entries into the "Batman" film franchise.

('Tim Burton's Superman Lives' gallery via League of Comic Geeks)

Scientists Create XXXL-Size Bugs or "Anyone Have A Giant Bug Zapper?!"



Dr. John VandenBrooks, a researcher in Arizona, has succeeded in re-creating the sort plus-sized creepy crawly usually reserved for time-travel and dinosaur movies. Now, I usually don't say this a lot, but ....

WHY THE HELL IS THIS NECCESSARY?!?

I read as many articles as I could find about the man's work, but I failed to find the answer to the above question. I mean, is it really so vital to the continued existence of the human race and the world itself that we need to know how giant ass insects lived back in the Paleozoic Era?!

Dr. VanderBrooks also failed in trying to breed giant cockroaches. Let that sink in for a second. GIANT, freakin' cockroaches! That kind of result only comes from steroids and gamma rays.

It is news like this that make me glad that I am a layman. Because, in all honestly, if I was a scientist dabbling in the field of genetic engineering or some other exotic scientific discipline, I'd probably be doing the same thing. I just would be doing it for the right reasons. Like world domination.



Doctor Doom would approve of this.


Hand-Made Animatronic Krang Costume or "Shredder, Where Is My Halloween Candy?"

I know Halloween is over. I know that all the little ghouls and goblins have gone back to their lairs and have probably devoured like 90% of their candy. But when I found this video of a hand-made animatronic & VERY TMNT cartoon accurate Krang costume, I just had to share this with you all.



And the best part? Actress and musician Melissa Dunphy, aka mormolyke on YouTube, created this for her husband.

That's love, ladies and gentlemen.

(Via Great White Snark)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Back from a recent hiatus...

Hello Authentic Geeks,

Well it's certainly been a while since I last posted...sorry. Life's been happening at 1000 kph lately, a new job, a new music interface, a new lady; but I'm finally used to the rapid acceleration and my life has settled somewhat giving me time for the creativity and the creation of blog-posts to add to the already mountainous pile of opinions and fan-leakage.

Speaking of which, I decided to make my return after a long hiatus about a similar return after long hiatus with D.C.'s new straight to graphic novel, "Superman: Earth One" written by J. Michael Straczynski and penciled by Shane Davis. I wanted my return to posting to be all happy and "This S#%T is AWESOME!!!" but sadly this S#%T was just mediocre and ultimatly...kinda S#!^^Y and I'd never lie to you Authentic Geeks...

"Superman: Earth One" is the first in D.C.'s new line of straight to market graphic novels set in a re-imagined D.C. Universe where all of our favourite super heros are about to make their first impact upon an unsuspecting world in the year 2010. It's an attempt to reinvigorate our favourite characters that are lagging under years and years of continuity. It gives them new life and new freedom. Sometimes our heros get new powers, sometimes the powers are the same, but the way the hero gets them or how the hero uses them are different. However the re-imagining goes, it is almost always a great idea for comic books, it not only gives new life to old heros, but it brings the characters new relevance to a younger fan-base, that may have otherwise overlooked them as old or outdated characters.

This is not a new tactic for comic books at all, in fact resetting the continuity of a comic univers is so common place, I wonder why it's taken D.C. this long to do it at all. I mean Marvel's been doing it for the last 10 years with their Ultimate comics, all the recent money-making comic book movies have involved a rebooted continuity; hell, D.C. were the one's that pioneered continuity re-sets in the first place with the Crisis on Infinite Earths! What gives D.C.?!? Why so long, huh?

Well at least they got the project done, and for a first outing, "Superman: Earth One" is a lot of fun; the art is very pretty and the story is engaging. However, I still feel like I enjoyed Marvel's re-imagined Ultimate universe more than D.C.'s recent outing.

For starters, I must say that I love J. Michael Straczynski, but there are parts of this book that it feels like he just phoned in. While Straczynski does a good job of presenting Superman in a modern, somewhat grittier context; he's making some rookie mistakes here. Mistakes that he even spends time bitching about himself through the voice of Daily Planet editor Perry White.

The first time we ever meet Perry he has a run-in with Lois over a paragraph that got edited out of Lois's article because the paragraph was redundant. Later in the story we hear Perry congratulating Lois and Jimmy Olsen on their coverage of Superman's first appearance, Perry compliments their courage and how they stayed and got the truth while everyone else ran. Perry then celebrates the fact that the Planet is the only paper to get the exclusive images and interviews with Superman because they are poor, and could use the circulation.

One page later, I kid you not, ONE page later we see Clark apply for a job is cornered by Lois and Jimmy as to why he came to the Planet. Clark replies that he did so because he was there at Superman's first battle and he saw how Lois and Jimmy didn't run, how they stood their ground and got the truth and...wait, haven't I heard this before? Oh, and then there was this great joke where the Daily Planet is all poor and losing money but suddenly all the other news corporations start calling because they want the rights to show the exclusive Daily Planet images and Perry's all telling them no and it's all vindicating and...wait...didn't I just get that emotion like two pages ago..?

But that's not all. Straczynski goes to all of the trouble of setting up some really interesting plot-threads, and then he unravels them all in the same page that he sets them up!
***<--Spoilers-->***
Like first Straczynski hints that maybe Krypton didn't just explode, but that maybe it had been destroyed on purpose!!! OOHHH, Awesome, cool idea I like it. Then he not only tells us that, yes in fact, it was destroyed on purpose; but he also shows us an alien from the race that did it, AND the Alien spends a few pages nicely detailing out exactly who he is, why and even how his race destroyed Krypton. Gee...thanks for that J. Michael...I was just hoping that you'd spoon feed me the plot like that...It always sucks when a main character has to find things out through stuff like hard-work and junk.

But he's still not done; we actually have to suffer through a description of how Supermans' powers work and how they are different now. Okay, I'll admit that the powers are pretty cool. Basically, the difference is that all Kryptonians are solar batteries and they get different powers from different kinds of solar radiation. White Stars, Dwarf Stars, Pulsars all have different effects; that's pretty cool!

But who tells us this fact and how do we learn it, is is something that makes sense like the computer aboard the spaceship that Superman crashed in? Nope, nothing like that...Superman learns about his powers from none other than the alien that is on Earth to kill Superman and finish the work he started with Krypton; cause it makes total sense that an Alien bent on Killing Superman would want to tell him exactly how all of his powers work... I mean this must be the most helpful Alien Warlord ever.

But it get's worse, later the alien tells Superman that his ship is made of metal that is almost as indestructible as the metal that Superman's ship is made of. He basically tells Superman that his ship will blow up if he rams it. It's like telling the other guy in a fight "Pardon Sir, but you might like to try kicking me in the Nards, it's this place right between my legs where I keep my reproductive organs" or "Do keep in mind that my indestructible bullet proof armour is slightly less hard than your bullets".

Then, just as the alien is being defeated, with his final breath he whispers "but you still don't know about...". MAN, this guy is helpful, Superman just killed him and he's still trying to tell him secrets. I mean, what's next?!? Are we going to see Lex Luthor voluntarily give up after Superman tells him that it's mean to hurt people?

But that's not the only let down's either. The art often looks really pretty and all gritty and shaded to look as real as possible, but the poses the characters take are just...mundane.

Like the first time we ever see Superman in full costume, he's just standing there. Well, he's flying, but he's just kinda standing there in mid-air. I mean, his arms are hanging straight down, his legs are hip distance appart; he just looks like he's going for a stroll. His fists should be on his hips spreading his arms in giant triangles and making his chest look impossibly huge and powerful. He should have a heroic stance with his feet at least shoulder width appart looking dynamic and god-like. In this shot, he looks like he's going to cry and have an emo-fart.

All in all "Superman: Earth One" is an interesting project, but I'd get it from the library and not shell out the $20 for it. While it is nice to get a hard-cover graphic novel for $20, the story and art are sadly ordinary, they are professional and they work, but it's nothing that I haven't seen before, and isn't that what this project is supposed to be about?

http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/graphic_novels/?gn=15325