Thursday, February 18, 2010

THE DORK KNIGHT RETURNS.

Well, I've returned. Its been just about a month since my last article and a lot happened since then. I moved out, filed my taxes, got ZOMBIELAND and GHOSTBUSTERS on bluray, and made tacos. And then for a long time, nothing happened. BUT, there were a few notable things that happened that I'd like to share with you, and here they are;







NERDS IN PARADISE

If you know me then you know I love video games, LOVE video games. I'm kind of an event guy when it comes to games, if theres any high profile game coming out soon im involuntarily attracted to it. So theres a game called BIOSHOCK 2 that just came out, and I could not wait to play it. I loved the original BIOSHOCK and have been waiting patiently to acquire the new one. It was about 1 week away from the day it was scheduled to come out and my brother and I went to a SHMAME SHTOP to pick up a game. As I walked in I saw a promo poster for a BIOSHOCK 2 midnight release and I got excited. I'm a huge fan promotional events for releases or store openings, and useless free swag. Over the years I've attended 'Free Comic Book Day', opening day to THE PHANTOM MENACE, Gay Pride Festival, a grand opening to a MaxIt pawn shop, and plenty of parking lot events with bungie launchers and free mountain dew sponsored by radio stations. SO if I could get the game as early as possible AND possibly get free stuff, I was gonna show up. I walked over to the only person working at the game store, who happened to be a girl. A nerd girl. This girl had Nintendo tattoos all over and looked like she knew a lot about games, so naturally I let down my nerd shield and walked over to her to ask about the midnight release.




Think this, but EVERYWHERE.

SO I walk to the counter as shes ringing somebody up and answering some other nerd's question and I ask, "What's going to happen at the BIOSHOCK midnight release?". Without even looking up she says, "I don't really know..." and makes the most disgusted face. I let my nerd guard down for a girl who I thought had my back, but instead says "Hmm, I dont know, you fuuuckin nerd, you get the game then go home and ignore your girlfriend?". She didnt say that but pretty much. I hope I didnt offend her in some way by acknowledging that she worked at a video game store and asking her a question. Would've been nice if a dude had been working there to warn me that this game chick was hardcore. Oh well, I learned my lesson; no matter how convincing they may be, NEVER let your nerd guard down for any girl. Even girls who watch Heroes and play Halo. Because when you tell them you still haven't "Caught them all", or explain how SPIDER-MAN 3 was shit, or sing along to a Weird Al song and they give you that blank yet terrified look like youre gonna ask them for help loading a couch in your van then trap them in, you'll regret it, and your first edition Charizard card can't rescue from that shit. Keep your inner nerd where it belongs, tucked deeply away, like that Ruy headband I got for free with Street Fighter IV, and only revealed to those who understand. And if you see that girl at the game store who hates men, or possibly just non-Nintendo games, tell her I plan on getting a new tattoo myself...

















I GET THAT A LOT

Recently I discovered that I lived next to a certain bar that has sand in it. My friends and I had been visiting this bar for a few weeks now and decided to go back one weekend. It was Me, Sabrina, Jeepsus, Nick the Ginger, and The Spear. We went to this bar with sand, and everything was going hunky dory, we were talking, drinking, people were spilling things, all was going well. Then the girls at the bar decided to take pictures in front of our table, and Jeepsus decided to photobomb them. For those who dont know, Photobombing is the art of sticking your face, dick , or leg into the background of some unsuspecting bastard's photo as they are taking it, thus bombing the photo. So Jeepsus stuck his face in the background of some dude and drunk chick taking pictures and this chick thinks its HILARIOUS. And she begins talking to Jeepsus, probably about how funny he is, so he talks to this chick for a while. Meanwhile myself, Sabrina, Nick the Ginger, and The Spear are all just kicking it at the table, waiting for Jeepsus to either get this girl to dance or make fun of her and so far neither has happened yet. Then it happens. This girl looks at our party, looks straight at me, POINTS, and says "RAYYY!!!". Of course refering to Ray Romano and my supposed likeness to him. Things almost got Snooki.


An example of things getting all "Snooki".

Don't know what getting "Snooki" means? Don't watch Jersey Shore? Me neither, so here is a different translation I think most of you will understand.

Yeah that's it. That's the image. THAT played in my brain at that moment. I have never wanted to punch a girl so bad in my life (that week). Not to say that punching a girl is ok, It's NOT. But punching a BEAST, thats a different story. I picked those two pictures for a reason, the ONLY difference between them is the background and the direction of the punches. The creature being punched remains unchanged. But worry not huckleberries, I didn't punch anybody that night. I wouldn't have even been that mad if she hadn't laughed like she had just seen Oprah Winfrey backflip onto a group of midgets painted like M&Ms, which she DID. As mad as I was, I couldnt stay mad. Because I was simply the victim of instant Karma. EXTREMELY instant Karma, almost Drive-Thru Karma. I'll Explain.

Earlier that night I had seen a dude who looked JUST like that guy on SUPERBAD who goes to some party to use the phone then gets his ass kicked. And I told EVERYBODY. I made it my mission to soft shoe around everybody at my table and alert them AT LEAST twice about the dude from SUPERBAD who was at our very own bar with sand in it. I may or may not or may have also sneaked a picture of him to prove to my friends that he existed. So when I remembered all that, it was impossible for me to stay mad at drunk girl because I had just done the same thing that very night. And I'm sure she didn't mean any harm by it, she was drunk and excited, and possibly high. But still, I'll always remember that night as the night I almost successfully Hadukened for the first time in human history, at the bar with sand.

Until next time...

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

500 Days Of Spider-Man

It started like this; Sam Raimi, the director of the first 2 SPIDER-MAN movies, was given the chance to direct SPIDER-MAN 3, logically. So he accepted, and wanted the villains to be Sandman and Hobgoblin. Well Sony, the studio who owns SPIDER-MAN wanted the main villain to be VENOM, kind like the rest of the fans. Raimi protested, and admitted that he was not a fan of Venom as a villain and did not think he could properly translate him to film. Sony didn't care. So against his will Raimi worked VENOM/Eddie Brock into the story, while still keeping his own two villains in tact. Well this imposed a struggle upon Raimi, trying to make a film that he wanted to make, and at the same time keep it from becoming a movie he DID NOT want to make. Well, we got SPIDER-MAN 3. Due to the strong negative opinions of fans, Raimi decided to never put himself in that situation again. That he would only make a movie if his whole heart was in it, and not battle with the studio and producers to keep his film from becoming somebody elses.

Well Sony wanted to make SPIDER-MAN 4, and offered Sam Raimi the job. Rami agreed, seeing this as an opportunity to make a new SM movie that can make up for what he did in SM3. Then Sony played the same crap and had all these provisions Raimi had to follow in order to make the movie, and Raimi quit. And so did Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and everybody else that was involved with the film.

Sony made the quick decision to rewrite the already written script into a 'reboot' of the franchise and hire an all new cast and crew to start SPIDER-MAN fresh. And today Mark Webb, director of this summer's surprise success 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, signed on to direct THE NEXT 3 SPIDER-MAN MOVIES. Is this good? Is this bad? A little of both, but for now, I'm leaning on the good. Although I personally didn't enjoy 500 DOS as much as everybody else, but it had solid direction. Visually it was very impressive, even marvelous they way everything looked and how certain scenes were handled. Webb has a way of bringing out those 'odd' emotions that aren't as standard as 'happy' and 'sad'. But at the same time, the man has little to no experience with action scenes, and some of the most amazing action scenes came from the Spider-Man movies.

It's rumored (and assumed) that Sony is going with a 'Batman Begins' style reboot. Hopefully that DOESNT mean that it will be a real world, gritty, serious drama and instead means that they develop the characters and then reveal the superhero half way during the movie. Whether we get a good or bad movie, we will definitely get a fresh Spider-Man movie under a talented up and coming director, and a superhero movie that I can't wait to see.