December 2011 - Izmovies - Watch Full New Movies movies Youtube

Escape to the Movies: "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"

Liked it, didn't love it.

"Intermission" does the year look-back thing.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

American Classic Arcade Museum Seeks Your Help!

hat-tip: Kotaku.

The American Classic Arcade Museum is seeking donations to aquire several rare classic arcade machines - including Discs of Tron! - from a private collector. I've made a donation, and I encourage any readers who are able/willing to do the same. Read on past the jump for details.

The American Classic Arcade Museum (ACAM) is located within a famous New Hampshire family entertainment complex called "The Funspot," which many of you may have seen in the film "King of Kong." While "Funspot" itself is a business, the ACAM is a registered nonprofit operation dedicated to not only collecting vintage arcade machines but also preserving them to be played by "Funspot" visitors. A private collector has offered to sell them five classic game machines that would be "new" to their collection - Space Dungeon, Mad Planets, Discs of Tron and Black Widow - and ACAM is asking for donations to raise the $1,840.00 needed to purchase the lot on their main website page via the "chip-in" widget.

Some of the happiest memories I have are of going to The Funspot during yearly family vacations to the NH area. The "museum" concept is relatively new, a response to the place's newfound prominence at the start of the Retro-Gaming boom - for the longest time they were simply a place that chose to keep their HUGE collection of game machines in working order rather than junking them for new ones. As a result, they have one of the BEST collections of vintage games - many of them extremely rare (they have a standup "Chiller" cabinet!) - that you can visit and play.

They have not asked me to post this information on these blogs - I am doing so to give back to both a good cause and a specific organization that has brought me a lot of good times over the years. I encourage any fans, readers etc. with a few bucks to spare to considering kicking some their way. The amount they're trying to raise is not very high, and you'll not only be supporting the good cause of classic game preservation - you'll be helping these games be placed in a REAL arcade where they can be rediscovered and enjoyed by new generations of gamers who might otherwise never have the chance.

Here is the link once again. My sincerest thanks to everyone who chips in, and to Funspot/ACAM for doing what they do. I'm planning to visit the place again this Summer, and it sure would be a kick to take a turn at that Discs of Tron machine when I do.

Told You So

So... yeah, after doing two episodes about "The Simpsons" still being funny, I realized I hadn't actually watched this year's Xmas episode, so I did. Fox made it available HERE on their website, though I watched it On Demand.

It's another "possible future" episode, this one set in a timeline where Bart and Lisa both grow up to be parents themselves. To my mind, it's easily one of the best episodes I've seen in awhile - good enough to have been a Season 5 or 6 episode (or at least a current installment of Futurama.) Seriously, give it a watch. (SPOILERS after the jump.)

SPOILERS:

This is the first "future" episode where Homer and Marge actually seem to have personality changes beyond "older" - Marge has a shorter temper and seems a touch jaded, while Homer is sober(!!!) and seemingly more intelligent and good-natured as result. I like that.

Running joke about Dearborn, Michigan is edgy as hell by Simpsons standards, to the point where it verged on being out of place. But yeah, I laughed.

So, at least according to this timeline, Lisa Simpson is bisexual as a grownup. I like that the "reveal" passes without comment, but it runs one extra beat so you can tell they wanted you to catch it. I know a few BIG fans of Lisa who I can picture turning cartwheels at this... and also a few desperate continuity-obsessives who'll be furious that this contradicts the character in the "President Lisa" timeline's claim to being "the first straight female president.

This is the first "Simpsons Future" I can say I'd be legitimately interested in seeing them revisit. In particular, I'd LOVE to know the story behind the blink-and-you'll-miss-it detail as to the fate of a certain ex-Krusty Sidekick - I feel like it must have been either Bart or Homer who finally did the deed, but I can't decide which would be more awesome (leaning toward Homer.)

Big Picture: "The Simpsons Is Still Funny - Part II"

The Escapist : The Big Picture : The Simpsons Is Still Funny, Part 2

Escape to the Movies: "War Horse"

Happy Holidays.

"Intermission" is about the Batman Trailer.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : War Horse

History

As part of a longstanding tradition, U.S. Navy ships will - upon returning home - select a sailor to descend to the dock ahead of the others and share the first "homecoming" kiss with their significant other (and, one presumes, with new photographers looking to take "their version" of the famous V-Day photo.)

On December 21st of this year, said tradition once again became part of history as - for the first time ever - an "official" first-kiss was shared by a same-sex couple:

PHOTO: Brian Clark, The Virginian-Pilot

The lucky couple in question are Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta and Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell. Gaeta (in the hat) was the returnee, having purchased $50 worth of tickets in her ship's (The USS Oak Hill) charity raffle where the honor was the prize.

Photo is credited to one Brian Clark of The Virginian-Pilot. I hope his contract let's him retain some rights to it so he can get a cut of the royalties as this almost-certainly winds up in history books, newsreels and museum displays from now until the forseeable future.

The Greatest Adventure Is What Lies Ahead

Fuck. Yes.

Ten years ago, the "Lord of The Rings" movies stepped into both a blockbuster-filmmaking realm and a movie-geek culture realm - both of which hurting in the wake of "The Phantom Menace" debacle - and completely rewrote the book. I don't think that's exaggerating - I firmly believe that the "21st Century Model" of film-geekdom begins with this series, which took every concievable creative and financial risk and paid them off with a singular filmmaking achievement that in my mind has yet to be equalled.

...and now we get to go back.

Ye gods... hearing that Howard Shore score kick back up on the soundtrack... seeing The Shire again... it feels like coming home. This is, literally, the LEAST stressed I have felt all December.

This, my friends, is THE movie of 2012 as far as I'm concerned. Batman? Small potatoes. Avengers? Slightly-prettier small potatoes. Spider-Man? Don't even start.

Here's That Batman Trailer

Somehow or another I forgot to post this in the wake of every other website on Earth posting it. Here we go.

Big Picture: "The Simpsons Is Still Funny - Part I"

The Escapist : The Big Picture : The Simpsons Is Still Funny - Pt. 1

"Wrath of The Titans" Will Probably Sucker You In, Again

I didn't dislike "Clash of The Titans," but I also don't remember hardly any of it. In any case, even though no one seems to have really "loved" it it managed to make a MASSIVE international profit theatrically; so Warner Bros. made another one.

The trailer is selling "monsters, monsters and more monsters;" and I wish I wasn't such an easy lay for this stuff: Show me a Cyclops (and guy made of lava, and what I think is a gryphon) and I've pretty-much bought a ticket. Oh well...

Kim Jong Il is Dead

Reports are still coming in, but the title says it all: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, one of the worst and most brutal dictators on Earth, is dead tonight.

Power will almost-certainly pass, however symbolically, to his son Kim Jong Un - who is reputed to be either legitimately insane, mentally-impaired or both - though it's almost a foregone conclusion that the myriad military/government officials who're alleged to have been the real operators during the elder Kim's dotage (he's been in failing health for years) will be vying to either take power themselves OR get the hell out of dodge with whatever they can carry in the event that the house of cards collapses entirely.

I feel more than a little crass doing to the "blah blah something HUGELY important happened somewhere that's not America... but here's how it will effect America!" hard-segue, but this is really the only thing definite you can say about this right now: Any illusions that Barack Obama or his various would-be Republican challengers may have had that with Iraq "finished" and Afghanistan winding down this would be a strictly meat-and-potatoes "domestic issues" presidential election just evaporated. If you are the "China Policy Advisor" to an American politician, you are very likely about to learn that you are working this Christmas.

Here's the situation: Setting aside the very real long-held concerns that Kim Jong Un (who is essentially a mystery - no one even knows how OLD he actually is outside of the NK government) will not have the official loyalty or ability to hold the system together; this is almost certain to cause a significant amount "rumbling" in the nation itself, which will be most-directly felt at it's borders with China and South Korea (the former of which is seperated by a demilitarized zone patroled by U.S. forces) both of whom will be looking to their American allies to help out (or, in China's case, "back off") with management of what could be a 'failed state' crisis at their respective borders. Here's to hoping things don't get too much worse for North Korea's impoverished citizens, in any case.

Place your bets now as to which GOP Presidential candidate will have the dumbest thing to say about this tomorrow morning.

Green Goblin Makeup Test Appears Online

Below, test-footage of an unused makeup-concept for Willem Dafoe's "Green Goblin" makeup (before they went with the mechanical helmet design instead) by ADI. Left unsaid is whether this was intended to be a (very) elaborate rubber mask like in the comics or some kind of full-on physical transformation...

Characters like this go through LOTS of designs on their way to the screen, and it's not unusual at all to see full-functioning suits, appliances and props being made to test them out. The reason you very seldom SEE any of them is that the studio/license-holder owns the rights to the character AND the work and usually doesn't want them shown for one reason or another.

So why would you be seeing it now? Probably no reason. Maybe because Sony is testing the waters for what GG should look like when he innevitably turns up in the rebooted series? Who knows.

Escape to the Movies: "The Adventures of Tintin"

Very, very good.

Wondering where my feelings on the (extremely mediocre) "Mission: Impossible" and (shockingly terrible) "Sherlock Holmes" sequels are? Right here...

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : The Adventures of Tin TIn

Extended Teaser For "Expendables 2"

Better? Worse? I dunno...

Big Picture: "If The Oscars Were The VGAs"

What if Hollywood's big award show sucked as much as gaming's?

The Escapist : The Big Picture : If the Oscars Were the VGAs

Cobra Commander Looks Like Cobra Commander

I'm "that guy" who really liked Stephen Sommers' first "G.I. Joe" movie. Yeah, it was far from perfect - mostly thanks to having been a "strike script" victim - but from where I sat it more-or-less delivered a faithful-in-tone adaptation of the animated series and comics (read: aggressively silly scifi-military nonsense as-envisioned by 8-year olds playing with action figures) and I maintain that most of the excessively-negative reactions would've been greatly reduced if it had been the same movie but with more source-accurate costuming...

...which more or less seems to be what the out-of-nowhere AWESOME debut trailer for the sequel, "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," is offering:

The new director is John M. Chu, who's mostly made dance and concert movies up to this point. At some point he'd made some noise about this one going "dark and gritty," but this looks like anything but: It's the same basic look and feel as the first one, just with bigger action heroes in the cast (The Rock is "RoadBlock," who is apparently our new lead, while Bruce Willis is supposedly playing a retired soldier named "Joe" from whom the organization derives it's name) and characters like Cobra Commander, Snake Eyes and Jinx (Jinx? For real?) looking more like they're "supposed to." But does that make it look "better?"

...Yeah, kinda. I'll admit it: Seeing Cobra Commander in the blue uniform with the mirrored-faceplate is all kinds of awesome, I'm always a sucker for color-coded ninjas and the 'money shot' of the Cobra Flag flying over the White House is sort of incredible.

I wonder how "seriously" to take the storyline implications in this particular trailer, though - are they really so committed to the "sorry about the last one" angle that they'll kill off everyone from the first one except Snake Eyes, which is what the trailer is implying?

I'm not quite ready to change my "innevitably recieved as a dissapointment, regardles of it's actual merits" projection of "The Dark Knight Rises." But the new poster, which builds on the idea that this is the end of the story as opposed to just the part where they stop, has a lot of promise.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If they did go all the way and kill Batman, that would be the kind of ballsy move that could concievably "top" the last one.

All Wet

Here's that new trailer for "Battleship," the naval-centered sequel to "Battle: LA" (remember that?) that nobody asked for:

I'm still fairly curious about this, as I kinda like the idea that Berg basically wanted to make a navy vs. aliens movie and got it done by offering to name it after the board game... but it's hard to stay optimistic when it still looks so much like "Transformers" on the water.

Also: Is that the Freedom Tower they're blowing up?

~~Also: Is Rihanna doing a Carribbean accent?~~ EDIT: Apparently that's her real speaking (as opposed to singing) voice... which I now realize I had never actually heard until now.

When I first saw this (origin: SuperHeroHype) as a partial-view on my smartphone I kind of loved it - great design, if nothing else. Then I scrolled down to the bottom and burst out laughing in public.

They're really selling a revisitation of what may be (at least!) the 3rd most widely-known superhero "origin story" EVER as "The Untold Story?" The origin of Spider-Man is the definition of a TOLD story! It's not even as though it's a "prequel" to the previously-made movies and is going to reveal some "untold" part of that continuity; it's just a new version of the same exact fucking story! That's as close to a full-blown lie as a poster can tell!

But... whatever. What it does make me wonder (again) is what they might have meant when they put this together. What is "the untold story?"

Of all the things that set off my alarm bells about the godawful first trailer for the film, the most glaring was that the death (dissappearance?) of Peter Parker's actual parents - and satchel full of mysterious-documents they left behind - was revealed as some kind of big driving point for the plot (the big final line of the trailer was "We all have secrets. The ones you keep... and the one's kept from you.")

Of all the convoluted nonsense that Spidey's backstory has accrued over the years, the detail that Richard and Mary Parker were actually Bond-style secret agents is one of the dopiest; but as part of a movie continuity it gives off the bad vibes of some "big thing" that 'coincidentally' connects all the current and future characters together as opposed to "weird super-science stuff happens all the time around here" worldbuilding.

Best guess? They'll be revealed to have been "taken out" because of some nefarious doings related to Oscorp (the company's name is on Gwen Stacy's and Curt Conners' labcoats in the trailer) which will in turn be the "source" of both The Lizard and sundry baddies to come (oh, and they'll tease The Green Goblin at the end a'la The Joker.)

Am I the only one that hates when they do that? Joker being the Wayne's killer in the Tim Burton "Batman," Sandman shooting Uncle Ben in "Spider-Man 3," etc? It always makes the "world" so small and narrow. I know why it's there from a screenwriting 101 standpoint, connecting the threads and whatnot - but it kills out the "scope" factor of having the various villains and/or other "super" people existing independently of the main character until their paths cross. Like... in "Captain America," I LOVE that the Cosmic Cube has zero connection to Cap until The Red Skull has it, and that even then it has nothing to do with why The Skull is what he is; or how S.H.I.E.L.D. is not exclusively devoted to looking for Thor, they're just "there" and they've brought an archery-themed superhero with them "because why not?" It makes everything so much more expansive and adds so much more potential.

Escape to the Movies: "The Sitter"

Not great.

"Intermission" is about movie theaters.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : The Sitter

ANNOUNCEMENT: Come See MovieBob At ARISIA '12!

...And, hey! Did you see the NEW "Game OverThinker?"

Anyway, I can now announce that I'll be out and about at Arisia '12 - a big Boston Area scifi/fantasy/fandom convention running January 13th-16th you can learn more about HERE. At this time I can't officially announce where/when you'll be able to see me appearing in an "official" capacity (i.e. panels, speaking, discussions, etc;) but I'll also be around "the floor" so feel free to say hi if you happen to be onhand as well.

I'm also planning on being at PAXEast again this year as well, though details on that are still aways off. Stay tuned!

"Three Stooges" Looks Worse Than You Thought

Apple has the trailer for the Farrelly Bros. modern reboot of "The Three Stooges." I'll post an embed when I get one, but for now go and feel my pain.

Ye gods, what did anyone do to deserve this? For all the care taken to get the actors looking "right" and match the old-timey sound effects; how did NO ONE notice (or care) that they have NONE of the actual Stooges' gift for physical comedy? And are we really, honestly doing "sexy nun" jokes in 2011?

Big Picture: "Favorite Ms.Take - Part II"

And so it ends. Watch the first part HERE.

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Favorite Ms. Take - Part 2

"Cabin in The Woods" FINALLY Has a Trailer

Put together by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard YEARS ago but shelved when MGM collapsed, "Cabin in The Woods" is finally coming out. You should just watch this trailer. Now. Without any other context:

That'll do.

THIS Is Why People Think Republicans Are Stupid.

It is, let's be honest - just as it's not fair that my "Liberal" friends get stereotyped as weak and/or wimpy; it's a little unfair that my Republican friends get stereotyped as being idiots. Granted, running presidential candidates who reject the scientific facts of things like evolution, climate change, or in general hold science and knowledge as inferior to "belief" doesn't really help their case.

Also not helping their case? Doing a 7 minute segment on Fox Business attacking "The Muppets" for "brainwashing" children with an anti-corporate message. (Summary of charges? The bad guy is an oil magnate named Tex Richman.)

Less-Than-Thrilling "Star Trek" Bad Guy Rumors

EDIT: Somehow, this initially went up without the page-break I intended. My appologies.

This has been "news" for a few days now, but I wanted to chew it over before posting anything. Plus, weekend and all that...

So... Internet Lore has it that I "hated" JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot; which is basically untrue - I didn't really care much for it, and I think it's kind of telling that the "return of Trek as a super-relevant franchise" thing that it was supposed to kick off has more-or-less failed to materialize - let's be real for a moment: the Geek Culture "organism" has been obsessing over "what's gonna happen in 'The Avengers'" since the end of "Iron Man"... how much chatter or even excitement has there been over "New Trek" since the movie? - but mostly I was underwhelmed.

Anyway! Latino Review claims to have the scoop as to the identity of the (presumed) villain Benicio Del Toro is playing in the sequel. POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE ON OUT!/

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According to LR's sources - and they are known for having really, REALLY good intel - he'll be Khan Noonien Singh, pretty-much THE most widely-recognized Trek villain (moreso because of "Wrath of Khan" than his origins on the original series.)

This has pretty-much been what most people have been assuming (again, Khan is really the only Trek heavy that EVERYONE has heard of) since the beginning... and while there have already been a slew of denials from the filmmakers that means very little at this point, as Devin at BAD points out "extreme truth-stretching" is standard-issue for movie rumor denials these days.

In any case, IF true it's kinda dissapointing news from where I sit.

Mainly, it smacks of taking the easy route: This was what everyone assumed the 2nd movie would be before they shot the FIRST movie. By the same token, it smacks of Abrams and company's strictly-superficial read of the franchise: Khan is iconic mainly because of "Wrath of Khan" - which they probably aren't going to remake (in no small part because they already 'borrowed' the basic skeleton of Khan's story in that film for Nero in the last movie.) "Space Seed" - the Young Kirk era episode that introduced the character - had previously been prized mostly for it's world-building; one of the few Original Series episodes to offer some tidbits about what had happened in Trek's history between the audience's present and the Federation-era future (short version: Khan is a genetically-engineered superhuman who became a would-be conquerer during the delightfully-named "Eugenics Wars," later discovered hibernating in a spaceship by The Enterprise.)

Basically; if this is true it means that despite re-booting the entire Trek universe and thus having the option of using ANY character (or making up a new one) they'd be going for a retread of the most popular movie in the pre-reboot series. This isn't automatically indicative of anything, of course - maybe THIS will be the screenplay where Team Abrams finally delivers - but it's not a terribly encouraging sign.

Also... not to nitpick here, but if it IS going to be Khan... with all due respect to Del Toro, it would've been nice if they could've found an Indian actor for the role. Khan is supposed to be a Sikh, after all - and it's not like there aren't a metric-ton of good Indian actors who could really benefit from a breakout part like this (not to mention it could mean HUGE boxoffice in the increasingly-important India market.) Casting him with another Spanish actor - a good one, don't get me wrong - once again smells unpleasantly of a surface-only read of the series. Plus, let's be honest, the ONLY way for a new Khan to stand on his own merit is for him to be as far removed from Ricardo Montalban's version as possible.

We'll see.

Today's Pointless, Doomed-to-Suck Reboot is "Starship Troopers"

The problem with Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" is the problem I worry "John Carter" has - being a 'seminal classic' also means that by the time you get to the movies everyone else has already borrowed all the original stuff. Which is why, to my mind, Paul Verhoeven's "Troopers" movie did the only thing you could really DO with the propert after decades of military scifi had picked it's bones clean: Turn Heinlein's quasi-fascist army-fetishism into a scathing - and kind of brilliant - scorched-earth throttling of every bullshit pro-war propaganda flick ever made. I still maintain that, if not for pre-dating the "War On Terror" by many years, it would be the best movie about the "War On Terror" ever made.

So, of course, it's being rebooted.

It would be crazy for them to try and mimic the tone of the first film (or the sequels,) so expect talk of "going back to the source," which will probably also include actually utilizing the "powered robot-suits" that the first film skipped for budgetary reasons. I'm sure it'll result in a serviceable, visually-attractive film... just not one with much going on under the hood.

I could be wrong, of course..

Today I Like McDonalds

I understand and sympathize with the attitude behind San Francisco's goofy "Happy Meal Ban." Yeah, my latent libertarian streak says that if your stupid enough to think a $1 hamburger (which is NOT, by the way, the cheapest food you can get in most areas where such poverty is a major problem so please spare me the histrionics) prepared in 30 seconds is proper day-to-day nutrition you deserve what you get. To some people "too dumb to live" is a cute hyperbolic insult - to me, it often sounds like a solid catch-all public policy...

BUT, that said, I completely "get" not wanting children to suffer for the stupidity of their parents. So yeah, I get where they're coming from; but it's still a foolish, pointless move from a city that seems to have lost it's ability to distinguish between worthwhile liberal social-policy and cartoonish parodies of what right-wing dipshits think liberals are about.

Which is why - despite my mixed feelings on the Fast Food industry (on the one hand I'm not "against" corporations 'preying' on idiots, on the other hand... y'know, kids don't get to choose whether or not they're born to idiot parents) I straight-up LOVE McDonalds' ingeniously dickish "fuck you!" to the ban:

See, SF made a law that said you can't include FREE toy prizes in "kids meals" that don't comply with city nutritional standards; which, of course, seem precisely built to exclude pretty-much anything McDonalds might sell. McD's solution? Raise the price of a Happy Meal by a dime, make the toys something you have to ask for, and call the dime the "price" of the toy. Oh, and that dime? They're giving it to charity. Fuck yeah. Take a bow, Ronald.

To show my solidarity, one appreciator of a high-quality loophole-leaping "fuck you" to another, I'll be making it a point to eat some McDonalds today - y'know, after a 2,000 calorie workout, of course. I haven't been in awhile, what should I get?

Escape to the Movies: "Hugo"

I liked it.

"Intermission" is about movies mimicking movies.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : Hugo

"John Carter" Looking Better

Much as I liked what the first "John Carter" trailer was implying, the buzz since then has been shaky - fans who got a look at a sizzle reel during D23 were largely underwhelmed; and the suspiciously expection-lowering-esque "leaked" reports of budget runovers and the ongoing issue of the title (WHY can't they add in "Of Mars" again?) haven't helped. I want this to work, but I'm not getting that same "holy shit, they NAILED IT!" vibe the first "Lord of The Rings" trailers had.

This new one... is a step in the right direction. I'm still coming to terms with the decidedly un-Martian look of Mars (I'm wondering if they intend "I'm on Mars" to be some kind of surprise-reveal?) and the practical/semirealism look of the the tech and creatures... but that's an expectation thing, I think - adhering to either Burrough's persistent "going native" fetishism OR the gloriously-overblown Frazetta paintings that have defined this franchise visually for so long were never really options for a Disney actioner.

At this point, my bigger worry is that it doesn't look all that much "different" from Star Wars or a dozen other similar offerings, which is problematic considering how 'traditional' the narrative is by now. That said, the use of Led Zepplin (which couldn't have been cheap) goes a long way toward giving the whole thing a very "ostentatious album-cover" feel, so we'll see.

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