Geek News You Should Know: 6/30/14

1) Transformers: Age of Extinction dominated the box office this weekend breaking $100 million.  No other new movies were released wide this weekend making Transformers dominance even easier.  Age of Extincition brought in $41.6 million opening day which was the best for any movie in 2014. This was the 2nd biggest opening for a Transformers movie yet behind Revenge of the Fallen and a very good way to get this summer, which has been lagging at the box office, a boost.  22 Jump Street finished second at $15.8 million.  Here is the top ten grosses this weekend courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	Transformers: Age of Extinction	Par.	$100,038,390	-	4,233	-	$23,633	$100,038,390	$210	1
2	2	22 Jump Street	Sony	$15,842,375	-42.3%	3,426	+120	$4,624	$140,279,267	$50	3
3	3	How to Train Your Dragon 2	Fox	$13,237,697	-46.4%	3,750	-518	$3,530	$121,952,229	$145	3
4	1	Think Like a Man Too	SGem	$10,316,397	-64.7%	2,225	-	$4,637	$48,084,757	$24	2
5	5	Maleficent	BV	$8,376,674	-35.1%	3,073	-377	$2,726	$202,010,064	$180	5
6	4	Jersey Boys	WB	$7,712,264	-42.1%	2,905	-	$2,655	$27,444,750	$40	2
7	6	Edge of Tomorrow	WB	$5,404,290	-45.0%	2,535	-677	$2,132	$84,348,922	$178	4
8	7	The Fault in our Stars	Fox	$5,130,777	-40.1%	2,845	-495	$1,803	$109,875,795	$12	4
9	8	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Fox	$3,321,427	-46.0%	2,014	-667	$1,649	$223,414,899	$200	6
10	10	Chef	ORF	$1,657,391	-3.0%	801	-160	$2,069	$19,413,442	-	8

2) Doctor Who Season 8 will be coming sooner than most people expected as it was announced that it will debut on BBC and BBC America on August 23.  They released a trailer teasing some of the upcoming episodes on the BBC site, which is available to be watched in the US, but we did get this very brief look.



3) Community will be coming back for a sixth season (no word yet on the movie).  The shocking thing is instead of going to a television network or a huge already online video provider, it will be going to Yahoo Screen.  While I've heard of Yahoo, I had no idea of the Screen in which they spoke of, so this is a great way to get their online video service out there.  Hopefully sometime before Community airs, they will roll out a app for the PS3 or other devices so we can watch it on our TVs and not strictly online.  The 13-episode 6th season will air at some point in 2015 and Dan Harmon will come back as the showrunner with the entire cast coming back (not including Donald Glover who left part-way through Season 5).

4) Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are teaming up together again, but this time it's not what you'd expect.  They are starring in the movie The Skeleton Twins, where they play estranged siblings forced to reconnect and work through past issues.  Instead of this being the comedy you'd expect from them, this is much more dramatic.  Check out the trailer below.



5) Andy Serkis is one of those rare actors in Hollywood, where you've seen him on the big screen but probably wouldn't recognize him walking down the street.  He's been terrific in the past as Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies, Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes movies, and will also be playing an undisclosed part in Star Wars: Episode VII.  His company, The Imaginarium is working on Avengers: Age of Ultron and helping with the motion capture on Mark Ruffalo and some of the other characters in the movie.  Serkis has announced in an interview that he will be playing a part in the new Avengers movie, while he couldn't say whether or not we will be seeing him or just be motion capture for the movie, this is exciting news. 

Episode 112 Notes

Here are the official show notes for Episode 112 - No Further Questions.

Movie Review: They Came Together

They Came Together is the latest collaboration written by former members of The State and Stella, Michael Showalter and David Wain, who last wrote the cult classic Wet Hot American Summer together.  David Wain, who also directed the movie, made his directorial debut with Wet Hot American Summer and then followed that up with The Ten, Role Models, and Wanderlust.  The movie stars previous Wain/Showalter actors, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler, who both worked together in Wet Hot American Summer. Rudd went on to star in all of Wain's other movies. The movie also features Cobie Smulders, Christopher Meloni, Bill Hader, Ellie Kemper, Max Greenfield, Ed Helms, and loads of other funny people.

While many will immediately compare this to Wet Hot American Summer, and rightfully so since the humor is very outlandish, silly, and light-hearted, I think it better compares in structure to Showalter's movie The Baxter, which was also a parody on the romantic comedy genre.  While The Baxter focused more on what happens to the schmuck who gets left at the alter in romantic comedy movies, this is obviously more along the lines of a traditional rom-com.  The humor works well and while really off the wall in parts, the movie has a really funny center to it that most will enjoy.  However, there are some moments that depending upon your sense of humor may not translate well but for long-time fans, these are the moments they cherish.

Joel (Paul Rudd) and Molly (Amy Poehler) play a couple that are fresh out of their previous relationships and run into each other (literally) on their way to the same party where they are meant to be set-up to date each other.  They blame the other for the run-in and hate each other because of it.  On top of that Joel works for a giant candy store conglomerate that is set to put Molly's small candy shop out of business.  All that being said, the two eventually fall for each other, break-up, and if you've seen romantic comedy movies you can figure out where it goes from there.

I really enjoyed watching this movie and as a fan of Wain/Showalter, I thought a lot of it was really hilarious.  I wish our society leaned towards this type of parody of a genre like the Airplane and Naked Guns, rather than the Scary Movies and A Haunted Houses style where they pull specific scenes, ideas, characters from other movies.   The movie only clocks in at 83 minutes and that seems like the right amount of time as ultimately there really isn't a whole lot of original story being told here.  While comedy bits from the movie will stick with you long after, the movie itself doesn't do much to be remembered.  At the end of the day, that's not really why you watch a movie like They Came Together, it's about the laughs and many of those are simply excellent.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Geek News You Should Know: 6/27/14

1) Guillermo del Toro has announced that despite an underperforming box office a sequel to last summer's Pacific Rim is in pre-production.  Del Toro is working together with writers Zack Penn (Avengers) and Pacific Rim creator Travis Beacham on the project.  If you're a Pacific Rim fan the fun doesn't end there as there will also be a Pacific Rim animated series and comic book series that expounds upon that universe.  You can look for Pacific Rim 2 to hit theaters April 7, 2017.

2) Frank Darabont is in talks to direct the Snow White & the Huntman sequel that is scheduled to hit theaters in 2016.  Darabont is most famous recently for making the the first season of The Walking Dead, but has directed classics like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.  The interesting twist on this is, Darabont won the pitch competition telling a story that is a lot more Huntsman and not a lot of Snow White, even with a possibility that Kristen Stewart would not be in this at all.

3) Scoot McNairy, who has made quite a name for himself recently with roles in Argo and The Rover in theaters and on Halt and Catch Fire on TV, has signed on to be one of the thousand actors announced for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  Nobody is sure of his role at this time, he could be playing a character like Green Lantern or The Flash or just some villain's stooge.  Hopefully, we'll find out more in the upcoming years until this movie is actually released.

4) While not much is known about the Fantastic Four reboot being made by filmmaker Josh Trank besides the cast (Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell), Fox Production President Emma Watts has said that it will be done in a style very similar to Trank's found-footage film Chronicle.  I'm honestly kind of shocked to hear this because that's an extremely unconvential way for a true comic book film to be shot.  It worked for Chronicle because of the realist elements behind the movie, but with Fantastic Four at least traditionally having cosmic elements it seems like a very bold decision.  With Trank making one of the upcoming Star Wars projects as well, I wonder if that too will follow that style, because seeing a found-footage Star Wars movie could be extremely interesting.

5) Masters of Sex is a very interesting show on Showtime that tells the story of Masters & Johnson, who pioneered research in different sexual studies including sexual response at Washington University in St. Louis.  The show is based off a 2009 biography and tells all the exploits both inside and outside of the research center.  I dug the first season of the show and definitley recommend watching it if you haven't seen it. They just released a trailer for the second season which premieres July 13 and you can watch it here.

Movie Review: Begin Again

Begin Again is the latest offering from writer/director John Carney, who is most known for doing the Irish romantic musical performance smash-hit Once.  The movie is stylistically very similar to Once, with the one big exception being that instead of exploring Dublin, this movie takes us around New York City.  Also, instead of going with musicians and making them actors like Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Carney takes actress Keira Knightley and turns her into a singer (and a really good one at that).

The movie tells the story of a down on his luck former record executive, Steve (Mark Ruffalo), who walks into an open mic singer-songwriter night and discovers a young singer, Greta (Knightley), whom he sees enormous potential in and reignites his passion for music.  Greta becomes hesitant to record an album after seeing how it screwed up her relationship with her ex-boyfriend who made it big, Dave Kohl (Adam Levine).

First of all, I was completely blown away by the film.  I had high hopes because I was a huge fan of Once, but this movie far exceeded my expectations and showed major growth of John Carney as a filmmaker and storyteller.  I loved the way the relationships were handled in the movie between all of these characters as there was such a delicate balance and realism that really added to the entire picture.  The actors give great performances, especially the always exceptional Mark Ruffalo and provides occasional great comedic ability along with a deep believable sadness.  For having a limited acting resume, Adam Levine impressed me greatly and Keira Knightley gives one of her greatest performances to date. 

The songs, like Once, were primarily about falling in love, being in love, and then falling out of love, and did a great job capturing the emotions of the characters and expounding upon the story.  Not only that, but the original songs they made for the movie were really good, especially Greta's.  Dave Kohl's music sounded very much like Maroon 5, which isn't surprising, but since I'm not a Maroon 5 fan, I did not enjoy those songs as much.  Keira Knightley has a great voice for the role and shockingly does her own singing in the movie, even though most people leaving the theater thought she didn't and were shocked to find out she did, even me.


The movie deals a lot with the struggles of record companies as part of the beginning of the movie is coming up with a way to get people to buy more music.  They explore different options like audio commentaries, when the movie gives you the answer, make music that people will want to listen to instead of overproduced musical garbage that dominates much of the current marketplace.   It also deals with the authenticity of both the music and musicians

While Chef has stolen the headlines as the indie darling movie of the summer, I think it has a lot of competition in Begin Again.  This movie is like if Once made an awesome baby with High Fidelity.  I was completely blown away by the movie.  Rarely do I leave the theater and I say that I loved a movie, this was one of those rare exceptions.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Geek News You Should Know: 6/26/14

Just wanted to apologize for not having geek news yesterday, there wasn't a lot going on that needed to be reported, plus it was a busy day capped off with going to a pre-screening of Begin Again last night.  I plan on working on a Begin Again review today and hopefully that will be up by Friday, spoiler alert, it was awesome! 

1) A teaser for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One was released and this is how a teaser should be done.  It features President Snow's Panem Address with Peeta at his side addressing that all should be "Together As One."  It's a pretty powerful teaser and while I'm not the biggest fan of the Hunger Games, it's things like this that get me excited about the final movies.



2) I talked about Shane Black's Predator reboot a few days ago, more news has leaked out about this and the latest seems to be that instead of this being a reboot, it will be treated more like a sequel.  Black and his co-writer Fred Dekker value the existing mythology of the previous Predator movies and don't want to completely start over.

3) While not much has been talked about in the highly anticipated sequel to Seth MacFarlane's Ted, Mark Wahlberg has talked about some details including that his character is no longer romantically linked to Mila Kunis' and is instead dating Amanda Seyfried in the movie, and this not very pleasing to his furry talking bear friend.  Wahlberg also mentioned that that Ted will be "an even worse influence in this film."  There is also a possibility that this movie will not take place entirely in Boston and they may "go on the road" at some point.  Seth MacFarlane is usually pretty tight lipped about his projects, so we may not know more until closer to the film's June 26, 2015 release date.

4) The popular a capella singing group that won Season 3 of NBC's The Singoff and have made quite the name for themselves online with many extremely popular YouTube videos, Pentatonix, will be joining Pitch Perfect 2.  Pentatonix will be playing a rival group to the Barden Bellas and filmed for one day last week.  The group admitted to wearing some pretty interesting wardrobe choices but viewers will still be able to make out the 5-person signing group, although they will obviously be under a different name in the movie.  The group doesn't have any lines in the movie which they admit is "probably for the best."

5) I love Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and find a lot of his stuff absolutely hilarious as he typically takes to the streets and makes fun of people their passions.  In this instance, the cigar chomping puppet goes to an area of Queens where a bunch of people are gathered around to watch their country in the World Cup and proceeds to poop all over them.  Here is part one of his report.

Geek News You Should Know: 6/24/14

1) Hulu was in talks with Community in hopes of bringing the sixth season to their online platform, however it seems like those talks have ended between the show's studio Sony and Hulu could not come to an agreement.  It's rumored that Sony may be talking to another provider about the show returning however, they have a limited time frame as the cast's deals will expire on June 30th if a new home is not found by then.  I really hope we hear some good news in the next week.

2) A new trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released online today and I'm sure will be the copy of the trailer before Transformers: Age of Extinction this weekend.  While this movie has dealt with a lot of haters, it's getting hard to deny that it is actually starting to look pretty cool.



3) Shane Black, the director of Iron Man 3 and Lethal Weapon, is going to be writing and directing a reboot of Predator, for what seems like the 5th reboot of the franchise.  This one will be a more direct remake of the original.  Fred Dekkar, who co-wrote one of my favorite movies with Black Monster Squad, will handle the script based on Shane Black's story.

4) While I'm not the biggest Coen Brothers fan, I have enjoyed most of the movies that they've done.  Their newest movie, Hail Cesear, tells the tale of a 1950's Hollywood "fixer," which is a guy that goes around and hides all of the messy personal details of actors.  George Clooney and Josh Brolin were already announced for the cast, but now Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, and Channing Tatum, as a Gene Kelly-type actor, have joined the cast as well.  Hail Cesear will be about making a movie, named Hail Cesar, based on a 1920's play, named Hail Cesar. Anyways, this movie sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

5) I've never been the biggest Planet of the Apes fan, but I was blown away by 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  I thought it was a terrific movie and I am super pumped for it's sequel that comes out July 11, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  While they've released trailers before for it, Fox has just released the final trailer and this is a must see this summer for me.

Obvious Child - Movie Review

Coming from first time writer/director Gillian Robespierre is the unique abortion/comedy combination Obvious Child.  The movie stars Jenny Slate getting arguabley her first starring role in anything.  Slate is probably most famous for being fired for saying the F-word on Saturday Night Live, but has also done a lot of good work guest appearing on Parks and Recreation, House of Lies, and Kroll Show.  Jake Lacy, who played Pete in the later years of The Office, takes on his biggest role to date as well playing the love interest.  Gaby Hoffmann, David Cross, and Richard Kind round out the familar names of the supporting cast.

Obvious Child is a controversial movie because it deals with abortion in a very pro-choice manner.  While opinions on the topic can be varied and may greatly affect whether or not you see the movie, this should be known ahead of time for those sensitive to this subject.  That being said, the story is based around the life of Donna (Slate), who is in her late 20's, works a job in a used book store that barely pays the bills, and is an aspiring stand-up comedian.  After rebounding from a tough break-up, she meets the nice guy next door type in Max (Lacy) and has a one night stand, which ultimately leads to her having her unexpected pregnancy. 

Despite her non-leading lady looks (during the opening scene in the movie she describes herself as looking like someone that you would buy a bagel from in a synagogue), Jenny Slate is terrific in this movie and this should be the role that leads to a huge boom in her career.  She shows a ton of range and considering she is by far the focal point of the movie, I don't think there was a single scene she was not in, Slate had to do a lot of work from delivering stand-up comedy to having to deal with the emotional toll of having an abortion.  Jake Lacy should also be recognized for the great supporting performance he gives in the movie.  He does a good job of playing the nice, supportive guy that probably ever girl dreams of. While Lacy is not in a lot of the movie, the performance he gives is great and you can't help but root for him.  The directing was fine, although it felt a little slow at points, I felt like Robespierre's script could have used just a little bit more comedy in parts.  The humor was a little more on the subtle side and could have used a few more funny lines in the beginning of the movie, especially during her initial stand-up routine.  However, the parts where I did laugh, I laughed hard including a hilarious joke from her gay friend Joey about getting someone pregnant.

If the topic of abortion doesn't offend you, I really recommend checking out this movie.  Obvious Child has a great spirit and sense of humor while also being extremely heartfelt and doesn't make light of the situation. 

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Geek News You Should Know: 6/22/14

1) This weekend, where they were really no blockbusters, the box office was down considerably.  Think Like a Man Too lead the pact this week making a little over $29million and narrowly beating out last week's number one, 22 Jump Street, which stayed strong and made around $27 million.  Think Like a Man Too finished slightly lower than the original Think Like a Man, which made $33.6 million in it's opening weekend.  The other big movie opening up this weekend, Jersey Boys, only pulled in $13.5 million this weekend, which was only good for fourth and has to be disappointing for the Clint Eastwood picture.  I can't help but feel Jersey Boys may have opened up better in September or October with less competition.  Here's the top ten courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	Think Like a Man Too	SGem	$29,241,911	-	2,225	-	$13,142	$29,241,911	$24	1
2	1	22 Jump Street	Sony	$27,460,995	-51.9%	3,306	-	$8,306	$109,911,125	$50	2
3	2	How to Train Your Dragon 2	Fox	$24,719,312	-50.0%	4,268	+15	$5,792	$94,596,047	$145	2
4	N	Jersey Boys	WB	$13,319,371	-	2,905	-	$4,585	$13,319,371	$40	1
5	3	Maleficent	BV	$12,910,766	-30.2%	3,450	-173	$3,742	$185,879,334	$180	4
6	4	Edge of Tomorrow	WB	$9,820,080	-40.6%	3,212	-293	$3,057	$73,991,573	$178	3
7	5	The Fault in our Stars	Fox	$8,565,710	-42.1%	3,340	+67	$2,565	$98,694,043	$12	3
8	6	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Fox	$6,150,460	-37.3%	2,681	-361	$2,294	$216,744,710	$200	5
9	7	Godzilla (2014)	WB	$1,888,304	-43.0%	1,365	-723	$1,383	$194,983,388	$160	6
10	10	Chef	ORF	$1,708,590	-21.9%	961	-141	$1,778	$16,805,782	-	7

2) Marvel has announced their new releases for September 2014, which will be dealing with the aftermath of Original Sin and move towards the next events with Edge of Spider-Verse #1 as well as lots of books leading to the March of AXIS.  Also coming out weekly in September will be The Death of Wolverine, where Wolverine has lost his healing power and has 3 months to live.  New volumes of The Dark Tower and George Romero's Empire of the Dead launch this month as well.  While new comics begin, some have to end, Ultimate Fantastic Four is officially gone with August's issue 6 being it's last and September's Avengers Undercover #10 bringing the end of that series.  You can check out the full solicitations here.

 

3) Image also announced their September 2014 releases and it's chocked full of new and returning titles. New titles include Roche Limit, Copperhead, Oddly Normal and the debut of God Hates Astronauts, a trade that Anthony really loved, launching it's second volume but debuting in floppy form.  They are also launching new storyarchs for Lazarus, '68, Deadly Class, Rocket Girl, and another book Anthony loves, A Voice in the Dark is launching it's second story entitled Get Your Gun and this time it's in full color.  You can check out the full solicitations here.  Over the past year or two, Image has truly become my favorite comic book company and more and more of my monthly comic book allotment has shifted over to them. The worst part is I don't even buy all of the Image books that I should, there's so many quality books by them that I'm not getting like Rat Queens, A Voice in the Dark, Lazarus,  and Velvet to name a few.

   

4) I've always wanted to go to Harry Potter Land at Universal Studios and with the upcoming Diagon Alley area, it makes me want to go there even more.  Unfortunately, when I was last in Orlando, due to poor honeymoon planning by this guy we missed our opportunity but hope to visit there soon.  One of the many cash grabs/awesome thing at Harry Potter Land is the magic wands you can by at Ollivander's Wand Shop and make things around the theme park come to life.  Here is a video with James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley) and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) playing with some of the features.



In addition to this, they have added a new ride Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts (which has been described by the few that have gone on it so far as worth the price of admission alone) as well as the Hogwarts Express where you can literally go through at wall at Platform 9 3/4.  Need to start saving!

 

Episode 111 Notes

Here are the official show notes for Episode 111 - Nice Cold Bris.

Geek News You Should Know: 6/20/14

1) In news you don't hear very often, Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad prequel/spinoff, has been picked up for Season 2.  The weird part of the story is that Season 1 hasn't aired and the 10 episodes have been pushed back from November to early 2015.  Season 2 will consist of 13 episodes and come out in early 2016 probably.  Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is the co-showrunner and Executive Producer of the series and will be directing the first episode.  I am very excited for the show as Saul was one of my favorite characters and could see his sleezeball adventures before meeting Walter White being very interesting.

2) While I did some coverage of E3, nobody covers E3 quite like Conan O'Brien.  He visited the convention last week and tried out some of the games and of course it was hilarious.  He plays Project Morpheus in addition to Forza and Sunset Overdrive and interviews various video game designers.  Just do yourself a favor and even if you're not into video games this is worth your time.



3) Rian Johnson was been announced as the director for Star Wars Episodes VII and IX and also plans to be involved in the writing process for both of the films.  Johnson has directed a lot of really cool and unique movies like Brick, The Brothers Bloom, and Looper as well as a few episodes of Breaking Bad.  I can't wait to see his take on the Star Wars universe. Disney has done a great job of acquiring different directors to breath new life into the Star Wars universe like Josh Trank and Gareth Edwards and I couldn't be happier that Star Wars will not only reach a new generation of fans but also hopefully regain some fans they may have lost over the prequels.

4) The first clip from Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was released online today and looks fantastic.  The scene shows Rosario Dawson's return to the Sin City universe and shows that the spirit of Sin City is definitley still alive.  After waiting 9 years for this sequel, I have a feeling it will not disappoint.



5) Speaking of Rosario Dawson, it was announced today that she will joining Netflix's Daredevil series as a "a dedicated young woman whose quest to heal the wounds of Hell’s Kitchen brings Matt Murdock unexpectedly crashing into her life, while her own journey forever alters the course of his battle against the injustices of this broken city."  Rosario is a huge fan of comics, even releasing her own book a few years ago, Occult Crimes Taskforce.  I love Rosario and can't wait to watch her kill it on this show.

Geek News You Should Know: 6/19/14

1)  Is this the future of late night?  Netflix and Chelsea Handler certainly hope so as they have announced that Chelsea will be on the online video platform starting in 2016.  The last episode of Chelsea Lately will air on E! August 26.  Chelsea has signed a multi-year agreement with Netflix and in addition to the show will do a stand-up comedy special as well as 4 docu-comedy specials which will give her opinions on several different topics.  No real details have been announced on how frequently the show will be released.

2) One of my favorite topics of the podcast is the food segment, so I'm always happy when there is new food items announced and it's even better when they are TV related.  Ben & Jerry's which previously made a Schweddy Balls flavor of ice cream based on the famous Saturday Night Live sketch is going to be making some new SNL flavors.  The two new flavors are based on the Digital Short Lazy Sunday and Kristen Wiig's character Gilly.  The "Lazy Sunday" flavor is not Mr. Pibb and Red Vine flavored but instead it's made up of vanilla cake batter ice cream with chocolate and yellow cupcake pieces (not sure if they are Magnolia or not) and a chocolate frosting swirl.  "Gilly's Catasrophic Crunch" is a combination of chocolate and sweet cream ice creams with caramel clusters, fudge-covered almonds and marshmallow swirl.  No official release date has been mentioned but they should be out when the 40th season of SNL starts this fall.




3) Paramount has announced a bunch of movies that are in production and scheduled to be released in 2016.  While Transformers: Age of Extinction hasn't been released yet, the fifth Transformers movie will come out in 2 years along with Paranormal Activity 5, Beverly Hills Cop IV, G.I. Joe 3, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2, Star Trek 3, and a Ben-Hur remake.  It's weird to think we'll have to wait another 2 years for a Paranormal Activity movie as it seemed for a while there they were coming out every few months.  It seems like it's been a while since we've seen Eddie Murphy in general so it'll be cool to see him back as Axle Foley.

4) While I don't watch Lifetime except for Project Runway, I'm excited for "The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story" which will air on the network September 1.  This TV-movie will tell the behind the scenes antics of the cast with sex and drugs in a similar vain to Dustin Diamond's book Behind the Bell.



5) Zombie shows are all the rage and coming this fall to SyFy is, that's right, a zombie show called Z Nation.  They just announced the core cast members of the show who will be Harold Perrineau (Lost), Tom Everett Scott (Soutland) and DJ Qualls (The New Guy). The show will tell the story three years after a zombie virus has devastatated the country and a group must transport the only known survivor of the plague from New York to California in hopes of creating a vaccine.  This show sounds pretty cool and while I watch too much already, I will definitely check this out.

Geek News You Should Know: 6/18/14

1) We don't often cover tech stories here but they are certainly geeky in their own right.  Amazon has officially announced their venture into the cell phone market with Fire.  Not to be confused with the Amazon Kindle Fire, although it is similar just smaller, this phone comes back with Amazon features and includes 1-year of Amazon Prime, so you can experience all that Amazon has to offer on your cellphone.  One of the new features they have announced is their dynamic perspective feature, where they offer an almost holographic or 3D look on the home screen and through various apps.  They have also designed the phone to be used just with one hand and menus and scrolling can be done by tilting the phone.  There is also a Firefly feature, that sadly doesn't allow you to watch the Joss Whedon series, but instead allows you to basically Shazam a song or movie, or use your camera on a book or other media and it will pull up more information about whatever you are looking for, which even includes phone numbers, web and e-mail addresses.  The Fire features a 13MP camera, dedicated camera button, free umlimted cloud storage and automatic back-up for photos and videos, 2.2 GHz quad-core processor, and tons of other features.  If you want to check out more information on the device click here.  The Fire will be released on July 25, 2014 and will only be available for AT&T subscribers initially.



I used to own an Amazon Kindle Fire but became frustrated with the device because apps were tied only to the Amazon Appstore, which does not have nearly as good of a collection of apps as Google Play or iTunes.  I also found their web browser frustrating to use and not nearly as fast as they described it.  I sold the device before Christmas after not using it all that much and replaced it with an iPad that I use everyday.  I am hoping for Amazon's sake that their phone is a better product, but I have a feeling no matter how great it sounds on paper, it'll be disappointing because of the restrictions Amazon has in place of it being locked solely to Amazon for most things.  I realize in Amazon's eyes that's their point, they want everyone to only use Amazon for streaming music, videos, audiobooks, etc. but not everyone wants to use Amazon for all of these things.  While the 3D/Dynamic Perspective looks cool, I would imagine people growing tired of this shortly after using it.  Plus, I can't picture a lot of 3rd party developers making apps that feature this just for one phone.  I hope that I'm wrong but I can very well see this device flopping, especially with the iPhone 6 coming out this fall and the Samsung Galaxy 5 which is already available and seems like a much better phone than this one. Amazon shares are up though based on the announcement of the phone so maybe I'm wrong.

2) The first production photo from 50 Shades of Grey was released online in honor of Christian Grey's birthday.  The movie, based on one of the hottest selling books of all time, is hitting theaters on Valentine's Day 2015.  While the photo gives you no indication of anything here it is.




While my only experience of the book is the hosts of a podcast, Party Truck USA, reading the book and doing hilarious chapter recaps of the book weekly and poking fun at all of the ridiculousness of the book. I am excited to see the movie just to see how it turns out and to see if they actually say "Laters baby" in the film.

3) In crazy cross-over comic book news, Dynamite Entertainment announced today that it is teaming up with DC Comics and will be releasing a Django Unchained and Zorro crossover event.  This book is a collaboration between Quentin Tarantino (writer/director of Django Unchained), Reginald Hudlin (who did the comic book adaption of Django Unchained) and Matt Wagner (legendary comic book writer/artist most popular for Grendel).  This will be the first time that any of Quentin's characters have ever continued outside of their original story. Tarantino is a huge fan of comic books and as he co-plotted this book it might be worth checking out when it hits store shelves in late 2014.


4) One of my favorite television series of all time, The Inbetweeners is coming back for their second movie and I couldn't be more excited.  The series is legit laugh out loud funny and had some many great moments.  The Inbetweeners is about a group of social outcasts, who despite trying to be cool keep failing miserably at it. The entire series is available on Netflix, so there is no reason to not check it out (unless you don't have Netflix I guess).  The first movie was released a couple of years ago and was one of the highest grossing movies in the UK's history.  They just released a NSFW trailer for The Inbetweeners 2 and it will be hitting theaters there in August and I hope it will be coming here shortly thereafter.  Here is the trailer for the sequel.



5) Lastly, an image of Shredder from the upcoming TMNT movie was released online and he looks like one bad ass dude.  Check it out!

Geek News You Should Know: 6/17/14

1) We are obviously huge fans of "Weird Al" Yankovic here at the Convo, so when there is an epic rap battle video that pops online starring him as Sir Isaac Newton, this obviously draws our attention.  "Weird Al" over the past week has made some major hints that his new AL-bum will be dropping on July 15 and considering how his records seem to pop out of nowhere, this makes a lot of sense.  Anyway, here's the video and can't wait to see what other cool things pop-up to subtlety advertise the new album release.




2) I wrote the previous paragraph last night, and today it was officially announced that Weird Al's new record Mandatory Fun is coming out June 15 and here's the cover art.  No word on the parodies on the album yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if the new single wasn't dropped in the next week or two to boost interest in the record.  This is also Weird Al's last record on his contract, which as of this time he doesn't plan to renew and will likely instead focus on just releasing singles on the Internet for the time being.



 3)  A new trailer for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy came online today via Marvel UK.  In here you get quite a bit more interaction between the group (especially Rocket and Star Lord) as well as a few glimpses into Peter Quill's childhood.  Looks like some pretty amazing stuff is in store for us on August 1, 2014.



4) Dark Horse has released their September solicitations and not much new of note from them.  They are relaunching their Aliens series (based on the movie), they are crossing over Grendel and The Shadow into a three issue series, and also releasing a series based on the movie Prometheus.  In addition, they are launching the new issues of Buffy Season 10 for Buffy and Angel & Faith as well as the first Buffy Season 10 trade, while also releasing the Serenity: Leaves on the Wind Hardcover, which is a must own for fans of Firefly as it is basically the sequel to the movie Serenity, and also The Whedon Three Way, which is the first 3 issues of Buffy Season 10, Angel & Faith Season 10, and Serenity: Leaves on the Wind all for $1 total, pretty good deal.



5) Over in DC, one of the longest comics titles is being released in  The Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World #1.  It's another venture into the new Multiverse which just looks overwhelming for those not steeped in DC continuity.  This version is more of a pulp Super Hero comic with a modern twist.  While I haven't read any of these it's the final issue of Superman Unchained, which is a 9 issue series by Scott Snyder and Jim Lee, reviews have been pretty good for the series and if the cover is any indication the art looks fantastic.  Also being released is issue 4 of Batman 66 Meets The Green Hornet, which is definitely on my pull list. 

Geek News You Should Know: 6/16/14

1) 22 Jump Street not only took the number one spot on the box office charts this week, but did so well that it was the second highest R-rated comedy opening ever behind The Hangover II.  I thought How To Train Your Dragon 2 would do real well considering how great the first one was but didn't even manage to crack the $50 million mark this weekend, which has to be disappointing for Dreamworks. Here's a list of the top ten movies courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	22 Jump Street	Sony	$57,071,445	-	3,306	-	$17,263	$57,071,445	-	1
2	N	How to Train Your Dragon 2	Fox	$49,451,322	-	4,253	-	$11,627	$49,451,322	-	1
3	2	Maleficent	BV	$18,504,997	-46.1%	3,623	-325	$5,108	$163,021,529	$180	3
4	3	Edge of Tomorrow	WB	$16,527,215	-42.5%	3,505	+15	$4,715	$57,001,698	$178	2
5	1	The Fault in our Stars	Fox	$14,791,933	-69.2%	3,273	+100	$4,519	$80,767,200	$12	2
6	4	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Fox	$9,816,449	-35.2%	3,042	-597	$3,227	$206,256,610	$200	4
7	6	Godzilla (2014)	WB	$3,311,185	-45.9%	2,088	-1,022	$1,586	$191,457,194	$160	5
8	5	A Million Ways to Die in the West	Uni.	$3,246,400	-55.8%	2,413	-747	$1,345	$37,107,020	-	3
9	7	Neighbors	Uni.	$2,369,250	-55.5%	1,896	-778	$1,250	$143,022,215	$18	6
10	9	Chef	ORF	$2,187,526	-16.6%	1,102	-196	$1,985	$13,987,981	-	6

 
2) In a kind of a shocking turn of events, it's rumored that The Rise of Tomb Raider and Little Big Planet 3 may be released on PS3 and X-Box 360 (in Tomb Raider's case) in addition to PS4 and X-Box One.  Both of these games really could be perceived as system sellers and while they both surely would look better on the newest game systems, for some it may not be worth the $400 upgrade price to experience these games.  It's nice to see them still catering to older game systems but you wonder if that will end up hurting console sales or will it be better for game sales if they are available for systems that most people already own.

3) While it certainly seems like Angry Birds has taken a dip in it's extreme popularity from a few years ago, it still has a fanbase and will be launching it's newest tie-in Angry Birds: Transformers.  The game will feature the Autobirds vs. the Deceptihogs.  No release date is known at this time but there was a preview image and it looks like a unique venture for the series.



4) Heroes Reborn is the Heroes reboot scheduled to hit NBC in 2015.  While the cast is scheduled to consist largely of new cast members, it was announced today that Jack Coleman, who played Noah Bennet (the father to Claire Bennet, the indestructible cheerleader played by Hayden Panettiere) will be joining the new show.  Bennet worked for a shadowy organization (deceptively called The Primatech Paper Company) that dealt with superpowered individuals.



5) Since I'm an accountant I love graphs and charts and what-not and really thought this one was interesting on how returning shows compared ratings-wise to how they did last season.  It's kind of a depressing chart as both some of mine and Anthony's favorite shows bottomed out on the charts as Raising Hope was the lowest and Glee was the second lowest.  However, Raising Hope did get doomed to airing mid-season on Friday nights, which basically signified it's death.  Scandal was by far the biggest grower on the chart with Supernatural of all shows finishing second.

Episode 110 Notes

Here are the official show notes for Episode 110 - 110 Pod Street.

Geek News You Should Know 6/11/14

Hey guys and welcome to today's notes of geekery.  More and more details keep coming from E3 about the video games coming out over the next year and a half but I'll be focusing on the other stuff today, which sadly there really hasn't been a lot of news.

1) A trailer was released for Dumb and Dumber To, I haven't had a chance to watch it quite yet but here it is.



2) Another trailer I haven't watched yet is for the new Sin City movie, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.  Here's that one.



3) Netflix has announced that in 2016, they will start airing new episodes of The Magic School Bus 360° and will be similar to the classic version except it'll be CG and feature a modern take on their adventures.  It's always good when quality educational shows come back and any forms of entertainment for children that they can learn something from is a good thing.

4) The makers of 22 Jump Street announced that one of the features of the upcoming Blu-Ray/DVD release will be a 10-minute serious cut of the movie with all of the jokes, comedy, and action sequences cut out.

5) Get your chili dogs ready as Sony has announced they will be making a live-action/CG-hybrid movie based on Sonic the Hedgehog.  While there haven't been many details released for this yet, other than some Upright Citizens Brigade alums are writing it, it sounds like an interesting idea.

Geek News You Should Know: 6/10/14

All of the major video game companies have finished their E3 announcements and there's some good stuff coming down the pipeline.

1) Nintendo has officially announced it's Amiibo plans, which are their version of Skylanders'/Disney Infinity figures as well as the games they are going to work with.  They will sync directly with the Gamepad (as Nintendo tries to make the gamepad a bigger focus) and the figures will store information.  They are going to be released along with Smash Bros. Wii U this holiday season and will also work with Mario Kart 8 and Mario Party 10, as well as a few other games.  They are also going to develop a pad that will allow these figures to work with your 3DS as well.  I would imagine these games, especially Mario Kart 8 will operate completely fine without the Amiibo figures, what benefits you get from them however is unknown at this time.  I would hate to lose any functionality of a new Mario Party game because I didn't have the figure. Here is a video explaining how they will be incorporated into Smash Bros. Wii U.



2) Along with these little guys, Nintendo is also making a Gamecube hub so that you can use your pre-existing Gamecube controllers with the Wii U system, as well as new Gamecube controllers rolling out soon.  This is designed mostly for Smash Bros Wii U, but hopefully this functionality will be able to be used in Virtual Console games and other Wii U titles as well.  It'll be $20 for the adapter and $30 for new Gamecube controllers.  I'm just glad I held onto all mine, especially my Wavebird.  In Super Smash Bros. U you will also be able to play as your Mii in the game, which adds an extra level of awesomeness as you can control yourself in bouts against the iconic Nintendo figures in the game.  Ever dreamed about smacking Bowser in his giant nose, now you can!




3) Mario Party 10 will feature the classic Mario Party mode we've come to love, but also feature a Bowser Party mode, where one player can play with the gamepad as Mario's nemesis and wreak havoc on all of the players while they try to avoid his attacks.  Also announced is Mario Maker, where players will be able to customize their own Mario levels from adjusting warp pipes down or up in size, to changing the appearance of the game from classic 8-bit Super Mario Bros to New Super Mario Bros U in appearance.  Nintendo also announced new The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong (as well as a bunch of other new games) for the Wii U and 3DS.

4) I love the E3 conferences but don't have an hour to sit through all the conferences, this is why I love IGN's 5-minute version of the presentation showing all of the highlights.  Click here to watch Sony's 5-minute presentation. While I don't play as many Playstation games as I probably should, I am loving a lot of the stuff they have coming down the tubes.  I don't have a PS4 but love the PlayStation TV that they are releasing, which allows you to use your PS4 in different rooms of the house.  Not sure how well it'll sell but it's a neat feature especially for roommates and siblings to use the system in their own rooms. Sony also announced during their presentation that they are making a Ratchet & Clank animated movie based on the popular video game franchise that will be hitting theaters early next year.  And most importantly, Brian Michael Bendis came out on stage and announced that Powers will be coming to PlayStation in December, the first episode will be free for all, while the rest of the series can only be watched by PlayStation Plus members.  They also announced a new Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted, and Arkham Knight games which all look mindblowing as well dozens of other cool games, I wish I had more money.

5) Meanwhile, here's Microsoft's 5-minute version of their presentation as well.  A lot of cool games coming from them as well, including a lot more Halo stuff, Call of Duty, Forza, Dragon Age, Assassin's Creed and so much more.  Nice to see Microsoft focusing on the X-Box One as a gaming system and not as multimedia system that also plays games like they advertised it as when they first announced it last year.

Geek News You Should Know: 6/9/14

Sorry for taking the past week off, things just got busy in a lot of different areas, because it was the end of the month/beginning of the month, it was my busy period at work so I couldn't stay as up on the news as I would like.  Then this past Sunday and last night I went to Chicago and Madison respectively to see WWE live, which both events were a ton of fun.  Anyways, here's some geek news, don't forget to check out the latest episode 109, posted today for even more geek news, reviews, etc. in movies, televsion, comic books, video games, food, and more!

1) After seeing the fangirls turn out in droves on Thursday it's no surprise that The Fault in Our Stars dominated the box office this weekend as it opened up big on Thursday and Friday but did dip over the rest of the weekend.  While, Edge of Tomorrow disappointed in the United States, it made a ton of money in foreign markets which should help pull the big budget sci-fi movie from being a loss.  I said it on the podcast, that up until recently the marketing for Edge of Tomorrow was terrible, and I hope they point the figure of blame towards that instead of the movie itself as the premise seems really cool.  Meanwhile, Maleficent held up well and finished in second place this weekend.  Here are the top 10 movies according with all of this information from BoxOfficeMojo.com.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	The Fault in our Stars	Fox	$48,200,000	-	3,173	-	$15,191	$48,200,000	$12	1
2	1	Maleficent	BV	$33,523,000	-51.7%	3,948	-	$8,491	$127,370,000	$180	2
3	N	Edge of Tomorrow	WB	$29,105,000	-	3,490	-	$8,340	$29,105,000	$178	1
4	2	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Fox	$14,700,000	-54.8%	3,639	-362	$4,040	$189,101,000	$200	3
5	3	A Million Ways to Die in the West	Uni.	$7,189,000	-57.2%	3,160	+2	$2,275	$30,088,000	-	2
6	4	Godzilla (2014)	WB	$5,950,000	-50.5%	3,110	-391	$1,913	$185,043,000	$160	4
7	6	Neighbors	Uni.	$5,201,000	-35.6%	2,674	-265	$1,945	$137,801,000	$18	5
8	5	Blended	WB	$4,050,000	-50.3%	2,928	-627	$1,383	$36,509,000	$40	3
9	9	Chef	ORF	$2,600,000	+36.0%	1,298	+674	$2,003	$10,362,000	-	5
10	8	Million Dollar Arm	BV	$1,822,000	-49.2%	1,643	-686	$1,109	$31,347,000	$25	4

2) Stand-up comedian and former SNL and 30 Rock cast member Tracy Morgan is in critical condition after being involved in a six-vehicle accident in New Jersey.  Tracy was a passenger in a limo bus that was rear-ended by a semi and flipped, killing Tracy's comedy mentor Jimmy Mack.  We send our best to Tracy and hope for a speedy recovery.

3) While Once Upon a Time teased Elsa at the end of it's season finale a month ago, it has been confirmed that Elsa from Frozen will be in around 9 episodes and will be joined by Anna and Kristoff in some of those episodes as well.  No casting or other details have been announced at this time.

4) This week is E3 week, which is a huge video game conference where they lay out all of the upcoming games in develop and I will include many of these that I find interesting in here throughout the week.  This should be a great E3 conference as last year Microsoft announced the X-Box One and Sony announced the Playstation 4, but the games for there haven't been many games released that made these systems sell.  This will be the year where a lot of awesome titles will be announced for these systems and I'm anxious to see what's in store.  Today, Crystal Dynamics announced the sequel for last year's Tomb Raider game, Rise of Tomb Raider which should hit store shelves for the holidays in 2015.  I am loving the first game and look forward to this one whenever I pick up a Playstation 4.  The game makers have also announced that they will put a larger emphasis on the tombs in the next game.  While it's a little small in size, here's a screencap from the game.



5) In news that will surely please my wife, The Sims 4 has been officially announced to be released on September 2.  They've totally redesigned the game to make it both easier to make characters and houses while also giving you more customization controls then ever.  Here is a video on how they designed the character engine which is impressive.



I will have plenty more video game and other geek news throughout the week ahead.  Today is very much video game news overload so if you want to follow things more closely check out IGN.com, where they always do a tremendous job covering things second-by-second.