So Thanksgiving's unfortunately become Black Friday Eve, as many (including myself) peruse ads to get the best deals possible to start the Christmas shopping season. Despite whether or not the economy is bad or there is not an 'IT' item for the holidays, there are always huge lines in the morning before doors open up. Walmart has been notorious for massive stampedes of people storming the gates and causing casualties of shopping madness. This morning was no exception, although unfortunately a 34 year old employee was killed during a stampede at a Long Island Wal-Mart. Every year on the news you'll see a sea of people pour into the stores and every once in awhile a person or two gets tripped up and people are hurtling over them or preventing them from getting up in the holiday spirit. Some of these places with a high propensity for injury should have a medic or ambulance just sitting there for the first hour of opening. Here's a clip of one of those occurrences:
UPDATE: Police Statement about the incident at the Long Island Wal-Mart:
About 17 years ago the first iteration of Street Fighter 2 came out. Today, a new update to one of the most iconic games of all time is released in the form of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix. This game maintains the original mechanics of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and enhances all the sprites with full 1080p HD images and sound. The original frames are maintained, so there isn't an improvement in animation. I've never been good at fighting games, especially Capcom fighters, but Street Fighter 2 definitely was one of THE games to play during the 16 bit generation. The game can be downloaded for the X-Box 360 (which I'm getting today!) or the Playstation 3. Apparently some of the moves have been tweaked, but many online reviews have stated that it still feels like the old Street Fighter 2 we've all grown to love - except it looks a whole lot prettier! Once I can get onto X-Box Live, I'm getting it! Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
As usual, here's some video:
A trailer for the game with good old Karate Kid music:
This is a highlight from EVO 2004, a fighting game tournament of some of the best 2D fighter players in the world, where this player comes from behind with some killer counters to win the match playing Street Fighter 3:
....and hopefully with more plot to fill up an hour and 45 minutes. I just saw Quantum of Solace, which is very much more of the sequel to Casino Royale than just the next Bond film. The film takes off exactly where Royale left off and if you plan on seeing Solace I strongly recommend holding off until you see Royale again or for the first time. The revamped Bond in Royale has been more interesting and believable than Brosnan's last few forays with 007. Solace seems to continue with what was good with Royale, the story and the new Bond, and use them as bookends for the film. It places what should be important in this film in the beginning quarter of the film and the very last scene. The rest of the movie is action scene after another, using way too many quick and shakey camera shots. I guess the director has to blame for this, unlike Royale so many of these scenes seemed too confined and you seem to miss the big picture of whatever locale they were in. Since it was only the director that changed and not the writers, I'm hopeful that the next film made will continue and develop the story and current state of the revamped Bond character much further than Solace did. All this Bond reminds of the best Bond, Sean Connery.....and Celebrity Jeopardy from SNL. There were many of these sketches with or without Connery (played by Darrell Hammond), here's my fav 5 w/ Connery:
Tom Cruise (Ben Stiller), Adam Sandler (Jimmy Fallon)
You've probably seen those countless commercials on TV for Video Professor where founder John Scherer keeps bidding you to 'try his product' , advertising video training modules for learning basic computer programs that many use everyday. Here's a couple great commercials I've seen for an internet proficiency video series called Master of the Internet. Product's a bit older, but still does the job:
Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode 2 premiered last night, not as good as the first one but still quite hilarious. They used a lot of what had worked last time and did it over again: So tons more of Seth McFarlane's Palpatine, Ackbar, and Boba Fett. It felt like a sequel to the first Robot Chicken Star Wars and not like another special with more Star Wars skits. This special really pushed the limits of content more than the last one, not something surprising for Robot Chicken. Adultswim doesn't have embed codes or a website available for the whole episode, so here's the link to the entire episode:
So over the last few months I've seen some interesting documentaries on art, primarily the legitimacy of art. Recent films like My Kid Could Paint That and Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? question the legitimacy of modern art due to the fact that it is defined by art experts or connoisseurs. My Kid... follows the path of child prodigy Marla Olmstead and the controversy of whether or not her parents tampered with her paintings of abstract expressionism. Who the #$&%... delves into the story of a 73 year old truck driver who fights to have a painting she bought for five bucks at a thrift store to be accepted as a true Jackson Pollock painting. These films use a child painter and a truck driver as an intriguing hook to the film, but the center controversy in both films is who or what defines good art to bad. Both don't give you an answer but do provoke thought and conversation. This argument is not new in film, the great Orson Welles made F for Fake in 1974. F is one of the most unconventional films I've seen, but a good one. The film questions art authenticity by showing clips of a documentary done on Elmyr de Hory, a famous art forger. F then focuses on the documentary's writer Clifford Irving, who was found to have fabricated an authorized biography on Howard Hughes. These three movies question the authenticity of art, art expertise, science's use in proof of authenticity in art, and legitimacy of modern art. If you're not sure which film to watch, I'd probably suggest My Kid... as the first and then Who the... next. I'll say right off the back that F for Fake is not for everyone, but check it out if you're adventurous enough.
My Kid Could Paint That trailer:
Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? trailer? Can't find one for some reason! Click here to Netflix it, the film can be seen on Watch Instantly:
Since F for Fake is such an unconventional and can be a somewhat confusing movie, here's a retrospective on the film by director Peter Bogdanovich which can be found on the film's Criterion Collection DVD:
A film called The Hoax was recently released based on Irving's story with Richard Gere as the lead:
Robot Chicken does another Star Wars special! It premieres on Cartoon Network's adultswim this Sunday, November 16 @ 11:30 PM. I have a feeling that it may premiere earlier online (I hope!) If you didn't see the original one, shame on you but you can still see it on the official website.
In celebration of Robot Chicken and stop motion animation, I've posted some awesome videos this one guy has created.
Yesterday the bestselling author, film maker, and Harvard MD Michael Crichton passed away from cancer at the age of 66. One of his most notable works, and one of my favorite movies, was Jurassic Park. I won't go too much into detail about Jurassic Park's impact on me as I mentioned it when Stan Winston died earlier this year, but his book exposed me to modern adult fiction and many of his works are favorites of mine. His writing was always tied to science while pushing its limits and making a fantastic read. Not only did he write novels, but he also wrote screenplays like Twister and directed films like Westworld. His medical expertise also led him to create the hit show, which ironically is on its 15th and final season, ER. Some of his books that were adapted to film include The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Sphere, The Great Train Robbery, Disclosure, and Timeline. Congo and Sphere were great pageturners that were unfortunately adapted to terrible films. His scientific views have also created some controversy including his views on global warming , environmentalism, and political influence on science.
Here's a short video with some bits of his film adaptations:
This is a really interesting interview with Charlie Rose:
A great lecture by Crichton on science and politics:
Crichton answers a question on his view of environmentalism as a religion:
So Thanksgiving's unfortunately become Black Friday Eve, as many (including myself) peruse ads to get the best deals possible to start the Christmas shopping season. Despite whether or not the economy is bad or there is not an 'IT' item for the holidays, there are always huge lines in the morning before doors open up. Walmart has been notorious for massive stampedes of people storming the gates and causing casualties of shopping madness. This morning was no exception, although unfortunately a 34 year old employee was killed during a stampede at a Long Island Wal-Mart. Every year on the news you'll see a sea of people pour into the stores and every once in awhile a person or two gets tripped up and people are hurtling over them or preventing them from getting up in the holiday spirit. Some of these places with a high propensity for injury should have a medic or ambulance just sitting there for the first hour of opening. Here's a clip of one of those occurrences:
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