McNopoly Is Back Video Constitutional

With some new rumors about a new season of Arrested Development before a movie would come out, some people have started celebrating. And really, if a studio or network doesn't get behind this, they're a big chicken.


Arrested Development Chicken Dances - Watch MoreFunny Videos

A week full of new Epic Meal Time videos? All about french fries? Sure, why not.











I'm not the biggest fan of Ben Templesmith. I'm not all that into horror comics, and his sketchy, Bill Sienkiewicz style of art puts me off. After watching the fan film based on his four-issue "Welcome to Hoxford" series, though, I think I'm going to have to re-evaluate my views of his work. I think I may have to check out this series, and then see what else he has going on.


Welcome to Hoxford, the fan film from Julien Mokrani on Vimeo.


This is one of the best video bombs I've seen.



This video of a goat failing at being a goat made me laugh, maybe a little more than it should have.



Thank you, Monkey and Apple, for making a video that addresses the biggest problem with Emma Frost's costumes.



I'm really starting to like these Bad Lip Reading videos. They take aim at Michele Bachmann here.



This is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen, but at the same time it's incredibly cool.



I wasn't totally sold on this video until the end. They took it where I needed it to go.



This video gives us a reverse showing of River Song's (Melody Pond) appearances in the last few seasons of Doctor Who, which in turn put her appearances in chronological order. It was very well done and illustrates the forethought that goes into this show.



This is the best Star Wars re-edit I've seen since the Blu Ray footage and news was announced. Gangsta 3PO? Gangsta 3PO.



How? What? How?

What You Should Have Seen #20

X-Men: First Class

I think I should have watched this in the theater instead of on DVD. With the inclusion of Magneto’s concentration camp scene from the first movie, the movie sort of goes out of its way to show you that this isn’t a remake or a reboot, but an in-continuity prequel.

There is so much to like about this movie. The casting is superb. The acting is wonderful. The action and effects are seamless. The nods to the comic book continuity are excellent, and the changes are perfectly acceptable.

I feel the need to make comments that will quite possibly spoil things. But, apparently people like spoilers.

NOTES!:

• “Groovy mutation.”
• Moira is a CIA operative? Apparently she’s no longer Scottish, and Banshee is no longer Irish. I’m okay with that. Shaw is also a Nazi.
• I like the explanation for the helmet Magneto will eventually wear.
• I don’t know who the wind guy Shaw has is. IMDB says it’s Riptide, one of the minor Marauders. Eh, okay.
• I like Xavier’s early cockiness.
• I’m okay with McCoy being the “Q” for Xavier. SOMEBODY had to make all this stuff, right?
• “Are you sure we can’t shave your head?”
  “Don’t touch my hair.”
• Angel was one of my least favorite new mutants from Grant Morrison’s run. At least she’s pretty, here.

• How much older is Alex Summers than Scott? Isn’t SCOTT supposed to be the older brother?
• This movie has probably the best cameo I’ve seen in a comic book movie.
• I don’t like Havok’s plasma hula hoops. I’m glad that gets fixed.
• I know OF Azazel, but I’m not familiar with his characterization. I know he’s Nightcrawler’s dad and that he’s a demon. Here, though, he appears to just be a red, evil Nightcrawler…and I’m okay with that.
• I’m only slightly familiar with Darwin and his most recent appearances in X-Factor…but by the nature of his mutation, wouldn’t he still have survived Shaw’s attack?
• I was really hoping for a Basic Instinct scene when Emma was in the interrogation room. I guess that was too much to hope for in a PG-13 comic book movie.
• Jennifer Lawrence is incredibly beautiful, and I’ll take her over Rebecca Romijn any day. She looks real. The brief cameo was another nice nod to the original movies, though.
• January Jones is also very pretty, but at the moment I can only see her as Mrs. Don Draper. The way she carries herself doesn’t seem to fit with the Emma Frost I’m most familiar with. I like the take-charge, smart-ass Emma Frost. That’s not January Jones.

I want more. There’s, what, more than 30 years between the events of this movie and the first X-Men movie? What happened since? I want to know NOW!

If you like comic books, watch this movie. If you like action movies, watch this movie. If you like good acting by good actors, watch this movie.

Probably for the rest of the month I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit it out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Read #39

Last Week’s Comic Book Awesomeness

DC Retroactive: Justice League – The ‘90s #1 – I realize that I don’t include many DC comics in these weekly write ups. Lately I’m just enjoying Marvel more. I’m hoping that’ll change next month with the New DC 52. I didn’t read Justice League when Giffen and DeMatteis were originally writing it. Morrison’s JLA is MY Justice League. But I really got into the characters and writing style when the team was revisited and before Max became an evil dick, so I thought I’d enjoy this issue…and I did. It’s the humor you’d expect from these guys and some clever nods to what will happen to the characters after this story. Good stuff here.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights #13 – Since I saw the cover of this issue, I was waiting for this joke. I think it’s a requirement that the “one punch” mention has to be made whenever Guy and Batman are together. I also want to say that I’m horribly disappointed in the final issues of all of the DC comics that I’ve read. I realize DC is excited about this “new” universe they’re starting, but they’re letting this one go with no fanfare, no final battle…nothing. I guess they did this right before the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot, too, but I wasn’t around then. This just disappoints me.

New Mutants #30 – The stuff with Dani in this issue is fine. Nothing wrong there. But the really good stuff comes with the rest of the team’s interaction with Mephisto. I love how easy and nonchalant he is. I’ve never really liked him as a villain before, but his attitude shines here, and that’s what has won me over.

Ultimates #1 – It’s a bear….drinking beer…with Norse gods. Read that again and look at the picture. There’s no text, no dialogue, just probably the most awesome panel of a comic book to come out this week.

Wolverine #14 – When the badguys drank the Kool Aid, I figured that the joke would be on THEM, that Wolverine wouldn’t give a damn…he’d just be happy they were dead. I totally did not see the big reveal. That…that was genius, and it made perfect sense. And something like that, it’ll stay with Wolverine and fuck him up. So kudos to the bad guys this time.

X-Factor #224 – Agamemnon is a…pleasant…sort of character, isn’t he?

X-Men #16 – Emma Frost is just a telepathic, diamond-hard ray of sunshine, isn’t she? Still, her ideas aren’t totally without merit, are they? I can say that because I’m positive that my ex does not read my blog, at least the Wednesday updates. And of course I’m talking about the mind wiping. And it’s nice to see Wolverine and Thing addressing powerful, world-dominating elephants in the room.

 

What You Should Have Read #33

Last Week’s Awesomeness

I think Marvel’s Astonishing line is a silly concept. Stories set just outside continuity? Why make a separate line for that, when it’s not exactly outside continuity. All the stuff from Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run is canon. He brought Colossus back, gave form to the Danger Room and introduced a new alien race, all of which moved smoothly into “regular” continuity. I loved Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine, I loved Warren Ellis’ run on AXM (and I’m enjoying Jason Aaron’s current run, although I don’t understand why they’re doing alternating stories), and while it isn’t the greatest Thor story I’ve read, I’m enjoying Astonishing Thor. Aside from the name, I’ve been intrigued by Alter Ego. This two-page spread by Mike Choi, though…well, it’s just epic. One living planet EATING another? Awesome.

These are men with a purpose. I expressed my dissatisfaction last week over the death of Bucky and Steve being back as Cap, but dammit if this isn’t just an awesome image.

This is the first DC book on here in a few weeks, I believe. But this image had too much going for it not to be included. Flashpoint royally fucked up everything in Batman’s world, but we know it won’t be the Flashpoint Batman that makes it into DC’s new continuity in September. I guess that means the entirety of his cast of characters is fair game for anything…and Azarello certainly is giving us anything and everything.

I grew up with G.I. Joe. Not the dolls, but the ACTION FIGURES!! Loved the cartoons, loved the toys, somewhat knew Marvel was putting out a comic. I picked up the book for a few months when Devil’s Due jumped on the nostalgia bandwagon a put out a new comic. I heard good things about IDW’s relaunch, though, and I’ve been hooked since their beginning. The stories are a bit closer to “real life,” and they’re pretty damn engaging. I’m singling out these panels, though, for the (probably) last words of a Joe who is proud to go out like a true geek.

Ho…ly…crap. It wasn’t until I read the afterward in issue one of Red Skull that I found out that the writer of this book, Greg Pak, also wrote Magneto: Testament three years ago. I remember really being moved by that book. I’m similarly moved by this book, the story of the Red Skull, but instead of sympathy for the main character, I feel nothing but horror. At first I worried that Pak was going to attempt to make the Red Skull a sympathetic character, showing kindness to the puppy and another boy at the orphanage, but the end expertly illustrates the hate and evilness that will one day turn Schmidt into one of the villainous villains in the Marvel universe. Nothing says “future villain” like “child puppy killer.”

As with every issue of Secret Six, there’s a lot to like about this issue if you enjoy snappy dialogue and unwasted panels and pages…and I do. I picked out this panel (as opposed to Knockout remember the fun of battle or King Shark singing as he attacks a house) because it illustrates one of the things I like about this book: Gail Simone is not trying to reform these villains. These are bad people have no questions about their morality or their deeds. And Lawton says it best, “I just like to shoot things.”

I’ve loved Thunderbolts since Warren Ellis took over the title. Never cared for it before, but everybody who has worked on it since has been wonderful. I like tie-in with Fear Itself. It doesn’t feel force like some regular titles do when they cross into big events. It WAS a bit weird, though, to read Uncanny first, where Juggernaut is already on the West Coast, but here he’s only as far as Chicago.

Oh, shit. Namor knows how to bury a knife and then twist it all the way around. I guess Emma isn’t all that used to be on the receiving end of a hurtful barb like this. Also, I hate Greg Land’s art. This book is just ugly. At least the story is compelling.

What You Should Have Read #32

Last Week’s Awesomeness

I was always a big Venom fan, but I took a hiatus from comics right about the time Marvel started pumping out a bunch of Venom mini-series, so I never felt Venomed out. I liked the evolution of the character, from Eddie and then to Mac after Eddie got cancer. I LOVED what was happening with him in Thunderbolts. I’m okay with the current incarnation, I guess, but I’m just waiting for Flash to be in over his head. As for Eddie Brock, I gave a big eye roll when Anti-Venom was introduced. It just felt too easy, like the creators weren’t even trying. Opposite color scheme, somewhat similar powers, skewed idea of heroism…Marvel already tried a watered-down, “heroic” Venom. But I’m liking the current storyline, and I like how he’s trying to prove himself to Spidey.

I realize that nobody really dies in comics, but Black Bolt is back? Did this happen in a comic I haven’t read? I knew HE wouldn’t stay dead (as opposed to Ant-Man and Jack of Hearts, who are also back), but I’ve been following the cosmic storylines and I have no recollection of his return. I’m assuming it’ll be brought up in the next issue of FF.

Hey there, Valkyrie. Way to rally the troops. After that, though, the end of the issue almost brought me to tears. Of course, I’ve been close to tears most of the week anyways, so it’s not that difficult to get me there right now.

Crime Master might be a good guy, but he ain’t no dummy.

For some reason I had assumed that Wolverine: The Best There Is was a mini-series even though it didn’t say so in the issue box on the cover. Looks like I was wrong. I’m enjoying the smart and sarcastic writing, but I’m liking the art less and less each issue. I liked Juan Jose Ryp while he worked on various Avatar projects, but I’m not feeling like he’s fitting with this book very well. Or maybe it’s just this issue. I did like it when he was drawing freaks and whatnot, and I like his Beast, but his Cyclops and Emma aren’t doing it for me. Maybe I just don’t like him drawing “normal” people. That aside, the little back-and-forth Scott, Henry and Emma had going about nudity was great.