5/26/2009 - We Didn't Start the Flame War

This video really encapsulates the state of the Internet today in it's "Web 2.0" state where everybody can many any comment on anything, good or bad. As you can imagine, message boards and comment sections are perhaps the least civilized stomping grounds in today's society:

5/19/2009 - Super Mario Kart : Death Race Double Dash

It seems like making a good video game movie is an impossible task. The last one I saw, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, was so bad that I think there should no longer be live-action movies based on video games. The only video game movies that I thought were decent were DOA and Mortal Kombat. They do have the greatest acting or plots, but at least they were fun and didn't take themselves too seriously. Trust me, I'd love to see a good Legend of Zelda movie, or a good Metroid movie. But I just don't think it's ever going to happen.

I can kind of see what studio execs are thinking with video game movies though. They see an audience with a pre-established brand, and that audience paid up to $60 for a game with that brand, much more than the price of a movie ticket. If they could make a quick movie of that video game, even if a sixth of those who bought the game watched the movie, they would be making the same amount as that video game publisher. The more successful the game, the more successful the movie should be, right? Wrong.

I mean it's surprising to me that there haven't been movies of some of Nintendo's biggest franchises like Zelda and Metroid. What would really be daring would be to make a movie out of Super Mario Kart. I mean, it's a huge seller for Nintendo, right? And here's what it could look like:

4/13/2009 - R2D2 in Episode 1

I'm sure there are those out there who have watched the Star Wars movies so many times that they could swear they know what R2D2 is saying. They might think they know, and they might even have some confirmation from George Lucas himself. But I'd like to think that this series of videos has the true subtitled translation of R2D2. Caution... vulgarities lie ahead:

4/7/2009 - Wii Breakfast

I'm not sure it's fair to say that the Nintendo has become the laughingstock of the hardcore gaming community, but since the release of Wii Music, it's hard to find any first-party properties Nintendo is rolling out specifically geared to the hardcore gamers. Punch Out is probably the only game I'd look forward to, but I'm a retro gamer. Sega's Mad World looks to be a decent effort, but such games on the Wii are few and far between. Go to any Gamestop and just look at the Wii section of games. I guarantee you'll find a dozen titles that will make you go "What the f---?" With such a sad state of gaming on the Wii, it makes videos like this seem plausible:

12/21/2008 - Star Wars Vs. Star Trek - DMP Edition HQ

These Star Wars/Star Trek videos never get old. This one is actually more in a humorous vein and addresses the technological divide between the two universes. While Star Wars tech is decidedly less advanced than that of Star Trek, Star Wars has a little trick up its sleeve:

12/2/2008 - quantum of bonds

I was quite skeptical when Daniel Craig was named as the new James Bond. I was silently rooting for either Hugh Jackman or Julian McMahon for the role. Actually, I would have preferred to see Pierce Brosnan in at least one more outing. He made some pretty good Bond movies and I didn't want to see him go out on the lame Die Another Day. But when they said that they were rebooting the franchise, that meant that they had to choose a new actor.

The only other movie I saw Daniel Craig in was the first Tomb Raider movie and I was not impressed (ironically, he had to fake an American accent for his role while Angelina Jolie faked a British accent). Lots of other bond fans weren't pleased either as "Craig is not Bond" websites started showing up. I didn't even watch Casino Royale in the theaters and it took me a while to watch it on DVD. While I still prefer Brosnan as Bond, I can see why the producers chose Craig. In an era where Jack Bauer of 24 could eat James Bond for breakfast, a new Bond has to be every bit as rough around the edges as Jack Bauer is, but still be a natural in a tuxedo. Craig does fit the bill, and Casino Royale was a pretty good movie, but I can't say that it was a classic Bond movie.

I'll tell you what I do want to see, though. I'd like to see the two Bonds duke it out in some way, maybe in another movie or venue. It doesn't seem like that would ever happen, though. In fact, I don't think there's ever been a movie with two Bond actors in it. Even the GoldenEye Nintendo 64 game was supposed to include the old Bonds as playable characters in the multiplayer, but the feature was scrapped before release. Is there some law of nature that prevents two Bond actors to appear on the screen at once? I guess this video breaks that law then:

11/17/2008 - Take On Me: Literal Video Version

I think I've made my point before about MTV never showing any music videos so I won't belabor the point again (although they did recently cancel Total Request Live, just to add insult to injury). I'm not sure there is a point to having music videos anyway, except to showcase how telegenic the singer is (which SHOULDN'T matter in terms of musical quality). It's not like the lyrics of the song matches exactly with what is shown in the video. For example, here is the video for the popular 80's song "Take on Me". It sounds the same as the original, but the lyrics have been changed so that it actually tells what is happening in the video. Like I said, it is an exercise in silliness:

11/13/2008 - Apple Macbook Sucks

When Apple announced the new aluminum MacBooks, I thought for sure I would get them. My previous laptop was the titanium 13" PowerBook and it would seem that the new Macbook is its spiritual successor. I was looking forward to the new LED screens, new trackpad, and faster graphics. Then came the sticker shock. $1300 for a laptop? I know there's the traditional "Apple tax" that pays for the luxury of using a stable and elegant operating system, but I'm not sure that argument holds water, especially in today's economy.

Then there's the new Display Port. The new display adapters that you can only get from Apple would cost $30 instead of $20 or less than the display adapters for the Mini-DVI ports of the previous generation MacBook. Also, there is no Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapters yet. So to connect the aluminum MacBook to my TVs, I would need to buy two different adapters that total $60 instead of a single Mini-DVI to HDMI adapter for $20. $40 may not seem like much when compared to the cost of the computer, but that can be 8 lunches.

Then there was the last straw. No FireWire. FireWire is an interface that Apple pioneered and promoted, but when USB 2.0 became the standard for PCs, Apple all but gave up hope on FireWire. I should have realized when they switched the interface for iPods from FireWire to USB that they would eventually do the same with their computers. But I was a chump, and I bought a FireWire drive as my backup drive. To me, FireWire is the better technology in that it carries enough power to the device so that I don't need to plug in an extra AC adapter for the portable hard drive. Also, the Migration Assistant works so much faster between two computers with a FireWire cable.

So after evaluating all of this, I went ahead and bought the last generation MacBook. I saved over $300, migrated from my old PowerBook in under 2 hours, and am hooked into both my HDTVs. Although I have some regrets (this MacBook's trackpad kinda blows), I'm happy that I took the time to consider everything before the purchase. I could have easily ended up like this guy:

10/29/2008 - The Dark Knight Trailer Recut - Toy Story 2

Here's another video that has the audio of The Dark Knight trailer dubbed in. Instead of Legos, though, we have footage of Toy Story 2. Not only is it well-synced, it's surprisingly coherent as a trailer:

8/31/2008 - The Shining (with robots)

One of my favorite horror movies has to be The Shining. One time I visited an off-season hotel similar to the one in the movie, and I couldn't help but be reminded of the creepy feeling of when I first watched The Shining. Needless to say, I couldn't wait to get out of the hotel. I'm not a big fan of director Stanley Kubrick's slow methodical style, but he did make it work in the context of the horror/suspense genre. Really, there is no other way to convey the sense of cabin fever turned to madness that develops within the characters other than to draw out every scene to a degree where the audience is also feeling unrest and dread.

Just take one of the most famous scenes in the movie where the kid Danny rides around the hotel in his tricycle and encounters twin girls that used to stay at the hotel. The image of the twins by itself is really unsettling. Then the way they talk in unison sends chills up the spine. But then, out of nowhere, there is a subliminal image of the twins' bodies after they were butchered by an axe. The first time you see it, you will jump out of your seat. I thought it was funny when this scene was shown in the movie "Twister" playing in the drive-in theater. I was actually more interested in seeing this short clip of The Shining than the entire movie of Twister.

I don't want to show the actual scene in question in all its gruesomeness, so here it is presented in a G-Rated form... with robots!

8/23/2008 - Warhawk tips & tricks

I'm so glad Sony and Incognito are supporting the game Warhawk for the PS3. It's the first PS3 game I bought and it's still my favorite after more than a year. Every few months they release a patch or a booster pack that really changes the game and mostly for the better. Since the game came with a headset, I think it was the best $60 I've ever spent on a game. The thing I like most about Warhawk is that it's not overly realistic. Having a third-person perspective gives it a freedom that makes it different than combat sims like Call of Duty. Let's face it, those kind of shooters are unrealistic anyway... so why not play something that is more arcade-like and more fun? I don't know how Warhawk compares to Halo, but I suspect Halo's popularity is also due to it's fun factor. I've seen a lot of "machinima" videos of Halo where people record themselves playing out a comedy or dramatic type show with the Halo characters. This is the first machinima video I've seen of Warhawk, and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed:

8/16/2008 - nintendo e3 2008 conference in a nutshell

I resisted doing this, but Nintendo has to be taught a lesson. The more I think about what Nintendo did at E3, the angrier I get at them. It's not because I'm some Nintendo fanboy who up until now thinks that everything they've done is the second coming. Heck, I don't even own their last two consoles. The thing is, I do have a nostalgic love for the old Nintendo properties like Mario and Zelda and I can't stand to see them waste away their brand name with the current direction they presented at E3. It just wouldn't be good for the gaming industry as a whole, either. If competition breeds innovation then ceding the playing field to just Microsoft and Sony will just lead to a boring gaming landscape filled with first-person-shooters. Nintendo has to be shamed just as Sony was after their E3 conference in 2006. It eventually worked with respect to Sony as we are seeing their resurgence now. So with some very biased editing, here is the gamers' view of Nintendo's E3 conference:

8/14/2008 - The Dark Knight- Joker Interrogation Scene Spoof

If there's one widespread criticism of The Dark Knight, it would have to be Christian Bale's Batman "voice". Yes, he changed his voice as Batman in Batman Begins as well, but it was bad in that movie and he didn't make himself any more intelligible in this latest performance. You would think that as a disguise, the Batman suit would be enough... you can only make out his mouth and eyes. But no, he has to completely change his voice just in case some mob member recognizes Bruce Wayne's voice.

Michael Keaton was able to make it work... heck, even Val Kilmer did okay with it. Kevin Conroy of the animated series perhaps had the most inspired take on it by making the gruff Batman voice his normal voice even when the suit is not on, and having Bruce Wayne's voice higher when he is "disguised" as the millionaire playboy.

For some reason, though, Christian Bale cannot make his Batman voice work. It's just too gruff and hard to understand. When I watch the DVD, I'm going to have to turn the subtitles on! Here is an absolutely hilarious perspective of Batman's unique vocal style; and speaking of the DVD, this would make a great extra:

7/26/2008 - The Dark Knight Trailer Spoof

The summer of 2008 definitely belongs to the superhero in terms of movies. It started out with the excellent Iron Man, then came the outstanding Incredible Hulk, and of course finished up with The Dark Knight. What can I say about this movie that hasn't been said? How much more praise can I give it? First of all, watching a movie like this at a midnight showing is the only way to go. Having an enthusiastic crowd makes even a so-so movie seem good. For this movie, people showed up dressed as Batman and Joker, of course. But there was also somebody in a full Spider-Man outfit! Ah, the comic book/sci-fi/fantasy crowd is the best group of people you'll ever meet. And this movie definitely catered to us... we ate it all up and wanted seconds.

I have to say that after watching the The Dark Knight, I never want to watch another bad movie again. Doing so would be like a waste of life. That's not to say that the movie is perfect... there are plenty of flaws that I could point out, compared to Iron Man which I believe was the perfect summer movie. But The Dark Knight is on such a higher playing field in terms of the acting and storytelling that it's hard to compare it to Iron Man. Everything I liked about Batman Begins is amplified in this movie... the character relationships, the heightened realism, and the uncompromising grittiness.

For a movie like this, you must have a great villain. My favorite movie villain was Khan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Note the word "was". It is now the Joker in The Dark Knight. Much praise has been given to Heath Ledger for his performance and it is much deserved. But what I saw on the screen was not Heath Ledger. It was not an actor reciting lines and "acting". What I saw was the definitive Joker... a deranged maniac with a deep hidden intelligence who only wants to create chaos. If something like that existed in the real world, it would scare you to your soul.

Speaking of which, something else that was scary (intentionally) was Harvey Dent/Two-Face. And it's not just the CG makeup (which showed how ballsy the producers were in greenlighting such a gruesome visage for the movie). If you know anything about the comics, you know the destiny that's in store for Harvey Dent and the way they present the character before his disfigurement really makes you dread his fate. It may be an inappropriate comparison, but I liken it to watching historical footage of September 10, 2001. And when you see Harvey fall to the dark side, it's a real shot to the gut.

The Dark Night is not just another superhero movie. In fact, Batman is not really a superhero at all. He has no super powers...just gadgets, training, and dedication. The Joker and Two-Face have no super powers either. And yet, you could not classify this movie as just a crime-drama, the genre it's probably closest to. And that's because there is this heightened reality by nature of its extreme characters and situations. It's this heightened reality that allows you to forgive its flaws and leaps in logic. For example, could the Joker really have rigged the hospital with explosives without anybody noticing? Of course not, but we accept it because, well, it's the freakin' Joker!

The bottom line: The Dark Knight is a once-in-a-lifetime movie you must experience. You don't have to be a superhero fan... just a fan of movies. So now we get to today's video, which is nothing more than a spoof on The Dark Knight's trailer. Even though it's a spoof, it feels like a tribute. After all, it takes some dedication to dress up like Batman and Joker and film in public:

7/5/2008 - Spider-Man 3 How It Should Have Ended

I don't know at what point Spider-Man 3 got all of the hate that its getting now. It seems to be pretty popular to hate Spider-Man 3, even though there are a lot of other movies that deserve more. I thought it was fine even though it clearly is the least enjoyable of the three Spider-Man movies. My major criticism of it is that because director Sam Raimi wanted to wrap everything up as a trilogy, he threw too many things into it for one movie to handle.

I thought the origin of Venom was pretty spot on, but his inclusion as a last-minute villain left much to be desired. I would have really preferred Eddie Brock getting possessed by the black suit and then fade to credits as a major cliffhanger for the next movie. I mean it would have been pretty epic to have Spider-Man and Venom battling it out during the course of an entire film.

And they should have saved the Gwen Stacy storyline for that movie instead of shoehorning it into this one. I mean if Gwen Stacy were to serve just one purpose in a Spider-Man movie, that would be for Peter to fall in love with her and then be killed off by a major villain so that Peter could be the victim of even more angst. At the very least, Gwen should have been the "damsel in distress" at the end of Spider-Man 3. If you think about it, the last girl Eddie saw Peter with was Gwen. So why kidnap Mary Jane?

I guess the reason for Raimi's decisions was that he wanted the Sandman to be a sympathetic villain and he wanted Harry Osborn to eventually to forgive Peter. With that in mind, I guess I can overlook some of the plot contrivances (the alien suit just happening to land near Peter, for example), and the usual Sam Raimi weirdness (the Peter song and dance routine). A lot of people are less forgiving, however. The folks at "How It Should Have Ended" eschewed their regular format of critiquing a movie's ending and went on to provide a parody of the entire movie for Spider-Man 3:

6/7/2008 - MacBook - thin enough.

My PowerBook is close to 5 years old now, and I'm itching to get a new one. It's still running fine for the most part, but the battery is old now and I pretty much have to leave the laptop plugged in. I can tolerate the speed of booting up, shutting down, and launching apps, but many things are running prohibitively slow. For example, I can't watch HD video with Quicktime because it's so choppy. Adobe Flash is such a processor hog that I can't watch Flash videos of any higher resolution than YouTube videos. I know a lot of this is because the PowerBook is using a PowerPC G4 instead of an Intel chip (my work PC which is older can play high resolution videos fine).

Anyway, I am still sticking with Apple for home computing, but I'm torn as to which laptop I'm going to get. Since I have a "PowerBook" right now, you'd think I'd go with its spiritual successor, the MacBook Pro. I really like the form factor of the 12" PowerBook I'm using right now and unfortunately, the smallest MacBook Pro is 15". I guess I'll be going with the 13" MacBook even if it's not the best Apple has to offer. I'm definitely not going to get a MacBook Air for so many reasons. Besides, as this video shows, the MacBook is thin enough:

5/28/2008 - New Mega64 Video

Is there anything more pointless than the Street Fighter bonus rounds? They are simply stages where there is something that you can beat up for points. But who really pays attention to the points in a fighting game? For that matter, are there any games left that even have accumulating points as a main goal? It used to be that points were the main indicator of videogame skill as shown in the excellent documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. But now, everything is pretty much centered on beating up the other guy in fighting games or finishing a single-player adventure. Capcom got the hint and excluded the bonus rounds in later version of Street Fighter II (they did make a comeback in Street Fighter III). I guess there's some nostalgia and tradition in beating up a car as it was first introduced in Final Fight. The Mega64 folks had to prove their videogame worthiness by doing what? Yes, beating up a real car:

5/27/2008 - Star Wars: No Easy Way Out

Last month, the James Rolfe (AKA the Angry Video Game Nerd) paid tribute to one of his favorite movie series, Rocky and its sequels. In addition to his great documentary about the locales featured in the movies, he gave quick reviews of the movies. I was very curious as to how he would review Rocky IV. I always thought Rocky III, IV, and V were less about the story and the Rocky "legend" and were made just as moneymakers. There was, however, something about Rocky IV that appeals to me as a child of the 80's. Looking at it now, it is quite the period piece with its heavy use of montages set to music, it's almost like a feature-length music video from the 80's. Like James says, "It's all about the montages."

Take the "Driving" montage for example. Here is Rocky, contemplating over the loss of Apollo (sorry if I spoiled the movie for you), and the prospect of going up against the beast Ivan Drago. Not only did this montage contain clips from the previous Rocky movies, but flashback video of something that just happened 15 minutes ago in the movie! Now that's a hardcore montage! It's all set to the song "No Easy Way Out" by Robert Tepper and is frequently parodied on YouTube.

Perhaps the best parody is the one with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, where Darth Vader is witnessing his son's torture at the hands of the Emperor. Who knows what is going on in his head at that moment... after all, his face is completely covered in that mask. I guess it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that he's thinking about the past... and hey, that's the perfect occasion for a flashback montage!



I like to think of this as "What if Sylvester Stallone directed Star Wars?".

5/25/2008 - Michael Jackson's Punch-Out!

What the heck happened to Michael Jackson? I know there were some Daddy issues and there must have been a lot of stress with childhood fame, but how did any of that make him what he is today? There are a lot of celebrities and icons at the top of their genre that were tragically taken out of this world due to tragic circumstances (Elvis, Marylin, Bruce Lee, etc.), but Michael Jackson just became a freak. He may still be on top of the pop charts if it weren't for the (somewhat justified) suspicion that he is a pedophile. Could it have all begun with his "special relationship" with Home Alone star Macauly Culkin? Who knows? But here's a hilarious parody of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out starring M.J. and the other Little Mac:

4/22/2008 - 300 - PG Version

So this is my 300th post and it's actually just about a year ago that I started this blog. Back then I thought it would be easy to find great videos out there to blog about everyday, and there are a lot of really good videos to find and talk about. I could pick any of the "Featured" videos on the front page of YouTube and probably appreciate it in some way. However, I'm really looking for the gems and those videos that appeal to me in some personal way. If you can't tell already, most of my longer blog entries have focused on videogame videos because, frankly, that's what is dominating my free time right now. Hey, I have to immerse myself in that world, otherwise I'll be out of touch with the crowd at the Iron Man of Gaming competition this June!

Anyway, I thought the perfect way to celebrate this 300th post is to feature some video on the movie 300. I watched that movie recently on my PS3 in Blu-Ray form, and it's probably the best demonstration of what the high-definition player has to offer. You can see each and every one of the arrows in that final scene! I gotta say that it's a true MANLY movie... more so than probably another other movie in recent times. Thank goodness, because I've had it up to here with all these metrosexual leading men! 300 may be kind of extreme, though, especially with its stylized violence. It's definitely a rated-R movie, which is a shame because it could have been edited for a wider audience. Here's a hilarious example of how that would have been done: