Nerd Culture Podcast

That’s right NCP fans, the Marvel Comics crossover event of 2012 will be Avengers vs X-Men and you heard about it first on the Nerd Culture Podcast!

Loyal NCP listeners will of course know that on episode #10 we featured an interview with Frank Cho, in which he let slip that he was working on a ‘secret upcoming project at Marvel. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Jason Aaron‘ that he couldn’t discuss. When I asked if it perhaps featured the Spider Woman, he looked very surprised and responded ‘Yes actually.’

And now we know that project! Mr Cho is penciling Avengers vs X-Men #0, the prologue to the event, featuring the crucial roles of the Scarlet Witch and Hope Summers in the coming war.

I’m really looking forward to this crossover, and knowing that we were the first to reveal its existence to the interwebs makes it even more exciting!

Look for more news on this event right here, on NerdCulturePodcast.com

Hollywood receives a lot of flak for its copious amounts of remakes and reboots, and it does certainly feel that the creative well in Hollywood has wrung dry. But the truth is, remakes are nothing new. In fact D.W.Griffith remade his own 1914 film Battle of the Sexes again in 1928. There are plenty of other early examples as well – Beau Geste (original 1926, remake 1939), The Cat and the Canary (original 1927, remake 1939) and The Dawn Patrol (original 1930, remake 1938) to name just a few. A lot of people also ignore the fact that some remakes have improved on the originals.

So for this series of Spotlight On…. I thought I would focus on the some of the highs and lows of the world of film remakes. This is by no means all known remakes, only a selection of the ones I have seen. A more complete list can be found on Wikipedia (but without my valuable opinion of course!).

The Amityville Horror

Released: 1979

Directed by: Stuart Rosenberg

Starring: James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger

Plot: A family move into a haunted house, where grisly murders occurred only a year before.

For: Occasionally creepy

Against: Not creepy enough, and definitely not scary.

Favourite Scene: The father (Brolin) goes mad

Rating: 1.5 Lukes

The Amityville Horror

Released: 2005

Directed by: Andrew Douglas

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George

Plot: A family move into a haunted house, where grisly murders occurred.

For: Decent non-CGI effects, Melissa George is actually a good actress, and always happy to see Ryan Reynolds on screen 🙂

Against: Not scary. Good haunted house stories focus on what you cant see, not throw it all in your face.

Favourite Scene: The father (Reynolds) goes mad

Rating: 2.5 Lukes

Winner: The 2005 version is more watchable, but only just.

Assault on Precinct 13

Released: 1976

Directed by: John Carpenter

Starring: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston

Plot: In what is essentially a remake of Rio Bravo, a police officer defends a defunct precinct against an attack by a relentless criminal gang, aided by a murderer and a few others.

For: Relentless and brutal. Great ending.

Against: Some of the acting is pretty bad. Julie dies!

Favourite Scene: Bishop asks Wilson to walk out of the station with him.

Rating: 3 Lukes

Assault on Precinct 13

Released: 2005

Directed by: Jean-Francois Richet

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne

Plot: A loose remake of the original, a group of police and criminals defend Precinct 13 against a group of corrupt police.

For: Some nice action. Always good to see Gabriel Byrne.

Against: Story is pretty bad, and some of the acting is terrible.

Favourite Scene: Can’t think of one.

Rating: 2 Lukes

Winner: Carpenter’s original is still the best.

Cape Fear

Released: 1962

Directed by: J Lee Thompson

Starring: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum

Plot: Convicted rapist Max Cady is released from prison and immediately begins a terror campaign against the family of lawyer Sam Bowden, who he holds responsible for his conviction.

For: A classic. Mitchum is mesmerising as the disgusting Cady. Whenever he is on screen you can’t help but be captivated.

Against: I’m not a Telly Savalas fan. He annoys me and whenever he is on screen it puts me right off. Weird but true.

Favourite Scene: There are plenty of classic scenes, but Cady’s final all out attack on the family wins it.

Rating: 4 Lukes

Cape Fear

Released: 1991

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Juliette Lewis, Jessica Lange

Plot: Convicted rapist Max Cady is released from prison and immediately begins a terror campaign against the family of lawyer Sam Bowden, who he finds out withheld evidence that could have gotten him a lighter sentence or acquittal.

For: A tour de force from De Niro as the psychotic Cady, and a great performance from Lewis as the daughter Danielle.

Against: Cady hiding under the car as they travel to Cape Fear. A few blocks maybe, but all the way up-state – come on! Also, Jessica Lange is terrible.

Favourite Scene: Cady seduces Danielle – creepy and fascinating.

Rating: 4 Lukes

Winner: This a too close to call – a tie!

Clash of the Titans

Released: 1981

Directed by: Desmond Davis

Starring: Harry Hamlin, Judy Bowker, Sir Laurence Olivier, Neil McCarthy, Maggie Smith

Plot: Perseus, the illegitimate son of Zeus, defeats various foes in order to rescue his love Andromeda from the fearsome Kraken

For: Good old fashion fun. Although it vears from the original story a bit, it is never boring and features some amazing stop motion work from Ray Harryhausen, including Medusa.

Against: Hamlin can’t act. Bubo is overused and becomes tiresome.

Favourite Scene: Medusa!

Rating: 4 Lukes

Clash of the Titans

Released: 2010

Directed by: Louis Leterrier

Starring: Sam Worthington, Gemma Arteton, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson, Mads Mikkelsen

Plot: Fisherman Perseus survives the death of his family and is unwillingly thrust into a war of the Gods when it is discovered he is in fact the son of Zeus. He renounces his divine heritage and fights for the cause of mortals.

For: The Medusa sequence, Bubo’s cameo, good performance from Mikkelsen.

Against: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Sam Worthington is friggin’ terrible. Hollywood please stop giving this man work. The so called action is boring, the tacked on 3D is laughably bad, and the performances are terrible. It also has one of the worst marketing slogans I have ever seen – Titans Will Clash! Groan.

Favourite Scene: The Medusa sequence

Rating: 1 Luke

Winner: The original Titans stomps all over the piece of crap remake.

More in part 2 🙂

Here is my latest killer WoW spec – Lightning Storm!

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hGhGGRbkdhobhMZb:orzoqR0mM

This Elemental Shaman spec is designed to shock your enemy into submission with the power of nature.  Your predominant spells are going to be Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, and Thunderstorm.  The main reason why I did not say Flame shock and Lava Burst, is due to the fact that this spec is mainly going to go for Fulmination, and if you stack enough mastery and/or haste, you will get the Fulmination effect VERY frequently, which is good for massive damage.

Also this spec has a lot of survivability to it as well.  It has all magic damage reduced by 12% by Elemental Warding and 10% less damage while casting with Ancestral Resolve.  You will also want to use your Thunderstorm and Frost Shock to keep enemies off of your back, while you blast away at them.  Earthquake and a well placed Earthbind Totem can also help with keeping enemies away from you. I would normally say that the Flametongue Weapon  is the best choice, but recently, I’ve found that Frost Brand seems to do better, in conjunction with Unleash Elements, forcing your enemy to a VERY slow crawl.

Also, the totems i generally will use are Stoneskin, Flametongue, Mana Spring and Wrath of Air.  There are situations of course where you will need Earthbind or Tremor to help take enemies off of you, or to use some of the fiery damage totems, but i usually prefer to just stick with Flametongue, since it can help with healing too, as well as the very favored, Grounding for PvP.

The main rotation would be to use your Lightning bolt on your enemy, followed by Frost shock, then continue with Lightning bolt when they get close, pop them with your Thunderstorm, and another frost shock.  If you have your Fulmination ready, then use Earth Shock.  If you have a group on you, then you can use Chain Lightning instead of Lightning bolt, and continue casting till they get to you.  Then, when they are close, Earthbind totem, while running back, then continue with Chain Lightning, until they are close again, in which you can use Thunderstorm, and just pelt them from afar even more!  Using this spec, if you can keep your mastery or haste high enough, your Lightning Storm will tear your enemies asunder!

NASA have confirmed the existance of a planet with the right distance from its star to support water, plus a suitable temperature and atmosphere to support life. They called it Kepler-22b, but I call it Earth 2!

Spinning around its star some 600 light years away, Kepler-22b is 2.4 times the size of the Earth, putting it in class known as “super-Earths,” and orbits its Sun-like star every 290 days.

Its near-surface temperature is presumed to be about 22 Celsius. Scientists do not know, however, whether the planet is rocky, gaseous or liquid.

The planet’s first “transit,” or star crossover, was captured shortly after NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft in March 2009. But lets face it, they’ve probably known about it since the days of Area 51 (how do you like that conspiracy fans?).

NASA also announced that Kepler has uncovered 1094 more potential planets, twice the number it previously had been tracking. So plenty of space to colonize and eventually conquer the galaxy.

Episode #13 (the Luke free episode!) features:

Popcorn Junkie: Immortals

War Room: Mythology in Popular Culture

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Click More to see the Show Notes for Episode #13

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