Nerd Culture Podcast

Episode #195 features:

Discussions: Captain America: Civil War / Agent Carter cancelled / Supergirl moving to CW / If you don’t like the Ghostbusters reboot trailer you’re Sexist! / 10 Cloverfield Lane

Azerothian Times: Warcraft movie scenes leaked / China has its own WoW movie!

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Hey everyone! I’m back! I’m sorry that I didn’t have a review for you last week, but I decided to take a break for the week for Christmas. I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a great movie. The visual effects are appealing to many different audiences, but it is mainly focused on those who grew up with video games. The visuals make the movie feel like a trip back to the 80’s and early 90’s with the humor of the present time. The humor is pretty funny, but it’s more about laughing at Scott’s awkwardness.

The cast does an amazing job as their roles. Michael Cera plays as Scott Pilgrim, Mark Webber as Steven Stills, Alison Pill as Kim Pine, Johnny Simmons as Young Neil, Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, and Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells. Also, Chris Evans makes an appearance as one of Ramona’s Seven Evil Exes. Each of the actors does an excellent job portraying their roles. Michael usually plays timid characters so this is a , and Kieran Culkin plays Wallace Wells, Scott’s gay, sarcastic, and casually drunk roommate excellently.

The music in the movie is catchy, and awesome! I actually know how to play one of the songs. However, the reason that I did not give it a perfect score, is because of the fact that it’s not actual jokes, it’s just the way some of the lines are given and acted out that makes it funny. I understand that that’s an odd reason, but I feel like if a few of the lines were actual jokes, and were acted out or said in the same way, I’d enjoy the humor a lot more. So, I’d say that if you’re into visually appealing movies with awesome fight scenes, great music, and excellent acting, then this is a movie that you need to watch immediately. With these factors, plus the addition of the pee bar when Scott uses the bathroom, I’m giving Scott Pilgrim vs. The World 4 Lukes.

If you are a fan of any TV show, movie, or anime where the main character is an anti-hero, then Nightcrawler is the movie for you. I recently watched this movie in theaters, so I figured that while it’s still fresh in my mind I better get my thoughts about this amazing movie out into the world.

As you can probably tell from my positive intro, I am in love with this movie. Nightcrawler is about a man named Louis Bloom, who needs a job and is so desperate that he is shown at the beginning of the film cutting fences from their posts to sell at a scrap yard. On his way home, he comes across a car wreck. A few freelance camera men come up and film the accident just as the police show up. Lou asks the camera men how much a news station would pay for footage of crime scenes. One of them replies with “Not enough”, but Lou decides that ‘not enough’ could become enough. All it takes is a little sneakiness, hard work, and some bloody hands.

And just like Light Yagami from my Death Note review, Lou Bloom is a sociopath who doesn’t know he is a sociopath. He is willing to do anything to get the best shot, the only shot, in order to get the most amount of money. It starts out small, as he moves a dead body to get a more dramatic shot, to withholding evidence to keep a story to go on longer so he can get more footage. His only concern is how much money he can acquire.

Even with all of these elements of Lou Bloom’s character, he is still a highly intelligent person, and can negotiate and blackmail people on the spot. He can analyze people’s reactions, and quickly decide what to say to get what he wants. I couldn’t help but love him.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance as Lou is incredible. He plays the character extremely well, and even the way he walks and stands looks like a character that seems like he wants to be something he isn’t ready for. He looks uncomfortable in his own skin, almost like he wants to shed it and evolve into someone new. His voice is what really gives you the impression that we’re dealing with a character that knows what he is doing, but he doesn’t care, because he knows he can get away with it.

The ending gives so much closure to almost every anti-hero movie or TV show. If you hated the endings to shows like Breaking Bad, Dexter, and Death Note, then I highly recommend that you see this movie. Actually, I can recommend anyone to see this movie. Due to the great storyline, Jake’s acting, the amazing ending, and the anti-hero element, I give Nightcrawler 5 out of 5 Lukes.

I hope you enjoyed reading my latest review! My next review will be out next week!

The nominations for the 2014 Academy Awards have been announced and to be honest, there were few surprises, except perhaps the exclusion of Saving Mr Banks. And, although there was no doubt that 12 Years A Slave would be included, I believe the number of nominations are excessive. I know that this is a controversial opinion, but I believe that film is highly over-rated.

And, on a side note, how the hell can Star Trek: Into Darkness be nominated for visual effects?! The use of fake Lens Flare should automatically exclude your film from any nominations! 🙂

2013 featured some great films, and some exceptionally strong performances, so I don’t envy the Academy members’ task to choose the best of the best from the list below.

Continuing the tradition from last year, I’ve included my Picks (who I want to win) & Predictions (who I think will win) for the winners of Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress & Director in the list below.

Best Picture
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

My Pick: Her
My Prediction: 12 Years a Slave

Best Actor
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

My Pick: Leonardo DiCaprio
My Prediction: Leonardo DiCaprio

Best Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

My Pick: Cate Blanchett
My Prediction: Cate Blanchett

Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

My Pick: Barkhad Abdi
My Prediction: Jonah Hill

Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska

My Pick: Lupita Nyong’o
My Prediction: Jennifer Lawrence

Best Director
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

My Pick: Martin Scorsese
My Prediction: Steve McQueen

Click More for the rest of the nominations (more…)

I saw a tweet recently that said that all movies based on TV shows were bad, basically because they, more often than not, went for the nod & wink to the audience and instead of laughing with the the program that inspired them, preferring to laugh at them. Now at first thought I would agree with this statement. Most of them do in fact do this, and lets face it, most of them suck because of it. But while researching this article I was surprised to find that not all TV based films are crap, and in fact, some of them are actually pretty good. I also found that these films aren’t a recent trend. There are cinematic versions of classic TV shows dating back to the 50’s and were actually kind of a big deal.

The list of these films is quite extensive, so I decided to limit myself to the following: no animated (so no Simpsons The Movie, which lets face it is basically a long episode of the show, or SpongeBob Squarepants, which is a shame ’cause it’s hilarious), no sketches or shorts stretched into a movie (so no Blues Brothers unfortunately), no films used to finish or extend the show (ie Firefly/Serenity or Twin Peaks), no Star Trek (they’ll get their own Spotlight On), and no telemovies – cinema releases only. I’m also not going to do the Dr Who movies, I’ll leave them for Richo and his Who Reviews. That still leaves a heap of options so this article will be split into 2 parts. I hope you enjoy it!

Get Smart

Fun Fact: Get Smart actually had an earlier cinema release called The Nude Bomb (1980). It was a total bomb (pun intended) and nominated for a Golden Raspberry. It was so bad that the revival TV show ignored it completely for continuity.

Released: 2008

Directed by: Peter Segal

Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin & Dwayne Johnson

Plot: Maxwell Smart, analyst and wannabe agent for the secret spy agency CONTROL, working alongside the experienced Agent 99, must prevent KAOS, an enemy agency, from detonating a nuclear bomb in America and save the President.

For: I’m a big Steve Carell fan. I think he’s good in everything he’s in, it’s just that he’s often in very ordinary films / Doesn’t disrespect the source / Alan Arkin is great / Patrick Warburtin as Hymie / a few laughs / Terrence Stamp always good

Against: Doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to be a comedy or an action movie and so fails at both. The action isn’t exciting enough and the comedy relies too much on Carell’s natural charm / the love story simply doesn’t convince.

Favourite Scene: Hymie / the Cone of Silence.

Rating: 2 Lukes

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