Star Trek: Into Darkness
Final Score
Into Darkness should be seen on the big screen and it's exactly the kind of spectacle that we hope for from our summer blockbusters. It also happens to be one of the best films in the Star Trek series and deserves to sit side-by-side with its 2009 sibling

Hello g33ks, m33ks, and anyone else who’s had the privilege of seeing Hamlet in the original Klingon. I am reviewing one of the summer’s biggest films. JJ Abrams second installment in the renaissance of the Star Trek film series: Into Darkness. The 2009 reboot of The Star Trek series was a success beyond the wildest imaginations of nearly everyone. This was a film that was undeniably Trek but except for the most rabid of fanboys the film was seen positively by pretty much everyone. In order to build on that good will JJ Abrams brought back all of the main cast and added a few exceptional new members. The quality of the film seems apparent from its trailers but can it withstand the expectations, many early lackluster reviews and the worldwide juggernaut that is Iron Man 3?

Star Trek (2009) is an easy film to enjoy. Its epic film making, its a new vision of a classic franchise and it features one of the most fun casts currently working in Hollywood. They weren’t just younger and prettier, they seemed to bring a real weight to the film as if they appreciate the reverence people have for this series. At the time director JJ Abrams (Super 8, Mission Impossible: 3) and writers Roberto Orci (Fringe, Alias) and Alex Kurtzman (Fringe, Alias) were praised for adhering to the past so much that they didn’t truly reboot the entire Star Trek Universe. They created a second one, allowing all of the original films to remain “canon” while creating a new universe for fans to enjoy. This is where the issue arises with Into Darkness.

When the film opens we are reintroduced to the crew of the Enterprise in the midst of an action packed rescue attempt of an entire species. I previously described this sequence in my discussion of the 8 minute preview shown before The Hobbit in December (spoilers). As a result of the actions taken by the crew Kirk (Chris Pine) finds himself removed from command of The Enterprise, Spock (Zachary Quinto) finds himself reassigned to a new ship and Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood) is forced to fight for the careers of his best and brightest officers. While this occurs, a plot to destroy Star Fleet from the inside begins when the enigmatic John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) uses the grief of a Star Fleet officer to his advantage; allowing him to launch a successful bombing on a London Star Fleet facility. This bombing makes him into the most wanted man on Earth and Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) directs all of ship captains in the quadrant to hunt him down.

It has been said by JJ Abrams that in Star Trek, Kirk was given the captain’s chair but in this film he earns it. This is the perfect sentiment to describe exactly what this film is about. This film contains a solid story, excellent acting from its cast and proves that there is definitely a place for Star Trek among the popcorn flicks this summer. There is however a major detraction of this film that seems to be gaining steam. There is a major discussion online as to whether this film does too much fan service. Many reviewers have stated, that the film is solid but its encumbered by its constant looking back to the past in order to safeguard itself with the fandom. These critics seem to want to have the film branch off on its own and break new ground.

The same filmmakers who were praised for ingeniously creating an alternate reality in the first film have now been called on the carpet for relying on the previous films too much. I don’t know if this is based on real sentiment or if there is some need to bring down Abrams a little bit now that he seems to have become the reigning king of genre films. I wonder if the film had stepped out and chosen not to pay so much fan service to the original films that it would have been declared arrogant or short sighted for doing so.

At the end of the day this is an extremely solid film. It should be seen on the big screen and it’s exactly the kind of spectacle that we hope for from our summer blockbusters. It also happens to be one of the best films in the Trek series and deserves to sit side-by-side with its 2009 sibling. Yes, it spends a lot of time dwelling on the past but that doesn’t make it work any less.

- Mr. Khon

Iron Man 3
Final Score
Iron Man 3 does more than simply kick off Phase 2, it is a film on par with the original and shows why Marvel's film universe is so much more complete than DC's.

Hello g33ks, m33ks and anyone else looking for a clean slate. This is my review of the third edition of the cinematic adventures of Iron Man. This is Tony Stark’s fourth starring appearance in a film produced by Marvel Studios and the first for Marvel’s Phase 2 initiative. This is also the first film in the series to be helmed by director Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), a man much more well known as the screenwriter of films like Lethal Weapon, The Monster Squad and The Last Boyscout.  Like the original film in 2008, Iron Man 3 is the first in a series of steps that will culminate in the release of an Avengers film in 2015.  It also has the possibility of being Robert Downey Jr.’s final turn in the role as his contract was negotiated for three films. Is this film a return to greatness for the series that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Will audiences miss the director of the first two films Jon Favreau? Is it possible to make a standalone Iron Man film exciting now that we live in a post-Avengers world?

Iron Man 3 begins in an intriguing way in that it goes back in time, not to the events that took place in New York a few months prior but to New Year’s Eve 1999. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is attending a gala event featuring some of the greatest minds on the planet. One of these great minds is the beautiful Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) a “botanist”, Tony’s simplified titling of someone with her skills, on the verge of changing the way mankind recovers from serious physical trauma. Tony of course sees her more as a sexual conquest than as someone who’s work he should study and by doing so overlooks some of the most gifted people in the world, including more than one who will someone who will one day have a direct impact on his life, vying for his attention. One of those people who refuses to be overlooked is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pierce) a brilliant but physically challenged man who aspires to use this meeting of great minds to create the most advanced think tank in the world. He tries to get Tony to meet with him but of course with his attention focused on Maya Hansen he leaves Killian to wait alone during the celebration of the New Year.

In the present we are introduced to a totally unfamiliar Tony Stark. This Tony seems the same on the surface in that he’s experimenting with Jarvis (Paul Bettany) on a new type of Iron Man suit that can be called to his body in a “telepathic” fashion. There is no smug sense of self satisfaction though. He’s not sleeping, he’s not getting incredibly drunk at parties or preparing to race in Formula 1. He’s no longer running the day-to-day business at Stark Industries; that is a job he has left to the love of his life Pepper Potts (Gweneth Paltrow) much to the disdain of Aldrich Killian who has changed his life after years of intense physical therapy.

Killian once again wants to draft Tony’s genius to work with his AIM think tank, which has made incredible strides into mapping the human brain but finds himself again unable to get his meeting with Stark. Killian makes it abundantly clear that he desires not just Stark’s help with his work but Pepper’s affection causing Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) to track Killian and his second in command. Happy’s snooping leads to a chance run-in with the agents of the world’s newest threat, The Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley). This terrorist has the ability to hijack any of the airwaves all over the United States and he seems to have a penchant for collecting many different cultural and religious symbols into his own ideological melange. He has succeeded in bombing several different locations throughout the Unites States and this has caused President Ellis (William Sadler) to rebrand War Machine James Rhodes (Don Cheadle)  into The Iron Patriot. The Iron Patriot’s new mission is to defend America from The Mandarin, and to track him down and capture him.  When faced with the potential loss of one of his dearest friends Tony personally challenges The Mandarin to face him.

One of the things that I love about the film is that its truly a post Avengers world. Tony’s suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, his compulsion to prepare for every possible situation, and even the fact that he uses inspiration from the way Thor can summon Mjolnir to create his telepathic prototype suit show the fact this what he has recently experienced has changed him. He’s almost into the same kind of head space one would expect from from his more somber DC comics counterpart Bruce Wayne. This in not a knock on the character or even a warning that this film has no sense of humor. This is simply the evolution of the character and a return for the series to everything that made the first film so incredible.

In a movie with this many accomplished actors its not difficult to imagine that its full of incredible performances but everyone is in their finest form in this film: Guy Pearce, Robert Downey Jr and most of all Ben Kingsley really produce some of their best work in this film. That isn’t meant to shortchange the rest of the cast including a great performance from Ty Simpkins (Insidious) as Harley, a young engineering enthusiast. The fact that Shane Black was able to get this kind of effort from these actors and keep this film on the rails in only his second directorial outing is incredible. The returning cast has gelled with Jon Favreau at the helm so to ask them in the third film to accept a man who’s expertise is in writing stories for the screen was a lot from Marvel. That said the gamble paid off.

In 2008 Iron Man created the Marvel Cinematic Universe and placed itself as one of the great superhero films of all time. Iron Man 2 was fine as a flick but definitely lesser in quality than the original. Iron Man 3 does more than simply kick off Phase 2, it is a film on par with the original and shows why Marvel’s film universe is so much more complete than DC’s. Is Iron Man 3 a perfect film? No. Is it one of the best superhero films in the genre to date? Absolutely. We still live in a world where X-men: First Class, The Avengers and The Dark Knight reign supreme as the best examples of films in the superhero genre. I think in that next level are films like Iron Man, X2, Batman Begins, Thor, Kick-Ass and Superman II. I think Iron Man 3 fits in with that second level of films. Not the apex of the genre but still one of the all time great offerings.

With the Video Games list, there has to be a lot of build up and notes given about what circumstances I had growing up. That entire video games list has to be colored by what consoles or equipment I had available to me. Movies are completely different though. All you need to do is go out to the theater, or just pop in a VHS / DVD / Blu-Ray to watch a movie. Almost anyone can do it, and that’s what makes this list interesting and one that more people may have reason to weigh in on.

As I have said from the beginning, this list is my own personal list. I’m not here trying to tell you what the greatest 50 movies of all time are, in terms of quality. This is just a list of the movies that have affected and changed my life.

What you’ll quickly find out through this list, is that I have a pretty wide range of film appreciation. That is in huge part to my sister Susan, brother Mike, and brother-in-law Josh. They really helped shape this list, with exposing me to a ton of different movies through the years, even if I was really young and probably shouldn’t have watched them. Thanks everyone, you are the best for letting me watch Predator and Nightmare on Elm Street when I was four. =)

If you have any other questions about how this list got formed, please leave a comment down below, catch me on Twitter, or you can email me at joey@g33kwatch.com. Interested to see what everyone thinks about this list and would love a chance to talk it over.

Without further adieu, here’s movies 50 to 41!

#50 – Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
	Released: 1985 Director: Tim Burton Studio: Warner Bros Distributor: Warner Bros My Iconic Moment: The Breakfast Machine I was a really big fan of Pee Wee Herman, aka Paul Rubens when I was a young kid. I mean, a lot of people were, but I feel like I was especially. I liked Pee Wee so much that I would watch the entirety of the film Back to the Beach just so I could get to the part where Pee Wee Herman sang and danced to “Surfing Bird.” I mean that movie is bad, but I still loved it because of Pee Wee. Big Adventure is like a dumb version of the Homer’s The Odyssey. Pee Wee has his cherished bike stolen by his jerky “friend” Francis, and goes on a cross country trek to the Alamo trying to find it. Along the way he sleeps in a building shaped like a dinosaur, gets spooked by a trucker named Large Marge, and performs an iconic dance to the song Tequila for a bunch of bikers that want him dead.
Surprisingly, what I found as I got older is that the movie still makes me laugh. I also didn’t know as a kid but this film is directed by Tim Burton of all people. Not only was it directed by Burton, but this was his first full length movie. I can see some of his trademark shots and influences now as I look back, and that definitely allows repeat viewings to feel new and fresh. Also, the score by Danny Elfman is amazing, like much of Elfman’s work.

#49 – The Breakfast Club
Released: 1985 Director: John Hughes Studio: Universal Studios Distributor: Universal Studios My Iconic Moment: Dance Scene For a lot of people, High School is not a fun time in their lives. It doesn’t matter clique you are in, or who your friends are, odds are High School is going to kick your ass and force you to confront your most inner insecurities. John Hughes completely understood that, and he used that knowledge to craft The Breakfast Club. Five teenagers are forced to spend an entire Saturday in their school’s library as detention, while the principal tries to get some work done in his office across the hall. All the stereotypes are represented, as some of the best actors of the Brat Pack come together for some of their best performances. Emilio Estevez as the Jock, Anthony Michael Hall as the smart kid, Molly Ringwald as the popular pretty girl, Ally Sheedy as the weirdo, and Judd Nelson as the bad boy.
Despite all the characters being definite stereotypes and from different groups, they are able to find out that they all have problems that are pretty similar to each other. This allows them all to connect to each other and by the end of the film, become friends. Some people have criticized that the film writing is a little too convenient in that for the kids, all of their problems are tied to their parents and the pressure that is put on them. While it all does match up really nicely, I would throw out that when you are in High School, what kid didn’t have issues with their parents? I had a pretty good upbringing, but I had some really bad moments with my parents during High School. It’s part of growing up for a lot of kids where they feel like no one understands them, and they just have so much thrust upon them. These years can be extremely difficult for teenagers, and The Breakfast Club really captured that feeling. Even if they took some liberties along the way. Finally … the final scene and shot. Holy shit, that ending was amazing. So iconic, that the characters in the film Pitch Perfect, more than 25 years later, riff on how important of a scene it is as homage. One downside, and it’s a spoiler if you have never seen this movie. Anthony Michael Hall doesn’t get any out of this! The other characters end up together in some fashion, but not him. He’s just left to go home, feel better about him self, but not have anyone to make out with. Kinda made me sad. That was until I saw Weird Science and the Anthony Michael Hall character gets the way hotter girl in that. All came back around.

#48 – Starship Troopers
	Released: 1997 Director: Paul Verhoeven Studio: Big Bug Pictures Distributor: TriStar Pictures My Iconic Moment: Rico vs Tankbug Director Paul Verhoeven just makes movies that I really enjoy. They are over the top, gory, testosterone filled action films that are somehow filled with sophisticated messages that make you think. When the basic premise of your movie is that a bunch of kids on Earth are going to be put into the military to invade an alien planet filled with a weird bug race, I don’t expect to ponder the nature of propaganda, nationalism, and even fascism. Yet, that is exactly what Starship Troopers did for me. It was also a bunch of dumb fun with great action and special effects. Another interesting tidbit about Starship Troopers; this movie is over two full hours long. Two hours! You think this is going to be a short movie filled with bug killing, but the film really takes the time to setup their narrative, no matter what you may think about it.
I think the thing that really makes this movie one of my favorites is that all of the actors seem to have a really great idea about what they are doing. They know that they are in a B-Movie masquerading as top-tier action film, and they overact accordingly. Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico absolutely makes the movie, without him the entire thing falls apart. Helping Van Dien do his best over the top though, Neil Patrick Harris, Jake Busey, Dina Meyer and Michael Ironside all provide the required tongue and cheek deliver that each character needs. Van Dien, Busey and Meyer all do amazing as mobile infantry soldiers who start off woefully unprepared for the horrors of war, but then get shaped into killing machines that thrive off the action. Ironside is perfect as a former soldier, turned chemistry teacher, then back to soldier who runs the Roughneck platoon and helps Rico become the career soldier he needs to be. Neil Patrick Harris isn’t in the film much, but his portrayal of psonic scientist Carl make for some of the funniest scenes in the movie. The only person who didn’t really get the notice seems to be Denise Richards who actually seems to be trying to act during the film. It’s kind of jarring and just come across as she didn’t understand the source material. Maybe I’m reading too much into all of it, and that’s quite possible, but she is definitely the weakest part of the film. The special effects are great, and the acting is sufficiently dumb, but the propaganda portions of the movie are what put this movie on the list. Haven’t seen those portions of the movie? Would you like to know more?

#47 – Good Morning Vietnam
Released: 1987 Director: Barry Levison Studio: Touchstone Pictures Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures My Iconic Moment: Cronauer with America Soldiers Let’s stay on the topic of movies about wars, that make you think of more than just who lives and dies. Good Morning Vietnam is a film that I honestly can’t tell you when I first watched. I remember there being a VHS tape of the movie in my house around the age of 6 or so, and then I proceeded to watch that same tape well into High School. Now that I mention it, that tape may still be at my parent’s house and probably still works. Talk about quality products! Robin Williams has been known as an actor that either does over the top, crazy comedy, or weird and creepy serious roles. Good Morning Vietnam is a movie that tows the line between those two styles. Williams plays airman Adrian Cronauer, a humorous radio personality who is now in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Cronauer is given one of the early time slots on Radio Saigon, with the purpose of trying to raise the morale of the soldiers out in the field. Cronauer decides to do this by being loud, funny, and playing rock & roll music, all in a fashion that irks and annoys the Sargent Major who is in charge of the radio station.
Unsurprisingly, Robin Williams is really funny in this film. This was made during the late 80s when Williams was really starting to hit his stride with his particular brand of comedy. It was also the start of him being able to show heart, and warmth, traits that would help him out tremendously in the future when he was making films like Toys, Hook, and Mrs. Doubtfire. In Good Morning Vietnam, there is an innocence to the character of Cronauer that gets broken and exposed as the movie goes on. Cronauer goes into Vietnam thinking that it’s just another conflict, one in which America will prevail, and he’s just there to provide entertainment on the radio. He quickly realizes though that the soldiers there aren’t necessarily welcome, nor are they fighting a war they can win. It’s a fascinating take on the subject, and I feel like the theme really captures what it must have felt to be an American at the time, no matter what your role was. The film does a good job of showing just how uptight the military was at this time, confident that their methods were going to win out no matter what. The idea that the government and military were censoring news and hiding information in an effort to have the media give a winning perception to the troops. Director Barry Levison, who later delved more into the media’s control of war in Wag the Dog, also tackles how the Vietnamese we fought were dangerous, but maybe they had good reason to not want us in their country. Good Morning Vietnam has its funny moments, but it is not a comedy. It’s a drama, looking at a really difficult war from an angle that most would never think would exist. Well worth the time to watch if you haven’t already.

#46 – The Replacements
	Released: 2000 Director: Howard Deutch Studio: Warner Bros Distributor: Warner Bros My Iconic Moment: Bar Fight & Jail Dance My love for Keanu Reeves is pretty well documented. At first, when I was younger, that “love” was in an ironic way. As I watched more and more though, I began to see that I really did enjoy him as an actor. Everyone will look at him and just see the dolt that played Ted Theodore Logan in Bill & Ted, but Reeves is way more than that. He really takes his craft seriously, and does a ton of research, no matter how big or small that character is. I think you have to respect his dedication, if nothing else. As an small tidbit, Nicolas Cage has taken over my ironic actor love, so all is right in the world. Most people would not place a movie like The Replacements on their list. It’s a sports comedy that stars Keanu Reeves. That’s not exactly a winning reciepe for most folks. This is my list though so fuck everyone else. In a fictional professional football league, the regular players are going on strike for more money. The Washington DC Sentientals decide that they are going to use replacement players in an effort to finish up the season and get into the playoffs. Gene Hackman portrays coach Jimmy McGinty, as he attempts to round out his team with a rag-tag group of misfits that no one else knows about.
I could sit here and attempt to give you all sorts of deep reasons of why this is a great movie but I won’t. The Replacements is just fun. You can guess exactly how everything is going to play out and what characters they are going to use. They get an ex Sumo Wrestler and two club bouncers as offensive linemen, a Welsh soccer player for a kicker, and a really fast guy who can’t catch passes as wide receiver. Heck, they even get a a police officer as a linebacker, a convict as a running back, and a deaf person for a tight end. Reeves’s character of Shane Falco is a former college star, who choked during the college national championship game and has been haunted by that ever since. People doubt that he can win the big game under pressure, and it’s something that is dealt with the entire film. He has to deal with the fear that he’s not clutch, that he can’t make the big play, he’s not a leader, and that he can’t get the girl. Spoilers though, he does all of that and becomes the best player they have. Everyone wins. Reeves also really learned how to play QB for the role, and practiced a lot. This is the second QB that he has played in a film, the first one being Johnny Utah in Point Break. Interestingly, both of those characters played at Ohio State in their respective films. So while Reeves had a little bit experience throwing a football after the Point Break scene, for The Replacement he really practiced and was able to understand complex NFL standard playbooks. Amazing dedication to the craft!This movie is fun and awesome. That’s all there is to it. Also, like any sports movie, the last speech by the star player / coach has to be good. For The Replacements, Keanu does a stellar job with his speech about glory.

#45 – Top Gun
Released: 1986 Director: Tony Scott Studio: Simpson/Bruckheimer Distributor: Paramount Pictures My Iconic Moment: Dat Volleyball Game Let’s be real for a second. I don’t care how crazy Tom Cruise is in real life. He may be off his rocker and completely dedicated to Scientology and all that other bullshit. That stuff doesn’t mean anything to me. When Tom Cruise is in a movie, he’s fucking great in it. He’s so intense and dedicated to the role, that it doesn’t matter what he’s playing, he is going to make you feel something. Top Gun is not Tom Cruise’s best role, but his time as Maverick is memorable. The film has action, drama, rivalries, sex, death, and so much more. In addition, the cinematography is fantastic, and the soundtrack is legendary. I don’t think I’m overstating anything in this. Top Gun is an utterly amazing movie, and I don’t feel like I need to do much else other than say that it’s on my list.

#44 – Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
	Released: 1989 Director: Stephen Herek Studio: Interscope Communications Distributor: Nelson Entertainment My Iconic Moment: Bill & Ted’s Final Report Yay another Keanu movie. Remember all that good stuff I said about him during my talk about The Replacements? Well throw it all out, because Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is dumb, goofy, and a total blast. You don’t come to this for the acting, you come for the sheer insanity of it all. Most of you already know the story. Bill S. Preston Esq (Alex Winter) and his friend Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) are flunking history class. They have to get an A on their final history presentation or else Ted is going to be shipped off to military school. If that happens, the two buddies can’t continue to have their band Wyld Stallyns and eventually rock the world. To prevent this, the enlightened people of the future send Rufus (George Carlin) to the past in a time traveling telephone booth, to ensure the duo pass their test. Why? Because the music of Wyld Stallyns has made the future a perfect world, and they can’t afford to lose that. Did I mention this movie is dumb fun?
As Bill & Ted go back in time and meet all of these famous people, and then bring those historical figures back to 1989 to show off at their history presentation, the movie gets dumber and funnier. The acting is over the top and bad, the 80s fashion is atrocious and their logic for how time travel works is not even remotely sensible. All of that doesn’t matter because you laugh the entire time you watch the movie, and it’s a fun ride throughout. Finally, it gives us a very important life lesson: “Be excellent to each other!” We should follow that advice more often as a society. A comedic classic if you ask me.

#43 – Way of the Gun
Released: 2000 Director: Christopher McQuarrie Studio: Artisan Pictures Distributor: Artisan Entertainment My Iconic Moment: Stepping off the path I had a very odd relationship with my parents. I was the third child in my family, and while I got advantages that they never did, I also got hampered in different ways. For the entirety of High School and when I was home for college, I just wasn’t allowed to go out anywhere. My parents didn’t want me to getting mixed up with anything and getting into trouble, so I just wasn’t allowed anywhere. The only thing that I was really allowed to do, was go to the movies on Friday night. So every Friday night, no matter what, myself and my friends Dan, Zach, and Shane would go to the movies. It was good because we got to hang out, but we also saw a lot of movies due to that. When I say every week, I mean every week. So because of that, there were some weeks when we had seen all of the good movies, and there just wasn’t a lot out. So we had to expand our horizons and see some movies that were off the radar.
While that unfortunately means we sat through Blair Witch 2, it also means that we got a chance to see The Way of the Gun. A movie that was directed by Christopher McQuarrie who is famous for being the leader writer of The Usual Suspects. This movie was his directorial debut and was very indie, but with a really solid cast. McQuarrie wanted to make a more realistic heist / organized crime thriller and I think he was very successful. The film really took me by surprise, and it made me really glad that I would just go out and see movies for the fun of seeing movies. The film follows Ryan Phillippe and Benecia Del Toro as two vagrants who’s real names are never given, instead going by Mr. Brown and Mr. Longbaugh. They drive around the country with no luxuries, trying to find a way to get rich. They don’t care how that happens, so when they hear about an innocent girl being a surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis) for a very rich, powerful and shady man by the name of Abner Mercer. Brown & Longbaugh hatch a plan to kidnap the mother and ransom off the baby. What follows, is a intricate game of cat and mouse, as they try to get the better of two bodyguards (Taye Diggs & Nicky Katt) and Mercer’s bag man played by the fantastic James Caan. What really impressed me most about this film, is the dialogue and the gun fights. This is not a stereotypical action film where people shoot first and ask questions later. There is a good amount of talking back and forth between both parities, as they try and see if they can do things quickly and quietly. Guns are drawn, but shooting is something that only happens as a last resort. When the guns are fired, everything is done really well, with a lot of covering fire, cover, and specific movements used to simulate what professionals would do. McQuarrie’s brother was an ex-Navy SEAL coordinated movements, use of cover, and room-clearing tactics all made it into the film. Made every character seem as if they were professionals, and made the final gun fight really tense and dramatic. Most people haven’t seen this movie, and I know I will have said this a lot during the Top 50, but you really should see The Way of the Gun. Unappreciated crime film that will provide you unique gun fights, philosophical musings, and very powerful character conversations.

#42 – Jurassic Park
	Released: 1993 Director: Steven Spielberg Studio: Amblin Entertainment Distributor: Universal Studios My Iconic Moment: Welcome to Jurassic Park I was ten years old when Jurassic Park came out into theaters. Thinking back on it, that is the first time I can remember seeing a proper blockbuster movie. Something where the audience was just in awe of what they were seeing, and you couldn’t help but talk about it with your friends. Something that was just everywhere in the media. It was around that time, a few months before the movie came out that I attempted to read the novel by Michael Crichton. I was still pretty young so that didn’t work out, but I did get far enough into it that I knew if this movie could pull of the dinosaurs, then it would be amazing. Add on top of all of that, my deep love for dinosaurs and desire to be an archaeologist (ahh kids), and you had a recipe for everything I wanted to see in a movie.
Jurassic Park works as a film because the dinosaurs absolutely look and sound real. Through a combination of computer generated and practical effects, Steven Spielberg is able to achieve that. This wasn’t a case of watching the film and going, “oh those things look so fake.” When you see that T-Rex break through the electrified fence, you are 100% absorbed and believe that it is a real dinosaur on screen. Because of how convincing all of the effects are, the movie is awe-inspiring, but also frightening. You could say that Jurassic Park is an adventure film, but you could just as easily say it is a horror movie. While the sequels to this franchise have never really panned out, this original film continues to stand as one of the best movie accomplishments of all time. What’s also great is that while you spend a lot of the movie running away from dinosaurs, there are some wonderful characters that are able to shine through all of the noise. You end up caring about them, and hoping for them to make it out, even though the odds are against them. Except for Dennis Nedry. You are so happy when that fucking Dilophosaurus kills him and foils his plan.

#41 – Strange Days
Released: 1995 Director: Kathryn Bigelow Studio: Lightstorm Entertainment Distributor: 20th Century Fox My Iconic Moment: Juliette Lewis performs “Hardly Wait” Before Kathryn Bigelow become a super hot director for making The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, she made two movies that really helped shape my childhood. One of them, we will talk about much later on in this list, but the other was Strange Days. It’s a movie that isn’t super well known by a lot of people, but it is a film that gave me a look into how powerful and dangerous technology can be. I remember seeing the trailer when I was kid, and that really tried to talk about a virtual reality based technology that was part of the film’s storyline. This tech allowed people to record their memories to a data disc, and then others could play those discs back and fully experience the memories and emotions through the recorders eyes. The other thing that the trailer really harped on, was that it was going to take place during New Year’s Eve 1999, so the hype around the year 2000 was going to heavily factor in. What the film actually turned out to be, was a cyberpunky cult classic that had more to do with character interaction and conspiracy. The virtual reality technology was there, but it was a means to an end, something that allowed the plot to move forward.
Ralph Fiennes plays Lenny Nero, an ex-cop that now deals in the illegal creation and sale of these memory data-discs. Things get crazy though when he receives a disc from a friend that shows the death of an outspoken political figure at the hands of two LAPD officers. The implications are enormous, and his ex-girlfriend Faith played by Juliette Lewis is somehow involved. Lenny desperately wants to help out Faith and get the word out to the media, but he’s putting himself in danger. There are people though trying to cover everything up, as Lenny tries to avoid the cops and a mysterious serial killer who is killing everyone involved. The only person that Lenny can trust is his friend Mace played brilliantly by Angela Bassett. Strange Days is brilliantly shot, and the pacing makes for a very tense, roller coaster ride. There are the obvious topics of how dangerous / helpful technology can be, but the film also touches up on topics like friendship, political activism, addiction, and sex. Fiennes and Bassett really shine in this film, as both are trying to help the other one out. Not just in the immediate time with all the chaos around them, but also trying to get their lives back in order. The city of Los Angeles is the other important character in this, as it has a look that is somewhere between what it was during the LA Riots, Blade Runner, and Johnny Mnemonic. This version of LA as a backdrop is what makes these performances work, otherwise they would seem over the top and dumb. Strange Days is a movie that does really well at world building, and allowing you to know everything about a place just by what you see, rather than hitting you over the head with exposition. Finally, the soundtrack is great. It’s a great combination of alternative, electronic, and heavy metal, all of which combine to give you the feeling that while the world looks different, it’s not too far off from our own. That knowledge makes the movie familiar, but also a frightening image of what is yet to come.

Before we go any further, let’s have a moment of silence for famed movie critic Roger Ebert, who died at the age of 70 due to cancer.  He was a really influential man and he will be sorely missed.

…

For the rest of our Podcast this week, we try to talk about a few topic while my new dog Loki attempts to hump people’s legs.  We touch upon our favorite things from PAX East, including some of the games that we played, and the panels that we saw.  This year’s PAX East was fantastic, much as it always is, but there we some quirks that we discuss.  The Expo Hall this year didn’t really have a ton of big studio games in it, with some exceptions.  With next-generation consoles coming out next year, it felt like game publishers just weren’t ready to show off what they were working on.  Perhaps next year when the latest Playstation and XBOX come out, the Expo Hall will once again be full of big budget games trying to convince people they should invest in new console hardware.

While the big budget was perhaps under represented, the indie booths were thriving.  Tons of indie developers got a chance to show off their games to a whole host of gamers who were itching for some new content.  Our panel of three discusses some of the games we saw that surprised us, and how the small booth size for the indies made it difficult to see some of the lesser known games.

The big video game release from last week was Bioshock Infinite and Mr. Khon and myself talk about the game without spoiling anything storywise.  At some point, assuming there is a demand, we can do a SpoilerCast about the game and try and talk out the plot points.  As you can tell from Mr. Khon’s review of the game, he really liked it, and so did I.  We have a very nice conversation, but you probably don’t need to hear from us about how you should be playing it.  If you haven’t bought it yet, you should get on that immediately.

We finish up the cast talking about the Evil Dead remake, and how it is actually a great spiritual successor to the original 1981 film.  It’s scary, gory, and one hell of a ride that was completely signed off on by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell.  If they are happy with this new film, then perhaps you should be too.

As always, please leave us comments about what you heard, we love replying to them!

Evil Dead
Final Score
I think that with the exception of those that will simply never allow a remake to be considered as good or better than its predecessor, we're looking at a standout horror film.

Hello g33ks, m33ks and any primitive screwheads out there. I am finally going to be able to discuss one of the year’s most anticipated genre offerings: Evil Dead.

Evil Dead is being advertised as “The Most Terrifying Film You Will Ever Experience”. This is a bold statement considering the grand history of horror in cinema, but I love that the producers of the film have the guts to go for it. With commercials featuring theatre attendants handing out concessions along with whiskey, anxiety pills, and diapers; and even the screening security team telling us we were in for quite an experience.  One even went so far as to say he’s going to do his best to be searching the audience with his night vision scope during certain sequences so he didn’t have to watch them again. I was hoping for a film that was able to live up to this kind of hype.

Directed by Sam Raimi’s (Spiderman, Evil Dead) personally chosen successor, Fede Alvarez, from a script written by Alvarez and Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body) this is a remake of the critically acclaimed cult classic 1981 film of the same name. Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell’s original Evil Dead is regarded by many as a perfect horror film and its cult following is rabid, loyal, and incredibly wary of this remake. Although, they are producers on the film, Raimi and Campbell largely left the creative work to all of the new cast and crew. Starring Jane Levy (Shameless, Suburgatory) as Mia, Shiloh Fernandez (Deadgirl, Red Riding Hood) as David, and Jessica Lucas (Cult, Cloverfield) as Olivia this film isn’t exactly the typical drive into the woods splatterfest.

David arrives at his family cabin with his new girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore). He is there to support his old friends, registered nurse, Olivia and, teacher, Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) in their attempts to help his sister Mia get clean from drugs. Mia, has been through a lot and David hasn’t been there for her. Many years ago their mother was dying in a hospital and David left Mia to care for her alone while their mother slipped into violent dementia before ultimately passing away. According to his friends Mia suffered an overdose and was barely resuscitated by the doctors in the hospital. They honestly believe that they need to keep her in the woods all weekend long under any circumstances in order to get her through her withdrawal. Obviously, this is not the usual send a bunch of city kids into the woods to party scenarios that we as horror audiences have grown so tired of. This is a legitimate reason to be deep in the woods, to stay even if someone complains that they’re uncomfortable and to even cause the person eschewing the warnings to doubt themselves. The reason I chose to highlight the motivation for our characters to be where they are and why they are inclined to stay there is because its nice to see this simple little evolution in the horror genre. Its not a major change, it doesn’t stop the audience from talking to the screen and telling the characters not to do things. It does however show that someone understands that you can’t keep doing things the old way anymore. The free pass is over and the film is all the better for it.

From this point we’re treated to a series of homages to the original film and some bold moves purely for audiences of this new one. How the Evil is brought to bear on this rustic cabin and its inhabitants is a little bit different than the original although there is a nice throwback reference later on. One of the positive things I can say is that things that were kept by the film were kept for more than simple nostalgia and things that were changed were all for the betterment of this film. Alvarez and Cody are obviously fans of the original but not so beholden to the classic that it crippled their ability to innovate and even improve upon certain sequences.

Jane Levy does an incredible job in the film and its clear why Bruce Campbell (Ash – Evil Dead 1981) said that he was proud to crown her the new Queen of the Evil Dead universe during his NY Comic Con panel last year. Things that should be noted are that Mia is not just a female Ash analogue. She is her own character, she has her own set of experiences and she ends up in different places than Ash does. That does not mean she isn’t the standout star of this film but the ride she takes the audience on is fairly amazing. Shiloh Fernandez, also does a great job being this film’s rudder, he keeps the story on point and moving towards its conclusion. He really fits into the role of an older brother trying to fix his broken relationship with his damaged little sister and you never feel like he is motivated by anything else other than making sure that at the end of the weekend she can move on with her life.

Fede’s skills as a director are to be commended, especially considering the Uruguayan has only really directed short films until this point. He gets great performances out of his actors and his crew really outdid themselves taking that iconic cabin and breathing new life into it. You’d certainly never know that this was his first Hollywood film and I guarantee that he will be a sought after genre director after this weekend. He had a task that few would even desire to attempt and and managed to exceed all expectations.

This film has a nearly impossible task in front of it. Evil Dead fans are extremely devoted. In order to impress these fans you’ve really got to make a film that leaves a lasting impression on them. Will this become a beloved classic like the film on which it was based? Only time will tell. Is it the most terrifying film I’ve ever experienced? I don’t know but it is certainly effective at eliciting jumps and screams from audiences. Does the gore live up to the original film? I’d say even with consideration for innovations in practical and digital effects since 1981 that this film easily outpaces the original in terms of splatter.  Will fans of the original who went online and complained owe Bruce Campbell apologies for doubting the quality of the film before seeing it? I honestly think they will.

I think that with the exception of those that will simply never allow a remake to be considered as good or better than its predecessor, we’re looking at a standout horror film. I saw the film with some press, but mostly the public and I saw three walkouts. One of those walkouts had someone trying to keep them in the theatre but that didn’t work out. I saw several people around me leap from their seats during major scares and several jittery hands when it was time to collect our cell phones from the security check in.

I expect hardcore horror audiences to enjoy this film and believe it is worthy of the name Evil Dead.

- Mr. Khon

PS – For those of you following along on Twitter or Facebook and wanted to know how many times Lily Stitches legitimately jumped out of her seat during Evil Dead. It was 7. She also closed her eyes for about 3 minutes of film time.

Bioshock Infinite
Final Score
If you love experiencing incredible worlds then the game is worth it. If you want to play a watershed game at the end of the current console generation play it.

Hello g33ks, m33ks, and any fortunate sons out there. This is my attempt to review something other than a film … (gasp!!!) One of the most anticipated games of the year and the frontrunner for the 2013 game of the year, Bioshock Infinite. I am not the go to person for this review, but there are a lot of reasons why I’m personally interested in this game. I missed out on playing Bioshock … I generally don’t play many FPS. I’m not a fan of FPS as a whole. (Yes, I’m that guy that played Skyrim with the camera pulled back so I can play in third person.) It’s not that I’m not good at them … I am very good at them at least in single player. I’ve never been a fan of the view, especially in a medium where you can create a third person game. I rarely interject myself into the headspace of a character I’m playing as and so the “advantages” of this perspective are often lost on me.

As such my brother bought the game and I occasionally watched as he played it. I caught enough to know that the story and setting were top notch. Then just as I was considering playing the game my brother got to the the big reveal in the game. The moment where you learn all about Jack and why he’s in Rapture. It was some of the best storytelling I’d ever seen in a video game and was enthralling. At that moment I decided that I wanted to play the game that had a story element that good in the middle of it. So when he finished with the game I fired up the Xbox saw the great opening sequence got into my first Splicer fight, saw a Big Daddy crush a Splicer and then realized … I only cared about the story and I knew the best part. Going through this experience took all the joy out of playing the game and I never got more than 2 hours in before putting it down. When Bioshock 2 was announced to be made by a studio other than Irrational I told myself that I’d give a chance to whatever the next Shock game made by the original team would be.

I have to admit I was moderately disappointed by the title announcement of this game, a few years ago. I had done my searching on the Shock games and I was looking forward to ______ Shock. Whatever it was would drop the Bioschock element and leave behind the Underwater City for something new. So when Irrational titled the game Bioshock Infinite … I was worried that this was a GTA: Vice City situation. When Grand Theft Auto 3 came out (For those that are too young to remember and I feel old having preface a statement about that game in this way.) it was a revolutionary sandbox game. The expansive city, the varied story missions, all of the different vehicles and weapons. They coupled it with an innovative music system by creating actual radio stations within the games and it honestly felt like Liberty City was a real place. Yes there were borders to the city but it felt humongous. So when people started looking for the next GTA game Rockstar didn’t bring out GTA 4 they went sideways on us. They created a new game with a new setting but utilizing all of the same features as the previous game. Built with the same engine and upgrading things like being able to purchase property and going out on specific ‘dates’ with specific female characters. They did this again with GTA: San Andreas which became about an entire state. So when Irrational announced that their next game wasn’t Infinite Shock but instead was Bioshock Infinite, It froze me up.

Over the years we’d see quite a few images, trailers and Q&As with Ken Levine in which we learned about the new setting of this game Columbia, how it differed from Rapture and that this game wouldn’t be a solitary experience despite it being single player with the inclusion of Elizabeth. I still wasn’t sold until a few things happened. One, I met Ken Levine twice, once at a public event and once while he was having lunch and I kind of just ran into him. The second time he told me to chill out sit down and we talked about a lot of things none of which were really about the game. He couldn’t have been nicer and he was one of the best storytellers I’d ever met. After sitting down with him I knew I’d give this game a chance. Then at PAX East 2013 I attended a panel where he discussed the creation of Elizabeth’s AI. This second event alleviated my biggest fear for this game. Having a secondary partner in a game can be annoying or it can make a game downright unplayable. There’s very few games where I can think of a partner character not getting in the way, or being a detriment. Elizabeth, was being promised to us, as being the best companion character you’ve ever had in any video game. Watching the work that actually went into creating her, learning they had severely dark days where they thought of eliminating her from the game because she didn’t work right, to the creation of Liz squad who spent every waking moment making her work made me believe that my final major fear was unfounded and I could enjoy the game.

So after something in the neighborhood of 13 hours of gameplay I can now say that I’m very glad I played Bioshock Infinite. Some are saying its the best game of this generation, others are going further and saying it may be one of the greatest games in history. When it comes to world building, and imagination… there are few better than the team at Irrational. Columbia, like Rapture, is another dystopic utopian city defined by a specific period in American history. Columbia, like Rapture, occupies a space a city should not. Columbia, like Rapture, has a leader with an extreme cult of personality. After these similarities get checked off, the experience is very different. Bioshock’s dark haunting tone is replaced by the bright overly cheery Columbia. I think that both 2009′s Rapture and 2013′s Columbia are beautiful worlds to explore but if I had to choose between them I prefer Columbia. I prefer the time period in which the story takes place, in Infinite over the original Bioshock because the world isn’t ruined from the start. When you get to Rapture the Civil War is over, the domes are damaged and life in the city has become a living nightmare. When you arrive in Columbia there is still a pristine sheen over everything.

As you walk to the Fair you are greeted by happy people enjoying a beautiful day. You’re given the opportunity to view the landscape through telescopes and listen to some fantastic music. This fair is everything a World’s Fair in 1912 would be and more, but if you pay enough attention you start to notice the cracks in the facade. You start to notice that its only white skinned people enjoying the festivities. You start to notice that they are scared of some people called the Vox Populi. Then when you arrive at the big Raffle, the event everyone has been talking about all day they hand you a baseball and you’re faced with the ugly side of Columbia. From then on the game goes from world building to action and trust me it throttles up very quickly.

As it comes to the core mechanics of playing Bioshock Infinite its extremely similar to the original game. I found the controls to be tight and extremely comfortable. Aiming from the hip and staring down the sights are quick and easy. You are relegated to one hand controlling vigors and the other hand controlling your gun … so for any dual spell wielders from Skyrim you’re out of luck here. That said you can hot swap between two Vigors with one button press and they combine for some fun and devastating effects. You’ll be searching everyone you kill and every container you see for Silver Eagles so you can buy items, power ups, and weapon/vigor upgrades. I’d prefer if leveling up worked in a non monetary manner in regards to powers, something akin to if you use it more it upgrades itself, but I was able to shake loose enough coin to effectively raise my vigor skills while not having to totally neglect my gun upgrades.

Elizabeth is now the standard for an AI companion to me. She’s not only a helpful item gatherer, she’s not only there to active the extremely useful Tear mechanic, she’s the link that keeps the player motivated. When you don’t have her in the beginning you can get through but once you get her to join you, you’ll hate to have to play without her. I will go into this in detail in my follow up article about the building of Elizabeth’s AI. That said if the world of Columbia is my first draw then the Lamb is definitely a close second. Any developer thinking of having an AI partner needs to make her their starting point or they will find themselves suffering massively at the comparison.

Story is one of the toughest things to discuss because of spoilers. The story is good and definitely well paced. That said in the final hours the focus becomes much more personal instead of dealing with Columbia and her future. I had managed to guess the ending’s major two reveals but did not think they would go together. Essentially, I knew the pieces but thought only one would end up being true and it turns out they managed to fit them both in. The resolution is going to make a lot of people upset, I’m sure it will also have its defenders. I hope that no one goes to the level they did with Mass Effect 3 but gamers who’ve invested themselves for years with the anticipation of this game are going to feel something about the ending. Hopefully, it more positive than negative. I liked many elements of it. I didn’t love all of it. I’m extremely glad Irrational learned its lesson and made it the ending of the game instead of the turn at the end of Act 2.

At this point you’ve probably decided you’re going to play this game. If you haven’t and are wondering if its worthwhile even if you’re not a big fan of FPS, I’d say yes. If you love experiencing incredible worlds then the game is worth it. If you want to play a watershed game at the end of the current console generation play it. The game is extremely short and that does hurt it a little bit with some people, that said its not full of random filler missions either. If somehow I can influence you at all … I’d simply ask you the same question that Ken Levine did when I told him I’d never played the original Bioshock, “Would you kindly give Bioshock Infinite a chance?”

- Mr. Khon

PS – I will discuss The Art of Bioshock Infinite on the Podcast as well as the panel regarding Elizabeth’s AI. So there will be more Bioshock Infinite coverage coming soon.

GI Joe: Retaliation
Final Score
If you can turn your brain off and just soak in the ridiculousness of this film you'll have a great time at the movies. There's no new ground being broken here. As glorified toy commercials go there are few better than this one. That said you're not going to feel like the world is changed by it either.

Hello g33ks, m33ks and anyone else out there who remembers Cobra LLLLLLLLLLL-LA! I’m back to reviewing the medium I am much more comfortable discussing than video games … the follow up to 2009′s The Rise of Cobra; GI Joe: Retaliation is part sequel part reboot to the surprise hit. I have always felt that the first film was a guilty pleasure akin to the way that I enjoy schlocky horror movies. It was over the top stupid but still fun. Let’s remember that this is based on a cartoon series designed by Hasbro to sell toys.

The thing that made me most hopeful about Retaliation was that they were promising to get rid of the excess baggage (ie Duke and The Baroness’ relationship) and give us more of what we really really wanted. (ie Ninjas) That said the film was pulled from the schedule and pushed into late March after it was decided last minute that they must add 3D. This was a sign that the flick had problems and they were hoping to capitalize on as many dollars as they could before it was found to be a bomb. Were those fears realistic? Or was the flick worthwhile and adding the 3D just a way of enhancing the experience?

Let’s get down to it. I could spend paragraph after paragraph analyzing this flick but let’s get real about it. Channing Tatum is back as Duke from the original film, he is in command of the GI Joe’s elite unit featuring second in command Roadblock (The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson), Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki), and Flint (DJ Cotrona). Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) is still impersonating the President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce) and Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey) is still trapped in his frozen tube prison. Other characters involved in the festivities include Gen. Coulton (Bruce Willis), Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee), Jinx (Elodie Yung), Firefly (Ray Stephenson) and Blind Master (The Rza). Each and every one of them get to spend time being awesome but none more than Roadblock, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Things blow up, people get shot or sliced, and another major city is destroyed.

The story is negligible but it should be noted that for a movie featuring someone taking over The White House … of the two currently in theatres Retaliation completely destroys Olympus Has Fallen for believability. That’s right I believe using nanotechnology and a master of disguise make more sense than a commando squad of terrorists, a traitorous Secret Service Agent and some random Korean who represents neither the north or the south essentially kicking the front door in to the most protected building on Earth. (Yes, somehow this also became a mini-Olympus Has Fallen Review as well 1.5 out of 5 btw).

If you can turn your brain off and just soak in the ridiculousness of this film you’ll have a great time at the movies. There’s no new ground being broken here. You get The Rock, Super Ninjas and any excuse they can find to remind you that Adrianne Palicki is stunning. As glorified toy commercials go there are few better than this one. That said you’re not going to feel like the world is changed by it either.

- Mr. Khon

Oz: The Great and Powerful
Final Score
It’s a safe, fun, visually stunning journey. You're not going to drag everyone you know to see it, but its definitely a good time at the theatre.

Hello g33ks, m33ks and anyone else out there who can rest. The first MUST SEE FILM OF THE YEAR (as Disney has been saying now that Jack the Giant Killer has spectacularly crashed and burned) is upon us. Oz is a prequel to one of the greatest classic films OF ALL TIME! A film that is so iconic that even Disney wouldn’t dare remake it. Of course I’m talking about Walter Murch’s 1985 classic film Return to Oz starring Fairuza Balk … Before I’m burned at the stake for that joke, Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic film starring Judy Garland is at least for now deemed totally untouchable. The filmmakers decided that instead of re-imagining or rebooting the film into a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit style trilogy; they would go back and adapt one of the earlier works from the series of novels and tell the story of the rise of the Wicked Witch and how the Wizard came to take his place in the Emerald City.

Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spiderman, Drag Me To Hell) was an intriguing choice to direct. He has a rabid cult fan following due to his schlock horror roots and a larger fan following due to his success with bringing Peter Parker onto the big screen. That said Spiderman 3 was the last time he was given the reigns of a project worth HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of DOLLARS and it didn’t go very well. A lot of that failure was due to studio interference but the idea that there would be a hands off approach for this film is laughable. Disney has a huge amount riding on Oz, no one will forget if they released a film based on such a property and absolutely ruined it.

As we saw last year when Disney released John Carter … even the House of Mouse can find themselves in big trouble if they release a massive flop. The only reason Disney didn’t feel a major backlash from that was because The Avengers was such a major success. This year they have a big slate of tentpoles: Monsters U., The Lone Ranger, Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World. To predict success from Pixar and Marvel Studio’s sequels is pretty fair but if The Lone Ranger and Oz both were to flop they’d have a lot of red ink to clean up. So knowing what the studio has riding on this film it comes down to how good a job they did with it. That’s where this review becomes quite difficult.

Sam Raimi has put together a visually stunning, homage to the classic original Wizard of Oz. As it comes to creating a spectacle he more than does his job making black and white Kansas a worthy setup to the beautifully saturated colors of the Land of Oz. James Franco stars as the heart stealing carnival magician Oz; along his side are Mila Kunis as Theodora, Rachel Weisz as Evanora and Michelle Williams as Glinda. The three witches all have a place in protecting the people of Oz from the evil menace that is The Wicked Witch. Upon his arrival, Oz meets Theodora and utilizes his considerable skill as a stage magician to make her believe he is the legendary Wizard that the people of Oz have waited for to become their new king. Franco plays Oz as someone who wants to be great in a world where Harry Houdini and Thomas Edison are the greatest men in their fields. All Oz wanted was to be spoken of in the same regard as those two men and now he finds himself put upon with massive responsibilities. There are benefits to being King of Oz, that include a treasury that would make Scrooge McDuck envious and possibly even his choice of the hearts of the three beautiful good Witches of Oz. Seeing Oz as a trickster and ladies’ man is an interesting take on someone we only know as the well meaning old man from the original film.

Without derailing the experience by spoiling the story there are a few pieces of misdirection at play for the audience from the film itself. I think it’s pretty cool that Disney’s marketing group has managed to keep from spoiling it right away but if you go to a toy store before seeing the film you’ll have at least a piece of the surprise ruined. Aside from the two major twists the story has predictable beats, that all the best blockbuster films tend to follow. This isn’t necessarily a knock on the film, but you don’t get extra points for playing it safe either. That said this is only a problem if you’re an adult going to see this film. I think its been a while but this may be the first major blockbuster in this vein aimed squarely at kids.

This may be why some people have been highly critical of the film. Kids who are new to the Oz story or who have seen the original and want more are this films main audience. Sure their parents can enjoy this film, and those without kids will enjoy it as well but you’re just along for the ride. This is meant to be a film that blows the minds of a 9-13 year old. For the kids in that age group this film will register with them more than pretty much anything else Disney will release on a major scale this year. Planes is for 6-10 year old boys, Monsters U will be for really young kids and their older teen siblings and their parents. Lone Ranger is for Teens and Young Adults. Thor and Iron Man won’t be nearly as cartoony as The Avengers and won’t register in the same way that Whedon’s mash up did last year. If you’re a clever young girl or boy, with a vivid imagination this is probably your Disney film of the year. For everyone else it’s a safe, fun, visually stunning journey. You’re not going to drag everyone you know to see it, but its definitely a good time at the theatre.

- Mr. Khon

Maybe it’s not that exciting, but I’m pretty excited to have it finally starting. Writing up a little something about each and every game is very time consuming, but really rewarding. Definitely nice to go back and remember why you liked these games and why the are on your list.

Before we begin, here’s a few tidbits you should know about my history with video games. It makes a really big difference in what is and is not on the list.

• First console I played as a very young child was an Atari. This was back when I lived in California
• Console I spent the most time with as a child was the NES.
• After the NES, I didn’t buy a new console until the Gamecube. Yeah you heard me, there was like a roughly a 12 year hiatus in me buying consoles.
• I had an original Game Boy but that was it in terms of handhelds.
• Because of this, I played a lot of games on Personal Computer.
• I had the ability to play games on my Dad’s old Windows 3 PC, but I only did that for a select few games.
• The first computer that I got, was a Macintosh. This both limited my selections, and also helped shape the list.
• I played some PS1 / Nintendo 64 games at a friend’s house in high school, but it was infrequent.
• I had a Ps2 in college thanks to Katie, my roommate Mikey had an XBOX, and I had the Gamecube.
• Of latest generation consoles, I have XBOX 360, PS3, PC, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Gamecube, PS2.

If you have any other questions about how this list got formed, please leave a comment down below, catch me on Twitter, or you can email me at joey@g33kwatch.com. Interested to see what everyone thinks about this list and would love a chance to talk it over.

Without further adieu, here’s games 50 to 41!

#50 – Predator
	Released: 1988 System: Nintendo Entertainment System Developer: Pack-In-Video Publisher: Activision Let’s be clear; Predator is not a good game. It doesn’t even make sense. It falls into the trap that many licensed NES games had where the developers decided to make a generic platformer that had nothing to do with the actual property. So while a game based on the classic Predator movie should have been amazing, this game never quite lived up to that. In this game you play as Major Dutch Schaefer as you attempt to defeat an alien known as the Predator, who has already gone and killed your entire squad. That may sound somewhat similar to the movie, but that’s where the similarities end. You start the game with no weapons, only your fists. You can punch enemies while standing, but not while crouching. Your character is wearing a bright pink jump suit instead of military gear. For some reason there are mutant scorpions, sentient rocks, and blobs that all want to do you harm in this completely ludicrous version of whatever random South American country this is supposed to take place in.
After you have done a few of the standard platformer levels, there are levels that are simply dubbed “Big Mode.” For this, you actually have a decent looking representation of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but man is the rest of the mode bad. The screen just moves to the right at a constant pace, while you shoot bubbles that may or may not give your gun new properties. Some of them include shooting faster, or acting as a screen clear. At the end of this level you fight the Predator who will spawn in one of three predetermined points. You shoot him, and he disappears and reappears at another point. You do this until he “dies.” OK so why is this obviously terrible game on my list? I didn’t get a lot of video games as a kid, so I had to really cherish the ones I had. Cherish, and also play the shit out of them because I wasn’t going to get another one for a very long time. While the format for the game doesn’t make any sense given the movie it is based off of, it was a competent enough game. After playing it for awhile, I was actually able to get to the last level and actually beat the game without Game Genie, which is pretty remarkable for the time and my age. The biggest reason this is on the list? The soundtrack is amazing. For some reason, even though the majority of this game is utter crap, the music is some of the best music I have ever heard from any NES era game. You can go listen to the full soundtrack over on the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation Wiki but I have linked the main theme down below. Fantastic work, and it’s that music that gives me fond memories of my childhood and earns it a spot on the list.

#49 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Released: 1989 System: Nintendo Entertainment System Developer: Konami Publisher: Ultra Games When the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES game is brought up, the only thing that most people can remember is electric seaweed. Yeah … that was a pain in the ass. But as I said above with Predator, I had to really play my games a lot because how infrequently I got new games. The great thing about the Turtles game was that it had a lot of content for you to go through. Five different levels with numerous amounts of buildings that you needed to explore to get through these levels. Add on top of that, the ability to switch between any of the four turtles at any time, made for a really cool game!
That was until you tried to play the game. Overall, TMNT was just really hard. The combat wasn’t bad, but the platforming that was asked of you was some of the most fiendish that I have seen during my years. All of the turtles had a very high jump animation and that made it very difficult trying to land on a single block, which the game designers asked you to do with alarming frequency. In addition to that though, the second level was just maddening to play and it’s where most gamers immediately threw the game away. Doing an underwater swimming level, where you had to disarm around eight bombs in under two minutes twenty seconds, while having to avoid electric seaweed that was absolutely everywhere, just proved to be too much. Then on top of all that, even if / when you got through all of that, you had the issue of losing specific turtles. If a turtle lost all of their health, you wouldn’t be able to use them again, unless you found a specific building on a level where you could get the chance to save them. Yeah, this game was hard. Yet I was able to consistently get to level 4 after a good deal of time with this game, and while the difficulty was intense, I feel like they also did a good job of capturing the spirit of the series. Each turtle had their own strengths with the different weapons, pizza gave you all of your health back, you got to use cool gadgets and the turtle van, and the music was great as well. It was also one of the few games that I was better at than my brother and brother-in-law. Between the three of us, we definitely learned a lot of tricks on how to get far in this game. In the end, I had to use a Game Genie to beat this game, but man was it fun to see how close I could get on my own. Writing this just makes me want to play it all over again, and see if my many years of experience would help me out. That and I know I could do way better than this dude down below.

#48 – Rune
	Released: 2000 System: Personal Computer Developer: Human Head Studios Publisher: Gathering of Developers My high school days were easily my favorite and best era of playing video games. As we go along this list, you’ll see me mention many games for the PC that I played. This was back in the day when I was using an iMac for all of my gaming needs. Yeah you read that right, I played on a Macintosh. It definitely wasn’t as easy to be an Apple person as it is presently, but like anything else in life, I made it work.
Rune was one of the games that I played a lot during that late 90′s early 2000′s era. It was a third-person perspective game, built on the Unreal engine, that was all melee weapons and no guns. You used a combination of swords, maces, hammers, axes and shields in order to dispatch your foes. All of the weapons had a different speed associated with them, and as you progressed through the game, the weapons got bigger and more damaging. Each weapon also had a unique rune ability, hence the game’s name, that would allow you to do different things in battle. You could dual wield, or go sword and shield, or better yet hold out for the ultimate Tier 4 and 5 weapons that were two-handed behemoths. Obviously, I went dual wield or two-handed. =) Add in that your main character was a viking, caught up in impending Ragnarok, and working on behalf of the other Norse Gods trying to prevent Loki from taking over the world. On top of all that, the engine allowed for enemy dismemberment, and then you would pick up those limbs and use them in combat, or just throw them at enemies. Finally, the multiplayer for the game was stellar, leading me to have a lot of sleepless night vying for supremacy. The multiplayer aspect actually requires a bit more praise right now. While many people had the Internet by 2000, there wasn’t this widespread of high speed connections. Most of the multiplayer games that I played, especially ones that used the Unreal engine, came down to who had Cable, DSL or ISDN lines. Whoever did, easily trounced us mere mortals that were using 56K. Yet Rune for some reason, had really great netcode, and allowed for a balanced match that usually would result in the better player winning. This is simply remarkable, considering that the game has to account for hitboxes, player movement, weapon speed, weapon damage, and the sheer number of players being 8-32. It took an already good game, and made it even more memorable, and is one of the key reasons that Rune has to be on this list. The game is now on Steam so you should go check it out!

#47 – Darksiders
Released: 2010 System: XBOX 360 Developer: Vigil Games Publisher: THQ I want to be completely clear about something right now. I am not a huge fan of The Legend of Zelda. I think that the series is fine, and there have definitely been a few games that I’ve played to completion and enjoyed, but as a whole the entire franchise just doesn’t do it for me. I love the world and the act of exploring, but the combat was always a chore and after awhile I grew bored of the art style. So when I heard that someone had gone out and made a Zelda game but given it a darker tone and God of War-esqe combat system, I was very interested. Darksiders delivered on that promise and surprised me with just how much fun I was having. Vigil Studios who developed the game made it abundantly clear what kind of games they enjoyed and took inspiration from. They made it so clear, that some of the game bordered on just being a reskinned version of many different games. There was the obvious Zelda and God of War connections, but there were also nods to Gears of War, and even Portal. One would think that the entire game would implode on itself but the developers did a fantastic job of towing the line between paying homage to these inspirations and not just ripping them off.
A lot of the reason why Darksiders shows up as high as it does, is because of the subject matter being used. I am a huge fan of Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno, so any stories that have to deal with Angels, Demons, Heaven, Hell, and the struggle between those factions, has automatically got my full attention. The idea to make the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse this neutral force that was charged with keeping the balance between Angel, Demon and Mankind was simple yet novel. Playing through the game as the horseman War, slowly unraveling the conspiracy that had ruined the Earth, was not the best story ever, but it was accurate. It was something that you could believe coming out of one of those old religious stories, and spoke to the jealously and hatred that some Angels could feel towards Mankind. Even though it was a more modern game, and despite the fact that it initially felt weird to put it on the Top 50, I just couldn’t remove it in the end. Darksiders is a very worthy game to be here, and maybe someday we’ll get that Four Player Co-Op game so that everyone can play a different Horsemen.

#46 – Donkey Kong Jr.
	Released: 1982 System: Arcade / Nintendo Entertainment System Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo I was a kid, growing up in the age of NES. Because of this, I actually wasn’t that good at proper arcade games. Arcade games were designed to make sure that you lost a bunch of money and kept pumping in quarters. Since my parents thought that was a waste of money, I didn’t exactly get a ton of quarters to go off an play. I was lucky if I got a dollar, and five dollars? Shit I don’t think that happened once. It’s one of the biggest reasons I never got good at fighting games. Anyway, what I’m trying to get at is that I never got good at Donkey Kong. I know it’s a classic arcade game, and with all the attention that the King of Kong documentary brought to it, it has this really cult classic status. All of that being considered though, I’m just terrible at it. I’m lucky if I can get past the first screen.
Donkey Kong Jr. on the other hand? I fucking rock at that game. I don’t know what it is, but something about this game clicked with me. I got one of those Donkey Kong packs for the NES when I first got the console, and it came with both games. While my brother and brother-in-law would relive their childhood playing Donkey Kong, I spent all of my time playing Junior. The game has a lot going on in it like the original Donkey Kong, but it seems a lot less random. In it, you play as DK Jr., trying to save your dad DK from the evil Mario. Yeah you heard me! You climb up jungle vines and chains, in an effort to platform around the level, collect fruit, and avoid getting hit by animals and Mario’s traps. All of the creatures in the game have a very reliable pattern, a lot less random than the barrels of DK. It also had some nuance to it, like the ability to climb faster if you shimmied up two chains instead of one. While you would go faster, you opened yourself up to getting killed from traps coming down one or both chains. Great strategy elements, less random bullshit, and colorful graphics made this a definite winner for me.

#45 – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Released: 2009 System: Playstation 3 Developer: Naughty Dog Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America I threw my hat into the ring with XBOX 360 and Wii early in that particular console generation. The price of the Playstation 3 deterred me, along with the fact that there just wasn’t any console exclusives that wowed me, at least not initially. Once I heard and saw Uncharted 2: Among Thieves though, that all changed. I soon became obsessed with trying to get a PS3 so that I could play this game. Sure, I eventually used it for things like Heavy Rain, inFamous, and Demon Souls, but those were things that I could initially live without. The hype around Uncharted 2 had me chomping at the bit to play.
Much to my delight and surprise, the game didn’t disappoint me in the slightest.Uncharted 2 had the best parts of the Indiana Jones films, and the Tomb Raider video games. You were globe trotting around as Nathan Drake, taking part in wild cinematic that rivaled action movies, and the combat / exploration was really fun. I end up judging a lot of games based on how much sleep I lose, or how long I go between talking to my wife Katie. When I started playing Uncharted 2, I had to finish the entire thing as quickly as possible, because it was just so engaging. I think Katie had to bribe me to get my hands off the controller at one point that initial weekend. The PS3 and the CELL processor had some issues, in that it was really difficult to program and optimize for. Uncharted 2 really showed just what the system was capable of, and developer Naughty Dog really wanted to prove that. The graphics were top notch, probably some of the best I have ever seen, and all of the environments were lush and expansive. You could see for miles once you climbed a mountain, and you climbed a lot of stuff. The traversal was not too hard to do, and was really satisfying. You always felt like you had complete control over what Nathan was doing, whether that was running, jumping, climbing, or dodging a helicopter. The story for the game takes a weird, mystical turn, which can be jarring at first but you eventually get over it. Let’s not forget that it was Indiana Jones that showed us that the Ark of the Covenant was real, there really was a holy grail, and that voodoo worked. Since Uncharted was taking it’s cues from that, the fact that there were a weird, mystical group of blue Yeti’s, and explosive blue gel that could turn you superhuman, doesn’t really sound bad. Add on top of that, that Uncharted was the only good multiplayer on the entire Playstation Network, and it had fun co-op, and you have a game that may be newish, but still needs to be on this list.

#44 – Star Wars: Dark Forces
	Released: 1995 System: Personal Computer Developer: LucasArts Publisher: LucasArts A Star Wars first person shooter? You damn right I’m interested! This was such a brilliant idea, and one that they ultimately ran into the ground. That seems appropriate given the current state of the franchise. Maybe that means JJ Abrams will come in and reboot the Dark Forces & Jedi Knight games. Actually, that’s not a terrible idea.
Dark Forces came out when I was really starting to get into the entire Star Wars universe and mythology. I had also just recently got my first Macintosh computer, so it was all sorts of good things lining up at the absolute best time. Building on the success of games like Doom, and Marathon, Dark Forces was a really good looking FPS, and had good controls. To be fair, this was back in the time period where you couldn’t and didn’t need to aim up or down, just shoot forward for pretty much everything. Keyboard and Mouse wasn’t a thing, if you wanted to look around you used the Page Up and Page Down buttons. Seriously. Obviously the game had the Star Wars name so that helped it out immediately, but the game as a whole was just refreshing and different from what was currently out. Doom was lots of red and brown, Marathon was lots of grey and green. To come into a FPS that had a real sense of color, style and the ability to tell a good story, was something that wasn’t really done well. You played as rebel agent Kyle Katarn, trying to uncover a dangerous new project that the Empire is attempting to finish. During the story, you will go to Nar Shadda to fight some bounty hunters, an Imperial prison and archives, and even infiltrate a Super Star Destroyer. I must have played through this game twenty different times. At some point I was trying to go through it the fastest way possible. It had so many cool secrets and easter eggs that it just kept me coming back. Shit, I kinda want to play it right now. In fact, I just might!

#43 – Halo: Combat Evolved
Released: 2001 System: XBOX Developer: Bungie Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Without Googling, can you remember where Halo was first announced? Give it a thought, I’ll wait. Having some trouble trying to figure it out? Are you guessing something standard like E3 or something like that? Well it was announced at the 1999 Macworld Expo convention in New York City. Yes, really. What’s even crazier, is that I was there for the reveal. This was back in the day when I was a hardcore Macintosh computer user. Since Bungie originally started off as a Mac game developer, I was heavily invested in what games they were making.
I remember seeing the trailer for Halo and losing my mind. I then remember going over to the Bungie booth to talk to co-founder Jason Jones about all the things they had planned for their new franchise. After all of that, I played some local multiplayer for the game Oni, and then got first place in my Myth 2: Soulblighter tournament bracket. Suffice to say, I have fond memories of Halo, even if the end product is nothing like the game that we were first promised. Despite the huge changes that Halo undertook to become an XBOX console launch title, I still thoroughly enjoyed the game. It was surprising and refreshing to have a good First-Person Shooter on a console system, and the storyline of Halo was epic and well told. While it was annoying that you had to completely back-track through all of the levels, the game’s Co-Op mode led to my dorm room suite playing a lot of Halo and constantly cursing at each other. Even if the game had been utter garbage, I would have looked back on it fondly because of all the excitement that preceded it. Yet in the end, the game was great, and helped spawn a ton of sequels and a fantastic universe. It may not be the best game in the series, but it’s definitely one of my all-time favorites.

#42 – Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
	Released: 1999 System: Personal Computer Developer: Firaxis Games Publisher: Electronic Arts Let me be completely honest with you here. I have played Alpha Centauri one time all the way to completion. In addition, I’m going to tell you that I have only played the game TWICE ever. I only double clicked on the desktop shortcut twice in my entire life. Before you get angry at me for putting this game on the list, I should also admit one last thing. The first time I played the game, I played it for 28 hours straight and beat it. I took a few pee breaks, went out to the kitchen maybe three times to get a new 2-Liter bottle of soda, didn’t eat, nor did I talk to my parents for that entire duration. I was that fanatical about the game.
Oh, and the second time I played it, I tried it out as a different faction, and got bitch slapped about two hours into the game. I immediately stopped playing it after that because I only wanted to focus on my first and greatest time playing Alpha Centauri. This was the spiritual successor of the Civilization games, and one that was much easier for me to get into. It was a turn-based game where your job was to build new cities, research interested technology, and help grow your country to become the strongest in the world. Unlike the Civilization games, Alpha Centauri took place on a distant planet, far from Earth. You played as one of many factions that had different strengths and weaknesses, and tried to destroy the other factions, or make peace with them. Oh who am I kidding, your job was to completely overthrow each and every other faction in the game. If you didn’t backstab them, they would backstab you. I enjoyed Civ II, but something about the game just didn’t click with me. It’s impossible to put my finger on why I didn’t like that game as much as some of my other friend’s, but I think it was a bunch of tiny pet peeves. I didn’t like that the map layout didn’t look like our own world, disliked how quickly other civilizations (including your own) could have a tremendous technological advantage, and hated when Gandi would invade my country. I mean what the fuck, he was supposed to be nonviolent! Alpha Centauri had pretty much the same gameplay, but because of the setting difference, it felt completely refreshing. The world map not being recognizable was fine because we were on an alien planet. All of the factions were made up, so while they had tendencies, they didn’t spit in the face of well established historical figures. Finally, the new technology that the developers came up with was the right blend of weird science fiction, but also things that seemed plausible. Oh yeah, and the planet had mind worms. Huge worms like in Dune but they were also psonic. Have I mentioned how much I liked psonics? Have I mentioned how awesome it was when I was able to grow my own mind worms and have them fight off my enemies? Yeah that happened, and is one of the many fond memories that I will have of that 28 hour game I played.

#41 – Kangaroo
Released: 1982 System: Arcade / Atari 800 Developer: Sun Electronics Publisher: Atari I think that Kangaroo for the Atari 800 is the very first game that I ever played. I must have been three or four years old, still living in California, and my brother had bought the game system for himself. If I remember the story correctly, my brother brought over the Atari so that I had something to do while I was stuck in the house with the chicken pox. Maybe that wasn’t it, but it seems like a logical thing. It’s very possible that the only things I can remember from my young California days are playing Kangaroo, the Thundercats cartoon, and having the chicken pox. Since that’s all I can remember, I may have just put all of that together as one event and now that’s my canonical take on the situation. Who knows.
Anyways, Kangaroo was a fun little platformer, done in the style of Donkey Kong. You played a mama kangaroo with boxing gloves, who has to climb up ladders, ring bells, gather furit, and punch monkeys in an effort to save your baby joey. I mean what’s not to love? The game may have been my first ever, and thankfully it wasn’t too hard. I mean, it was obviously hard, but it had a lot less random elements to it. Everything had a distinct pattern, unlike something like Donkey Kong that had the random barrel movement. The graphics of Kangaroo were just fine, in that you could easily tell what was what, but it was the solid gameplay and great sound design that made the game a hit for me.

The actual announcement of the console wasn’t a shock.  To be fair, some of the specs that they talked about weren’t a shock either.  If you pay any attention to this sort of thing, you probably knew that Sony was ditching the CELL processor and moving towards a more Personal Computer friendly infrastructure.  What was shocking, at least to me, was just how much they showed and how apologetic they were about the failures of PS3.  They know that the CELL processor made it difficult to program for PS3, and Sony went out of their way in this event to beg developers to come back.  They know their online just wasn’t up to snuff, so they rebuilt the entire system from the ground up.  They are even opening up the entire system and allowing indie developers to self-published on the PS4.

All of this sounds great, and while the presentation was good, it doesn’t mean that the world is ready to jump back on the Playstation bandwagon.  There were many mistakes made on the PS3, and some promises aren’t just going to wash all of that away.  While the apologetic and underdog tone was good to see from a company that never does something like that, we’ll still need to see more from them.  That being said, I came away impressed enough to get excited for new consoles.

While we spend a huge amount of time talking about that, it was also Oscar time, so Mr. Khon helps us weed through the winners and discuss why some of the were surprises, and others were not.  In addition, we talk about the real issue that is going on with the Special Effects Community, and how they are being overworked, not being paid, and in some cases going out of business.  We cite the specific example of how the special effects company that did the work on Life of Pi, and then those people won a fucking Oscar, are now bankrupt.

Crazy man.  Crazy.

Upcoming Events

The New Jersey Burlesque Showcase

• Friday, March 15 @ Roxy & Duke’s Roadhouse | 8 PM
• $10 to get in
• RSVP on Facebok

How To Run a Child’s Play Charity Event | PAX East Panel

• Saturday, March 23 @ PAX East – Merman Theatre | 12:30 PM
• Joey V, Katie V, and Yogi from g33kWatch on the panel!