Reel Madness super special extra deluxe bonus round: Speed Racer

Alright guys, I'll cop to it: this isn't what I was originally going to post today. Time got ahead of me this weekend with all the hoopla over Thor and the nightmare that the midnight shows presented to me. You may or may not hear about it in the episode we record tonight, but I'm sure it's a story you'll get at some point. Anyway, the other day, I was looking for a new little notebook and happened upon an old one where I used to record my hours at my old theater where we had a crooked manager that would adjust everyone's clock-ins and outs so she could make labor without sacrificing manpower. A folded up page with what follows fell out, written in the bright green ink from the pen I always used at podium there; I spent LOT of time on podium there since all the ushers I was in charge of hated it. What I was going for with this, I'm not sure. I was probably trying to convince people that the movie isn't the anti-capitalism conspiracy theory brought to life that some reviews claimed it was; either way, you've heard us talk about it before but some of the stuff here hugely amused me where I was looking back over it. It's not as casual as I normally sound when writing for here so it may sound a little high falutin'. I hope you enjoy, because if I'm going to get overwhelmed by work, I'd prefer my dodging responsibility turn out like this more often.

I gave all of our Speed Racer posters away; I still feel like a schmuck all this time later

Speed Racer presents us a world so visually vibrant that it becomes almost overwhelming during the course of the initial viewing. Speed’s world is literally a cartoon brought to life, with garish electric colors and surreal decorations, the visual onslaught helping the audience step into the world of its characters. Almost every scene has an intense visual aspect from the scenes of Speed in kindergarten, imagining himself as a race car driver all the way to the ‘ghost’ of the Mach 4 our hero sees when trying to break his brother’s race record. Not everything is totally realistic looking but that’s appropriate for a movie that conveys such a distinctly heightened reality. Everything in this world is hyperbole, an idea sold by practically everything in the movie; the intense camerawork in racing the Mach 5, the broad color pallette,the performances, all of them sell us on a world so incredibly apart from our own reality we can't help but be entranced by it. When Pops Racer is revealed to have been a Greco-Roman wrestling Champ just in time to mete out punishment on a group of attacking ninjas, we don’t feel cheated for the coincidence; we’re delighted that the foil to the villains is such a great punch line, revealed by the close-up of Pops’ championship ring. 

The characters are embodied as archetypes by the actors from the distilled sweetness of Speed’s girlfriend Trixie, to the stoic resourcefulness of his father Pops. Speed is purely heroic and good, a shining counterpart to the mysterious Racer X, who is secretly his lost brother Rex. The accident that Rex faked in order to join an international spy agency tore the Racer family apart, a choice he made after the corrupt Royalton targeted his family for their clean adherence to sportsmanship. As Racer X, he gets a second chance to bond with his lost brother as well as protect him from the vile plots of Royalton. Their trials in defying the evil conglomerate show them to be not just champions of their sport but champions of the goodness the movie’s villains so deeply despise. By the time of the final race, rigged with traps by the evil Royalton, the films visual signatures have been locked into place for over an hour and a half. Yet, the Wachowski Bros. have more cards to deal with a breathtaking finish that threatens sheer visual overload, symbolic of how Speed himself must go beyond all limits he has known in the past to claim a victory not just for himself, his family or his sport, but for all the good known to humanity.

WHERE ARE THE TRACKS COMING FROM?

So there you go guys. Mostly unchanged from when it was originally written 3 years ago, which seems like an eternity now I hate to say. I did italicize the end where it had not been before, just to emphasize the tone of the article. Bein' all fancy while still trying to embody a goofy thematic concept is a double edged sword to be sure. Yeah it's short but that may be to it's advantage; Speed Racer really is a bizarre juxtaposition of ADD imagery spread out over a pretty big run time, a pair of conflicting elements that can make it a tough sell. I wasn't expecting to convert anyone that hated the movie (in fact, I still hesitate to recommend it to people) but was hoping to push anyone forward that had been on the fence about it.


Anyway, I'll be back with something more substantial in the near future. In the meantime, check out the Dominion: Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens bit Jaysun did yesterday. It's longer and filled with what's likely an equal amount of hyperbolic intensity.

Ravings of a Childlike Fantasy World: Jaysun's Movie Dream Is SO Close To Happening.

Stop...whoa...hold on. This is it. This is the day. This movie may NEVER happen, but it is SO CLOSE to being a dream of mine, I must share my thoughts with you. Feast your little eyes on this.

Grant Morrison has written a comic for Liquid Comics, those of vanity projects from Hollywood dreams crushed by minute details such as budget and interest. This, however, is the mighty Grant Morrison, of New X-Men fame, All-Star Superman....well. Whatever the most acclaimed comics of the last 20 years are, he will no doubt have written 70% of them. I exaggerate for effect people. As pointed in the article, this is VS. Like Godzilla Vs. Gigan, Joe Vs. The Volcano, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, King Kong Vs. Godzilla, Freddy Vs. Jason...or others that don't I will not mention. This elicits fun and adventure. Cowboys AND Aliens sounds like a mash-up, THIS sounds like a MATCH-UP! So, Barry Sonnenfield has been announced as director. He does seem to be the go to guy for big, crazy production no one wants to touch. Or the mixture of the Coens, Spielberg, and Burton. So his name attached doesn't mean he will direct. He will probably produce if this INSANE movie ever makes it to production (doubtful). That picture, wow, looks beyond incredible. And really lifts my day knowing it COULD happen. Maybe some insane rich middle eastern, or Indian person will decide this needs to happen.
But if it doesn't, I've decided to lay to you, my incredible fantasy-land other world production cast. If I were executive producer for this crazy, rich person, these are my choices to make it happen. MY FANTASY!

Writer= Grant Morrison, he needs to stay on every draft. One day I would love to read his WE3 script, all I hear is greatness of it's existence. You want some uncredited script doctors? I give two to help out Mr. Morrison remain budget conscious. And of course, my director of choice will help. It is collaborative this movie making business. Ed Solomon, and David Koepp. I realize I have this insane theory that David Koepp is an Alan Smithee-type alias for screenwriter that contractually cannot out their name on a project, but whoever has the alias if it is not Koepp (the fraud in interviews) should be lending expertise on this. Google both if you don't know, but both have their hands on some of the greatest projects that should NEVER work, but they make it happen. Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, Men In Black, Bill and Ted franchise...just as credited. Probably more without credit.

Director= James Cameron a.k.a GOD. The one God I bow to, or whatever you want to say. He can pull off anything, and he has the right gusto to make this happen. I imagine there will not be much dialogue to work with here, so all the naysayers (and there are TONS of them) will be relieved that he will focus on action. Scope? Check. Vision? Check. Foolhardy spirit? Check. Sense of Adventure and Wonder? Check...and mate. This guy reigns supreme. Suck it internet.

Director of Photography= Yes, Mr. Cameron would choose his own, but my fantasy remember? Eduardo Serra. This guy has insane light balance, and leveling eye. He can frame a cheese sandwich and make it beautiful. Unbreakable? Come on? New Harry Potters? Please, cake for him. Girl With The Pearl Earring. He was the only part of the movie that garnished praise. He has yet to really break into the mainstream of cinematography, minus those Harry Potters. But as other talent has proven, those movies don't really aid careers. He would be able to interpret both Morrison's amazing ideas, and Cameron's scope with ease, and still have people notice his touch. Imagine the blue of a proposed Alien Spacecraft landing he could produce...wow.

Music= This is fantasy land, yes. But there is precedent. A collaboration of James Newton Howard, Trent Reznor, and Billy Corgan. All have scored films in the past (Corgan had amazing scores to Ransom and Stigmata. Seriously, skip the movies, listen to the music) and would represent something. Reznor the sophistication and technological drive of an alien species, arriving on earth for whatever crazy reason. Providing music to show us their calculative and advanced brains. Just like The Social Network. Corgan would represent the primal emotional drive of a primitive Earth species, motivated only by the will to survive and protect their young ones. His music is known for this visceral evocation and tender, exposed ballads. As in those previous two scores. Howard would blend the two and provide an adventurous and beautiful package of symphonic platinum. Remember how GREAT Batman Begins score was, and how uneven The Dark Knight's score ended up being? He was not there to soothe the savage beast inside of Hans Zimmer. He can blend this fierce musical battle and provide his sweeping and majestic music alongside it. They would work together beautifully (Corgan and Reznor have before, but I don't know about recently). It would be the greatest music collaboration of our generation.

Effects= ILM, Phil Tippet, and Jim Henson Studios. This will require special and visual effects that could not be done by just one studio. Stan Winston is, sadly, gone. He would have headed a wonderful and merciless drive to the extremes of amazing. Even in my fantasy, I will abide by laws of nature. I would have Tippet on anyway for the great work he did with Jurassic Park and ILM. Henson studios, I mean, come on. Do they need to prove themselves anymore? I don't want to say they get it in my fantasy because of a lack of Winston, they would be there anyway, for the Aliens side of things. The spread here would be an amazing work of pure invention. These studios would have an unrelenting march to perfection, and we would get only the best. This is my fantasy, as they say, and this is who I want working with Cameron and Morrison.

OK, that will be as far as I go. This is FAR more speculative than you will see many other places, but that is what I am here. To provide boosts to the imagination (or maybe not, just ranting and raving will do). What do you think? What would be some of your choices? I would give an arm to see THAT exact movie be made. Well...maybe a finger...I like my arm...and fingers. I will give you my new carpet.

UPDATE! William Morris is packaging this to studios. It has a real shot!

-Jaysun, from my mInd.

Monday News Void: Mostly Comics Edition!

It's been a slow week for entertainment, what with everyone bracing for the release of Thor. Jaysun gave you some of the skinny on what kind of numbers we're looking at for the Odinson's first real media endeavor yesterday but I'm going to try and resist giving away what any of us thought (other than that it was excellent and you should see it) while giving you a little news. 

I have a love/hate relationship with Ain't it Cool News; they have some excellent contributors with good reporting or insightful opinions. They also have Harry. Anyway, Nordling went to visit Pixar and talk to John Lasseter, lucky guy that he is. There's some cool pictures and a little bit of info on what we should expect Cars 2 to feel like in comparison to the first one. [Source: Ain't It Cool News]

Hey! Speaking of AICN, they also write that F. Gary Gray is directing The Last Days of American Crime! What's funny here is they forget to mention it's based on a comic by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini; I've never read it but I remember when it was released a few years ago. I also seem to remember an episode of Word Balloon where Remender was talking about it being optioned. Remender's a writer I have virtually no experience with, though I hear great things about Fear Agent and people seem to be enjoying his run on Venom with Tony Moore. The only comic I ever read by him was a 2 issue fill-in on Booster Gold and I don't want to get into that here; maybe I'll save it for if we do a Book of Whatever on something by him. [Source: Ain't It Cool News]

I'm sure many of you have seen, but for those unaware, Mattel announced their SDCC exclusives, somehow expecting AOTS to give them enough air time to feature everything when G4 viewers likely couldn't care less. Queen Marlena (with a pseudo-articulated Cringer) for MOTUC turned out to be the "figure with multiple parts" they hinted at, with the ability to change switch her into her Earth Astronaut outfit for those who care. A somewhat awkward looking Swamp Thing is the DCUC get for the year, coming with the now trademark roleplay item packaging. The middle finger for those of us who can't attend the con this time arrives in the form of a pair of Un-men for Swampy and a cardback variation for Marlena. They also showed a huge mixed-materials Staypuft Marshmallow Man but at $70 and questionable construction/playability I'm ducking out. There's a Movie Masters of the absolutely awful Kilowog design from Green Lantern and a 6-inch scale Voltron figure as well. I'd be in for Voltron if he fit with my Revoltech collection but there's something off about him I haven't examined yet; maybe it's because he's $30. Strangely, I find the POP Polly Pocket figures very endearing and the mystery of the Back to the Future item is intriguing despite it's already insane price point. [Source: Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation]

Put this and the Silver Surfer back in print already! Also, mix up the variant dustjackets in both markets!

Bleeding Cool picked up on some interesting solicits for future omnibus editions and we all know I can't resist that sort of thing. Apparently the first Silver Age Avengers omnibus is already on Amazon which means it'll likely be out before the movie next year. Marvel's pretty sharp about doing omnibuses around what's being released as a movie so I wonder if this means that a second volume will be ready for next May; I love SA Marvel but there's a huge period of Avengers I often tell people is an acquired taste (namely the issues after Hank Pym rejoins as Goliath all the way until Hercules shows up as a member). This is following where the Fantastic Four by John Byrne and Amazing Spider-Man by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane volumes were recently revealed earlier in the week among others, like a whole slew of 90's X-Men crossovers. Marvel's getting really aggressive about these editions which worry me that they're going to be going out of print that much faster now.

Anyone have a bibliography yet?

DC has a few as well though I'm not sure what the Spy Vs. Spy omnibus is going to contain that isn't already in the first softcover from a few years ago; I'm sure it'll have all the material by Prohias but I'm hoping there will be something new to better justify my temptation. Most of the DC omnibuses are much smaller at a similar price; these are more akin to Marvel's seemingly departed oversized Hardcovers of which I was so fond. The Absolute editions are likely the best counterpart for Marvel's omnibuses though neither of those explains why we don't have some fancy version of 52 yet. Either way, step the paper quality up DC and I may bite. [Source: Bleeding Cool News]

Anyone reading Batman Inc.? I haven't! I can appreciate some of the ideas that Morrison is working with though. That's neither here nor there though; the real news is that the Internet's foremost Batmanologist and recent Orccacast guest, Chris Sims has a cameo as a corpse in the upcoming Batman Inc. #6! [Source: Comics Alliance]

That's all I have for now; I'm off to watch yesterday's Game of Thrones while pretending I managed my time well today.

Oh, I'll pimp some stuff too. Because I'm shameless like that.

UPDATED! The Price's Are Alright- ORCCA Box Office Results Week One, and Top Ten Grossing Movies for May 6-8, 2011

     Greetings, salutations, and welcomes, this is Jaysun. This is the first installment of Summer Box Office Prediction Roundup Bonanza Game Deal...Thing. Starting with The Spectacular Summer Movie Spectacular on Friday, the members of ORCCA are predicting the opening weekend results of new releases throughout the summer, that would be the last weekend of May. Of course, we are not paid analysts (maybe I should be!) so this is super fun happy time for us, and since we don't follow sports, this is the closest we have to competition. As usual with an ORCCA fame, the rules are slightly more complicated than most prediction games and I will explain that here. Each week, for every wide release, a member of ORCCA will give an opening weekend gross prediction based on any factors that the estimator chooses. I, Jaysun, will record these numbers, and on that Sunday will give preliminary results based on Sunday morning estimates. These will hold until Monday night, when revised numbers come up and final tallies are made.
  This is the game part, everyone begins with 1000 points. If a member's estimate falls BELOW the actual gross, a point is deducted for every million dollars under the actual amount, rounded to the closest amount. If a member's estimate is HIGHER than the actual gross, two points are deducted from the score. Because, as we know from the Price is Right, it's better to be under than over in number prediction...mostly. If a member guesses the CORRECT amount (within $900,000 of the same amount i.e. if I guess Thor at 66 million, and it makes 66.9 million) than 5 points are ADDED to the score. Sometimes an entrant will choose not to predict an amount because they cannot get a handle on it, this is an automatic 5 point loss. Highest score on August 29th wins. Right now the game consists of Jaysun, Richard, Michael, and Chris. Marshall may choose to join next week at a handicap. And maybe a guest will play sometimes for exhibition. This will also be a Sunday post so you, our esteemed listeners, will have a great place to see box office results before you hear them at many other places. My sources will include Boxofficeguru.com, Deadline.com, and Boxofficemojo.com

So, GAMETIME!

Opening Points:
Jaysun- 1000
Chris- 1000
Richard-1000
Michael- 1000

THOR: 65.7 million (66)
Jaysun- 68 million: -4
Chris- 75 million: -18
Richard- 72 million: -12
Michael- 80 million: -28

SOMETHING BORROWED: 14 million
Jaysun- 12 million: -2
Chris-  12 million: -2
Richard- 12 million: -2
Michael- $1: -5

JUMPING THE BROOM: 15 million
Jaysun- 6 million: -9
Chris- $1: -5
Richard- 4 million: -11
Michael- $1: -5

New Scores and Rankings:
Jaysun- 985
Richard- 975
Chris- 975
Michael- 962

Jaysun is in the lead for now, not much difference yet, but by the end of May, expect some WILDLY divergent numbers.

So what was the Top Ten?

1. Thor: 66 million. Nearly expected by the studio. Don't see this as a sign that the public doesn't want to see Thor, they just don't know much about him or the stars. This opened on the same level as The Incredible Hulk, attendance wise. But Hulk is a MAJOR comic character, with a popular television series and cartoons, bigger stars as well. Marvel should see this as a major victory, much like Iron Man (with huge movie stars involved) opened near Spider-Man numbers. Trust me, the studio will be VERY happy with these numbers, and you should too. I expect better legs than Hulk, so a higher overall take.

2. Fast Five: 32.4 million. -62% drop. Pretty much expected, but officials on Friday night believed a $40 million weekend was possible. This feature had huge buzz from it's opening weekend, so this will more than likely be the biggest drop it takes during it's run. It's looking like a final of $190-200 million to me. Will make it the highest grossing in the franchise. Seriously, how many franchises get their second wind at movie 4, and movie 5 is the biggest? I will investigate this for our next episode, I expect not many but maybe a horror franchise.

3. Jumping The Broom: 15.2 million. Out of no where. But welcomed by the studio, Sony is DESPERATE for profit. And this will make it, it's budget was in the 6 million dollar range, so it's already doubled. A good standard to see is if a movie triples it's budget, it enters profit (with advertising and distribution costs factored AFTER budget). Good for it though, good counter-programming. UPDATE: Huge 2 million difference in estimates vs. finals. WTF Rentak?!

4. Something Borrowed: 13.1 million. Yea, not much to say or see here. Average opening. Kate Hudson can't sell movies, can't and won't happen.

5. Rio: 8.5 million. -43% drop. This is not taking in as much as I and many others thought. It had a decent opening, and a great second weekend, but since then has not been too kind.

6. Water for Elephants: 6.1 million. -35% drop. This is performing as I expected, solid but not great. Just too early in the year for it. September or October would have been a benefit for a movie like this. Looks to end at around 52 million.

7. Madea's Big Happy Family: 4.2 million. -58% drop. So, not even the Madea movies can pull what they once did. Big drops week after week, I believe it is time for Mr. Perry to enter a new phase of his career, his movies have saturated the market and people are waiting for them to be on television by now. Two movies a year is silly. To Tyler Perry- Of course your studio wants them quickly, they have to think in short term, since you make profits. But it is killing your name and brand and integrity. Slow down, make it on your terms. There are TONS of movies, not every director needs a movie a year to be remembered, those days are long gone.

8. Prom: 2.2 million. -53% drop. Why was this a theatrical release again? Keep it on cable movie of the week. Know the difference.

9. Soul Surfer: 2.3 million. -32% drop. Wow, this movie over performed. No expectations can do that though. Congrats to the team behind this, filmmaker and marketers. Sony needed this to break even very badly, and might end up making a little money after home video release. Cool poster too.

10. Hoodwinked Too!: 2 million. -50% drop. HA! Sorry, that was mean, I will giggle under my breath from now on. Look, 50 million (well 51 if I remember) from the first movie is good, but it was released in JANUARY of 2006. It had no competition. Do kids want to see crappy animation at the same time Rio and Rango are out? Have a brain people. Yes, it is intentionally crappy looking, but that's why releases in dead months would work. Plus advertising was non existent for this. Quick, painful death for this movie, and franchise. Don't expect overseas to help much.

Concluding the first Box Office post of the summer season. Congrats to the winners, and sorrow for the losers. Or something like that. Remember to check back on MONDAY for updated numbers and scores, as it will not be the top post of the day. We will, of course, discuss the results on the next episode of ORCCAcast, and follow on Twitter for updates during weekends. Happy Mom Day! You know who else' day it is? MY MOM!!!!

S7: Spectacular Summer Movie Spectacular 2: Reloaded Quickening Boogaloo Harder

It's summertime and you know what that means, gonna go out to the theater gonna watch some movie things, gonna make up guesses and hope our list is right...

Forsooth! The solstice hath (almost) ended! Summer is finally here and for the second year in a row where going to go over what's coming out and how we think it's going to do in the grand scheme of the ever important movie industry; week by week you'll get all the cheers and jeers we think are appropriate for a quarter where Marvel and DC will be tested as brand names,  3 huge sequels open practically on top of each other and 3D inundates most of the releases. You'll laugh! You won't cry! You'll laugh again when you hear some of my predictions! Listen and thrill for yourself! (TM)

Potato Time! Portal 2 Review.

    Puzzle games and sprawling plots rarely marry. Though it has been known to happen (the “Professor Layton” series comes to mind), its not in the minds of their game creators. That being said, the first Portal game did not have the highest in plot development. Nor was it meant to, actually it was developed as a concept game, like a Tetris. But GLaDOS as an icon of ironic evil in an age of undefined human emotion forced Valve to develop the game as a standalone (originally part of the “Orange Box”). Yes, these are things most of us know, but maybe someone doesn’t? Maybe... Well, does Portal 2 inject a healthy dose of plot and more humor? Does it match the gameplay fun, while creating new twists on a now classic? Why else would I write the review if I weren’t to tell you?

Portal 2’s game mechanics are nearly identical to the previous game, though according to the creators it was almost an entirely different experience. This is good, Portal was too fun but we demanded more! That’s why we have a sequel. The game begins with the player character, Chell, waking up in the a broken down hotel-type room. There was some retconning here, involving getting dragged back in by computers while she was passed out. Chell, now is woken up by an intentionally annoying robot (personality core for those that have played the first game) named Wheatley. Wheatley is an interesting character, voiced by Stephen Merchant. Interesting is intentionally vague, while I loved him and found his dialogue and gag setups quite hilarious, there will be a very vocal unit standing against the character, as I have now seen already. Fret not, this is all part of the plan. If you hate him, good. If you love him, good. Both factions will find a very satisfying outcome to his story. After making a joke about the main character not being able to speak, we jump into tutorials. They are enjoyable because the environment is so vastly different from the first game, and there is a major sense of urgency to complete these missions. No Portal gun at first, so be ready for that. And then GLaDOS comes back into our happy little lives.

She is still as inventive and starkly fresh character as she was previously, even changing shape into a most hilarious...well, I won’t spoil that. Nothing here seems incredibly contrived, or unconvincing. All motivation from every character is completely clear, and intentions are shining. Let me just finish plot discussion by saying that Portal 2 has such a major character arc for all three main characters, even one that doesn’t speak. The writers worked very hard to avoid the usual pitfalls known to plague stories of multiple games, so that we as players have to continually forgive it. This is one of the very few instances that we can let it roam free. Yes, we will see a detractor claim is has plot holes, or some silly thing like that. It doesn’t, you can see the care taken to make this story really resonate. Wear this badge proudly Valve, you made me finish a puzzle game quickly just to get to the next plot development.

This game is also a game, who would’ve known. And it’s fun! The inclusion of the gels to enhance our experience, was bold and really pays off. Let’s begin from the first game. The object of each smaller “Test”, as GLaDOS calls them, is to use a portal gun with an entrance and an exit (Orange and Blue). You use physics and gravity to your advantage as well. For instance, if you place a Blue Exit on a side wall, and an Orange Entrance on the floor 20 feet in the air, the force of your fall with factor into how far you are propelled through the Blue portal. There are various tutorials, and the design team never leave you with a clue of some sort to solve. There can be multiple solutions, the fun is choosing how you solve. So the gels. Well there are 3 colors, Blue, Orange, and White. Blue makes the surface it touches bouncy, Orange makes it’s surface slick so you can run extraordinarily fast, and White makes a non-Portable surface accessible for one of your fine physics-defying creations. The routine of the previous levels is broken, and a player now has some new possibilities for completing a stage. As a player, you do go outside and again, the aura of freshness still hangs heavily. This is creates exciting new challenges not yet offered in the Portal experience. Game play is top notch through out, and is never tiring. Valve created an all inclusive single-player experience. Wait, wait...multiplayer? In Portal? Yes, and it is fantastic.

There is no local multiplayer, which is an absolute bummer, but makes perfect sense. Splitting the screen would make players extremely confused with the amount physics defying already occurring. I played a 5 hour run with a complete stranger, even though the game recommends a friend as a better experience. Unfortunately, thanks to the Playstation Network fiasco of 2011, this was not possible. Nonetheless, I had no problem jumping right in (I played this on an iMac) and a partner was matched. The story of the Co-Op is that GLaDOS cannot rely on full human testing and has created two types of robots to solve her insidious tests. These machines are called p-Body and Atlas. If Norm MacDonald and Artie Lange from “Dirty Work” were Portal testing robots, this would be them. You earn different taunts to perform solo or in a team like a high-five as rewards throughout the experience. And they are worth it, the animation team makes sure of that. With your partner, you solve some 40 levels of sure-destructive madness guided by the goading and sarcastic GLaDOS. These were challenging and engaging with an extra person involved. Again, the design team went to pain-staking effort to make the player experience fresh and exciting. I do not enjoy multiplayer experience because I am typically so bad at playing games, but this is definitely an exception. Even if you do not do most of the solving (this time I didn’t do bad at all though! Aww Yeah Me!) you have an enormous sense of accomplishment.

I’ll give numbers for those that skipped all the words. 

Seriously, imagine this as white gel...

Scores are 5 out of 5, no halves. Story-5, Visuals-4, Gameplay-5, Co-Op-4, Value-5. Overall, I give it a 5. I know that there are two 4’s, but this is my aggregate. I don’t think visuals matter for a game like this. Co-Op gets knocked a bit for not having innovation in local multiplayer. Not a big deal, that’s why it still gets an overall 5. I love this game, it’s a definite contender for Game of the Year, and there isn’t much I can point to as a poor point. GLaDOS’ wit as the disaffected HAL diagnosed with bi-polar disorder makes this game so very unique. We don’t get the cake gag played to death, and this only makes the game that much better. My vote as new meme, the White Gel known as “Peter North Gel.” I really couldn’t help but giggle the entire time I saw it.

Monday News: Standing Tall in the Face of Irrelevance When Real News is Happening (Warning! Possible Spoilers!)

It has definitely been an interesting past few days as we sit here waiting through the few days before Thor arrives. I've been trying to keep up with everyone on Twitter and spending so much time on the Tweet stream is starting to make my brain fray at the edges I think. Want to help cure a little of that madness? Follow us on Twitter @Orccacast! Or, if you're already following us, tell your friends! I promise I will try to be more clever; it just hasn't been coming lately because I'm very depressed over not finding my Elite Beat Agents or Rhythm Heaven cartridges.

Speaking of Twitter, there's some gorgeous stuff over on @astro_ron's Twit pics including this little gem here of the Progress spacecraft heading towards the ISS. Yes, it basically is a flying trash can, but it still looks gorgeous. You can check out a highlight reel of some of the pics by looking up the hastag '#fromspace' on twitpic.

 

Twitter Pal Generals Joes (Follow him @GeneralsJoes; also, follow us if you aren't already @orccacast) has gotten his Pursuit of Cobra Wave 6 figures (aka wave 4 2011 for those of us who enjoy deciphering these things) and they're looking great in a "Hasbro keeps managing to find new hooks to make me buy Snake-Eyes" kind of way. If anyone wants to send some Rock Vipers or a Crazy Legs my way, I totally wouldn't mind. [Source: Generals Joes]

 To be fair they still had the variant covers, but they cost more

I didn't get to pick up Action Comics #900 last week, which is irksome in light of it finishing the Lex Luthor storyline I wrote about here. However, Twitter waits for no man and within a few hours I was well aware of the cosmic shit-storm brewing from the short story where Superman renounced his U.S. Citizenship. Laura Hudson, the lovely editor of Comics Alliance, was even summoned to be on Fox and Friends to discuss it once the backdraft had hit a high note. Everything you need to know about this important development in outrage from the not-reading-comics audience is in this little article here. The last time this kind of thing happened, we got the 'Grounded' storyline so this can't possibly be worse/funny than that. [Source: Comics Alliance]

Does anyone else wish this was on higher quality paper without the weird fuzzy feeling dust jacket?

Speaking of Comics Alliance, for those of you confused by the appearance of a certain Mossy Man-Monster in the pages of Brightest Day, you can get sort of an idea of what exactly the deal with Swamp Thing is right here. Sure it sounds crazy, but it makes more sense than a lot of the stuff thrown at us in Brightest Day #24. [Source: Comics Alliance]

Still bamboozled over the excitement from this picture. Why? It doesn't even give something for all the recent Hawkeye converts to get excited over.

Samuel L. Jackson's copy of the script for The Avengers has been stolen and reports are coming in that production is being halted so some rewrites can be done. I'm hoping Jackson actually gets in some real trouble for this but the people who swiped it are some real jerks to be sure. I'm not sure if it should really require some rewrites but if they're meant strictly as a big middle finger to the thieves then I'm all for it. I hope this didn't screw up the vacation plans for anyone working on the movie though. [Source: Screen Rant]

Oh, and this happened. [Source: The Huffington Post]