World's BEST commercial

A Friend showed this to me earlier today.

Watch it!  Laugh!

Cringe!

It's SOOO worth it!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=95c_1371654375

So, I am obviously not very urban...

If you look very closely at the photo above, you will see a very pale woman suntanning on the peak of an ashphalt roof. It just so happens that this is the view that greated me out the backdoor of the theatre I am currently working at. My two immediate questions for her would be: "What the Fuck are you doing?"Quickly followed by "Jesus Christ, aren't those shingles HOT?". Don't get me wrong, I am all for a little natural colour in the Summer, but this seems extreme. I mean, does she not have access to a back yard? Or a public park or beach? How desperate must she be for that tan to decide that laying on a bath towel on the peak or her ashphalt roof is the best way to achieve it. I am not sure if you can tell, but she has actually lugged 4 bricks up onto the roof with her to help keep the towel from blowing away. Since there is no antenna tower on the house, we all assumed that she has a ladder in the back-yard for easy access. It seems like a pile of work to go through for the sake of skin cancer. I just don't get it. I may be a hick from the sticks but city folk are weird.

Man of Steel

When it comes to superheroes, no one is more iconic than Superman. People around the world recognize his blue suit, red cape, and the stylized "S" that adorns his chest. And, in a summer movie market awash with comic book movies, none have been as highly anticipated as Man of Steel, which opened last night in theatres in North America.

However, as with any beloved icon, this new depiction is going to come under tremendous scrutiny from the fans. Directed by Zach Snyder (300, Watchmen), under the watchfull eye of Producer Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy) this film has all of the ingredients necessary to be a huge summer blockbuster.
Henry Cavill leads a star studded cast in the title role as Superman, and I thoroughly enjoyed him in the role. He is just reminiscent enough of a young Christopher Reeve, to trigger my nostalgia for the original films, while being ripped enough to make me forget the poor effeminate bastard that they had in the role for Superman Returns (Which was an absolute atrocity of a film by the way, and I move that it should be forever stricken from the cannon, and banished to the Phantom Zone forever). The ladies that attended the screening with me last night shared my opinion: Superman should look like a man! Cavill achieves this, and brings a bright, fresh energy to the conflicted central role.
The supporting cast is equally dynamic. Russell Crowe achieves a precise level of distinction in the role of Jor'El, Superman's Kryptonian father, while Kevin Costner's humble strength is quietly brilliant in the role of Jonathon Kent, Clark's adoptive father. Lawrence Fishburne takes a reflective approach to Perry White, the Editor in Chief of The Daily Planet, and Amy Adams is a pert, perky Lois Lane. I found the Lois/Clark dynamic to be one of the biggest changes to this franchise reboot. Gone is playful game of cat and mouse between Lois & Superman/Clark. Lois discovers Clark's secret immediately, and chooses to help him maintain his anonymity. It's more than a little disconcerting. Michael Shannon's portrayal of General Zod was the only character that I found lacking, but more because of the writing than anything he did with the role.
I loved the cinematography of this film. It was filled with quiet reflective moments of peaceful imagery of life on earth, rain drops falling in a bucket filled with clothes pegs, a butterfly resting on a split rail fence, a dog cavorting in a field of wheat, all images that evoked quiet moments of solace during Clark's early time here on Earth. I felt that these images, used as they were in conjunction with flashbacks to tell Clark's earthly back story invoked a sense of appreciation of the simple pleasures that had shaped Clark into the caring benevolent benefactor that he becomes. When combined with the stunning, lightning fast action sequences, of which there are many, the film takes on a certain duality that lends itself well to the content.
Of the many action sequences in this film, two stood out as remarkably impressive. The first is a fire on an offshore oil rig where Clark saves the day with a miraculous feat of strength. The second is during a conflict between Superman and Zod's Kryptonian warriors, a female Kryptonian scythes through an entire squad of Army Rangers, as though they were stalks of wheat. Her superior speed and strength are showcased at an incredible frame rate, leaving the viewer with no doubt that the humans in this film are far outclassed by their adversaries, which is why Superman's arrival on scene is equally dynamic. I also need to mention that Superman's flights in this film feel fantastic in 3D. Each time Superman breaks the sound barrier it just feels right.
If I had a complaint about the film, it would be that the filmmakers choose to focus too much on the sci-fi element of Clark's alien origins, especially where General Zod and this platoon of Kryptonian warriors come into play. In my opinion, the Kryptionian's don't need battle armor, fancy weaponry, and gunships to achieve total domination over Earth, but the second half of the movie is full of these images, which feels like overkill. The fear inspired by Zod in Superman II, is caused because he can, at a whim, destroy anything in his path, using only the same abilities granted to Kal'El by our planet's yellow sun.
While I did enjoy the film, certain elements of this movie do feel rushed, and glossed over. The whole Clark/Lois relationship for one. Also, while there were a number of wonderful scenes from Clark's childhood in Kansas, the one scene that was oddly missing was his actual discovery by Jonathon & Martha Kent. I really wanted to see that moment, and the instantaneous bond that formed between Clark and his adoptive parents. There are other things as well, but these are the big ones for me. While not everyone will enjoy the liberties that have been taken with this origin story, I feel confident that it will do well at the Box Office, and I discovered this morning that a sequel is already in development. I look forward to the sequel, hoping for a more human driven story line, hopefully with the introduction of Clark's true nemesis, Lex Luthor.

Zombie's Hate Stuff

So, while scouring the interweb for images for that last post I stumbled onto a Kindle copy of Zombie's Hate Stuff by Greg Stones. A fun little coffee table type book, this was certainly worth the $$$ that I paid for a digital copy.
I love the fact that Stone's zombie is wearing a suit and tie. It just adds a certain element of class.
Here are a couple of images that made me laugh:

Listed under"Thing's Zombie's hate"
Check it out!

Vader's Little Princess

I was out and about today, and I stumbled across a fun little book that made my day.

Vader's Little Princess, Written and illustrated by Jeffery Brown, is a collection of comic images that focus on the theory that Darth Vader raised Princess Leia from toddler to teenager and the trials and tribulations that they would have faced. Back in May, it actually spent some time on the NY Times Bestsellers list.

The illustrations are simple, yet work well with the quirky sense of humor inherent in the book.
As the father of a young, independent, strong-willed little "princess" of my own, and a huge Star Wars fan, I appreciated where both Vader and Brown are coming from.

Below are a couple of images from the book, just to give you a sense of what's in store.

Do yourself a favour and buy a copy for yourself and the little princess in your life!

AND MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE:

The Last Of Us

I am a huge fan of Naughty Dog studios and their work on the Uncharted franchise for the PS3. The visuals are stunning, the plots are top notch, and the play control is intuitive, all ingredients for a first rate game.

I just had the chance to play through the early access demo for Naughty Dog's newest offering, The Last of Us, which drops later this month on June 14.
Having seen the trailer, I knew that they were shifting focus to more of a post zombie apocalypse survival style of play, as opposed to the "Indiana Jones" Fortune Hunter game style that Uncharted did so well.
On first trial, this game looks and feels great. Naughty Dog has nailed the visuals. The collapsing buildings, overgrown vegetation, dynamic weather, all combine to create an environment taken straight out of the pages of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead.
While they don't give of the plot away in the demo, the interactions between the characters are interesting, and they hint at enough of the story to hook you in.
The controls took a little getting used to, specifically the melee attack, but ultimately I enjoyed the gritty sense of the combat. I generally tend to rely on a balance of stealth avoidance, and long ranged scoped attacks for most zombie encounters in other games, so I imagine that I will do the same with this if the opportunity presents itself. In my mind, toe to toe combat with a zombie is only a last resort!
And now for what I thought was the most interesting aspect of this demo, the zombies themselves. Naughty Dog has chosen to take a slightly different approach to the concept, and rather than the outbreak being caused by a viral or bacterial infection, if my guess is correct, the zombies are in fact infected hosts of a mutated form of parasitic Cordyceps fungus. Cordyceps fungus is a real world fungus that infects insects, replacing the hosts tissue with its own, and effectively overtakes the hosts central nervous system to further its own reproductive cycle, before releasing spores into the atmosphere that then hunt out and destroy their next host.
So Naughty Dog has basically taken a real world parasite, and by tweaking its ability to affect humans, created a feasible back story for a zombie apocalypse. Add to this fact, that they have devised different stages of infection to create various "types" of zombies, many of which can effectively hunt, and run at terrifying speeds, and this is a perfect recipe for one seriously deranged zombie survival story that will keep me up at night. It is my sincere belief that Zombies can not run. If zombies can run, or climb, or god forbid, hunt using echo-location like some of these creepy bastards devised by Naughty Dog, then every member of the human race may as well just dig a hole, lay down in it and wait to die, because that is game over for us as a species.

Tsuro - The Game of The Path

Got out last night with a new group of folks who introduced me to a number of new board games, many of which I had never before experienced. The game that resonated most with me was a simple yet stylish offering called Tsuro.

In Tsuro, each character is a wind dragon (not to be confused with the luck dragon from The Neverending Story).

Played on a sqaure board, laid out as a grid, each dragon starts at a separate point along the exterior of the game board, and then each player in turn places a tile down infront of their dragon, which dictates the path that the dragon will follow. Each player receives 3 tiles to begin the game, and draws a new tile from the deck after a tile is laid. The point of the game is to lay down tiles so that your dragon avoids flying off of the board, or colliding with other players dragons. Last player standing wins.

The artwork of the game board and box draw heavily on Asian dragon symbolism, and very clean, simple lines. The game play, while seemingly simple, can become relatively complex once a player starts to manipulate the paths of their opponents. Ofcourse, choices are dictated by the tile cards in a players hand, but how a player chooses to utilize these tiles leaves significant room for varied play styles.

Game play moves very quickly, with a four player game lasting under 10 minutes.   Our game ended in a draw with a spectacular head on collisio between two dragons.  Because we had other games to sample, we didn't play a second round, but the game obviously caught my interest as I found myself contemplating strategy later in the evening. After our play test, our host mentioned that he had first discovered Tsuro through Wil Wheaton's online show: Table Top. I immediately decided that I would need to find the episode, just to see Wil Wheaton's approach to the game. As I expected, the episode of Table Top featuring Tsuro, featured 2 other mini games as well, Zombie Die, and Get Bit.

If you aren't familiar with Table Top, the premise is simple.   Wil and his compatriots play test various board games, for the sheer joy of playing. It was entertaining to watch their game unfold and compare the various play styles of Wil's playtesters to the players that I had played with earlier in the evening.  Wil took the master startegist approach, attempting to gain control of the center of the game board early on.  Unfortunatley, it was all for naught, a he failed to secure the victory.

I love that such a seemingly simple, yet remarkably complex game has still got me thinking about it 24 hours later. This will definitely be a box that I will be adding to my games closet very soon.