Geekscape’s Reasons Not to Kill Yourself This Week – 9/5/11
Life can be a struggle… especially as a geek. We’re rarely popular. We’re rarely good looking. We usually don’t do the right things. So why keep going in this miserable existence?
Well, before you slip that noose over your head, Geekscape is here to let you know that you’re not alone. This is Geekscape after all, and we’re all in this together! So we’ve put the team together and assembled the first in our weekly feature of Reasons Not to Kill Yourself This Week! From X-Men: First Class on Blu-Ray to Dead Island to new music, Geekscape is here to give you reasons to keep you going!
Monday
Noel Nocciolo – Geekscape Music Writer
My reason for getting through the week are the Moog Sound Lab videos on www.moogmusic.com. Phantogram’s previously unreleased tune “16 Years” is especially making my week; ethereal and dreamy. Past Moog Sound Labs are pretty amazing as well; Tegan & Sara, OK Go, The Dandy Warhols among others. Watch and love!
MOOG SOUND LAB: Phantogram “16 Years” from Moog Music on Vimeo.
Tuesday
Shane O’Hare – Geekscape Writer / Bronie
Dead Island and Warhammer 40K Space Marine get released THE SAME DAY! So I will be spending my day chopping up space Orkz with a chainsword in Space Marine and that night playing Dead Island with my friends coop. On September 6…There Will Be Blood.
Matt Kelly – Purveyor of All That Is Shit
I’m a huge horror movie buff. Admittedly, I’ve yet to move into the world of blu-ray and even if I did, there’s very few films I’d be willing to purchase on blu-ray that I didn’t already own on DVD. But September 6th is giving me one of my exceptions to the rule. The Scream Trilogy comes out on blu-ray. Scream is my third favorite horror movie ever (it’s below the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Jaws so it’s in good fucking company), and the sequels (which people tended to have mixed feelings on) are all guilty pleasures of mine. The one thing I don’t like about this, is that it’s coming out a month before Scream 4 hits DVD/Blu-ray… which basically means that YOU KNOW they will release a four pack in a year or two.
Wednesday
Frank Angones – Geekscape Managing Editor
Joe the Barbarian Trade Paperback – You ever stop reading a book in floppies because it’s coming out so sporadically and you just know, man, this is going to be such an amazing trade. That’s how I feel about Grant Morrison’s Joe the Barbarian (and, to be fair, almost all of Grant Morrison’s non-cape books…lookin’ at you, Seaguy). An innocent but dense almost fairy tale about a kid whose toys come to life to save him from a falling into a diabetic coma- I think- the book reads like Grant Morrison’s warrior Winnie the Pooh and is chock-full of Morrisonian twists on genre conventions without going to that crazy, abstract theoretical place where I get terribly lost. This is definitely a book in the same category as We-3, and that is a very good thing.
Thursday
Frank Angones – Geekscape Managing Editor
Futurama Season Finale, “Reincarnation” (10 pm Comedy Central) – Man, do I love a good Futurama anthology episode (“YOU WATCHED IT, YOU CAN’T UNWATCH IT!”), and Comedy Central has been pimping this one since Comic-con. And with good reason. After Professor Farnsworth discovers a rare diamondium comet, we get three versions of Futurama that might have been: 8-bit Arcade, old-timey Steamboat Willie-esque cartoon, and anime. Two words: Gundam Bender. Sounds like fun on the poorly-dubbed bun!
Friday
Jonathan London – Guy Who Started This Mess
If you’ve watched Geekscape this year then you know that I’ve watched a LOT of movies in 2011. So far, I’ve got two tied for the top spot as Best Movie of the Year and they are BOTH sports movies! And one is a documentary (Senna). How did that happen? Well, the best fictional film that I’ve seen this year releases in theaters today, the MMA fighting movie Warrior starring Tom Hardy and Joel Edgarton. I don’t care if you’re a fan of MMA or not (I’ve never watched a full match), but this movie is incredible on a lot of levels. People will compare it to last year’s The Fighter… but it’s better than The Fighter. The script is better, the performances are better and the fights are better. Really. Don’t let the sports or MMA aspect of the movie scare you away. Just tell yourself “this Tom Hardy guy is playing Bane in Dark Knight Rises and this Joel Edgarton guy is in The Thing prequel” and watch the two guys rip up the scenes and each other. I can’t wait to go see it again.
Brian Gilmore – Disgrace to Humanity
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star – From the director of The Hot Chick comes Buck Larson: Born to Be a Star — the first Happy Madison movie in over a year with a trailer that doesn’t make me want to casually walk off a cliff (their 2010 roster being Zookeeper, Just Go with It, Grown Ups, Jack & Jill). Starring the lovable and “totally grows on you” Nick Swardson (whose hilarious comedy special is on Netflix instant play if you click here) as a guy who inadvertently sees his parents in a porn and doesn’t wash his eyes out with bleach, but rather decides to become a porn star himself… with hilarious consequences.
This movie looks like a throwback to the Billy Madison/Happy Gilmore style of the production company. And few people are better at random, irreverent humor that throws you some curveballs of honesty here and there than these guys. This movie is definitely a reason to put the pill buffet on hold.
Contagion – Another reason to get through this week without challenging the structural integrity of your closet’s hanger rod is the upcoming “really, a bird flu movie in 2011?” vehicle from Steven Soderbergh, Contagion. It’s about a virus that almost wipes out humanity, kind of like Outbreak, only not starring a monkey. The movie touts a cast that includes Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, who, when she’s made up to look like she’s dying, looks like a normal, healthy Tilda Swinton.
Right!?!
The movie looks like it’ll have all of the fun, post-apocalyptic wonder of a zombie movie paired with the OCD-inducing fear of touching anyone. This’ll probably be a good one for a first date. Let’s just hope that neither credits sequence takes place “at the microscopic, cellular level”.
Ivan Kander – Filmmaker/Geekscapist
Contagion – Call me old fashioned but I’m just a sucker for a rollicking tale of death and worldwide devastation caused by a rapidly evolving, unclassifiable virus. It’s like Outbreak, except they replaced Cuba Gooding Jr. with–you know.–good actors. Throw in Steven Soderbergh going all mainstream on us again for good measure, and you’ve got more fun with disease than a Craigslist casual encounter on a Saturday night. Plus, if the trailer is accurate, I get to watch Gwyenth Paltrow die while convulsing on a gurney. Sometimes it’s like Hollywood is just stealing my dreams!
Brian Gilmore – Resident Geekscape Pest
X-Men: First Class on DVD/Blu-Ray! I know this refers to the fact that this is Charles Xavier’s first class of “X-Men”, but with the amount of time they spend in the jet at the end of the movie, the title just really seems like a plane pun. If you’re on Geekscape, chances are you’ve seen this, but if there’s any reason to either rent or buy it on DVD (or Blu-Ray) it’s to play the X-Men First Class Drinking Game.
When do you drink?
1. Whenever January Jones, the actress with the emotional acting range of a Teddy Ruxpin, ruins a scene or makes a face that lets us all know that she clearly has no idea how she should be reacting at that moment.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
2. Whenever someone says their “mutant name” awkwardly, almost shoe-horning it into a scene.
3. Whenever a girl you’re watching it with shifts slightly or makes a pleasure noise due to James McAvoy or Michael Fassbender being on screen.
4. Whenever someone uses a power of theirs (you’re welcome).
Saturday
Frank Angones – Geekscape Managing Editor
Doctor Who, “The Girl Who Waited” (BBC America, 9 PM EST) – I’ll be the first to admit, while I really dug last week’s terrifying “Night Terrors”, it was definitely a little wibbly-wobbly on the continuity front. Apparently, that episode was supposed to air in the first half of the season, and as such makes absolutely no mention of the devastating loss Rory and Amy should be feeling after “A Good Man Goes to War” and “Let’s Kill Hitler”. This Amy-centric episode should rectify that, an episode that also looks to feature not one but two Amelia Ponds kicking robot ass with samurai swords. The Who cast and creative have been talking up this episode as the true highlight of the season and a break-out episode for the already phenomenal Karen Gillan.
Sunday
Josh Jackson -Video Game Writer
I could easily say that Star Fox 3D (Sunday) is a good enough reason to put up with living for another week, but then I remembered that I already played this game almost 15 years ago. Then I was thinking Resistance 3 (Tuesday) being that Insomniac is an awesome developer, but considering the best parts of the first two Resistance games were when they were over, I wouldn’t think that was a good fit either. No, when it comes down to it, my reason for living this week would have to be Disgaea 4 (Tuesday). The previews have shown that the game will actually use the PS3’s power, unlike the third one. The strategy seems to be deeper than ever, with the ability to turn monsters into weapons, and I’d expect the trademark humor to be in tact. Plus, it’s the only game this week that’s manly fancy!
