As Episode 17 kicks off, Jason and Chuck welcome their special guest, Brett, to the show. We begin with a casual stroll down Speed Racer alley and then discuss Brett’s affectations towards Chuck’s dog, Juno. The guys discuss Burn After Reading quickly then move into Brett’s chosen profession and the accuracy of Scrubs.
While the Heroes season premiere waits patiently on all of their DVR’s, Chuck expounds the virtues of TiVo and ponders why anybody would watch live TV anymore. Brett breaks down the Heroes Season 2 DVD as Jason breaks down the week’s and next month’s DVD releases.
Jason then steamrolls into a pro-PC rant rallying off the “Vista Salesman” post from last week. Sides are taken, boxes are tweaked and the chips fall where they may, enjoy the sparks! As Jason finishes his rant, he ends with what is probably the worst analogy ever (seriously, it’s pretty out there) but it does lead into our title.
The geek wars continue as Brett talks about Batman comics, Chuck romances Loco Roco, and Jason plays Warhammer. The show ends on a high note comparing the humanity of modern day heroes.
Look, I don’t have as much ire for the Microsoft ads starring Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates than everybody else seems to. I did get a chuckle out of them. If taken a face value (and in a world where Justin Long and John Hodgman don’t exist), they were OK. Not $10 million OK, and not kick off a $300 million campaign OK..just OK.
Trying an image campaign like this is tough. Apple has succeeded in making Windows Vista look like a pathetic mess through its MAC/PC ads. Curiously enough though – Microsoft Office seems to fair pretty well in image from those commercials. This campaign is obviously trying to play on the hipness of the MAC/PC campaign, but it just can’t match it. When it comes to marketing Apple has always been the lead horse – ever since the 1984 ad, they haven’t stopped (They couldn’t, their market share was so small relatively – and still is – that they needed to separate themselves to survive). I am sure Cesar or Jason (my Windoze-using fellow iconogeeks) will chime in here about the virtues of Windoze, but me and Brett (my fellow MAC-using iconogeek) know the truth…if you use a Mac, you’re just, well, “cooler.”
Trying to make Microsoft look hip by admitting it is out-of-touch with real people just makes it seem desperate. Microsoft is an enormous company with tons of bad-will over the past years and to get past that by dropping Seinfeld in the mix just doesn’t make sense. The fact that Microsoft pulled the ads and is now laying some bullshit about an intended “teaser campaign” is ridiculous. They yanked them because they aren’t working. It doesn’t matter if I felt they were kinda clever, the bottom line is that they didn’t work, and they won’t work. Maybe Microsoft should just concentrate on releasing an OS that doesn’t suck, instead of dropping $10 million on a latex salesman.
Clooney, Pitt, Swinton, Malkovich and McDormand in a film by the Coen brothers.
Obviously, this should interest you.
I’ve been following this one for some time now, and I was definitely not disappointed. Burn After Reading is easily one of the most entertaining movies I have seen this year. To prepare mix: 3 parts funny, 2 parts bizarre, a splash of violence… sprinkling on a few sex toys for good measure.
The entire cast give fantastic performances that should not be missed. Clooney the neurotic womanizer, Pitt the personal training dumbass, Malkovich the asshole, Swinton the cold bitch and McDormand the ditzy self desctructing center of it all. What I admire most is the stretch of some of these characters, except perhaps Tilda Swinton playing the exact same role she played in Michael Clayton. She still did a great job, and it was what the role called for but I’m hoping she doesn’t end up type cast for future gigs.
As I said, everyone was great. I would have to single out a non headliner in the form of J.K. Simmons (aka Juno’s dad or J Jonah Jameson). He nails some of the best lines in the film as a detached, unflinching CIA director. His only concern being that the entire case/situation simply just go away. It’s just about worth the price of admission for him alone.
The Coen brothers, after No Country for Old Men have returned back to the offbeat, seedy characters that made Fargo, O Brother, Lebowski and Raising Arizona such entertaining films. I’m not sure that this one will win an Oscar like No Country (only because the academy is filled with a closed mindedness to anything that can be percieved as ‘main stream), but I am sure it’s far more enjoyable.
Holy shit, I just came across this on the Times website. I’ve always been a fan of gaming (of course) but especially anything that immersed you more into the game. My absolute FAVORITE was at Jillian’s in New York. It was a Mech game in which you (and 5 other friends) climb into pods as if you are actually the pilots of the Mech. It was a completely immersive experience with small TV screens with different views, booming sound effects and force feedback. Insane.
Well, THIS thing looks to bring a whole new experience to home gaming. Take a look at the video below:
If anyone has direct experience with this thing, let us know! Not sure how much it costs, since I don’t think it’s available in the US yet… but can you really put a price on fun?
So last night was the premiere of Fox’s new JJ Abrams’-produced “Fringe”. I’ll start by saying that Fringe is like a cross between X-Files, Lost, and 24. Allow me to expand on that statement.
Fringe is like X-Files because of it’s basic premise. Crazy things are happening and it’s up to a wiley boy/girl team to get to the bottom of all the craziness. You have your stiff, enigmatic government suit who is in charge, some interesting side characters, but truly the focus here is on Anna Torv’s “Olivia Dunham” and Joshua Jackson’s “Peter Bishop.” Olivia is the FBI Agent who doesn’t believe but really does. Bishop is the skeptic scientist. Oh yeah, and the whole conspiracy theory stuff.
Fringe is not like X-Files because of it’s basic acceptance of these strange things. Where the X-Files showed you the baddies and crazy things, essentially Mulder was the only one that saw this stuff. Even when Scully was getting abducted, she still held fast to disbelief. This show goes for the gusty and puts it all out there – melting people? Check. Bad guy with a motive? Check. Interesting twist? Check. Continued intrigue? check. Everybody sees they crazy stuff? Check. The basic idea here is wrapped around science, no aliens here and I like that. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hanso makes an appearance.
Fringe is like LOST because of JJ Abram’s and his amazing storytelling sensibilities. Abrams certainly comes from the Joss Whedon school of tough female leads and I like that. All of his heroines are believable and multi-faceted (Kate and Sydney anyone?). Fringe shares a common soundtrack with LOST especially on the outros to a break. The crescendo of dissonance is a welcome reminder that this show is really not all in your face…you do need to look deeper (if you dare Muuuhhahawahawhhwhwhaaa).
Fringe is not like LOST because it wrapped up the first story in the Premiere! Seriously, a nice complete, contained story with a lead-in to a larger enjoyable story arc. Good thing too, because I think my brain only has room for one LOST right now, and I’m still recuperating from last season.
Fringe is like 24 because it’s heroine will do anything to save the people she loves. I mean…well you’ll see, if you didn’t catch the Premiere, Fox is airing an encore (check your local listings). Just like when Jack Bauer gets in all sorts of insane situations (torture, etc.) Olivia jumps into dangerous situations no questions asked (or very little for that matter) – It’s Bishop that is the voice of reason.
Fringe is not like 24 because right now it doesn’t suck. Ever since they killed off Dennis Haysbert’s Palmer, I was done.
In the end, I enjoyed Fringe, it provided a welcome escape from a stressful day and gave me enough thrills and homages to keep me entertained. A couple notable items:
The titles They are beautiful. Amazingly rendered and placed into the scene so as to become a character. I kept looking (upon location change) for how they where going to do them next. Excellent.
John Noble
As the crazy Dr. Walter Bishop, he’s Dr. Emmet Brown, CSM, and Jeffrey Goines all rolled into one.
My only gripe with the Premiere is that by the end of it, the characters where a little too neat and wrapped up. I know they want to get the stories moving, but I would have liked to see a little more strife, it was a little bit predictable.
On a whole, I’m going to give the Premiere of Fringe a 7. I think it was a solid opener with some complicated plot points, but all-in-all, I think they pulled it off. I’ve set a season pass on TiVo and I will continue to watch.
As the 16th episode of iconogeek kicks off, Chuck and Jason delve into the much-anticipated “Preschoolers” HBO series, adventures in parenting, the dangers of Capri Sun, and why pets suck.
The term “Postal” is discussed and Chuck and Jason put it to the listeners to coin a new term. After which the discussion turns to Bangkok Dangerous, Elvis, Bubba Ho-tep’s sequel, and how cool Bruce Campbell is.
Chuck tasks Jason with reading Watchmen in preparation for the film, then the two discuss Fox’s bogus lawsuit against the WB and touch on the amazing story that is Watchmen.
The show continues with Jason professing his love for Tilda Swinton as the conversation moves from “Burn After Reading to Michael Clayton. RocknRolla enters into the conversation as Jason marvels at Guy Ritchie’s crazy cast of characters and then finishes up with a quick review of Babylon AD. But not before Chuck allows himself to lay into Doomsday once more (as if the post wasn’t enough).
As Episode 17 kicks off, Jason and Chuck welcome their special guest, Brett, to the show. We begin with a casual stroll down Speed Racer alley and then discuss Brett’s affectations towards Chuck’s dog, Juno. The guys discuss Burn After Reading quickly then move into Brett’s chosen profession and the accuracy of Scrubs.
![[del.icio.us]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Google]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
On a whole, I’m going to give the Premiere of Fringe a 7. I think it was a solid opener with some complicated plot points, but all-in-all, I think they pulled it off. I’ve set a season pass on TiVo and I will continue to watch.
Loading ...