Movie of the Month – March 2013

By Geeky Gem and Hmsbeefnuts

My goodness it appears to be March already, that was quick seems like last month took no time at all. Well back to the matter at hand Movie of the Month. As always I found this month hard to pick a movie I fancied seeing. Then a came across Oz the Great and Powerful and thought this is the movie for me.

Yes I know this another movie to do with the wonderful world of Oz, but this time its told from the point of view of the great and powerful man himself. Oz (James Franco) is a small-time magician with questionable ethics. One day he arrives in a magical land and must choose between becoming a good man or a great one. Sam Riami directs this little number from Disney and the screenplay is brought to you by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire. This is all based on the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz By L. Frank Baum. There aren’t many people who don’t know the story of Oz but this one looks like a good new take on a classic story. Here is the trailer for you to enjoy.

Geeky Gem

Oz looks good, but I have to go with The Rock. Dwayne Johnson never lets me down, yes even The Tooth Fairy was worth a look. GI Joe Retaliation is out this month, and as it stars The Great One, I have to choose it.

 

HMSBeefnuts

Monday Musings

By @hmsbeefnuts

As one weekly blog changes hands, another rises up to take Wednesday Whimsy’s place in my writing list. I’m not sure at this point whether this will be a regular blog, or if I will just use the title once in a while, but we shall see how it goes. As I have written elsewhere, my day job no longer allows for me to write whilst at work, and I am finding it increasingly difficult to find time to get any writing done at all, but I shall endure. I am still trying very hard to fit in all sorts of geeky activities, from movies, comics, books and even the occasional video game. In fact, it is about that very subject that I wish to talk about today.

Now I haven’t played a game properly since Skyrim. That was the last time a game fully had my attention, and as one of the greatest games ever made, nothing had really held my attention. But as October rolled into November, and the big Christmas releases began to storm out of the gates, my interest returned. In the last two weeks I have bought 3 Xbox games, that’s more games than I have bought all year, and there are a few more I want before the year is done, as long as my wallet allows. But lets not get ahead of things, the first game I purchased, and the one I have played the most thus far, is Forza Horizon. I do love racing games, and I’ve had a lot of fun with all the Forza series, although I have always been a bit of a Burnout man myself. Forza Horizon is like a wonderful blend of Forza and a more arcadey racer, along the lines of Need For Speed or Burnout, and thus, I am very happy playing it. The graphics are beautiful, all wonderous landscapes, The Rocky Mountains and the surrounding areas are great to drive around. The cars are fantastic looking, and everything visually is stellar. The gameplay which I thought may cause me some problems at first, has proved me wrong. Much like Burnout Paradise, Horizon is based around a huge open world, which you have to drive around to different races etc. I wasn’t in love with this system in Paradise, but in Horizon, I found just driving around a great, and at times quite relaxing experience, with the races adding the thrills and spills in between. I have spent far too many hours racing around Colorado, but I’m loving every second, I literally had to drag myself off it to write this. Forza Horizon is fully recommended to those with a racing bent, absolutely my favourite game so far this year.

The next game I purchased, and it was only last Friday, is WWE 13. I’m loving my wrestling at the moment, and had a lot of fun with WWE 12. I have to say that WWE 13 improves on last years game in every way. The graphics are improved, with the character models simply amazing, especially in the cut scenes, which are used with audio footage of past events, I can actually remember watching the scenes that play out during the campaign, the models are that good. Of course, the big draw this year has to be the Attitude Era mode, which replaces the Road To Wrestlemania mode from last year. Attitude Era takes the player through the greatest era of wrestling, with stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, HHH, Undertaker, Mankind, and of course, the villainous owner of WWE himself Vince McMahon. The roster includes a huge number of Attitude Era legends, and a full roster of current superstars, but it is most fun reliving classic moments like Undertaker vs Mankind in Hell in a Cell, or the Montreal Screwjob. I was surprised that the game is so honest with it’s handling of the Monday Night Wars, with WCW, WWE’s big rival at the time, being given it’s due, and even when something extremely painful happens to a wrestler, the crowd chant ‘ECW’, very surprising and very cool to hear. I would definitely recommend this to any wrestling fan, and make that a must buy if you were a fan during the Monday Night War period. My only criticism would be that sometimes, the events that have to take place during the Attitude Era mode matches are a little vague, it took me a few times to work out what the game wanted me to do at times, but apart from that, this game is most enjoyable.

The last game I purchased, on the same day as WWE 13, hey big spender, was Assassins Creed III. I have been a big fan of all the Assassins Creed games thus far, although I haven’t yet finished Revelations. This is the game I have played the least so far. I think I’ve put in around 2 hours so far, and I have to say, I’m enjoying it. It is very similar to Assassins Creed games past, but if you likes them, I’m sure you will like this. The graphics have had a big overhaul, and everything looks much crisper and prettier. New character Conner plays a bit differently to Ezio or Altair. He is a bigger stronger guy, and his fighting style is more robust and violent, I even DDT’d someone, the developers based his fighting on wrestlers and MMA fighters. The setting of revolutionary America is great so far, and although I have read that some gamers are reporting glitches, as yet, I have not experienced them. I am looking forward to getting further into the game, and with a pretty open social life, at least until mid week, I am expecting I’ll get at least a few more hours in this week.

That’s it for the inaugural Monday Musings. I’ll be back Thursday, and don’t forget Wednesday Whimsy is still around, just written by Caelrona, and not myself. Have a great start to the week.

WWE and Me Part 2

By Geeky Gem

Many months ago I told you a story about how my love for WWE started, I also mentioned that some where during my teenage years I fell out of love with the WWE, little did I know that I would soon be back watching RAW every Tuesday morning and my love for the WWE would be back.

Well over a year ago now, I was having a sleepless night and was channel hoping, I came to a sudden halt on a sports channel as I heard a familiar theme song from a wrestler that had since become a movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had come home to the WWE. I watched as The Rock said he would be back and that he was not happy with Mr John Cena. It was at this point I never thought I would watch it again, however I watched it the next week to see if John Cena had anything to say. Low and behold he did and so began the long run up to a main event.

Elsewhere in the WWE I found that I was quite liking some of the new stars of the WWE, CM Punk, who at first I thought was a bit of a dick was slowly growing on me and not just with his words but it is backed up with moves in the ring. When I came back CM Punk was leading The Nexus and they where targeting another impressive star Randy Orton.

A match that left both men battered and bruised, with only one man living the ring 20 – 0 for Wrestlemania matches. Brilliant TV, the current story lines are also turning into big news. Triple H is set to fight Brock Lessner at Summer Slam and The Rock has been back to say he will see the WWE Champion (who ever it may be at the time) at the Royale Rumble for a title match.

Big Show is runing around kick everyone’s ass in an attempt to stop be seen as the friendly giant but as a man to bring you down, but all giants fall right? No doubt I will be back with more WWE tales soon and I carry on watching a show that never fails to deliver.

My Geeky Trivia

By Geeky Gem

 Hmsbeefnuts and I love WWE, as you have noticed from articles around the site. We both have our own memories of the WWE, and we also have many talks about the current goings on in the WWE. Well once a week right after we have both watched Raw there will be a talk of some kind. The fun thing about it is, we both have different Superstars we like and hate, which makes our talks even more fun. We haven’t fallen out over it yet so that’s a good sign. That being said, I thought I would bring you some trivia.

 

 

 To most people’s shock Jake “The Snake” Roberts never won a belt in his entire WWF career.

 

The Rock, Chavo Guerrero and Randy Orton are 3rd generation Superstars.

 

Jerry Lawler and Honky Tonk Man are cousins.

 

Vader was the first Wrestler to grace the cover of the RAW magazine.

 

Shawn Michaels has forfeited the most titles in WWE history.

 

Shelton Benjamin coached Brock Lesner during his college amateur wrestling days.

 

Andre the Giant once fell asleep during a match with Big John Studd.

 

The Dudley Boys never participated in the Royal Rumble.

 

Before Paul Bearer got into the wrestling business he actually worked in a morgue.

 

It wasn’t until Wrestlemania XIV that The Rock first used the words “If you smell what The Rock is cooking”.

 

And there we have it some WWE trivia for the ages, I know there is more out there and maybe one day I will bring you some more. Don’t forget to come back nest week for some more awesome trivia.

 

Movie of the Month – June

By Geeky Gem and Hmsbeefnuts

 Well it’s June, which can mean only one thing. Its movie of the month time again. I must say we here at All Geek love this time of month, as it means one of us was right last month and one of us was very wrong in our picks. This usually leads to some mocking and much fun. Finally the Blockbuster season is upon us, which makes picking the movie of the month just that little harder.

When I sat down to figure out my pick for this months I looked all over the internet and in my monthly movie magazine trying to figure out what I should pick. It was then I picked up a stack of my monthly magazines and there it was, my pick for June starring at me from the shiny cover.

Prometheus, sees Ridley Scott not only return to one of my favourite movie franchise’s ever but he has gone way back to where it all began. Prometheus tells the tale of a team of explorers who discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race. Now as you will see from the trailer below this looks fantastic and I for one cant wait to see it.

 

Hope you get a chance to see it and enjoy what promises to be a fantastic trip back to the start of the Alien story.

Geeky Gem

Hello, Hmsbeefnuts here. Up there somewhere Geeky Gem is trying to tell you that the best movie this month is going to be Prometheus. Well, she is almost certainly wrong!! Well, probably not, but my task today is to pick another movie out in June that I believe will be better than her pick, even if I don’t actually believe it! So here goes. June is a funny old month, the movie going public is trapped between to behemoths of the super hero world, Marvel’s fantastic amazing The Avengers, and DC’s The Dark Knight Rises, which clearly I haven’t seen, but will surely be the end to one of the greatest trilogy’s ever made.

 Tricky then. I clearly can’t choose Prometheus, which, although looks great and interesting and epic, isn’t really my thing. I’m in the ‘Aliens was much better than Alien’ camp, and this return to the Alien franchise, if indeed the xenomorphs are actually in Prometheus at all, looks good, but not quite what I’m after.

Another option this month is Snow White and The Huntsman. The second Snow White film this year, and by far the better looking. This looks more like an epic fantasy film than a fairy tale, something that I am very happy about. Thor himself, Chris Hemmesworth drops his hammer and picks up an axe, Charlise Theron looks smoking hot as the evil queen and that chick from Twilight, you know the mopy looking one, plays Snow White. This looks dark, gritty and soldier shatteringly good. Scroll down for the trailer….

Looks good right? Until next month then, where my choice is not going to be very difficult at all, I bid you adieu.

Hmsbeefnuts

Wednesday Whimsy

By @hmsbeefnuts

Hello everybody, welcome to Wednesday Whimsy with me, Hmsbeefnuts. Time once more for me to collect some random thoughts, news stories and other things of note that have been happening around All Geek To Me, and the Geek world as a whole.

Firstly, on Thursday night, 24^th May, All Geek To Me hit a bit of a milestone. We had our 10,000^th view. Geeky Gem and I are very proud and excited at this seemingly unbelievable number. When we started, we didn’t know if anyone but us would read our blog, so we are very grateful indeed for everyone who has ever stopped by and especially if you came back.

 

Lets start with some big news in the Geek World that has occurred in the last week. Firstly, in the realm of Video games, there is exciting news for travellers in the realm of Skyrim. Bethesda is soon to launch a new patch that fixes a few problems with the game, but most importantly adds mounted combat!! I for one am very excited by this news. Mounted Combat will not only make riding a horse worthwhile, it will also full fill a personal dream of mine that I have had for more than a few years, to ride into a valley, straight into battle. I thought it would be in a Zelda game, but Skyrim will more than make up for it. This is big exciting news for me.

 

Secondly, big news in the comics world. Marvel Comics will publish a story soon that features the Marvel Universes 1^st Gay Marriage. Well done Marvel for supporting this important issue. I couldn’t say that the character who is getting married is a major one, but that hardly matters. Northstar is the character in question, a character who has been ‘out’ for a while, but has decided to make an honest man of his boyfriend and tie the knot. Once again this is good news for superhero comics, as they are finally catching up with things indie comics have been doing for a long time. Also, top marks for it being two gay male characters and not the usual hot lesbian couple.

 

That is not the only gay comic news this month. It has been revealed that a major DC character will also be revealed to be gay. The character has been described as male, and iconic, and there has been much talk over who it could be. My vote would go to recent Justice League member Cyborg, although I have heard whispers about one of the Flash character’s also. In any case, this is also good news for comic books embracing modern times, well done DC.

 

Finally, the big movie news this week was the delaying of one of the big summer movie releases, GI Joe: Retaliation. The studio has officially delayed the blockbuster in order to add 3D. Well I wish they wouldn’t. However, speculation on numerous websites states that there were other reasons for the delay. A very busy summer schedule has to be the main reason, as well as the fact that GI Joe was coming out between some huge superhero franchises. The Avengers has managed to remain top of the box office for three weeks, defeating the American release of Battleship, another Hasbro property. Spider-man and The Dark Knight Rises are out very soon, and there was surely fear that GI Joe would be lost in the superhero slug fest. I am very disappointed by this delay, as I was looking forward to seeing Joe quite a bit, despite an awful first movie. The added Rock and Bruce Willis factor made this an opening weekend watch for me. Well I guess I have to wait till March now, oh well.

One last thing, how cool are these? I want them badly.

Until next time, this hmsbeefnuts signing off.

Re-make – Jason and the Argonauts

By @hmsbeefnuts

Hello, once again you find me pondering a film that probably should never ever be remade, but that I have decided it might be fun to recast in my head. Unlike Ghostbusters or JAWS, I would not wholeheartedly mind a remake of Jason and the Argonauts, as long as it was nothing like the awful Clash, and Wrath of the Titans. May I also suggest that although obviously Ray Harryhausen’s amazing stop motion work wouldn’t be featured, perhaps he could be part of the design team, and show the young whipper-snappers how monsters should really look and act. I think that the structure of the original movie is pretty perfect, however, perhaps we can shake up the crew of the Argo a bit, dip back into the original myth and feature a few more of the Argonauts.

I’m also going to split this into Immortals and Mortals, and The Gods get to go first…

IMMORTALS

 

ZEUS – Anthony Hopkins

You can’t really argue with Hopkins. He brings gravitas to every role. He was great as Odin in Thor, and I think it only correct that he gets to play another King of the Gods. Zeus is a little unstable, Hopkins does crazy well. Match made on Olympus?

 

POSIEDON – Brendan Gleeson

Ah Brendan Gleeson. One of my favourite older actors. Has done similar work before in Troy, but lets give him the chance to sink his teeth, or trident, into the murky depths of the wine dark sea. The God of the Ocean needs a fine beard, Gleeson fits the bill.

 

HERA – Helen Mirren

A very beautiful older lady, and a fine actress, who else could play the wife of Zeus, and Jason’s guardian angel? British actors/actresses are made to play ancient people and gods in films like this, and after playing a few Queens, why not Queen of the Gods?

 

HERMES – Kevin McKidd

Hermes is a younger God, in fact, the messenger of the Gods. I imagine this would be a smaller role, but important. I like Kevin Mckidd in everything, especially Rome. He also has previous God experience from Percy Jackson. He may see this as a demotion, play Hermes, but I would like a great actor in the role, and also, a bit of a Rome reunion with a few of our mortals would be fun to see on screen.

MORTALS

 

JASON – Christian Bale

Bale is great, in everything, but he hasn’t done a role quite like this before. One of my favourite actors, this could be his Gladiator, but with monsters and Gods. He has the right heroic look, and who s anyone to question the choice of Batman?

 

HERCULES – Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

There is only one man who could conceivably play Hercules, The Rock. He would have to tone down his accent, but his personality could remain. Hercules is going to be a little in awe of himself, The Rock is the most awesome guy on the planet, plus he has the build for it. Forget the Scorpion King, The Rock is a more accomplished actor now.

 

MEDEA – Eva Green

The foreign temptress that falls for our hero Jason. The daughter of the King of Colchis needs to be exotic, beautiful and very very sexy. Eva Green ticks all these boxes, and is a fine actress to boot. Plus it gives me an opportunity to post a picture of her, which is never a bad thing.

 

ATALANTA – Gina Carano

In myth, Atalanta had a tough life. Her father wanted a son, and when she was born, her father left her to die in the wilderness. She was raised by a she-bear and became a fierce fighter and hunter. She pledged her virginity to the Goddess Artemis, and when two centaurs tried to rape her, she killed them. A fierce warrior, and one of the few female characters needs to hold her own against the boys club or the Argo. Carano is not only very beautiful, but is legit hard as nails. A simple choice.

 

ARGUS – Sean Bean

The builder of The Argo, Argus is Greece’s greatest shipwright. So I’ve picked one of my favourite actors for the role. Bean is great in stuff like this, and I hear he doesn’t like roles that go on for ever, so if necessary, he can bow out early, but it’s a smaller role anyway, Beano would be perfect.

 

CASTOR – James Purefoy

Along with his brother Pollux, I see Castor bringing a little comic relief. Fighting brothers striving to out do each other. Purefoy is one of my favourite actors, brilliant in Rome and Solomon Kane, and the second member of our Rome reunion, Purefoy picks himself.

 

POLLUX – Ray Stevenson

I love Ray Stevenson, he is brilliant. One of the best things in Rome, Stevenson is a force of nature, with a childish grin and a sense of fun. He can bring some comic relief, but when the shit hits the fan, he can bring the brute force.

 

ACASTUS – Michael Fassbender

Pelias’ son and the bad seed among the Argonauts. Fassbender has that look in his eye, dangerous, vengeful. Undoubtedly a brilliant actor, Fassbender would be great as the jealous rival to Bale’s Jason, and I want to see Batman and Magneto beat the shit out of each other.

 

PHINEAS – Ian Mckellen

The man who was cursed by Zeus to be blind after his arrogance, and tormented by Harpies. Ian Mckellen is just brilliant isn’t he? OK, it is a tiny role, but a memorable one, and who better to offer Jason advice than Gandalf himself?

 

KING AEETES – Liam Neeson

A villain with a point of view, Liam Neeson can bring something a little extra to the role of the king who guards The Golden Fleece. He is the third acts villain, but how would you like it if a bunch of Greeks rocked up and stole your God given gift? Majorly pissed off. Liam can bring his particular set of skills to the King of Colchis.

 

PELIAS – Brian Cox

The Man who conquered Jason’s Father’s kingdom and who now rules it. Also the man who sends Jason on the Quest for the Golden Fleece, thinking he has no chance of succeeding, and would die in the attempt. Brian Cox does evil extremely well. Previous similar roles in Troy and X-Men 2, prove Cox is a great choice as bad guy.

Blow The Hell Up

By Geeky Gem

I am not the type of girl whose favourite movies are Rom-Coms, or a nice movie where everyone lives happily ever after. I’m the type of girl who likes to see stuff blow the hell up. That being said, it’s a sure thing that I like action movies.

From what I can remember of my early child hood, my first action film may have been Robo Cop. Which at the time was pretty cool, not only was he cop he was a robot too. I already know that I saw that movie way before the BBFC said I should have. It has no way made me violent in any way so screw you BBFC. Robo Cop was all about the guns and the robots, plus he fought some crime on the side, but my all time favourite scene is the one with ED-209. That scene blew my mind. It was then that I decided that I like actions movies.

From there I went through the motions. I tired chick flicks, I dabbled with other genres but action films always drew me back. The reason I like action films so much is that they don’t always have a cop at the heart of the action. The Fast and Furious series, for example, the cop is not the guy you routing for. You want Dom and the crew to get away, you want them to win. You’re not waiting for the cop to catch the bad guy. That being said I do love the Fast and Furious series, and not just for the cars, although that was the first reason I watched them. The other reason is the action, from stealing a truck to stealing an entire vault using only cars. That to me is amazing, throw in Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and you have a good movie. Now I am not all over The Rock like Hmsbeefnuts is, but in certain things, The Rock brings the goods. The less said about The Tooth Fairy and The Scorpion King the better. (‘Hey!!! What did I say about bad mouthing the Great One? The People’s Champ? The Most Electrifying Man In Entertainment? Ooops sorry…’ Hmsbeefnuts).

My other favourite action film comes in the form of the buddy cop movie. At first I was never a fan of these movies, but then I watched them again in school for film class. Well I say that I was watching the opening scene from the first film, and we were studying it for something, any way, it made me want to watch the rest of film so I did. I am of course talking about the Lethal Weapon series.

 

The reason I like these movies is they are character driven with action thrown in. I like that you get to see the friendship between Danny Glover’s veteran cop, Murtough, and his suicidal young partner Riggs, played by Mel Gibson. These movies are not only full to the brim with action, but have really good story lines running through all four.

Now what is the use of talking about action films if I don’t mention possibly the most well known actor in action films today. Who is not letting age get in his way, the fantastic Bruce Willis.

I love Bruce Willis, I really do. I think he is fantastic, if there is a film coming out with him in it I will watch it regardless. However, this has led me to watch some awful movies, sorry Bruce but The Kid, what were you thinking? Anyway that was just a small blip and you came straight back to action movies so that’s OK.  Besides the guy who kicks butt in Die Hard cannot be a bad man. Plus RED is not a bad film either. Helen Mirran with a machine gun? Best shot of the year, this is the reason I love action movies. The movie doesn’t have to have a good story line so long as something blows up. I know I have left some fantastic films and even better actors, out of this article, but that doesn’t mean I love them any less, it just means I ran out of space.