All posts by Chris Tansuche

GAMING

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Announced! Where My Nazi Zombies at?

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November 13th, 2012 – You will probably not see Dr. Kronner and I for a week after that date. Via Gamespot, the announcement that came to the surprise of exactly no one was released and it is that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is announced to come out in November, just in the usual CoD launch window that Activision always delivers on to make sure their Q4 numbers are spiked.

So what can we expect from this game? Probably more of the same. Let’s be honest, Call of Duty is becoming the Madden of first person shooters. The differences are pretty miniscule between each individual series. By that, I mean the Modern Warfare series and the Black Ops/World at War series. Both are developed by Infinity Ward and Treyarch respectively, and I honestly prefer the single player of the MW series over Black Ops. However, I will say the multiplayer of Black Ops and the Treyarch team is superior. That and it has nazi zombies which is simply the best party game amongst our group of friends since Goldeneye and WCW/NWO Revenge or Smash Bros or Mario Kart. So with this game, what I’m looking forward to is seeing what improvements they have done to multiplayer, new modes, guns, all that jazz. Of course the maps. As long as I don’t get more maps like Cracked or Hanoi, I will be a happy dude. I almost said happy camper, but that would just make me be a dick.

Anyways, on CallofDuty.com, the reveal shows that it will be tonight on TNT for the NBA Playoffs so I’m sure I’ll update this article tonight once the trailers hit YouTube and the such. Activision in the UK actually jumped the gun before taking down the splash page for the new game by apparently showing the Los Angeles in ruin, not unlike NYC in the last MW game. Other places like China, Japan, and Afghanistan were shown too so like always, this will be a global affair. Again, we await more details to come out so stay tuned to this post once we get more info.

So it’s basically Terminator and Skynet. That’s cool. Maybe some Cowboys and Aliens. Maybe not that cool. Am I playing it? Child please.

Movie Trailers

Prometheus Delivers a New Trailer; Spoiler Alert: It’s Awesome.

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I cannot tell if I am getting lazier with my posts, or if any sort of exposition from myself just does not do what I am covering any justice. So we will go straight to the new trailer and then I will deliver my thoughts:

This looks goooooooooddd…..I have to say, this is going to be one helluva summer. With all the trailers and the kick-off being Avengers this weekend for the summer movie season, I am just pumped. I mean, you get Charlize here, creepy Fassbender, the dude from the Wire, the dude from 24, and a friggin’ Alien prequel. And it has a freakin’ Cobra/Alien hybrid. I hate snakes due to two things:

1.) Watching Indiana Jones as a kid. Completely screwed me up from childhood.
2.) Watching Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure when he runs out of the pet shop with all those small snakes. I saw that AFTER Indiana Jones. That effin’ ruined me for life.

So yeah, this movie will creep the bejesus out of me and it’s about damn time. Now watch the trailer again to figure out if the foreign Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is going to hack her way out of this mess.

Movie Trailers

Simon Pegg Has a New Movie! I Have No Clue What It’s About.

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Yep, that happened. Simon Pegg has a new movie out and at first, I feel like this was some YouTube random trailer made from some fanboys they made with Final Cut. And I’m not saying this is a knock on the film itself but it’s…I don’t…what the hell is going on?

The movie is called A Fantastic Fear of Everything and Simon Pegg (who’s apparently fearing a barber and proper hygiene in this movie as well) is an crime novelist that cannot escape his past as a children’s author. I assume his demons are personified by this creepy rodent creature that keeps popping up in the trailer. So I assume he must go out into the world, and in a very british humor type of way, dick around, meet a girl, clean himself, find out she probably has some sort of weird idiosyncratic thing that she’s been hiding from the world. After all, there’s no such thing has a hot girl that falls for the loser (movies have totally ruined my perception on reality, DAMN YOU), but they accept each other’s flaws and live happily ever after in a flat on London with his insecurity just chilling on the couch, having tea and crumpets or whatever stereotypical food you want to substitute in there. I feel like I come off skeptical and cynical of the prospects of this movie. Does that show? I blame the British ironic humor that this trailer subjected me to. Boom. Deal with it.

Note, I like Simon Pegg, I think he’s brilliant and I’m glad he stepped away from whatever Mission-Trek-TinTin movie he has been working on. Although if Kirsten Dunst and Megan Fox show up in this movie, we all should just walk away.

Movie News & Opinions

The Hobbit in 48fps Demos Film Evolution, Pissed Some People Off

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As you can tell, we here at Grizzly Bomb take our snobbish film elitist roles very seriously (duh, we’re on the internet immediately judging and shoving our opinion into people’s throats because we’re empowered by the web). We are also major geeks/nerds that will drool at the prospect of seeing The Hobbit hit the screen in two films. Sometimes these two things do not work in harmony though. We have the capacity to geek out, but news has come out today that will definitely be a talking point until The Hobbit comes out in December. What’s the issue? Peter Jackson has embraced the ‘evolution’ of filmmaking and filmed in 48fps. He decided to screen 10 minutes of the film to various critics at CinemaCon 2012. The problem? Everyone thinks it looks like it was filmed for television. Not even like good television. Like the afternoon soap opera with the motionflow on 120hz TVs. This…is an issue.

According to EW and FilmDrunk, many critics have taken to twitter to give their thoughts on the change and it’s easy to say that most have been very mixed. Kind of like a good news, bad news deal. Here are some thoughts:

“Saw ten minutes of Hobbit in 48fps 3D. Very exciting, but I’m now very unsure about higher framerates #CinemaCon” -Peter Sciretta, SlashFilm

“Great Scott, THE HOBBIT in 48 frames-per-second is a thing to behold. Totally different experience. Not all will like the change” – Josh Dickey, Variety

“Saw 10 min of THE HOBBIT in 48fps. It’s def a drastic change from 24fps and many are not going to be on board with it. #thehobbit” -Steve Weintraub, Collider

“Oh no. Not a fan of 48fps. Oh no no no. […] Listening to Cinemacon people – theater owners – this 48fps demo sold NOBODY. […] THE HOBBIT, frankly, did not look cinematic.” “Here’s what The Hobbit looked like to me: a hi-def version of the 1970s I, Claudius. It is drenched in a TV-like — specifically ’70s-era BBC — video look. People on Twitter have asked if it has that soap opera look you get from badly calibrated TVs at Best Buy, and the answer is an emphatic YES,” -Devin Faraci, BadassDigest

“It’s literally like being on the set next to the actors as they’re performing. […] Once audiences get to seeThe Hobbit screened at the 48 frames per second rate when it’s released in theaters on December 14, 2012, I can guarantee moviegoers are going to demand all films be presented at 48 fps.”- Rebecca Murray, About.com

“Saw the 10 minutes of raw The Hobbit footage in 48FPS 3D. Intriguing, the footage looks amazing, but the 48FPS experience is an odd change” – Alex Billington, Firstshowing.com

Soooo yeah. Let’s tackle the apparent good first. This is huge for film because this was done to make the picture as crisp and realistic as possible and from all apparent signs, it has accomplished that. Film is usually filmed in 24fps so it has a certain look to it where it does not look real life in terms of movements with the camera and the action. Everyone says it is the sharpest picture they have ever seen. However, you are also undoing the look of film over the last several decades. Film has a certain quality to it and to change that look completely is completely jarring. So much so that Peter Jackson himself said he screened 10 minutes because it takes the eyes awhile to adjust to the new look.

Now let me add, I have not seen the footage and can only judge on my experience on watching movies with the motionflow feature. If it is anything like that, which some people on twitter have compared it to, I will have a conniption. Motionflow is great for smoothing out high movement shows like sports. It is terrific for hockey and basketball in my opinion because you want to feel like you are there in the bleachers without having any artifacting or stutters on the screen. However, watching Saving Private Ryan or Thor with this feature on feels…off. It does have a soap opera feel and takes you out of the experience. Storming the beach at Normandy felt like it was filled on a flip cam. It did not feel like a movie. Again, I do not doubt that this will look beautiful, or that this is probably the way filmmaking may go. But we are so used to having one thing and we all know how we all react to change. It is going to divide people and that is good. Filmmaking will always be debated down to the details and it will help “evolve” film whether by frames per second or certain details like film vs digital. I look forward to witnessing this for myself as will the rest of you. I also look forward to the debate at Dennys with Dr. Kronner after the midnight showing on whether it looked great, looked like garbage, and whether films should move in that direction or not. As it should be. Then we will probably get in a fight with someone at Dennys too. Because that’s how we roll at Grizzly Bomb.

GAMING

‘Game of Thrones’ RPG? Yeah, Why Not…

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With all the twists and turns that Game of Thrones delivers us on a weekly basis, you would think that ‘Man, this has video game potential written all over it’. Actually, the massive of amounts of money and publicity should be the tip off that this has video game potential all over it. But more on my thoughts later in this article. Atlus is publishing the Game of Thrones RPG that which actually follow the GoT timeline and history. Now, whether the game is good…well, let’s show the trailer first.

Yeah, I don’t know but I am always skeptical of any video game adaptation from movies or games. I cannot even remember the last video game adaptation game I played and actually enjoyed. Goldeneye maybe? Riddick? And even then, those were movies. This is not only a television adaptation, but a book series adaptation. There is a lot riding on this and the right move was to make it an RPG. The way it seems, an extremely linear RPG is the best way of the go. You should not be able to deviate from the path other than different storylines to follow because again, you don’t want to mess with the GoT universe and change history like say, a Skyrim would or a Mass Effect. So we’ll see in June how this all goes down. Although, is it just me or does this look like a iPad game or the next Infinity Blade game. I feel if you were putting some dollars behind this game, it’d look a bit better than something I can download in 3 minutes. Or worse, maybe the budget isn’t there because they want the quick money grab. Something to ponder…

TV

The Arrested Development – Bob Loblaw Reunion You’ve Been Waiting For…

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Raise your hand if you are sick of the much anticipated revival of Arrested Development on Netflix and in theaters soon? Screw you then and don’t ever come back.

Now that we have weeded out the unintelligent bastards that do not appreciate great comedy and overall great shows, I can get on with the rest of this article with the smart people in tow. Yesterday, the messiah of this journey back to the Bluths, Mitchell Hurwitz, was present with a bunch of the cast from AD in Las Vegas for a Netflix sponsored event. What was said, was pretty glorious. Major tidbits in my opinion?

  • The fourth season will premiere with all the episodes on one day. So yeah, time to schedule that day off sometime next year.
  • Production on the season begins this summer.
  • The episodes will focus on one character each with a self-contained story, which Hurwitz adds that it is starting to take shape like the old show was. Score.
  • Scott Baio will have a job that’s not on VH1.
  • Showtime also was involved in the end to get the show but Netflix offered a better model and fan base in Hurwitz’s opinion.
  • Hurwitz would be open to more seasons on Netflix. Wishful thinking perhaps? Or pipe dream, who knows…

There’s more stuff on Vulture’s site so check that out but hey, Arrested Development Season 4 released all on one day? Yes please. However, they did NOT talk about the movie, but I’ll take what I can get at this point. So expect that petition to save Steve Holt to pick up steam. STEVE HOLT!