Alright lightweights, fasten on your beer goggles, because it’s time for the Downton Abbey TV Drinking Game: Part II!
A few rules:
1. If you’re too young to drink, you’ll be considered one of the “downstairs crew”. Your job is to make the supper, clean the dishes, and be everyone’s peon for the rest of the night.
2. If you don’t want to drink, wear a black tie and be the butler. Everyone else should feel free to bark orders at you and call you “Mr. Carson” for the entire evening.
It was recently announced that Will Smith would not be starring in the Independence Day sequel. However, it was confirmed this week that he would be starring in an adaptation of the book Brilliance by Marcus Sakey. It’s about an agent (played by Will Smith) investigating people called “brilliants”, who are born with cognitive abilities that normal people do not have. Specifically terrorist brilliants. Just reading the synopsis brings to mind Deckard and his replicant subjects, from Ridley Scott’s dystopian masterpiece Blade Runner (and more importantly the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick).
House of Cards season two has been dumped onto the giddy netflix-subscribing public, and it seems to be living up to its promise. Just like season one, this story arc involves Frank Underwood pulling the invisible strings on a wide range of unsuspecting pawns. I won’t reveal too many season two spoilers (full disclosure, I haven’t watched the whole season yet), but there may be general nods to plot points that will make those who haven’t watched a bit panicky.
A year after Grand Theft Auto 3 burst onto an unsuspecting world, a quirky little game came out that mocked the kind of overwrought violence that the former dealt in. In Stuntman, you were tasked with completing movie scenes that required you to do all kinds of crazy driving: insane jumps, barrel rolls, explosions, and squealing U-turns. Each task was scored based on how well you did after you completed the sequence and the director yelled a satisfying “cut!” It had a simple premise, but one that worked surprisingly well in the video game format. Points based on performance in a level (*ahem* I mean a scene) made sense, because it was a reflection on how well the scene would look in the movie. If you missed your mark, the movie’s quality would suffer. This is obviously a handy conceit for a video game, but a fun one.
This is the Geek in Review, the segment where we discuss the top stories in geekdom from the past week. Here are some notable developments, from the week ending February 21st:
So we finally caught a glimpse of Marvel and James Gunn’s much anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy and, as promised, it looks just like a James Gunn movie. Interviews with Marvel and Joss Whedon revealed many months ago that when they approached Gunn, they wanted it to be a James Gunn movie first and foremost. In fact, after Gunn turned in the first treatment of his script, the studio told him to make it “more James Gunn”.
It seems that the cast for the new stab at The Fantastic Four franchise is more or less in place and it is a veritable “who’s who” in young Hollywood.
20th Century Fox have penciled in (but no finalized) all four major parts:
It’s a gutsy move casting Teller as Mr. Fantastic. The patriarch of the Fantastic family is known for his iconic silver sideburns ala Mitt Romney. Miles Teller is in his mid-twenties. It’s a bit of a leap in imagination to picture a 26-year-old boldly commanding a space flight. To date the youngest astronaut ever to get to space was Sally Ride at 32.
Waid and Samnee’s run concludes with this dramatic issue! Only to start right back up again with issue #1 next month… Yeah. Only in comics.
This issue picks up where the previous left off: with Matt Murdock revealing his identity to the world. If you had any doubts as to whether or not this really happened, rest assured, this issue puts all doubts to rest.
Waid and Samnee have done such a fine job with Daredevil. There’s really nothing left to say about these two that hasn’t already been said. It has been one of Marvel NOW!’s most critically acclaimed books, to boot. It’s no surprise when you think about it. Waid and Samnee are two men at the height of their abilities. It would certainly be sad to say goodbye to this stellar team, but lucky for us no one is really leaving. Well, save for Daredevil, who is moving to San Francisco.
If you’re a Tim Robbins fan then you probably know he doesn’t always stick to the serious roles. In fact, over his long career you’d be just as likely to find him in a comedy as you would a drama. But did you know that in 1988 he starred in the Terry Jones film Erik the Viking?
Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) both wrote and directed the film that was loosely inspired by the children’s book The Saga of Erik the Viking, also written by Jones. The film features another M.P alum John Cleese as Halfdan the Black, and was produced by the Monty Python Production Company ‘Prominent Features’.
Frank is still on the trail of some cartel baddies, the Howling Commandos still have their sights on the Punisher and, randomly, Electro makes an appearance.
This issue offers up plenty of Frank killing bad guys. I feel like the body count in this series is already pushing 20 or 30. Maybe a bit excessive. The only thing showing a little restraint here is the art by Mitch Gerads. If there’s anything holding this series together, it’s the art. There’s even a nice little nod in there to David Aja’s Hawkguy, which is appropriate considering Gerads lines mimic that exact same style. Frank even gets a new dog, akin to Hawkeye’s Arrow, named Loot.
Nova gets an All-New jumping on point with issue 13.NOW! Beta Ray Bill makes an appearance and Nova joins him in his effort to take down the villain, Captain Skaarn.
This is one of many #1/.NOW issues released by Marvel to give fans a fresh introduction to their characters. Some have been more successful than others. Lucky for us, Nova slows down just enough to allow new fans to jump right in with what’s going on.