First Post by new talent

Hello everyone! Contributor Boog here, with my first post to the Geek Streak Blog. Generally I will be weighing in on films, books, and music, as the thought takes me. First, however, I need to subject you to what should be considered required geek viewing of the latest generation of films: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
For those of you who have never heard of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, here is a trailer, and a link to the comics that inspired the movie:

Looks interesting right? Now, for the warning: SPOILERS! Kind of, anyway.

As I settle in for the credits on my second viewing of this film, all I can think is one thing: I was absolutely right with my first impression of this movie. Everything about this movie screams production value, and here that comes across as an almost obsessive love for the source material, and the reference material, which includes Zelda, NES in general, 80's music, indie punk rock, Anime in general, comic books, all being thrown at you so fast you are scanning the screen constantly to see everything. And that was most likely the problem with this film in theaters. Nothing quite this visually frenetic had really been presented to US audiences before, and they, quite literally, had no idea just what the hell was supposed to be going on. I love this film, however, and readily place in my top five films of all time.

The dialogue is spot on, but I would expect no less from Edgar Wright. The man knows how to write a funny script, and he knows how to direct a funny movie, especially one with so surreal a plot. The plot is the film's strong point, in that it is so simple and surreal, you simply take it at face value right away, and instead concentrate on the characters and the relationships being presented, especially Scott, Ramona, and Knives. The casting here was perfect, as Micheal Cera once again plays his strong point, the nerdy lead he didn't need to even try for in Superbad and Juno. Mary Elizabeth Winstead does well as Ramona, putting forward more of the strong attitude she showed in Live Free or Die Hard, and to a lesser degree, Sky High. Ellen Wong, in what basically amounts to her first performance, does very well, and should be recommended for more films, as I for one hope to see more in her body of work soon.

Now for the music. Holy crap the music!!! Once again, it's rare when a film gets put together with such care. Everything here is excellent, with musical cues from video games, references in music to dialogue and characters, and references in dialogue to music and composers. Beck, for one, features prominently. And before I forget, while talking about all the other high points of this movie, what about the fighting? Well, the action choreography is stellar, matching, and then in some cases surpassing, most of the best fight choreography on film I've ever seen outside of the peak films in Jet Li's and Jackie Chan's career.

So in closing;
Visually, this film in stunning, well shot and framed, all of the visual effects and comic sequences only add to the film, and the fight choreography is superb.
Dialogue wise, this film is well written, quirky fun, with plenty of quips and witty retorts by all.
Sonically, this film is a feast for the ears. The music is usually either bass driven rock, or something from a video game. If you don't like bass guitars, or video games, this soundtrack isn't for you, but don't let that stop you from seeing this film anyway.
Plot wise, this film is simple and straightforward. Here, that is only a benefit, as it has a large cast, and is very dialogue and visual effect heavy. As the cast, dialogue and effects are all very well put together and worth your attention, I, for one, am glad that they decided not to add anything to the pretty much single plotline this film has, as that would've ended up the film equivalent of putting a kid with ADD in a room with nothing but Pixy Stix, Mountain Dew, and a puppy. Entertaining, to be sure, but would only end with the audience numb as they watched the ensuing chaos.

Go buy this film. Now. Stop reading, and go get the DVD, Blu-ray, 8mm slide projector, voodoo shaman, or whatever it is you need to have the experience that is this movie. Hope you liked my first review, the next one's going about a disappointment of epic proportions.

The Serious PSA

Sometimes news happens that's not pretty or happy or fun but it's important. Today's post is sad news. So the funny links will be in the post under this one, just in case you need something to cheer yourself up. But this is something that needs to be read.

On January 2nd a programmer by the name of Bill Zeller took his own life. He left a note and I think it's important that everyone read it.

And remember if you feel depressed...Please talk to someone, there are people you can talk to, and they want to help.

And now the last words of Mr. Zeller.

Not so serious PSA's

If someone asks you to fight a giant bug, just say No thanks.
This is a quote from an Animaniacs PSA making fun of the Power Ranger PSA's. I can't show you a clip because the other Warner's' wont allow it. This is also what held up this post from being posted.

Knowing maybe half the battle, but why did it always seem like violence was the other half. One of the webs grandmasters.

Seriously were they just trying to make the Xbox harder on those of us who grew up with a SNES?

Kids, Don't be a hater. We're trying to help.

Kids, seriously don't catch them all.

Kids don't underestimate your villian. Especially if he's Lawful Evil.

UPDATE: This post edited to make room for the real PSA that took presidence.

At the movies

In blog news I'm told that tomorrow (Friday) our third member will be ready to post his first post.

We're trying to have everyone going by February but we all have jobs and duties to attend to so...unless, you want to start paying us...No? I didn't think so.

Well, on to the news.

Today we bring you some of the things you might have missed about the movies. 55 Movies you might want to watch out for. I'm assumingI should watch out for some of these so I can avoid them. However there are some really interesting premises in the article I had not heard anything about.

You've seen the smirk now find out why it exists. And the hidden history of Dreamworks Vs. Disney. Dreamworks Vs. Disney: Rise of the Eyebrow And part 2 of this video is here

Redbox planning movie streaming in 2011. More streaming is alright with me.

Fresh from our story about a Rubik's cube movie: McG to direct film about ‘Ouija’.

In other news it's time to campaign for Oscars, and someone has a sense of humor. However this is probably a better campaign.

I'd also like to give a shout out to our followers. Welcome to Kaiser, Bess, Diff, and Olala.

To all my dogs...and that one cat

This dog is an jerk. Well, a cute one but still.

For you old school '82 Tron lovers out there, here's a way to bring your pet in on the action.

As you may remember from previous posts, I have a little dog of my own. She's 13 lbs of schnauzer doom that moves with the speed and force of a high speed freight train. My husband and I keep her trimmed short since it's easier for us to take care of and most of the year the weather here is pretty nice. In the winter though, I worry about her getting cold when we go for walks or in the car so I put cute little sweaters on her. She does seem to really dislike wearing them, so I only put them on her if I really think she needs it. My husband however thinks it's silly and unnecessary and makes fun of me when I get excited about little doggy jackets at Petco. Well, dear husband, I think you should read this. My little short haired pup may every well benefit from that jacket. So there.

Creepy

Thank god I only found two things to post under here. This could of easily become nightmare fuel for some of our readers.

Muppets with human eyes, I love the muppets, but lets just agree to never change their eyes to make them look more real.

The man who created Body Worlds is dying. So he decides he will be added to Body Worlds when he dies. He will be the door greeter. No, seriously.

I would also like to take this time to remind people of the difference between Bodies Worlds and Bodies.

Body Worlds (the one that was at the St. Louis Science Center) only takes volunteers and can produce paperwork for all their exhibits to show they were obtained from volunteers or their families.

The Bodies exhibit (the one that was at the St. Louis Galleria) of Premier Exhibitions has had some legal trouble in that some of their bodies were bought from China and may be political dissidents that the Chinese government sold them to get rid of evidence or to make more space in their jails. They have also not produced paperwork for all of their exhibits.

(the locations are for St. Louis locals so they can remember which exhibit was where, since both exhibits visited within a year of each other.)

Hey you got Superheroes in my Hockey.

The NHL just figured out that superheroes are popular. So they hired Stan Lee to create a superhero based on all 30 NHL teams.

You can read an article here where a sports writer is obviously not happy with this. I mean I don't like it, but I recognize it as a promotion. Mr. Wyshynski seems to be very upset over this. I don't know maybe one of the guardians failed to save his Uncle Ben.

NHL I am disappoint. They only two they have released pictures of so far are the King and the Penguin. I am not blown away by the names, I hope they get a little more creative later cause the Blue is not going to cut it.

All 30 are set to be unveiled at the All-Star Game. I assume there will be some guys wearing the costumes.

...and the jocks will still say that Dungeons and Dragons is nerdy.

UPDATE: Okay, so evidently the heroes are all just named after the teams. One will be the Blue one will be the Islander, one will be the Canadian. *Sigh*

Guess the hidden theme of today's post*

Germany's Army changes to an all volunteer force.

Germany targets defeating Europe by 2012, and the world by 2014. Yeah it's about soccer. I know, I know; I did this joke already.

You can make your own jokes about the Mexican Olympic team Ease of climbing the border fence.

*if you guessed there is no theme, just 3 articles and a lack of related material, then you win.

First Link Dump of 2011.

Germany takes down Italy. Next target Spain. Don't worry it's an article about soccer, and how Germany will get more Europa league and Champions league spots.

What's your state the best at? Evidently Highways.

I can't decide if this is the dumbest criminal or the smartest I've ever seen.

So Dark Tower is going to be 3 movies and 2 miniseries?

Walking in a Winter Zombieland.

Polar Bears vs. cameras.

A video discussing how we'll have 7 Billion people on the planet by the end of 2011.

We now know what subject Assange's doomsday file contains.

The don't give points for hitting the crossbar.

Weird Al annoys his band mate's answering machine. From 25 years ago.

A couple years ago I posted about how phone chargers were going to become a standard.Europe will switch over soon.

How to make your own Rorshach mask. Yes you read that correctly. And yes it does change the pattern.

A dad films his kids coming down for Christmas every year for 25 years.

The Way Things Are...

You may have noticed that the contributor list is getting longer but we haven't had anyone else post yet...

Eventually we will have about 8 contributors posting each in a specific area of geekdom.

Each person will be posting about once a week. Since I don't have much in this post geek wise here is a video, tomorrow is link dump and I have a metric ton of links for you guys.

So now enjoy a reimagining of Labyrinth by Neil Gaiman.

See you tomorrow.