Hello, what are you doing in this show?

I already talked about how I was surprised to find out Mick Foley had been a voice actor in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Suddenly I was reminded of some other weird appearances of people in movies, and shows. Since we have the Avatar connection started lets start there. Did you know that Roxy Richter (the 4th evil ex) in Scott Pilgrim was played by Katara's voice actress. Here take a listen.

I think when Katara is angry in Avatar the similarity of the voice comes out, maybe this is because Roxy is always so angry in her brief appearances in the film.

Still it's quite a change in character and it surprised me when I made the connection.

But stranger still is while my wife and I were rewatching Firefly we came across a scene with a young Simon and River. My wife was noticed who was playing young Simon first, but I had to look it up.

So here is Zac Efron in Firefly.

I don't think I knew who he was when I first saw Firefly but this kid was in everything a little while later, and I can't think of anything he was in recently. *Looks on Wikipedia* okay, so he's going to be involved in a live action remake of both Jonny Quest, and Full Metal Panic.

I would not have guessed either of those. After we were done watching Firefly I got to looking to see what the cast had done in other movies, and found out Nathan Fillion had been in Saving Private Ryan as the wrong Private Ryan.

I could remember the scene but I couldn't remember Nathan Fillion being in the scene. Probably once again a victim of I didn't know who he was when I first saw this. Well here it is in grainy youtube glory.

So there you have it evidently some distant ancestor of Capt. Reynolds was involved in the invasion of Europe in World War II.

Also the other Captain in this video (Not Tom Hanks) is played by Ted Danson (you know Sam from Cheers).

So there you are these are all the recent surprises I've had when watching movies and TV shows. You just never know who's going to pop up when your going back and re-watching movies.

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.

Double Post

So because I had a very tacked on, last minute post yesterday. This one is going to have a couple of things to it.

First the Rangers lost 11-7 last night, so much for a pitcher's duel.

In case you're still needing to make a costume, How to make a Scott Pilgrim costume.

Yesterday was John Cleese's b-day in commemoration here is the best episode of Faulty Towers ever. Here are parts 2 and 3.

Oh god! The paperboy from Better Off Dead is still around.

Interview with the director and one of the actors in Better Off Dead Bonus: The Paperboy was based on a real paperboy.