Geekscape

Geekscape 14:Teenage Mutant Ninja Geeks

Guest Co-host: Mark Reilly - Reviews: TMNT, Trailers: Pirates of the Carribean 3 News: Jet Li and Rob Cohen do The Mummy 3, The cast of Harry Potter is good to go!, Comics: Amazing Spider-Man! Get your Trade On with Astro City! Video Games: Gears of War Movie! God of War 2 Review and the modern adventure games are on the Nintendo DS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Broadcast on:: 20 Mar 2007
Audio Format:: other

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ABC Wednesday, October 9th. You all can play all day. We want books. We want paper towels in the classroom. Bet you won't raise this too. I'm still waking up the paper towels. Abbott Elementary returns with the new season. We asked the district for more after school programs. They gave us $50 for class beds instead. Critics cheer. Abbott Elementary continues to be one of the funniest and most beloved shows on TV. What y'all doing out there? Taking bribes. Proud of y'all. Abbott Elementary, the season premiere Wednesday, October 9th on ABC, and stream on Hulu. Hey, what's up, guys? Welcome to episode 14 of Geekscape. We're joined again by my good friend Mark Riley. I would love to have you on more. We're probably going to see you again at Star Wars Celebration. Yeah, you are. Can't wait. But welcome to Geekscape over the next 45 minutes to an hour, usually an hour. We're going to be talking about the latest news and reviews in the world of movies, video games, and comics. That's what we do. First, let's do a little bit of business. We have a sponsor here, Mark. We didn't have a sponsor when you were here. No, no, you were a sponsor. We added a sponsor called NetRiver. And NetRiver has a brand new website. To celebrate, we are throwing a contest to give away a year's worth of free hosting. This is free shared hosting for a year. All you have to do is make a NetRiver ad and include these four facts. Fun and knowledgeable staff, the best prices on dedicated servers and VPS, rock bottom prices on any shared hosting, and you get $1.95 domain name with that shared hosting. As always, guys, include the promotional code Gilmore and get 10% off your hosting plan. And yeah, your ad can be like a cartoon. It can be a short film. It can be a song. Whatever you want to do, just include those four facts, the promotional code for 10% off, and we'll run the winner here on the show. And you will get a year of free shared hosting. Very cool. So it's just something we're doing because they have a new website. And it's actually a pretty classy thing. Not only that, but the next 10 people that sign up as of this episode, next 10 people to sign up for a plan will feature you right here on the scape as a big thank you. So if you want to get on the show, go ahead and sign up for a shared hosting plan. They've been getting a lot of sign ups since working with the show. That's cool. And we like to give back to them, you know? It's a good prize. Come on, the show. Dude, well, not only that, but like a year of free hosting for doing an ad. That's even better. And I've seen the stuff that our audience can make. Some really funny cartoons, some really funny flash animations, a short movie, whatever you guys want to make. Go ahead and get it together. You can win a free year of shared hosting. Thanks a lot, never ever. Dot net. So, down to the nitty gritty. Yeah. This week's movie is TMNT, the shortened. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I love it. How excited were you to see this movie going into the experience? Very excited. Opening night kind of thing. We went, even my girlfriend, opening night. She grew up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As did I, we knew the guys in the rubber suit one. Which, did you like that one? The first one. The first one. The first one's great. The very first one. I loved it. I liked the second one. The third one kind of. Where they go back in time. Back in time in our channel, right? Yeah, feudal Japan. That was awesome. So, yeah, I was really excited. So, Laura is older than me. And she missed the whole craze. The whole Ninja Turtles craze. It's kind of how we would look on Pokemon. But Ninja Turtles are really important to me. Let me tell you a little story. When I was maybe '89, 1990. For my birthday, all I really wanted was the original Eastman and Laird trade paper bag of the Ninja Turtles, the first two or three trades. And at my birthday party, my dad got me the first two trades. All my friends were there. It was an outdoor birthday party on a Saturday. I had a tree house. I spent the entire birthday up in the tree house reading that first trade paper bag. Completely ignoring the fact that I had a birthday party. And, of course, we went to the 1991 movie. I was a Ninja Turtle kid. You can argue that my older brother was a Transformers guy. My younger brother was a GI Joe guy. Ninja Turtles was my thing. So, I was really excited to see this movie. I had all three of those. I mean, I was more of the toys, the teeny pink Ninja Turtles. I had all of them. What was it, Rocksteady, Bebop, the Ninja Turtles. I wasn't familiar with the comic until, oh, yeah. Now, I turn 30 and I start reading the comics. Yeah, the spoiler is that it was a black and white. But, really, they all wore red. They didn't start giving them colors until the cartoon. And, you know, it started differentiating them for the toys. Yeah. I like that. Cool. So, Mark, let's drop it. What did you think of the movie ultimately having seen this new computer animated film in which the Ninja Turtles have to stop this new villain from opening a portal to a different dimension and bringing more monsters into the world? Right. I liked it. I did. I liked it. You know, I mixed. I mean, it's like, OK, I don't want to do the Robert Ebert thing and, like, marginal thumbs up. That's kind of how I feel about it. It wasn't too, like, struck as it being great. There was a lot of great scenes. I laughed sometimes about the computer effects. Computer animation was pretty good. But, like, I wanted more, you know? Like, it was-- it didn't hit me as being, like, to its full potential, you know? Yeah, it's a spring movie, not a summer movie. Yeah, exactly. We wanted a summer movie. Yeah. It felt like it was going there with the beginning. So, when the movie starts out, the turtles are in disarray. Leonardo is in South America, learning how to be-- almost an exile, learning how to be a leader. Everyone else is kind of doing their own thing back in New York. And the turtles have to regroup and then stop this threat. That being said, we introduce ourselves to a new villain. And the movie starts fairly slow. Yeah, they threw a lot at you. They throw you a lot at you. The backstory up for the villain. And they take up a lot of time with overwriting. I feel like some of the dialogue was overwritten early on. The movie starts to get its gears rolling a little slower into the film about a third of the way through, almost half of the way through, the film actually starts rolling. You know, where you have this mission of having to gather these 13 monsters. And there's a lot of storylines going on here. What does it mean to be a leader? What does it mean to be a brother? As Leonardo the leader is, Raphael, the lone wolf. Is he going to be able to be part of the team? The best part of the movie? Not going to spoil anything. They, of course, go head to head. I thought that was the best. That was the best. Like the most emotionally resonant of the whole thing. Because we are talking about Ninja Turtles here with the emotional resonance. I love it. I felt it. That's what I'm talking about. I don't care, Turtles. You know what? I think that's the best scene in the movie when Leonardo and Raphael finally had to settle it. And I felt like I was watching a part of me wish that there had been a scene in X3 where the Logan and Scott storyline had finally come to a head and said, OK, for this to be resolved, Scott and Logan had to fight. I think X3 lacked that sort of resolution. Well, because-- Well, X3 was X3. But that's how I feel these two characters. That's how big I think they mean to the Ninja Turtles thing. And that's why I think they've lasted so long. These archetypes are huge. Raphael is always my favorite because I guess in every-- I don't know. Tell me about the comics. My favorite was Michelangelo because he's the closest to my complete inability to grow up. Yeah, that's true. So maybe-- what does that mean with me, Raphael, and the-- You're the little wolf. I think Vijay is a bit like Donatello. Yeah, he tapes the show. He knows all about audio and video. So let's get into that. And he does machines. Each turtle has her own skill. Who's your favorite, Vijay? He likes pizza, so Vijay's hanging out with me. Vijay's craying. You know who Crane was, and it's totally like this. I'm a giant brain and a robot body. Oh, my god, that's right. That's right. I had him. Yeah, the comics were a little grittier. Eastman and Laird, they had kind of pulled a bit out of the Daredevil, Frank Miller stuff. That's why you have the Foot Clan. Where in the Marvel universe, you have the Hand. That's right. It is more of a street level kind of grit thing going on. But this movie-- what worked for this movie was once it started rolling, it was just fun to have a Ninja Turtles movie on the screen. And that's what, ultimately, when I walked out, I just said, you know what? I mean, I don't want to get all critical of it, because I think it was a fun movie. It was like, I just wanted more-- I think I was missing a lot of more action. It seemed like there was a lot of action. Maybe I wanted to pull back a bit. I didn't really see the turtles use them there. My favorite thing is when they get their weapons, and they just use it. And I wanted more of that. The movie is not tight like a Pixar movie. They cut a lot of corners in collecting these 13 monsters, which very easily could have been five. Nobody would have missed the other eight. Right, you're right. The 13th monster comes out of nowhere. Some of the stuff is too easy. It just seems like it was shortened. Yeah, I thought the mythology of the monsters, I guess, they all live in New York, which I kind of thought was OK. It would have been interesting to see that. The turtles have to expand and go out in the world. Like when they put together Cobra Commander and the old Jedi Jones? There you go. Not Cobra Commander, Sir Pentor. You had to gather all the-- Oh, yeah. Remember when they put together Sir Pentor? Maybe they could go all over the-- it's like, oh, there's a sighting of a monster in the woods, and they have to go out there. But you could tamp it into a-- Yeah. Or like China, Scotland, which is where, in the Loch Ness, there's a monster, you know what I mean? It's like there could draw the legends out of all these-- That's opening of a monster. And as it is, the movie's already stretched over, I think, one too many plot lines. Absolutely. Or sub plots. Sure. But it's good to have you guys back. There's a hint at the film, at the end of the film, about a possible plot line for a sequel. Yeah, yeah. I'll be happy to see it. Yeah. You know, so-- Well, that was my question. Why wasn't Shredder there? Well, moderate thumbs up. It's in continuity with the other three films, which I think is kind of cool. I felt it was a sequel. But I'm going to give it a semi-thumbs up. If you guys just have to see an "Injured Trails" movie, you're going to be pleased. If you can wait till video, wait till video. Speaking of the continuation of a series, we got a trailer this week for "Parasic Caribbean 3" at World's End, I think, is the full name of the movie. And it's a lot of flash. What did you think of this trailer? I'm playing it right now, right here. Right here. I love it. I love the trailer. It looks awesome. It's great. Everything about it looks cool. Now, I-- That being said, right? That being said, I was not a fan of the second movie. Uh-uh. But you were a fan of the second movie's trailer. Yes. It wrote a ton of checks that ended up bouncing. Yes. Well, you didn't like it either. I said, I believe we talked about this. No, too long. Yeah, it was too long. I tried even watching it again over Christmas when my mom had the DVD, and I turned it off. It pulled a Matrix trilogy. Oh, I know. And it did its like-- OK, so with that being said, with the trailer, it got me excited. So now, of course, I have to go opening back to see the third one. Yeah, there was a question. I like Johnny Depp's character. Jack's fighting. This is Casey Jones. Yeah. Casey Jones? No, not Casey Jones. Uh-huh. That's a baby Jones. Yeah. The Bill 90. On the boom, you know, and like that. You see some great shots. You see them headed over the end of the world. You see them in a giant whirlpool. Yeah. And of course, you get Cheyenne Fat, who is just the man. When he says, welcome to Singapore. Yeah. And he's just like, scratchy, cool looking, kill you, slit your throat pirate like that. Again, we're getting a lot of checks written in this trailer. And hopefully, the whole series will get wrapped up, closed down, and we'll walk out of there being satisfied and not really needing a fourth film. Which-- Because that's when you have the ship jumping sharks. Well, I think because the second one, what made all the money ever? Oh, god. Yeah. I was blown away by how well it didn't finish. I couldn't believe it was like the biggest opening ever of a movie. By far. Like, yeah, like it beat it like-- I thought nothing was going to be Spider-Man 2. Yeah, 40 million people. Nothing was going to be Spider-Man 2. So I think the third one's going to do the same. And inevitably, there's going to be a fourth. I think. I mean, I bet there's going to be a fourth. But it'll be interesting to see what opens bigger between the third one and the Spider-Man 3. Well, sequels are in season and series are in season. Do you heard the rumors recently about Emma Watson not coming back as-- Hermione. How do you say it? Hermione. Now, I've never read any of the Harry Potter books. Her "Hiny," her "Hiny," her "Hiny," her-- Hermione. Hermione. That's really-- Her Hermione, yeah. OK. Are these movies? Well, I saw the first one. And I didn't see another one until, like, the fourth. OK. Just kind of skipped this. Yeah, we talked about this last time. Yeah, yeah. The third and the fifth and the fifth and the best. Hemorrhage. She's not coming back to play Hemorrhoid, but she is. So midweek, we had a big ripple effect happen at geekscaped.net, where the news was announced that she didn't want to return. And we just had-- I could hear all over the place. Cross the website. I was upset. But mainly-- and notice he's not present. Gilmore was freaked out about it. Yeah, he's liked her since the first film. Yeah. Creepy. So yesterday, as of the taping of this, we've been saved, guys. The entire cast is coming back through the seventh film. And she loves the character and wouldn't abandon him. Was that a very good negotiation that she-- Or just for rumor to begin with? I mean, yeah. What do you think? Do you think she was-- I think she probably had thoughts of not coming back. And then it could have surfaced. And then everybody freaks out. And then she has something to bargain with. Everybody has a price, including netriver.net. Make a free advertisement for netriver.net and get a year's worth of free shared hosting. That was awesome. You found where my price is. So let's keep it going. OK. I know that you wanted to see a mommy three. Oh, I didn't. Neither did anybody else. But universal. Universal has enlisted Rob Cohen, the guy who brought you stealth, and triple X and-- Drug and heart. I'm the last drug and actually drag in the Bruce Lee story and Fast and Furious 1, Rob Cohen. All movies that gave me stomach aches. Rob Cohen is supposedly doing the mommy three with-- Oh, yeah, Jelly. That just makes a lot of sense. The story is Brendan Fraser's son, which just screams-- That's brilliant. --young Indiana Jones straight to DVD. Yeah, this should be. It should totally be a straight to DVD movie. I don't get it, but fine. I think the fun of those first movies was Steven Soderbergh or Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh, now I would see that movie. Everybody's trying to act really cool. The mommy's-- I can't even do that, Joe. But they would hold frame while the mother's about to hit. Only in the trailer. So I think the fun of those first two films was Steven Summers, who say what you will about Steven Summers and Van Hal Singh and all this. Can I? The guy is fun. You can't. This is your forum. There's nothing fun about Steven Summers. Oh, come on. He's the worst filmmaker. Let me tell you a time. Let me tell you a time when one of my good friends had me over to watch Deep Rising. Deep Rising? That was the movie with-- oh, what's the name of that actor? OK, first off, Fomka Johnson's little girl in it. It's about a giant squid monster that's eating this ocean liner, this cruise liner. And the dude from One Tree Hill, the dad, what's the name? You guys know what I'm talking about. You guys know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah, he plays like a Han Solo type, and they're in this-- they want to rob this ocean cruise liner. And in the middle of the heist-- oh my god, everybody's dead. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, that's Steven Summers. Why didn't he keep doing that? Yeah, no movie ends better than that dude in Fomka Johnson on a jet ski shooting out of this sinking ocean. It was an explosion, right? And they were-- yeah. I was howling laughing. It did. It's a joke. But a joke that's fun. Yeah, well, I guess-- I think the first one had a lot of fun to it. Sure. The second one had a little bit of fun to it. Well, the first one, yeah, it wasn't like-- I didn't expect anything. It was great. I had fun. The second one, I think, as always, the sequel, they up the ante, and the more effects and more. Sometimes they fall flat. And that one did? Yeah. When they were in the balloon. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I keep thinking of Snoop Dogg because they parodied that on the MTV Movie Awards that year. And I'm like, you know what? Well, Snoop Dogg actually in the film, I don't know. MTV messes with my mind to the point where I actually broke and started accepting their parody as the way the film actually is. Well, that parody would have been a lot better. Well, Steven Summers has been rumored to be doing a couple movies producing Flash Gordon. And when the Earth collides-- When Earth's cool. When World's Collide. When World's Collide, which is about-- I don't know. I've never seen it. I hear the world's-- Nobody freaking knows. The movie I want to see is this one that helped me out here, director of Train Spotty. Danny Boyle. Danny Boyle is doing-- Sunshine. Sunshine looks great. I look great. It's got Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans in it. And they have to go in this spaceship to reignite the sun. That's-- yeah. It looks so crazy. The trailers and the making of videos have slowly been making their way out on the internet at their official site. Yeah. And I'm just blown away by every single thing that I see about this movie. Everything he does is amazing. I mean, come on. Aside from-- Did he do that movie with-- You and McGregor. You and McGregor and Cameron Diaz or Drew Barrymore? Aside from that, it was Cameron Diaz. Yeah, I'm trying to remember that too. I mean, yeah. But that was like after Train Spotty. No, that was his freebie. Yeah. Everybody gets a freebie. Everybody gets a freebie. Exactly. I think a cool forum in the movie section of geekshape.net would be-- The freebie. Who made the freebie? Because you remember after Goodwill hunting-- Gus Van Sant. Gus Van Sant. No, he made Psycho. He did the shop for shop remake of Psycho. And that was his freebie. Well, that was nobody's freebie. Everybody lost on that. Well, every director gets a free card once they make a movie like Goodwill Hunting or Train Spotting. There are plenty of directors out there who have done the Get Out of Jail free card. See if you guys can list them at the forums at geekshape.net. So that's a good topic. I mentioned Steven Sutterberg. Yeah. And I'll tie it back into this. But it's coming soon.net, a fellow website. It says, the Green Hornet is coming summer 2009. I don't know where they got this information, but it's up on the site. And-- Well, yeah, Sony released the date flyer. Yeah, do you care? No. Nobody cares about the Green Hornet. I'm not familiar with the show. I'm not familiar with anything. It's like any of those pulp heroes, the Phantom, the Shadow. You don't really-- I mean, if they're targeting us as the audience, I understand that. There's no one else here. There's no one else here. You've got to be making it for us, because you're not making it for the ducks. Well, the comic books I get, Marvel has all those in development. You know what they have in the new Incredible Hulk, Thor, but their products are still on stands. They're still on lunch boxes. They're so part of the American fabric. Mike, there was a rumor like G.I. Joe is coming up. Make a Tom Bunion movie while you're at it. Right, but why don't you go the step before the pulp movies and just start grabbing tall tales and making films about that. So I presented the question when I posted the story on Geekscape. And I said, who cares? And here's a smart response. Let me find this. Our scapist, his name is Ralph Appel, maybe April. Sorry, Ralph. He suggested have Steven Soderbergh do it with Clooney and Shabo Kin, who's the little Japanese gymnast dude from the oceans 11 and 12. Yeah, it's not bad. That changes everything, doesn't it? You would actually see that film. I guess. Yeah, I mean, I-- Because it'd be cool, if they didn't like that-- If they didn't know that '60s style. If it was Soderbergh and if it was a good director, sure. And yeah, a good start. Absolutely, I'd see it. That's the Green Hornet movie we want to see here at Geekscape is Steven Soderbergh with George Clooney and the flipping bank fault guy from-- [LAUGHTER] --from "Ocean's 11." We want to see those two guys in "Green Hornet" summer 2009 and set it in the 1960s style. Have cool cars, have a cool-- Is that so afraid to do that? Have a cool gun, cool hip, smack talking. Well, that's the Wonder Woman movie I want to see. The "One in the Period" piece in World War II. You're into that. Yeah. That's cool. I like the period stuff. Vijay, hold on real fast. I'm going to go get a comic book. So we're going to play music for two seconds. And I forgot a comic book in the other room that I want to talk about in the next section. You've been reading comics? Yeah. We'll talk about it. But let me go get a comic book real quick. [MUSIC PLAYING] Really sorry about that, guys. I am not the most professional, but I had to go get these comics that I could show them to you and put them in front of the frame. Real quick, what kind of stuff are you reading, Mark? Right now, I'm reading-- I talked about it this last time. I co-hosted with you, Friday the 13th, man. Is this still good? I'm still digging every issue. I was at my comic book store this past week. And I noticed that a recent issue had come out maybe the week prior, sold out. I'm starting to see these books actually sell out. And actually do well, yeah. Like the fourth one just came out last week a couple of weeks ago. So we might get a trade soon. Yeah. No, I think there's six, but there is some big reveal at the end of it that I'm waiting for the next issue, because it has to do with Jason. It has to do with what's going on at the Crystal Lake. There's something not right. It's not your advert. You love that stuff, though, too. I do. Any time I see a hockey mask, I get really excited. Anyways, no. Well, Casey Jones and Ninja Turtles had it, and Casey Jones. And that's why I said Casey Jones was a baby Jones. And he had it, Ninja Turtles. And that theater was full of kids. And I hope you held back from your hockey mask excitement. No, I touched it. Oh, God. Oh, God, that's a bad joke. No, I know. This is on the internet. It's forever. The internet. It's forever. That's why I said it. All right. We're going to find you on Dateline NBC, pretty soon. Which is your other show? That show is fantastic. Are you enjoying it? Yeah, no. I love it when they get caught. I do. I love it when they say it. I'm still waiting for our very own Brian Gilmore to show up on the show. I think, hey, it's only a matter of time. It's only a matter of time. So Cap got shot by a sniper. Captain America got shot. We ended that issue on a hospital bed. But that sniping incident overshadowed another one. An amazing Spider-Man. You know how Peter Parker pulled off his mask and revealed himself to the world. Everybody knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. And of course, he's a wanted man. He, Mary Jane and Aunt May are on the run because he's a felon because superheroes need to be registered, and he ain't going to do it. So someone, the kingpin, hired a sniper-- Man, spoiler. It's in the book. Hired a sniper to take him out. And this is how the issue prior to the last ended with a sniper pointing in his sight. You see Peter at the window in Mary Jane and he fires. Peter's spy access clicks and he says, get down. Now let's pause and talk about American fiction for a second, whether it's movies, comics, video games. When there are three people in a room-- It just got serious. Yeah, when there are three people in a room and you see somebody about to get sniped, and one person says, get down to the second person, the third person's getting hit with a bullet. Without fail. It's always, are you OK? Are you sure? Oh, no. Oh, my God. Yeah. In that one episode of Heroes, that was recent, when Simone gets shot. Which one? It was like a couple back. And the artist is flailing the gun around, and you have little Nicki being like, I mean, this should be-- And he hides, and the gun goes off and you're like, what just happened? I wonder who got shot. The third person in the room always happens. But that was like a slight variation because it's like-- They're one of those three people. Well, no. She wasn't there. She showed up. Good. So basically here at Geekscape, we're inducting a brand new rule called the third person's always fucked. Yeah, I like that. You like that rule? That is the rule of English, Western, and fiction. Third person's always fucked. And this one, it's Aunt May. And I've been really, really slow to read comics recently because I come home from work and I start writing. And I started getting these I am. Dude, you got to read amazing. The last recent issue of amazing. The last issue of amazing. So I get it. I get the issue. I start reading it. It's the one after Aunt May where Peter picks her up and swings her to the hospital. Right, OK. First, he looks up at the sniper, picks up a truck in the parking lot, and chunks it at him. Yeah. Peter, Peter starts getting some balls. I liked it. I never seen-- you know, and I'll look at it again. Then in the comics, it was Spiderman, especially for the past couple years. I never knew he had that kind of super strength going on. Yeah, he is a level 10, according to the Marvel Superhero's role-playing game that I used to play as a child. If the Hulk is 100, Spidey's a 10. Cap is like a 5. So that's pretty damn strong. He's strong, so he can throw that truck. And plus, he's pretty pissed. And like, you know, when you get, if you're really upset-- the adrenaline-- the adrenaline. Those were rumor once when I was in college that Tiffany, the teen singer, pop sensation-- Teen sensation. Teen sensation had been on PCP, at one point. And she threw a truck at her car. Well, my immediate reaction was that Tiffany had ripped out a foam pull to wave at the cops to keep them at bay. I mean, for some reason, when I heard that Tiffany had been on PCP and you hear about all those people like getting bullets taken out, like they can take on bullets when they're on PCP and they do all these Hulk-like abilities, I immediately thought of Tiffany, who may or may not have ever been on PCP. That's just what I heard. It's only a rumor. I thought of Tiffany. Oh, my god. Someone's taken down Midtown. He's like, get the cops down there. Tiffany's like, dah! She's like tearing up the street and making waves out of it. Because I'm like, why am Tiffany? I will stop before I make an-- I think we're alone now, joke. I couldn't formulate it. Otherwise, I would have. That's how stupid I am. So amazing Spider-Man. It's a great series. This one you got to get in on. I don't know how much longer Michael Tristan's going to be on the thing, but obviously this dark Peter, the one where it's just like angry, is going to lead him back to the blacks. Suit is the perfect movie tie in. And that's just the way they work here at Marvel Comics. So he's going back to the black suit. Now, if you guys don't care about Marvel Comics, DC Comics, all that, but you still want to know a little bit about superheroes without all of the years and years and years of continuity that goes with it. Kurt Buzierk. You know him because he wrote Avengers for a long time. He wrote JLA for a long time. He works a lot with George Perez. Have you ever seen Astro City? No. Astro City is a trade paperback series that you can pick up. It's collected from the single issues. It started coming out when I was working in a comic store back in '95, '96. And basically, this is his love letter to superheroes. So all you guys rolling your eyes right now saying superheroes aren't for me. This is a pretty good gateway drug. It is Astro City. I'm interested. Kurt Buzierk and Kevin Anderson, who you guys may remember, did some of the artwork for "Falling Stars," "Rising Stars," "Rising Stars," with Triszinski. They have a series about-- it's just a brand new superhero universe. And you don't need those years of continuity to re-familiarize yourself or to know before you hop into it. They're all new heroes. And they're very-- they're just as amazing and just as colorful as the ones that we know. They just don't come with the baggage. And the writing is great. I've just started reading it because I'm tired of people hounding me. You guys hound me. Do you know that? You hound me? You guys saw in the mini Geekscape pod last episode that I embarrassed myself in front of Veronica Mars, Kristen Bell. Yes, I don't watch the show. You guys hound me to watch the show. Battle story, you guys hound me. I've been hounded enough to pick up Astro City. I've read through half of the first trade paper back. And it is a great introduction to superheroes. I cannot just tell you guys enough how well-written this stuff is. They don't forget the human aspects of the characters, but they embrace the super heroics. You know, when somebody was like, I'm going to reinvent the superhero, they go more to the human aspect of the person? This one, these people love being superheroes. They're not, whoa is me. I've got this curse. That's cool. They love being superheroes. And they treat it socially. You know what I mean? This is my job. The first issue of the first trade that you're going to find the first issue in it is this Superman-like character. And he literally schedules his day like, oh, typhoon. And, you know, down to the second. And then when his head hits the floor, or he hits the pillow, he dreams that he's flying. Because he's like, I never get a chance to enjoy this while I'm saving lives. Oh my god. You know what I mean? It just kind of takes them through the day. It's just a way to look at it. It 100% celebrates superheroes. And I cannot speak enough about it. It's been around for a while, off and on. And there's plenty of trade for bar racks, plenty of trade. So don't be afraid of this stuff running out, you know? You know when you get into something like, by the last man, only through trade or walking dead-- I need to get into one. There's a big gap until the next one comes out. And you kind of forget what happened in the last trade. You've got tons of running space on this one. So don't be afraid. It's like that. Video games. Are you playing video games, Mark, as a screenwriter? Do you ever play video games? I'm not playing video games. I never really have time. Sorry. Maybe you should start. All I'm hearing is this about this Wii thing. Everybody's talking about the Wii. Well, check out this story. And I thought of you as a screenwriter when I read this. New Line is making an adaptation of Gears of War. I did play that with my writing card. It's fantastic. It's awesome. Guys, let me tell you something. Graham has been subletting my apartment, and I left my Xbox 360 over there. Check out what Graham did. He restarted my Gears of War game. What does that mean? Well, only one person can play the story mode at a time, because it's when it's like, you either continue or you start it over. He started over. He started over. I was in like the fourth chapter. I know enough not to do that. I get an IAM from him. I did something really bad. I'm thinking there's a dead hooker in my apartment. Maybe he burned the damn place down. No, he restarted my Gears of War game, which I told him twice, and even showed him. You are not to touch this start a new game button. Don't even put the Gears of War game in the Xbox 360. I told him, you can do anything here. I will leave my stuff here for you to play, which is why I'm not an Xbox player that much, but I'm about to be soon, because I'm taking the damn thing away from him. I told him, just do not put Gears of War in the machine. Don't play it. That's all I ask. You can play any other game on Xbox 360 you want. Do not play Gears of War. This is what happens when friends let friends be assholes. [LAUGHTER] Thanks, Graham. That's a dick. I love you, buddy. And I mean it. This is why I bring it up, Mark. Supposedly the writer, Stuart Beatty, Stuart Beatty. He wrote collateral, derailed 30 days a night. He was proposed to shoot this, to write this, through Xbox Live. He was playing Xbox Live, and one of the guys who was producing the film is playing Gears of War with him, and he says, hey, how would you like to write the movie adaptation of the game you're playing right now? He says, yeah, I'd be cool. All right, well, let's meet on Monday. So maybe you should get on Xbox Live. You can get all sorts of movie deals. Yeah, maybe I can get a movie deal off it. I'm doing the wrong thing, buddy. What are you doing sitting in meetings and getting-- let's do lunch. Yeah, I don't try. Let's do lunch. Don't try. Let's do lunch anymore. I'm going to saw your face off on Gears of War. That might get you a movie deal faster. No, that was fun, but when I played Gears of War, it was like a 13-year-old, and he did offer me a movie. You can't do that movie. No, no, no. Well, yeah, that kind of goes back to it, but it didn't pan out that way. If a 13-year-old offers you a movie called, let's watch them sprout together, you don't want to-- You just took all of it. Yeah, you don't want to play that game. No, no, no, no. That movie that he wanted me to do was-- I've got nothing. OK. [LAUGHTER] I'm telling you right now, though, you're going to get the rednecks. The rednecks. Oh, yeah, I've been playing online. We've talked about it many times. You're going to get the rednecks, the two assholes. You're ruining it for everybody. I thought it was funny that because my writing partner introduced it to me, he had the little headphones that you can talk to. Yeah, I got those. Oh, my god. No, I mean-- I'm getting on Xbox Live again very soon. Tomorrow, I'm going to pick up my Xbox 360, and I'm bringing it. I'm going to get the network adapter, and I'll see you all you guys soon. I'm doing co-knows a lot today. I got like an itchy note, and I do not do cocaine. He doesn't. I just have crabs in my nose with some shit. So part of this show, a lot of its community, we talk about forums a lot. Yeah. I'm not going to do the forums this week, because I'm asking for a lot of interaction from you guys. I haven't had time to play this new game, "God of War II." You know what I saw in the previous-- Oh, I am in love with the first game, and I'm almost done with it. Yeah, I had, like, that one seems fun. I played that with my friend. So I don't have "God of War II." I haven't had a chance to play it. And I farmed out the review, a fan of the show from Texas. His name's Jason Elliott. How are you doing, buddy? He's down in Houston. I asked Jason, who had told me, dude, you got to play "God of War II." It's amazing. I said, well, I really don't have the time quite yet, but the escapists don't go without the review. Why don't you review the game for me instead of your review? Yeah. So I asked Jason to do it, and he wrote, "God of War came virtually out of nowhere when it was released to '05, and was quickly embraced by fans for its immersive, yet deep story line, great graphics, and awesome gameplay." When a sequel was announced, fans wondered if it would live up to the success of the first. Well, fans have no reason to fear because "God of War II" is probably one of the best, if not the best, PlayStation 2 games ever. Sure, this could have easily made it on the PS3 as a launch title, but this game takes the PS2's hardware to the limit. And as a matter of fact, a coworker of mine told me that it runs a little slow on the PS3, for some reason. I have no freaking idea why. You can play PlayStation 2 on PlayStation 3. For most games, yeah, but it consciously slows them down. You know what I mean? Because the hardware is so roided out on a PS3. I suppose it doesn't run as smoothly. Continuing, everything in the game has been amped up and is better than the predecessor, making the game feel bigger in scale, for example. They're redesigned in more plentiful beasts, such as Gorgons, Pegasus, Cyclops, and Pugs. I'm kidding. I put that in there. I love the way Pugs. Yeah, that'd be a magical beast. And deeper insight into how "God's View" humanity, which I believe game makers to tell me about theology. The controls are more intuitive than the last time as it is easier to pull off some of the most devastating combos ever seen. Also, other mechanics such as wall climbing and the button-mashing mini-games and the boss fights are more accommodating to combat to make the game even more of a great experience. However, all of this isn't a massive leap from the first game, but it is awesome. It is something. The action starts off with Kratos battling a huge colossus statue over several areas. That's just kind of cool, have tumbling through the map, while trying to retrieve the blades of Olympus to destroy it. This type of action gives the game a bar cluster movie feel. And I'm sure I'm not the only one when I say that I can't wait to see what the proposed live action movie will have in store for fans. It's called 300. It's out now. God of War of the Movie is 300, which you enjoyed. I like 300. Yeah, a lot of sweaty man in loincloth. I can see what you liked. You missed the girl doing the writing, and then-- Oh, with the fucking burn phases? You hear a sick bastard. He gets hookers off the street and then cuts them up. Somebody's got to do it. He quote unquote just wants to make him beautiful. The game is packaged. I want to make you perfect. The game is packaged with a second disc of extras. I didn't know that, which include voice cast interviews and a gallery of deleted levels. I haven't yet been to peruse it. I have-- whoa, Jason, come on. I love you, buddy. Reading is phenomenal. No, it's the writing I swear. Haven't yet perused it. But even if the game were to come without it, it would still be one of the best games of this early year. The days of the PlayStation 2 were numbered, but this couldn't have been a better game to send it down on a high note. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Thank you, Jason. Thank you for contributing our review. If anybody out there wants to contribute or review to Geekscape, we will read it. But if you really want to get on the show, you got to be one of the next 10 people to sign up for a net river.net account. Boo, yeah. Boo, yeah. So we also talk about adventure games a lot. And my boy Matt Brown in a recent email said, the modern adventure games are on the DS. Do you have a DS? No. Dude, it's the shit. Phoenix Wright, Phoenix Wright 2, and Hotel Dusk, which I immediately am like, OK, maybe I'll get Phoenix Wright 1 and 2 in Hotel Dusk. Because you love those adventure games, Monkey Island and Indiana Jones. Remember Indiana Jones and the fan of Atlantis? How bad ass those games were? Yes, those who was cool. King's Quest? No. Heroes Quest? No. Space Quest? You never played any of the Sierra games? Just Indiana Jones, and then I was it, and then I was out. Wow. Well, you know, this is the part of the show when you talk video games about Wright Learn. Mark, you would love the adventure game series from like Sierra and LucasArts. Grim Fandango, you would love that stuff. He says, why was there never a sequel to Full Throttle? Many of our friends ask the same thing. That game was so ahead of its time. A supervillain whose motive was to turn a motorcycle factory into a minivan factory. Had it been SUVs, this game would have been a prophecy. All those scum games were awesome. Even the Indiana Jones licensed one. Zelda, a link to the past, might be the best game ever. That's your-- That's my John. I just downloaded that shit on my virtual console. I remember working with you, and you just come in and say, tell that, and then you would leave. Which may be why I stopped working there. Like, John, we have to have a talk. A lot of the other employees think that you're a fucking loser for coming in and saying, Zelda, and then running off. So again, guys, we got forums at geekscape.net. We have news. I'll tell you a little secret that we're premiering a magazine section here in a little while where we're conducting celebrity interviews, and we're writing weekly articles and columns. We're having guests write them weekly, biweekly, monthly. So that magazine section I'm really excited about. So I just blew the big secret. That's what it says, big things are coming. Big things are coming. That's what that's for. We're making a little real estate so we can put celebrity photos right there when we do our celebrity interviews. So yeah, we've been working really hard to get more interviews, and it's crazy. It is nuts. And you met Kristen Bell? It did meet Kristen Bell. Between this episode number 13, we put out our first geekscape pod, which is a mini that doesn't really fit in an episode. And it's not even that many. The thing was 40 minutes long. So it's all our interviews from "Lizard World." So expect more geekscape pods as we can make them. You're going to try to do that to the Star Wars convention? That would probably be the next appropriate one. If it's anything longer than 10 minutes when I crunch it all down, I can't really put anything longer than 10 minutes into an episode. So I put that in a geekscape pod, and it stands on its own. So you guys really are getting more than a weekly show. You guys are getting a weekly show and sometimes one and a half episodes a week. So thank you for having me change to my computer and to the camera. And yeah, the Star Wars celebration will be cool, because you're still doing Star Wars in 30 minutes there. Yeah, we're going to do Star Wars in 30 minutes, and we could come and interview some of the cast if you wanted to do it. I know that it's going to be like-- How does it feel not being Harrison Ford? How does it feel not being Carrie Fisher? You know, I asked myself how to carry Fisher thing all day. And it sucks, man. I wish I was Carrie Fisher. I don't think she's got a lot to say. Postcards from the Edge. Good movie. That was the movie based on her drug problem. Yeah, you don't want to be Carrie Fisher. He's on heroin during return to Jedi. Oh, good god. You do not want to be Carrie Fisher. I did not know that. [INAUDIBLE] So that's keepscape.net. We're adding to it. And thank you guys for being so supportive. Mark, we are going to see you in late May at Star Wars in celebration at the Staples Center here in Los Angeles. Maybe we'll have a little get-together with the Scapists as well. Check the forums. I'm trying to organize a get-together that's not a picnic. I would like to do a celebrity walk or not a celebrity walk, a charity walk. Celebrities do go to those things, but I'd like to do a charity walk. I don't get some celebrities. Well, I just want to organize a group of Scapists, and I want them all to get together. And we raise money as a group for a charity. So go on the forums. I'm trying to get it together for Los Angeles. Maybe sometime early this summer for all of us to get together and walk together on a Saturday or Sunday morning and raise money for a very good cause. So help me decide what it's going to be. Go to Geekscape.net, sign up for the forums, and let's do something positive, finally, instead of just sitting around playing video games, reading comic books and watching movies, which we love to do. But it's time to give back. That's a good idea. And we hope that you can be there. I'll be there. Yeah, and I like it. You and Stacy, your physical trainer, girlfriend, who has trained Playboy Playmates. So who knows? Come to our thing. And maybe you'll be a playmate. You can be like, my tits are bigger than yours. I think they are. No. Well, I don't know. Love you guys. I think you guys are great. And we'll see you next episode.