About The Bioshock Infinite Cover...

A few weeks back I mentioned on Twitter that I hoped that English actress Olivia Colman received payment for her likeness rights on the Bioshock Infinite cover art

Like it can't just be me who sees the resemblance, but it seems no one else has mentioned it at all.

Here is the character of Elizabeth as presented on the cover of the game:

And here is Olivia Colman from some of her sketch comedy work in the early part of the 2000's:

I mean, the same chin, similar eyes, eyebrows and lips. I saw the resemblance immediately. And the strange thing is, Elizabeth doesn't look like Olivia Colman in the game... just on the cover.

The Joe Schmo Show

I was lucky this year. I just happened to walk away from the computer at a time I am normally on and started watching television on a particular Tuesday night and discovered that The Joe Schmo Show had returned to Spike this year after being off the schedule for almost a decade.And it was worth the wait.

For those of you who haven't heard of this show, the premise is that it is a reality show with one real contestant competing against a group of actors who are all portraying various types of stereotypical reality show players.

In the case of the third season of the Joe Schmo Show, the fake reality show was a competition for a job as a bounty hunter called "The Full Bounty" and the real contestant was an awesome guy from Pittsburgh named Chase. Against him were actors portraying an asshole, a confidante, a widow, an ex-model, a buff black guy, an overachiever, a deaf woman with her interpreter and an ex-con (along with Lorenzo Lamas playing a more egotistical version of himself), and for the most part they all played their parts well.

I like the fact that the real contestant that they pick is a really nice person, the kind of person whose ethics and kindness would probably prevent them from winning most reality shows, because they are smart and able to play the game, but they also don't want to screw someone over really bad. I know there have been real shows that have been won by such sympathetic characters, but it generally isn't the case.

The Schmo always seems to be the kind of people that you'd want to know in real life. And while it is a show about fooling people, the way it is presented is never in a way that makes their mark seem stupid or like a fool. It is a performance for their benefit, a life changing event that has been designed just for them, which is awesome.

In many ways, it seems like a much zanier version of The Game than an homage to The Truman Show, and that is why I like it so much. While they are putting the Schmo through a very strange experience, you can tell that the producers and actors genuinely like him (and looking at the twitter stream for Chase, you can see that he is still talking to a lot of the people he was on the show with, which is really cool). 

I have so many questions that I am hoping will be answered when this season is finally released on DVD, since there was quite a bit of stuff cut out from broadcast that I think could show up as extra features. It was a great ride as a viewer and I can only imagine how fun it turned out to be in retrospect for Chase.

I Didn't Actually Think That Existed In The Wild

I've been playing NBA 2K13 lately, and enjoying it, and on the soundtrack of that game, there is a song which I decided to look up on Youtube and I ran across this exchange.

I honestly thought that that was a stereotype... that someone would be truly upset that a band they liked went mainstream.I never thought I would actually see someone express that sentiment in the wild. In a sketch lampooning hipsters yes, but not out in the real world (or yes, even the occasional idiocy of a Youtube comment section).

I guess my hipster hate has not been misplaced all these years.

The Midnight Movie Club Video Podcast

Well, all I have to say is what took so long. I kid, I kid. I could never do it, so why would I expect anyone else to do a video podcast.

Good stuff guys, good stuff.

Check out the Midnight Movie Club's other work.

Community: Season 4 Premiere Impressions (No Spoilers)

There has been a lot of press about the season premiere of Community in the past 24 hours, and a lot of it has been negative, and I get it, I really do. There was a weight of expectation going into last night since the fan base had been waiting a long time for the episode and with all the news about what has been going on behind the scenes with the firing of Dan Harmon and the problems with Chevy Chase, and everything else that has been going on, there was clearly a lot of extra scrutiny on the show.

I am not going to lie to you and tell you that last night's episode was the best thing ever, but really, I can't say it was the worst the show has been either. It felt a bit busy, like the writers were trying to cram too much in a short time, but as sins go, that's forgivable, because the pilot does that too... in fact, looking back, all the season openers do that.

I am willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt for now because I remember some of the episodes from the first season that left me with similar feelings, like the series hadn't gotten its footing yet.People seem to be panicking and pronouncing this the worst season ever and other such things, but really, it is a really small sample size at the moment.

In fact, if I am honest with myself, I have to admit that there are episodes from the first three seasons which I don't really like. You know, I pop in the DVDs and I just skip them because they are just not as entertaining for me, and looking at the episode list on Wikipedia, that list ends up being more episodes than I can count on my fingers, but the ones I don't really like are more than made up for by episodes like "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons", "Modern Warfare" and "Remedial Chaos Theory" and I'm okay with that.

I am going to give it time, and those of you afraid that the show has lost its soul or something else like that, I would advise you to do the same.

Culture Kills Pans For Gold With The Razzies

A few weeks ago, Semaj posted about this year's Golden Raspberry Awards, and it got me to thinking. I decided that it might be interesting to take a look back through the worst picture nominations at the Razzies from the beginning and see if there were any movies listed in that I liked or at least found tolerable.

I thought maybe 1 or 2 movies might pop out for me, but boy, was I wrong. So come on a journey through the years with me.

Friday the 13th: OK, I am the first one to admit that this wasn't the best movie of 1981, but it wasn't horrible either. Along with Halloween this movie established many of the major tropes of the modern slasher genre, and it helped introduce Kevin Bacon to the world, and really, can that be so bad. This is one of those movies I wouldn't want to own, but I will watch it if it is on TV. I understand this selection though based on the critical reviews of the time, and while I don't agree with it, I can see how it was made. (I looked it up and it is currently 1% from being fresh at Rotten Tomatoes)

Rambo: First Blood Part II: Now this was a selection which I thought was really weird. I really don't understand how this movie was picked amongst the worst of its year, though I am assuming that I do have the blinders of seeing it as a kid affecting my judgment of it, but I don't think I do. I am willing to admit there are movies from my youth that just didn't hold up, but I've seen it recently and I didn't feel that sense of "Wait, what?" that I've felt with other movies from that time period like, I don't know, Red Dawn. I mean, maybe I am approaching this movie from the perspective that it didn't take itself too seriously... that on some level it was a little ludicrous, and that it would never be as bad as Rambo III.

Rocky IV: This one I admit is a bad movie. Like bad, and yet I can't look away. It is just so over the top and silly that somehow it won me over. I don't really subscribe to the theory of so bad it's good, but this is probably as close as I would get to that line. And I have to say, Rocky movies always tend to have these really specific sound effects for the punches that just make every blow sound like it should be the last hit in the fight, and the training montage will likely still be embedded in my brain when I am going senile in many years. Again, not a good movie, but if it is on, yeah, I am watching it. ESPN Classic has my number on that.

Howard the Duck: When I was a kid, I had a crush on Lea Thompson, and I wanted to see this movie because she was in it. I didn't get to see the movie at the theater however, and I ended up buying the novelization at my local Corner Store. I did not read it to the end, so I had some idea of what I was about to watch, and yet, I can't hate it. Maybe it is the casting outside of Thompson, but I can sort of dig it. It isn't great, I have to admit that, but I find it very watchable.I think it is Tim Robbins' geekish turn in the movie that won me over in the end.

Bonfire of the Vanities: I think Morgan Freeman really got to the heart of the nature of this bomb in a documentary, and yet, knowing that it just didn't work still doesn't make it less enjoyable for me. After I knew some of the stuff about the filming and how it just didn't come together right, I took another look at it and while I can see its flaws, I find the movie enjoyable. On some level, watching a few of the actors play against type is also interesting, and come on, it is a movie with Morgan Freeman as a judge, how bad can it really be.

Last Action Hero: Look, I like media that winks at itself and plays with the tropes associated with it, so my liking Last Action Hero was sort of a given. I think it is well written and definitely knows exactly which ridiculous premises to really hammer throughout the proceedings, and the cast is good too, especially Charles Dance's turn as the antagonist.The fact that Ian McKellen shows up as Death from The Seventh Seal is an added bonus. I have absolutely no hesitation telling people I like this movie, no shame... I like it unabashedly.

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn: Yep, it is crappy, 5 razzie bad. No denying it. But somehow, there is something about this movie that just appealed to me when I first saw it. Maybe it is the "hey, it's that guy/girl" thing with all the small parts, or the fact that it is a mockumentary, or the fact that in 1998 someone thought that Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg and Jackie Chan would be the ultimate combination of acting talent to open a fictional blockbuster. I get a bit of the vibe that Pootie Tang was putting down with this movie, but this one just isn't as fun.

Armageddon: It is disaster porn with Bruce Willis, how could I not enjoy it on some level. Granted, I would rather watch The Core any day of the week, but it is a big budget movie with a somewhat laughable plot that still manages to entertain me, and really, isn't that enough. I wonder if this is the only movie nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award that ended up in the Criterion Collection.

The Dukes of Hazzard: Why do I like this movie? The Escape from Atlanta. Really, it is as simple as that. All I was looking for from this was a pair of cousins foiling the schemes of Boss Hog with stunt-filled driving, and the movie delivered on that. And Willie Nelson is the only person I could see playing Uncle Jesse that isn't Denver Pyle. They just showed this movie this weekend followed by Starsky and Hutch and I knew which one was the one that better expressed the general feeling that the TV show they were based on had.

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra: It is big and dumb and while it changed some of the fundamental story elements of the original cartoon, I am more than okay with this movie. Van Helsing rubs me the wrong way, but somehow G.I. Joe doesn't because to me it taps into some of the same energy the first The Mummy had. I like it in a junk food kind of way and I won't apologize for it. It is the kind of movie like the new Star Trek that is on two or three times a month across the various channels of a particular cable network and I will always watch it when it is on.

If you asked me which one of these movies I wanted to watch right now, it would probably be G.I. Joe.

Resuming the Midweek Video: Chvrches- Lies

I loved this song so much last year. And it is wonderful to see that that Chvrches is doing well as a band as they've performed live on BBC it seems.

I just look forward to seeing what the band records next as the songs I've heard from them have been very good indeed.