Nurse Jackie First look

I had the chance to screen Showtime's new dark-comedy series: Nurse Jackie today. While I must admit to having only minor acquaintance with HBO'S mega-hit Mob series The Sopranos, I will say that Edie Falco--Main character Tony Soprano's diva-ish wife in the series-- has always had a star quality which was immediately recognizable. Now, several years after the last high note on The Soprano's set has been sung, Falco scrubs-up to play Nurse Jackie, a pain-killer addicted workaholic mother straddling the line between caring nurse and addict. The premise for the 30-minute pilot was strong enough; place the very capable Falco in a hospital with know-it-all doctors and trainee nurses and watch as she holds the place together in the face of death,(her personal) addiction, and staff incompetency. Nurse Jackie looks good on a 1080p set [not sure what the original brodcast ratio is]. There is also some great--but not so happy--imagery in between scenes which also looks swell in HD. The shows music quality lagged throughout though--something I hope they fix.

Another fixable but damnable aspect of the pilot was the predictable writing and [some] awkward casting. Falco though, seemed to soar above these limitations, by envisioning a deeply-flawed, lovable character and bringing her to the set day one. Showtime is a good venue for this series and I believe that the network should allow Jackie the chance to vaccinate audiences with her intriguing personal story before fleshing-out other characters more. There is a lot to like with Jackie but after seeing the pilot, I believe Falco--like the druggie nurse--has to shoulder the weight for everyone else, at least until the writing becomes more compelling.

--Aaron

Lil Orphan Esther

How many times have you thought about adopting a psycho killer…. Probably not that much, but if you have then we have a movie for you; it’s called "Orphan" and it is about a father (Peter Sarsgaard) and mother (Vera Farmiga) team who adopt a little girl by the name of Esther (it’s 2009 and her name is Esther…and nobody became suspicious?). Once they bring Esther home the body count in the neighbor hood begins to rise.

(Release date: July 24 2009)

--StrangeContainerOfPudding!!!

You can stand under my umbrella

What does an insane Eiffel tower, a diabolical orchestra, and evil robots from the future have in common. Well for one they are all about to catch a beat down in this first volume of "The Umbrella Academy" (Apocalypse Suite). "The Umbrella Academy" is about an outlandish group of superheroes who come together at their alien father’s funeral to stop the Orchestra Verdamten and it’s conductor from destroying the world. This first volume includes all six issues of the apocalypse suite, and some early sketches.

"The Umbrella Academy" is the brainchild of Gerard Way who is best known for being the lead singer of the band "My Chemical Romance". The story art which I liked and would love to see in other comics is created by Gabriel Bá, while the cover art is done by James Jean who also does the cover art for the Fables series.

To say that "The Umbrella Academy" is just about a family reunion from hell is a bit of an understatement. This comic had everything action, gore, a chimpanzee wearing glasses and yet I still could not get into it. It felt very similar to "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", but I loved that series so why not this one? I think what threw me off was the lack of character & environment development, it’s as if you were supposed to automatically know that the Eiffel Tower eats people and I did not learn that in school (damn public schools!)

6.5/10

--StrangeContainerOfPudding!!!

Blocks, Yes. Full motion control, Maybe. Says Tetris inventor

Creator of the popular in the eighties popular Tetris game, has his doubts about Xbox360's full motion controller, project Natal. According to Blog Superfriend, Kotaku, Alexey Pajitnov Said this about Full motion control: "I am a little bit skeptical... I know how interfaces work and the reliability...is the key problem. You have to have 99.9 percent accuracy...98.9...(is) no good." According to the blog, Pajitnov's Tertis game is licensed to a company which is currently making a full motion controlled version of the puzzler. Shot-in-the-foot, or insight?--you decide.

--Aaron

Dead Snow...Its about to be summer though!

Sundance has given us some killer movies in the past like...and...who can forget?... Okay, so I'm not a big "Sundancer" I'm more into movies with fun stuff like snow and zombies--hey wait-- there is a Sundance film with snow and zombies--Nazi Zombies at that! Its called Dead Snow and it follows the exploits of a fun-loving group of Norwegian Medical students who stumble across a pit of frozen Nazi Zombies while on a ski holiday. Sounds fun right? watch the trailer. Tell us what you think! And we'll keep you posted on this one. With a tagline like: Ein! Zwei! Die! this has got to be epic!



--Aaron

Xbox's "Natal" throws baby out with bathwater

In this case "the baby" would be "a controller" and "bathwater" would be "creating an electronic interface where the need for a physical device for control would become obsolete"--whew

"Natal" E3 Video--BTW, where do Nintendo and Microsoft find these living rooms, and are they the same ones used in porn videos?--just askin'.



--Aaron

Its My E3 I can cry if i want to...

Strange's "lover" Yoshi has resurfaced in the Newest 3-d Mario title, announced at E3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (for the Wii) has been announced, and although not playable at the convention, Nintendo has blessed us with some trailers and such. The original Super Mario Galaxy was a fun game--nothing to write home about though--and this new title looks to stand on the (globular) laurels of the original.



Nintendo Also announced New Super Mario Bros. Wii for the um, Wii. That makes two Mario titles, for the Wii console--wow. The Japanese mega company seemed to pull out the big guns against Microsoft's "Natal" technology. Blog SuperFriend Kotaku is at E3 and they have full convention coverage. Strange and I will not be able to go until next year
*sobs*.



--Aaron

Disney's circle of life.

Well it looks like Disney may be back with their new movie "The Princess and the Frog". This movie marks disney return to their original style--which I so missed--of lavish musical numbers and some of the best hand-drawn animation (2D) in the business.

Not much is known about the story for Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" but what we do know is that the film takes place in New Orleans' French Quarters and stars Tiana as the newest princess in a long line of Disney princesses and her frog prince's name is Naveen. Tiana works as a waitress in a diner and is voiced by Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls). Some of the other celebrity voice actors for this film are Oprah, Terrence Howard, John Goodman, and Jenifer Lewis.

The film will be in theaters on December 1

--StrangeContianerOfPudding!!!

The Xbox 360 answer to the paternity test...You are the father!

Don't know how true the title is, but hey, I'm a blogger and you're reading right? So using the The Xbox 360's new "Natal" technology, Fable creator: Peter Molyneux and his team has created a virtual son (or friend) named Milo for the Xbox 360. The "Natal" technology, which has been spoken of for weeks, is a motion sensing camera device for the 360 which reads body movements, scans images, and can transfer sound. With the Milo demo, we see it in action. This technology of course, is set to compete with Nintendo's Wii remote and the upcoming motion plus add on.



--Aaron

MTV Movie awards: Asses, Vampires rule the night

I dunno what I think about MTV anymore ever since they stopped playing music all the time and started playing 12 hours of reality TV, I stopped "wanting my MTV". Last night was the MTV movie awards and Sacha Cohen was more exciting than anything else--BTW Sacha, thanks for turning Shady into a fleeing, shrieking fem-bot--Below is a list of MTV's popcorn-taker-homers:

-Breakthrough Female Performance: Ashley Tisdale, High School Musical 3

-Best Fight: Robert Pattinson and Cam Gigandet, Twilight

-Breakthrough Male Performance: Robert Pattinson, Twilight

-Best Male Performance: Zac Efron, High School Musical 3

-Best Kiss: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, Twilight

-Best WTF? Moment, Amy Poehler in Baby Mama

-Best Song from a Movie: Miley Cyrus, "The Climb"

-MTV Generation Award: Ben Stiller

-Best Female Performance: Kristen Stewart, Twilight

-Best Comedic Performance: Jim Carrey, Yes Man

-Best Movie: Twilight

--Aaron

The last of the swag

We are coming to the end of our "Drag Me To Hell" weekend, so here are the final swag pics.

DMTH Hat

front of DMTH cup

back of DMTH cup with levels of The Circle Of Hell For Drunks written on it.

ALL THE SWAG!

--StrangeContainerOfPudding!!!

"Up" slays "Hell" at box office, "Museum" displays second week suprise

Just in time for the end of our extensive "Drag Me" coverage, the final Weekend Box office totals come pounding down the door.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	Up	BV	$68,200,000	-	3,766	-	$18,109	$68,200,000	-	1
2	1	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian	Fox	$25,500,000	-52.9%	4,101	+5	$6,218	$105,296,000	$150	2
3	N	Drag Me to Hell	Uni.	$16,628,000	-	2,508	-	$6,630	$16,628,000	-	1
4	2	Terminator Salvation	WB	$16,140,000	-62.1%	3,602	+72	$4,481	$90,657,000	$200	2
5	3	Star Trek	Par.	$12,800,000	-44.1%	3,507	-546	$3,650	$209,500,000	-	4

Did anyone see Up, Night at the museum, or Drag me to Hell? Let us know your thoughts.

Numbers by: Box Office Mojo, LLC.

--Aaron

PSP Go is alive!!!

The oft publicized successor to Sony's floundering PSP (portable) has leaked--just days before the Video Game industry's biggest trade show, E3. Take a look at Sony's PSP Go.



According to Blog friend Ars Thechnica: "The hardware will not take the place of the current PSP-3000 on store shelves—they will be sold side-by-side...hardware is significantly lighter, with 43 percent less weight...screen is 3.8 inches...16GB of memory and a memory card slot for expanded storage...bluetooth support. The screen slides to reveal the buttons..."

As a techie extraordinaire, and someone who pre-ordered the original PSP, I'm looking forward to this. Especially the end of the messy UMD days. Hopefully Sony will give us some more solid info on its release at E3.

--Aaron

Upcoming Wii-make's startling beginnings

I just got in from a long night out. Its 5:03am here. I just wanted to show you guys an interesting nugget I found yesterday when I was putting together the Resident Evil: the dark side chronicles post.

Check out these Resident Evil Zero beta movies from when the game was going to be a N64 exclusive.



Here is the Gamecube/Wii version



Not that I'm geeking out over the graphical improvements, I just didn't know that the game was that far along before Capcom scrapped it and rebuilt it using the Resident Evil engine...Too much Bud Light! G'Night.

--Aaron