Erin Cassidy of Accuweather has seen fit to publish an article titled, “Sharknado Debunked: Ridiculous Plotpoints Exposed”. Yes, exposed. Because it was a secret that Sharknado wasn’t 100% scientifically accurate. Thank Sharktopus they cleared that up. The article debunks three “myths” posited by Sharknado, and Cassidy went so far as to consult meteorologist Kristina Baker and get a statement from Greg Skomal, a shark specialist at the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries. She called two experts. About Sharknado. It’s a great time to be alive. You can read the article over at Accuweather if you’re ready to face the possibility that Sharknado wasn’t a documentary. I’ll level with you. This was all just a flimsy excuse to post the picture above of Sharknado in LEGO. Its blocky vengeance is nigh.
Check out the full article here: http://www.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/sharknado_debunked_ridiculous/15181031
Unwashed hair, scraggly beard, acoustic guitar, that glazed look in their eyes that could either mean they’re having a particularly good high or might eat your face off at any second. That description could fit every hitchhiker ever, or Dave Matthews of…what’s his band name? Oh yeah, that’s right: The This “All Along the Watchtower” Cover Is How Long? Band. Over the weekend, they were one in the same, as Matthews hitched a ride to his own show. The musician had gone out for a pre-show ride Saturday when the back tire of his bike popped. “I did not have a cell phone on the bicycle. So I thought, ‘Sh*t,” he recalled that night at his show at Hersheypark Stadium [in Pennsylvania]. “And then a nice lady named Emily rode up in a red car with a bicycle rack on it and gave me a ride on to the gig.” Kraus said she and her boyfriend were running late. But, as she told CNN affiliate WHP, everything happens for a reason. Along the way, they chatted about how the tour was going and his daughter’s summer camp schedules. “We didn’t know how to make conversation with him,” she laughed. Things could have gone so wrong so easily. “Please, Mr. Matthews, you can have whatever you want. My car, my wallet, my The Very Best of Supertramp CD. Anything, as long as you don’t sing ‘When the World Ends.’”
One of the problems console developers have had with the boom in tablet gaming is that they all look at tablets, with the wealth of possibilities a touchscreen offers for innovative control schemes, and decide “We should try and make this a controller!” It never works. And Deus Ex: The Fall is a superb example of that, alas. The game itself is great in almost every respect. It’s a bit like the PS2 predecessor Deus Ex: Human Revolution never had: It’s got sidequests, multiple weapons, plenty of augments, a beefy-for-mobile running time of six to seven hours, and branching story options that give it replay value. It’s not as rich and complex as the game it’s based on, but it’s richer and more complex than most mobile games, or console games for that matter, bother with. It is also a fairly linear game compared to its console counterpart, but it’s a game you’ll play twice for seven bucks.
EVO 2013, the world’s highest profile fighting game tournament (and celebration of fighting games in general) went down this weekend, and during the event Capcom revealed that there’s yet another new version of Street Fighter IV on the way. Because, come on, of course they did! Ultra Street Fighter IV will feature a range of gameplay tweaks, a number of new arenas, and most importantly, five “new” fighters. So far Hugo, Poison, Elena and Rolento have been announced (giving this latest version of Street Fighter IV a very Street Fighter III-ish flavor). The good news? This latest iteration of SFIV will be available as a $15 DLC pack for those who already own Super Street Fighter IV. Exceptionally generous by Capcom’s standards! Hit the jump for a trailer…
Bust out your pouch vests and your gigantic pulse weapons: Fox is bringing X-Force to the big screen. The question is, though, which version of X-Force? For those unfamiliar, X-Force is essentially the X-Men's black ops unit. Whatever situations the X-Men can't touch, or might require a show of force the team is unwilling to make, X-Force deals with. At least in theory; this being Marvel that concept is a bit more fluid than one might think. Here's what we know about the movie; according to Rob Liefeld, this has been in the works since March:
I’ve never really understood the bad rap summer has with gamers. Okay, sure, not a lot of games are released during the summer months, but in my opinion it’s the best time to actually play games. You have more free time, and come on, it’s not like you’re going to spend most of it outside. There’re bugs and heat and annoying people who might try to foist a game of Frisbee on you out there! In fact, I think there are certain kinds of games that should ideally only be played during the summer months whist covered in a glistening layer of sweat. Such as…
We don’t know much about Mad Max, the video game based off of the film series from Avalanche, except that you’ll have a car and a huge open post-apocalyptic world to drive it in. Now they’ve rolled out some in-engine footage that gives us more of an idea, and it looks like a cross between Twisted Metal and The Last Of Us. Of course, we knew brutality was going to be a key part of the proceedings. But it looks like Avalanche is going to have you breaking necks and snapping wrists when you’re not smashing cars to pieces:
Keeping track video game releases isn't as easy as it once was -- the volume of games released each week is constantly expanding, and they're spread over a mind-boggling array of platforms (consoles, PC, Mac, handhelds and mobile). Well, I'm here to make things a little easier on you. Every week I'll rattle off five games I think you should check out. These articles are not meant to be comprehensive lists of everything coming out that week -- think of them as a nice rounded tasting menu. Each week I'll try to highlight several games from different corners of the gaming landscape (handhelds, consoles, indie, PC, you name it) then finish up with a "Pick of the Week". Hit the jump for the five games you're going to want to check out this week.
Well it’s getting to be about that time folks — the 2013 Gathering of the Juggalos will soon be upon us, August 7-11 in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois to be exact. So here’s their annual trailer/infomercial in which Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J — aka “Fats Pepper” and “Guy Gorfey” — announce the lineup, the highlights of which include: Charlie Murphy, Rahzel from The Roots, Vanilla Ice, Sevendust, Tech N9ne, Eazy-E’s son Lil Eazy-E. And, of course, Insane Clown Posse. Enjoy!
But in a good way, not a bad that-tall-guy-with-the-glasses-is-saving-a-mental-picture-of-Beyoncé’s-ass way. During a concert on Friday, Bey invited the audience to sing along with her to “Irreplaceable,” but she noticed someone who was having none of the follow-the-bouncing-butt fun: he was too busy filming the show. And I quote, in a wise tone not unlike the YYYs’, “See, you can’t even sing because you’re too busy taping. I’m right in your face, baby. You gotta seize this moment baby! Put that damn camera down!” Good on you, Beyoncé, for throwing down the gauntlet (even if it’s for shady reasons) — now do something about the backpackers.
The news here should be “yay for new Weeknd”; instead, it’s “yay for new Weeknd…except for the part where he sampled a song without another artist’s permission.” After Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a. the Weeknd, revealed another sensual, bruised track from his sophomore album, Kiss Land, Portishead guitarist Geoff Barrow tweeted: When someone asks to sample you and you refuse they should have the respect as a fellow artist to not use it. This is unfortunate if true, though I understand Tesfaye’s temptation; every song should sample Portishead’s ice-cold trip-hop, with consent, of course. Still, I guess the rumors are true: Tesfaye thinks Loverboy is singing about him when they say, “Everybody’s working for the weekend.”
On the heels of our X-Force discussion came a valuable and intelligent idea: Just erasing the concept of certain comic book movies from existence. This is an idea we can get behind, not least because, let's face it, there are some painful, painful comic book movies out there. And they kinda need to go. So, as a humble method of discussion, we present these five, with reasons why. We'll include YouTube clips for those who might have forgotten, and we'll limit it to movies that saw wide theatrical release. And we'll suggest some replacements.
Like a lot of geeks who came up during the 90s, I was briefly pretty into Japanese giant monsters (known as kaiju in their homeland). The (ultimately disappointing) Hollywood version of Godzilla was on the way, so all the classic Toho giant monster movies were re-issued on video and available at Blockbuster, and I watched every one of them I could get my hands on. Yes, they were cheesy as hell for the most part, but there was also something undeniably appealing about them. So, needless to say, I was intrigued by the prospect of Pacific Rim — a tribute to classic kaiju movies from the guy who totally nailed Blade and Hellboy? I’m there! Unfortunately, while Pacific Rim is by no means a terrible film, it wasn’t much of a kaiju movie. Certainly not the labor-of-love tribute to giant rubber monsters I was hoping it would be. How did Pacific Rim miss the mark? Well (SPOILERS AHEAD!)…
While hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon may be getting most of the attention on these here Internets, I'd argue that the most naturally funny late night host is Craig Ferguson. The Late Late Show doesn't have any nifty video packages or many meme-able moments; it's usually just Ferguson riffing in front of a camera and conducting great interviews with his guests, and it's great. One underrated aspect of the show is Ferguson's interaction with his robot skeleton sidekick, Geoff, voiced by Josh Robert Thompson. For those of you with regular sleeping hours, you may not be privy to Ferguson and Thompson's brilliance. So take a look at some of their best moments.
In 2008, when he was still searching for something that rhymes with “Alec Baldwin,” Kanye West filmed a pilot for HBO. Writer Larry Charles, who dresses down as Rick Rubin for Hollywood and occasionally directs movies like Borat and wrote for something called Seinfeld, explained to Coming Soon that it was Ye’s version of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which Charles also writes for. “It was really good,” he said, back in 2008, “but I think it was too hardcore for HBO. Also…HBO doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to black shows, and I felt like that may have had something to do with it also.” This was before The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency changed the TV landscape. Anyway, the show never made it to air, but footage has leaked online, in the form of an acting reel uploaded by actress Alison Quinn. It’s been on YouTube since 2008, but has only recently gone viral, thanks in no small part to Jay-Z Google’ing then tweeting “how come kanye gets to act in anchorman 2 and i don’t,” probably.
GOB Bluth's internal/external loneliness as soundtrack'd by Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" to parody the closing scene to "The Graduate" is one of the many, many Season 4 Arrested Development gems out there that deserve further appreciation, and now that we've gone beyond the binge on both GOB-centric episodes (here and here) I can finally highlight some of the internet's finest GOB-inspired parodies of the parody, mostly involving other iconic television characters who also know the darkness all too well. But first, to help us get reacquainted, here are all the instances of the gag from Season 4 in one convenient mashup. Thanks internet!
By now it's no secret that Aziz Ansari is a huge fan of hip-hop, and that he's friends with guys like Jay-Z and Kanye West, even making a cameo in the video for "Otis" off of their Watch the Throne collaboration. So I guess it was only a matter of time before some bored Photoshop wizard killed a few hours of his life doing this: Photoshopping Aziz's face into a number of iconic and popular rap album covers. On the pages that follow are a few of my favorites. I think the Nicki Minaj one tickles me the most for the sheer ridiculousness of it. Aziz as Drake comes in a close second. Enjoy.
Ah Russia, a vast expansive realm steeped in cold war history, famous for being the first nation to send a man into space yet also soaked in vodka and home to some of the most peculiar scenarios and individuals on the planet. Did we mention they build underground bunkers so you can keep partying whilst Armageddon is happening above you? Or that their most notorious criminals communicate through their own custom tattoos? And what about those magnificent landmarks in Moscow, destined to impress even the most jaded traveller? But what of the everyday occurrences of 143 individuals who call Russia home? Is there Tuesday afternoon really so different to yours and mine? Let’s face it, in uncompromising landscape spanning 17,098,242 km and inhabited by some of the most resilient individuals on the planet, you’re going to find more than a few bizarre situations. Here’s a look at just a few you might encounter should you ever go there…
