Scott Pilgrim vs. The Expendables

Today, my dear geeks who present yourselves as normal/hip, your dear leader partook of a double feature. Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables. One, a delicious/trippy/geeky trip to Toronto, the other a ’splosions/bullets/balls romp through an imaginary island in the Gulf of Mexico.

Pilgrim
Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic stays very close the source material. The first 15 minutes of the movie deviate very little from the dialogue or even the visual points-of-view of the comics. Fans of O’Malley’s manga needn’t worry about Wright’s handling of it. It‘s as if Wright used the original books as story boards and scripts. Your dear leader, though not being a fan of the manga (having only read 2 volumes the day before he saw the film) found seeing the characters and locations come to life rather exciting. Scott’s ‘secret lair’ apartment for example, looks exactly as one would imagine it.

Your dear leader’s prediction in the previous post did, in fact, come true. The movie is more enjoyable than the comics. Wright’s adaption is hilarious throughout. It’s the funniest movie since Zombieland (there have been no funny movies since Zombieland dear Collective). Though O’Malley’s comics may make you chuckle every now and again, the movie will have you LOLing the whole time.

Sfx were stunning (no CGI people, thank you). Pacing was pitch perfect. Casting was spot on.

A! (Go see it!)

Expendables

This film could have been released in 1994. It harkens to the days of action movies with weak plots, weak dialogue, odd story arcs, and a muscles/wieners/’splosions combination that make you wish you’d waited until  it hit Netflix to watch it. Also, dudes with cauliflower ear. 

D! (Wait till it hits the $1 theater or Netflix)

Scott Pilgrim vs. My Precious Little Review

Your leader is off work today. After completing side quests at the dentist and the DMV, he began his main quest: read the first 2 volumes of the Scott Pilgrim mangas.

                                       

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life introduces you to the main characters, who are at times, extraordinary, and most of the time, ordinary. O’Malley (the author of the series) informs the reader in the beginning, “This is your life.” Much of each volume is just that, a reflection of everyday, normal life. Girlfriends, roommates, dates, jokes, parties, awkward situations, it’s all there and sadly, is at times… a bit dull. Your leader found himself skimming through certain sections of the book to get to Scott’s “main quest,” to defeat the 7 evil ex-boyfriends of his love interest Ramona Flowers. This isn’t to say that the “dull” sections are without charm. The dialogue is natural and funny, and geeky cultural references are peppered throughout. The Collective will surely find them amusing since we can relate to every single one.

                                       

Volume 2, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, picks up right where Volume 1 left off. Scott battles everyday life and occasionally battles an evil ex-boyfriend. This pattern is carried throughout all the volumes. It’s the everyday life meets fantastical fighting sequences meets modern geek culture.

Though the Scott Pilgrim mangas are enjoyable, your leader walked out of Books-a-Million (where he read said mangas) thinking he may actually enjoy the movie version of Mr. Pilgrim more than the books. Only time will tell. And that time will only be about 24 hours because your leader will be seeing this movie tomorrow.

-Captain Ahmazing

Mail time. Virtual Maturity.

My dear comrade, this is a problem for many of your Stealth Geek brethren. Though we treasure the video game, it is but a mere babe amongst older entertainment mediums. Television has been a household pastime for over 70 years and movie watching has been practiced even longer. We needn’t even mention how long books have been read.

For whatever reason, the general public has not yet accepted video games as a legitimate way to spend time, let alone a legitimate hobby. If you spend 2 hours watching the season finale of Lost, your average joe has no problem, for he/she probably watched as well. But God forbid you should waste 2 hours of your life playing video games in a single sitting. You see my point.

So what should we do? Well, we let’s approach things from a numbers standpoint (which you can do with your non-technophile friends/family). Research by The NPD Group, a leading provider of consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries, shows that the U.S. spent $15.25 billion on video game content in 2009. (excludes PC games)* Compare that to the movie industry’s 2009 total: around $10 billion.** There is no denying that video games are popular or that they’re popular amongst adults. The top selling video game of 2009 was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a “Mature” rated game.

So, my dear Collective, if those you converse with do not accept the statistics, ask them questions. Find out how they view video games differently from television, movies or non-fiction books. Their prejudice must come from somewhere, right?

Your Dear Leader,

CaptainAhmazing

*http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100616.html

**http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1951371,00.html

Have Geek Will Travel

The Collective enjoys traveling. Your leader knows this because he has seen your travel photos on the interwebs. Yes, he has seen your DSLR pictures with in-focus foregrounds and blurry backgrounds.

The Collective sees photographs in magazines like Wired and Esquire and wishes to recreate similar ones. Your leader understands, he too has a DSLR with 50mm lens. Yes, your leader understands.

We, the socially aware geeks of the earth also understands the internets. We wield it like a sub par $50 katana that breaks on first impact. Like a detective shoving a warrant in the face of a bad person who is proclaiming that the detective can’t enter his Bad Person Land because he has no warrant. Like Captain Malcolm Reynolds firing his space-revolver (thought it lacks the revolver part). Anyway, the point is we wield it. With gusto.

So we must wield our dear friend, the World Wide Webs, when planning our travels. But beware, dear Collective, of tricks beneath the façade, for not all travel sites are the same.

Priceline.com

Priceline can have some cheap deals sure. But beneath Captain Kirk’s offensive 2-finger point lies a system that sometimes fail to reveal the times of your flights’ departures or arrivals times until AFTER you purchase your trip. Priceline also says that on some trips, if you miss your first outbound flight, you forfeit your ENTIRE trip. Watch out for the Priceline Negotiator dear Collective.

Hotwire.com says similar things such as:
“ALL PURCHASES ARE FINAL. Airline tickets cannot be cancelled, refunded, exchanged or transferred to other individuals. Credit will not be given for any unused tickets and cannot be used toward any future purchases. Change fees are not an option.”

If you’ve no problem being kept in the dark about your flight times until after purchasing the tickets and expect no wrenches being thrown into any gears, go ahead. You may save money, but possessing knowledge (without looking like it obviously) and a little legroom is sometimes worth the extra expense. Weigh your options. Your leader admits, he is no gambler.

Travelocity.com

For travel packages like Flight+Hotel, Travelocity is consistently higher than Expedia and all the other travel sites. Even changes such as a $9.00 hotel room upgrade on Expedia.com would be around $17.00 on Travelocity for the exact same upgrade. Do not pay more the exact same thing dear Collective. We’ve to much knowledge for such shenanigans.


Expedia.com

Expedia seems to be most upfront and balanced of the travel sites. You can change things about your trip after you’ve booked, you’re always given the option to purchase well-defined cancellation insurance, and even though they hide their booking fees within the airfare (Expedia claims to not charge booking fees) their prices are some of the best around.

Choose wisely dear Collective.

Socks w/ Sandals. No, Dear Collective. No.

Socks, paired with sandals. A dead giveaway you are unable to straddle the line between geek and social awareness, my dear Collective. Yet some of you may protest “Dear leader, my ankle breadloaf-overhang will be visible without said socks!”

Photo: Daveography via Flickr Creative Commons

Your ankle-spillage stems from deeper seated problems my dear. Yet I digress.

Photo: Wandering Eye via Flickr Creative Commons

You must solve this problem by purchasing quality, presentable footwear. This does not include those clunky white shoes with white socks. The Collective is unsure when this particular “style” came into existence, but you must avoid it.

Exhibit A:

Socially Aware Footware Can Be Found at these joints:

• Endless.com - good deals, good selection, and free shipping*
• 6pm.com - good prices and selection
• www.footlocker.com/outlet/category - Some sifting involved but occassional good deals (recommend doing brand search for “Puma”)
• http://www.footaction.com/catalog/category/name—outlet/ - Same as Footlocker outlet (recommend doing brand search for “Puma”)

*Not on everything mind you

Star Wars Meets Prince

Maybe you’re just like Mon Mothma, she’s never satisfied. Why do we scream at each other? This is what it sounds like when dugs cry.