THE BRITISH INVASION: Spaced

FEAR THE BRITISH INVASION!!!! Howdy all and welcome to Day 1 of my ridiculous title of the week. I wanted to start off by plugging one of my favorite shows that was created by the very talented trio in question.

Director/writer/producer/actor Edgar Wright (Mash and Peas, Asylum, Is It Bill Bailey?, Sir Bernard's Stately Homes, Shaun of the Dead, Funky Pete, Straight 8 and The World's End), writer/actor Simon Pegg (Six Pair of Pants, Asylum, Spaced, Big Train, Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul and Star Trek Beyond) and writer/actor Jessica Hynes (Six Pairs of Pants, Asylum, Spaced, Lizzie and Sarah, Common Ground and Up the Women) had put together males and females in their early 20's in bizarre situations similar to Friends only... this is actually funny. This is Spaced.

Monster Movie or perhaps a bizarre furry?

For those Friends fans, tough titty. Not a fan and would have never associated with any of those characters for they are all EeeeEeeeeEeeevil!!!!!! Spaced is about the lives of individuals and their mates colliding through life. Enter Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg) an aspiring comic book artist/writer who works at a comic bookstore, plays PS games, DND and other such nerd genre who just broke up with his girlfriend and by that, I mean she threw him out and moved on. Ouch. While looking at the house supplements he meets Daisy Steiner (Jessica Hynes) an aspiring writer who simply cannot focus on one subject long enough to do some articles to pay the bills and temps awful jobs, hangs with her bff, struggles with a long distance relationship with her dull boyfriend and attempts to connect with all around her.

The freezer that time forgot!!!

The two meet at a greasy diner and just start having a laugh and are genuinely enjoying each others company when they find an advert for a flat (apartment, yankee brethren) to rent for a minuscule amount but... the catch is the flat is intended for a successful upcoming couple to share. The two get the idea to fake being a couple to get the place and all will be solved. The landlady Marsha (Julia Deakin of Coronation Street, Shaun of the Dead, Between Two Women, House of Anubis, Doctors, The World's End and Big, Bad World) is a bit batty, a lush and has the teenage daughter from Hell but is a good sort.

One other resident of the flat is a tormented, bizarre and frankly screwy artist known as Brian (Mark Heap of How Do You Want Me?, Doc Martin,Jam, Brass Eye, Big Train, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Green Wing and Alpha Male) sort of appears... by magic? Dark forces of the nether realm? Not sure. Daisy and Tim attempt to keep this secret from Marsha informing their collective friends Twist (Katy Carmichael of Liverpool 1, Dead Babies, Clocking Off, Coronation Street, Waterloo Road and Casualty) a high maitanence, party girl that loves fashion and is brutally honest and Mike (Nick Frost of Big Train, Spaced, Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, Black Books, Shaun of the Dead, Straight 8, Hot Fuzz, Hyperdrive and The World's End) a paranoid, gun nut that happens to be in Territorial Army (Britian's National Guard for again the Imperalist Yankee Dogs!!).

A few notes on the technical side of the show now. 

 Edgar Wright only used one camera for the whole series which is unusual as you get different reactions from different shots and while the flat was the center of most of the episodes it never felt like a cramped set.   1 to 78 frames per second this show got shot in both black and white and color and was done so on Digital Betacam, commonly used for TV broadcast so all the comforts of VHS with higher quality resolution.

 Guest star Peter Serafinowicz who appears as Tim's nemesis Duane Benzie uses this gravely guttural voice as a menacing man it is also the same voice he used for Darth Maul in Phantom Menace.

BBC Channel 4 had commissioned both season 1and 2 before season 1 even aired. Constant pop culture references come up in this series with Evil Dead Scooby-Doo, The Omen. Hell I think I saw a couple of Pulp Fiction ones as well. Pegg's character name is an homage to Graphic Fantasy artist Simon Bisley (Lobo, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal: Geomatrix and Skyborg Into the Vortex) 

Give us Gary Glitter or be probed... a lot.

Ghosts of N64 Week

Good day my fine batch of readers and welcome the Ghosts of N64 Week.   After reviewing the last couple of weeks I could not help but notice the total lack of video game reviews and since I am something of a nostalgia fan I thought it proper to give more love to a classic game system as the Nintendo 64.   Bringing the last of the ROM cartridge systems before the switch over to mini-DVD such as the Game Cube and the Wii Optical Disc.  

HELP!! EPON HAS GOTTEN INTO THE ELDERBERRIES!!!

With its original launch games being of course Super Mario 64 and the more obscure and rare Pilotwings 64, this particular gaming system had to go head to head with consoles such as the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn.  Guess who came out on top?  With the introduction to the GameCube all N64 consoles and cartridges ceased production in Japan around 2002 and to this day still one of the most beloved of the consoles.  While it had a limited cache of dimensions and depth in color which and to be be stretch over large in-game surfaces such as land, sea and air, it lacked the ability to save multiple games without the use its Controller Pak which only held 256 Kb for game saves but its game loading time and ability to skip cut scenes were second to none.

Saturn and Playstation relying on a CD-ROM game to load and hopefully the disc is not scratched or it would skip, freeze or possibly not play at all.  The advantage to the cartridge game involved a cotton swab, hydrogen peroxide and allowing it to dry before trying the game again.  So let us dive into this classic console of 1997 and feel a bit old and young at the same time.

*Sniff*   Forever Player 2.

Random Picks Week

Howdy all and welcome to the week.  This week I thought we will skip the staple title and just grab into games, movies and maybe a few TV shows.  Normally I would call that Grab Bag Week but I am sick of that title so this week it will be known as Random Picks Week.    So I will dig through my various films, TV and maybe a few games or two and see what we can inform and entertain you all with.

Head shot!  Yikes!

As mentioned in previous Grab Bag Weeks, this allows me to sharpen my writing skills on the fly rather than the predestined straight and narrow of a structured week.  To hone my abilities if you will and delve deeper in the recesses of forgotten films, hidden gems and maybe even a decent TV show that was cancelled before its time.

A planet were apes evolved from... ah forget it.

As always I appreciate the comments, critiques and suggestions my readers give me so keep churning those out and I promise to keep firing good and bad films, TV and various platform and PC games your way.  I shall attempt to be less biased to most but I cannot say I would give a gleaming review on anything Pokemon so my advice, skip suggesting that.   Ta ta for now!

Grab Bag Week Returns: Deadpool

Hiyas reader fans and welcome back to Day 2 of Grab Bag Week and this time around we are tackling a video game.  Shock and gasp you say?   Well... that's weird but I merely shrug it off.   Now getting into the origins of this video game we have to look at the lead character's humble beginnings.  Crafted by comic book writer Fabian Nicieza (X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, Cable and Deadpool and Thunderbolts) and half witted, self-taught monkey boy artist Rob Liefield (Avengers, Hawk and Dove, X-Force, Deadpool and Youngblood).  In 1990, Wade Wilson/Deadpool was devised as a wise cracking, heartless mercenary who was a constant thorn in Cable's (Leader of The New Mutants and later X-Force) paw and/or side.  The progression of the character was found dull and it was decided to give him more of an anti-hero story line instead and the sales went crackers.   With his Spidey knockoff spandex, to totting SMGs, katanas and various nasty toys, the popularity went through the roof.    This is Deadpool.

Hey true believers, rope burns hurt yer groin!

Deadpool: What? He said no? That was our chance to be in our own video game!
Deadpool's voice in his head: Maybe we shouldn't have spoiled the proposal in crayon.




From his first appearance in New Mutants issue 98, Deadpool has had a solid following of devoted fans that found out that big bad mercenary Wade Wilson was dying of cancer, he volunteered to the Weapon X program (makers of The Wolverine) to an experimental healing factor compromised of genetic stock of Wolvie's own DNA.   The process cured him of cancer but the side effects scarred his face, body and drove him completely off his nut.  Coupled with the fact that Wilson is a superb marksman and swords-master he can only regenerate newer damage so he is constantly in costume to keep the neighbors from projectile vomiting.  Could be worse though, I mean look at Wolvie's hair, right?
Wade spends most of his time in search of love, romance, big guns and chimichangas, when he is not slicing, dicing or blowing people up for money.   Our game starts with a cut-scene of a deary apartment that has not seen a decorator since 1971 and Wilson is checking his Cobra answering machine.  Wolverine tells him to stop calling about borrowing the Blackbird Jet, Domino shoots his sexual advances down and creative director of High Moon Studios doesn't want to produce his video game.  After a substantial amount of explosions, a script is on its way for Deadpool's game.

That's for Wolverine: Origins!  PIMP SLAP!!!

Okay, with all this in mind comes the annoying warning part for the parents.  The following is found in this video game:  graphic violence, booze and smoking references, sexual innuendos and a fair amount of swearing.  Yes folks, this is probably not one of the kids but the kids inside of us all.  Bushido style sword mastery harnessed by beer and fart jokes, Wilson has the emotional maturity of a 14 year old hopped up on energy drinks and a love for Chop Socky films.  He also has an unusual love for Death (Marvel's personification of the Grim Reaper is in the form of a dishy super model build and a skull face) and frankly it is unhealthy.   Course so is a steady diet of beer, chimichangas and pizza but healing factor handles that noise.  LOOK KIDS!!! NO LOVE HANDLES!!!

With the insane fighting styles, guest star characters such as Rogue, Wolverine, Psylocke, Cable and Domino, our conglomerate has no idea who Wilson is talking to half of the time as this character is notorious for breaking the fourth wall (the imaginary wall that separates theater from the audience) which is not to be confused with an aside (a dramatic device specifically for addressing the audience to plot, person or device) or a soliloquy (a technique that allows a character to speak his or her's thoughts and feelings under the guise that they are alone projecting these thoughts aloud).  Ah, English lessons.

The gun play is a bit static, the sword-fighting combos give a fairly wide range of mayhem and the endless amount of clones courtesy of Mr. Sinister does pile up from the slaughters.   The gags and puns are worthy of the character and once again Nolan North (voice actor of Guild Wars2, Wolverine and the X-Men, Uncharted 1,2,3, Young Justice and Marvel Heroes) brings the gab gold.  

Deadpool: A cut above the rest!

Old School Week

Let's kick it.  Yeah I'm sorry and will never use that term again.  The meaning behind Old School Week is to review a movie, TV Show season or video game at random.  I wanted to get back to my routes of reviewing as I used to and frankly it is a bit more fun picking material out of a hat rather than adhering to the rigors of what I set out for the week and the week after.  So if you will indulge me on this little endeavor, I shall attempt to make it fun as always.

Better do what da man says, sucka!

Also I cannot stress enough to plug some comments or even some requests.  Not saying the well has run dry but come on people, if this lacks in anyone having fun on these reads it is you all.  Take your time and think about something fun you would like to see on here.  No rush needed but I always love a little input.