Watchmen Opening Credits

Like most of you, I've been letting Watchmen bang around in my brain since I saw it yesterday. One thing we can all agree on, the opening credits were an incredible accomplishment. Not sure if Zack Snyder should be considered a "visionary" (as the commercials keep telling us) but the opening (created with a company called yU+Co) are simply unforgettable.

Take another peek:

Breaking Bad returns to AMC this Sunday

"Breaking Bad" is the best drama on television, period. It tells the story of Walter White, played by the amazing Bryan Cranston, (the Dad from "Malcolm in the Middle") as a high school Chemistry Teacher who discovers he has stage 3 cancer and has 2 years to live. Walter is married, has a son with cerebral palsy, and another baby on the way, so the only way he can provide for his family after he's gone is to... cook crystal meth of course!
I know what you're thinking, this sounds super depressing. Sure, it's dealing with some heavy material, but there are plenty of laugh- out- loud moments as well. The show opens with Walter running around in the New Mexico desert in his tighty whiteys wearing a gas mask! The humor is never forced, it usually comes from ackward moments in life we all can relate to.
It's rare when a show I love actually wins awards, but Bryan Cranston won the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and he is backed up by an amazing supporting cast. Aaron Paul plays Jesse Pinkman, one of Walter's former students who dropped out, and is now his partner in the drug business. Dean Norris plays Walter's obnixous brother-in-law who also happens to be a DEA agent. Dean Norris is a highly underrated character actor you might remember from "Phantasm", "Total Recall", and "Starship Troopers."
Wonderfully written, perfectly cast, it doesn't get much better than this. Season 1 is now available on DVD if you need to catch up, and season 2 is premiering this Sunday on AMC.

FINAL WOLVERINE TRAILER

So, here is the final trailer for the upcoming Wolverine movie. You'll obviously notice the cameos of Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Gambit (now with his patented black and red eyes), but pay even closer attention to how they've completely jacked up Deadpool. He now apparently has his own claws and optic beams and is rumored to also have teleportation powers along with his normal healing abilities. From what I've been able to gather, Stryker is trying to build a Weapon XI (Deadpool) to take down WEAPON X (Wolverine) and Deadpool is an amalgamation of other mutants powers. Since Ryan Reynolds does not play the 'Deadpool' that fights Wolverine (Reynolds seemes to be credited as Wade Wilson, Deadpool's real name) I'm hoping that instead Reynolds helps take down this 'Deadpool' and afterwards is like, "There's only one Deadpool, B**ch!", but it's Fox so they probably actually screwed the coolest character up. What the heck, it's still got to be better than X-3. Am I right?

WATCHMEN: Saturday Morning Cartoon

Okay, so by now most of you know that Watchmen isn't exactly a property for kids (even though plenty of unsuspecting parents will wander into theaters with their bright eyed chitterlings), but if it was it would probably end up looking something like this animated short from Harry Partridge. Then again, we did get Police Academy, Toxic Avenger, and Robocop cartoons, so you never know. Warner Bros., please don't...

New Star Trek Trailer

To be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge Star Trek fan. I liked "The Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine" but but never really got into the other shows, even "The Original Series" (blasphemy!). However, the footage from this new film has got me pumped. Have there ever been more exciting Star Trek trailers?

Plus, if even a casual fan like myself is counting the days until this hits theaters, it's going to make a boatload of cash.

Can I suggest a replacement to the defunct 'Countdown to Watchmen' clock?

Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams, is due May 8th, 2009 from Paramount.

Watchmen in 17 Minutes

Some guy over at Eisentower30.com spliced together all 17 minutes of Watchmen footage that has been released from clips, US and International Trailers and arranged them chronologically. I can wait one more day so I'm not going to watch it but I bet you will.

Enjoy:

Watchmen: Every Clip - watch more funny videos

Daft Punk to score Tron 2.0

Talk about a match made in heaven. Upcoming Film Scores is reporting that the French electronica duo has been tapped to score the upcoming film starring Olivia Wilde, Garett Hedlund, Beau Garrett and Jeff Bridges (!) reprising his role as super genius Kevin Flynn. It will be directed by Joseph Kosinksi and written by "Lost" screenwriters Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.

The film is a sequel to the 1982 cult classic (kind of refreshing in these remake/re-imagining crazy times) and will feature Wilde's character battling the Master Control Program. Bridges will play the villain (you can tell because leaked footage show him with a beard ala Iron Man).

Daft Punk have written music for films in the past but this will be their first shot at composing a complete score.

I'm in as long as they find a role for this guy:

WATCHMEN: 6 Minutes to Midnight

Warner Bros has just released a new 10-minute interactive trailer for Watchmen on 6MinutesToMidnight.com. After deciphering a series of Rorschach images given to you by...well, Rorschach, you are treated to exclusive content for the upcoming Watchmen film. I will give you fair warning, though -if you've been worried about being exposed to too much Watchmen footage just before the movie comes out then DO NOT watch the content offered here. I only watched three seconds of the footage and I'm already worried that I've ruined the movie for myself. But, you know, it's up to you. What the heck do I know?

3-D TVs Coming 2010

[reported from /film]

No sooner has Blu-Ray seen off HD-DVD with it’s knobbly knocking stick than another format war starts brewing in, quite literally, the R&D labs. According to a report in Video Business, Panasonic are looking to launch their first 3D-ready HD sets in what they hope will be an industry-wide standard, and will do so as soon as next year.

It’s probably pertinent to tell you right away that while Panasonic aren’t the only manufacturers working on a 3D standard, they are the ones in league with James Cameron. That alone has very possibly won them any upcoming format war before it even reaches the shop floor. Their system does indeed sound really brilliant, but so do the others, in their ways…

Ye olde 3D system used red and blue anaglyph glasses and is obviously already possible on home TVs of all kinds. When the most recent cinema hits have been repackaged for home consumers the 3D has been downgraded to work in this format. Or, rather, not quite work in this format because, frankly, the system is a bit of a dog. It doesn’t work consistently and a very significant percentage of users report that they don’t feel it works at all for them. I can’t believe that Dreamworks dare pollute the public idea of 3D with their Monsters vs. Aliens ad at the Superbowl, and fear they may have confused a large number of viewers with their tacky specs and substandard TV 3D.

But did you know that the new, polarized lens system is already possible at home? There already are ways to line up players and sets and specs to get the same 3D effect you’d get at a screening of, say, Coraline. It just isn’t standardized and until it is, there aren’t going to many major releases.

Here’s a brief run down of the three big players likely to duke it out in the coming months and years:

Panasonic’s system uses a Plasma and the same specs that you get at a Real-D screening. I know this system works, because I’ve seen it in action.

Samsung’s system has been around a while without much content. However, they also have a kind of conversion engine pending that will turn 2D into 3D on the fly - though this is likely to be very problematic and certainly won’t be the optimum solution, not least because it takes control of the stereo elements out of the hands of the filmmakers.

Hyundai’s system uses a polarising sheet over an LCD screen, which is likely to be the cheaper option and will also side step the various issues with Plasma screens (as well, of course, as the various benefits). This system is already on sale in Japan and will be running in Britain very soon with Sky TV planning to steadily ramp up their 3D output over the coming years until they can broadcast a very size-able chunk of the London 2012 Olympics in stereo-vision.

The closest thing to a set standard so far is in Panasonic’s pocket. They already started coding Blu-Ray discs with left and right eye fields and pledge to release Avatar on a 3D disc next year. At the moment, the Panasonic demo discs require a pimped up player that can tear through twice as much data per second than normal. Hopefully this won’t be the case with the release software as asking consumers to replace their newly minted BD decks is simply not going to fly.

Video Business have embedded a recent YouTube video in which Cameron briefly mentions collaborating with Panasonic on “high quality” 3D for the home. It seems to be software, not hardware, that wins format wars, but perversely, it’s the price of hardware that determines how far a media standard will infiltrate the marketplace. While Avatar is very likely to win the war for Panasonic, this success will be in vain if they don’t price-up for the Yous, Mes and Everyone we Knows out there.

If you have the right kind of 3D glasses, the Panasonic logo that James Cameron is conjuring out of thin air at the top of this post will fly around room and poke you in the eye.

Street Fighter opens to an astounding opening weekend

When I say 'outstanding', I mean outstandingly horrible. Street Fighter: The Legends of Chun Li, the newly updated version of the classic video game franchise opened this weekend to a box office draw of a mere $4.6 million, just a tad bit shy of its $60 million budget. To put in perspective how miserably this movie did, the original Jean-Claude Van Damme cheesefest did $6.9 million for it's opening weekend way back in 1994, when ticket prices were much lower -and they were only working with a $35 million budget. Of course, this is only the opening weekend. I'm sure it will make plenty more in the next few weeks to surpass it's remaining budget. It's not like there's any movies premiering this coming weekend that would take anymore draw from Street Fighter's box office returns. Well, I guess there is the Watchmen movie this Friday, but I mean who the heck wants to see that -am I right? Oh, Kristen Kruek, I bet Smallville doesn't look so bad now, does it?

EATING LIKE A BIRD

To give GeekSexy some semblance of order, I've decided to make Monday mornings new cartoon day. What better way to kick off your work week than with a smile. From now on, I will try to have three new toons up every Monday morning. Let's see how well I do with that, shall we? Have a good week.

The first cartoon today is Eating Like a Bird from animator Curtis Carey. Enjoy.

A GENTLEMEN'S DUEL

Next up, from Blur Studios comes A Gentlemen's Duel; proving that women make men do stupid things.

PROWLIES AT THE RIVER

This third cartoon is a long-time favorite of mine. From Australian animator Adam Phillips, Prowlies at the River is just one installment in a series of cartoons featuring the mischievous little anti-hero Bitey. Phillips is currently working on feature-length version of his Brackenwood series, so you'll probably be seeing Bitey and the rest of the characters again sometime in the near future, or if you want to see more now, just go to www.oohbitey.com.

Star Trek exhibit in the Motor City

Of all the strange new worlds the Enterprise and her crew have explored, I'm sure nothing could have prepared them for... Detroit! The Detroit Science Center has a new Star Trek exhibit- "This multi- city touring exhibition contains the world's most comprehensive collection of authentic Star Trek ships, set re-creations, costumes and props from 5 television series and 10 films over the last 40 years."
And they're not kidding, I just went, and they have some amazing stuff, there is a re-creation of Captain Picard's quarters complete with all kinds of trinkets, even that goofy flute he used to play! There are tons of costumes, from Scott Bakula's uniform in "Enterprise", to 7 0f 9's skintight jumpsuit from "Voyager". They have the borg ship, all kinds of weapons, tricorders, and the transporter room, where you can actually see yourself get "beamed up", but I have to say my personal favorite was a Klingon captain's chair! What better place to watch your T.V. from?
They recreated the bridge from the original series, and my buddy and I sat in Sulu and Chekov's seats. Neither of us sat in Captain Kirk's chair, you know why? Repect.
Tickets are $18.95 for adults and $14.95 for kids and seniors, and if you like Star Trek believe me it's worth it. The exhibit will run until September 7th so you have plenty of time to check it out this summer.

DVD releases for Mar. 3rd

TOP PICKS:
- Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic
- Wonder Woman (Two-Disc Special Edition)

OTHER RELEASES:
- 7th Heaven: The Eighth Season
- Ashes of Time Redux
- Australia
- Chowder, Vol. 2
- Beverly Hills Chihuahua
- Dead in 3 Days
- Doctor Who: The Androids of Tara
- Doctor Who: The Armageddon Factor
- Doctor Who: The Key to Time (Special Collector's Edition)
- Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet

- Doctor Who: The Ribos Operation
- Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood
- ER: The Complete Tenth Season
- The Hills: The Complete Fourth Season
- The Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Moment in History (ABC News)
- I've Loved You So Long
- In the Electric Mist
- Lake City
- My Two Dads: Season One
- Nash Bridges: The Second Season
- The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- Smurfs, Vol. 1
- SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob vs. The Big One
- Stargate: The Ark of Truth/Stargate: Continuum
- Stiletto
- Wonder Woman

WHAT THE--?
- Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective

COOL BLU-RAY RELEASES:
- Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic (+ Digital Copy)
- Wonder Woman