This Week in Entertainment (Feb 2012)

My pick of the Month is Pac-Man: The Complete First Season.  Like Super Mario Bros Super Show, I'm sure it'll embarrass me as an adult, but I still like to see it again. 

This Week In Entertainment (7/28/11)

My Pick of the Week is some Pac-Man game for the 3DS.  I basically want it for Pac-Man Championship Edition, but its got some other games to go along with it.


In theaters this week is Cowboys vs. Aliens.  Maybe I have bad taste but I actually think I'll see this one.  Eh, it has Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, and the trailer looked interesting.  I read somewhere that this movie was made after someone wrote a comic and shopped it around conventions. 

You know what I was just dying to see in 3D?  Not the Smurfs movie.  Why?  Why do they take the characters and put them in New York, or wherever?  Why what's-her-face?  Is she really who you want in a kids' movie?  I will say that I think Hank Azaria will steal the movie as Gargamel, and the Scottish Smurf seems like a funny idea. 

On one soiled Blu-Ray is The Blues Brothers.  Great movie.  The sequel wasn't bad but was really unnecessary. 

Also on Blu-Ray is a slideshow presentation about Leonardo DaVinci.  Remember to put this one out in the open so people think that you're so smart.

This Week In Entertainment (November 2010)

Remember when Futurama was coming back on the air and I was excited? Well, it took me three episodes before I stopped watching the first Comedy Central season. Not because anything was bad, but because I just don't care about anything on TV anymore. TV is a distant fourth in my entertainment hobbies behind video games, the internet, and DVDs.

Anyway, here is the DVD set for that season. Maybe it's time for me to do some catching up.

Mark Your Calendars

In case you have nothing better to do. For the first time in a while, TV is worth watching again.




June 10th, 2010.


That's when Rebirth will air. It's the first episode of Futurama since 2003. If I'm not lazy at all, I'll give my take on it, including a letter grade.


Please have plenty of Morbo, guys!

This Week In Entertainment (5/27/09)

My Pick of the Week is lacking an online vs mode, dangit, but otherwise it should be a fun game. It's Bubble Bobble Plus! for the Wii and is 600 Wii poins. The NES Bubble Bobble was a great two player game so I don't see why they couldn't have tossed in an online 2 player mode.


Also out this week on DVD is Zabriskie's Point. It's a hippy movie that tries to wake you up at the end with a big poinless explosion.


In theaters is Pixar's latest, Up. It looks nice and colorful and I have to admit that the dog is very funny in the trailer.


This DVD set is the complete Land of the Lost show. Say, is there a related movie coming out soon?

This set has a number of 60s cartoons, mostly Hannah Barbara stuff. Most of these shows are probably available separately so this is more of a sampler set.

This set has a number of 70s Hannah Barbara stuff, which means everything is based on Scooby Doo. It includes Charlie Chan and The Funky Phantom.

I like to toss in an occasional oddball item. Every week I check amazon and they always seem to sell new belly dancing DVDs. I can understand the following, but is there really a market for new DVDs every week? Anyway, this set is bellydancing for pregnant women!


Also out on WiiWare this week is Adventure Island: The Beginning. It's the New Super Mario Bros of the Wonder Boy series.

EAT DIRT, EVERYONE IN THE VICINITY!

AH HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!


In case you think I've gone insane, I'm actually referencing one of my favorite cartoon series that hasn't been released to DVD yet. Earthworm Jim was a WB cartoon that was based on a couple games that got popular towards the end of the SNES/Genesis era. I wasn't too into the games but I loved the cartoon.

After two popular 16-bit games, Jim had a Nintendo 64 game. It was considered terrible, and that ended his brief career outside a Color GameBoy game or two. I thought he was going to have a PSP game but I'm not sure. Anyway, recently there's been an announcement that not only is Earthworm Jim going to make a comeback, but it's going to be big. Besides whatever system he's showing up on, and some Virtual Console game, he's going to have a new cartoon series and a movie(!).

I'm excited about the new cartoon. Not because I think it's going to be good. It probably won't, unless they bring back the old cast and just make it a continuation. What I'm excited about is the fact that they've got to release the complete series on DVD sometime soon. It wouldn't make sense otherwise. Here's hoping that it's sometime soon. That show was hilarious. Much better than The Tick or Freakazoid! Yeah, I went there.



As for the games, I might download Earthworm Jim 2. I had the Game Gear version of the first game. Here's hoping that Earthworm Jim 4 comes to a Nintendo system, because when I saw the PSP screens it was the first time I wanted a PSP.

MST3k: Broken Down

FINALLY! This is what they should have been making since the beginning. If they had made this four cartoons ago, Jim wouldn't have faced as much mocking and ridicule among MSTies.

Today's cartoon, which is the first in 3 or 4 months, is actually clever. We start in some room that I guess is suppose to be some kind of play room. I'm not sure where this is on the ship but it doesn't really matter. Gypsy is malfunctioning, and Tom and Crow try to figure out what's wrong with her. The only problem is that they're too involved in their own activities to do anything about it. Tom is riding a train around, while Crow has his body wrapped around a boat on a bathtub.

It doesn't take long before you see what the cartoon is about. The boat looks like a certain doomed superliner while Tom's train has the word "Riff" on it. (Get it? Riff...tracks) The fact that the character played by Gypsy is malfunctioning shows that the writers (but mostly Mallon) are admitting that the cartoon had sucked when it debuted back in November. Or October. Whatever. If they can make more cartoons like this, fans may eventually warm up to this addition to the MST3k lore.

Even the little details are great. Crow's boat is really slow, while Servo's train circles around very quickly. I loved how Servo's train ran on bacon, a joke you would get if you read the Rifftrax blog. My favorite line? "You didn't hear about no guy drownin' out there, did you?"

The characters still look the same, but they must have paid someone an extra 50 bucks because the animation seems a bit smoother. Paul Chaplin turned in a fine Crow. He's no Trace or Bill, but he's better than given credit for. As for Servo, the guy who plays him is still hard to get used to. I'm trying to adjust to him but it's real difficult. Still, it's much easier with material like this and not dumb material like solitaire and comparisons.

Meanwhile in the video section, which I admit to not seeing in a while, has one of the all-time classic MST3k host segments. I wasn't a big fan of the short "Last Clear Chance", but the host segment where they made fun of it is hilarious. "A little bit, with just a little bit of mayo and a little bit of salami..."





Grade: B- More like this, please.


Edit: For some reason, the cartoon is down. I wish I had grabbed a screen pic earlier. Stupid computer.

MST3k: Solitaire

This episode was a lot like the last one, in which you can guess what's going to happen just by the title.

Unlike the last cartoon, it was at least long enough to have stuff sorta happen.

Anyway, Crow is playing Klondike, and Servo bugs them. Just like in real life!

The biggest problem with this cartoon is that it's about 15 years too late. Too bad, because I wanted to like this cartoon for some reason. At least up to the punchline where Servo's bubble explodes. They could have come up with a better punchline.


(No grade until there's a grading curve.)


The store has a few updates, mostly the Tom Servo and Gypsy tshirts. I might have to pick up the Servo shirt. I've used his "I'm the wind, baby!" line before.

Also at the store is 100% more distraction as the bots are now watching you as you order.

Until next time, let's hope the next cartoon doesn't have to be redeemed by cuts.com, not that I can get anything to load at that site.

MST3k: Thanksgiving Clown

Episode 3 of the animated MST3k cartoon was going to be big! That was according to the Satellite News, when someone connected to the cartoon said that they were aware of the criticism and the Thanksgiving toon was going to turn things around. We were also promised a clip of Thanksgiving stuff from the show.

So what did we get? On the Monday that the cartoon was released the site had a slight redesign. The intro had the SOL being hit by a few meteoroids pelting the ship before we see the cartoon. Instead of the usual default bridge, we see episode three already in progress on the bridge. Crow is dressed like a pilgrim, and Servo is dressed like the title. Crow is checking an encyclopedia.

Do I have to explain anymore? If you don't where they're going with this after reading the title and seeing the picture, you may enjoy the cartoon.

(I've decided not to give grades to these cartoons until there's a curve to grade on.)

Anyway, after that Monday was over, the site reverted to it's original design. I guess they decided against it. I wish I took a few screenshots.


As for the new video, it was ok. They did a good job of mixing Thanksgiving clips from the good bumpers (mostly the first and last ones) and I was glad they included Mr. B Natural vs Jack Perkins. Still, it could have been longer, and why not throw in a clip or two from the lesser efforts? (Ok, so Best Brains probably doesn't own the rights to the cosplay fan version.)

What I would love to see from the store some day is a video that includes the rest of the Thanksgiving bumpers not included on the Scrapbook tape. They could also throw in as many promos as they have. I would buy that dvd immediately. Probably not going to happen unless the cartoon really fails and this is done as an apology.




Until next time, which is a couple seconds after I post this...

MST3k.com: Feels Like

Ok, I held back during my last review. I really wanted this cartoon to work. It would be great if Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic, and the new MST3k cartoons could have all been produced simultaneously and MST3k fans could have gone through a new golden age. Well, too bad. Even though CT hasn't released it's first dvd, it's clear that the MST3k cartoons aren't working. They could get better, but these first two efforts aren't cutting it.



Today's episode is like last week where the cartoon resembles a host segment from the days of old. I can't quite put my finger on which specific host segment it resembles, but it feels like it resembles one. Maybe that explains the title. The cartoon has Servo and Gypsy talking about the weather, and how negative 275 feels like -280. This leads to Servo to go on and on about stuff that feels like other stuff. The problem is, it's not funny. I feel like I should be laughing, but I'm not.

I think the major problem with these cartoons so far is execution. One of the host segments that this reminds me of now that I think about it, is the opening host segment where Mike talks to Pearl during Time Chasers. They're both actually out in the middle of space, and Pearl makes a comment about how it's going to go down to absolute zero, so she's wearing a sweater. That was a funny comment. I think the reason why it worked there and not here was because in the MST3k episode, it was just a throw-away gag and here it's the center of the skit. Unfortunately, we can see the joke coming a mile away, so it's not funny.

Please guys, work this thing out! Write better!

Grade: F



Let's take a look at the rest of the site while we're here.

Videos haven't been updated, but the store has.

The store now has a section for Legacy Odds and Ends. This includes old merchandise from the mst3kinfo days including bumper stickers. It has the Clown in the Skies 2 cd, but not the much better first one. It has Play MSTie for Me DVD, which is basically the mp4 to the Clown in the Sky mp3. Lastly is Poopie 1 + Tom Servo's All Time Favorite Host Segments, which are both amusing but Poopie 1 can be found on one of the DVD sets and the Host Segments can be found in their own respective episodes.

The other major addition is static decals starring the new look of MST3k. I wish I could see the numbers for how well these things are selling.


Other than that, the only other changes include the resizing of the site (Thanks!) and they added the theme music to the silent intro*. There's also space noise in the background now, and it's thankfully hard to hear. It must still bug people though.


Until next week, bite me.



* - See? They can improve stuff! Maybe they can improve the writing.

More Entertainment! Disney Milking Style.

I forgot to mention that they're going to release Cinderella III: A Twist In Time. Supposedly, the fairy godmother is going to carelessly toss away her wand, which allows the evil stepmother to rewind time and mess up Cinderella's stuff.

I guess that's what happens when you have a powerful magic wand. Any moron could pick it up and do whatever they wanted.