Good news for those who loved Tron:Legacy (like myself) - Kosinki will be back to direct the third movie with original screenwriters Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.
Apparantly Kosinki is the highest grossing first time director of a live-action film EVER, so that's quite impressive. It took a phenomenal $399 million and JJ Abrams' MI:3 took $397.5 - a small, yet huge, margin. There might have been a huge amount of money thrown at it to be fair, but still, it's quite impressive. There's also going to be a theme ride at Disney called ElecTRONica - and let's be honest, it might be my wet dream. If Olivia Wilde was sitting next to me, it would be perfect. Can someone ask her? I'd appreciate it. Apparently she's dating Justin Timberlake so that could be a problem ...
There was also a teaser trailer (perhaps fan-made?) of young Dillinger (Cillian Murphy in the film) who, for anyone who paid attention to the original Tron, will know is the son of the main evil guy in the original movie. The robot voice also signals the original computerised enemy (South Park's 'Moses' for anyone who might not have seen Tron) which could make things interesting ...
South Park's 14th season was a strange one. Do you remember the days it was about some strange people in a little town? Not anymore...
I'm a huge fan of South Park and I think it's one of the most creative, original social commentaries of our time - all wrapped up in a cartoon format for adults. However, if you look how it's evolved year by year, then you'd see that it has probably peaked a few seasons back. Instead, South Park seems to take pride in being a last-minute story about current affairs or social trends or celebrity news stories. A Comedy Central advert even advertised it as a 'Which celebrity will they take the mick out of next?' thing - and I thought it missed the point. It seems they might be a little preoccupied with creating controversy than focusing on good jokes and so they end up with this mixed bag which is the 14th season.
There's one good thing that has happened to South Park since it's first episode back in the day and that's it's pace. It no longer hangs around or holds back with some lame joke, it completely runs riot and does what it wants trying to cram in as much as possible - which for a show like this works a lot better I feel. Though I could be wrong.
The first episode Sexual Healing is about sex addictions and mainly Tiger Woods, it once again relies on celebrity whacking and just doesn't contain enough jokes to make it a worthwhile watch, it's a pretty bad start for a season and one that shows that they wanted to come out with something that included a big name so people would be like 'no they diddddn't!!' . The Tale Of ScrotieMcBoogerballs is a good Butters episode where the boys write a disgusting book and blame it on Butters. It's after the boys read Catcher In The Rye which is supposed to be all controversial and they don't find it the least bit offensive. I find that a lot of books which try to be controversial often try too hard and seeing as it's usually written by someone who stays in their room all day, it's hard to imagine they have any idea what they are talking about. People are literally sick all over the world and this prat-fall visual gag is a good one, but again it fails to inspire a rewatch.
Medicinal Fried Chicken is a better episode with some good Randy moments (perhaps my favourite character) and some good Cartman / Scarface storylines and I think, much like The Simpsons producers realised with Homer, South Park fans love anything to do with Randy rather than the kids. Stan and Kyle have turned into little whiny moaners, especially Kyle and no-one really cares about Kenny that much. Cartman however, goes from strength to strength and it's good that they try and spend as much time on him as possible as he is the real star - alongside Randy of course.
You Have 0 Friends is to do with Facebook and it being essentially a monster of it's own. The great thing is Stan going into a Tron world inside Facebook and Randy, of course, is completely in love with the idea of social networking. The funny bits are basically the bits with the loner kid and the idea of friends as a currency in the online world, but again, compared to earlier episodes such as the one with Faith + 1, Fingerbang or so on, it really doesn't stand up. The next up was a two parter about celebrities, and mainly Tom Cruise getting their own back on South Park, it was also about the sudden shock news of showing Mohammad. These episodes did create a bit of a frenzy in the Muslim world but really it's just more celeb bashing with celebs they've used already anyway. So nothing new really.
The last episode of the first half of the season (phew) was Crippled Summer and apart from the 'Mimseyyyy!' line and a shark raping a kid, it was pretty crap. Why they ended the first half on this I'll never know. When it came back months later with Poor and Stupid, a show about NASCAR, there was some funny Cartman and Butters moments - "that's gay" - but it was quite boring. It's a Jersey Thing takes a look at the sudden hype surrounding shows like Jersey Shore, Housewives of New Jersey etc. and has one of the most shocking endings I've seen on a South Park yet as the Taliban fly some American Airline jets in to save the day and Bin Laden is commended as a hero. I don't think I saw that one coming.
Insheeption was another favourite and caused some outrage by copying jokes from well known comedy site College Humour (as documented in this blog). The episode which has a look at Mr Mackey's past is hilarious and the young Mackey is the best thing I'd seen in South Park in this season. The next three episodes returns to Cartman's Dark Knight Coon superhero, except he now has Coon and Friends (a homage to old TV series Spiderman and Friends), it's the classic gang with a new member Mintberry Crunch and you find out who Mysterion, as well as the others, while they try to save the world from BP's mistakes - "sorry". This 3 parter started well but soon got quite boring and the very end was a big anti-climax - which is a shame because there were a couple of good moments.
The final episode Creme Fraiche is another good Randy episode as he seems to get aroused by cooking while his wife has a strange new exercise machine. Once again, there were a few good moments, including a great Gordon Ramsay impression by Cartman but it didn't save the series.
Overall, it might even be worse than season 13, and I didn't hold that in high regard either. It's a shame but I think South Park needs to take a look at itself and maybe start spending more time writing the shows because it seems they are running out of ideas. Fortunately, it's nowhere near dying as yet and I still enjoy watching it, it just isn't the same. I'd just rather it stop now than turn into the self-parody that is The Simpsons, a show that is absolutely terrible these days and treats it's audience like a 5 year old child.
It's still better than The Simpsons and I'd say it's better than Family Guy, which is hit and miss for completely different reasons, and definitely not as smart or original (minus the College Humour thing). What I love most is last week, the creators are being sued for Butters doing the 'What What in The Butt' song, probably the last great hope before the show finally started turning into what it is now.
People are starting to work themselves up into a frenzy that the Playstation Phone will be around the corner soon. However, even though it's been verified that Sony are working on a device that doesn't need constant Wi-Fi but uses a cellular network, it might be assumed that this will just be the PSP2 people have been hearing about.
The image here was 'leaked' online but it's hard to say whether it's real or not. Apparently it will run on Google Android and feature direct access to the Sony Marketplace. Engadget says the device pictured features a 1GHz QualcommMSM8655 mobile processor, 512MBs of RAM, 1GBs of ROM, a 3.7 to 4.1-inch touchscreen display, a built-in camera with LED flash, and the slider panel. The bit in the middle is a touch sensitive surface rather than analog sticks and well, that's about it.
Sony have neither confirmed nor denied the picture which means it either is a proper leak, or it's just creating online buzz as a marketing ploy, or both. Either way, let's hope it's not like the N:Gage. Do you know anyone who bought that? Let me know - because they weren't cheap!
Dark Knight Returns
Christopher Nolan has announced that Batman 3 will be entitled 'The Dark Knight Rises' and, although we know Tom Hardy will be in it, we still don't know as what. Nolan ruled out the Riddler making an appearance and it will be shot in 2D like the last one. There have been rumours that the villain might be a woman ... let's hope it's not Halle Berry again.
Craprica
If, like me, you were still holding out in the hope that Caprica could get better then don't bother, it's been cancelled. Ratings and reviews were tough (Wild Bore one will be up as soon as I finish the first season), but with it's painfully slow storyline and with no action, it's hardly surprising. The Battlestar fans were never going to get on board with it as it has been lacking anything that had drawn their interest. Has anyone else been watching it?
Instead Syfy has asked BGS makers to concentrate on Cyclon Wars set prequel Blood & Chrome, with a young Bill Adama taking on the Cylons. At the moment, it's just a TV pilot but could turn into a series completely set during the war, which would be a lot better.
If you're a big fan of Caprica don't worry, they will be drip feeding the end of the first season throughout the beginning of 2011. Yawn.
Star Wars New Films & 3D Extravaganza
If you didn't already know, George Lucas is going to squeeze out even more money by re-releasing the entire 6 Star Wars films in 3D (as well as the 4 Indiana Jones films) and if it is to be believed, that afterwards he will embark on three new films taking place during Episodes 4-6 but nothing to do with the main characters. This also will be completely separate to the confirmed Star Wars TV series that was greenlit a little while ago. Is it all a bit too much? What do you think?
South Park "Insheeption" Rip Off
Oh dear, for what is normally my favourite original show it looks like the South Park crew have ripped off College Humour in terms of their Inception jokes last week. They have since apologised but here's the original College Humour video and the end is great, what do you think? Worth apologising for?
In case you don't know, Martin Freeman (Tim from The Office) is now going to be Bilbo in Jackson's The Hobbit. Is this a good call? I will hedge my bets after his carbon copy acting that might as well be renamed as the following. "Tim From The Office In Space!" (Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy), "Tim From The Office At School" (Nativity) etc. etc., but let's wait and see. Oh and Sylvester McCoy, the Time Lord himself, might pop up as a wizard.
Avatar Sequels
And sothe time has come for Cameron to announce that he will be filming Avatar 2 and 3 back to back to be released at Christmas 2014 and 2015. Apparently they will be self-contained stories, so I don't think it will be a Matrix blunder this time. Do you think they should just leave it alone?
Devil May Cry
Capcom are doing quite well at the moment. Dead Rising 2 has made them a tonne of money so far and even DLC Dead Rising : Case Zero (which I enjoyed) has made them a fair bit. People have complained that these 'paid' pre-release items will mean the end of free demos, but I argue that as long as these titles are self-contained, they are worth shelling out for. It's just an extra bit to the story and demos will always be free because people will always want to know what they are buying first if they can help it, and this is extremely important with games. Anyway, back to Devil May Cry, Capcom have said that a new look Dante is coming back and they've teamed up with the amazing Ninja Theory team to release it. I'm excited. Are you? You mean about the game? So did I ... sure ....
