Drunk History
As a history teacher, I appreciate new and innovative ways of presenting information. And behold, you have Drunk History. Please thank FunnyorDie.com for this great material.
Tag » Alan
Batman: Arkham City trailer
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Here is the trailer for the new Batman: Arkham Asylum trailer. It looks, well, amazing. Check it out.
Click Here to see the new Batman: Arkham City Trailer w/ Hugo Strange
Roy Halladay is a stud
As a Mets fan, it pains me to put this in writing. In fact, I think I am currently throwing up in my mouth as I type. But I believe that Roy Halladay has to be the best pitcher in baseball and deserved the unanimous vote for the 2010 Cy Young. First off, I will just give you the numbers.
21-10
2.44 ERA
1.04 WHIP
219 Ks
1 Perfect Game.
1 Playoff No Hitter (only the second in playoff history)
9 Complete games
What has always awed me was the fact that the manager, whether Manuel or Gaston, can easily rely on Halladay to complete 1/2 of his games. In the past three years he has 27 complete games, 10 more than anyone else. This is at a time where many pitchers might have one or two throughout the entire season.
Roy Halladay has been a stud since 2002. What made me realize how dominant he is was a short special on the MLB network. They were reviewing the CY Young voting and talked of his past. In 2001, he was dropped of the MLB roster, as the Blue Jays sent him back to the minors, and not to AAA but to their Single A affiliate. Since he has returned to the major league roster, he has now won two Cy Young awards, one in each league, as well as been in the top five for voting.
My personal Roy Halladay experience came this summer. My wife, as well as Keith’s, bought us Mets/Phillies tickets for an August game in NYC. This was our first time there, and I should write a post about our experience there, but we also were able to see a game in lovely Citi Field. The pitching match-up was ripe for a no hitter, with the masterful Halladay pitching against future HOF pitcher Pat Mitsch (ok probably not). The game was over in about 2 1/2 hours. Seriously, Halladay just mowed them down, one by one, running through innings, in no time flat. Our wives missed three innings just by going to the concession stand.
So where does Doc Halladay rank as active pitchers in baseball? Unfortunately, he is currently the best pitcher in the planet.
5 Worst Local Commercials
I’ve only got half of the 5&5 but what the hell. As you may know we live in Maine. What else can you say about these “works of art”? These are the commercials that make my teeth itch every time they’re aired.
Bangor Car Care:
This guy plays off the “Maine accent” with his now famous battle cry of “Come Join the Paaahty!” (that’s Party for those of you who haven’t read a Stephen King book in your lifetime). We even get to hear this guy on radio spots, screeching his message to all who aren’t fast enough to change the channel in time.
Bangor Car Care: Come Join the Paahty!
Goodwin Chevrolet:
This guy is about as stiff as they come. I love the full-on ninja slash he does at the end of the commercial though. “Home of the <slash> rock bottom deal”. Makes me laugh every time.
Goodwin Chevrolet: Home of the Rock Bottom Deal
Marden’s:
Marden’s is a discount warehouse with 14 locations in Maine (I only knew of 3. You learn so much from the Internet). My kids were quick to point out this next lady shared an uncanny resemblance to one of our aunts. She does. It’s creepy.
Jolly John:
This guy has been around for 30 years or so. With his grating catch phrase “I’m not Jolly unless you’re happy…” he’s been assaulting the airwaves on both TV and radio spots since the beginning. His car dealership did a promotion back in the late ’80′s, giving away cardboard “Jolly John” masks at all the dealership outlets and for any local businesses that wanted a case. Naturally, Alan called up and was promptly shipped an entire case of masks. Immediately upon receipt, Alan started distributing them to the family by strategically locating them under bedsheets, in kitchen drawers, in textbooks, on the bathroom mirror, etc….
I’m not Jolly unless you’re happy…
The China Dine-ah:
This place isn’t half bad. Good food, always busy but we’ve been seated relatively quickly every time. The theme song….well give it a listen and you tell me. Then listen to it about 10 more times in a row. When they air the commercials for this place you hear this song at every commercial spot, so about every 10 minutes or so. It gets old FAST. Click on the link below and give their theme song a play (it’s right on their home page, you should be looking right at it when you first get there).
Honorable mentions I couldn’t find on the web.
Big Al’s:
This guy’s clearly “not from around here”, sporting more of a New York accent and the same gorilla tee shirt in every tv spot. If you can find him on the web, give him a look.
CMP (Central Maine Power):
This one’s a classic. The commercials were for Central Maine Power Company and featured one of their line workers, Jim Wright. The guy ended every commercial with “No Liun is save ta touch, EVAH.” (no line is safe to touch, ever). I could not locate a copy of any of his old commercials anywhere on the internet. I did find his Facebook Fan Page though.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=54003579298&ref=ts
Date: October 4, 2010
Categories: 5 and 5, Film and Television, Maine Stuff, Uncategorized
‘Tis the Season: It’s Monster Cereal Time
Nothing says “Halloween” like chocolate, strawberry, or blueberry-flavored cereals with marshmallows, supplying your body with enough sugar to put small laboratory animals in a coma. Grab a box while you still can. I got 3. Just in case.
The classics: The Monster Cereals. FrankenBerry, BooBerry, and Count Chocula
Game Review: God of War III
God of War III picks up where the story of Kratos left off, with our favorite anti-hero and an army of the Titans climbing Mount Olympus to storm the gates with Zeus and the other gods watching on in horror. The opening sequence alone is worth the ride and the game really doesn’t slow down from there, taking you from the depths of Hades to the very highest tower of the City of Olympus and back again (then back another time, but if you play you’ll see what I mean). I’m sorry that the creators are ending (or as the rumors go) the story of Kratos with this game, but what a way to go out. Kudos to the team at Sony for one of the most spectacular games I’ve played this year. (click on the image below to see the official God of War III trailer, and yes, the graphics in game ARE that good)
Click Here for God of War III trailer
Objective: 10 The objective of these games has always been simple enough: kill everything that moves, and if it fights back all bets are off. The God of War series takes the term “hack and slash” to a different level as Kratos can “finish” some of his opponents off with a series of button and thumbstick combinations. The best part of this game is the cast of characters Kratos walks through to get to his goal. With everyone from Poseidon, Mercury, Helios (yes, he even kicks the sun’s ass), to his half brother Hercules, you never run out of someone famous to beat to a pulp. The fight with Hercules is particularly brutal as there seems to be no love lost between these two boys (each seems to think the other was Zeus’s favorite).
Theme: 10 How can I not love the theme of this game? The writers took the best parts of written mythology, threw in some Clash of the Titans (the original, the new one just seemed to be a ripoff of this game….which ironically seemed to be based heavily on the original Clash of the Titans), a little bit the anachronistic humor of Sam Raimi’s Hercules, the bloody violence and against-all-odds battles from 300, and a few Mortal Komat style finishers for good measure. There’s nothing like beating down a centaur who’s been kicking you in the head for the last 5 minutes, then gutting him from nut to nipple while he’s still kicking.
Gameplay: 10 The gameplay aspect really hasn’t changed since the original, albiet with a few improvements here or there to keep things interesting. The creators have added or changed weapons to better fit with the style and flow of the game, or added skills that Kratos could earn to mix things up a bit (like using Helios’s head to blind your opponent). I did like the fact that they added more puzzles to this installment and kept the fighting of endless hordes to a minimum. In my opinion it improved the gameplay drastically. As simple as the controls and gameplay is, it is well constructed and keeps things from getting too stale as the game progresses.
Sound: 10 The sound effects in this game are sold in the details. There are quite a few scenes where you’re looking down on a battlefield and the distant sounds of swords clashing, people screaming, etc… really sells the effect. The voice acting was well cast and included the return of Terrence Carson as Kratos. The cast also featured surprise turns from Adrienne Barbeau as a bitter alcoholic Hera, Malcolm McDowell as the tragic Daedalus (Kratos had killed his son Icarus in the first game, and Dad finds that out as soon as he sees the wings on Kratos’s back), Clancy Brown as a particularly menacing Hades (but Mr. Brown goes all out on just about every voice over he does. Gotta love the guy), Rip Torn as Hephaestus the one I felt the worst about cutting down, and Kevin Sorbo as Hercules (which I didn’t know until just now, well after I referenced the Sam Raimi Hercules as an influence).
Replay Value: 8 I do have to finish Resistance: Fall of Man, and Assassin’s Creed II, both of which I’m currently playing, but I do plan on playing this game at least one more time. Replay unlocks further items, however the usefulness of said items remains to be seen (hence the comment about “at least one more time” for replay).
Total Score: 9.6
I really enjoyed this game, I think moreso than its predecessors. I attribute that to the addition of all the puzzles and the extent of scale used in this game. The battle with the Titan Chronos exemplifies everything this series of games has been all about. There’s something to be said for scaling your opponent to get a few shots in… and when you do take down the boss that stands hundreds of feet tall.
Thanks for tuning in. I guess the next time you hear from the DerosbyBrothers review desk, it will be to report on either Transformers: War for Cybertron or Assassin’s Creed II.
-CWD
Coming to BluRay and DVD
Before I type anything else, let me just apologize profusely for subjecting you to something this horrible this early in the morning.
This might have been Alan and Keith’s favorite go-to crap movie back when we were kids. Now everyone has another chance to marvel over just how bad this movie really was. And this movie is up there on the list of worst movies EVER produced. It’s definitely the worst one I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen both “Plan 9″, “Robot Monster”, “Dr. Parnassus”, and “Anchorman”. I put this one at the head of the pack.
Here’s the “international trailer” for the movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KCct4RwLNM
….and if you are so inclined, here’s where you can purchase the BluRay.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=5016
-CWD
Upcoming Movies
I’ve been busy this morning. Between surfing the web, playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, and falling asleep on the couch to Phineas and Ferb, I’ve gotten a lot done this morning. I found trailers to three upcoming movies that look promising.
I’m expecting Cloverfield-type disappointment to set in about a week after seeing Monsters. In an age of incredible possibilities through CGI, I guess I get a little suspicious nowadays when the directors refuse to show you what everybody in the movie is running or hiding from. There’s a fine line between suspense and “we have no idea what to make this thing look like, so we’ll work around it by pretending to be artsy and creative and not show you anything”.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/monsters/
I’m planning for mainstream-horror fare from Case 39, a psychological looking Omen-meets-The Exorcist movie starring Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper. It looks like it has real potential, which is the problem. I can handle a bad movie that knows it’s bad: they’re fun to watch even when they’re meant to be serious. It’s the ones that have all the potential in the world then fail to deliver that I can’t stand. After watching this trailer, I relegated this one to the Red Box pile pending further review.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount_vantage/case39/
Let Me In, starring Chloe Moretz (the entertaining and amazingly vulgar Hit Girl from Kick-Ass) looks to be the best of the bunch and has a real indie-horror feel to it. Kid befriends the girl next door who turns out to be a murderous vampire. Maybe I’ll drag the other Derosby Brothers to the theater for this one.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/letmein/
Thanks to Apple Movie Trailers.com, without whom (?) I’d have been extremely less productive this morning. You can see all of these trailers and more by following the link to their site http://trailers.apple.com/.
-CWD
Wow, I need a new pair of shorts
I think I just poo’d myself. Check out this trailer. I am so excited that they have changed Bioshock for the better.
Red Dead Redemption review
I have to start out by saying I absolutely loved this game. I am not one for games that resemble Grand Theft Auto but this is one of the most engaging games I have played for the PS3. Unlike games like GOW3, the old west is yours to roam. I actually received this game from my wife for Father’s Day, actually getting it a week early, and I have been playing it ever since. When I first mentioned I wanted this game, it was due to all the hype surrounding it. To be honest, the first few missions, I found myself a bit bored and confused as to what my objective was. But once I did figure it all out, the world was my oyster. There is so much to do here, I could spend the next month or so just finishing side missions.
I will use Craig’s grading system so we can be uniform on it.
Objective: 10 This game takes place in the late 1800′s and brings you right into the old west, as the US is expanding into unchartered and untamed areas of this country. You are John Marston, an outlaw left for dead by your old cowboy gang (now cowboys were actually the bad guys, so lets not confuse it with the cowboys and indians of the 1950s). The government kidnaps your lovely wife and child, making you work for them. Your goal? Why hunting down your old gang. The great thing about this game is you have the opportunity to choose the path you want. Let’s say you go into a saloon and you feel someone disrespected you by bumping your shoulder. You have two choices, move on or make him pay for his behavior. You are judged on your actions. If you become a killer you are treated as such, where bounties will be put on your head. You can pay those off but the people will still treat you differently. Become a hero to people and they will love you. It has taken me a few weeks to help John Marston finish his quest, I would say about 18 or so hours, but I did quite a few side missions. And if you do choose to take the righteous path, this does not mean you do not shed blood, so no worries. If a prostitute is being slapped around by a disrepectful drunk, you just set your sights and take him down. I can say there were times I wanted to change my direction as many people in the game play you for a fool and hold your family over your head. Sometimes it comes down to dueling, where you stand man-to-man, and stare down the barrel of a gun. There are so many side missions that you could be playing for months. You can collect new outfits, save people who are in need of some justice, and collect both animal skins and specific plants.
Theme: 10 This was an amazing game, and what made it amazing, was the theme of the game itself. The story was excellent but the research and development of the Old West made it so. All the weapons you used were around at that specific time. The missions you performed were creating using historical research into the quests itself, including hunting down animals and skinning them. The background and animation were just beautiful. There were times, as I rode my horse in the early morning hours, that I could pull up besides a raging river and watch the sun rise. And it legitimately feels as though it is all so real. Again, what really appealed to me was the attention to detail, not only of the visuals but also of the dedication to really making it feel like you were roaming the west, and Mexico, during that specific time period.
Gameplay: 9 For me, as one who had a hard time getting into Grand Theft Auto, I thought I would hate the gameplay since it so closely resembled GTA. However, I actually thought it was fairly easy to use. As you fought, you could change your weapons, even chosing between the types of revolvers, shotguns, etc… This, to me was not always easy, as it could sometimes change back. Also I thought some of the things you bought, like the maps and medicine, took too long to get to, as you had to pause it, then find them. In the middle of a shoot-out, it seems out of place to pause it just to take medicine. There must be an easier way.
Soundtrack: 8 The music was great. My only issue would be that the voice and the volume level would stay the same. There were times I had to turn it up to hear them speak and then turn it down a bit because the shooting was too loud (for my wife sitting next to me. She just doesn’t understand vigilante justice).
Replay value: 10 This is one of the few games where I might go back and play through the whole thing. It is not only fun to play the side missions, but you can also choose to take a different path. I was not one to waste my bullets on civilians but the next time around, those sons of bitches might not be so lucky.
Total Score: 10 I dont’ generally tell people to spend $60.00 unless it is imperative, and it is necessary my friends. This is one of the best games I have ever played as you are not put in a set form and walked through, like God of War. You pick your path and it follows you throughout. There are games such as Star Wars Unleashed, where you decide whether you wish to be good or evil, but it leads you directly where they want you to go. There is no individualism. The only thing I would tell parents is that there is a lot of language in this game that could be considered “less-than-savory” for younger ears. There is no real sex like in GTA or GOW, and you cannot pay a prostitute for a little love. You are a devoted husband and father.
So pick up this game, roam the wild west, and enjoy yourself. Make sure you always carry your gun close to your side, because my gunslinging friend, you are going to need it.
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