Hadouken!

For you gaming fans, Street Figher IV has been confirmed for XBox 360, Playstation 3, and PC’s. It’ll be a cel-shaded 3-D fighter with a lot of the original cast returning, so it should be satisfying. Read more here, and go to the official site for character reveals this Friday, May 30.

I know the console isn’t designed for these sorts of games, but is it too much to ask for a Wii version? I was never very good at the game, but I liked playing it, so this is a title that would probably get me to plunk down $50 for it (well, at least $19.99 when the game gets discounted two or three years after its release).

One-Liners (Sorta)

Iron Man ROCKED. Caught it on Monday with my sister, who was worried that I wouldn’t like it because I usually complain about things gone wrong in movies. I’ll say that the only things I didn’t like was that Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) waffled between the liberated woman and the damsel in distress and that the last battle was too short and unsatisfying. BUT, the movie still kicked ass (including Captain America’s shield in the background!). More later.

Haven’t said much about the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, slated to come out July 18, but I am looking forward to it. A little miffed by Heath Ledger’s Joker voice, but I’ve only seen clips so it might be okay. There’s a clip on YouTube that I’ll have to find that shows the parallels between the trailer for the 1989 Tim Burton Batman and The Dark Knight. So similar, it’s eerie. But the reason I’m writing about it now is that it seems Reese’s has jumped on the bandwagon with their latest bat-shaped and Batman-themed candy. Here’s a link to the site.

It’s a bizarre baseball season, and Sports Illustrated’s covering it with comic artist Mark Bagley. The May 21, 2008 Sports Illustrated will feature a cover by Bagley with Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford, the Yankee’s Derek Jeter, and Superman villan Bizarro looking on. For those of you looking to get me a gift in the near future (or any future), the original art to the piece would be nice. =) Read more here.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about that SI cover jinx thing? Just after the cover was revealed, Derek Jeter had to leave the Yankee’s game against the Orioles after he was hit by a pitch by the Orioles’ Daniel Cabrera. The Yanks also lost, 12-2. Jinx intact!

Very quickly, the real winners in the NBA Draft Lottery held on Tuesday, May 20 were the Miami Heat. They had the highest chance of winning it, but the Chicago Bulls, with a 1.7% chance of getting the first pick overall, saw the ping-pong balls go their way. Problem is, the Bulls now have to pick between Michael Beasley, a 6-9 forward who can go inside and out, and Derrick Rose, a 6-4 point guard who can do it all. The Heat win, because they just have to choose whoever the Bulls don’t, and there’s no second-guessing by anybody. Just to throw it out there, I think the Bulls should take Beasley and the Heat Rose, but I think that Beasley is the more talented of the two (slightly), but Rose is tougher and will reach more of his potential than Beasley.

Lastly, happy birthday to Mr. T! The man turns 56(!) today.

Same Zip Code...

***UPDATED Tuesday, May 20 at 2:00 p.m. PDT***

Because Don asked… Jenny Garth, who starred on the original Beverly Hills, 90210 as Kelly Taylor, will reportedly guest-star as a school counselor at West Beverly High occasionally.

* * *

90210… Need I say more?



Alas, no Brenda, Dylan, or Brandon… but the Midwestern kids are from Kansas City, and Lori Laughlin plays a mom! Oh, and if any of you watch Reaper (which would probably be about zero of you), that's what you've seen Jessica Stroup in before (she's the Devil's daughter). Oh, she was also on Grey's Anatomy for an episode, so you may have seen her there, too.

Hmm… I thought the CW already had an updated 90210 in Gossip Girl.

What the...? of the Day

Sarah Jessica Parker at the Sex and the City movie premiere.

Dopey rating:

7 out of 10. Saved by the dress.

What the hell is with the headdress/hat thing on her head? Did she get dressed saying, “Hey, I want to avert eyes from my gorgeous dress and put myself squarely in the middle of a fashion faux pas?” Weird for a woman who’s usually right on the money, fashion-wise.

Here’s the rest of the cast:

Sex and the City opens nationwide Friday, May 30, 2008.

Goku!

For Don, who has enjoyed Dragonball… Here’s the first production still of Goku, from the forthcoming Dragonball live-action movie directed by James Wong (Final Destination) and produced by Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer, Kung-Fu Hustle).

The movie stars Justin Chatwin (Tom Cruise’s son in War of the Worlds) as Goku, Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshii, James Marsters (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer) as Piccolo, and Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera) as Bulma. It’s due out April 8, 2009.

Picture from Weekly Shonen Jump, Issue 24 (available this week). Read more at the Dragonball movie blog site.

I haven't ever watched the Dragonball anime or read the manga, but it's one of the biggest series in the world. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of high hopes for this movie.

Clone Wars!

There’s a new, weekly animated Star Wars series coming to TV this fall, but the pilot will be shown in theaters beginning August 15. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is based upon the shorts created by Gendy Tartovsky that aired on Cartoon Network a few years ago, which, incidentally, is probably the best Star Wars stuff EVER (and is available on two separate DVD’s). It’s set during the time between Episodes II and III of the movie series, so you get to see a lot of lightsaber and Force action. Needless to say, I’m excited about it.

The trailer for the new series will debut across multiple networks on Thursday, May 8 at 7:58 PM (local time). Cartoon Newtork, TNT, TBS, Boomerang (huh?), and even CNN will air the trailer simultaneously. Woo-hoo!

The series will air on Cartoon Network, with subsequent airings on TNT.

Today's Dwarf Rating

On a scale of 0-5 dwarves.

Sleepy

Grumpy

Dopey

BTW, I just realized that it's Snow White and the Seven DWARFS, and not Dwarves. Does that bother anybody else?

Happy Iron Man Day!

'Nuff said!

POW! Right to the Moon!

By now, most of you have seen this:



This just aired a couple of days ago (make sure you watch it through):

Get Your Joint On

In theaters now!

Yes, Please... Except I'm Going to have to Fork Out for Another System, Right?

Crazy Dog Story!

Yo... Joe?

You all know I’m a huge pop-culture geek, who’s into comics and Star Wars and Transformers and such, but I’m going to add one more to the mix. I’m a HUGE G.I. Joe nut. At least, the version of G.I. Joe that I grew up with in the 80’s. As my family can attest, I had every toy short of the aircraft carrier when I was younger and go so far back with it that I can remember days before the “kung-fu grip” (actually, it was swiveling-arm joints on the 3 ¾” figures).

Anyway, I got excited when they first announced that a G.I. Joe live-action feature was in the works, but have been disappointed in the supposed story lines and casting decisions. I’ll get more into that on another post, but I’ve also been disappointed in the costume designs. They released this a while ago in USA Today:

It’s a shot of actor Ray Park (Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace) as everybody’s favorite character from the 80’s Joe era, Snake Eyes. The fanboy reaction was mostly positive; I was less than thrilled. It’s an okay shot, until you see the full costume in better light:

All I can say is, “What’s with the cargo pants and the Batman-molded body suit?” It’s actually kinda faithful to the original design, but I would’ve preferred seeing him in costume similar to what the rest of the cast is wearing.

Things looked a little better (no sexual reference intended) with the reveal of the next character a couple of days ago, Scarlett. She’s played by Rachel Nichols, who’s appeared in the TV show Alias and most recently in the movies P2 and Charlie Wilson’s War (quick note: she’s listed as a cast member for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek as an Orion slave girl, yowza!):

Before you jump all over me for the pic of the hot redhead in the skin-tight outfit, this is what Scarlett looked like in the “classic” version:

Still, it looked like things might be okay, depending on how they filmed it. But then I got word that they released pics of the rest of the cast, which can be found at the website What Would Tyler Durden Do? (http://www.wwtdd.com/). I thought maybe Scarlett’s outfit would be just her costume, not the basis for costumes for the rest of the cast. Ugh. I’m sure that all of the characters will show up in their “normal” attire in the movie, but, still… I’m not getting a good vibe.

Even though knowing is half the battle, the other half is getting movie executives to make appropriate changes. Oy.

This is Gonna Rock

Who’s comin’ with me!?!?

Of course, we’ll have to resist the urge to race afterwards. But I'll still win. =)

Cold Turkey

As of this moment, I am going cold turkey on soda, caffeinated drinks, cigarettes, pot, heroin, coke, speed, and the other assorted drugs (illicit and otherwise) that I’m on, until the baby is born. It’ll give me a good cleanse before I really need to hit the stuff hard in a couple of weeks (holding out for April 28 *cross fingers*).

I actually gave up caffine in January, but then February hit, and all the winter and spring sports started to cross over. Basketball, swim championships, baseball, basketball tournaments, etc. all came to a head at the same time, and needless to say, I was back aboard the caffeine train.

This should be a good test of will power and give me a chance to come down to normal before Kindra and I lose what little sleep we get to the newborn and Danica climbing out of bed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go wait for the shakes to come as I come down from my sugar-induced, caffeinated, nicotine and THC supplanted acid trip.

Oh, Yeah... It's Gonna Fly

Totally taking Danica to the movie on May 2. Or maybe I’ll go at midnight, May 1… Hmmmmmmmm…

This is Funny… and Racist, Maybe?

Personally, I thought it was hilarious the first time I saw it… but I’m still not sure if the Japanese should be offended.

Congrats to the Hall of Fame Class of 2008!

Come Get the Spirit

Bear Grylls' Brother?

I feel really out of shape now… This dude rowed ACROSS THE FRICKIN’ OCEAN. Geez.