Video Game Destroys the Box Office

Tired of merely killing Aliens, the space marines of Halo 3 set their sights on the film industry, claiming poor Ben Stiller as their first casualty.

According to Studio Briefing the release of Halo 3 may have been the cause of the recent low box office earnings. Here is the original segment:

Some industry analysts are blaming the release of the videogame Halo 3 for the current dive in movie ticket sales. Advertising Age has observed that over the Oct. 5 weekend, after Halo 3 had sold $300 million worth of copies, the box office was down 27 percent below the same weekend last year -- the worst performance for an October weekend since 1999. Over the same weekend, The Heartbreak Kid, which some box-office gurus had predicted would make up to $30 million, brought in only $14 million. "The audience on this game is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you'd see in cinemas," Mike Hickey, an analyst at Denver research firm Janco Partners, told AdAge, adding that the box-office slide "could last for several weeks.

This is just going by official sales and isn't taking into consideration all the pirate copies of the game that are bound to have spread. In any case this means that film distributors will now also have to take high profile game releases into consideration. The poor performing R-rated Heartbreak Kid was essentially released when a large chunk of it's target audience were glued to their computer. Big oops DreamWorks.

Since games tend to consume a lot more time then major sporting events this means that distributors are going to have a whole new bunch of challenges on their hands. Possibly having to forecast a games potential impact in weeks before claiming a release date.

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Stick Arena: Say Good Bye to Your Life

Stick Arena is a game from XGen Studios where you run around and kill other stick men. The best part is it's a live multiplayer game, which means you are running around against live opponents.

You can also register and thus keep all your stats. So grab a baseball bat, sword or gun and kill some stick figures.

 Play Stick Arena

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The Most Disgusting Short Story Ever Written

Sexual taboos and gross out vomiting, now that's a crazy combination for one little story.About two years ago I read a review for Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted, which you should probably know a little about first. Basically Haunted is a short story collection, however, instead of just arbitrarily collecting his short stories in an anthology Palahniuk has weaved them into a novel. Basically the main characters are all partaking in the same twisted writing seminar and Palahiniuk’s short stories are the work of the characters.

Anyway, the review made mention of one particular story called Guts. The reviewer broke off into a rant over how disgusting this popular Palahinuiuk story is. Anyway, I completely forgot about the review and went on with my life. Then the other day I started reading Haunted and Guts is the first short story in the collection.

This tale of taboo sexuality is probably the most disgusting thing I have ever read. I actually gagged while reading it (in fairness I was hung over). It’s an extremely well written piece of fiction and as disgusting as it is I could not stop reading. It’s starts off fluffy and lighthearted and climatically builds till your wriggling in your seat with discomfort. I was forced to finish and walked around for the rest of the day as nauseous as hell. Strangely enough I highly recommend it. Read Guts here.

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Review: Reaper

Writing this review made me sleepy.

The Plot: Another show with a slacker but this time he doesn’t become a top secret government security concern (Chuck). Sam just turned 21 and what he doesn’t know is that before he was born his parents sold his soul to the devil. Satan himself has come to collect and now Sam must live out the rest of his life as the devil’s bounty hunter, capturing escaped souls from hell.

The Good: Kevin Smith (Clerks) directs this quirky pilot to perfection, delivering a sharp witty, quick paced 40-minutes that packs on the comedy. You have to love a show where the main character dropped out of college because it made him sleepy. Bret Harrison is perfect in the lead role and his own show has been a long time coming. Ray Wise makes a great devil and Tyler Labine as the weird sidekick friend is hilarious.

The Bad: No actual horror here and this is the kind of show that should have some kind of scare factor. Plus I saw the second episode and it was the same formula, which was a bit of a downer. The show needs to make the escaped souls concept better.

The Ugly: Once again a comparison of the first two episodes but the effects budget was obviously much higher in the first and the second really didn't feature much action.

The Verdict: The show scored a 2.1/3, which is good for the CW, plus it has had very small declines since the debut which means this should be around for the season.

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Review: Journeyman

Have you been leaping randomly through time only to return and be disappointed to discover that you missed the premiere of Journeyman. Well at least you can read this review.

The Plot: Much like the average university student, Dan Vassar blacks out and wakes up in strange places. However, Vassar isn't just waking up in strange places but different periods of time. Vassar struggles to understand what is happening to him as he unexpectedly journeys through time. 

The Good: For some reason I was not expecting much from this show but I was completely offside. Everything fits into place in a show that brings back good memories of that other TV time travel extravaganza Quantum Leap. The obvious differences being that Dan Vassar always remains Dan Vassar and that he gets to return to his regular life. There is no explanation as to why Vassar makes these leaps, which will provide a good reason for viewers to keep watching. Kevin McKidd has a charming bulldog like quality in the lead roll. Plus their is a juicy emotional story/love triangle set up that should be entertaining.

The Bad: Nothing overly hectic here but for some reason nobody seems to age in the 10 year intervals in the story. You would think a show that shows people at different stages would have invested in some 'age' makeup.

The Ugly: I can't think of anything, maybe I should mention the lack of ageing thing again.

The Verdict: From what I've seen I want this show to go on, however the similarly themed Day Break (which also had Moon Bloodgood) didn't last last season. Plus the show took a big knock in the ratings from it's second to third episode. I recommend watching this one while it's around.

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Review: The Big Bang Theory

Will this show make a ‘big bang’? Read the review and find out… God, I hate myself.

The Plot: Two nerds amble around in their socially challenged lives until a beautiful girl moves in next door and decides to befriend them.

The Good: The concept is not that bad and has the potential to produce some good comedy.

The Bad: It’s a traditional sitcom (which if you haven’t been paying attention – I hate). The execution is all-wrong and the show just feels clunky. I think there is a strong script here but the actors are not able to pull it off. The best way to look at it would be to compare it to the shows creators other gig – Two and a Half Men. The jokes are similar and at the same intensity but there’s no Charlie Sheen and Richard Cryer to deliver them.

The Ugly: I can’t stand Kayley Cuoco, as they say in France – “She’s lame.” Johnny Galecki doesn’t do nerd very well and instead goes for creepy. Jim Parsons is channeling David Hyde Pierce in all the wrong ways.

The Verdict: While I and about a million other people stopped watching it after the premier it’s doing pretty well for a sitcom currently (and it’s in a tough time slot). I don’t think this show has a particularly high budget, so if the viewer dropping stops it should make it through its first season. It might even hit its stride late in the season as many new sitcoms do and gain some viewers.

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Do You Want Smarter Posts?

We’ve just added the intelligent expandable posts hack. The hack makes it so the “Read It…” link only appears when there is more to the post. Meaning that there is no more “Read It…” link at the end of a short post when there is nothing further.

To add it to your blog click here. But be warned the post is in Spanish and Google Translator changes the code. So make sure to have a translated and untranslated version of the page open.

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Review: Chuck

It’s a strange name yet there’s a martial arts expert (Chuck Norris), a kick ass author (Chuck Palahniuk), two recent movies (I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Good Luck Chuck) and now a TV show that all share it.

The Plot: Josh Schwartz (The OC) brings us the story of slacker inadvertently exposed to a subliminal message that encodes his brain with all the information from the recently destroyed US super computer. Now Chuck has all of the US governments secrets and classified information lying dormant in his head and is suddenly America’s no.1 security concern.

The Good: This is a fast paced quirky action comedy. The lead Zachary Levi is charismatic and likeable and he is surrounded from a great support cast. Plus Adam Baldwin is in the show (which would mean something to you if you’ve heard of Firefly or Serenity).

The Bad: None of the jokes are laugh out load funny. They are more of the – think quietly to yourself, “well that’s worth a chuckle but not out load” kind of variety.

The Ugly: Nothing, really this is one of the best new shows. Some may argue that the show is cheesy and far-fetched but that’s exactly what it’s meant to be.

The Verdict: It’s in a tough time slot having to deal with Dancing with the Stars, the How I Met Your Mother/The Big Bang Theory comedy block, and Prison Break. Plus it’s the lead in for Heroes, which has seen its ratings dropping rapidly. In TV world when a new show is the lead in for a hit and the hits ratings starts to drop the new show is often blamed. As much as I love this show the ratings have been steadily dropping from 6.0/9 to 5.1/8 to 4.5/7 after three episodes, if this continues the show is toast.

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Review: Back to You

Anybody want to read a review of Back to You? ...Anybody?

The Plot: A big time news anchor fucks up royally on air resulting in him returning to the small town news station where his career began.

The Good: The return of Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) and Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) to TV charms this small screen sitcom right up. Plus having Fred Willard (Anchorman) in the cast is a further bonus. As far as traditional sitcoms go this is a top-notch act. A high joke ratio with the punch lines being delivered by seasoned pros. Throw in some melodramatic soap opera type plot aspects and you have a formulae for a very entertaining show.

The Bad: It’s a traditional sitcom. Traditional sitcoms are over, maybe not in the ratings but they’ve served their purpose in culture and will soon disappear. It’s only a matter of time before we do away with the canned laughter for good. Allowing the audience the autonomy to decide what is actually funny and being able to squeeze more jokes into the 22-minute format.

The Ugly: Some fat guy who was more than unconvincing as the station manager. On a generally excellent cast he stands out like a sore thumb bringing the show down.

The Verdict: I’m predicting a moderate hit, but what the hell do I know?

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Review: Gossip Girl

After a long delay, due to technical difficulties, the new TV season reviews continue with Gossip Girl .

The Plot: Picture a snooty private high school in New York where the majority of the students get more pocket money than you make in a year. At this high school the queen bee of uber-chicks suddenly disappears without a trace. One year later she returns unexpectedly causing mass confusion among her spoilt pears. The whole event is documented by the schools anonymous gossip blogger – Gossip Girl.

The Good: Josh Swartz (The OC) is back delivering some more of those quick witty comments that made his first show a success.

The Bad: The cast members who get these lines might as well be reading passages from the dictionary. That’s right, there’s no Adam Brody here just some uncharismatic pretty boy who wouldn’t know sarcasm if it pissed in his Sprite Zero.

The Ugly: I read a review of this show that said if you turned off the sound you wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from The OC, which I found odd because visually the shows a hit. Great cinematography that captures autumn in New York, making this a somewhat different looking Teen show. However, it’s the same old same old in terms of story. Swartz has his beloved triangle theory in full force and the actors are all really just there for their aesthetics. Plus, the little girl from The Grinch is there wearing skimpy outfits, and at 14 that’s just creepy.

The Verdict: I’m tempted to rule this show off, but it might be a hit with the teens. With such a “young” cast there’s a chance they might hit their stride after a couple of episodes, plus the CW doesn’t exactly expect stellar ratings.

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