I lie, we usually end up spending most of the weekend trying to make our way through a movie. Thanks to our exhaustion and the calming effects of a little elevated blood alcohol, we tend to find an excuse to sneak upstairs before we finish with the flick.

You see children, when you get a little older and enter into your 30s and have kids of your own that are early risers and you work a good 40+ hour workweek and are physically active most of the week and sleep deprived…well, you tend to go to bed whenever you can. At least that’s my excuse.

SO, we rented Silver Linings Playbook.

The basic synopsis would be thusly. Pat Jr. is in a mental institution because he went ape when he caught his wife cheating on him, from there he proceeded to beat the living hell out of the offending man…hence the lockup. The movie starts with him being released into the care of his parents as he promises everyone that he’s a changed man, MOVIE COMMENCE!

It’s a tale of redemption, romance, and football, the latter I wish was not part of the movie, but it’s pretty damn important in moving the movie forward. Not being a resident in a state that has a prominent handegg sports ball team, I don’t get it. Hell, even if there were that here I’d still not get it.

You see, I don’t understand sports fandom, or fandom in general. I like things, I even get excited for things, but I don’t get the appeal of wearing a team member’s jersey and claiming that as a spectator that I somehow influenced the outcome of a match. /endrant

Ok back to the flick. So Pat Jr. is trying to get his life back together after spending 8 months locked away and is striving to get back with his estranged wife and has apparently made some drastic changes in order to do so. There’s one problem, she has a restraining order against him.

Enter their mutual friends who suddenly and mysteriously want him to come hang out…I don’t want to give anything away because this movie lives and dies by the amazing acting and chemistry between Jennifer Lawrence and Brad Cooper. Just watch this damn flick.

When I rented it, I jokingly called it “you will cry: the movie” and while I did get a little swoony over Mr. Cooper and Ms. Lawrence, I was never moved to tears like I am in other romantic movies (You’ve Got Mail makes me cry every damn time at the end.). There were two factors that seriously stole this flick. One, Chris Tucker where have you been? Seriously, when he showed up I was shocked and amazed at the same time because I friggin’ love that guy. Every scene with him was memorable and fun. Two, Robert De Niro made me believe he was an old kooky sports book, the acting chops this man has, good lord.

So all in all if you’re in the mood for a properly written adult drama with some great comedic moments (but not a comedy), this is your movie. I found it a bit obtuse at times with the scene at the Eagles football game especially, but I’m not complaining. I genuinely had a good time watching it and so did my partner…though I’m afraid I liked Bradley Cooper more than she did. Dude’s a good actor.

Now for a bit of haiku about this flick:

Oh Brad Cooper Why
Punching People Is No Good
Now It’s About Dance?

The post From The Redbox – Silver Linings Playbook appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Tuesday is a magical day around here at the WPR office, it’s that one point in the week where if I can get this show out, I don’t feel like such an ass…plus it is also early enough so that anything at all can happen!

This episode has the usual suspects Jasen Mortensen (and another of his goats), Kyle Steenblik, Ryan Wilson, and your faithful host Xopher Reed as we go into the week’s news, a whole bunch of other items, and best of all…the made up bands that X seems to create in his brain while bored to tears at his work.

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all…there are other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post OR you can leave comments on our Youtube account.

Please give our Facebook page a visit and give us a like while there, and if you’re a YouTube user who enjoys our show, by all means, SUBSCRIBE! We’ll keep you entertained!

The post RLR #143 – Booty appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

What you’re looking at above is the first test footage they’ve released showing the world of San Fransokyo. Those not in the know, the miniseries I’m talking about (Big Hero 6) and the one portrayed here was a spinoff of a much older comic from 1998. The most recent five-issue series was written by fan favorite writer Chris Claremont and penciled by David Nakayama (City of Heroes). The synopsis follows thusly:

“From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes “Big Hero 6,” an action comedy adventure about brilliant robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada, who finds himself in the grips of a criminal plot that threatens to destroy the fast-paced, high-tech city of San Fransokyo. With the help of his closest companion—a robot named Baymax—Hiro joins forces with a reluctant team of first-time crime fighters on a mission to save their city. Inspired by the Marvel comics of the same name, and featuring comic-book style action and all the heart and humor audiences expect from Walt Disney Animation Studios.”

The movie is set to land on November 7, 2014. This will be the first in what I’d assume is going to be a long line of Marvel animated movies, I just like how they went with an obscure story for their first pick.

The post Marvel’s Big Hero 6 is Disney Animation’s Next appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

A bit artistic really, the movie that launched his career as a filmmaker will also be the one that ends it.

In his excitement for being finished with the first draft, he posted a picture online and said the following:

“IT IS ACCOMPLISHED! First draft of CLERKS III is 137 pages. Plays like the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK of the Clerks trilogy.”

I hate to be THAT geek to Kevin Smith, but Empire was the second and ended with a gigantic cliffhanger…what are you going to do to us Mr. Smith? Oh wait, maybe he meant it’ll be the best and most cohesive of the trilogy? I’ll go with the latter.

SOURCE

The post Clerks III Moves Ahead appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

The costume so far seems to be reminiscent of Batman with just enough Tony Stark thrown in for good measure. I hate that we have things being derivative of everything else. It also appears that Murphy will be riding around on a motorcycle since the original had Robocop stepping out of a Ford Taurus, which is no bueno.

I don’t know what to expect, but I’m not going to be disappointed either way as it should be a fun movie regardless of what he looks like…right?

The post Robocop Remake – Set Shots appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

William Fichtner, who many of you will go…OOOOOHHHHHH THAT GUY. Has been cast in the movie but it’s not said exactly who he will play beyond a “lead role with iconic stature in the Turtles’ mythology” meaning he’ll either voice Splinter or more-than-likely, he’ll be the bad guy who he is always cast as.

I’m thinking, speculating, insinuating that he’ll be Shredder but instead of good ol Oroku Saki, he’ll be portraying the mysterious Colonel Schrader according to the leaked script that came out last year.

This movie could be pretty fun, but it’s definitely going to be dumb fun. What more would you expect from a Michael Bay production? I personally will remember the Turtles as I first experienced them…and leave it at that.

The post TMNT Movie’s Shredder Cast appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Yes, Arrested Development is back in less than two weeks time (May 26th) where my mind will be blown away with terrific writing and amazing acting from the entire crew. The best/worst part is that the show will have all episodes available at the same time…meaning I don’t have to wait, but I also am a bit of a show glutton when it comes to things on Netflix.

The post Arrested Development Season 4 Trailer Has Arrived appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

In the Netherlands, there are currently scientists who are working their asses off making meat from stem cells, in other words, they’re growing beef as if they were growing a culture of yeast.

Ok it’s not so simple, but think of it this way, stem cells from a cow that was set to be dispatched are harvested, prodded to multiply and then made into muscle cells. These cells create a layer of pure muscle cells (NO FAT) that are layered on top of each other essentially creating a burger in a beaker.

I can’t wait to have one myself, but then again, I’d eat almost any kind of meat…even human (I’m not even kidding). This could solve the humanity of meat as you’re not murdering an animal to eat their flesh, it’s all lab grown! Also you’d not need the giant farms anymore to get meat the old fashioned way. I shudder to think of the possibilites of this new industry in the near future.

I can’t wait. I friggin’ love science!

The post Introducing the STEMBURGER appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Ok well that’s the big news so far. The ABC bound show will already have a full season order meaning most likely that we’ll have 13-week arc that I hope will kick some serious ass.

What am I saying?!? Coulson is alive, of course it’ll be rad!

Also, we have a trailer that will be the biggest tease you’ll see this week.

Don’t touch Lola.

The post Big Marvel ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ News appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

So it’s finally Friday and we’re going to be recording yet another episode of the show that you can’t kill, the world famous Red-Light Roundtable!

This episode has the usual suspects Jasen Mortensen (and his baby goat), Kyle Steenblik, and your faithful host Xopher Reed talking the week’s news, and a whole bunch of other items, and of course the episode’s title Iron Man. We’ve all seen the movie and we rip the show a new one and praise it at the same time. It’s the damndest thing.

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all either…there are other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post OR you can leave comments on our Youtube account.

Please give our Facebook page a visit and give us a like while there, and if you’re a YouTube user who enjoys our show, by all means, SUBSCRIBE! We’ll keep you entertained!

The post RLR #142 – Irun Meng appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Activision Blizzard shocked me yesterday when they announced that their subscription-based MMORPG dropped by more than 10% in the first quarter of 2013. This could have absolutely nothing to do with the 1 year annual pass purchase that came with a ‘free’ copy of Diablo III last year could it?

That’s merely speculation on my part, but I do think that they’re definitely not hurting for income as they remain the juggernaut when it comes to MMO market share. Having 8 million plus members paying monthly is a nice and convenient chunk of change to be able to take to the bank each month.

If you need more fun with numbers about Activision Blizzard’s memberships, there’s a ton more information in the PDF below.

SOURCE

The post World of Warcraft Subscriptions Drops 1.3 Million appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

The decision from Ferrari to stay fossil fueled isn’t a great one in my mind as they’re unabashedly trying make their cars seem more manly by not allowing an all-electric concept to be made.

This isn’t to say that the company plans on remaining completely fossil fuel based as their 963 horsepower LaFerrari model is actually a hybrid.

None of this truly matters as I don’t ever see myself with enough disposable income to be able to purchase something as lofty as one of their machines. The Audi e-tron Quattro would more than likely by MY first choice anyways.

I’m forever VW.

SOURCE

The post Ferrari Says NO to Electric Engines appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

For the last 9 years Tesla Motors has been building up for this day, the day that they turn a profit. It might be a small report of $11.2 million, but it’s still PROFIT, which for those that don’t know the textbook definition means that they made more than they spent, AKA raking in the moolah.

Considering they have spent nearly half a billion dollars in start-up costs and loans, any money you can squirrel away after paying the bills and overhead is always a welcome thing.

This is only from a report on the Q1 report from the company, it’s going to be interesting how much these guys make after their other models hit the market and in the hearts and minds of their loving public.

I will be honestly interested in picking one up myself if they ever get the sub-30k market invaded.

SOURCE

The post Tesla Makes Profit for First Time in a Decade appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Tis true, Nook has decided to quit making hardware in lieu of having their content being accessed through apps that will be downloaded to third-party hardware. Read that last sentence as exactly what Kindle has done with their application.

So what is the tech giant Microsoft to do? Kindle has their Fire tablets, Apple has their iSeries with iBook, and MS has Surface with no proprietary app for book purchases. Well in typical MS fashion, they plan on dropping a cool billion onto Barnes and Noble in the hope that they’ll give up the ghost when it comes to the Nook.

I get what they’re trying to do, but I think like their entrance into the smartphone industry, that they’re a bit late in being there from day one. This isn’t to say that the market is already saturated enough as it is because there are always in-roads to any industry, however they’ll have to fight tooth-and-nail for each user they carve away from the other services.

SOURCE

The post Microsoft Looking to Spend $1 Billion on B&N’s Nook appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Did you know that this year is the first time in over five years that Sony has managed to turn a profit? Well it’s true and it won’t last.

Why won’t it last?

Well let’s be quick and brief with the why and the quickest answer is that they’re planning on launching the new cycle of PlayStation this winter/spring. Historically, this means that Sony is prepared to lose money with each console that is placed into the cheeto-stained hands of the consumer.

If they keep this up I can see how they might end up becoming the next Sega…at least they have other product lines besides their game systems to keep them in business for the time being.

The post Enjoy Those Profits Sony appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

The comic series Doc Savage began its life in the way back age of 1933 and followed the exploits of Clark Savage, Jr as he travels hither and yon having adventure all along the way as he is more than an adventurer, he is an inventor, a scientist, AND a physician.

There’s no set date for release right now but like anything else that Mr. Black touches, I’m sure it’ll do just fine. I can only hope that it spurs a resurgence of Indiana Jones-esque movies so we can move away from Marvel films.

The post Shane Black Coming Back for Doc Savage appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

November 1st can’t come soon enough!

Really, if you haven’t ever read the book by Orson Scott Card, you’re doing yourself a bit of a disservice if you consider yourself any bit of a sci-fi fan. The movie version of the story that inspired me into my Clark Kent (read that as non-website related) career along with Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein.

The film features Asa Butterfield as Ender, and a whole slew of other great actors and actresses such as Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley. The trailer I fear might give a little too much away if you’ve not read the original…then again, you’d not know that if I hadn’t said that, so nevermind.

The post Ender’s Game – Trailer appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Our more astute audience members might recall that she has been endearing herself to the science fiction world more and more with each movie she chooses and that streak seems to be continuing. Beyond her work as Neytiri in Avatar and Uhura in Star Trek, she can now add her role as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy.

She joins the ranks of Chris Pratt (Star Lord) and Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer) in the cast for the hotly anticipated movie coming in 2014.

The post Guardians of the Galaxy Snags Zoë Saldaña appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Now I won’t get into all of the sordid details about this movie since I’m not going to be changing anyone’s minds about the flick and not to mention all of my arguments are solely gut reactions to things that really, truly, and honestly don’t matter in the long run.

The one thing I feel that they did a miraculous job with in the Captain America movie was in the costume department as they managed to not only make Hugo Weaving look completely wicked as the Red Skull, but they managed to sell a more believable Cap to the world, and after seeing this one bit of concept art for the next Captain America, I can say that I’m super happy they got one thing right, the mother effing cybernetic arm!

After he fell off the train in the first movie, Bucky Barnes gets frozen and later picked up by the Soviets minus one arm and with a full blown case of amnesia, therein lies the entire drama of the next film. I’m just really glad that they didn’t pussy out and remove the awesomely 80s based comic book tech (yes I know Winter Soldier came out in ’05).

The post Winter Soldier Concept Changes My Mind appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

It’s never an easy task to take a look at something beyond its face value. I try to avoid doing so as often as possible because there is no quicker way of becoming one of THOSE people when you try to put yourself out there as someone who sees more than is really there. I’ve never been a geek of that caliber, or at least would ever dream of putting myself out there as an authority on something.

There is maybe one, and only one topic that I am autistic about and that’s Robotech. Iron Man doesn’t even hit the radar.

Enough rambling, you guys clicked this for a review and I’m being extremely long winded about shit that has ZERO to do with the movie in question. Although, if you want the Crom’s honest truth, you’re probably going to find this a bit refreshing after reading the other 3 reviews and the multitude of OTHER websites’ reviews.

If you’re on the fence about seeing this movie, quit it already, it’s a damn fine production. Robert Downey Jr. is superb and in no alternate universe can I see anyone else playing Tony Stark. This goes for the entire cast of characters, especially Don Cheadle as Rhodey, I love Mr. Cheadle’s work. Ok review time.

The Plot/Characters

I honestly don’t know what you’re expecting from a Marvel Studios movie, the plot is straight out of a comic book, with characters playing archetypes and tropes to match them. The introduction of Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian was great though could have been filled by any generic antagonist actor. Hell even Joe Pesci could have made a good Killian.

That’s not a knock on Mr. Pearce, but more of the boring writing that was given to his character. He had some great lines of dialog, but ultimately there was nothing amazing about Killian to have me oozing about here. In fact without getting into the territory of spoilers, he does one thing in the move that provided the only suspension of disbelief problem that I had, when you see it, I only hope you feel the same way.

I enjoyed the expansion of the character of Pepper Potts as she plays more than the traditional damsel-in-distress. She’s a bit of an asskicker. But once again, without spoilers, I can’t say much.

Do not go to this movie expecting a stretch of the cerebrum or even a mental workout. It’s not Shakespeare or even Jon Favreau…it is uniquely Shane Black.

Really, this movie is screenwriting 101 to the point where I didn’t realize it at first, but the director is the same who did Lethal Weapon oh so long ago, and it feels that way. It’s really a buddy cop movie set during Christmas. I’m really not trying to harp on this film because I really enjoyed the hell out of it.

The Effects

The budget of this movie must have been 90% VFX because there are scenes where I had a hard time picking out what was a practical shot or a digitally edited piece of CG. If I had to find a negative I would say that in some parts of the flick it gets to be a bit too much. I like to think that I have enough of a brain to track multiple things going on, but even I had trouble keeping up with the action.

The Score

Perhaps the weakest part of this movie is the score. There are no memorable points of this movie tied to music for me. The first film had AC/DC’s “Back in Black” during the Afghanistan scene, the second had “Shoot to Thrill” from AC/DC, but the third film…what do you get? Eiffel fucking 65′s “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”. Minus 20 points Gryffindor. I can’t complain about the orchestration because there’s nothing really memorable to write home about. It’s background music at its finest except a really jarring number at the end that serves no purpose except to wake people up who might have fallen asleep, if that’s even possible.

My Biggest Problems

In an effort to keep my love for this movie pure, because it was a great 2 hours spent, it was entertaining, I had fun, and I’d see it again. But it’s not without its own problems.

Mainly, my issues stem from a grossly exaggeration of powers from the villain (not saying which or who) and the apparent under-powering of Iron Man. True he’s spending most the movie in a new version of the armor, it’s not nearly as bad ass as the gear he had in The Avengers.

That brings up my second point. This is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it takes place after The Avengers. We know there are other supers out there, we know that Nick Fury and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are out and about in the Helicarrier doing god knows what. We even know that Thor is out there somewhere watching what’s happening on Earth (probably watching Natalie Portman shower, can’t blame him). Point being that there’s the vast and rich universe they’ve created with all of the other flicks that they do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with in this movie. To say I was a tad bit crestfallen would be an understatement.

I wasn’t expecting Cap to come in and rescue anyone, but more of a nod to the existing universe than Jarvis saying something about hacking a S.H.I.E.L.D. database would be nice.

Lastly, they under use Ben Kingsley in this film. He’s a great actor, and he does show his acting chops in this movie, but NOT ENOUGH SCREEN TIME is given to the character of The Mandarin.

I know this sounds like a lot of gripes, and I’m sorry if I’m coming across as negative, but this is not on the same level as The Avengers. It just isn’t. It’s fun. It’s a good movie. I don’t mind the segments with the kid because I got some great laughs out of it and especially how they kept it brief, but with all of the comparisons to The Avengers going around and all of the talk about the buckets of money it’s currently making…I would hope that people can see the few shortcomings it definitely has.

Final Word

Go watch this movie. I’ve said it like 5 times now. It’s great. It’s a ton of fun. I’m not being paid by Marvel/Disney to praise this flick. I’m just a fan with a blog who loves his comic book movies. I just think that we might be approaching a time in the next 4-5 years where we see a waning of this genre, so enjoy the glory while we still can. I just think that as far as Iron Man movies go, this is probably my least favorite of the three however, it’s still an Iron Man movie which means it’s automatically placed higher than most cinema.

Go watch it, give Marvel your money. CONSUUUUUUME

The post Iron Man 3 – Review appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Ever since I was told that there was a new version of the classic board-game Space Hulk headed our way from fellow writer and podcaster, Evan Burkey, I’ve been trying to stay on top of any news coming from Full Control.

It’s good news for us Games Workshop geeks today as they’ve released a video that discusses the rules of the game and how the multiplayer will work as well as Q&A sessions.

I especially love that they’re going to keep it as close to the board game as possible this time around. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played many an adaptation of the classic series on PC, but the best one remains the original from 1993 that EA made.

The post Full Control’s Space Hulk Q&A Session appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

In a tweet the other day, a fan asked him to please consider making Mother 4 (the Japanese name for Earthbound, though it’d be Earthbound 3 here). His response was a very gracious but unquestionable “Impossible”. If you know moonspeak, it’s linked below.

The good news is that Earthbound is headed to the US and Europe later this year…if you needed some good news to cover the sting of an absolute NO. There’s been no word on whether we’ll ever get a localized version of Mother 3.

SOURCE

The post New Earthbound is IMPOSSIBLE According to Itoi appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of the project that Adam Foster created where instead of being a mod that essentially tried to rewrite the game with new add-ons, it was more of a self story that he created to go along with that universe.

The name comes from the ‘guide’ in the game who is helping you (the player) survive an island full of Combine…but there’s a twist that I won’t ruin for you.

It came out in 2007 as episodic content but now is getting an official Steam release for free for those that already have Half-Life 2 as you’ll need all of the assets that the game uses. The great news is that there will be improvements across the board, whether it be visuals, bugs, or just the puzzles in general.

Some of you Valve geeks might think that Adam Foster’s name is familiar, well he WAS doing all of this Minerva stuff in his free time until he got actually hired on by Valve to work on the mythic Episode 3 but also spent a good chunk of his time working on Portal 2 for which he lent his design beliefs that structures shouldn’t be created for gameplay purposes alone, they should serve as functional environments FIRST.

Interesting read over on Wikipedia about the guy’s work if you’ve got the time today.

SOURCE

The post Half-Life 2 Minerva Mod for FREE appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

We all know what it is, we all know about that period of Logan’s life, but what I was NOT expecting was how awesome Silver Samurai would look. Whoa.

The movie opens on July 26th.

The post The Wolverine CinemaCon Trailer appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

The class-action lawsuit was began by offended party Damion Perrine and is being handled by Edelson LLC. The complaint being lodged is that of the playable demo, previews, and trailers and how they’re essentially being sold a bill of goods that is not reflective of the final product.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve bought some pretty dumb shit in my time, but I wonder if this person ever lived through the 8-bit generation, those games’ box art were some of the worst offenders of false advertising.

Personally I hope this gets thrown out the same day it appears on the docket as an example to those who feel like they’re OWED something by buying a videogame.

SOURCE

The post Aliens: Colonial Marines Hit by Class-Action Lawsuit appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Recently, he had an interview with SFX Magazine in which he laid out the thoughts that DC’s characters are more ‘pure’ than Marvel’s. Seriously, you can’t make this shit up.

They truly are purer archetypes…They’re literally Biblical. If you get the DC characters right, they can be important, they can be about us. It’s not just a romp. That’s the fun, for me, of working on this movie. We got that it was important. We weren’t apologizing for Superman, which I feel has happened in the past. It’s Superman, for God’s sake. He’s a thing to be celebrated.

Marvel fans should see this as obvious attention whoring from Mr. Snyder and is meant to tug at the old and thankfully cooled down flame wars between Marvel and DC fanboys. I agree that Superman is the main hero in the comics world and that all that came after aren’t quite as important…though the world would suck if there were only one flavor of gum.

He continues:

“It’s Superman. If you get it right he’s kind of transcendent. The Superman shield is the second most recognizable symbol on planet Earth other than the Christian cross. If you get it right, that’s the question you’ll be asking everyone else. That should be the question you’re asking Iron Man and Thor. How is it that you feel you can be making a superhero movie in a world where Superman and Batman exist?”

While I’d like to agree with him that if people were doing the Batman and Superman movies right, they’d have claimed their spots on the comic movie throne as number one and two respectively. Unfortunately, DC has continually dropped the ball with their live action movies. We’ve said it time and time again that DC really should focus mainly on their animated features and keep those coming out. They’re a blast to watch.

Still, fingers crossed that Man of Steel is as awesome as it looks.

The post Zack Snyder Pokes The Marvel Fanboy Beehive appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Newest today is that we’ll be seeing the son and daughter of Magneto in the form of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in Avengers 2. This information is courtesy of Entertainment Weekly’s print edition for this week, and from Mr. Whedon’s own spoilerish mouth as he said that he’s “got these two characters, two of my favorite characters from the comic books. A brother/sister act. They’re in the movie.”

Seriously man, save some stuff for the next 2 years won’t cha?

Anyways here’s the quote from the articles itself:

“the twin characters Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch will be joining The Avengers 2, which Whedon hinted at recently when he said he was writing a brother-sister duo into the movie.”

Of course including these two MUTANTS into the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t mean that Fox has come to Disney begging to make buckets of money, not necessarily. It simply means that there is a bylaw in the books that allows both companies to use the characters, if they want to.

However, this doesn’t exactly mean that they’ll appear in both companies’ IPs, it’s a matter of who can make them appear first gets to claim them for good. Let’s hope that Whedon and company get there first.

SOURCE 1

SOURCE 2

The post The Avengers 2 gains Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver – Confirmed appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

That was obvious troll bait, but still you clicked, thanks!

Phil Fish, the creator of Fez, released the game about a year ago and it quickly became a huge indie game hit and has sold over 200,000 copies so far. Now for a mere purchase price of $9.99, you too can own your own copy of the game!

Of course you can find it on Steam and other game services, but if you want to be a super nice guy use the link below to make sure that Phil get’s an even bigger cut of the proceeds.

Polytron Corporation

The post Fez finally on PC appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

For those of us who live in the good ol’ USA, we’ve had to wait a week or so since the international audience got their fill of Iron Man 3 (except Ryan T. and myself as we saw a screener on Tuesday). We will as a country get the chance to finally partake of the movie on Friday and in this last day before then, I give you this video.

I quite enjoyed what they did with this character but I will keep anything spoileriffic with him to a minimum. Just needless to say that this movie would be less of the film it is without him in it.

The post Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin – Iron Man 3 Featurette appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

I would have went with the Betamax versus VHS fight, but I don’t think anyone else on this website would go with such a dated piece of hardware.

This is important because the DoD was essentially keeping Blackberry alive all of these years. If they’re going to be adopting the iOS and Android architecture to their approved devices, I think we’re going to be seeing a relatively fast end for Blackberry (aka Research-in-motion, aka RIM).

Many others reading this don’t realize the layer upon layer of red-tape that the DoD has when it comes to getting new tech. The new version of the Galaxy S4 they’re being sold by Samsung won’t be coming into service for about a year at the earliest. Again, maybe not that important to some, but this should be the wake-up kick in the ass that RIM needs to realize they’re on the brink.

SOURCE

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Picture courtesy of Amazon.com . Click image to buy one of your own.

There is a lot you can tell about a person based on their answer to that one simple question. If you’re older than dirt you might go with Adam West from the classic TV series. If you’re on the other side of the coin, you might consider Christian Bale…then there’s that sweet spot of people who just MIGHT pick my favorite Batman, Kevin Conroy.

Not only has Mr. Conroy done the voice of Batman during the entire run of the Animated Series, he also has portrayed him in multiple DC animated films as well as in two of the Rocksteady games. He will NOT however be returning for the third game, Batman: Arkham Origins.

The developer says that they want “to use a new younger actor because the game features Batman in his early years”. I can completely understand why this is happening this time around, but it doesn’t make it any less painful to hear that my favorite Batman actor won’t be reprising his role. He’s that damn good.

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I love to trot out the Gollum looking at Precious picture any time I can and thanks to the news today from co-creators of the American Horror Story series, Ryan Murphy, I don’t feel so bad for doing so.

”Precious star Gabourey Sidibe is joining the third, witch-focused season of the FX series in an unspecified role.”

Now let the speculation begin!

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Joss, oh Joss…Mr. Whedon, we thank thee for the buffet of quoted text that we will be pouring over for the next two years as we await your sequel to be released.

You see, he gave a recent interview with Desde Hollywood…don’t worry I’ve never heard about them either, then again I’m sure 99% of the world’s population could say the same thing about WPR. Anyways, he was recorded saying the following specifically about whether Robert Downey Jr. will be reprising his role as Tony Stark in future Iron Man roles:

“I am not the guy who has to worry about him being replaced. He is Iron Man at this point. When I heard that he was cast I knew that something had just changed, and I usually don’t know stuff like that. I was like ‘Now we are in a new phase.’ The way he embodies it… I love working with him. He is so perfect for it, Shane captures it so perfectly in this movie.

I want him to play it forever. The great thing is that he has a flying metal suit. So it’s not like those Charles Bronson or Roger Moore movies where you’re like ‘Dude, you can barely stand.’ He’s got some fight in him. At the same time, if Robert decides to hang it up, he has a perfectly good excuse.”

That to me says what everyone else in the geek universe is reporting, that Robert Downey Jr. WILL be returning in a 4th Iron Man flick followed by the Avengers…THEN calling it quits, or then again, as long as the paychecks are rolling in, no harm no foul?

Now, onto the discussions that the Internet has been going absolutely bonkers about concerning the teasing of Thanos at the end of The Avengers and how there’s a potential that we will NOT be seeing him in the second installment of The Avengers. Again, Mr. Whedon’s words:

“Well, Thanos is more powerful. He is so powerful, he is not someone you can just trot out and punch him. Like he did in the comics, you want him to be threading through the universe and to save the big finale for the big finale. He is definitely a part of what I’ve got going on. The thing about the Avengers is that they are very powerful, but they’re not very stable. So, there will definitely be some people that will shake them up in the next installment.”

I personally take this to mean that there won’t be a big battle with Thanos himself until the end of the second film, but there are others that are using this as fodder for a possible third Avengers movie confirmation…but I’m not seeing that, they’d have to be planning ahead into 2018 or later and Hollywood and it’s stars don’t normally make such long-form plans.

Would I watch a third? You bet your ass I would, but I’m merely trying to be the voice of reason in an all too turbulent world of speculation and conjecture. Take a deep breath and be calm geeks, we’re all going to enjoy this ride.

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In the first film, there was banter between roommates Mike and Sully about how one has been jealous of the other’s looks since fourth grade…and yet, this newest showing from Pixar seems to suggest that the duo met in college. Well, a quick check about this topic revealed that the director for the new movie, Dan Scanlon, has already answered this on his own.

”Well in the first film, uh, they actually say you’ve been jealous of my good looks since fourth grade. And in the teaser they go on and on about fifth grade. So that was something we talked about early on. We chose college because we wanted to see their relationship develop when they were adults and not just still be more or less similar to the characters we remember from the first film. And we also felt like college is so much about self-discovery and figuring out who you are. It just felt like the perfect place to do this, but we had that line, you know, that line was out there. So we tried versions where they met young and then we kind of skipped ahead to college. And we knew we didn’t want to make Monsters Elementary. We had no interest in that. Honestly it became a thing where you sort of felt like you were missing the relationship grow, because you jumped ahead any way we sliced it.”

I don’t know why this particular line of dialog stuck in my craw, but it seems that I’m not the only one at least. Then again, the mere fact my brain works this way is saddening because there are so many other things that I’d like to devote the extra horsepower of my mind toward, not dumb factoids like this.

Many thanks to the /Film people for the quotes.

The post Monsters University Continuity appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

She recently showed up in Canada of all places blabbing about her involvement in the newest episode of the bulletproof Star Wars series. What was she doing there you may ask? Well only attending Canada’s foremost Comics Expos in Calgary [/sarcasm]. What else would she be doing?

Her quote goes thusly:

“I like being bought by Disney, because they never wanted to buy me before. I’m glad they are doing a new movie because they are sending a trainer to my house so I can get in really good shape. So I’m really eating a lot of sugar in advance, as you can see. By the time I really get down to it I will have eaten everything.”

No word yet from Disney or anyone else in her repertoire about how true this may be, but this isn’t the first time she’s been caught talking about her upcoming role in public…and I don’t think even a psychopathic person would ever admit to the trainer thing, then again for some reason every time I hear about Carrie Fisher, I can’t help but think of her role in The Blues Brothers (watch it kids, you’ll love it) as being closer to truth than a lie.

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Abe is how you do robots, science fiction, and serial killers right at the same time.

If you can find a good 7 minutes or so to blow on the Internet today, please let it be for this short film by Rob McLellan. The short is essentially a love story but I refuse to say anything more aside from the fact that even without a face, there are so many feels coming from this automaton.

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It has to be odd as hell to be part of movies today, especially all of these superhero flicks that rely so heavily on CG to generate the powers and landscapes that we all drink in without putting so much as a thought to it. Just imagine you being on the scene of a movie where you’re essentially standing on a giant green screen wearing a suit that you have to imagine being much cooler than it really is. Hell, just listen to him recount the experience:

It’s going to blow everybody’s socks off. And I know they’re probably pissed off, like I’m jinxing it or something and I shouldn’t say that. I’ll knock on wood just out of deference to the gods, but the movie is solid. It’s gonna get the job done…

It’s exhilarating. It’s what Zack [Snyder] promised would happen, you know? Because I remember the first couple of days I was on set, I thought This is ridiculous. I look like an idiot. I don’t look anything like General Zod. I’m a total failure. I went over to the screen for playback and it was ridiculous. All of us were wearing pajamas, basically. And there was this neon green set of stairs that was supposed to be our spaceship. So you see us all marching down these neon green stairs in our pajamas and I’m like, “This looks like a Monty Python skit.” And he’s like, “I know right now it looks pretty silly, but, two years from now, it’s going to look like the most badass thing you’ve ever seen in your life.” And he’s right.”

Now I don’t know about many of you, but we’re all genuinely excited for the new Superman movie to come out…probably more excited than we should be, but it seems that all signs are pointing to yes when we ask “Is this movie going to make up for the last three?”

Crom, I sure hope so.

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It’s Tuesday and we’ve got a second episode for you to digest this week! I’m betting that after last week’s catastrophe that kicked Xopher offline and straight into bed, you’re starving for some new RLR fun.

This episode has the usual suspects Ryan Wilson, Kyle Steenblik, and your faithful host Xopher Reed talking the week’s news, and a whole bunch of other items, you’ll have to forgive the panel for picking such a fail topic to talk about this week. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all either…there are other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post OR you can leave comments on our Youtube account.

Please give our Facebook page a visit and give us a like while there, and if you’re a YouTube user who enjoys our show, by all means, SUBSCRIBE! We’ll keep you entertained!

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Hey captive audience members, it’s a new week and that means that you get a wonderful chance to play catch up with RLR’s flagship podcast. I do have to apologize that this episode didn’t make it out last week, but it was finals week. I’m sure none of you had the time to listen either!

This episode features Ryan Wilson, Kyle Steenblik, and your faithful host Xopher Reed talking the week’s news, and a whole bunch of other items.

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all either…there are other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post OR you can leave comments on our Youtube account.

Please give our Facebook page a visit and give us a like while there, and if you’re a YouTube user who enjoys our show, by all means, SUBSCRIBE! We’ll keep you entertained!

The post RLR #140 – So Tired appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

The Pirate Bay has found a new home at ThePirateBay.is this week as they’ve decided to move shop from their Greenland (.gl) and Sweden (.se) domain names to the new Iceland domain (.is). The move is mainly due to the laws that Iceland have in place.

You see, over there, the ISNIC (their domain registrar) is notheald responsible for how their domains are used meaning that while they may be helping foster illegal downloads of copyrighted materials…without a court order, they can’t do anything about it. It’s not like TPB actually has any of the files located on their site, all they store these days are hyperlinks for torrents.

Considering Iceland has been quietly revolting against big government and the banking industry over the last five years, we think that they’re in good company finally.

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With all of the shares on Tumblr, posts on Twitter, shares on Facebook, and uploads on YouTube, the animation studio has decided to make a full series named Free! based on swimming that will be released during this year’s summer schedule.

Free! will be animated by Animation DO which is a subisidary of KyoAni. The weeaboos here at WPR have the utmost respect for the work that KyoAni does and will be waiting for this show to arrive…but until then, watch the new PV for the series below.

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Just like how the Halo franchise jumped ship from Bungie into the capable arms of 343 Industries this time around, the extended universe’s comic series has made the jump from Marvel over to Dark Horse Comics and we’re pretty excited.

The miniseries being released on August 14 will be written by Brian Reed (writer of Halo 4 and other expanded universe) and will be drawn by Marco Castiello (Star Wars: Purge).

The story will follow that of Sarah Palmer and other entrants into the Spartan-IV program. So those who feel starved after Halo 4 and Spartan Ops need not worry. You’ll get more Halo goodness in your system soon.

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The show that is coming soon on ABC has had Mr. Coulson attached since its conception and the fandom has been wringing their collective hands wondering if the show (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) will be taking place before The Avengers itself.

IT’S NOT

The TV series will be taking place after The Avengers and Phil Coulson is alive. Here’s how:

“In the pilot, it’s revealed Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the ultimate super spy, faked Agent Coulson’s death on purpose to motivate The Avengers. Some S.H.I.E.L.D. members were in on it (including, possibly, Maria Hill played by Cobie Smulders) but The Avengers were not. Their security clearance wasn’t high enough. Coulson was forced to hold his breath as part of the ruse and that’s a point of contention among his colleagues After the fact, Fury moved him to a remote location until things died down, and then he was reinserted into duty at the time of the show.”

This is no surprise to anyone who really knows how the comic book universe works. Nobody ever TRULY dies in the comic world…at least in the Marvel universe it seems (DC is another story altogether RIP Ted Kord). It just seems a bit silly that Whedon would allow this to happen with his baby. Then again, this is exactly the type of shit that Nick Fury pulls everyday.

I’d hate to be his kid. One day he’d tell you you’re getting a puppy, next thing you know he’s killing it right in front of you so that he doesn’t have to feed it, only to find out months later that he took it to a farm. What an asshole.

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Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur will be developing the series in which they will be introducing the world at large to the MMO that isn’t well known outside of the gamer niche it exists in right now. The story will be:

“An original concept and storyline set in the EVE universe.”

EVE Online is a massively complex game complete with politics, intrigue, deception, and everything else that would make an excellent television series and to sweeten the pot it would be sci-fi, something we’re sorely lacking these days.

There are already novels and an upcoming comic series from Dark Horse Comics, so it seems that this is going to be a big year for CCP games and their IP. We wish them success.

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Two things. Right now the set is only going to be available for pre-order in Korea with a street date of sometime in June. Second, the television costs nearly $14,000. That’s not a typo, 14k on a television…that’s not even 4k resolution.

It’s a gorgeous television and I’m sure it’ll impress with the slim screen, but I doubt it will sell much outside of the Gangnam district of South Korea. There is no US release date, however I would expect this to show up on MTV Cribs if that show were still on.

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That’s not to say that a movie that wins awards and is successful is an immediate dislike due to my hipster ways (/sarcasm), but more of a be wary of the war movie that disguises itself as a work of art. Ok, I realize I’m probably not making much sense yet, but let me explain.

When you think of Saving Private Ryan, do your thoughts go toward the sacrifices that were made during WWII or does it go toward the combat scenes and the one in particular where the sticky bomb goes horribly wrong? That’s what I thought. This is the exact reason that movies featuring war are generally very hard for me to review because of that feeling specifically.

I’m glad that Zero Dark Thirty kept the military porn to a minimum. Instead the audience is given a brief overview of the United States continued battle with terrorists in the Al Qaeda network. Just about every keystone of the fight was touched on including the CIA black sites that housed prisoners who were subsequently waterboarded and tortured for information, the various attacks on civilian targets by terrorists (including the 7/7 bombing in England). It was a great recap on how long this whole fucking fight against terrorism.

The movie was expertly crafted by Kathryn Bigelow and shows that her win for The Hurt Locker was taken very serious as she introduces yet another tortured soul or two searching for their meaning of existence in the aftermath of 9/11. Read that last sentence as CIA operatives who do questionable stuff to protect our country from further attacks. While we don’t have near the same amount of tension from CIA operatives as we had with IED defusers, there are more than enough close-calls to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The film weighs in at the top end of 2.5 hours (157 to be exact) and there aren’t any lulls to experience unless you’re not fascinated with intelligence and espionage…then I can’t really suggest this film, you’ll be bored with certain scenes. The standout star for me wasn’t our lovely redhead Maya or even her tortured torturer boss, but Chris Pratt playing one of the members of Seal Team Six who infiltrated the compound. I’m sorry, but as much as I enjoy him as an actor, I know him too well from Parks and Recreation to see him as anyone else, which I hope goes away before the new Marvel film he’s cast in…anyways, all in all, I really enjoyed this movie, my wife not so much as she fell asleep 30 minutes into the showing.

I do have to joke that the latest trend of movies we already know the ending to needs to stop, we know that Bin Laden met his maker at the end of this film, and we all know that Honest Abe got shot at the end of Lincoln. Hollywood, surprise us next time around would you?

Review In Haiku:

The longest film made
Where you know the ending scene
Before you begin

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A wise man once said. Genitalia will never fail ya.

The show, is finally up to date! No more catch up episodes! This is the most recent show from our recording on the past Friday. Where Jasen Mortensen, Kyle Steenblik, and myself as the panel. We talked a bunch about the DC movie universe and subsequently penii. Yes, we make more than one wang joke…so it’s business as usual!

Want to get in-touch with the show? Have a listener question or a shout out? Have an opinion about why the panel is either right or wrong? Feel free to get in touch with everyone from the panel and continue the show long after it’s been played!

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all either…there are still two other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post.

Please give our Facebook page a visit and give us a like while there, and if you’re a YouTube user who enjoys our show, by all means, SUBSCRIBE! We’ll keep you entertained!

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I’m in that strange demographic where shows are made for me it seems, at least that’s what it feels like when I belly up to my television to watch Archer episodes. The last two for this season Sea Tunt Part I and Part II. It all starts off innocently enough with the US government crashing a plane in to the ocean that contains of all things, a hydrogen bomb.

The chase begins with ISIS trying to be the first to arrive at the crash site before the Russians show. One problem, where the hell are they going to find a ship that can salvage something like that…?

Enter Cheryl’s brother Cecil Tunt (voiced by Eugene Mirman) and his girlfriend Tiffy (Kristen Schaal) or should I say most of the cast of Bob’s Burgers. While I thoroughly enjoyed all of the amazing dialogue that came up between this amazing cast…including a callback to the season 1 episode “Skytanic”, watching Pam eat soy-shellfish while being allergic, Ray shaving off his mustache, Cyril putting on a fake mustache, and Archer getting drunk off his ass again and showing off his amazing autism skills once again (including a REALLY REALLY obscure reference to a Gnome illustrator), the true greatness of this episode came from a callback to:

SPOILER COMING

Reed and Thompson’s first big show on Cartoon Network, Sealab 2021, including Captain Murphy!

I geeked out pretty hard seeing one of my favorite characters on TV once again…but was immediately saddened that Harry Goz isn’t around to voice him anymore but the replacement they got in Jon Hamm was adequate. You don’t even understand how much Harry Goz made that character his.

Well, come to find out there’s no bomb, and Sealab has VX nerve gas tipped missiles ready to launch at metropolitan cities unless Murphy’s ultimatums aren’t met. Leave it to Archer and crew going down to Sealab in a submersible DSV (which Archer is giddy to skipper) posing as a TV crew to try and fix the situation.

Well, as always shit goes to hell quickly for them once they arrive, Archer attempts to diffuse the situation with his handgun that has been modified by a coked-up Kreiger (safety on doesn’t mean safety on it seems), only to cause all of the main pod to flood.

Everyone escapes down a hatch into what appears to be a breakroom containing of all things an off-brand soda machine (Sealab reference), Murphy being crushed by said soda machine (Sealab reference), and somehow escaping through Pod 6 (which doesn’t contain any jerks this time around, ok I’m done). We also find out that Lana is preggers by someone who is NOT Cyril, Archer devotes his love to Lana while drowning, and Ray gets paralyzed again after Archer gets frisky after CPR.

This show is so spectacular each week that I’m simply blown away with how well written it is, and how deep the comedy goes with each inside joke. I mean this is the same show where you get a dog that has the shits/barfs and keeps farting, while also having the main characters show up disguised as 20+ year old Saturday Night Live characters. It brings the funny, the witty, and the dirty each week and I praise Crom that we’ve gotten 4 seasons out of it.

Seriously, if you’re not watching this show, get off your ass and get a Netflix subscription and catch up on the first 3 seasons!

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The Deftones are one of those groups that I feel are very polarizing, you either love the group a whole bunch, or you’re meh…there is nobody alive who I feel should say that they hate the group, but I’ve been known to be wrong before. Anyways, Chi passed away on April 13 from a sudden heart condition where it apparently just stopped beating.

Chi was an amazing musician who was stopped in his prime by an automobile accident in 2008 which left him in a semi-conscious state. Had he been wearing his seatbelt, he might have been better off, but alas, there is no such thing as do-overs in life right? I won’t go so far to say that I’m genuinely feeling grief for his passing. I just think it’s a damn shame that we lost a great bassist. If you don’t believe me, just take a listen to his work on the track below, one of my favorite tracks from their album White Pony

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Alright, you’re all a bunch of lucky sons of bitches today as we bring you a second episode in two days (even though this is the episode we promised last week)…

Anyways, we apologize for the week old episode but we promise that the news and commentary is always fresh. We had a great episode this week and I hope you sincerely enjoy making fun of me having internet issues the entire show until I decide that my cell phone would work better than my shitty computer. So join your panel this week consisting of: Ryan Wilson, Kyle Steenblik, James Helsby, Evan Burkey, Jasen Mortensen, and myself.

Want to get in-touch with the show? Have a listener question or a shout out? Have an opinion about why the panel is either right or wrong? Feel free to get in touch with everyone from the panel and continue the show long after it’s been played!

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all either…there are still two other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post.

Please give our Facebook page a visit and give us a like while there, and if you’re a YouTube user who enjoys our show, by all means, SUBSCRIBE! We’ll keep you entertained!

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