The new releases, as usual, are listed below but they are not on this week’s show. Silly rhyme aside, I decided to bump the segment to the end of the episode so that we’d have enough time to get to all the big stories of the last two weeks. Us not having a show for 20 straight days in combination with all the crazy shit that’s been going on makes for a loaded rundown.
The special, hand picked news stories worthy of our attention filled up the entire show so we didn’t get to the new DVDs. Like most blogs, vlogs, streams and podcasts this week, we talk about the Xbox One announcement. But since all the other guys are doing it, we thought we’d be the cool kids (minus the Abercrombie and Fitch clothes) and not spend an entire show on it. We only do that when berating JJ Abrams’ STAR TREK. There are a lot of things to consider with this new Microsoft rig. It’s clear the company DOES NOT listen to its user base and is on a mission to lock us all into a specific path of cloud-stored content you buy but don’t own, the need for the box to be hooked up to an expensive high-speed Internet connection at all times and shouting and gesturing at your TV trying to launch the YouTube app until you work up a sweat and flop down on your sofa defeated. Gamers are turned off by paying a premium price for a box that does way more than they want it to. And without a stripped down game console-only version, we’re all stuck coughing up $500 or $600 for something that we’ll end up only using about a tenth of the functionality and isn’t really backward compatible with the games we already own! And then there’s this business of not being able to take YOUR game YOU paid for to a friend’s place and playing on their Xbox without having to pay a fee. And there’s even more to consider. You’ll hear a lot of it on today’s show.
Then comes the skew. Dennis starts to make a point regarding the new Xbox with an example from SIDE BY SIDE, a documentary Keanu Reeves produced about Hollywood’s transition from film to digital. It takes him awhile to get to the point as we skew off the skew into projection and how Charlie repaired an old reel of SCROOGED while working at a drive-in theater. I’ll be honest, I drifted in and out, but I do know eventually Dennis makes his point.
That eats up more of the show than I thought it would which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It sends us into a sort of lightning round and we breeze right on through the rest of the rundown only omitting the aforementioned new releases.
Everybody loves Michael J. Fox right? Of course they do. But we’ve got some concerns about his new comedy coming this Fall to NBC. Fox plays a veteran news anchor at channel 4 in New York City who is forced to leave his job after being diagnosed with… you guessed it… Parkinson’s Disease. After driving his family nuts for a few years, he decides to go back to work and hilarity ensues! Even though the show is on NBC, and I swore I’d never watch the network again after what they did to Conan, I hope the show works out and I may check it out. With that said, we play its trailer and I tally all of the Parkinson’s jokes made within the roughly three-minute clip. We’re a little put off by how many there are. If the trailer is any indication of the show’s tone, it seems it’s going to be one continuously running jitter-joke. We get it Mike, you have Parkinson’s. Lets hope the show doesn’t just focus on that.
The profession of police officer dominates three of our stories this week. COPS is moving to SpikeTV. After 24-years of blurred faces and bleeped dialogue Fox has had enough and decided not to renew one of its original shows that launched with the network in the 80s.
Also, Robocop is getting his statue. After a successful Kickstarter run, Imagination Station went to work sculpting a ten-foot tall memorial to the mechanized Murphy. They’ll soon start the bronzing stage and then its time to figure out where the hell to put it. When the project first made its rounds on the web back in 2011, Detroit’s city officials weren’t too keen on the idea and I don’t think their position has changed. We’ll keep you up-to-date.
And TIMECOP is getting rebooted by Universal Studios without Jean-Claude Van Damme. Annnd our interest is gone. Moving along…
If you were a fan of Agent Phil Coulson and was saddened by his death in Joss Whedon’s THE AVENGERS, you’ll be happy to know he’s alive and well! Don’t get mad that I just ‘spoilered’ you… ABC’s AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. divulges this information in the commercial promoting the series which just got a season order.
And finally, in Breaking News an investigation by NBC 4 in New York, you know, the station Michael J. Fox works for in his new sitcom, did some investigating at a local senior living complex and uncovered some disturbing behavior. We’re not talking about neglect and bed sores this time, but rather prostitution and drug abuse! A 75-year-old man and his 66-year-old female neighbor were arrested for prostitution and drug possession. He was apparently running a prostitution ring involving young women as well as senior sirens from within the complex and she was offering up crack cocaine out of her apartment to the clientele. Stick around for the details on this.
And Microsoft may have screwed up with the Xbox One, but they did do something right over at their search engine, Bing. They’ve added Klingon to their translator! You can now translate just about any word or phrase into Klingonese (as it was called in the original series) and you have the option of displaying it in Terran or in traditional Qo’noS scribe. It’s in the Show Links so give it a try and translate this: Hogh veb qalegh!
SHOW LINKS:
Microsoft Xbox
Side By Side: The Science, Art and Impact of Digital Cinema
NBC’s “The Michael J. Fox Show”
Cops
Fox
A.V. Club: Detroit’s RoboCop statue is almost done, and it’s goddamn majestic
The Hollywood Reporter: Universal Plans ‘Timecop’ Reboot (Exclusive)
ABC’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Marvel’s “Big Hero 6″
Disney Animation Studios
NBC 4 New York: Man, 75, Accused of Running Prostitution Ring in New Jersey Senior Housing Complex
Bing Translator – Now fluent in Klingon
Heard In This Week’s Open:
The Family Man
8MM
Deadfall
The Rock
The Wicker Man
New DVD Releases for Tuesday, May 28th:
Doctor Who: The Snowmen
Covert Affairs (Season 3)
Longmire (Season 1)
Suits (Season 2)
Dark Skies
Judas Priest: Epitaph
Beetlejuice (Complete Series)
Ron White: A Little Unprofessional
Tiny Toon Adventures (Volume 4: Looney Links!)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Season 2, Volume 2)
