This is one of those wonderful times that I get to just let the post speak, or as the case may be sing for itself. If you haven’t heard nerdrock group Kirby Krackle’s Green Lantern themed song “Ring Capacity” yet, now it’s easier than ever to take in with their all-new animated video! Check out the video below, then hit the jump for information on the animator and links to more Krackle-y goodness!

(more…)

UPDATE June 9, 2010: Mystery SOLVED. This is in fact a SPEC trailer for a Mortal Kombat live-action movie. According to actress Jeri Ryan, seen in the clip as Sonya Blade, the movie is not yet greenlit, and this was basically a “tryout” by a director. From her twitter:

Okay, so… Mortal Kombat. It’s not a game trailer. Actually was made for the director to sell WB on his vision for a reimagined MK film.I did it as a favor to a friend. No idea yet what WB’s reaction to it was.

She also made a plea to fans that enjoyed it to reach out to Warner Bros and ask them to make it, though she didn’t know how. Your best bet? Comment here that you want this movie to be made, and I’ll send the link over to Warner PR.

Original Story June 8: Is this the trailer to a new Live Action Mortal Kombat Movie?

Is this a live-action trailer to a new, relaunched Mortal Kombat game?

Those are the questions being asked by fans of the franchise today. It’s clearly a professional trailer, with some major star power from across the science fiction/genre worlds, but there’s no real indication as to just what it is. The one thing we can say for absolute certain: it is AWESOME. Peep it below, and tell us what you think this is for. We’ll be at E3 next week to see if we can get some answers from the franchise’s new stewards, Warner Bros.

[Source: Kotaku]

David mentioned just yesterday that a new superhero show called The Cape had been ordered by NBC, and could be seen as a replacement for Heroes. He also noted that the show’s description sounded like pretty much the cheesiest possible show ever. Then, I saw the trailer.

Hmm, either this is one damn fine editor, or this show might actually wind up pretty awesome. In fact, with the Batman Begins-esque training scene, this could be the closest thing to a mature live-action Batman TV Show we’re likely to get.

Brad Meltzer wants his son to have real-life heroes. So what’s a writer to do, but put together a book?

“Heroes for my Son” is a new book coming next week from the successful suspense novelist and comic book writer. The book features 52 heroes from various walks of life, be they famous leaders, athletes, inventors, and creatives. The first hero though, for Brad, is his mother. As such, and leading to Mother’s Day this weekend, Brad released this special video.

This one is making the internet rounds, and is just plain full of win. Liquid Generation put this together, and it’s a ridiculous 100 “best lines” from movies in a bit over 3 minutes. Enjoy the nonsense, and see if your favorite line is in there.

This has been around for awhile, but in an effort to feed my need for Eureka (not due back on air until July…blurgh), I thought I’d pass this one along, my favorite of their web-only PSAs:

You can watch more clips and full episodes of one of the smartest, funniest shows on TV at Hulu.com and scifi.com.

Oh yeah, baby, it’s everywhere. And well, out little corner of the internet wouldn’t be complete without it. So, if you’re the one person that hasn’t had this linked to you via twitter, facebook, email, IM, and on your regular RSS feeds yet today, here you go, in all it’s YouTube-y glory, the first trailer for the movie adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s awesome children’s book: Where the Wild Things Are. Bathe in its awesomeness. NOW!

The Xbox 360 and PS3 each already have some very strong multimedia capabilities. The 360 has that wonderful Netflix streaming, allowing Gold members to stream their “Watch Now” playlist directly to their TV, even with some shows and movies in HD. The PS3 is famously a blu ray player, and one of the best on the market. If you’ve seen blu ray in action, you know that it really is a substantial difference. Both have various applications available for both PC and Mac that allow you to stream video that’s on your computer to your system of choice, moving you away from the computer screen and back to the living room, and can play most divx files off your computer or a burned disc.

But what about that wonder of wonders, Hulu? Hulu, for the uninitiated, is a website that streams video from several sources like Fox, NBC, Comedy Central, and many many more. Missed your favorite show? Forgot to Tivo it? Hulu to the rescue. However, the limitation has been that you have to watch it on the computer. This is something a lot of people have gotten used to and really don’t mind too much, but it’s still not the optimum way to watch video when you have that big widescreen in front of your couch.

Enter PlayOn. From MediaMall Technologies, PlayOn solves the Hulu problem (and much more) for Xbox360 and PS3 owners. The program is remarkably easy to use. Download the server onto your PC (XP and Vista only for now), and there’s virtually no setup. On most computers, the automatic settings are perfect (it even auto-detects your firewalls) and you’re literally good to go the moment you start the program and turn on your console. You can also input your Hulu username and password to access your queue. Varying quality settings allow the streaming to work no matter how fast your system and internet connection, provided you meet the relatively low minimum requirements. Now, this is still internet streaming, so this is not high definition quality, but it’s good enough to have in the background or to watch that missed episode. Videophiles will complain, but the general public should love it.

Hulu is actually only the tip of the iceberg, as well. Youtube (including user queues) streams nicely through PlayOn, as does CBS, ESPN, Amazon Video On Demand, and even Netflix. That last one is quite the boon for PS3 owners jealous of their 360 counterparts. Again, since it’s through an extra server, you’re not going to get quite the same quality. HD is not yet available through this extra software, but the quality is passable; think pre-digital cable and you have a pretty good idea of how things will look on your TV.

PlayOn is not free beyond the two week trial. The $39.99 price tag is the only downside to the story. This is considerably steeper than most media servers, but it also does a lot more than just stream your saved video. They have also recently launched an affiliate program, allowing you to get the software for free by signing up for a number of other services. If the program were $20 or even $30, this would be an absolute must-own for 360 or PS3 owners. At $40, I can still give it the highest recommendation for PS3 owners, as it equalizes the Netflix issue, plus adds the bonuses of an easy-to-use interface for Hulu and Youtube. For 360 owners, only tv/movie addicts need apply, but it certainly does expand the options for them in a major way. Easy to use from start (on your PC) to finish (on your 360 or PS3), MediaMall Technologies has put together an amazing product, updates it on a regular basis, and has turned two great multimedia hubs in the living room into something even more special.

MTV has the exclusive on the new trailer, but with the help of handy dandy embed code, we get to share it with you! Unfortunately, since it’s from MTV, it is not viewable outside the US. As soon as the trailer is available to the general press, we’ll get it up in our video section here so the whole world can see. Until then, enjoy the trailer focused on just one part of the gameplay, “Invisible Predator”, America!

The things that spin out of phone and IM conversations between Troy and I would likely shock and disgust most of you most of the time. In this particular instance, though, we were fondly looking back on a gem of a series of shorts produced by Walt Disney Pictures called I’m No Fool. They were basically instructional videos narrated by Jiminy Cricket to tell kids how not to be completely stupid. Here’s “I’m No Fool With Fire” for your enjoyment:

Admit it, you know EXACTLY what that starts. With one of the cheesiest (and catchiest) theme songs of television history, Captain Planet was thoroughly engrained in the minds of every child of the 80s. Well, now, thanks to the Mother Nature Network, you can relive the glory days of the Planeteers in pretty high  quality digital video:

The site is hosting more than just the theme song, though. With the first episode of the series up, they’re also offering behind-the-scenes looks at the show’s production, and more episodes will be released throughout the year. So click on through, and remember, The Power Is YOURS! Maybe this will signal a comeback and DC will hire me to write the Captain Planet / Green Lantern crossover I’ve always dreamed of. I’ll be waiting by my phone…

One of the better FPSes in terms of story, the Half Life series has been praised for the right combination of tension, action, background dealings and face-to-face confrontation. Sounds like a natural for a live action adaptation, right? Well, the Purchase Brothers sure thought so, and decided to take matters into their own hands. With a reported budget of only $500 (sounds like a bunch of people worked for free), they put together an amazing sequence that shows just how well the Half Life games can translate to live action. Here’s part one, with part two promised to come soon.

(Thanks, James!)

Everyone has been so focused on the Zombie Apocalypse lately, it seems we’ve forgotten about the man-made danger that constantly threatens to strike: ROBOTS. Thankfully, Samantha Bee at The Daily Show remains ever vigilant. Beware the Robot Apocalypse!!

There were a few funny ads last night during the big game, and a few pretty cool movie previews. If, like me, things were a little too hectic while watching the game to fully appreciate this, here’s the Star Trek TV spot from last night:

And here’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which proves to be bigger and more explosive than ever:

So, the question to you is, Which movie are you more looking forward to now? Did these trailers do anything to sway you towards Star Trek over Transformers 2? Sound off! Just for good measure, my favorite Super Bowl Spot after the break. hey, it’s genre….

(more…)

GameTrailers.com has the exclusive Cinematic Trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine: The Game coming up from Activision. No gameplay footage yet in this one (I’ll be checking it out next week, look to the main site for that coverage), but still a pretty awesome little trailer. Enjoy here, or click through to the site for glorious HD.

Welcome to a new column I’m going to be doing on occasion here called Watch This Now. With things like Netflix streaming on Xbox 360, Boxee on Apple TV (or on Linux on your PS3), and even the mere existence of Hulu.com, there are several ways to get exposed to Television, Movies, and Webisodes that you may have otherwise missed. I’ll take a moment to review these as I stumble across them, and let you know what to check out.

Jekyll was a 6 episode series that ran on the BBC in 2007. I had heard of it in cursory conversation, but never really looked into it. I’m fascinated by the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story, so it’s not exactly a hard sell to get me to watch an updated version (that has ties to the original story). I actually came to watch it in a roundabout way, though. With the aforementioned Netflix-on-360, I’ve found it much easier to check out movies and tv shows I wouldn’t normally go out of my way to view. So, if I find an actor or actress I like, I’ll IMDB them, then look at the “Watch Now” list and see what else I can check out.

I’m a huge fan of the absolutely stellar Leverage currently running on TNT. One of the actresses in the show is a Brit called Gina Bellman. I recognized her instantly from her turn as goofy-to-the-point-of-ridiculous Jane on the British sitcom Coupling, and decided it was time to look for more of her work. Low and behold, she was also a regular on Jekyll. I queued it up, and today watched the first episode.

Quite simply, the show is brilliant. If it can maintain even a quarter of the intelligence, tension, and suspense that it showed off in the first episode throughout the series, I have no doubt this will hold a spot in my list of all time favorites. The story follows Dr. Tom Jackman (James Nesbit) as a man who for some unspecified time has been dealing with an alter ego. This is no normal case of multiple personality disorder, as the other person typically comes out at set times, and seems to gain heightened strength and speed compared to his counterpart. They also look slightly different, with discolored eyes and a different hairline, marking more than just a mental change.

The first episode picks up with all of this pre-established as Jackman’s status quo. We meet him at the same time as a new assistant/caretaker, played by Michelle Ryan. I should note, if they had let her look as incredible as she does on this show on Bionic Woman (and hell, just let her be British), it may have lasted longer. We’re teased with the change for a little more than half the episode before we actually meet the man who comes to be known as Mr. Hyde, and that build up made him much more intriguing and ultimately more terrifying. Other characters introduced are a mysterious organization who may know more about Hyde than Jackman does, and a Private Investigator hired to look into him by his wife (Bellman).

Establishing tones of humor, horror, tension, love, conflict, betrayal, and scheming all in one hour of television is a difficult proposition. Pulling it off so well that it looks natural and easy is nothing short of amazing. Genre fans have just enough of the supernatural here, and those who usually cringe from genre entertainment won’t find enough to steer them away. Fans of characters like The Hulk will obviously find something to like here, but really this is just good drama. I highly recommend checking out Jekyll, available now on DVD or streaming via Netflix. I’ll be sure to follow up when I finish the series (which will likely only be a couple days).