Digital Kontent

506 – Burning Bridges

Johnboy — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:21:08 +0000

With Jeff Bridges’ triumphant return to comedy in Tron: Legacy, the guys go over why and why not to see this film, then the mockery that is The Golden Globes Nominations 2010, followed by a rousing conversation about of of the 90’s most iconic gems, James Carey.

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505 – The Kick

Johnboy — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:04:23 +0000

Digital Kontent talks The Inception Blu-Ray, 127 Hours, The New Thor Trailer, Pac Man CE DX, Green Lantern, Blizzard’s future release schedule, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and Super Mario Crossover by Exploding Rabbit.

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Super Mario Crossover #1

Super Mario Crossover #2

Super Mario Crossover #3

Super Mario Crossover #4

Super Mario Crossover #5

Super Mario Crossover #6

Super Mario Crossover #7

‘127 Hours’ Trailer

‘Pac Man CE DX’ Trailer

‘Thor’ Trailer

‘The Green Lantern’ Trailer

‘Inception’ Trailer

‘World of Warcraft: Cataclysm’ Trailer

‘Green Lantern’ Trailer

Leaked Blizzard Release Schedule

504 – Televisionaries

Johnboy — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:16:20 +0000

With the return of Digital Kontent to the airwaves, the guys go over everything they could in a span of about 40-minutes.

Is anybody still listening after that?

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503 – Another Season… Another Primer

Johnboy — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:42:47 +0000

With the need for a timely podcast about this season’s television shows, the DK crew delivers a show about some of their favorite shows they have ever showed.

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The Returned!

Iby — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:54:47 +0000

Funny thing about television networks is that they’re often run by idiots. Network execs rarely have the patience to allow a show to properly develop, constantly swapping time slots and trying to capitalize on the next hot thing. I have no delusions that TV isn’t just business, like manufacturing diapers or running a theme park, but we as viewers can’t help becoming emotionally invested in a show we love.

Some shows receive poor ratings because their time slot is shuffled around without warning, or the series is shown out of order for some incomprehensible reason… and eventually they get canned. It’s a sad day when a show you love bites the dust, especially when it seemed to be getting better and better.

What I hate most about the way TV programming seems to work is the copycat effect that happens every season. Ever notice how you get a very popular show like Survivor, and the following season every network has its own Survivor clone. Now I’m not saying that shows like Survivor shouldn’t exist (I actually watched the first two and a half seasons) what I’m saying is that networks need to stop jumping on bandwagons and start trying to win viewers with a variety of truly engaging and well made programs!

All is not lost however, as the recent phenomenon of TV on DVD has become the new OMG. TV shows cancelled before their time can now prove their popularity through DVD sales and triumphantly return to prime time! Let’s take a look at a couple shows that made it back (and one that didn’t) to try and understand why Fox is so stupid… yeah I said it!

Family Guy (1999 – 2002, 2005 – Present)

Created by Seth Macfarlane in a haze of Marijuana smoke and right wing leaflets, Family Guy entered the Fox line up as a new and “improved” version of The Simpsons. Family Guy was recognizable in many ways: fat guy with a pretty wife, two and a half kids in a small town filled with quirky characters. Despite its derivative origins, the show quickly developed a feel all its own, thanks in no small part to the hugely popular and very bizarre character of Stewie Griffin.

Family Guy was ramping in popularity during the early 21st century despite having to fight the Simpsons and other random crap for a decent spot in the Fox Sunday line up. The nail in the coffin came in the form the deadly 8pm Thursday slot which put Family Guy up against Survivor and Friends. Prior to offering Family Guy up to die at the hands of Shwimmer and Probst, Fox gave essentially no indication of when the show was airing; fans were left tuning in at the wrong time further dropping ratings and sealing Family Guys doom.

To squeeze more cash out of their now defunct show Fox released the first three seasons on DVD; and the rest is history. Macfarlane and Fox were raking in the dough and after the release of the Family Guy Movie on DVD the show made a triumphant return to television.

I loved Family Guy when it first aired and I was very happy with the first couple seasons after its return, but in my opinion it’s gone downhill and fast. Nothing seems original about it anymore and the spin offs (American Dad and The Cleveland Show) just make me sad. This just goes to show that Fox (and

Macfarlane’s now ridiculously huge ego) can ruin just about anything. I know, I know, nothing makes me happy… but just watch a newer episode of Family Guy and tell me how many times you laugh.

Futurama (1999 – 2003, 2010 – Present)

All hail Matt Groening! If Family Guy is a derivative of the Simpsons, Futurama takes what The Simpsons started to the next level. Futurama received a good deal of fanfare before its release (I remember promos on Fox where Groening demonstrated how to draw a wicked Bender) and was given the coveted 8:30 Sunday time slot after The Simpsons.

Futurama stumbled a bit in the ratings department due to its sci-fi underpinnings, While Family Guy was familiar (as bizarre as it could be) Futurama was something all together different. Fox executives were also not very fond of the show; I guess they didn’t like the insensitive portrayal of lobster people.

In the same lame cycle they always follow Fox began to mess around with Futurama’s schedule, shifting the show to Tuesdays, then 7pm on Sundays and of course never letting anyone know about the changes! Futurama was constantly bumped by NFL games or other nonsense, a bunch of episodes didn’t air even though they were completed… in other words the whole thing was a mess.

Despite what was going on at the network, Futurama continued to increase in quality and depth, leaving fans wanting more. David X. Cohen (the show’s co-creator) and Groening lined up a series of 4 Futurama movies to be released in 2007 – 2009. Comedy central was running Futurama in syndication at the time and was able to chop the new movies up into 4 episodes each and air them on the network. Based on the success of the movies and Comedy Central being way better than Fox, Groening/Cohen were able to reach a deal to get the show back on the air!

Futurama’s return was a resounding success in my opinion, the quality of the episodes is top notch and the new Comedy Central season has some of the funniest moments in the show’s history. 12 episodes have aired so far and a 13th is on the way November 21st 2010. Comedy Central has ordered 13 more episodes likely to air during the summer of 2011… all is right with the universe once again!

Firefly (09/2002 – 12/2002)

Firefly sucked, and then it was gone. Amen.

Fine, fine, don’t cry all you Joss Whedon fans out there! I never watched Firefly myself, and I’ll admit that even though I didn’t like Serenity (the movie made to appease upset fans) Fox screwed the show over in so many ways.

Fox executives didn’t like the original pilot and demanded that a new one be created to launch the show, this resulted in a confusing and rather cobbled together introduction to the characters and a lack of direction for the plot overall. To add further insult to injury the network decided to air episodes out of order, further confusing the audience and alienating any new viewers that just couldn’t get a hold on what was going on in the story. As is customary for Fox, the show was also frequently bumped for sports programming and a few of the episodes were not aired at all.

Firefly’s impending doom spurred the online community to unite and send postcards pleading for the continuation of the show. All the pleas and cries for clemency fell on deaf ears, and Firefly was executed by catapult on December 20th, 2002.

Despite the bitter resentment he must have felt after the whole ordeal Joss Whedon didn’t abandon his baby; in 2005 Serenity was released as a movie conclusion to the Firefly series… I didn’t like it, but then again I don’t like a lot of things.

TIFF 2010 Part 1

Milo — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:46:33 +0000

Thanks to the inheritance from my dead, rich uncle – I didn’t have to go to work last year. The situation was perfect because it allowed me to watch twelve, two-hour movies per day instead of waking up at ten in the morning just to stagger to a job like some kind of sucker. A lot has changed in a year. I learned that people who work need to wake up much earlier than ten in the morning. I also learned the value of a fortune and how easily it could turn into a few ironic props from the film, “Brewster’s Millions” and a lot of regret. This year I managed to find only a little bit of spare time in between the couch cushions and I used it wisely to see the absolute BEST that the Toronto International Film Festival had to offer.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Werner Herzog is a wild documentarian. He loves to get in the dirt, get sweaty and shoot some REAL footage. This film is one of the best examples of that process. The Chauvet cave was found in the early nineties by three explorers who were astonished to discover beautiful, ancient cave paintings. The explorers notified the French government, who sent in geologists, historians and other specialists to study the paintings. Together, they discovered that some of the paintings dated back approximately 34,000 years. This is twice as far back as any previously discovered cave paintings. The cultural relevance of a find like this is monumental and to have Herzog showcase these paintings in 3D was nothing less than magical.

Herzog felt so strongly about this subject matter that he made “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” for the French government for free in exchange for just being allowed to enter the caves. The film plays out like an exhibition of the artwork. Since it is shot in 3D we are able to see how the long forgotten artists used the curvatures of the cave to enhance the effectiveness of their work. This film could not be shot without the invention of 3D technology. Werner Herzog is a genius. Amen.

The Game of Death

In the nineteen-sixties, a sociological experiment was launched that tested how obedient human beings had become. They tested it by putting two people in a room and telling them that one would be a questioner and the other person would be responsible for answering. Anytime the person who was responsible for answering, got the question wrong, they would be punished by receiving an electric shock that increased in volts per question answered incorrectly. The person that asked the questions was also responsible for flipping the switch and administering the punishment. Of course, the person answering the questions was an actor and no real punishment was being administered, but the person asking the questions was completely oblivious to the reality of it and was more than willing to dish out some pain.

The filmmakers teamed-up with various scientists and sociologists to recreate the experiment in 2009, but instead of telling the subjects that it was an experiment, they made it seem like a reality competition. The results were enough to make anyone sick to their stomach. I found the film’s subject to be interesting and the filmmakers executed it very well. This French documentary wastes only a minimal amount of time sharing its views with us, making sure that the lion’s share of time was dedicated to showing us the results of the experiment and asking questions to the participants. “The Game of Death” gives us an idea of the dark road that reality television is heading down and I’m not just talking about “Dancing with the Stars”. This shit is about to get real.

Griff The Invisible

“Griff the Invisible” is another do-it-yourself, budget superhero movie. The hero doesn’t have powers mostly because the filmmakers can’t afford it. It’s very similar to “Defendor” and my personal favourite, “Super” (which I reviewed on episode 5×01 of the Digital Kontent Audio Podcast). The biggest difference between “Griff the Invisible” and its subgenre cohorts is that “Griff the Invisible” misses the point completely. For the most part, it tries too hard to be an ACTUAL super-hero movie. Sure, there’s a big twist at the end of the film that no mainstream superhero film would dare pull, but it doesn’t save this film from the depths of banality. Most of the time “Griff the Invisible” is just boring and some of the time it will actually make you actively dislike it. I would have a hard time recommending this film to anyone.

13 Assassins

Takeshi Miike seems like he’s just getting better and better. He’s one of the only filmmakers that actually improves over time, instead of deteriorating like so many others (Fincher, Allen, Stone). Miike’s newest film is about a rag-tag group of misfit samurai that live in a time of peace, which happens to be the worst of times for a samurai. Now that most of the samurai are retired and have given up hope of ever seeing battle, they run across the most EVIL antagonist of all time. A psychotic, bloodthirsty sadist, who abuses the power bestowed upon him as brother of the ‘Shogun’. The villain uses tied-up children as targets for longbow practice and cuts off a woman’s arms and legs before handing her out as a ‘pet’. This enrages the samurai and brings them together for one big score.

The first half of the movie builds anticipation by showing us how evil the villain is. Miike parallels the atrocities of the maniac with a character-building comic relief section as we follow the 13 Assassins on their one-way journey to beat-down-ville. The second half of the movie is simply a screen drenched in gore and violence. A thirty minute fight scene that will not leave you bored for a second. I think that anyone who is into well-built action films, samurai’s or Mr. Miike’s work is going to LOVE this movie. Everyone else can GTFO.

Thanks for reading! Part 2 coming soon!

- Milo

502 – Now You’re Thinking with Portals

Johnboy — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:50:23 +0000

Despite the lull in videogames released over the course of the summer, the guys “think with portals” about, what could become the biggest year in the history of ever, ever!

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Horror Movie Triple Feature Bonanza Supershow

Iby — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:53:35 +0000

I recently watched three very interesting horror movies that really got me thinking about the variety of scares and chills available to us these days. Unlike senor Milo, I’m not really a horror movie buff; I’d rather watch a good sci-fi or historic fiction than a blood and guts type splatter fest, but I had a good time with each of these movies.

The Crazies (2010)

Director: Breck Eisner

Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell

Breck Eisner’s remake of George Romero’s 1973 film of the same name is a slick, well filmed and genuinely tense horror/disaster/almost-zombie movie. I’d heard that the movie started off well but lost its way somewhere in the middle, based on that assessment I thought I’d just wait until The Crazies was available on Doovdeh. I don’t know what the hell people (cough – Milo) were going on about; this movie is a great from start to finish.

The main characters are strong and sensible; you’re always rooting for them and they don’t make needlessly stupid and contrived moves to put them in the way of danger. Timothy Olyphant is a good actor, and along with a strong supporting cast he carries the film well. We follow Olyphant in his role as David Dutton, the Sherriff of a sleepy mid-west town, all the way to the hard-ass survivor doing everything he can to keep his pregnant wife alive.

Breck Eisner and his crew filmed some great looking scenes for this remake; one that comes to mind involves an ominous looking wheat thresher running full tilt in the dead of night. The crazies themselves are also very creepy and thought provoking, they’re not just the mindless zombies or infected of other movies, they seem aware of their actions… which make them all the more disturbing.

I’m not calling this one a perfect movie, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how well made, well acted and tense this horror/disaster/almost-zombie/survival film turned out. I recommend.

Piranha 3D (2010)

Director: Alexandre Aja

Starring: Ving Rhames, Jerry O’Connell, Elizabeth Shue and Christopher Lloyd

I had absolutely no intention of watching this movie. I’m sick of 3D (I hate wearing glasses over my glasses!) and based on the trailers Piranha 3D just looked plain stupid! I only saw this film, opening weekend might I add, because I owed a friend a favour and this was how he chose to call it in.

As the projector began to flicker, I donned my god-damned 3D glasses and waited to be thoroughly disappointed. The movie begins and there’s Richard Dreyfus (This guy loves man eating fish!) and then “something” happens to him. Hilarious! Ok you’ve got my attention now stupid fish movie, what next? There’s Jerry O’Connell and something happens to him too! Ving Rhames, Eli Roth and the super hot Kelly Brook and “something” happens to all of them! Awesome!

Now here’s a movie that doesn’t take itself seriously at all. Everything that happens is just a set up for some of the goriest, vomit inducing scenes I have ever seen! The main plot line is dumb, and the kid the story revolves around should have been dropped as soon as he read his first lines at the audition.

Let me start out by saying that this movie is not for the squeamish. If however, you’re into gore, boobies (hooray for them!) and the hilarious antics of an aging Jerry O’Connell, then watch this movie.

The Human Centipede – First Sequence (2010)

Director: Tom Six

Starring: Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlyn Yennie and Akihiro Kitamura

Ahhh the Human Centipede, if anyone reading this hasn’t heard about this movie please take a moment and check out the trailer.

How about that huh? Messed up, I know. The great thing about horror movies (the good ones at least) is that they’re supposed to push the boundaries of what you expect to see in a movie. The only reason the Saw movies are so popular is that the creators spend a lot of time thinking of horrible new ways to kill people. The Human Centipede takes today’s desensitized viewing audience and dares to shock them with the most repulsive, disturbing and weird example of surgical madness this side of WWII.

The movie is propped upon the shoulders of Dieter Laser as the diabolic Dr. Heiter (where’s the “L”), a man obsessed with creating one being from three. Laser is the perfect man for the role, and uses his Udo Kier-ness to create a creepy, ominous and frankly hilarious bogeyman.

The Human Centipede does feel quite amateur in many ways, but this is forgivable; not every movie needs the slick veneer of Hollywood. The acting is pretty bad, but once again seems suited to the film. The bumbling girls backpacking through Europe with their awful dialogue and Dieter Laser’s over the top acting kept me laughing despite the awful fate awaiting those labelled A,B and C.

501 – International Escapades

Johnboy — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:43:51 +0000

With the return of The Digital Kontent Audio Podcast to the internets, the guys talk about their summer and how this season will unfold with TIFF and a potential Oscar push.

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422 – Season Finale: Week in Geek

Johnboy — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:21:44 +0000

With Milo in Seattle International Film Festival, the guys recruit long time featured writer, Big Saif whose column, “Week in Geek” has become a weekly Digital Kontent staple. The guys gab on like a murder of crows about nerdy films and comic book movies. The episode ends with a bang when Iby is shot. But who shot Iby?

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