Four-Color Flashback

Four-Color Flashback: Chris Claremont & John Byrne's 'Uncanny X-Men' #129-135

Welcome to week 4 of 5 in our analysis of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run on Uncanny X-Men. Weeks 1, 2, and 3 can be found here, here, and here. Well. This is not quite the reaction I was expecting. They’d fought Magneto, endured the Savage Land,

On DVD & Blu-Ray

On DVD & Blu-ray, 7/12/11: 'Rango,' 'Insidious,' More

RANGO (DVD/Two-Disc Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Combo) The latest in the trend of computer-animated talking animal movies was the first for the studio (Paramount) and the director (Gore Verbinski), and still manages to rank as perhaps the best of the genre. What on paper sounds like just another cliché-ridden

So You Think You Can Gobble

So You Think You Can Gobble: 8.13, "Week Four: Results"

The group routine that kicks of tonight’s festivities is a Bollywood number by veteran choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan, set to the song “Kata Kata” from the RAAVAN soundtrack. Bollywood is almost always fun to watch, even when it’s not done particularly well. Fortunately the Top 14 dancers all

So You Think You Can Gobble

So You Think You Can Gobble: 8.12, "Week Four: Top 14 Performance"

Due to issues with our local FOX broadcast, I actually didn’t get to see the first few minutes of this episode. Sadly this means I missed what sounds to have been a pretty great group number by the Top 7 guys; something about the seven stages of grief, choreographed

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Listen to Episode 57, "Joffrey Baratheon Must Die"

Gobbledygeek episode 57, “Joffrey Baratheon Must Die,” is available for listening or download right here. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn…the geek who watches Game of

Four-Color Flashback

Four-Color Flashback: Chris Claremont & John Byrne's 'Uncanny X-Men' #122-128

Welcome to week 3 of 5 in our analysis of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run on Uncanny X-Men. Weeks 1 and 2 can be found here and here. From #122, “Cry for the Children!,” to #128, “The Action of the Tiger!,” almost every X-Man experiences considerable developments. Since

On DVD & Blu-Ray

On DVD & Blu-Ray, 7/5/11: 'Hobo with a Shotgun,' 'Das Boot,' More

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (DVD/Two-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD/Collector’s Edition Blu-ray & Digital) Hobo with a Shotgun is the feature-length adaptation of a contest-winning faux trailer shown with some Canadian prints of 2007’s Grindhouse; I haven’t seen the trailer, but maybe this stuff was amusing

So You Think You Can Gobble

So You Think You Can Gobble: 8.11, "Week Three: Results"

This will be super brief, guys. It’s late (both in terms of how long it’s taken me to post this and the hour at which I’m typing this very sentence), so I’m not going to dilly-dally. Sad as it is… Welcome… to SO YOU THINK YOU

TV Reviews

So You Think You Can Gobble: 8.10, "Week Three: Top 16 Performance"

Better late than never, right? Real life did it’s best to keep this week’s recap from happening, but you just can’t keep a good dance geek down. Welcome…to SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE! One of the joys of this series each week is seeing what

Four-Color Flashback

Four-Color Flashback: Chris Claremont & John Byrne's 'Uncanny X-Men' #115-121

As last week’s introductory column wound to a close, I pondered two thoughts: Could John Byrne’s art be any more fantastic? Would Chris Claremont be able to refine his writing as time went on? Though we’re still fairly early on in their run, I’ve now been

On DVD & Blu-Ray

On DVD & Blu-Ray, 6/28/11: 'Sucker Punch,' 'Barney's Version,' More

SUCKER PUNCH: Extended Cut (DVD/Blu-ray/Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Combo) Yep, here it is. This is the film that either destroyed any remnants of geek cred I may ever have had, or proved what a brilliant film viewer I really am. Why, you ask? Because, damn it, I liked

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Listen to Episode 56, "You Can't Go to Riverdale Again"

Gobbledygeek episode 56, “You Can’t Go to Riverdale Again,” is available for listening or download right here. Nostalgia…it’s that bittersweet pang, that intangible sense memory, when you encounter something that makes you want to go home again. It’s also informed many major geek properties these past

TV Reviews

Follow-Up: It Was Called THE KILLING, What Did *I* Expect?

So THAT happened. I came out early on this blog to defend AMC’s latest drama The Killing, an Americanization of the Danish “Nordic Noir” series Forbrydelsen, from claims that it was too slow, too bleak, too maudlin. I expressed a desire to see a story like this played out

TV Reviews

So You Think You Can Gobble: 8.09, "Week Two: Results"

The warm fuzzy feeling of letting all Top 20 dancers survive past last week’s elimination episode inevitably had to give way to the crushing sadness of losing FOUR dancers this week. Everyone was all excited and giggly and dancing around with joy that no one had to leave the

TV Reviews

So You Think You Can Gobble: 8.08, "Week Two: Top 20 Performance...Again"

You may have noticed I never got around to posting a recap of last week’s results show. Well I’m sure by now everyone knows that there actually weren’t any results resulting from the results show. For the first time in eight season, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe and

Four-Color Flashback

Four-Color Flashback: Chris Claremont & John Byrne's 'Uncanny X-Men' #108-114

Welcome to our new column, “Four-Color Flashback,” in which we will occasionally discuss classic or interesting comic book runs. First up is the legendary 35-issue span encompassing Chris Claremont’s work with John Byrne on Uncanny X-Men. So legendary, in fact, that I’m amazed I’ve never read it.

On DVD & Blu-Ray

On DVD & Blu-Ray, 6/21/11: 'The Adjustment Bureau,' 'Cedar Rapids,' More

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (DVD/Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Combo) Taken from a short story by Philip K. Dick, The Adjustment Bureau has a great premise: there is a bureaucratic agency governing every decision you make, and if you stray from The Plan, they will step in and adjust your life.

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Listen to Episode 55, "#1"

Gobbledygeek episode 55, “#1,” is available for listening or download right here. You may have heard that DC Comics is relaunching/rebooting/re-whatevering its entire line. We certainly have, and rejoined by Nathan, we’re here to discuss all 52 titles, from the Batmen to the WildC.A.T.S.

TV Reviews

So You Think You Can Gobble: 8.06, "Week One: Top 20 Performance"

And with that, Season 8 of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE is out of the gate! There’s a lot of ground to cover in Week One, so let’s get to it. First thing’s first, we have our first guest judge: Megan Mullally. I’m not going

On DVD & Blu-Ray

On DVD & Blu-Ray, 6/14/11: 'Kill the Irishman,' 'Foo Fighters: Back and Forth'

KILL THE IRISHMAN (DVD/Blu-ray) When I reviewed Kill the Irishman for this blog, I described it as “sturdy” and “reliable,” and indeed it is. It’s a gangster movie in the classic sense of the term: no razzle-dazzle, no flashy set pieces, just a bunch of guys doing amoral

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Listen to Episode 54, "E3's Company"

Gobbledygeek episode 54, “E3’s Company,” is available for listening or download right here. This week, Nathan joins Paul and AJ to discuss some of the biggest and best things to come out of this year’s E3. Chiefly, there’s Nintendo’s new console, Wii U–its fancypants controller,

TV Reviews

So You Think You Can Gobble: 8.05, "Green Mile - Top 20 Revealed"

We’ve made it! Weeks of auditions and a brutal, bloodthirsty Vegas callback elimination process have lead us here, to the fabled “green mile.” In seasons past this has meant a sort of morbid and drawn out episode of the remaining hopefuls taking the long walk down the video-lined hallway,

TV Reviews

So You Think You Can Gobble: 8.04, "Las Vegas Callbacks"

Wow. So… that happened. If you’ve never watched So You Think You Can Dance before, you may be unaware of just how brutal the Las Vegas Callbacks are. I passionately love this show and even I forget the pain and suffering involved in this stage of the competition. Basically,

On DVD & Blu-Ray

On DVD & Blu-Ray, 6/7/11: 'Breaking Bad,' 'True Grit,' More

BREAKING BAD: The Complete Third Season (DVD/Blu-ray) Breaking Bad‘s terrific second season was tightly plotted ahead of time, with ample foreshadowing throughout. For the show’s third season, however, creator Vince Gilligan and his writers turned into expert jazz players, improvising every note, changing rhythm, and exploring all

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Listen to Episode 53, "Kill Bill & Ted"

Gobbledygeek episode 53, “Kill Bill & Ted,” is available for listening or download right here. Geek Challenge time! Paul has astonishingly never seen the Kill Bill films, so AJ challenges him to watch them; and in return, Paul challenges AJ to watch the Bill & Ted films. Because of course.