Death At a Funeral (2010— 92 mins) C. Rock and a ton of others.

   Chris Rock’s latest movie is a slapstick comedy about a man who’s father has died and the craziness that occurs when a disfunctional family gets together for his funeral. There are all the crazy hi jinks that goes on in a movie of this type. You have the people who are too big for their britches coming back to show off who they have become (M. Lawrence) the family member who is afraid of revealing that she is engaged to a white man to her not approving father. Her said fiance’, played by James Marsden, is also tripping out on what they all thought was a Valium but it turns out to be much more. The crotchety old uncle (Danny Glover) who just doesn’t give a crap about anyone and is just pissed he has to be there. The mysterious dwarf attending who no one seems to know why (P. Dinklage, very good here as he always seems to succeed at comedy). And finally the various family members who seem to be just thrown into the movie to add more names to it (like T. Morgan and Luke Wilson).

Just like Cop Out, Funeral delivers a real funny watch and is well worth the time. It brings us on a revolving door of gags and stapstick but never really goes too far. The only thing in the movie they tend to come back to a ton of times is also the one thing that really steals the show. James Marsden is simply hilarious as the boyfriend who is tripping as if he is on LSD. He steals every scene he is in. Again I will nit pick a tiny bit. And again, one of the reasons is Tracy Morgan, as he has to get in his craziness but, at least here he’s not a central star int he movie so it’s toned down a bit. The other nit pick is the inclusion of some characters. It just feels like the movie is just including some characters for the sake of getting more names in it. (As much as I like Luke Wilson he just seems lost and useless in this movie). The thing about both of these movies (Funeral and Cop Out) is there is just not a whole lot to say b/c they are funny movies and good watches, but just not amazing or ground breaking and not a crazy amount of flaws either. Just decent movies.

Verdict—> A good movie and a good rental from the Red Box. It definitely doesn’t beat Cop Out but I would recomend you add this to your to watch list. Not for kids but not overly offensive either.

Cop Out (2010– 107 mins) Willis, T. Morgan Directed by Kevin Smith.  

    Ok I will admit it, I am a huge Kevin Smith guy. I love all the old Smith genre (Clerks I and II, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back etc) and his non Smith type stuff as well (cept maybe JErsey Girl). He just has a way about his writing and directing. The writing is spot on the dialogue is always hilarious, and the story always has a certain way of tying it all up in a nice package, but in a twisty way. With Cop out he goes more in the buddy cop type movie in the vein of the old movies like Running Scared (Crystal/Hines) and Tango and Cash. Those were great examples of fun get the bad guys but be aloof and funny while doing it movies.

   It starts out in a real typical way, we start with a real funny scene where the 2 good guys interrogate a bad guy but a under-cover op goes wrong and they get suspended. So then the real bad gang guys get up to no good even worse. So it’s up to Willis and Morgan (the dynamic buddy duo in question) to do what they can to foil the bad guys and make their personal lives right. It doesn’t break new ground but it really doesn’t have to it’s a good movie on it’s own and Sean William Scott adds some great comic relief to a movie that’s already a comedy, as weird as that may sound!

 It kind of reminds me of the more mainstream (and less campy) movie comparison to Travolta’s From Paris with Love. Both good movies and fun, but Cop out is more of the movie you will want to catch each time it’s on cable or basic cable then the other.

   I have one beef with the movie, and I guess it’s more of a beef with Tracy Morgan himself. It seems Morgan these days is just trying to either be too fricking wacky or he has become waaayyyy too full of himself. See, to me, his character on 30 rock is a satire of the Comedian who has no idea how to act, but it seems he is trying to bring himself more and more to be like that himself. If you look at his schtick in real life and the press and movies such as this you will see what I mean. My beef then here in the movie is Morgan and having to have his 20 lines of ranting or wackiness in some scenes. We get it you are just as funny as Martin Lawrence you don’t have to TRY and show us this is true. Too many times in this movie (and the next one on the Review today) we have scenes that should just have been over after a few jokes but we have to sit thru another Morgan tantrum/monologue first. But like some other movies this is just a small gripe and prob more of a personal one I have these days with him then the movie itself.

Verdict–> Go ahead and rent this one if you see it in the Red Box. It’s a welcome addition to a sea of crap that has been in there of late and I recomend it to everyone. Good popcorn and laughs movie.

This week was the release of the fantasy based Turn based strategy game Elemental: War of Magic. The first day it was released to say it lightly it was a complete disaster, and that’s putting it nicely. It was unable to be played for much time at all without crashing, it was missing much of any tutorial and was just a big steaming pile of crap.  What’s even worse is Stardock’s CEO Brad Wardell was quoted when venting to a friend with saying “please stay away from our games in the future. I consider it ready for release and if others disagree, don’t buy our games.”

   This needless to say, pissed off A LOT of gamers myself included. The game was obviously flawed and release a bit too soon. Stardock has released a bunch of patches this week since launch and the game seems to be fixed and working now. Wardell has even come out with a press release saying  “They were words spoken out of frustration and sleep deprivation” and that’s “not how I honestly feel”. On one hand I kinda want to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him have a mulligan for launch day, but then on the other hand it took him 4 days to say this so is it true? Is he really sorry or has he gotten enough pressure from advisers that he needs to bite the bullet and say he was wrong. I am not sure how much I believe him but at least now I think they are going to look at the game more and listen to the masses and try and fix it. The game really looks good and I really want to play it but I will wait for PC Gamer and gamespot.com to review it and see if then I want to play it. An already confusing game with very little tutorial, or in game help is going to be a tough sell to me.

NOW, I want to get on my soap box as usual about something that is entirely too common in the gaming world. Too many game companies these days are releasing games as either boxed copies or downloads in beta builds or crappy states. They use the next little bit of time to rush out a patch that is supposed to fix everything to a playable state, but it is often another few months before a true playable build is patched in. Is the corporate world and public money grab pressure that overwhelming that they have to get out what they can ASAP and pad their pockets? Sure, why do they really care about a few days of bad press, they can just flood the forums with their own people saying “It works great for me!” to try and combat all of this. And while the board battles wage out there they release a statement saying “we are looking into this” blah blah and then patch it up. It’s not only PC games either. More and more console games are using the online connection of their platform to give you the great message of “an update is available for the game please update now”. And these “updates” take out all the bugs and such that the new owner of the game might not even be aware of, but the non online person is just screwed.

I really hope this ongoing trend starts to go away and we see an improvement in the quality of launches. It’s alot to ask for though, since we are going to have a bunch of big name MMO’s to be released in the next year.  MMO’s tend to be bad launches just for the sheer number of people trying them and the hype surrounding them. All I can say to the public is try and be patient with developers as best we can as long as they don’t slap us in the face like Mr Brad. My own policy these days is wait a month at least for any release but with some of the titles coming out it’s harder and harder to resist. Hell, I love TBS so much I am even having to hold my self back from getting Elemental:WOM lol.  Sept 21st (Civ V) cannot get here fast enough.

I stumbled upon these 2 pieces of an interview Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford did in 1980 on the Today show. I love how Hamill still early in his career, tries to get any attention he can talking about his contract and stuff. I also love the fact he mentions the prequel 20 years before we will even see it. Also you will get quite the laugh out of how they answer the question of who will get Leia….

More proof you can find just about anything in the world on youtube

I found this today on Topless Robot. It is a list of ten characters from the Star Wars Universe who they say have completely useless back stories. It’s kinda true in a way, b/c no one really cares much about these characters. They are on screen for all of about 5 mins combined but that’s pretty huge to SW faithful. While I think it might be a bit extreme to have people come up with big long backstories I kinda think it’s neat to read em. 

  For anyone who wants to brush up on their Star Wars trivia too there is Wookiepedia to help you out as well!

Check out the 10 Minor Star Wars Characters With Completely Unnecessary Backstories

    The Geekjock learned late last week that it was likely time that Aaron Ward was going to retire. I kept a glimmer of hope that one of my favorite defensemen was going to hang around for another season, but yesterday the announcement was made that the 37 year old was hanging them up. Ward has always played the game of hockey like I love to do. Cover your own end, hustle on every play and take your offensive chances if they come to you.

  Ward was a 5th overall pick of the Winnipeg Jets in 1991 and  played 13 seasons, posting 44 goals and 107 assists and amassing 736 Pims. One of the most impressive stats to me is he has 3 Stanley Cup rings. The most important to me is the one with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006. He scored the first goal in game 7 on home ice about a minute and a half into the 1st and it set the stage for the single greatest sporting event I have ever seen live. There is just nothing like seeing your home team raise the cup above their head in their own building.

   In his anouncement Ward had this to say… “I’m very proud to have played for as long as I did in the NHL, with and against the best players in the game,” he said. “This game has left me with countless memories and relationships, especially from those Stanley Cup-winning teams in Carolina and Detroit. Thank you to my family, fans, friends and teammates for all of the great years.”

   I am guessing now that Ward will go into some sort of broadcasting. He was very good last year when I saw him on VS in studio with the guys. I can see him doing that sort of thing or being a color man for a team. Hell we would love to have him do games with John Forslund here in Carolina but for some reason the team is in love with the laughable Tripp Tracy. I tend to think that  Ward is the hockey equivalent of Kevin Millar. Just one of those funny likable guys that has a way to analyze the game and make you laugh at the same time. That’s what broadcasting needs. Not more guys who will announce with the usual “Those guys give 110% every night” token speeches.

I have met Aaron twice and he was nothing short of one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Best of luck to you in the future big guy!

I have posted a short but good highlight from youtube below of THE game 7. You will see Ward’s goal pretty much right away. For all of us Canes faithful this whole video will send chills down your spine and is sure to make you smile!

I will admit first and foremost that I am basically a Blizzard fanboy. I even own Blizzard stock as well. It is a company who always comes thru with their finished products being top notch and a success. They are famous world wide for their big motto on releasing games “when they are finished”. So to their credit they have not strayed from this formula since joining up with Activision, like some would have thought they would.

   My views on this is not that they are going to but I am wondering why some things are just taking so damn long to release. Before you scream “they don’t want to release crap and get everyone pissed about it”, let me explain myself here. 1st my argument isn’t that it would be rushed it’s that with their resources and talent they should be done with everything to their extent already. OK let’s rewind about 3 years. About when Burning Crusade (1st WoW expansion) was coming out they made a comment at a Blizzcon that they “intended” or would like to come out with a WoW expansion roughly every 18 months. I won’t get too crazy fanboy and accept this as bible but I think it’s all possible and at the same time think some of their content patches may have taken the place of some of this as well. Although I think this last content patch of Ruby Sanctum was a big fat FAIL for the mainstream WoW market. Once again Blizz puts out content for only the 5-10% of the playing public will even see which to me is complete and utter fail. It’s not really Pug-able and arguably only people who have downed Arthas will or can even go there, so not a good thing in the eyes of even the harder core casual gamers. But , as usual I digress… Back to expansion talk… We are now looking at just under 2 years that Wrath of the Lich King has been released, and we have been hearing about Cataclysm for over a year now as well.  Everyone is well aware that Blizz was working of Cataclysm well before this announcement as well. All along they have been saying “sometime in ’10” for the release. Yet with them changing so much this late in the year and so much more they claim is “not even close to being finished” how in the world can they release it this year? And with all the people they have hired to work on it and all the beta-testers out there how the hell is it taking this long. Ok I will back up some more. How is it that you can seriously still be overhauling complete class talent trees in AUGUST??? Come on guys the trees should have been 75% done before the beta phase even started. It’s an embarrassment to be this behind this late in the year. I have said it before but anything but a pre-blizzcon release is absolutely absurd and a complete waste of money. This will bring more attention of Cataclysm to blizzcon and fans do not want to see that as a main focus for this years blizzcon. We want something fresh. Even spending the majority of blizzcon on Diablo 3 would be fine with me, but just don’t spend any hunk of press on Cataclysm. There are even huge hunks of the community who are hoping that we will get a glimpse of the new “top secret” MMO project Blizz has been working on at this years blizzcon. How perfect of an announcement of the Con would that be??

   While I am on the semi-subject of Diablo 3 I will use that as my next point of complaining of Blizz taking it’s sweet ass time.  The last incarnation of Diablo was 10 years ago. Sure I will give em some lee-way and say they had probably taken some time off after the 2nd one to rest up or think of other things. BUT, as much of a smash hit as it was, and cash cow you HAD to know you were making another one. It’s only common sense. Now there is no way this is anything but a separate team of programmers etc, working on Cat and D3 and still we keep hearing that it might not even be next year, that it is out. Again WTF is taking you guys so long. Sure everything looks good so far and some great new innovations to the game but not much has changed in about a year since we saw some more Monk footage. They still only have 4 Classes announced and I am guessing that 5 will be in game at launch. Right now they have the Barbarian (basically same as D2 Dual Wielding hack and slash fest which we all love), Which Doctor (more of a pet class, caster, curses), Wizard (caster duh) and Monk (pure damage and some new niche abilities Blizz is really pimping). As always I suspect Blizzard will announce a primarily ranged class, something akin to the amazon or Hunter (from WoW). A class that can do melee or ranged. Unless they are holding back 2-3 classes for a planned expansion to D3 which is likely to happen as well.

   So my Q about D3 is this. How is it Runic games (whom have a bunch of ex-Diablo programmers) can put out such an amazing game like Torchlight in a fraction of the time to get D3 out, and WORST of all how can they put out a Torchlight 2 all which working on their own MMO  before D3 is even out! And make no bones about it Torchlight is a kick ass game. If you have not played the 1st one, GET IT NOW. It will help to keep you happy while you wait for D3.

After saying all of this above I have two big answers to my own questions but yet I still have the above gripes. First, I am well aware that it’s just not smart business for Blizz to put out two games too closeto each other. So with the huge release (and success) of Starcraft 2 this summer, it only makes some sense not to take any chances of losing potential sales of it to WoW players or vice versa. This is also prob why they have never put out a computer version of the WoW TCG which I would 100000% love to see happen. With the success of MTG: Duals of the Planeswalker, it’s entirely still possible I hope. Now granted I know many people who play Starcraft are just not those who play WoW but there has to be some significant overlap to warrant the issue of pushing Cat back as long as possible. And naturally the separation of D3 from WoW:Cataclysm b.c well frankly I would think a HUGE HUGE percent of people who play WoW play Diablo as well. 

   Second of my own counter argument is, well even if they ARE shooting themselves in the foot, do we or they care? Is it even going to hurt them? I mean is anyone NOT going to buy Cat if it comes out in Jan? Prolly not. Prolly the same billion people who want it now will still want it then. Same thing with Diablo. The whole world is going to get it anyway so what do they care. All these things just need to be out before SWTOR or else they can see a huge chunk out of profits with people in love with that title.

  So as a gamer, as a fan-boy, as a stock holder. PLEASE, blizzard get off your collective butts and get these titles finished. We would like to both play them and see you proffit off them as well.

GeekJock out.

Well the weekend is finally upon us. Should be a fun and packed weekend but that usually means a quick one which is the bummer of it all lol. The GJ has a ton of baseball activity this weekend. I play in a mens 35 + wood bat baseball league and we have a few games this weekend. Tomorrow we have 1 whole game (which is usually tiring enough in 92+ degree heat) and then we have to finish a game that was rain shortened earlier in the summer. Luckily it’s the top of the 7th so it shouldn’t be too long after a full game 1. Then we turn around and play on sunday as well. Two and a half games this weekend should make for a pretty sore sunday night/ monday. 

Also other then playing with the kiddies and Mrs Geekjock (I can only hope   ) after everyone is asleep it will be time for trying to complete Bioshock on my 360. I know 99% of the gaming world has already completed bioshock 2 but I’ll get around to that soon enough too.  And for the Bioshock lovers out there from www.gamespot.comI have put the teaser for the newly announced Bioshock Infinate below too. It looks pretty damn cool and the same sort of style of the original.

Well that’s about all for now. I am sure I will get some leveling of my Resto-Shammy in WoW this weekend as well. I got him to 50 last night and just can’t seem to put him down. Also the weekly raid on my server is Flame Leviathan which is so easy it’s almost criminal not to get it done on all of my 80’s. Happy hunting and have a nice cold one on the GeekJock!

There is a killer video out now of the crafting/socketing/ Salvaging from Diabo 3. I know I have been saying how much I am looking forward to games like the Wow Expansion, SWTOR, and DCUO but there is absolutely nothing I am looking forward to more then D3. I think it will be a year or so more till it’s released but seeing videos like this just bring a huge shit eating grin to my face thinking of how damn good this will be. The video itself looks amazing and I am fricking psyched.

Once again a big THANKS to PC Gamer.com for posting it. I have to say there is no better gaming Mag and group of journalists out there then these guys. Easily my fav podcast as well right now. Check it out www.pcgamer.com.

Well the good news is the work week is almost over. That means not only party time as usual but time to think about what to play after the wife and kids hit the sack.  I am trying mostly to kill time until a few things come out. NExt month is Civ V, then DCUO is out Nov 2nd, and who the hell really knows when WoW: Cataclysm will be. So what should I get into this weekend.

• World Of Warcraft—> Still need to gear up a couple of the 80’s and level the Shammy healer, and get the Pali to 80.
• Bioshock–> I am prob about 60% done with it and could try and get it finally completed.
• Mass Effect–>  Another Xbox 360 game I have bran spanking new that I just haven’t started b/c I know once I do start there won’t be much stopping me.
• Super Mario Wii—> Got this for the fam last christmas and haven’t played it much more then getting past the 1st set of stages.
• Rent an Xbox 360 game… This could work b/c I have a ton of Coke reward points and I could print out a RoGo gift cert and I think you can keep em for 5 days so this could work as well.
• DL and try a new or old “free to play game”—> I could venture back into the world of Warhammer again, hit up Runes of magic and see if I can get past the crap graphics, or just look arond for something completely new.

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So there you have it peeps. Please help a very indecisive GeekJock to find some FUN this weekend!