Author: Scott Simmons

WWE’s AJ Lee Wins Maxim Cover Voting In A Landslide

Proving that wrestling fans will vote in droves for a chance to see their favorite female wrestler on the cover of a publication that used to matter, current Divas champion, AJ Lee, won a fan vote on who should have a Maxim cover in the future over Summer Glau, Miesha Tate and others.

To be completely honest can you see why she won by such a huge margin? If you can’t then we can’t be internet friends, but of course, there are almost no friends on the internet.

No word on if AJ would even consider being on the cover of Maxim. Maybe the fact fans voted her above everyone else on the list will convince her. God know it would be the only reason I would buy a Maxim again.

Photo courtesy showrenity.com

January 14, 2014
How Definitive Is The Tomb Raider Re-Release? Let’s Take A Look

Photo courtesy pushsquare.com

In a few weeks Square will be re-releasing last year’s Tomb Raider for the Playstation 4 and Xbox One as Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. The team at Crystal Dynamics have reworked their engine to harness the power of the next-gen consoles to give one of last year’s best games a makeover including changing the way Lara looks altogether.

The fine folks at IGN have posted a video that compares the PS3 and PS4 versions while executive producer Scot Amos explains all the fancy stuff they have done to the game.

I am actually getting this version of the game even though I played through the Xbox 360 version twice last year. Don’t ask me why. I normally hate double dips but I had a blast playing the game and will gladly go through it again for the Xbox One achievements. It is also a great chance for people who did not play it last year to pick it up on their shiny new consoles if they want.

To all the people bitching about the re-release; you don’t have to buy it. No one is making you. Calm down.

January 14, 2014
Outlast Free On PS4 In February. PSN 14 For 14 Sale Begins Today

More reasons to be a PS Plus member as Sony has announced that the survival horror game, Outlast, will be free to Plus subscribers on PS4 in February. The game was released for PC back in September and will be available for download on the PS4 on February 4th.

Today also sees the start of the PSN 14 for 14 Sale where 14 games on both PS3 and Vita are over 50% off as well as 75% off for PS Plus. The games range from Crysis 3 for $5, Tales of Xilia only $10 and Killzone: Mercenary on Vita for $9.

Check out the full list of games on the Playstation Blog.

January 14, 2014
First Trailer Game Of Thrones Season 4

So much great stuff awaits us in the fourth season of Game of Thrones. What is left from the latter half of Storm of Swords will make up the season and it is some of the best material in the entire series. We get some great looks at the Battle of Castle Black, Tyrion’s trial, and Lord Oberyn’s battle with Gregor Clegane.

Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy, sexy, bloody ride.

Game of Thrones returns on April 6th.

January 13, 2014
HUGE Ant-Man News! Michael Douglas Cast As Hank Pym!

Marvel has officially announced that Michael Douglas has been cast in Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man due for release on July 31, 2015. The casting is not that odd since Robert Redford has a starring role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, rather it is the role that Douglas is taking on.

He will be playing Hank Pym.

That’s right. Michael Douglas will play the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym, and Rudd will be playing his successor Scott Lang. Edgar Wright had been dropping hints for weeks that he was purposely not announcing which Ant-Man Rudd would play but I assumed it was to just troll fans. Not the case!

This could be seen as a gamble by Marvel and Wright with many people excited to see Hank Pym finally on the big screen…just in his prime. Now in the official Marvel movie universe Scott Lang will be the hero with a 60-something Pym perhaps being the villain in some way (as rumors are now saying).

What do you think of the news that Hank Pym will be played by the Academy Award winner? Do you feel like your chance to see Pym in his heyday have been stolen or are you trusting Edgar Wright?

Check out the official Marvel statement below.

Michael Douglas has stepped into some of the biggest–or should that be tiniest?–shoes of his career.

The two-time Academy Award-winning actor will join director Edgar Wright and Paul Rudd in Marvel’s “Ant-Man,” hitting theaters July 31, 2015.

“With Hank Pym’s rich history in the Marvel Universe, we knew we needed an actor capable of bringing the weight and stature to the role that the character deserves,” said Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. “We felt incredibly relieved when Michael Douglas agreed to step into the part with the charm and fortitude he brings to every character he inhabits, and couldn’t be more excited to see what he will do to bring Hank Pym to life.”

The legendary actor, who earned an Academy Award in the category of Best Actor in a Leading Role for his iconic portrayal of Gordon Gecko in “Wall Street,” has also starred in numerous modern classics including “Basic Instinct,” “Fatal Attraction,” “The Game,” “Wonder Boys,” “Traffic” and many more. In addition to acting, Douglas has also served as Producer and Executive Producer on a number of films including “Romancing the Stone,” John Carpenter’s “Starman” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” for which he also won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Most recently, Douglas earned a Golden Globe and his first Primetime Emmy Award for his role as legendary entertainer Liberace in the HBO original film “Behind the Candelabra.”

January 13, 2014
Review: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

It certainly took long enough for Ron Burgundy and company to return to theaters. Nine years to be exact. When the original Anchorman released in 2004 it did moderate business at the box office but found cult-like status when it came home on DVD with 90 minutes worth of quotable lines as well as some of the most off-the-wall characters ever. It was kind of a big deal. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay kept trying to convince Paramount that audiences wanted a sequel and the studio would not listen then finally relented when Ferrell and McKay promised to make the movie on the cheap meaning they and stars Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell and Dave Koechner would do it at a discount.

Here we are! Nine years later and the Channel 4 News Team has entered the 80’s with less than stellar results. Champ owns a fried chicken restaurant that serves bats to save money calling them “chicken of the cave”, Brian is a successful kitten photographer and Brick…well, Brick’s dead. At least that is what he said giving his own eulogy at the gravesite.

Ron has fallen on harder times being fired from his anchor job by his idol and his wife Veronica has become the first ever female evening news anchor. This leaves them estranged with Ron’s son caught in the middle. He is soon offered a job at GNN, the first ever venture into 24 hour news. Ron loads the Burgundy-mobile and goes searching for his old team and convince them to come to New York with him and become the big thing in news again.

Needless to say if you thought events in the first movie got a little weird get ready, because that was nothing. As their fame grows so does Ron’s ego and he distances himself from the team while he begins a relationship with the news station’s African-American news director, which Ron can not stop mentioning. Black. He can’t stop saying black. Black….black.

The mighty soon falls as a tragic figure skating accident leaves Ron blind and living in a lighthouse alone. Even the team can not bring him out of his self-pity. Only Veronica and his son can do that as he learns to live with his lack of vision and raises a baby shark, called Doby, to adulthood. Those previous sentences should not surprise you in anyway knowing this is Anchorman.

The sheer number of co-stars and cameos is staggering in Anchorman 2. Brick finds love in a like soul played by Kristen Wiig and Ron’s idol is a certain Dr. Jones. Like the first Anchorman we are also treated to a giant news battle featuring Kanye West, Liam Neeson and the son of Dorothy Mantooth (she is a saint!).Those names are the tip of the iceberg in the fight for news supremacy. This was one recycled part of the first film that worked better than others. I could guess that the main cast ad-libbed a lot of the script because of director Adam McKay wanting to release a completely separate cut of the film with all-new jokes. I am all for that.

As for the movie as a whole, Anchorman 2 had me chuckling and laughing plenty but lacked the true tear-inducing humor that made the first a classic. I found Ron Burgundy’s return funny…yet something was still not there. Some of the jokes are laughable but nowhere near as quotable as the 2004 original. There is normally no way to catch lightning in a bottle twice, but even with that said, Anchorman 2 is funnier than most of the comedies I have seen in the past year. Just be sure to go in with tempered expectations, because while Anchorman 2 is funny, it can not equal your love of lamp.

NERD RATING- 8/10

January 13, 2014
Scott’s 2013 Game Of The Year

The Last of Us

2013 was one of the strongest years ever for video games. So many games that deserve recognition for being incredible in their own right. When it comes right down to it, as I sat and looked at my list of possible picks, there was only one choice that was easy for me to make.

The Last of Us is a game that defines a generation and it comes at the very end of the current one. Naughty Dog’s reputation as a premiere developer was already sealed with their Uncharted trilogy, Jak and Daxter and Crash Bandicoot, but with The Last of Us they married the gameplay and story so seamlessly it reimagines what is possible in video gaming. Not just very good at one and slack at the other, rather a symbiosis created and learned over 30 years of gaming.

Led by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who set a new bar for voice acting, The Last of Us is the story of Joel and Ellie and their journey across the country, which spans a year, and set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic outbreak twenty years prior that has left mankind hanging on by a thread. We have seen the apocalypse scenario before. In fact, we are inundated with it in pop culture with the current zombie craze which makes Naughty Dog’s ability to make it feel fresh all the better. The lines of “video game as art” are blurred further the more you play.

It has been a long, long time since I felt so much emotional connection to characters in a game, not since the original Mass Effect in 2007. As Joel and Ellie’s relationship grows from contentious to so much more you can not help but have your own attachment to both of them, especially if you have experienced the type of loss that both of them have. I can not thank Naughty Dog enough for creating such a fully realized world and characters that will always stick with me.

The Last of Us is a journey that reveals just how good…and horrific humanity can be in its worst hour. As a species on the brink of dying off you are focused on these two engaging people who show you that The Last of Us isn’t about the last of humanity, but rather, the last of humanity left in us.

The best of the rest

-Bioshock Infinite

Any other year. Any other year this would be sitting at the top of my list. Taking the fun Bioshock formula and add in a host of mindfucks and you have only just begun to realize what awaits you.

-Tomb Raider

Welcome back, Lara Croft. It has been awhile. Where Uncharted was a spiritual successor to the original Tomb Raider this brings it full circle and the new Lara is a spiritual successor to Uncharted. Smooth controls and beautiful to look at.

-Assassin’s Creed IV

I had all but given up on the Assassin’s Creed franchise then Ubisoft goes and does this. Who doesn’t want to be a pirate on the high seas? It lets you live out your Jack Sparrow fantasies and reinvigorates the series.

-Super Mario 3D World

It looks like I bought a Wii U just in time. Crazy level design and co-op play that will make friends enemies. It is easily the best Mario game since Super Mario 64. Should be a system seller.

January 13, 2014
Weekend Box Office- January 10-12, 2014

We are only a few weeks into 2014 and already we have our first surprise at the cinemas. Lone Survivor, which is based on a true story and whose title should tell you what to expect, blew away everything else with a huge $38.5 million almost doubling its studio estimates. Marky Mark, Speed Racer, Angel and Gambit star as a SEAL team sent into Afghanistan to assassinate a Taliban leader when things go awry. I can speak from experience when I say I was at the theater this weekend and it looked like a summer movie opening with the line for Lone Survivor.

It appears that The Rock has no reason to be worried about his version of Hercules opening this summer. The Legend of Hercules only managed $8.6 million dollars which gives me a bit of hope yet for the American movie goer and their choices.

More good news for American Hustle after last night’s Golden Globes, where both Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence won their respective categories, the film passed $100 million domestically. This is director David O. Russell’s third film in a row to do so after 2010’s The Fighter and 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook.

1. Lone Survivor- $38.5 million/ $38.8 million

2. Frozen- $15.0/ $317.6

3. The Wolf of Wall Street- $9.0/ $78.5

4. The Legend of Hercules- $8.6/ $8.6

5. American Hustle- $8.6/ $101.5

6. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug- $8.0/ $242.2

7. August: Osage County- $7.3/ $7.8

8. Saving Mr. Banks- $6.5/ $68.9

9. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones- $6.3/ $28.4

10. Anchorman 2- $6.1/ $118.5

January 13, 2014
Rambo: The Video Game Has A New Trailer. I Still Want This

Here is a new trailer for Rambo: The Video Game that takes the iconic character through the events of the first three movies. Since hearing about this game early last year I have been very vocal about me wanting it despite the fact it looks completely outdated and may end up being an (at best) mediocre shooter. This trailer does nothing to change that, but dammit, I want to shut off my brain and take on Brian Dennehy and save Richard Crenna while exploding men with my massive armory of weapons.

Let me have this.

Rambo: The Video Game will release this year.

January 10, 2014
Game Of Thrones Season 4 Premiere Date Set

The picture says it all I suppose.

Are you still reeling from the events of Season 3? Well get ready because that was only half the fun from the third novel, A Storm of Swords. There is way more sex, death, sex, death, betrayal, death and sex to come. Including big deaths for a couple of main characters.

Why would I say something like that? Because every year when Game of Thrones fever comes back I relish making people who have only watched the show squirm. Sorry. If you want to change that, read a book…or go to Wikipedia.

January 10, 2014