There is a new episode of the Nerd Lunch podcast available for your immense enjoyment.  You’re welcome, Internet.

This week we are joined by Jay from The Sexy Armpit the awesome pop culture blog about all things New Jersey.

Our subject?  We are all traveling into space in Jay’s spaceship.  We are sucked into a wormhole and when we come out the other side, we are trapped in an unknown part of space, and all of our equipment is broken.  Jeeg is able to fix the food replicators but he can only get it to replicate 10 food/drink items.  Amongst the four of us, we have to agree on those 10 food and drink items that we want the replicator to reproduce.

It’s a whirlwind of filibustering to get all of our favorite items in there.  At one point we find out the same guy that doesn’t like Halloween also hates Cheetos.  And I have to wonder what kind of childhood did this person have that led to a dislike of Halloween and Cheetos?  And how is this person not a serial killer.  Am I right?

Anyway, come check out the craziness of Episode 9 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast. Download it from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

UPDATE:

We actually talked about my Skype profile pic in this episode. For those listening, this is what it looks like.

Like I said, this picture is a normal Saturday for me.

The newest episode of the Nerd Lunch podcast is live.  We are joined in the rotating fourth chair this week by friend of Nerd Lunch, Fitz. This week we are talking about Nerd Decor.

We are each given a fictitious $250 and we are to decorate our inner sanctum with nerdy goodness. Check out the nerdy extravagances we all get up to with this fictitious money.

Download it from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

A lot of the stuff we talk about this week is very visual in nature.  I wanted to give some notes to the podcast with images so you can see what I’m talking about in the episode.

Here are some of the things I talked about wanting to put in my Nerd Inner Sanctum.

(Via theforce.net)
Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition “Ingot” Teaser Poster (1996) – I actually have this poster currently hanging up in my house.

Star Wars Trilogy Promotional Poster (1990 VHS release) – I love the combination of the three Star Wars poster art for this. In the middle is the famous Star Wars Style A art by Jung. On the left is the Empire Strikes Back Style A art. On the right is the Return of the Jedi Style B art. It was used on a VHS trilogy set in 1990.

(Via theforce.net)
Star Wars Trilogy British Quad (1983) – Expensive, but worth it.

Back to the Future one sheet (1985) – I have this poster currently.

Luke Skywalker Return of the Jedi replica lightsaber
Force FX lightsaber
eFX Collectibles Luke Skywalker stunt saber

(Via FluxCapacitorReplica.com)
Flux Capacitor replica - There are instructions for building one of these yourself or you can buy it whole.  I’d just buy it whole.

Life-size Han in Carbonite (Sideshow Collectibles) with life-size Boba Fett statue (Don Post)

(Via arcadecab.com)
MAME-station arcade machine – Like the Flux Capacitor replica, you can buy these whole, or find plans to build them. Honestly, I’d like to build it, but if money is no object, I’d buy the cabinet whole then piece together the constituent parts myself.

USS Enterprise Captain’s Chair – ’nuff said.  But CT called dibs on this, so I’d have to go with…

Return of the Jedi Emperor’s throne – There is no way this is a comfortable chair, but it’s going behind my desk.  I may even need a life size Imperial Guard to stand behind me.  And if this is going in front of the window, I may need to redo the window to look like the giant Death Star viewport.

The boys from Nerd Lunch and I recorded a sequel to our ground breaking (and Internet breaking) podcast, Nerd Lunch! In episode 2 CT, Jeeg and I are joined by special guest Shawn Robare from Branded in the 80s.  Shawn has been a good friend to this blog almost from the beginning.  You may have heard me mention him several times in various articles plus we even did a huge blog crossover last year in which we talked about unofficial movie trilogies.

Anyway, this week we are discussing one of my favorite topics, the Back to the Future franchise.  I could talk for days about the BTTF movies, but don’t worry, CT managed to edit this one down to an hour.  And it’s a lot of fun.  Come hear the four of us discuss our favorite movie, our favorite scenes, some problems we may or may not have had with the movies’ temporal physics and whether we want to see a Back to the Future Part 4: Marty’s Grandkids.

So head to iTunes, download and subscribe to us or check out Nerd Lunch to listen to 4 nerds talk nerdy about Back to the Future.

I love movies. I love video games. So, obviously, I love video games based on movies. Well, I love the idea of video games based on movies. And this type of corporate synergy has been going on for years. Ever since the enormous popularity of the Atari 2600, both video game companies and Hollywood have tried to capitalize on popular movie brands to boost sales. And it makes for awesome pop culture ephemera.

So here are 14 awesomely vintage ads for video games based on popular movie franchises.

ET (Atari 2600 – 1982) - This is it. The game that felled the house of Atari. Yes, I owned this game and hated every second I played it. I know a lot of people now retroactively say they enjoyed it, but I HATED it.  You can only fall into an empty pit so many times before you throw the controller through the TV screen.  Surprisingly, this game was designed by the same guy that did Yars’ Revenge, the highest selling original Atari game (and one of my all time favorites).  Talk about Jekyll and Hyde.  Seanbaby rated ET #1 on his list of 20 worst video games OF ALL TIME.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (Atari 2600 – 1982) – Around the same time ET was released, Atari also released this game based on the first Indiana Jones movie.  And it’s starring YOU!

Total Recall (NES – 1990) – Video game based on the popular Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Total Recall.  Seanbaby rated this game #15 on his list of 20 worst video games OF ALL TIME.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure (NES – 1991) – Bill & Ted.  It is amazing this movie was as popular as it was.  I mean, the movie spawned a sequel, a cereal, a cartoon show and a live action show at Universal Studios.  And Keanu is even talking about making another one.  Most excellent.  I never played this game but I loved the first movie.

Rambo (NES – 1988) – A side scrolling shoot ‘em up adventure game that very closely resembled the Zelda sequel, The Adventures of Link.

(via oldmanwinters)
Star Wars Arcade (Atari – 1983) – The original vector based Star Wars game by Atari was extremely popular with fans.  So, of course Atari was going to port it to their home consoles.  Here’s an ad for the Atari port of the Star Wars arcade game for the 2600 and 5200.

Ghostbusters (Atari 2600 – 1984) – Normally games go from home consoles to the computer. However Activision went backward and actually ported this Atari 2600 game from the Commodore 64 computer.  It received a very big release on the Atari 2600 with lots of ads and a huge marketing push.

Ghostbusters II (NES – 1990) – Activision also created a game for the Ghostbusters sequel but this time on the Nintendo Entertainment System.  It did just about as well as you would expect a Ghostbusters II game would do.  Also in this ad is The Three Stooges game.  I had that game and it quickly became one of my favorites.  It was so much fun to play.  Miles better than the G2 game.

(via oldmanwinters)
Batman (Atari – 1990) – This ad is for the coin-op arcade game based on the first Tim Burton Batman movie.  It was released by Atari in 1990 and featured digitized images from the movie.

Batman Returns (Atari Lynx – 1992) – Here’s the ad for a video game based on the second Tim Burton Batman movie, Batman Returns.  It was also developed by Atari and released for the hand held Atari Lynx in 1992.

Firefox (Atari – 1983) – Promotional ad for Atari’s coin-op game, Firefox, based on the Clint Eastwood movie of the same name. This game was the only laserdisc based video game Atari developed. See screen shots for the game here.

Back to the Future (Data East – 1990) – This is the ad for the Back to the Future pinball game.  It was released by Data East in 1990 to coincide with the third movie.  I don’t know what the hell they were thinking when they cast the two guys in the ad as Marty and Doc.  WTF?!

(via gregg_koenig)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Halloween (Atari 2600 – 1983) – Great ad for two very rare Atari 2600 games based on the movies Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween.  Both released in 1983.  Matt actually did a great writeup of the Halloween game as well as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre game over at X-Entertainment.  He discusses the game play and provides lots of screen shots.

(via goggle5)
Die Hard Arcade (Sega Saturn – 1997) – The Die Hard Arcade game was released in America in 1996.  It was actually just a retooling of the popular Japanese game Dynamite Deka.  The Japanese game had little to do with the Bruce Willis movie but a Sega team, in conjunction with a Japanese development team, modified a few aspects of the game play to resemble the movie.  This particular ad is for the 1997  Sega Saturn version of that arcade game.  Interestingly, the Japanese Dynamite Deka sequel bore a striking resemblance to the movie Speed 2, but was released in America as Dynamite Cop.

Back to the Future opened 25 years ago today on July 3, 1985.  I can’t believe it’s been 25 years.  I saw Back to the Future during the Summer of 1985.  If it wasn’t opening day, it was very close.  My dad took me right after school to go see it.  I loved it.  That summer I saw it at least 8 or 9 more times in the theater.  I was able to do that because during the summer of 1985 our local radio station I-95 had a promotional movie night on Mondays where it was $1.95 to see a movie and soda and popcorn were $.99 each.  We went nearly every week.  And every time I saw Back to the Future again.  It was the spectacle of this movie that instilled in me a deep love for movies and watching them in the theater.  Back to the Future was really the first movie I consciously wanted to go see more than once while it was at the theater.  I’ve been a movie whore ever since and I’ve owned this movie and its sequels in nearly every home video format since.  I had the VHS, Laser Disc, DVD and I will soon have the Blu-Ray.

Speaking of Blu-Ray, before I get to the reviews, it was announced this week that the Back to the Future trilogy would be released on Blu-Ray on October 26, 2010.  Here’s the box art from DVDActive.com (click the image to see the whole article).

(Via DVDActive.com)

I love that cover. The extras are voluminous, too. It says it contains a new 6 part documentary, but previous releases had 3 part documentaries (which the article mentions are included as archival footage). So they filmed another “making of” documentary? Why?  These documentaries tend to be repetitive because there’s not much else to say about the making of these movies 25 years later. That juice has been squeezed. I’m more interested to know if the Back to the Future The Ride footage will be included.  Or the scenes filmed with Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly.  These are the things that have been missing from the last few releases of the trilogy.  Regardless I’m looking forward to see the new High Def transfer.

Now on to the movie reviews.

Back to the Future (1985) – Similar to when I watched the Karate Kid right before the remake opened, I am charged up after watching Back to the Future for the first time in a few years.  Like Karate Kid, it is a nearly perfect film.  Every scene is entertaining and all of the actors bring their A game.  Michael J Fox is great as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd is also great as Doc.  This is good because the entire movie only plays if Doc and Marty have chemistry, and they do…in spades.  The entire movie is extremely entertaining and is edited to a very brisk pace from scene to scene.  It seems like almost every line early in the movie pays off at some point in the end.  I mean, this script is tight.  I found myself saying all my favorite lines along with the actors while watching the movie.  “What’re you lookin’ at, Butt Head.  Say ‘Hi’ to your mom for me.”  “A portable television studio.  No wonder your President has to be an actor, he has to look good on television.”  “Who in the hell is John F Kennedy?!”  It’s so much fun!  And the gag at the end with the flying Delorean is just as great as you remember, “Roads?  Where we’re going we don’t need…roads.”  I have the first DVD release of the trilogy which, I didn’t realize, does not have the To Be Continued… title card at the end of the first movie.  I know it was not a part of the original theatrical release of the movie, but it was a little disappointing not to see it.  It’ll be interesting to see if it’s on the Blu-Ray release.  So, I can happily say I wholeheartedly recommend this movie.  It’s a fun family romp that’s endlessly entertaining, never boring and just loads of fun to watch.  Let’s hope Hollywood doesn’t decide they need to remake it.  Because then I may have to activate Operation Burn Hollywood to the F’n Ground.  No one wants that.

Back to the Future Part II (1989) – Part II has fans divided.  Many actually hate it.  I admit, when I first saw it in the theater, I was a tad disappointed.  It hadbeen 5 years since the original came out and my enthusiasm had bubbled up to an unattainable level.  I enjoyed the movie but not as much as I’d hoped.  Some of it was the fact that the movie’s tone was a bit darker.  A lot of exposition and action was crammed into this movie.  The heroes traversed three separate time periods.  It was dizzying.  However, after years of watching this movie, it has slowly made it up into the second spot on my Back to the Future favorite list.  Watching Part II again for this anniversary, it only confirmed that I did really enjoy the movie.  The hover board chase in 2015, the alternate 1985-A and revisiting the first movie from a different point of view all make for a truly entertaining movie.  Plus, in my last few viewings of the trilogy, I’ve come to be really impressed with Tom Wilson’s performances as the different incarnations of Biff.  He is really funny, goofy and terrifying as the ever present bully.  He’s become a stand up comedian, and a pretty funny one at that.  Check out his Question Song on YouTube.  It’s hilarious. One gripe about this movie, it’s almost a bit too long. The stuff at Marty’s house in 2015 where Michael J Fox plays like 4 characters, that could have been cut in half. It’s not my favorite part of the movie and seemed more gimmicky and not necessary than the rest of the movie. I also don’t like how all of a sudden Marty hates being called a chicken. Where the hell did that come from? I realize it drives the whole “crash into the Rolls Royce” subplot but it’s off putting. Other than that, pretty much everything in 2015 (except the “old Marty” stuff) and most of the stuff in 1955 is great. I still really enjoy this movie. Quick trivia, in 2015, when Marty plays the Wild Gunman video game in front of two kids, one of those kids is Elijah Wood. I didn’t realize it until this very screening.

Back to the Future Part III (1990) – I myself have always been hit or miss on this movie. It depends on my mood. This time, however, I loved it. And surprisingly, my favorite part of the movie? Tom Wilson as Mad Dog Tannen. His lines are hilarious. He keeps calling Marty these long drawn out insults like “duded-up, egg sucking, gutter trash” or “gutless, yella turd”. He is hilarious and makes the movie for me. I really did enjoy the Old West setting and the scenes with the train pushing the Delorean were fun and entertaining. This screening was a surprise for me because usually when I think about watching Part III I groan a bit in my head because I think it’s tedious. I was wrong. It’s very entertaining and worth watching.

On the Back to the Future Part III disc, as an extra, was the 20 minute documentary Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy hosted by Kirk Cameron. It was cheesy, but it had a lot of interesting tidbits. It went in depth into how they filmed the hover board sequence and even showed a deleted scene. It was slight, but fun.

So, that’s my look back on the Back to the Future trilogy on the 25th birthday of the original movie. It was fun putting together all of these themed articles. Hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned, because next week I have a special article written in conjunction with Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80s. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone.

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