Archive for Back to the Future

League of Extraordinary Bloggers: Favorite “go-to” movie

Posted in Back to the Future, movies, pop culture, Star Wars with tags , , , , on February 9, 2012 by Paxton

LEB logo

Brian over at Cool and Collected has started a new movement. It’s a group of blogs coming together each week to discuss one topic. Brian will hand out the assignments and the blogs will discuss the topic as they see fit. Brian has dubbed it The League of Extraordinary Bloggers.

I pledged to him that I would join in when I can, and seeing as how for once I’m actually way ahead on my own writing I’ve decided to jump in on our first assignment.

This first assignment was to discuss our “go to” movie. A movie we could watch at any time. Just pop it in, curl up on the sofa with an industrial sized bag of Cheetos and start quoting along with the movie. Mine is probably not going to be a shock to anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time. And I hate to keep going back to “the well” on this, but I have to answer truthfully.

On any given weekend, since I was a kid, there are two things I’d pop into the VCR at a moment’s notice depending on how I was feeling that day. The first was Back to the Future.

BTTF wide

There is hardly an aspect of this trilogy I have yet to discuss. Check out my Back to the Future archives. Articles galore. The Nerd Lunch crew did an entire podcast discussing the Back to the Future movies and another one on just the topic of time travel. It’s because I’ve seen this movie so many times and know it like the back of my hand that I can talk so often about it. I love this movie. It kindled my love for time travel.  The first movie I took my son to when he was literally 1 month and 5 days old was the limited 25th anniversary showing of the original Back to the Future on Oct 25, 2010.  I pretty much recited the dialog throughout the entire movie while he slept.  So yes, this is definitely a “go to” movie for me.  I could probably put the entire trilogy in here as I love all three movies, but I watched the original many more times.  Mostly due to the fact that Part II didn’t show up until four years later.  So I had time to just load up on repeated Back to the Future viewings. And I own this trilogy on all media formats including VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-Ray.

The second thing I’d pop into my VCR on any given weekend and have on in the background is the Star Wars Trilogy.  Most especially the original VHS releases.

Star Wars Trilogy VHS

It doesn’t matter which one, I consider them all to be one movie. And I have this movie trilogy on nearly every format including VHS (multiple versions), Laserdisc, Video CD and DVD.  On any given day my favorite is different.  I love all three.

Since college, I could pop on a Back to the Future or Star Wars movie and have it running in the background for hours while I worked on school projects, surfed the Internet or just hung out at home.  They are hands down my two favorite movie trilogies.  Possibly even my favorite movies of all time.

I even own the deluxe film score to the Back to the Future trilogy as well as the 4 disc Star Wars Trilogy Soundtrack Anthology.  I would sometimes put these on in the background while doing homework or working on chores around the house.

Articles from other League of Extraordinary Bloggers

1. Shawn Robare at Branded in the 80s talks about Red Dawn.
2. Christopher Tupa talks about one of my favorites, The Goonies.
3. Siftin’ talks about watching Superman II more times than even I have seen it. And that’s a lot.

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Nerd Lunch Episode #9: The Replicators are Broken

Posted in Back to the Future, movies, podcast, pop culture, Star Trek, Star Wars with tags , , , , , , on November 1, 2011 by Paxton

Nerd Lunch Podcast

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.

Facebook pic

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

Nerd Lunch Episode #8: Nerdy Decor

Posted in Back to the Future, movies, podcast, pop culture, Star Trek, Star Wars with tags , , , , , on October 25, 2011 by Paxton

Nerd Lunch Podcast

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.

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

SW Trilogy
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.

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

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Nerd Lunch Episode 2: We gotta get back in time…

Posted in Back to the Future, movies, podcast with tags , , , , on September 14, 2011 by Paxton

Nerd Lunch Podcast

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.

Me and Doc Brown

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.

14 vintage ads for video games based on movies

Posted in Activision, advertising, Atari, Back to the Future, Batman, movies, Star Wars, video games with tags , , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2011 by Paxton

Cavalcade Arcade

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.

Atari 2600 ET
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.

Atari 2600 Raiders
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!

NES Total Recall
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.

NES Bill and Ted
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.

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

Atari Star Wars Arcade(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.

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