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Nerd Lunch Episode 7: Does it live up to the hype?

Posted in books, comic books, movies, podcast, TV shows with tags books, comic books, movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, TV shows on October 18, 2011 by Paxton

Welcome your faces to Episode 7 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast. This week we are joined by Robert from the blog To The Escape Hatch. Our topic is “Does It Live Up to the Hype?”

We each took a TV show or movie that has been recommended/hyped up to us over the years that we never got around to watching and…we watched it. Some of the things we watch include Braveheart, Mad Men and The Wire. Do they live up to the hype? Listen to the podcast to find out.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Forever Knight (1992)

Posted in monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires on October 18, 2011 by Paxton

Day 2 of vampire TV week. Yesterday we talked about Dracula The Series from 1991. I mentioned that one of the guest stars in that show would go on the next year and star in his own vampire series. That vampire series was Forever Knight.
Forever Knight title This show originally began as a 1989 TV movie named Nick Knight on CBS starring Rick Springfield. For the broadcast series, CBS recast the lead with Geraint Wyn Davies and renamed it Forever Knight.

In a way, this show was sort of a precursor to Angel. Nick Knight is a Toronto police detective on the midnight shift. Nick is also an 800 year old vampire. Born in Roman times, Nick was once a very violent vampire reveling in chaos. Nowadays, Nick refuses to feed on human blood and subsists only on bottled animal blood. He keeps his vampiric nature a secret and occasionally uses his supernatural abilities to catch the bad guy. Some of Nick’s abilities include super strength and speed, heightened senses, flight and low level hypnotic/psychic powers. There is one human, the city medical examiner, who is aware of Nick being a vampire. Two other former vampire acquaintances of Nick show up later on and continually try to lure him back into his less than civilized ways.

The show ran for three seasons and has garnered quite a cult following. In 2004, TV Guide listed it #23 in a list of the top 25 “cult shows” of all time. There were three books released based on the series. The books contained original stories that furthered the story from Season 3 after the show was canceled.

There was also a soundtrack released for the show and the entire run of episodes was released on DVD. You can get all three seasons as well as the original TV movie with Rick Springfield off Netflix. Neither have been added to streaming, however you can watch them on Amazon Instant Movies.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Dracula the Series (1991)

Posted in Dracula, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires on October 17, 2011 by Paxton

Thus begins week three of AWESOME-tober-fest. This week begins TV week. Let’s start things off with a little known Canadian vampire TV show, shall we?

Today, we are looking at Dracula The Series. This show originally aired in 1991. In this show, Dracula poses as a wealthy tycoon named Alexander Lucard (A. Lucard…get it? Like we don’t get enough backwards Dracula references). Dracula had plans every week for some dastardly doings. The group opposing him was led by Gustav Van Helsing and his nephews Max and Chris. At the very least, the show followed the lore of the books in that Dracula could walk in the daylight, but loses his powers when doing so.

The show had several guest stars that were famous in Canada. Geraint Wyn Davies would appear in several episodes as Gustav’s son who was turned into a vampire. For those that don’t know, Geraint would go on to star in his own vampire TV show one year later. But I’ll talk more about that show tomorrow. Other guest stars include Kim Coates who has starred in tons of movies and TV shows like Waterworld, Prison Break and Sons of Anarchy as well as Barry Morse from The Fugitive and Space: 1999.

Here’s the intro to the show:

You can also watch several of the episodes on YouTube starting with Episode 1.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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18 Slot machines based on movies and TV shows

Posted in casinos, movies, slot machines, technology, TV shows, video games with tags casinos, movies, pop culture, slot machines, technology, TV shows, video games on September 8, 2011 by Paxton

I mentioned last week that I was going to Vegas with my wife to renew our vows with Elvis. While there, we spent some time in a few casinos. I’m not a big gambler but I love walking casino floors and checking out the other gamblers and the various themed slot machines.

Casinos are awesome. It’s like walking into an arcade back in the 80s. Lots of lights and noise. People hunched over lighted consoles hoping to get high scores. I love going to casinos. Like I said, I’m not a huge gambler, but I love looking at slot machines. They are the modern equivalent of upright arcade games. I’ve talked about my love for slot machines before and their taking the torch of the arcade machine.

Anyway, here are 18 slot machines I found that are based on movies or TV shows. You can click any of these images to see them bigger.

The Hangover – I’ll start with this one because it’s the most obvious. Expect to see images of tigers and babies on the reels. “Tootle-loo, mutha-f**kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Alien – As you can see, there are two versions of the Ridley Scott Alien slot machine. One slot machine has the picture of the egg from the theatrical one-sheet and the other has a picture of the alien xenomorph and includes a special Alien Hunt bonus.

Alien vs Predator – You got an alien slot machine, you also get an Alien vs Predator. Unfortunately, there isn’t a standalone Predator machine.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail – One of my favorite movies of all time. This slot was great because it had a ton of quotes from the movie, as well as clips and a special bonus round where you fought the black knight. There were even “hot spots” on the screen you could touch to generate a random quote or sound from the movie.

Star Wars Droid Hunt – This slot machine was pretty awesome. Lots of images and sounds from the original trilogy. Back in the late 90s, there was another Star Wars slot machine called Death Star Escape. It was cool because there was a bonus round that activated a model Death Star built into the housing that started spinning. Funny, I’ve never found a Star Wars slot machine based on the prequel movies.

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Awesomeness Elsewhere – Feb 11, 2011

Posted in 80s, Atari, cartoons, pop culture, TV shows, video games with tags Atari, cartoons, pop culture, TV shows, video games on February 11, 2011 by Paxton

Here’s what I’ve been up to around the Internets:

– On Strange Kids Club I wax nostalgic about CBS’ Saturday Supercade. It was a block of cartoons back in 1983 based on popular video game characters like Donkey Kong, Q-bert and Frogger.

– I also talk about all the new DVD releases this week which include a trio of terrible Brad Pitt movies and Barb Wire starring Pam Anderson’s breasts.

Hope everyone had a great week. Check back next week, we have a big 20th movie anniversary on Monday. It’s not a movie you would expect to have a birthday on Valentine’s Day.

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