Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2185

POWER RANGERS Trailer Audio Added to the Original ZYURANGER Series Is Hilarious

2017 could be the year of the Power Rangers. In the comic book realm, they’re already teaming up with the Justice League and starring in their own comics, in addition to the live-action reboot movie that’s hitting theaters in a few weeks. But as the franchise moves forward, it’s time look back…way back at the beginning. While the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ruled the ’90s in the US, that series was created from the Japanese series known as Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. And now, the audio and music from the latest Power Rangers trailer has been smashed together with footage from the original Zyuranger series!

Matt Carron created the Power Rangers/Zyuranger mashup, and it may prove to be a little disorienting to anyone who was more familiar with the “teenagers with attitude” from the American series. For starters, the yellow ranger is a guy on Zyuranger, and the entire team was part of a human race that evolved from dinosaurs millions of years ago. It’s also bizarrely hilarious to hear the semi-serious voice of Bryan Cranston‘s Zordon speak to a group of characters who seem even more ridiculous than their American counterparts.

This video even has footage from clips that have rarely been seen in this country, including the shots of Bandora the Witch (whom we know as Rita Repulsa) riding her magical bicycle in the sky. Because of course she would. She may be an evil crone, but she’s not going to contribute to pollution!

What did you think about the Power Rangers and Zyuranger mashup? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: Shout! Factory

What did you miss in the actual trailer?

1000-Degree Rocket Knife Vs. a Dozen Lighters Equals Dazzling Fireball

Earlier this month, YouTuber The Backyard Scientist took a page out of the MythBuster’s playbook and built a 150-MPH rocket-knife that absolutely annihilated anything that was put in front of it. (Including two types of meat, about a half-dozen different fruits, and a partridge in a pear tree.) But when it came to superheating the rocket knife, something went wrong:

That’s right. The Backyard Scientist got burned…

But like any heroic person of science/lover of high-speed cutlery, The Backyard Scientist recovered from his twist-and-shout-inducing finger burn and got back in the saddle. The saddle here being a patch of grass next to a blow torch and a sharpened missile of death that can cut straight through a block of wood, as well as a big loaf of bread.

But even though the superheated rocket-knife absolutely destroyed anything put in front of it, the pièce de résistance, the crème de la crème of the rocket-knife victims, the… all the other French words, was the dozen lighters. It turns out that something burning at about 1000 degrees Fahrenheit turns a sudden pool of lighter fuel into a humongous ball of flame — like something out of Drogon’s or Bender Bending Rodriguez’s mouth.

What do you think about this 150-MPH superheated rocket-knife? What would you like to see it cut next? And is “Superheated Rocket Knives” the best band name you’ve ever heard? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: TheBackyardScientist

ROGUE ONE’s 8-Bit Version Has A Much Happier Ending

If you were being honest with yourself, you always knew that Rogue One was going to end with a lot of death and sadness. It really was inevitable, considering the band of rebels responsible for stealing the Death Star plans are nowhere to be found in the original Star Wars trilogy. Even beyond the violence of the movie, their ultimate sacrifice is the biggest reason the first standalone film in the galaxy far, far away is a much darker story than all the others.

But you know what isn’t dark and depressing? Old style video games, that’s what. Which is why the latest installment from CineFix in their “8-Bit Cinema” series has a much happier Rogue One ending for all of us to replay over and over again.

Playing as Jyn Erso, you get to travel from planet to planet alongside the rest of the movie’s stars, to help bring down the Empire’s ultimate weapon, but without any of those apocalyptic death scenes to bum you out. Though apparently, no matter the format, K-2SO will always need to give himself up in order to save the day.

Despite that, we would obviously play this game–repeatedly–if it were real, and considering the final end scene shot here, of Darth Vader looking out into space, we would definitely go out and buy the next game in the franchise too.

Though we have a feeling that even in 8-bit form, Obi-Wan wouldn’t make it to the end alive.

What character from Rogue One would you play as? Tell us why you’d chose that rebel in the comments section below.

Images: CineFix

The Cast of Rogue One Talks About the Making of the First Star Wars Anthology:

Figures and Speech: Superman vs. Muhammad Ali vs. Aliens

Welcome to Figures and Speech, Nerdist’s regular column by, for, and about grown-ups who still play with their toys but might want to know more before they buy. From product reviews to informed editorials, these are most definitely the articles that’ll make you want to strike a pose.

NECA figures generally have great-looking packaging, but with the caveat that in order to extract said figures, you have to destroy the box completely and utterly. In the case of their new Superman vs. Muhammad Ali set, the box, made to resemble the Neal Adams comic cover from 1978, is pretty much perfection. It also looks like there might be a way to keep it intact. Did I succeed? Read on…

First, a word on how special this set actually is. NECA technically can’t make 7-inch DC Comics figures for mass retail, as Mattel has that part of the license covered. However, the NECA people are very skilled at finding loopholes of areas in the license that aren’t covered–they made a Nintendo-style Batman upon finding that Mattel hadn’t specifically licensed the game, and they’ve done a few 7-inch movie figures under a clause that said they could be packaged as DVD bonus premiums rather than sold as individual toys. In this case, they negotiated with the Muhammad Ali estate directly.

There are a few twist-ties to cut or untwist, and a piece of tape on Superman’s cape–a cape which has to be pulled out of a plastic slot you probably will not get it back into. But on the whole, liberating the figures from the box was fairly easy, and revealed the hidden extras: two additional sets of hands for Superman, featuring fists and flying gestures.

NECA made a Muhammad Ali figure before, but it was a dynamically posed toy with limited articulation. This one is completely different, utilizing body parts from their Rocky movie figures. So you can have this dream match if you like:

Superman utilizes body parts from the 7-inch Christopher Reeve Superman that was previously sold as a DVD premium. Repainted to look like comic-book art, he looks like his eyes are permanently closed, as the artwork had him squinting as if in anticipation of a punch to the face.

Note that the stylized paint job gives him abs Reeve never had. Since his back is mostly covered with cape, it remains basic.

Both have hidden articulation: Superman has an ab joint under his shirt, while Ali has limited hip articulation restricted by the thick shorts. Fight-wise, this gives the Man of Steel an advantage.

It’s a fun set, but it really does look better in the box, where the plastic allows them to hold an action pose. And yes, I was mostly able to get it back in. Mostly.

Superman and Ali were forced to fight by aliens, which gives a reason to make a very lame segue into the other (definitely NON-lame) toys NECA sent over for review.

At the beginning of the ’90s, an Aliens cartoon for kids was proposed (yes, this was kinda normal, as Rambo and Robocop had done the same prior). The idea was that it would feature Ripley and most of the Space Marines from the movie traveling from planet to planet to wipe out xenomorph infestations. In order to sell more toys, the story kinda went wild with the notion, first brought up in Alien3, that the creatures borrow characteristics from their host animal.

The cartoon was never produced, but the toy line by Kenner went ahead and lasted a few years, adding Predators about halfway through. Now that NECA has both toy licenses, they’ve been making ultra-realistic re-creations of some of the non-movie designs that those toys came up with. There have been a couple of “Kenner Predator” waves already, but the first three “Kenner Aliens” have just been released.

The mantis and gorilla originally shared several body parts in the old line, and an arm-gripping action feature (the gorilla also had a soft head that could fill with water you could then have it “spit”). While they share a few basic bits here and there on the new ones–under-torso, thighs, and knees at least–they are mostly quite different, with a lot of new bits.

Gorilla was part of the very first Kenner wave, which all came with file cards on the back; mantis and queen facehugger came later once the feature was dropped. That’s been duplicated here; they also come with reproductions of the original pack-in mini-comics, which, again, because NECA isn’t doing the line-up in the same order, are narratively out of order.

Toys don’t get much better than this. The sculpts are full of detail, and the articulation is insane: mantis alone has five ball-joints on each arm, including its thumbs. Rather than count them all, let’s just say everything on it moves except, oddly enough, the tail.

The vintage figure, as I mentioned, had a gripping gimmick, which you can sort-of duplicate here.

Both have hinged mouths and extendable jaws, so being the mature adult who plays with dolls that I am, I immediately had the impulse to make them kiss.

They almost form a heart shape. That’s cute.

You may have noticed the gorilla has two different head-domes. He’s packed with a black one like the original toy, but there’s an alternate clear one to make him more movie-ish. I prefer that one because it showcases the great detail underneath.

The queen facehugger, honestly, feels like less of a value–she doesn’t take up much space in the package, and even though they threw in an extra, smaller one it’s still nowhere near the awesomeness of the two xenos. It is the right size, however, to possibly be a weird, exotic tropical bug, and you might be able to scare people with it just by leaving it lying around.

Please believe me when I tell you I cannot post a picture of their undersides. If I did and your boss caught you looking, they might think you had porn on your computer. Seriously. It looks like…a certain body part. A lot.

It looks unarticulated, but looks are deceiving. Each appendage has a tiny ball joint right at the edge of the webbing. Those won’t change its pose much, but it gives you some options. Also, the tail has a bendy wire in it. The small one has the bendy wire but not the leg joints.

Gorilla also comes with a blue facehugger, while mantis has a green chestburster.

Unlike its parent, this li’l guy is not translucent.

The comics appear to be telling an alternate origin story for Newt, ending in a wonderful exclamation by Apone.

ANYTHING BUT THE MONSTER RHINOS YOU GUYS!

My money’s on Kal-El and Ali to beat these critters, but the real winner is NECA…and you.

Photos: LYT for Nerdist. 

Comic artwork: Dark Horse.

Luke Y. Thompson is Nerdist’s weekend editor. Talk toys with him on Twitter @LYTrules.

Bandcamping: The Best Underground Albums of 2017 So Far

In 2016, we discovered a lot of great, obscure music by digging through a trenches of Bandcamp, an artist-friendly platform for performers to stream and sell their music. We suspect there will still be musicians outside the mainstream producing exciting sounds that deserve to be heard, so we’re going to go ahead and keep on putting a spotlight on these artists in 2017.

In case you missed what we got up to in this space last year, you can check out our ranking of the top 25 Bandcamp albums of 2016 right here, and if you want to know more about what’s going on this year, we’ve rounded up our five favorite underground albums of January, so dig in and check those out right now, beginning with:

5. The Darts EP 2 by The Darts

The Darts EP 2 by The Darts (US)

Genre: indie rock, punk, garage rock

If you like: Sleater-Kinney, The B-52’s, The White Stripes

Hey guys, it turns out that distorted keyboards are great for garage rock! It also turns out that The Darts use them and their other assets very well. What other assets? How about authoritative vocals, succinct and propulsive songwriting, and a whole mess of fun? Sounds good to us.

4. Chiquititos by Paul y Carlos

Chiquititos by Paul y Carlos

Genre: electronica, trip-hop

If you like: Aphex Twin, Kraftwerk, Lindstrøm

Don’t let the dad-landing-in-Hawaii wardrobes fool you: Paul y Carlos just released an album of unmistakably hip electronica that’s pretty all over the map, whether they’re borrowing from reggaeton, footwork, trip-hop, krautrock, or other disparate styles that we could list all day.

3. מיכל נאמן by מיכל נאמן

מיכל נאמן by מיכל נאמן

Genre: folk, alternative rock, Israeli rock

If you like: The Shins, Paul Simon, Novos Baianos

מיכל נאמן, Romanized as Michal Neeman, beautifully explores a variety of styles through a folk lens, whether it’s light jazz or Brazilian folk or traditional Mexican sounds.

2. n i g h t s k y by Sigh Kicks

n i g h t s k y by Sigh Kicks

Genre: electronic, indie rock, chillwave

If you like: Toro y Moi, Minus The Bear

Don’t let the Stranger Things opening credits-style album art fool you: Yes, there’s definitely a synthwave element here, but Sigh Kicks also boasts an epic indie rock vibe, poppier dance-ready grooves, and just head-bobbing all around. This album is their swan song, sadly, as they played their final show as a band a few days ago.

1. First Lady by OtherFace

First Lady by OtherFace

Genre: indie rock, psychedelic rock, soul

If you like: Tame Impala, Leon Bridges, Radiohead

Doo-wop-era soul is a tradition sadly forgotten in contemporary music, but German trio OtherFace is more than happy to bring it back with a more distortion-heavy edge. They’re also more than capable of Deerhunter- or Tame Impala-styled psychedelic indie rock epics, so what we’re saying is that First Lady is a strong first album worth playing through a few times.

Honorable Mentions

Auburn In The Everlast by The Flats

Genre: indie rock, alternative rock

If you like: Coldplay, Arcade Fire, OneRepublic

Easy Mirror by Spissy

Genre: indie rock, soft rock

If you like: Whitney, Real Estate

That’s all for January, but until next time, let us know in the comments which of these albums were your favorites, what we missed, and what we should look forward to. If you missed out on our 2016 round-up, check it out here (and the complete Bandcamping archives are here).

Red Hot Steel Battles a Frozen Lake in a Video of Ice and Fire

Some people see a frozen lake and they grab their ice skates and hockey stick, while others reach for their cutting tools and a fishing rod, but Finland’s Lauri Vuohensilta, the man behind the YouTube account the Hydraulic Press Channel, is not like most people. Because when he sees a frozen lake, he sees an opportunity to perform a very unusual but totally awesome experiment, which is why we now have an answer to this burning question: what happens when 20 kilograms of red hot steel meets a foot of frozen ice?

Yeah, that’s right, this is a video of ice and fire.

This is actually from (the much younger than you might have guessed) Vuohensilta’s offshoot YouTube channel, aptly named Beyond the Press, which takes him from his factory and favorite crushing toy, but not away from his wonderful, understated insanity. In this video he and his wife placed 20 kilograms of super heated steel (roughly 45 pounds) on a wall of ice. His prediction that the ice would hold was essentially right, since to get the steel to completely break through he needed to shimmy it, but it only held on by the thinnest of margins.

What was just as interesting (besides hearing his great laugh in super slow motion) was seeing how the water that came in contact with the steel was warmed up, almost to boiling according to them, while right below it remained completely freezing. It was like they made a mini hot spring encased entirely in ice.

From now on, this should obviously be known as a Jon Snow hot tub.

What surprised you about this video? Did the ice hold better than you imagined it would? What do you think they could alter here to make the steel break through the ice on its own? Dive down into our comments section below to share your thoughts with us.

Images: Beyond the Press

78/52 is for Hitchcock Obsessives and the Cinematically Curious (Sundance Review)

If spending an hour and a half dissecting the shower scene from Psycho sounds like your thing, there’s no need to read the rest of this review. Just keep an eye out for Alexandre O. Philippe’s 78/52 and buy some popcorn.

If it doesn’t automatically send shivers down your spine, trust that Philippe will make you care deeply about the 78 scene set-ups and 52 editing cuts that comprise 3 minutes of art-changing madness.

That’s mostly because the movie strikes an impressive balance between nerding out about Psycho and keeping the jargon at a minimum. It’s also because Psycho isn’t some obscure nugget of cinephile compulsion; it’s one of the most popular movies of all time, and the shower scene is an indelible part of our collective cultural language.

The iconic moment–which filmmaker Richard Stanley calls Hitch’s “revenge on Hollywood”–is broken down by an impressive and entertaining array of talking heads that range from academics like Sonoma State’s infectiously enthusiastic Marco Calavita; to technical experts like editors Amy Duddleston and Bob Murawski, and sound genius Walter Murch; to famous movie-crazed faces like Peter Bogdanovich, Guillermo del Toro, Elijah Wood, Karyn Kusama, and Eli Roth.

The mix of minds creates an engaging, ongoing conversation where music informs visuals, visuals inform psyche, psyche informs staging, and it all folds back in on itself. The conversation itself is a celebration of the brilliant, hard-won, invisible details that add up to an outstanding film scene that should offer novice cinephiles and casual film fans an awareness about why some movies suck, some movies are great, and some movies become immortal.

The most important insights come from Marli Renfro, Janet Leigh’s nude body double, who delivers a flurry of first-hand experience and information, re-framing the undertaking as both a miraculous human endeavor and an artistic stab at greatness that would make or break the whole movie. If you’re scratching your head over why Hitch spent a week shooting Renfro for her 45 seconds of screen time, she makes it clear how high the stakes were for a sequence that bucked the censors and challenged average filmgoers.

Almost everyone knows that Alfred Hitchcock used his well-earned respect and Leigh’s massive stardom to get the film made and to get unsuspecting, Cary Grant-cooing audiences into the theater, but 78/52 delivers on what drew Hitchcock to this project in particular and gives us a thorough, fascinating look into the process of bringing it to black and white life. It somehow explains the magic trick in granular detail without ruining the magic trick. Quite the opposite, it only enhances the appreciation.

This is a movie for everyone masquerading as niche entertainment, made by a group of people interested not only in what kind of melon was used during the shower scene to approximate the stabbing sound, but how many types of melons were tested. If you’re slightly interested in how movies get made, it’s a treat, but even massive Hitchcock geeks (like me) should learn at least a thing or two with a huge, creepy smile on their faces.

4 out of 5 chocolate-syrup-covered burritos

Images: Exhibit A Pictures

We’re All Hurt Tonight, as John Hurt Has Died.

As writer Giles De’Ath in 1997’s Love and Death on Long Island, John Hurt uttered what is probably my favorite line of his from all 206 or so of his credits. Asked if he’d consider getting with the times and using a word processor, he exclaimed, “I’m a writer! I write! I don’t process words!” It may be a semantic difference, but it’s one that comes to mind now, as it’s very easy to write down all of his classic roles and say they were great; harder, however, to process the words that may explain what his loss means.

Hurt’s acting career begin with a series of small TV roles, building to more prestige parts like Caligula in I, Claudius, but it was in 1978 that he really put himself on the nerd map–albeit in voice-over form–with the double-whammy of Hazel in Watership Down and Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings. We all know what came next: as Kane, he became the first actor to be face-hugged and chest-bursted by the xenomorph in the original Alien. He was about to turn 40, and stardom was finally fully upon him. There followed, right away, The Elephant Man, Heaven’s Gate, and History of the World Part I. While still doing prestige projects like King Lear and 1984, he was the voice of the Horned King in Disney‘s The Black Cauldron, and reprised his Alien role for Spaceballs in 1987.

One of the reasons we felt like he was immortal is that his characters from Kane onward nearly always looked close to death; the first time a Judge Dredd movie was being talked about, in the late ’80s, he was the unanimous fan choice to play Judge Death (with minimal makeup, as many joked); in a way, he was the Keith Richards of acting. But he lasted 30 more years after Spaceballs. You may remember him as Professor Broom in Hellboy, Ollivander in the Harry Potter movies, Indiana Jones’ colleague Oxley,  dictator Sutler in V for Vendetta, and the dragon on TV’s Merlin; but did you remember he was Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, the time traveler in Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound, the narrator of Lars von Trier’s Dogville and Disney’s The Tigger Movie, and even Brother Carnak in Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie? He was no snob in the material he chose, but he always automaticall added gravitas, cunning, and human frailty to every part.

Heck, I even have a personal connection: in Rob Roy, he played one of my direct ancestors, Marquis of Montrose James Graham. He was cast in a villainous role, which of course my family disputes, but had he shown up to a family reunion as that character, he would have blended right in.

Perhaps our most lingering memory of him will be as the War Doctor on Doctor Who, a dark and world-weary hidden alias for our favorite Time Lord who had dropped his chosen moniker when forced to fight wars rather than help people. We bought as somebody who had already lived 8 iconic lives, because to us, of course, he had and more.

Hurt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago, and while he was reported as saying he and his doctors were optimistic, the prognosis with that particular disease is rarely good news. He kept working nonetheless, with four films as yet unreleased, , including a role as Neville Chamberlain in Joe Wright’s Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour. It’s an ironic final role for a man best known for his famous last words as UK prime minister.

Hurt never failed to deliver–the moment you saw or heard him, you know that whatever story you were watching was about to kick it up a notch. It’s sad that we’ve lost him, but he left us with hours upon hours of greatness, and odds are there are lots of things he’s done that you still haven’t seen. Maybe .

In the meantime, share your favorite memories of the great man in comments below.

Image: BBC

Fan Art Friday Gets Edible with Geeky Creations from Gingerbread Sagas

Fan Art Friday is going to make you hungry today. You’ve been warned.

Most of the art I feature in this weekly round-up is of the two dimensional variety, but I’m open to all kinds of submissions. When Rosa from Gingerbread Sagas reached out to me, I practically hugged my inbox. She creates her fan art with gingerbread. Yes. She recreates scenes from her favorite books, television series, and movies via baking. Case in point, look at this scene from Lord of the Rings with Gandalf facing the Balrog:

Rosa is a self-taught baker (I know), and her one hundred percent edible art is mostly about gingerbread but also features chocolate, marzipan, icing, and candy. I applaud her use of gingerbread year-round, because it’s too delicious to relegate to the holiday months.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Since Rosa has been making gingerbread art for a couple of years, her portfolio is not small. You can view further examples of her work in the gallery below, including Twin Peaks and Game of Thrones scenes. Visit her website to see her full gingerbread history and follow her on Instagram to keep up with tasty updates.

Which of these creations looks most delectable to you? Tell me in the comments.

Do you create any sort of fan art? If so, I want to see it. Whether you focus on a specific fandom or pull inspiration from multiple stories and mediums, I’d like to highlight what you do. If you’re interested in being featured in a future edition of Fan Art Friday, get in touch with me at alratcliffe@yahoo.com with examples of your work. If you’re not an artist, feel free to email me with recommendations for Fan Art Friday!

Images: Gingerbread Sagas

Jamiroquai Released Their First Music Video in 7 Years

Perhaps the best thing about dance music is its perennial qualities. “One More Time” still sounds fresh, “Sandstorm” will always get a crowd going, and “Virtual Insanity” gets every foot tapping. It’s only when dance giants return that we realize how long we’ve made it without new songs from them. Case and point: Jamiroquai.

The London acid jazz act just announced they will release a brand new album called Automaton on March 31 via Virgin EMI. It’s their first full-length since 2010’s Rock Dust Light Star. With the announcement comes their first new music in seven years, the title track, which makes the long wait worth it. “Automaton” lays down some early-aughts style. Think of glittery melodic synth, sparse slap bass, and fading knob turns. Then, halfway through, Jamiroquai turn around and open a box of their classic sounds: funk guitar, breakdown dance beats, and ’70s goodness. It’s a return to funk that satisfies longtime fans while embracing the new path of dance music.

In the song’s video, directed by Charlie Lightening, a man walks through dark hallways and what appears to be abandoned Tube lines in a futuristic helmet that moves on its own. It sounds creepy, but the footage is mesmerizing, complete with sci-fi eye shots, in a way that makes us wish this was a feature film. Future cosplay idea? Appropriately, the video starts off with an explosion, aka how your brain feels after hearing this song.

Hear “Automaton” for yourself above. Don’t forget to mark the album’s release date on your calendar, too. You’ll want to throw a proper dance party with friends (or rock it solo like Napoleon Dynamite) to celebrate.

Image: MTV; FOX; Paramount