Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2295

Our Crappy Robot Queen Joined the 1000 Layer Lipstick Club

Mere mortals might be content with joining something as quaint as a one hundred layer club, but we expect more from royalty, and we expect a lot more from royalty who (sorta) have (a kind of) dominion over machines. Which is why the reigning Queen of Sh***y Robot Nation used her wonderful power of terrible technology to let a machine induct her into the 1,000 Layer Lipstick Club.

In her latest video, Simone Giertz showed what someone is capable of when they connect a servo motor to some tubes of lipstick and an automatic counter. After 1,014 passes of lipstick across her lips/mouth/face, it turns out what she was capable of is looking like a total lunatic. The type that Harley Quinn would be a little mortified by.

A lipstick robot was one of the first machines from Giertz that we told you about, though back then it wasn’t used for an activity as important as joining something as elite the 1,000 Layer Lipstick Club.

Although, with all of these reports nationally about creepy clowns walking around cities scaring everyone, it might be best to make sure that if you also want to join this club you make sure to clean up entirely before you go out. Or build a non-terrible robot to apply the lipstick.

If you’re wondering if Giertz ever uses her technological prowess for something useful as opposed to useless, the answer is “kinda,” because for Tested she made a video this week of her crafting a giant coat hanger…for coat hangers.

Over-sized, novelty coat hangers? A lipstick machine? All Hail the Queen of Sh***y Robots.

Long may she reign.

What’s your favorite, terrible/awesome machine she has built? It would be crappy if you didn’t tell us yours in the comments below.

Images: Simone Giertz

This Handmade Scaled Armor Is as Comfortable as It Is Gorgeous

It’s one thing to cosplay as Aquaman, or as a member of House Tully from Game of Thrones (sigil a leaping trout), but if you can’t move around in your scaled armor, what good are you to anyone? Who needs a superhero or a knight that looks like a cool fish but can’t get around and actually fight when called upon? You need that flexibility, which is why you’ll definitely want to check out the work of this fiber artist who makes stunning, wearable aluminum scales.

We came across this great Etsy site at Bored Panda, and it belongs to Springfield, Massachusetts’ Momma Bones, who makes, in her own words, “comfy yet badass, handmade knitted scalemail.” She’s not kidding either. These 100% handmade pieces, which she calls Dragonswag, are made with knitted yarn, which “allows for a far greater range of motion than traditional chain mail,” and makes it so the metal doesn’t actually touch the wearer’s skin, all while being “warm, soft and flexible.”

Yeah, and besides being built for comfort, they look really freaking awesome.

In addition to her Etsy site, you can check out her scaled armor, as well as her other great costume work, at her Facebook page and her website.

In the least surprising news of the day, since being featured at Bored Panda, Momma Bones has been inundated with orders, so she says custom pieces are currently taking 6-8 weeks (though she has 28 Dragonswag items listed for purchase on her Etsy site, including a Hogwarts glove collection). We have a feeling that wait might grow even longer after you guys check out her work.

So it might be a little late to get a custom piece in time for Halloween this year, but you can start thinking about your costume next year. I called dibs on going as Brynden Tully, the Blackfish.

Which one of these pieces are a must have for you now? Tell us your favorite in the comments below.

Images: Momma Bones/BisouKnits/Etsy

The Biggest Plot Hole In STRANGER THINGS Is Irresponsible Parenting, Says SNL

Last night’s Saturday Night Live is filled to the brim of memorable sketches thanks to host Lin-Manuel Miranda. A new digital short, an appearance by Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon, and a considerable amount of jabs at current events will surely fill your newsfeeds in the coming days. With episodes like this, you can expect to see the strongest and most pertinent sketches in the first half with other content sometimes pushed to the back end after weekend update. Nestled in that latter half is a sketch that answers some serious questions we’ve had about Netflix‘s Stranger Things.

In the sketch, we’re given a behind-the-scenes clip that sheds some light on a few missing characters (that aren’t Barb). The kids’ plans to set out and find Will Byers are put to an abrupt halt when Lucas’ parents (played by Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson) interrupt to scold the children about being out on their own in a town with a very real disappearing child problem. Thompson and Jones play the voices of reason when it comes to the kids’ description of what they’re doing, and make it clear that the town of Hawkins’ real problem is parents that seem to not care where their children are. The sketch points out that, despite being what we see as adult figures in the series, both Winona Ryder’s Joyce and David Harbour’s Chief Hopper show little to no regard for the children’s safety.

Even though we absolutely love everything about Stranger Things, it’s definitely a treat to be shown the story through the real life lens of attentive parents. It shows that as outlandish the adventures of Eleven and the boys were, they might actually be a bit more believable than there being a town full of people that don’t seem to question the crazy things going on there.

What did you think of the sketch? Is how you view Hopper forever changed because of it? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Image: NBC/Saturday Night Live

This was parody. Now let’s talk about the real conspiracy.

Weekend Earworms: Unexpected Musical Movie Moments

An estimated 92% of us experience earworms. Despite the annoying times we can’t get a chorus or a hook of an overplayed pop song out of our heads, getting a really good earworm stuck can be one of the best things, ever. We here at Nerdist are dead set on bringing you those types of songs—even if only for the weekend. So shove this into your grey matter!

A very merry, err… spooky? second week of Nerdoween here at Nerdist.com. Much like in last week’s installment, I figured I’d try to incorporate something Halloween/horror related in some form. Thankfully, October is chock full of inspiration. While today’s examples are technically all from comedies, the first one absolutely served as horror for me for quite some time. I give you: Evil Shrimp Hands… uhh.. I mean…

 “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” from Beetlejuice

While that’s not the full version of the song, this scene is likely the only reason a large swath of people are aware of the legendary Harry Belafonte. And even though 1988’s Beetlejuice was technically a comedy, it ran the risk of scaring the ever-living crap out of you if you saw it too early (read: me). There are certainly creepier visuals in the film but thanks, in part, to the earworm aspects of Belefonte’s 1956 hit, this scene sticks with me. There’s something deeply unnerving about those demon shrimp arms that grab the dinner guests’ faces, but even more disturbing is how they absolutely loved the experience of being possessed and controlled against their will almost immediately afterwards.

Seeing this scene again got me thinking about how filmmakers occasionally throw in a musical number that really shouldn’t fit in the otherwise non-musical film and how they end up being memorable moments that no one seems to mind. While all come out of left field, there are some played for their absurdity like “Afternoon Delight” from Anchorman or the the flash mob dance number in Clerks 2. There are some that help to define plot points or character traits like Tom’s outlook of a good day in 500 Days of Summer and Caleb’s realization there’s something sinister about his role in Nathan’s Turing Tests in Ex Machina. Then there’s the mother of all out-of-place musical numbers proving a character’s ability to do anything he pleases in the parade scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. While all of these could serve as examples for entire articles themselves, it’s Nerdoween, so I gotta stick with the more fanciful examples.

“Cuban Pete” from The Mask

To be fair, I know there are other musical numbers in The Mask all of which go to define the character, including one that helped swing dancing be a thing again, but the film isn’t really a musical. The scenes are fairly unexpected and happen to share some level of Beetlejuice-esque possession. What’s weird is that, again, no one really seems to bat an eye about the fact they got mind controlled and eventually seem to actually enjoy it. A real showing of the character’s cartoon-ish super powers is on full display in this scene accompanied by a cover of the Desi Arnaz version of the tune. Man, now that I think about it, I probably owe my family an apology for playing this soundtrack non-stop when I was younger.

If The Mask was a bit too off the Nerdoween mark for you, let’s bring it home with one I doubt anyone could argue with…

“Puttin’ on the Ritz” from Young Frankenstein

You can always expect some sort of musical number in almost every Mel Brooks film. However, the way “Puttin’ on the Ritz” was executed in 1974’s Young Frankenstein is pure comedic genius. Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle performing this scene comes out of nowhere and yet feels right at home with the spirit of the film. It’s a very silly scene but there’s some next-level comedy going on. Performing the 1927 song that’s about dressing up and looking your best, both characters are earnest in their motivations. Frankenstein wants to impress the crowd, and the monster wants to be accepted and even opens up as the crowd becomes more entertained. In the end, Wilder’s line “for God’s sake, come on. are you trying to make me look like a fool?” when the scene falls apart speaks not only to the character’s feelings but also to the film’s audience that seems to be an admission that the scene is purposely silly and out of place.

When it comes to out-of-the-blue musical numbers in film, this isn’t nearly all of them. I’m sure I missed some of your favorites so let’s discuss them in the comments below!

Image: Warner Bros.

Blake Rodgers writes for Nerdist from Chicago, IL where he lives happily with his Guinness World Record for High Fives. You can be his pal by following him on Twitter (@TheBlakeRodgers)

Mackenzie Davis Sells You a Fantasy in This Haunting Short Film

This is a sly devil.

The concept of using technology to give people new levels of living fantasy isn’t new, but it’s utilized in speculative fiction all too often as a cautionary tale for the pleasure seeker.

In Memory Box, we get to peek in on a young woman (Halt and Catch Fire‘s Mackenzie Davis) who gives the pleasure. Redrawing her complexity with every scene, the short doesn’t so much slap us in the face with a twist as it slowly peels the blindfold off our eyes.

MEMORY BOX – Directed by Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell from Field Pictures on Vimeo.

Gorgeously shot with blinding whites, dangerous reds, pitch black corners and pale skin poured into a slinky dress, the young woman and her memory-recreating partner answer the demanding robotic voice of a customer (Shane Carruth) who wants more than he paid for.

As the wigs and artifice come off, the film questions the real nature of renting out your desire to someone else. That difficult question is embodied perfectly in Davis’s character, not only because few actors do haunting desperation as sharply as she does, but because the power structure at play is so exquisitely nebulous. That’s a credit to the writing and directing of filmmaking partners Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell, who have shaped something darkly magical here that could hang happily next to any episode of Black Mirror.

The final scene is a tantalizing thrill, like being told Santa Claus is in your living room as your parents lock your bedroom door. It delivers an aching dramatic tension that it refuses to release. Like with all things in this world, you’d have to pay extra for the happy ending.

Sadly, this is Aites’ final film. He died in April after being diagnosed with cancer in January. Ewell, his filmmaking partner and fiancee, is raising funds to give the film a proper release.

Images: Field Pictures

Feast Your Eyes on the Fake Trailer for Potato Horror Film PEELED

You say potato. I say murder.

Because not since the Great Irish Potato Famine of the 19th century has that versatile starch caused as much horror as it does in this new trailer for Peeled: The Potato Resurrection, wherein those brown tubers are the very root of evil itself.

We came across this unconventional tale of vegetable terror over at The Daily Dot, and it is the work Katrina Naficy and her boyfriend Nick Massey. Besides perfectly playing the woman being tortured by the ever-growing presence of unexplained potatoes (that’s a pretty perfect horror movie “Run!” at the end), Naficy also wrote the piece, with Massey serving as director and editor.

This parody trailer is full of scary movies tropes. After ignoring the warning of a Ouija board (classic mistake), our heroine falls in love far too quickly with a handsome stranger (never do that in a horror movie), and soon finds herself being haunted by potatoes showing up everywhere she goes (LESS OF A TROPE).

From there her nightmares and reality start to blend in to one horrible existence. Did that potato full of blood really burst in her face? Did she actually give birth to a potato? Is that handsome man just a potato come to life?

This is just a trailer for now, but we’d watch this. Beyond the fun silliness of the premise, that scene of her naked, peeling potatoes in an abandoned house, is actually unsettling. I mean, if you wanted to make a horror film about an evil vegetable, potatoes do make perfect sense. They have all those eyes.

The potatoes are watching us. The potatoes are always watching us.

What was your favorite horror movie gag they included here? Tell us in the comments below.

Images: Katrina Naficy

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Monologue Was a Fanboy Dream Come True

Let’s face it. The monologue is what you usually dread most from Saturday Night Live. All too often, it’s a sitcom star trying to prove they can sing, or a movie star attempting self-effacement by trading on the biggest and most obvious jokes out there.

But with Lin-Manuel Miranda, the obvious joke is a Hamilton one, if you can pull it off. And that is no easy task–if hip-hop infused musical numbers inspired by presidential politics were a cakewalk, someone else would have earned bucketloads of money from it by now. Thankfully, the star of stage was up to the challenge, and nerded out with a number on the omnipresent topic of fearing he’d not be up to the demands of hosting. Yes, there is one current political shot, but regardless of whether one agrees or not, Miranda’s dexterity with lyrics–and instinct for self-preservation when profanity rears up as a possibility–saved the day.

Miranda’s lyrical and musical skills would go on to save some other skits throughout the night, but the show-opening monologue was one of the best ever, and served clear notice to anyone who can’t afford Broadway tickets that this is a talent worth paying attention to. His work was also proof that even when current events seem to be doing the job of satire for you, nothing beats a host with the mostest.

What did you think of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical opening? Was it overly indulgent, or did it indeed save the show? Live! In comments below! It’s youuuuuu’re…chance to talk back!

Image: NBC

STAR WARS REBELS Recap: Young Wedge Joins the Rebellion

Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the Star Wars Rebels episode “The Antilles Extraction.” Jump into hyperspace and away from this page if you haven’t watched the episode yet.

As Star Wars Rebels continues, they make it a point of reminding the audience of the very high stakes. The Rebel Alliance is young, scrappy, and hungry (Hamilton references in everything forever), with an emphasis on scrappy. They’re ragtag and piecing together their forces bit by bit and person by person. “The Antilles Extraction” opens with the Rebellion losing some of the few pilots that they have in an fast-paced, tragic space battle. Once Sato hears about the losses, they realize it’s time to bring some Imperial cadets to their side.

Luckily, Fulcrum–a general name for the Rebellion’s agents, not just Ahsoka–gives them the heads-up that pilots training at the Empire’s Skystrike Academy are interested in making the jump. Since Sabine was an Imperial cadet and isn’t as recognizable as the other rebels (which is funny since she’s certainly the most colorful and noticeable of them), she heads the mission to figure out who the recruits are and to extract them. It wasn’t the easiest of assignments.

Now, Fulcrum. My fangirl self initially wondered if it could be Biggs, but I quickly realized he was still on Tatooine. But that voice? It sounded a lot like Kallus to me. They set the stage for his possible turn to the rebel side with “The Honorable Ones” in season two. We saw Kallus was affected by Zeb and the family-like, supportive nature of the Ghost crew. Is he actually acting against the Empire? I can buy into it. They’ve made the transition slow, and Kallus’ skills for his position within the Empire means he’s talented at hiding information. Plus, he ends up helping Sabine later in the episode.

Back to Sabine. Once she arrived at Skystrike, she was able to identify the defectors in short order–too quickly, in my opinion. Wedge Antilles, Hobbie Klivian (previously seen in the Battle of Hoth), and Rake are so young it’s not completely surprising that they would be dense enough to discuss their distaste for the Empire in an open space where anyone could overhear them, but it was all very convenient.

Perhaps that was sort of the point. Sabine owned the mission, but she was perhaps a touch overconfident. Her “we’ll figure it out” attitude was nice to see since it’s such a hallmark trait of the rebels. They fly by the seat of their pants and use their resourcefulness to solve problems. It’s a complete 180 from how the Empire handles things.

Though Sabine identified the new rebel recruits in a few minutes, Governor Pryce didn’t let them off the hook. She demonstrated the ruthlessness of the Empire when she destroyed Rake’s X-wing without so much as blinking an eye. I mean, given that we know Wedge and Hobbie from the films, he was marked for death. As much of a bummer as it was to see Sabine captured, it also gave an opportunity for her to shine. We’ve seen her in the middle of hand-to-hand combat before, but something was different about her fight with Pryce. She was Fierce. As. Hell. Because they both had the same training, they were well-matched and it made the fight compelling. I wasn’t sure who would prevail.

Fortunately, Sabine won the day. She and the new pilots made it away from Skystrike with the assistance of Kanan and Ezra. By the way, did Sabine and Wedge’s dialogue in the final get-away remind anyone else of Finn and Poe’s banter? As Kanan and Ezra waited to swoop in, they had a few moments that illustrated how their relationship’s developed–I like that we’re already seeing changes from the season three premiere. They’ve both faced some demons since then, and it’s evident in their interactions.

And before we wrap up entirely, I want to call out that Gary Whitta wrote this episode. He penned the initial story for Rogue One, and I believe he has more installments of Rebels in the future.

Okay. Head to the comments and tell me about who you think Fulcrum is because I need to hear all the theories.

Images: Disney XD

THE DEFENDERS Casts Sigourney Weaver, PUNISHER Brings Surprises to NYCC

Every Marvel fan in the New York metropolitan area had funneled into the Main Stage of the Javits Center on Saturday evening for New York Comic Con’s premiere presentation of the new series Iron Fist. However, those lucky masses weren’t only treated to a look at Daniel Rand’s forthcoming adventures. After Marvel TV head honcho Jeff Loeb and the Iron Fist cast presented a series of clips and the show’s first trailer, the panel closed out with a few surprise guests. First, we welcomed Jon Bernthal, the Marvel television universe’s Punisher, whose titular series officially began production on Monday, Oct 3. And he didn’t come alone—Deborah Ann Woll, known as Daredevil‘s Karen Page, showed up to confirm that she too will be starring on The Punisher series.

Then, Iron Fist star Finn Jones returned to the spotlight with his, in his words, “friends”: Mike Colter (whom we all know as Luke Cage), Krysten Ritter (a.k.a. Jessica Jones), and Charlie Cox (the Daredevil himself). But this wasn’t just a feel good superhero roundup; the party accompanied perhaps the biggest news to come out of NYCC this year. The inevitable The Defenders series, which will round up the aforementioned do-gooders as The Avengers did for Marvel’s big screen heroes, has finally cast its big bad.

“We have not told you who the villain of The Defenders is,” Loeb said, before stringing us along for a few agonizing seconds. “She is Golden Globe-, Emmy-nominated, Oscar-nominated…” The pause felt infinite, but in the end, the news was worth the wait: “Sigourney Weaver.”

Weaver appeared like the superhuman entity she is, evoking from the crowd an elated chant of, “Holy s**t!” No other phrase could better exemplify the communal feeling.

Are you pumped for Ripley’s villainous turn on The Defenders? Which of Marvel’s many baddies do you think she’ll play? Sound off in the comments!

Image: Marvel/Netflix

IRON FIST Hit NYCC with New Trailer and Great Clips

Marvel isn’t wasting any time getting Iron Fist into the hands of the people most excited for it. Shortly after Jeff Loeb took footing on the Main Stage at New York Comic Con on Saturday evening, he copped to just how far down to the wire production has come. “These guys finished shooting the last scene of Iron Fist at 9 o’clock this morning,” he said, which made it all the more impressive when the entire troupe rallied to share a handful of clips and the first full trailer from the upcoming series.

The clips from the premiere episode mainly focused on Daniel Rand’s (Finn Jones) return to the Big Apple following an extended leave of absence—namely, his entire adult life—from normalcy. Completely bemused by how much the civilized world has changed, Daniel heads to his father’s old Fortune 500 company to reunite with old friend Harold Meachum. The scraggly vagabond doesn’t get quite the warm welcome he expected, however, and is forcibly removed by a team of security guards… that is, before he shows ’em what he’s made of.

Daniel doesn’t find Harold, who has ostensibly passed on, but instead finds Harold’s children Ward (Tom Pelphrey) and Joy (Jessica Stroup), former surrogate siblings of Daniel’s who continue the growing trend of not being too pleased to see him. But even if the powerful Meachum siblings want Daniel out of their lives, he’s got a secret weapon who’ll help him reclaim his father’s empire: Hogarth, the mighty attorney played by Carrie Anne Moss on Jessica Jones.

It is in separate scene, in what might be a dream (but almost definitely isn’t) that we see a groggy, half-asleep Daniel finally visited by Harold, who pumps him for information on where he’s been and what he’s been working on. Apparently, Daniel’s proclamation that only he can destroy The Hand is some pretty interesting info to Harold, though we don’t yet know why.

Of course, the remaining two clips showcased the action we’ve all been looking forward to in Iron Fist: first from Daniel, who struts his stuff against a group of hired assassins in a building hallway, and then from Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick), who graciously annihilates two oversized lunkheads in a brutal cage match.

All that and a trailer too, which you can watch above, made for some pretty stellar viewing at the panel. What are you most looking forward to seeing in Iron Fist? Let us know!

Image: Netflix/Marvel