Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2318

Can Protective Spray Save An Egg From a 150 Foot Drop?

If you were totally cool like us in high school, there’s a good chance you were part of the Science Club, and that means at some point you tried to safely drop an egg from way up high. Well, it turns out that instead of parachutes and blocks of foam we should have maybe just tried spraying the egg with a protective cover designed for pick-up truck beds.

The guys at the YouTube channel How Ridiculous first showed the power of Line-X Spray—a product primarily used for sealing the beds in trucks—by covering a watermelon in it and dropping it 45 meters (roughly 150 feet). After that survived the fall (the outside at least, the insides were complete mush as you’d expect), they had some suggestions for what to try next, and the most common suggestions called for an egg and a light bulb.

Not a problem.

The egg didn’t just survive the initial drop, it went soaring high back into the air when it bounced off the ground. The light bulb also didn’t have much of a problem, though like the watermelon the insides were destroyed.

However, one viewer suggestion did prove too much for the spray: This past August they dropped bowling balls from 150 feet onto an axe, and when they connected, the axe split the bowling balls in half, proving a layer of Line-X can handle a lot, but not everything. You can see their original bowling ball/axe video here to see just how little the spray changed the outcome.

So it turns out the spray does have an Achilles axe. Now where can an adult join an egg drop contest? We’ve got some serious Science Club redemption to accomplish.

What would you like to see them try dropping next? tell us in the comments below.

Image: How Ridiculous

Self-Driving Cars Are Learning To Drive Using GRAND THEFT AUTO V

There are problems with the way humans drive that could be solved by self-driving cars, and even though Uber is looking to bring more autonomous vehicles to the road very soon, the technology hasn’t been perfected yet, and self-driving cars still have plenty to learn. Somebody’s got to educate them, and it looks like that somebody will be Grand Theft Auto V, the same game in which you can try to jump a car into a cargo plane.

Researchers at Intel Labs and Germany’s Darmstadt University are less interested in the carnage the game offers, however, and are focusing more on the gigantic and realistic 3D world filled with real-life objects like cars, people, bicycles, and other things you’d encounter on your daily commute (via Jalopnik). So with that in mind, it makes sense that the game is being used to train self-driving cars to recognize objects, which is a lot more practical and safe than these vehicles doing this learning out in the real world.

For example, below is a video of a car being driven in-game by artificial intelligence, which learned using what is called a neural network. As you can see, it stays in its lane and avoids other objects on the road, which seems like a good start to us:

If you’re not up to speed on what a neural network is or what it does, this video on a computer beating a Super Mario World level explains it well. Essentially, the computer runs a bunch of simulations and learns through trial and error what inputs it needs to execute in order to achieve the desired outcome. This means that once self-driving cars are on the road, they shouldn’t be running down pedestrians on the sidewalk and jumping over buildings to avoid the police, so that’s good.

Featured image: Rockstar Games

RESIDENT EVIL: VENDETTA Animated Movie Coming in 2017

It’s been four years since the last Resident Evil animated film, but the video game franchise will make its return to Japanese cinemas next year in a new movie called Resident Evil: Vendetta.

Via Kotaku and 4gamer, Capcom announced Resident Evil: Vendetta (which will be called Biohazard: Vendetta in Japan) at the Tokyo Game Show. The Grudge creator  Takashi Shimizu is executive producing the CGI animated film, which will be directed by Takanori Tsujimoto, and produced by Hiroyuki Kobayashi. The first poster for the movie indicates that it will be released in spring 2017 in Japan. A US release is also likely, but it will probably hit North America by going direct-to-video. However, it could potentially get a limited theatrical release as well.

Resident Evil: Vendetta will have an original story, but there aren’t many details currently known about it. The previous animated films, Resident Evil: Degeneration and Resident Evil: Damnation both featured Leon Kennedy in a leading role, while this movie appears to be placing Chris Redfield at the forefront.

If we had to guess about the story, we’d bet the titular “vendetta” referred to Chris’s ongoing feud with Albert Wesker, one of the primary villains of the franchise. That’s been a recurring matchup since the very first Resident Evil video game. And while Wesker has apparently been killed off, Resident Evil: Vendetta could either ignore the previous continuity or simply let Wesker cheat death again.

What do you think Resident Evil: Vendetta will be about? And are you excited to see the movie? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Image: Capcom

HIGH MAINTENANCE is Seriously Dank TV (Review)

Here’s the thing about people who smoke pot: you think you’ve got them all figured out. Sure, our understanding of who, exactly (read: everyone) is smoking pot these days has evolved, but that doesn’t take away from the stereotypical reasons and behaviors that inform our societal view on the stuff and those that use it. Lazy. homebodies. It’s easy to assume, based on a few context clues, that you know enough of what someone is about. But here’s the thing: so often we are so, so wrong. Surface-level assumptions are just as much of a buzz-giver as anything else—and that’s where HBO’s new series is insistent to prove you wrong. There’s something incredibly potent about this year’s strain of High Maintenance (don’t worry, we’ll keep the weed puns to a minimum). The one-time Vimeo series gets its TV debut on Friday, September 16th at 11pm, and it is one of the best new series we’ve seen this year.

A character study in every sense of the word, these standalone episodes have one thing in common: Ben Sinclair’s unnamed pot delivery guy simply known as “The Guy” who tangentially—or literally—connects the stories told over the course of the 30-minute episodes. Shot like a series of independent film shorts, what Sinclair and his co-creator Katja Blichfeld accomplish is some sort of perfection rarely expressed this well and confident on screen. Equal parts stirring, hilarious, and heart-rendering, the eccentric client base the Guy services throughout Manhattan and its boroughs paints a picture of people and their realities, not judgements on their actions.

And the turns. Oh, the turns. High Maintenance will basically give you comedy-and-tragedy whiplash when its seemingly straightforward stories gain their twist(s). Take, for instance, the first episode of the season. Starring Heléne Yorke and Max Jenkins as their fan-favorite characters from the original series, the episode promises a boy-done-right tale of getting out from underneath your addictions (literal or otherwise) and carving out a healthy life for yourself—free of the toxic people, places, and things around you. What we get, instead, is something far more real and devastating. Jenkins’ character (also named Max) and his enabling, selfish best frenemy bring out the worst in one another, but to pull one away from those old habits and bad behaviors is no small feat, and the resulting introduction to the series shows that Blichfeld and Sinclair are not fucking around.

Which isn’t to say the show is all gloom and doom in its characterizations, either. The series’ third episode is a particularly joyful highlight thanks to its point of view—told through the eyes of the shaggiest shaggy dog ever, Gatsby—and the love story that unfolds between the pup and his dog walker (played by Orange in the New Black‘s Yael Stone).

The amount of effort, care, and nuance it takes to make a storytelling perspective feel genuine rather than a precious gimmick is impressive, and deftly handled. The poignancy found in these unanticipated places only strengthens the storytelling and series as a whole, weaving surreality and a sort of romanticized care for its subjects into the core of every frame, plot point, and line. And don’t even get us started on the season finale—it is shattering and uplifting in a quiet sort of way that feels more intimate, more human, and more honest than most things we’ve seen on TV. It’s the sort of series that devastates and delights simultaneously, begging for rewatches and further conversations.

High Maintenance premieres Friday, September 16th at 11pm on HBO.

5 out of 5 high AF burritos:

Are you going to check out High Maintenance? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: HBO

Alicia Lutes is Managing Editor of Nerdist and creator/co-host of Fangirling. Find her on Twitter (if you want)!

Margot Robbie is Making a HARLEY QUINN Spin-Off Film

It’s been rumored for awhile, but now it’s apparently official: actress Margot Robbie is getting her own Harley Quinn spin-off film that will possibly pair her with other well-known ladies of the DC Extended Universe. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the very in-demand actress just signed a first-look deal with Warner Brothers studios, where she recently starred in not only Suicide Squad, but also Tarzan and Focus (alongside her Suicide Squad co-star Will Smith). As part of that deal, the report confirms that Robbie will star and executive produce a Suicide Squad spinoff for her character Harley Quinn, which is said to co-star other DC heroines.

Nerdist has reached out to Warner Bros. for further confirmation and comment and will update this post as more information becomes available.

So what could this Harley Quinn and DC heroines movie be? Current rumors suggest it could be Harley and the so-called “Gotham City Sirens,” a.k.a. Poison Ivy and Catwoman teaming up against Batgirl and the Birds of Prey (Black Canary and the Huntress). All of these characters are extremely popular with fans—especially female fans, who are already seriously under represented in superhero films as it is (although with the coming Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel films, hopefully that’s changing soon). Robbie is cited as executive producing, though neither a writer or director has been attached to the project (yet).

Even if this Harley/DC heroines movie is indeed a done deal, it could be awhile before it hits theaters. Robbie is first developing and producing a Tonya Harding biopic called I, Tonya—where she’ll portray the disgraced Olympic figure skater and tabloid headline regular—and developing an adaptation of the novel Bad Monkeys. Both of these projects could keep her too busy to get back into the make-up and booty shorts of Harleen Quinzel for the next couple of years. But sooner or later, Harley will be back.

What do you think of more Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn? And who should the other DC heroine co-stars be? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Images: Warner Brothers / DC Comics

Explore DOCTOR STRANGE’s Motivations in This Illuminating New Featurette

I love it when Marvel Studios sends a kick in the pants to their cinematic universe. Amid all of their usual superhero flicks, they gave us the spacey ’70s-sonic delight that was Guardians of the Galaxy. What a fun surprise! I’m hoping for a similar surprise when it comes to this year’s outlier in the MCU, Doctor Strange. The studio has a knack for bringing characters who aren’t particularly household names in to the forefront of pop culture, and while Dr. Stephen Strange is a mainstay of comic books, he hasn’t got nearly the name recognition of a Cap or a Hulk.

The above new featurette features the cast of Doctor Strange and producer Kevin Feige explaining what fans can expect from the movie, as well as the backstory of the future Sorcerer Supreme. As you probably know, Stephen Strange was a famous and successful surgeon whose hands were mangled in an accident, and that he became obsessed with correcting them, at the expense of his fortune and relationships. Star Benedict Cumberbatch refers to him as a very arrogant but brilliant man who discovers something altogether different when his travels take him to Nepal and a meeting with Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton).

Perhaps the most enlightening moment of the featurette is when Feige explains that the film’s villains (led by Mads Mikkelsen) plan to remove the boundaries between dimensions and realities, which would effectively destroy the entirety of the universe. Not the best thing for any universe, it has to be said.

The more we see of Doctor Strange, the more stoked we are to see Marvel do a movie that has a distinctive look and tone altogether different from what it’s done before. Scott Derrickson‘s Marvel directorial debut will hit theaters November 4!

What part of Doctor Strange has you most jazzed? Let us know in the comments below!

We take a look at the last Doctor Strange trailer right here!

Image: Marvel

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!

Kit Harington is Absolutely Evil in the New COD: INFINITE WARFARE Trailer

The world may mostly know Kit Harington for his portrayal of Game of Thrones‘ know-nothin’ bastard, Jon Snow, but soon they’ll know him as a fierce Call of Duty villain, too. If you haven’t heard the news already, the actor’s voice (and charming mug) will be making an appearance in Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. While we’ve known about his addition to the voice acting cast since June, Activision gave us a closer look at what his character will be up to once the game launches on November 4. See how menacing he is in the trailer above.

It’s strange to hear Harington using his silky British voice for evil as Admiral Salen Kotch of the Settlement Defense Front. Based on the footage shown off in the video, he’ll be quite the obstacle for players. Of course, the actor isn’t the only famous face joining the fray; the video also showcases UFC fighter Conor McGregor, who will be playing Captain Bradley Fillion of the Settlement Defense Front. So far, the game looks much more cinematic than ones we’ve played in the past—which is refreshing for a series that most people flock to for online multiplayer alone.

Taylor Kurosaki, the narrative director of Infinity Ward previously praised Harington’s performance, saying “Our story is about an epic showdown of opposing forces and Kit immersed himself into the role and truly became the embodiment of the enemy, the Settlement Defense Front. We can’t wait for fans to see Kit play an entirely different kind of character.”

Our own Edwin Garcia got to play a bit of the campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies mode during the Call of Duty: XP event, and noted how great everything was shaping up in his preview piece. Those who pre-order the game will get a taste of what’s in store when the beta opens up on October 14 (first on the PS4).

Are you excited for the next Call of Duty? What did you think of Kit Harington’s performance as the villain? Let us know in the comments below, join the conversation on Facebook, or start one with me on Twitter: @Samantha_Sofka.

Featured Image: Activision

Vertigo’s LOST BOYS Comic Gets Totally Rad ’80s Variant Cover

Attention, vampire aficionados and ’80s nostalgia buffs: The Lost Boys, one of the defining vampire movies of the the past thirty years, is finally getting the sequel it deserves… in comic book form, that is. The folks over at DC/Vertigo are launching a new miniseries from writer Tim Seeley and artist Scott Godlewski, which is due to hit comic shops this October.

Although Lost Boys got series of straight to DVD sequels a few years ago, set decades after the 1987 film, only Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander’s characters–the vampire hunting Frog Brothers–returned. None of the film’s other characters were included, hence this comic being the first true sequel to the original Joel Schumacher film. Which means yes, all the surviving characters are back.

So how much of a sequel to the original film are we talking about? Well, one of the movie’s most infamous moments, one that dates the movie more than any song or hairstyle, is the brief cameo from a musclebound and greased up shirtless saxophone player playing a concert on the beach. As someone who saw the movie in theaters as a kid, I can tell you we chuckled at the sax player even then. But for some reason, he’s become an iconic touchstone of the movie.

The folks at Vertigo clearly realized the popularity of “shirtless sax guy” and placed him front and center for a variant cover for issue #1, featuring art by Joëlle Jones and Trish Mulvihill. You can see the newly released variant cover, as well as a preview of the first three pages, in our gallery below. Issue #1 of The Lost Boys hits on October 12th.

Are you excited for this long awaited return to Santa Carla? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: DC Comics/ Vertigo

GAME OF THRONES Re-Throned: “The North Remembers” (S2, E1)

Winter is coming, but not soon enough. So to help pass the time until season seven of Game of Thrones, we’re doing a weekly re-watch of the series, episode-by-episode, with the knowledge of what’s to come and—therefore—more information about the unrevealed rich history of events that took place long before the story began. Be warned, though: that means this series is full of spoilers for every season, even beyond the episode itself. So if you haven’t watched all of the show yet immediately get on that and then come back and join us for Game of Thrones Re-Throned.

Because the next best thing to watching new episodes is re-watching old ones.

——

Season 2, Episode 1: “The North Remembers”

Original Air Date: April 1st, 2012

Director: Alan Taylor

Written by: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Game of Thrones’ sophomore season can mean only one thing: another new accent from Littlefinger. Oh, and the introduction of Melisandre and Stannis, which is kind of a big deal.

More than any other character on the show, going back and re-watching every scene with Melisandre is far more layered and fascinating in lieu of what we know about her true age, especially when you watch her introduction here in season two’s first episode, “The North Remembers.”

I’ve long been skeptical of the value of dragons to mankind, their penchant for bringing death by fire feels like the opposite side of the same coin as the icy White Walkers. Considering the red priests and priestesses of R’hllor worship at the altar of dragons and Daenerys, Melisandre’s debut makes them feel potentially as dangerous and powerful as the White Walkers. They bring a song of ice, Melisandre brings a song of fire, and both songs are songs of death.

On the shores of Dragonstone we see Melisandre leading a burning of the seven gods, as she and her followers recite the decidedly un-hopeful line “the night is dark and full of terrors.” The scene is ominous, and that’s before we hear anyone comment on her. That honor goes to Maester Cressen, who says to Ser Davos, “We need to stop her.”

Cressen, who cares about Stannis and fears the path he is heading down, believes this woman is such a terror that he sacrifices his own life in an attempt to kill her, by poisoning his wine and taking a sip before offering it to her. He dies quickly (and painfully), but she drinks it anyway, knowing full well it is poisoned, but that it can’t harm her. She has powers normal men do not. After finishing it she looks at Cressen’s body and says, “The night is dark and full of terrors, old man, but the fire burns them all away.”

Fire, the symbol of R’hllor, will eventually take innocent and loyal men to Stannis, men whose only crime was giving good council, as well as Shireen, Stannis’s own daughter. What kind of religion is this? What kind of salvation can be found in a god that demands the life of a little girl? In this episode Joffrey orders the murder of every one of Robert’s bastards, including infants. How is Melisandre any different, or any better, than the evil Joffrey?

Yes, her god gives her strength and her god gives her power, but with it comes death and suffering for others. It isn’t any different from the White Walkers, just fire instead of ice.

Especially when her power does not include wisdom. She declares amid the fires on the shore that the savoir of the world is here.

“In the ancient books, it’s written that a warrior will draw a burning sword from the fire. And that sword shall be Lightbringer. Stannis Baratheon, warrior of light, your sword awaits you.”

Oops. Not so much.

This episode is where we first see the red comet in the sky, visible from as far as Winterfell to across the sea in the Red Waste, and we hear plenty of interpretations for what it might mean. A victory for Robb, a good omen for the Lannisters, or even a mark of Ned’s death. However it is Osha who somehow recognizes what it truly means. “The red comet means one thing, boy: dragons.”

Red for dragons; red for fire; red for death.

Melisandre’s faith will not waver for a very long time, when Shireen’s sacrifice brings ruin for Stannis and not success at the end of season five, but here she believes in her actions, that death in service to R’hllor is the only way to the death the White Walkers bring (whose return she accurately prophecies here).

But death by fire or death by ice, death by poison or death from a spear to the throat in battle, they all mean the same thing.

“We need to stop her,” was the first thing anyone ever said about Melisandre. But she is just one woman in an army of fanatics who believe that fire brings salvation, and that “salvation” is currently sailing to Westeros in the form of three dragons.

Will their mother have the wisdom to use them in service of the living, or in the service of R’hllor, because those two seem to be in direct conflict.

What did you think of this episode? Tell us in the comments below.

Images: HBO

SNOWDEN Doesn’t Divulge Many New Secrets (Review)

You will no doubt come to Snowden with some degree of familiarity with the story of America’s most famous whistleblower. Whether you’ve only scanned the boldest headlines, caught a showing of Citizenfour, or even pored over Edward Snowden’s Wikipedia page with a fine-toothed comb, there’s plenty that Oliver Stone’s latest high-stakes biopic can inform you about its hero’s journey from patriotic everyman to enemy of the state.

The vast majority of the film, in fact, tethers to the chapters of Snowden’s personal history that predate anything that’s breached the national news. We spend the first two thirds of the movie with an early-20s Edward (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who, after bidding a begrudging farewell to a career in the armed forces, steps swiftly up the occupational ladder in the Central Intelligence Agency.

It is here that Stone draws his picture of the nascent Snowden: shy but blunt, curious but trusting, intellectual but jingoistic… and, apparently, a big fan of Ghost in the Shell. Though he carries himself quite awkwardly and forces the strangest inflection in recent voice acting history, Gordon-Levitt delivers his typical watchability as Edward Snowden; the character’s uptight nature even seems to justify his performer’s consistent penchant toward stiffness.

It is likewise here that we see Snowden found the most important relationships that’ll follow him through the movie. One with CIA top dog Corbin O’Brian (Rhys Ifans), who becomes a proverbial father figure for Snowden, likewise the human embodiment of the agency on the whole. When Gordon-Levitt is paired with Ifans, Snowden is at its cagiest and liveliest; though their dynamic follows the blueprints of many a spy thriller, this pairing of able-bodied performers makes for entertaining drama.

Other characters of note: Fellow agent Gabe (Ben Schnetzer, whom you might recognize as boy wizard Khadgar from Warcraft), who introduces Ed both to the American government’s less kosher operations, as well as to a more flexible relationship with the job and department; Keith Stanfield carries Schnetzer’s torch later in the movie, managing impressive vividness even without much material.

Most significantly, we have left-leaning amateur photographer and bona fide free spirit Lindsay (Shailene Woodley), who becomes Snowden’s partner in life and emotional pandemonium after what may be the least charming first date scene in cinema history. Their romance lends more meat to the film than you’d likely expect, as Lindsey doubles as Edward’s sole point of access to the civilian world, and emotional foil (in that she’s emotional to any noticeable degree). Still, considering the bulk of time we spend wedged between the young lovers, we’re asked to fill in quite a few blanks in regard to the development of their relationship.

For good measure, I’ll add that Snowden also happens upon a character played by Nicolas Cage, whose role in the movie is so inconsequential that your surprise to see him onscreen will renew every time he pops in for a quick chat.

Though the formal explanation for the first half of Snowden might be attributed to character building, it feels more like biding time. With the exception of flash-forwards to Snowden’s secretive 2013 meeting with Citizenfour documentarian Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) and journalists Glenn Greenwald (a hot-tempered Zachary Quinto) and Ewen McAskill (Tom Wilkinson), all that the film’s first hour-and-change gives us in the vein of the central conflict is the occasional seed of foreshadowing.

More criminal is that even over this expansion of time does Snowden’s evolution play as abrupt. If one or two independent suggestions of regrettable behavior on the part of the agency—one involving a very Timothy Olyphant-y Timothy Olyphant—is enough to turn Edward against his government, then his ideology couldn’t really have been all that concrete in the first place. In light of this, we’re inclined to ask why the heck we had to spend two full acts watching them break down.

Finally, Snowden gets the chapter that even those most tepidly aware of the real man’s story will have been waiting for. Even then, however, with as dire a threat as any imaginable on the horizon and the accentuated weight of extratextual truth, the film can’t muster anything close to genuine excitement.

The film’s evasion of boredom can be thanked to Gordon-Levitt, who, even when armed with a mainlining narrative and some periodically regrettable dialogue, is human enough to walk us through what amounts to 90 minutes of scene setting. Although it may be interesting to learn what an inherently fascinating character like Edward Joseph Snowden was up to in the years before his name would come to warrant notability, the cap value of a slew of fun facts is really all Snowden is prepared to deliver. The movie may inform you of plenty, but it really doesn’t tell you much of a story.

Rating: 2.5 burritos out of 5.

Images: Open Road Films

Michael Arbeiter is the East Coast Editor for Nerdist. You can easily find him on Twitter (because he clearly learned nothing from Edward Snowden) @MichaelArbeiter.

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