Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2394

Relive GAME OF THRONES Season Six with These Spot-On Impressions

Each link in a maester’s chain represents his mastery of a different skill or knowledge, and the metal used to forge each link is dependent on the particular course of study. So we’re thinking maybe some copper spray painted gold would be fitting for a maester that has earned his Game of Thrones impressions link.

Because after watching impressionist Scheiffer Bates run through almost all of the major male players from the show’s sixth season we can safely say he has earned the right to add that particular link to his collar.

Starting with his absolutely spot on Jon Snow, this lineup is as long as his impressions are impressive. Besides the formerly dead Lord Commander he took on Ser Jorah, Littlefinger, Varys, Tormund Giantsbane, Ser Davos, Jaime, Ramsay Bolton, (traitor to the Starks) Smalljon Umber, Hodor (young and old, so get ready to feel bad in the middle of this), the High Sparrow, Lancel Lannister, Sam Tarly, Ser Arthur Dayne, young Ned Stark, Tyrion, Walder Frey, Bronn, Thoros of Myr, the Hound, and Jaqen H’ghar.

If he just silently smirked at the screen he could have added the Night’s King to his impressive collection, but we won’t hold that against him.

This isn’t his first video of impressions, and you can find plenty more at his YouTube page, but we do want to make sure you see Kit Harington‘s reaction to Scheiffer’s impression of him from Jimmy Kimmel Live, where Scheiffer read a cereal box as the Lord Commander.

Scheiffer’s Jon Snow is the King in the North of Game of Thrones impressions.

Which one of the his impressions is your favorite? Tell us in the comments below.

12 things you might have missed from the Game of Thrones finale!

Image: HBO

Home Geekonomics: Cat Con LA

Home Geekonomics is a series that features the best in geeky home decor, food and DIY. Each week will focus on a specific fandom and highlight the best of geek for your home and everyday life.

This past weekend was the second annual CatConLA, where feline fanatics come together to ooh and ahh over the most adorable cat and kitten themed merch. Cat pillows, cat necklaces, cat art, all the cat things you never knew existed was up for sale. That doesn’t even include the products that were for actual pets. Cat beds, food and especially hand-crafted cat toys were a huge hit, with long lines at every booth.

It wouldn’t be a CatCon without actual cats, and the playful pets were up for adoption as well, all ready and willing to go to a good home. It was like a Neko Atsume game come to life, in other words, absolute fuzzy heaven.

You could even wait in line to get Kat Von D eyeliner, a perfect cat-eye applied to go with your perfectly (purrfectly?) pressed cat dress, of with there was quite a large variety of cat-themed clothing on display.

Crazy cat lady is a stigma of the past, now it’s hip to embrace your cat obsession. Here are some of our favorite items we found at CatCon, 2016.

Rolling Pins by Sweet Rolling Pins

Perhaps you love cats so much you’d love to make little cat cookies, but really, who has the time to roll and cut all out of them out? These rolling pins make life so much easier, with just one roll the impression really stays with you. Laser-engraved with the cutest of cats, you can even get them custom made for all your specific cat needs.

Cat Loaf Stickers by Elsa Chang

Speaking of food, cats in the shape of food are taking over the world as they rightly should be. Catloaf are cats that sit just so to look like a loaf of bread is a real thing folks.

Mewcarons by Kimchi Kawaii

Cat loaf not your thing? What about a mewcaron?? OMG the combo of a sweet little French macaron and a cat? All your adorable pastry dreams have just come true in the form of a huggable plush.

Star Wars and Cats; Cat Ewok Plush by Flat Bonnie; Slave Leia and Jabba Cats by 100% Soft

Two great things that go great together are Star Wars and cats, and Cat Con didn’t disappoint. The super sweet, not at all cold-hearted killers, ewoks are given a new form when made into plush cats by the incomparable Flat Bonnie. Meanwhile, fan-favorite 100% Soft has been killing it with galactic emoji for the Star Wars app and now also has prints with a fun take on cats in the Star Wars universe.

Cat Earrings; Sailor Moon Cat Earrings by Nerdy But Still Girly; Captain America Earrings by Catmade

I know you want to take your cats with you wherever you go but it’s just not possible. Now you can with tiny cat earrings that hang off your lobes just so. Nerdy But Still Girly comes at you with a one two punch of Sailor Moon cuteness. Luna and Artemis sweet faces can adorn your ears and keep you safe. While Catmade’s handmade cat jewelry pays homage to Bowie, Captain America and more.

There were simply too many great things to choose, check out even more cat-tastic finds in the gallery below.

Images: Jenn Fujikawa

A Bruins Fan Bids Adieu to P.K. Subban: Good Riddance, I’ll Miss You

Being a fan of the Boston Bruins only requires two things: loving the black and gold and hating the Montreal Canadiens. Anything less than pure loathing for the Les Habitants calls into question your love for the Bruins. That’s just the way it is—and that’s the way it should be. And for the last few seasons, no Montreal player has epitomized and been the focus of that hatred more than P.K. Subban.

Their young, brash, embellishing, diving, whiny, faux-tough, temper tantrum-throwing defenseman encompassed everything we despise about the Montreal Canadiens, especially because he’s insanely skilled and has pretty much owned our ass the entire time he’s been in the league.

For every time he flopped like he was shot by an imaginary sniper there has been a backbreaking goal, and for every absurd complaint to the refs there has been an end-to-end rush that turned the tide of the game. At times P.K. Subban is the biggest baby on the ice, and for the rest of it he is a wholly unique, dynamic, game changer.

You can see why we’ve hated him so much.

And now he is gone from the division, sent off to Nashville in a power struggle with a coach that gets all of the same Boston hate without any of the respect. No more laser beam goals from the point on a power play they only got because P.K. collapsed when someone breathed on him; no more dread as he gets up a full head of steam in his own zone and takes off for our net; no more being terrified of him knocking us out of yet another playoff series.

He’s gone from the division, and I speak for all Bruins fans when I say this: good riddance.

But man, I’m going to miss him.

Because for everything I hate about him on the ice, off the ice I think he’s one of the best guys in hockey. He carries himself with a grace and class few athletes in sports can match. Last year he announced a massive 10 million dollar donation to a Montreal children’s hospital, and in every interview he gives, he speaks with humility that honors the game instead of himself. Plus, he plays with a joy that feels like a kid lacing up for a Saturday morning skate on the frozen pond, an enthusiasm that cuts through the normal sports bullshit and cynicism (though that damn smile quickly turns infuriating when you’re losing to him).

However, his off-ice actions mean a great deal to me personally, because as a Bruins fan he publicly went to bat for my team when the rest of the world wanted him to bury us.

In 2014, the Bruins were the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference and get back to the Cup Final, but, of freakin’ course we ran into our worst match-up in the second round—the less skilled Canadians—who had our number that whole year (because that’s how mortal enemies work).

P.K. Subban won Game 1 in overtime with a shot so hard it traveled through time. Afterwards, a small number of “fans” took to Twitter (from all over the country, many not even Bruins fans) and used exactly the type of language you’d fear some would use after an African American player scored a big game winning goal. And even though that happens online every day, for any event, especially sporting events, it blew up into this huge story because of Boston’s shameful past.

It was a lazy story, unfair and without context, but there it was, setting people up to take a shot at my hometown.

Except P.K. Subban: the guy we booed every time he touched the puck in Boston, the guy we hated with every fiber in our fandom, wouldn’t allow it. Here’s what he said:

“It’s completely unfair for anybody to point the finger at the organization or the fan base. They have passionate fans here, great fan base and since I’ve been in the league it’s been awesome. I’ve come to Boston many times, my family has come here and it’s been great. What people may say on Twitter or social media is not a reflection by any means of the league or the Boston Bruins. So whoever that is, they’ll get dealt with, but it’s completely separate from this league or the Boston Bruins organization.”

That’s the guy the Montreal Canadiens just gave away. A just-entering-his-prime, supremely skilled defenseman who loves the city and fans of Montreal, and just so happens to be one of the best ambassadors the game has off the ice.

We are celebrating this trade in Boston—never a good sign when your rivals are glad you moved a player, so suck it Montreal—because we hated everything P.K. Subban did in a Canadiens jersey, but rivalries are are more fun with worthy foes (I’ll always miss George Steinbrenner, Red Sox/Yankees games are borefests now), and the Habs just moved the guy we hated the most, making this feud a lot less fun.

So a part of me will miss P.K. Subban the Enemy on the ice, but I will miss him more because of who he is off of it. Because when it comes to the man himself, you don’t need to embellish what makes him great.

What do you think of the Canadiens trade of P.K. Subban? Tell us in the comments below.

Images: NHL/YouTube

Video From First-Ever Shark Sonogram is Amazing and Beautiful

Hey, we need some help: what is a good baby shower gift for a mom that is giving birth to twenty children? Oh, and the mother is a shark, we should probably mention that.

In this amazing, incredible, beautiful video from Discovery, currently in the middle of their annual Shark Week, we get to see Dr. James Sulikowski and researchers from the University of New England perform the first ever shark sonogram on a 12-and-a-half foot tiger shark. What they saw inside were at least 20 fetal sharks, about two-thirds of the way through their development (roughly 40-45 centimeters in length), meaning they were only a couple of months away from being born. Look at those baby teeth! Have shark teeth ever been so adorable before?

Not only is this first-ever shark sonogram a big deal because it allowed them to tag the mother so they can trace her movements during the rest of the pregnancy, it also meant not having to do something much worse. “Historically if you wanted to see if a tiger shark was pregnant you had to cut her up.”

Good, because humans kill way (way, way, way, way) more sharks than they kill us. And watching this video, it’s hard not to see the mother shark for what she is–just another creature living life.

We first came across this amazing clip at Sploid, and we can’t stop watching it. Even without the aid of having the baby sharks outlined you can see them in the sonogram. Everything about this is truly wonderful.

Except that we are really going to struggle to come up with 20 good shark names (and we won’t, um, need to use many of those names when the babies start “competing” in the womb). So give us your best shark monikers in the comments below to help us out.

Images: Discovery Communications

Watch Dick Van Dyke Sing “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” in Walt Disney’s Backyard

When we first stumbled across this video, our first reaction was jubilant surprise: Dick Van Dyke is most definitely still alive! (I admit, I wasn’t sure. [Editor’s Note: for SHAME!]) And not only that, but the Mary Poppins star is still lithe and spry and leading impromptu performances of “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” in Walt Disney‘s backyard—pretty impressive for a 90-year-old.

Over the weekend, as Entertainment Weekly reports, Van Dyke joined a four-person chorus on the lawn of Disney’s childhood home in Chicago. The Mary Poppins chimney sweep led a participatory rendition of the film standard. A small crowd joined him in singing the carefree tune, flying pretend kites and filling all our hearts with joy.

“Let’s Go Fly a Kite” epitomizes Disney’s iconic 1964 film, which was adapted from P.L. Travers’ inaugural Poppins novel. The song also helped net both Van Dyke and co-star Julie Andrews a Grammy for their work on the Mary Poppins soundtrack.

Hopefully the Mary Poppins reboot, which hits theaters on Christmas day in 2018, can rekindle that same musical magic. There’s no word whether the original stars will make an appearance, but Mary Poppins Returns seems to be in good hands with Emily Blunt and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda already tapped as our leading lady and lad.

The new film will reportedly take cues from the remaining seven novels in Travers’ series, but not from any one of them in particular. It will take place in 1930, 20 years after the original film’s setting, and will probably pull plot lines from a few of the subsequent books, creating a hybrid that’s fit for the modern screen.

Whatever the plot ends up being, we can’t wait. In the meantime, check out Van Dyke’s joyous sing-along above and, hey, don’t forget to fly a kite every once in a while.

Image: Disney

Trent Reznor and Weezer Released Songs for NASA’s Jupiter Mission

Apple has edged its way into many facets of our lives. Through their myriad media forms and savvy business strategies, the tech company has permeated virtually ever inch of the globe. That said, I guess it makes sense that their next logical landing point would be outer space, and that’s exactly where they’re going.

As a special request from Apple and NASA (what a pair!), Weezer and duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross recorded brand new tracks for the climax of a $1.1 billion effort to send a spacecraft into Jupiter’s orbit. While both songs are disparate sonically, they both celebrate what is sure to a universal accomplishment.

Weezer’s “I Love the USA” pays raucous tribute to the Juno Mission, whose uncrewed probe is scheduled to reach Jupiter’s orbit on Independence Day. “We were on tour abroad, and it got me thinking a lot about America, which lead to me write “I Love The USA,“ said frontman Rivers Cuomo on the band’s website. “When Apple and NASA asked us to be involved with Juno’s historic landing on July 4th, this song seemed like the perfect fit.”

Weezer channels Ben Folds and his signature piano sound in the new track. Cuomo’s coos hover over big, resonant chords in the band’s ode to both this country and our final frontier. Check out a “I Love the USA” above.

The release follows the collaborative track between Atticus Ross and Nine Inch Nails frontman/Apple’s creative wizard, Trent Reznor. The song, aptly titled “Juno,” also celebrates NASA’s Juno Mission and includes actual sounds of Jupiter “singing.” It’s a beautifully spooky electronic track that enters a void throughout its 9 minutes until it triumphantly crescendoes with swirling pianos. Check out a snippet of the song below:

These one-off tracks are sandwiched between Weezer’s White Album, which arrived in April, and Nine Inch Nails’ yet unnamed, unscheduled follow-up to 2013’s Hesitation Marks. (Last year, Reznor promised a 2016 NIN return.)

Both tracks are available exclusively via Apple Music, of course. Check them out and, in the comments below, let us know who you’d rather go to Jupiter with: Weezer or Nine Inch Nails.

Image: Apple

Unbelievable Images of Jupiter’s Auroras are Cosmic Fireworks Before the 4th

If you’re a lucky Earthling, on a picturesque night at the requisite latitude you can sometimes see charged particles streaming in from the sun to energize gases in the atmosphere along magnetic field lines and produce spectacular serpentine green, reds, and blues — an aurora. If you were a Jovian, however, the light show would be a bit more…impressive.

Today, NASA released gorgeous images from the Hubble Space Telescope’s exploration of Jupiter’s auroras. Hubble will be staring at the gas giant over the next few months to track how radiation from the sun and other sources influence aurora-formation. For example, while Earth-based auroras are primarily caused by solar wind, Jupiter’s comparatively gigantic magnetic field also corals particles spewing from Jupiter’s moons.

Unlike Earth’s Borealis and Australis, Jupiter’s auroras are constant, and they are larger than the Earth.

The picture above was produced from far-ultraviolet images taken by the Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Although the mission to catalogue such images will take many more months, NASA, the ESA, and lead scientist Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester, UK have already stitched together fantastic videos showing the movement of the north pole’s auroras over time.

They look like mining a planet in Mass Effect 2 in real life.

The beautiful observations are also timed to give context to NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which is currently blasting towards Jupiter at over 130,000 miles per hour. It should reach the planet by July 4th, and will then dive as close as 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) and below the restless surface clouds in order to study the planet’s formation, structure, atmosphere, and magnetosphere.

Together, Hubble and Juno are sure to return more mind-blowing beauty very soon.

Images: NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester)

JAWS’ Honest Trailer Full of Plenty of Praise, Sea Shanties, and Legs

Jaws is the perfect Hollywood movie. It’s an amazing spectacle with a classic story about man versus nature, set in an engrossing locale, full of compelling characters played by wonderful actors, all led by a legendary director, that makes you laugh right before scaring the hell out of you.

But it really does feature a lot of singing by Quint.

That’s really the only criticism–if you even want to call it that, which I don’t–that even the Honest Trailers guys from Screen Junkies could come up with for the original summer blockbuster from Steven Spielberg, the one full of more legs than a Rockettes show. Because how can you really criticize a movie that somehow terrified you with just two musical notes and some yellow barrels.

Special shout out for them recognizing the secret best part of the whole movie though: the horrible wardrobe of the horrible mayor. I’ve been obsessed with his jackets for as long as I can remember. I might be the only person alive that manages to reference him and his clothes at least once a month.

Also, I have to say, in spite of seeing Jaws roughly 5,000 times, I’m not sure I ever noticed just how much drinking the chief really did. Everyone knows he didn’t have the patience to let that wine breathe, but apparently he didn’t have the patience to let his liver breathe either.

Is there any part of Jaws you think is worthy of ridicule? If so, give us your honest opinion about it in the comments section below.

Images: Universal Pictures

Will You Accept This Rose? #20: Kiss Me, Wells! With Steve Hytner and Theo Von

Theo Von (Netflix) and Steve Hytner (Bania from Seinfeld) join Arden for the MOST INSANE podcast yet! Pity Roses! Crocodile Evita Tears! The Falcon! Arden is appalled by Jordan’s swishing of his wine glass! Theo think Wells has legs made of ribbons! Steve and Theo help Arden dry off her Iphone! EVERYONE IS EXCITED BY THE TANGO TEACHER’S SEXY NETHER-REGION!……And Katie and Anna help pick a tweet of the week!

Like  Will You Accept This Rose?  on Facebook and follow @ArdenMyrin, and @ErinFoleyComic on Twitter! Email the show at rosepodcast@gmail.com!

Music by Mark Rivers

Schlock & Awe: THAT MAN FROM RIO

In the mid-1960s, the James Bond series had already become a major force at the international box office. People were salivating at the idea of more spy-like adventure movies with impressive stunt work, lavish locales, and beautiful women. French director Philippe de Broca was also eager to exploit this demand and set out to make a similar movie. It proved to be much less like a Bond movie, though, and much more its own thing: an adventure comedy that would mix slapstick antics with legitimately dangerous stunt work and a narrative that moves so quickly, you won’t have any time to realize it doesn’t make much sense.

This, friends, is That Man from Rio.

You probably haven’t heard of this film — or if you have, it’s probably from the recent 2K restoration – -but it has been incredibly influential to artists such as Jackie Chan and Steven Spielberg. That Man from Rio is part bawdy comedy, part silent movie-esque runaround, part treasure hunt, and part travelogue. It’s an enjoyable movie to watch, and while it does go on a bit long, the action shifts and changes enough to make things not linger. The fact that it stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, one of the most charismatic stars of the French New Wave, proving he can do physical comedy and action as good as anyone, just makes the proceedings all the more enjoyable.

The story begins with Belmondo as Adrien Dufourquet, an airman on an 8-day leave back to Paris. He is *ahem* very eager to be reunited with his fiancee, Agnès (Françoise Dorléac, the sister of actress Catherine Deneuve). Agnès is an archaeologist working at a museum of antiquity with her late father’s best friend and partner, Professor Catalan. On the morning of Adrien’s leave, the museum is robbed of a precious statute by two South Americans who later kidnap Professor Catalan, and then later still Agnès, outside of her home while Adrien is speaking to police inside.

Instead of just calling the police, or reporting the kidnapping some other way, Adrien takes off on a motorcycle all through creation and to an airport, boarding a plane to Rio with Agnès and the two kidnappers ahead. This was back in a time, of course, when you could just get on an airplane without having paid or even giving anyone your name. The real problem — aside from the whole “my girlfriend has been kidnapped” thing — is that Adrien is not supposed to leave Paris while on leave, and here he is going to Brazil! He also has no money on him, or clothes, and Agnès has been drugged and maintains she’s never seen him before…this is another real problem.

Luckily, Agnès doesn’t remain kidnapped or drugged for very long, but that doesn’t end the ordeal; the thieves stole a very important artifact from her father’s collection: a statuette said to have magical powers. The statuette is one of three, the other two belonging to Catalan and the dad’s colleague Señor De Castro (Adolfo Celi), though one of those two is lost. For the next stretch of the movie, Adrien and Agnès find and lose the statuettes several times, as well as get separated a few times, all while seeing all different parts of Rio and surrounding desert.

The movie shifts in tone when the villain (who I won’t reveal lest it spoil the surprise) takes Agnès and the statuettes to the jungle to find the temple where the treasure is said to be held. Adrien chases after them, killing thugs and climbing on the outside of steamships and mountains trying to get back his lady love. If the bulk of the movie feels like a caper film, and yes a little like a Bond movie, then the finale definitely feels like an Indiana Jones movie, but only in retrospect, since those movies hadn’t been made yet and wouldn’t for close to 20 years.

De Broca directs action very matter-of-factly, but also very effectively. Most of the fights and chases are done in wide shot, without the benefit of quick cutting or jumbled close-ups to get the point across. The actors (or stunt people — sometimes they’re very visible) have to be on their mark and on the ball with their actions. A huge acrobatic skydiving stunt is pulled off beautifully, astounding for the time and budget. And Belmondo does his part with aplomb. The scenes of straight comedy — a lot of romantic comedy bickering that doesn’t feel cloying but truly funny — are also directed in this same manner, with the jokes coming from mid-to-wide shots of Belmondo and Dorléac, proving what deft comedic talents they are.

That Man from Rio was a massive hit in Europe and was even honored with an Academy Award nomination for de Broca’s original screenplay. That seems amazing to me, especially in 1964, and it proves just that a great story and funny dialogue can cut through any language barrier. The movie is infinitely watchable and continues to be funny each time you watch. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s available on Blu-ray from Cohem Films and for rental on Amazon video. It truly is a wild ride, and it’ll make Jackie Chan’s breed of comedic action make that much more sense.

Images: United Artists

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He writes the weekly look at weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!