Month: July 2006

I’ve made several posts linking to humorous or unusual fan-made recuts of movie trailers. The Wikipedia entry “Re-cut trailers” is a pretty authoritative reference that includes links to most of them:

Re-cut trailers refers to a re-edited film trailer that is created by re-editing footage from that film, or possibly just from that film’s trailer. Re-cut trailers have become a popular internet phenomenon since fall of 2005. In almost all cases, these re-cut trailers derive their humor from casting the film’s plot in a different light- these fake trailers present the film as something that it is very much not. For instance, a film with a murderous plot is made to look like a light and happy film, or vice versa.

Science Addiction’s 95 Theses of Geek Activism is an interesting read:

Geek activism has not taken off yet, but it should. With the gamers recognizing the need for a louder voice, EFF gaining momentum and Linux taking on the mainstream on the one hand and recent severe losses in privacy, freedom of speech and intellectual property rights on the other, now seems to be the best time to rally around the cause.

Geeks are not known to be political or highly vocal (outside of our own circles)- this must change if we want things to improve. So here is my list of things people of all shapes, sizes and sides of the debate need to know. Some of these are obvious, others may not be meant for you. But hopefully, some of these will inspire you to do the right thing and others will help you frame the next discussion, debate or argument you have on these topics.

The trailer for The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky’s (director of Pi and Requiem For A Dream) latest movie, looks pretty cool. Cinematical agrees:

1. It tells three interconnected stories that span 500 years in either direction of 2006.
2. It stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.
3. It looks freaking amazing.
4. Aronofsky’s been working on this thing for as long as it takes Adam Sandler to make nine movies.

Filmrot muses on the word “fuck”:

The word “fuck” has recently attracted the cinematic spotlight. There’s a documentary featuring the word on the way, Utah-based DVD Rental companies have staked entire marketing efforts around sanitizing it from films, and Wikipedia even has an f-word list, which ranks films based on the number of times the four-letter word is used. “Fuck” has never been bigger, nor more accepted by theater-goers.

Which brings us to the newest fan-film trend: editing all but the saltiest of moments out of a film.

The Filmrot post has links to four fan-film edits: Scarface, Joe Pesci in Casino, The Blair Witch Project, and The Big Lebowski (all YouTube videos). My favorite is The Big Lebowski – Fucking Short Version… 🙂

Jason Santa Maria has a great post entitled Learning from Atari in which he reminisces on the fact that although “classic” videogames used to be a lot less detailed, their advertising artwork still managed to stimulate your imagination enough so that you suspended your disbelief and “put you in the mindset for what you were about to experience.” He took the time to scan in the entire Atari Game Catalog from 1981 and posted it to flickr as an homage to the great artwork used in Atari’s advertisements. Awesome…

J! Archive has taken the time to archive every question on every Jeopardy! show ever. The site even presents the questions on the game board as it appeared on the show, including graphics and sounds if applicable, and allowing you to see the “answer” by mousing over the dollar amount. Very cool…

The YouTube video Star Trek TOS – Knights of the Round Table is pretty damn funny…

Update: YouTube has been removing video links at the request of the authors. They have supplied a working link to their site…

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency presents Board Games Inspired by the Bush Administration:

Strategero

National Security Risk

Axis and Ally

Cronium

Not Sorry

Condiland

Fanged killer kangaroo roamed Outback. And don’t forget about the “demon duck of doom…” 😉