Attack of the Show: The End of an Era

As I have stated many times before I am a fan of many things. There are many franchises and brands that I am loyal to. I am a loyal viewer of channels with their programing and it saddens me when they end. There are shows that you know are going to end but there are some of them that you think that they will be on forever.

However in Television we all come to know that nothing lasts forever.

I was first introduced to G4 in around 2005 by a friend of mine that I used to play video games with. The show that my friend introduced to was X Play hosted by Morgan Webb and Adam Sessler. However it was Attack of the Show that made me a fan of the network for then and now.

Attack of the Show refers to itself as “All the Stuff You Care About” featuring events like “Around the Net” hosting the top Viral Videos of the Day often hosted by Co-hosts Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn.

Munn and Pereira were often joined by Blair Butler hosting the comic book focused Fresh Ink and Layla Kayleigh on The Feed. Other regular segments included In Your Pants where Olivia and Anna David answered sex questions where Kevin would follow with his own additions that he titles “Cock a Doodle Doo” and after The Feed, Kevin and expert guests would “Make Sense of it All” with the Loop.

My two favorite segments featured the Chris Hardwick hosted Gadget Pron explaining to consumers the latest gadgets and tech while every Tuesday Chris Gore reviewed the weeks DVD releases with Buys, Rents and Passes as well as some Quick Picks and Rapid Fires.

Often the show was wrapped with a video of either an Outtake or a disaster that was on video that was an Epic Fail.

Every Year G4 would cover the San Diego Comic Con as well as other events across the country like E3 and the CES expos.

The coverage of those said events Helped inspire me in my Videos that I release every year.

Some of the Antics of AOTS I will never forget. I often looked forward to the show’s Halloween episode and the 4/20 specials as well as the parodies that they featured and the other stunts such their endorsement of Cobra Commander in the 2008 Presidential election.

Over time things began to change. New additions joined the cast such as Alison Haislip, Blair Herter, and Kristin Adams as talents and correspondents and we saw the departure of Layla Kayleigh.

Olivia Munn’s career began to take off and we started seeing less and less of her over time being with guest hosts Jessica Chobot, Carrie Keagan, Alessandra Torresani, were among the talents that covered for her.

In late 2010 it was announced that Candace Bailey was the new Cohost and Sara Underwood was taking over The Feed.

Candace and Sara ushered in a new year of Attack of the Show where far more sex appeal was added to the program. Where Olivia was a sexy clown Candace was far more innocent especially next to 2007 Playmate of the Year Sara Underwood. The women displayed great chemistry as they were best friends and it showed on the set. The duo was a great addition to Kevin Pereira.

Chris Hardwick’s career began to go further with his Nerdist Podcast and on the Talking Dead which led to his departure from Gadget Pron however he frequently returned to cohost when he was needed being replaced by Matt Mira.

There were many memorable moments of these times on Attack of the Show.

In 2012 Kevin Pereira left G4 to focus on his own production company SuperCreative.

The question on everyone’s minds was who will replace Pereira. Over the summer G4 featured Sara, Candace with a series of guest hosts as well as many changes to Attack of the Show.

Instead the announcement came in October that G4 was canceling Attack of the Show as well as X-Play and all original programing.

Gone is an Era of not just news but entertainment to go with it. Memorable bits as well as tragedies that were first reported on the show as well.

 Attack was on Live when it was announced that both Steve Jobs and Michael Jackson had passed away.

On December 19, 2012 the final Live episode of Attack of the Show aired.

The final Taped episodes will air in January. 

Now this isn’t the last that we are going to hear from the Hosts.

Chris Hardwick can be seen on both the Nerdist Podcast company and on AMC’s the Talking Dead.

Chris Gore hosts the PodCrash Podcast.

Kevin Pereira can be seen on both his Pointless Podcast and He and Sessler can be seen on Viral Video Showdown on the SyFy Channel.

Olivia Munn is one of the ensemble cast on HBO’s The Newsroom.

Sara Underwood and Candice Bailey are beginning their own Podcast in the coming year.

 However the end of Attack of the Show is truly The End of an Era.

Hitchcock and The Girl

A Few years ago a friend made a comment on my IMDB profile that my nickname is Hitchcock Yes I am Hitchcock. That is the character that I play in movies is that is named Hitchcock. I felt the need to clear that up because as a filmmaker I am way out of Hitchcock’s league.

 

The Origin of the character was that when I was in High School I made a bad Zombie Movie where I took scenes from Return of the Living Dead parts One and Two and edited them in with scenes that I shot and directed and in the opening of the film I have a brief cameo appearance in the film and a friend of mine referred to the character as “Hitchcock”.

Eventually my friend Rick and I were putting together a film and we had a scene where he and I made a cameo as Hitchcock and Slick.

Now Rick said that the characters were rip-offs of Jay and Silent Bob, The characters made famous by Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes. In reality I think that the characters are more like C-3P0 and R2-D2.

Needless to say the characters never appeared on Screen together however we did write the scenes but they were eventually cut from the films that we made together. However the Cameos persisted and in my film The Park the lead actor who was my friend Sean Michael Holmes officially christened the character as Hitchcock when I made my cameo in the scene.

Hitchcock made appearances in a few Lost Films as well as a couple of films produced by some of my friends a couple of years ago.

You can usually spot the character in the movies when he is wearing his distinctive leather driver’s cap and a pair of sunglasses. In scripts that I have written the character also has small roles such as a web series that I am developing the character is in fact the cameraman and the man that uploads the movie.

To be perfectly honest the character is a Tribute to the Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock.

I was first introduced to the director when I was in elementary school and Alfred Hitchcock Presents was playing on Nick at Nite. A couple of years later I discovered Psycho and The Birds.

 

Hitchcock has always and always will be one of my favorite Directors.

Alfred Hitchcock was a director that upon seeing him the audience knew what they were in store for. At many points the trailer for the movie consisted of Alfred Hitchcock on the screen speaking about the movie.

In the trailer for Psycho all that the audience got to see was Hitchcock walking around the set talking about the film in the past tense before pulling back the shower curtain revealing Vera Miles screaming at the camera.

The trailer for the Birds featured a similar premise where Hitch speaks the audience of the history of Bird’s relationship with humankind and showing us why birds would attack. Then Tippi Hedren bursts into the room screaming that the Birds are coming.  

Today there are few filmmakers that can pull that off.

Needless to say I regard Hitchcock as one of my heroes as a filmmaker. I am not alone in this. He is regarded by many film viewers as the greatest director to make movies. Many filmmakers today regard him as the man that inspired them into being filmmakers; I myself am included in that list.

 

In the past few months two films have been released about the famed director.

The first film was released in October titled The Girl.

The Girl is the story of the relationship between Tippi Hedren and Hitchcock.

The film shows Hedren being picked off a Television commercial to play the lead in Hitchcock’s new film The Birds. At first all goes well until one day after shooting where Hitchcock makes a highly aggressive pass at Hedren in the car and the incident goes unreported. Hitchcock then proceeds to place Hedren in  many dangerous situations including smashing a glass window in the scene where her character of Melanie Daniels hides in a phone both during an attack by the birds.

While they are filming the scene where her character is attacked by the birds in the attack Hitchcock informs Hedren that they are using fake birds for the scene.

However real birds are used in the scene and are thrown at Hedren for days eventually driving her to a nervous breakdown. Eventually she recovers and The Birds is a huge hit and Tippi Hedren is made into a Star and begins working with Hitchcock on his new film Marnie.

 

While Marnie is in production Hitchcock begins making other advances at Hedren even going as far to declare his love for her. All of this in front of Hitchcock’s wife Alma, who eventually leaves Hitch only to return and help him finish the movie that they are working on. Hitchcock refuses to allow Hedren out of her contract essentially ruining her career.

Now I have to talk about this dark side of Hitchcock, and that is just that it is the Dark side of Hitchcock. As I stated earlier Hitchcock was a genius filmmaker but the man had his demons.

When we talk about our heroes we need to take their faults into consideration because they are only human. I am by no means condoning what he did to Tippi Hedren It is not cool and I have issues with them but I will continue to watch the movies and the Birds remains one of my favorites.

The Girl’s claims were authenticated by Tippi Hedren herself and HBO had some special features where she is interviewed in great length about the events of the The Girl. It was also no secret that Hitchcock often fell in love with his lead actresses.

Toby Jones plays the role of Hitchcock in The Girl and maintains the drull and creepy performance that Hitchcock was known for, especially with his habits to tell inappropriate jokes.

 

Showing a slightly lighter side of Alfred Hitchcock is Anthony Hopkins in the title role in the film Hitchcock.

Now first off Hitchcock takes a lot of creative liberties in the making of his most famous work Psycho.

After reading Robert Bloch’s novel Psycho Hitchcock decides that he must make this his next movie and after Paramount refuses to finance the film Hitchcock Mortgages his and his wife’s home and finances the film himself and shoots the production on a lower budget.

 

The film also showcases the contrasting relationships that Hitchcock has with his actresses such as his relationship with Vera Miles who at the time was under contract to Hitchcock and he remains angry with her over her decision to have a family as opposed to being the Movie Star that he wanted her to be.

Both movies really show Hitchcock’s desire to recreate Grace Kelly.

Hitchcock’s relationship with Janet Leigh is far more professional except for the Shower scene where he freaks out on her while giving direction to the murderer.

 

The film focuses on the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma with his suspicions of her infidelity with her writing partner Whitfield Cook.

I don’t know what to say about Hopkins’ performance. His Hitchcock I enjoyed better than Jones’ performance in The Girl and  there were other scenes where I felt like I was watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents particularly in the opening and closing of the movie where Hitchcock addresses the audience talking about Ed Gein and the reference to the Birds as his next picture. Especially with the inclusion of the Funeral March of a Marionette which many will consider to be Alfred Hitchcock’s official theme song.

 

James D'Arcy gave an outstanding performance as Anthony Perkins, and Scarlett Johansson was amazing as Janet Leigh.

 

Many of the actors in Hitchcock should receive honorable mentions for their performances in the film if not award nominations.

These films are of the same man but different sides to him.

Both movies are worth checking out.

The Dark Knight Rises

After many months I have finally decided to break my silence in regards to The Dark Knight Rises.

What I have kept silent about is the tragedy of Colorado.

As you know this year when TDKR opened there was a midnight screening where a gunman opened fire killing 12 people and injuring 58 others. Needless to say the movie is associated with the shooting and many people decided to stay away from the theaters in fear of copycats and such.

Now the first thing is the fact that this was a senseless tragedy. Senseless in the fact that this killer’s intended victims were people that he didn’t know.

Now many people want to blame the theater in the fact that security was too little too late. The type of security that was in the theater consists of ushers and possibly a rent a cop. Even if there was a rent a cop there was nothing that they could have done to stop the madman from going on his killing spree. In looking at the killers arsenal and he could easily have killed anyone that tried to stop him. When the shooting started the police were called and they responded in 90 seconds and apprehended the killer.

 

Now as far as the killer goes I am taking some advice from some of the advocates and I am not going to type his name here and not give him the attention that he craves in this attack.

All that this man wanted was to hurt innocent people. I believe that he chose to attack the midnight screening because he knew that there were going to be many people gathered there. Also when he was arrested he referred to himself as The Joker. Well Anyone that follows Batman will tell you that the Joker has green hair and not ORANGE HAIR.

 

I have many people to commend in this tragedy. First and foremost are the heroes and the authorities in this case. There were many of the victims that gave their lives to save their loved ones during the shootings. Kevin Smith summed it up when he referred to them as “Real Batmen” because heroes.

I also feel the need to acknowledge Batman himself Christian Bale who on his own time and expense paid a visit to the victims in the hospital and visited the memorial to the victims.

 

Now as a man that frequents the midnight screenings I am hoping that this doesn’t effect the future of these events. One of the things that I enjoy about the midnight screenings of movies like these is the fact that fans arrive in costume.

Star Wars has screenings with Storm Troopers. Batman Screenings have fans attending dressed as either the Dark Knight or members of his Rouges Gallery.

I hope that doesn’t change.

Now please let me change the subject and talk about the flick.

 

I will be honest in the fact that I was a Batman fan even before the first 1989 Tim Burton Film.

Needless to say I am always first in line whenever there is a Batman flick released in the theater.

 

However I am also a massive fan of the comics and the Animated Series.

Now before we go any further I want to say that this will not be my usual review as I will be talking about spoilers in the movie.

I am taking into consideration the fact that almost all of you have seen the movie I am going to give my opinion of the film.

 

The story takes place almost a decade after the events of The Dark Knight and Gotham City is at piece after the death of Harvey Dent Gotham has created the Dent Act that allows the incarceration of mobsters without either trials or parole. Batman taking the blame for Dent’s murder has gone into hiding. Bruce Wayne has become a total recluse living in the now rebuilt Wayne Manor that is now used to hold charity events which Wayne watches from the shadows now walking with a cane after all the accumulated injuries that he had suffered in his time as Batman.

Eventually Batman returns and has to face off against Bane who was not only trained by the same mentors that trained Batman also  possess a superior mindset that allows him to easily defeat Batman in battle breaking his back and them sending him to the prison where he came from years earlier.

With Batman broken Bane takes over Gotham City and after incapacitating the Gotham PD and blowing up the escape routes begins his own Occupy Gotham movement making Gotham a vast wasteland without support from the outside world.  

Eventually Batman heals and escapes the prison and returns to Gotham City for the final confrontation with Bane and the real leader of the League of Shadows who Batman fans will see coming from miles away.

 

What I like about The Dark Knight Rises is the fact that it includes elements from three of my favorite Batman stories.

The first naturally is The Dark Knight Returns story that many readers will regard as the greatest Batman story ever written.

The story written by Frank Miller is that Batman has been away for many years and one day her returns when the crime rate in Gotham escalates and the Dark Knight must face off against both the criminal underworld in Gotham as well as the United States Government and then Superman and The Joker find themselves in the mix.

Another Batman story that you can find in The Dark Knight Rises is No Man’s Land

Beginning with Cataclysm where Gotham is hit with a massive earthquake that absolutely destroys the city resulting in Gotham being declared No Man’s Land with a yearlong story that shows Gotham and its citizens surviving through the long winter and rebuilding their city.

No Man’s Land is the storyline that introduced Cassandra Cain to the franchise as Batgirl.

Finally the most obvious Batman story that influenced The Dark Knight Rises is Knightfall.

Taking place alongside the Death of Superman story in the comics Knightfall is a trilogy of stories where Batman after being worn down by the release of all of the inmates of Arkham Asylum at the same time Bruce Wayne is easily defeated and his back is broken by a steroid pumped genius named Bane.

Batman has to name a successor to take his place while he recovers and does so with Jean Paul Valley known as Azrael.

 

Valley soon goes on a power trip as Batman while Bruce goes on a journey to find a miracle cure for his spine and has to heal his mind after his defeat at the hands of Bane.

 Bruce Wayne recovers and has to face his successor and take back the mantle of the Batman by force.

Those three Batman stories are all featured in the Dark Knight Rises.

Now I want to speak a little about the character of Bruce Wayne in TDKR.

I have heard any of you on the internet complaining about the character and his actions.

Many were complaining about the fact that in the beginning Bruce Wayne is no longer Batman and is living like a recluse saying that he would never stop being Batman.

 

The truth is that he would stop being Batman if he felt that it would help Gotham and in the movie it is helping the city by making Dent look like a martyr and himself into a villain.

Now what many are complaining about is the fact that in the ending. (Spoilers Ahead)

In the end Bruce Wayne fakes his death and leaves Gotham. Bruce is last seen in Italy by Alfred and is with Selena Kyle. Who is played by Anne Hathaway in one of the best interpretations of the character of Catwoman.

Bruce has also left Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character John Blake both Wayne Manor and the Batcave and it is revealed that Blake’s real name is Robin.

Now many are wining that Bruce would never leave Gotham City and retire however just because he has left Gotham City in the hands of Robin doesn’t mean that that is the end of Batman.

Anyone that reads comics will know about Batman Incorporated.

 

Batman Incorporated is a Batman title that features Batman maintaining other Batmen around the world and that could be what he can be doing at the end of the Dark Knight and Robin can be the beginning of Nightwing.

 

The Blu-Ray of the film features a slew of Special Features including a feature Length Making of Documentary that is cut into many different parts.

The Special Features also include a Second Screen App for your smartphones and tablets as well as full documentary on history of the Batmobile that is a must see for any and all Batman fans.

I honestly feel that The Dark Knight Rises is the new standard for Batman on film and the next Batman movie that I want to see should either be a Superman team up or a Justice League movie.

I honestly hope that no one forgets about the tragedy of Colorado but I hope that the movie will not be associated with the tragedy in movie history.