The Best Movie of 2009

Now most of you may be thinking, because of my geekdom I would pick “Avatar”, “Star Trek” or even “Up”. Which by all means all three of those movies were top notch. I mean “Avatar” is James Cameron, and so far every movie that man has directed has been pretty good. (Yes, the first time I saw “Titanic” I enjoyed it even though the outcome was predictable and Leonardo DiCaprio is on my top 10 least favorite actors.) I’m a huge Trekkie, (I don’t care what anyone says “Trekker” just sounds elitist and dumb.) I love “Heroes”, (Go Zachary Quinto!) been a fan of John Cho since “American Pie”, and Simon Pegg kicks so much ass! AND PIXAR CAN DO NO WRONG. But this past year I’ve gotta give it up to Wes Anderson and “Fantastic Mr. Fox”.

Well, normally I despise Wes Anderson’s work. I hated “Rushmore”, I didn’t understand “The Royal Tenenbaums”, and “The Aquatic Life of Steve Zissou” was just bad. I think the dialogue is just too dry for my tastes. However “Fantastic Mr. Fox” blew my socks off.

Based off of a Roald Dahl novel, (The author of other timely classics such as James and the Giant Peach, The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.) the story follows Mr. Fox as he’s forced to live a life of domestication when he yearns to be free and wild, such as he was born to be. He has a loving wife and a disgruntled angsty teenage cub.

What first drew me in to the movie was the fact it was stop motion. Personally I love stop motion. Anytime I see a preview for something like that I’ve gotta check it out. “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, “James and the Giant Peach”, hell even those old Afternoon Specials like “The Mouse and the Motorcycle”. Awesome!I feel like it’s a lost art. There’s something just appealing about the raw and grittiness of seeing things jerk around smoothly, if you know what I mean.

Secondly the dialogue. Usually Wes Anderson’s dialogue comes off slow and dry. But for some reason, in this case it totally worked. The uncomfortable long pauses along with the monotone nature of some characters just made this movie even more delightful.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” was a breath of fresh air in the heavily polluted CG atmosphere we have become accustomed to. The movie brought me back to my childhood as I revisited all of the long forgotten places I had read about in my youth. Both time and love were infused into this movie and it is apparent in the final product. So my hat goes off to you Mr. Anderson. You have the greatest movie of 2009 in my book.

Wonder Woman Animated Trailer

I just finished watching the DC animated movie of “Wonder Woman” that came out last year. In their line of animated movies (“Green Lantern First Flight”, “Superman Doomsday”, “Superman Batman Public Enemies”) I would have to say it was pretty good. Not quite as good as “Justice League Unlimited” but utilizing every DC superhero in one show kind of makes it cheating.

So growing up a male in the world of comics I never was drawn in to the world of Wonder Woman. I watched it all. Her adventures with Superman, Batman, Aquaman and the Wonder Twins in the “Super Friends” to her solo live action series portrayed by Linda Carter in “Wondahhh Wooo-man!” If fact, as a young boy it bothered me that the intro to the Wonder Woman Show had comic panels which deceived me into believing it was a cartoon. Curse you Linda Carter!

Even now as an adult, where men are drawn to the Lara Crofts and the Samus Arans of the world, I still find myself uninterested in Wonder Woman. I even know the mythos. Born from clay on an island of amazons, Diana is sent to the world of man to become the embassador to Themyscira.

Now, I’m not a fool, I get it. Strong female role model who kicks ass! And I’m no stranger to strong women. I loved Starbuck in the new “Battlestar Galactica”. Although I feel like she should have kicked more ass, did you people see how she handled a viper in the miniseries!

I enjoyed the Wonder Woman movie. Like the Green Lantern movie it was an origin story. The fall of Ares. The birth of wonder woman. Her training. A man lands on the island, wonder woman is chosen to take him back. Ares escapes. Wonder Woman Defeats Ares. There’s more to it but that’s the basic outline. I like how she has to learn how to interact with men, but in after a few scenes it kinda gets old. And the animation, along with the fight scenes kick ass.

However I do have a few problems with it. Now it is established in the DC universe that one of Wonder Woman’s powers is super strength. To me it seems like it’s one rung underneath Superman. So my issue comes in the beginning of the movie where the man fights Wonder Woman and he goes toe to toe with her until he angers her by saying something chauvinistic, thus ensuing an ass whooping. How is this possible? She has super strength. Unless the super strength comes from the costume or is given to her the same time she is given the costume. Which still makes no sense because when the amazons are fighting Ares’s army they’re evenly matched. Unless you’re trying to tell me… and I’m going out on a limb now… that all of the amazons were given the gift of super strength when they left the island. Hmmm.

I also have a second problem. Wonder Woman. We all know she’s Wonder Woman. There is no origin reference in the entire movie. Well, a kid calls her Wonder Woman at the very end, but still who told this kid. Even in the original Justice League miniseries, they refer to her as Diana and never once call her Wonder Woman. I know it’s a small gripe, but still. Batman gets referenced by the criminals (Well, I guess he is a “Bat”-”Man”, so there’s no argument there.) and Superman gets his name from the Daily Planet. Is it that hard to have someone say, “Wow you’re a wonder… woman.” Now as cheesy as that sounds, they did it in Batman and Superman. Think about it.

All in all it was a good watch. But unless you absolutely love Wonder Woman I would suggest renting this one.

Wondahhh Wooo-man!

A-Team Trailer

So normally I don’t post on the weekends, but this time I had to make an exception. Because looky what I found:

Yes friends this is the new A-Team trailer. How B.A. does it look?! (Pun intended.) I saw this and nearly wet myself.

As you know I am a fan of Anime. But what you might not know is I’m a fan of the 80s. Well not everything, mainly shows and cartoons. After the horrible butchering of “Dukes of Hazzard”, I was heavily relieved to see the awesome job that they did in this trailer. Everyone looks spot on. Bradley Cooper as Face, Liam Neeson as Hannibal, Sharlto Copley as Murdock and Quinto “Rampage” Jackson as B.A. Baracus.

I can’t wait to see this one in the theatres. Expectations are running high and from what I can see from the trailer, this one’s going to be fantastic. One thing that better happen that’s not in the trailer is, they better build something and it better be awesome.

I love it when a plan comes together.

The Speed Gamers

This new year brings tonz of great things. One is the fact we at Retro Dojo have a new partner in crime. The Speed Gamers.

I was approached by the Speed Gamers back in the Summer of 09, to see if I would like to be a part of the community. I respectfully declined because I was on another site and felt loyal to them. But as the months went by I noticed the Psychotaku became less and less featured on the website. It was during this time that I realized that the community wasn’t quite the right fit. Sure there were people who loved the Psychotaku, but there was a significant number of haters. I knew that if I found the right community the Psychotaku would become embraced and shoot off into internet stardom. It was then I remembered the Speed Gamers. After weeks of emails I came to realize this may be the site to take me to the next level. And thus a partnership was formed and a video was created.

Just to keep you in the know. The Speed Gamers is a website that holds video game marathons for charity which is pretty frickin’ sweet in my book. Usually marathons run for 72 hours and the games range from Zelda to Final Fantasy. Their last marathon involved catching all of the Pokémon in all of the Pokémon games. It’s quite a spectacular site to see.

For those of you wondering where all of the Psychotaku episodes have gone, I will be re-releasing them on The Speed Gamers for all of the new viewers. I apologize for the situation, but the videos will return in the weeks to come. Thank you for all of your continued support and I welcome all of the new viewers to the Psychotaku!

Psychotaku! Otaku Saikooooo!!

Hop Sing Lee

Now I know all of you out there have your guilty pleasures. Things that you would not be proud to say you liked in front of the wrong crowd. I myself have several. But sometimes a guilty pleasure can be a conversation starter. For example, I’m a professional wrestler.

Yes friends, not only do I love Professional Wrestling, but 9 years ago I decided to take my fandom one step closer to the squared circle. Under the moniker “Hop Sing Lee” I have become the closest thing to a comic book superhero that I can in this world. (Or I should say super “villian”, as “Hop Sing Lee” is mainly a bad guy.)

The reason I bring it up now is because this last Friday I had a show up in Newark, California. I performed for my old promotion BTW. The show was pretty awesome. I defended the Tag Team titles with my partner The Emperor and we ended up winning the match. Unfortunately, we were attacked after the match, resulting in my head getting busted open.

It’s quite an experience getting hit in the head and having blood trickle down your face. I mean, it’s not pleasant, but I started thinking, “how many people get to experience this? Not just the blood, but the chance to perform in front of hundreds of people?”

And surprisingly enough, being a Professional Wrestler triggers something in the psyche of people that suddenly it becomes a fascination. Never before had they had such a focused interest in the subject. Sure, when no one was looking they’d take a peek at a show or you know, they watched it in the 80s. But having someone right in front of them sparks all kinds of questions.

The most common question is, “Is it fake?” And I don’t fault them for asking this, because it’s been a lifelong debate. Most wrestlers answer “no”, because I guess it’s a sense of pride. And I agree, it’s not like Pro Wrestlers have tapped into the brain to unlock the hidden secrets of flight so they can jump off of the corner post with ease (even though some wrestlers make it seem like that. And how cool would that be?). There is some choreography to it, but let’s face it without this fact Pro Wrestling would be pretty boring.

My problem with this question is what is “fake”? Does one think Pro Wrestling is “fake” because we pull our punches and stomp? Then why aren’t stuntmen in movies in question? For that matter the actors themselves? I can tell you that Harrison Ford has never whipped a nazi, had a one armed man kill his wife, or actually been frozen in carbonite in real life. Does it matter? Hell no! He’s awesome! And we praise actors like Jackie Chan and Jet Li for doing their own stunts in movies. So why is it that Pro Wrestlers get a bad rap? They are actors in their own right, there are no body doubles and it’s all live, there are no retakes in Pro Wrestling. Yet there is a continued obsession with “is it fake?” I’m not sure what’s wrong with society.

What I do know is that I love Pro Wrestling. I love the crazy costumes, the bizarre plotlines, hell, I even love the corny dialogue. I find it helps that I actually perform so people just assume, “Oh well, he’s gotta watch it. To keep his finger on the pulse.” Yeaaaah, that’s right, that’s why I continue to watch it.