Shmee.Me

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015

Getting Dusty With The Road Warrior!

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is the movie that made Mad Max an icon. As Stefon from Saturday Night Live would say it has everything: A bodybuilder in a studded cup and a hockey mask, people tied to crazy cars, a gyrocopter, a kid in fur that only speaks in grunts and kills people with a boomerang, and a man with a dog looking for a little juice. George Miller went all out when me made this film, and it is fantastic.

The movie takes place five years after the events of Mad Max, and the world has continued to spiral out of control. There is almost no gas left, and people are killing each other for it. Mad Max must team up with a gyrocopter captain to try and help a group pumping one of the last known oil reserves, but can they get the gas out before The Humongous and his gang take it all by force?

Oh man this movie. It is so strange, and that is why it works so well. With the original Mad Max it was too close to what we would expect today, but with The Road Warrior it is completely its own universe, and its own style. A style so iconic that almost every post apocalyptic movie steals from it. This movie and Blade Runner pretty much set the tone for every movie about the future. It was also brilliant that they kept the story so simple. There are bad guys attacking good guys, and then at the end they chase each other. It is great, and it lets you take in all the weirdness without getting distracted by some silly story.

As far as acting goes it was all pretty bad, but Mel Gibson came a long way from the first movie, and he was really cementing himself as an action star. Every one else though? They just had sneer well, and for the most part they do their jobs, but there is a reason Gibson is pretty much the only person you know from this movie.

The stunt work is spectacular in this film. It was good in Mad Max, but it is fantastic in Mad Max 2. The final chase scene is one of the best ever put to film. It is one of those achievements that you wish they would give a special Oscar to, but that is never going to happen. Which one of the many reasons the Oscars are so flawed.

If you want to see the movie that defined the post apocalyptic genre, you need to watch Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Since they recap the first movie at the start of it you don’t even need to see Mad Max. That was very nice of them. I really liked this movie, and I hope Mad Max: Fury Road is more like this movie, and less like the other two because if so we are in for a treat.

March 9, 2015March 9, 2015

Witness The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt!

Are you feeling down that both 30 Rock and Parks and Rec are off the air? Well Netflix has a series for you, the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It is written and produced by Tiny Fey and stars Ellie Kemper of The Office fame. It is zany and fun, and a great addition to Netflix’s library of original shows.

The premise is that Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper) was locked underground in a doomsday bunker with four other women by a crazy cult leader. She has now emerged fifteen years later determined to make a life for herself in New York City despite only having almost an eighth grade education, and no idea how the world has changed in the fifteen years since she was abducted.

It is a dark concept to be sure, but they use it perfectly. It gives Kemper the opportunity to act like a middle school student, and to be totally mystified by the culture and technology of today. She often refers to the current day as “The Future”. This show is completely nuts, and I am guessing that is because of Tiny Fey. Her fingerprints are all over Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The randomness of 30 Rock are alive and well here.

Kemper is spot on as the lead. She pulls off the childlike woman struggling to make it in the big city with such gusto and charm it is hard not to smile while watching. She is not alone. Half of the cast of 30 Rock is in, or shows up in this show, and just like on 30 Rock they are great. Especially Jane Krakowski who plays Jacqueline Voorhees the wealthy socialite who employs Kimmy as a nanny. She is so delightfully crazy, you never know what she is going to say or do.

The only downfall I have for the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is that there are only thirteen episodes, and at twenty-two minutes a piece it doesn’t take long to watch the entire thing. At least they have already picked up the show for a second season, and I can’t wait for them to release it. Netflix has been on a roll lately, I hope they can keep it up.

March 6, 2015

Downton Survives Another Year!

Downton Abbey season five has come and gone, and while I was not to keen on the middle portion of the season (it has the Walking Dead‘s ability to get nothing done if it doesn’t want to) it did come to great close. They tied up a few plot points and opened up a few more. They also made me tear up a little bit which was quite nice (Shmee doesn’t have a heart of stone it seems). I hope they will continue to move the plot forward.

They are going to loose a lot of characters in the next couple of years, so we will have to see how that goes. It is always a struggle to bring in interesting characters to replace the ones that have left. They have done well so far, but can they keep it up? I suppose I will have to keep watching to find out. Of course the big question is how long they can keep the estate solvent. I am guessing at some point there will not be a miracle infusion of cash to keep the abbey going.

With five great season’s under its belt, Downton Abbey continues to be must watch TV. I hope it manages to do so through season six. It will be a long wait until January to find out.

March 5, 2015March 5, 2015

GDC 2015 Highlights!

Usually there isn’t a lot of news that comes out of the GDC (Game Developers Conference) since it is primarily a show for developers not the public, but this year was a little different, so I thought I would give you some highlights.

Everyone is in to VR now:

Oculus Rift showed that VR could be done well and cheaply, and since then everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. This year Sony showed off more of its Project Morpheus which will work with its PS4 due in 2016, but Valve and HTC’s Vive stole the show. Apparently it is the best VR headset ever demonstrated, so we will see how that turns out.

More Set-Top Boxes:

Valve is not content to stay on your computer it wants a piece of your TV as well. It announced that Steam Box, a PC based console, will finally launch this year, and it is also launching the Steam Link. A little box that Streams your PC games to your TV, so that if you already have a gaming rig you can play your games anywhere in your house. It is an interesting concept, and for a certain subset of gamers I can see it being very attractive. nVidia announced a new Android TV based console that is part of their Shield line. It can stream games from the internet as well as play games locally. We will see how that works when it launches for $200 later this year.

nVidia wants AMD out of the game:

nVidia has been busy launching new video cards in its great GeForce GTX 900 line, while AMD can’t seem to get their Radeon R9 300 series out the door, so nVidia went for the knockout blow by announcing the Titan X. It has 12 GB of RAM and 8 Billion transistors. I am sure this card will cost a mint, but there is nothing faster than it on the planet.

Game development is now free to try:

You can now download and try to make your own games using the Unreal Engine 4 or Unity Engine 5. Tools like these used to cost upwards of $10,000 a license, but now they are available to anyone. These are not the stripped down versions either. You are getting the full set of tools. Once you are start to make money you will have to pay for them, but if you just want to try it out you are free to do so.

Microsoft’s one OS world comes in to focus:

Microsoft is getting serious about only having one OS. At the GDC it explained more about its universal app store, updates on the new DirectX 12 API, Xbox to Windows 10 cross play and cross buying, Xbox One to PC streaming, and lastly a bunch of new games coming out to its platforms using the ID@Xbox program. Most notably Elite: Dangerous. I think it is clear that Microsoft sees itself as an underdog at this point, and is working really hard to try and be a dominant player again. We will see how their plans work, but at least it is good to see them truly trying again.

It has been a great GDC, and still has a couple of days left, but all the major players have had their say. If anything else noteworthy happens I will update this post. I can only hope next year’s GDC is as interesting.

March 4, 2015

Star Wars: Rebels Season 1 Wrap Up!

I have to say that I was really disappointed when Disney stopped Star Wars: The Cone Wars to start their own show, but Rebels has been great, and season one ended even better. There will be some spoilers in this piece, but so be it.

I was always hoping that they would bridge the gap between The Cone Wars and Rebels and with the season finale they finely did it. They brought in Darth Vader and Ahsoka which is great, but it raises all sorts of continuity questions. Like if Darth Vader knew that Ezra and Kanan existed why does he think that Luke is the last Jedi? You would think he would have mentioned that to someone that there are Jedi seemingly all over the place. That makes me think this series may end in a dark place.

All that aside what really sold me on this show is how all the characters have grown. Ezra is learning to trust in others, and Kanan is learning to be the Jedi that he was training to be before Anakin killed them all. The show can get a little too silly at times, but hey it is still a kids show, so why not get a little silly. They are also breathing more life in to the rest of the cast as well. I would love to see more solo episodes with Hera and Sabine. They seem like they have a lot to offer, but the Jedi are taking center stage. Sabine especially as a Mandalorian would be interesting.

Anyway. If you are not watching Star Wars: Rebels, you really should be. It is a great show, and it is getting me even more excited for the new movie coming out THIS CHRISTMAS!!!!