In 2009, James Cameron released a little Sci-Fi film called Avatar. Its first day, it generated $73 million domestic. Its first week, it sold $232 million worldwide. It went on to become the number one grossing film of all time.

The number two grossing film of all time, Titanic, also belongs to Cameron. The chick flick that could have alternatively been called Romeo and Juliet on a Boat did $28 million opening weekend and an impressive $53 or so million its first week.

This past Tuesday, November 9th, the newest video game entry in the long running Call of Duty series, COD: Black ... [Read the rest of Call of Duty: Black Ops is doin ok]]]> Fun facts:

In 2009, James Cameron released a little Sci-Fi film called Avatar. Its first day, it generated $73 million domestic. Its first week, it sold $232 million worldwide. It went on to become the number one grossing film of all time.

The number two grossing film of all time, Titanic, also belongs to Cameron. The chick flick that could have alternatively been called Romeo and Juliet on a Boat did $28 million opening weekend and an impressive $53 or so million its first week.

This past Tuesday, November 9th, the newest video game entry in the long running Call of Duty series, COD: Black Ops was released.

Its very first day, Black Ops sold $360 million dollars worth of copies.

Still think the video game culture is niche?

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Full disclosure: I’m a fan. Kinda funny phrasing it like that too, but I chalk it up to nerd relflex… Seems like not too long ago I’d have kept that to myself and just spent my nights rockin’ the game online with other nerdy buds. Now it’s almost completely flipped on its ear.

Not a new sentiment here, but the sales on this game kind of point to the signs that the Nerds have finally gotten old enough to start influencing the media market.

What’s really crazy about the staggering, widespread record shattering amount of sales of this game has generated before the end of its first week is that its all been done thus far by impatient gamers like myself! Think about it… Christmas is still yet to come. How many people are holding out on buying this because they’re waiting to be gifted the dang thing?

The prediction here is that this video game is going to rival some of the biggest box office draws of all time by the time the Winter season ends. Tis good to be a Nerd.

Considered to be the greatest of all the years in all the decades of the world by myself and countless other people that were born that year with me, 1982 was chock full of amazingness. In 1982, Olivia Newton John shrugged off her Grease-y good girl role and created one of the greatest music videos ever with her Number 1 Hit, Let’s Get Physical. It was in 1982 that Joe “I Don’t Like The Heart Warming Story of Rudy” Montana led his San Francisco 49′ers to Super Bowl Victory against the Cincinnati Bengals. In 1982, America’s greatest actor – again, according to the most ... [Read the rest of Believe the rumors: The McRib lives!]]]> 1982, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Considered to be the greatest of all the years in all the decades of the world by myself and countless other people that were born that year with me, 1982 was chock full of amazingness. In 1982, Olivia Newton John shrugged off her Grease-y good girl role and created one of the greatest music videos ever with her Number 1 Hit, Let’s Get Physical. It was in 1982 that Joe “I Don’t Like The Heart Warming Story of Rudy” Montana led his San Francisco 49′ers to Super Bowl Victory against the Cincinnati Bengals. In 1982, America’s greatest actor – again, according to the most credible of all sources, myself – Harrison Ford, led a small, violent rebellion against a hidden army of insidious replicants in Blade Runner.

But my friends, none of the above events listed above would hold a candle to what would quickly become the greatest fast food invention mankind would ever know. For you see, it was in 1982 (some argue 1981, but screw 1981. I wasn’t alive, so it doesn’t count.) that the McRib sandwich was first introduced into McDonald’s lineup. After several successful years, the McRib was heart-breakingly taken out of the official lineup for such shadowy, unintelligible reasons as: “poor sales,” “horrendous nutritional content,” and that “the McRib didn’t even consist of any actual ribs.” The legendary sandwich made re-emerged from oblivion last in 1994 for a very limited time. Many thought that would be the last any self-respecting person of larger carriage would see the national treasure… until now.

The McRib sandwich has returned.

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Full disclosure now that you’ve hit the jump: You’re going to be mad at me.

The reason that McDonalds has decided to put their mythical monstrosity back on the marquee next week, starting on November 2nd?

This is the McRib’s farewell tour.

Yes, it seems that while McDonalds appreciates such fervently devout fan devotion that actually led grown (read: portly, old) men to travel from city to city, town to town in order to track one down… they’ve finally grown tired of dealing with it. And while this isn’t the first McRib farewell tour (actually there have been three previous tours where McDonalds has attempted to kill the barbecued beast for good, McDonalds SWEARS they’re being serious about it this time.

Starting Nov. 2nd, you’ll have 6 weeks to eat as many of these beauties as you can before they go the way of the dino and Charlie Sheen’s career.

Good luck, brave fast food explorers. As aid to you in your quest to clog your arteries without exerting yourself too much, I will provide you with these two helpful links:

• The Official McRib wiki – Yes, there is indeed a McRib Wiki page.
• The McRib locator page – Countless people have made pilgrimages across the country to track down a McRib. Now, you don’t have to.

Thanks yet again to McRib loyalist Squ1shy for the find. Chances are pretty good that if your local McDonalds tells you they’ve already run out of their supply of sandwiches next week, it’s because Squ1shy has successfully begun stockpiling his basement.

The image above is a screen shot of the Sears Online Department site. And no, it’s not a joke, and it’s not a humorous site hack.

Not since Dawn of the Dead (or the excellent, original Dead Rising) have zombies invaded a retail mall store in designer flannel and costume jewelery. But unlike your standard zombie apocalypse, this time, the zombies were officially invited in for a nice wholesome photo shoot.

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The incredibly savvy web folks over at one the world’s largest department store chains purposely hired numerous actors and models to display their Fall/Winter fashions in full zombie ... [Read the rest of Sears totally gets it]]]>

The image above is a screen shot of the Sears Online Department site. And no, it’s not a joke, and it’s not a humorous site hack.

Not since Dawn of the Dead (or the excellent, original Dead Rising) have zombies invaded a retail mall store in designer flannel and costume jewelery. But unlike your standard zombie apocalypse, this time, the zombies were officially invited in for a nice wholesome photo shoot.

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The incredibly savvy web folks over at one the world’s largest department store chains purposely hired numerous actors and models to display their Fall/Winter fashions in full zombie makeup, replete with oozing wounds and bloody sores. Now, of course, this particular iteration of the site is only up and running through Halloween – it’s not permanent. But it’s still a pretty damn surprising/risky move on Sears’ part, as I wouldn’t imagine their core client and audience base exactly skew to the younger folks that are in majority part responsible for the current “undead” media trend.

But this is the kind of brilliant, outside-the-box thinking that can really set a company apart in a good way, and especially breathe new life into a product.

Here’s the link to Sears’ actual online department, replete with working videos, links and a clever little video about how to shop rotting animated corpse style.

Thanks to Film/Face buddy Squ1shy for the maggot-infested heads up on this one.

25 years ago yesterday one of science fiction’s greatest trilogy’s was born in a darkened JC Penny’s parking lot in Twin Pines, California. Back to the Future was an absolute gem of a film that we still consider to be way ahead of its time (finding it impossible to avoid time-based puns here… this IS an anniversary article, after all…).

Hit the link for some pretty humorous Back to the Future trivia and a good old fashioned, extremely rare blooper reel. Trust me, the blooper reel is worth the trip.

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The original BttF went on ... [Read the rest of Back to the Future’s future still cooler 25 years later]]]>

25 years ago yesterday one of science fiction’s greatest trilogy’s was born in a darkened JC Penny’s parking lot in Twin Pines, California. Back to the Future was an absolute gem of a film that we still consider to be way ahead of its time (finding it impossible to avoid time-based puns here… this IS an anniversary article, after all…).

Hit the link for some pretty humorous Back to the Future trivia and a good old fashioned, extremely rare blooper reel. Trust me, the blooper reel is worth the trip.

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The original BttF went on to become the top grossing feature of 1985. While the subsequent sequels never found the same critical and monetary success as the first, the trilogy is still one of the top grossing franchises of all time. The countless fan sites, fan-made movie spinoffs, video games, comic books and Biff Tannen comedy tours(???) that spawned from the surprisingly rich world of the Future don’t lie. Folks love them some Marty McFly.

Some stuff you probably didn’t know about going 88 MPH in your local parking lot:

• The awesomely awesome DeLorean that we all know, love and never bought like we swore to God we would one day wasn’t the original time machine. No joke, friends. Writer/Director Robert Zemeckis originally had Marty slated to use a laser-beam time machine device that basically just chilled on a coffee table in his living room. Given the 80′s infatuation with all things laser-beam, it’s pretty amazing that this didn’t end up just happening. But hey, thank goodness for miracles and Steven Spielberg, who quickly told old Bobby Z. “Um, yeah, how about we sexy this thing up a little?”
• Eric Stoltz was not only very nearly your Marty McFly, he actually played the part for about four weeks before the studio said, “Sorry, red, this isn’t working out,” fired Stoltz, and waited for their original choice, Mr. Michael J. Fox to finish a few other projects so he could play the part he was destined to play.
• Mike Fox was actually a pretty damn good skateboarder. There was almost no need for a stunt double for the thrashing scenes.
• Elizabeth Shue replaced Claudia Wells as Marty’s GFF Jennifer in Part II. A reshoot of the original ending was required for the beginning of the sequel.
• Understandably so, Mattel started receiving hundreds of calls from beleaguered parents looking for a Hoverboard to buy their own kids after Part II came out.
• So important was the BttF franchise that Frodo himself made an appearance in Part II.
• Christopher Lloyd is pretty much the exact opposite of the iconic-ly crazy Doc Brown character he plays. Like, big time. BIG time.
• Part III was awful. True fun fact. Look it up.

And that’s your Tuesday morning BttF retrospective, ladies and gentlemen!

Well this is… odd.

That’s the trailer for the newest(?) edition in what I would have previously imagined as a solid trilogy of Scream movies for director Wes Craven. But then, there’s this, and now, trilogy not so much… unless he’s planning on pulling  a Lucas and making this latest Scream movie the start of a prequel trilogy…

So yeah, hey, let’s hope not.

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I can’t help but feel this one’s a little late to the party. Like, alright, the shtick they’re apparently going with where they reference modern horror flicks stereotypes is cute and all, but based on that short trailer alone, it kind of feels like Wes and ... [Read the rest of Scream 4: Return of the Neve Campbell]]]>

Well this is… odd.

That’s the trailer for the newest(?) edition in what I would have previously imagined as a solid trilogy of Scream movies for director Wes Craven. But then, there’s this, and now, trilogy not so much… unless he’s planning on pulling  a Lucas and making this latest Scream movie the start of a prequel trilogy…

So yeah, hey, let’s hope not.

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I can’t help but feel this one’s a little late to the party. Like, alright, the shtick they’re apparently going with where they reference modern horror flicks stereotypes is cute and all, but based on that short trailer alone, it kind of feels like Wes and writing company decided to go after the Saw franchise more so than anything else. Kudos to them and all for that one. I’m with them there. But I just wonder if Scream 4 is going to be self-aware enough to realize that perhaps their own franchise needs a little picking on as well… (I’m looking at you, Scream 3).

Wouldn’t it be great though if this movie pulled one over on all of us though? How great would it be if, this time, the whole cast reveals themselves to all be the ghost face killer in one giant sing-a-long moment at the end. Crazy? Maybe. But then, a show like Glee has somehow managed to take over the world recently, so maybe it’s just about timing.

That kind of comedy might at least make it possible to sit in the same theater as Courteney Cox and David Arquette for the premiere without feeling really, very, extremely awkward.

Big gaming site reviews EA's latest, EA's stocks take a direct hit

There are a lot of people out there that would be argue that the world has moved past being swayed by reviews for products and films. That because there are just so many opinions/blogs/twitters/facebooks/everything out there, any one review can get lost in the white noise. I’m typically one of them.

But then IGN.com’s staff review man Arthur Gies went and gave the newest EA military shooter game a 6.0 and commented: “Medal of Honor is one of the biggest disappointments of 2010.”

Less than 24 hours after that review, EA’s stock fell 6%.

Oh, and ... [Read the rest of The review that hit EA in the wallet]]]>

Big gaming site reviews EA's latest, EA's stocks take a direct hit

There are a lot of people out there that would be argue that the world has moved past being swayed by reviews for products and films. That because there are just so many opinions/blogs/twitters/facebooks/everything out there, any one review can get lost in the white noise. I’m typically one of them.

But then IGN.com’s staff review man Arthur Gies went and gave the newest EA military shooter game a 6.0 and commented: “Medal of Honor is one of the biggest disappointments of 2010.”

Less than 24 hours after that review, EA’s stock fell 6%.

Oh, and by the way, Medal of Honor was scheduled to be, hands down, one of EA’s biggest sellers heading into the holiday season.

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IGN.com is arguably the biggest dog for gaming sites out there. If there was any doubt that a simple opinion/review could really make an impact on a product’s marketing or sales, this kind of story suggests otherwise.

[UPDATE:] EA wants you to know that they know you know that their stocks went down. And also they want you to look in a completely different direction from that fact… namely towards the big bright neon sign they’re throwing out that proclaims their new military shooter is “off to a great start” and poised for “an outstanding holiday.”
You hear that investors? EA’s gonna be jusssst fine. Please keep spending.

Story sources via ign: Lukewarm Medal of Honor reception hits EA and pffft,  EA Medal of Honor sales are great!

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