http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/ The pop-culture webzine of Bert Ehrmann and friends. Everything from The Bermuda Depths to You Am I. en-us http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2037 As the date for the conversion to digital television crept closer and closer to reality this month – only to be pushed back all the way to June – I started wondering all the ways people access entertainment content today differently than they would have a few years back. What I’ve done is to ask a few of my more tech savvy friends just how they watch TV and movies here at the start of 2009... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2036 I'm lovin' the Queen Alien diorama offered for sale later this year by Sideshow Collectibles, but can see buying a lot of other things with the $400 price tag... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2035 After seeing the trailer for Inglourious Bastards I have to say, yeah. I'm sold... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2034 I'm actually looking forward to the remake of The Crazies movie – due out this fall... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2033 The 2009 summer movie season kicks off May 1 with the X-Men spin-off movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I liked X-Men (2000), loved X2 (2003) but thought that X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) was lacking just about everything a movie can lack. Though I’d agree that spinning off Wolverine, arguably the most popular character in the franchise is probably a good idea, I’d say that if the Wolverine tanks at the box office, he’ll probably take down the entire rest of the X-Men franchise and any other characters chances of having their own spin-off movies down with him. ... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2032 On and off over the last decade, I’ve taken time at the end of each winter to compile my list of the best movies of the year. It’s a trip to look back at the first list I came up with at the end of 1999 that had The Matrix as the best movie of the year but somehow failed to include films like The Iron Giant or Fight Club. Regardless, in all the time since that first list I’ve never had as many problems coming up with what I felt were the best movies of the year as I’ve had here in writing this at the end of 2008.  ... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2031 The best TV series of the 2008 season was also the best of the 2007 season – Mad Men. Mad Men I thought that the sophomore season of Mad Men couldn’t be as good as the first – but how wrong I was! In the second season of the show, Don (John Hamm) and Betty’s (January Jones) marriage is on the rocks, onetime secretary Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) is now a copywriter in charge of (shock!!!) men and homosexual Salvatore (Bryan Batt) and wife are now seemingly a happily married couple. I can’t think of another television series with a storyline that’s more intertwined, complex and fulfilling on TV today than that of Mad Men. ... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2030 What a year it’s been at the box office. Though there have been a lot of “fun” movies released in 2008, I’d count exactly two movies I saw as being very good and wouldn’t say I’ve seen any great ones. Which is the exact opposite of last year where there were a plethora of great films released during the later part of the year.   Still, even though the films of 2008 might not have been all that memorable, there were some great posters released to promote the films this year. ... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2029 This time of year it seems as if there’s never a shortage of Christmas themed movies on television. Be it a classic like A Christmas Story (1983) or a more recent comedy like Elf (2003), from the beginning of December to the end it’s like the viewing public is presented with a glut of Christmas TV. But that got me thinking; though there are literally hundreds of Christmas themed movies, what about the movies that take place at Christmas time but aren’t necessarily about Christmas? ... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2028 I can’t quite believe it myself – but Joel, the bots, the “Satellite of Love” and the whole TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) turns 20 this Thanksgiving. That means when I first started watching (and falling in love with) MST3K, I was a punk high school kid not yet old enough to have a driver’s license. Does time fly!... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2027 Though the 2008-’09 television season is already a few months old, I can’t say that I’m all too enamored with many of the new series that have debuted so far on network TV. In some seasons past, I’d find myself watching hours of new comedies and dramas nightly. But this year not so much. Here’s a quick rundown on what I’ve been watching this fall.... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2026 Over the last several Halloweens I’ve profiled some of my favorite horror movies. This year I’ve decided to profile two of my favorite, and quite different, zombie movies. The first of our double feature is the film Night of the Comet (1984). I can’t remember when I first saw Night of the Comet, but whenever it was the movie left a major impression on my adolescent mind. Playing on the public’s general unease about the return of Halley’s Comet in 1985/86, in Night of the Comet people around world are celebrating the return of a comet that hasn’t passed the Earth since the time the dinosaurs went extinct. Unfortunately, all those outside watching the comet pass overhead, which is essentially everyone on the planet, are cremated into dust by this unique comet. Those that catch a glancing blow are transformed into light-phobic zombie creatures, out for murder before they too turn to dust.   Luckily, our heroes Reg (Catherine Mary Stewart) and her cheerleader sister Sam (Kelli Maroney) just happened to have spent the night away from the comet sleeping inside steel structures, which turns out to be the only shield against the destructive nature of the comet.  These valley girls promptly get over the introspective nature of being one of the few people left alive on the planet and quickly get on with lives post-apocalypse. Be it battling the comet-zombies, arguing over Hector, the last man in L.A. (future Star Trek: Voyager alumni Robert Beltran), fighting zombie mall stock boys and trying to outwit scientists that are literally out for blood looking for a cure to keep from turning to dust. Night of the Comet is a fun movie – if that can be said about a film that depicts the end of the world. The movie takes all sorts of 1980s pop culture elements be it fashion, music and even lingo, stirs them together and adds zombies to create something unique and enjoyable.  Completely different in tone from Night of the Comet yet sharing many of the same elements is the film 28 Days Later (2002). In 28 Days later, Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens from coma in a hospital bed to find the entire UK overrun by zombified people infected with the “Rage Virus.” This virulent disease causes anyone infected to turn insane with rage and run down to infect and/or kill those unaffected. (Zombies/infected always seem to know their own!) Jim finds another survivor Selena (Naomie Harris) amidst a destroyed London, and they together find Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and daughter. They collectively decide that the best course of action is to get away from the city and head towards an area protected by the military that proclaims it has “the answer to infection” some distance away. Along they way they discover a wrecked and burning countryside and a military more interested in holing up, allowing the infection to burn itself out through attrition and to start repopulating the planet by any means necessary. What I remember most about my first viewing of 28 Days Later were all the images that burned themselves into the back of my retinas. Be it a church full of corpses that aren’t all dead, a goldfish tank drained nearly to the bottom with fish still inside, London with the lights out – except for one or the entire city of Manchester alight and burning to the ground. The movie is as visually arresting as well as having a story with a gritty and realistic flavor. Upon release, 28 Days Later essentially rebooted the entire zombie genera. Before 28 Days Later, major zombie movies were essentially (pardon the pun) dead. After 28 Days Later came all sorts of zombie movies like the Dawn of the Dead remake, Undead, Doom and the “RomZomCom” Shaun of the Dead. A sequel to 28 Days Later entitled 28 Weeks Later was released in 2007 and failed to recapture much of what made 28 Days Later so special. Supposedly, a third movie entitled 28 Months Later is also in the works. Oh well, there’s nothing like driving a great concept into the ground. Both Night of the Comet and 28 Days Later are available on DVD. ... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2025 A lot of people really were critical of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Indy 4) when it was released in theaters last May, not liking its sci fi elements or the addition of Shia LaBeouf as Indy side kick “Mutt” Williams. But, to be honest, I actually kind’a dug Indy 4.  Let’s put it this way, if you can accept in Raiders of the Lost Ark that Indy can hold onto a German sub... Bert Ehrmann http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2024 Coming Soon to consoles & PC's everywhere!... Mo Alexander http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/detail.asp?t=2023 Addicted to Xbox anyone?... Mo Alexander