Episode 64 - Transensicles [Discussion]

[tylerhowarth]

You Don't Mess with the Zohan tells us what not to do. Is Lego Indiana Jones solidly built? Remember X-Files? Plus, 2 great comics picks!

Watch and Download the Episode HERE (http://revision3.com/trs/transensicles/)!

[valenzetti]

Cant wait to watch it!

[smeerkaas]

The Lego link in the shownotes points to the X-Files.

[chicchesbro]

OMG! From what movie was THAT opening??

[bitejr138]

If you don't know the opening, just google Dan's last quote...epic and unexpected.

Kinda disappointed with the review for "Zohan"....I guess I'll just wait and Netflix it when it comes out.

Overall, great show and Jeff, we (at least, I) don't mind when the ending segments go long. Usually they're going long because you are cracking each other up and I, subsequently, am usually laughing along with you.

Sounds like you guys had a great time in New York!

[tsmith15]

Amazing intro parody! That was my favorite of his movies growing up, so classic.

[zomgorly]

Movie opening is Shanghai Noon


Also, no KungFu Panda review makes me sad. :(

[smartypants]

I just have to say, the running joke with the picture of Dan and the horse was freaking hilarious. I laughed so hard. Bravo Steve.

[ashlad]

Awesome show guys :)

Damn I need to get into comics :D

Anyone know any good online stores to order comics from? That ships to Europe/France. All stores around here only have "dubbed" comics :D

[kuiosikle]

Great show guys. Lego Indy sounds just as fun as Lego Star Wars so I'm gonna pick it up for 360.

Can't wait to see the footage from the meetup next week! Was awesome meeting you all.

[shmoo]

Is it weird that I've never been homesick? I would go to camp for 3-7 weeks some years and I never wanted to go home. It's not like my parents beat me either.

[tsmith15]

Is it weird that I've never been homesick? I would go to camp for 3-7 weeks some years and I never wanted to go home. It's not like my parents beat me either.
Maybe that's why, you never got your Stockholm Syndrome goin' on :P

[master1228]

For Alex, Jeff and anyone else who hasn't seen it yet, after Dan talked about the Wayne's World return at the MTV Movie Awards, I found the clips of it from both youtube and MTV itself if you want to watch it here: (http://raad.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/waynes-world-returned-on-the-mtv-movie-awards/)

http://raad.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/waynes-world-returned-on-the-mtv-movie-awards/

[yssman]

Good times guys, as always...

I have to say that I'm going to dodge the Zohan bullet, consider Kung Fu Panda, but likely skip both and head straight to The Hulk on Friday. Movies have been decidedly 'meh' since Iron Man hit.

Hmmm, other than that, not much to relate to this week other than the e-mail...

Longest away from home?

I never did summer camp, I always viewed it more as a punishment than something that I'd actually get into... So I suppose a two week vacation through the American South (eventually ending with a week at Disney World) tops the list. That was more or less about being sick of riding around in the GMC Safari than wanting to go home... Now that I'm older and pay my way to places, I will ALWAYS fly.

Until next time men! Peace be with you!

[ryanw14]

Great episode guys! Loved the intro, lots of laughs throughout and the conversation about game designers was really interesting.

[owlboy]

I commend you guys for once again tackling comic books. If you haven't already you should check out Kurt Busiek's Astro City or Darwyn Cooke's DC: The New Frontier. You could also catch the awesome New Frontier animated movie.

[lik]

aw shiet, the intro was nicely done. :)

btw, i'm surprised Jeff and Alex liked Zohan. i was expecting you guys to rip it just like Foot Fist Way from last week. can't wait for you guys to review The Love Guru next, right guys????

as for designers and games, i think Alex is wrong. a good game designer can make or break a game. they do a lot to drive the game's overall design and gameplay. btw Jeff, you had a good list but don't forget Hideo Kojima from the MGS series. he's a darn celebrity and if he wasn't involved with MGS4, people would've been disappointed.

oh yea, as for the Itagaki news, Ninja Gaiden II rawks. i'm near the end, you guys gotta play the full game. ;)

[7h0m45]

Glad the guys checked out Criminal, it's of one my favorite books out right now.

I thought 1985 was alright but I'm a huge fan of Tommy Lee Edwards so Dan made me cry :(

[maxhdrm]

Love the show as always. Alex first sitting naked butt on the toilet then wetting down a shirt. Why are YOU always the one stuck with the dirty work.

Pretty much felt that way about Zohan before it was even released. A lot of movies are rehashed material lately. I look forward to the future review of Forced Unleashed.

[siraim]

Was it wash day at the Danny T house? What's with the super duper white T? Is there a story behind the necklace?

Great open.. great episode. Not sure how I feel about Zohan. I could probably wait easily until it comes out on DVD.

[heyseuss]

Awesome show guys :)

Damn I need to get into comics :D

Anyone know any good online stores to order comics from? That ships to Europe/France. All stores around here only have "dubbed" comics :D

Asterix & Obelix are about $20 each here, you should be buying all those and reading them, likely cheaper there for you.

[heyseuss]

Was it wash day at the Danny T house? What's with the super duper white T? Is there a story behind the necklace?


He got the necklace (manclace) for his birthday 2 months ago and has been wearing it every episode since.

But yeh, the white tee was very Calvin Klein of him.

[hendrixx101]

Hey guys,
Just picked up Lego Indiana Jones and must say that it brings me back. Love the show. Later

[geeksunny]

I never have had the chance to get into the Lego Star Wars games but I went halfsies on a copy of Lego Indy for the 360 and its just so fun. It seems to get better and better every time I play it. Co-op is a blast!

And about the game designer/director/creator bit, the advertising has been using the people behind the scenes to promote the game a lot longer than most think. It hasn't always been so much with their actual names as it has been a lot lately, but there have been a lot of games that are promoted as "From the person who created [game title]". The whole development team is also pushed sometimes too, (substitute "person" with "people").

I don't know about most people but if a game has been hyped as being done by some of the people who did another game that I liked, I'd be inclined to check it out. I can't think of any examples except for one off the top of my head. Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360. That one is a great example of almost exclusively being hyped by the talent behind it. From the creator of Final Fantasy, with art design by the creator of Dragon Ball, and the music composed by the guy who did the music for the Final Fantasy games. With a list like that at least a couple people are bound to take a look. It doesn't even have to mention their names because the examples of their previous work pretty much says it all (if that even makes sense).

Anyway, I'm not completely sure what I'm trying to say but there it is. My two cents. :)

[apswesthome]

I commend you guys for once again tackling comic books. If you haven't already you should check out Kurt Busiek's Astro City or Darwyn Cooke's DC: The New Frontier. You could also catch the awesome New Frontier animated movie.

Did you read 1985 yet? I really like Runaways, and It sorta seems a little similar -- do you you think I will like it??? (I love Y: The Last Man too, I'm one vol. 4)

but this week was a big one, so i skipped 1985. ...Trinity, R.I.P., Ultimate Origins, Amazing Spiderman (actually really, really, really, good), the new Iron Man story arc (2nd issue i think), and Firebreather (Image -- it was awesome)

[apswesthome]

oh and Criminal is awesome. Pure goodness...

[davo1104]

good show....have any of you guys seen 'reign over me'. Im guessing the guys on the show haven't as they didnt mention it under their fav adam sandler "non-funny" movie. really good movie IMO. everyone should check it out

[dannyt]

good show....have any of you guys seen 'reign over me'. Im guessing the guys on the show haven't as they didnt mention it under their fav adam sandler "non-funny" movie. really good movie IMO. everyone should check it out

I was super dissapointed in Reign Over Me, though I loved that they were playing Shadow of the Collossus throughout.

My fave Sandler movie, perhaps tied with Punch-Drunk, was Spanglish-- shoulda won best picture that year!

[trsjeff]

Spanglish-- shoulda won best picture that year!

Agreed!!!

-Jeff

[jks15]

I just started watching the show and I have to comment. I LOVED the opening. Shanghi Noon is such a good movie [imo] and I haven't seen it in forwever. The opening totally made my day! Err. . . night. Anyways, back to watching the rest of the episode . . .

[-jedibitch-]

This episode really "pulled at things" for me. Not really but it was pretty entertaining.

I noticed in this episode that Alex does the same "adjusting-glasses-with-face" movement that I do when my glasses run down my nose and it made me laugh a lot. I never realized how strange it must look to other people.

Also, the running "stud" joke was pretty funny too.

[lik]

Also, the running "stud" joke was pretty funny too.

gotta love Jeff's adoration for LEGOs. that was the last thing i expected from him until i heard about his LEGO love from his mom.

[gm_wil]

Great Ep...started laughing when Alex brought up the phone dialing in Zohan...rob schneider almost lost it by the looks of it...with the flakes of food stuck to his face...very funny scene...I thought Zohan was way more enjoyable than the cinematic vurp known as Indy 4...longest time from home was basic training...so the hulk eh? have i seen really bad trailers or is the new hulk a crappier cgi version than the old?

-

[maxhdrm]

Quick only see The Incredible Hulk guys and let me explain why **spoiler alert***
Well not from me anyway but USA today had a critic review Happenings and as with The Village it will be another stupid explanation. The planets vegetation starts putting off some kind of chemical that causes only humans to commit suicide. No big mystery, no aliens, nothing short of our planet simply fighting back our progression of civilization. Hmmmm sounds political???. He (M. Night) did not like being typecast for his plot twists so he refuses to do them anymore.

Stick to just the Hulk and maybe review Happenings as a DVD release. Personally I am surprised the critic was allowed to divulge so many aspects of the movie before its wide release.

[-jedibitch-]

Did anyone else laugh at this part?

"What did you play it on?(refering to lego indy)"

"3-6"

"...3-6-0"

Hahahaha.

[heyseuss]

I was super dissapointed in Reign Over Me, though I loved that they were playing Shadow of the Collossus throughout.

My fave Sandler movie, perhaps tied with Punch-Drunk, was Spanglish-- shoulda won best picture that year!

Spanglish and PDL were fuckin awesome, especially PDL. Weird movie to watch with one of your 3 older sisters though. Visually, it was like, The Cook, The Thief, The Wife, Her Lover... or whatever that redonkulous title was - shoulda been callled "4 Rooms of Differing Moods and Color". The woman in Spanglish did an amazing job at not being Penelope Cruz.... thank god !

pOxbyF_kjW8

[tsmith15]

I found Click very good, especially because the trailers made it seem like a purely silly comedy.

Also, there was a hulk scene in Click where he turns himself green.

Just makin' connections.

[theman8631]

In response to Jeff's "Do you perceive video game designers in the same light as big name directors" discussion I personally feel two reasons that they don't.

Firstly I feel that the criteria for what makes a good movie (although it adapts and grows) has been more laid out, tested, and somewhat rooted in traditional story telling. Although you don't have to follow the rules there are such a vast list of guidelines for what makes effective and moving visual storytelling that I trust the consistency of a writer or director to follow a similar form that they have in the past, and if I trust them as effective storytellers it is more consistent that I can trust their next movie. In video games I have rarely (if ever...) seen that consistency. I know everyone says gaming is in its infancy but I truly believe it is even more then we acknowledge. Most other forms of storytelling have a list of guidelines that are consistent with other mediums but the guidelines for what makes video games fun, or immersive is harder to map because we don't have a long history of experience to set effective guidelines in the way we do movies. I see gamasutra discussions from big industry names discussing new ways of thinking about video games in a way I can imagine early movie studios discussing different ways of thinking about the original moving pictures transition into feature length, color, talking movies.

I think movies may have even had it easier; as far as I am concerned movies are a visual adaptation of storytelling, and to a certain degree so are video games but there is a vast jump from storytelling to an audience experiencing a simulated environment.

My second reason:
When I asked myself how I felt about big names in the industry and realized I didn't care I asked the same question about development studios. Blizzard or Bioware for instance, I realized I had much more faith in a studio as a whole. Although a designer is the game industries version of a movie director, gaming is so much more an in depth group effort then movies. I understand if you have a crappy actor your movies going to suck but with a movie a director is supposed to orchestrate which actors, where and how. It is up to them. With a video game it usually isn't like that. Some studios may have that mentality (Its only good if Will Write says) but most have such a collaborative design process that some games will actually split up sections of the entire game and hand it to completely different people. So when I said earlier I don't see that consistency with video games, sometimes I do... and thats usually when a studio has a design process that produces similar quality games. Baldur's Gate, BG2, Icewind Dale, Kotor, Kotor2 etc (with bioware). Or when Will Write or Myamoto (Who both have very personal control on projects) make something.

It definatly is interesting to think about developers in movies compared to games. I expect in the future when that consistency and creative vision accurately reflecting the end product become more common you will easily have many more celeb status game designers or writers.

Great discussion, great episode. I was just thinking though, I've watched TRS since EP1 and I realized how much I ache for more movie reviews, you guys (Dan especially) are such movie buffs, have such industry knowledge and are so adept at critiquing I feel like your movie section is not only your biggest strength but the section I look most forward too. I get kinda sad inside when theres a movie you can't review because you can only review so much. I know you don't have plans on changing the show any time soon but in case you wanted some random feedback from some dude like me, if you sped up your game, tv, book & comic reviews (gaming especially is alot easier to quickly analyze game bad, good or meh) and doubled your movie section I would ... jump for joy... or some other happy equivalent. But thats just me... and having you guys play a movie, game and other once a week is already an impressive feet.

Oh yea... I'm pretty sure thats the most impressive series of smooth I've ever seen from dan. I just picture from here on random things reminding dan of horse sex with jeff. Jeff: (Jeff comment about something here) Dan: "....But.... do you like having sex with male horses?" *awkward silence*

Makes me lol a little.

Great episode, rock on guys.

-=K=-


P.S. You guys convinced me to ordered d&d 4th. I'm an old d&d'er and realized some of my friends were too... so we'll see. Have you guys had a chance to play since? You guys ever think about giving a formal review on it?

[gm_wil]

P.S. You guys convinced me to ordered d&d 4th. I'm an old d&d'er and realized some of my friends were too... so we'll see. Have you guys had a chance to play since? You guys ever think about giving a formal review on it?

they actually have a D&D podcast of the guys who make the penny arcade comic trying out the new 4th ed of D&D...(can subscribe though iTunes)...they have 3 parts out so far...pretty entertaining to hear the changes being learned/used (it sounds a lot like the recordings I'm doing of our group for our buddy who's in Iraq)

-

[edhager]

Lego Indy is actually the third Lego game to be released. The first Star Wars video game covered episodes 4, 5 and 6. The second Star Wars video game release covered episodes 1, 2 and 3. Lucas Arts combined them later into "The Complete Saga".

My son is 8. The Lego games have been great games for us to play together. Playing head-to-head in any game against a grade-schooler just makes him cry and he doesn't have the skills yet to play will in FPS games. Two big thumbs up on the Lego games on the Xbox Classic and the Xbox 360 from our household.

[keaven]

I was a little surprised that you guys talked about this "now, real life" premise as though it had never been done before. What about Superboy Prime? That's exactly his story... from the "real world" where Superman (and all the other DC superheros) were just comics.

I like this kind of concept, so I'm glad to see that it's being done by others. I'm going to have to run out and grab a copy of 1985... but I'm still a little sad that you didn't touch on DC's use of this same premise :(

[chessdogg]

wow that was pretty unexpected,... and kinda cool getting a shout out on trs,my wife went flipping nuts. pretty neat danny t.

-chessdogg

[dannyt]

miss ya homie! u kinda get a shoutout this week too...