Film School Rejects » Mister Hand

When is Andrew Jackson Going to Get His Biopic?

Mister Hand — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:49:16 +0000

As a Tennessean, I am proud that my state produced the most insane President ever elected to office. That President was Andrew Jackson.

I was recently excited to find him listed as one of the most badass presidents of all time in an excellent article on Cracked.com. (The aforementioned article is also laugh-out-loud funny, by the way.)

A new biography written by Jon Meacham (Newsweek editor, and another native Tennessean) observes that Jackson was the only President to ever physically assault a would-be assassin.

In fact, after Richard Lawrence jumped from a crowd and attempted to shoot Jackson, his pistol misfired. Lawrence pulled out a second pistol. It also misfired. Jackson proceeded to beat the shit out Lawrence with his cane. Had he not been restrained, Jackson likely would have killed the man.

Why did the two pistols, later found to be in perfect working order, misfire? I believe the most plausible theory comes from Daniel O’Brien over at Cracked, who postulates that the bullets were simply too afraid of Jackson to leave the guns. We’re talking about a man who regularly dueled while he was sitting as President of the United States. When dueling with a man named Charles Dickinson, Jackson graciously offered his opponent the first shot. He then stood perfectly still as Dickinson fired his weapon and struck Jackson in the chest. Shaking off the wound like a mosquito bite, Jackson raised his pistol and shot Dickinson dead. The bullet remained in Jackson’s chest for the next 19 years.

Last night, Meacham was interviewed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. As Meacham talked about Jackson, I caught myself thinking, “Why hasn’t anyone made a movie about this guy?”

I then asked myself, “Who would be the guy to play Jackson?”

The answer came to me like a thunderbolt: Hugh Laurie.

It’s not uncommon here on FSR to speculate about films with just the barest rumor suggesting their existence. Someone announces that some director is in talks to make a film about an obscure Marvel superhero and immediately we all want to jump in, guessing who might be cast, how great the movie might be, or badly it might suck. The speculation is all in fun, but hardly practical, as rumors in Hollywood are generally as insubstantial as air molecules, and equally as abundant.

But this idea was just too entirely awesome to remain only in my head. So I’m going to ask you, dear readers, to help start a Hollywood rumor. The rumor is that Ridley Scott is in negotiations to make a film based on the life of Andrew Jackson, starring Hugh Laurie. I think Scott is the best choice for director, based on his work on The Duellists. (Being able to shoot an exciting duel will be an important part of an Andrew Jackson film, since this was apparently his favorite pastime.)

Tell all your friends, and let’s make this happen. Especially if you live in Hollywood or in the greater Los Angeles area, I’m counting on you to get this out there. It won’t be easy. But if we work really hard at it, we will likely be rewarded with the greatest movie yet fashioned by human hands.

Tell all your friends, and thanks in advance.

TV Review: Knight Rider 1.8 – Knight of the Zodiac

Mister Hand — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:04:57 +0000

Knight Rider, NBC, Airs Wednesday 8/7c

Episode: “Knight of the Zodiac” (Season 1, Episode 8)

Synopsis: Mike must infiltrate a group of thieves intending to rob millions of dollars from a Las Vegas casino. KITT saves the day using his super-advanced, “wow me” futuristic, “aw naw that is just too awesome”… headlights. HEADLIGHTS!!

Review: I keep expecting that one week I’m going to start a Knight Rider review by saying, “Surprisingly, this week’s episode was actually pretty good.” I keep anticipating a review where I have to wonder if I’ve fallen prey to some sort of episodic television Stockholm Syndrome. I actually have that review already written out in my head, minus the plot details. I talk about the show being inexcusably stupid, but still entertaining. The showrunner for Knight Rider is, after all, the mastermind behind the Fast and the Furious film series. And while I thought The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was enormously stupid, I had a blast watching that film.

So far, I have not even come close to having that experience with Knight Rider. And since I’m on the wagon now, I’ve had to watch the past few episodes completely sober. Which is a chore.

The people writing this show aren’t even good enough to be called hacks. Hacks have tricks. A hack at least has some sort of skill, even if his or her creative originality is limited, and frequently recycled.

If someone told me that Knight Rider was helmed entirely by seventeen-year-olds, I might say, “Well, they show some talent, but they have a long way to go.”

Consider this:

At one point, Mike has to park KITT in front of a Las Vegas hotel. KITT begs Mike to not allow him to be parked by a valet. He complains that valets generally drive him roughly and rummage through his various “compartments.” Mike says he has no choice. We watch as Mike hands KITT’s keys to a valet, and the valet gets in the car.

From here, a writer has a choice. You can either give the viewer exactly what he or she is expecting, or you can try to turn that expectation on its ear and give the viewer something wholly unexpected. As a viewer, I’m expecting that the valet will behave exactly as KITT predicted he would, and then KITT will use some of his futuristic gadgets to put the valet in his place. Or maybe we get something else. The valet starts to drive KITT to a parking space and he gets a call on his cell phone. Maybe his girlfriend is breaking up with him. Perhaps KITT in that moment can’t resist speaking with the valet about his failed relationship, and we get a beautiful moment where KITT bonds with a stranger.

But what do the writers of Knight Rider give us?

The valet parks the car. Cut. Next scene.

Or how about this:

Mike has infiltrated a group looking to steal millions of dollars from a Las Vegas casino. The ring leader is head of security for the casino they intend to rob. Mike finds out he’s about to be fired. When speaking with an FBI agent at headquarters, he wonders if maybe the ring-leader’s goal isn’t to foil the plot so he’s viewed as a hero to the hotel, and gets to keep his job. The FBI agent says (essentially), “No, it’s too simple. There has to be something more going on here!”

Guess what? There’s nothing more going on. By the end of the episode it’s revealed that Mike’s theory was exactly correct.

Assholes. I swear, it’s like the show is written by a bunch of monkeys with down syndrome.

This is essentially a “heist” episode. We get to see the heist planned and executed, and the writers are trying to mimic the classic heist formula, but it’s all bullshit. I was tempted to write one sentence of this review and then immediately launch into a lengthy deconstruction of the heist genre, from Rififi to the present, and at the end simply say that Knight Rider this week, as usual, sucked balls. I didn’t do that only because I was afraid someone might accuse me of not actually watching the show. And if I’m going to suffer through watching this shit, I want to make sure it’s clear in my review that I took that bullet.

At what point in the run of this show might we expect that the car that’s supposed to be so central to the story will actually… do something? KITT does nothing useful in this episode except communicate information to Mike–information that could have been looked up on Google, no less. KITT is nothing more than a laptop with wheels.

“Mike, I am looking up the bad guy’s MySpace page. Perhaps you should mention that you are a big fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He should warm to you immediately.”

In the end, KITT must rescue Mike from a darkened warehouse, where the main bad guy has donned night vision goggles and stalks our hero with a pistol. KITT busts through a wall and… turns on his headlights! This blinds the bad guy and saves the day. And it’s not like KITT got there on his own. The whole time, Billy’s behind the wheel, tracking Mike’s location. So basically, our superbadassZOMG piece of advanced technology accomplished a feat that I could have mimicked with my ten-year-old Toyota 4Runner.

Also–”Knight of the Zodiac?” So the writers have given up finding phrases and pop songs that use the word “night.” They’re so desperate now that they’re willing to settle for any word that has the same long “i” sound (sign of the Zodiac).

Damn you, Knight Rider. Damn you to hell.

For more coverage of your favorite shows, check out the Control Freaks Archive.

Did you watch Knight Rider this week? If so, feel free to discuss below.

Fan Rant: The Real Bond Villain is Marc Forster

Mister Hand — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:22:47 +0000

I’ve been a James Bond superfan going on 22 years. I can name all of the films, in order, from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace off the top of my head. For each one, I can tell you who played Bond, his main squeeze, and who played the major villains. I can even rattle off trivia about each one, like the fact that Roger Moore has said in interviews the only Bond film he dislikes is A View to a Kill because he, like everyone else, recognizes he was too old to still be playing Bond in that film.

Before yesterday, there were only two Bond films I hated–the aforementioned A View to a Kill, and License to Kill. Now there’s a third. Because overall, Quantum of Solace just plain sucked.

It pains me to say it. While the last 20 minutes or so of QoS were pretty good, the rest of the film is a botch job. The next time EoN decides to take some art house director and hand a 007 film over to him, I hope they get a second unit director who knows how to shoot an action sequence. The opening car chase is an incoherent mess. There’s an awesome scene in a large portico with Bond fighting another guy hanging from ropes, all while deadly shards of glass fall on them. Too bad no one bothered to point the cameras at any part of the scene that mattered.

I think the trend has been growing since Saving Private Ryan. If you watch that movie, you’ll note that the camera shakes an awful lot during action sequences. And there’s a lot of fast editing. But you always know exactly what’s going on!

I’m afraid it’s become a game of cinematic telephone. Spielberg does Ryan, another director apes it, a third director with considerably less skill copies that, and now we’re down to QoS. The phrase Spielberg originally said was “breathless excitement” and by the time it got to Forster he understood it as “screw you, audience.”

I am heartened, however, by the fact that so many people and reviewers are catching on to this stuff. Marc Forster’s not the first one to try to pull off this crap. Honestly, I’ve had the same problem with the last two Bourne films, although not nearly to this degree.

I generally hate fanboy rants. Anytime someone says the phrase, “raped my childhood,” I really want to punch that person in the face and say, “Get a life.” But I spent a good hour and ten minutes sitting in a theater last night just being pissed off. People have complained about QoS not having a story. The fact is, there’s all sorts of story going on in the film, with endless potential to grow the Bond character and expand the Bond universe. But I didn’t care.

The scene at the avant garde Tosca performance verged on greatness. And then we’re in the middle of a horribly mangled action sequence and everything goes to shit again.

I can’t say I wasn’t prepared. Every advance review complained about the things I’m laying out here. I even went to the theater fully prepared for disappointment. But I wasn’t just disappointed. I wanted to beat the shit out of Marc Forster and every single person involved with EoN productions who allowed him to ruin this movie. If I hear the same advance word on the next Bond film, I won’t be there on opening day. I might never see it at all. It’s just too painful.

If anyone wants to punch me in the face and tell me to get a life, send me an email and we’ll see about arranging it. After what I endured last night, I think I can take it.

TV Review: Knight Rider 1.7 – I Wanna Rock and Roll All Knight

Mister Hand — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:12:49 +0000

Knight Rider, NBC, Airs Wednesday 8/7c

Episode: “I Wanna Rock and Roll All Knight” (Season 1, Episode 7)

Synopsis: Mike, Kitt, and Sarah must stop a pair of young eco-terrorists from I Wanna Rock and Roll All Knight are you kidding me?! I mean, really, are you just trying to be assholes, Knight Rider writers?!

Review: I think we can gain keen insight into the minds behind this weekly abomination by deconstructing an exchange between Billy and Zoe that occurs in this week’s episode. As you know, Zoe’s very hot. And Billy is “not hot” in that way that television “gadget geeks” are never “hot,” except they are always far better-looking than guys like you and me. So naturally Billy has a major crush on Zoe, and Zoe apparently couldn’t care less.

Keeping that in mind, here’s Billy’s “mack” on Zoe:

BILLY: When I was playing Planetary Warcraft last night, I imagined you were Queen Zorda of Gorn.

ZOE: Queen Zorda? The naked chick with the tentacles?

BILLY: Yeah.

ZOE: Ew.

BILLY: I, uh–

ZOE: Did you just go all Clarence Thomas on me?

BILLY: No, uh…. I thought we were having a moment.

ZOE: I could so call human resources right now.

BILLY: I’m sorry, it was a–it was a misunderstanding.

ZOE: I’m gonna ask you a question. Think very carefully before you answer.

BILLY: Okay.

ZOE: What was I doing with my tentacles?

Billy doesn’t seem to comprehend at first. Zoe smiles. Billy looks embarrassed.

God. Just… give me a minute. I’ll finish writing after I’ve had a chance to beat my fists against my temples.

Well, that’s done. And, unfortunately, I’m still conscious.

First of all, “Planetary Warcraft?” Tentacles?

I’m reminded of an old episode of The Andy Griffith Show. A stranger comes to town. He knows everyone’s name, and immediately inserts himself into the lives Mayberry’s residents as if he had been born there. To say that this creeps everyone out would be an understatement.

We find out that the creepy stranger had a cousin who once lived in Mayberry. The cousin told the stranger everything about the small town, and the stranger thought it sounded like a wonderful place to live. Instead of moving there and introducing himself, he decides he’d rather make himself an immediate part of their community. It doesn’t work.

The writers of Knight Rider are sort of like that guy. They seem to have only second-hand knowledge of pop culture buzz topics. They insert them into their scripts, thinking we’ll accept the writing as “cool,” or that we’ll watch and say to ourselves, “Oh, I know that reference! This is a hip show!”

But it’s just creepy–mainly because every reference they make brings to mind something that’s totally inappropriate for the type of show they’re trying to write. These guys have never heard of tentacle porn?

While I will not deny that the idea of associating Zoe with some hot tentacle erotica is a compelling one, that seems like something best left between me and the lampshade.

Furthermore, does anyone under the age of thirty remember the whole Clarence Thomas kerfluffel? I didn’t think so.

When writing dialogue, you should ideally have three goals: to illuminate your characters, to advance your story, and to entertain. If your dialogue fails in any of these areas, perhaps it’s best to snip it. If nothing else, dialogue shouldn’t take us totally out of the story and create a major distraction while your narrative is supposed to be progressing. Wednesday night’s episode stopped for me right after the abovementioned exchange. I know full well that there’s a game called “World of Warcraft” (not “Planetary Warcraft”), and I wished to hell I was playing it instead of watching this dumbass television show. And I generally dislike MMO’s.

Also, shouldn’t Billy just go ahead and say, “Hey, last night I was playing a videogame one-handed while thinking of you!”

Awkward. And not in a good way.

And… Gorn? That sounds like a name you’d make up for yourself when playing Land of the Lost as a five year old.

“I’ll be Gorn the dinosaur hunter, and you be the Slestack!”

Anyway, the rest of the episode involved a young, hot chick and her boyfriend going around blowing up non-eco-friendly manufacturing plants and waste disposal utilities. Turns out, she’s the daughter of a congressman who funnels a lot of funds to the Knight Rider program. Her father thinks she’s been brainwashed.

Mike captures her, and she agrees to be a witness against her accomplice. But it turns out she was just trying to get into Knight Industry Headquarters to steal their secrets, and expose the super-secret government program to the world. She and her boyfriend get the drop on Mike and try to steal KITT. Once they’re in the car, KITT gases them and puts them to sleep.

Everything that’s terrible about Knight Rider is on display in spades in this episode. Is it the worst episode yet? Hard to say. But my hopes of the show improving any time in the near future are fading fast.

Okay, I never had any hope and I never will. But I’ll keep watching.

For more coverage of your favorite shows, check out the Control Freaks Archive.

Did you watch Knight Rider this week? If so, feel free to discuss below.

Martin Campbell Needs to Stop Everything and Just Direct Bond Movies

Mister Hand — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:59:35 +0000

Martin Campbell has resurrected James Bond from the dead. Twice. So why is he not the permanent James Bond director? After 1989’s License To Kill, almost everyone (including me) wrote off the James Bond series. Then came Campbell’s Goldeneye, the best Bond film since 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me.

Following the release of Die Another Day, everyone wrote off Bond again–until Campbell’s Casino Royale, possibly the best Bond movie ever made, hit movie screens.

What I admire most about Campbell’s directorial style, displayed in the Bond films and in movies such as The Mask of Zorro, is that he is a master craftsman when it comes to filming action. There is not a single moment in any of the aforementioned films where we are left scratching our heads during an action sequence wondering, “What the hell is going on?” There’s no micro-editing, no drive-by close ups. Campbell knows how to choreograph action, and he knows how to shoot it in a way that delineates spatial relationships. (Another director who possessed this skill in spades was Walter Hill.)

The James Bond series needs this skill. And an awful lot of other directors would do well to learn it.

As great as he is, I have major problems with Christopher Nolan’s abilities in this area. People make excuses for the nonsensically-edited action scenes in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Even Roger Ebert has offered mea culpas for the most recent Batman films, citing Batman’s ninja roots, and the fact that the action is meant to be a foggy blur. And yet, in his review of The Chronicles of Riddick, Ebert complains, “There are a lot of violent fight scenes… but never do we get a clear idea of the spatial locations of the characters or their complete physical movements.”

David Edelstein is a reviewer who seems to be a man after my own heart. In his mostly negative Dark Knight review, he makes the following observations about Nolan:

He got away with the chopped-up fights in Batman Begins because his hero was a barely glimpsed ninja, coming at villains from all angles in stroboscopic flashes. There are more variables here, which means more opportunities to say “What the f— just happened?” I defy you to make spatial sense of the early scene in which Batman battles faux Batmen, gangsters, and the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy in a cameo that comes to nothing). If you can, move on to Level 2, diagramming the “Bat-tank versus Joker-truck versus cop car” chase. Then, finally, take the Ultimate Challenge: following the climax with Batman, the Joker, more faux Batmen, decoy hostages dressed as clowns, a SWAT team, and Morgan Freeman’s Lucius with some kind of sonar monitoring gizmo that tracks all the parties on video screens. Actually, Freeman looks like he knows what’s going on. Maybe the sequence plays well in sonar.

To my dismay, Edelstein has offered similar criticisms for the upcoming Bond film, Quantum of Solace:

If the staging were as witty as the plotting, Quantum of Solace might have been a corker like Casino Royale. But when the action starts, art-house-refugee director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball) mashes together close-ups in the manner of The Dark Knight, and every big set piece is borderline incoherent.

While I have not yet seen Solace, after reading that, I want Martin Campbell to return to the James Bond director’s chair. As far as I’m concerned, he was born for it.

Alas, Campbell apparently doesn’t want to be pigeonholed, and has agreed to direct something called Nagasaki Deadline, which is only of interest to me because it is not the next 007 movie.

The best Bond films, sorted chronologically:

From Russia with Love
The Spy Who Loved Me
Goldeneye
Casino Royale

That’s two in the “win” column for Martin Campbell. So my message to him is this:

Quit messing around and get back to directing great Bond films. For England, Martin!

7 Days of 007: A Retrospective of Bond Title Montages

Mister Hand — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:22:24 +0000

No matter what decade the film was made in, the James Bond intro credits are a mini-event within the 007 universe–as iconic as the Star Wars opening crawl. Sexy, trippy, unashamedly phallic, and dripping with violent overtones, the sequences have had their ups and downs over the years, accompanied by theme songs both classic and churlish. What follows is a list to commemorate the highlights and the lowlights.

Dr. No

In the early days of film, it was accepted that the movie doesn’t start until after all of the credits have been shown, displayed in a workmanlike fashion while an orchestra plays a generic overture. In the fifties, we begin to see opening title sequences getting jazzed up with animation or dialogue-free “walking” sequences. By the time Dr. No was released in 1962, filmmakers were trying to find new ways to keep audiences entertained while they displayed their self-congratulatory plaudits. So the intro sequence here is more a product of its time than it is a conscious attempt to carve out a niche. The Bond theme is played in its entirety as colorful polka dots flash on the screen. We then transition to female figures dancing to a calypso version of the song “Three Blind Mice.” This fades to Jamaica and the first ever Bond film begins.

From Russia with Love

With the second film, the basic template for the Bond openings is set in stone. We get the Bond theme and the gun barrel sequence, followed by a cold opening, and then the credits. The song, “From Russia with Love,” is unremarkable. But the intro sets the tone for future installments, with the credits projected over the bodies of undulating belly dancers.

Goldfinger

More female body parts with credits and scenes from the film to come projected upon them. The classic Bond themes are coming into sharp focus with this intro, set to the most famous 007 anthem of all time–sung by Shirley Bassey in a manner that suggests she was probably scraping her fingernails down a man’s bare back while crooning into the microphone.

Thunderball

Maurice Binder was the creator of the aforementioned gun barrel sequence, and the man who would paint the Bond credits with his unique style for three decades to come. Having taken a break from the title design duties for From Russia with Love and Goldfinger, Binder now returns to place his indelible stamp on the 007 universe. While Tom Jones sings, silhouettes of naked women splash across a sea of primary colors. Here we find Binder settling into a threadbare formula that will become increasingly complex over the course of the next 14 Bond adventures. (Charles Taylor at Salon.com sings Binder’s praises eloquently in this article, written just prior to the release of Die Another Day.)

The Spy Who Loved Me

For me, this is the Bond movie that has all the best stuff–the best opening stunt, the best theme song, the best car (a submersible Lotus), the best villains, and the coolest “secret lair.” Many will disagree with my definition of “best,” and some will call my proclamation heresy. No matter. This will always be my favorite 007 outing. And the intro here is nothing less than Maurice Binder’s masterpiece.

License to Kill

The worst Bond film also boasts the worst theme song. Both are bland and unmemorable. And for a Bond movie, that is a cardinal sin. Even a Bond superfan like me will accept a certain level of camp–which is why I still very much enjoy The Man with the Golden Gun (an entry regarded with some disdain by Bond aficionados). So it’s a shame that this was the last title sequence Maurice Binder would design for the Bond series. At first it seems he’s not at his best, but if you turn down the volume and pump in Wings’ “Live and Let Die” or even Carly Simon’s “The Spy Who Loved Me,” the piece comes to life. Binder died of lung cancer in 1991, two years after License to Kill’s release.

Goldeneye

The film that brought Bond back from the brink of extinction, and introduced Martin Campbell as a standout Bond directer, also features the first intro sequence since Goldfinger not designed by Maurice Binder. While Binder’s influence is without question present for this elegant, CG-heavy presentation, the sense of good, clean, naughty fun suffers greatly. There’s a moment where a gun barrel emerges from a woman’s mouth that pretty much sums up the lack of playful irony that makes this montage overly self-conscious.

Tomorrow Never Dies

The guns and the girls are well-presented here, accompanied by Sheryl Crow’s standout title song. The leitmotifs of this middling Bond adventure are represented well with silicon chips exploding all over the screen. Solarized, X-Ray images give the sense of a cold, technological age, while at the same time evoking the pop psychedelic sensibility of the 60s. This one is a favorite of mine for conjuring a sense of Binder’s glory days without seeming to be attempting to copy his unique style.

Die Another Day

Pierce Brosnan’s 007 swan song breaks the mold in an interesting manner by advancing the narrative as the credits roll. In the cold opening, we see Bond get captured by the North Koreans. We then watch as he is tortured while Madonna’s theme song plays (the tune is as wince-inducing as her cameo later in the film). The concatenation is a rather exciting departure from decades of tradition. Too bad the rest of the movie feels hollow.

Casino Royale

After three less-than-stellar films, Royale sets the tone for the latest Bond revival by shattering the template first advanced in From Russia with Love. Here, the gun barrel sequence follows the cold opening, memorably punctuating Bond’s first ever kill as a 007 agent. The credits immediately follow. And while watching at the movie theater, for the first time, I found myself bored during a Bond intro. The theme song is dull and witless. The CG presentation is cold and predictable. Rather than serving as a gateway into the Bond universe, the kaleidescopic images plod along through increasingly unremarkable transitions, displaying all the soul of a car commercial.

That’s the harshest criticism I have to offer for Daniel Craig’s freshman outing as the MI6 uber-spy. And to some it might seem a minor quibble. But I’ll very much be hoping to find this essential feature improved when I go to see Quantum of Solace this Friday. I’ll also be hoping to see some naked women on trampolines. But I’m afraid that Bond tradition might have died with the indomitable Maurice Binder.

‘Knight Rider’ Getting Retooled and It’s Going to be Awesome

Mister Hand — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:08:53 +0000

You’re probably skeptical of the claim made in the title of this article. And well you should be. But I want to believe. As the person assigned to watch and review Knight Rider every week for FSR’s Control Freaks feature, I can say that any change made to the struggling series has to be an improvement. After all, the show can’t possibly get any worse. And I’m not exaggerating in the least. If someone told me I had a choice to watch Knight Rider or another show called Watch Paint Dry, I’d choose the latter. Sure, it may bore the hell out of me, but at least it won’t constantly insult my intelligence.

Well, NBC has apparently heard my weekly cries of anguish, as they now plan to give the show a reboot. Bruce Davison (who plays KITT’s creator) will not be returning to the show, and the plotlines are going to focus more on Mike and KITT helping everyday, ordinary people–abandoning the show’s current practice of recycling the same old story about some terrorist group stealing some technology that poses some vague threat to national security and Mike and KITT have to infiltrate the group to get it back and never have I cared not once did I give the tiniest shit.

However, if we’re to believe NBC and the show’s executive producer, we can expect Knight Rider to continue to be boring and stupid for only another five episodes before the reboot. After that, we can expect Sopranos-level quality.

I can hope, can’t I?

In the past my viewings of the show have been accompanied by much imbibing of alcoholic beverages. And not in a happy way–more in the “drink until you’re either going to spend the rest of the night hunkered over the toilet or you’re going to the emergency room” kind of way, and either choice is fine, because that means you don’t have to watch any more Knight Rider for the evening. And when I say “you” I mean “me.” Because I’m betting most of you aren’t watching this piece of crap show.

Maybe crack’s the thing to try, since apparently everyone involved with the show is smoking it. Maybe that’ll get me on the Knight Rider “wavelength.”

Regardless, I’m stuck with the thing for the full season order no matter what. Be sure to check back every Thursday for my weekly review.

Obama Documentary Coming to HBO

Mister Hand — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:05:44 +0000

I’m going to write two versions of this article–one for Republicans who voted for John McCain, and one for Democrats who voted for Barack Obama. You may choose which version of the article best suits you:

Republican Version:

Serving as more proof of the liberal media being totally in the tank for Barack Obama, HBO has announced that it will air a documentary tracking Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The documentary will be produced by Class 5 Films, which is owned by Ed Norton, a known liberal, and a Yale graduate with a better than “C” average (which makes him an elitist).

No doubt the documentary will portray Obama’s successful 2008 campaign in a positive light, ignoring his terrorist, socialist leanings, and his goal to crush hard-working Americans beneath a yolk of high taxes. The film will surely be timed for a release that will maximize its potential to provide positive propaganda for the new Administration, which will be turning the White House into an Afro-centric Madrasah on January 20, 2009.

You can read more by visiting Variety’s website, after you’ve removed all of the money from your 401k and buried it somewhere in a secluded wood to protect it from the coming Democrat New Order.

Democratic Version:

HBO will release a documentary following Barack Obama’s overwhelmingly successful 2008 presidential bid and oh my God, can you believe what just happened Tuesday?!!

As Roger Ebert said, it’s not that we elected an African-American candidate, it’s that we elected the right candidate! All week, running into my Republican friends, I’ve tried my damnedest to avoid gloating, but it’s tough. I’ve been looking at their long faces and saying things like, “It’s all going to be okay. You’re going to be pleasantly surprised.”

But on election night, who was more surprised than me? Even when Fox News called Ohio and Florida for Obama, I didn’t believe it.

“Why would Fox lie about that?” a friend asked.

“Let’s not forget,” I replied, “They’re not just liars. They’re also pretty dumb.”

And then CNN piled on. But I still didn’t believe it. It didn’t fully hit me even after the networks were calling the whole race for my guy. Then I got in the car just in time to hear McCain giving his concession speech on NPR.

Awesome.

Last night, when speaking with my son about his slacking grades at school, I got to ask the question, “Do you want to be a ‘C’ student like George W. Bush? The most unpopular president in the history of the U.S.? Arguably one of the most unpopular human beings residing on the face of the planet? Or do you want to be an ‘A’ student like Barack Obama?”

My son looked at me and I could tell that he got it. That was a heady moment. For the first time since FDR we have a President who can not only lead but who can be a friggin’ role model.

Anyway, all that aside, can’t wait for the doc. But if you want to get a nice inside scoop right now on both the Obama and McCain campaigns, covered by Newsweek journalists for a year with the caveat that nothing they unearthed could be printed until after the election, click here. The first chapter is devoted to Obama, the second to McCain, and it continues to alternate. It’s riveting stuff.

TV Review: Knight Rider 1.6 – Knight of the Living Dead

Mister Hand — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:06:23 +0000

Knight Rider, NBC, Airs Wednesday 8/7c

Episode: “Knight of the Living Dead” (Season 1, Episode 6)

Synopsis: Mike and Sarah are on a cargo plane with KITT, returning to the SSC after a mission. A tech is killed at the SSC and KITT’s self-destruct program is activated.

Review: Yet another Knight Rider review that comes in a day late due to the fact that — oh my God, can I please stop reviewing this piece of shit show now?! — When I volunteered for this, I honestly thought the thing wouldn’t last more than six episodes. And then NBC ordered up a full season of this turkey. That’s twenty-two episodes.

I was utterly astounded by that news. Why would NBC order a full season of a show that so miserably fails at everything it sets out to accomplish? The writing is insipid, the plots are thoroughly predictable, the characters are one-dimensional, and the car is not cool. Val Kilmer, as the voice of KITT, seems incapable of infusing his lines with any sort of urgency or emotion–presumably because he’s too busy counting his money.

Okay, maybe that’s unfair. It’s hard to act worth a shit if the writing is horrible. And the writing on Knight Rider is demonstrably horrible.

This week’s episode is a good case in point. It’s Halloween at the SSC, the headquarters and point of operations for Mike and KITT. Everyone’s dressed up in costumes. The upside to this is seeing Smith Cho, the hot-ass Asian chick who plays Zoe, in a cheerleader costume.

A message is broadcast to the SSC. The SSC employees drop their Halloween festivities to focus on it. It’s garbled. It looks like a message from a government agent–a shadowy figure against a gray backdrop. It seems urgent. Dramatic music rises and everyone at the SSC grows increasingly concerned until a still shot of a horrible monster appears onscreen, along with a blood-curdling scream. Everyone at the SSC is startled.

Cut to Mike, laughing his ass off in the back of a cargo plane. This was his Halloween prank. Sarah (Deanna Russo), in the plane with Mike, observes that Halloween has always been Mike’s favorite holiday–which is television shorthand for, “Hey, this guy is fun-loving and just a little rebellious!”

And boy I couldn’t possibly care less.

Before long, KITT’s creator, Charles (Bruce Davison), and Zoe find a tech in a lab, dead. He has been shot in the gut. We go through the predictable machinations of Zoe thinking the body is another Halloween prank, and then the lights go out. Gunshots are fired. Charles and Zoe fall to the floor.

Cue opening credits. Oh, and please kill me.

Returning to the show, we discover that whoever apparently shot Charles and Zoe set off KITT’s self destruct system. And the only person who can stop it is the person who started it. That’s a major problem, seeing as how Mike and Sarah are now trapped on a cargo plane with a ticking time bomb.

KITT is also not happy that Charles equipped him with a self-destruct. At the point where it is decided that his files should be uploaded to another computer, and his shell ejected from the plane, KITT starts whining. Apparently, without his neural net, the files are just random memories and experiences. And while those files and memories can be uploaded to another central core, KITT knows that he will cease to exist.

To quote the great Artie Lang: Wah! I’m a car with artificial intelligence and I’m gonna get dropped out of the back of a plane! Wah!

I was determined to watch this thing sober. I succeeded in that task. I watched as it was discovered that the person who had fired the handgun in the SSC was a Zoe look-alike (really? another look-alike?!) and that she had set the auto-destruct on KITT specifically so that the car’s files would be uploaded, making them vulnerable to hacks. Or something like that. I don’t know. I was all in a daze. The real Zoe was apparently unconscious, hidden beneath a desk. That’s right. She was stuck up under a desk and no one found her for hours.

But the really psychedelic part of the show comes when Billy (Paul Campbell) takes out a mini-satellite dish and scans the scene of the crime with it. The device apparently detects sound waves that have been stuck in the air long after the sounds were emitted. They’re like ghost sound waves. He manages to isolate voices in the room, conversations that occurred prior to and just following the gunshots.

And… say the fuck what?!

I hate you Knight Rider writers. I really, really hate you.

In the end, Charles gets a hand imprint from the fake Zoe to stop the auto-destruct and oh my God, I know you don’t care–can I please have my life back?!!

I’ve had to resort to alcohol abuse to make it through previous Knight Rider episodes. While I managed to complete my viewing of this episode in a sort of sober, disbelieving daze, I had to down a shot of Sailor Jerry’s and three Milwaukee’s Best Lights this morning to write the review. That’s at 6:00 in the morning, by the way. That’s what this hellish incarnation has driven me to.

I just can’t believe that a show this bad is going to run a full season on one of the Big Three networks–and the year is not 1985. If this piece of shit was running on the Disney channel, I’d have no problem with it. Everything on the Disney channel fucking sucks. But dammit–it’s the year 2008, and this is NBC, in a world that’s now seen shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, 30 Rock, and Mad Men. How does Knight Rider exist?

I’ve been doing some research, and I think I have some answers to that question. I’ll explore some of the possibilities next week when I take on the latest episode of Knight Rider.

For more coverage of your favorite shows, check out the Control Freaks Archive.

Did you watch Knight Rider this week? If so, feel free to discuss below.

Bond is Bourne Again: ‘Quantum’ is Owning International Markets

Mister Hand — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:46:09 +0000

I’m a Bond fan going back to The Spy Who Loved Me in 1976. It was the first Bond film I saw at the theaters, and it will always be my favorite. It inspired me to read Fleming’s novels and urged me to see every subsequent film on the day of release.

I thought Bond and I were all done after License to Kill. But then Goldeneye became my second favorite Bond film of all time. I had great expectations for the following Pierce Brosnan installments, and was mostly let down. By the time I saw Die Another Day, I thought I was all done with Bond again.

Some time that same year, I saw The Bourne Identity. I remember thinking, “This is what Bond should be. A really smart guy who can handle a gun and kick the shit out of a dude when necessary.”

But that Bond hadn’t existed since the Sean Connery days. Bond had become a comic book character. While it’s expected he should be larger-than-life, the series had gotten totally out of hand–far too dependent on gadgets and stale shtick, and bereft of soul.

A submersible Lotus is cool. An invisible Aston Martin is ridiculous.

I have to wonder if the Bond producers didn’t come to a similar epiphany while watching the first installment of the Bourne trilogy. Shortly after Die Another Day, Brosnan was summarily dismissed from his MI6 duties. The rest is history. Casino Royale was released, it was awesome, and Daniel Craig officially became the definitive 007.

Still, I was prepared to be disappointed by Quantum of Solace. I mean, first of all… that title.

It looks like I needn’t have worried. The early reviews are positive and, if the film’s opening in just three markets is an indicator, it looks set to break all sorts of box office records. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Solace raked in $39 million on a limited number of screens, putting it on the fast track to kick some serious box office ass. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it beat Casino Royale’s half billion dollar worldwide gross.

The bad news for the U.S. is we don’t get to see the latest Bond adventure until November 14. But I suppose that’s only fair. James Bond is a product of the U.K., so it’s fitting they should get first dibs. As Alec Trevelyan said in Goldeneye, “For England, James.”

But there’s a fourth Bourne movie on the way. That one is all ours. And I can’t help but think that part of the credit for the new kick-ass Bond has to go to Bourne.

What do you think? Has Bourne had an effect on Bond?

Attention Christopher Nolan: Here’s A List of Good Third Movies

Mister Hand — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:34:53 +0000

Speaking to The Los Angeles Times about the possibility of directing a follow up to his smash hit The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan makes it clear he is not sold on the idea.

I have to ask the question,” he says, “How many good third movies in a franchise can people name?

The article doesn’t say that Nolan then leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms with a smug smile, but I can picture it. The guy makes a billion dollar-grossing movie and all of the sudden he’s the sequel expert. Just because he crafted possibly the greatest superhero movie of all time, he thinks he’s all that.

I’ve got news for Christopher Nolan. There have been plenty of great third movies. I mean, there’s…

Well. Come on. Rambo III. I mean, that wasn’t… so bad.

Okay, it was. But hey! Who gave us Mr. T? That was Rocky III, my friend! And that was…

I don’t care what anybody thinks, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was one helluva… I mean, it was… a…

Hey! How ’bout that Home Alone 3?! Come on… Ebert liked it.

Maybe I’m not making the strongest case here. The fact is, we really, really want Nolan to make a third Batman movie, right? So putting aside the nonsense, here’s six good “third movies” to inspire Nolan and give us the Dark Knight follow-up we so desperately crave:

6. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Yes, it had Ewoks. But it did wrap up the original trilogy story nicely, and even the most staunch Jedi haters can’t deny that the film has some slam bang moments. Furthermore, unlike the new trilogy, Return of the Jedi has Han Solo going for it. And let’s face it: the best thing about any Star Wars movie is Harrison Ford playing Han Solo. Think back to A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Recall the best scenes from those movies. Tell me that Ford isn’t in all of them.

5. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

As if Indiana wasn’t bad ass enough, they decided to throw Sean “Drop Your Panties” Connery into the mix, and every scene the two are in together is somehow both hilarious and action-packed. It’s intelligent, deals with the real threat of Nazis attaining the Cup of Life, and almost every line is quotable. Plus, the movie had the classic sensibility to show four heroes riding off into the sunset to tie up the entire franchise. Did you hear that Spielberg? It TIED UP the franchise.

4. The Bourne Ultimatum

If someone were to ask me what’s the best of the Bourne movies, I’d be hard pressed to find a favorite. I consider Ultimatum to be every bit as good as its predecessors. So far, these films have been the most even in quality of any series I’ve ever seen. There’s talk that this might become a James Bond-type franchise, and if past success is an indicator, I hope it’s true.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

As far as I’m concerned, the first two Harry Potter films don’t deserve to be called movies. They’re just glorified PowerPoint presentations: soulless, artless, fan service crap. So I was very surprised when I was dragged to see Prisoner and enjoyed every minute of it. I believe most of the credit goes to director Alfonso Cuarón, a masterful storyteller, who later gave us the excellent Children of Men. Regarded by many Harry Potter fans as the best of the series.

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The worst you can say about the conclusion to Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy is that it’s too long. Otherwise, it kicked ass critically, commercially, and was the darling of Oscar night. People were engaged in this whole “third movie curse” talk prior to its release as well

1. Goldfinger

By far the greatest “third movie” ever made. Not only is it a great Bond film, but it’s a treasure trove of cultural touchstones. “I don’t expect you talk. I expect you to die!” From Russia With Love was the film that ensured the Bond franchise was viable, but Goldfinger was the movie that made Bond an icon.

Please, Mr. Nolan, Make a Third Batman Film

So Chris, take notes, suck it up, and make that third Batman movie. Batman fans like us will never forgive you if you don’t do it. And if you fail? Well, because we are rabid fans, we’re bound to register our disgust all across the internets.

But we believe in you, Chris. As much as we loved Tim Burton’s Batman, we saw the chinks in his armor–his narrative discontinuity, his penchant for raising style above substance. If you have any weaknesses as a filmmaker, it’s in defining spatial relationships during action scenes. There’s not a single fight scene in either Batman Begins or Dark Knight where we can tell what the hell is going on through all the fast cutting and micro-editing. It’s a small point, and the films are so good, they overcome that weakness.

That’s all beside the point anyway. Make the movie. It’ll be fine. Oh, and we guess the answer to your question, or at least our answer, is six. But we’re sure there might be more. Most directors couldn’t handle it, but you’re not most directors, and we have full faith in you to create an incredible third film.

Editor’s Note: It should be known that Mister Hand actually hates The Last Crusade, and I had to write that small portion. Feel free to send him death threats or, even better, long emails explaining in excruciating detail why The Last Crusade is one of the best films ever.

Political Cinema: ‘They Live’ Predicts Obama Presidency

Mister Hand — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:32:29 +0000

We’re counting down the hours now to Tuesday’s election. As it stands (or at least, as CNN is reporting), Barack Obama has a huge advantage over Republican John McCain. At this point, McCain could win Florida and Ohio and still fall far short of the electoral votes needed to secure the Presidency. You can check my math by visiting the New York Times‘ interactive electoral college map.

Or…

You could forget about the math and the swing states, because the outcome of this election was predicted in 1988 by John Carpenter’s film They Live.

The movie is a cult classic today–regarded as one of Carpenter’s best films, parodied on South Park, and ensuring that “Rowdy” Roddy Piper would forever be immortalized on the pages of the Internet Movie Database long after his wrestling career was a distant memory. Unlike many cult movies, however, They Live does not exist as a memoir to its time. Instead, it portrays an America that eerily resembles 2008.

Piper plays Nada, a man who ekes out a living bouncing between construction sites. He overtly states that he believes in the American way, and that he plays by the rules. He is confident success will find him if he just keeps working hard.

He meets up with Frank (Keith David). Frank has moved to a new city to find work, leaving his wife and family behind. “The steel mills were laying people off left and right,” he explains to Nada, “They finally went under. We gave the steel companies a break when they needed it. You know what they gave themselves? Raises.”

The film is abundantly populated with drifters like Nada and Frank–people willing to work, but either unable to find a job, or unable to live off the wages when they do.

One night Frank and Nada are watching television and a man breaks into the broadcast. He’s referred to as a “hacker,” and he is trying to get a message to the American people. He says “we are sleeping while they live.” He talks about the police state that has our country under its jack boot. And he bemoans the economic inequities that have befallen our nation.

“They are dismantling the sleeping middle class,” he says, “More and more people are becoming poor.”

The television viewers dismiss him as a crank, an unwelcome interruption to their regularly scheduled programming. Nada is inclined to agree.

But before long, Nada acquires a pair of special sunglasses. They reveal a world hidden beneath the visible reality. Billboards advertising exotic vacation destinations are exposed as subterfuge for Orwellian slogans: Obey. Conform. Consume. Marry and Reproduce. No Independent Thought. Paper currency bears the slogan, “This is Your God.” But most terrifying of all, members of the upper class, with their coiffed hairstyles and $1,000.00 suits, are revealed to be horrible, bug-eyed aliens. These aliens have infiltrated law enforcement and the highest tiers of government.

The rest of the film follows Nada as he attempts to evade the evil aliens that have taken over the world, and convince anyone who will listen that something is very, very wrong. The latter is no easy task. When Nada tries to get Frank to put on the glasses, Frank is so adamantly opposed to the idea a fist fight ensues. A very long fist fight. A long, punishing, bone-cracking, pile-driving, body-slamming fist fight. (It’s the most famous scene in the movie, and it’s a wonderful piece of camp.)

Rewatching They Live over the weekend, it struck me that John Carpenter wasn’t commenting on the America that existed in 1988. At that time, our country was still in the heady days following the economic boom of the Reagan Administration, making the movie an anachronism. Somehow, John Carpenter envisioned an America almost indistinguishable from the one left behind by the Bush Administration. Just like Nada, we are experiencing a time where the rich get richer while the middle class shrinks, and working class Americans are increasingly unable to afford even the barest of necessities.

The entire film is steeped in metaphor, but the aforementioned alley fight scene transcends metaphor and becomes a sort of self-contained social satire. It illustrates how difficult it is to make everyday U.S. citizens see that the American Dream has been subverted by a long stream of self-serving politicians, and the attitude that what’s good for big business is good for America. As the events of the past two months have illustrated vividly, this is not the case. Big business, left unchecked, will seek only to become bigger and more monolithic, stamping out competition, and reducing economic opportunity for the middle class (formerly known as “the backbone of America”).

Meanwhile, the oversized financial entities created by unchecked capitalism receive billions in tax savings, while the middle class, now bearing the largest portion of the country’s tax burden proportionately, gets insulting stipends by way of “economic stimulus payments.” The tragic irony comes when the monolithic entities fail and it falls to the middle class to bail them out with their tax dollars.

Still, many working and middle class Americans believe fervently that Republicans have their best economic interests at heart, even though most of them have seen their quality of life decline over the last eight years. Furthermore, a great number of them believe that all politicians are corrupt, and there’s not much anyone can do about it. And that’s a reality that They Live reflects so well as art. After his awakening to the truth, Nada hardly even seems surprised. Watching a skull-faced politician on the television, he says, “Ha! I figured it’d be something like this!”

Nada proceeds to fight against the aliens. But the hardest-won battle he has to overcome is with Frank, who is not an alien, and just as oppressed as anyone else. Frank watches T.V., reads his magazines, and spends his money oblivious to the reality revealed by the sunglasses because he has been made docile. Facing the truth requires action, because the truth reveals a situation that is utterly untenable. Frank does not want to face this. He is so determined to remain docile, he’ll body slam a mother fucker to stay that way.

But putting the metaphors, and my personal political views aside, They Live could be reshot today without changing a word in the original script and it would probably connect far better with audiences than it did twenty years ago. That bodes ill for John McCain. And he can keep repeating his “redistribution of wealth” buzzwords all he wants. He cannot deny that the past eight years have wreaked havoc on the middle class, redistributing their opportunities to create their own wealth. I don’t think John McCain is the guy to correct that. And I don’t think mine is the minority view.

I could be wrong. Despite my wordy punditry, my purpose here is merely to suggest that everyone forget about watching the election eve news coverage. Tuesday, after you vote, go out and rent They Live. If you’re an Obama supporter, you’ll have a great time. If you’re a McCain supporter…

Well, it’s still a great movie.

“Brother, life’s a bitch. And she’s back in heat.”

Discuss: Who’s The Baddest Monster Hunter of All-Time?

Mister Hand — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:56:12 +0000

Over on the AMC Television blogs site, Scott Sigler compares monster hunters to spiders. Without spiders, “the world would be overrun by insects,” he says. And without monster hunters, the world would soon be infested with “vampires, zombies, werewolves, mummies, ghosts, witches, serial killers and mansquitoes.”

You can find the article over at Horror Hacker , and place your nominations in the comments section (you will need to register). Joss Whedon has requested that you nominate Buffy for the top prize. She’s my top pick as well.

So far, some of the names put forth by commenters on the AMC site have included Riddick, Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, Ripley from the Alien movies, Bruce Campbell as Ash from the Evil Dead films, and, of course, the mighty Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Who is your pick for the baddest monster hunter of all-time?

Gran Torino: Eastwood Brings M-1, Classic Car, and the Badass

Mister Hand — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:29:11 +0000

Though he has garnered high acclaim, so far I have been underwhelmed by Clint Eastwood’s directorial efforts — with Million Dollar Baby and Letters from Iwo Jima being notable exceptions. I’ve yet to see an Eastwood-directed film in the last decade or so I would call bad, but nothing’s blown me out of the water. And while I find the true story aspect of Changeling intriguing, I’ll probably wait to catch it on DVD.

But Eastwood has another film coming in December called Gran Torino. He’ll be starring in this one as well as directing. You can catch some story details as well as a look at the poster over at USA Today, found via First Showing.

There’s no part of this film that doesn’t sound awesome, and Eastwood’s presence is definitely a plus. Look at that poster and tell me it doesn’t give you a chill. This could just as easily be the poster for Dirty Harry: Still Kicking Ass, with a tagline that reads, “Crime never retires!”

But Gran Torino is not an actioner. It appears to be a character piece with a compelling angle. A member of an Asian gang attempts to steal Eastwood’s prize possession, a vintage Gran Torino. Eastwood explains, “The young kid, as part of a gang initiation, tries to steal it, and the old guy gets him at the end of the M-1, which becomes kind of a big deal.”

A trailer has just been posted at Apple. Check it out below.

[See post to watch Flash video]

I know I for one will be anxiously awaiting this film’s release on December 17th. Have a look at the first poster for yourself below.

Star Wars Fans Get MMO, Vow to Never Leave Homes

Mister Hand — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:56:14 +0000

After months of speculation, Bioware and Lucasarts have announced that a new Star Wars MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) is, indeed, in the works. Entitled Star Wars: The Old Republic, the game will be set in the period long prior to the events of Episode I, and will be continuous with the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic universe.

Anyone who might be gun shy about a Star Wars MMO after playing Star Wars: Galaxies can take heart that this is being helmed by Bioware, the makers of the aforementioned Knights of the Old Republic, as well as acclaimed games Baldur’s Gate, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect.

The game will give you the option to join the ranks of the Jedi or ally yourself with the evil Sith Lords. Being a gamer, and having spent some time with Bioware products, I can say that I am officially stoked for this. In fact, I think it has the potential to be the single greatest piece of Star Wars media to emerge since Empire Strikes Back. If nothing else, I’m confident the story associated with it will kick the shit out of Episodes I-III.

You can get more information, as well as some concept art and screenshots, at Gamespot and IGN. Also, an official website has been launched.

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