Allthyngs

A little while ago John posted an article about how North Korea is the type of country George Orwell had nightmares about. If you didn’t see the article/were too lazy to read it, here’s a tastefully designed chart of facts explaining just how batshit insane North Korea (and Mr. Jong Il) is.

Edgar Wright, the director behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, is at it again. Recently, the teaser trailer for his third film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, hit the internet, and although it lacks a certain lovable British duo, it looks awesome. If you’re not already excited for this movie, you should be. Early reviews have been almost unanimously positive, praising the film’s genuine originality. Hell, Keven Smith even went as far as to call it “spellbinding,” among other things. Hopefully this summer will have plenty of good movies like this to make up for my Transformers 2 lobotomy.

A series of tapes with the alleged voice of Osama Bin Laden have arisen recently, according to CNN. For the most part the tapes consist of pretty much what you’d expect from our country’s zany arch-nemesis (death to America, death to Israel, etc.). One thing that stood out however was a tape condemning George W. Bush and other industrialized nations for rejecting the Kyoto Protocol for global warming. Who knew Bin Laden was such an eco-friendly guy? Maybe global warming has been hitting the middle east much harder than the United States. His next tape released will probably translate roughly to, “Seriously guys, it’s fucking hot over here, can you slow down with the greenhouse gasses?”

Read more on CNN.com

Let’s say you’re the first (sane) human being to make contact with an intelligent alien race. What do you do once aboard that shiny metal ship? Try to communicate? Show them that thing you can do with your elbows? Kill them all and triumphantly return to earth in a state-of-the-art floating death machine? Fortunately for you, you’ll have memorized these step-by-step instructions for exactly what to do in this scenario (unless they’ve already shoved their cold metal instruments up your colon and dropped you off in Montana).

Remember back in the day when old people got offended by the way Elvis gyrated his hips? Of course you don’t, but you’ve probably seen Forest Gump, so that’s good enough. All those old people were outraged by the collapse of a decent moral society that was soon to follow Elvis’ sweet, provocative gyrations. Well it’s now about 60 years later, and decency has finally decided to say, “fuck it, I’m out of here,” ushering in the prophesied era of biblical depravity. After sixty years, dancing has devolved to the glorified dry-humping known as “grinding.” Grindface.com has decided to start documenting this phenomenon through pictures (and funny captions!) capturing the hilarious stupidity unavoidable by anyone who’s ever stepped on a dance floor looking for some dick to ass-crack action. For those who want to learn more about grinding, I would suggest doing a google search on the topic for hours of entertainment.

Check it out at Grindface.com

It seems like every year we get at least three new movies about the real story behind some famous band or musician. But what about the eclectic and infamously… well… weird, Weird Al Yankovic? Surely there’s an interesting story behind his pop-culture and polka fueled madness. Fortunately, Funny or Die has put together a trailer for the unfortunately fake Weird Al biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Look for a cameo from Al himself as a (short-haired) record exec.

Certain things just don’t get old. MGMT’s catchy electronic hit Kids is one of those things. Chiddy Bang, a spankin’ new rap group out of Philly, exemplfies the immortal quality of Kids by using it as the beat for their beyond catchy breakout single, Opposite of Adults. The music video’s cool to boot, bringing back fond Goldeneye-era memories.

We can’t embed it, but check it out on YouTube Read more

When one of the first moving pictures (nothing more than a series of everyday occurrences captured on film) was premiered almost a hundred years ago, people ran screaming from the exhibit at the sight of a train barreling towards the camera. Nowadays it’s a little harder to shove movie magic down our cynical throats. Enter the age of special effects. Special effects are like roofies: if you don’t notice them, that means they’re working. With movies like Avatar, it’s easy to forget that there was once a time when movies like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and even The Wizard of Oz blew people’s minds. Here’s a video to give a little perspective of how far we’ve come, and how much more magical movie magic (holy alliteration Batman!) has grown from its humble black and white beginnings. Music is Rods and Cones by The Blue Man Group.

Remember those movie trailer mash-ups that were really popular a few years back? Well french video company AMDS took the idea one step further with a series of nothing-but-action movie fight scene mash-ups. Check out Robocop vs Neo and the epic three-part Robocop vs Terminator after the jump.

Children are our future. Our tiny, gullible, adorably ignorant future. If you asked many of them about the biggest news story of the decade, they would probably mention the extremely controversial decision to kick Pluto out of the solar system club. Like all angry people should, these children took action and wrote furious letters to the heads of our nation. PBS compiled a short hilarious collection of such letters, in which vocal third graders express their concerns about the mindset of the scientific community. Come to think of it, these kids have more initiative than most people I know. Maybe there’s hope for our future yet.

Read the letters at PBS.org

Band of Brothers, for those of you who missed it, was an epic WWII miniseries on HBO that came out a few years ago detailing the immortal bond between soldiers, and the intense Hell of the battlefield. Now HBO is begining to air a follow-up series called The Pacific, taking the Band of Brothers formula and switching the setting from Nazi-occupied Europe to, you guessed it, the Pacific. I think this is an awesome idea because the Pacific side of the war hasn’t seen as much coverage as the Hitlerey part, aside from Clint Eastwood’s also-notable Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of our Fathers.

For another reminder why our generation is so much worse than the one with the title of “The Greatest,” check out The Pacific on HBO (new episodes air Sunday at 9), or watch episodes online here. (there’s a short registration process, but for those without HBO it’s definitely worth it).

In this video, The Onion sums up exactly what all news looks like to me.

In the upcoming movie Leaves of Grass, Edward Norton travels to Oklahoma in search of his drug-dealing twin brother, played by Edward Norton. Here’s a short clip from the movie, in which Stoner Ed Norton gets Haircut Ed Norton to break his smoking hiatus. Edward Norton is usually enough to get me to see a movie (see, The Incredible Hulk), so two Edward Nortons is a dream come true. Who knows, maybe the Eddy Murphy formula works well with a good actor.

I can’t embed the video here, so check it out over at Slashfilm.com

The movie Predator changed my life. Before seeing Predator, I had no idea anything could be as awesome as Predator, and after watching the movie… well let’s just say life’s been a gradual series of disappointments since. Now there may be light where once was darkness, as Robert Rodriguez is rebooting the franchise (producing, not directing unfortunately) with the help of Adrian Brody and Morpheus. Here’s a two-minute first look at Robert Rodriguez’s Predators. All I can say is that I hope this reboot is more Batman Begins than Punisher: War Zone.

No, it’s not porn. Pink Terror is a video by video artists (apparently that’s a thing) Mike Barzman and Christian Swegal, who filmed awesome looking things in slow motion and edited the footage to an audio track of Stephen Hawking explaining why we’re all fucked to a catchy beat. I still don’t think I “get” this, but it sure is cool as hell (roll with it) to watch.

It’s been 28 years since Tron first imagined the glow-tacular hidden world within the humble computers of the 80’s. The movie blew my mind when I was a kid, but watching it again recently I noticed that the effects look extremely dated. Enter Tron Legacy, Disney’s long-delayed sequel due in theatres this year. Maybe it’s the nostalgia factor, or maybe it’s just how shiny and glowgasmic the virtual world looks this time around, but this is the most excited I’ve ever been for a 3D movie.

Jim Davis’ Garfield chronicles the mildly entertaining exploits of a lasagna-loving cat named Garfield. Garfield Minus Garfield is a webcomic that erases Garfield from Garfield comics, illuminating the disturbing life of Garfield’s psychopathic owner Jon Arbuckle. Who knew the comic is so much more entertaining without the titular commercial icon?

Check it out at garfieldminusgarfield.net

No, not the red carpet for the Oscars. Gary Busey isn’t allowed within five miles of the Academy Awards ceremony for the reasons that he’s clearly not a sane individual, he could probably cut through steel with his teeth, and he’s a morlock. This video was taken instead at the prestigious Night of 100 Stars (I really hope Gary isn’t included in that figure). Enjoy the most terrifying two minutes of this brave reporter’s career.

Connected is a short film about two men who silently wander through a post-apocalyptic future, tethered together by a shared oxygen supply. Described by the film’s creators as a “sci-fi western,” this intriguing short isn’t one to miss. Check out the rest of the official website for an interesting and well-done look behind the scenes.

Watch the film at ov43.com

The workings of film industry are baffling to many, and even more baffling to some. Hopefully this flashy info-graphic will clear some thing up, such as why it costs so much to go see a movie and why “so much” isn’t really “so much.” Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a pile of money from my latest blockbuster to go roll around in, but check out the info-picture after the jump (click “read more”).