Sceptre has rolled out the Speaker SoundBar SB20202B. Priced at $169.99, the portable and lightweight soundbar features a wall mountable kit, a stereo output of 2 x 20Watts on the right and left side, dual RCA inputs and a single digital SPDIF input. Additionally, the Speaker SoundBar SB20202B is equipped with a remote controller. [Sceptre]
As Nintendo pushes New Super Mario Bros 2 for the Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL, they’re deciding that they need none other than actress Penelope Cruz to don the classic plumber outfit to make the game seem more attractive. The advertisement you’re about to see is lengthy, dry, and makes the title out to be just about as dumbed-down a video game can be, with jumping and coin-grabbing as the only two objectives the whole way through. In addition, the impossible nature of the storyline makes the whole spot fall undeniably flat.
If you’ve had your hand on the pulse of the Nintendo video game review universe, you know that New Super Mario Bros 2 is a massive chore in collecting coins. You collect so many coins by the end of the game that you’ll never, ever want to play a Mario game again. This advertisement informs us that these Cruz sisters have nothing better to do with their lives than compete against one another in a coin-collecting contest where the penalty for losing is heading to a market dressed as Mario or Luigi to pick up some mushrooms.
If you’re able to sit through the entire advertisement spot, you’ll get the bonus of seeing Penelope Cruz asking for mushrooms from a vendor on the street in what we must assume is supposed to be Italy. After over a minute of the two sisters playing the game with awesomely drab comments like “come on Mario, let’s go”, and “get the coins, get the coins, run, run run”, you get the reprieve of the Mario outfit.
Then it all gets ruined again by the camera dwelling on Penelope too long as she makes some uncomfortable hand gestures and mumbles. The whole thing feels like an unfinished product as Nintendo appears to struggle with a simple concept with well-known brand names. One star isn’t quite enough to entice when the execution on the video ad spot isn’t cut to completion – that’s for certain.
New Super Mario Bros 2 grabs Penelope Cruz for dress-up spot is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
By far the best scene in Expendables 2 is when Dolph Lundgren kicks a bad guy in the face off a balcony, casually shouting “Goodbye!” in the process. It’s an utterly ridiculous and over the top moment that caused me to burst out laughing, and it’s exactly what the movie needed more of.
The intentions of the movie are relatively clear: to be the ultimate action flick by cramming in all those actors you used to like in all those movies you used to like decades ago, mixed in with a dash of more recent talent for good measure. The posters and marketing for the movie boldly proclaims who to expect (Willis! Schwarzenegger! Li!) and yet not a single frame of the movie shows all the actors together.
This movie does have a very loose and tired plot, but the plot is irrelevant, because you’re here to watch old people mow down entire armies with very large guns. Here’s the thing: it doesn’t really work. There are only really two big action set pieces in the movie – one at the beginning and one at the end, with brief flirtations in between – and thanks to janky editing and pacing, they feel rushed. The director is so intent to make sure he fits all his eye candy moments in that he doesn’t give the audience any time to savour the action, and the use of bad CGI ultimately that nothing has any impact.
Characters disappear and reappear at random. Jet Li is in the film for approximately four minutes at the beginning before leaving and never coming back, yet has third billing, according to IMDB. Chris Liam Hemsworth is set up to be a disgustingly likeable hero: he left the Army because they shot his dog (seriously), he can run up hills really fast, and he’s a pretty good sniper to boot. He’s dispatched during the first act in order to set up some sort of half baked revenge plot for Stallone. Some terrible dialogue is muttered at his funeral (“Why is it that the good people who deserve to live die, but the bad people who deserve to die live?”, or words to that effect.)
Crews and Couture have maybe one or two lines in the movie. They’re mainly there to shoot people. Chuck Norris shows up for around three minutes to shoot people too. He makes a Chuck Norris joke because he’s Chuck Norris, and we’re supposed to laugh, but we don’t, because that meme died years ago. Bruce and Arnold share a particularly cringe worthy exchange. At least they get to shoot people out of a moving SMART car for a couple of seconds.
The only two people who are having any fun in the movie are Lundgren and Van Damme. Van Damme is clearly enjoying playing the bad guy, hamming it up with insane body language and gestures while wearing wraparound sunglasses and a leather coat in just about every scene. Lundgren clearly realizes that this isn’t a movie to be taken seriously, and also recognizes that people think he’s a bit weird, playing to his strengths and getting a few laughs in the process.
All the other actors in the movie are unsure of how to play things out, resulting in a tone that’s neither worthy of a good or bad-good action movie. Stallone in particular looks fairly bored throughout the whole affair. His extremely dodgy mustache gives a great performance, at least. The only time he really lights up is during his exchanges with Statham, but let’s face it: they’re both going through the motions.
My expectations for the Expendables 2 were low, and yet I still left disappointed. Ultimately, the problem is that it has no charm. It’s a movie designed to tick all the boxes on a financial sheet (famous action stars, explosions, more explosions), without any passion involved in the film making process by just about… well, anyone. I don’t want something of this calibre to be a good movie, but I do want it to be entertaining, and the film just doesn’t provide nearly enough entertainment.
The Expendables 2 Review is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The superhero flick The Avengers was one of the biggest earning films of the year and proved so popular planning for a sequel commenced right away (if not before the movie was released.) If you’re a big fan of superhero movies, you’ll be excited to hear that the launch date for the sequel to The Avengers has been offered up.
It appears that the film is simply called The Avengers 2, and Joss Whedon will be returning to direct this one. The release date that has surfaced for now is May 1, 2015. Sadly, that’s nearly three years from now. I honestly thought the movie would come out as quickly as the studio could turn around another film. I guess one of the reasons it’s going to take a while for the film the hit theaters is that Iron Man star Robert Downey, Jr. is working hard on another blockbuster superhero film right now, and is currently shooting Iron Man 3.
Thankfully, we won’t have to wait as long to get our Marvel fix, as Iron Man 3′s expected launch date is May 3, 2013.
[via CBS News]
Second screen apps seem to be all the rage as of late, and Vobile’s freshly announced TVSync API platform can help developers ride that wave of popularity. Compatible with iOS and Android devices, PCs and some smart TVs, the API can be leveraged to supplement what’s on the silver screen with relevant content ranging from polls to products. Apps developed with the interface can trigger what’s displayed on the companion screen at just the right moment by analyzing audio, video, or both. For instance, a recipe featured on a celebrity chef’s program could be pushed to your slate as soon as it’s first mentioned. Yearning to code an app of your own with the tech? Visit the source to request beta access to TVSync or look below for the full press release.
Continue reading TVSync API unveiled, helps devs build second-screen and smart TV apps
Filed under: Home Entertainment
TVSync API unveiled, helps devs build second-screen and smart TV apps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 05:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s time to make time a weapon with the 30-year action plot behind the upcoming action and science fiction film Looper in two international trailers that all but give away everything. Just as it was, essentially, with Total Recall, we’ve got everything we need to know the beginning, middle, and ending of the movie. What’s missing, and what makes it all worthwhile, is the action as it happens, and the science that explains the whole of the story.
Have a peek first at the international trailer you may have already seen, this one released over a month ago with many details about the plot and moments of revelation. If you’re worried about spoilers, this might be a good time to turn back. Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play one man, thirty years between themselves, with both of their goals appearing to be the murder of another for profit.
The second trailer is the newest, having just been released this week. This trailer takes on more than just the plot, it explains a bit more on how time travel works in this particular universe. We don’t yet know the mechanism that allows time travel here, nor do we see any time travel take place other than a moment in which a character is not there one moment, and is there the next – followed by a moment in which they’re blown away with a very rudimentary shotgun, of course.
Time travel here also appears to have the main characters – including Emily Blunt – grabbing anti-gravity powers for one reason or another too. Check out Blunt’s character pushing around a cigarette lighter in the trailer above. Also notice that this day marks the start of a viral campaign which also reveals the timeline in the movie. In the trailer, we hear that “time travel has not yet been invented, but thirty years from now it will have been.” The viral campaign gives us the year 2044, therefor we’ll be watching Looper in present day 2012. Fun stuff!
Stay tuned to SlashGear’s science and entertainment hubs as we interview a real expert on time travel later this week – Dr. Edward Farhi from MIT! It’s only a matter of time!
Looper international trailer spills the beans on time travel is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Yamaha has proudly introduced the YHT-697BL home theater-in-a-box (HTiB) system. It is equipped with a powerful 5.1-channel receiver that supports Apple’s AirPlay technology, allowing you to stream content from iOS devices. The Yamaha YHT-697BL also provides a front panel USB port that enables you to play your favorite music tracks stored on a USB thumb drive. What’s more, the YHT-697BL also provides HDMI 4K and 3D video pass-through with Audio Return Channel (ARC) and Yamaha’s proprietary CINEMA DSP 3D audio. The Yamaha YHT-697 HTiB system is currently available for $649.95. [Akihabara]
Right after the folks at NASA successfully landed their Curiosity rover on the red planet, entrepeneur and real-life Tony Stark made it clear that he’ll be there between 12 and 15 years from now. “We know it’s possible to get there,” he said, “You would be moving to Mars, so a round trip ticket, it has to be no more than half a million dollars, so roughly, a middle-class house in California, and at this point, I would say, I know it’s possible.” He let it be known via Nightline that he was confident “at this point” that it could be done, that people would be living on Mars sometime in the future, and that it’s our “life raft” for the future of the species.
Musk’s company SpaceX recently became the first 3rd party (non government-run) group to successfully dock with the International Space Station and is also currently working with NASA to send more ships to NASA equipment in the future. This next-generation space-race has SpaceX and a set of other interested parties looking to profit from the final frontier as fast as possible. With that and the news that we are, indeed, on Mars once again, made a situation in which Musk HAD to make a comment.
“I’m confident at this point that it can be done. I think we’ll be able to send, probably, the first people to Mars in roughly 12 to 15 years. That’s my estimate.” – Musk
The plan at the moment, should Musk’s initiative line up with the reality of tech in the day, is to colonize the planet and terraform for the future of humanity.
“Mars is the only place in the solar system where it’s possible for life to become multi-planetarian. We could make Mars like Earth…it’s more than our life raft, it’s like backing up the biosphere. … I think it would be the most difficult thing that humanity has ever tried to do.” – Musk
For those of you who are fans of the Entertainment part of this equation, a bit of trivia: Musk’s SpaceX research and design lab appears in Iron Man 2 as parts of Stark Industries. Musk appears in the film as well, speaking with Stark about the Merlin engines (real-life tech made by SpaceX) as well as electric jet. Everything is achievable through technology!
Check out the timeline below to see more Musk adventures as well – he’s going places and we’re going with him. For science!
Humans on Mars in 12 years says Elon Musk is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week it’s been announced that the musical artist known as Beck will be releasing an album comprised of 20 pieces of sheet music called “Beck Hansen’s Song Reader”. This is 20 pieces of music that are not recorded by the artist, instead intended by the artist to be played and recorded by whoever so wishes to do so. Licensing issues and future recordings by associated artists aside, we applaud Beck’s ability to have so much cash on hand that he experiments with each new release.
Beck previously released an album by the name of “The Information” which was also accompanied by a strange method of release. The Information was released, in some cases, with a DVD which included a music video for every single track on the album. The album was also released with a blank sleeve and booklet with one of four different sets of sticks so that no two album covers were the same: “The artwork is going to be customizable. The idea is to provide something that calls for interactivity.”
That quote comes from a Wired Magazine interview in which Beck also notes:
“Artists can and should approach making an album as an opportunity to do a series of releases – one that’s visual, one that has alternate versions, and one that’s something the listener can participate in or arrange and change. It’s time for the album to embrace the technology.” – Beck
Now that Beck has embraced the technology, it appears that his newest release is taking a whole new direction. Just paper in a “lavishly produced hardcover carrying case” with “full-color, heyday-of-home-play-inspired art” created for each track by several artists. What it actually is though, if we might be so bold, is an opportunity to expand in ways a recorded album can’t. If there’s no original, noone can say, “the original was better.”
Will have to wait and see what the Beck lovers of the world do with the treasure trove they’ve just been given – see it soon in stores, of course! December 2012, that is.
[via Beck]
Beck “Song Reader” album cuts out the music is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
With the next chapter in the Bourne storyline ready to unfold on the big screen tomorrow, Director Tony Gilroy has been more than open about his cut-down on massive camera movement for eye candy. In an interview with Now Toronto’s Norman Wilner, Gilroy begins by noting how unexpected it was to be coming back to the series: “After I wrote Ultimatum, I was, ‘Man, I’ll never be back here again.” He quickly changed a tune once the ideas for a whole new character started flowing, and the aesthetic of the film itself was to be back on the drawing board as well.
With the first three Bourne movies so extremely well received in the box office and Matt Damon’s character Jason Bourne being the center point for the series based on books, it was time for Gilroy to explore a new avenue. As it is with any successful piece of media, there were going to be fans who dislike anything different that comes out in opposition to the first three Bourne movies. Thusly, Gilroy pulled out the metaphysical boat of ideas and got to work.
“They were in a post-Matt world, just sort of fishing around for what to do. There were a couple of ideas, bigger ideas, that everyone got interested in. But it really wasn’t until the character dropped on them – it was like, ‘Oh, my god.’ That’s what you look for.” – Gilroy
Now it’s all about the character Aaron Cross played by the quickly rising star Jeremy Renner, a man who you’ll likely recognize from his most recent giant role as Hawkeye in the films Thor and The Avengers. Though Gilroy describes this fourth installment of Bourne as “an upgrade” for the franchise, “more epic in terms of the breadth of the story,” he also describes how the “jangled aesthetic” (as Wilner describes it) will not be present here in 2012.
“Moving the camera that way is not necessarily the key to excitement. The other big problem was that it had been completely and utterly ripped off by everybody. I mean, everybody. Because it’s not difficult to do, it’s on TV now every night. It’s on commercials.” – Gilroy
Stick around for more Bourne action as the film pops up in theaters across the United States this weekend – head out and see it! And also don’t forget to jump in on our Entertainment portal for movie action well into the future!
Director Tony Gilroy yanks cameras on Bourne Legacy is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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