So you have seen my bottom 11 movies of last year so naturally it’s time for my top 11 or really my favorite 11 movies of 2011. This one will make me a bit happier inside rather then the pure hatred I had even listing the bad movies.

A few quick notes on the best and worst lists. First, some of these movies might have actually been released in the theater prior to 2011, but they all were viewed by me in 2011 from the red box. And after all, it’s all about me! Secondly, I don’t claim to have seen ALL the movies in the red box so it is possible  that I could have missed a gem or an even bigger piece of poo then listed on here. (And yes I say top and bottom 11 b/c in both there is a 1 and 1a)

So without further ado here is the top 11 of 2011!

10. Adjustment Bureau--> Quite the surprise in movie watching. I didn’t think I would like it at all. Turns out that it’s an easier movie to re-watch and enjoy then “Inception”. A good intelligent plot without being confusing, some sci-fi elements, and enough action to satisfy that part as well. Not too long so you wouldn’t dread watching it again.

9. The A-Team—> Don’t listen to the nay-sayers. This is a fun, witty, action romp and I hope they make more of them. Takes the tone and feel of the old show and puts that modern twist on it.

8. Green Lantern--> Speaking of I hope they make more of them! Ryan Reynolds IS Hal Jordan, and this is a good origin story. Props on making Oa a spectacle and an amazing performance by Mark Strong

7. The King’s Speech–> Another movie I didn’t want to like, but it just IS that good. Remember don’t watch any edited version without the language b/c they cut out too much of the best parts of the movie. The dialog between Rush and Firth really makes the movie and you simply cannot lose any of it. This is a rare movie you CAN believe the hype.

6. Crazy, Stupid, Love–> I try and not like Ryan Gosling, I really do. There is something about him I just don’t like. But, I really think it’s b/c he might actually be a good actor and really good at convincing me he’s a D-Bag (like most movies he is in). But it turns out he is real good in this movie, and the movie itself is pretty damn good. Top to bottom everyone is pretty good in it from the always great Emma Stone to the funny as hell doppelganger Steve Carell.   Might make you feel a little uncomfortable at times with some of the humor but it’s truly a good watch.

5. Paul –> Pure, Geek, Goodness. Pegg and Frost do it again. Love “Sean of the Dead” and you will love “Paul”. Love to laugh, you will love “Paul”. Great great, fun movie.

4. Larry Crowne —> A silently good low key film. There’s not any in your face conflict, nothing loud, no chases, no huge foil, but it still manages to deliver. Hanks and Roberts have a great chemistry and the supporting cast is a delight. Hell, even Cedric the Entertainer is funny. Don’t miss this one.

3. The Change-up —> Yep the year of the comedy continues. A second entry for Ryan Reynolds on the list and the first for Jason Bateman. These guys are great at mocking each other in the, it should really not be funny “Freeky Friday” schtick. Yet, it is. Get the un-rated version and get the kids out of the house it’s going to be a funny evening!

2. Horrible Bosses—> So I couldn’t resist getting Bateman on the list a 2nd time as well. This is the successful slapstick funny movie that SOOO many movies wanted to be this year. Where so many failed to live up to the hype (I am looking at you “Bridesmaids”, “Cedar Rapids” and “Hall Pass”) this one delivered in droves. Sudeikis and Day are prolly about the best supporting characters of the year, as they are smart, funny and have the best delivery in the biz. Look for them to be in a TON of guy comedies for years to come, and I won’t care at all.

1. Just Go With It. —> People can bash this predictable Sandler/Aniston rom-com all they want. I don’t care it’s funny and easy to watch (yes Brooklyn Decker doesn’t hurt it either). It seems Sandler is a flip a coin guy now with his movies. Heads they are good (like this), or tails they are complete piles of poo (Jack and Jill). A great date/spouse movie for her AND him, and one that won’t make him want to jump out the window (I am looking at you “Eat, Prey, Love”). Great movie, buy it.

1a. Going the Distance—> This was one of the first movies I reviewed in ’11 so it made the cut. Sure another Rom-Com and yes I do HATE Justin Long for all his “I am better then you” crap in real life, but the guy has a nack of delivering witty quips and a great chemistry with Drew Barrymore. It’s another movie that really is a Rom-Com but it manages to slip by guys b/c it’s so damn funny that it hides as more of a Com then the Rom. Again the kings of supporting roles Sudeikis and Day check in, putting this one over the top. And lets not forget a great job by Christina Applegate and Jim Gaffigan. Top to bottom in this one the cast kicks ass.

So there you have it all. Once again comedies reign supreme. There could have been some better action this year as only 3 of the 11 top ones were action-y flicks. I might lose my man-card for so many “rom-coms” but hey I just liked all of these this year better then even some of the super hero crap that came out (Yep Captain America you are kinda crap).

The next installment will have some honorable mentions and some lesser known movies which I think are real good movies for you to try out.

Well, 2011 grinded to a screeching halt on me in an epidemic of busy-ness in the real world. I wasn’t able to get up about 10 reviews I wanted to, and my own commentary on the Penny Arcade vs Ocean Media fiasco will have to be saved for another time, or swept under the rug entirely. I have resolved this year to get my ass back to a better schedule of blogging, and I am going to start this weekend with the best and worst of the 2011 Red Box rentals.

A few quick notes on the best and worst lists. First, some of these movies might have actually been released in the theater prior to 2011, but they all were viewed by me in 2011 from the red box. And after all, it’s all about me! Secondly, I don’t claim to have seen ALL the movies in the red box so it is possible  that I could have missed a gem or an even bigger piece of poo then listed on here. (And yes I say top and bottom 11 b/c in both there is a 1 and 1a)

So without further ado here is the bottom 11 of 2011!

10 The American–> Clooney is in the top 5 of my favorite actors, so George as an international spy/assassin should be a great movie right? Nope. This movie lacked much of a grabbing point, was slow, and just left a real WTF sour taste in my mouth. Just not even worth the 1$ for Clooney fans

9. Somewhere–> Oh Sofia Coppola, how you continue to make movies that disappoint me. Another movie that REALLY wants to have a plot but is nothing more then a couple week snapshot of a mediocre actors life. The lack of plot and closure disturbs me about her work. Would be higher on the list but Elle Fanning was fantastic in it.

8. Blue Valentine–> I often get on severely crazed rants about this movie. I think it’s b/c all we need is 2 maybe 3 more scenes in the beginning or middle to make it a complete movie. There are some movies I don’t mind filling in the blanks myself and there are others where there are just too many blanks to fill in. Too many blanks= poor writing/directing, and that makes for an angry GeekJock. Don’t buy the hype, this movie will leave you annoyed and frustrated.

7. American Loser–> I almost didn’t put this Indy on the list b/c it is such an Indy. But, it’s confusing, frustrating and just downright boring at times. I expect more from a supposed “true” story and expect more from you Stiff-meister

6. I Love You Phillip Morris—> Wow, you will say WTF about 100x in this one. Even when you buy into the over the topness of it all, you will still wish to be killed or for it to end, whichever is easier and quicker. Jim Carey and Ewen McGregor can’t even save this ship from sinking. You will wish you had that $1.40 back after this one for sure. The time spend watching it you won’t want to speak of ever again. It’s an example of a movie that I dislike more after thinking about it later then I did when I watched it initially. Which is unusual, even for a bad movie.

5. Your Highness–> Again I SOOOO, wanted to give this one a pass b/c it’s got some funny people in it, it’s not supposed to be good, and well some nice boobs, but man I just can’t bring myself to think it’s anything other then pure crap. It’s not MacGruber crap, but crap none the less. Even if I use the “only watch it while drinking and with the guys” disclaimer I am not sure it breaks out of the bottom 11.

4. Buried–> Ryan Reynolds has the distinction of being on the top AND bottom of 2011. This one sucks b/c it kinda gets you into it in the beginning, gets ridiculous in the middle and just BLOWS at the end. Don’t waste your time seeing or even saying you have seen it. Just run away. NOW

3. Tree of Life–> Yes, I know it’s Terrence Malick. Which means either I should have known what I was getting into, OR some people would say I should respect the greatness. F* that. This is a movie that I say without a shadow of a doubt I could take, remove about 60 mins of run time and add in about 5-10 scenes and it would be good even bordering great movie. It’s got potential in the story, but Malick has to bog it down with images and metaphoric/existential bull crap. Stop trying to prove you are special and/or better then all of us Malick, we are not buying it. It’s a movie that I disliked so much after seeing it that I couldn’t even take time out of the busy last couple of months to even review.

2. Skyline–> HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU take sci-fi and make it such crap! This movie is good for about 15 mins. until “that point”. That point where it all of a sudden takes a turn to utter WTF-ness. And I don’t mean in a we all know it’s crap movie way. I can deal with that in movies that aren’t trying to be good. But, Skyline is trying to be a good sci-fi movie , and even trying to get people to buy into a sequel premise. By the midpoint you know there is no saving it and want to just turn it off. Don’t turn it off, just don’t watch it.PERIOD

1a. Never Let Me Go—> I knew when I was writing the review MONTHS ago this would be among the if not the worst movies of the year. Just pointless, slow, boring, brutal plot holes and depressing but we don’t care movie. It’s a drama/romance type with the hidden trick/surprise that it’s kinda sci-fi-y. Don’t be fooled with that. It SUUUUUCCCCKKKKKSSSS. You might be either asleep or have shot your blu-ray player by the end of the 1st act. Drab, Dreary and shitty.

1. Black Death–> Another Indy I would have kept off the list cept for the fact that it has Boromir himself (Sean Bean) in it, it’s medieval/fantasy themed and they have pushed his face and the movie so much in the box b/c of the recent success of “Game of Thrones”. The production sucks, the plot execution is even worse. You could have made this magical/horror/action flick into one with some redeeming qualities but in the end it has NONE. Burn this one at the stake before it can infect anyone else with it’s shittiness. It was so bad I didn’t even want to waste more then a couple of sentences on a review!

There you have it, 11 stinker flicks to just STAY AWAY from at the red box. Coming up this weekend, 11 movies you might actually WANT to see, and also some more sleepers I think you should see!

Hanna (2011–111mins) Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana  

Erik (Bana) and his daughter Hanna (Ronan), have been living in ultimate seclusion during the girl’s whole life. The ex CIA operative has been training the girl for the entirely to be an assassin, and a damn good one at that. Her whole life has been training for one mission and one mission only, and that time to execute the mission is upon her. Suddenly one day out of the blue it’s time for her to go on her mission and for her father to do his part. She sets off all the while being tracked by other operatives and a woman who seems to be hell-bent on bringing her down (Blanchett).

“Hanna” is basically a CIA movie wrapped into one HUGE elaborate chase for 2 hours. That’s not really a bad thing, as the action is great, the shots are well done and the actors are equally up to the challenge. The plot is “hole”-y at best and tends to end some things abruptly but I will give that part a pass as it was just fun as hell to watch Ronan kick ass as Hanna, and take out nearly whole armies single-handed. What also brings some decent intrigue to the film is the fact that this whole time while she is on this mission, she is learning about the world. From small things like cars and electricity to larger things, like who the hell am I and why/how did I get here. It gets us all thinking about how many little things we tend to take for granted as well.

Verdict–> A great action movie. It has some flaws and plot holes but try and not think about those after the fact so much. Just sit back and watch Hanna Kick ass on multiple continents and then do it more. Don’t look too deep for much more then what it is, b/c it’s not terribly deep. Just get some popcorn and enjoy. A top recommendation for those who like Jason Bourne and James Bond. Not a bad combo with a light comedy to loosen the mood after blatant killing.

Hesher (2010– 106 mins) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Devin Brochu and Natalie Portman 

There have always been stories in film involving the mysterious stranger who comes out of nowhere to help some main characters to solve some trouble and then fade into the blackness or walk off into the sunset when it’s all done. Whether it’s a Clint Eastwood character for adults, or Nanny Mcphee for the kids. Here we get the ultimate foul mouthed alternative to the mysterious stranger in “Hesher”.

A boy TJ (Bronchu), and his father (Rainn Wilson) are having a tough time coping with the loss of his mother. They are both in a deep depressive place and cannot seem to break out of it. In comes Hesher. Hesher is a smoking, drinking, story telling, do anything to piss off authority figures type of guy. In a way he kinda takes the boy under his wing, without actually doing so. He doesn’t stick up for the kid or teach him things the normal manner. His typical way of handling a bully is by torching the kid’s family car. And to impart any sort of wisdom he will tell an elaborate yet completely porn laced dirty story, which we realize after about the 2nd or 3rd story are complete metaphors for his little “lessons”. (Spoilers—>) Eventually he starts to break through to TJ’s dad and somehow gets the family through stuff before, like all mysterious figures, walking off into the sunset in his own “Hesher” way.

The movie itself started off a bit slow and was hard to wrap my head around for a bit till you start to get a feel for all the characters, especially Hesher himself. Reflecting back, it becomes not a movie plot flaw, but rather a way to show you how messed up the two of them really are. It’s almost a complete parallel to the pace of the movie. As the movie picks up and things start to evolve so does our enjoyment. I think some people might find this to be a flaw, but I enjoyed what it brought out of the story itself. Naturally Gordon-Levitt steals the show as Hesher and once you get past how weird of a character it is for him, you see how brilliantly he plays the derelict with a metaphor for everything. Unfortunately, he’s about all that stands out performance-wise in this one. Portman and Wilson are near invisible in the film as spare pieces used to bring some more big names to the poster. It’s not that they were bad, just under-used and under-written for in the movie.

Verdict–> It’s not a master piece or a family film, but that being said, I liked it quite a bit. His stories themselves are worth the time of watching. They are funny, completely inappropriate and yet completely enlightening for the plot. As they start to unfold and shape the kid the movie takes stride and finishes strong. Not a movie for kids or those people who might be easily offended by things. If you like off the beaten path indies and some dark humor laughs then by all means pick this up if you see it in the red box. Good Recommendation.

Friends with Benefits (2011–109 mins) Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake and Patricia Clarkson

Immediately upon getting “Friends with Benefits” from the Red Box I started to think about the Kutcher/Portman movie “No Strings Attached”. As always in Hollywood, there are always competing projects on good subjects. And the subject of casual sex never gets old. So what we get are the competition of Kutcher/Portman and Kunis/Timberlake. I will save you some time and just say you can catch my review of “No Strings Attached” HERE. Long story short on both of these movies…. not only did I like the Kutcher rom-com, but I liked this one with Kunis/JT even more.

Friends brings Kunis out to the west coast as a head hunter for GQ magazine. She is hunting for the next big art exec for the company and is out to bring JT to NY for the job. The two outgoing people become friends and soon sex-buddies. Of course neither want a relationship but as with all of these casual sex movies they both start to have those feelings, and I will leave it at that.

Where Friends succeeds and Strings fails  is the whiny side. Don’t get me wrong both are GREAT movies but Strings has a little bit more of the whiny down slope then Friends does. Right when you think Friends might be becoming whiny it closes it up a bit and fixes the problem. Kunis (like Portman) is extremely hot and extremely likable/funny in the film so that’s a wash. JT and Kutcher are both outgoing funny guys who have great comedic timing but JT has a quality that he doesn’t come across goofy all the time like Kutcher tends to— Advantage Friends. The supporting cast is more friend based in Strings and they are all above avgerage and funny, where in Friends the supporting cast is more family. The only real friend in the flick is Woody Harrelson, who while funny and all just doesn’t match the ensemble that Strings brings to the table— Advantage Strings.

See both movies bring a ton of positives to them, and both are the same running time(give or take a min) but Strings will feel longer b/c of the slight whiny factor. So when in doubt and forced to pick one pick out Friends with Benefits. But make sure you grab Strings for the next date (just not both together!).

Verdict–> A great date movie (just not for the 1st date–would be too uncomfortable) which is funny and a ton of fun. Pair it up with a good action romp or drama for a perfect double feature. I think guys and girls a like would like it. A top recommendation which could end up on my top 10 movies of the year.

Captain America:The First Avenger (2011–124 mins) Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving

We are all fairly familiar with the great American hero that is Steve Rogers. Good old Captain America. This movie is little more then a tent pole or trailer for the big movie “The Avengers” next summer. It is little more then an origin story with the requisite couple of action scenes and campy Easter eggs for the big fans. Sure it’s a family hit b/c it’s got more of the A-Team like violence where it’s kinda more implied then anything else but it’s not going to be a movie that will keep you coming back for more and more with needing repeated watches.

So the back story for the non comic fans out there. The movie takes place during WWII and everyone wants to get on board and kill some Nazi’s (I guess Brad Pitt didn’t get enough of em so there are people who want to get the rest). However, Steve Rogers is a courageous SOB with a body like DJ Qualls. In other words no matter how much he wants the Army is just not going to take him. Until, that is, a scientist on a top secret mission for good old Uncle Sam sees the potential in Stevey boy. So he hooks Steve up in a program which will inject him with some serum to make him all he can be, and BOOM Captain America is born. The rest of the movie is the whole see Cappy take out the Nazi’s which, like I said, is good old fashion fun but could have been better.

There is the requisite number of cameos and the usual after the credits thing so this is where all of the commercial for the Avengers comes in. The movie is just so so as a whole but the kids will like it and it is kinda wife friendly too. One of the things I thought was just piss poor was the CG of all the shots before Rogers becomes Cap. It looks AWFUL, and that’s an understatement. I figured they could come up with some better tricks but it looks real BAD.

The movie simply was over hyped and got entirely too much press for what it was. I didn’t mind watching it once yet, once was enough. But, I am sure I will love the Avengers anyway(which is going to be REAL hard to pull off right with all the heroes in it tho).

Verdict–> A good summer blockbuster to see once and forget about until “The Avengers” comes out. It will satisfy the want to see it in all of us, but don’t bother buying it. A solid family rental but not much more.

Hey GeekJock what’s the deal? Why have you been so damn slack for the last month or two???

Well at least I have a fairly good excuse for being slack. Ever since July I have been planning a charity event in honor of my daughter who has been diagnosed with Turner Syndrome for just under 2 years. I had always heard of these video gaming marathons people did for charity and decided that I would do the same, cept I would take my beloved hobby of board gaming and have my own marathon.

Thus I created a charity called Gamers for Cures and then the 24 Hour Board Game Marathon to benefit the Turner Syndrome Society of the US was born. I had approached my favorite friendly local game score, The Gamers Armory, and simple as pie we had a place to hold the event. The board gaming community as a whole was AWESOME with their support. Game publishers rallied around my requests and before long I had a bunch of games donated by publishers for use in raffles and giveaways for the event. I then got 14 people to volunteer to raise money and partake in the whole 24 hours of the event. I couldn’t believe how well it all was coming together. Add in some great publicity from great podcasts including The Dice Tower, Pulp Gamer’s Out of Character, What would Patton do, The Geek All-Stars and The State of Games and we were already starting to raise money on First Giving months before the event even took place.

Fast forward a bit to last weekend Nov 12th, the big day. After all the hard work Mrs. GeekJock, myself and Crystal and Scott from the Gamers Armory put in, it was finally here. We ended up with 50 items we had up for 1$ box raffles (you buy the tickets for 1$ each, as many as you want, and then put them in boxes corresponding to the specific item you want). Some great items were in this raffle including Eminent Domain, 1st edition ASL, A Few Acres of Snow, Discworld:Ankh-morpork -Collectors Edition, Alien Frontiers, Yomi -Complete 1st edition. We also had a 5$ big raffle we sold tickets for which included prizes such as an iPad2, MTG:From the Vault, Dominant Species,

We had a TON of great games in our dollar box raffles.

Defenders of the Realm + Dragon Expansion. People also donated on the day of the event getting complementary T-Shirts and door prizes. We ended up raising an amazing amount of money surpassing our initial goal by a ton… but I will get to that amount in a little while. First a little re-cap of the event.

The day started off bright and early. I woke up early picked up the Redheaded Pharmacist and we picked up breakfast. Chik Fil-A of Apex donated breakfast for our marathon players and it was nothing less then amazing. They gave us a bunch of breakfast sandwiches, some coffee, some sweat tea and a fruit tray. A great way to start our 24 hours of board gaming goodness off. The gaming started shortly after gobbling down some chicken biscuits, as I taught a couple of the gamers Alien Frontiers and saw a nice 4 player game going, and on the other table they had Thunderstone going on. Right after that we got a nice 6 player game of 7 Wonders going which was great. I simply love the game, especially being it scales well no matter how many people you have playing and that it doesn’t increase the time to play at all. Once the doors opened for the store to the public at 10am I had some friends stop by and I broke out King of Tokyo. K-o-Tokyo is always a good hit among seasoned gamers and rookies alike and today was no exception. We had a decent crowd around it for close to 2 hours but alas it was almost tim for the Tri-athalon tournament  to start. I still had to pick up lunch, which was graciously provided to the marathon players by Jersey Mike’s of Cary! So I grabbed the awesome subs wolfed one down and started to round up everyone who was going to play in the tournament.  The idea behind the tourney was to have 3 tables going of  4 people and rotate each round and get some winners of the games that were played. We had a table for Settlers of Catan, one for Small World Underground, and one with 2 shorter games– Dominion (with base+Cornucopia) and Quarriors!. I had to abandon getting my butt kicked at King of Tokyo by the 7 year olds and take my place among the tourney players. I had a great time playing in the tourney and managed to come in 2nd place overall! A bit of luck and a bit of skill but a LOT of fun.

Triathalon tourney winners

From noon until 10pm we had hourly door prizes for all those in attendance. Anyone who was in the store at the time of the door prizes received a ticket for the current drawing, and then they were able to take an item from the box of goodies. People really seemed to enjoy this a lot and I couldn’t believe how fast hours were melting away between each hourly drawing.

Next up,after some great pizza donated to the marathoners by Primo Pizza next door, was the Ascension tourney! Man oh man do I love me some Ascension. I got put at a rough table to start as all 4 of us were very good players. The good old Redheaded Rx beat up on the table and I had a rough game never getting much luck at all and round 1 was in the books and I was in last at the table. But, all was not lost as we had 2 more rounds to go. I finished tied for first in the next table with my other co-host of the Geek Allstars podcast Gyroplay (Todd) and then we were thrown together in the final table as well, which I also managed to get the best of him. This time though I had an amazing game just getting killer draw after killer draw and simply ran away with the table. Over on the other tables Mrs. Geekjock was doing well in her tables but she ran into the juggernaut that would be Red in her final table of the night who cleaned up again, en route to his berth in the final table. As for me and Todd, it seems our tieing for 1st on the 2nd table did us in, splitting those points and we were left out of the running for the finals, and that left Red as the only one of our 4 to make it to the final table. Red managed to finish in 2nd in the tourney, getting himself a copy of the Expansion (Reutrn of the Fallen), which he was real happy to get.

Once the Ascension tourney was over it was finally time for the ever anticipated raffles to occur! Crystal and Scott had been working on the game day $1 winners

Gyroplay unsure if we will save the world or not in Elder Sign

during the final table of the tourney and then we all gathered around for the big ticket raffles. Red was on quite a roll this day as he managed to win one of the 1$ raffle prizes and also won the big ticket copy of Dominant Species. I am real happy for him about the DS win, but that is prolly only b/c now our little gaming group has a copy we get to play on a regular basis hehe. The iPad went to the Giordano’s who not only simply bought their ticket the day before the marathon, they only bought ONE TICKET! I guess it’s one of those things, if it’s meant to be, it’s truly meant to be!

After the raffles things started to settle down some more as people began to head home and we pretty much only had the marathoners and the extra players who donated to get the all night pass to stay in the store after hours to play with us, left in the store. At this time a few of the guys were still playing Fortress America, my daughter Lauren was getting a lesson from Joey C in Magic: The Gathering (my wallet is not happy she learned this), and I jumped into a game of Elder Sign with Todd and Ruth. I like Elder Sign quite a bit and we went on an amazing roll (pun intended!) and came away with the win vs the Great Old One! NExt up while more people played some King of Tokyo, others played even more Ascension, and the Fortress group finally finished after 5 hours and moved to Acquire, the co-hosts and I set up in the back room for the LIVE taping of The Geek Allstars Podcast! We checked in from the event and had a killer chat with Crystal and Scott, interviewing them about our event and the history of the Gamers Armory as well. I really enjoyed talking to them and I think the show came out great.

BUT, it was time to get back to gaming! Todd, Red Adam O, and I got a game of Belfort going next and I think I can speak for all 4 of us when I say we had a blast. It’s a great game which is amazingly fun, never the same twice and you also have no idea how fast the time goes. Behind us they had a game of Revolution! going which sounded like it was quite hotly contested too. Once Belfort was complete there wasn’t a whole lot of time left for the Marathon. Somehow the day was nearly over and all we had time for was a quicky game of 7 Wonders to bring us home after a full day/night of gaming.

When it was all said and done we had raised OVER $7,000 for the Turner Syndrome Society!!! I simply cannot believe how much we raised, how much fun we had, and how receptive everyone was to the event. Not only that, the best sign of the day was that, at

GeekJock with daughter Lauren, and Crystal and Scott from the Gamers Armory

8am, no one was talking about how tired they were. EVERYONE was talking about how much fun they had and how they simply could not wait to get back to being in the event next year!

So there you have it. Sorry I have been a bit slack on the blog lately but it’s not without good cause. With any luck I will be able to get these 7 or so movie reviews I have to get  to done soon, and my usual rants about this and that should continue again soon. But until then please check out some of the great sponsors of the event, check out the site for more of the info about the event (www.gamersforcures.com) and of course check out our gracious hosts The Gamers Armory.

–Geekjock

X-men: First Class (2011– 132 mins) James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence 

The going opinions out there, that I heard, for the X-Men “prequel” of sorts was quite a mixed bag. I don’t really count the whole fan boy opinions b/c no matter what you will have polarizing opinions from them (the usual varrying from the greatest ever to awful, for reasons like too comic-y, bad story, crappy timeline, not true enough to source blah blah). Yet, even from people I trust on these matters. there was the same polarization so I was still quite interested in seeing it. Right away it goes into giving us some back story about the two main characters Professor X and Magneto. The movie makes no bones that it wants us to get two things out of it. First how these two became such good friends yet adversaries (which the trilogy tries to beat us over the head with), and it wants to throw a bunch of characters at us both good and bad and make us care at least a little about them all.

The film does a good job of creating the first initial X-Men and also of making a threat to this super team, by having a super villain team of its own. This team of villains is lead by none other then Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw. Here in lies the problem I have with the film. I will fully admit, I like Bacon as an actor. He’s good in most everything he is in, MOST. Here he might have delivered a decent performance but I could not take him seriously as a super hero villain AT ALL. It’s such a stretch and so off putting that it’s almost uncomfortable every time he is on the screen. I am not sure why the movie even needed him in it. They did such a great job casting wise with some so so mainstreamers but for the most part lesser knowns. They didn’t need a primo name like Bacon in it anyway. The only other thing I didn’t like about the movie is they try to get every one of the new X-Men their little moment in the sun in the climax and other points in the movie. Sometimes it works out but for a bunch of the characters it’s forced and not very well done. It’s all too obvious that it’s what they are doing and it takes away from the action and the climax that is going on.

These few negatives aside I did have a blast with the movie. It just wasn’t 100% what it could have been. I wouldn’t mind seeing more with these characters b/c hey I am a sucker for super hero ensembles. Jennifer Lawrence is an amazing Mystique, even if the whole idea of them showing her changing sides seems more of a “see how we did that?” moment. I would say if you like fun action movies, or super hero flicks then rent it today.

Verdict–> A real fun movie with a few noticeable flaws but you will still like it anyway. Just try to keep from laughing too hard at Bacon in a movie like this. Top recommendation to grab it from the red box today!

For the second year in a row, IMHO Bliz-con was a complete bore to follow. I had been wanting to go to it for some time now, but after these last two years I think I am more then happy to just read about what went on, on-line. I would rather try and get to PAX Gen-Con or Origins then waste time and money for 2 days of same old same old at BLizz Con, but that’s a discussion for a different day.

So back to the orig point. Last year we were waiting on Cataclysm to come out so all we got was info that we basically already knew (because it was “coming soon” for 18 months and one OTHER Blizz-con), and then some fairly new info on Diablo 3. Not much info on the next Starcraft and no info whatsoever on the new “top secret” MMO Blizzard is working on.

THIS YEAR, we got the announcement of the new expansion for WoW– “Mists of Pandaria”, and some same old same old info on Diablo 3. Nothing on the next Starcraft or the new MMO. So as you can see another year of just not much excitement. They also announced that they are making a 12 month subscription model you can sign up for (billed monthly) and then you will get Diablo 3 FREE. Oh, you think a new WoW expansion SHOULD have me screaming and yelling in excitement? Well, normally yes. But why isn’t this one? Well let’s get started as to why….

“Mists of Pandaria” has been a bit of a poorly kept secret for some time, since in recent time BLizzard had been spotted securing the copyright for the name. So people had it all but figured out that it would either be the next expansion or down the road. The same kinda goes for the “Emerald Dream” which a billion outlets have said would be next for 3 expansions now, so who knows when that will be. What ever happened to the idea that Blizz would never make Pandas characters in game b/c they are sacred or something in China? Guess they either don’t care, or don’t think it will influence it enough.

So what does this expansion have in store for us:

• Pandarans as a playable race for both factions
• Monk as a playable class
• Level cap raised to 90 (up by 5 from last expansion)
• Complete Talent tree overhaul
• PvE Scenarios
• Dungeon “Challenge” mode
• Heroic Scarlet monestary, and Scholomance
• Pet Battles

Ok I want to tackle each one of these with my thoughts. You can look on Wow Insider or Ten Ton Hammer for some of the specifics, so I will just give my 2 cents here on each of them.

Pandarans as a playable race— Yep BLizz you have done it. You have completely jumped the shark making a “cutsie” race such as kung fu fighting pandas. Every single art picture and in game shot I have seen has made me absolutely cringe. They look awful. Sure the “art” or design of it is nice and all the whole idea of it makes me vomit. I just don’t see much of a scenerio where I would like this race choice. At least in Cataclysm the whole ideas of Goblin and Worgen was a good one. They both worked perfectly in it all. BIG BIG minus here Blizzard.

Monk as a new Class-— Well I was hoping for a long time since Cataclysm was announced to someday soon see a new class. Well here it is, and I couldn’t care one bit. It’s on par with the brutality of having Pandarens in the game. They will have a new resource/mana type of system using “chi” and have different moves they can pull off with another bar or orb or something. Basically think of a rogue combined with a death knight with respect to playstyle. It’s on par with the whole theme of the expansion, but also on par with my not caring one bit. Another BIG minus here.

Level Cap raised to 90– Well sure I am glad they are raising the level cap. But I am 10000% against raising caps by 5 at a time. Of course this can keep me hopeful that when we DO get the next expansion after this one we will get that 10 level expansion to get us to 100. But at this rate it will be 2015 or 2016 before we get that one, making it a huge expansion for a 10 year anniversary (my math could be off there of course–so sue me) but will WoW be relevant still? It will be still around for sure, but relevancy is another thing entirely. I know they don’t want to fall in the trap of what some MMO’s and their players do not like, with too many levels making it all a barrier for entry to the new player, but 5 levels here is just fixing the problem that Cataclysm had. Not enough new leveling. The big problem was we only had to get from 80-85 and it was way too easy to do so with such a huge amount of exp out there. My 1st character I went out and just did professions while I was at work. Namely just flying around gaining artifacts and prospecting, and I got 3 levels on that alone. Just poor exp planning by Blizz keeping it to 5 levels for Cata. I think a 10 level Cata might have made it all feel a little less drab. So yay for more levels Boo for it only being 5. But since it’s an expansion I am already down on, I think the 5 levels is good. So this is neither a yay or nay thing in the scheme of it all.

Complete Talent Tree Overhaul–> WOW really Blizz? A complete overhaul??? WTF… let me say this again WTF!!!! You have got to be kidding me. This will mark the 3rd time in as many expansions that we will be overhauling the way talent systems will work. I wasn’t 100% against the last one b/c I kinda understood where they were going. Trying to eliminate too many meaningless talents and making less of them “mandatory” in the grand scheme. Even tho it might have made it all MORE cookie cutter, I was kinda ok with how it played out. They seemed to just work.

What are we going to do now? Well here’s the gist. At level 10 you will still pick a specialization. Then as you level you will get spells etc on a fairly normal pace but not able to pick any of them, just kinda trained. The talent trees will now only have points to spend every 5 levels. Yep you read that right. SIX whole choices as you level EVER. And no they aren’t monumental choices either. They are basically variations of the same choice. It’s not that I don’t like the choices, it’s that I hate the fact that we will only have 6 choices the whole time we are leveling. They are completely going away from everything they have ever said about trees. They don’t want it cookie cutter but by reducing the choices every time, that’s EXACTLY what they are doing. They are making that ONE spec for PvE and the ONE spec for Raiding having to be had even more. Nope I don’t like this idea one bit. Alas, here is a sample of what you will see, as WoW-head already has the calculator up for you to check out now… check it out HERE.

So why do I hate it so much? Well my main problem is kinda two-fold. On one hand I have always loved that Bliz has ALWAYS tried to make every class/race combo 100% balanced. So much so that they want you to be able to choose any combo and that person should be able to compete 1 on 1 with any other and be a viable help to a group or battle. That’s all fine and good but I am not sure what it is. Have they gotten lazy and just want to strip it all down to so little that it’s a piece of cake to balance? Have they just given up? I think a little of both. What was always so appealing to me for the game from day 1 in the talent system was the many choices you could make and make it work for your style. Make all styles good, don’t strip it down to where you can’t help but be good b/c so little choices that they all are about equal. BOOO HISSSSS Blizzard, very poor form here. They REALLY need to steal a bit from the RIFT class/talent system. RIFT has so many choices to choose from in the soul/class system and it’s infinitely fun. You can respec every few levels and fall in love with a whole new play style and the levels just seem to melt away. You have no idea you are even leveling. And the whole time you feel overpowered! Sure it seems that every day there are balance issues, but everyone is so overpowered that, IMHO everyone is just a beast and the overpowered are just more of a beast then others. It just never seems to matter in there. Again Blizzard has let me down with this announcement.

PVE Scenarios— I think here they are trying to find more things for smaller groups to get into and find more things for people to do instead of grind. Have the grind not feel so much like one. Stealing a small page from LOTRO book with this idea. This is trying to stop the burn out of “I only have X time to play and [yawn] the same old crap to do”. So now they are adding these to have someone be able to have 3 or more, friends/guildies and go out and do a quick scenario run with whatever group make up for some of them, and have fun in a short period of time. Finally, something that if done the way that I think it can be done, will be GOOD for the game. Bravo Blizzard.

Dungeon “challenge” modes and Heroic Scholo, and SM— I am neutral here as well. I always kinda liked both of those instances to be honest, so a heroic version might not be too bad. Let me rephrase that… now that Blizz is re-thinking what “Heroic” means in the new expansion it might not be too bad. In Lich King, Heroics were hard but it only took some gear and practice to get it all right and get used to it. In Cataclysm “Heroic” was stupidly hard even for seasoned dungeoneers. At least Blizz has recognized this fact and are trying to make it so that the majority of the players can see them. No matter what they have done in the past, the game still is 80% of the game is seen by 20% of the population. I STILL to this day have not seen Illidan, the Lich King or Ragnaros killed even in their original form. Granted I am not and only for a small time was, a hardcore type raider. Yet I have been playing from day one and have done just about every 5 man in the game (and have 5 80+s) and would like to be able to see such content for logging in so much hours. So sure on paper I like these ideas, and I like the idea of timed dungeon runs and some other ideas they have for “challenges” in dungeons, but like some other things I will believe it when I see it.

Pet Battles— A mini game in which peoples pet collection will fight. Um yeah I can kinda care less. I put this in the realm of the “dance studio” they talked about years ago, in things I hope never get implemented. Yet, so many people are pet hogs collectors  that I bet they will make sure this gets into the game.

Before I get into my final thoughts I wanted to touch on the yearly subscription model. Now initially I thought “GREAT”, even tho naturally it comes out 3 weeks after I officially cancelled my WoW subscription for the 3rd time. I have always kinda wanted this model b/c hell, I have been playing that long, might as well get me something that saves me even MORE money per month and get some freebies out of it as well. So I figured I would go re-sub get Diablo 3 free and play here and there until the Expansion comes out. But then the logical thinking came over me. Sure Diablo will be free, but it’s likely to cost me what.. 60$ for the standard and maybe 90$ for the collectors at most? (I say at most b/c I don’t think I would buy it for more then that no matter what is in it). Now let’s also say that Pandaria is going to come out at absolute earliest 18 months from now. Without looking into it I would say the biggest discount that the money hounds at blizz will give us for the year sub will be 10$ per month. So that’s 180$ to be able to stay in game and get D3 free and a few goodies. Nope, sorry that extra 80-100$ more isn’t quite enough for me to sub to a game I won’t play much in the next 18-24 months. Just look now at the next 6 months. Right now Arkham City, then Skyrim, then SWTOR, then Kingdoms of Amalur, and somewhere in there Torchlight 2. On top of that I am sure I am missing something. Nope, now that I think of it I won’t be signing up for a yearly sub.. But kudos to you Blizz for getting a ton of people to re-up right now with promises of a free d3 and beta invites. A bit sleazy but effective.

Final thoughts—> Well I have said it a ton of times. I am a BLizzard fan boy at heart, and I even own a decent amount of Blizz Stock. BUT, I am no where near a person who is snowed into thinking they are perfect. In fact, of late their decisions have made me think that it might be time to take my money and run. I simply am not happy with how little they have been accomplishing with their games in such a long time. This expansion is due in ’13. REALLY? 18-24 months blizz? I have grown weary of the “when it’s ready” excuse from Blizz now. In the past it was all fine and good b/c they were usually in a timely manner. Well with 2-3 years now between expansions it’s not timely any more. And when you are raking in somewhere in the avenue of 150MILLION dollars a MONTH you can pay enough quality people to get these things done. And I wouldn’t say it’s RUSHED when you are paying and putting in the man hours. Speaking as a shareholder Blizz and a huge fan, get your act together. Don’t give us boring Blizz-cons and Kung Fu panda expansions. Get things rolling and give us something good, and get Diablo 3 out before Christmas so you can sell a bazillion of those boxes as well.

So yes, Kung Fu Panda expansions = big fat jumping the shark, and also quite likely a crappy 2012 Blizz con as well (even tho by then they might HAVE to give us “Titan” info to keep people happy, b/c re-hashing Panda info won’t quite cut it— and prolly neither will simple Starcraft 2 episode info). Gonna have to give BLizzard a C – for this Blizz con wrap up guys. Surprise me with that Christmas release and I might end the year not so pissed at you.

–GJ rant over

Win Win (2011–106 mins) P. Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Alex Shaffer 

Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) is an everyman who tries to do the right thing for everyone else all the time. He takes up for his clients, he does extra work himself in the office, volunteers as a high school wrestling coach, and tries to always be the perfect father and husband. The biggest problem with this is, it put him behind in life financially and he’s between a rock and virtual bankruptcy. He does something completely outside of himself in getting himself declared the legal guardian for one of his clients, and sticking him in an old folks home in order to pocket a chunk of a monthly check form the government. One day tho, the clients grandson,Kyle (Shaffer) comes running to him for help (even though they have hardly ever met), and a place to live while his mom is in rehab for the thousandth time, only to find he is in a home. Mike then decides to take the kid into his own home for a while until things can fully get straightened out. Kyle is a good kid and takes to the family well, and also happens to be a world class wrestler, which helps out Mike even more in life. Everything is going peachy in our story until, that is, Kyle’s mom shows up. Naturally the one shady thing in life that Mike has done will come back to haunt him later.

The film is a character study about a man taking a lost kid under his belt and being the father figure he never had. These two truly need each other in life for their souls to grow a bit. Mike needs someone to show him he is a good person and father, and Kyle needs that stability of a family and a father figure. The obvious problem arises when the father figure Kyle looks up to and loves, turns out to be just as betraying (in his mind) as the useless addict mother he has. The trick is how will everyone figure out how to make it work and how will it all end. Well, you will have to rent it and check out the whole journey and not the cliffs-notes version I just gave you. It’s really a great movie in my opinion. The two actors perform so well with each other, that you would think they really were related. So well, in fact, that it’s hard to believe that this is Shaffer’s first and only acting credit. He plays Kyle so well that you feel like you are looking at a real kid in trouble. There’s not a terribly huge amount that goes on in the film but it’s still a great, and interesting watch.

Verdict—> A great character movie/story that I think anyone will enjoy. Not too long, so good for a two movie night, and enjoyable enough for any sort of movie audience, but still might be a bit much for anyone under 13 or so. A top pick recommendation from the red box. Pick it up,, has a good chance to end up on my top 10 red box movies of this year.