Off the Top of My Head #12: Warhammer 40K Orks Dreadtrukk

On May 8, 2013May 7, 2013 By James CastroIn Games, Random Fun5 Comments

If it wasn’t clear from my previous posts, most recently the one about Dreamlike Gaming (congrats on the new store guys!) I’m pretty well into the Warhammer/Warhammer 40k hobby now.

Over the last couple months I’ve built two 40k armies. One went along with the release of the new Dark Angels codex. Dark Angels are troubled and all about smiting chaos (with their own flaws so that makes them interesting) not to mention a super-cool robed look. I love my Dark Angels army and pics of them will be coming soon. However…my favorite 40k army is orks.

Orks are a great horde army. All movement and weight of fire. They have a terrific all-id attitude and slight regard for personal survival; it’s all about the good fight.

One of the tragedies of the orks is their slightly humorous persona. Orks ARE funny and I do love that about them, but their cockney slang accents and brutish attitude usually make them difficult to tell entire stories for. I’d hate to see them lose their sense of humor but I’d like to see some good, long narratives from Black Library about them. Like Rodney Dangerfield….they get no respect. Except Ghazghkull.. If you don’t believe me read Chains of Golgotha and see how menacing this guy is.

My favorite tabletop aspect of orks is their junkyard tech. They can make things work just be believing they work, and can “loot” vehicles from other races, make ’em orky, and use them under the “looted wagon” codex profile (btw orks REALLY need a 6th edition codex…c’mon Games Workshop!)

Keeping this in mind I was able to get my hands on a Chaos Defiler for a discount price and, as I truly despise the traitors, I knew I’d never use it in a chaos army…but I could loot it!

Since it’s half Deff Dread and half Trukk I dubbed it the “Dreadtrukk.” It has parts of a Chaos Defiler, Battlewagon, Trukk, Land Raider Crusader, Wartrakk, Dakkajet, and Warbike to name a few.

Attached are pics of my looted Chaos defiler. It was a challenge to build, but I created it under codex rules and gave it:

DredTrukk	Points	Number Taken	Total
Original Points: 35			35
Skorcha	15	1	15
Big Shoota	5	2	10
Red Paint Job	5	1	5
Stikkbomb Chukka	5	1	5
Armour Plates	10	1	10
Boarding Plank	5	1	5
Wreckin’ Ball	10	1	10
Reinforced Ram	5	1	5
Grabbin’ Klaw	5	1	5

Total			105

The lower “jaw” is obviously the reinforced ram from the battlewagon. Believe it or not it is held in place with the left “arm” weapon of the Chas defiler left in two pieces. It worked remarkably well.

The Skorcha is actually the Flamestorm cannons from a Land Raider Redeemer. I made the Crusader variant but liked the look of the flamer so I was glad to use it. The turret still raises and lowers slightly which means the jaw actually “works.”

Inside the “mouth” is a ram head from a warbike.

The boarding planks I attached to the back of the trukk bed rather than the sides. Since the legs are on the sides it gives a bit more range, plus they can board whatever is “grabbed” by the Grabbin’ Klaw. For the Grabbin Klaw I used the claws that came with the Defiler and laid the trukk bed on top of them.

The “commander” is a nob with a stormboy head in a cupola made of Killa Kan shoulder pads an a vision slit.

The left side gunner is from the old Wartrakk set, I made a skorcha out of that too so I had him left over.

The right gunner is a “big shoota” boy with a nob head (no laughing!) I was very please with his posing, the big shoota held wildly in one hand and the human head held high in the other. I gave him a bloody chain axe just for fun. His “turret” is made of left over parts of the Dakkajet, a bike tire half, and Killa Kan parts.

I admit I like my orks “dirty” and scratched up even when bright and flashy. I had it painted in a nice pristine color scheme but didn’t like it until I scratched it to kingdom come with Necron compound.

I have another looted wagon I actually like better. A typical Leman Russ wth a boom gun. Pics of it and my custom warboss, Grimskragg Defftrigga, coming soon!

Click the picture below for a 360 view!

Off the Charts: Fond Farewell to Futurama

On May 1, 2013May 1, 2013 By James CastroIn Reviews, TV ShowsLeave a comment

In 1999 a terrific show aired its first episode. It was smart, yet low brow; classy, yet crude; and cruel, yet hilarious. I have never before, or since, seen a show that could so span genres and play with emotions, pop culture, and trending topics as well as it did. It could actually make you tear up in the same episode your sides hurt from laughter. One of the best shows, consistently, I’ve ever seen. And now it’s come to an end…….again….

Yes I’m talking about Futurama.

Futurama is a singular show. You care deeply about the characters, their plights, and their relationships, but can still laugh uproariously when they get heads hacked off (only to be put back on again. It’s the future, people!) I started watching Fry, Leela, Bender, Amy, and company from premiere night. I knew it would be my kind of show, and I’ve followed it religiously since.

Fox never knew how to use the smart writing and thought it should play to the same market as The Simpsons. (Ok to get something off my chest…I LOVE(D) The Simpsons. I thought it was one of the best shows ever made…from about 1989-1998… Since then it has become a showcase of Homer’s high-pitched screaming, and nonsensical guest stars…I haven’t watched a new one in years and don’t plan to) Fox put it on adjacent to its venerable yellow-skinned family comedy and hoped to capture the same crowd. Unfortunately, by then, the Simpsons’ comedy had become a little “dumber” while Futurama played to a newer “uber-nerd” crowd and was written by math, physics, and computer science PhDs.

The show was pre-empted by sports, moved to and from various time slots, and delayed (and delayed, and delayed) until it was finally “cancelled” in 2003.

After extended runs on the Cartoon Network, Futurama fan outcry was such they creators made four direct-to-dvd movies and eventually found their way onto Comedy Central where they’ve run the past four years.

It was a strange event to see a show cancelled, brought back on DVD, and then renewed on a whole new network. But I was thrilled to see it back. It was just as funny and insightful as ever, and without the network TV yoke could add a little extra crude humor to the mix.

All of the voices returned, which is essential as the BEST, seriously people, the BEST voice acting possible can be seen in this show. Billy West, John DiMaggio, Katey Sagal, Phil Lamarr, Lauren Tom, Maurice LaMarche, Tress McNeille, Dave Herman, Tom Kenny and the legendary Frank Welker make the finest ensemble cast I’ve ever seen. And they truly make you appreciate good voice acting, especially when compared to the celebrity-voiced cartoon features cranked out by Hollywood nowadays!

Now the show’s third incarnation will sadly come to an end in September. Which means one of the greatest shows to ever air must also have the distinction of being one of the most cancelled programs in TV history.

To me this is one of the reasons TV is in the state that it’s in, and why more and more viewers are turning to fan-supported programs on YouTube and other internet sites. Yes they run on “ratings” too, however with an audience (like me) able to watch and have our ratings count at non-standard times (I’ve found people in my generation may not want to watch the show when the channel airs it, the internet provides us this option!) our views count whether we’re watching on release day or weeks later. Granted for every Geek & Sundry there is Annoying Orange but both can live in harmony on the internet rather than in competition. Unlike TV where great shows like Futurama go up against the likes of Honey Boo Boo and somehow come up short.

Though David X. Cohen, the terrific co-creator of Futurama, has stated the show will never again return like it did before, I’m holding out hopes we’ll see something of the characters again. How about a theater feature, guys? Your fans will come out to support you!

I’ll still relive the show again and again on DVD (and for those who don’t own them, this is a series that is a MUST buy on dvd. Don’t think you get the full enjoyment watching it on Netflix. The audio commentaries for this series are the best ever. Seriously EVER. As good as the show without them.) and hope that Futurama somehow attains more unlikely one-ups than can be found in a 1988 issue of Nintendo Power.

If it doesn’t (which it likely won’t) it will be one show I will truly miss. It represented the best that TV could put together. Well-made, well-written, well-acted programming that made you feel the people behind it truly cared about their show rather than just produced it to make a few extra bucks or pander to the lowest common denominator.

So here’s to Futurama. ::spooky tremolo:: Good bye to the world of tomorrow! (I hope to see you again out there!)

Official Website

Great fan page, Can’t Get Enough Futurama

Off the Charts: River Monsters

On April 18, 2013April 18, 2013 By James CastroIn Reviews, TV ShowsLeave a comment

“I love a fishing show.”

Words I never thought I’d say. Or even consider. Having grown up in the era of Bill Dance and Bass Masters and seeing balding men in fiber glass boats holding skinny fishing rods on calm lakes I can see why that would be… But in 2009 Jeremy Wade changed the dynamic with the show River Monsters.

I first thought the show would be a Monster Quest-style hunt for cryptozoological creatures. It still sounded intriguing, but a little kooky. Then I thought it would be some kind of sensationalist program where they kill big fish and show them on camera.

I was pleasantly surprised that it was neither of those things.

The show is part detective show, part environmental show, part fishing show, part anthropological show, and part travel show. It does all of those things better than almost any show I’ve seen.

Jeremy Wade is kind of the man. It’s weird to say that about a fisherman given my TNT fishing show upbringing. He’s a real outdoorsman (not the camo jacket, shaggy beard type). Jeremy can live in the rainforest, with local tribes, or in 3^rd world urban sprawl all the same. He’s also a biologist, so instead of just fishing and looking at the big creature he understands its evolution, how it lives, and how it fits into the ecosystem.

He makes fishing a scientific extreme sport, both cerebral and physical. He has strategies and it’s fascinating to hear how to go about catching different kinds of fish. Where to set up a line (hearing him strategize about fishing in rapids, near the swirling slack, with an eddy nearby in case he falls in is pretty interesting. The few times I’ve been fishing I randomly threw my bait in. No wonder I’ve only ever caught one blue gill…); what kinds of hooks, baits, and lines to use; and most importantly his regard for the fish he’s catching. He reveres them and doesn’t want them to come to harm. He’d rather have them understood and respected the way he respects them.

He is as deferential to the people he meets on his journeys. He wholeheartedly takes parts in the local customs, traditions, and superstitions. He often says his logical side knows it should work…but the number of times he struggles with catching what he’s looking for, meets with the local shaman, then finds it are remarkable.

My favorite episode (except maybe the season finale of last season or the season premiere of the current season) is the pilot, before it was even called River Monsters, fishing for a monster fish in a fantastical river in India. Seeing the creature he finally pulls from the river (and what he does to catch it) made for truly terrific television.

Jeremy Wade with the Goonch he caught on the River Monsters pilot.

Some of my favorite episodes are the ones you can’t find to buy unfortunately. He produced a show prior to the River Monsters run that involved a trek into the South American jungle in search for an Arapaima. We see the cameras rolling when his plane goes down in the jungle and…then see the journey continue after a day of recovery. There is also a two-hour version of the pilot that is even better than the air version.

When the world lost Steve Irwin, an environmentalist of true enthusiasm, integrity, and charisma I wondered whether environmental entertainment would ever be the same. Jeremy Wade is similar in many ways, his love for the environment, his desire to teach them to his viewers, and his utter stubborn dedication to accomplish his goals are all the same. He does replace Irwin’s unbridled enthusiasm with a stoic intellectualism that is charismatic in its own way.

It’s one of the best shows on television. If you haven’t seen it check it out. It’s a rare gem on TV these days!

Check out the official website here.

Jeremy Wade’s official website.

They Are The Men in Black

On April 14, 2013April 13, 2013 By R. PettyIn Movies1 Comment

What do you to stop your 13-year-old from playing video games? Put in Men in Black.

The sci-fi comedy premiered in 1997, along with one of the greatest duos of our time. An unlikely pair to some became a crowd favorite, so much so that a third sequel was made some 16 years later.

The tag team:

J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) make this movie. The know-it-all Smith and the seasoned Jones create an on-screen presence that’s hard to ignore. It’s one full of wit, sarcasm, and meanness, but of the best kind. Whether it’s the banter or the two men bullying Tony Shalhoub or a pug, they’re a perfect mix of rookie and veteran. The script and gestures are hysterical, and I just noticed Jay scratching his eyebrow with his middle finger for the first time this weekend. I always see something new.

Is there other life out there?

One of my favorite parts is the discovery phase. I love finding out there is a secret organization that manages the aliens on the planet. There aren’t a lot of aliens in this movie, but you know of bugs, the little worm guys in the break room, and the cute baby squid, to name a few. I remember seeing this movie as a kid and thinking, Wow… that would be a cool job. MIB made me question if we were alone in the universe.

Special effects don’t have to be over the top.

As we watched Friday, my son turned to me and asked, “Mom, how did they make that look so real?” The answer is a great movie crew and some CGI. The bad bug in this movie looks vicious, not cartoony. The spaceships don’t look fake or so unbelievable that you can tell a computer was used. The producers used real New York landmarks and celebrities, which adds something special. The effects aren’t so fast that you can’t keep up, and it’s a perfect mix of real and digital — certainly a lesson some directors should pay attention to now.

Take the time to rewatch.

I admit the sequels are not as good, as most sequels, but the series is super fun and entertaining. There are some light life lessons and touching moments, but overall Men in Black just takes you on an adventure without traveling too far from home.

Here are some of my favorite lines:

Beatrice: You here to make fun of me too?

Kay: No, ma’am. We at the FBI do not have a sense of humor we’re aware of. May we come in?

———–

Kay: All right… That’s confiscated. All of it. And I want you on the next transport off this rock or I’m gonna shoot you where it don’t grow back.

Jay: [shaken] Yeah and… and… and I’m gonna be back to talk about them Rolexes.

———–

Jay: [stepping on some cockroaches] Oh, I’m sorry. Was that your auntie? Then that must be your uncle over there!

———–

Jay: You know what they say. It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Kay: Try it.

———–

Kay: I don’t suppose you know what kind of alien life form leaves a green spectral trail and craves sugar water, do you?

Jay: Uh, wait, that was on Final Jeopardy! last night. Damn, Alex said…

And don’t forget the song!

Off the Top of My Head #11: Roger Ebert

On April 11, 2013April 10, 2013 By James CastroIn Movies, Opinions, Random FunLeave a comment

We at RevPub love movies. We go to a lot of movies, buy a lot of movies, and watch a lot of movies on TV. Our love of the media made us especially sad to hear of the death of singular film critic Roger Ebert.

As I said in my Dreamlike Gaming post, it takes more than negativity to review movies. Roger Ebert loved movies. He had an undeserved reputation of being a “film snob” (this was more true of his partner Gene Siskel who died in 1999) but I’ve found this not to be true. He really loved movies and loved to watch them. He simply expected a lot of them, and when they failed to deliver never hesitated to tell us.

While many of the movies you’d expect him to dislike he happily obliged and those art house movies you’d expect him to gush over he often did, he could also surprise you by giving you a review of a film you’d expect him to hate and finding he loved it with a classic “this is the reason we go to the movies.” He could appreciate the deep themes of a terse drama as well as the big dumb fun of a well-made action film.

It is a pleasure to read his good reviews, whether you agree or disagree with him as he always give specific and valid reasons for his opinions. More fun, however, are his extremely negative reviews. When he hated (or hated, hated, hated) a movie; because he also had valid reasons for hating them and often had his sharpened pen ready to draw blood…

Roger Ebert showed us why film critics are a specific breed. He noticed aspects of films for his reviews after only his screening views I don’t notice until after repeated viewings and could make judgments using his epically deep knowledge of film history.

I’m incapable of describing the prowess of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with the proper acumen so I’ll let the man speak for himself. But the next time you go to a movie raise your 44oz soda, frozen coke, bucket of popcorn, or tray of nachos to the true loss of a real film institution.

Here’s to Roger Ebert. We’ll miss you at the movies.

Roger Ebert’s Website

Some incredible negative reviews:

North

The Village

Deuce Bigalow European Gigalo

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

Reviews of some of my favorite films:

Seven Samurai

Yojimbo

Shaun of the Dead

Negative review books:

I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie

Your Movie Sucks

A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length

Positive review books:

Roger Ebert’s Four Star Reviews

Roger Ebert’s Great Movies

Roger Ebert’s Great Movies II

Roger Ebert’s Great Movies III

Off the Charts: Clue the Movie

On April 3, 2013April 2, 2013 By James CastroIn Movies, ReviewsLeave a comment

I didn’t play a lot of board games as a kid. I played Candy Land, Cooties, Don’t Break the Ice, and Battleship, but we never really got a lot of board games to play. One I DO remember playing a lot of and enjoying was Clue. I had no idea about the Agatha Christie story on which it was based or even what the mystery genre was, but the grisly nature of it and the investigative thinking always made it fun.

I don’t recall ever winning…or losing at it to be honest. I’m not sure if I ever played through an ENTIRE game before my sister and I quit. But I loved to play it.

I was a young kid when the film adaptation came out so it totally passed me by. In fact I never saw it until the mid-1990s when it came out on HBO or Showtime, which ever movie channel our cable company offered at the time, and after seeing it ONE time it became absolutely one of my favorite comedies and likely has a place in my top ten favorite films list.

The premise is essentially the game. A group of strangers are in an old house. An individual, Mr. Boddy, is murdered and they go through the house looking for clues to see whodunit. The addition of the brilliant Tim Curry as the butler Wadsworth (adding to the mystery classic “the butler did it” cliché of the genre), the 50s setting, and the blackmail subplot all set the background of the manic plot, which plays out in a It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World kind of frenzy.

The entire casting is superb, my favorites (other than Curry….who is EVERYONE’S favorite) are Michael McKean as Mr Green, Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard, and the irreplaceable Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White. That’s not to downplay any of the rest of the cast, there wasn’t a single misstep in the casting which also includes Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet, Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, and Colleen Camp as the first French maid I ever saw on film…

In addition to the great acting and cast, the film offers some of the funniest dialog set pieces and is as quotable as the Godfather and Scarface combined. From Tim Curry’s patented “NNnnnoo” (which is delivered at its best here), to the finest rapid-fire comedy exchanges this side of Abbot and Costello.

Favorites include:

Mrs. White: We had had a very humiliating public confrontation. He was deranged. He was a lunatic! He didn’t actually seem to like me very much; he had threatened to kill me in public.
Miss Scarlet: Why would he want to kill you in public?
Wadsworth: I think she meant he threatened, in public, to kill her.

The Motorist: Where is it?
Wadsworth: What? The body?
The Motorist: The phone. What body?
Wadsworth: There’s no body. Nobody. There’s-there’s nobody in the study.

Professor Plum: What is your top-secret job, Colonel?
Wadsworth: I can tell you. He’s working on the secret of the next fusion bomb.
Colonel Mustard: How did you know that?
Wadsworth: Can you keep a secret?
Colonel Mustard: Yes.
Wadsworth: So can I…

And what has become my person favorite moment:

Wadsworth: You see? Like the Mounties, we always get our man.
Mr. Green: Mrs. Peacock was a man!?
(Colonel Mustard slaps Mr. Green, who spins from the recoil and is slapped again by Wadsworth)

One of the innovations with this film was multiple endings. No, not the lame dvd extra fodder that every movie makes now…but actual endings, released with different prints of the film. There were three endings and depending when and where you saw the film you may see a completely different ending from someone who saw the film elsewhere or at a different showing. It’s the kind of gimmick that harkens back to the William Castle days of showmanship and shows real deference to the source material. I never got to see it in theaters, but I can only imagine discussing this movie with friends and arguing over the ending…without realizing we were all (technically) right!

Clue is without a doubt fast-paced fun. Detractors describe it as overly frantic and silly, but it IS that kind of movie. It’s also very smart, incredibly well-written, and still one of the funniest films about a series of gruesome murders ever to be made. To quote Joe Bob, “Four Stars…check it out!”

As an aside, I’m such a fan of this movie that I find dialog and quotes seeping into my daily language almost subconsciously. This can go remarkably awry. Once in college I was at lunch with a very attractive girl who was telling me an interminable and flaky story. She ended said story with the classic “To make a long story short…” to which I reflexively responded “Too late!” thanks to Clue she was not happy…and the date, so to speak, met its end killed by me, in the Dining Room, with a smart-ass comment…

Revenant Publications

Category: Reviews

Off the Top of My Head #12: Warhammer 40K Orks Dreadtrukk

Off the Charts: Fond Farewell to Futurama

Off the Charts: River Monsters

They Are The Men in Black

Off the Top of My Head #11: Roger Ebert

Off the Charts: Clue the Movie