Welcome to Crime Alley with the Parker Novels!

Welcome to a new feature here at The Nerd Report called Crime Alley, where I'll be looking at the crime genre in all its varied forms, from books to movies to comics to TV shows to.....ballet, maybe? If you're a fan of crime stories, maybe this feature will give you a new little nugget to dive into. If you've read the odd mystery but aren't a huge devotee, maybe you'll find some new dark streets to wander down.

So, slam back a shot of whiskey, loosen your tie, put your feet up on your desk, and let's walk down Crime Alley.

In 1962, The Hunter was published, written by Richard Stark. A brutal, fast-paced thriller starring a professional thief named Parker who is betrayed by his fellow crooks during a heist and left for dead. We follow Parker as he cuts a bloody swath through the New York underworld to get revenge and the money owed to him.

My Writing Is All, Like, Legitimate Now...

Hey all,

So, when you write a blog, you're always a little awed whenever anybody tells you they read it. You kind of figure you're going to be writing for yourself all the time. It's kind of insane to hear not only do people read your stuff, but some of them may actually like it.

So, it's with great pleasure, and  a little pride, that I can announce that I'm not a contributing writer for the web site Nerds Unchained. It's a new site that focuses on the world of comics, and I'll be writing reviews and possibly a few features for them. I'm really excited, they've got some great writers there, so please read their stuff too. You can't go wrong reading about great (and not-so-great) comics written by passionate people.

Here's the links to my first three reviews:

The Flash #25

All Star Western # 25

The Walking Dead #117

"The Night of the Doctor" - Prequel to the 50th Anniversary Released!

Today the BBC released the prequel to the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special The Day of the Doctor. Feast your eyes on it below:

So, that was…pretty damn cool. The Eighth Doctor returns for the first time in 17 years, and it's awesome to see Paul McGann in action again. Also nice to have the John Hurt Doctor finally explained. Just over a week until the big day!

"The Day of the Doctor" Trailers Released!

Hi, all. I'll keep this one short. The Beeb has released a couple trailers for the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who special The Day of the Doctor. Check out the epic goodness below:

First the short TV trailer:

And here's the extendo-rama one:



Now the wait is even more excrutiating!

Superman hits 75, DC Releases Nifty Short to Celebrate

75 years ago, the modern Superhero was created by two Jewish kids in Cleveland. One was even Canadian. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster called their character Superman, and the rest is most definitely history. Now DC has released this short animated video, conceived by animation genius Bruce Timm, and filmmaker and celluloid Superman guru Zack Snyder. It's a little awkward, cramming a lot of stories into 2 minutes (and I really wish they didn't end with Supes in his blandest costume) but aside from that it's pretty damn cool.

Up, Up, and Awaaaaaaay!

BBC Announces 50th Anniversary Plans for Doctor Who....after, you know, somebody leaked them anyway.

Proving once again that while the Doctor can keep his secrets pretty damn effectively, the BBC has more leaks than faucet repaired by a blind three-legged hedgehog, the BBC has officially announced their full run down of all their celebratory programming for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary......hours after someone else leaked the whole damn thing.

Not to be undone, the Beeb confirmed that the title of the 50th Anniversary story will be "The Day of the Doctor." The special will run 75 minutes, and will feature a team up between the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and his predecessor, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). They also released this sweet-ass poster. Take a look at all the photo-shopped goodness below.

The special will costar Jenna Coleman as current companion Clara, Billie Piper (returning as the Tenth Doctor's companion Rose) and John Hurt. who Hurt plays exactly forms the central mystery of the special as in last season's final episode it was revealed (SPOILERS FOLLOW UNTIL END OF PARAGRAPH DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YA) that he is some sort of version of the Doctor who, according to the Eleventh Doctor "broke the promise."

Random Double Features and the Nerd Report Gets Booked in the Face!

Not too long ago, my good friend Scofe and I were hanging out and we decided to watch a couple of movies. As the guest at my abode, I allowed Scofe to make the choice of two movies to watch. Normally we tend to pick movies that go together, but for some reason he selected Robocop and All the President's Men.

They went together surprisingly well, and while tone, genre and subject matter were completely unalike, we both saw that each film commented on the society of the time in a similar way; one was a satire of corporate culture, the other an expose of political corruption. Both issues were dominant issues of their times.

Having enjoyed the pairing, I decided to start a new feature here on The Nerd Report; the Random Double Feature. I've assigned each movie I own with a number between 1 and 330. Every so often, I'll be asking for a couple of numbers from readers, and then I'll watch the movies and see how well they match up or if watching them together results in a fever dream of insanity!

Our first selection comes from a buddy of mine named James who selected 58 and 131, which corresponds to......Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess! Feel free to watch along with me; my thoughts on our inaugural Double Feature will be posted on Sunday, September 1st!

To facilitate future instalments of the Double Feature, I'm also announcing that you can now follow the Nerd Report on Facebook! Click on that thar link and you'll be taken to the FB page where you can "like" it and thereby help give sustenance to my ravenous ego!

I'll be posting all things related to the Report via that page, and it gives people who want to a venue to give feedback about the blog, and participate in reader driven features such as Random Double Features. You can also shoot me ideas for future stories and I may or may not ignore them, because, again, my ego can reach Cthulhu-like proportions.

Viddy well, little brothers and sisters. Viddy well.

Superman Won't Just Be Lifting Stuff In This Film

I've kind of been avoiding the massive deluge of Man of Steel stuff that is all over the interwebs right now. But I had to look at this new trailer, which seems to be 2 minutes of relentless action. It's sort of like Zak Snyder is mocking Bryan Singer's Superman Returns through marketing.

You remember Superman Returns, right? You know where Superman is a deadbeat Jesus-dad who basically spends the movie lifting really heavy things? Okay, I actually kind of like Superman Returns, but Man of Steel looks like a film that actually takes full advantage of 21st Century technology to tell the kind of big scale story the Big Red S deserves.

Check it out below:

Awesome-Sauce. Still think the costume looks.......really weird. Off. I think Supes really does need the red underpants. Otherwise he looks a little bland.

Also, Michael Shannon is terrifying. My favourite comment about him came from my friend Scofe who once told me, "I saw Michael Shannon on the street today. He stared into my soul."

NBC and Dan Harmon May Kiss and Make Up.....There's An Image, Huh?

Dan Harmon

News is emerging that Dan Harmon is in talks with Sony Pictures Television to return to Community.

The absurd postmodern sitcom created by Harmon has always struggled with low ratings, but has garnered a devoted following and critical acclaim. While its numbers are bad, they're not bad for NBC, who can't seem to find a hit with both hands and a flashlight.

Harmon created the show, and was the driving creative influence. After the third season, he was fired by Sony, who cited his continual lateness delivering scripts, amongst other creative differences. He had a public and ugly feud with cast member Chevy Chase (Chase himself left the show mid way through the fourth season) and according to Harmon, Sony never even fired him in person (he was told via an executive producer on Community that he was done).

A 13 episode fourth season was greenlit and shot, with David Guarascio and Moses Port as producers. Many long time fans of the show (including this writer) felt that fourth season was nowhere near as strong as the previous three.

Will We Learn "The Name of the Doctor" This Weekend?

This Saturday brings the 50th anniversary season of Doctor Who to a close with the airing of The Name of the Doctor. If you aren't excited by that sentence then I don't know what you're even doing on this site. Seriously. Doctor Who is incredible.

While the show runners have hinted that the finale will solve the mystery surrounding new companion Clara Oswald, the title also suggests that the viewers may learn the answer to the show's longest running mystery; Doctor Who? It's a plot point that has been set up by show runner Steven Moffat for a long time, most explicitly at the conclusion of the previous series.

That Funke Is Some Kind of Something

Arrested Development's new season begins on Netflix this month. I could not be more excited. And Mitch Hurwitz and co. certainly know how to use the interwebs.

Case in point, this little viral video of Tobias Funke's "Sizzling Reel":

That.....is.....amazing.

You can also go to Tobias' web page. It has the best title of all time, and you can see all of the range and versatility that the world's only analrapist can bring to your project.

"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Ordered to Full Series

In the no-brainer decision category, ABC has ordered Marvel Studios' first TV project, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., to full series.

Taking place after the events of The Avengers, and tying into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the series follows a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, led by Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who investigate "unclassified" cases. The series was developed by Marvel's current creative mastermind (and Avengers writer/director) Joss Whedon, who also directed the pilot episode. The pilot was written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.

The series will also star Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge. You can see the 30 second promo for the series below:

So, that looks pretty epic. Obviously this is a no-brainer for ABC, I mean who wouldn't want to tie themselves into probably the biggest franchise going right now? And for Marvel, it's another platform for them to integrate into. Although Whedon has said that the series will focus on the periphery of the Marvel Universe, I'm sure Marvel is looking at this as a cheap way and lower risk way to introduce characters that could conceivably launch new film franchise or bolt into existing ones.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" Set Photos Emerge!

A whole bunch of set photos have been popping up all over the place lately for Marvel's Captain America sequel, and they are pretty cool.

First, over at Spinoff Online, they released some shots of Captain America (Chris Evans) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in action. The cool thing is that it seems to indicate both that Natasha will have a larger role than what was originally supposed to be a cameo, and that Cap will be sporting a variation of the Steve Rogers Super Soldier outfit he wore for a while a few years ago.

While I think it's a cool suit, I also think it's not the one I want to see Cap in all the time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yeah, the Stars and Stripes are a little hokey, but it's part of what makes Cap such an iconic character. As Coulson so memorably put it in The Avengers, we could use a little old-fashioned.

See Cap and Thor Fight......Guys?

This whole post is SPOILERY,  so proceed with caution!

So, with Avengers currently shooting bigass action sequences on the streets of Cleveland (doubling for New York) some youtube clips were bound to make the rounds. I never thought they would be this cool, though. We've got footage from the filming of a fight sequence featuring Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans). They're mostly fighting guys with mo-capture suits on, and the scuttlebutt around the interwebs is that the villains are going to be (POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOLLOW) the Skrulls.



And finally here's the God O' Thunder smiting a Chevy:



So that's all pretty cool. If you're a lifelong Marvel Zombie, you've got to be jazzed to see those two characters kicking ass together.

"Drive" Trailer Looks Badass

Below you'll find the trailer for Drive, a new low-budget thriller starring Ryan Gosling as a stunt driver who moonlights as a wheelman for criminals. And yes, while this looks a lot like every other movie about a monastic, disciplined and honorable crook who gets in over his head, it's been a while since I've seen a really good version of that particular story. This one could be it. The cast looks great, and holy shit, is that Albert Brooks? Awesome.

Teaser Poster for "The Dark Knight Rises" Hits Webs

Can the the teaser trailer be far behind? Will it be attached, as many think, to the new Harry Potter flick? If it is, I think it'll be like that first teaser for The Dark Knight, maybe some dialogue of a very, very brief snippet of footage. Why? Well, they're still actually shooting, so how much could they have to show? Anyway, the teaser is good, it's definitely visually arresting. I'm not sure it's supposed to be foreboding or uplifting, though. Take a look:

So, is the motif supposed to communicate the sense of the hero rising to lift up the city from darkness into the light of day? Or is it communicating destruction? I lean towards the former, given that this is the end of the trilogy and the culmination of what Nolan has been trying to do with the franchise. Gets me jazzed though.

Avengers Sort-of Assembled!

Over at Aint It Cool, they've got a scoop from The Licensing International Expo in Vegas that shows some early promo art for Marvel's Avengers film, due to be released in 2012.

To be clear, this is early promote art to attract potential merchandisers, not final finished art from the film, so let's not ascribe too much importance here. The cool thing to note is Captain America's revised "modern age" costume, as well as a potential Hawkeye suit, and the presence of a certain Incredible Behemoth. Check it out:

Okay, to me, this is just cool. If I has seen this picture when I was nine, I probably would have lost my fuckin' mind. Now, we just have to see some footage.

Pure Awesome

Ladies and Gentlemen, the greatest beer commercial of all time....



Don't you wish they sold that beer here in Canadia?

Beastie Boys FTW!

Below you'll find the truly awesome and star-studded trailer for the Beastie Boys' upcoming album, Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2. I'm not a huge Beastie Boys fan, but I have loved their stuff in the past. And this is awesome. Let's play count the celebrities!

Reaction to Season Debut of "Doctor Who" Pours In

The first two episodes of the new season of Doctor Who had its first press screening last night, and reaction has started to pour in.

Patrick Mulkern of the Radio Times had this to say:

We sat pinned to our seats for 90 minutes or so of electrifying, bamboozling television, which might just be also the most unsettling since the series came back in 2005...The chills are leavened with laughs (the Doctor flits through history, upstages a timeless comedy duo, and dubs his chums "the Legs, the Nose and Mrs Robinson"). River makes two spectacular entrances. There's a new use for dwarf star alloy (conceived 30 years ago in Warriors' Gate, it enchained one of The Family of Blood in 2007). And the number 1,103 may be significant.


(Show Runner Steven) Moffat ladles mystery upon mystery, so that by the end we're gagging for answers. The second instalment concludes with a mouthwatering cliffhanger.

Tom Phillips of Metro wrote this:

It’s about five minutes into the first episode, The Impossible Astronaut, when the first jaw-dropping thing happens - and before the second episode, Day Of The Moon, is over, we’ve had at least two more series-changing revelations and a dizzyingly twisty, tightly-packed story that contains so many future plot threads, red herrings, teases and unsolved puzzles that there’s a chance its broadcast will actually make the internet catch fire...Make no mistake, this isn’t easy, switch-your-faculties-off entertainment - it’s big, dark, impressively ambitious, dazzlingly executed entertainment that demands and repays your full attention.

And finally, here's what the Guardian had to say:

In truth the opening episode of the two-parter took a while to warm up, but a fiendishly complicated plot – it is probably not a spoiler to suggest it involves time-travelling – required no end of exposition. But by the end of the first episode it had drawn gasps and applause in almost equal measure...

It looks like Moffat and company have delivered a fantastic opener that could lead to one amazing season. I can't wait for April 23rd.