It’s Monday, I’m back at work, and I’m still sort of full from Thanksgiving.  At least there are days off coming up in December.  Anyway, I wanted to do a somewhat Thanksgiving-related post for today, so I decided that Native American Characters in movies was relevant enough.

At less than 2% of the United States population, it’d be tough to argue that Native Americans are underrepresented in film and television.  Not that history hasn’t given them a raw enough deal as it is.  But the Native Americans in this article are characters, not actors (even though many of them are played by Native Americans or actors with Native American heritage).  Keep reading for memorable Native American Characters in Movies.

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When people put on costumes or masks it completely transforms their state of mind. Suddenly they believe they’re invincible and can get away with almost anything because people don’t know who they really are.

If you don’t believe us, try having a normal conversation with a bank robber, the Mongolian Barbecue mascot or a basement gimp sometime and see how well that goes.

Check out these 20 costumed characters behaving badly

(click to enlarge)

In addition to being accurate to the point of being scary, I think that this cast could actually be assembled when the inevitable Half-Life movie does get made. It’s about damn time for Hugh Laurie to start starring in movies, and I’d be quite pumped about seeing Walken back as a villain. The rest of the cast isn’t too A-listy to be unreasonable, so I really think this could happen if anyone in Hollywood had half a brain.

Which of course, they do not. Channing Tatum for Gordon Freeman.

While I seriously doubt I would take the time to buy the chalk and stencil it onto a rock like this, whoever etched the bat signal is definitely a friend of mine.

At least from far away it looks like it could be a legitimately cool laptop skin, however, the closer you get, the more respect you lose for the person. At least it’s a silhouette rather than a giant color picture of his abs.

[via technabob]

Click on the photo to see what other people think when you’re traveling

If you’re anything like 70% of the country who loves their family, there’s a good chance that you’ll be traveling over the next few days.  Traveling is stressful for you, but some people don’t realize how stressful it is for the people around you as well.

Less stress over at Unreality’s Facebook Page

The Countdown

Patton Oswalt’s funny “Christmas Shoes” video – [Gorillamask]

Monster Squad is coming to Blu Ray! – [Asylum]

The funniest Thanksgiving photos of all time – [Supertremendous]

Wow, talk about a Bacon picture! – [Brobible]

Who is the most awesome person today? – [Attuworld]

Behold the dumbest WoW lawsuit of all time – [Topless Robot]

The Five best Thanksgiving movies – [Pajiba]

Talk about a WTF Thanksgiving video – [Guyism]

A bacon sunrise is the best sunrise – [DJ Mick]

Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines review – [Kotaku]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJZI-54QmRc&feature=player_embedded

This easter egg isn’t anything mind-blowing, but I thought it was rather cool. Apparently when you stand by a certain pool in Assassin’s Creed II for an extended period of time, you get a surprise visit in the form of a giant squid. I’m quite surprised no one has tried to attack the squid or jump in and get eaten by the squid yet, but I guess everyone’s still getting over the initial shock.

For those of you partial to my game reviews, I will be picking up ACII, but it won’t be until Christmas so my family actually has something to get me.

So we know the Star Wars-y reason Vader wears a mask due to the his massive internal damage from having all his limbs chopped off and burned alive by Obi-Wan Kenobi in what was effectively the most devastating single lightsaber swing EVER. But why was he DESIGNED to have a mask when the original film came out?  Star Wars conceptual designer Ralph McQuarrie explains:

“Darth Vader evolved out of numerous design concepts and discussions with George,” McQuarrie said in an exclusive e-mail interview. “He was described in the script as leaping aboard the starship through a hole in the hull, wearing flowing black robes. The first thing I thought was, ‘Shouldn’t he have some sort of breathing apparatus if he’s entering the vacuum of space?’ I asked George and he said, ‘Fine, give him a breath mask.’”

“It was then decided to give him a samurai helmet, and as I continued to work on the concept it evolved into a close approximation of what you see on screen,” McQuarrie continued. “Later on, the storyline was developed to explain the mask and such, but at the time it was a purely practical reason that it was introduced.”

Are you kidding me? It’s so he could jump onto a spaceship and not die? I thought it was going to be like, “During my crazy youth, I had my door kicked in by a SWAT team and I just thought their gas masks were top notch.” Sometimes its better to not know these things.

[via SciFi Wire]

If there’s one thing we’ve all learned in the last five years it’s that annoying remakes and sequels suck, period.  I’m not sure how much they take away from the originals, but you can’t deny that they add a bit of taint that’s for sure.

I can’t imagine more taint than if Trainspotting did a sequel.  And I guess Ewan McGregor feels the same way.

Ewan McGregor is holding up the sequel to the movie that made him famous, because film bosses don’t want to go ahead without his participation.

Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is reportedly reteaming with author Irvine Welsh to take the writer’s novel Porno to the big screen – 13 years after Trainspotting made the moviemaker and McGregor household names.

McGregor snubbed the picture earlier this year, insisting he didn’t want to be part of a “poor sequel”, and, as a result, filming has stalled.

Remember folks, this is a movie about heroin addiction and became an indy classic in about 2 seconds.  What the hell sequel is there going to be?  Seeing Ewan go back into an abyss of drugs and get chased down by Sickboy and Begbie?  Not to mention we’d have to deal with trying to decipher Robert Carlysle’s obscene Scottish accent again.

But seriously, granted Danny Boyle is certainly a good director and probably has the skills to pull it off,  some films just shouldn’t continue.   I believe that Trainspotting qualifies as one of these films.

Put your efforts into something new.  I loved Trainspotting and would hate to see it have some kind of an evil stepbrother.

[Quote via 3News]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIN06lmsMDc

I think it really says something when even the “Shop Theme” from Legend of Zelda ends up being something pretty memorable. Once I heard those first few notes, I was humming a long in my head in no time.

This kid is pretty funny, I like the way his cowbell self gets freaked out by his overenthusiastic rain stick playing self. He’s done a few more of these types of vids that you can check out on his YouTube page. Yes, that is an official Ocarina.