by Sara Clemens

We all know Tyrion Lannister (and by extension, Peter Dinklage) is a bit of a darling here at Unreality. The dude’s sheer awesomeness has led me to devour any and all film and television projects of his that I can get my little nerd-girl hands on. I’m not going to lie, his piercing blue eyes also provided much of the forward momentum.

Unabashed crush aside, Peter Dinklage really does have an uber impressive body of work. I saw The Station Agent back in college when it was released (*adjusts hipster glasses*), and it really is as good as everyone says. He was also one of the better parts of the quickly sinking ship that was season 4 of Nip/Tuck. And since I hear tell there are some sci-fi fans around these parts, be sure to check out Threshold. (Brent Spiner and Peter as snarky scientists! How was this show not a hit? What’s that? The somewhat poorly developed plot and less-than-stellar writing? Alright, then.) I’ve also had the singular pleasure of experiencing the horrific abomination that is Tiptoes: the official selection of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival which was introduced by the director explaining he had been fired before final editing, and thus had no idea what the audience was about to see.

My cinematic travels ultimately led me to discover that Peter Dinklage had made four movies with Steve Buscemi, who is also awesome, and is also in possession of blue eyes. COINCIDENCE?! Probably. A light trolling of the internets revealed that the two actors highly respect one another, and Buscemi was an early advocate for casting Dinklage in various projects he produced, directed, or was otherwise involved with. Peter reveals in a Vanity Fair interview that he and Steve are “not really” drinking buddies. I like to think he’s lying. Without further ado, here are the four Dinkscemi vehicles, all of which I recommend as underrated gems: Continue Reading »

Ron Swanson here. The first quarter of 2012 is over, which means different things to different people. For my part, it means the burden of redeeming something the government calls “sick days.”

As an eater of hearty breakfasts and also things that are slower than me, I haven’t involuntary coughed since 1976. Nevertheless, I always have at least five accrued sick days at the end of each fiscal year, and my coworker Leslie forces me to use them before June; I admire that woman’s feminine fortitude, but I loathe her unwillingness to budge on this matter. Therefore, my person has been temporarily exiled from Pawnee’s governmental affairs.

I anticipated Leslie’s bullheaded meddling in advance this year, and have decided to share my sick day activities with this publication for exactly one reason: if an American male is forced to pretend he is too sick to earn his keep as a tax-paying citizen, said male’s down time is best spent illustrating that he is not.

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I know I spent some time last week reminiscing about where the Diablo franchise began, but now that I’ve got my hands on a copy of Diablo 3 I figured I would take some time and talk about some of the updates to their well-worn skill system for this week. I’m not saying this new system is better than its predecessor, as a matter of fact I don’t think it’s really fair to compare two games made a decade apart simply because they were made by the same company, so I won’t. However, after spending a few hours (ok, way more than a few) with the game I’ve decided that there are a lot of things I like about this seemingly simple skill system.

I love skill systems. I’ve spent countless hours over the years pouring over skill trees and builds, testing new theories while looking online for inspiration from others. There’s a fun, yet addicting science to it all. While I haven’t yet decided where Diablo 3 sits among all of the other skill systems I’ve used in my time, I can say there are some features in this system that I prefer now that I’ve used them. I think even the old-school diehard fan in me has to admit that some of these features are really just common sense. Below is a list of five things I like (or love even) about the Diablo 3 skill system after my first playthrough as a Barbarian. Continue Reading »

To understand the true duality in the dynamic between the Joker and Batman, you need to understand, they were birthed from the same thing: tragedy. If you read the brilliant Alan Moore masterpiece,  The Killing Joke, and you follow it as the seminal Joker origin story (which most do), than you know, The Joker got dealt just as crappy a hand by fate as Batman did.

Some would even argue, Joker got it worse. Losing your Father and Mother in front of you, especially when you are a child, is a tragedy. But some say having your pregnant wife die and then falling in a vat of acid that scars you for life in a heist gone wrong is even worst. And though both were born from tragedy, most think they turned out wholly different from one another, a yin to the other’s yang. But I would argue that point. Batman is just as fragile and mentally unstable as the Joker. He has just as many toys and is just as keen on playing dress up. He just happens to fight for the good side. But here are five moments that will make you question which one of the two is really the crazier one.

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So, my first ever article on Unrealitymag was a piece on iconic practical effects wizard Stan Winston. Nobody defined our childhood creatures as much as he did, but there’s one guy who’s come close. His name is Rick Baker, and although he doesn’t have as many great characters on his resume as Winston, he’s certainly done some equally brilliant work.

Don’t believe me? Well, I’ll show you six movies he (and his studio) worked on that are better for it.

Which, by the way, will not include Michael Jackson’s Thriller, because it’s not a movie, but he did Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

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by Luis Loza

As iconic and recognizable as he is nowadays, there are still lots of stories in Batman’s history that are unknown to the everyday person. While the countless movies, shows, and games that feature the Dark Knight do cover a lot of ground, there’s nothing like the original comics themselves. This list is meant to offer a good starting for the prospective Batman fan to enter the vast world of comics available. While this is by no means a comprehensive list, I did try to make sure that a variety of stories were covered for different tastes. Continue Reading »

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Any normal adult understands that sex does not always go as smoothly in real life as it is often portrayed on screen. There are various factors that can make sex less than amazing,and these factors can show up  at any time. From being caught in the act by an outside party, to one of the peoples bodies making an odd and unexpected sound, it can really be a gamble, and you are never quite sure how it will go.

And though sex is usually portrayed as hot and steamy on film, there are some directors and writers who have no fear in showing the less appealing sides to sex, even if we don’t want to see it. The following scenes are six examples of sex that could potentially ruin the act itself for the viewer.

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Booze may be universal, but where you drink it certainly isn’t. Cinema has afforded us with plenty of places to nurse a beer or start a brawl, but few bars are as memorable as the characters that drank at them. I don’t know the dive Ron Burgundy was holed-up at before assembling his Channel 4 news team. I can’t recall the joint Eddie Felson shot pool at in The Hustler. However, in the course of the movies, a few spots have left an indelible mark on my liver.

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This is Paris Hilton, in case you can’t tell.

I’ve been meaning to write this article for a while now, but when an actor is terrible, they’re usually pretty terrible, and it can be hard to find a singularly good part they’ve played. Similarly, it’s hard to say that mediocre actor (*cough* Nic Cage) only has ONE good performance out there (he’s at least got a couple).

But I finally decided on these five as bad actors who had one really good part. Feel free to disagree, but more importantly, add your own. And if anyone says Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love, you yourself will be getting a punch. The man was brilliant in Happy Gilmore. Continue Reading »

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With the exception of anime (which I am leaving off the list, or we would be here all day), the biggest misconception people make when it comes to animated films is that they are all made with the intent of having  children as their target demographic. In some cases, that could not be further from the truth. Animation is an incredible medium in which to tell a story, and some directors realized that, at the time, they could do more (and get away with more) using animation than they  could shooting the same story, live action.

Also, the certain simplistic animation techniques that could be implemented were time saving and money saving (rotoscoping), even if the ends results were, at times, not pretty. And though the animation could be weak at moments, the intricacies of these tales often revealed themselves over time, and not upon initial viewings. As a child, I went at some of these with the “it’s animated, so it must be made for me” mentality, and the end result was me being traumatized by a few of these. In hindsight, though, now I can see just how subversive and brilliant some of these films are. Ofcourse, as is the case with any medium, some of these are shocking just to be shocking, so the beauty here is digging deep, and finding the diamonds among all the coal.

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