I admit it, guys. Sometimes I can be wrong about this whole movie thing.

No, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about when I prejudge a movie, assuming it’s going to be somewhere between boring and dreck, and it actually turns out to be something special.

In this age of publicity photos, character posters, trailers, trailers for trailers, internet hype, critic reviews, and everything else that comes before the release of a movie, it’s important to remember that, in the end, the only thing that matters is how you feel when you actually sit down and watch the thing from beginning to end.

Here are five movies that taught me that lesson.

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OK, let’s get right to it: I don’t like spiders. I’m six-foot-three, I eat red, undercooked meat on a regular basis, I can bench-press my own weight (probably), and I’m fairly confident in my relative masculinity.

But goddamnit, I just don’t like spiders.

I don’t like the hairy ones, the spindly-legged ones, the colorful ones, the trap-building ones, the fist-sized ones, the poisonous ones—you get the idea. And there’s nothing masculine about yelping like a drowning poodle when any creature with more than four legs wanders into your peripheral. Now, I can’t be certain where this arachnophobia stems from, exactly, but since this is Unreality, I’m blaming it on movies. Plus I’ve been watching a lot of Community lately, and Britta’s psycho-analyzation skills leave me inspired.

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Every generation is defined by certain pop culture phenomena. In the 1930s and 1940s, there was the Jack Benny radio program. In the early 1970s, we had The Brady Bunch. For Generation Y, there is South Park.

South Park has grown with its viewers. Starting life as an attempt to televise the crudest, most offensive content possible, the show has evolved to take in what happens in the world and spit it back in a distorted, often hilarious fashion. Everything from scientology to Obama’s election to Pokemon have been skewered at the hands of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The timelines of more recent episodes reflects the fact that each show is made, from inception to air date, in about six days.   In addition, the installments that don’t address the outside world are some of the most memorable.

Perhaps the best part of South Park is that each viewer  will slightly differ in what they love most. I’m a Randy Marsh guy, but my girlfriend loves Butters. Auxiliary characters like Jimmy have grown into integral members of the show. You could be a political science major or an aficionado of bathroom humor – you’re covered either way.

Presented in chronological order, these ten moments highlight the best of a show that has served as the backbone of my adolescence.

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Every time I find a list about “must read graphic novels” online, they always have the same books on every list. They always shill for Watchmen. Then they get poignant by telling you to read Maus. Killing Joke is often name dropped as the seminal Batman story. And usually as a nod to the amazing Alex Ross’ art,  Kingdom Come  gets a spot. Though the last two spots of the lists always seem to vary between websites and journalists.

Some say Persepolis for its unflinching honesty, while others claim From Hell, for its period piece storytelling, augmented by moments of sheer brutality. And while every one of the above mentioned graphic novels are truly astounding in their own, distinctive ways, this time around, I chose to tackle a list that would focus on some lesser known graphic novels that maybe have not gotten the love or attention they deserve. It was not until I had finished compiling this list, that I realized how truly twisted I was. Just so you guys know,  these are not your typical superhero books. These are far more twisted tales, but compelling reads for just that reason. Here are five graphic novels you guys (and gals) need to read.

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I don’t smoke, I rarely drink, but I do have some…impulse control issues in other areas. It’s what makes me play Mass Effect 3 for 30 hours in three days after release until its finished. It’s how I watched six seasons of the Sopranos in under a month. Once I get a hold of a piece of media I like, it’s hard to tear myself away from it.

But what if that media has no end? That’s where I run into trouble. My last bout with Diablo II was…troubling. There was always better equipment to get, a higher level to reach. When I awoke from my coma, I’d wasted about three months of my life. I understand how World of Warcraft fiends can waste years, and as such, I’ve never tried the game.

That was a long time ago of course, and though I’ve grown up since then, I’ve realized I’m probably going to have to set some boundaries for myself to ensure such a thing does not happen again. Here are ten rules I’ve come up with to help keep myself in check . Continue Reading »

Unless you’ve been living in a cave this week, you’ve probably already seen The Avengers. Even if you were living in a cave, it was still probably showing The Avengers inside. How else does a movie get to $207M in box office receipts?

It’s a record setting total that nearly everyone thought impossible, but now thoughts turn to the future and what the NEXT film could be to surpass that figure. There are only a handful of franchises that even have a prayer of coming close, and I’ve picked five films I believe could top it upon release.

As you may realize when you view the list, the films start from the most realistic possibilities, and slowly regress to completely fictional movies that will never exist. But if they did? You can bet they’d dethrone the reigning champ. Continue Reading »

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I’ve always been amazed at how much fun some people manage to squeeze out of a game, new or old. When given a chance it seems that users almost always create more impressive content than developers. Before the internet, and specifically YouTube, those who managed impressive in-game feats or imaginative recreations of in-game content would do so alone, without an audience.

Now however, there’s an entire web full of videos about each and every aspect of almost every single game. Some of these may simply be reviews or a “let’s play” videos, but others are much more imaginative, and in some cases, require much more talent. After the jump are my five favorite examples of user created content. Be warned, some of these videos contain NSFW language. Continue Reading »

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This has been a post long-brewing with a former roommate of mine, but I finally sat down and rounded out a list we’d been discussing for a while.

When playing certain games, my friend noticed that he was having a lot of fun just simply…watching. Thinking back, I remembered something similar happening with a few titles over the years, as I went over to friend’s houses and saw them play single player without me. Sometimes it was boring, but for a few titles? It was actually blast to watch, and I actually had more fun before I took the controller.

These five games I’ve found are either a lot or a little bit more fun to play when watching. Feel free to disagree or add your own. Continue Reading »

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More often than not, gory and graphic death scenes are reserved for horror movies. But every now and then, a surprisingly brutal death scene will pop up in the middle of a drama or comedy, completely shocking the audience. There is something that just seems more taboo about seeing a death scene in a film that is not a horror, because, subconsciously, you are not prepared for it.

Seeing someone get their throat slashed in a horror movie is no longer shocking, but seeing someone have their throat slashed out of the blue in a comedy really is. Contextually speaking, death tends to be the most shocking when it is least expected. Here are six examples where death either caught me completely off guard, or awed me at how at home it felt outside of the confines of a horror film.

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We can now add movies to the growing list of things that are becoming self aware that we probably need to be concerned about. It starts with robots. They vacuum for us, and do other menial tasks we think we are too good to do. That is, until the (inevitable) moment when they collectively realize they don’t have to do what we tell or program them to do. At which point, they rebel and rise up against us in an ensuing blood bath the likes of which our organic minds cannot truly fathom. While I do not think a movie being self aware can pose nearly that much risk to us, who is to say?

A movie manipulates our minds and our emotions, so if the movie is aware it’s doing that, at what point does it draw the line? Ok, sorry about that little bout of philosophy, but I was not quite sure how to start this piece. Looking back now, I am quite proud. Here are five films that make a point of letting us know that they KNOW they are films, each one breaking the fourth wall in some way or another, whether direct or otherwise. Be forewarned, though. This is all going to be very meta, so if you are not familiar with that term, back away slowly now.

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