Now 189 may not sound all that great, but just think of how many movies are made. Empire magazine has taken votes, notes, and polls from 10,000 readers as well as 50 critics and came up with their 500 Greatest Movies of All-Time. Besides coming in at #189, Ghostbusters was selected as one of the few 100 movies to adorn the cover, seen above. There were multiple covers and the Ghostbusters cover has already sold out. You can read the Ghostbusters review here. The Top 10 were as follows...
The Godfather (1972)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Jaws (1975)
Goodfellas (1990)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Fight Club (1999)
Huh. I have only seen two (#2, #3) of those movies in their entirety. I probably should rent some of the others.
Rebel Scum has just posted some pictures of the figures in wave 4 of The Clone Wars collection. Wave 4 isn't expected to hit stores until December or January. Wave 4 consist of 5 figures: Clone Trooper (212th Attack Battalion), Padme Amidala, Clone Trooper (Space Gear), Magna Guard, and R3-S6 ("Goldie"). Expect to see the characters they are based on starting this Friday at 9pm on Cartoon Network.
I have been sneaking around the Master Replicas forum to see if I can learn anything new about rumored Ghostbusters prop replicas. I returned today and noticed 2 new pages of posts. The moderator has been dropping some hints since July. It has recently been confirmed that the Ghostbusters line will have its own web page. Reading the 14 pages of posts leads me to believe that MR will be making: the trap, PKE meter, and yes, a proton pack (please note that none of this is confirmed, just speculation). But that's not all. There is a possibility of scaled items such as busts, gear, and the famous Ecto. They are being real hush-hush about specifics. In a recent post by the moderator, he says that the line will be officially announced on October 31st. Nice timing. Hopefully some juicier tidbits will make their way out before then. I don't want to wait another month!
The endless Microsoft vs Apple debate rages all the time. I don't really know why. Who cares if you are a PC or a Mac? What difference does it make? It proves nothing! Based on the people I talk to and the web sites I visit, it seems that the Apple/Mac community is the worst. They defend Steve Jobs and Apple even when they do something wrong. When Apple does something wrong they turn it around and bash Microsoft with generic insults that have been around since the mid-90's.
The battle has heated up in recent years with new marketing ploys. Apple came out with their PC vs Mac, poking fun at PC users and the Vista operating system. Microsoft has finally responded with the "And I'm a PC" advertisement. They have a website where you can create your own "And I'm a PC" slogan, for personal use of your business, for instance. The Apple fan boys just can't help themselves. Here are a few that I came across in under 5 minutes:
Oh my. Apple fan boys, get over it. I have a preference towards PCs but I am always open to using whatever is available. I used Mac's at Penn State in the computer labs and for THON. I have an iPhone so I don't hate Apple. Give it a rest. Or are you still pissed about these statistics?
The second Star Wars Encyclopedia is due out on December 9, 2008. It is over 1,200 pages and is 3 separate volumes. Here are the covers for each volume, from StarWars.com:
Pretty sweet. The 3 volumes will be stored in a slipcase. You can preorder the Encyclopedia, signed by all 6 authors, at StarWarsShop.com ($109). It is also listed on Amazon (no autographs, $78.75). Though I doubt you can get the deal I did.
This is great! Bill Murray, Peter Venkman from the first two Ghostbusters, was at Fantastic Fest recently and had the question on the possibility of a Ghostbusters III being made posed to him. Here is a summary of his response from Quint at Ain't It Cool News:
He [Murray] paused for a few seconds then said that he thinks enough time has passed and that "the wounds from GHOSTBUSTERS 2 are healed" and that he would definitely be into doing another GHOSTBUSTERS movie, stating that the first 40 minutes of the original film is some of the best stuff he's been associated with and the whole shoot was an amazing amount of fun.
He also went on to say that his enthusiasm for Ghostbusters was heightened after recording the voice of Peter Venkman for the video game over the summer. In fact, he said he found himself walking down the street singing the Ghostbusters theme song and then thought people walking around him were going to start yelling at him to "get over yourself, Bill," so he stopped... But the enthusiasm was there.
Sweetness! One of the big holdups on the third movie in the past has been the resistance of Murray. He seems to be in!
Well I got the game Monday/Tuesday midnight and completed it as of 10pm Thursday. In all, it took me approximately 7-8 hours of gameplay to beat it on its easiest setting. What did I think of it? Well IGN has the accumulated rating of 7.3, or "decent", after averaging the reader average (8.6) and press average (6.6). The 7.3 sounds about right. I would probably say 78/100, or 7.8. The game is fun and it isn't too hard to please me. The planet and creature graphics are top-notch. The only image problem I had was the human characters looked a bit force and not nearly as polished as other games human characters, such as Halo and the sports games.
The story is decent too, however I do not like the "evil" ending. I want give away any spoilers so you can keep reding. The "good" ending is much more realistic and appropriate canon-wise. The Force action are pretty slick and you'll have to play the game a few times to master them all. My favorite is the simple force push and force lightning. The animations for scripted battle outcomes are decent, but I would have liked your actions during theme to be a little more difficult. At most you have to push 4 buttons over a few seconds that flash on the screen. Making this more difficult would have made the game a little better.
Some of the most bothersome aspects of the game were the difficulty of some mundane events. I couldn't figure out how to cross a bridge at one point. I also found it very troub,ing to take down the Star Destroyer. Then finally aligning the rings on the Death Star was more difficult than it should be. Maybe I just didn't pay attention to the on screen instructions but I had to result to Google search results to figure out what I was doing wrong. In the end all of those problems were easily correctable but I felt the instructions and directions on screen could have been better.
The reason this game fails to bring in the high rankings is because of the hype it got. The game has been in the works for 3+ years and has been delayed numerous times. LucasArts has been shoving the aspects of the game down everyones throat for 18 months and it just didn't deliver. It's a fun game and I'll play it through again on harder settings. But minus multiplayer, after defeating it multiple times, it will lose its luster. Its great to wield the force like this for the first time but it lacked repeated playability. If this game just came out without many previews or hype, it may be rated higher. But for a team to be working this long and this to be the final product is a little disappointing. It's too short. The parts that should be hard are too easy and some things that should be easy are too hard.
It's a definite rental and would be a great buy at $30. At retail price their just isn't enough substance for me to recommend it for everyone.
I took this screenshot this afternoon on Amazon. Nothing has been announced about a new distributor of the game so this release date is probably an educated guess and mere conjecture. But this release date may in fact hold true as this would be very close to the movies original release date of June 8. That date in 2009 happens to be the 25th anniversary. I think Ghostbusters: The Video Game will hit store shelves between May 19th and June 30th, at the latest.
On a related note, would a rerelease of the movie be awesome or what? June 8th, 2009 is a Friday just like in 1984. A 2-4 week rerelease would be awesome and could coincide with the video game being released on June 5th or 12th. I think that would be an awesome idea. Many of the movies fans didn't get to see the original in theaters or they are too young to remember. Come on Sony, make it happen!
The whole reason for standing around for 2 hours.Pictures from my iPhone.
At 10pm yesterday I ventured down to the GameStop at the Wabash Landing in West Lafayette, IN. I pulled into the parking lot to a mini-crowd of about 10 people already waiting in line outside the store. Surprising, to say the least. The game was to be released at midnight.
I had previously stopped at the GameStop a mere 5 hours earlier to find out more about the release event, specifically about the exclusive Stormtrooper Commander action figure. The GameStop employee told me they had 20 to give away to the first 20 people in attendance with preorders. I got out of my car and stood in line behind 8 guys and 2 Clone Troopers. Yeah, people in costumes. But these weren't your normal costumers. They were nothing like the 501st. They wore black Under Armour and sweat pants. Their armor was taped on paper plates. They did, however, sport the Clone Trooper voice changer helmet. Of course, they refered to themselves as "stormtroopers". Negative.
A "stormtrooper". Yeah, they were drunk and/or high.
GameStop left us in the store at about 10:15pm. There's much more to look at inside, it is a video game store afterall. They had Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope playing on TVs. I'm assuming they picked those two because in between them is when The Force Unleashed actually takes place. They had The Force Unleashed on the PlayStation 3 and people played it the entire time we were in there.
The crowd around 11:15pm.
I hovered around the counter for most of the time I was inside. At about 10:30pm they randomly handed out the reason I was there: the exclusive figure. I was the first to get it and then the first to fully check out. I had a receipt with #1 on it, meaning I got the game first. That was great because I could get it and leave; no waiting for me!
I'm #1. Yay!
Over the course of the next 1.5 hours I tried to waste time by calling my parents , watching the movies and the game, and wandering around the store. Around 11:15pm more and more people started to show up. By 11:45pm there were close to 30-35 people in the store. It was finally midnight and they gave us the game. I came home and went right to bed. Hopefully I can play some tonight. I also bought Spore earlier in the day and played a bit before I went down to the launch. It seems to be pretty addicting. I already did the cell stage and am half way through the creature stage. It has my attention now, we'll see how long that lasts.
The loot. Game, receipt, figure.
UPDATE: The GameStop exclusive Stormtrooper Commander figure, which was free with the preorder, is selling on eBay for $25-$30. Some people are asking as much as $50-$55 as "Buy It Now" prices. This is why I made it a point to get one!
As you can tell from the lack of posts, not much has happened in my life or the Star Wars/Ghostbusters universe. I am yet to find a 2nd job, though I have applications out there. It was a relaxing weekend watching football (like every Saturday and Sunday during the fall). Penn State drubbed Syracuse and Miami got destroyed in the desert. Penn State takes on Temple this weekend. Another snoozer. My parents and some of Kelly's Penn State friends are coming to visit in a few weeks, when Penn State visits West Lafayette to take on Purdue.
The only relevant Star Wars news of late is the announcement of The Force Unleashed exclusive Stormtrooper Commander figure. After lots of rumors and conjecture, it is a GameStop midnight launch exclusive. I preordered my copy on Friday and I am heading down to my GameStop tonight to try and grab one of the figures. Some stores have reportedly only received 5 while some others say they have 10-20. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to get one. The Force Unleashed is officially released tomorrow.
The Chicago Tribune ran a story today saying that Harold Ramis confirmed to them that two of The Office writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg. It came via email from Ramis. The entire email can be read below:
yes, columbia is developing a script for GB3 with my year one writing partners, gene stupnitsky and lee eisenberg. judd apatow is co-producing year one and has made several other films for sony, so of course the studio is hoping to tap into some of the same acting talent. aykroyd, ivan reitman and i are consulting at this point, and according to dan, bill murray is willing to be involved on some level. he did record his dialogue for the new ghostbusters video game, as did danny and i, and ernie hudson. the concept is that the old ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity. not much else to say at this point. everyone is confident a decent script can be written and i guess we'll take it from there. best, harold
Year One is a movie written and directed by Ramis. It sounds like what I said yesterday is the path the script may take: the originals will train the newbies. This is the first of many steps to finally get a third movie made. I'm crossing my fingers that this happens within the next 5 years.
We got one! Or will that be three? Internet rumors have been abuzz over a Ghostbusters 3 for close to - if not more than - a decade now. These rumors have certainly picked up steam in the last 18-24 months with comments from Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as well as the leak of a developmental Ghostbusters game in January 2007. Things started rolling even more in November when it was officially announced that there indeed was a Ghostbusters video game in the works for the Next-Gen consoles. Sweet! But what about a third film? Aykroyd is on record as saying the new video game, delayed until 2009, is basically the third film; it is part of the Ghostbusters canon. Not so fast my friends. Entertainment magazine Variety has this juicy tidbit for us, posted yesterday...
Columbia Pictures is getting serious about scaring up a new installment of its blockbuster "Ghostbusters" franchise.
The studio has set "The Office" co-exec producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky to write a script for a film designed to bring back together the original cast of Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson.
Studio would not comment on the development and has been mum on recent rumors that there was interest in making another installment of the franchise.
Before anyone gets too excited there are plenty of obstacles to get this movie made. We all know about the documented aversion by Bill Murray, a necessary actor, to another live-action film. Variety also points out the things that have stalled a third movie before...
An attempt to make a third installment of the franchise was stymied in the dealmaking stage. Sources said so much gross was pledged to the participants that it was next to impossible for the studio to make any money on a third installment.
No deals will be made with the original cast until the script is ready, but the gross percentage will certainly be an issue. Sony has a standing policy not to allow more than 25% of first dollar gross out the door.
In an ideal world this would all work out and we can get ready to see the Ghostbusters back in action on the big screen in, oh, I don't know, 2012? I know there are fans that don't want another movie made, mostly because they felt Ghostbusters 2 was rushed and nowhere near as good as the #1. I love tradition and don't want anything to taint the franchise. But there is clearly enough fans and interested parties out there to make this happen. Despite the potential for a flop, I most certainly want a third movie. It can be done.
The recent rumors on new actors in the movie has revolved around the Apatow gang, which has included Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, and even Will Ferrell. That is a lot of quality comedy acting. I wouldn't mind an attempt at the whole "original Ghostbusters train new Ghostbusters" idea. There is substance to it and has the potential to be a HUGE hit.
Moving on. In other Ghostbusters news, on YouTube Steven Jay is compiling a list of 1001 movies you should see before you die. At #716 is Ghostbusters (note: number does not indicate rank; ranks are arbitrary).
10. Ghostbusters (1984). The giant Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man invades the Upper West Side in the climax of this classic comedy caper. Dan Aykroyd spent the whole first day of shooting driving around the city in his customized Ectomobile. The Ghostbuster headquarters was Firehouse Number 8 in Tribeca; all of the college scenes were filmed at Columbia University. Director Ivan Reitman wanted to film the marshmallow man next to the Statue of Liberty but scrapped the idea when it proved too difficult. Five years later, in the sequel Ghostbusters II, he got his wish: The Statue of Liberty got her own supporting role.
The age of Blu-Ray movies is supposed to be the end of this year and last for a few years. The next big craze? Movies on USB drives. And when this comes to fruition in, say, 2011, you can always remind everyone which movie was the first ona a USB stick. That's right, Ghostbusters.
Finally, it is being speculated that Sony has found a new publisher for Ghostbusters: The Video Game and it has been all but stated that it will be released in 2009, most likely by the summer. Here is what a hush-hush Sony worker told Proton Charging...
We are close to announcing the new video game partner. It’s been a wild last couple weeks. Tell the fans all will be okay. The game will have to ship in 2009. Even if we had a partner on board in august, it’s almost impossible to meet the oct date. The game has to go thru various approvals at sony playstation, microsoft, nintendo. Retailers cannot react as well, tv ad space is closed. Lastly, we are also going to use the time to work and fine tune development of the game.
Proton Charging says in their article that they believe the announcement from Sony will come in the next 2 weeks. This was posted on Labor Day so we are now down to 10 days. Proton Charing believes it will be Atari or Electronic Arts Partners. I don't care who handles the publishing. Just get me the game!
Greetings faithful followers! Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Here's a quick rundown of items of not over the last 7 days...
The Cartoon Network launched their Star Wars: The Clone Wars site with a new trailer and release date: October 3rd! Rumor has it that during a convention [DragonCon in Atlanta, GA] last week, attendees to the Star Wars panel were shown the entire first episode of the new show! Details about the screening are sparse but one reporter says that the entire episode revolves around Yoda.
Pictures sprouted this weekend of a brand new Battle Pack. This has not been confirmed as part of Target's Ultimate Battle Packs that debuted last fall but it is big enough! The Battle of Christophsis includes a repainted AAT and AT-AP as well 5 figures! Picture below is from, where else, Jed Insider.
I found wave 3 of The Legacy Collection at Wal-Mart on Thursday. I was able to purchase everything from the wave I wanted: Coruscant Landing Platform Clone Trooper, Saleucami Clone Trooper, and the Battlefront II Imperial Engineer. I didn't see Evan Peill/Yaddle or Holographi Count Dooku but Jodo Kast was there. In addition to TLC Wave 3 figures, I grabbed the "Blue eyes" variant Kashyyyk Trooper, Commander Gree, and Imperial EVO Trooper. I'll try to get some pictures of them up soon. I was hoping to run into the second wave of Saga Legends figures but no luck. TLC Wave was not due out until 9/25. Saga Legends Wave 2 is due out 9/11. TCW Wave 2 isn't set to hit shelves until 10/8.
I may have found a 2nd part-time job. If you recall from over a week ago I mentioned that the Climate Office was required to cut my hours as a result of their Temporary Employment mandate. Dropping below 20 hours a week there required me to find a second job. I may have found one. Not certain yet but I'll let you know if it works out. It would be great if it did.
CURRENTLY READING Star Wars: Imperial Commando - 501st by Karen Traviss
ON DECK TBD
RECENTLY READ Harry Potter (all 7!)
About Me - Background
My name is Joseph Mays. I was born in Sinking Spring, PA. I graduated from Wilson High School (West Lawn, PA) in June 2003. I attended Penn State for four years and graduated with a B.S. degree in Meteorology in May 2007. While at Penn State I met a wonderful young woman named Kelly Ross. Kelly and I were married July 4th, 2009 in State College, PA.
In June 2009 we moved back to my hometown of Sinking Spring, where I began working for my father at Mays Sandwich Shop in West Lawn, PA. I also am a coach for the Wilson West Middle School football team. Kelly graduated from Purdue University in August 2009 with her M.S. in Atmospheric Science and is currently a consultant for environmental firm in Mohnton, PA.
In August 2010 we adopted 2 kittens, Forrest & Lucy.
I started collecting 3 3/4" Star Wars figures in 1996, right before the Special Editions were released. Kenner/Hasbro started releasing Star Wars figures again in 1995, after a 10 year reprieve. From 1996 through 2000 I bought and opened whatever figures interested me. I had a large variety of figures from Power of the Force 2 and the Episode 1 collections. I did not purchase any figures from 2001-2006. Then, when I traveled to the 44th Das Awkscht Fescht on Saturday, August 4th, 2007, my collecting urge returned. At that toy show I purchased a few clones the piqued my interest, including four of the Target exclusive Order 66 two-packs. Since August 2007 I have been collecting Star Wars figures again. And I am not wasting any time. I have a lot of catching up to do. Because of money constraints and interest, I decided to focus solely on my favorite character - Imperial Clone/Stormtroopers.
For a more in depth overview and to see my collection, follow the links in the "MY STAR WARS COLLECTION" section below.
RECENT UPDATES January 1, 2010 - Updated my TCW page to account for announced figures and items I've purchased.
