I waited until the absolute last possible day to put this list up. I thought I’d have gotten a chance to see Fantastic Mr. Fox and Sherlock Holmes before I put the list together, but they’ll still be around in January.  As it stands, I have come up with my five favorite films of 2009.  This list is filled with the films that stuck with me long after I left the theater. Michael Bay won’t be happy. Let’s kick things off with with number 5:

5) Where The Wild Things Are

A movie based on a book I haven’t read since I was 5.  Yet I was excited for it.  Was it the cast? Was it the visuals? I don’t know really. The first trailer was a doozy though. It made everyone warm inside. Then the film came out and a lot of folks went cold. I guess a dose of reality wasn’t what the people wanted. It is a very heartbreaking film as you watch Max lose a part of his childhood innocence. It upset many people to think that watching something so personal would be celebrated. However I don’t think “celebrated” is the right word to use for Max’s impending maturity. It was honesty. It made you tink back to your childhood without wearing the nostalgic blinders and challenges you to think about the moment you had to “grow up”. This is the first of two films that brought me to tears. Not afraid to admit.  I would be rude to not mention the amazing use of practical and visual effects.  The combination of the two to bring the Wild Things to life was seamless. I personally think the use of these type of effects shouldn’t completely take you out of the film but instead look and feel natural. Spike Jonze definitely succeeded in that department and many others.

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Earlier this month, I stopped by Crafty Balboa at the Broad Street Ministry to do some Christmas shopping. I’ve always been a fan of handmade gifts, and anytime there’s a gathering of Philadelphia’s wonderful Etsy community (especially when Ms. Sara GirlsCanTell is involved), you can bet I’ll be there.

While browsing the many vendors at the craft fair, I stumbled upon Daymaker, a paper artist  from Philadelphia, who creates outstanding papercraft models of Philadelphia staples.

From the Memphis Taproom to Philly Lunch Trucks, Trinity Homes to houses in Fishtown, Daymaker does some fantastic work, and his models cost $3 to $7 a pop. Not bad at all!

Have a look, and support an artist who clearly loves Philadelphia. Click the jump for a few more models.

Daymaker: Philadelphia Papercraft
www.etsy.com/shop/daymaker

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The year has come to a close and I thought I would put together my top 10 list of films for the year like most sites; but quite honestly by the time I got to 6 I was like, “Yeah these are good but I wouldn’t necessarily buy them.” So I decided to focus simply on the films that that I am passionate about. The films that I plan to buy for my collection, which are going on my blu-ray shelf and nothing less.  Because quite honestly in this day of piracy and downloading it says a lot when you’re fully prepared to put down your hard-earned cash for any media. So this is my top five films of 2009!

5.Star Trek

How do you take one of the geekiest things there is, and make it a box office and cultural phenomenon? Why give it to JJ Abrams of course. He not only successfully re-launched the franchise but made it much cooler than it had ever been in a very long time. Star Trek was simply a great summer blockbuster in every sense of the word, and to be honest this maybe the best Trek film since Wrath of Kahn. I re-watched Star Trek this weekend and have to say it still holds up and is every bit of fun I remember from watching it in the theater. This film has not only the dream cast of any Trek fan but some of the greatest writers to boot and this is one case where I can’t wait for the sequel.

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It seems to me that every year, quality games are snubbed by video game journalists in favor of the blockbuster titles that outsell and out-market them. Not every game this year had the marketing push or hungry, waiting audiences of Assassin’s Creed II or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

It’s easy to overlook games that get such a shadow cast over them, so here’s my list of games you should have played, but probably didn’t.

1. Torchlight (PC) – I don’t know a single PC gamer in Philadelphia. The ones who do play PC games, are World of Warcraft addicts (I’m looking at you, Joe & Tim), and don’t really play titles released for their monster gaming machines anymore. That being said, if you’re a PC gamer from Philly and want to write for Geekadelphia, let me know.

This year, I discovered the joys of Steam, and have been welcoming old school PC games back into my life. Titles from the golden age of LucasArts, old Sierra titles that seem to get better like a vintage wine, and wonderfully charming indie hits, like Aquaria (one of my other picks) and Torchlight.

Developed by Runic Games, a studio that consists of a number of folks who worked on Blizzard’s Diablo series, Torchlight is an outstanding title that plays just like Diablo. In fact, that may have been the reason so many of my gaming pals wrote the game off, thinking it just a Diablo clone. While the game does take a lot of what made Diablo a great game, it builds on that concept, delivering a good story (Diablo severely lacked that), more loot, larger, sometimes massive bosses, all in a game that runs PERFECT on my netbook. Even with a dozen or more enemies charging my hero, the game handles great on the go.

Note: As of this post, Torchlight is available on Steam for only $10, now through January 3rd. Utterly worth the price.

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2. Wet (Xbox 360 / PS3) – I’ve never gotten more flack for a post on this blog then I did for my review of Wet, but I still stand by my statements. A2M’s amazing move into hardcore gaming (after horrific PS2 / Wii titles), was a slam dunk, delivering one of the most unique gaming experiences of 2009.

Released in September alongside Guitar Hero 5, LittleBigPlanet’s Game of the Year Edition, Dirt 2, Beatles Rock Band, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Halo 3: ODST… it was easy for Wet to get lost in the Fall gaming shuffle. When you’re up against such stiff competition, a new IP in the midst of several well established sequels, well, poor Ruby really didn’t stand a chance, sexy voice actress or not.

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3. Bionic Commando (Xbox 360 / PS3 / PC) – For me, Bionic Commando played a lot like the movie Avatar. Gorgeous visuals, incredible music, but a flat, poorly written storyline. However, a bad story shouldn’t necessarily destroy a game. I mean, we aren’t talking about the next installment of Final Fantasy here. Other blockbuster titles, like Red Faction: Guerrilla, featured a somewhat lackluster storyline, but still delivered solid, exciting gameplay.

Swinging from cliffs, floating mines, and hurling objects at enemies with the bionic arm… so much fun. You can really see the connection between Lost Planet: Extreme Condition’s grappling hook and the Bionic Commando’s. The gameplay is pretty linear, thus negating any serious replay value, but the experience is fun. The voice acting (the singer from Faith No More, really?) is poor, but in traditional Capcom fashion, Bionic Commando sported one of my favorite soundtracks of the year, making up for it. The exhilarating music demands that you play the game with the speakers booming.

Grin’s swan song was a fun experience, and I will dearly miss that developer. Sure, they made some mistakes (Terminator), but BC and Wanted: Weapons of Fate were hella fun. With Bionic Commando’s retail price currently hovering around the $20 mark, worth a purchase.

A few more picks, including Wolfenstein and the indie darling Aquaria, after the jump!

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This Wednesday, Johnny Zito & Tony Trov, the tag-team behind DC Comics’ Black Cherry Bombshells, are releasing a one-shot comic entitled Carnivale DeRobotique. What the… didn’t I just write about you guys?!

The comic tells the story of a rebellious nanny robot, Wendy, who runs away to be a ballerina in the robot circus. Zito calls it “a self contained, 22 page, full color fairy tale from the future.”

I’ve included some of the fantastic art below. Have a look, and be sure to pick up your copy at Brave New Worlds in Old City. Or at… I dunno, whatever comic book stores are in Austin, TX.

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Some folks like to use the lyric “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” to describe Christmas. Those folk are wrong, and clearly haven’t been to Brave New Worlds on New Years Day.

This Friday, January 1st (New Years Day!), Geekadelphia’s favorite Philadelphia comic book shop is hosting their annual New Years Day sale, where everything in the store is 20% off. This also includes Brian’s beard, which will be 20% shaven, yet still look 100% sexy.

But wait! There’s more. As a special post-New Years Eve deal, if you spend $40, you’ll earn $10 in store credit for 2010. Plus, the guys at the shop are dishing out all kinds of free stuff and holiday cheer through the week.

So stop by, do some shopping, and say hi to the comic shop guys for us.

Brave New Worlds Comics
www.bravenewworldscomics.com

As promised here is part 2 of my interview with Dileep Rao. I honestly have to say now that I have seen Avatar, it is pretty mindboggling; what it would be like if that was your first major motion picture you acted in. It also gave me all the more respect for Dileep in how honest and down to earth he was during the interview. In this half he will talk about what it was like working on Drag Me to Hell with Sam Raimi and I will try to pry some details of Inception out Christopher Nolan’s newest film, which is actually rather timely since the newest French trailer for the film was released and recently pulled from the internets, pretty quickly. So enjoy and happy holidays!

After Avatar you landed a starring role on Sam Raimi’s much anticipated return to horror, Drag Me to Hell talk about lucky, how did landing that role come about, and were you a fan Raimi’s before you got the role in his film?

OF COURSE! I was a huge fan of Sam’s movies, the very first movie I saw Sam’s was Dark Man, and then my friend was like “Didn’t you know this guy made The Evil Dead?” I was like what is that? And he was like, “you’re an idiot.” We immediately go in his dorm room and he puts on this videotape, I watch this movie and I am completely hypnotized by it. Because the movie is so immediate a film, it is just so sensory overload, and it is such an act of love, you can feel the love that went into that film as grotesque and hilarious as it can be.  It’s a handmade movie and you feel the love of that in that movie especially the first one. My favorite films of Sam’s are A Simple Plan it’s just an amazing, amazing movie and Spiderman 2, which I think is a masterpiece as well. I was always a fan, and it was always a fantasy of mine to work with him.

I always knew he always tends to work with famous actors, you know he is big-time and can get what he wants. When I did the audition I was in New Zealand and Still shooting Avatar I didn’t have to shoot for a couple of days, and I got the audition through the internet. I was going to audition on tape and Fed-Ex it to LA, and there was some delays. There was some scheduling quirks I was able to combat and I was able to audition in person. I ended up auditioning for something else when I came out and when I got out I had like 4 messages on my phone, and I was like, “whoa this is weird.” So I checked them and the very first one was someone just giving me directions to the Fox lot. Then my agents called and said, your just going to meet him there is no audition. So I had already auditioned, because he had seen my tape so we just shook hands and that was it I was in. I gave him my thoughts on the character, and just started going from there. It was a dream experience, I loved working with Sam Raimi, I would do anything to work with him. I think we have a strong understanding of each other and  I look forward to working with him again.

I loved you performance in Drag Me to Hell you really took what could have been just a one dimensional stereotypical character and not only gave him some serious depth but made him the most likable character in the film, what was your inspiration for that performance and was that how it was originally scripted?

It’s hard to remember that first impression although, I thought he was a cool character in that he didn’t just have to be a font of knowledge and he had this experience with Christine Brown which was more personal. As soon as I get a job like that, it becomes totally assumed in my body, assumed into my person. So I started my research read a lot of books and I started to read about the occult and belief practices. I come from a family of science, so I looked at it as if I were a scientific investigator in these things,  and that kind of phenomena was not so foreign to me. Being a person of cutting edge investigation I think the guy would do it that way, so I just broadened out who he was.

The when I first rehearsed with Allison who was such a great actress, so talented and so immediate and personal in her work, the first thing we rehearsed together I think we kinda had that quick instant chemistry. Like, I am totally going to like working together because I love your acting and that made it more so much more kind of personal character, and a personal relationship instead of being just like, “Here’s your exposition, now do what you have to do.”  So I think that made it easier for me, because me, Sam and Allison all just kind of bonded on the material and in our scenes you can really feel that. It’s a tribute to Sam’s collaborative spirit and his ability to make it feel like that, when it feels like he has his hands in it, more than it feels like he does you know what I mean.

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Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, the duo behind DC Comics’ Black Cherry Bombshells, have done it again, releasing a comic on iPhone called Moon Girl.

Described as “masked vigilantes waging a psychotic war against 1950’s bourgeois… it’s The Dark Knight meets Mad Men.” Sounds like an excellent mix there, Johnny Z.

There’s a free preview available here on Comixology. Have a look, and if you’re into it (you will be) give the comic a download, and support two of Philadelphia’s finest. I’ve pasted a page from the comic after the jump, so you can scope out some of the (always excellent) art.

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It’s sort of like I’m On A Boat… only more Christmas-ish.

It’s two days away, but yeah… Merry Christmas, internets.

Thanks for the link, Colin.

It’s really interesting how all the hype around Avatar has drawn comparisons to the another “revolutionary” super-hyped sci-fi epic Star Wars: Episode One The Phantom Menace. I think it’s a very valid comparison in the marketing and buildup. Both were huge budgeted super secret films, shot in a revolutionary new way, where we were promised “to be whisked off to a far away galaxy, to see things we had never dreamed of seeing on the big screen.” Both were years in the making by a perfectionist auteur who would accept nothing less than his absolute vision. I remember having the same thoughts as I walked out of Avatar Friday night. But unlike Avatar you don’t have the fanboys renouncing their faith burning their Boba Fett bed sheets, like they did after spending an hour and a half with Jar-Jar Binks. I know personally after walking out of Episode One I lost quite a bit of respect for Lucas, which by Episode 3 had me feeling like an abused girlfriend, who fondly remember how good he was when he was he was The Empire Strikes Back.

I am not the only one who feels this way, there has been quite a few people drawing the same conclusions and thanks to that, I found the greatest review of Episode One ever. It’s a video review and clocks in at over 70 minutes spanning several parts on YouTube. But while it at times can be bizarre, it can also be spot on to the point of “why didn’t I notice that before?” My favorite part is his deconstruction of some of the web documentaries filmed during the production of Episode One(remember those?) where he notes the fear in people’s eyes when confronting Lucas about any decisions involving the production. Episode One was a completely “Independent” production, and Lucas had COMPLETE creative control and we learn how when no one will tell you your ideas sucks; the ideas can get pretty bad. Like when they show the faces of Lucas and his trusted inner circle when he first screened Episode One, they knew that someone should have told him the whole Midi-chlorians thing was a load of BS. I think enough time has passed that we can look objectively at this film and it’s legacy and no matter how creative you are sometimes you need to have an auditor, in case you decide to go basing all your characters on racial stereo-types. So enjoy and be warned some dialog maybe NSFW, so turn you speakers down first.

Dropped the ball on posting this yesterday, but this week’s Xbox Live Deal of the Week is a great one.

This week, through December 27th, you can score Shadow Complex for 800 points. Ben reviewed this game way back when, and absolutely loved it. He’s a writer for Joystiq these days, so his opinion is certainly one you can trust.

The game is regularly priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), and is well worth it even at that price. Shadow Complex is one of those rare XBox Live titles, like Braid or the Monkey Island revamp, that I would probably purchase if it was sold at a budget retail price for $20 or. Definitely worth your money.

Shadow Complex
800 Points: December 21st through December 27th

And the winner of the MST3K tickets for Cinematic Titanic at the Keswick Theater December 31st at 7:30 pm.  is……

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