Every week, we list our recommendations of new music, books, comics, movies and TV to check out. This is Recs in Effect:

New Disc

The Killing

No, not the shitty shitty shitty AMC show. (Sidenote: I'm not a fan of that TV show) This is a Criterion Collection release of the pretty great Stanley Kubrick movie. A disjointed, alinear tale of a heist, violence and the desperate people these things tend to attract, The Killing has been hugely influential to many filmmakers. Reservoir Dogs, Heat, The Town, Taking of Pelham 123, Pulp Fiction and The Dark Knight all draw pretty heavily from what Kubrick has done here. It's one of the late master's lesser known works, but it's pretty great. The whole "colors as names", lack of chronology, eerie mask thing that's been cool in the films of Tarantino, Soderbergh and all sorts of heist movies? Yeah, they started here in 1956. I also like that Kubrick so loved Sterling Hayden in his role as the tough guy Johnny Gray that he brought Hayden back as Brigadier General Jack "Precious Bodily Fluids" Ripper in Dr. Strangelove. Plus Criterion will certainly be bringin it with this disc so it looks better than ever before.

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Fisticuffs is when you tell me who would win in a knockdown, dragout, physical fight to the death between two people or groups.

The sci-fi nerd will is torn asunder! Who will win in this eternal struggle twixt utopian retrofuture and futuristic ancient history? Remember - it's the fanbases that are at war, not any of the characters from the properties.

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A Nerd PSA that finally shatters the silence...

(Via Topless Robot)

Wiiiiiiiiiin in the End!

This may surprise you - but I'm a bit of a nerd. Furthermore, I'm a bit of a comic book nerd. I'll give you some time to make peace with this startling new information. I went to see X-Men: First Class this weekend and overall found it OK - some good performances, some terrible ones, and a young beast that looked like the Smurf version of Teen Wolf (Smurf Wolf!).

And while I could be the pedantic geek that pecks at each element of the movie that dramatically departed from the source material - I'm not going to do that. As long as the movie is good - and the spirit of the comic book is honored - then I don't care how "faithful" an adaptation the movie. Because no matter what the movies, TV shows, or even newer books do - they won't necessarily change the original books that I loved so much. That doesn't mean I don't have kneejerk fanboy reactions to things in these movies or even just regular nerd reactions - of course I do (why does Emma Frost's clothes turn to diamonds when she turns to a diamond? it...it doesn't make any sense). But it means that as long as everything makes sense in the context of the world it's presenting and doesn't betray any of the fundamental aspects of the franchise just for cheap plot device, I'm pretty much OK with these changes. Organic webshooters? Different - but that certainly makes more sense than a teenage technology genius that does nothing else with his scientific gift, so I'll allow it.

But the part of my nerd brain that doesn't allow for such mutations in tradition is the filmgoer side. It's that side that had a real problem with X-Men: First Class, not the comic book nerd that secretly yearns for Speedball to have his own movie. The problem with X-Men: First Class, just like Singer's Superman Returns, is that it tries to serve two masters but ends up just making a mess. These films are positioned as their own entities - "reboots" to reignite interest in the property and for a new group/generation of people to enjoy. Rather than creating something wholly new and fresh using the same sandbox of characters but with a new direction/interpretation, Singer and his writers shoehorn their reboots into the established continuity of previous films - making the movies a complete mess and trying to understand the continuity becomes a sissyphean act of desperation. If you are going to reboot a franchise, having the story take place in the past/as a prequel, then you do not have to fit in with pre-established continuity. In fact - it would be better if you don't.

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Immodest Proposal is a place where Rob Dean makes humble suggestions that would forever alter the world and vastly improve the lives of everyone. But, you know, you don't have to listen to him, or whatever.

the resemblence is uncanny!The Simpsons is in a rut. That venerable institution, once lauded by cool english teachers and awkward IT staffs alike, has fallen into disrepair and it may take drastic measures to bring it back.

Starting around the early 2000s, it seemed there were less good episodes per season; instead the show was dominated by stunt casting, delving into backstories of lesser characters, random "travel episodes" that eventually descended into becoming the lazy set-ups that were mocked by earlier Simpsons episodes. Random changes were made to characters - Apu's octoplets, for example - that served as nothing more than 30 minutes of filler. The writers began lapping old scripts, revisiting plot points that were already dealt with or that previous writing staffs derided (rightfully) as cheap and uninteresting. 

How can the producers hope to rescue the show? What price will they have to pay to escape from the shadows of Macfarlane's Animation Empire and reassert itself as the rightful Emperor of Smart and Important Cartoons?  My suggestion: it's time for the characters in The Simpsons to start aging.

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Today's word of the day is "repose."

Via Picture is Unrelated

Repose

1. the state of reposing or being at rest; rest; sleep.
2. peace; tranquillity; calm.
3. dignified calmness, as of manner; composure.
4. absence of movement, animation, etc.