[NEWS] The Sunday Spew (5th January 2014)

Good evening and welcome to the very first Sunday Spew of 2014! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a smashing New Year, ushered in surrounded by loved ones or friends. Or your duvet and your favourite box-set, because to me both sound equally appealing.

Much has happened in geek news since our last update but to keep things as short (like me!) and sweet (unlike me!) as we possibly can, we’ll get down to unwrapping the best of the gifted goodies.

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LAUNCHING PROBE – A couple of weeks previously, before the festive fever set in, I heard word that BioWare has been making some significant progress with the new Mass Effect game, telling of strides in the right direction and hinting at a late 2014/early 2015 release. One employee took to Twitter to extol the virtues of ME4 and gave his first impressions. “Ambitious, beautiful and fresh, but recognizable” would be adjectives we’d expect to hear when describing something based within this universe, but methinks it more likely that the possible release date itself is ambitious, as Garrus is still off somewhere doing those never-ending calibrations.

A first official image for Marvel’s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY was released and met with an assortment of reactions from fans across the Interwebs. The Escapist yesterday published an article loosely detailing the official synopsis of the film, which you can read about here, if you give a continental.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK… AGAIN – This afternoon NME reported that Star Wars spin-off films are in the works. There have been various rumours as to who these spin-offs will focus on, but now it has been revealed that bounty hunter character Boba Fett is definitely to be one of them. Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) has been confirmed to write, who in turn has revealed that he will be working with X-Men: Days of Future Past screenwriter, Simon Kinberg, on this project. We all knew this kind of saturation would be coming after Disney conquered Lucasfilm, but I, for one, think a film about Boba Fett would be Mandalorian Armour-lickin’ good.

YOU’VE BEEN X-ED – The only scene with Anna Paquin as Rogue has been cut from X-Men: Days of Future Past. According to director Bryan Singer, it was “unfortunate” but through editing the sequence became “extraneous”. We’ll probably get to see it on the DVD, but for now, no more Rogue. How do we feel about that? Can’t say I feel much of anything myself.

In TRAILERTOWN, we’ve been given a few treats to gaze upon and ponder over. A House of Cards teaser emerged; this one featuring most deliciously sinister and frighteningly clever political aficionado Mr. Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey. The teaser features him doing absolutely nothing and is hands down the oddest trailer I think I’ve ever seen. House of Cards Season 2 premieres February 14th, exclusive to Netflix. Any MARSHMALLOWS out there? Veronica Mars fans were also treated to the official Mars movie trailer ahead of its March 14th release date. It’s ridiculously long and full of fan-service spoilers, so don’t watch it if, like me, you’re at all excited for Veronica’s long-awaited return.

And now, finally, our weekly BATS VS SUPE segment. Award winning Argo screenwriter Chris Terrio has been drafted in to help with The Man of Steel II rewrites. Gal Gadot is reportedly undertaking an unenviable fitness and physical regime for her upcoming role as Wonder Woman, which is good, because as it stands a strong gust of wind could probably knock her over. Numerous different, and unverified, I might add, sources claim that Joaquin Phoenix may be in the running to play Lex Luthor, while others are still maintaining that Bryan Cranston has been the studio’s best kept secret to take on the role of Superman’s baldy arch-nemesis.

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I’ve had a busy return to blog form this week on The Spew as I rushed to compile the lists of everything I’d seen over the break. We started with a review of Joss Whedon’s passion project, Much Ado About Nothing, and followed that up with the pretty scathing written impressions of Fast & Furious 6. Last night I published another narrative inspired by Telltale Games, but in a refreshing change from the norm this one had no zombies in it, rather it involved the cast of disused fairytale creatures in The Wolf Among Us.

My thanks this week to to both Tom Ford of Movies & Music Cafe and my buddy Pewie from The PewPew Diaries for my fifth and sixth Blog of the Year Awards. Now I can have the same number of stars for both sides of the picture thingy and there won’t be unfilled ones and my OCD will be silenced. Thank you both for your kind words. Also gratitude to Cara of Silver Screen Serenade and Alex Raphael for their Versatile Blog nominations. If you haven’t yet checked out any of the blogs mentioned above, dear readers, go and do so now. You won’t be disappointed.

I’ve been reading a lot since my return, and fully catching up with my favouritest blogs has proven to be an arduous, but wholly worthwhile effort. With authors everywhere putting in great work to compile their best of lists for 2013, Sidekick Reviews gave us a brilliant list of his best moments with Sidekick’s Naughty or Nice List for Movie News 2013. Tom from Digital Shortbread with the 2013 DigiBread Awards told us about his tastiest and nastiest (among others) film experiences of the year and before Christmas Mikey & Co., the force behind Screenkicker!, gifted us with a very entertaining podcast wherein they dissected everything film-related from the last twelve months. Well worth a listen, even if you can’t understand a word and just like the accents. For your games round-ups of last year Play Legit and 1001-Up published the results of their public votes, with a few both expected and unexpected results.

Luke from Oracle of Film celebrated his blog’s first anniversary the other day, and posted a special video highlighting some of the weirdest (and funniest) search terms that amazingly brought traffic to his articles. Some time before Christmas he also posted a special video for his birthday, but this one involved a movie quiz and a bottle of Disaronno, which was consumed throughout as punishment for getting questions wrong. He got a lot of questions wrong. Luke has also done some of his own best of lists for 2013 so be sure to check them out.

Niall McArdle (AKA NiMac) published a touching tribute to all of the special talent we lost last year, in the form of his 2013 In Memoriam. This next one isn’t at all recent, though I only just stumbled across it. Liam from LIAMDOESFILM wrote an interesting article last month about director David Fincher and his supposed expressed hatred toward women. You might not agree with the angle but I found it quite absorbing and it made me rethink my opinions on the referenced films. David Fincher as an Auteur #1 is definitely worth the read.

To lighten the tone now I have Sir Issacs‘ review of The Godfather, contributed to Cara’s Resolutions series on her Silver Screen Serenade. Here’s a hint: he hated it. And to wrap up allow me to blatantly promote fellow Irish girl, janeybgood, and her brilliant blog, Cupid or Cats. Her most recent postings of Mothers Always Know Best and 15 THINGS I LEARNED FROM LIVING WITH A GUY aren’t just highly entertaining but also relatable, particularly to me, as you’ll see from the horribly personal comments I’ve made all over her blog. As a writer Janey is personable and inclusive, and I just love it when I see one of her posts pop in my feed.

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I had a wonderful (and busy) Christmas. While I went to far too many parties and drank far too much grog, I also had the opportunity to watch TOO MUCH STUFF. It was amazing. I happily slogged through the majority of my must-see DVD releases from October, November and December, and watched all of Revolution (it was so much fun), Sherlock (just brilliant) and The Blacklist (had me at ‘Hello’), all while I was in my fluffy pajamas and scoffing chocolates. I played The Wolf Among Us, Bioshock Infinite, twelve consecutive hours of The Sims 3 (don’t judge, it’s a legitimate addiction) and started a brand new playthrough of Mass Effect.

We traveled up to Co. Donegal shortly after Christmas for a wedding and to ring in the New Year. Suffice it to say I’m still in recovery and seem to have come down with some manner of “man flu“. I know I’m not a man, but I seriously think I’ve been infected. It’s because of all the battering my midget liver and midget form took from all of that wine, beer and Bailey’s I’d consumed. Ah well.

Upon reflection 2013 was a bit of a schizophrenic year. It began at the lowest point it possibly could, with losing someone very young and very dear to me after a mammoth battle with illness. The aftermath of that was equally as harrowing as everyone around me tried (and continues to try) to come to terms with the loss. But to counteract that there were many personal highlights for me too. Our trip to Vegas to celebrate the OH’s 30th birthday was one, and this blogging experience has most certainly been another.

I don’t usually make New Year resolutions because I have absolutely no discipline and I never keep them, but this year I think I’ll make a few, and keep them simple. One of the most important lessons I learned in 2013 is that life is very, very short. It’s an old cliche, I know, one that everyone has used at some stage, but this year that little overused phrase has come to hold a brand new meaning for me. As such, my resolution this year will be not to spend my time running around, not to be harried or “too busy” or have to make excuses due to work or social commitments, but rather I resolve to spend more time doing the things I like to do. The things I want to do. I want to spend more time with the people I love and I want to spend more time doing the things I love.

To quote another fellow Irish blogger (we’re everywhere, it’s truly insidious), the talented AJ Vosse, I will have fun, and do better.

This has been the longest, most personal and probably (judging by the last couple of paragraphs) the most depressing edition of The Sunday Spew I’ve ever written, so without further ado I’ll run off now and leave in my place a picture of a Pug in a seal costume.

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Have you anything to add? Tell me your news below!

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‹ [GAME] My Wolf Among Us Experience Episode 1 – Faith

[FILM] Monsters University Vs Despicable Me 2 ›

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Categories: News

Tags: 2013, 2014, Batman vs Superman, Boba Fett, Christmas, Gal Gadot, games, Guardians of the Galaxy, House of Cards, Man flu, Mass Effect, Movies, New Year, News, Pugs in Costumes, Resolutions, Star Wars, Sunday Shout-Out, TV, Veronica Mars, X-Men, X-Men Days of Future Past

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