http://view.break.com/423196 - Watch more free videos

I found this and just wanted to share it.

Man, that horse is flipping out. Maybe it’s because he heard through the grapevine that the New Year is just around the corner. Out with the old, in with the new, right? 2007, you’ve been good to us here at the Shamoozal, but something tells me that 2008 is going to be even better. I know it. You know it. That horse knows it, too.

Hmm…I just realized that isn’t a horse, but is indeed a real live UNICORN. See how much better 2008 is going to be? 2008 is going to have unicorns running around the place hiding from skunks that leap out of the tall grass. That’s how awesome its going to be.

So hang tight, Shamoozalites!

Better late than never, right?
Quicky since its still technically a holiday.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep – the fictional story about how the Loch Ness monster was first born, raised, and all that jazz.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – the aliens and predator race are at war and crash on Earth bringing the humans into the mix. Reiko Aylesworth in her first big post-24 role.

The Great Debaters – Denzel Washington arranges a debate team at a small college to take on Harvard.

Limited is The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as 2 dying men trying to live life. The Orphange is a horror flick produced by Guillermo Del Toro about a kid who has weird visions when visiting his mother’s old orphanage. There Will Be Blood is the oil drama by Paul Thomas Anderson starring Daniel Day Lewis as one of the first oil prospectors.

It was really hard holding out on buying Contra 4 ever since its release back in November. I told my wife that I wanted it for Christmas, and the waiting paid off. Not only did she deliver, but so does Contra 4.

I’ve had several things to say about Contra 4 in the past. At first I hated the whole idea of it. How dare Konami had over the reigns to an unproven company like WayForward? How dare WayForward use Bill Rizer, Lance Bean, Mad Dog, and Scorpion all in the same game when we know they’re all the same people. Then they released some concept art, and I realized that maybe things were in good hands. WayForward gets it. They get the cheesy references. They get the classic gameplay. These guys aren’t just hired suits, they’re fans just like me and hopefully you, only they’re smart enough and talented enough to create this shit. Never in a million years would I imagine that a studio in California that normally turns out licensed garbage would not only understand Contra, but absolutely do it justice and showing up their peers in the process.

So as you can see, I’m basically in love with this game. I love it so much I almost want to rewrite history and throw it into my Best Games of the Year list. It was a ballsy move on Konami’s part to call this game Contra 4, especially since there have been at least four Contra games released since The Alien Wars, but when you play the game it makes sense. It takes everything we’ve learn from Contra 1 through 3, and builds on those ideas. While the game mostly resembles the original Contra in the graphics department, with it’s bright colors, and easily distinguishable characters, elements from The Alien Wars, like juggling between two items and being able to lock your character in place to shoot have made the jump. Taking a page from Hard Corps and Shattered Soldier, stages are littered with tons of boss battles. Of course, WayForward has added their own little touches as well, like the ability to drop weapons (in case you pick up a bad one), double up on two of the same gun for extra fire power, and access to a handy grappling hook that will get your player up to the second screen with ease.

So now whenever someone asks why I own the complete series of this show on DVD, I can just point them to this video and they’ll completely understand. I’d watch this over any of the anime versions any day of the week.

Eastern Promises – from David Cronenberg comes the story of Naomi Watts finding herself getting too close to the Russian mob through an enforcer (Viggo Mortensen) who is friends with the mob boss’ son (Vincent Cassell). Its another violent look at the mob by Cronenberg.

Rush Hour 3 – there is an attempt to assassinate Ambassador Han, so Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are called on the scene once again. This time they go to France to protect a woman with knowledge of the gang’s secrets.

The Kingdom – a political thriller about an elite group sent to Saudi Arabia to find out about a terrorist group who are attacking U.S. employees working in the Middle East. Group consists of Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman. Directed by Peter Berg.

How can you not love National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? Its hilarious, and thank God the networks haven’t whored it out yet like they did with A Christmas Story which I used to love and now shy away from due to overexposure. Anywho, above is the animated opening credits to Christmas Vacation to help get you in the holiday spirit. Merry Christmas, Shamoozalites!

Now, I’m not talking about the song and I’m not talking about poor old Rudolph himself… I’m talking about the TV special with all the goddamn puppets. It’s not the puppets that bother me either… they were pretty damn innovative for their time. My problem with Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer… is that every single character in it, other than Rudolph and the little elf dentist Hermie, is a complete and total asshole.

Seriously now, I was watching this with my daughter and I was just cringing at the way these rat-bastards treat Rudolph like a total piece of shit. Let’s go down the list shall we?

• Donner (Rudolph’s Dad): Asshole
• Comet (The coach): Asshole
• Santa Claus: Biggest fucking Asshole of them all (I’ll get to him later)
• Elf Manager: Asshole
• Other Elves: Assholes
• Other Reindeer: Assholes

Yesterday, I got Tool’s highly anticipated DVD video for “Vicarious” off of their latest album, 10,000 Days. Though the album has been released over a year ago, there was no sign of a video to support it. My guess is that aside from the fact that the band has been touring nonstop since the release date to this day is that there is no longer a market for music videos. MTV and its affiliates are a mere shadow of what they once were. It’s almost pointless to create a video as there is no longer a venue to show them. Instead, Tool has released their last few videos directly to DVD where their fans could purchase them for around 10 dollars each. Considering the quality of their videos, extra DVD content, and packaging, it’s a purchase I am happy to make.

Right off the bat, the packaging is awesome and is designed in the same motif of the 10,000 Days jacket. There is a pair of stereoscopic lenses built into the packaging that you look through to view a series of cutout images which are also included with the DVD. A stereoscopic image is one that has two versions of the same subject taken at a slightly different angle from each other. When viewed through the glasses, the mind melds the two images together and perceives a 3D image. Pretty cool stuff. But thats just the tip of the iceberg because then I watched the video…

Trying to describe what the “Vicarious” video about is pointless. Its an explosion of phychadelic and haunting shots. Like all of Tool’s videos, they are open to interpretation and are more about setting mood than telling a story. Pretty much every Tool video contains similar imagery and this newest one is no exception. We have the twitchy, humanoid character who seems lost in his surroundings while strange, organic creatures look to devour him. That is the basic idea behind their videos, however each one always approaches the subject matter a little differently often with shocking and disturbing results.

Okay, so I watched the segment about this game on this week’s episode of The 1up Show and I really liked what I saw. It’s an independent game developed by Bit Blot. So, I downloaded the demo, tried it out and wow… this game is really something special.

From a purely superficial standpoint, you might think this game looks like an Ecco the Dolphin clone… don’t be fooled. The game has far more in common with old-school 2-D Metroid exploration games. The gameplay integrates a beautiful music system in which your character sings different songs to interact with the world, or gain new abilities. The really impressive thing about this system is how it works with the background music of the game, they just blend together so it feels like you’re manipulating the game’s score.

I haven’t tried it out with a controller yet (it supports several controller types, including the Xbox 360 controller), but the click-to-move style is just crying for a release on the Wii or even the DS. Their F.A.Q. page vaguely hints at their attempts to get a console release. Hopefully some publisher sees the absolute genius in this game and has the good sense to get it out there on a console. After a little bit of digging around it looks like some people in the game’s community have already gotten the Wii-mote working with the game.