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https://www.themarysue.com/laika-studios-wins-the-tiktok-fight-challenge/

We’ve seen the stunt person challenge and the Boss Bitch Fight Challenge on TikTok, but those videos have nothing on the latest quarantine entry from LAIKA Studios.

The stop-motion animation studio behind films like Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link, has adapted their various animation styles for their own artistic take on the fight challenge.

@laikastudios

No one ever said animating was safe. ##fightlaikaanimator ##fightchallenge ##animation ##stopmotion ##laikastudios ##laikansathome ##fyp ##foryou

♬ original sound – laikastudios

The video shows off a variety of different stop-motion devies and mediums, including some delightful animation work with fighting ice cubes, angry lemons, sentient shoes, and a little Boxtroll cameo for good measure. Like the beautiful films they make, this LAIKA short features stunning, painstaking animation rendered with wit and soulfulness.

Well done, LAIKA!

(via EW, image: LAIKA Studios/Annapurna Pictures)

• Will germ-zapping robots help Hollywood return to work, or is this the set up for a robot uprising? (via THR)
• This argument for Something’s Gotta Give as the ultimate quarantine romcom is spot on. (via AVClub)
• You got questions about the Dark Side? They’ve got answers. (via CBR)
• Dispatch from Captain Janeway!

On this day in 2001, the Voyager finale “Endgame” aired. On Tuesday, the cast will reunite for a virtual panel in these unprecedented times.

Voyagers: assemble. #StarTrek #Voyager #Endgame pic.twitter.com/ugkJOxsAMQ

— Kate Mulgrew (@TheKateMulgrew) May 23, 2020

• Jeffrey Wright discusses changes to Gotham in the upcoming The Batman. (via io9)
• Check out this interview with voice acting legend/Animaniac Rob Paulsen. (via Collider)
• Meet the Star Fleet employees toiling away on Star Trek: Lower Decks. (via /Film)

This dog is all of us pic.twitter.com/FRkO2uzBap

— Mia Sosa (@miasosaromance) May 22, 2020

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, Mary Suevians!

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

https://blacknerdproblems.com/im-not-savage-enough-for-grand-theft-auto/

A Young Warrior’s Journey Towards “Catching These Hands”

As I was growing up I always loved video games. It started when my older brother introduced me to the first ever Mortal Kombat on the original Gameboy. Since my brother took martial arts classes when he was younger, he always had this fascination for fighting games like Tekken, Mortal Kombat, and Dead or Alive. If you can deck someone in the face, he wanted it immediately. And because I was the younger sibling, of course I was subjected to the torture of sibling rivalry and was forced to learn how to play fighting games the hard way or else I wouldn’t have an ego left by the time I was 15.

Now as I grew older, I admired games that was a great mixture of both. Adventurous story-line, some violence here and there to release a little bit of pent up aggression, nothing too serious. And then at the age of 13, I was introduced to something called Grand Theft Auto. My older cousins advertised it to me as a game that had cars, an open world format, NPC interactions and of course, violence. In my head, I was like wow that sounds wonderful, I’d love to play. Little did I know exactly what was about to go down.

I held the PS2 controller in between my fingers and took control of the vehicle. I zoomed down the street into the sunset, gliding within a safe distance from the curb, drifting, sliding, I was having a grand time. Then, suddenly, OH DAMN! I accidentally ran into someone.

Listen, I am not savage enough for Grand Theft Auto

The first thing I did was apologize. That should have been the first sign to figure out I ain’t built for this. I don’t know anyone who runs over someone in a video game and then apologizes to the NPC as if they can hear you through the screen. This poor lady was walking across the street and just got hit with a Lambo. That car too expensive to be getting into accidents with. And don’t get me started with the police chase. When it was time for me to start shooting, lord I could not pull out the gun for nothing. This takes some skill that I honestly did not have. They’re shooting, while I’m swerving and screaming because I don’t like conflict.

Before this, the most violent game I played was Tekken 3, where the worst thing you could have possibly done was kick an Ogre in the face. Here I was like wow, you have to shoot and drive a car at the same time (with the high possibility of running people over)? What if I run over someone while trying to escape from the police? Wouldn’t that make everything worse?

Screams in Hufflepuff

Of course, I know what you are thinking: “Why would they let you play Grand Theft Auto when you were 13?” Well, maybe I shouldn’t have been playing it, considering that my goodie-too-shoes behind can’t handle that much stress. However, a comment that tends to surface in correspondence to playing violent video games is that it will eventually influence folks to enact this violence in reality. With games like Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, and the Red Dead Redemption series, just to name a few, many folks have this belief that these games will eventually affect people, more specifically adolescents and cause them to enact this violence later down in adulthood.

Contrary to popular beliefs there is no direct correlation between enacting real life violence inspired by video games. I.E: After running over 30 people with a car and blowing up buildings with a machine gun, it will not inspire folks to enact those same actions in the future. Folks have tried to use violent video games as a scapegoat for why school shootings and terrorism occur. Many folks have instead use these games as a coping mechanism to divert their attention from overwhelming stress. Gamers have seen how these interactive worlds can influence the imagination and create meaningful conversations about the world around us. But sometimes, when the day is rough and everything around you is just getting you pissed off, honestly you really just want to pull out a cannon and reduce the world around you to rubble.

Unlimited Mortality

From the outside looking in, without understanding the true context behind certain games, people will downplay the problem solving that it takes to get out of dangerous situations. Games that include open world violence have seemingly limitless ways to die. We’ve seen it in games like Red Dead Redemption 2, where you roll up to a gun fight, survive, and then get killed by a random puma. Or you’re running away from law enforcement and accidentally trip on a rock and you find yourself rolling down a cliff and now you’re dead. To be honest, I’ve probably died more from situations like this rather than actual fights themselves. I know that I walk into games like Red Dead just to cook and pet the dogs at this point. Even games with milder version of violence like Breath of The Wild, I found myself running away from the Guardians once I heard the music. In no way shape or form, do I ever want the sauce.

But these games did something else for me; in spite of me reflecting my fear of conflict within the virtual world, I got to learn about how to walk into challenges with different solutions. Example, side mission in Red Dead Redemption 2: “We all hate the KKK.” Normally, I do not want the sauce, but I always got time to throw hands with racists. There’s about eight of them and only one of me. It is nighttime, I’m not good at up close combat, how am I going to get out of this alive?

An Introductory Course to Modern Problem Solving

There are many ways one could approach a challenge, and you have to look at it as such. You have a problem, and you map it out in different ways. Some people might say, run up on them head-first, or others might say snipe from a distance. Sniping from the distance sounds wonderful, it keeps you far enough so that they don’t see you; but the problem is that they will eventually come looking. I never want them to see me. So, what did I do? I threw a stick of dynamite into their campfire. Explosion on impact. Never had to see them, got straight to the point. When we look at this situation at face value, we’re thinking about how can we get out of this situation alive, but this is also a form of critical thinking.

Within life, we will be placed in situations that require a certain amount of risk factor. We will have to think of our goal, and the various ways we could achieve it, while keeping in mind the obstacles that exist around us. Of course, most situations where we have to apply critical thinking might not be life or death, but the consistent act of applying one’s self to problem solving allows us to broaden our horizons in ways outside of academia. My personal history with games in this genre, I’ll admit, has been very limited. My openness to them has slowly widened. (After I discovered the fulfillment of running away from law enforcement on a horse, then perching myself on a hill to cook some oregano venison along the sunset.)

I enjoy the exploratory format of video games that introduce problem solving and emotional release through unconventional methods. I believe that the emotional release these games grants us in periods of frustration, and the obscene stories it brings to the group chats will inspire the future generation of game creators to create new ways to keep us engaged while challenging the formats that allowed these worlds to become a part of our culture.

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The post I’m Not Savage Enough for ‘Grand Theft Auto’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

http://www.afronerd.com/2020/05/the-grindhouse-airs-this-sun-6pm-john.html

Good Evening, people.  We're back at it AGAIN!  Welcome to the latest episode of Afronerd Radio's Grindhouse podcast airing every Sunday at 6pm, thanks to the good folks at BTalk 100.  Join your humble Afronerdist podcasters as they wax about all things nerdy, blerdy, and newsworthy.  The topics to be analyzed this go around are:  as many states and cities are slowly lifting quarantine restrictions at public centers, Dburt still ponders if folks are purposely clueless or delusional regarding the need to slow things down because normalcy may not return for quite some time;  young bicyclists apparently for the last couple of years have been posting idiotic "daredevil" videos of themselves defiantly swerving in and out of oncoming traffic at the last possible second averting certain death and injury-Dburt laments the loss of decency and intelligence, per usual;  will the US take cues from recent shoppers in the Philippines who are required to go through "disinfectant booths"; actor, Bill Pullman responds to a clip that President Trump tweeted of his (superimposed) self over the actor's famed speech in the 90s blockbuster, Independence Day;  noted director, Christopher Nolan's upcoming film, Tenet may be the test case for how to release (and hopefully recoup) a $200M movie while in the throws of a pandemic;  former President Barack Obama had some pointed words about the handling of COVID-19 by the Trump administration during a virtual commencement address to graduating HBCU students;  Captain Pike is ready for his close-up with the long speculated rumor turning now fact that CBS All Access is producing another Star Trek series for the burgeoning streaming network; actor, Ethan Hawke's take on abolitionist, John Brown hit the internets via a new trailer for a seven part Showtime series, Good Lord Bird;  Dburt never did get a chance to talk about the new Hulu animated series, Solar Opposites, from the same producers of Rick and Morty (as if you couldn't tell);  And lastly, Dburt gives a much needed "battle plan" for black men in the wake of the death of Ahmaud Arbery (Breonna Taylor included) and the harassment of a black appliance deliverer attempting to traverse a white gated community in OKC.  Call LIVE at 1-508-645-0100.


    *AFTER CLICKING ON THE LINK,  GO DIRECTLY TO THE "LIVE STREAM" OF AFRONERD RADIO!!!
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https://blacknerdproblems.com/a-clear-shot-is-a-clear-miss/

Theaters are closed, movies delayed, and access to press screenings are limited to streaming. There’s no better time to highlight smaller films — amazing movies without the big-studio marketing budget that makes it harder for you to find. Discover a new film festival darling and support new, emerging, and independent filmmakers. Sheltering in place doesn’t need to stop you from your weekend evening escape to the movies. Follow the flurry of upcoming reviews on Twitter, or find all my reviews for movies you can stream from right at home.

At first blush, A Clear Shot, written and directed by Nick Leisure, is a straightforward hostage thriller. A group of men with guns will storm the lobby, fire into the air, yell for everyone to get down. What follows are terse and quick-witted conversations between robbers and the hostage negotiator in a psychological battle to get what both sides want. The hostage negotiator will repeatedly say that he doesn’t want anyone to get hurt, to which the robbers reiterate their demands. Hostages themselves negotiate whether to “do something” by way of intervening or wait for their hopeful rescue. A power struggle wages in the parking lot between the negotiator, S.W.A.T., and the “brass,” edging the negotiator closer to going rogue. You have seen that story before, if not many times, on major network television crime dramas and movies. Where you might hope A Clear Shot is a bait-and-switch, a Trojan horse that appears to be a generic heist that comes with a twist a lá Inside Man, you should know from the onset that A Clear Shot is not that movie. Your first impression is to be trusted, which isn’t to say A Clear Shot is a bad movie, but one for which your expectations should be accurately calibrated for you to enjoy.

Starring Mario Van Peebles as hostage negotiator Detective Gomez, A Clear Shot is inspired by a true story of 1991 holdup by young Thai immigrants. The four boys range from a volatile hot-head who wants to earn his respect through violence to a crying, shaking member of the group holding a gun for the first time. It’s clear from the onset that these are not what you would consider smart criminals, but desperate idiots, as robbers demand millions of dollars, a helicopter to fly them to Thailand, and full body armor “like Robo-Cop” for their escape. Police recognize the type of robbers they’re dealing with, making for a precarious situation: it’s less about whether the robbers will get what they want and more about whether the conflict can end with no one physically harmed. The only thing more dangerous than smart robbers with guns are dumb ones, and this cannot be overstated, the gunmen here are portrayed as extremely young and stupid.

Hostages include store employees and a handful of shoppers, 15 hostages total not including the unborn baby of a pregnant mother. While most of the hostages are mute and nameless, a few of them hold an ongoing conversation for the audience to mentally role-play along, debating how to handle the situation against gunmen so clearly in over their heads. One of the hostages is a store employee played by Mandela Van Peebles, Mario Van Peebles’ son, playing the role of pacifist against a growing consensus from other hostages that they should attack the gunmen instead of waiting to die. Of the ones in favor of bum-rushing the gunmen, none are more badass than an old man who has faced death before in war and says the things we all wish we could say in a crisis, and as confidently.

Outside the store are most of the clichés you could imagine, beginning with Detective Gomez himself who shows up with large sunglasses on a cloudy day, unshaven and tie loosened, a secret flask in his coat pocket for when he needs a drink. If you can forgive the clichés, you may be pushed beyond your breaking point with an inexplicable romance that brews under the surface of the conflict between Detective Gomez and an on-site woman police officer.

While the film is low-budget, it’s rarely a distraction. Little is needed to tell the story A Clear Shot is trying to tell, and so little is used. But between the cliché dialogue, witless criminals, and ham-fisted romance, you will likely find yourself asking what the film is aiming for at all. My best answer comes from a running theme throughout Detective Gomez’s negotiations: he’s Black and Mexican and has struggled in this country the same way the desperate gunmen have. We are given brief glimpses into the lives of the gunmen and how they have struggled, showing how they feel abandoned and unwelcome in their new country. The result is desperation, that sometimes desperation leads to this, and only someone who relates can best mitigate the damage of those whose desperation manifest in destructive ways.

This may be giving A Clear Shot more credit than it deserves, if its action-star movie poster is any indication. Still, if you want an easy, paint-by-the-numbers hostage thriller to watch with your popcorn, there are worse options. For my time and money though, there are better options than an elongated episode of a cancelled CBS pilot.

A Clear Shot is now available for streaming on demand.

Find all of Jordan Calhoun’s Rotten Tomatoes-approved movie reviews at Jordan Calhoun at the Movies.

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The post ‘A Clear Shot’ is a Clear Miss appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.