About Gary Mitchel

Gary Mitchel is a writer, reviewer, geek blogger, gamer, sf/fantasy fan, comics reader, podcaster, voice actor, and International Man of Mystery (who’s too dangerous for the entire country of Canada) currently living near Atlanta. He is co-host with Deanna Toxopeus of the RevolutionSF Roundtable, the site's weekly geek culture discussion which was nominated for a 2012 Parsec Award. He has also appeared on various nerd podcasts such as Needless Things, Earth Station One, Storm of Words, Yes Have Some, Nerdy Laser, and many others. He can be found on the Facebook, and followed on the Twitter as @gary_mitchel (and yes, it's his real name). Additionally, he is a frequent panelist at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, where he is the Co-Director of the American Sci-Fi Classics Track. There, he has discussed Sci-Fi TV, zombies, movies, zombies, cartoons, comics and zombies. Some attendees have stated that he is "hilarious," and Gary swears that said people are not related to him.

Build More Overlords!!!

[ Hypnotized Mood: Hypnotized ]
[ Watching Teaser Trailers Currently: Watching Teaser Trailers ]
Okay, now this is just not fair! How am I supposed to get anything done? Damn you Blizzard! I finally start being able to pull myself away from City of Heroes, get out of my house and see my friends again, and you have to announce the release of Starcraft II?!

You bastards! I’ve never fully kicked the habit of the first one! I’ve still got the Brood War CD within easy reach and my games still saved on my backup hard drive!

Not to mention all of my DVD’s and blood I’ll have to sell to get a hot new top of the line computer so I can play this beast, based on the gameplay trailer. The new Zurgling rush looks amazingly detailed. I can hear my CPU crying already.

At least it’s not another MMO. I think my wallet would have strangled me.

Now, if I could ever convince them to do a crossover game with Dawn of War…Zurg vs Orc…Tau vs Protos…I think my nerdgasam would be able to be seen from orbit.

Everyone Loves a List

[ Sleepy Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Listening to www.Pandora.com Currently: Listening to www.Pandora.com ]
Well, as always, EW has a new Top (Number) list, this time, it’s the Top 25 Sci-Fi Movies & TV Shows of the Last 25 Years. This was pointed out to me by friend of the site Dr. Amy Sturgis, and I have to quote her here:

I’ll be honest: when I found Starship Troopers on the list, I stopped reading.

Well, as is my duty as a reviewer, I have plunged in and read the whole list. Overall, not too bad. I leave the glaring omissions for everyone to discuss. There’s also plenty to argue about over list placement (Firefly higher, ST: TNG lower).

As usual, EW made each entry a separate page. Have to get those click-through up, you know. If you want to see the list with their comments, you can catch it here.

But, to save you time, I present their list here, with my comments.

25. V: THE MINISERIES (1983) Created by Kenneth Johnson

Mmmm, lizard overlords.

24. GALAXY QUEST (1999) Directed by Dean Parisot

By Grabthar’s Hammer, it’s the second-best Trek movie ever.

23. DOCTOR WHO (1963-Present) Developed by Sydney Newman

Season Three can’t start soon enough.

22. QUANTUM LEAP (1989-1993) Created by Donald P. Bellisario

Ahhh Sam, how could you suck so hard as a Starship captain?

21. FUTURAMA (1999-2003) Created by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen

Their episode where we see what happened to Fry’s dog still reduces me to a blubbering fool.

20. STAR WARS: CLONE WARS (2003-2005) Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky

If the prequels had only been half as kick-ass as these, I’d have been a happy geek.

19. STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997) Directed by Paul Verhoeven

I can hear Shane’s head exploding from here.

18. HEROES (2006-Present) Created by Tim Kring

This is the stuff! I could main-line it.

17. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004) Directed by Michel Gondry

I’m the Fifth Dentist. I didn’t care for it, or for Kaufman’s other movies either.

16. TOTAL RECALL (1990) Directed by Paul Verhoeven

You got Arnold in my thoughtful Sci-Fi!

15. FIREFLY/SERENITY (2002/2005) Created by Joss Whedon

Big Damn Heroes.

14. CHILDREN OF MEN (2006) Directed by Alfonso Cuarón

I still have trouble believing this movie made it out of the studios intact.

13. THE TERMINATOR/ TERMINATOR 2 (1984 /1991) Directed by James Cameron

The only woman more bad-ass than Ms. Connor is Ms. Ripley.

12. BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) Directed by Robert Zemeckis

I still want a car with gull-wing doors.

11. LOST (2004-Present) Created by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof

Oh, finish this show already, Abrams.

10. THE THING (1982) Directed by John Carpenter

This is Carpenter’s best. Even stacked against They Live.

9. ALIENS (1986) Directed by James Cameron

Extended director’s cut for the win.

8. STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (1987-1994) Created by Gene Roddenberry and Rick Berman

How the hell does Berman get a creator credit? Gene created it, then hired Berman on to be the new show runner. He had nothing to do with making the show, but everything to do with killing the franchise.

7. E.T. (1982) Directed by Steven Spielberg

I’ve still not forgiven Spielberg for making the guns into radios.

6. BRAZIL (1985) Directed by Terry Gilliam

DeNiro as plumber. That is science fiction.

5. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982) Directed by Nicholas Meyer

Best Trek ever. Why can’t anyone write something this awesome again?

4. THE X-FILES (1993-2002) Created by Chris Carter

Filking Starlight people, my ass. Still, for John Dogget, ass-kicker of the unknown, it should be here, just lower. A lot lower.

3. BLADE RUNNER (1982) Directed by Ridley Scott

I love this movie, but aren’t three versions of it just too much?

2. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2003-Present) Developed by Ronald D. Moore

18 months between seasons?! Mother-Fracker!

1. THE MATRIX (1999) Directed by the Wachowski brothers

This movie keeps getting worse, every time I watch it. Yea, it has some good bits, but overall it keeps deteriorating when I watch it anew. Should be on the list, but not at the top. For the suck-sequels if nothing else it should be lower.

So, your thoughts, my fellow Revolutionaries?

Marvel/DC

[ Sleepy Mood: Sleepy ]
With Spider-Man 3 arriving in about 48 hours, there’s a flood of interesting bits with the Wall-crawler coming out. Especially from the fan community. So, I thought that I’d share something I found.

God bless the internet, you used to have to go to conventions and waste hours watching crappy VHS tapes to find this kind of fun stuff.

These are some of the best parodies ever of the current Mac/PC ads. You know, the ones with the kid from Jeepers Creepers and the "Resident Expert" guy from The Daily Show. With a comic book twist. I present, Spider-Man and Superman:

Welcome Back to the Movies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av6fWfmugds

A Little Homework Never Hurt Anyone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvFjo5TTY6c

When Did That Happen in the Comics?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytqV6GEHW24

It’s Different in This Movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rp2f2OcCpQ