Weekender: January 20th, 2012

Fox / Lucasfilm

Movie: Red Tails

There’s one constant that makes Michael Bay inferior to the man who brought us Star Wars: When George Lucas wants to blow things up, he puts his heart into it. Beardypants Plaidshirt has been pitching this particular project since 1988. For a man who was in the middle of the Indiana Jones trilogy at the time, you’d think Hollywood would have said yes in a heartbeat, but only in 2008 did funding finally come through. Studios told Lucas that black-ensemble casts would not sell well enough, especially in foreign markets. Luckily, Lucas proved them all wrong. An all-star cast of Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr. Andre Royo, Method Man,(both alumni of The Wire) Bryan Cranston and even Ne-Yo play members of the famous Tuskegee Airmen, whose politically difficult entry into World War II resulted in highly successful missions and helped to destroy both enemy fighters and racial boundaries in the military.

Uni Dist Corp

Disc: Kevin Hart: Laugh At My Pain

Kevin Hart might not be a household name, but the man is breaking funnybones as well as records. The Laugh At My Pain tour raked in 15 million dollars, and broke the 1.1 million one-weekend ticket sales record for a black comedy show previously set by one Mr. Edward Murphy.  His film career hasn’t been kind – Soul Plane, Epic Movie, and Scary Movie 4 aren’t exactly top tier cinema, but hopefully this stand-up performance will win him some new chances in Hollywood. Whether he’s making fun of his somewhat-lacking height, talking about sex safewords, or telling ridiculous family stories, Kevin Hart isn’t reinventing the comedy wheel — but he’s definitely on a roll.

Guided by Voices Inc.

Album: Guided By Voices – Let’s Go Eat The Factory

Bob Pollard has made more records, gone through more band members, and drank more gallons of booze than most rock stars could ever imagine. Neither Guided By Voices nor his solo career ever made it into super-stardom, but there are thousands of cult fans who’ve been hooked on his boozy lo-fi rock since the 80′s. For the first time in ages, Guided By Voices is releasing an album that actually has the old band–not just Pollard and some nobodies. Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, and Kevin Fennell are all returned to the Dayton dorm-room-drinking classic line-up, and they’re not holding back. Tracks like opener “Laundry and Lasers” chug hard with steady rhythm and a dirty grunge to the guitars – you’ll be half-heartededly headbanging like you’re a ’90s slacker in no time.

THC

Video Game: Saints Row: The Third – Genki Bowl VII

Saints Row didn’t start out this weird. Gangsters and guns, GTA-aping, generally normal action for a modern big-map action game. But then…then a giant cat professor took over, and the rest is weird history. Saint’s Row III has its first downloadable content, and it’s about the malevolent and completely bananas Professor Genki and his game show. Far-left field content like “Sexy Kitten Yarngasm”, “Sad Panda Skyblazing”, “Apocalypse Genki”, and “Super Ethical PR Opportunity” are less about shoot-em-up gang wars and more about really weird Japanese game shows. It’s all the mayhem of Saints Row with a bit of pure insanity — we’d try to explain more, but this teaser video pretty much speaks for itself.