hat-tip: Devin

Ugh.

Everyone knows I’m a big defender of The Wii – not just in terms of “there ARE actually good games on it” but also of so-called Wii “waggle game” titles themselves. Greater varieties of people gaming is a GOOD thing, and well-done motion-control party games are fun to play. BADLY done ones – or ones cashing in on the craze with minimal effort and a superficial “hook” on the other hand… no thanks.

With that in mind, behold “We Dare” – a “naughty adult party game” from Ubisoft…

Here’s what I want to know: How did this get “ok’d” by Nintendo? Granted, the “Seal of Quality” isn’t exactly what it used to be, but their still notorious for micromanaging third-parties and for guarding their family-friendly image like a Samurai Walt-Disney… so how exactly did they NOT have an issue with Ubi producing a Wii game where “shove Wii-remote down girlfriend’s pants” is part of the control scheme, with an advertisement that – depending on your point of view – either looks like an Ashley Madisson spot or the lead-in to a deleted scene from “American Psycho?”

Because largely-symbolic political gestures that effectively do little more than kick the can down the road to the point where it’ll ultimately be settled by the courts which as going to happen anyway ain’t just for Republicans anymore, the Obama Administration announces that it will no longer defend the asinine “Defense of Marriage Act” in federal court. Furthermore, they’ve publically declared intent for this to be a lead-in to an eventual repeal of the act. Translation: “Gay Rights supporters? Get out and vote for our guys next time – we need a majority to make this happen.”

“DOMA” was essentially a packet of provisions that prevented any laws, particularly those concerning partner-benefits, from “blurring” the line between same-sex couples and married heterosexual couples; so all this really means is that the lawsuits against discriminatory practices in this particular realm can now be made without the innevitable prospect of “DOMA” being used to block it from going through. So… not really a sea-change, but a win is a win.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program of Republicans and Democrats both pretending A.) to be shocked – shocked! – that the other side is dealing with social issues before “creating jobs;” and B.) to believe that they can actually do anything about “creating jobs” in the first place.

It’s somewhat comforting to know that classic-scifi archivist and B-movie maven Fred Olen Ray – who was doing schlock-for-schlock’s-sake when The Asylum and Syfy’s guys were in diapers – is still doing his thing. io9 brings to my attention and yours his latest opus: “Super Shark;” the epic tale of a giant shark that can hop around on dry land when it needs to… and the four-legged walking tank dispatched to fight it.

Seriously now, how great is that mecha-tank thing? It literally looks like their storyboard session was watching a four year-old smash his Shark and Robot bath-toys together. Glorious.

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf

As of right now, craven scumbags voted into office by ignorant cretins and hyper-religious nutcases Republican Congressmen still riding the “Tea Party” wave are digging into their favorite “to-do” item NOT involving bestowing personhood on petri-dishes: Defunding PBS, NPR and other entities of “Public Broadcasting.” The last time they got this close to gutting the CPB was right at the beginning, during the Nixon administration. Back then, Fred Rogers – one of the last “Men of God” who can really be said to have deserved the title in my estimation – took to the U.S. Senate to defend the medium. If you’ve never seen it, here’s the video of his testimony:

Who, if anyone, will be the hero this time? Or do we simply not have those anymore?

The world we live in now: If you want something done, make sure it’s something The Internerds will take vaugely-ironic pleasure in. A privately-funded, web-donation-based effort to install a statue of RoboCop in Detroit has exceeded it’s financial target, and they’re going ahead with it.

io9 has an interview with the guys in charge. I know some people aren’t crazy about this – wishing the money had gone to other more useful sources, viewing the whole thing as a silly fit of geek/hipster irony, etc. There’s probably some truth in that… but on the other hand there’s going to be a statue of Robocop in Detroit. Awesome.

io9 has footage of actress Tanit Phoenix auditioning for David E. Kelley’s “Wonder Woman” TV show (the role has ultimately gone to Adrianne Palicki.) The results seem to confirm many folks’ worst fears about what a superheroine reimagined by the creator of the noxious “Ally McBeal” would sound like. Watch on, if you dare. My impressions, after the jump…

In the sequence in question, Diana is critiquing a new run of Wonder Woman action-figures; with subsequent dialogue explaining that merchandising the WW “brand” (hence the “corporate CEO side-job) is how she funds her superhero operation. So, yeah… a multimillion dollar prime-time network TV project from one of the most successful writer/producers in the business based on a 70 year-old property has borrowed the entirety of it’s “new hook” from a defunct Adult Swim series.

The “humor” of the bit is Diana being annoyed that the dolls are wearing an older version of her outfit instead of the one she wears now (which she feels is “a tad more appropriate”) because the “more iconic” one sells better. So… take this as pretty close to confirmation that they’ll be using something akin to the godawful “modernized” uniform from Straczynski’s current run, and taking cheap-shots at the original-iteration for good measure. “Ho ho! Isn’t this source-material stupid? Aren’t you thankful we clever TV writers have been able to rebuild it into something good? Success!”

SIDEBAR: Listen to this dialogue, then google up some of the Adam West “Batman” for an excellent comparative-demonstration of “affectionate parody” versus “I’m too good for this genre” smugness.

Finally, since “strong” leading-women on TV only come in two flavors – “Humorless Hardass” (“The Good Wife”) or “Bucket Of Insecurities” (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Brothers & Sisters”) – she get’s a mini-monologue about how insecure she feels because the dolls have nicer breasts than she does. Because when you picture an immortal superhuman Amazon, the first scenario that leaps to mind is crying into her Ben&Jerrys about her cup-size.

Well, so much for that.

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf

Intermission: “X-Men: First Class”

The Marvel Studios employee-selection procedure: “Leak” risky hiring decision to web. Gauge fanboy-press reaction. Hire accordingly. And so it comes to pass that one of the least-likely candidates plausible for a $150 million tentpole follow-up to what could be the biggest (in terms of scale/scope/buildup) superhero movie ever will get the job – so sez Deadline.

And… since that’s really all thee is to the story at the moment, here’s the new “Thor” trailer:

Presented without commentary.