ALMOST MONUMENTAL

Besides watching this clever seagull be a bad person, let's recap this week's news and things. Check out our Movies section for the latest news on John McTiernan (Die Hard director), Spielberg's Lincoln, The Karate Kid remake (what), and Wall-E (!!!!). There's also a rather funny review of Good Luck Chuck by Bruno and applejew's early review of The Darjeeling Limited. Almost Monumental was firing on all cylinders, as we also threw two of our very own video productions your way: Da Grassy: The Last Generation and U.F.Uh-oh!. You also probably willy wonka play these upcoming games for the DS and hear Radiohead's latest album, In Rainbows. Good things are coming our way, gang. Hopefully next week is just as rawesome.

PS: If you don't know what "willy wonka" was doing in that paragraph above, be sure to check out the Word of the Week over on the right underneath the poll and the latest entries and stuff to see what it means. Since it's the end of the week a new word's going up soon, so I put the meaning of "willy wonka" here for you.

willy wonka: another phrase for "really want to" or "really wanna". Example: I willy wonka play Super Mario Galaxy and be in a world of pure imagination.

On Radiohead's website you can now preorder a discbox of their new album, In Rainbows. This is currently only available at their website. The discbox has In Rainbows on CD, along with 2 x 12 inch heavyweight vinyl records. There's also a second CD which comes with more new songs and some digital photographs, artwork, and lyric booklets. It's all encased in a slick hardback book and slipcase. Radiohead sure are good with packaging things. If you preorder the discbox you'll also be able to download the album from their site starting October 10th, 2007. Yes, that's right. It comes out in less than 2 weeks. If interested, read more to see how much it will costs, when the discboxes start shipping, and the tracklisting. There's also a digital download only preorder in which you can give them as little or as much money as you want. I'm not sure if you can give them $0, but I think you're allowed to (cheapskate). Either way that is really really cool of them to do.

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So some Japanese guy made his own mod of Super Mario World that's incredibly diffcult and evil. He then made his friend play through it, and it's pretty funny stuff. The game designer is incredibly clever too. He probably should work for Nintendo to create the hardest Mario game ever. Here's the first stage of the first game (there are 22 stages in total, all of which can be found on YouTube).

How can we at Almost Monumental not wish a very happy birthday to one of our favorite actors of all time, Kieran Culkin, aka Fuller from Home Alone.  Happy 25th good sir, but go easy on the Pepsi.  You'll wet the bed!

I recently stepped into Chad Sexton's Drum City which is a family owned business. For those of you who don't know who he is, he's the drummer of 311 and one of this generation's best. I had the pleasure of speaking with his mother and hearing a tidbit of info about their forthcoming album. Word has it that this CD will be more in tune with their original sound, so don't expect any more S.A. solos, kids. The night didn't end there however, in fact it only got better. After hearing such delightful news, I took a stroll about fourteen feet to the right of Mr. Sexton's establishment to the newly opened Uncle Flip's Smoke Pit. It's a barbecue restaurant run by none other than Chad's uncle, Flip. And, might I add, it was quite delicious. Good spicy food and live music. So if you're ever in the North Hollywood, CA area, and you want to possibly meet a legend or even have a tasty bite, check it out.

Reader Buzz sent this teaser poster in for Disney/Pixar's upcoming Wall-E.  Click the poster to see it HUGE.

I'm really excited for this one.  It's from Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) and it's about robots and space.  How can it not be good?

A "reliable source" informed IGN that a remake of The Karate Kid is in development. Apparently it will be produced by the Fresh Prince Will Smith's Overbook Entertainment and Jerry Weintraub, the producer of the original film and its three sequels. Will Smith's son, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, is supposed to star in this remake. Tron gets a sequel and now a remake of The Karate Kid. What's the next movie from the '80s that's going to be revived? Harry and the Hendersons???

Our opinion? Aw, hell naw..... again.

This video, called Neko Nabe (Cat Pot), is really pleasant, charming, and relaxing. The music is nice too. Who doesn't like kittens?

So, I realize this is a few weeks old, but I just watched The Fountain again last night and felt that I had to write something about it. So anyway, the story goes that Warner Bros. didn't include Darren Aronofsky's commentary for the film on the DVD, which is totally lame, because I very much care to hear what he has to say. The same guy who did the behind the scenes documentary that is on the DVD recorded Darren's commentary, and it has been made available online to be synced up with your DVD so you can watch the film with commentary. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go buy the DVD and do it. Anyway, head HERE and click on one of the three torrent links provided to download the commentary. Together we will live forever.

It seems like Square-Enix is always trying to hold the record for the longest title of a video game. This one's full title is Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. And that's with A2 standing for "Advance 2"! Remember that this is a sequel to a spinoff game, Final Fantasy Tactics. FFT plays differently than the main Final Fantasy games, because it's a tactical strategy RPG. It's still turn-based, but you control multiple characters who can move around on a grid to attack enemies. It's actually really fun and there's a whole lot of depth to the gameplay. Tons of hours can be put into this game. Read on to see the trailer from the Tokyo Game Show for FFA2 and to find out some new info on the 3D DS remake of Final Fantasy IV and the sequel to Advance Wars DS.

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You're probably wondering who Seeds is and why you should care. Well, Seeds was the new company created once Clover Studio disbanded. If you don't know who Clover Studio is, shame on you. They're the geniuses backed by Capcom that made Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and God Hand. Their releases were some of the most creative and imaginative games that came out within the last few years. Yet the games (sadly) didn't sell, so Clover Studio is no more. Seeds then sprouted up in 2006 by the main members of Clover Studio: Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya. Besides the Clover titles, Mikami's worked on various Resident Evils, Phoenix Wrights, and Devil May Cry. In other words, these guys clearly know how to make good games.

Well, Seeds has merged with ODD Corporation and have renamed themselves to the much more forgettable Platinum Games. Oddly enough (pun intended), ODD Corporation doesn't seem to have a website or anything, so nobody really knows who they are. However, a NeoGAF user discovered ODD randomly comes up in the Kojima Productions blog. If this is the same ODD, then it means they've probably joined forces with Tatsuya Minami. Minami's been credited with various Mega Mans, Street Fighters, and other Capcom games. Not a bad guy to have join Seeds Platinum Games. They haven't announced their first video game yet, but I'm sure whatever they do will be great... Let's hope that the uncreative name change doesn't also mean that the team has lost their game making creativity though. (You just know it hasn't.)

Two-headed turtle births actually aren't that uncommon. Conjoined turtle births, meaning a head on both sides, are. That is why this unnamed turtle is so special. The two month old turtle will go on display in a Norristown, Pennsylvania pet store to attract customers.

I had a turtle named Speedy once. He was the fastest turtle ever, hence his name. They should let me name this turtle. Just think of the possibilities: two-y, head-y, siamese-y, conjoined-y, no butt-y.

Click here to watch the story through British people's eyes.

Today we bring you Almost Monumental's U.F.Uh-oh! (aka UFUh-oh!, without the periods). This was made using the PC game The Movies, which is a fantastic way to make some movies that will impress your friends and family.

U.F.Uh-oh! is also available for download from HERE. I would definitely say it's worth downloading. Some might say I'm a bit biased though...PS: I assure you it's MUCH better than MANopoly. If you like this, there is a decent chance you'll like our live-action Degrassi: The Last Generation too.

Director: Mark Helfrich

Writer(s): Josh Stolberg, Steve Glenn

Starring: Dane Cook, Jessica Alba

Pardon my "French" but I thought it had a nice ring. Honestly, though, this is the worst movie I've paid money to see in a long, long time. Sure, there were plenty of bewbs (hence, my comical label of this review), but most of it consisted of slapstick comedy and trite one-liners. There were parts when it seemed someone was actually trying to sit down and write for the movie, but then someone else probably burst into the room and yelled "we're filming more titties!" and the noble attempt was lost.

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We, here at Almost Monumental, created this short film back in high school. Inspiration struck after one of our members' little sister became obsessed with Degrassi. Thus, we made a parody. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the spectacular film making that you can only expect from Almost Monumental.

Da Grassy: The Last Generation can also be viewed by downloading it. Click here and give it a download. You probably won't regret it, but no guarantees.

(COPYRIGHT: Degrassi The Next Generation was not created by me. All Credit for the show should be given to Viacom, CTV, The-N, the creators Yan Moore and Linda Schuyler, and the producers Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn)