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In honor of Black History Month, Sean and Brad begin a month long look into the Blaxploitation phenomenon of the 1970s. This week we lay the groundwork by discussing the explosion of Blaxploitation Cinema once Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song was unleashed by legend Melvin Van Peebles.

Other films discussed are Cotton Comes To Harlem, Superfly and Shaft.

Interested in picking up some of the titles mentioned in ScreamCast? Please use our Amazon links to do so!

Check out Brad’s Spotify Station: Big Afros, Big Cars and Big Guns!

With much sadness, Rooster Teeth Productions announced that Monty Oum, creator of the phenomenally popular animated series RWBY, passed away on February 1. As explained by Rooster Teeth CEO Matt Hullum, Oum suffered an extreme allergic reaction during a simple routine medical procedure. He later fell into a coma and did not recover. He died surrounded by people who loved him very much. He was 33-years-old.

Like many fans, we were all heartbroken to hear of Oum’s passing. It was at RTX 2013 that OneOfUs made its first big debut to the public, and we will always be grateful to Rooster Teeth for that. Rooster Teeth asked their fans to express themselves creatively. We decided to do that in the form of an article, to bring attention to the enormous talent that was Monty Oum. Please take the time to see just how creative he was and what he contributed as an artist, animator, director, screen writer and voice actor.

Oum first entered the public eye with Haloid, a video mash-up of the Halo and Metroid franchises. Using assets from Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Melee and character models from Halo 2, Oum created an epic battle between Halo’s Master Chief and Metroid’s Samus Aran. The video spread like wildfire and soon caught the attention of Midway Games, who hired Oum as a combat designer. He would eventually go on to work for Namco Games as an animator for Afro Samurai, and was instrumental in the design of the game’s combat. While attending San Diego Comic-Con International, he met Rooster Teeth’s Burnie Burns and was eventually hired by Rooster Teeth as an animator and character choreographer.

Anyone who has been watching Rooster Teeth’s web series Red vs. Blue is well aware of Oum’s immense contributions to the show. How can anyone forget when Red Team’s Grif slammed into Agent Washington with that warthog? How about that time when Washington and the Meta were battling Agent Texas as an entire mountain of ice collapsed around them? The entire Freelancer Saga really showcased Oum’s fight choreography, providing tons of suitably action packed moments.

Eventually, he would develop and produce RWBY, an animated series set in the fantasy world of Remnant, where students are trained to battle monstrous creatures and terrorist organizations. The show’s four central protagonists, Ruby Rose (Lindsay Jones), Weiss Schnee (Kara Eberle), Blake Belladonna (Arryn Zech) and Yang Xiao Long (Barbra Dunkleman), train and bond with one another as they learn to become huntresses. Oum even voiced the character Lie Ren, an expert fighter proficient in gun kata. The show has won several awards, including Best Animated Series at the 2014 International Academy of Web Television.

Outside of his involvement with Rooster Teeth’s animated projects, Oum was featured in a number of live-action shorts and made appearances on the Rooster Teeth Podcast. One of our personal favorite videos is “Immersion: Fruit Ninja,” which involves Monty teaching Achievement Hunter’s Michael Jones and Gavin Free the ways of the ninja, and how to properly slice fruit when it’s being hurled at your face. Oum was always very proficient at lemon punching.

Monty Oum is survived by his wife Sheena, his father Mony, his brothers Woody, Sey, Chivy and Neat, and his sisters Thea and Theary, as well as his friends and the entire Rooster Teeth Community. OneOfUs thanks Mounty Oum for his amazing work and our thoughts are with his friends and family.

You can help Oum’s family by donating to this fundraiser.

It’s no secret I love sports. Especially sports called football in various parts of the world. But the thing about the Super Bowl, at least for me, is that unless my team is playing (Go Colts!) it’s really more of a television event than a game. Sure I’ll always watch it, but it’s almost more like a variety show than an actual competition. So while I certainly had a blast rooting against the evil empire on Sunday night and still hope their balls all deflate, what I’ll ultimately remember about SB XLIX is all the other stuff.

The pregame – Confession time, I didn’t watch much of the pregame this year. I hadn’t watched the newest episode of Arrow yet and I had some laundry to fold. Really that sentence is a pretty good indication of how much I didn’t care this year. But from what little I did watch I know that John Legend was awesome. And I was able to get in a short nap during the national anthem. Not because of the quality, Idina Menzel is always incredible, but could it have been any longer? Maybe I only notice because I watch so much international soccer, but why are we the only country that doesn’t just sing our national anthem the same way every time? Seriously everyone else does.

The commercials – For a lot of people this is what it’s all about. Unfortunately we’ve left behind the days when we watched cuddly polar bear cubs enjoy refreshing Coca-Colas. Now apparently it’s all about good vs. sucky fathers and kids that are dead. Bit of a downer if you ask me. Some of these car makers and insurance companies need to remember that 90% of their audience on Super Bowl Sunday is a little drunk and not exactly ready for an emotional missile. Thank goodness for that puppy and those horses. Leave it to the beer guys to get it right. There was also the “like a girl” commercial that prompted me to get in a rather heated Facebook argument, but that’s another post.

Halftime – I’m not ashamed to admit that Katy Perry is one of my guilty pleasures. Ok I am a bit ashamed, but probably not as much as I should be. Apparently I have a certain affection for the kind of catchy tune that will worm its way into my brain and play on repeat for the next month, so clearly “Firework” is my jam.

So you can see why I was genuinely excited for the halftime show this year, and I wasn’t disappointed. Based on the tweets I saw during the show and texts from my dad, it would seem people’s opinions were largely influenced by their age. Those of us who came of age watching Missy Elliott wear trash bags in music videos couldn’t have been more excited when she showed up. There was dancing in my apartment at that point, and some rather inadvisable rapping. And I didn’t know there was a hole in my life that only dancing sharks could fill, but now I know. The over/under for dancing sharks at any costume party you attend in 2015 is probably at 7.5 right now. But mostly, Lenny Kravitz singing “I Kissed a Girl” with my girl Katy? Yes. Yes. Yes.

The football – Last (and probably least) there was also an actual game. And I did watch most of it, except for bathroom breaks. (Obviously I wasn’t going to take them during the commercials.) Football-wise I think it was one of the best Super Bowls I’ve ever watched. I especially enjoyed Tom Brady’s interceptions and the parts of the game where the Pats were losing. So I guess the end wasn’t exactly my favorite. Despite a lifetime of fandom I don’t actually know anything about play calling, but even I think I would have just handed the ball off to the Skittles guy. But that’s just me (and seemingly every other person on the planet who has access to Twitter, Facebook, or a street corner and a soapbox). Luckily I’ve become quite adept at blocking anything good happening to the Patriots out of my memory. By next week I’ll think the game ended with that crazy bouncing catch. Go Hawks!

Now we wait through the darkest part of the year, also known as the football offseason. The good part about this time is we all just know that our team will win it all next year. And we can imagine a world in which Andrew Luck has finally shaved his neck beard. Ah dreams.

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Wastes of Time! Your Hollywood Parents! Genital Mutilation…for what?! Good gravy, why, oh why!? A fruitful edition of Public Axis with guest Chris Mata!

Recorded on January 29nd, 2015 at the Public Axis F-Stop.

This edition of Public Axis is brought to you by Elite Vapory, priding themselves on offering the highest quality electronic cigarettes, e-cigarette accessories, and e-cigarette juice in San Antonio. Elite Vapory will be celebrating their Grand Opening on February 7th.

00:00 Welcome to the F-Stop! This week, we welcome back frequent flier and all-around amazing comedian Chris Mata. We catch up on his married life and successful comedy album, Parental Guidance.

13:55 Yeah, Imma Look Into Dat! Topic #1: What is your all-time time-sucking time-waster of all time. (It can be good or bad, like a specific task or hobby.) Inspired by the inaugural PAX South.

48:49 Dad’s Corner(ed)! Topic #2: Who would you like to play your parents in a movie and why?

1:09:07 Hey, That’s Not Funny! Topic #3: Who would you torture your own
genitals for just to have sex with for one night? Inspired by this slice of nature in which a spider eats its own…well, you’ll just have to hear or read about it.

1:30:18 What Did We Come to Know? Public Axis is an educational program and at the end, we always ask our guests and listeners, “What did you come to know?” Enlighten yourself.

Let your friends know about Public Axis on Facebook and Twitter and keep those Facebook comments coming at our Happy Campers group!

Every Super Bowl, the biggest companies and advertisers typically release the best commercials they can produce. Sometimes these commercials are of varying quality, but there’s usually a handful that impresses or engenders a few laughs. With 100+ million viewers tuning-in, there were several advertisements that caught the attention of many people this year.

JURASSIC WORLD TEASER TRAILER

New footage, new dialogue and new scary looking dinosaurs make the most recent teaser trailer for Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World one of the most anticipated movies of 2015. Pterodactyls are eating people!

SNICKERS: “THE BRADY BUNCH”

Snickers has produced a number of funny commercials over the years. Using everyone from Betty White to Godzilla, the company’s ads have always been quite effective at selling their candy while being legitimately humorous at the same time. Their recent commercial, which features Danny Trejo as a very hungry Marcia Brady in an episode of The Brady Brunch, is yet another winner. Trejo is probably best known for his work with Robert Rodriguez and his guest star appearances in shows like Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy.

FRISKIES: 2015: “DEAR KITTEN”

This one is for Chris Cox. Friskies kitten ads have always been incredibly popular, but their best yet features their signature cat teaching a kitten how stupid humans get when watching the Super Bowl. “Kitten, today is about to get weird.”

ESURANCE: “SAY MY NAME”

Bryan Cranston reprises his role as Walter White, but instead of selling meth, the former chemistry teacher works as an eccentric pharmacist. He’s “replaced” Greg and would prefer it if you just refer to him as “sort-of-Greg.”

MOPHIE: “ALL-POWERLESS”

With a big budget and an apocalyptic setting, Mophie’s commercial delivers some cool visuals and a clever ending. The idea of God forgetting to charge his smartphone is pretty funny, especially when all of creation begins to fall apart as a result of it.

CLASH OF CLANS: “REVENGE”

Clash of Clans is a popular online mobile game that tasks players with destroying an opposing player’s fortifications and buildings. Using everything from giants to goblins, the medieval strategy game is actually a ton of fun. However, as their Super Bowl ad points out, you don’t want to cross AngryNesson52.

What about you reader? What were some of your favorite commercials? Let us know in the comments below!

I am proud to be a nerd, a geek, and total dweeb for the things I love. And one of the best things about being a nerd is that you are never alone in your passions. One of my passions came to full vivid life on my television screen every Saturday morning. From those 30 minutes of commercial-interrupted bliss, I learned about a group of mutants, The X-Men, a tenuous union of individuals with cool powers that lived and/or battled together in their quest for a place in this crazy world.

Who doesn’t love the thought of having fantastical powers? Apparently, most of the X-Men don’t. Their powers have a tendency to isolate them from normal society. Simply put, mutants don’t fit in, not even within each other, due to the vast variety and magnitude of each mutant’s unique power. Yet even with all of these differences, time and time again, these mighty mutants come together to fight off one enemy, or another. In this vein, nerds from all walks of life have a very distinct opinion of what the new in-development X-Men television show should be like. So I thought, instead of just highlighting my own personal aspirations for Fox’s TV show, I’ve decided to assemble:

The X-NERDS!! X-Men fans and their dream of X-Men on FOX!

X-Nerd #1: Justin Stone

Fantasy Power: Telepathy and telekinesis

Favorite Mutant: Magneto

Current favorite comic book TV Show: The Flash

His dreams for the show: Total crossover awesomeness!

As a hardcore believer in adhering to comic book storylines, this X-Nerd would love to see FOX stay true to the story and to avoid messing with time-honored lore. As a devourer of comic books himself, he would love to see the X-Men show to take place in the near present. Ideally, he’d love to see “Civil War” or the “Secret Invasion” story-arcs come to colorful and complicated life. And then of course, this would lead into “Dark Reign,” but there’s always a Season 3, right??

Give this man some third person ensemble love with the core characters in the spot light! We’re talking Wolverine, Jean-Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Professor X. He’d really like the story to stay focused on these heavy-hitters in the X-Men world and for FOX to avoid too much attention to lesser characters.

Justin also wants the show to stay serious, and to allow the bigger picture to always take precedence. In other words, he would prefer it to steer clear of styles such as Smallville and Dawson’s Creek. Petty relationship babble, be damned!!! Give this nerd some intergalactic, mutant war and let worlds be conquered!!!!

X-Nerd #2: Meredith Woods

Fantasy Power: Telekinesis

Favorite Mutant: Gambit (hubba, hubba)

Favorite comic book TV Show: Arrow

Her Dreams for FOX’s show: A cautionary tale of the future!!

Meredith loves the apocalyptic future in the X-Men universe and would love the new series to be based in the future world of the Sentinels. Her story would be centered on Bishop and his journey into his leadership role as the world crumbles. She wants FOX to show us what his future is like, and how he came to carry the “M” brand on his cheek. The mystique that has always surrounded this character is compelling, and she wants it in vivid color before her! Apart from Bishop, her show would highlight lesser-known mutants, instead of the famously cinematic ones.

Diving into the future would also allow new storylines to emerge, while cherry-picked plots from the comic book would tie in hardcore fans without offending them by attempting to follow the books verbatim. Meredith wants to avoid the creation of a show that spurs furious (and annoying) comparison debates. The audience can invest in new stories, sprinkled with homages to the classics.

Since each mutant is incredibly unique, Meredith also likes the idea that social, racial, and cultural diversity can easily be celebrated without distracting from a great story line. Some mutants are ambiguous in gender and/or race, opening the door to fascinating characters that defy demographic labeling.

X-Nerd #3: J.J. Weber

Fantasy Power: Walking through walls.

Favorite Mutant: Kitty Pryde (but not the cinematic version)

Current Favorite Comic Book Show: The Flash

His dreams for FOX’s show: Bringing back the 80’s mutant style!

J.J. holds the New Mutants close to his heart and his dream television show would bring these fledgling X-Men into the spotlight. He likes the thought of seeing the mutants through a younger more retro-hip treatment. The show would take place in the New Mutant time frame, starting somewhere in the 1970s and moving into the 1980s. Colorful skin-tight costumes are a must for this nerd! Cypher and Warlock would steal the spotlight with their dynamic partnership as the central characters, offering infinite possibilities for amazing visuals! I mean, seriously, don’t tell me you don’t want to see the gestalt form of these two characters in disco-era, teenage fabulousness!!!

Marketable as all get-out, J.J. would still stay true to actual characters and would avoid creating characters just to meet demographic demands for viewership. He feels that the source material is diverse enough, and his perfect show wouldn’t pander to commercialism just to make the sponsors happy! He ain’t no sell-out!!

X-Nerd #4: Daisy De La Torre

Fantasy Power: Rogue’s powers

Favorite Mutant: Rogue

Favorite Comic Book Show: X-Men (cartoon because Rogue is in it)

Her Dreams for FOX’s X-Men: More Rogue

ROGUE, ROGUE, ROGUE! This nerdy gal has a bit of an obsession! Daisy wants nothing more than to see the tragic, super-powerful, Southern belle come to her television screen. From her small-town upbringing, maternal betrayal, and unrequited love story with Gambit, Rogue’s origin and storyline has enough fodder for season after season. As a central character in the X-Men saga, Rogue arguably makes for a fantastic central character and offers endless adventures starting from a her Podunk beginnings all the way to intergalactic madness! And don’t even mention Anna Paquin around this die-hard Rogue fanatic, she might claw your eyes out.

X-Nerd #5: Lee Vanwallene

Fantasy Power: Telekinesis

Favorite Mutant: Iceman

Favorite Comic Book Show: The Flash

His Dreams for FOX’s X-Men: Dig deep into the psyche of the mutants!

For Lee, the beauty of the show would be in the profound first-person character development of each member of the core X-Men team and their foe. In a manner similar to J.J. Abrams’ LOST, Lee would like to create episodic and very intimate biopics of each of the characters. Each episode would come from the point of view of one mutant at a time, showing their perspective and conflict as they live out the comic book story lines. You might even need to bring a tissue because Lee’s version of the X-Men would cut deep to the true psychological motivations of your favorite characters. It’s like a Freudian playground with super powers!

Each of these individual point-of-view episodes would tie into one underlying story-arc. The first season of Lee’s dream X-Men would be Team Assemble with the season finale as the Battle of Magneto. He’d like to see the original core group: Jean-Grey, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Angel, Professor X, etc. Season two would pit our team again Mr. Sinister and also draw some focus into Jean-Grey and Cyclops relationship drama. The third season would be a treatment of the Savage Land storyline.

And while Wolverine is indeed an important character in the X-Men core group, Lee is frankly tired of his character getting the spotlight, and would prefer him to stay in the sidelines. Without hating on his dynamic and wonderful storyline, this nerd feels that he’s been overdone by the cinematic world and is losing his gravitas in place of a more commercialized persona. Let his story rest, while taking a much closer look at his comrades.

X-Nerd #6: Chris Calilung

Fantasy Power: Absorbing information visually (see it, know it)

Favorite Mutant: Chamber

Favorite Comic Book TV Show: The Tick

His dreams for FOX’s show: X-Men detective agency

As a big fan of the X-Factor Investigation storyline, Chris would love to see a private investigation television show taking place in the 1990s. With Multiple Man as his central character, the X-Factor team would investigate mutant mysteries with each episode. Multiple Man himself offers a plethora of opportunities for creative drama and action since his copies tend to incarnate different aspects of his original psyche. He’s a flawed antihero, as his incarnations come to life; they hold different facets of his personalities and can act independent of his original self. This would give his character a vivid spectrum of motivations and conflicts, since he is partially to blame for the actions of his more naughty copies, as they are parts of him, isolated from the whole. The flood gates of fascinating possibilities emerge from Multiple Man and his fellow mutants and they sleuth out unsolved mysteries.

Chris would like the show to break free from the cinematic versions as he finds them restrictive. He would like the television writers and creative members to be free to dream up new storylines and characters, so long as it adds to the depth and plot of the existing world. Superfluous subplots for the sake of ratings or more popular characters would dampen this nerd’s dream television show, and he’ll have none of it!

So you crazy X-Men fanatics out there, I’d love to hear what you want to see come to life. Feel free to comment below, the possibilities are truly endless!

Diva Del Mar

Interested in picking up some well-written graphic novels? Please use our Amazon links to do so!

Yes, the trailer leaked a few days before, but OneOfUs.net doesn’t particularly care for shaky-camera recorded trailers for the shows we love. HBO’s release of the first official HD trailer for Game of Thrones Season 5 was worth the wait though, as it seems that this season of the gritty-fantasy epic is looking suitably dramatic, bloody and heart-crushingly tragic.

Spoilers:

Like every season of Game of Thrones, there’s sure to be fallout. With countless character deaths and the rise of some suitably twisted individuals to power (looking at you Ramsay); the fifth season is set to address the most burning questions every viewer has on their minds right now.

First of all, Peter Dinklage is sporting quite the impressive beard. After his confrontation with his father, Tyrion probably isn’t feeling all too good about himself and his situation at the moment. I imagine living in a very small box surrounded by your own shit and piss for months, thinking about how you strangled your former lover would have that effect on you. Still, he must love rocking that beard! His conversation with Varys (Conleth Hill) heavily implies that the two of them will attempt to aid Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and her bid for the Iron Throne. Last time we all saw Daeny, she was having a significant amount of trouble ruling a single city, let-alone an entire region. She’ll need all the help she can get, but with the assistance of the Master of Whispers and Tyrion’s intellect, her chances of becoming a competent ruler will certainly improve.

The short glimpses of Arya (Maisie Williams), Sansa (Sophie Turner) and their half-brother Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) reveal that their lives will most likely be a living hell…again. Arya seems to be seeking a guild of assassins in Bravos, Sansa is conspiring with Peter “Little Finger” Baylish (Aiden Gillen) and Jon has his hands full with “King” Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) and the mysterious Melisandre (Carice van Houten).

Oberyn Martell’s (Pedro Pascal) little head trauma certainly caused a bit of a stir in Season 4, and it seems that his family will take steps to ensure that the Lannisters and anyone who dares cross them will pay their debts in full. Doran Martell (Alexander Sidding) and Obara Sand (Keisha Castle-Hughes) are just some of the fresh faces that will be appearing this season. I’m sure the snake statue they sent to Cersei (Lena Headey) was a gesture of goodwill, right?

What about you reader? What about the trailer excited you? Any concerns? Let us know in the comments below!

Interested in picking up some early seasons of Game of Thrones? Please use our Amazon links to do so!

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In true tradition of, well, any podcast Chris is on, he garbles his way through a number of names of actors and directors in an attempt to review this giant pile of Blu-rays and DVDs Digital Noise brings to your attention this week.

Thank GAWD Richard is there to correct him and keep us on track, even if he does still defend the prequels from time to time. And yes, there’s some of that here (oh lord help us all) but there’s also a LOT of awesome as they dive into the Studio Ghibli documentary, one of the most overlooked films of 2014, the most f*&ked up film the Lifetime Network has yet to release, total Korean bloody insanity, the latest DC animated film, and much, much, MUCH more.

Please use our Amazon links…as much as humanly possible!!! Thanks!

HOW TO WIN THE Mythbusters GIVEAWAY:

1) Follow @oneofusnet on Twitter

2) Tweet at us with the answer to this hypothetical: What movie myth do you really wish was real? (e.g. Sharks can leap onto boats like in Jaws)

3) Add #MythbustersGiveaway

4) We’ll select our favorite answer and contact that winner via Twitter (open to U.S. residents only).

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As 2015 begins, The Geeks assemble to say au revoir to the year that was 2014! But this send-off is just too big for just one episode of G@C. Oh no, we’re giving you TWO retrospectives and now for the finale: The Best Movies of 2014!

Kaycee leads the discussion as he, Chris and Taylor list of their top flicks of the year!

Like our lists? Did we leave anything out? Tell us below in the comments.

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This week, Wes and Steve discuss White Castle, the McRib, and our Top 5 Characters We Want To Be Our Best Man!

Enjoy!

What are your Top 5 Characters to be your best man? Let us know! E-mail us at fiveplaynet@gmail.com

The ScreamCast: Big Afros, Big Cars and Big Guns, Part 1

One Of Us Remembers Rooster Teeth’s Monty Oum

Super Bowl Musings From a TV Addict

Public Axis #105: It Gnawed Off His Own What with Chris Mata

The Best Commercials of Super Bowl XLIX

The X-Nerds on FOX’s New X-Men

Trailer Reaction: ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 5

Digital Noise Episode 79: Chris Can’t Pronounce Anyone’s Name

HOW TO WIN THE Mythbusters GIVEAWAY:

1) Follow @oneofusnet on Twitter

2) Tweet at us with the answer to this hypothetical: What movie myth do you really wish was real? (e.g. Sharks can leap onto boats like in Jaws)

3) Add #MythbustersGiveaway

4) We’ll select our favorite answer and contact that winner via Twitter (open to U.S. residents only).

Geeks@College Episode 112: Best of 2014 – Movies

Five and Out 086: Characters We Want To Be Our Best Man