Mario

Mario at the 2016 GQ Men of the Year Party held at Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles, California, United States - Thursday 8th December 2016

New World Record: Someone Completed Super Mario Bros. In 4:57.69

By Jack de Aguilar in Movies / TV / Theatre on 27 June 2014

Mario XBOX

Can you do it quicker? Don't try. You can't.

While many gamers bemoan paying $60 for an 8-hour campaign with modern AAA titles, there’s a lot of fun to be had with speed runs. ‘Blubbler’ has mastered the art, clocking his record breaking Mario Bros. run at 4:57.69.

That’s a new world record, by around a second. 4:58.09 was the previous best. And it’s hard to see how anyone can better this speed; every time is perfectly timed; every shortcut is used and every enemy is either expertly squashed or avoided.

Can you do Super Mario Bros. in under 5 minutes?

Continue reading: New World Record: Someone Completed Super Mario Bros. In 4:57.69

Freedom Writers Review

By Norm Schrager

Very Good

It's always satisfying when a movie defies an obvious formula and delivers something better. Freedom Writers is the first such surprise of 2007, a genuinely touching entry in a genre that often wallows in cliché: a motivational teacher inspiring a group of troubled kids.

The list in this category is long, and the quality broad, ranging from To Sir, with Love (Sidney Poitier straightens up hooligans) to Sunset Park (Rhea Perlman coaches hoops!). Instead of sliding into pitfalls of predictability, writer Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King, Beloved), who also directs, relies on straight, unforced dialogue delivered by a fine cast. Like many similar films, this one happens to be based on truth.

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Step Up Review

By Sean O'Connell

OK

Advertising materials tell us all we need to know about Step Up. She's a little bit Fame, and he's a little bit West Side Story. She's an ice queen, while he's a Vanilla Ice clone. We get it. Yet choreographer-turned-director Anne Fletcher does everything short of laying down railroad track and positioning her leads on opposite sides to hammer home the from-different-worlds hook that carries her fleet-footed tween fairy tale.Channing Tatum fills the baggy jeans of street-tough foster kid Tyler - all the truly edgy names must have been taken. Using a baseball cap and blank stare as method tools, the actor aims for the fiery rebellion of James Dean or early Richard Gere but achieves a flatness reserved for James Franco.This watered-down Eminem walks his own 8 Mile until the cops bust him for vandalizing property at the Maryland School of the Arts. Tasked with serving 200 hours of community service, Tyler mouths off to authority (Rachel Griffiths, longing for her Six Feet Under days), romances self-centered dancer Nora (Jenna Dewan), and discovers a career path that might one day lead him out of the ghetto.Fletcher's resume is littered with professional choreography jobs on films like Bring it On and Ice Princess. She pours her creative juice into this film's numerous dance routines, and it's during those moments that Step Up shows flashes of potential. Tatum and Dewan have limited ability as dramatic actors, but each can move to the beat with the best of them.Fletcher desperately needs someone in her cast to - pardon the pun - step up and elevate the film past the stacks of storytelling clichés cranked out by screenwriters Duane Adler and Melissa Rosenberg. Their script half tries, with unfinished results. Days after Tyler arrives on campus, Nora's dance partner conveniently drops out of her senior routine with a temporary injury. Nora's mother frowns on her unyielding dedication to dance, yet pays for her daughter to attend a private arts program. When Step Up reaches beyond the dance floor, exploring a gang grudge that leads to the death of someone close to Tyler, the movie fatally stumbles and never regains its footing.Step up? How 'bout you step off!?