Red VS Blue

For anyone who's into the military lifestyle, science fiction humor, video games, or these things in any combination, then you may want to check out Red VS Blue. Download a couple of the movies or public service announcements, if you like it you can even pick up the Season 1 DVD (like I did).

Basically, Red VS Blue lampoons military life using a first-person-shooter "capture the flag" game engine (in this case, Halo) in lieu of animation or live action. They've even coined a term for this technique of using video game engines to create films, machinema.

So okay, you've got the red team and the blue team. Each has a base at one end of a box canyon. When they're not fighting each other, the team members stand around and shoot the shit about all kinds of nonsense.

There are some really cool characters in this series, each has at least a little something to make them stand out. It just takes a little bit to get used to who's who, since they all look the same but are different colors; basically everyone in the Red army is a warm color (red, maroon, orange) and everyone on blue a cool color (powder blue, aquamarine, dark blue)

Sarge is the gruff, tough-talking leader of the Reds; he's similar to Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket. He's full of war stories but sometimes rambles on without making sense. Simmons sucks up to Sarge, often at the expense of his buddy Grif, who's a sarcastic, lazy backstabber that everyone seems to hate. Church seems to be leading the Blue team, he's quick to anger and mouth off. His buddy Tucker has chicks on his mind constantly. Then there's Caboose, the Blue team rookie who's dumber than a box of rocks. There's another rookie named Donut, the robot Lopez, a freelancer named Tex, and even a talking tank.