Sons and daughters of Nerd-dom, I type this as The CW network announces The Awakening, a show from the production house responsible for Ugly Betty about a pair of zombie fighting sisters.  Now, I’m all for sisters fighting zombies – in fact, I’d encourage family unity during the Zombpocalypse.  Which is why we must now unite under the collective banner of our own dorkiness.

Let me remind you that while we have been highly caffeinated in our parents’ basements patching our over worn cosplay costumes and writing Firefly fan-fiction, Broadway is currently sucking the life from Spider-Man. Hollywood has over-run Comic-Con.  Entourage has reminded the cool kids who Aquaman is.  Stephenie Meyer has humanized vampires – fine, no on cares about sissy vampires – but then she shaved the chests of our wolf-men!  Our wolf-men!  If we let The CW take our zombies we’ll have nothing left!

Now, we all enjoyed what AMC did with The Walking Dead this fall as television’s first zombie show (I’ve got the bite marks to prove it. Ok. Kind of gross. Sorry.), but The CW is looking to Gossip Girl this thing and manipulate our zombies into selling Justin Bieber downloads and Subway sandwiches. This cannot stand unaddressed.

Denis Leary once joked that if the meek should truly inherit the Earth, it wouldn’t matter because … well, “they’re a bunch of meeks. We’ll kick their asses and take it back.”  I say to you, in all sincerity, if the meek should inherit the zombies, who will stop them from eating us?

XOXO

I can’t believe I just made a Gossip Girl joke.  Please disregard all of the above.

It’s grueling to be forced to analyze pop-culture all the time.  It gives us more questions than answers to some of our society’s most pressing issues.  Also, it prevents us from talking to girls.

Is radioactive material a tool that gives us Spider-Men, Hulks, and Godzillas, as we all hoped, or merely here to create opportunities for Jack Bauer to save our collective ass from stupid nuclear winter?

Will new advances in medical science create evil fighting super soldiers and loveably cranky mutants or a just a terrifying zombie plague that will doom the Earth to several generations of horror?

Can we really rebuild a guy for six million bucks and expect him to do the government’s bidding out of obligation and a sense of right or are we setting ourselves up for a Terminator problem? I mean, from a cost-benefit analysis, Robocop was kind of a cluster f.

In order for governments to unite globally and eventually universally, creating a United Federation of Planets, will we have to go through some sort of Red Dawn scenario? Because, I like intergalactic space travel, but I’m not great with drinking deer blood or driving Soviet tanks.

Are we giving aliens a bad rap (that E.T. wasn’t so bad)? Or are the Predators coming to punish us because no one is showing ALF and 3^rd Rock from the Sun re-runs anymore?

The Daily Jim has a long history or workplace battles.  Most of them involve the best way to dispatch a zombie or get thrown out of a publicity event. When it comes to movies however, we get pretty brutal.  Action Man doesn’t understand American comedies because there aren’t enough groin hits;  I can’t figure out Angelina Jolie for the life of me; and Billy D. just yells at our intern, Ben, anytime he offers an opinion.  Amid the chaos, however, Bella La Lovely has been taking notes.  She’s our witness.  And during our latest battle of most overlooked hilarious movies she complied the following list of idiocy to balance off Oscar madness.  Press your freakin’ tuxedo t-shirts kids.

THE UNDERRATED

As the entertainment industry gears up for Oscar season, we at the Daily Jim decided to search the bowels of our movie library (namely Jimmy’s Netflix account) to share our favorite underrated movies. These may not be the best movies you’ll ever see, but they’re well worth a spot in your Netflix queue.

For best underrated comedies, the nominations are…

The Amateurs

Picture it: You’re a middle-age father with big dreams and no money. What do you do to impress your son? Two words—amateur porn. Starring True Grit’s, Jeff Bridges, The Amateurs is a fun, quirky film that’s great Friday night entertainment.

The King of California

If Gordon Gecko had a not-so-evil twin, it would be Charlie, a recently released mental patient who believes Costco is a Mecca for economy-sized consumer products and Spanish gold.

In addition to being a great movie, the King of California provides nuggets of might-be-true trivia. For example, did you know that California got its name from a 16^th century Spanish writer? In the words of Charlie, “Don’t believe it? Look it up.” (If you do look it up, let us know if it is true. We’re really not sure.)

A Mighty Wind

“The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and…”

If you recognize this This is Spinal Tap quote, check out A Mighty Wind. Directed by Christopher Guest, A Mighty Wind is a mockumentary about long-forgotten folk musicians who come together for a reunion concert. The film features an all-star cast including Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Jane Lynch (a Daily Jim staff favorite), and Michael McKean, just to name a few.

This is a much better representation of ensemble music than a chick with a flute at band camp.

OUR HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Daily Jim staff was not able to agree on the merits of several movies, so after heated debate, a filibuster, and 2 restraining orders, we decided to include an honorable mention category. We also agreed on mandatory anger management training for Billy D.

Bowfinger

Starring Steve Martin, Eddy Murphy, and Heather Graham, Bowfinger chronicles a down-and-out filmmaker (Martin) who tries to resuscitate his career by making a sci-fi thriller starring Hollywood action star Kit Ramsey (Murphy). The twist—Ramsey doesn’t know he’s in the film. Needless to say, hijinks ensue. Described by MediaCircus as a delightful tour-de-farce, this film is well worth the $2.99 at your local Blockbuster.

Nothing to Lose

In Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins catches his wife cheating and ends up in an abusive relationship with the Sisters. In Nothing to Lose, Robbins catches his wife cheating and ends up a carjacking victim turned criminal. Moral of the story—unhappy wife, unhappy life.

Martin Lawrence co-stars. Big Momma Three aside, Lawrence is a funny addition to any movie. He makes you want to yell MART-IN!

Zoolander

Model-turned-coal-miner-turned-model Derek Zoolander is so stupid it’s funny, really funny. Starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, and Jerry Stiller (another Daily Jim staff favorite), Zoolander will leave you singing, “Relax don’t do it when you want to go to it…”

Where else can you see a Billy Zane cameo and a “freak gasoline-fight accident?”

“Finally break Kate Gosselin’s harpy like spell on me by focusing all my energy on Snooki Polizzi.”

“Stop insisting that Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie of all time.”

“Eat more carbs.”

“Better prepare for the zombie apocalypse.”

“Quit pretending to be smarter than experts by spouting legal advice from Matlock and medical advice from House.”

“Harvest organs for Tracy Morgan and Burt Reynolds so the can live forever like Keith Richards.  It sounds nuts, but history’s gonna’ be the judge on this one.”

“Insist that all new interns know the difference between Cobra, the terrorist network that battles G.I. Joe, and Kobra Kai, the evil karate school from The Karate Kid, before hiring them.”

“Convince Oprah that Mr. Billy Idol needs his own show on O.W.N.”

“Lighten up on Spider-Man.  The guy is just trying to help, even if he did let Bono convince him to be in that wacky musical.”

“Capture the Hamburgler.”