Box Office Predictions
Latest Podcast
Parental Guidance (2012)
Parker (2013)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980)SciFi
John Carter (2012) – Review
1 1/2 Stars
What went wrong at the Disney movie factory to produce a movie this expensive only to come out with a product so bland? On paper everything lines up, the director of Pixar’s Finding Nemo steps behind the camera for his first foray in to live-action cinema, a story that influenced Star Wars and numerous artists, plus a hefty budget to afford the best special effects in the industry. So it’s a bit stunning to gaze at the screen and realize that some of the most gifted craftsmen in Hollywood have created the Dune of our generation.
Continue reading
Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) – Review
2 1/2 Stars
The Justice League animated movie contains all the inherit problem with combining every superhero from the DC Universe. There are far too many characters, each saddled with a lengthy back-story and built in mythology, before long the whole thing become laborious and I grew restless.
Continue reading
Age of the Hobbits (2012) – Review
3 1/2 Stars
Age of the Hobbits A.K.A. Clash of the Empires is a mockbuster by the infamous Asylum of the Peter Jackson big budget version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. If that’s not enough big name dropping for you just add Warner Bros to the mix and what do you have? A lawsuit. The Asylum is known for its mockbusters – rip-offs of bigger budgeted films that often have little in common with their Hollywood counterparts other than in name. These are designed to ride the wave of the multi-million dollar ad campaigns for the studio films and pick off whatever unsuspecting consumers that are stupid enough to mistake The Asylum’s fare for Hollywood’s. Hence the name change from Age of the Hobbits to Clash of the Empires (or The History of Mankind in Cambodia and Lord of the Elves on Vudu – which didn’t stick probably because there’s Elves in The Hobbit). For those that have come to enjoy The Asylum’s flicks, such as myself, these lawsuits provide a colorful back-story to the new age of b-movie cinema – the age of the mockbusters.
When the Hobbit Goben’s (Sun Korng) village is attacked by the merciless Java Men, his mother is captured and enslaved along with many others. Accompanied by his father and sister, Goben must travel across an enchanted land full of poisonous plants, giant lizards, big ass spiders and of course humans to free his mother and fellow villagers. Along the way they team up with a few humans (Christopher Judge, Bai Ling), or giants as the mini-Hobbits call them. Outmatched they take on the Java’s – will they be victorious?
Continue reading
Black Out (1996) – Review
2 1/2 Stars
Black Out a.k.a. Midnight Heat is an action flick that takes its cues from Total Recall and the film noir works of Robert Wise and Brian DePalma. Former Seattle Seahawks lineman Brian Bosworth (known as The Boz) is John Grey, a happily married bank executive whose life shatters when a car crash leaves him with complete amnesia. Now haunted by strange dreams and recollections of a duel identity as Wayne Garret, Grey’s urge to unravel his cryptic past becomes crucial when he returns home and finds his wife murdered. The clues point to a neo-nazi group of killers, Grey’s involvement with the gang becomes evident as he begins to crack the mystery of his real identity. Is he a killer? Or a hero? neither amnesia or deadly force can stop John Grey/Wayne Garret from finding out.
Continue reading
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) – Review
3 Stars
Director Colin Trevorrow is coining the term “low sci-fi” for his description of the low-budget genre that Safety Not Guaranteed inhabits. In recent years there have been a slew of low-budget indie sci-fi flicks that play more like indie dramas with sci-fi elements, this is one of those films. While time travel is a major topic here, it is not what this movie is about. Playing off of the idea that if time travel were possible, everyone has something in their life that they would like to go back to. Maybe it’s a moment of loss the traveler wishes to set right, or possibly to reconnect with a love from their past. That’s the basis for Safety Not Guaranteed, connections made in the past effect connections made in the present which would effect connections made in the future.
Continue reading
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) – Review
4 Stars
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is unofficially the 6th feature entry in the series, the fourth for Van Damme and the third for Lundgren. While this is extremely far removed from the sci-fi action fantasy that kicked things off in 1992, Day of Reckoning is by far the best of the bunch. The brutally staged five minute long POV sequence opens the film quickly establishing a dark tone for this brilliant and unique entry into the 20 year old franchise.
Continue reading
Prince of Darkness (1987) – Review
3 1/2 Stars
For better or worse John Carpenter is the filmmaker most directly responsible for inventing the modern day slasher flick. His 1978 film Halloween was a game changer, not only creatively but from an economic stand-point. The massive critical and commercial boon allowed Carpenter to expand his storytelling range (albeit within the horror genre) and make films that were a little more offbeat. The best of his work has two surfaces, on one level is a straight forward scare movie with many of the familiar genre conventions and on the other is typically a social, physiological or religious allegory.
Continue reading
Dredd (2012) – Review
3 Stars
Dredd is the second big-screen incarnation of the UK based comic strip. The 1995 film was a troubled production starring Sylvester Stallone, rumored behind the scene clashes with director Danny Cannon over the tone and violence level, led to a muted mediocre film that is ultimately forgettable. This latest rendition is the movie that enthusiasts will lovingly accept and newbies will either be shocked, enthralled or pounded into submission by. Let’s get this out at the top, Dredd is one of the most cheerfully and brutally violent films of the last 25 years. Not since Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop has a film engulfed me in such a compellingly bleak futurist nightmare, with violence so abrupt and extreme that it almost becomes self parody.
Continue reading
The Hunger Games (2012) – Review
2 Stars
The Hunger Games, based upon the best-selling novel of the same name, offers a bleak view of the future. A failed rebellion against an oppressive government results in an annual event called the Hunger Games. The twelve districts that rebelled over seventy years past are forced to give up a boy and girl to participate in a violent competition that ends when only one person is left alive.
Continue reading
The Running Man (1987) – Review
3 Stars
Ah, how refreshing it is to see that in 1987, the idea of violent reality television was just a fantasy, used for fodder in a sci-fi themed Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. Now here we are 25 years later, and many of the images and ideas presented in The Running Man are not far off from today’s television viewing. In perhaps the strangest adaption of a Stephen King novella, writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, screenwriter De Souza has kept the basic concept of an innocent man trapped in the hellish world of reality television, and thrown away all the other details.
Continue reading
Recreator (2012) – Review
2 1/2 Stars
Recreator finds three teens taking a camping trip into the wilderness to take stock in their lives before one ships off to Afghanistan. They are forced to take shelter in a nearby house when a storm hits. When the owners return the teens take refuge in the basement and discover two dead bodies wrapped in plastic. The owners force the teens to bury the bodies for them, and they reveal that they are clones that have replaced the original owners. Luckily the teens also have clones, who show up just in time to save them. Now the six of them must figure out how the clones came to be, and who’s going to make it home alive.
Continue reading
Total Recall (2012) – Review
2 1/2 Stars
There is a central misconception regarding reboots, it is as if filmmakers are forced to acknowledge hallmarks of the original, while still attempting to expand and position themselves as the better entertainment. This trend continues with the shiny, new update of the Paul Verhoeven/Schwarzenegger sci-fi (semi) classic Total Recall. Director Len Wiseman practices an almost slavish devotion to the touchstones of that 1990 predecessor, after a while I was making a mental checklist of the similarities and differences. Maybe, it is impossible to appreciate this picture without having an affinity with the original? However I think those uninitiated, will find even less to like about this expensive retro fit.
Continue reading
Superman vs. The Elite (2012) – Review
3 1/2 Stars
After a huge misstep with Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, D.C. Comics animation division has rebounded nicely with the excellent Batman: Year One, and now this above average entry. This is an enthralling animated picture that uses the Superman character as an allegory to what is happening in modern politics and the world’s attitude toward violence. That makes Superman vs. The Elite a very smart and adult themed tale, so much so that I think this may be too advanced for small children, although I suspect they might be amused by the terrific fight scenes and handsome animation style.
Continue reading
Stranded (1987) – Review
1 Star
Stranded wants to be all things to all movie-goers. It is Starman meets Cocoon crossed with Critters and E.T. If that sounds contrived, awkward, and more than a bit odd, well that is because Stranded is all this and much less. A cranky teenage girl and her protective grandmother are visited by alien’s during a lighting storm in a small, rural farm community. The two women are taken hostage by a group of non-violent alien visitors seeking refuge from a stalking enemy. Before long the police get involved and the situation turns into a stand-off, complete with negotiations and sneaky tactics. Unbeknownst to the creatures and police officers is the presence of an extra terrestrial assassin bent on killing the aliens. This premise could possibly make for an exciting short film or perhaps an intriguing episode of The X-Files, in present form it is cheap second rate genre fodder from the opportunistic New Line Cinema.
Continue reading
Lockout (2012) – Review
3 Stars
Lockout is a gloriously goofy action flick with an appealing cast, loads of kinetic energy and a well worn plot retrofitted for the sci-fi crowd. Aussie thespian Guy Pierce, newly bulked and sporting a cocky attitude, is the peculiarly named, Snow. A former CIA operative turned political prisoner in the futuristic society of Washington, DC circa 2017. On a maximum security prison located in space the worlds worst criminals rest in cryo-sleep. During a humanitarian mission to the facility, the first daughter is taken hostage by a group of murderous inmates. Snow is sent to the orbiting space station to rescue the President’s daughter and retrieve a brief case that could hold the clue to a political assassination went awry.
Continue reading