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Must-See Movies Part 1
Posted on January 14, 2008 by Brian under Movies, Reviews.
2008 is going to be a great year for movies. I look forward to all of the hits that I have been reading about for the last couple of years finally coming to the screen. I will list all the movies that I am looking forward to with a little insight on how I think they will be.
1/18 – Cloverfield
As I stated in my last post, unless you have been living under a rock, you all know that there is little info circulating about the film “Cloverfield“, releasing January 18, other than a few choice teasers and some interesting stills that have been leaked to the web. I just hope it is all worth it! Some are concerned that the film is not going to live up to the hype. However, if you are a J.J. Abrams fan, you know that he never disappoints.
5/2 – Iron Man
The much anticipated and much awaited Iron Man starts on May 2nd and let me tell you I can not wait. I have been following the all the little tidbits of info on this since I first read about it in Wizard Magazine 2 years ago. At first I was very skeptical about Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark, but then I saw the sneaked trailer that was floating around the net and it all fit. I think Robert Downey makes a great Tony Stark and I think this movie is going to be the big hit of the summer. Look for it in theaters in May.
5/9 – Speed Racer
This is something that I thought I would never see, yet I am completely drawn to it. As a kid I remember watching all the Speed Racer episodes on TV. Then I got older and continued to watch them on the Cartoon channel late at night. Now I can find them occasionally on the Boomerang channel, and even in my 30’s I am still fascinated by this show. I guess this is the next logical step for this animated icon. I am certainly going to catch this live action version of the popular cartoon when it debuts in theaters in May.
This is the first part of my review of the upcoming 2008 blockbusters. Stay tuned and I will fill you in on other great hits that you will want to catch.
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Cloverfield
Posted on January 11, 2008 by Brian under Movies, Reviews.
The anticipation of this film is starting to drive people mad! It looks like the PR people at Paramount Pictures hit a home run with the media hype on this film. Unless you have been living under a rock, you all know that there is little info circulating about the film “Cloverfield“, releasing January 18, 2008. Other than a few choice teasers and some interesting stills that have been leaked and placed on various web sites. I like the concept of a film that is done from the peoples point of view instead of watching it from a distance. I think this will add to the suspense of a film like this. For those of you that have been living under a rock and don’t know what I am talking about, let me fill you in. “Cloverfield” is rumored to be filmed entirely from the point of view of a group of friends and their Handycam. What was supposed to be a going away party for a good friend turned out to be a fight for there lives to not only get out of the city, but to get a glimpse of the monster that was devastating New York. Now the concept of a Handycam generated movie is not new, “The Blair Witch Project” did the same thing back in July of 1999. However, I think this is going to take it one step further. This will be done with more suspense and more action and from what I am reading, you don’t get to see the monster till like the last moments of the movie, everything else is glimpses and shadows that entice you and keep you guessing. I know that the Handycam changes hands several times in the film and from what I am hearing about it, they begin with a large group and end up with a few left. Nothing is concrete and as I said earlier, this is all very tight lipped at the moment. We only have a week left before we can finally put the rumors to rest and get the facts on this highly anticipated film and then I can do a proper review. Until then, enjoy the teaser.
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The Invasion
Posted on January 10, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
For those of you that missed “The Invasion” in theaters because you thought it was yet another remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (myself included), never fear. “The Invasion” releases on DVD on January 29, 2008. I recently had a screener pop across my desk and decided that I needed to give it a fair chance. After watching it I was mildly surprised at the film overall. There were some aspects of the film that did remind you of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. However, unlike those films there were no pod people or Gigantic plants roaming the streets. Instead this take was much more plausible. In “The Invasion”, starring Nicole Kidman and Danial Craig, the aliens are actually a complex spore that invades the human body and essentially rewrites the basic aggression sequence and other essential strands of our DNA and takes over like a parasite or a virus. There are some people that are immune to the invaders and through out the film these people are hunted down and we assume, destroyed. The invaders can only take over the body at its weakest state, when you are asleep and inactive. This is when the spore takes control and start to do its little deed of converting you into one of them. mind you, this transformation is mealy mental, but there are a few physical side effects. Like a large membrane that forms over you while you sleep, like a cocoon. It also seems that the converted people are working like one large community or Hive, kind of like a collective. I found a few flaws to this, in one scene a man on the subway tells Nicole Kidman that you can fool them, you just show no emotion. In several other scenes they state that they all know what each other is doing and they are all connected. If this was the case then they should have known who was converted and who wasn’t regardless of how you acted. This to me was a major flaw in the story line. I liked that the invaders were thwarted by science instead of gunning down a small town or nuking a city into extension like we see in so many of these films. in this you could step away from the film and say to yourself “I can see this happening”. They took the most logical form of an alien invasion and built the story around that. All-in-all I think the film was ok, regardless of it flaws. It kept me entertained and intrigued. Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig make a great on screen team and the underlying message that is in the story will leave you thinking, are we truly alone and would we be better off being ourselves, or one of them.
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Will “Surface” Ever … Resurface?
Posted on January 9, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
If you ask any average person if they saw “Surface” on Monday’s in 2005 most would say no. If you asked any fan boy, comic book geek or just all around sci-fi fan they would not only tell you yes, but give you a hundred reasons why it was one of the best sci-fi series on TV to date. However, not even the panicked screams of 10,000 virgin geeks could stop the preplanned conclusion of the series. It was reported on several sci-fi forums that the writers were told from the start that the series may not go further than a year, and that they should write the final episode to go either way. This to me says that they TV exec’s were not interested in the ever growing popularity of sci-fi based series. Instead they worked on producing more over 50’s crowd or reality niche TV shows that seems to be ever expanding and increasingly more ridiculous. You can look out on the net and find forum after forum and article after article of people complaining about the loss of what could have been a series equal to that of the current “Hero’s” (NBC’s redeeming quality) or the over 20 years and still going in syndication “Star Trek” franchise. But the upper echelon’s of TV God-hood don’t care about the niche market or the hoard’s of faithful sci-fi viewers that would kill for anything that has great effects and a rich story. I would have to say that this was one of the biggest mistakes that NBC made and in the log run it could have cost them millions of viewers that will now go to other channels instead of NBC. “Star Trek the Next Generation”, was on TV for a long time and managed to spin off “Star Trek, Deep Space Nine”, Star Trek Voyager and the prequel series “Star Trek: Enterprise”. All with decent track records (over 5 years) and all starting on Fox and now in syndication. Fox is not afraid to give something a chance it seems. Something I think other stations should try and not for just one season either. Actually give a show a chance! Anyone that watches a serious TV series, especially one with an ever growing plot and an in depth character make-up knows that it may take half a season or even a full season for a series to pick up speed. They really should have signed “Surface” for no less than 3 seasons. I think this would have given the series adequate time to build a following and prove its worth, and quite possibly still be running to date. With any luck this will go the way of Stargate SG-1 (originally shown on Showtime) and get picked up by the Sci-fi channel and they will continue on with the series, the story line itself had so much potential. Then fan boys like myself will finally get to enjoy the rest of the story (because we know there is more) and have some resemblance of closure to what could have been a resounding hit. Look for the DVD set in your store and be sure to pick it up, I promise that it will keep you interested and you will want more.
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Stargate Atlantis, Season 4
Posted on January 8, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
Season 4 of Stargate Atlantis continues tomorrow January 4th and I am excited as always. This year is being promoted as one of the better seasons. With the war between the Replicators and the Wraith reaching explosive proportions and the Atlantis team trying desperately to stay out of the cross hairs of both parties. However, it looks like an alliance with the Wraith is going to be needed in order to defeat the greater threat of the Replicators. Look for the Atlantis team to be weary of there new alliance with the Wraith, due to past encounters that the Wraith have tried to exploit. I am sure that the Wraith are going to do everything in there power to find a way to turn the alliance in their favor while the replicators will put up a fight in order to save the existence that they have created for themselves. I also look forward to see how they incorporate this new rouge group of replicators that want nothing to do with this war but instead want to ascend like the Ancients that created them. I will be curious if this new band of replicators will get wiped out with the rest of them or will they in time see that their counter parts were correct and be a threat to the Atlantis team again, possibly worse this time. All-in-all I think that this season is going to be great and action packed. I would like to see them incorporate more of the SG-1 team into the mix and possibly down the line merge the two series as one with multiple story arc’s from the Earth side as well as the Pegasus galaxy. I think that if they want to keep this franchise alive and mimic the success of the SG-1 series, they will have to broaden the story arc’s and incorporate a more complex format. I can see this series going for quite some time with fan’s clamoring for anything that is produced. I look forward to tomorrow and will provide you with an update to this after I watch the episode.
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