Alien, Aliens and, gulp, even Alien 3 (notice how I didn’t mention the abomination called Alien Resurrection) have a special place in my Blu-ray collection and the sci-fi nerd inside me goes bananas as they play out on my 50 inch plasma TV. There are plenty of movies that do not hold up after the passage of time, but these three, particularly Alien and Aliens, hold up after, in the case of Alien, the passage of 30-plus years. I mention this …
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I wasn’t a kid in the late 1940s and early 1950s when The Lone Ranger was making waves on ABC, nor did I tune in via radio to one of the 2,956 episodes broadcast from 1933 to 1954, so it’s hard to have any nostalgia for a hero people pooping in Depends thought was the real deal. Sure he’s a cowboy and he has a cool mask, but I couldn’t even latch on with the 1981 movie, The Legend of The Lone …
I will start by posing a question to Ridley Scott… Why has it taken you so long to decide to revive the sci-fi genre… again. A short trailer of the upcoming “full trailer” for Prometheus has been released online. Yes, you heard me correctly, a trailer for the trailer has been released. It has been a long time since Scott’s Alien and BladeRunner set the standard for science fiction, and several of his recent films have been underwhelming… Robin Hood, …
Peter Jackson is awesome. I can’t think of another director that has involved the fans to the level that Jackson has during the filming of The Hobbit. I have loved each of the set videos he has released. Now, to be clear, I have watched all of the bonus material for the Lord of the Rings trilogy multiple times. I am not normally a behind the scenes junkie. Often times behind the scenes material is a mix of a bad …
I, like others have been cautiously skeptical about Ridley Scott’s upcoming “prequel” to his massively popular Alien. I love the cast Scott has assembled, Michael Fassenberner and Idris Elba are two amazing actors who have yet to dissapoint me. I have been dissapointed with so many remakes/rehashes/reboots over the past decade, I didn’t want to suffer another let down by one of my favorite directors… yes I am talking to you Tim Burton (Planet of the Apes, Alice in Wonderland). …
Fans of the Jason Bourne movies (based of the novels by Robert Ludlum) – The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum – have a hard time seeing the franchise moving forward without the ever-likable and ever-talented Matt Damon (We Bought a Zoo), but I’m here to say this summer’s fourth installment, a spin-off called The Bourne Legacy, looks absolutely amazing. And really, how could it not be anything but spectacular? It’s directed and written by Tony Gilroy, …
I have no problem whatsoever admitting my addiction to “found footage” films, at least the ones that seem to promise bum-puckering goodness, like The Paranormal Activity trilogy. I get guffawed at quite a bit because lots of folks think movies of this nature are cheesy and predictable. I couldn’t agree more, but aren’t haunted houses the same way? Still, we squeal and giggle and hide our eyes, because it’s not so much about what’s happening as the experience itself. And …
5 Broken Cameras 5 Broken Cameras is the most personal documentary I have ever seen. Emad Burnat films years of struggle within his hometown of Bil’in as the Israeli army pushes further into the borders of their city. Emad cycles through five cameras throughout the course of the documentary, and as he says, each camera represents a part of his story. Several of his cameras are shot by Israeli soldiers, another is hit by exploding tear gas. The film begins …
V/H/S I will admit, found footage films have been a major point a frustration for me over the past decade. Post-Blair Witch, the film style grew to be formulaic and at times impossible to watch. V/H/S arrives at Sundance just in time, thirteen years after the initial run of The Blair Witch Project. V/H/S centers around a group of petty criminals who are sent to an old man’s house to steal a single vhs tape. They are told nothing other …
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is without a doubt three of my favorite movies of all-time. From the seamless and spectacular meshing of practical and CGI effects, to the breathtaking score and marvelous ensemble acting, there is really nothing I can get riled up about and criticize (except for The Return of The King’s neverending ending). You’d think with my love of the previous trilogy I’d be chomping at the bit to see Peter Jackson venture back to Middle …