‘Virtuality’ Deserves a Chance to Explore Its Universe

June 29th, 2009-

Good science-fiction is a precious commodity; especially on television. Over the last 50 years or so, we have had no more than a handful of truly innovative and intelligent sci-fi series. Among them, I count the the well-known and the celebrated, Star Trek, X-Files and Lost, the prematurely canceled Firefly and the cult classics like Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and The Outer Limits.   For every one of those, there were five more that were either ridiculous garbage(Space Marines) or instantly forgettable (Earth 2).  So, it becomes a priority for me, as a sci-fi nerd, to direct your attention to quality examples of the genre wherever they may be found, and last Friday Fox aired the pilot to a prospective series it didn’t pick up called Virtuality that met all the criteria for solid science fiction.

DVD Showcase: The exceptional James Gray tells a tale of ‘Two Lovers’

Two Lovers (R) 98 min.  Directed by: James Gray. Starring: Joaquin Pheonix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, Isabella Rossellini, Elias Koteas Cinematography:  Joaquin Baca-Asay

James Gray’s Two Lovers is potentially the best movie you didn’t see this year. Released last February for a brief stint in theaters and simultaneously on On-Demand, the film was mostly overshadowed by the stunts of its star, Joaquin Pheonix, who showed up on the Letterman Show looking like a stoned Amish rocker. It turns out though, that Gray’s film is far more worthy of the attention and discussion that inevitably was aimed at Phoenix and his ill-advised rap career (it’s all an elaborate film stunt, wait and see).

Now Playing: ‘Big Man Japan’ trades zero for hero

 

 Giant monsters tromping around wrecking cities sounds like alot more fun than it actually is. I’ve been listening to nearly every beleagured friend who has seen the new Transformers movie complain; ‘it’s just giant things punching each other–that’s it!’ Well, duh. In their case, though, I have the perfect remedy; Hitoshi Matsumoto’s Dai Niiponjin, or the english translation, Big Man Japan.

Movie Review: Mann Alive! ‘Public Enemies’ Is An Old-School Epic With New Tricks

Public Enemies (2009) R. 140  min. Directed by: Michael Mann. Written by: Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann, & Ann Biderman. Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup.Cinematography:Dante Spinotti. Original music by: Elliot Goldenthal.

Now this is how you do summer movie escapism. One of our best and brightest movie stars paired with one of the most consistently interesting directors available in the larger than life story of  America’s canniest career criminal, John Dillinger. For all of those shaking under the tromping robotic boots of Bay’s blustering summer monstrosity, take heart, that other Mike has come to town and he’s brought Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard and  Christian Bale along for a thrilling ride that recreates Depression era cop and robber games with all the precision of a master storyteller.

The Weekly Creepy: Wait, why do ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’?

  Welcome to the Weekly Creepy. The goal is to help expose you the audience to newer horror/thriller films that might have slipped under your radar. Dedicated to obscure, foreign and indie fare (as well as the glorious world of DTV), The Weekly Creepy will tackle a different pic each week, with reasons why it is or isn’t worth your precious time or money.

June 25th, 2009–

The odd history of Jonathan Levine’s All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is a far more  horrifying story than the one within the movie.  After being completed in 2006 and playing various film festivals, the movie sat in limbo for a year or so and then never got theatrical distrubition here in the U.S. Over in Britain and other parts of the world it’s available on dvd, and if you have a region free dvd player you can get it on Amazon. Then, this summer,  a release date of June 18th was announced only to have the distributors pull it again. Amber Heard, who played the titular character, has gone on to become something of a scream queen even though Mandy Lane has yet to officially play over here.  In the time since making ATBLML, director Levine has finished and released another movie, The Wackness, and has about three more in production. If he’s lucky Mandy Lane will stay hidden until he’s got a few more finished pics under his belt and can safely chalk this one up to youthful excess.

Movie Review: Transformers–Revenge of Bay with Car-Car Binks!

June 26th, 2009–

Hoo-ha! Our first guest reviewer! The Great Fatsby has tackled Transformers 2 and has the low-down to prove it. I have not seen the movie but TGF has and it sounds like a laundry list of the implausible and idiotic. Alot of this has been reported elsewhere but Fats might be the first one to use the term ‘Car Car Binks’.

Honestly, this is one of those critic-proof movies. When something makes 60 million dollars on a frickin Wednesday it means that a large part of its audiences knows it sucks and either don’t care or going for that very reason. Me, Im still seeing it with my dad next week. He wants to go, and I actually had a good time at the first mainly because he was there and it was a window back to childhood. I don’t have any allegiance to the transformers or Bay but I do remember watching my dad patiently try to assemble a dino-bot for me on Christmas morning or getting my first Transformer as gift from he and my mother when I was in the hospital. When I watched the first one, in a round-about way it reminded me that people cared for me. According to Fatsby,however, Michael Bay doesn’t care about you. But he does want you see his movie.

‘Daybreakers’ trailer brings us vamps, sci-fi and a cross-bow wielding Willem Dafoe. Sign me up!

June 26th, 2009–

I’d be tempted to call this Equilibrium with vampires if it wasn’t for the fact we already got that, from the same director, called Ultraviolet. And it sucked something fierce, no pun intended. 

Instead, Daybreakers might  be trying to unhinge the universe from its complacency by threatening to give us something actually original. True Blood has synthetic hemoglobin and Twilight has vamps who have refrained from the human version altogether. Now, the Australian Spiereg Bros., who made the low-budget zombie film Undead, have concocted a darker world where nearly everyone is a vampire and they keep the humans in storage facilities not unlike The Matrix so they can harvest them at will. Without the blood, it appears the vampires go feral and revert to a more monstrous version(see the pic below). To add to their troubles, the human race is going extinct and the threat of a vanishing food supply looms large.

Death of the 80s…Goodbye Captain EO

June 26th, 2009-

My wife and I were standing in line for Public Enemies last night, up at the Muvico Egpytian at Arundel Mills, when cellphones started going off in unison, the tap-tapping of furious texting filled the air, and people were gasping loudly. My first thought was that Kim Jong Il finally pushed the button. And then I got wind of the real issue; Michael Jackson is dead at 50…heart attack.

Girl in The Seat Next to Mine

June 25th, 2009–

You know what the greatest thing about the movies, or any art form/sports activity, is? For me, it’s the people you get to share it with. I’ve been to bad movies that were wonderful experiences because I was with people I genuinely cared about. Conversely, have you ever watched a great film alone and then eaten the bittersweet pill of having no one to interact with afterwards? 

I’ve been very blessed over the years to have a great number of friends and family who have shared in not only the movies, good and bad, but all the other vital and important parts of life. And of all those irreplaceable individuals, for the past 6 years one has been a friend, a guide and a fellow movie geek to put all others to shame. She’s my wife Jennifer, and she is not only the most precious person in the world to me, but one of the most knowledgeable and passionate film fans I know.

Richard Kelly makes us a chilling offer with ‘The Box’ trailer

 June 25th,2009–

While the current summer pickings might be slim, this year is turning out to be a great one for the return of talented directors. After sitting it out on the bench or doing lackluster work, some of my faves have roared back into the game with  really strong entries; Alex Proyas’ Knowing and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker are two of the best movies of the year, Coppola’s Tetro is getting positive reviews, and Mann’s Public Enemies, which I’m seeing tonight, is hotly anticipated.  Later this year we are getting new films from Terry Gilliam, Martin Scorsese and  James Cameron…and Richard Kelly.