Entries Tagged 'sci-fi' ↓

Book Trailer for Scott Sigler’s Upcoming “Ancestor”

New York Times best-selling author Scott Sigler unleashes Ancestor, a hardcover horror novel out June 22, 2010. Scott is the author of Infected and Contagious, which are being published in fifteen countries. Synopsis: Every five minutes, a transplant candidate dies while waiting for a compatible heart, a liver, a kidney. Imagine a technology that could provide those [...]

Catch a Sneak Peek of “Splice” in LA this Thursday

This Thursday, June 3rd at 7:30 PM the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre, located at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, will host a sneak preview of Splice, the new sci-fi thriller starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley and directed by Vincenzo Natali (Cube). Additional, after the film director Natali and producer Don Murphy will be [...]

Book Review: Let Me Die A Woman by Alan Kelly

Review by Sarah “Fatally Yours” Jahier Blending ‘50s pulp novel sensibilities with modern potty-mouthed wit and characters pulled from a John Waters film with a cybergoth twist, Let Me Die A Woman is a kick ass debut from Irish author Alan Kelly! The novel opens with a rather innocuous scarecrow festival in a small town…or so it [...]

The Flesh Eaters (1964)

Review by Theron Neel Like any self-respecting monster kid, I spent my formative years planted in front of the television set, watching whatever horror and sci-fi swill Hollywood had to offer a young mind. Time wasted? Perhaps. But I prefer to think of those many hours spent viewing B movies as a kind of alternative education. [...]

Book Review: Jenny’s Dance by Bruce Kaplan

Review by Sarah “Fatally Yours” Jahier Jenny’s Dance was originally published in Australia in 1989, but after the small publisher went belly up the book went out of print. Twenty years later author Bruce Kaplan made a few small tweaks and decided to re-release the book himself in 2009. Of course if you ask me, the book [...]

The Book of Eli


Their pimp fascination notwithstanding, I've been a long-time fan of the Hughes Brothers. I admire the way they refuse to be pigeon-holed by the industry. One minute they're doing a gritty urban drama like Menace II Society and the next, they're off helming a graphic novel adaptation based on the killings of Jack The Ripper, From Hell. It's fun to hear about their coulda-been projects like a Batman reboot with Clint Eastwood, a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel or The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp.

You might not always like the work, but they bring a unique perspective to the table. Even their misfires are worth watching. After a self-imposed exile from Hollywood, it's nice to see them back on the scene with the Book of Eli. Below is a two-part motion comic prequel that does very little in terms of backstory, but sure does look cool...





This is starting to become the norm in the marketing of genre flicks. I have my doubts about their effectiveness, but they probably aren't that expensive to produce. More multimedia goodies: a link to a podcast interview with Book of Eli screenwriter Gary Whitta from 4 Guys 1UP here.

The film is set decades after a nuclear apocalypse. We've gone backwards. It's all about survival of the fittest. No time for stuff like readin', writin' and religion. In fact, folks blamed the Bible as the cause of their troubles and destroyed every last one of 'em... almost. Enter Eli, the wanderer from the desert with the last Bible. Corigan's (Oldman) been searching for the Good Book for ages. He knows the power it possess, to move masses -- for his own selfish purposes. Think there might be trouble ahead?

This isn't one for the ages, but when you have the likes of Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman on screen, it's certainly watchable. Mila Kunis is a lovely actress but I want to know who keeps casting her in these tough girl roles. First Max Payne and now this. Looks out of her element. Denzel is getting up there, but holds his own in the action sequences. Overall, the backstory feels a little hollow. A lot of telling and not showing. What they do show, looks great. Good score too.

Book of Eli is a slick faith-based drama disguised as a mindless action flick. The last 15 minutes drag on and there's a big reveal at the end that almost ruined the film for me -- others may love. Its Box Office take has been solid.

*shrugs*

Nice comeback.

Cup Of Tears



Why does the Cup of Tears trailer look more interesting than Ninja Assassin?

SPACE MADNESS!



I've always loved the concept of a claustrophobic action/thriller set on a spaceship, and Pandorum starts off with the best of intentions. Crew members (or are they?) wake up from hyper-sleep aboard the Elysium, suffering from temporary amnesia. Something's gone wrong with the ship and to top it off, bloodthirsty creatures are everywhere. Oh yeah, extended periods in space can lead to a condition called SPACE MAD-- er, Pandorum.

This is a dark film. Very dark. Is that a boob? No, it's her knee. Where are they!? WHO'S TALKING!? Pandorum isn't bad, you've just seen it before. Bits and pieces of other films like Event Horizon, Sunshine, Resident Evil, Alien, etc. stitched together into an uneven genre quilt. Hard to say more without giving away spoilers, but the performances were pretty solid -- newcomer Antje Traue has a Milla Jovovich vibe working really well for her. It's easy to dismiss this as a mindless sci-fi actioner, but there's a decent attempt at the thriller aspect, some okay twists along the way. The ending is alright. Gotta check out the script for a little compare and contrast.

The film's main selling point, the creatures, was probably the most unnecessary. I think it would've worked just fine with paranoid humans vs. paranoid humans. There were a couple of non-sci-fi scripts that used the temporary amnesia angle -- but ironically enough, I'm blanking on the names...

Even with its flaws, I was sorry to see the low box office returns.

District 9



Before seeing the film, I was lucky enough to hear a radio interview with Writer/Director Neil Blomkamp. He described how he wanted to combine his love of Sci-Fi with the experience of growing up in a "crazy" place like South Africa. In that regard, I'd have to say, mission accomplished.

It's incredible what Blomkamp was able to accomplish with a modest budget, under 40 million dollars. Okay, we're not exactly talking about a shoe-string production with Grandma doubling as cinematographer and chief stunt woman, but for the scope of the film, the final result is still pretty impressive. I'm not gonna name names, but a couple of the effects exceeded the work seen in a recent summer blockbuster or two *cough* G.I. Joe *cough*. Stuff gets blown up real good with lots of cool alien weaponry as our "hero" fights to regain his humanity -- it's highly debatable how much he had in the first place.

While entertaining, I didn't think the film had some deep, resonating message. "Alien Nation" already covered the oppressed-minorities-substituted-with-aliens-thing. Here, I don't think the aliens are supposed to represent anything but aliens -- who get high off cat food. There's a good bit of satire in the beginning, but aside from saying that earthlings of all colors are scum, "District 9" settles into your basic Sci-Fi actioner worthy of rabid fanboy adoration. Now it's more than possible that my American eyes didn't pick up on all the nuances, but I think I got the gist of it. I don't foresee a Best Picture nomination in its future, although anything is possible with ten open slots, but one for visual effects certainly wouldn't surprise me.

Avatar Trailer



Had a chance to watch it a couple of times and while still enjoyable, I kinda wish there was more emphasis placed on story and dialogue -- might have to read that old scriptment floating around the net. Up to this point, I had been underwhelmed by the one-sheet and stills, but the visuals here are impressive. I don't think "Avatar" will be the game-changer that some predict, but it looks like a step in the right direction. I'm curious to see how folks react to the 16 minute preview that debuts tomorrow.

Pandorum


Ever come up with what you believe is an absolute dandy of a premise -- only to discover that it's already headed to a theater near you? Pandorum is pretty close something that I've been kicking around for a while. Not exactly the same, but enough similarities to make me curse under my breath while watching the trailer. Amnesia. Creatures. Confined spaces. Feels a little Resident Evilish -- no surprise there, it's from the RE creators. I'm ticked that someone beat me to it, but I'm not about to give up on the idea just yet. It all comes down to execution.

New District 9 Trailer



Looking forward to this!

Terminator Salvation



Here's where they screwed up: The "Terminator" flicks have always been about the chase. Unstoppable, killing-machines pursuing a human target, John Connor. Even the TV series understood that. And "Judgment Day" isn't a bad film, it just couldn't meet the impossible standards set by T2.

"Salvation" tries to be some kind of futuristic war drama. Bad idea. John Connor isn't the main character. Worse idea. Introduce a mysterious character, but give away the big twist in the trailers. WTF? I can appreciate the attempt to try something different, but the plot was a mess. Some of the dialogue is downright painful -- not to mention all the forced callbacks.

Even if 30-40 minutes of story really ended up on the cutting room floor, I doubt it would have made a big difference. On the plus side, the effects were great and it was cool to see Michael Ironside chewing scenery -- hope he gets a cameo on the new "V" series. Does this flop mean the end of McG? *sigh* Don't bet on it.

Cronocrimenes



aka Timecrimes

Another clever filmmaker. This Spanish sci-fi thriller has only four characters, few locations and lots of time travel. Fun story to watch unfold, but you'll get a headache trying to sort out the details and the behavior of some characters.

“V” upfront trailer



I had my doubts about Morena Baccarin as the alien leader, but I like this softer take on the character. Lots of familiar tv sci-fi faces in the cast.