Tag Archives: Movies

Interesting movie news

So according to this post over at aint-it-cool, Steven Spielberg is interested in making a HALO movie.

There has been talk for years of making a film based on the very popular video game franchise. It came close to fruition when Peter Jackson got involved but then fell apart when the studio kept cutting the budget and Jackson felt that the new lower budgets did not support the production the film required.

Spielberg certainly has the pull to get any budget he wants. It isn’t clear if this is something Steven wants for himself or for another person to direct. Either way it’s a hopeful sign for us HALO fans.

Out in theaters next week is District 9, and this article clued me in that the director of District 9 was the man Jackson had tapped to direct HALO. Now I really want to see District 9 next weekend.

Spielberg may be interested in a Halo Movie.

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Movie Review: G.I.JOE: The Rise Of Cobra

gi_joe
On an impulsive lark I decided today to go see G.I.JOE:The Rise Of Cobra.
While I am not counted among the numerous adult fans of the 80’s cartoon series I did watch it from time to time and enjoyed it for its good natured cheesy fun. It had the usual hallmarks of a cartoon series that was designed primarily as an extended commercial for toys. There were lots of characters and new ones introduced regularly. (Gotta have action figures, both good guys and bad guys.) There were also lots of vehicles and tons of equipment. (What good is an action figure that doesn’t have lots of extra stuff?) The bad guys never won, the good guys never compromised their ideals, no one ever died, and a lesson was usually learned.
Despite all that the series could be fun to watch. They sometimes delved into interesting character development and I rather liked the interesting power dynamics that happened among the leaders of the bad guys, Cobra. ( I confess to once wanting to run a strategic level RPG with the players taking the roles of various Cobra Leaders. I reserved Cobra Commander and the Baroness as NPCs. The game never really happened, but it would have been fun.)
Continue reading →

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The Intersection of Watchmen and The Lord Of The Rings

This past Saturday I picked up the Blu-ray of Watchmen. That evening I watched the film with a friend of mine who had seen it in the theater, but had missed a bit sue to bladder pressures.
This version was the directors cut, nearly half an hour longer and I have to say superior to the theatrical cut.
While we discussed the film I became aware of the thematic intersection between Watchmen and The Lord Of The Rings. Specifically in the characters of Saruman and Adrian Veidt.
Spoiler Alerts….
Continue reading →

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Sunday Night Movie: Shaun Of The Dead

shaun-of-the-dead-trio Last night’s movie Shaun Of The Dead is one of my favorite films. Co-written by and starring Simon Pegg (Many people will not get to know him as Scotty in the rebooted Star Trek.) it is a film that exists in a relatively small genre of Zombie Comedies. (The next best zombie comedy is The Return Of The Living Dead, which is a sequel to George Romero’s Night Of The LIving Dead.) Shaun Of The Dead is billed as a romantic comedy with zombies and that is spot on.
The story is fairly simple. Shaun has a dead end life which he is not managing very well. His has a troubled relationship with his step-father, his girl is dumping him, and his flat-mate has no job and no motivation. All this comes to a head during the Zombie uprising turning London into a city of the damned and about to be damned.
This film works as a zombie movie, hitting all the marks expected of that specialized genre, and it works as comedy. The more you know about zombie movies the funnier the film will become.
This is not a film for the squeamish or for those for whom violence is never funny. If you can take your laughs with your blood then this is a film to take in.

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Sunday Night Movie: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

libertyFor those who are new to my blog on Sunday nights after my sweetie-wife has retired for the evening I pop in a DVD or Blu-ray and watch a movie. As often as not with a big bowl of pocorn and with all the lights out. It’s the chance during the week for me to watch a film at home the way I prefer to. In a dark room and with a few stops as possible. (Usually none.) Lately I have made it a regular feature on my blog to talk about the films as I watch them.
The week’s movie was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (1962) Continue reading →

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Thoughts on today’s historical significance.

July 20, 1944.

Today a conspiracy of plotters sought to assassinate Adolph Hitler and overthrow the NAZI dictatorship with a coup. The coup was generated from with Hitler’s own military and nearly succeeded. It is only by chance and a string of unlikely events that Hitler survived this attempt. (I understand there were something like 15 different attempts on Hitler’s life. He had the devils own luck in avoiding these attempts.)

A film which does a very good job of being both entertainment and capturing the events — with some alterations one should always be wary of film as history — is last year’s Valkyrie . This film is tense and dramatic with a top notch cast that give a power performance.

July 20, 1969.

Mankind landed on the moon. Forty years have passed and age has dulled my memory but I do remember lying on a narrow bed (I was nine) with a father in a trailer on one of his worksites and watching the astronauts descend to the lunar surface.
I have always been a space bug. As a child I drew Gemini and Apollo and Mercury capsules. I was six and I would watch and try to understand Star Trek. (I remember asking my sister how the Enterprise could launch, thinking at the time that everything had to go straight up from the ground like an Atlas. She explained how ships may be built in orbit and my horizons were expanded a bit. (At least until JJ Abrams got his hand on the future.)
I loved the space program and I still believe that man’s destiny lies off-planet. It may not be America’s destiny but it is mans.

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San Diego Vintage SF : The Abominable Snowman

The Abominable Snowman Yeti handForgive the late posting on this but life does have a habit of getting in the way.
The past Saturday, July 11th, was this month’s meeting of San Diego Vintage SF. This month I brought a film to share, a DVD that my wife got for me as a birthday present, The Abominable Snowman (1957).
I first saw this film by way of Netflix when I was working my way through the Hammer Horror catalog and generally the ones with Peter Cushing. When I rented this film I did not have high expectations for it but I was pleasantly surprised. It is written by Nigel Kneale who had written a number of films that I throughly enjoyed including Quatermass and the Pit. (Known in the US generally as Five Million Years to Earth.) One of the best SF films out of Britain or anywhere for that matter. The Abominable Snowman was directed by Val Guest a number of films for hammer studios.
The story is about Dr Rollason a botanist and mountain climber who is on an expedition into the Himalayas to gather rare and unusual plants. He has his wife and a friend and associate Peter Fox along on his botanical expedition. Dr. Rollason has also contracted to lead another expedition high into the mountains to search for the mythical Yeti.
The Yeti expedition is lead by Thomas Friend (Forrest Tucker of F-Troop fame.) Tucker is quite credible as the mercenary and ruthless leader whose only concern is profit and clearing his name from a fraud that went badly.
The film can be dinged for being a bit talky, but I think the characters and the resolution of the story more than make up for this small flaw.
If you get a chance to see this film do so.

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Best review Yet for Transformers: The Revenge Of The Fallen

megan I saw the first film, Transformers on Blu-ray just a few weeks ago and I had to agree with an assessment I had heard about it. “The least stupid Michael Bay film.”
Given that I have zero interest in seeing the new movie, but I have stumbled upon a rather delightful review of the film. This guy cracks up and I urge everyone to pay him a visit.

Could you sum up the film in one line of its dialogue?
“I am standing directly beneath the enemy’s scrotum.“

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The importance of detachment

About a week and a half ago I was in a spirited debate with a friend of mine about Conspiracy Movies. We had just seen a film that used a conspiracy as a central element of the film and that provoked the debate.
The energy levels of the debate increased when I took the position that The Manchurian Candidate (1962)was NOT a capital ‘C’ Conspiracy film.
On further reflection i realize that I was wrong in my position. Now I will admit that it does not feel like a Conspiracy film to me, but what it feels like and what it is are two different things. For many people the film 28 Days later is a Zombie film, even though the infected are not undead. Based upon the three criteria I outline in an essay on Zombie movies (1-Mindless, 2- communicable 3-Vast Numbers) this was a Zombie movie.
This incident brought to mind for me the importance of detachment in any form of analysis. Because I did not feel that The Manchurian Candidate was a Conspiracy Film like The International for example, I blinded myself to the sound arguments that it was in fact a Conspiracy Film. (Although The Manchurian Candidate is a rare GOOD Conspiracy Film.)
When you are getting emotionally involved in an argument, when it is close to your heart or feeling more than at any other time it is important to step back, draw a breath, and try to be objective.
This, I have learned, and I am sure I will have to re-learn too as I am only human.

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