Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 10th, 2013
I don’t like remakes for probably the same reasons you don’t like them — they’re lazy and creatively bankrupt — but I’m also not completely against the idea of revisiting an older film. When the older film isn’t a beloved classic that shouldn’t be touched or when a story can be more effectively presented using technology that simply didn’t exist when the original movie was made, remakes aren’t such a bad idea. By those standards, 1984’s The Philadelphia Experiment is actually an excellent choice to receive the remake treatment. And that’s why I’m so disappointed to see it go so wrong.
Both incarnations of The Philadelphia Experiment get their names from a hush-hush World War II military experiment — also known as “Project Rainbow” — carried out by the U.S. Navy at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1943 that is almost definitely a hoax. (Unless it’s not.) The experiment involved using a cloaking device to render the Navy destroyer USS Eldridge invisible. In the 1984 film starring Michael Paré and Nancy Allen, two WWII-era sailors were transported 40 years into the future through a vortex created by the ship’s generator.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 3rd, 2013
Bringing big-screen action and spectacle to the small screen is almost always a losing proposition. (A moment of silence for Terra Nova.) It’s just too hard to maintain on a week-to-week basis over the course of multiple seasons. Falling Skies — which, like Terra Nova, counts Steven Spielberg as one of its executive producers — may not be terribly original, but it’s one of the more successful attempts at consistently bringing large-scale thrills to television.
In case you missed the first season of TNT’s hit sci-fi series, here’s a quick catch-up. Less than a year after a devastating, worldwide alien invasion that wiped out most of Earth’s population, we meet the members of the Second Massachusetts Militia Regiment. (Better known as the 2nd Mass.) Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) is the history professor-turned-second in command of the 2nd Mass who frequently clashes with the more militant Captain Dan Weaver (Will Patton) and flirts with pediatrician-turned-combat surgeon Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood). Tom has three sons: jockish oldest son Hal (Drew Roy), eager youngest son Matt (Maxim Knight) and middle son Ben (Connor Jessup), who was kidnapped by the aliens and outfitted with what humans call a "harness", which affixes itself to children’s spines and allows the invaders to control their minds. A lot of the first season centered around Tom’s efforts to save Ben and culminated with the 2nd Mass’s attempt to bring the fight to the aliens in Boston. The final scene had Tom voluntarily entering a spaceship in an effort to keep Ben safe.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 24th, 2013
“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
Just in case the film’s title wasn’t a big enough clue, this opening quote from famed science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke makes it abundantly clear the domestic disturbance in Dark Skies won’t be caused by grumpy ghosts or a dastardly demon. This effective little sci-fi/horror movie follows the low-budget template established by recent hits like Insidious, Sinister and the Paranormal Activity franchise, but looks to the not-so-friendly skies for its source of terror.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 20th, 2013
The conclusion of the wildly popular Twilight saga last fall left a nation of haters high-fiving each other, but it also created a giant, heart-shaped vacuum in Hollywood. Where is the industry’s next big young adult-oriented, human-on-supernatural romance franchise going to come from? This past Valentine’s Day was as good a time as any to find out if Beautiful Creatures — based on Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s “Caster Chronicles” series — was up to the task.
Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) can’t wait to get out of Gatlin, South Carolina. Thanks to some nimble narration, Ethan explains why he feels trapped in his fictional dead-end town, where virtually every important piece of literature is on the banned list and people enthusiastically re-enact the Civil War as if they’re expecting a different result. Ethan’s spirits brighten when he meets moody outsider Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), who is literally the girl of his dreams. You see, Ethan has been having the same dream every night about a mysterious dark-haired beauty; unfortunately, he always dies at the end. After a rocky start (is there any other kind?), the two grow closer and Ethan discovers that Lena is a witch.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 14th, 2013
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 11th, 2013
Looking back, it’s amazing how far visual effects have come since 1988. I can remember sitting in the theater watching Willow for the first time and believing everything I saw up on the screen wasn’t the work of movie magic, but I believed it to be reality. Perhaps some far off land where there are swordsmen fighting evil sorcerers and trolls lurk in the shadows of abandoned castles. This is a thought I’d like to believe I’m not the only one that hoped this was a reality, but if I am I’m fine with that. Willow came out at a time when Hollywood was trying to bring large-scale fantasy to the screen with other releases like Excalibur, Legend and Conan. Though these films are their own kind of awesome, the digital effects still hadn’t quite reached the level they needed to be to make these worlds as immersive as the Lord of the Rings films, for instance. Where the film may not have held up over the years with the special effects, it’s the story that manages to captivate this viewer 25 years later.
Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) is not your ordinary hero, and for 1988 seeing a little person as the star of a film is even further for ordinary. But Willow isn’t about ordinary; it’s about a journey of fantastic proportions where even the tiniest of men can be the biggest of heroes. When Willow is tasked to return a baby to her people, he must venture away from his village to a land that seems to be on the verge of war, something Willow and his fellow dwarves want nothing to do with. During Willow’s journey to find a proper protector for the baby, he encounters Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), who claims to be the greatest swordsmen that ever lived; unfortunately when he’s found he’s been left for dead in a cage. This is one of the roles that has me wondering what happened to Kilmer; in this role he is simply fun to watch and dripping with charisma; the guy was meant to be a star. And when we do get to see Madmartigan in action, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if Madmartigan and Aragorn were to ever cross paths.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on April 10th, 2013
“Why save a few when we can save them all?”
An excellent question; have you ever noticed that in disaster films as soon as an apocalyptic event is discovered, plans go into motion to protect the elite such as the president, his cabinet, and a few select others while the rest of the world is left out in the cold to be lambs to the slaughter? Well, in Earth’s Final Hours, the lambs fight back, working to save the many rather than just the few.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 28th, 2013
“It’s been a long time getting from there to here.”
35 years to be exact. Enterprise is the fourth spinoff from the original 1960’s hopeful series. The Earth is finally ready to send its first starship to explore the vast galaxy. This first starship Enterprise is smaller than the ships we’ve become used to. There are no shields or photon torpedoes. The transporter has only been cleared for inanimate objects. Not that this stands in the way of its occasional “emergency” use. The ship is very much like the cramped spaces of today's submarines. It adds an even greater sense of reality to the show. The crew is composed of Captain Jonathan Archer (Bakula), First Officer and Vulcan High Command liaison, T’Pol (Blalock), Chief Engineer Charles (Trip) Tucker (Trinneer), Tactical Officer Malcolm Reed (Keating), Denobulan Dr. Phlox (Billingsly), Pilot Travis Mayweather (Montgomery) and Linguist/Communications Officer Hoshi Sato (Park).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 18th, 2013
"My dear Frodo, you asked me once if I had told you everything there was to know about my adventures. Well, I can honestly say I've told you the truth, but I may not have told you all of it..."
It's hard to believe that it's been a decade since Peter Jackson last brought us to the fantastic lands of Middle Earth. It was one of Hollywood's most ambitious projects ever. Jackson took on the perilous journey of adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's famous Lord Of The Rings trilogy, perilous because of the beloved place the works hold in the hearts of those who have read them over the years. There is such a wonderfully detailed world delivered by Tolkien that we already had very vivid ideas of these places and characters. To his credit, Jackson proved to be up to the task and delivered a trilogy that one can only describe as brilliant. The lands and people were just as I had envisioned them since I first encountered them in my own youth. Expanded versions hit the home video market, and about 12 hours of story have made it to our screens. And there it has sat for the better part of that decade.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jonathan Foster on March 11th, 2013
“I am steel. I am doom. I march for Macragge, and I know no fear!”
The above quote is the motto of Ultramarines, the best of the best of the Space Marines from the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The popular miniatures star in their first movie, a CGI action/adventure tale from Anchor Bay films. I admit — as nerdy as I am — I’ve never had any interest in the Warhammer figurines. Because of that, I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this movie. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when the story of the Warhammer universe and the Space Marines’ place in it was succinctly presented in the opening voiceover. Much like the opening crawl in Star Wars, it gives you just enough information to appreciate the story while wanting to know more.
