The Great Geek Manual

This weekend anime and action fans are in for a treat, as Blood: The Last Vampire opens in theaters. Enjoy it. This weekend will be the last chance you’ll have for the next two months to enjoy a film in a theater completely free of mobs of robe-wearing, wand-waving, Hogwarts cosplayers.

Video Releases

• Knowing (PG-13)
• Push (PG-13)
• The Unborn (PG-13)

Animation

• Freedom: Complete Collection

If you know of any major releases I missed, please comment below.

The films I look forward to the most are the ones that take an established trope or hollywood cliche and turn it on its head, and this looks to one of those films. Daybreakers is a sci-fi vampire flick that looks a lot like 30 Days of Night meets Children of Men. In it, vampires have overrun the Earth, and the humans that they hunt as a food source are becoming scarce.

Unlike Twilight, which just sucked, this looks to be a sparkle and heart-throb-free film aimed at genre fans! Woohoo!

The downside is that it casts Ethan Hawke in a role that looks as if it may come perilously close to re-hashing his part in Gattaca. Still… no sparkling in sight!

I thought the cartoon had a lot of promise, but M Night Shyamalan has been dead to me since Lady in the Water. So, I’m not sure whether or not I’ll rent this when it comes out. Something about a martial arts film without a single asian actor just strikes me as wrong.

Read more at Slash Film.

Movie: “The Taking of Pelham 123”
Director: Tony Scott

Rating: Rated R for violence and pervasive language.
Release:
Running Time: 2 hrs 1 min
Starring: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, James Gandolfini, John Turturro… IMDB listing

Verdict:

This dark, fast-paced remake of the 1974 Walter Matthau film is a credit to both of its stars, but it follows a troupe that has been played out, ridden into the ground, dug back up, and ridden into the ground again by Hollywood.

Here’s how it goes. Terrorist takes hostages. Terrorist proves to be complicated, volatile character with a surprise motive. Terrorist pulls a fast one on dim-witted cops. Everyday man gets caught up in the incident. Everyday man proves to be a complex, vulnerable character. Terrorist makes a break for it. Everyday man pursues and lays down some justice. Pelham 123 does it very well, but it’s been done over and over and over.

The movie is great, but for my buck, I’d just as soon have waited until it came out on DVD. There just aren’t a great number of action sequences to justify the extra expense of seeing it on the big screen.

Synopsis:

Denzel Washington plays a disgraced New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber who finds his ordinary day thrown into chaos when a subway train is hijacked by four men arms with machine guns. The lead hijacker, who calls himself “Ryder” demands ten million dollars in one hour. As they wait for a lackadaisical Mayer to scrape up a ten million dollar ransom, Garber and Ryder form a report through a series of tension-laden radio communications. But the more Garber learns, the more uncertain about Ryder’s intentions he becomes. As the deadline approaches, Garber scrabbles for more time even as he wonders whether its money that Ryder is really after.
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Movie: “Terminator Salvation”
Director: McG

Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.
Release: May 21, 2009
Running Time: 2 hrs 10 min
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Helena Bonham Carter… IMDB listing

Verdict:

Terminator Salvation follows very closely in the footsteps of its predecessors. It opens with an intriguing twist. An hour of some of the most innovative action scenes Hollywood has to offer advance the plot. Robots stalk humans. Things explode in new, unexpected ways. Humans flees. Robots chase. Then, the movie ends on a heart-warming but ominously foreboding note.

Fans of the first three Terminator films will definitely want to see this movie. It is an awesome action film – probably the best 2009 will have to offer. It’s packed from end-to-end with state of the art special effects and spectacular action sequences. However, those walking into the theater with high expectations are going to leave disappointed. Terminator Salvation doesn’t come any closer to being the Matrix than its predecessors, despite the secret hopes harbored by so many fans.

Synopsis:

Official: Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.
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The first trailer for the live-action adaptation of Robert Venditti’si graphic novel, Surrogates, staring Bruce Willis, hit the web today. It looks something like Die Hard meets I, Robot.

The film takes place in the future in which high-tech surrogates (androids) allow people to live their lives remotely through unflawed robotic versions of themselves in order to experience life without consequences. When a college student linked to the man who developed surrogate technology dies while using the technology, FBI agents are called in to investigate the murder, which is the first seen in fifteen years.

I hardly think we need another Bruce Willis cop flick, but here’s hoping that the intriguing concept will carry the story. Either that, or this is going to be the Babylon A.D. of 2009. Surrogates is set to open September 29th.

Check out the Surrogate BlogSpot for behind-the-scenes photos and movie posters.

Movie: “Angels & Demons”
Director: Ron Howard

Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, disturbing images and thematic material.
Release: May 15, 2009
Running Time: 2 hrs 18 min
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer… IMDB listing

Verdict:

Like most films based on a good book, Angels & Demons looses something in the translation.

Part of the difficulty is that much of the fascination with the book lies in its lapses into trivia-laden infotainment, all of which is sacrificed to time considerations in the film. Another problem is that the pacing of the book, which Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon through a frantic day-long race against time, simply can’t be replicated in a two hour film. A film simply can’t convey the passage of time and the wearying of characters the same way a novel can.

I would judge that, had I not read the book, Angels & Demons would have compared favorably with National Treasure, which had the advantage of not being held up to the expectations of legions of readers. As it stands, however, this adaptation falls flat for me as a Dan Brown reader, and I expect it will disappoint other readers as well. As such, I advise fellow readers to save their money and rent this film when it comes out on DVD.

For those who have not yet read the novel, this is an implausible but face-paced mystery that provides a nice break from the run-of-the mill explosions and gun play of Hollywood’s summer fare. It improves significantly on the DaVinci Code and has the added bonus of being set against the stunning backdrop of Vatican City. If you’re into mysteries, go see, if not, take a pass.

Synopsis:

When the Vatican police approach symbologist Robert Langdon as he’s doing laps in the Harvard pool, the last thing he expects is to face a vast conspiracy, but as the clues present themselves one by one, he’s confronted by the inevitable conclusion that the ancient brotherhood of the Illuminati has finally resurfaced to take its revenge against the Catholic church once and for all. Four Cardinals have been kidnapped from the heart of Rome, and a a container of “highly combustible” anti-matter – enough to level the Vatican – has been hidden somewhere in the city. Now, Langdon must join forces with physicist Vittoria Vetra, whose research partner was killed for the anti-matter to prevent disaster. Together, the pair race through the city following the clues left by the Illuminati’s founders to discover the long lost four alters of science in time to save four kidnapped Cardinals and uncover canister of anti-matter before midnight. But they soon find themselves hampered by unbelieving security forces, a skill assassin, and an unknown collaborator.
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Movie: “S. Darko”
Director: Chris Fisher

Rating: Rated R for language, some violent content and brief drug use.
Release: May 12, 2009 (Direct to DVD)
Running Time: 1 hr 43 min
Starring: Elizabeth Berkley, Daveigh Chase, Matthew Davis, Briana Evigan… IMDB listing

Verdict:
S. Dark is the sequel to the 2001 cult (debatably sci-fi) thriller Donnie Darko that picks up seven years after Donnie is killed by an airplane engine to follow his youngest sister, Samantha. …and there, dear readers, the object portion of this review ends. Because, aside from that little nugget, everything about this film is wildly subjective.

This film is either a beautiful, surrealistic masterpiece that pushes the boundaries between avant-garde expressionism and far-flung science fiction, or else, it’s a jumble of utter crap flailing to recapture the unexpected success of Donnie Darko by randomly recombining its predecessor’s bizarre plot devices for an hour and a half without any regard to any traditional storytelling conventions. It all depends on just how much of a film-snob you are.

My suggestion would be that casual video renters steer far clear of this movie, and leave it for the entertainment of the really, really hardcore Donnie Darko fans and audiences looking for more intellectual fare than the average Hollywood offering.

Synopsis:
Samantha Darko, fleeing from a home left shattered by the death of her older brother, Donnie, travels cross country to California with her rebellious friend Corey in the hope of one day becoming a professional dancer. Their journey takes an unexpected turn, though, when their car breaks down outside of the tiny town of Conejo Springs, Utah. Stranded while they wait for repairs, Sam and Corey soon discover that Conejo Springs has been epicenter of a string of bizarre events, including a number of child abductions.

When an meteorite strikes a windmill on the night of their arrival, events begin to entangle Samantha in the same dream-like way her brother was drawn into events in his home town before his death. Plagued by warning of the world’s imminent destruction, she is forced to confront her grief over her brother’s loss as she struggles to with her own hopeless situation. Now, only the decisions of those around her can set the world right for her once again.
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