The first trailer for Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro’s kaiju vs. giant mechs film, is out.
Oh yeah. I’m there.
Howard Waldrop and I have signed up to review this next year.
Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category
First Pacific Rim Trailer Drops
Thursday, December 13th, 2012Michael Swanwick and Locus on Jeff Millar
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012It turns out that I wasn’t the only person in the science fiction community who appreciated Jeff Millar:
Turns out Millar was more multi-talented than I thought…
Vague Movie Descriptions
Sunday, December 2nd, 2012There was an amusing Fark thread on people giving vague but accurate (or correct but misleading) movie summaries, and people guessing the movie. I enjoyed it enough that I thought I would offer it up here with my own vague summaries. A good number of these are science fiction, fantasy, or horror.
Post your answers below.
Spider-Man, Spider-Man/Commits Assault? Yes He Can!
Monday, November 26th, 2012Spider-Man, Spider-Man
Did you arrest the right Spider-Man?
Get the one for assault?
Outstanding warrant? His own damn fault.
Oh yeah! You got the right Spider-Man!
Movie Review: Vampire Effect
Saturday, November 24th, 2012Vampire Effect
Directed by Dante Lam and Donnie Yen
Written by Hing-Ka Chan and Wai Lun Ng
Starring Ekin Cheng, Charlene Choi, Gillian Chung, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Edison Chen, Jackie Chan, Mickey Hardt
If you like Hong Kong supernatural martial arts films, you’ll probably enjoy Vampire Effect (AKA Twins Effect, since the two female leads are evidently in the same pop band). Modern-day vampire hunter gets cute new partner who clashes with his cute sister, who just happens to be dating an Emo vampire prince whose essence a vampire king wants to eat to unlock a vampire grimoire. Martial arts ensue.
You know, the usual.
Jackie Chan has an extended supporting role that’s pretty much unnecessary, except you get to see Jackie Chan fight vampires. He’s third-billed and gets about 15 minutes of screen time, so it doesn’t even make Top Ten Most Dishonest Uses of Jackie Chan’s Name on the DVD Cover list. (I’m looking at you, Drunken Fist Boxing.)
This hasn’t gotten great reviews, and it’s not a patch on the best work in the genre by the late, great Ching-Ying Lam. The romance subplot drags a bit. The pace and style of the film does rip off the Blade movies…which in turn were ripping off Hong Kong action films, which ripped off everything they could lay their hands on, so par for the course. But it’s funny, and the action scenes work, which is pretty much all I ask as a threshold for enjoyment for this kind of film.
The “sequel” Twins Effect II is evidently a historical martial arts epic with much of the same cast, but none of the same characters.
Supposedly the American DVD (I saw it on-demand) has some scenes chopped that hinder the continuity. When it comes to Hong Kong action films, continuity does not rank high on my list of requirements. I saw the version with lots of martial arts.
Ruin: A Cool Looking (And Completely Stupid) SF Short Film
Saturday, November 17th, 2012So I stumbled across this short, very professional looking CGI animated science fiction film on YouTube:
What a rich, zesty collection of illogical stupidity!
- You want to loot possibly valuable artifacts. What’s the best way to do that? Toss containers out of tall buildings!
- Why? To open them up? Why not just use the cuts anything electric sword you whip out later in the film?
- Why did you park your motorcycle out in the open where you had to run a long distance to it when the scary twin turbo fan hunting craft comes flying in? Shouldn’t you have tried to hide it nearby in the first place?
- If that thing just wants to kill you, why doesn’t it fire its machine gun or drones at you when it first sees you, rather than waiting until you get on your motorcycle?
- How come those futuristic seeker drones can’t travel any faster than a motorcycle?
- Why doesn’t a craft with expensive, ineffective drones not have cheaper, simpler, much faster and more-effective surface-to-ground missiles?
- If you’re flying along on your motorcycle at top speed, how come your gimme cap never flies off?
- You know that scene when you jump off your motorcycle and jab the craft with your electric sword? Unless you’ve got a cyborg body, you just broke a whole mess of bones. Momentum doesn’t just stop working so you can pull off a deeply improbable, cool-looking stunt.
To quote the South Park episode with Michael Bay: “Those aren’t ideas, those are special effects!” “I can’t tell the difference.” “We know.”
Hey Wes Ball: Your animation rocks, but you suck as a screenwriter. Maybe in addition to all those animation and sound guys you credit, you might want to hire an actual writer.
They’re supposedly making this into a feature film. Hopefully they’ll remove some of the stupidity.
Shoegazer Sunday: No Joy’s “Pacific Pride” (plus the Czech film Daisies)
Sunday, November 4th, 2012Today’s dose of Shoegaze comes to you from all-girl Canadian Shoegaze duo No Joy for their song “Pacific Pride.”
Interestingly, their video seems to be taken entirely from the 1966 Czech surrealist/absurdest film Daisies, which I was previously unaware of, but which seems to have quite a cult following. It shows up on the list of 1,001 movies to see before you die (which is a pretty good list), and looking at clips, it’s tempting to say that acid arrived in Czechoslovakia a year before the Summer of Love, as it looks pretty trippy, a film where the sixties became The Sixties. It also appears to be part of the Criterion collection Eclipse Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave.
I think I’m going to have to see this some time.
The whole film is available on YouTube so, hey, here it is.
Looks like you’ll need some 3D glasses for part of it…
Dinsey Buys LucasFilms for $4.05 Billion, Plans Star Wars VII in 2015
Tuesday, October 30th, 2012“Disney is paying $4.05 billion to buy Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company behind Star Wars, from its chairman and founder, George Lucas. It’s also making a seventh movie in the Star Wars series.”
Well, at least it will keep Lucas from tinkering with the original one for the rest of his life. Or, worse still, going back and “rebooting” it.
How good will a seventh film be? Depends on whether Brad Bird or Michael Bay directs, doesn’t it?
I do hope this means they’ll finally put out pristine Blu-rays of the unfarked with first three films….
Halloween Horrors: That’s Just How I Monster Roll
Thursday, October 25th, 2012Enjoy the teaser trailer for Monster Roll, an indy film about sushi chefs vs. sea monsters that’s about to do a Kickstarter.
Monster Monday: Attack of the Monster From the Id in Forbidden Planet
Monday, October 15th, 2012Today I heard that some people are participating in “Monster Monday,” where they talk about some of the their favorite monsters.
So here’s a quick glimpse of one of my favorite monsters in one of my favorite movies, the attack of the Monster from the Id in Forbidden Planet.
The sound of the monster attacking is one of tracks I play out my windows on Halloween…