Who was Han Solo before he was dragged into a rebellion against the Galactic Empire? How did he win the Millennium Falcon? What happened with Jabba the Hutt? How did he end up in that bar on Tatooine? These questions, and much more, are answered in these two series of books that focus on Han Solo’s past as a smuggler, and scoundrel.
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Star Wars – The Han Solo Books Read More »
Great idea, horrible execution. That’s Next in a nutshell. To start off with the film has much working against it. First off, it’s based on the Philip K. Dick short story “The Golden Man,” and we all know that Hollywood has had mixed success translating his work on screen.
Add to that a floundering Nicholas Cage (anyone remember Ghost Rider?) and the curse of Jessica Biel (see Blade Trinity, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Illusionist, Summer Catch, Elizabethtown, Rules of Attraction, and Stealth) and you have all manner of disasters just waiting to occur.
The film centers around lackluster magician Cris Johnson (Cage), working under the name Frank Cadillac – we don’t care why, but the film feels a need to explain the name, which is about the only thing it seems to give a straight explanation.
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Another Philip K. Dick Flick? Skip it, and wait for the NEXT oneRead More »
Another Philip K. Dick Flick? Skip it, and wait for the NEXT one Read More »
“Finish it.”
“But I don’t know how it ends.”
The Fountain is hard to understand, difficult to discuss, and almost impossible to explain, but I’ll do my best to review the latest from writer/director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream). In a year almost devoid of science fiction, here late in the year we get something dazzling.
The film takes place in three time periods. Two of the time periods are fictional, the Aztec jungles in 1500 involving a Conquistador (Hugh Jackman) and his search for the Tree of Life, and the floating space bubble in 2500 involving a bald monk (Jackman) nursing a dying tree as it floats into a dying star surrounded by a nebula.
The third of the story is in the present, or near future, as a doctor (Jackman) experiments on apes in a desperate obsession to save the life of his wife Izzi (Rachel Weisz) who is slowly dying from a brain tumor. Though the two other tales fit together more easily, it is this tale which is the heart and soul of the film.
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A Film for True Sci-fi Fans Read More »
A cop goes back in time to prevent the murder of a woman who will give birth to the future leader of the human race and lead them against the machines run by Skynet … um, I mean a woman who, well, isn’t really that important at all. But she’s cute, so there’s that. Yeah…
When a ferry explodes killing Naval officers and civilians, ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is called in on the case. The discovery of a woman (Paula Patton) killed moments before the explosion leads Carlin on the path of a terrorist (James Caviezel), but even if he succeeds he can’t save the girl. Or can he?
A new top secret military project (headed up by Val Kilmer and Adam Goldberg) allows a team to look back exactly 100 hours into the past to discover the events that led to Clarie’s death and the identity of the terrorist. Doug joins the team to find the identity of the killer, but also begins to wonder if it might not be possible to journey through time and chance the past.
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Haven’t I Seen This Before? Read More »
A TV show made into a movie; a movie made into a DVD. Although a hit with a small and vocal fan base (and a fair amount critical support), Joss Whedon’s sci-fi western never found a home and was cancelled after only twelve episodes. Whedon’s drive and the fans furvor wouldn’t allow the series to die and Universal Pictures stepped in to provide the opportunity to continue to explore these characters in a feature film now available on DVD.
In a year that brought us Episode III of the Star Wars saga, Speilberg’s re-interpretation of War of the Worlds, the clones of The Island the best movie of the genre by far is Joss Whedon‘s Serenity. The well designed and lived in ‘verse of the television show is recreated and retold as a cinematic event that still stays true to the original tale while adding layers and depth to the original story.
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Serenity Soars on DVD Read More »
