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Things to Do: Film Festivals

This week brings us one of the monster festivals of the year, the Sundance Film Festival from the 21st to the 31st. As always with Sundance, there are a ton of great films and workshops to attend, but there are two that look particularly interesting. The first would be Splice, a story of genetic engineering and its consequences, while the 2nd is Pumzi, a story of restoring the Earth to support life after WWIII. In the Comedy category we have Tucker & Dale vs Evil, which shows you what is really happening in all those Texas Chainsaw derived movies, and for the documentary side, Life 2.0 leads the pack with a representation of one of my favorite segments of virtual reality.

Other films worth noting include Howl, an experiment in film making showing the the birth of a counterculture, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers for the musically oriented, and the entire Drunk History series, of which my favorite is Drunk History: Tesla & Edison. There are about 20 more films I feel the need to mention, but if I don’t stop now, I may never do so.

Another festival running from the 22nd to the 24th is the Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan, OK. Ready Teddy looks like a fun one there, with the story of how the Beatles kidnapped Elvis (yes, that comes under the heading of Alternate History).

Things to Do: Movies

This time around, Legion appears to be the action/adventure film of choice for the weekend. The Archangel Michael teams up with human misfits in an out-of-the-way diner to battle God’s Legions for the survival of mankind. The attack by the demonic grandmother alone is worth the price of admission.

On the MUCH lighter side, Dwayne Johnson stars in Tooth Fairy, along with Ashley Judd, Billy Crystal, and Julie Andrews. I am going to have to hit this one first, just because it looks like so much fun.

Things to Watch: DVDs

Of the new movies this week, Gamer is the one I find most interesting; a game in which real people are the game pieces with technology that makes the Running Man game show look friendly. I’m going to take a pass on Pandorum, since it is horror rather than Sci-Fi. Although I am partial to silly horror, like this weeks release of Bikini Frankenstein.

The live action TV series release for this week is Defying Gravity: The Complete First Season. Unless someone else picks it up it is also the complete series, since the network canceled it just as it was getting interesting.

Update: After I posted this, they rescheduled the release of Ponyo to March 2010, the third time the DVD release date was pushed back.

Topping the Anime and the Animation list for Tuesday’s DVD releases will be Ponyo, yet another world-class creation from Hayao Miyazaki and distributed by Disney in this hemisphere. This is from the same group who will be bringing you Alice in Wonderland later this year, another class act. Not, of course, to be confused with the Alice the Sci-Fi Channel just ran, which was also well done.

For Anime TV shows to add to the collection I can recommend Yokuwakaru Gendai Maho, a good new Magical Girl animation. However it turns out, it is off to a great start! Another one worth consideration is Rin: Daughter of Mnemosyne, a six part OVA about an immortal private detective under attack by supernatural enemies. And season one of Linebarrels of Iron is also out Tuesday, a somewhat confused Mecha/Harem/High School action/comedy.

Revenge of the Robots: Panic Attack, Skynet Symphonic

Today, it is all about Robot Revenge. Nice FX work on the first video, Panic Attack. So nice that it convinced a production company to finance his feature length version of the movie for theatrical release, to the tune of $30 million dollars. If it meets up with the promise of the short version, Fede Alvarez may just be the next successor to Neill Blomkamp (District 9), turning a home made short video into a career in the film industry.

The second video is the new entry into the world of Robot Mashups: Skynet Symphonic. All the sampled sounds are actually from ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’, and it is just plain fun.

Avatar Interview, Cowboy Bond, Iron IMAX

James Cameron had a quality interview at The Wrap in which he answered political critics comments about Avatar, and spoke about the technology and the future of movie making. Word is also going around that Daniel Craig is talking with the makers of Cowboys and Aliens, and might be taking over the lead in that film. The part opened up last week when Robert Downey dropped out of the project due to scheduling conflicts with Sherlock II and Iron Man III. The premise is similar to one of my favorite Harry Turtledove series, only this time the aliens land in the 1880s old west, instead of WWII. And word came out today that an Iron Man II IMAX release will be happening simultaneously with the regular theatrical release on May 7th.