The trailer isn’t triple X, in fact it is safe for work. The movie itself is a XXX parody of Tomb Raider, and according to several sources it actually looks like it could be fairly entertaining. This is being released to DVD sometime in February, so you might want to keep your eye out for it. Thanks to the folks at Kotaku for the heads up on this one.
Just recently the new movie a href=”http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1990314/”>Robot and Frank was at Sundance, where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. It is something of a buddy film, with Frank Langella and his robot sidekick as the buddies. Until someone picks it up for distribution, you can catch it on the film festival circuit.
While there is nothing major being released nationally this week, there are a few films worth your attention getting limited engagements. Unicorn City is the story of an out of work gamer who decides to prove himself to his potential employer by founding a utopian society comprised of his LARPing collective. As you might expect, things don’t go quite as he planned, especially when his nemesis shows up to challenge him for leadership and the girl. This one has won a bunch of awards on the film fest circuit. Also out, The Fairy (Le Fee) tells the tale of a man who searches all over Le Havre for the fairy who granted him two wishes and disappeared, taking his heart with her. Both of these are comedies, whatever else they might be.
The reboot of Spiderman might be noticeably better than I was thinking it would be. At the very least, this trailer is definitely looking good and showing the Spidey humor that the McGuire incarnation sadly lacked.
The two main offerings this time are Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and The Secret World of Arrietty, bringing entertainment to two different audience segments. I enjoyed the first Ghost Rider movie enough that I don’t mind a sequel and expect to enjoy it. On the other hand, any animation from Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli is a work of art on a par with Disney at its best, and even Disney thinks so; it is why they are the North American distributors for them. This one is their version of The Borrowers, and as always it is beautifully executed. While they don’t have a theme park, they do have their own museum which you should visit the next time you are in Japan. There are a few other movies this weekend, such as No Sanctuary, but I am going to be lucky to have time to see the first two.
First off, a reminder that the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival takes place from the 10th to the 18th of February, but there is new Sci-Fi for folks not in Boston as well this week. Journey 2: the Mysterious Island is based on the Jules Verne book, and is the sequel to the version of Journey to the Center of the Earth from a few years ago. I suspect that is going to be the movie to beat this weekend, but it does have a bit of competition. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is being re-released in is 3D incarnation. This may actually end up being worth watching, because unlike most post-production 3D processing jobs, they have the money to do it right. Now if only they could improve the story and kill Jar-Jar while they are at it.