Nothing good this week in new movie releases, as I am certainly not going to recommend Final Destination 5 to anyone. But if you missed any of the new releases of the past few weeks, this would be a great time to catch up. Still in theaters we have last weeks Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Cowboys and Aliens from the week before, both of which I can recommend. Also Captain America: the First Avenger from the week before that was a strong entry for the franchise which I completely enjoyed. Unfortunately Another Earth opened to very limited release that same week, and has now evaporated from most of the few theaters it did occupy.
There have been a lot of games converted into movies, most of them have been science fiction, and a lot of them have been bad. Somehow I never visualized the classic board game (later adapted for the computer) Battleships being turned into a movie, nor would I have expected it to be sci-fi. And yet, it appears both of those things are true, at least as far as their first trailer for the film is concerned (some, like Topless Robot, disagree with this conclusion).
No doubt about it, Rise of the Planet of the Apes has to be the movie of choice for the week, doing an excellent job of letting us know exactly how the whole thing got started. As with all the best tragedies it was born from the best of intentions, with a lofty and laudable goal; curing one of the major plagues of our time, Alzheimer’s. If the trailer is any indication this one should be edge of your seat time adventure.
If you are looking for lighter fare, The Change Up may be what you are looking for. It is a familiar enough trope; two people are each jealous of the others situation, and through magical intervention swap bodies. Hopefully the writers find some humor to bring to the table that isn’t as well used as the stories premise.
The documentary choice this week is a major slice of history. Magic Trip was filmed back in 1964 but never seen until now, as Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Neal Cassady, and the Merry Band of Pranksters made their epic road trip to the New York Worlds Fair.
Andrew Niccol has built some very intelligent films already, including Gattica and The Trueman Show. This trailer is from his new one, In Time, which will be hitting the big screens on October 28th. Science has learned how to turn off biologic aging, and now time is used as the currency of the culture, with the rich living forever and the poor dying young. This is true science fiction, extrapolating one advancement in the way the world works, and then exploring the different implications that grow naturally from that change.
Cowboys & Aliens is the major release this weekend, and you can believe I will be there to see it on the big screen. Not since the days of the Radio Ranch (1935, Gene Autry versus the aliens living underground and hiding from the cowboys) have we seen a story like this. If you are not already familiar with it, check out the Phantom Empire series, which you can watch online. It is nice to see these classic stories coming around again to entertain us all.
Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D is an animated movie built from the Machinema underpinnings of a world class game, much as Final Fantasy was. You get one shot at seeing it on the big screen, on Tuesday, the 26th of July (yes, that would be tomorrow) at 7:30PM local time. It is being presented as a one time movie event, part of the Fathom Events package, where a live presentation happens in one location, and gets broadcast via satellite to movie theaters across North America. They also use this for Opera, Sporting Competitions, Business Meetings, and church services, so it is nice to know they are using it for something worth the bandwidth.
Captain America: the First Avenger brings the WWII origin of the early Marvel superhero to the big screen, and sets us up for next years Avengers group film. I have enjoyed every movie in this series, and I am probably going to opt for the 3D version of this one. It is not alone in the theaters this weekend, because Another Earth also is opening, although a bit more limited screen count wise. This one is true science fiction the way Moon, Silent Running, and Cold Souls were, telling a unique story from the human perspective, and exploring the implications. It won Sundance this year, and I am going to have to try to make both of these movies this weekend if the latter is opening anywhere near me.