The new trailer is out for Scott Pilgrim Versus The World, and it’s a hoot. Thanks to SFX for the heads up on this one.
After a year or so making the Film Fest circuit, Splice is finally in general release! Demonstrating exactly why you do not want to buy your kid a genetic engineering tool set (around $20 worth of chemicals, enzymes, and glassware if you get the raw materials yourself, or about $150 if you pick up the pre-made kit), this movie looks to have enough of the basics right to be a quality morality tale with a scientific grounding. I have been waiting a while for this one, and that may be warping my focus this week, so lets look at the other films coming out.
The other wide release film is, of course, Killers, your basic spy comedy. While I am looking forward to seeing Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl play off each other, I really don’t know if that will be enough to carry this film. I expect this will be silly fun, but not memorable in the long term. I will be happy to be proved wrong, as I was by Mr and Mrs Smith.
The other movies hitting the big screen this weekend are all in EXTREMELY limited release, but they really do look like the films to pay attention to. On the documentary front, Whiz Kids introduces you to a few of the people that make up our only real hope for the future; those children who understand enough of the science and math to make the world work.
And then there is Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead, where the classic Hamlet is re-written by a vampire. I would be poking fun at this one, except I found it very entertaining, and thought I should pass it on. Especially once I realized Dracula was the vampire who did the re-writing.
The movie that may be the best one for the week is Ondine, a Brit film with serious heart. With actors Colin Farrell, Stephen Rea, and Alicja Bachleda, it is telling a story about True Love, and how the non-human might regard it.
The main movie for this weekend has to be Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. If the film is half as good as the trailer, it is going to be a blast. And it looks like you don’t have to be a master of the game to enjoy it, unlike some movies built from games.
If you are a George A. Romero fan, then you might want to go to George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead, which is something like the 6th Dead movie he has made.
There are two fun but silly entries for this weekend. The first is Shrek Forever After, in which our fairytale friends find themselves in an alternate universe where everything is just a bit different. I fully expect this to be just as good as the previous entries in the franchise, and will definitely be there.
The other film (maybe) for the weekend is MacGruber, basically a 5 minute SNL sketch and parody of MacGyver blown up into an entire movie. I think this one could be fun, but its release has been delayed several times already and there is a challenge from the creator of MacGyver, so don’t be surprised if it is held back again.
In the world of TV, a few cancellations and renewals have been announced. At NBC, Heroes has been canceled, but Chuck has been renewed for one more season. At ABC Flash Forward has been canceled just as it was starting to get really going, but V has been renewed. ABC also canceled one of the funniest shows on TV, Better Off Ted. Even though V has two of my favorite science fiction actresses doing a killer mother-daughter team, Flash Forward and Better Off Ted were both excellent original programs rather than rebuilt returns. Which won’t stop me from watching and enjoying V.
20th Century Boys 3: Redemption makes its US debut in a week or two at Viz Theater. They have enough back-story at the beginning so it works as a stand-alone, but the first two films are always fun to re-watch. In just a week or so, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya will see the big screen in the US, also at Viz Theater; here are the trailers…
Gantz was the least subtle anime I have ever watched, at least in its unedited form. The version that aired on late night TV (midnight Tokyo time) in Japan was so heavily edited for sex and violence that some episodes made no sense at all, with very few complete sentences. But now a group in Japan is gearing up to make two live action films based on the Manga that drove the anime. 26 companies around the world are already negotiating to get distribution rights for the two films, and a company each in the US and UK are inquiring about remake rights. I will keep my fingers crossed that they don’t wimp out, but stay true to the original story.