There are times you feel like watching something strange and silly, made with decent computer animation skills. I just kept gawking at this, so I thought I should finally share it.
This seems a bit different; the Brainwash Movie Festival in Oakland, a drive-in, bike-in, walk-in kind of outdoor movie event. This also seems different; a movie critic making a rather barbed point about the cost of 3D films; thanks, Chris. Finally, some bozo pulled the fire alarm at Otakon this weekend, and thousands upon thousands of Otakus were dumped onto the streets of Baltimore; it is clear the city, not the fans, will take longer to recover.
There are a number of tasty films coming out in July, with two good ones this weekend. Despicable Me is the feature length animation to see. The villain played by Steve Carrol is out to steal the moon, but three little girls may just end up reforming him. I got an extra grin out of the fact that the villain’s name is Gru; how many here have played that game? If action/adventure is more to your taste, Predators also hits the big screen on Friday. In this next installment on the franchise, a handful of the worlds best killers have been kidnapped to another planet to be prey in a hunt. I am thinking I may have to see both of these.
The following weekend has three films coming out, two of them pretty much everywhere. On the 14th, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by the National Treasure franchise team takes a stab at reproducing that magic with real magic as part of the premise, and yes, that team includes Nick Cage. Two more on the 16th, with Inception in wide release, telling an original tale of dream theft and the thought police that I have been waiting about a year to see. The other film on the 16th is in limited release, The Wild Hunt, originally scheduled for release in May. A man looses his girlfriend to a bunch of guys in a medieval re-enactment game, but it isn’t a game to everyone.
Two more films the week after that, where Valhalla Rising follows a viking with supernatural strength to a mysterious and violent place. There is some discrepancy between various sources on whether Rising will be released the 16th or the 23rd, but it will be both in theaters and on Video On Demand, so it should be accessable to just about everyone. I might not have included Salt as a genre film, except it is vary obviously every Philip K. Dick book ever written, even if he didn’t write this one, so how could I leave it out?
While I have never been a fan of M. Daze Shamarama, finding all of his previous works yawnworthy, the trailer for the live action version of The Last Airbender looks really good. I also enjoyed the award winning animation series it is based on, Avatar: The Last Airbender. And yes, I do watch select programs on Nickelodeon, and the Cartoon Network as well; I don’t want my inner child to evaporate from lack of sustenance. So I will be parked in front of a 3D big screen this weekend (doesn’t that trailer just scream 3D?) in the belief that they didn’t use up all of the interesting footage just to entice me to buy that ticket. If it really is as good as the trailer indicates it might be, I will even start identifying the director by his actual name, since he may have finally made a movie that doesn’t put me to sleep.
Welcome Back, Futurama! Last night they ran the first two brand new episodes, and I have to say they were every bit as funny as ever. That makes sense, since they are now part of the Comedy Central family of programs, which they alluded to right off the bat at the beginning of the first episode with some really bad puns.
While it has twice before been turned into TV Miniseries (one noticeably superior to the other), this time around Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles is being adapted for the big screen. Word is that John Davis, who had a hand in “Alien vs. Predator” and “I, Robot,” has optioned the film rights to the classic short story collection. While optioning the rights is not at all the same as actually making the movie, it is at least one of the first steps in that process, so I will be keeping my fingers crossed.
Luc Besson strikes again! I still haven’t gotten to see his Les aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec, although the fact that clicking on the British flag on its home page gives you English subtitles on the trailer and web site encourages me that it might get released here soon. But in the meantime he will be releasing the third film in his Arthur series, Arthur 3: La Guerre des Deux Mondes, in October. These are a mix of 3D animation and live action children’s stories that started with Arthur and the Invisibles. Nothing groundbreaking here, but an interesting offering that demonstrates just how versatile Besson really is.