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Unclothed Man in the 35th Century and other indy flavors…

The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. is one of a number of amazing stories to come to us from the IFC Web Series collection, which you can enjoy online at any time. I do like their tag line: Always On. Slightly Off, and I do think they did a great job on the animation for this series. The series involves a human revolutionary/reactionary who tracks down and eliminates Droids, using both weapons and cunning, and not much in the way of ethics.

Another story from the IFC Webisode collection I find interesting is Dead And Lonely, about two hopefuls who are brought together by a speed dating service called DateOrDie.Com. Too bad one of them is a vampire, unless they can really work it out before dawn.

And then there is the ever recursive Twisted Night, a webisode program about making webisode programs. The Perl hidden at the core of this oyster is the Webisode How-To Guide, giving you specific details on how to make your home made indie production come across as professional as anything made by a major studio. Following this small handful of tips could make the difference between being ignored and being appreciated, but it won’t cost you much beyond time and attention span to upgrade your projects into something that has the potential to go viral.

Something to Do: Movies

Remember the movie Grindhouse in 2007? There was a trailer for a fake movie in that movie, but it isn’t anymore: Robert Rodriguez expanded that trailer into an entire movie, called Machete. It hits the theaters this Friday, and stars Danny Trejo, Robert DeNiro, Steven Seagal, Jeff Fahey, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Cheech Marin, and Don Johnson. Quite a cast for a made-up movie.

Something to Do: Movies

Not a lot out this weekend, but there are a few that might be worth seeing. Vampires Suck is silly fun poked mostly at the Twilight franchise (OK, pretty much totally at the Twilight franchise). For the first time ever I can honestly say that the parody was better than the film it was making fun of, at least in terms of acting, cinematography, believability, scriptwriting, and a few other details. I suspect that has less to do with how good the parody is and more to do with how bad the original was, and I will be seeing the parody if someone pays me enough to make wasting my time that completely worthwhile (and only then).

While on a more serious topic, and with far superior actors, What If… still bears a noticeable resemblance to the other film in one respect; it is a modified remake of another movie. This time around, the original I associate this with is one of the true classics of film making: the Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart legend It’s A Wonderful Life, itself a modern day retelling of the Scrooge story. From what I can tell from the write up and the trailer, other remakes like Mr. Destiny or What Women Want may be better representations of this film, but I am always willing to check out a new Paratime story, and so few of them make it to the big screen.

Something Different

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.

Something to Do: Movies

There aren’t any new F/SF films coming out this weekend, at least not that I can find. So it might be a good weekend to try to catch up with anything already out that you haven’t seen yet. For instance, this just past weekend most folks probably caught Salt, so Valhalla Rising is a good option. The weekend before Inception lead the pack, so you might have missed The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; but even if you caught both, The Wild Hunt remains available. I definitely do NOT recommend The Last Airbender; somebody kept poking me to stop me from snoring through that movie, but I am not sure why.