The The 7th London Short Film Festival began on the 8th and runs through the 17th. There are some wonderful little film here, including Alienated (you can find the link to watch it on the creators website), the Black Hole, and Pandora’s Inbox, to name just a few.
This week is the release of The Book of Eli, a post-apocalyptic film starring Denzel Washington. I haven’t heard enough about this movie to make it stand out, so I am just as happy there is an alternative selection for the week: Jackie Chan’s The Spy Next Door. The latter looks to be a variant on his Robin B Hood story format, except I don’t think Jackie sings the theme song in the new film. If you missed him singing it for the other, here you go…
Best choice for DVD’s this week has to be Duncan Jones’s Moon, filmed on a tiny budget but delivering a huge and powerful story. The creative use of miniatures at a time when everyone is making CGI effects is an entire tale unto itself.
A project that did focus on CGI and Animation to get its results was The Celestial Railroad. The classic Japanese story of riding a train through the Milky Way was used as a good jumping off point for creating a program to project onto a planetarium dome at IMAX resolution, and it is now available in Blue Ray.
For TV, tonight’s season 3 premier of Chuck kicked the series off in the right direction, even if a few details (like the whole Prague decision sequence) were beat on harder than they needed to be. And yes, if you missed it you can watch it online at that link. Later this week, the Discovery Channel Sci-Fi Science series gives you the info you need to build your own working light saber. If you haven’t already been following the series, then last week you missed how to build a Starship. Some of the top physicists in the world are involved with this one, so it is not just fictional speculation, but the real deal.
Some of the things you find online take more imagination than I generally expect from people, and the Jeep Rock video is an excellent example. The second video is the trailer from the film Tucker & Dale vs Evil, a comedy horror film that will hopefully get a distributor after it appears at Sundance this year.
Coming out this Friday is Daybreakers, in which most of the human race has been turned into vampires with the remaining humans sufficient to supply their blood needs for a matter of weeks only. With an all star cast that includes Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, and Isabel Lucas, this film has the potential to be something special. Also this week, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus hits screens everywhere, ending its limited release run.
For a small but immediate chunk of Neil Gaiman goodness, go watch his new (short) movie Statuesque at Pink is the New Blog. It stars Bill Nighy and Amanda Palmer, runs about 8 minutes long, and does an amazing job of storytelling with no dialog.
2010 has some very interesting movies scheduled to make the theaters. Other films coming out in January include Legion, The Book of Eli, Tooth Fairy, and When in Rome. February has the sequel District 13: Ultimatum, as well as Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and The Wolfman.
It isn’t coming up until March of 2010, but one of the films I am looking forward to this year is Hot Tub Time Machine, starring John Cusack and Chevy Chase. Nothing profound on this one, just silly fun.
The latest season of one of my favorite TV shows gets released this Tuesday: Chuck, season 2. If you thought season one was somewhat amusing, brace yourself for the next great sequence! Here is a hint; watch for some world class actors reprising their best roles here, including such masterpieces as Die Hard and The Whole 9 Yards.
In the American Animation collection for the 5th, the prime choice is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, yet another exquisitely silly cartoon! For Japanese anime, Night Head Genesis the complete collection tells a story of psychic power and rebellion.
Then there is a Japanese Live Action film, called Akiballion: Battlemaids of Akihabara. Hard though it may be to believe, these three women battle the very Forces of Nature to protect the Geek part of town!
Which should get everyone ready for Wake Up Callz, where an evil orbital device does its best to steal Earths dreams.