Showing posts with label Doctor Who. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doctor Who. Show all posts
27 January 2010
07 August 2009
At the movies: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
Not nearly as racist, sexist, or insulting as Transformers 2 (which seems to be the standard comparison being bandied about), the latest film sprung from a toy line is a bizarre collision between Reagan-80s nostalgia and contemporary bloodthirsty anomie. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra depicts an elite military force drawn from countless nations across the world, bound only to the idea of a common good and their unyielding love for Double Bubble bubble gum (easily the most harebrained product placement of the year, standing out from the rest of the film’s cacophony like sore thumbs.
Director Stephen Sommers has made a couple of films that I rather enjoyed (The Mummy, Deep Rising), but he also made Van Helsing, so all bets are off as to what we’re actually going to get with any of his films. This time, it’s the audience, rather than a conscientiously mute ninja who comes up snake eyes.
Christopher Eccleston (who’ll always be The Ninth Doctor) is the latest in a long line of Scottish war profiteers. We know this because the film opens with us being introduced to one of his ancestors in the fifteenth century. And is there anything more disheartening than an expository prologue set five hundred-plus years in the past at the beginning of your multimillion dollar toy/armed forces commercial?
So, elite force versus a loosely-knit terrorist organization led by Eccleston, with several notable lackeys: The Baroness (truly suffering via comparison with her butch goddess cartoon incarnation), Storm Shadow (evil ninja), and the mysterious Doctor, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Now if you’re one of those people (like me) who think that the presence of Joseph Gordon-Levitt is indicative of some quality and hidden depth in this production, you are wrong and should save yourself the time and money.
There’s an unbelievable amount of violent death (several impalings, lots of impact trauma, and five or six exploding heads- in a PG-13 film) and some ridiculous romantic subplots. As our ostensible lead, Channing Tatum (who was good in A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints and little else) comes off like a wannabe Jensen Ackles, and other than a nice cameo from Sommers regular Kevin J. O’Connor as Dr. Mindbender, everyone is pretty much flailing around in a sea of special effects.
Again, better than Transformers 2, but what does that really say?
19 July 2008
Forgotten Dance Classics (sort of): "Chime," specifically, but Acid House in general.
Once again, I have to take my hat off to Popjustice for hepping me to this remarkable video. It's The Shapeshifters, who've made some club noise over the past few years, doing a cover of Orbital's "Chime," one of the classic songs of the transition period between Acid House and Early Rave. I also love it because Orbital would mix it in with the Doctor Who theme when they played live in the late 80s and early 90s.
Their cover is nothing exceptional (it's hard to make a cover of such a classic sound distinctive or innovative without it just seeming like a remix of the original), but the video is a small history of Acid House, told in documentary format.
The Shapeshifters - "Chime"
So check it out, if only for the educational value.
Their cover is nothing exceptional (it's hard to make a cover of such a classic sound distinctive or innovative without it just seeming like a remix of the original), but the video is a small history of Acid House, told in documentary format.
The Shapeshifters - "Chime"
So check it out, if only for the educational value.
11 July 2008
At the movies: Journey to the Center of the Earth
This latest take on Jules Verne's immortal SciFi classic Journey to the Center of the Earth is a goofy and brisk family adventure that should be diverting and delightful for audiences looking for some refreshing escapism at the multiplex this summer. But this Journey is elevated above merely being a pleasant effort by its 3D incarnation
(opening on a good number of 3D screens throughout the country), which understands the giddy thrills inherent with both this genre and this visual format. Even bad 3D can be worth seeing under certain circumstances, while good 3D is a cause for celebration and automatically elevates itself to must-see status. Case in point: The Polar Express. It was a dreadful film that imaginative 3D effects made into something absolutely essential for viewers.
Thankfully, Journey to the Center of the Earth is an exceptional entertainment, constructed out of 60s action movie aesthetics and old school gimmickry (yo-yos, pointy things, and spitting at the camera making featured appearances). It's a kid-friendly Indiana Jones story that posits the importance of learning, reading, and resourceful thinking even as there is a healthy assortment of explosions and running from dinosaurs.
Star Brendan Fraser is ideal for this kind of role, bringing goofy charisma and a fervent embracing of the material. He's demonstrated this quality before in the Mummy films (with another one of those coming next month) and the affable and generally underrated George of the Jungle, and here, with the added bump of being an executive
producer on the project, he brings his a-game. The kid playing his nephew, Josh Hutcherson (from Bridge to Terabithia), is actually fairly likable (unlike most young actors in similar films), and foxy mountain guide Hannah (Anita Briem, whom eagle-eyed viewers will recognize from Doctor Who) injects just the right balance of pragmatism, earthy sensuality, and skepticism.
It's not brain surgery, but Journey to the Center of the Earth is absolutely worth seeing in 3D. In two dimensions, the film is a pleasant diversion, but in 3D, it's essential for summer viewing. Watching this film in 3D with a packed auditorium full of families and cinemaphiles was like watching a symphony being conducted, but with
giant leaping prehistoric piranha instead of timpani.
(opening on a good number of 3D screens throughout the country), which understands the giddy thrills inherent with both this genre and this visual format. Even bad 3D can be worth seeing under certain circumstances, while good 3D is a cause for celebration and automatically elevates itself to must-see status. Case in point: The Polar Express. It was a dreadful film that imaginative 3D effects made into something absolutely essential for viewers.
Thankfully, Journey to the Center of the Earth is an exceptional entertainment, constructed out of 60s action movie aesthetics and old school gimmickry (yo-yos, pointy things, and spitting at the camera making featured appearances). It's a kid-friendly Indiana Jones story that posits the importance of learning, reading, and resourceful thinking even as there is a healthy assortment of explosions and running from dinosaurs.
Star Brendan Fraser is ideal for this kind of role, bringing goofy charisma and a fervent embracing of the material. He's demonstrated this quality before in the Mummy films (with another one of those coming next month) and the affable and generally underrated George of the Jungle, and here, with the added bump of being an executive
producer on the project, he brings his a-game. The kid playing his nephew, Josh Hutcherson (from Bridge to Terabithia), is actually fairly likable (unlike most young actors in similar films), and foxy mountain guide Hannah (Anita Briem, whom eagle-eyed viewers will recognize from Doctor Who) injects just the right balance of pragmatism, earthy sensuality, and skepticism.
It's not brain surgery, but Journey to the Center of the Earth is absolutely worth seeing in 3D. In two dimensions, the film is a pleasant diversion, but in 3D, it's essential for summer viewing. Watching this film in 3D with a packed auditorium full of families and cinemaphiles was like watching a symphony being conducted, but with
giant leaping prehistoric piranha instead of timpani.
06 July 2008
My twenty-one favorite fictional spacecraft.
Because I am the biggest geek ever.
In ascending order...
21. The Swinetrek
Everybody now- "Pigs- in- Space!" From The Muppet Show.
20. Starfighters
Although technically a class of ship, I'm going to let that distinction slide. From former Nashville Film Festival Artistic Director Brian Gordon's favorite movie of all time, The Last Starfighter.
19. The Probe what Fucks Up Earth and Talks to Whales
From Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
18. The Planet Express Ship
From Futurama. Voice of Sigourney Weaver. Dark matter engines. Alcoholic robots. I'd be a fool not to (which I was, initially).
17. The Acanti
From The X-Men's Broodwar back in the late 160s. Originally, these were beautiful space-dwelling creatures, but a parasitic race known as the Brood enslaved them and turned them into living ships.
16. The Ubbo-Sathla Umbrella Cruiser
From Lifeforce. It doesn't look like too much, but three of this thing's nude crew turned London into a ravening soul-sucked bastion of madness and frothing out the face.
15. The Heart of Gold
From The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. Because who wouldn't want an Infinite Improbability Drive?
14. Icarus II
From Sunshine. The only reason the Icarus series doesn't rank higher is because of the unfortunate tendency of everyone who crews them to die horribly.
13. The Nightflyer
From Nightflyers (moreso George R.R. Martin's book than the muffled 1987 film version, but either one will do). And it's not even so much because of the design, but rather that it comes with a telekinetic murderous ghost wired into the ship's crystalline hard drive.
12. The Millennium Falcon
'nuff said.
11. Klingon D-7
Threatening but graceful.
10. Serenity
09. Borg Cube
Because I had a Physics teacher tell me this was the most practically-designed spacecraft he'd ever seen.
08. The LV-426 Derelict
From Alien. Because of all the 'alien' spacecraft that the movies throw at us, this one actually looks like it could have been made by aliens. It is made according to a kind of symmetry we simply will never understand.
07. Martian War Machine
From War of the Worlds (1953 and 1988 versions). Technically, we don't see these in space, but they're alien and they fly, so why pick hairs. Graceful and deadly monsters, these.
06. Spacing Guild Heighliner
From Dune. Not much to look at, but if Norma Cenva designed it, then you better believe it has some awesomeness to lay down. It doesn't travel through space- space travels around it.
05. Voyager 6/V GER/Vejur
From Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
04. The TARDIS
From Doctor Who. Timelords know how to travel in style.
03. USS Cygnus
From The Black Hole. Simply awe-inspiring. Truly a ship to go mad in, with its majestic corridors, transport systems, and comfortingly sinister design. Truly unique.
02. USS Grissom
From Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Still the most elegantly-designed (if horribly impractical) Federation ship in all of Star Trek history.
01. USCSS Nostromo
From Alien. A monster in space. Practically a city, except that most of what we see is a portably refinery, traveling for decades across space while processing ore to keep earth running. The most influential internal ship design in the past thirty years.
In ascending order...
21. The Swinetrek
Everybody now- "Pigs- in- Space!" From The Muppet Show.
20. Starfighters
Although technically a class of ship, I'm going to let that distinction slide. From former Nashville Film Festival Artistic Director Brian Gordon's favorite movie of all time, The Last Starfighter.
19. The Probe what Fucks Up Earth and Talks to Whales
From Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
18. The Planet Express Ship
From Futurama. Voice of Sigourney Weaver. Dark matter engines. Alcoholic robots. I'd be a fool not to (which I was, initially).
17. The Acanti
From The X-Men's Broodwar back in the late 160s. Originally, these were beautiful space-dwelling creatures, but a parasitic race known as the Brood enslaved them and turned them into living ships.
16. The Ubbo-Sathla Umbrella Cruiser
From Lifeforce. It doesn't look like too much, but three of this thing's nude crew turned London into a ravening soul-sucked bastion of madness and frothing out the face.
15. The Heart of Gold
From The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. Because who wouldn't want an Infinite Improbability Drive?
14. Icarus II
From Sunshine. The only reason the Icarus series doesn't rank higher is because of the unfortunate tendency of everyone who crews them to die horribly.
13. The Nightflyer
From Nightflyers (moreso George R.R. Martin's book than the muffled 1987 film version, but either one will do). And it's not even so much because of the design, but rather that it comes with a telekinetic murderous ghost wired into the ship's crystalline hard drive.
12. The Millennium Falcon
'nuff said.
11. Klingon D-7
Threatening but graceful.
10. Serenity
09. Borg Cube
Because I had a Physics teacher tell me this was the most practically-designed spacecraft he'd ever seen.
08. The LV-426 Derelict
From Alien. Because of all the 'alien' spacecraft that the movies throw at us, this one actually looks like it could have been made by aliens. It is made according to a kind of symmetry we simply will never understand.
07. Martian War Machine
From War of the Worlds (1953 and 1988 versions). Technically, we don't see these in space, but they're alien and they fly, so why pick hairs. Graceful and deadly monsters, these.
06. Spacing Guild Heighliner
From Dune. Not much to look at, but if Norma Cenva designed it, then you better believe it has some awesomeness to lay down. It doesn't travel through space- space travels around it.
05. Voyager 6/V GER/Vejur
From Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
04. The TARDIS
From Doctor Who. Timelords know how to travel in style.
03. USS Cygnus
From The Black Hole. Simply awe-inspiring. Truly a ship to go mad in, with its majestic corridors, transport systems, and comfortingly sinister design. Truly unique.
02. USS Grissom
From Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Still the most elegantly-designed (if horribly impractical) Federation ship in all of Star Trek history.
01. USCSS Nostromo
From Alien. A monster in space. Practically a city, except that most of what we see is a portably refinery, traveling for decades across space while processing ore to keep earth running. The most influential internal ship design in the past thirty years.
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