This blog covers Movies, TV, and other Geeky things...... Movie Reviews (over 3,400 movies rated so far) Countdowns of my top movies by year.... and much more.
We weren't all onboard with what a Stand-up movie moment entailed....which only makes this podcast more interesting.
My number 1 stand-up movie moment comes in Attack of the Clones when Yoda first pulled out his lightsaber and started getting some ass. It changed Yoda from just being that funny little old green muppet Jedi into something much more entertaining..... Listen to the Podcast to find out what the rest of the Podcast has on their lists.
Coherence is a super cool low budget sci-fi movie. It centers on a dinner party a bunch of friends are having when a strange comet is flying over. The lights go out and they wander outside to check things out and only notice that the entire neighborhood is in the dark with the exception of one house a few blocks away. A couple of the guys go to check it out to see if they can use a phone and instead return with some really strange and unbelievable news about the other house. This sets up a cool strange twisted movie. It could have been a stage play because pretty much the entire movie takes place in one location. It was a really interesting movie with a intrique little plot details that I don't want to get too deep into since you should discover it for yourself.
I enjoyed this movie so much that I immeadiately wanted to see it again with the commentary track. The commentary enhanced my thoughts and love of the film. The writers did a ton of detailed planning for the twists in the movie but never fully let the cast in on everything. They let them basically improvise dialogue with little hints and topics given to certain actors to see how they would react. The process was strange --as if the directors were letting the actors figure out what was happening in the story on their own as if it was a mystery party. The film was made on what they called a micro budget and the results to me were fascinating. Definitely worth a watch for fans of Twilight Zone and things like that.
The story is about a crew of a spaceship that is sent on a mission to basically reignite the dying sun by dropping a bomb in it. The first crew that was sent out to do this job 7 years earlier and lost contact with earth and never completed the mission. I was interested in seeing this after it was referenced several times after seeing the cool sci-fi movie Infini (which I loved). This movie had a cool cast that includes Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, and Cillian Murphy. Unfortunately the cast wasn't enough to make the film interesting. I was really underwhelmed by the movie. The story got dragged down by the typical - "Someone needs to go outside the ship to fix it scenes". The crew argues about the mission. They get the typical distress call from the original spacecraft and argue some more. They decide to go to the other ship --now the film may might start to get interesting right? Instead just as they are exploring the ship there is an accident and we get another spacewalk to get back to the other ship after something goes wrong losing more crew members. Then the movie just gets weird... Their is someone else on their ship??? And it turns briefly into a slasher flick before another boring "We need to finish the mission" ending. Skip this one and watch Pandorum or Infini instead. Or watch the TV Show The Expanse which does the same scenes in a much better and more exciting way.
Safety Not Guaranteed features a great cast that includes Jake Johnson (New Girl) and Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Rec). This was the movie that Colin Trevorrow who went on to direst Jurrasic World. The story features some magazine reporters looking for an interesting story. They decide to investigate an odd wanted ad that reads " Wanted - Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety no guaranteed. I have only done this once before". This is great premise that makes for an interesting story.
The movie is actually more of a love story/comedy. You don't know whether he is actually a Time Traveler or just a little crazy. The main character played by Aubrey Plaza -answers his advertisement and gets caught up in his life. I won't reveal how it ends. It was a good film, but not a great film. If you are looking for a more traditional time travel film this isn't that. If you are willing to go along for the ride with a talented cast in what is more a love story --than check it out.
Primer is a cool low budget Time Travel film that proves that you don't need big budget special effects to make an effective and interesting Time Travel picture. The film was made for $7,000 which is remarkable. It depends heavily on dialogue which is very well written. It focuses on a couple of young scientists that stumble upon the ability to travel back in time. The restrictions on the films budget -forced the filmmakers to be creative in their storytelling. The story develops slowly (So stick around) as the characters test and discuss their discovery. They test the time machine out --using a rented storage facility as their time machine. They do the logical things like making deals on the stock market. After numerous trips back in time they start to notice some weird things have happened and as is usual in a time travels pictures like this they figure they can just go back and try to fix them. This of course never works out as planned. Their leaps only complicate things and the confusion just makes the story more interesting.
If you are a fan of time travel check this one out. I stumbled across it well looking for Time Travel movies I hadn't seen before and despite the films tiny budget it delivered and interesting time travel story.
The best way to describe Edge of Tomorrow is to take Groundhog’s Day and mix it with Starship Troopers or Aliens.It is a bad ass Sci-Fi Time Loop movie that stars Tom Cruise as the main character Cage.
It is a story about a marketing guy for the military that has never seen combat before being thrust onto the front lines of a D-Day style invasion against an Alien enemy.Something strange happens to him during the battle and he dies…only to wake at the exact same place he was the last time he woke up.
This is a great high concept film that plays out just like Groundhog’s Day as we see Cage’s character grow and change as a character as he lives this day over and over again.The movie does an excellent job of showing Tom’s character progress through the day like it is a brutal old school video game without a save.Everytime he dies he has to start all over again. One wonders while watching the film how many thousands of times has he already lived this day.At one point you can feel his character want to give up…like kid that has wasted all of his quarters at the arcade that can never seem to get to the end of the game to face the final enemy.
The Cast
Whatever you may think about Tom Cruise(I’ve seen that documentary on Scientology),he was perfectly cast in this movie.He was able to nail the role as both the cowardly media guy at the beginning of the film as well as the confident kick ass warrior and hero he becomes by the end of the movie.Emily Blunt does a good job as his mentor and companion throughout the film who had the same time loop thing happen to her previously, before she lost the ability).Bill Paxton (one of my favorites) plays an army sergent in the film to perfection.
The Special FX
The special FX were great.The Aliens seemed extremely lethal and the D-Day style landing and battle that the main characters takes part in was epic.
I would definitely recommend this to any fans of Groundhog’s Day and Aliens.It perfectly mixes the genres and includes its own fun sense of humor that was an unexpected bonus to the film. Just see it ...you won't be disappointed.
This
was apparently a small budget Aussie movie that I had never even heard of
before. It centered on an elite search and rescue team being sent via
some type of teleportation to an outer rim mining facility to rescue the lone
survivor of a biological outbreak. The other part of their mission is to make
sure that the outbreak doesn't get sent here in the form of a payload of
whatever is being mined being sent back. The movie started off really
good and I kept waiting for it to take a weird turn that I wouldn't like or to
become stale at some point --but it never did. I watched this online on
Netflix and the sound with the headphones was incredible. The movie
borrowed from many other sci-fi films. It was a little bit Pandorum and
little bit Starship Troopers, Alien, and The Thing.
I guess it borrowed
from all the right movies. There was a sense of tension that remained at
a high level throughout the entire movie.
Basically
the elite rescue team reaches the outpost to find a weird and creepy flash
frozen space station where apparently everyone had gone crazy. They find
some disturbing stuff and then finally stumble upon the survivor. You don't
know whether he has been taken over by the parasitic alien life form or not for
most of the film. He could just be crazy. Everything that is just
happening might just be happening in his mind. The film does a great job of
balancing and revealing he mystery of the mining facility and the end is
satisfying even though you could interpret it either way based on whether you
are a optimist or not.
I
would definitely recommend this low budget film to sci-fi fans.
