watch tHe skies

I recently caught Kurt “Equilibrium” Wimmer’s Ultraviolet. Set in the far future, the world is controlled by a totalitarian governement led by Vicecardinum Ferdinand Daxus (Nick Chinlund), who is raging aware against a sub-species of human infected with Hemophagia, a blood disease descended from the Vampire virus.

As Daxus prepares to execute his master plan by unleashing a weapon that will restore order, the weapon itself if stolen by an agent of the Hemophages, the deadly and partially undressed Violet (scifi regular Milla Jovovich ). However, Violet soon discovers that the weapon is not quite what was expected, and is in fact a little boy, who holds the key to the Vicecardinum’s end game. (more…)

George Lucas, who is famously quoted as stating that the original “Han shoots first” versions of the Star Wars movies would never be re-released, is obviously short of cash.

The multi-billionaire clearly intends to buy his own planet and is running short of ideas on how to milk the Star Wars fans any further because according to SciFi.com, the original movies are being released on DVD for a limited time, up until Christmas.

It will be nice to see these classic versions again, without the subsequent jiggery-pokery, in particular the whole Han \ Greedo shootout, which spoils the Special Edition of Episode IV for me.

Caught Charlize Theron’s Æon Flux this weekend. Set sometime in the future, it centres around the last city on Earth following a disease that wiped out nearly the human race. The city is run by Chairman Goodchild, under threat from a resistance group, who have sent their top assassin, Aeon Flux to assassinate him. But when given the opportunity, Goodchild recognises her and something in her sparks a prior memory, and she misses her chance.

This sparks a desperate chase to uncover the truth behind this supposedly ideal society kept safe from the desolate wasteland outside of its protective walls.

Starring the slinky Charlize Theron, Marton Csokas and Jonny Lee Millar, it is a bit of a mixed bag the truth be told. Despite some really nice production design and neat CGI, the film suffers from not letting the audience in on what is going on for the first half of the movie. The society they live in is quite different to ours and we aren’t really given the opportunity to understand it well enough. Bits of technology come and go with no explanation as to their significance or point. However as the pieces start to fall in to place it does get more entertaining, but I expect that some will lose interest before this point in the movie.

The second half ups the action and plot explanation, and the movie comes to a neat completion with a smart finale. One aspect that is a disappointment, is the choreography of the fight scenes, more often than not you get zoomed cut shots of fists and feet that interfere with the flow of the fight. This also happens at the ending, where the shots are chopped, presumably to save money, but the end result is rather cheap looking at times. Add to this some gaping plot holes and you are left with a somewhat frustrating movie, full of smart visuals and ideas, but somewhat lacking in coherence. Hire before buying.

Geeks are happy this weekend with the leaking on to the interweb of the rough trailer to 007’s next outing, Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig.

Trailer (which can be found here until it’s taken down) starts in black and white, and then jumps in to colour with the appearance of the Bond “barrel”. Whilst I still remain a big fan of Pierce Brosnan and resent him being replaced, the trailer does look good, and I must say that it makes me want to go and see it. I must reread the book (which was the first Bond novel by Ian Fleming), as I’ve heard that the movie does to some extent follow the plot of the book.

…but if they did….

Jenny went out to a Bodyshop party tonight, so I got a rare night in to myself. So what did I do? Well I thought I’d watch Alien Vs Predator, a movie that I saw at the cinema and was pretty disappointed with. Anyway on second viewing I was surprised to find that it actually is more poop than originally thought.

It’s nothing in particular, but a combination of things. Firstly the story is pretty dire and not very much happens in it. Secondly it makes the Predators who were so effectively scary and powerful, look pretty lame in comparison to the Aliens. Thirdly it makes the whole gestation thing from the Alien movies look daft as suddenly these things don’t take but a few minutes to pop out and grow to full size, draining almost the entire dose of suspense in Alien out in one go.

But its biggest crime to me is taking two very cool franchises and delivering a bastard child that fails to inherit the best DNA from either. For me there was a way cooler story just waiting to be explored and I cannot for the life of me understand why they didn’t use it.

Don’t know what that is?

Ok, well here goes, a slightly modified version of the concept I originally posted on DVDLard way back in 2004. (more…)

Acording to Sci-Fi.com, JJ Abrams, creator of Lost and director of the upcoming Mission: Impossible III, has been signed by Paramout Pictures to resurrect Star Trek. I’m not sure how I feel about this. After all, Abrams is a highly talented producer, and is looking like the next big thing in Hollywood if M:I3 is the hit that we all expect it to be.

But what the Star Trek franchise needs, after being milked by Paramount for such a long time, is to be left alone for a few years, to give it a chance to freshen up. SciFi has moved on considerably since Jean Luc first sat in his Captain’s Chair, shows like Battlestar Galactica have made the formulaic Star Trek concept look very tired.

Still, if anyone can do it, JJ can, and with the Star Wars TV show appearing in a couple of years, perhaps the safest place for Trek is on the big screen…

Caught Transporter 2 yesterday. Continuing the story of Frank Martin (Jason Statham) as the Transporter, a professional driver of the ‘ask no questions’ variety, who turns out to be an ex-special forces commando and all-round super bad arse.

Doing a favour for a friend, Frank is playing bodyguard to the son of a politician when he suspects that the child is in danger. When the danger materialises in the form of waif-like ubernutter Lola (Katie Nauta), the clock begins ticking as Frank races to save the boy and prevent the deaths of many innocents on the streets of Miami. (more…)

Our Ellie Chidzey page seems to be drawing in the googlers. Apologies to all looking for Ellie Chidzey Bikini photos, they just don’t exist! And neither do images of Ellie in Lingerie, sorry!

Stayed in a Hotel down in Rochester last night that, amazingly in this day and age, didn’t have any internet access at all. Suffering with Wifi cold turkey, I decided to head to the pictures to see one of those movies that I can’t inflict on Jen on the offchance that it’s uber violent. V for Vendetta has had good reviews so I headed over to Bluewater (thank god for Satnav) and managed to get in.

V for Vendetta is set in a possible England, where the planet is in disarray; USA has fallen in to chaos following successive wars, and Britain is under the control of a dictatorial government led by Adam Sutler (John Hurt), whose police state, curfew and control of the media keep the population in check. On November 5th, the anniversary of the Gunpowder plot, a terrorist known only as V (Hugo Weaving), wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, commits an act of terrorism which causes unrest in the population, and drags innocent bystander Evie Hammond (Portman) in to a plot to give the country back to the people. (more…)