‘Angel: After The Fall’ fan film
Here’s an odd one. Think IDW’s Angel: After The Fall series as experienced by Gabe and Tycho.
Enjoy.
Tagged: film
ComicMix Six: Best Geek-Themed Games for the Holidays
With the holidays fast approaching, the question becomes: what do you get for the comic-loving gamer in your household? Well, here are some of the best releases from this year to satiate their comic-gaming lust and keep you looking like the know-it-all Santa. From purely comic-related titles to one of the year’s best surprises for film-fans, this is the collection to make your gamer happy.
1: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Playing the previous title in this series isn’t necessary, as the events that unfold herein are actually the video game adaptation of Marvel’s ‘Civil War” event from a few years ago. As players traverse the games environments, you’re tasked with choosing Pro- or Anti-Registration stance as you recruit new team members for your cause. Gameplay is multiplayer-centric, as 4 players can team up together to take on all foes in this combat rich title. As players pair up different members of their teams, stat bonuses reward the player for pre-existing groups (like having all the members of the Fantastic Four as a team, for example). The control is refined from the previous title, so those who ARE familiar with the series will notice tighter control of their teams, as well ease in combining powers, one of the games newer features. Here, timed special attacks can be joined with a selected partner for a larger attack, and bigger damage results. While the ending won’t match the comic’s storyline, players will certainly enjoy all the Marvel references and characters throughout the title, and Xbox 360 and PS3 owners actually can download MORE characters to increase their player rosters.
Review: ‘Logan’s Run’ on Blu-ray
What a difference a year makes. In 1976, MGM released a film based on William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s 1967 novel [[[Logan’s Run]]]. Generally lambasted by the press, it may have been a nadir in science fiction films putting studios off the genre until the following May, when 20th Century Fox looked forward with [[[Star Wars]]].
Warner Home Video has just released Logan’s Run
on Blu-ray and it finally gave me a chance to see the movie, something that somehow eluded me back in High School. It has most certainly not aged well and I can see why Roger Ebert called it a “vast, silly extravaganza”, which changed the novel in some ways for the better but failed to visually interest us in the society.
In the film, directed by Michael Anderson, the biggest change was in the location of society: domed and hermetically sealed as compared with the book’s newly formed surface cities. The book also has people voluntarily ending their lives at age 21 which probably meant the culture could not be sustained because no sooner did people learn a trade, they had to die. Instead, the film changed the age to 30 at a time when people still spouted “Never trust anyone over 30” (while forgetting the second half: “Or under, either”).
The hedonistic society is said to be devoted to pleasure until the glowing crystal in palm denoted your time to enter an arena and become the night’s entertainment. Everyone else gathers in a stadium to watch you and others born on that date, float upwards towards an energy field that kills them. There’s a rumor that selected people can be “renewed” so people come back night after night to see if someone will be lucky enough.
Those who eschew this lifestyle, those who question the unseen authority that governs the domed world, are known as runners who flee in search of a place known only as Sanctuary. Law enforcement officers, known as Sandmen, are charged with stopping the runners, usually by killing them. And the film follows one such Sandman, Logan 5 (Michael York), as the Artificial Intelligence in charge asks him to go undercover as a runner and find Sanctuary.
Fortunately, he’s found a potential runner to follow in Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter), whom he met only a night or two earlier. Her very questioning society got Logan to thinking so when the opportunity presented itself; he joined her in the escape. What complicates the assignment and spoils the film is Logan not confiding in his best friend, fellow Sandman Francis 7 (Richard Jordan), so Francis chases them, thinking he’s doing the right thing.
Along the way, our heroes are told by a recording to keep following the trail down but at one point they wind up on a platform taking them up. As a result, the movie starts going off the rails when no one ever questions what was “down there”. When they reach the surface, they find an ice cave (prompting them to strip down and wrap themselves in convenient bearskins) and a berserk robot, Box, who has decided freezing runners for eventual consumption made sense.
Escaping Box leads Logan and Jessica to a surface world they never knew existed and there they find the Old Man (Peter Ustinov), who shows them that aging isn’t all that bad. Unfortunately, setting this sequence in a vine-covered Washington, D.C. adds an unnecessary layer of subtext at a time when the country was already question the Federal Government.
Anderson, who did a far better job with George Orwell’s 1984, and screenwriter David Zelag Goodman completely failed to present a comprehensible society or characterization beyond two-dimensional surface traits for the three stars. York and Agutter are easy to watch but have little emotional range in this whereas Jordan’s pop-eyed style seems to come from some other film. Ustinov’s character is about the only one you care about.
A year later, the nature of science fiction film was turned on its head George Lucas’ Star Wars arrived, washing out the distaste left by this mess. Interestingly, Anderson’s earlier film, [[[The Dam Busters]]], has been credited as inspiration for the Death Star battle at the end of Lucas’ film.
The Blu-ray edition looks like a basic transfer without digital enhancements or attempt to clean it up. The extras contain commentary from the DVD edition and a featurette produced back in the 1970s. There’s little to recommend adding this your growing Blu-ray library.
Review: ‘Gone with the Wind’ 70th Anniversary DVD
Since Gone With The Wind’s release in 1939, David O. Selznick’s adaptation has become one of the most hailed and loved feature films of all time. Adjusted for inflation, it remains today the number one box office champion with a total gross of $1,450,680,400. It deservedly won 10 Academy Awards and continues to be included in Top 10 lists with many catch phrases entering the public lexicon followed plus a score that is instantly recognizable.
On Tuesday, in time for your holiday shopping needs, Warner Home Video is releasing the 70th Anniversary edition of the film in a variety of formats. What was provided to ComicMix was the standard two-disc “plain vanilla” edition. We can tell you that it looks and sounds great and we suspect looks even more spectacular in its Blu-ray format.
Is there anything left to say about this beloved film? I had heard of it growing up but until HBO first broadcast it for the first time, I had no clue what the fuss was about. I still recall a bunch of us gathering at Beth Zemsky’s house to watch this spectacular without interruption and we were all caught up in different ways. For me, I enjoyed the sweep and spectacle, some of the performances and the nostalgic look back at a bygone era. The girls loved the romance.
In rewatching the film now, I find zero chemistry between Trevor Howard and Vivien Leigh, still befuddled over why she loved him. I also find it confusing to see how both Ashley and Melanie were so blind, in their own way, towards Scarlett’s spoiled rich girl ways. Only Rhett saw her for what she was and loved her for it. Rhett Butler is also the only one to see the South as an unsustainable culture and apparently the only man in the whole of the Confederacy to understand they couldn’t compete with northern factories. As a result, his decision to enlist towards the middle therefore makes no sense.
Honestly, the best character arc is Scarlett’s and there’s little more stirring than her return to Tara, seeing what had become of the lifestyle she understood and then declaring, set against a beautiful backdrop, she would never go hungry again. As the music swells and the intermission sign appears, you could have sent everyone home and they would have been thrilled. Instead, we get the second half which is far too melodramatic leading up to the immortal final scene.
Selznick spared no expense and the film is sumptuous, well cast and filled with enough extras to give it the sense of scale required for the needed emotional impact. From a technical standpoint, there’s not a single false note and the movie holds up during repeated viewings. SO, the bottom line comes down to the Margaret Mitchell novel and the characters adapted to the screen. If this is your sort of story then you can’t miss seeing the film. As for owning the new edition, that’s a subjective call. The new digital master seems superior to the last version but it’s the extras that will decide it for you.
Review: ‘Up’ on Blu-ray
Pixar’s command of digital animation has captivated an entire generation of viewers and with Up
, its tenth film, it has actually taken some interesting chances. First, they focused on a senior citizen, the very demographic totally abandoned by Hollywood despite the longevity now being enjoyed by many.
It also decided to take storytelling chances by stretching how many absurdities we can accept in a single film. Previously, we were asked to accept one major concept per film: toys that can talk, a world powered by children’s screams, and so on. Here, we’re being asked to accept an awful lot and frankly, sitting through the film, I think it asked for too much.
Up arrives on DVD tomorrow and comes in Walt Disney Home Video’s controversial multi-package format. The Blu-ray edition contains four discs: the film and extras, a second disc of extras, the film and some extras on standard DVD and a disc with a digital copy. On the one hand, it’s nice to have this package because eventually we’ll all be using Blu-ray so we avoid buying the movie twice. On the other, it’s pricey for people not willing to make the leap for years to come.
The film’s best sequence is the opening ten minutes known as “Married Life”, which details the meeting and evolving relationship between Carl and Ellie. It’s incredibly poignant and moving, aided tremendously by Michael Giacchino’s score. From there, we meet 78-year old, arthritic Carl, every bit the curmudgeon he appears. Wonderfully voiced by Ed Asner, he’s done with life and just wants the world to leave him alone. Sadly, the world wants to move ahead and is busily construction mammoth commercial buildings around his home.
Finally forced to move to an assisted living facility, Carl decides to escape to Paradise Falls, the one place he and Ellie wanted to visit and never found the time and/or money. Here’s where we’re asked for the big leap of faith: overnight, be fills 10,000 balloons with helium, rigs steering gear, and in the morning, launches his home into the air for the trip to South America.
OK, let’s accept that. Let’s also add in the Russell, the young Asian Wilderness Explorer trapped on the porch when the house broke free of its foundation. Their odd couple relationship will form the spine of film and that’s fine. Now, the house miraculously makes it to Paradise Falls and there’s when things go off the rails. First, we have a pack of dogs each equipped with a collar that translates their growls to human speech, allowing communication. A wondrous piece of technology that would make its inventor world famous and fabulously wealthy. Instead, the inventor, 90 year old Charles Muntz, remains in self-imposed exile, seeking the rare bird whose capture will repair his reputation, spoiled decades earlier when scientists questioned the validity of the bones he brought back from one of his celebrated expeditions.
Once Carl and Russell meet Muntz, the film no longer feels like a Pixar classic, but instead a pale imitator as your credulity is stretched beyond belief time and again. The climax, a battle between geriatrics, is impossible to accept given the athleticism each displays despite their previously established infirmities. Fortunately, the final scenes come back to familiar Pixar territory and ends on a satisfying note. As a result, Up the movie is a mixed bag and far from its best work.
The extras on the discs, though, show the level of attention that went into each and every aspect of the film from studying the way seniors moved to house architecture. There are several mini-documentaries adding up to over 40 minutes of nifty behind the scenes information. Best of the eight may well be the piece on Giacchino and the scoring for the movie. There’s also the film in Cine-Explore track as the directors, Bob Peterson and Pete Docter, discuss the making of the film, complete with designs, sculptures and other visual details popping up on screen. The main disc also offers up two shorts: Dug’s Special Mission and Partly Cloudy. Another short bit is a look at various ways Muntz’s story came to an end.
The second disc, in addition to the documentaries, offers up a nice piece on the development of “Married Life” and them shows a storyboarded alternative approach, equally effective. Finally, there’s the Global Guardian Badge Game, an interactive trivia game that earns you badges of increasing complexity. It uses the BD Live feature which is nice for those so inclined.
A somewhat good, somewhat flawed film is well packaged and offers up much for families and film enthusiasts to enjoy.
Review: ‘Monsters, Inc.’ on Blu-ray
Pixar burst onto the scene with [[[Toy Story]]] and proved that they were the successor to Walt Disney Studios by providing heart-warming, funny family-friendly animation, using pixels instead of paintbrushes. They followed up with [[[A Bug’s Life]]], which was another success, and they came right back with [[[Toy Story 2]]] which was an expected smash. The question was back then, how long could they sustain the hits and the level of quality. A lot was riding on their fourth release, Monsters, Inc.
, since it was to be their third original creation and a gauge of their long-term viability.
Well, we all know what happened. It and every subsequent film has been one hit after enough, proving Pixar was not only the real deal, but a successful font of new ideas. Disney clear had no choice but to advance their partnership by owning the company, which reinvigorated their own franchise characters.
Monsters, Inc.
is being released on Blu-ray this Tuesday clearly intended for holiday shopping, and comes in an assortment of flavors. The 4-disc set, sent for review, has the following elements: the film and extras on Blu-ray, a Blu-ray disc of even more extras, the movie on standard DVD and a digital copy. That’s a really impressive deal, if you own a Blu-ray player.
The fabulous movie looks and sounds even better on Blu-ray, the digital creations just as inventive and fun as always. The 91 minute story remains amusing with a lovable set of characters and full realized world of monsters, which required energy derived from children’s’ screams. Boo, the little girl accidentally in their world, could be a sickly-sweet character but instead looks and acts like a real 2-year-old, charming and frustrating all the way. The voice cast, headed by John Goodman and Billy Crystal, is top-notch and well picked for their parts.
But you know all that.
The movie disc comes with the previous DVD bonus material. The shorts For the Birds and Mike’s New Car; but new is a lengthy Filmmakers’ Round Table where four of the geniuses behind the movie, talk through their challenges and favorite parts. There’s also a preview of the Monstropolis exhibit at Tokyo Disneyland, the closest most of us will ever get to see the impressive looking ride.
The second Blu-ray has a few hours’ more fun starting with the interactive game, Roz’s 100-Door Challenge. By answering questions based on the film, it determines which job you are suited for. Don’t like the job, you try again. There’s a nice tour of Pixar’s compound, dubbed the Fun Factory. Clearly, the imagery emphasizes the creative, goofy, and downright fun involved in the making any one film. On the other hand, the hard work and long hours brining the story and characters to life, is sadly underplayed. Everything on this disc is geared to demonstrating how Pixar works related to Monsters, Inc. It’s a rich assortment of features for the fan.
The movie endures, a classic for families for generations to come and there’s no better way to preserve this than having this rich package of video material.
Review: ‘Two Girls and a Guy’ on Blu-ray
When an actor or director suddenly breaks out and gets hot, studios scour their vaults to see if there’s a way they can capitalize on this heat. Last year, Robert Downey, Jr. went from a troubled, gifted actor to a Super Star thanks to his performance in [[[Iron Man]]]. This week, 20th Century-Fox hopes to catch a break with the Blu-ray release of Downey’s 1998 film Two Girls and a Guy
Written and direct by James Toback, the film is virtually a real time three-person stage play on a film. In his self-congratulatory 20 minute conversation on the Extras, Toback talks about how he came to write the film, by beginning to imagine a setting. In this case, that’s the spacious loft apartment which became the set his performances would use. After that, he populated the apartment with his players.
We open with Natasha Gregson Wagner’s Lou and Heather Graham’s Carla standing outside the apartment building waiting for their boyfriend to return from trip Very quickly, they determine that the boyfriend in question is the same man, Blake. Once Lou breaks a window to access the apartment, they bond while laying in wait.
Blake arrives and immediately calls his mother, then Carla, then Lou, placing them in the exact order of his affections although that doesn’t become obvious until later as his lies comes to haunt him. The audience gets to see him in has natural state before the women reveal their presence one at a time, catching him in his 10 month-long web of lies.
Carla and Lou are very attractive women in vastly different ways, with Carla soft, brainy, and traditional while Lou is edgier, street smart, and sharp tongued. What’s interesting to Toback was exploring how the same words could seduce such different women. In fact, he finds great humor in this, despite none of that mirth making it onto the screen.
The 1:25 length of the film should allow all three to shine and strut their stuff, but despite the histrionics, the film feels cold and uninvolving. At no point does Toback allow Downey’s Blake to show us any redeeming qualities to demonstrate why they fall for him. As a struggling actor, Blake should not be able to afford such nice digs or afford two women but that’s never addressed.
Instead, the characters reveal their true selves while dunning Blake for obfuscating the truth while he continually denied doing anything wrong. The truth is the overall theme of the film as is the importance of honesty. All too often, though the film’s momentum is interrupted with Blake’s obsessing over his mother, which shows where his heart truly lies.
Toback not too subtly shows his hand by decorating the apartment with a framed one-sheet for the classic French film [[[Jules et Jim]]]. Late in the story, Lou brings up a threesome relationship which excites Blake but seems to disinterest Carla. In fact, by this point, both women are drunk and begin to reveal their true feelings culminating with Carla taking Blake to his room for sex while Lou sits outside the door, listening.
The sex scene earned the film an NC-17 rating and Toback’s appeals were rejected so he made edits. Interestingly, both versions are on the Blu-ray disc and they are both steamy and erotically charged without any nudity.
The original DVD commentary is provided and between that and the Toback interview, we learn how much was improvised despite the writer claiming the script wrote itself in a mere four days. As a result, one longs to see deleted or alternate scenes to see how the cast found their characters but alas, none are provided.
As the credits roll, one hoped for a more satisfying ending. I was unmoved by this potentially fascinating set-up despite some solid performances.
J.J. Abrams takes on the Micronauts
J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Lost, Alias) is reported to be in discussions to produce a feature film based on the Micronauts toy franchise, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Micronauts toy line was created by Takara, later acquired by Tomy, and debuted in 1974 in Japan, where the line is known as Microman. Two years later the Mego Corporation introduced Micronauts to the US, and released five series of toys through 1980. Palisades Toys acquired the right to reproduce the toys in 2002, and the entire line was recently acquired by Hasbro. Additionally, Marvel Comics, Devil’s Due and Image Comics published Micronauts comic books, with several paperback books based on the property published by Byron Preiss Visual Publications.
At one point, they were so tightly integrated with the Marvel Universe that they crossed over with the X-Men and spun out a character that has crossed over with most of the rest of the line, Captain Universe.
No word yet on who will actually write or direct the film. But should we worry about these robots being handled by a production company named Bad Robot?
The Point Radio: Joel Gretsch On ‘V’
His road has led from TAKEN and THE 4400, now Joel Gretsch is a part of the cast of ABC’s V remake. Joel shares what appealed to him about yet another science fiction based role, plus Elizabeth Mitchell gives us the scoop on parts of the original series that will be included in the new version. Meanwhile, Michael Jackson’s concert film gives an almost 10% boost to the box office and FAMILY GUY finally nails a sponsor.
PRESS THE BUTTON to Get The Point!
And be sure to stay on The Point via 
, RSS, MyPodcast.Com or Podbean!
Follow us now on 
and 
!
Don’t forget that you can now enjoy THE POINT 24 hours a Day – 7 Days a week!. Updates on all parts of pop culture, special programming by some of your favorite personalities and the biggest variety of contemporary music on the net.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVEFOR FREE or go to GetThePointRadio for more including a connection for mobile phones including iPhone & Blackberrys
Review: ‘North by Northwest’ on Blu-ray
Thrillers today are filled with fast cuts, pounding music, poor excuses for plotting and characterization, and seem designed to do nothing more than collect your cash and deliver the same old. You usually see every twist and turn coming and are rarely surprised.
In 1959, Alfred Hitchcock, at the height of his moviemaking career, unleashed the ultimate thriller in North By Northwest. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Warner Home Video releases the Blu-ray edition on Tuesday and it’s a cause worth partaking in.
Students of Hitchcock see the familiar bits from the frosty blonde to the case of mistaken identity but here, he mixes them all together and adds in some fresh touches. Rewatching the film in its new, crisp edition, is revelatory. The opening scene establishes Roy Thornhill as a busy advertising man, a man used to dealing in artifice and then slowly strips away everything that is a comfort to him until he is on the run and forced, late in life, to grow up a bit.
Hitchcock and writer Ernest Lehman allow the story to leisurely unfold and the scenes play to maximize tension rather then smash cuts and edits to cover up poor storytelling. Grant’s Thornhill is urbane and witty, matched perfectly against James Mason’s Van Damm, a polite but cold enemy of the state. Their first scene is like a ballet, two opponents in a manor’s library, warily moving about, sizing one another up. Once Grant begins to run, the pace quickens – just a bit – and we go from New York to Chicago to South Dakota.
Along the way, he encounters Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) and their own dance is filled with delicious sexual tension. When they begin to kiss and she looks away, you understand that there’s far more to her than we first believed.
We all know the crop duster chase in the open field or the climax at Mount Rushmore, but the film is filled with great moments, large and small. Lehman allows the characters to be individuals while Hitchcock tamps down the emotions so things never go over the top regardless of the seemingly preposterous storyline with Grant confused for an American spy and then ultimately used as a pawn in Leo G. Carroll’s game of chess against Mason.
The movie stands up to rewatching and the video and aural transfers are terrific.
The disc is contained in a book which has a 48-page look at the making of the film and credits. On the disc itself are two new featurettes: The Master’s Touch: Hitchcock’s Signature Style and North by Northwest: One for the Ages. The former is a lengthy look at the director’s themes and filmmaking style intercutting an interview with the one-of-a-kind Englishman along with commentary from other filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro, Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin and Curtis Hanson.
The latter is a nice deconstruction of the film, much like a video book report for school with the above filmmakers chiming in as to the component parts that made the film special.
There are additional features lifted from previous editions and they include commentary from Ernest Lehman, a music only track version of the film, 2003’s TCM documentary Cary Grant: A Class Apart, Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest hosted by Eva Marie Saint, Photo gallery and a gallery of Trailers.
All told, this is a marvelous package and one worth having for sheer entertainment value. Anyone who wants to tell tension-filled stories should own this for study.
