Back in the nineties, I spent many a day trying to build up my own movie collection, and for poor folk, that’s tough. Imagine my surprise when after receiving my allowance I retreated to the local dollar store and saw some VHS movies for me to purchase with my own money. Granted, they weren’t blockbuster films, but they were public domain cartoons, and some pretty interesting gems that only bargain hunters discovered.
Tag Archives: Science Fiction
Dredd (2012)
What’s sad about director Peter Travis and writer Alex Garland’s “Dredd” is that it’s the comic book movie of the character Judge Dredd, that fans probably deserve. And they may not get a sequel at all, since its release in 2012 did little to stir the franchise potential of it all. The ingredients are all here for “Dredd” to kick off a wonderful series. There are a people behind the movie who take the material seriously, there’s zero camp, star Karl Urban plays Judge Dredd as an anti-hero and not like a clown, there’s no comic relief, and Judge Dredd never once takes his helmet off during the movie. To compensate for his lack of face time, Urban scowls and emotes more zealously than his prior roles for Dredd, and it pays off without an inch of over the top dialogue delivery to be found.
Arena (1989)
Charles Band’s “Arena” is a blast. And for a movie with such a small budget that is dated beyond belief, that’s quite an endorsement. There’s something about the imagination and creativity behind “Arena” that makes it such a treat to sit through. It’s such a simple and straight forward science fiction action film that it doesn’t even try for anything complicated or adult. If there’s ever a film that could use the remake treatment and become a fantastic action genre picture it’s this 1989 film from director Charles Band that sets down on an intergalactic wasteland where aliens do battle in a ring for sport and money amidst crowds of onlookers and fanatics.
Our Top Ten Spielberg Films Of All Time
It’s not a secret to many who visit Cinema Crazed, or to many who know us that Steven Spielberg is our favorite film director of all time. The man has managed to re-think the way we look at film and filmmaking, and is one of the few film directors living today who can deliver a good old fashioned story that can inspire and amaze without rotting our teeth with over simplistic and sugary storytelling. Sure, he’s faltered a few times, but even his weakest films are much better than anything most young directors can deliver in cinemas today. Steven Spielberg has managed to stay relevant in an ever growing populace of movie goers with incredibly short attention spans who want flash and explosions over genuine storytelling, and for any director that’s a feat and a half.
He helped invent the blockbuster, helped define franchising, helped engineer the special edition (for better or worse), and he’s carved an amazing career from films that have touched, awed, and invoked conversation about movie goers and film buffs alike. Fanatics, supporters, and often apologists, we’ve followed Spielberg for years as he’s been one of our earliest memories of film going ever. There aren’t many guarantees in life. But the one thing we think life can guarantee is that there will always be a movie to grant me the same awe and wonderment every single time we pop in a film from Steven Spielberg.
Whether it’s a tale about a lone tourist in an airport, or the plight of the Jews in World War II, Spielberg can and always has guaranteed that awe and sheer enthusiasm for film will come with a film from his. And they guarantee to outlive Steven Spielberg even at the age of 66. Spielberg may just be a man biding his time in delivering masterpiece after masterpiece, but his films will have a shelf life of many many decades and introduce young audiences to the awe and charm of filmmaking as Spielberg did for us. We celebrate Steven Spielberg’s 66th birthday with our top ten Spielberg Films of All Time. So far.
Hollow Man/Hollow Man 2/Fortress 2/The Harvest – 4 Movie Collection (DVD)
Any respective movie lovers looking to save money this Christmas with your classic movie packs on DVD or Blu-Ray and are in the mood for science fiction and action films need look no further than Mill Creek Entertainment’s 4 Movie Collection. This 4 movie pack collects four very entertaining science fiction movies for folks who like action, suspense, and violent menaces and this collection has it all. In 2000’s “Hollow Man,” director Paul Verhoeven brings his own unique vision of the Invisible Man to the forefront. Combining state of the art effects and a cast of great actors, “Hollow Man” star Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Cane, a doctor who volunteers to become a guinea pig for a technology that can turn its subjects invisible.
When he and his team accomplish the formula, Sebastian soon becomes power hungry, corrupting his invisibility using it to victimize and control others while his insanity begins to rot away. What starts as an experiment becomes a fight for survival as his crew tries to stop Sebastian who becomes increasingly violent and murderous, and will not stop until he’s whetted his appetite for blood. With some searing tension and solid performances from folks like Elizabeth Shue and Josh Brolin, Verhoeven’s science fiction treatment is surprisingly entertaining if flawed.
Unbreakable (2000)
In the year 2000, after M. Night Shyamalan premiered his innate storytelling ability with the surprise supernatural thriller “The Sixth Sense,” he pretty much dashed expectations with a follow-up film that no one was expecting. Initially considered a poor follow-up, M. Night Shyamalan really approached a film that could well within his storytelling parameters, and he did so with a subtlety and humility that’s finally being appreciated. “Unbreakable” is a rather underrated masterpiece, and one that really does pay homage to the comic book mythology that society generally looks down upon. By approaching the comic book mythos with a straight face and a somewhat surprising dramatic dignity, M. Night Shyamalan adds a realism to the superhero origin story that’s deliberately paced and absolutely compelling to witness.
Pac-Man: The Movie (2012)
It’s rare that fan films can present a premise for a simple concept that can be stretched in to a feature length film. It’s also rare that a fan film that can pay tribute to a beloved icon while also adding a creative twist to it that gives it a special flair that fans would love. “Pac-Man: The Movie” by James Farr changes the concept of Pac-Man while also adding a new flavor to it that works wonders. Pac-Man is, of course, the iconic video game from the eighties about a yellow disc eating pegs and avoiding various colored ghosts. What director Farr and Steelhouse Digital do is add a science fiction twist to it that’s not only incredibly entertaining but pretty damn brilliant.