Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Hey folks. I am guessing you are no worse for wear with being subjected to Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance...mostly because you did not have to sit through that stinkburger. With that in mind I will bring you a film that gets overlooked as being pretty decent. No I am not subjecting you to some obscure 80s slasher movie that you may have passed in a now defunct concept like a video store but rather a blockbuster film that occurred in 2004 with a budget of no less than 70 million in the hopes it would rocket to the stars with the opening weekend. An ambitious flick that showcased enough talent, actors and decent writing some folks are still either embrace it for what it is or just outright sneer at it. This is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Yes I am that pretty, world. Get over it.

Directoral debut Kerry Conran (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The World of Tomorrow and Gumdrop) we open with an alternative timeline of 1939 in which the zeppelin dubbed Hindenburg II arrives at the Empire State building carrying Dr. Jorge Vargas (Julian Curry of Rumpole of the Bailey, Rasputin, Mysteries of Egypt, Uncle Adolf and The Queen's Sister) delivering two vials to for a Dr. Walter Jennings (Trevor Baxter of Cold Comfort Farm. The Politician's Wife. The Hunchback, Parting Shots, Doctors and My Family), when moments later Dr. Vargas disappears.

Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow of Jefferson in Paris, Se7en, Great Expectations, Shakespeare in Love, Iron Man, Glee, Iron Man 2 and The Avengers) is a hustle and bustle newspaper reporter on the story of Varga and five other world renowned scientists are missing. After meeting Dr, Jennings at a showing of the Wizard of Oz he tells her that Dr. Totenkopf is coming for him. Taking that in, the air raid sirens go off immense giant robots start attacking the city. The police feeling overwhelmed summon Sky Captain (Jude Law of Gattaca, Final Cut, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, The Aviator, All the King's Men, Sherlock Holmes, Repo Men and Side Effects) and his Flying Legion, a private air force based in New York and... no one seems to question that. Must be that Commisoner Gordon/Batman relationship I guess. With one of the robots dismantled, Sky Captain Joe Sullivan takes the monstrosity to their tech guy Dex (Giovanni Ribsi of Saving Private Ryan, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Avatar and Ted) to figure who made it and what makes it tick. 

Tony Stark mad with power, strikes again!

 Dex tracks the signal of this massive automaton to Tibet and our heroes head for that direction only to run into Commander Franky Cook commanding a FLYING AIRCRAFT CARRIER!!! YUP! A friggin' Helicarrier pre-S.H.I.E.L.D. Commanded by Angelia Jolie in all her fiestiness. FYI, both ladies are Sky Captain's exes so "Awkward," is an understatement. With figuring out what Dr. Totenkopf is up to and why there seems to be such an uproar from a scientist is paramount...(not New Line Cinema.)

Folks I really have no problem with this film. It is kind of a throwback to Doc Savage with the amazing inventions and some of the older comic strips like Terry and the Pirates. Good action scenes, decent character development and enough digital artists, modelers and animators busting their butts I don't understand why folks crap all over it.

It has its flaws as does any movie and admittedly there are a few plotholes but overall I was impressed with it and would recommend it for a sit-in with the family as GIANT FRICKIN' ROBOTS get used! Feels a bit similar to the Max Fleischer Studios Superman and a bit of the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials. I had fun watching this.

My fedora senses danger!!

Dismember December: Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 5: The Toy Maker

Season's greetings for Day 1 of Dismember December. A quick note on the weekly title. A dissatissfied reader called all the horror films of last year as horrific and wrong to be reviewed during this time of year. That being said, I now take a gander at the last of the unofficial sequels for Silent Night, Deadly Night. As it has been fairly clear to anyone having the self-loathing to watch anything past the first film, they would note the Killer Santa story arc had ended at Part 3 with Bill Mosley replacing Eric Freeman as Ricky, the second Killer Santa and little brother to Billy. So how does this film differ from those films and even the 4^th?    Howzabout killer toys, evil robots and maybe a twisted toy maker? This is Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 5: The Toy Maker.

Grrr!!!

A young boy Derek (William Thorne of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker and Demonic Toys) heard the doorbell ringing and ran down the stairs to find a Christmas present on the front porch, His dad Tom (Van Quattro of Sweethearts, End of Days, Fight Club, Altarcation, Time Line Inc., Biohazard: Patient Zero and Big Yellow A-Hole) chastises the boy for answering the door at this hour and still being up. Tom opens the present to see a strange musical sphere (PHANTASM ALERT!!!) that suddenly fires cords around his neck strangling him causing him to fall on the fireplace poker leaving him impaled. Um happy holidays, Derek?

When I was your age, a rocket was all you needed for fun!!!

Two weeks later Sarah (Jane Higginson of Slaughterhouse, Danger Zone II: Reaper's Revenge, Object of Obsession, The Silencers and The Indian), Derek's mom thinks a visit to a toy shop might be just the ticket to help lift his spirits...yeah because that makes it all better. Joe Petto (GET IT??!!) played by Mickey Rooney shows off the wacky creations of his shop which actually creeps Derek more so as Joe's son Pino (Brian Bremer of Pumpkinhead, Society, Dead Birds and Why Did I Get Married?) acts strange or erratic so both Sarah and Derek retreated.

Pino breaks into their house and claims a feeling of closeness to them and you can imagine the need for a firearm or chainsaw. Joe trailed Pino and apologized for Pino in the hopes to avoid the police. Sarah later discovers that there is more than a few accusations that the neighborhood placed on Joe as a major creeper.

With that in mind, the story has some weird obsession with Derek, we receive a couple of cameos from the fourth movie Initiation with Nieth Hunter reprise of Kim and Clint Howard playing creeper Ricky which is no association with the previous character of 2 and 3. Do they seem necessary? Big bag of nope because they don't really bring anything to the film. Also two sex scenes were clearly vital no doubt. One drawn out to the level of annoyance and a quickie that added to the essence of the film.

So how do you rank this film? The killer toy motif has been done quite often but it wasn't the vicious turd it has been reference and there is enough mystery to make you wonder what the hell is going on. Shockingly enough though I still wouldn't let young ones gawk at this one either. 

Beats a lesbian Wicca cult, burrowing worms and Clint Howard I suppose.

Anime Week: Black Magic M-66

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Day 3 of Anime Week.  As I am attempting to stick to themes and genres of anime I thought now would be a good time to do a Sci-fi anime.  Yes, with its myriad of mechas, killer robots, star vessels and orbital platforms, science fiction gets a lot of love from Japanimation.   So it should not come as a surprise that this particular flick hails from the cyberpunk sub-genre manga called Black Magic M-66 created by writer/illustrator Masamune Shirow (Black Magic, Appleseed, Dominion, Ghost in the Shell and Orion) with what happens when technology you so willingly trusted with your very life takes a turn for the worse.  With that thought, you can only amaze the havoc that awaits.    This is Black Magic M-66

Sorry ma'am, no John Connors here.

Leaky: You're going after a story on the spoiler?  You're nuts!







With an aggressive android capable of moving at high speeds, agile, lethal in melee combat and packing an assortment of laser based weapons, nerve gas and an explosive core for self-destruct, it gets worse than that.  Imagine a machine capable of independent thought, tactics and strategy and will not be deterred from its objective.  That in mind, a freak lightning storm strikes the armored helicopter transport frying the pilots and causing the ride to go barreling down into a dense forest.  The android units emerge from their containment pods with the only mission parameter they know, which is a mission to find a specific target.  Their redundancy programs establish that this is their purpose for being and nothing stands in that way.   Hours later while the androids are on the move, two hunters in the woods find a Grizzly bear just smashed like a rag doll and even its thick and heavy paws are snapped and broken.   The units trail the men but they have an off-screen death to ratchet tension I suppose.  

Sir, I stepped in an exposition sinkhole.

We now get to meet Sybel, a freelance journalist with the typical anime girl build.  Yup that's right at least a large C to D cup and hourglass figure.  She pipes into a Military broadcast that an operation is underway and she grabs her cameras, tapes and cameraman Leaky to go investigate.  No sooner do they make it to the "toxic" crash site that the whole area has been sealed off by soldiers and cordoned off by trucks and men.

Tensions are a bit high in this partnership.

A Special Ops team lead by the Major, no other ID than that seems cool headed but realizes he is sending his men into a substantial forest against beings that are faster, stronger and many times more deadly than they.   With the use of massive electromagnet, the retrieval teams hope to capture and transport the M-66s with little to no fuss or muss.

I had a few quick comments on the film now.  With its fairly complex story with tech along you kind of have to go with the flow and not let your attention wander with this one, folks.  It is fast paced, hard hitting action and some nail biting moments worthy of Cameron's Terminator.  With 50 minutes on the clock you will squirm a bit in your seat waiting for the next explosion or possibly jump scare.  A fairly enjoyable movie is what it meant to me.

Form Voltron!!

PC Games I am Playing Week: Fallout: New Vegas

Howdy pardners and welcome back to Day 2 of PC Games I am Playing Week.  Today I speak of a game that is *gasp!* four whole years of age.  Yes this antique is the continuation of the Fallout series originally crafted in 1995 by Interplay Entertainment and has swapped hands to Black Ilse Studios only to have Black Isle file Chapter 13, return, lose rights to Fallout thus did not release Fallout 3: Capital Wasteland by Bethesda Softworks and then work injunction with Bethesda Softworks under Black Isle’s new company name Obsidian Entertainment.   Confused?  Well you should be.   So strap on your six guns, gather up some companions and watch out for strangers.  This is Fallout: New Vegas.

 

Sheesh, Hoss is packing some iron.

Spoiler…  Spoiler never changes.

The game I am referring to moves us back to the Mohave Desert, to an area more or less untouched by the war so its 1950’s influence, clothes, lingo and music still grace this giant sandbox but where there were cowboys, beef barons and gamblers with a heart of gold is now under the continuous onslaught of Fiends, slavers, raiders and rampaging super mutants and feral ghouls.  Where landmarks of the old Nevada standing have been made into renewed communities trying to survive this harsh world as two factions battle for the Hoover Dam and all the power it can provide.  The New California Republic, a foundation of former law enforcement and military ideals and Caesar’s Legion, a ruthless reincarnation of the barbarous Roman Emporium duke it out for all the marbles.  

One man keeps them both at bay, Mr. House and his fleet of Securitron robots.  He now owns all of New Vegas and plays to keep things running smoothly and the caps flowing in like so much chilled champagne.

Disagreement with the locals.

  

Your character is NOT a vault dweller.  SHOCK!!! 

You are a courier hired to carry an unknown package to a specified destination when you get jumped by a fellow in a dapper checkered suit and some Great Khans, shot in the head and left for dead.  That is your beginning intro!  As you come to in the town of Goodsprings you find that life on the Wild Wasteland is full of danger and wonder.  Rarely are the two far apart.  You need to bolster up some skills, arm yourself better and frankly get that package back to your client posthaste.  Perhaps you can indulge in a bit of revenge while you are at it.  

Like Fallout 3; the same game engine for smooth play, graphics and synched dialogue is identical.  You do however have options to newer weapons, modifying them, living off the land, freestyle wandering, side quests and different dialogue skills.   As always with this continued game system an amazing voice cast is essential in the telling of your tale as it unfolds.

 Ron Perlman (Chronos, Blade II, Alien Ressurection, Hellboy and Hellboy 2: The Golden Army) returns as the narrator of this post-apocalyptic land along with familiar voices such as Michael Dorn (CHiPs, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) as Marcus the former Super Mutant Sheriff in Fallout 2, Felica Day (The Guild, Eureka and Supernatural) as Veronica, a bright eyed girl from California with stars in her eyes and a pneumatic gauntlet on her right hand and many more.

Hardcore mode was introduced to give more of a real feel to the game such as: dehydration, poisoning, hunger pains, withdrawals from drugs and medicine and finally healing injuries.  With 6 add-on adventures, an ultimate edition and more than its fair share of real life cosplayers; New Vegas has ran with the same steam that Fallout 3 has had and brought a whole new generation of gamers to this universe and then some.

Harland's...a bit blunt and right to the point.

Action Pack Week: Cleopatra 2525

Howdy kids and welcome to Day 3 of Action Pack and this one is a bit…silly and scantily clad but intriguing nonetheless.    A timeline when machines have taken over the Earth and humanity is forced to hide in vast underground chambers.  So grab your wrist blasters, leap in the catacombs and prepare for more obscure pop culture than your mind may handle.  This is Cleopatra 2525.

Tee hee!

Spoilers are the betrayers of humanity…

The year 2525 is a harsh reality in which humanity hides in vast underground chambers stretching for miles.  A complex of shafts and tunnels that was created by the shaft builders in order to survive the Bailey menace and no I am not talking about the drink.  Our heroines consist of: Hel, leader of the group and linked to a program known only as Voice (Gina Torres of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Firefly, Angel, 24, Serenity, Justice League Unlimited, Alias, Standoff, and Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) her headstrong, tough as nails subordinate Sarge (Victoria Pratt of Mutant X, House of the Dead 2, Day Break, What Love Is, Brotherhood of Blood, Moonlight and Cold Case) and lastly they encounter the last member of their time, a cryogenically frozen exotic dancer known as Cleopatra (Jennifer Sky of Xena: Warrior Princess, Trigger Happy, Shallow Hal, Fastlane, Charmed and The Helix…Loaded).  They explain to Cleopatra that the world as she knew it has been gone for more than 525 years now and machines known by the resistance as Baileys rule the Earth and sky.  

It's not a weave and shut up already!!

Now this is a typical post apocalyptic setting of the robot holocaust and so on but with a bit of flair.  Humans have evolved, devolved and remained as well.  Some of animal humanoid hybrids some have become the equivalency of their caveman predecessors while most are your typical species.  The environment is a bit harsh, water has to be purified over and over to the point it probably tastes like Dutch lager. 

Now we get to the antagonists of this show of which give a decent level of consistency. Baileys are large, heavy weaponized flying robots that attack humans on sight.   They are named after their creator, Dr. George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart how could you???) who were originally created to clean and correct the environment.  Formulating from pure logic it came clear to the Baileys that humanity are nothing but despoilers and must be the cause of the Earth problems and therefore must be exterminated.  Betrayers are android enforcers that kidnap people, absorb their memories, make a perfect copy of that person and then kill the original.  You have an updated version of Terminators if you will, with the added bonus they can morph massive energy cannons from their hands, take an exorbitant amount of damage, a self repair unit and can fire beams from their eyes.  All in all a fun bunch to play with…if you are a masochist.

You will be probed!

Lastly we have our reoccurring villain Creegan, a brilliant and psychotic scientist that has no morals or scruples to speak of.  An unspoken vendetta against Voice that only he and she know of and this puts the team in danger in my humble opinion.  The fighting choreography is similar to both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess  so the fight fans may feel a bit slighted at you can clearly make out that the combatants are not connecting with one another.  Oh well.  It’s sci-fi, it’s silly and bit racy but all in all it is entertaining to many.