28 Weeks Later

What? Dr. Rush from Stargate: Universe? What’re you doing here? *shakes head* Getting chased by rage zombies, it looks like. This one seemed like a sequel for sequel’s sake, nothing more. It was entertaining, the acting was good, and there were two shiny ideas thrown in for good measure – carriers (infected, but no symptoms) and parental instincts vs. TEH RAGEZ0RZ. All the characters that I wanted to see survive didn’t, and then they go to France. Three stars.

28 Days Later

I’ve watched this one before. I couldn’t remember if I’d seen just part of it, or all of it. I’m pretty sure, now, that it was all of it. Doesn’t matter, though, because it’s a really enjoyable flick. I’m not the biggest zombie movie fan in the world, but I love post-apocalyptic settings. I felt the desperation, the loneliness and grasping for fellow humanity, and I felt the twinge when that drop of blood hit that guy’s eye. *shudder* Four stars, and looking forward to the sequel.

Stargate Atlantis – Season 5

I was hoping that they’d spend the entire season wrapping up the show. Not meant to be, I suppose. Just the last few episodes. I wonder if they were told late in the season’s production that there would be no season six. Parallel dimensions, replicators (srsly, they keep coming back), and Wraith leveling up. Also, last-minute propulsion craziness. I want to bitch about the very end, I really do, but I don’t want to post spoilers.

The stories were solid, the actors were talented, special effects were top notch, and adding makeup to remove makeup… four stars out of five.


Samurai Champloo

Samurai CHamplooThere’s a striking similarity between this version of the Edo (?) time period in Japan’s history, and the futuristic setting of Cowboy Bebop – lack of food.  Not that there’s a general lack of food being grown or being available, just that the main characters can’t get to it.  I’m wondering if that empty stomach gurgle noise is the director’s cell phone ring tone.

The quest to find the Samurai that smells like sunflowers is long, convoluted, and mostly not the focus of the individual episodes.  Though the characters find themselves coming under the watchful eyes of several proto-Yakuza groups, enraged townsfolk – both legitimate and criminal, and secondarily embroiled in Shogun-level politics.

Really, all they wanted was a good meal and a good fight.  Oh, and to kill each other.  Four out of five stars.

One of ‘s random picks. I could really use the space in my brain that the memory of this movie takes up. The main character comes off as creepy, and the Leprechaun/Fairy love story comes off as contrived and forced. The only redeeming quality is Colm Meany’s performance. One star.

One of ‘s favorite movies, Multiplicity is a quarter science fiction, a quarter romance, and a half comedy. Copies of copies. Michael Keaton shows quite a bit of versatility in this movie, despite the technological limitations of green screening at the time. Three stars.

Transformers: Animated – Seasons 1 & 2

The series continues the story-based awesomeness that was prevalent in the pilot movie. The frame rate left some to be desired, but it was still much better than the one back in 1984. They used the old transforming sound a lot, and there are a ton of nods to the old series. Not just gratuitous nods, but good ones. Black Arachnia’s relationship to Elita One, and Soundwave. There are a lot more human villains than expected, but I can forgive that as I roll my eyes about it. The story and the integration of old characters more than make up for the low frame rate. Four stars.

Still with the low frame rate. Shards of the shattered Allspark have embedded themselves all over the city of Detroit, and some are creating new Earth-based Transformers. This creates more awesomeness in the form of nods to the past, like Wreck-Gar (I love who they got to do his voice) and the Constructicons. We also meet Ultra Magnus and Wasp(inator) in plotlines of their own. By the end of Season 2, the story has gotten pretty engaging and even tries its hand at a cliff-hanger twist. My only disappointment is that Soundwave did not make a return appearance. Four stars.

Lady in the Water and Frequency

I’m generally a fan of this director, despite my inability to pronounce his last name. I’ve always thought that it was nifty that he does a cameo in his movies, and that sometimes his character breaks the rules. Signs was okay, but had serious plot issues. Unbreakable was good enough to own, and I liked The Sixth Sense. With this one, the commercials put me off more than they attracted me to it.

Since it was in ‘s queue, and it’d been sitting on the shelf since February, I resigned myself to watching it. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t a horror movie, but instead was a fairy tale. The acting was good, despite the extremely odd nature of the characters. It took a bit of effort to get over the suspension of disbelief, but was worth it once I did. Three stars.

Another one of ‘s picks. I hadn’t even heard of this one before it arrived in the mail. I liked the emotional link between father and son, and I really liked how tied into each other’s actions the main characters became. The way it handled time travel was very irritating, though. No paradoxes. No consequences to remembering more than one history. Very few/limited difficulties with being outside of the time stream, after it’s been re-written. It was more of a drama/action movie with a science fiction vehicle, instead of a science fiction movie. In that sense, it was good. In any case, it was an enjoyable and emotional movie. Three stars.