Well, that was… educational. Every time I see footage and screen shots from this upcoming wonderful time stealing enterprise called GTA V, I have to wonder how Rockstar Games keeps pulling this off, as each title in the long running series has been setting and raising all sorts of bars in terms of interactivity and storytelling. Yeah, yeah, I know many of you buy in for the mayhem you can cause, but when you get to the story and let it play out, they’re always extremely well written (and easily beat much of what Hollywood has to offer to death) and highly enjoyable. September 17th, people – start practicing that fake cough for that telephone call you’re going to make saying you’ve a bad case of the “flu” so you can get that week off to dive in and play around… you KNOW you’re going to…
Tag Archives: TV Spots
Gravity TV Spot 1: Up In The Air, Too…
Of course, only those of you out there who saw that particular George Clooney flick from a few years back will get that title, but hey, I like to test you folks every now and then. Anyway, this does look really interesting and hell, it’s an effects film with actual, um… gravity when it comes to its plot. That and hell, a film where you have the paradox of an outer space setting (you can’t get any bigger than that) forcing you to pay attention to its two main characters for probably the entire running time AND you’ve got no choice but to sit and watch Clooney and Bullock try to stay together or else (insert romantic comedy and on screen chemistry jokes here) makes this at least worth seeing once on a big screen. Hey, imagine if this did well enough to get made into a crazy Broadway show like that dopey Spider-Man yanking the tourists in by the hotel load? Someone get Taymor on the line! All we need now are Mummenschanz and a bunch of sturdy harnesses…
Random Film of the Weekend (Too): Time After Time
(thanks, warnervod!)
Amusingly enough, this RFoTW post was going to be about Somewhere in Time, but I’d mistakenly typed in Time After Time as the title of that film when doing a search for the poster, looked at the results and remembered that while SoT is indeed a fine (and highly underrated) gem, TAT is more pure fun to watch and does a few more interesting things with its characters and plot as it takes them from past to present.
Adding some unique twists to the time travel and Jack the Ripper mythologies, it combines mystery, drama, action and romance with bits of comedy that work despite some first time director flaws in the ointment. Oh, and it’s a grand little science fiction film that works because you’re sucked in so quickly and completely forget the fantastic elements being so farfetched thanks to the story, characters and direction making it so real…
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Pacific Rim TV Spot 1: Maybe Mayhem Isn’t Such A Good Thing In Some Cases…
Can you imagine the insanely higher insurance premiums in the future if we DO end up with giant robots, big sea monsters and all sorts of unplanned property damage that comes from them duking it out on the streets of any major (or minor) city? Well, considering that we probably don’t have flying cars because of the potential for humans causing MORE damage than any giant monster (although, all that texting/doing makeup/eating/et cetera while flying will clean up the gene pool rather quickly), this is probably a blessing in disguise or something.
Yes, ladies and gents… just forget about applying ANY rules of reality or actual science to these films (I mean, who in their right minds goes to a science FICTION film to complain about the SCIENCE afterwards anyway?). In reality, unless those robots were made of super-light materials (yet could still back a punch) your heroes and those monsters would go tumbling into the huge hole they created when they tried to walk on some of those tunnel-filled streets certain cities have. Well, maybe they’d do better in Vegas, what with that desert nearby and no big sewer system or subway to worry about crushing tourists and citizens in…
Anyway, just sit back, try not to go into a sugar and salt-induced coma from that half-gallon of soda and way too salty and greasy popcorn (that’s NOT butter on it, by the way – butter isn’t highly combustible or that overly golden orange in color, last I checked) and enjoy the show. Or not, if you’re worried about some big wet foot stomping on the theater while you’re watching this epic… eek.
Random Film of the Week(end): Saturn 3
(thanks, deadenddrivein!)
Since I’m feeling sick as a dog today, I’ll share the wealth (without making your temperature go up to stay in bed levels) by getting you a bit queasy with this rather wretched 1980 sci-fi/ “horror” film that completely wastes the talents of too many good people and is so surprisingly awful that anything resembling a proper remake would require the invention of a mass mind-wiping machine PLUS time travel so you could stop the original from being made.
Yes, Saturn 3 is THAT bad for a big movie fan such as myself, but it’s much worse because as soon as you start listing most of the talent behind it, you see that most of them have done far, FAR better work than this stinker and you can’t chalk up this film’s failures to everyone simply having an “off” day every single one it took to make this howler…

