Movie of the Month: Febuary 2013

By Hmsbeefnuts and Geeky Gem

Hello and welcome to my choice of February’s Movie of the Month. This month it is the quite simply fantastic looking Wreck It Ralph. A host of Video Game cameos, and what looks like a whole lot of fun. Hopefully I am proved right, I have been looking forward to this film for some time. Check out the trailer below…

Well I have to admit that does look good doesn’t which made my pick even harder. There are some good movies out this month and I have to say I am finding this a hard pick. So I think I going to go with this Zombie movie starring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer and John Malkovich. I am of course talking about Warm Bodies.

This a movie about a zombie who becomes involved with the girlfriend of one of his victims. It is with this that their romance sets in motion a sequence of events that might transform the entire lifeless world. I have to admit I knew very little about this movie before seeing the trailer bu the second I did I thought I wouldn’t mind watching that so my pick for this month is in fact Warm Bodies. As always here is the trailer for you all to enjoy.

Geeky Gem

Wednesday Whimsy

  By: Caelrona

Hiya all! It’s Wednesday again, and I’ve paused my video games to bring you another blog. This week I went to the movie theaters to see Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters with a couple friends of mine. This movie didn’t make it on to my list of 2013 movies from my last blog post because… well, I’m not really sure. It didn’t come up on any of the big lists for expected blockbusters when I was looking up movies for this year, and (maybe because I don’t watch much TV..) I haven’t seen too much in the way of promotion for it. My friends mentioned it to me, and so despite not making it on to my list (and it totally would have done!) I did actually go to a theater and see this one. Furthermore; I liked it. It was just my type of movie; plenty of violence and a bit of gore with enough humor and seriousness to keep it interesting.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters was just released here in America on January 25th. Unfortunately, it won’t be getting released until February or even March in other parts of the world, so I will try my best not to ruin it for those of you who won’t be able to see it immediately. So, in case it wasn’t obvious, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is based on the classic children’s tale of Hansel and Gretel; two little children happen upon a house made of candy in a forest and get captured by the witch living in it. They end up killing her in a desperate struggle to save themselves from being eaten by her. This movie expands on the children’s tale, showing how Hansel and Gretel continued their lives after that incident and turned their gruesome beginning into a unique lifestyle and career.

This movie does a very good job of bringing that original tale to life for adults, as well as adding to it in a clever way. Jeremy Renner (AKA Hawkeye in the Avengers) plays a very no-nonsense, slightly socially-inept and ass-kicking Hansel, while Gemma Arterton (Princess Tamina from the Prince of Persia movie) plays his equally kick-ass, no-nonsense sister Gretel. Both actors are excellent, and their characters feel very believable and real as people. Playing opposite them as their foe is Famke Jansen (Jean Grey from the X-men movies) who delivers an excellent performance as an evil Grand Witch. Apparently she enjoys playing especially powerful female leads, which is nice, because she certainly is good at them.

If you get the chance, I would highly recommend you go and see this in the theaters. I enjoyed it immensely, and I cannot wait until a DVD release so I can have my own copy, because this movie was right up my alley. If you enjoyed movies like Van Helsing, The Prince of Persia, or The Scorpion King then this will definitely be something you’d enjoy. It has that same feel to it as those movies do, although I’m not entirely sure what you’d call that, exactly. Anyway, I will leave you with that!

Until next time,

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

12 Movies of Christmas: Rent

By: Caelrona

Hiya all! It’s December now, and you all know what that means – Christmas! We’ve got the Christmas spirit here at All Geek To Me, and to get all of you in the spirit we thought we’d share some of our favorite Christmas time films with you all. For today I thought I’d kick things off by telling you about one of my favorite films to watch at this time of year; Rent. Right then, off we go!

 

Rent was produced in 2005 by Revolution Studios in conjunction with 1492 Pictures and TriBeCa Productions, and was released by Colombia Pictures. It is a musical drama film, and an adaptation of the Broadway musical from 1996 of the same name, which in turn was based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La bohème from 1896. It follows the lives of several Bohemians and their daily struggles with drugs, paying their rent, their sexuality, cross-dressing and living life under the shadow of AIDS. It takes place in the East Village, otherwise known as Alphabet City, of NewYork City from Christmas Eve 1989 to Christmas Eve 1990. Six of the original Broadway cast members reprised their roles for this film, which has a runtime of 135 minutes.

 

While most people prefer the Broadway production, this movie is actually pretty good. I mean, it’s incredibly cheesy some moments during the musical numbers, and at other times the drama gets laid on pretty thick, but if you can take that in stride (it is a dramatic musical, after all) then it’s a really good movie. The songs in this are awesome; I’ve got almost all of them on my ipod, so if for no other reason than that you really ought to watch this movie. It isn’t a Christmas movie by any means, but most of the movie happens around Christmas, and Christmas is featured in the film quite a bit in the background.

 

I tried and tried to write a good summary for this movie, I really did. Somehow, they just kept coming up short, or sounding like nothing more than a copy/paste from my initial into and so four different deleted paragraphs here we are. Since I can’t write a good one, but I feel that you deserve something better than my intro I stole the following from IMDB: “Based on Puccini’s ‘La Boheme‘, ‘Rent‘ tells the story of one year in the life of friends living the Bohemian life in modern day East Village, New York City, 1989-1990. Among the group are our narrator, nerdy love-struck filmmaker Mark Cohen; the object of Mark’s affection, his former girlfriend, Maureen Johnson; Maureen’s Harvard-educated public interest lawyer and lesbian lover Joanne Jefferson; Mark’s roommate, HIV-positive musician and former junkie, Roger Davis; Roger’s new girlfriend, the HIV-positive drug addicted S&M dancer, Mimi Marquez; their former roommate, HIV-positive computer genius Tom Collins; Collins’ HIV-positive drag queen street musician/lover Angel; and Benjamin Coffin III, a former member of the group who married for money and has since become their landlord and the opposite of everything they stand for. Shows how much changes or doesn’t change in the 525,600 minutes that make up a year.”

Well, there you have it! The first of my four favorite Christmas movies. I’ll be back next week to tell you about the second of my four favorite Christmas movies; Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

Until next time, Happy Holidays;

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

Page Vs Picture

By Geeky Gem

Now so far on our journey though page to screen we have covered the first four Harry potter books. Today is no different, as we enter the world of book five and things get even darker for Harry and his friends at Hogwarts.

As always we shall start with the book.

I have to admit something here and as I say it I hang my head in shame, I found this book very hard to get into at first. This may have been due to the fact I bought it on relase day but didnt pick it up for a while after as I went on holiday and accidently left it behind, how stupid was that? As that happened many of my friends had finished the book before I got back and as they are good friends tired to keep  my read spoiler free. This did not however stop them from bugging me on how far had I got.

For those of you who have not read the book here is a brief summery of the events take place at Hogwarts during year five. Harry is spending another awful summer with the Dursley’s when he is forced to preform the Patronus charmon some Dementors in front of Dudley, this results in his exploitation from Hogwarts. However as always some one has Harry back’s and he allowed to appeal against this decision at the Ministry of Magic.

When Harry gets back to Hogwarts he finds Dumbledore will not speak to him and is pushing him away, Harry is unsure why, so he seeks help from other places. Sirius being one of these places. The Ministry thinks Hogwarts is going down hill, so sends in Dolores Umbridge to sort the school out. This leads to Harry and his friends forming Dumbledore’s Army, in order to keep themselves safe. Which leads to a huge confrontation in the Ministry itself and the first death since Harry’s parents to happen in the book.

As I said above I found this one really hard to get into and I didn’t finish it in the time scale that I had the others, it took me a lot longer to read. I know it was a longer book as they got bigger each time, but this one was a hard read, but no less enjoyable. Shall we move on to the film?

Frist up there is another director change in this movie, David Yates steps up to the mark on this one. Also for the first time in the movie fanchise so far, Steve Kloves does not write the screenplay, this time it’s Michael Goldenberg who I felt follows Kolves style.

There are very few cast changes in this one but there are some wonderful addtions, in Luna Lovegood and Nymphadora Tonks to name a few. There is also the nasty but brillaintly played, Dolores Umbridge. Again I feel I have to be honest and say this is not my favourtie of the movies, this one has so much talking and set up in it for the last three that in a few places it can be a bit boring. However that being said my all time favourite scene takes place in this movie and that is the exit scene of Fred and George from Hogwarts, it is fantastic.

Now I feel it’s time to answer the question, as always, which is better, the book or the film? The current score is a tie at 2 a piece. This one is harder than the others, as I struggled with both, please dont think that I dont like them as I do, I really do, it was just hard going. Anyway to aswer the question which is better? I think I am going to have to go with book this time, and this is due to the simple fact there is a little bit more back story about Neville in the book, which is not seen in the movie and I wish it had been there as it makes the character so much deeper.

Now the score is Book – 3 Film – 2. Can film bring it back? Come back and check it out soon. Until then, happy watching and happy reading.

Avenging April: What All The Fuss Was About: Avengers Assessments

By @hmsbeefnuts

Thursday afternoon, April 26^th , I watched The Avengers, it was around 3 hours ago now that the film finished, and I’m still buzzing from the spectacle. Rest assured that The Avengers is very very good indeed. Everything that the previous 5 Marvel films promised, has been fulfilled by what is quite simply one of the most spectacular films that I have ever seen. Now I know I’m still buzzing from the film, a lot of what I type may be new film glaze, but I don’t think so. I will be seeing the film again on Saturday, this time in IMAX 3D, and I can’t wait, but we shall see if the aura of the Avengers will diminish the second time. I seriously doubt it.

I will not spoil plot points or secrets with you here, I think it’s only fair if you experience it all yourself, and there are plenty of reviews to read around the web anyway full of spoilers. Also, I’m not the kind of fan boy who wants to declare a winner of the summer, I’m not going to decry Amazing Spider-man, or The Dark Knight Rises. The Avengers may be the most spectacular film this summer, especially for comic fans, but I’m sure The Dark Knight is going to be equally as great, and Amazing Spider-man, well, here’s hoping. What I will say is, if you have ever enjoyed a Marvel film, then go and see this on the big screen, it needs to be seen big, and loud, do not wait for Blu-ray, DVD, or TV.

 

As my oldest mate and I sat in the cinema before hand, I was slightly apprehensive. Could this film live up to my incredibly high expectations? I needn’t have worried, Avengers delivered, and delivered big. If I can interject here with a point. This is the kind of film that is best enjoyed with your friends, or loved ones. Go see it in a big group, go see it with your childhood friend, go see it with your kids or little brother and sister. There are few things I enjoy more than seeing a brilliant film with a mate, a girlfriend, my Mum, or Dad, Avengers is that kind of film. It is a visual expression of childhood glee, it is every game you played in the playground, arguing over who would be Thor, or The Hulk. I can’t believe that Marvel and Joss Whedon pulled it off, something that should have been very hard, almost impossible.

All the heroes get their moment to shine, even those with out powers. Whedon pulls off the group dynamic perfectly. These heroes aren’t friends, they argue, they fight, but when it comes to the crunch, they pull together and kick some major bad guy ass. I don’t know what my favourite bit was, there were so many. Hulk and Thor, Hulk and Loki, Cap and Agent Coulson, any time Tony Stark is on screen. It would have been easy to turn this into Ironman 3, or the Tony Stark show, but it is not that at all.

The Hulk could be the star, certainly, I felt that he had many of the greatest moments. The BEST Hulk in anything ever, there simply has to be a Hulk sequel with this Hulk, he was awesome. The CGI was incredible, and suitably epic. I’m finding it very hard to talk about things without spoiling stuff, so I will try to not go on for too long. I can’t wait to see where the Marvel films go next, now that The Avengers are established, I can’t wait to see an Ironman 3, Thor 2, Cap 2 and Hulk 2 (3?), and a sequel to The Avengers. Marvel have done something incredible with these films, a fan boys wet dream. Right now I would say that this is my favourite Marvel film, overtaking Captain America, but a second, third and fourth viewing will confirm this. As for now, all I can say is that The Avengers is worth your money, worth your time and worth your attention. DC should be taking notes from Marvel. I want to see a Justice League movie that is this good. I want to see Batman, Green Lantern and Superman working together as well as Ironman, Cap and Hulk. With Nolan’s take on Batman coming to an end, and a reboot for the Bat franchise probably in the works, now is the time to lay the foundations of a Justice League team up movie. I liked Green Lantern, I have high hopes for Man of Steel, lets hope DC can do as good a job as Marvel, even though they seemingly have a harder task, with DC heroes being slightly harder to translate.

Writing this has made me want to go and see it again. I can’t wait until Saturday. The Summer is shaping up to be epic. The Avengers is a hard act to follow, but I can’t wait to see what Marvel has in store.

How Bigfoot Can Save Hollywood

By Hmsbeefnuts

Hollywood loves the reboot, the re-imagining, the sequel. In recent years almost every blockbuster that has emerged has been one of these, or has been seen as the start of a franchise. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with this. I love sequels, as long as they are worthwhile, and I love reboots, Batman Begins was a fantastic fresh start for the Bat franchise and everything has since gone swimmingly. However, there is a trend that Hollywood seems to repeat, and this is, the unnecessary reboot or sexual. Step forward Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and especially you Amazing Spider-man, its time someone put a stop to you.

Now this is a very personal beef that I have with these two films, and I can understand if you don’t feel the same way, understand, but never forgive. Lets start with crystal skull, I’m not putting the title in upper case, it doesn’t deserve it. Now I will admit to being very excited for the new Indy adventure, but little did I know that it was as no more than a cash grab, the story was terrible and it almost tarnished three perfect films from my childhood, but it didn’t, Lucas and Spielberg didn’t rape my childhood, but they did waste a shit load of money, something we will return to later. Lets take the worst offender, the object of my geek rage, The Amazing Spider-man. In 2002, Sam Raimi directed a very good film Spider-man, the story of a boy who once bitten by a radioactive, or genetically modified spider, gain the super human ability of said arachnid. He followed this origin tale with two further films, one very good sequel, and a poor third entry that still made killer box office.

Due to critical reviews, Sony pictures decided to reboot the Spider-man franchise, and so in just under 10 years, the cinema going public will get to see two origin stories for Spider-man. This is uncalled for. By now everyone who cares knows how Spider-man became Spider-man, we get it, we know, stop wasting time re-telling the story and get on with a good film. But no, we get to see a slightly different take on Spider-man’s origin. Now don’t get me wrong, the film might be great, but the trailer looks a bit dark and depressing, but what I’m trying to get over is that the $100 odd million spent on this new film could have gone to something else, something new, or at least, something that hasn’t been tried in more than 20 years. Step forward Sasquatch…

There have been many Bigfoot and Yeti films over the years, but all bar one share a commonality, they are all low-budget B movies that are never really satisfying. The suits are awful, the acting sub-par and the whole thing comes across as disappointing. The exception obviously is our friend Harry above. Harry and the Hendersons is a fantastic film. I loved it when I was young and I think it is down to it and a few books on unexplained mysteries, that I love Bigfoot to this day. The film s high budget, the suit looks amazing, unequalled to this day, and the acting is great, because great actors were in it. However, there is something about it that doesn’t quite sit right with an older me. Harry is adorable and the film is a funtastic ride to jolly town, but guess what? I want a companion piece. I want a scary fall into the horror ravine, and I want to be pushed over the edge by a big budget, scary ass Bigfoot. The world is crying out for a great scary Bigfoot movie. How do I know this? Well I bet I’ve seen more films about Bigfoot than most people knew existed, and I don’t say this to boast, only an idiot would boast about that when he had to endure some of the shit I’ve sat through. I say this because, there is clearly a market for scary films about Bigfoot, so now, someone needs to stop making shitty reboots and sequels, and front up the money for a great Sasquatch movie. Lets look at some of the films that have come before…

Sasquatch Films that are Rubbish…

I have seen many bad Sasquatch films, these include, but are not limited to;

The Snow Creature (W Lee Wilder, 1954)

Shriek of the Mutilated (Michael Findlay, 1974)

The Capture of Bigfoot (Bill Rebane, 1979)

I will not review these films but they are all terrible, acting, beast suit everything a complete waste of time.

Sasquatch Films that are OK…

Snowbeast (Herb Wallerstein, 1977, TV movie)

The Legend of Boggy Creek (Charles B Pierce, 1973)

Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch (2005)

Savage (2009)

These films are OK if you’re in the mood and like shitty horror films, maybe.

Sasquatch Films that are Decent to Good…

Harry and the Hendersons/Bigfoot and the Hendersons (William Dear, 1987)

The Abominable Snowman/The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (Val Guest, 1957, UK)

Abominable (2006)

These films are worth seeing and are actually quite good.

OK so we have established that Bigfoot films are popular with some sort of audience and that there is room for a high budget take on the Sasquatch legend that isn’t a cute comedy, and will scare the bejeezus out of people. Some more evidence? Horror is big business, look at Paranormal Activity and Saw, audiences lap up horror movies. Also, Bigfoot is a recognisable character in pop culture, that no one actually owns the rights to, this means anyone can make a film about him, and it has the potential to be successful. OK, how though? How is a Bigfoot film going to make it worthwhile for an audience and a studio? Well it just so happens that I have come up with three solid gold concepts. Ready children? Then I shall begin…

Concept 1) Bigfoot the slasher, or Scream for Bigfoot

OK simple enough premise. Sexy teens go into the woods for summer camp/spring break, and disturb something in the woods they shouldn’t. Get Kevin Williamson to write the script, known good-looking actors and spend money on the creature, a post modern Bigfoot hit is likely to follow. Easy.

Concept 2) Bigfoot the found footage film.

This will take the style and story of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity films, and feature a documentary crew who venture out into the woods making a documentary on a logging company. A year later their footage is found, but they are not, guess who they pissed off?

Concept 3) The Historical Bigfoot epic

I must admit this is a bit of a favourite of mine and I’ve had this idea in mind for a few years now. Colonial America. As the French and British fight over who controls the new world a small settlement is set up on the boarders of a dense forest. Indian Legends say that something they fear to name lives in these dense woods, they so fear it that they dare not live within miles of the forest. The settlement grows and builds a fort, in preparation for the winter months and everything seems normal, except a few members of hunting parties never return. The leaders put this down to desertion or Indian War parties, that is until winter draws in and the real culprits are revealed. Can the Fort hold out until the early spring when the mountain passes open and fresh troops can arrive with supplies? Or will the Sasquatch get their terrible revenge for the disturbance of their habitat?

So there we are. That’s how Bigfoot can save Hollywood from an endless stream of reboots and shitty sequels. Right, who’s gona stump up $300 million so I can do concept three justice? Anyone…