Happy New Year! JV Returns this year with an audio podcast!

“Monsters” is set 6 years after earth has suffered an alien invasion when a cynical journalist Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) agrees to take a shaken American tourist Samantha Wynden (Whitney Able) through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.

At its core “Monsters” is about the relationship between Kaulder and Wynden. Kaulder is a photo journalist looking for his big break, and Wynded is the boss’daughter who just wants to get back home to her fiance. Their travel through the infected zone brings them closer together and forces them to deal with their feelings for each other. Edwards creates and incredibly believable and organic world on a modest budget and the actors are quite good but the film’s schizophrenic script weighs it down. The themes of displaced people of war and immigration problems aren’t ever fully realized and the viewers are left to wonder if Edwards’himself has answers to the questions he poses.

Overall the film’s atmosphere and performances lift it slightly above the messy script. There is a lot of talent involved here and I think Edwards will eventually make an amazing film. Unfortunately, “Monsters” is not that film. It’s a good effort, with some outstanding visuals and a lazy script. It’s currently available through Comcast on Demand as well as Amazon’s On Demand service. I’d recommend watching this one for the visuals, but wait for the Blu-Ray to be available from Netflix in late December.

Score 5.5/10

Earthling will have its debut at the SXSW festival in just a few months time. Take a look at the dreamy teaser below and let me know what you think. I’m all in.
Thanks to the good folks at Quiet Earth for the heads up.

Found this amazing short film thanks to the good folks over at Twitch. It clocks in at just under 40 minutes but it’s really worth the watch. Check out the synopsis and trailer below.

Daniel and his older brother Patrick live together in a tower block. Patrick forces Daniel to go around collecting money and plays sadistic games with him. Daniel escapes into fantasy worlds. As he suffers more and more from his brother’s tyranny, he believes to have found a friend in Bernd, a heroin junkie from the area.

Hochhaus (Tower Block) from kavla _ nikias chryssos on Vimeo.

Yes, Daft Punk is doing the soundtrack to the Tron sequel now titled Tron Legacy. Yes, it is as awesome as you think it is. Check out a track from the soundtrack below. Thanks to Ellice for the heads up. She rocks my socks.

A while back we learned that Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Patriot) had acquired the right to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. I foolishly hoped time would pass and the film(s) would never get made. Or at least not get made by Emmerich himself. David Chen of /film sat down with Mr. Emmerich today at Comic-Con where he was promoting the release of 2012 and revealed that Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) would soon be finished with the first script.

The premise of The Foundation series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory. Using the law of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale. Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. To shorten the period of barbarism, he creates two Foundations – small, secluded havens of all human knowledge, on opposite ends of the galaxy.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t think of two people less qualified to tackle this project. Sure Emmerich can produce special effects driven crap that can pass as mildly entertaining for a brief time, but Foundation is real science fiction. Foundation is not Will Smith dragging an alien through the desert complaining about how he’s missing a barbecue. If not these two, who would you like to see adapt Asimov’s classic series?

Check out Chen’s Original Article on /Film here.

Yes it’s a lot of the same footage that was shown at Comic-Con 2008, but it’s all cleaned up and pretty! I can’t begin to explain how excited I am about this movie. The cast includes Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, and John Hurt. It will be released in 2010 in 3D as well as IMAX. Get your geek on below.

Want to play Tron Light Cycle game on your Mac or PC? Go here! It is, however, incredibly addictive. You’ve been warned.

Back in October we found out that a live action World of Warcraft movie was in the works. Most of us feared the worst, Uwe Boll. Thankfully, that is not the case. Instead Variety is reporting that Sam Raimi will begin work on the film immediately following Spiderman 4. This is good news and bad news. For most of you nerds out there it means you’ll get to see your favorite MMORPG brought to the big screen by one of the most talented directors around. Sadly, it means Evil Dead 4 is that much further away. WoW is reportedly budgeted at 100 million and should begin by mid 2010.

1. The Haunting in Connecticut
After a family is forced to relocate for their son’s health, they begin experiencing supernatural behavior in their new home, which turns out to be a former mortuary.

What’s good about it:
Zero. There is not a single shred of originality, entertainment value, or style in this film. It’s like an episode of Full House, but with ghosts.
On the upside there are no Olsen twins!

What’s bad about it:
See the above statement.

Bottom Line:
Director Peter Cornwell vomits this celluloid waste on to the screen with, what seems like, zero regard for the genre of horror. Avoid at all costs.

2. The Horsemen
A recently widowed detective still grieving over his wife’s death discovers a shocking connection between himself and the suspects in a serial killing spree linked to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

What’s good about it:
Strong performances by Dennis Quaid and Ziyi Zhang. Zhang is particularly creepy (and hot) as Kristen. Director Jonas Akerland has a strong visual style that keeps the Horsmen afloat for most of its duration, and the film’s gore is very well done.

Bottom Line:
Wait for cable. Horsemen will pass for slight entertainment for fans of the genre, but its cliched characters and ending will leave most of you disappointed.

Blu-Ray Releases of Note

1. The Towering Inferno

At the opening party of a collosal, but poorly constructed, office building, a massive fire breaks out that threatens to destroy the tower and everyone in it.

Absolutely one of the best disaster films ever made! Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Paul Newman, Susan Blakely, Richard, Chamberlin, Fred Astaire, and Robert Wagner! You can’t really go wrong! This film is a must own.

This BD contains a plethora of special features. The full list follows:
Commentary by F.X. Feeney, film historian
Scene-specific commentary by Mike Vezina, special effects director on ‘X3′
Scene-specific commentary by Branko Racki, stunt coordinator on ‘The Day After Tomorrow’
32 extended and deleted scenes
Alternate opening sequence
10 featurettes:
Inside the Tower: We Remember
Innovating Tower: The SPFX of an Inferno
The Art of Towering
Irwin Allen: The Great Producer
Directing the Inferno
Putting out Fire
Walking on Fire
Still the World’s Tallest Building
The Write Stirling Silliphant
AMC Backstory: The Towering Inferno
Six storyboard comparisons
Vintage promotional materials:
NATO presentation reel
Two original 1974 featurettes
Irwin Allen 1977 interview
Trailer farm:
‘The Towering Inferno’teaser
‘The Towering Inferno’trailer
‘The Poseidon Adventure’trailer
Interactive galleries:
American Cinematographer article
‘The Towering Inferno’and how it was filmed
Photographing the dramatic sequences for ‘The Towering Inferno’
“Action Unit” lives up to its name while shooting ‘The Towering Inferno’
Stills galleries:
Shot compositions
Publicity
Behind the scenes
Conceptual sketches
Costumes

2.Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon / Curse of the Golden Flower / House of Flying Daggers Box Set

The Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Blu-ray will feature the following bonus materials:

Three visually arresting martial arts epics in one blu-ray box set. I just wish that they offered a bit more in the way of special features. I’ll likely wait until they are released separately with all the extras these films deserve. You should do the same.

Audio commentary with Ang Lee and James Schamus
A Conversation with Michelle Yeoh
Unleashing the Dragons: Making Of Featurette
Photo Gallery

The Curse of the Golden Flower Blu-ray will feature the following bonus materials:

Los Angeles Premiere Featurette
Secrets Within: Making Of Featurette

The House of Flying Daggers Blu-ray will feature the following bonus materials:

Storyboards
Creating the Visual Effects Featurette

3. Death Trance


Living in an undisclosed time and location, a master samurai known as Grave is on the constant lookout for a battle worth his energy. He finds this fight in a quest for a coffin from the Tougan Temple, a journey that puts a young woman from the temple grounds on Grave’s path.

I’m not sure how well this will turn out in HD, but I’m willing to give it a shot. While Death Trance is not a great film it certainly is visually stunning. I haven’t been able to find any specs or extra features information online so if you’ve bought the disc or have a link to the info drop me a line.

Taxidermia is Gyorgy Palfi’s grotesque tale of three generations of men, including an obese speed eater, an embalmer of gigantic cats, and a man who shoots fire out of his penis. Seriously. Do I even need to say anything else? This austrian flick has garnered positive buzz after hitting a slew of festivals over the last 3 years, and will get a limited stateside release on July 17th. I’m crossing my fingers we see it here in DC. What do you think? Anyone else want to see this?