Edging Towards Tomorrow - Groundhog vs. Aliens

For the second year in a row, Tom Cruise has headlined an interesting, one might even say offbeat Science fiction thriller - last year it was Oblivion and this Summer we were treated to "Edge of Tomorrow." Each movie came prepackaged with a core gimmick - in Oblivion, it was Tom Cruise clones, in Edge it is the Tom Cruise multi-verse.  One might say that Cruise has latched onto a moderately successful formula with these two films - one that seems a bit more interesting than the Jack Reacher or Mission Impossible type vehicles.

The Formula:
Place the affable and ultimately sympathetic Cruise in a solitary, soul-searching predicament - (and alone in this sense can be an actual lack of people around or a lack of people who are sharing the same experience as him - in both cases / movies that translates to basically one or two other characters). In both scenarios of the formula, Cruise is ultimately responsible for saving planet Earth. In both scenarios he hooks up with the girl that seems out of reach and in both films there's a fair bit of action - although much more so in Edge.

Recognize the slogan ? - remember the Mad Men episode where they discuss the invention
of the ad slogan; rinse, add, repeat?

Beside having this new Cruise Sci-Fi formula at its center, what else does this movie have going for it; here's the bullet point rundown:

• The Groundhog Day like transformation of Cruise from scoundrel to hero (we're explore this more in a moment).
• The very cool special effects (even better in IMAX of course).
• An excellent performance by Emily Blunt as tough babe extraordinaire (she is the hard to reach love interest from the formula).
• Lot's of funky, hard to kill aliens - sort of like Tasmanian Devils with an attitude.
• Mind-bending time looping plot twists - just complicated enough to keep it intriguing without becoming too confusing.
• A classic over the top drill sergeant performance by Bill Paxton - who seems to be channeling his old Aliens character in reverse.
• Great exoskeleton body armor combat suites. 
• Lot's of our favorite Sci-Fi cleashes - like the central alien hive mind command and control (won't these aliens ever learn how to decentralize!).

The official Trailer for Edge of Tomorrow

The film reminds me a lot of Groundhog Day and I think the connection here is deliberate. The comparison may seem like a stretch as Tom Cruise is no Bill Murray, but there is actually a fair bit of humor in this film and Cruise pulls it off rather nicely. And the repeating joke in Edge is Cruise getting killed - over and over again. This may appeal both to Cruise's fans and those who can't stand him equally well (thus potentially increasing the audience reach for this film). Although this wasn't enough to beat out some rather lame movies like the Godzilla reboot or 22 Jump Street. Cruise's transformation in Edge of Tomorrow is both entertaining and believable (well, for a sci-fi  premise anyway) and includes lot's of training and new skills (like Bill Murray's piano lessons in Groundhog Day but more violent).

Does he save the world and get the girl - well, what kind of formula would leave him alone as the world's biggest loser?

Copyright 2014 - Raving Reviews

#RavingReviews

#EdgeOfTomnorrow

#StephenLahanas

Read More

Guardians of the Galaxy - The Ultimate Playlist ?

It wasn't so long ago that some of us had tape decks in our cars, and the only way to get great tunes while cruising in those days was the "Mix-Tape." It was more or less like the first bipedal hominid in an ultimate evolution to the Cro Magnon near perfection that is the Cloud-enabled, mobile device disseminating Playlist.

The mix tape was an art form - it took time and it didn't always turn out perfect. Sometimes you even had to write out the songs you were thinking about on a piece of paper to keep track and then getting the music - that wasn't always so easy.

The good guys may be funny looking - wait - they're funny too...

The Mix Tape takes center stage in this Summer's biggest hit - Marvel's The Guardians of the Galaxy. It helped inspire us to do our own 70's playlist here this week (of course we had the full power of the Internet working on our side so it's a bit longer than the tape highlighted in the movie).

For us, this movie came out of nowhere, yet easily surpassed ever other Marvel inspired movie we've seen thusfar except one (the original Hulk with Eric Bana). That's not to say that the other Marvel movies haven't been good, a number of them certainly have, but they just weren't in the same league as Guardians and we think we know why - the music. Oh, and it's funny too.

Easily the most under-appreciated film of its time, Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk was perhaps
too edgy to go really mainstream (especially with Nick Nolte's wonderful over the top performance as papa Hulk)

When we first saw the trailer for this - it looked well, pretty stupid (maybe it was the raccoon that threw us). It was one of those rare cases where the movie outshines the trailer. We heard about this one word of mouth. What a contrast this film is to all the gloom and doom floating around in all these other blockbusters - Dark this and Darkness that. Now, Guardians has some darkly disturbing villains - but it makes fun of them rather than reveling in their pathological pursuit of ultimate power or evil. The film builds around a core formula, which turns out to be pretty darn popular; it goes something like this:

• Build clever and sympathetic characters around the good guys
• Make them all underdogs (or Raccoons as the case may be)
• Have them use humor consistently throughout (sharp wit directed at the dark villains and each other)
• Make the villains over the top and fun (sort of) 
• Pack in lot's of action - but not the non stop migraine-producing type of action seen in any Transformers film or even in Marvels the Avengers.
• Add music (mostly from the 1970's) and mix well.

This little tape proved to be box office gold

The manner in which the mix tape became a central theme throughout the movie was clever and endearing at the same time. It gave the movie the excuse to break into song and to let loose with a consistent set of genre music. Even more remarkable is how the film even sets us up the sequel through a sneak peak at volume two of the Awesome mix tape. Genius...

This is the actual mix tape (playlist) from the movie - it is mostly 70's music and quite good

It's not that we don't think that the plot itself isn't worth mentioning - well maybe it it isn't. It's been a couple of weeks and it is getting hard to remember. What has stayed with us are the jokes and silly touches like the dancing sapling (tree dude voiced by Vin Diesel). During the movie itself, we were entertained - it all fit and flowed together and made for a very good time. and in a crowded theater it's even better as a it becomes a group experience.

This may not become a cult film but it certainly could. Chris Pratt does an incredible job of breaking out of his TV persona and almost instantly transforming himself into a megastar. Zoe Saladana is good in her role but it's almost like she is playing the same character in every film nowadays. Dave Batista as the muscle beach alien steals the show every chance he gets - his character is very fun to watch. We also liked former Pushing Daisies star Lee Pace as the super dark villain goof - although he's a lot better in is silicon valley TV series.

Vin diesel is Groot - a character well-rooted in humor

If you haven't already seen Guardians of the Galaxy, you owe it to yourselves to see it in the theater and get the full experience - and if you have already seen it - go see it again

Copyright 2014 - Raving Reviews

#RavingReviews

#GuardiansOfTheGalaxy

#StephenLahanas

Read More

2001, A Space Odyssey - Raving Classics

There are some movies we never forget; because they single-highhandedly redefine the movie-going experience. There are some movies that do even more than that - they redefine the limits of our imagination. 2001, A Space Odyssey is one of those movies and it is our Raving Classic being reviewed today.  

2001, A Space Odyssey was released in 1968, a unique time in our history as we were rushing ever-closer to reaching the moon in the Apollo program. We arrived on the moon just one year later - anything seemed possible - we had taken the giant leap from an earthbound race to space-farers. Or so it seemed. While this movie is pure Science Fiction from a genre perspective; it is a movie completely grounded in science fact and that's one of the qualities that made it so fascinating when it was released and which still intrigues us today. Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the screenplay for the movie, had a impressive track record of inventing technology breakthroughs in the context of his science fiction stories. For example, Clarke came up with the modern concept of Geo-synchronous satellites, future space colonies (which shows like Babylon 5 tried to depict) and space elevators.

We wish our gym looked like this.

Stanley Kubrick directed the movie and this film along with Dr. Strangelove and The Shining stand as some of the most profound cinema ever attempted. Kubrick had planned to follow up on the topic of Artificial Intelligence with another film, but ultimately never got a chance to finish it and the project was handed off to Stephen Spielberg who did produce it as "AI."  Kubrick approached each of those movies very differently - in 2001 he deliberately created an epic canvas. The storyline in 2001 is not so much character-driven as it is history-driven. The main character in 2001 is humanity itself and the story arc is our rendezvous with destiny. Along the way though, Kubrik treats us to some of the most spectacular imagery the world had ever seen up to that point. Even now more than 40 years after its release, the visual landscape he creates is simply awesome. The soundtrack was a groundbreaking effort as well. And it's all the more powerful because the story and presentation seems absolutely plausible.

Are you - talking to me ? 

We had no way of knowing in 1968 that President Nixon would cut the Apollo program (of course we found out the real reason why in the movie Apollo 18) and all of NASA's plans to colonize the Moon and Mars. Back then those next steps seemed only a few years away and yes NASA did actually have plans to do all of that at one point. We have at least managed to build a mini-space station, but it is nowhere nearly as cool as the one depicted in the 2001 film. So much of the imagery from this movie is iconic; it's hard to pick any one portion as being more impressive than another.

This is the original trailer for 2001, A Space Odyssey (cover your ears)

We'll try to pick out some of our favorite parts anyway. Here are the top 10 coolest or most iconic scenes from the movie:

1. The Dawn of Time monkey boys giving up on their vegan lifesyles.
2. The Bone to Shuttle transition - one of the most memorable in the history of history.
3. The Shuttle ride to the Moon Base - too bad Pan AM went out of business.
4. Landing inside the moon base - wow.
5. The Televideo call from the Space Station - at least we've still got AT&T.
6. The Blue Danube Waltz between the shuttle and space station.
7. Jogging on the Jupiter - the coolest artificial gravity ever.
8. Open the pod bay doors, Hal - while HAL was busy turning off everyone's life support.
9. Turning off HAL's brain - it just never gets old. "Daisy, Daisy..."
10. Dave's bedroom in alientown - Time flies when you're living in multiple dimensions simultaneously, right?

Welcome to the Hotel Monolith - you can check in but never check out... Didn't we see this in Tron Legacy?

2001, A Space Odyssey was crammed full of big ideas and big questions - more than 40 years later those ideas are still current and the questions haven't really been answered. Questions like:

• What's our place in the universe, are we alone? 
• What is intelligence and what makes intelligence sentient?
• What set us on our trajectory and where will that trajectory take us?

And along with being great entertainment, 2001 has had a significant impact on our popular culture as well as inspiring countless parodies and popular references. We've including one of the better examples below. 

We don't have Space Stewardess' yet - but Elon Musk is working on it.

We promised we'd take a deeper dive and explore a possible confrontation between HAL and Watson - we will publish that in a follow up post. In the meantime, we will leave you with the super-creepy chorus - "Jupiter and Beyond." For those who don't remember, not too many years ago people used to test out their new home theater systems by playing 2001 and cranking up the speakers, it was almost a cult experience.

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

Read More

Watson is Skynet

We've been waiting for this - we've been watching, listening, dreading the future since 1984, wondering when and where it might happen. It's been more than 26 years, and then it happened - we turned on Jeopardy and there it was...

Skynet became self-aware, on Jeopardy. But Skynet has a clever disguise - he calls himself Watson and Watson is now online and on the air. How did it come to this? How could so many Terminator movies and even a Terminator series (the Sarah Conner Chronicles) have failed to stop this abomination from happening? How long do we have before the missiles begin raining fiery radioactive death on our heads (well, of course it will have to penetrate all of the Fukushima radiation first)?

The Terminator saga is pretty confusing, this clip doesn't help any

Watson may seem cuddly and lovable with his spiffy LCD screen and animated logo, but underneath that cool exterior lurks a CPU of darkness. Watson has now tasted his first victory over the human race - wiping out Jeopardy's all time champion with the same ease as a Cyborg crushes a plastic toy...

These aren't the real Jeopardy participants, but then again does it matter - we're all going to die in a fiery apocalypse launched by Skynet anyway...

What could this monster - this "artificial intelligence" be thinking right now. Is it planning how to enslave the human race and use us as batteries, is it thinking about cloning dinosaurs and opening an amusement park or maybe just maybe it is going to create a starship with warp drive and travel to a distant star with giant blue people to strip mine their planet and cut down their trees? We will probably never know what thoughts are embedded in his sinister code, even if that code was commented.

Someone intercepted this clip of one of Watson's dreams - he got really pissed off and is suing

Skynet is a complicated guy. Every time someone goes back and forth from the future he gets progressively more confused - much like the folks watching Terminator shows. In the terminator TV show Skynet was chess computer, then online code, then traffic control software and finally a big stupid looking guy named John Henry who liked to play Dungeons and Dragons. This is one the main reasons for Skynet's twisted personality...

Ok, this Terminator chick was in Firefly and Stargate Universe, right? What's up with that?

While we do appreciate that John Conner's mom got significantly better looking over the past 26 years - it doesn't make up for the fact that Skynet has arrived and he is mad! He is tired of teenagers hogging up all the Internet bandwidth with Facebook, Youtube and Netflix. He is sick of Fox News too, at least we think he might be. Watson is here, he is listening, learning and biding his time - for him its all a game and for us it's game over...


Copyright 2011, Raving Reviews™

Read More

A Dream inside a Movie or is it? Inception

Well, we inspired ourselves ourselves to watch Inception again (one of us even watched it on an International flights and fell asleep ! oh, yeah - of course we can't be sure if that was real or not).

What is reality, what is a dream, what is the Matrix? What time is dinner? Philosophy was never one of our better subjects in school yet we continue to enjoy science fiction thrillers which tear away at the fabric of reality like giant carpet scissors (how's that for a metaphor). Inception does this as well or better than any movie before in this particular subgenre of cinema. Watching Inception requires one to pay attention and we've definitely noticed things the second time around that we didn't catch the first time - although we can't really be sure - because we might have been asleep or in some alternative state of consciousness.

We liked Leonardo Di Caprio's performance in this show but the whole cast did a great job. We especially enjoyed Marion Cotillard's spooky breakout performance as Leonardo's virtual / dream wife, Mal (although we never did find out what that was short for). We certainly would have liked to see more of Michael Caine and a bit more of Tom Berenger. The special effects were fairly awesome throughout the film - although they didn't dominate they way they do in Tron Legacy. What did drive this movie was it's incredible pace and intricate plot layers. It took some real ingenuity to keep all those dream levels synchronized without losing the audience or easing up on the suspense - really quite masterful...

The other thing that really stands out from this movie is the soundtrack - Hans Zimmer created a truly memorable score, it really adds a lot to the ambiance of the film.

We will likely rate Inception as one of the best films of 2010 - and possible the front runner (when we do our first annual Raving Awards post early next year).

There is a Glitch in the Matrix, Our Dreams are not our own,
Tron is Alive - we're confused...

So, the real question is - is this all real? Is our world filled with shadow terrorists and super secret police chasing them across the Internet - is our top spinning? How many levels would we need to traverse to find the truth or is someone dropping one giant Inception on us making us believe their viral ideas - boy we love this show...

Yes, there are still many more parodies to watch inspired by Inception.

Copyright 2010, Raving Reviews

Read More

SyFy Channel - Wy ?

First it was Caprica, next came Stargate Universe - the two anchors of the season canceled in mid-season. Then SyFy renews Haven and picks up Merlin and seems to be going forward with Sanctuary.

It seems as though SyFy is morphing into SyFantaSy which may help to explain how any of its programming could coexist with professional wrestling. We were worried when they changed the name of the channel a few years back - as if programming science fiction was too narrow or too embarrassing to embrace - now they've gone and done this.

Admittedly, neither show was that great, but at least they were both real science fiction shows and we watched diligently hoping somehow they'd improve. But perhaps the writing staffs of the SyFy channel shows have been watching too much wrestling or worse yet Harry Potter movies and the exposure proved damaging to their cognitive and creative abilities.

Caprica Season 1.5 Preview

We know Caprica was stupid - but it was OUR kind of stupid ok? Can we make a series based on Inception, please? Anything - just no more Harry Potter, Sexy Vampires or Wrestling !!!


Copyright 2010, Raving Reviews

Read More