In anticipation of The Adjustment Bureau—and to honor one of the greatest films ever—let’s take a look at some of moviedom’s most famous (or infamous) sci-fi flicks and judge just how trippy and smart they are. Films will be rated, fittingly, on a scale of 0 to 5 HALs.
Last week ended with a cliffhanger ending. The Cape’s sidekick Orwell had fallen into the clutches of a terrifying new villain named The Lich. The Cape had been out fighting The Lich’s army of sorta zombies in order to prevent them from poisoning the city during the big Palm City Founders’ Day Parade and… you know what? None of this actually matters, because the zombie powder poison thing pretty much went right out the window in this episode.
I’m starting to regret choosing to review Community. The
problem is simple; each episode is good.
If you look back on the scores I have given previous episodes, they have
all been quite solid. Sure, Community has some off episodes as all shows do,
but despite this Community is one of the most consistently funny shows on
television currently. If Community keeps being this excellent, and I review it
well, then it is going to seem that the high scores don’t mean anything. But
trust me on this; Community absolutely deserves to be highly rated. It is a
superb show. This week’s episode is no exception.
Community works best when its characters’ story arcs are
separate, and yet are bound together with one central plot line. This episode
follows this structure, with each character pivoting on Pierce’s story. Pierce,
having been admitted to the hospital after collapsing on a bench, summons the
group. Upset at his friends’ lack
of empathy, Pierce pretends to be dying. He gives each of the members (except
for Abed, but we’ll get to that later) a bequeathment. These gifts both seem to be a blessing
and a curse for the receiver, and they shape the multiple story arcs.
Ah April’s comics, their right around the corner. They’re not? Well here’s a bunch of releases from Moonstone Books regardless. Moonstone has a lot of pulp comics with a dash of horror. I have to say they’re really finding their nitch in the industry. If you’re interested in what their books are about check out our review for Phantom: Unmasked, Battle for L.A. the Return of the Originals and Captain Action – Winter Special for a view of their Pulp titles. Then we have a review for Savage Beautywhich is set in modern day Africa. All are definitely worth a read if you’re looking for similar things to Marvel’s “The Twelve” or Dynamites “Project Superheroes”, so check them out. Otherwise, this is what Moonstone is offering in April.
After last week’s disappointing array of DVD releases there is relief with what the film industry is offer as home entertainment opinions. If you are looking for something new there is an action film, a comedy, a documentary and a period drama to pick from. And with the Academy Awards nearly upon us five of this week’s re-releases are Oscar winners.
It’s shipping time! You know the drill, each month publisher figure out what thier going to ship for the next few months and we’re lucky enough to be sent that list from several “Indie” publishers. Throw a stone and you can figure out what the “Big Two” are shipping, but it sometimes takes real effort to figure out what your favorite small publisher is shipping. So up first is Archaia Press with a handful of selections. If you’re not reading the “Feeding Ground” then let me say that book is tough!
I suppose it’s Red Faction Day on the internet, because Direct2Drive and Impulse are both selling a different game in that series today. If you want the original Red Faction, you can get it for $2.50 on Direct2Drive.com as their daily offering during THQ Week. If you’re more into new and shiny games, you could opt to get the latest installment in the franchise, Red Faction Guerrilla at ImpulseDriven.com for five dollars. Both of these are for today, Thursday the 27th only. Now let’s take a look at what else is on sale this weekend.
This week’s DVD and Blu-ray releases caters to people with various tastes. There is action, thrillers, real life dramas, horror, some surreal art-house films and bio-pics and since the Academy Awards are coming up a number of this weeks re-releases are award winning films.
The film commonly called “the Alien prequel” now has a name: Prometheus. According to Deadline Hollywood, though, this will be “more original” than just your average, run-of-the-mill prequel churned out for a quick buck. This upcoming epic is currently set for release across the globe on March 9, 2012, and will mark director Ridley Scott’s long-awaited return to science-fiction since 1982’s Blade Runner.
Video games have shown us many things in the relatively short time they have existed. They have shown us brilliant and fantastic worlds that have yet to be imagined, and introduced us to characters that appeal to every sense. While these avatars and environments are confined to the virtual space, there is no reason that we should not be able to use them as inspiration to invent real world products. This is the second installment in a series where we challenge the notion of what reality really is.
