Posts Tagged ‘time travel’

Short Take: Redeems the first sequel. A fun an fulfilling ride.

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Screenwriter: Etan Cohen; Lowell Cunningham (comic)

Cast: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement, Emma Thompson

Length: 1h 46m

Synopsis: Long before K (Jones) and J (Smith) became partners there was a nefarious alien named Boris the Animal (Clement), who by some stroke of luck was captured sans one arm back in 1969 by K and sent to a prison on the Moon. Now, forty years later, Boris has escaped and is looking to get revenge. His plan is to time travel back to 1969 and kill K, allowing himself to roam free and eventually lead his race to taking over the Earth. When J realizes K is missing, the MIB claim he had been dead for forty years. After traveling back in time himself, J must prevent K’s murder and help ensure the correct passing of events to protect the future. The trouble is, the younger K (Brolin) and ‘60s MIB have a hard time believing J’s predicament. In earning the trust of the younger version of the partner he’d known for years, J tries to take advantage of the opportunity to find out more about K than his older self would divulge. As it so happens, what he discovers changes their relationship forever.

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Short Take: If you open yourself to it, it’s a very interesting experience

Director: Zal Batmanglij

Screenwriters: Zal Batmanglij, Brit Marling

Cast: Brit Marling, Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius

Length: 1h 25m

Synopsis: Peter (Denham) and his girlfriend Lorna (Vicius) are looking to make a documentary, and they find a prime topic in a secret cult that’s headed by a mysterious woman named Maggie (Marling). Intending to document the ins and outs of the cult the couple signs up to join, trying with clever equipment to video and tape what they encounter. Such recording efforts fail, but they continue to attend meetings to find out whatever they can. Maggie, as it turns out, claims to be from the future, and a far less bountiful one at that. She claims her mission is to help her followers prepare for her era, and doing so will take peculiar mental provisioning. Her story and methods arouse suspicion in Peter and Lorna, but they can’t help but be fascinated. However, that fascination looks to take them deeper down the rabbit hole than they were prepared to go, and the experience may even end up shaking them to their cores.

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Short Take: Exceedingly enchanting. Woody Allen at his feel-good best.

Director: Woody Allen

Screenwriter: Woody Allen

Cast: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody

Length: 1h 40m

Synopsis: Gil (Wilson) and his fiancé Inez (McAdams) are vacationing in Paris, France, soaking up the atmosphere and taking in all of the beautiful art that surrounds them. Gil is a Hollywood screenwriter trying to take another crack at writing novels, and his latest work about relishing the past has gotten some much-needed inspiration from the city of love. While Inez spends her time enjoying luxurious spa days and get-togethers with friends Gil wishes to experience all of the charm the city has to offer, and he finds all he can handle when he stumbles upon a way to travel back in time to the 1920s. Every night at midnight he visits iconic artists like F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), and Salvador Dali (Brody), chatting away with them about love, life, and women. And speaking of women, one night Gil can’t help but be enchanted by an art aficionada named Adrianna (Cotillard), who is equally enchanted by him. The stress of the present and magic of the past combine to create an awkward but exciting situation for Gil, one which he will find his way out of only if he follows his heart.

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Matt Smith as The Doctor, with his sonic screwdriver

To Those with the Power,

Here is an idea that I believe is worth some serious consideration, even though my thoughts on this belief are not beyond recognizing that it is hardly realistic – at the moment. Lack of plausibility aside, here it is:

There should be a feature-length Doctor Who movie.

For those who are not familiar with Doctor Who, it is a British sci-fi television series that dates back to the 1960s where a humanoid alien – known only as The Doctor – travels through space and time with a companion (who is replaced almost every season), battling against evil for the preservation of life, life-affirming matters (such as cultures), and even existence itself.

Edit: I should probably recognize that there are in fact technically three Doctor Who feature films, made in 1965, 1966, and 1996, however the first two have no connection to the series and have rather pathetic production values (aside from Peter Cushing’s acting), and the last was made seven years after the original series ended and had a story that was not nearly as epic as it maybe should have been.

The series got a reboot, or rather a reinvigoration, back in 2005 after a 15 year hiatus. Creators decided to invest more time and money into it, relying heavily on writer Russell T. Davies of Queer as Folk fame to reimagine Doctor Who in order to make him more appealing to modern day audiences.  The new series is now in the middle of its sixth season (and its third Doctor), the first to be broadcasted on BBC America at the same time as BBC. A genuine sensation in Britain since David Tennant took the role of The Doctor in season two, the series has gained even more traction since Matt Smith assumed the part for seasons five and six. Here lies what little optimism I have for realizing the notion above.

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Short Take: Perhaps the best video game adaptation to date - for what that's worth

Director: Mike Newell (Donnie Brasko, Four Weddings and a Funeral)

Screenwriters: Boaz Yakin (Death and Love), Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard (The Uninvited), Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia video game)

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (Brothers), Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans), Ben Kingsley (Shutter Island), Alfred Molina (An Education)

Length: 1h 56m

Synopsis: One day in an Arabian marketplace one young orphan boy named Dastan would risk his life to save another’s, and the display of such courage and humanity led the disguised King Sharaman of the Persian Empire (Ronald Pickup) to adopt the boy and raise him alongside his two sons. All three boys grew up to share a strong brotherly bond and undying love for their father, however one fateful day the King is assassinated and Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) unwarrantedly receives the blame. On the run with Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton), whose city was just recently sacked by the Persians and was being forcefully wed to Dastan, the two find themselves in the middle of an even bigger problem. A scheme was afoot to retrieve a special dagger from Tamina’s city that had the ability to turn back time. A gift from the Gods, Tamina is the guardian of the dagger, which she and Dastan must keep away from whoever was trying to steal it. On top of that, Dastan cannot rest until he proves his innocence. Read the rest of this entry »

Jemaine Clement

Jemaine Clement of HBO’s Flight of the Conchords fame has reportedly been cast as the villain in the next Men in Black sequel.

Jonah Hex‘s Josh Brolin has also signed on to the project and will reportedly play a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones’ character K, though Jones and Will Smith will also return, along with director Barry Sonnenfeld.

Etan Cohen (Idiocracy, Tropic Thunder) has written the script, which some suspect entails time travel due to the involvement of Brolin’s alleged role.

Source: Ain’t It Cool News

Quick Opinion: I’ve heard many complain about how Men in Black II was not as good as the first, and not often were those complaints based on the film’s casting. The original Men in Black struck a chord with audiences because of how fresh it was, and MIB II might have failed simply because screenwriter Robert Gordon was unable to keep that element moving forward. Looking back, this is somewhat surprising being that Gordon also gave us the wonderfully self-aware Galaxy Quest. But come to think of it, a sequel to that film would probably not work either for the same reasons. So why be excited about MIB III? New pedigree has been added, again, in the form of Josh Brolin and Jemaine Clement, which is to be expected with Hollywood sequels. But the real upgrade might come through Etan Cohen’s screenplay. Idiocracy has become a sort of cult classic for its jabs at modern society and scarily convincing premise which suggests the meek may actually inherit the earth. Tropic Thunder was about as self-aware as movies get, de-glorifying the action and war movie genres as well as Hollywood in general. Because of this background it is fair to believe that Cohen can bring the freshness of the first MIB back to the series. On the other hand, I’m sure that’s what they were hoping for from Gordon. Like most things, this will probably be a game of “wait and see.”