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15 articles from 2009

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The Flickcast – Episode 31: Attack of the Clones

11 November 2009 11:00 AM, PST | The Flickcast | See recent The Flickcast news »

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are joined by special guest Elisabeth Rappe and they waste no time diving into a whole ne batch of topics for the show. Some of these topics include Jim Cameron’s Avatar, Francis Lawrence’s Sgt. Rock movie for Warner Bros., Will Smith’s career and his remake of Oldboy, upcoming holiday movies, Cuba Gooding, Jr.’s career, clones, clones, clones and much more.

The three also made some cool picks this week, as they always do, including Elisabeth’s pick of the Netflix movie streaming service which features tons of great content, Matt’s pick of the sci-fi classic The Last Starfighter and Chris’ pick of the new V series on ABC which features, among others, Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell, Party of Five’s Scott Wolf and Firefly’s Morena Bacarrin and Alan Tudyuk

As always, if you have comments, questions, »

- Joe Gillis

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Broadway's Manu Narayan Will Lead The Cure At Nymf 9/29-10/11

11 October 2009 2:30 AM, PDT | BroadwayWorld.com | See recent BroadwayWorld.com news »

Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams on Broadway, subUrbia at Second Stage, The Love Guru starring Mike Myers) will star in the rock and roll vampire musical The Cure, running September 29th-October 11th at the American Theatre of Actors in the upcoming 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival. Written by Mark Weiser, The Cure will feature direction from Elizabeth Lucas (Wild About Harry, The Last Starfighter, and The View From Here at Nymf), and is produced by The New York Musical Theatre Festival and Samantha Saltzman. »

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Stargate Universe Premiere: Review & Discussion

3 October 2009 7:46 AM, PDT | ScreenRant.com | See recent Screen Rant news »

Upfront: Stargate Universe premiered to a lot of hype that wasn’t completely fulfilled.  The episode was dark, as expected, but lacking in the energy I needed to really get hyped about it.  The acting wasn’t stiff, but I think the background music kept things in a very mellow state.

My devotion to the franchise kept me riveted and though I don’t think tonight’s episode was a stellar hit as some would lead you to believe, it delivered an interesting situation that will have me coming back for more… if anything, just to see if things improve or as I get more involved with the characters than I did tonight.

I don’t give everything up, but there are spoilers included below.

 

A Bit Of A Recap

The Stargate Universe opening scene has viewers watching a ship (the Destiny) drift towards them. The scene has a rather »

- Bruce Simmons

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Review – Stargate Universe – A Stargate For The Rest of Us

30 September 2009 11:26 AM, PDT | TVovermind.com | See recent TVovermind.com news »

I am not a big fan of the various Stargate TV shows. I liked the movie – by which I mean the Kurt Russel/James Spader one – but never really dug the television versions. I can’t explain why, and it is not a vehement hatred so don’t flame me, I was just never ‘hooked.’ The only reason this is significant now is because of how much I absolutely loved Stargate Universe.

I’m going to guess that Stargate Universe is going to appeal to the legions of Stargate fans out there, but before I even watched the pilot my condition for liking the show was that it had to appeal to someone who was completely unaware of the Stargate Universe as defined by SG1, Atlantis, and whatever constituent material that belongs to those worlds. Not because I loathe them so, because I don’t, but because I would be »

- Jon Lachonis

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The Last Starfighter 25th Anniversary Edition DVD Review

18 September 2009 7:01 PM, PDT | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »

One of the joys of DVD-ing is reuniting with films you enjoyed in the long-ago, and the finding out if they were as good as you remember. Sometimes they are not, which tells you a great deal about how your tastes have changed. I am happy to say that The Last Starfighter has held up well since its 1984 release. Just as enjoyable as the first time I saw it in a theater, Robert Preston’s last film features the old character actor as Centauri, an intergalactic con-man, who recruits Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), a visionary teen trapped in a remote trailer park, to be…well…the last starfighter; of course, neither Centauri nor Alex are aware that his role will be so final at the time. More after the jump:

Alex’s inborn ability for the job is revealed by his excelling at a video game, designed as a test, »

- Charles A. Coulombe

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Weekly Poll Results: Best Movie About Gamers

10 September 2009 7:09 AM, PDT | FilmJunk | See recent FilmJunk news »

Last week's poll was another strange assortment of movies from various genres, and I guess I'm not too surprised to see that the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters came out on top. If you take the poll title literally, I think it really is the best movie about gamers. Still, it's nice to see the rest of the votes spread around fairly evenly. The Wizard, Tron and eXistenZ all received plenty o' love from Film Junk readers, and we had our first ever three-way tie for 5th place between Wargames, The Last Starfighter and Grandma's Boy! Do you agree with these results? 1. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters -- 26.8% 2. The Wizard -- 15.3% 3. Tron -- 14.4% 4. eXistenZ -- 10.4% 5. Wargames -- 9.8% 5. The Last Starfighter -- 9.8% 5. Grandma's Boy -- 9.8% 8. Brainscan -- 1.7% 9. Cloak and Dagger -- 1.2% 10. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over -- 0.9% For More Daily Movie Goodness, Visit Filmjunk. »

- Sean

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Film Nerd 2.0: 'The Last Starfighter' on BluRay

7 September 2009 10:00 AM, PDT | Hitfix | See recent Hitfix news »

Welcome to Film Nerd 2.0, the first column in an ongoing series about the way I'm experiencing geek media with my oldest son.  I don't really have an overall agenda with what I will show him or when, and I think that's important.  I've been asked several times if he's seen "Star Wars" yet.  Nope.  Or the "Harry Potter" series.  Or "Lord Of The Rings."  Or "Back To The Future."  Or many things.  He's four, so I don't think those are quite appropriate yet.  Not necessarily because they're more explicit than what he has seen already, but more because they require... »

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'Gamer' Has Got Game, But These Other Movies Do Not

4 September 2009 11:00 AM, PDT | MTV Movies Blog | See recent MTV Movies Blog news »

Contrary to popular belief, movie adaptations of popular video games haven’t been that terrible. “Double Dragon” wasn’t that great, but the rest? Yes, “Super Mario Bros.” was weird as hell, but look at the source material! Dennis Hopper ruling over a dystopian city by turning people into mushrooms isn’t a that much stranger than an 8-bit Italian plumber growing a raccoon tail and using it to fly. The “Street Fighter” movie –- the first one at least -– is one of cinema’s greatest works of camp. Fifty years from now, people will throw Uwe Boll festivals. He is our new Ed Wood. “Doom” had guns and those guns were used on monsters. “Hitman” let us see Olga Kurlyenko naked. See? It hasn’t been all that bad!

No, the problem is when movies treat video games as their subject, not their inspiration. For thirty years straight, »

- John Constantine

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DVD: Review:The Last Starfighter

1 September 2009 10:01 PM, PDT | avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news »

Are you 11? Is the year 1984? If so, here’s a movie you’re going to want to see. Okay, imagine this: What if those videogames you’ve been feeding quarter after quarter were actually designed to test your skills as an intergalactic warrior? A high score will get you whisked away to another planet, where you’ll save the day to the accompaniment of vaguely John Williams-like music. Sound good? Well, step right up. To paraphrase The Big Lebowski, some movies are just the right movie for their time and place. They just fit right in there. Witness ... »

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'Last Starfighter' Blu-Ray Kicks Insterstellar Butt

19 August 2009 5:15 PM, PDT | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

This is what I bought a blu-ray player for: the ability to relive great movie memories in the highest possible quality. So it was with no small sense of enthusiastic nostalgia that I ran out to buy the new blu-ray edition of Nick Castle's The Last Starfighter. This unassuming 1984 space adventure (which is equal parts sweet, funny, exciting, and family-friendly) showed up in the summer of Gremlins and Ghostbusters, and while it certainly wasn't a Flop, it's safe to say that The Last Starfighter should have done a little better than its $29 million domestic haul. (I remember seeing it on a double feature with Richard Franklin's Cloak & Dagger. Fun night!!)

But solid movies (particularly solid sci-fi movies) tend to stick around for a good long while, and this fan favorite has been earning new friends over its 20+ years of cable re-runs and home video releases. (In case you haven't seen it, »

- Scott Weinberg

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Cinematical Seven: Our Alien Friends

18 August 2009 8:02 PM, PDT | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

There's something a bit familiar about the premise of District 9 -- namely, the part where the human makes friends with the alien. Now, District 9 is a terrific movie, and director Neill Blomkamp delivered a lot of action, violence, pathos and kick-ass special effects on a relatively small budget.

But aliens? We've been friends with aliens before. In fact, this week marks the 25th anniversary DVD/Blu-ray release of The Last Starfighter, a low-budget fan favorite that sought to cash in on the popularity of both Star Wars and video games by sending an unsuspecting teen hero on a mission to save a distant galaxy. His recruiter-slash-buddy was Centauri, an intergalactic con man (played by Robert Preston, riffing on his Music Man persona in his last role).

Some of our other favorite aliens-as-friends movies:

1. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) -- Poor old Klaatu (Michael Rennie). He's just a »

- Dawn Taylor

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New On DVD This Week

18 August 2009 4:45 PM, PDT | The Flickcast | See recent The Flickcast news »

Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray version of The Last Starfighter, Dexter Seasons 1-3 on Blu-ray and the debut of season one of Sons of Anarchy on DVD.

Check them out.

Movies

The 5 Deadly Venoms ~ Five Deadly Venoms (DVD)

Hannah Montana The Movie (3-Disc Combo Pack Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy) ~ Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lucas Till, and Emily Osment (Blu-ray)

Husbands (Extended Cut) ~ Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, and Jenny Runacre (DVD)

Julia ~ Tilda Swinton (DVD)

Kagemusha – Criterion Collection ~ Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, and Jinpachi Nezu (Blu-ray)

Last House on the Left (2009) ~ Garret Dillahunt, Monica Potter, Tony Goldwyn »

- Joe Gillis

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The Last Starfighter: 25th Anniversary - Blu-ray Review

17 August 2009 7:15 AM, PDT | Monsters and Critics | See recent Monsters and Critics news »

.Interstellar!. The Last Starfighter was a revelation to me at the time and one of the earliest films to use computer effects. The sweet film still holds up today even if the effects seem dated and quaint. It.s all about character and the film is full of them. Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) lives in a trailer park that.s off the beaten path. Alex wants more out of life than unstopping toilets at the trailer park, but the community that lives there is tight knit. He.s supposed to be going out with his girlfriend Maggie (Catherine Mary Stewart) and friends to the lake, but his handyman duties keep him from going. To relieve his disappointment he plays »

- Jeff Swindoll

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Blu-Ray Round Up, Aug. 12, 2009: ‘The Last Starfighter,’ ‘Sling Blade,’ ‘The Waterboy’

12 August 2009 2:31 PM, PDT | HollywoodChicago.com | See recent HollywoodChicago.com news »

Chicago – You won’t find the kind of diversity that exists in HollywoodChicago.com’s Blu-Ray Round-Up too many places online. Where else can modern sci-fi mingle with quarter-century-old genre product and hang out with Oscar winners and slapstick comedies? Nowhere.

The Round-Up is our regular informational column about titles that may have slipped under your radar just because they haven’t been on the cover of Entertainment Weekly or in the point-of-purchase slot at your local Blu-Ray store. Today’s edition of the Round-Up is particularly impressive with a massive comedy hit from Adam Sandler, a sci-fi cult classic, a great new TV show, and the film that made Billy Bob Thornton a star.

“Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead” was released on July 28th, 2009.

“Sling Blade,” and “The Waterboy” were released on August 4th, 2009.

“The Last Starfighter” will be released on August 18th, 2009.

“Doctor Who »

- adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

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DVD Playhouse--August 2009

10 August 2009 2:25 AM, PDT | The Hollywood Interview | See recent The Hollywood Interview news »

DVD Playhouse—August 2009

By

Allen Gardner

Watchmen—Director’S Cut (Warner Bros.) Director Zack Snyder’s film of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark graphic novel is as worthy an adaptation of a great book that has ever been filmed. In an alternative version of the year 1985, Richard Nixon is serving his third term as President and super heroes have been outlawed by a congressional act, in spite of the fact that two of the most high-profile “masks,” Dr. Manhattan (Billy Cruddup) and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) helped the U.S. win the Vietnam War. When The Comedian is found murdered, many former heroes become concerned that a conspiracy is afoot to assassinate retired costumed crime fighters. Former masks Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and still-operating Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, in an Oscar-worthy turn) launch an investigation of their own, all while the Pentagon’s “Doomsday »

- The Hollywood Interview.com

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15 articles from 2009

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