The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

Super 8 was probably one of the movies I was most anticipating this year. And perhaps it was that self generated hype that led to a letdown. I enjoyed the movie, but I just came out thinking that I wanted to enjoy it more. When they first released that extended trailer a few months ago, there was something magical about it that even when I watch it today, gives me a chill down my spine. It looked like all those movies from the 80s that I loved. The story follows a group of kids in a town called Lillian, Ohio who aspire to become horror movie makers by winning a local film contest. Their ragtag group has been shooting a little zombie movie on their super 8 cameras. The kids sneak off one night, joined by a girl named Alice, who happens to be the crush of the main kid, Joe. While filming a scene at the train station, they get caught in the middle of a freak accident, with a car crashing and totaling a freight train. It turns out the train was transporting a mysterious creature, kno...

After two lacklustre offerings (in X3: Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine ), X-Men: First Class explodes on to the screen with a face melting goodness not seen since X2 . It is a triumphant return and a return to form in the X-Men franchise. Set in the 60’s amidst the Cuban missile crisis, X-Men: First Class depicts the early days and the inception of the X-Men. As such, we see the origin of the friendship between Xavier (Professor X) and Erik (Magneto), destined rivals. Being an expert in mutants, Xavier is recruited by the CIA to assist in capturing a suspected mutant threat in the form of Sebastian Shaw and his Hellfire Club – a band of mutant miscreants. It’s Shaw who wants to stimulate a third World War in an effort to attain mutant supremacy. However, the CIA and the Xavier’s new team of young mutants are hot on their trail and attempt to thwart his plans in causing nuclear strikes. Meanwhile, Erik has his own agenda and seeks the blood of Shaw for the murder of his...

I’ve had a series of interesting conversations in the past 2-3 weeks, all with female friends who have described to me their life situations and relationships. With each story, a flag goes up in my head as one is similar to the next. To hear a story twice is okay, it’s not a big deal. To hear 5 or so similar stories in the span of 3 weeks tells me something is not right. It’s been really interesting and eye opening as well. To summarize, each girl has been single – either for a bit of time or just recently. Each has the mindset of wanting to be in a relationship, so there is no doubt about their intentions. Yet, nothing has been working out. And the part that intrigues me is that in each case, it’s nearly for the same reason. The common thread between each situation is that they can’t find a proper guy that will step up to the plate to play the game. From what I gather, either the guys were too shy to initiate or do anything, or if they were in a relationship, the guys were flyi...

And as it’s becoming typical, another Marvel movie has opened up the summer movie season. Yes, Thor , the movie about our favourite God of Thunder. But will it be up there with the likes of Iron Man , or lower like the second Iron Man , or worst, X-Men Origins: Wolverine ? The movie starts off with a brief history lesson on Asgard, and its relationship to Earth and the rival kingdom, Jotunheim inhabited by creatures called the Frost Giants. The Asgardian King Odin, defeated the Frost Giants, and established a peace with the warring kingdoms. The story then refocuses on two brothers, Thor and Loki, the sons of Odin. One of the brothers is destined to become the new king, and as such, they are destined on a path of rivalry. After an attempt on their kingdom, Thor, both rash and impulsive, gathers his friends to make an attack on the Frost Giants. Nearly suffering defeat, the team is saved by Odin, who in anger, banishes Thor to Earth, sans all the cool powers. He lands in the des...

I probably should have written this a week ago, but man, it’s been a busy few weeks and I’m admittedly behind on many things. But hey, better late than never! And what a movie to talk about... Fast Five ! The movie starts off as we see Dom being hauled away to prison, for crimes from the previous movie. He’s taken away in cuffs and placed on a prison bus, as his friend and sister, O’Conner and Mia look on. A high speed chase ensues as O’Conner and Mia chase after the prison bus, attempting to free Dom. They speed in front of the bus and grind to a stop. The prison bus hits the little sports car, sending the bus flying and flipping through the air. Yet somehow, the sports car is umoved and undamaged! Cue opening titles. The opening scene pretty much tells you where the rest is going. The movie then fast forwards to Rio, where the rest of the movie takes place. To avoid arrest in the US, the band is in Brazil conducting small heists to get by. Unfortunately, they steal a car o...

The movie going public can sometimes be frustrating. We cry about the lack of originality and complain about the onslaught of prequels, sequels, spin-offs and what-have-you, yet when we’re finally given something new and original, we don’t go out and see it. And that’s exactly what happened with Source Code . Source Code , which received a whopping 90% on RT opened with a measly $14 million on its debut weekend (second only to Hop which did a ridiculous $37 mil despite being slammed all around). Which tells me one thing – our western nation is full of idiots. Moving on. Source Code follows Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) who wakes up one day on a train in front of a complete stranger. He has no idea what’s happened or how he got there and has no idea why this woman in front of him is calling him Sean. After a bout with confusion, he winds up in the washroom of the train. When he looks into the mirror, it’s not his own face he sees but the face of a man he doesn’t kno...

World Invasion: Battle L.A. Oh no. This was not a good movie. There isn’t very much to the story. The movie takes place in August 2011, when one day aliens decide to invade our world. As it goes, the aliens have pretty much taken all over all of the major cities on the west coast… all save for Los Angeles. The movie follows Staff Sergeant Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) and his platoon of grunts as they look for a way to save the city and any civilians that they come across. Battle L.A. is a lazy man’s Independence Day , without the fun or the tongue in cheek smarminess of Will Smith (awww hay-llll naw!). The story moves A to B without any feeling or emotion. What also hurts is the lack of a climax that is almost pivotal in big action blockbuster type movies. It lacks the sense of direness that one would associate with a world invasion. So the story doesn’t give you anything worth buying into and what’s worse is that they don’t give you any characters worth investing into either. Eve...