District 9

Rated R for language, violence, gore

Starring Sharlto Copley

Set in 1982, an alien spaceship comes to Earth and hovers directly above Johannesburg, South Africa. Supposidly part of the ship broke off and dropped to Earth, but was unable to be found, leaving this ship stranded on our planet. After no activity from the ship for some team, an exploratory team flies up to the ship and opens it up to find a million starved and dying creatures that look like giant arthropods. In an attempt to help the creatures surivive, they brought down to Earth and placed in a slum community, named District 9, under the watch of MNU, Multinational United, who polices the district, as the inhabits, referred to derogatorily as "Prawns" are becoming more and more destructive.

It is decided that District 9 is running out of space and the Prawns will need to be relocated to the newly formed District 10. Heading up the operation is Wikus van de Merwe, who is forced to serve the Prawns with eviction notices, informing of them of the move. However, one alien, known to us as Christopher Johnson, and his young son, resist Wikus and the MNU, as Christopher seems to have a higher intellect that the others and understand his rights. While raiding Christopher's shack, Wikus discovers a strange container and takes it with him, however, not knowing what it is, Wikus tampers with it, causing it to spray him in the face.

Within the next 12 hours, Wikus falls ill and starts to change, physically, developing an arm like the aliens. After being taken into MNU custody, they begin to test Wikus' new arm, and discover that he can operate the alien's weaponry, as it is only responsive to their DNA. MNU then decides to cut open Wikus and vivisect him, however he freaks out and runs to District 9 for refuge, where he again encounters Christopher and his son. Christopher tells Wikus he can change him back eventually, but first they need to break into MNU and retrieve the canister Wikus took earlier from Christopher, as it contained just enough fuel to get the alien ship started up again and take them back to their home planet.

While a bit graphic and violent for some, District 9 deals a lot with the theme of racism. Wikus treats the Prawns poorly as he is evicting them, but then begins to see things from the other side once he begins to turn into one of them.

If you like sci-fi adventures and don't mind a bit of graphic violence, be sure to visit District 9.

DVD Review: Run Lola Run

Rated R for violence and language

Starring Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu

Run Lola Run is a German thriller with English subtitles that follows the story of Lola and her boyfriend Manni.

It starts out with Lola receiving a phonecall from a paniced Manni, who tells her he lost a bag containing 100,000 Deutsche Marks that was supposed to be dropped off to crime boss Ronnie. As it turns out, Lola was supposed to pick up Manni after he made an exchange for the money, however her scooter was stolen and she was unable to meet him, causing him to have to take the subway, where he runs into some guards and panics, accidently leaving the money behind. Manni is convinced that if he does not deliver the money to Ronnie in 20 minutes, he will be killed. He also tells Lola that he is contemplating robbing a nearby supermarket, to recoup at least some of the money he lost, however Lola tells him to just wait 20 minutes for her to get there, as she has a few ideas up her sleeve.

Lola has 20 minutes to get to the money and meet Manni. This takes her 3 different times to get it right however, as various minor events on her journey cause other things to happen in a butterfly effect sort of way. Each attempt though, Lola seems to learn until she finally gets it right. It's almost like a video game, where each failed attempt at the level, puts you back at the beginning to restart it and try again until you get it right.

It was a very interesting movie and although we're seeing the same thing happen 3 different times, it is fun to notice how 1 thing at the beginning of each attempt can affect something major later on. For example, Lola encounters a dog at the beginning of the first and second attempt, slower her down in one attempt, while giving her more time another. This becomes significant as she has to time the encounter just right to put her in the right place at the right time.

Definitely worth a view if you haven't seen this one before!

Inglourious Basterds

Rated R for langauge, violence

Starring Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Bruhl, BJ Novak, Samm Levine, Harvey Keitel, Mike Myers

Taking place in an alternate history, Quentin Tarantino's latest, Inglourious Basterds, tells the tell of a ragtag team of Jewish American's who were a thorn in the Nazi's side. The Basterds would ambush Nazi troops and skin the scalps of the dead, while branding the survivors they let live with swastika's carved into their foreheards. After getting word that a Nazi propaganda film will be premiered at a small cinema in Paris and that all the Nazi heads, including Hitler himself, will be in attendance, The Basterds decide this would be the perfect chance to put an end to the war and the Nazi regime.

In a parallel storyline, at the beginning of the film, we are introduced to Jewish Shosanna Dreyfus, who barely escapes with her life, after her and her family are outed from hiding at a neighboring farmer's house after a visit from "The Jew Hunter" Colonel Landa. Being the only survivor of the masaccre of her family, Shosanna assumes a new identity in Paris, and tries to live a quiet life operating a small cinema with her new boyfriend and projectionist Marcel. Unfortunately, she catches the eye of Nazi warhero and actor Fredrick Zoller, who insists her cinema would be perfect for the premiere of a new Nazi propaganda film which he stars in. She is terrifed at first, as it was the Nazi who killed her family and she is afraid they'll finish the job if they learn she is really Jewish, however after thinking it over, she agrees, plotting with Marcel that it would be the perfect revenge on the Nazi's to trap them in her cinema during the film and burn it to the ground with them inside.

Sure the film had it's stomach turning moments, with The Basterds being ruthless and gruesome in the way they kill some of the Nazi's, however the overall story was very well done. The whole time you're routing for The Basterds and Shosanna to achieve their unknown shared goal of putting an end to Hitler and the Nazi's.

Several parts of the film also include French and German dialogue with subtitles.

While not for the kids, if you like historic films and works from this particular time period, be sure not to miss this one!

DVD Review: Paycheck

Rated PG13 for action violence, brief language

Starring Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Aaron Eckhart, Paul Giamatti

Michael Jennings is a reverse engineer, who for a large amount of money will analyze a client's competitor's products and come up with new, better designs on the original. After each job, he has his memory erased to protect the clients intellectual property. Usually, a typical job for Michael lasts about 2 months, however he is offered a job from former college friend and now CEO of Allcom James Rethrick to work on a project that could take 3 years, but with a huge paycheck. Michael agrees and takes up residence in Allcom.

3 years comes and goes, Jenning's memory is reset and goes to collect to his paycheck, only to learn that he signed off on it earlier, and instead of his personal possessions he was forced to leave in an envelope when he enter Allcom, he receives an envelope with an assortment of random items. Trying to figure out what is going on, he is aprehended by the FBI, which he manges to escape. Turning to an old friend as well as a biologist he fell in love with during his time at Allcom, he tries to piece together what it was he worked on during his time at Allcom and why people are after him.

Paycheck is an action adventure sci-fi film directed by John Woo. While a bit of a roller coaster ride, Paycheck delivers when it comes to fun entertainment at the movies.

DVD Review: Fanboys

Rated PG13 for language, drug content, sexuality

Starring Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Kristen Bell, Seth Rogen

On Halloween 1998, Eric reunites with his high school buddies Linus, Hutch, Windows and Zoe, however tension runs deeps, as Eric is the only one of the group who has moved on past high school, while the rest haven't changed one bit, however they still all share a love for Star Wars. After learning that Linus has cancer and is only given 4 months to live, while Star Wars: Episode 1 doesn't come out for another 6 months, the gang decides to drive out to Skywalker Ranch and steal a rough cut of the film, so Linus can see the next Star Wars installment before he dies.

Their trek takes them to various stops on their road trip and rekindles the friendship they once had.

If you're a geek and/or enjoy sci-fi films and Star Wars and Star Trek you'll enjoy this fun geeky adventure. While the focus of the film is Star Wars episode one, we do get to witness a bit of the Star Wars vs Star Trek rivalry among fans. This is one sci-fi comedy that you don't want to miss!

DVD Review: The Spirit

Rated PG13 for comicbook violence and action, sexuality, brief nudity

Starring Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes

In Central City, the masked Spirit is a vigilante who protects the city. After a tip from the Detective that something big is going on near the docks that could include Spirit's arch-nemesis The Octopus, he rushes to the scene, where he finds the Detective dead and only 1 of 2 chests remaining. He also encounter The Octopus and the 2 duke it out for quite sometime until The Spirit is knocked unconscious, waken up a bit later at the hospital, appearing fully healthy despite being shot. Trying to find who killed the Detective and why, The Spirit finds a golden locket on the Detective's body that he recognizes as belonging to his childhood friend Sand Saref.

The Spirit, directed by Frank Miller, is reminiscent of Miller's previous work in Sin City, having the same stylized action and comicbook feel to it. The plot however, if you're not paying attention, can become a bit confusing as well.

If you enjoy comicbook films and liked Sin City, be sure to check this one out as well, as it's much of the same, but on a PG13 scale, otherwise, you're not missing much if you decided to skip this one.

DVD Review: Adventureland

Rated R for language, drugs, teen drinking, sexuality

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Starr, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig

It's Summer 1987 and James has just graduated from college and is looking forward to spending his summer in Europe and attending grad school at Columbia in the fall. That is, until his parents announce that due to financial problems, they won't be able to help out with the money for either as was originally planned. In an attempt to at least have some money to put towards grad school, James takes a summer job at the local amusement park, Adventureland, where he is assigned to the games area.

Throughout the summer, James spends his days at Adventureland mingling with the other staff, which include saracastic Joel, popular Lisa P., Sue, childhood friend Frigo, and repair technication Mike who is older than the rest of the kids working the park and despite being married, has a habit of picking a different girl each summer to have an affair with. There is also Em, who saves James from being knifed by a disgruntled customer. The two begin hanging out regularly outside work and James believes he is falling for Em, however she is a complete mess, and is secretly hooking up with Mike throughout the summer.

Despite not being in theaters long, Adventureland was a pretty good film about summer work and romance.

Filmed on location at historic Kennywood just outside Pittsburgh, PA, it really does feel like 1987 with the clothes, cars, music. Having just visited Kennywood weeks before I saw this film, it was really neat to watch the movie and see all the rides and locations in the park that I had just been at.

This one is definitely worth a view in case you missed it!