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Movies
Zachary Quinto as Spock – Pictures Leaked – Star Trek XI
Nov 13th
That’s right. Pictures are all over the net now showing Zachary Quinto as Spock in the new Star Trek XI movie. I have been posting as much information as possible regarding the new movie and I think this some great stuff.
Oh…and by the way…if you didn’t know…Zachary Quinto will be playing Spock. 
You may be familiar with him as Sylar from Heroes.
He looks pretty good in his new robes. It will be interesting to see how well he can act the part.
There are a lot more images available from JFX Online.
JFX Online says about the photos:
The scene taking place appears to be a Vulcan Council meeting in which Spock seems to be on trial. You can see JJ Abrams in a few shots conferring with Quinto. Check out all the images below.
This is of course only their guess about what’s really happening. You’ll all have to stop by and take a look when you get a chance. Let me know what you think is going on in these scenes. Enjoy!
Still Not On DVD!? Earth Star Voyager.
Nov 12th
It is possible, although unlikely, that you have heard of or seen the movie Earth Star Voyager. It is a movie released back in 1988 by Disney. It was a Disney Sunday Movie. Remember those? At that same time we also got the Disney classic Flight of the Navigator. I was only 12 at the time, so I really enjoyed the movie.
Now keep in mind that Earth Star Voyager and Flight of the Navigator are both movies you probably won’t enjoy unless you have some kind of nostalgic attachment to the movie or you’re a kid. I still enjoy watching Earth Star Voyager, so I’m certain that some of you will still enjoy watching this movie.
Earth Star Voyager, in a nutshell, is about a group of teenagers/kids that are sent to another solar system for colonization during the year 2088. These teenagers are highly skilled, educated and trained individuals. This is in an effort to help preserve the human race as humans have brought the future Earth to the brink of destruction. The movie is about this journey, adversaries they face and their adventures. I don’t want to give away too much more in case you decide to rent it.
There are two different versions of the movie floating around. There is the original version is about 240 minutes long. This is the version that originally aired on TV. There is also a condensed version of the movie that was used for the VHS/Betamax release.
Unfortunately renting it is the only way you’ll see this movie. That is because today the movie is STILL unavailable to purchase! I have made several requests to Disney on their site, but don’t see any sign that they will release the movie anytime soon. Chances are you may not even be able to rent this movie as it is very hard to come by.
So you may ask yourself, “how do you get this movie?” I have seen a few VHS to DVD transfers available on E-bay, but this is rare as it is considered a bootleg. I have gotten myself a decent copy of this movie, thanks to many torrents floating around out there, but would love to purchase a copy of it. I don’t condone using torrents for movies, but when you can’t even find it at the local movie rental store, what can you do?
I found this interesting little tidbit while reading about this movie on Wikipedia:
Earth Star Voyager fans seem to find available copies of the show either by torrent programs or private sellers. However, many agree they do not wish to have a pirated copy of the show.
While significant numbers of notes from fans since 2002 (and many more showing up as early as 1996) show up constantly asking why this show has not been released, Disney does not seem to offer any desire or effort to make this available as a release at any point in the future.
There have even been cases (while Disney denies such conversations) where Disney Movie Sales Associates have said the only place fans should even consider hope in obtaining the show, is on bootlegged media.
Of the bootleg versions available, the lesser quality media has seemed to disappear over the years, while they do occasionally pop up from time to time. Of the higher quality versions, there still seems to be two different versions available. While both contain the entire broadcast movie, one version boasts a complete movie minus the commercials and introductions -starring the former Disney CEO, Michael Eisner.
So in conclusion, I recommend watching this movie if you ever get the chance. And to Disney, please release this movie on DVD or even VHS for that matter!! I WILL buy it!
Captain Pike Cast For Star Trek XI
Nov 8th
This will be a short entry, but today a new character was cast for the new Star Trek XI movie. I have already talked about previous cast members in earlier posts, but apparently Captain Christopher Pike, a character from the original Star Trek Pilot and the Menagerie will be in the new Movie. He will be played by Bruce Greenwood.
Although I’ll not dwell on it too much, the writers from the AP that wrote this article weren’t big Star Trek fans. First they say Christopher Pike is the first Star Trek captain when we all know it is Captain Johnathan Archer. They are probably refering to the first Star Trek captain in chronological order as they appeared on TV.
The second error they make is they say Leonard Nimoy’s character Spock is the only character to survive the original pilot “The Cage.” Although this is technically true, Majel Barrett, who also starred in The Cage also went on to play Nurse Christine Chapel, Lt. M’Ress (cartoon), Lwaxana Troi, several computer voices and more.
Also of note is that Leonard Nimoy will be making an appearance in the new movie. Unfortunately it looks like William Shatner will not be in the new movie according to CNN.
I haven’t been this excited for a movie in a while. JJ Abrams will be directing it. Although I am not very familiar with him, he did direct Mission Impossible III which was pretty good. I hope to see you all there come December 25, 2008.
Looking For Free Sci-Fi Movies?
Nov 7th
Being a sci-fi fan, I can’t discount the importance the sometimes bad “B” movies from the 50′s and 60′s had in shaping the sci-fi we have today. Although many of these movies are obviously low budget, some of them are still pretty fun to watch. You can actually find a lot of these movies in the public domain for free.
Because these movies are public domain, the copyright have expired or for some other reason the movie is no longer copyright protected. You can actually do a Google Video search for some of these movies. Many of these movies are full-length.
Looking for a movie to watch right now? Plan 9 from Outer Space is a popular sci-fi classic that can be viewed right here. What is Plan 9 from Outer Space? The plot outline from the IMDB is:
“Can your heart stand the shocking facts about Graverobbers from Outer Space?” That’s the question on the lips of the narrator of this tale about flying saucers, zombies and cardboard tombstones. A pair of aliens, angered by the “stupid minds” of planet Earth, set up shop in a California cemetery. Their plan: to animate an army of the dead to march on the capitals of the world. (The fact that they have only managed to resurrect three zombies to date has not discouraged them.) An intrepid airline pilot living near the cemetery must rescue his wife from this low-budget terror. “Can you prove it *didn’t* happen?”
Bored at home or have nothing to do at work? Watch the movie right now! Enjoy! Hopefully it isn’t too painful for you. Remember, you can stop the movie at any time.
High Definition For Your Sci-Fi Movies?
Nov 5th
This isn’t news to anyone in the know, but high definition TVs are flying off the shelves at record rates. As you unpackage your new LCD, plasma or projection high-def television, you’re probably thinking of all the new things you can do with it. You probably want to get the most out of your new television.
Getting high-def cable or satellite isn’t an issue right now. In fact, it is really easy to upgrade or purchase a new receiver for your high-def TV. It looks good and you can begin watching sci-fi TV. Great! But what do you do about your DVD player?
Right now there is a huge format war going on between HD DVD and Blue-Ray DVD. Unfortunately this makes getting the most out of your new high-def TV confusing, especially as to which format you should use.
HD DVD came out before Blue-Ray and got a head start in the format war. With the release of the PlayStation 3, the market was flooded with new Blue-Ray players, allowing Blue-Ray to catch up. Blue-Ray now outsells HD DVD 2:1 according to CNet’s News.com.
In case you didn’t know, Blue-Ray is developed and supported by Sony, the people who brought you Betamax and Mini Disk players. HD DVD is developed and supported by Toshiba, the people who brought you the technology behind the standard-resolution DVD player.
Recently HD DVD saw a spike in sales thanks to the release of Transformers the movie, released by Paramount, who only puts movies out on HD DVD. The most recent Transformers movie has sold over 100,000 HD DVDs, a record for any high-definition video format.
Right now Paramount and Dreamworks exclusively releases movies on HD DVD. Blockbuster will only rent Blue-Ray disks. Confused yet? I’m sure you are. A similar format war almost happened with the standard DVD format. Wikipedia says:
In the early 1990s two high-density optical storage standards were being developed; one was the MultiMedia Compact Disc, backed by Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Density disc, supported by Toshiba, Time Warner, Matsushita Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, Thomson, and JVC. IBM’s president, Lou Gerstner, acting as a matchmaker, led an effort to unite the two camps behind a single standard, anticipating a repeat of the costly videotape format war between VHS and Betamax in the 1980s.
Philips and Sony abandoned their MultiMedia Compact Disc and fully agreed upon Toshiba’s SuperDensity Disc with only one modification, namely changing to EFMPlus modulation. EFMPlus was chosen as it has a great resilience against disc damage such as scratches and fingerprints. EFMPlus, created by Kees Immink, who also designed EFM, is 6% less efficient than the modulation technique originally used by Toshiba, which resulted in a capacity of 4.7 GB as opposed to the original 5 GB. The result was the DVD specification, finalized for the DVD movie player and DVD-ROM computer applications in December 1995.[1] In May 1997, the DVD Consortium was replaced by the DVD Forum, which is open to all other companies.
Hopefully something will eventually happen to unite the current two HD formats. Until then what should you do?
Like me, you probably already have a few sci-fi movies you like to watch. Perhaps you don’t want to fork out the money to purchase new HD DVD disks. Have you considered DVD upscaling? DVD upscalers can take your current DVDs, and with some processing power, increase the picture quality for your new HD TV.
Wikipedia says this about DVD upscaling:
Upscaling DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) Players are a reasonably cheap way of upscaling standard DVD-Video discs using a video scaler to match the pixel count of the signal to the physical pixel count on a high-definition television or computer monitor, resulting in better detail and color consistency. Standalone DVD players which feature upscaling use either a standard component video or VGA analog cable, or a DVI-D or HDMI digital cable to connect to the high-definition television. Standalone DVD players with component video or VGA output connectors use a digital-to-analog integrated circuit microchip which does the upscaling, while DVD players with DVI-D or HDMI output connectors use a digital-to-digital integrated circuit microchip which does the upscaling. Computer software DVD-Video players like PowerDVD and WinDVD also features upscaling of DVD-Video.
I am considering going with DVD upscaling for video playback until the format wars are over, someone has won or there is a good duel-format player available. DVD upscaling players are widely available and can be purchased at any electronics store as a stand-alone unit. Most DVD upscaling players use an HDMI cable for video output. I have seen these players in action and the picture quality looks very good.
My Xbox 360 can use an optional HD DVD player, at a price of about $179, that will not only play HD DVD disks, but will also upscale existing DVDs. The PlayStation 3 also touts the ability to upscale DVDs as well.
Good luck in your search for the ultimate DVD player and sci-fi movie experience!
Getting The Most From Your Sci-Fi Movie
Nov 4th
If you’re like me, you probably have wide collection of Sci-Fi DVD movies that are sitting around and collecting dust. You may have watched them once and set them to the side. I even have some movies I purchased, intending to watch them, that are still sitting around in shrink wrap.
There are a few things you can do to give your movie an extended life. The first thing I recommend is to do some research on bloopers in the movie. I love to go to the IMDB and look up a movie and read through the “goofs” as they are called. This is a collection of continuity issues, bloopers and other inconsistencies. This can be fun after watching a movie, or when re-watching a movie that has been sitting around.
A good example of this would be Star Wars. That movie, although a favorite, is filled with continuity issues, errors and bloopers. This is to be expected as many movies are filmed out of sequence and editing often causes a lot of these bloopers to make it to the final cut. There are even people hired to watch for continuity issues, but some errors still seem to make it through.
Just look up Star Wars on the IMDB. Under “Fun Stuff” they have a link called goofs. You can find Star Wars ANH goofs here. I have yet to find a movie that doesn’t have goofs and continuity issues. Look up Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn. Its has goofs as well. Although this may take away some of the “magic” of the movie, I find it fun to print out a list of goofs and re-watch the movie.
The second thing I recommend doing is looking for “Easter Eggs.” Easter eggs are bloopers, trivia and other tidbits thrown into a movie on purpose. Sometimes Easter Eggs are simply bonus features on a DVD that are not obvious to the viewer. An example of this would be the Star Wars DVDs releases a few years ago. To access the bloopers reel, you have to go through a few steps. The steps are as follows:
Put the bonus disk from the original trilogy into your DVD player and highlight “Video Games and Stills Galleries.”
Using your DVD remote, type the following numbers followed by the “enter” button:
11 (enter)
3 (enter)
8 (enter)
This will then take you to a bloopers reel with about 4 minutes of bloopers from Star Wars ANH, ESB and ROTJ. Please note that the remote control numbers are 1138. This is a number seen throughout the Star Wars movies and is the name of George Lucas’s film THX 1138. A similar Easter Egg can be found on Star Wars TPM, AOTC and ROTS.
There are several places you can go to find Easter Eggs for your movies. I recommend going to DVDEasterEggs.com or EEggs.com. There are many sites and forums out there discussing DVD Easter Eggs.
Have fun re-watching your sci-fi movies!
X-Files 2 Starts Filming Soon
Nov 1st
That’s right! If you were like me during the 90′s, there is a good chance you were a fan of the TV series X-files. There has been talk about a sequel to the 1998 hit X-files movie for years now, but it sounds like it may actually be coming to a reality soon! According to several sources, the movie may begin filming as soon as December 2007.
In a July 2007 interview with Access Hollywood, David Duchovney said:
“I’m supposed to see a script next week,” said Duchovny, adding that “X-Files” creator Chris Carter and series executive producer Frank Spotnitz wrote the screenplay.
The article continues:
The film’s story reportedly will avoid the steep (and oftentimes confusing) “alien conspiracy” mythology developed throughout the series’ nine-season run and in the first film, and will instead focus on a self-contained threat for Mulder and Scully to contend with.
“No, we’re not going into the mythology (in the sequel),” Spotnitz told SciFi.com in May of last year. “One of the things that was exciting about doing it is to not make it a mythology story, and it’s like one of the stand-alone episodes. It’s a bit scary. Of course, we will catch up with the characters and what is going on in their lives, but it’s not about the alien conspiracy. It’s not about that.”
Apparently a big part of the delay was due to a disagreement between Chris Carter and 20th Century Fox Television. A lawsuit was filed in 2005 by Chris Carter due to alleged payments owed to Carter for the television series.
The following was posted yesterday on Gillian Anderson’s official site:
The rumors were right! An “X Files” sequel is headed to theaters next summer, to be released July 25, 2008, Twentieth Century Fox announced today.
The plot is top secret for now.
The studio’s news release said only that “the supernatural thriller is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the always-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions.”
The studio confirmed that shooting will begin in December in Vancouver. The announcement comes after rumors of a sequel hit the web on Monday.
July 2008 isn’t far away and should be a great summer movie. I find it interesting that the plot will not focus on the ongoing Alien Conspiracy seen throughout the TV series. I hope they stick to the original feel the TV series had.
You can read more about the new X-files 2 movie at Countingdown.com.
Scariest Sci-Fi Movies
Oct 29th
I was recently asked what the scariest movie of all time is. There are a lot of good movies out there that would probably belong in the “Scariest Move of All Time” category. I was just reading a “Time” magazine article about the top 25 horror movies of all time. Guess what they put at number 20!?! They have Bambi listed at number 20!
Although I may not agree with their list, I did like their choice for number one horror movie. They have Shaun of the Dead at number one. That is a great movie! They also had a couple of sci-fi movies in their top 25 movies of all time.
Horror movies often have a crossover between horror and sci-fi. Many sci-fi movies have aliens and villains who fall into the “horror” category. One movie they have listed at number six “The Fly” doesn’t really seem like a sci-fi to me, although it does include many scientific elements in it, it ultimately takes place in the present and aims to scare more than anything.
I know taking place in the future doesn’t constitute a sci-fi movie, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. There are several exceptions to the “future” rule for sci-fi movies. Look at the “Terminator” movies. They have several future elements in place, but ultimately it takes place in the present. Technically they take place in the past. Predator is another movie that takes place in the present, but definitely falls under the sci-fi category in my book.
Time Magazine has “Alien” in the number seven position. It certainly warrants a position in the top 25 of all time. That is definitely a sci-fi movie, and one of the best ones out there. The sequel Aliens was just as good if not better. Alien 3 was “so-so.” Alien Resurrection makes up some ground from number 3, but still isn’t as good as the first two.
There are many good sci-fi horror movies out there, so I won’t even try to label any one as the “best” of all time, but I do have a recommendation this Halloween season. One good sci-fi you may want to consider right now, if you are looking for a good scary movie, would be “Event Horizon.” That movie is not only fun to watch, but also has a fun horror them to it.
No matter what movie you ultimately decide to watch this Halloween season, make sure it is a sci-fi movie!
What Is The Funniest Sci-Fi Movie?
Oct 25th
I have had many friends ask me which movie I think is the funniest of all time. This discussion can include a wide array of movies from old B&W “B” movies to sci-fi classics such as Mel Brooks’ famous Space Balls and the sci-fi classic movie Men in Black featuring Will Smith. I personally would have to add Mars Attacks to that list. I love that movie!
These are all great movies, but I would have to argue that the funniest and best sci-fi comedy of all time is Galaxy Quest. This could possibly be because I am such a huge Star Trek fan and this movie tastefully makes fun of Star Trek and about every other famous sci-fi genre out there.
The Thermians are hilarious and the interaction between them and the humans is hilarious. The star-studded cast is great! Many of these actors have gone on to do great and wonderful things. Here are just a few of my favorites.
Tim Allen does a great job as Commander Taggart is a great fit for the role. I have enjoyed Tim Allen in just about everything he does. He isn’t a hard one to pick out of the cast. Neither is Sigourney Weaver. She looks great in this movie and plays her role well. She has some great “one-liners.”
People you may not have known back in 1999 but may see a lot of are:
Tony Shalhoub – I thought he was very funny in the movie as the Chief Engineer. You may recognize him now as Adrian Monk in the TV series Monk.
Some great Tony Shalhoub scenes in Galaxy Quest:
How about this guy? Please note the guy on the far right.
And in his current TV show:
That would be Rainn Wilson from “The Office.”
And how about this guy:
You may have seen him in this recent series of movies:
That’s right! This is the famous Alan Rickman. Although he is well known, his talent really shows through in Galaxy Quest.
A great Alan Rickman scene from Galaxy Quest:
And Don’t forget about Justin Long who has since starred in Dodge Ball, Jeepers Creepers and Live Free or Die Hard.
There are many other actors as well that do a great job as well. You can see the full cast by going here.
If you have never seen Galaxy Quest, please go out and rent it. You can probably get it for pretty cheap now as well. I think I picked my copy up for five bucks. Let me know what you think about Galaxy Quest.
Dune Extended Edition
Oct 23rd
Dune, in my own humble opinion, is one of the best sci-fi classics out there. It strikes you as being pretty strange, but that’s what makes it so enjoyable to view. The critics didn’t like it too much either. I like to watch this at least once a year.
I currently have have the old 1984 version on VHS sitting on a shelf. I purchased the 2000 version of it a few years ago on DVD. While I like the sci-fi channel version of dune, I still enjoy the old 1984 edition more. It has some great talent, and although dated, the special effects and visuals of the 1984 edition are also fun to watch.
I have always intended on buying the 1984 edition on DVD, but have a hard time buying both on DVD and VHS. There are only five other sci-fi movies I first purchased on VHS and now own on DVD. One would be Star Wars, second would be Krull, third would be Galaxy Quest, fourth would The Fifth Element and the last is Kull the Conquerer.
I have actually never read the Dune books by Frank Herbert! That may sound like sacrilege to you, but you’ll be happy to hear that I just picked up Dune and Dune Messiah and plan on reading them both soon.
I was walking through Wal-Mart last week and saw the old 1984 edition with the extended version included. It came in a nice metal tin case. It includes the original U.S. theatrical release and the “made-for-TV” edition that David Lynch did not approve of. This is a great version to own if you are a classic Dune fan.
You may not be aware of this, but David Lynch did not approve of the extended version made for TV and asked that Alan Smithee be labeled as the director of that edition. This is the name many directors had labeled to their movies when they did not approve of the end product. Wikipedia has this to say about the term Alan Smithee:
Alan Smithee, Allen Smithee, Alan Smythee, and Adam Smithee are pseudonyms used between 1968 and 1999 by Hollywood film directors who wanted to be dissociated from a film for which they no longer wanted credit. It was used when the director could prove to the satisfaction of a panel of members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers that the film had been wrested from his or her creative control. The director was also required to keep the reason for the disavowal a secret.
Although I don’t find the extended edition of Dune to be as good as the original, it is still fun to see a different version and also see the deleted scenes.
According to the IMDB there were several versions of Dune released around the world. You can read about these different versions here.
I think this version of the 1984 Dune is a must-have version for your collection. You can pick up your own copy here
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