Nerd in the 'Noke

The A-Team (2010), PG-13 - Like many people my age, I grew up watching The A-Team on tv. It started in 1983 and ran for 5 seasons. Outside of a few random re-runs seen during my college years, I'm pretty sure I haven't re-watched any of those old episodes. Having said that, I was still fairly leery of this big screen adaptation going into it. Could a movie made almost 30 years later possibly hit on the same things that made the tv show so popular without destroying the fond memories of the show from my childhood? Quite surprisingly, the answer is yes. The plot isn't anything ground breaking, but it does the job. The A-Team is comprised of 4 Rangers who complete special missions (quite often of the black-ops variety) for the Army. After an operation goes bad, they are wrongly accused, striped of their ranks and imprisoned. The movie then follows their shenanigans as they break out and proceed to attempt to clear their names by proving their innocence. The c...

Splice (2009), R, 104 minutes - Splice is the story of a pair of scientists, Clive and Elsa (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley respectively) push the edge of accepted legal and ethical practices when they splice human DNA into their latest experiment. They had previously made a scientific breakthrough when they spliced together DNA strands from a handful of species to create an entirely new species. The goal that they hoped to reach with the new species was to be able to synthesize it's genes to create vaccines for livestock. Clive and Elsa believe that with the inclusion of human DNA, they would be able to instead synthesize genes that could lead to cures for many human diseases. When their financial backers want to focus on the development of the genes for livestock vaccines as opposed to pushing ahead with the ethical question mark that would be working with human DNA, the pair decide to conduct an experiment including human DNA off the books. The result is a creature they co...

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), PG-13, 106 minutes - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was the post HeroesCon movie this year joining the ranks of such classically mediocre films as Superman Returns, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Hulk (Edward Norton), and Terminator: Salvation. It also happens to be the latest video game property to be adapted to the big screen. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead character Dastan, an orphan of the streets of Persia who became the adopted son of the King after the King witnessed Dastan stand up for a fellow orphan when the King's guard's caught him stealing. Dastan grows up to lead what is basically a special forces unit in the Persian Army. Dastan's unit is the group actually breaches the defenses of the holy city of Alamut when Dastan's brother Prince Tus decides to invade because he was told that Alamut had been supplying Persia's opposition with weapons. It is during this invasion that Dastan comes ac...

This is some of the worst movie related news I've heard in quite a while. Due to continuing delays in the production, Guillermo del Toro has withdrawn from directing The Hobbit. When it was officially announced that Peter Jackson would not be filming the LOTR prequel (or in the film version's case prequels) I was disappointed but not surprised considering all of the financial issues that arose post LOTR. Then I was excited when they announced that Guillermo del Toro would take Jackson's place at the helm of The Hobbit. His work on films such as Pan's Labyrith, the Hellboy films, and to a lesser extent Blade II really showed off his amazing imagination, style and design creation that made him a perfect fit to adapt further stories from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. The only good news that comes from this announcement is that del Toro will remain a co-writer of The Hobbit screenplays (along with Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens). Here's hoping that Th...

Shrek Forever After (2010), PG, 93 minutes - The fourth and supposedly final installment in the Shrek franchise focuses on Shrek's life after the events of Shrek the Third. On the day of his children's first birthday we find Shrek having a bit of a mid-life crisis. He loves his family but misses the days when he could do what he wanted, when he wanted, and not be interrupted or distracted. Enter Rumpelstiltskin. He offers to trade Shrek one day like the day he craves so much in exchange for one day from Shrek's childhood that he can't even remember. Shrek thinks this is a good deal and signs Rumpelstiltskin's contract. He then falls into an alternate universe where he never married Fiona, doesn't know Donkey, and can go about his life as a scary old ogre. As one can imagine, Rumpelstiltskin's deal wasn't on the up and up. Shrek quickly learns that he's been duped and has until the end of the day to trigger the contract's exit clause or ...

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), NR, 152 minutes - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is based on Swedish author Stieg Larsson's first novel in his Millenium Trilogy titled 'Men Who Hate Women' (we silly Americans found it necessary to change the title). Many good things have been said about this trilogy, but I have yet to read it myself. I found myself having to decide whether to watch the movie then go back and read the book(s), or add the book(s) to my growing list of things to read and then watch the film at a later date. Two things helped me make my decision: 1) an old college friend Kerri (check out her book blog here ) both highly recommended the book and thought I should go ahead and see the movie first (this was a good call, as I'm not the world's fastest reader). 2) the Grandin Theatre, which is about a mile down the road (and the only theater around that ever screens such foreign films) began showing it this weekend. Suffice to say, everything ...

The Slammin' Salmon (2009), R, 90 minutes - The Slammin' Salmon is brought to us by Broken Lizard - the same group that provided us with Super Troopers and Beerfest. While not being as movie quote friendly as either of those two, it is a pretty entertaining restaurant based comedy. The Slammin' Salmon an upscale seafood restaurant owned by Cleon 'Slammin' Salmon (Michael Clarke Duncan) the heavyweight champion boxer. He ran up a $20,000 gambling debt to the leader of the Yakuza on a recent trip to Japan and has to come up with the money by the next morning. He instructs his restaurant manager that the waitstaff must have a record night so that he can come up with the cash to pay off the Yakuza (the restaurant record is in the neighborhood of $15,000). After the waitstaff gets off to a slow start, he sweetens the deal by offering a $10,000 bonus to the waiter/waitress who brings in the most money. 'Isn't that counterproductive?' you ask? Well, y...

Robin Hood (2010), PG-13, 140 minutes - The latest Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe collaboration is not the Robin Hood story we've all grown up with. Instead it's an alt continuity story of how Robin Hood became the outlaw that robs from the rich and steals from the poor that we are all familiar with. When you get right down to it, Ridley Scott's version is a prequel that mixes up character's histories while they still filling the same roles within the story. Russell Crowe stars as Robin Longstride. That's right, Longstride. Not Loxley as in previous incarnations. Longstride actually poses as Robert Loxley at Sir Walter Loxley's (Robert's father) request after Robert and his fellow knights were killed in an ambush as they attempted to return the recently deceased King Richard's crown back to the palace (he was killed in battle). It seems like an odd request, but Sir Walter (Max von Sydow) knows that if news of his son's death reaches the public, t...

MarvelMasterworks.com - I came across this link today while I was trying to look up the actual release date for the Brubaker/Lark Daredevil Vol. 2 Omnibus (was 5/5/10, is now 6/3/10) and figured I'd share it with those of you who also have an inner comic book nerd. It's not just a list of all of the Omnibus releases from Marvel, it's also a list of all of the printings and variants that have been available. It also provides links to various retail locations (i.e. Tales of Wonder and Amazon ) from which these great collections can still be purchased.

Iron Man 2 (2010), PG-13, 124 minutes - Iron Man 2 kicks off the 2010 summer movie schedule with a bang. It's bigger, louder, wittier, and more action filled than the original. Version 1.0 however, is still the superior story. Robert Downey Jr retains his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in a film that sees the character struggle with even greater levels of fame (after his admission of being Iron Man at the end of the first film) and deteriorating health (his body has an adverse effect to the element powering the arc reactor in his chest), while trying to stave off a new threat to his 'privatized world peace'. Downey Jr continues to be the perfect embodiment of Tony Stark. Mickey Rourke (Ivan Vanko) and Sam Rockwell (Justin Hammer) provide the villainous combo hellbent on tearing down Tony Stark and his legacy from the ground up by using variations on his own technology against him. If it sounds familiar, it's because it is. The decision to go with virtually the s...