New Line’s Journey to the Center of the Earth is a flimsy plot – loosely based on Jules Verne’s novel of the same name – used to set up a string of wild [and at times gross and/or grotesque] 3D effects. The good news is that the combination of cast and CG effects make it – literally – a great ride.

Trevor Anderson’s [Brendan Fraser] work on seismic effects is threatened by a lack of results. When his nephew, Sean [Josh Hutcherson], comes to visit, a comment on his dad’s favorite book [guess...] leads to the discovery that seismic shifts lead to an unexpected location – and the figures match, precisely, those from the time when Trevor’s brother, Max, disappeared. The figures lead Trevor and Sean to Iceland and a mountain guide, Hannah Ásgeirsson [Anita Briem], whose father was a colleague of Max’s. Before you know it, the three are at the center of the planet!

Outside of encounters with luminescent birds, extinct dinosaurs, piranha the size of Great Danes and other odd occurrences, that’s all there is to it. What makes it work is that Fraser, Hutcherson and Briem give themselves over to the thrill ride completely. The screenplay, by Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, gives our heroes plenty of exciting situations to deal with – and a number of good [if not terribly memorable] lines to keep us the edges of our seats. Eric Brevig’s direction is frenetic enough that, even with a few pauses for breath and a bit of emotional interplay, the film zips by in a compact ninety-three minutes – without feeling too short. The 3D is generally very good, though there are a few places where it is outstanding. My personal favorite [which is to say, the one that made me jump the highest] involves a piranha – and I guarantee you won’t see it coming [sorry...].

It’s a pity that Journey to the Center of the Earth opens the same weekend as Hellboy II and the new Eddie Murphy movie [which is likely not half as much fun]. It would be a shame to see it get lost in the box office shuffle. It’s far too much pure fun for that.

Final Grade: B

Today I participated in a call with Battlestar Galactica’s iconic Six (Tricia Helfer) to talk about her role in the July 10 premiere of USA’s new hit show Burn Notice. Of course Galactica came up as well and we got some great tidbits from her. The transcript from the call will be coming later this week. To wet your appetite. Here are some little tidbits.

• Tricia will be in 7 Episodes of Burn Notice playing a mysterious spy. She’ll be in the first two episodes of the season, the season finale and a couple in 2009.
• Her character is the public face of the organization that burned Michael.
• She really liked the being on the set and said it was a real welcoming environment.
• She talks a bit about the difference between Vancouver and Miami, Fl. Said she had to get use to it being sunny in Fla.
• She has a list of DVD Sets that she wants to watch since she doesn’t watch much television. She likes quirky shows like Madmen and Weeds. Is currently watching Dexter, 24, and Arrested Development.
• When asked if she uses the word Frak in her every day life she no. Primarily because her character on Galactica rarely says it. But Frak has become part of other cast and crew’s vocabulary.
• She didn’t have to audition for the Burn Notice part. Matt called her up and said he had a part for her.
• She’s shooting a pilot for a new Fox Television show called Inseparable. She’s playing a Psychologist to the lead. It’s about a cop who was shot and paralyzed. He develops a split personality one that’s crippled and the other one who isn’t. She’s not in the Pilot episode that much because they are establishing the main character.
• She was great to talk to, wasn’t at all squeamish about talking about BSG and what her post BSG life will be like.
• She will be at Comic-Con as part of a Cylon/Human couple. Doesn’t know if the Burn Notice folks will be doing anything.
• She hasn’t been following the looming strike.

EM Interview Highlights

By Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 7.2.2008

With an A-story that features the love story between WALL*E [Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class] and EVE [Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator], and a B-story that involves humanity’s possible return to a post-apocalyptic Earth, WALL*E is more than a bit of a gamble on PIXAR’s part.

Neither WALL*E nor EVE has a large vocabulary [at least, in terms of actual words - he has a number of R2D2-like sounds that clearly express what he's feeling, and she has her own electronic vocabulary as well] - and neither has what you could call a real face [he's a pair of binoculars on a box and she's a floating egg with occasional arms & hands] - and yet we always know exactly what they are thinking and feeling.

Their romance is a classic one - and simultaneously poignant and hilarious – even though the film goes almost twenty minutes before a word of English is spoken.

The B-story features humans who have, in 700 years in space, become obese figures on floating couches/chairs. They live on a gigantic starship called the Axiom, where they are waited on, hand & foot, by robots of all sizes, shapes and functions [there’s more than a bit of eco-satire here, and it’s quite sharp].

The appearance of EVE [and WALL*E] with a fragile little plant from Earth should signal a return to Earth, but there are problems…

WALL*E does pay homage to various classic SF films [he resembles ET more than Johnny 5, and the ship's autopilot, Otto, will certainly remind one of Hal from 2001], but homages are only cool if the film is worth seeing.

WALL*E is, quite frankly, dazzling. Purely from a cinematography perspective, almost every frame of the film is a perfect composition - and yet not predictable, or in any way sterile.

Some of the best moments include the realization that the deserted city we first see is only partly man-made [you'll see what I mean...]; the lovely moment from the trailer when WALL*E trails his hand through asteroid dust like a little boy trailing his fingers through the water as a motorboat zips across a lake [see photo]; the beautiful skyscapes that open the film, and so many more [including the fact that WALL*E is hooked on Hello, Dolly – and has a cockroach as his only friend!].

WALL*E is the best film of the year - let alone the summer - so far. Easily. It may be too intense or hard to follow for younger children [the lady and four kids, ages about three to six, who were sitting next to me got up and left well before WALL*E reached the Axiom], so you should be aware of that.

Grade: A+

When people ask me what my top 10 favorite films of all time are, I generally ignore the question because it only gives people a chance to try and come across as pretentious. Oh, they’ll say the usual, “The Godfather,” “Citizen Cane,” “Psycho,” “Gone With the Wind,” etc. Personally, I despise “Citizen Cane,” and think “The Godfather” is good, but overrated, “Wind” bores me to tears. My top 10 always changes but my favorite film has never changed – my answer has always been “V – The Original Mini-series.” Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson crafted a masterpiece with this movie. If it aired today, it probably wouldn’t have had the same impact on me as it did when I was a kid. I’m more jaded and the Internet would have ruined all of the surprises the movie had.

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Civil unrest; civil war; a potential for mutiny and character death – this week’s Battlestar Galactica episode, The Ties That Bind, is picking up the pace. Outside of Cavil’s response to last week’s little fracas with the Centurions, did anyone see any of this happening? Spoilers follow.

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Wow, tonight/today is a big day for me. I get the new Call of Duty 4 maps today and tonight is the premiere of the Final (sort of) season of Battlestar Galactica. Luckily I don’t have to choose between playing COD or watching BSG because the kind folks over at Sci-Fi sent me a copy of the screener earlier this week. They made me sign away my life to get it, but it was sort of worth it.  Here’s the thing, I love all things BSG, but I thought last season sucked. After the amazing first six episodes of the season, it just spun it’s wheels until the big season ending reveal.  Watching tonight’s episode, I had that feeling again. Like come on, let’s get to the point and move the story along.  I have no doubt that once all 10 eps of this shortened season air, it’ll become clear how brilliant this show still is.  BSG opened with a bang, they obviously have a bigger budget for their final season and they spent it beefing up the show’s SFX.  There are lots of big sploshings in all it’s CGI glory. The ships make beautiful orange fireballs.

The writers clearly have a plan and now that they know the show has a definite end, I’m 100 percent sure it’s going to go out with a bang.  The question is, are they going to play coy with us fans and move everything at a snail’s pace until we get to the big moments. Again, I’m not saying tonight’s episode is bad, it’s really good, but it also felt kind of blah. The problem is, BSG is known for it’s drama and characters and that seemed to take a back seat to the new enhanced SFX. The crew’s reaction to Kara’s return from the dead was spot on. I’m kind of sick to death of the whole “Who is a Cylon?” theme as well. As usual the stuff with Gaius was terrible. It looks like this season he’s going to become some Jim Jones like cult leader - which is just stupid. The ending was definitely intriguing, but the way Sci-Fi built hyped it up, I was expecting a really huge reveal. Something that’s going to propel the story forward or fundamentally change everything. Instead what I got was, that’s it? I know I sound negative; tonight’s premiere is a good opening, just not as great as I wanted it to be.

Final Grade B

EM Review
by Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted 4.4.08

On Friday, I had the opportunity to take part in a teleconference with Starbuck, herself - Katee Sackhoff, of the Peabody Award-winning Battlestar Galactica. She talked about her reaction to the mind-bending prophecy that Starbuck was a harbinger of doom; which is tougher - love scenes, or fight scenes; who she thinks Starbuck should wind up with [if indeed she wainds up with anyone...]; how she’d like the series to end for Starbuck, and much more.

Battlestar Galactica returns to the Sci Fi Channel Friday at 10/9C.

Note: There were some reception problems, so there will be an occasional word or phrase missing [replaced with the word unintelligible].

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"Alien vs. Predator: Requiem" is the darkest tale to be spun out of the twin horror franchises. Dark doesn’t mean moody, or complex, or any of the interesting qualities affixed to the word. It’s dark as in poorly illuminated. How dark? Entire sequences go by in a black blur, with only an Alien screech here and a Predator trill there to tell us what’s going on. Like Roland Emmerich’s "Godzilla," "Requiem" is set either at night, during a rainstorm, or both.

At times, "Requiem" is so misbegotten you’ll wish the entire screen just went black and stayed that way. "Requiem" opens with a ship containing both Aliens and a Predator/Alien hybrid crashing down to earth, or more specifically, a small Colorado ‘burb. The creatures escape the downed spacecraft and start doing what they do best - indiscriminately killing humans. A second Predator later lands in the same Colorado town to wipe out the new Alien infestation.
Meanwhile, a pizza boy named Ricky (Johnny Lewis) is trying to get the attention of his crush (Kristin Hager), but the gal’s boyfriend keeps beating him to the punch, literally. Then there’s Ricky’s brother (Steven Pasquale), who just got out of prison but is on remarkably good terms with the local sheriff (John Ortiz, earning the dubious prize as the stiffest actor in the lot).  

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Fans of the CW’s hit series SUPERNATURAL must have thought they were the latest victims of The Twilight Zone since good news concerning this gem isn’t usually easy to come by. After all, the little-show-that-could seems to have worse luck than its own Winchester brothers when it comes to competition and media exposure. The CW unleashed some of that infamous bad luck when it decided to juggle its shows during the writer’s strike. It unveiled a schedule that would be entirely void of the series from the time it aired its last pre-strike episode on February 28 until its post-strike return on April 24. Fans reacted with a barrage of postcards, e-mails, and letters asking “Where’s Supernatural?” making one wonder exactly how much this affected the decision to return the show to the schedule a month earlier than expected.

And if that wasn’t enough to give fans hope, The CW did the unthinkable when it announced renewal for Season 4, a full two months ahead of the May Upfronts, where all networks outline their Fall plans. Adding further icing to this cake of exhilaration, Amazon posted a planned release date for the third Supernatural tie-in novel, “Bone Key”. In light of all the good news, fans were indeed busy pinching themselves to verify they weren’t dreaming.

We recently caught up with author Keith R.A. DeCandido, who has already made his mark in media universes such as Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, World of Warcraft, Spider-man and Resident Evil, to name a few. The first Supernatural novel, ”Nevermore”, crafted a two-in-one adventure for demon-hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester. In the story, the brothers visit a friend in the Bronx to rid him of a house ghost, while also investigating a killer basing his gruesome crimes on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. Following the success of “Nevermore”, Keith has been working on the new Supernatural novel, “Bone Key.” The announcement of a fourth season has certainly given Keith a reason to celebrate as it will assist the novel in sales — after all, it is much easier to promote a tie-in novel for an existing series than a canceled one.

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John Woo’s (Mission: Impossible II, Face/Off) first Anime production, Appleseed: Ex Machina, directed by Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Bubblegum Crisis) on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc. Based on the popular science fiction manga from renowned creator Shirow Masamune (Ghost in the Shell), Appleseed: Ex Machina follows partners and lovers, Deunan and Briareos.

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