The FilmJabber Movie Blog

Battlestar Galactica is done, but Caprica is just beginning. Sci-Fi Channel hopes fans acknowledge that transition and stick around because one is just like the other, right? Oh, and for the fact that the channel doesn’t have much else to offer.

Caprica is set 50 years before BSG on Caprica, which in only a few decades will be obliterated by Cylon nuclear weapons. The show, apparently, will focus on political, religious and moral issues through the eyes of two families – led by Daniel Graystone, a super-rich genius who is on the verge of recreating life (read: Cylons) and an outsider with a powerful past, Joseph Adama. Similar to today’s issues, the seemingly bright and shiny civilization of Caprica is cracked with questionable ethics, corporate greed and personal ambition that, as we all know, will eventually lead to their downfall.

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Mickey Rourke and The Wrestler arrive on DVD this Tuesday, April 21, 2009. Rourke, easily considered the biggest comeback kid of 2008 – if not the 21st century – went from career obscurity to major Oscar contender overnight with his tragic performance as an aging professional wrestler in Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece.

The Wrestler was denied Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director despite the movie’s superiority to the other films in the race. Frankly, this one makes Slumdog Millionaire look like a TV movie – but voters tend to like the feel-good over the flat-out brilliant. Thankfully, the movie garnered some attention through Rourke’s close race with Sean Penn for Best Actor – and Marisa Tomei’s Oscar-nominated performance.

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DreamWorks Animation’s latest, Monsters vs. Aliens, is an attempt to combine the world of Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles to make an action-packed comedy where… monsters battle aliens. The movie is also in 3D, and thank God for that; its visuals are its saving grace.

In Monsters vs. Aliens, a planet explodes, sending a meteorite to Earth. No, Kal El is not on board, but the meteorite does cause one soon-to-be-married bride named Susan Murphy to grow into a gigantic woman and get shipped away by the government to a special holding area for monsters. Her roommates include a scientist-turned-cockroach, a half-man, half-reptile creature, a gigantic, furry insect and a gelatinous blob that sounds a lot like Seth Rogen. When aliens invade to reclaim the power that Susan has absorbed, however, these monsters become humanity’s last chance for survival.

Read the full Monsters vs. Aliens movie review.

Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation debuted on NBC between two episodes of The Office last week, and had its second episode last night. The comedy runs in the vein of The Office, in that it’s about a manager who is so not-self-aware in regards to her job that she doesn’t realize how idiotic and stupid she comes off as. The rest of the cast is similar to the hit TV show in that they range from semi-serious to equally absurd; the show itself is created, produced and written by the same folk.

But is Parks and Recreation essentially splitting the talent and jokes with The Office, resulting in two bland shows? Neither the characters nor comedy are identical so one show isn’t right out stealing from the other, and yet one wonders if the creative talent doesn’t have enough time to focus on both shows to the degree they need.

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Back in December, we reported that Bryan Fuller was returning to Heroes after he had moved on to do the two-season Pushing Daisies. Fuller was one of the original masterminds of the first season, which was so excellent in so many ways. Though no one could necessarily attribute the show’s sudden decline to Fuller’s absence, it became clear early on in Season 3 that Heroes was lacking something.

Two-and-a-half months after that announcement, the show was worse than ever, leading me to make many suggestions on how to improve Heroes. Season 3 was a complete cluster, full of characters who were shells of their former selves. And then, five episodes ago, something happened. Things started happening for the better. The characters began to settle down. Plot lines began to cement. Story arcs were reduced or finished. Episode 19 and 20 marked some major transitions in the show. You may not have realized it at the time, but look at what happened: Sylar finally finds his dad and loses his annoying sidekick; Ali Larter’s character is killed off in stupendous fashion; Micah is brought back to the show in a very satisfying way; Hiro regains at least some of his powers; and Nathan and Danko finally break it off.

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2008′s remake of the science-fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still was not, when all things were said and done, a box office failure, but Fox had to be disappointed with its lackluster opening weekend, lukewarm critical reception and quick fade from theaters.

The overall so-so response sums up the movie pretty well. The Day the Earth Stood Still is good, but not great. It’s entertaining, but not thrilling. It’s intriguing, but not exciting. In other words, it’s sort of like the original, only… not original.

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Mike Judge is behind a little movie you may have heard of called Office Space, which can only be described as one of the biggest cult film I can imagine. If you work in an office, you’ve probably seen, liked and related to the movie. Needless to say, Mike Judge has some comedic clout…

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A new The Ugly Truth movie trailer debuted today, and I have to admit: this is one romantic comedy I actually want to see. Sure, it looks pretty routine in general (who bets that Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler don’t hook up in the end), but the fact that Butler plays a chauvinistic talk show host who teaches Heigl’s character how to flirt and be “slutty without being too slutty” looks like it could evoke some laughs.

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Sam Rockwell is a good, underrated actor, and he’s going to have a chance to flex his acting muscles in Moon, where he effectively plays the only real character in the entire movie. Rockwell plays an astronaut who has been living alone on the moon for three years. Only weeks from returning home, however, he is forced to rescue a man from a crashed aircraft – and that man turns out to be himself.

Is he going crazy, or is something more dangerous at work?

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The original Death at a Funeral was pretty good. Not great, but good. It was also made in 2007, with English-speaking actors, many of whom are recognizable. It was directed by Frank Oz. And they’re remaking it. Remaking a two-year old movie that already received a U.S. release. What the hell?

This remake, of all remakes that have come before it, crosses the line of artistic integrity. Sure, there have been perfectly good films that were remade only a few years later in the form of Vanilla Sky and The Ring and several others. Those remakes are annoying enough, because if you watch the originals they are just as good or better, and not at all dated. They just don’t star as marketable actors as Hollywood can bring to the table. And they’re in a different language, made in another country, and there are a lot of people who don’t like subtitles for some sad, misguided reason (you’re exempt if you are visually impaired, of course).

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There’s not much to say here: MTV Movie Blogs held an interview with actor Terry Crews who confirmed that the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger will indeed have a cameo in the upcoming action flick Terminator Salvation. Rumors had all but confirmed this already, but this is the surest sign so far.

Arnold will also cameo in The Expendables, the Sylvestor Stallone-directed movie that also involves Crews.

I don’t care about that movie as much, but let me say this: Terminator Salvation looks badass. Absolutely badass. From the previews, it makes Transformers look like a walk in the park. I just watched the latest preview again during my viewing of the Rescue Me season premiere… I could watch it a dozen more times. The music is pitch perfect. The movie itself looks depressing: just the way I like ‘em.

Entertainment Weekly reported today that Leonard Nimoy is likely to join the cast of Fringe, the hit Fox television show that returned to the airways last night. Nimoy will play William Bell, a former colleague of William Bishop (John Noble) and the mysterious head of Massive Dynamics, the company that has a yet-to-be-defined role in all of the strange things that have happened.  In other words, this sounds like more than just a one-off cameo but a legitimate guest-starring role.

If the contract goes through, he will appear in the season finale and will be involved in a story arc in season two.

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For fans of Twilight who can’t wait until the fall to see werewolves and vampires interact, there’s Adventureland, which stars that guy from Cursed and that chick from Twilight in what can only be described as a throwback to the classic comedies of the 1980′s.

Jesse Eisenberg, who has also starred in The Squid and the Whale and Roger Dodger, stars as James, a college grad who finds himself strapped for cash in preparation for starting grad school in the fall. When all other avenues are exhausted, he takes a job at the local amusement park, effectively becoming a carnie for minimum wage. His eye immediately falls on coworker Em (Kristin Stewart), who is both open to the prospect of them becoming a thing while also deeply troubled by other issues in her life. There are no actual werewolves or vampires found in the movie.

Read the full Adventureland movie review.

A little known movie called No Country for Old Men came out a couple years back, raked in a few random awards and then settled into obscurity. With few critics or audiences avidly backing the film, the movie disappeared quickly, taking with it its shoddy acting and direction. Good riddance.

Alas, Miramax believes it can make a few more dollars on the unsuspecting moviegoer, as they are about to release on Tuesday a 3-Disc Collector’s Edition. You can read my full No Country for Old Men movie review, where I fault the picture for a variety of things including its lack of excitement, questionable acting – especially by the awful Javier Bardem – and horrific direction by the Coen brothers, or you can read on for my review of this new DVD collection…

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Doubt arrives on DVD this coming Tuesday, April 7, 2009. This chilling movie features the best collective performances of 2008 by far, and even if the movie were worse than The Love Guru, it would be worth it to see the actors involved.

Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis were all nominated for their performances, and director John Patrick Shanley was nominated for his adaptation of his screenplay. The movie, about a nun who suspects that a popular young priest is in fact a pedophile, is one of 2008′s best, and better than Slumdog Millionaire. Yes, better than Slumdog Millionaire. And it’s not even close.

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