My Walt Disney World Annual Pass expires in February. Starting this August, I will be living minutes from WDW and will have plenty of free time on the weekends. So I decided to go annual pass comparison shopping this weekend and came up with these… Read More »Annual Pass Breakdown
With the 21st Winter Olympics opening in Vancouver, BC on February 12th, it’s a good time to look back 50 years ago to the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley and how Walt Disney changed the Olympics forever. The book to read on that is… Read More »How Walt Disney changed the Winter Olympics forever
I’m loving this Youtube video made in the style of Jack Bauer’s 24. It is a real time look with multiple camera angles of the events surrounding the crash of Flight 815. Thos ten minutes really got me excited about the February 2nd premier of… Read More »LOST: Flight 815 crash in format of 24
There are many reasons to add Surrogates to your DVD collection. Among them are: you’re a Bruce Willis completeist, you like a good film noir and sci-fi doesn’t turn you off, you’re an all-the-humans-are-robots-except-for-the-protagonist-completeist, or, perhaps, you just like science fiction thrillers. Surrogates qualifies for all those reasons. Even though this isn’t a one of those sci-fi movies based off a Philip K Dick short story, it does deal with a lot of the themes in Philip K Dick’s writings.
Surrogates is based off a graphic novel by first time author Robert Venditti and it struggled to find an audience when it was in the theaters. It had a big name star, a unique premise, and a great director. Jonathon Mostow directed the bit hit Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, so I think everyone expected Surrogates to follow in that vein.
So why didn’t it work? Well, I think the premise may have been a bit too out there for most of the public and, to be honest, the film loses its way a bit about two-thirds through. It’s still a great film. Just not as good as it could have been.
What did work was the Director’s vision for how the story would be told. It’s film noir and a lot of great techniques from the 60s era of film noir are used. Where the film goes off track is when they get away from that style of film and slip into the action thrill. It’s almost as if you can feel the studio executives complaining that there aren’t enough explosions and gun fights.
Surrogates will hit stores on January 26th, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon.
Lots of great factoids below the cut:
Ben Child asks a very intriguing question: Does the idea of Pixar – or rather, Pixar’s people – moving into live action appeal to you? And do you expect to see Stanton thrive in his new arena, or struggle to make waves outside his natural… Read More »Can the Pixar Magic transfer to Live Action
A column in the Motley Fool insightfully points out that Walt Disney World has a problem. LEGOLAND Florida’s arrival will be a mixed blessing for Disney (NYSE: DIS). On the one hand, the new park should bring more tourists to central Florida. Travelers coming down… Read More »Does Disney World have a LEGOland problem?
The closing of the only Disney Store in Vancouver, BC has raised the ire of Disney fans in the area and generated a petition to keep it open. According to numerous Internet posts, the store is set to close on Saturday, Jan. 23, or earlier… Read More »Disney Store closing only store in Vancouver
Global Disney Pinvestigation has one amazing look at the newly revealed model for the Fantasyland Expansion at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and what it says about exactly what will be coming with the makeover. Also, spies have spotted that construction trailers have been placed… Read More »Incredible Fantasyland Expansion Update