SciFi Scanner

SciFi Scanner's Columnists Are Beaming to AMC Filmcritic.com

2010-04-01T14:00:37Z

Greetings, people of Earth. It is I, your erstwhile blog editor, traveling back through time to fill you in as to why SciFi Scanner is no longer transmitting the latest columns from John Scalzi, Anthony Burch and Nick Nadel. That's because they are alive and well (and writing!) on AMC Filmcritic.com. (We've given them jetpacks just to help them get over there, you know.)

In short, the future is over at Filmcritic, where you can read all of your favorite columnists from SciFi Scanner and Horror Hacker, as well as movie reviews for the latest theatrical and DVD releases, such as Hot Tub Time Machine and Sherlock Holmes.

Sci-fi Stalwarts Darth Vader and the Terminator Battle It Out, Tournament-Style

2010-03-24T17:00:00Z

Man your mouses, sci-fi fans! In honor of college basketball's wildest month and the new season of Breaking Bad (Sundays, 10PM | 9C), AMC is launching a game we're calling March Badness -- a monthlong tournament series that celebrates the baddest of the bad from your favorite movies. This week, sci-fi's fiercest baddies battle for galactic domination. Will Schwarzenegger's cyborg assassin topple Star Wars' chief villain from his throne? Could an evil computer like 2001's HAL 9000 dominate them all? You decide, then defend your picks in the comments.

Release These Movies Now! Ten Sci-fi Movies That Need to Be on DVD

2010-03-23T11:31:00Z

Sci-fi fans are a spoiled lot: these days, pretty much every movie we geek out over gets released on DVD. No matter how obscure (or downright awful) the film might be, it will inevitably be discovered in some studio's fault, polished up, and given the full DVD treatment. But there are a few gems that, for whatever reason, have not made it to DVD. While some are available in foreign editions (or through the many means of bootlegging), these good, bad, and so-bad-they're-good sci-fi films have yet to properly join our DVD collections.

Take a look, and tell us what you gotta have on DVD in the comments!

Damnation Alley
If you remember anything about this movie, it's the awesome Landmaster vehicle that the characters ride around in. Set in the nuclear fallout of World War III, a ragtag group -- including Jan-Micheal Vincent (Airwolf) and George Peppard (The A-Team) -- drives around fighting giant cockroaches and generally being postapocalyptic. The flick was released by 20th Century Fox in 1977-- the same year as another little sci-fi epic about some wars in the stars. Guess which one is available on DVD.

The Fantastic Four
Long before Marvel Comics heroes ruled at the multiplex, Roger Corman's low-budget 1994 take on the superhero family came along. Never released in theaters, but long passed around in bootleg circles, the film achieved cult status for its B-movie production values, soap-opera-level acting, and laughable special effects. Still, comic-book geeks (and fans of low-rent kitsch) have longed to get their hands on an official copy of this turkey.

Even Trekkies Have to Choose! Rank the Five Greatest Star Trek Movies

2010-03-19T04:00:45Z

After eleven treks to the deepest, and sometimes darkest, corners of the galaxy, the Star Trek franchise is still going strong. Some would say it's stronger than ever, as Star Trek, the Chris Pine-led reboot, tore up theaters last summer. But is the newest Trek flick your favorite or do you pine for the good old days of The Wrath of Khan, the days when Shatner commanded the Enterprise? Or maybe you're a Next Generation type, and Star Trek: First Contact is your favorite? Log your loyalty for your favorite Star Trek flick! (Let us know in the comments section below if you don't agree with this top five.)

John Scalzi - Why Hollywood Always, Always Gets the Future Wrong

2010-03-17T04:01:00Z

A friend of mine was discussing Blade Runner with me, and during the course of the conversation, she noted, in (I think) mock alarm, that there was now less than a decade separating us from the events of that flick. If we are really going to have replicants, offworld colonies, and Los Angeles getting more rain than the Pacific Northwest, then we had better get cracking! I responded by saying that before any of that could happen, Jupiter was supposed to turn into a red dwarf this very year -- as promised to us in 2010 -- and yet to date it gave no sign of actually being infested with implosion-facilitating monoliths. No matter how you slice it, whether you're hoping for replicants or red dwarfs, if you're a sci fan reality is really letting you down.

This shouldn't be too surprising. Reality has been proving scifi wrong for decades now -- or, if you prefer, it's been science fiction movies (and their makers) who have been letting down reality: Always promising wonders right around the corner, and yet when the date for those wonders comes to pass, we're still just us, still without the proverbial flying cars or robot butlers. How can movies get the future so wrong for so long?

Hey, Kids! The Wimpy Kid and Bone Are Comic Book Movies Just for You

2010-03-16T04:00:45Z

Here's something about Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which hits theaters Friday) that you might not know: it started life as a comic. And though the story is mostly known as a series of hit illustrated books, creator Jeff Kinney first introduced the world to the diary of a hapless junior-high kid named Greg via a popular Web comic.

The Wimpy Kid books have become a hit with all ages, thanks to their melding of cartoony artwork with witty tales of bullies, school plays, and other adolescent woes. With comic-book movies becoming increasingly dark, it's nice to see something that kids and parents can enjoy equally. There are many all-ages comic books out there that should follow Wimpy Kid to the big screen. Let's take a look at a few.

Bone
Combining artwork worthy of classic Disney animation with a sweeping story that calls to mind The Lord of the Rings, Jeff Smith's 55-issue comedic fantasy series is one of the most acclaimed comic books of all time. Young and old have discovered the comic, which regularly tops library lists of the best all-ages comics and graphic novels. Warner Brothers is currently developing a CGI take, with hopes of turning the series into a three-movie franchise. While CGI could be interesting, one look at Smith's artwork will make you long for the days when traditional hand-drawn animation was the norm.

Q&A - Mark Millar Explains How Stan Lee Inspired Kick-Ass

2010-03-15T04:00:45Z

Mark Millar has been one of the biggest names in comics for years, but it wasn't until the movie adaptation of his book Wanted became an international hit that he crossed over to the mainstream. His second movie adaptation, Kick-Ass, hits next month, and it's already riding a wave of positive buzz, helped, in part, by the recent release of Millar's on-set diary, Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie, which documents the comic's path from page to screen. We talked with Millar by phone to find out what to expect.

Q: So, is it true that the Kick-Ass comic came about because you wanted to make more original movies but had no material to work with?

A: There's an element of truth to that, actually. The producers said to me, "Okay, this film's just made $341 million. We want to do another film with you." And I said, "I don't have anything else, really, you know?" And it was quite stupid of me, from a monetary point of view, not to do that. Also from the creative point of view, because I really like the idea of bringing something to the table. I love working with Marvel and DC, but you're playing with other people's toys, really. So the idea of doing what Stan Lee did back in the sixties -- creating a new wave of characters -- no one seemed to be doing that. So that inspired me, in a sense, to go off and create whole new franchises, and Kick-Ass was the next one out.

Q: How well do you think the transition from comic book to movie was handled?

Q&A - Jude Law and Forest Whitaker of Repo Men on Who's the Public Geek

2010-03-12T04:01:00Z

"You owe it to your family. You owe it to yourself." So goes the motto of the Union, a credit union that helps people finance the purchase of all kinds of artificial organs, from hearts and livers to upgraded eyes and ears. If you can't make your payments, after a generous 90-day grace period, repo men such as Remy (played by Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker) will come to reclaim the company's property. Based on the book The Repossession Mambo, Repo Men has a lot to say about modern society, as Law and Whitaker explain.

Q: Jude, I would assume from your filmography that you're a big sci-fi fan. But, Forest, do you have a secret geek side?

JL: So I've just got a public geek side? [Laughs]

FW: He knows all about sci-fi. I've read some, like Aldous Huxley, and I love Walter Mosley's Futureland. It used to be the only thing I'd watch on TV would be the Syfy channel. Which sounds kind of odd, but I love it. I like thinking about the future, the possibilities of what's going to happen, what might be already flourishing today that's going to be happening more tomorrow.

JL: People grow up watching that stuff and think, "Oh, that would be good, I've always wanted a phone in my watch." Now they just want flying cars.

John Scalzi - So Why Did The Hurt Locker Beat Out Avatar for Best Picture?

2010-03-11T04:00:45Z

Well, this wasn't an entirely unexpected e-mail. From a reader: "You said last week that if Avatar won Best Picture at the Academy Awards that you'd tell us what that means. It didn't win. So what does THAT mean?"

In one very practical sense, it means that the overall better movie -- or at least the more well-rounded of in terms of Oscar nominations -- won. Avatar and Hurt Locker had the same number of Oscar noms, but what Hurt Locker had that Avatar didn't were acting and screenplay nominations to complement their technical ones. I noted early on that this fact would be a disadvantage to Avatar, and it certainly seems to have played out that way; I think either consciously or subconsciously Academy voters saw the wider breadth of nomination categories for Hurt Locker and -- to the extent that the race came down to being a choice between Hurt Locker and Avatar -- went for the movie with the wider range. But there were other factors at play here as well...

Remake Mania Isn't a Bad Thing, If It Means Revisiting Tron and THX 1138

2010-03-10T04:01:00Z

With Hollywood trawling through the archives to remake just every movie that ever earned a dime, it's only a matter of time before some of your scifi favorites come up for review. Of course, not every movie is in need of an overhaul -- can we all agree to let 2001: A Space Odyssey lie? -- but some flicks are practically begging to be made. Click through for a list of some of the prime remake contenders in the scifi annals -- your vote determines their future, on AMCtv.com, at least!

What Could Make the Tekken Movie Great? Well, for Starters...

2010-03-09T04:00:45Z

Tekken hits Japanese theaters this week, and, in all honesty, it doesn't look that great. Based on Namco's long-running fighting-game franchise, it tells the story of a young man who competes in a fighting tournament to avenge the death of a loved one. If the story sounds familiar, that's because it follows the same plot as Enter the Dragon and Mortal Kombat. But we're optimists: regardless of how uninteresting the trailer looks, the movie stands a pretty good chance of being a fun martial-arts romp -- assuming it follows a few rules, that is. We've assembled a list of the five things we hope to see in Tekken.

Remember the Last Time Tim Burton Redefined a Female Icon? It Was Catwoman!

2010-03-08T04:00:45Z

With Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton's at it again. "Again," you ask? Yes, that's right. He's redefining another major female character. The first time was with Catwoman in Batman Returns. This time, it's Lewis Carroll's storybook heroine. But before you start comparing Mia Wasikowska's performance to that of Michelle Pfeiffer, consider the many different takes that preceded his last female reinterpretation. (With Alice, the competition isn't so stiff!)

Once Upon a Time, Sci-Fi/Fantasy Didn't Have a Lock on the Special-FX Oscar

2010-03-05T04:00:45Z

This year, science-fiction fans have a lot to hope for on Oscar night. One of the biggest contenders is James Cameron's Avatar -- a visually brilliant work that's sci-fi to the core. Will the director's ambitious, bazillion-dollar flick sweep? Prognosticators are split, though it's generally agreed that, if Avatar doesn't take the special-effects award, we can assume the members of the Academy were lost somewhere on their own blue planets. I suppose the good news is that, if Avatar loses, at least sci-fi will have shown well in the category. That hasn't always been the case.

John Scalzi - Weighing the Oscar Odds for This Year's Sci-Fi Favorites

2010-03-04T11:01:00Z

The Oscars are on Sunday, and the producers of the show are expecting a big viewership, thanks to an influx of fans tuning in to see how Avatar and District 9 fare. My suspicion is that this will be the biggest Oscar ceremony in a long time. Will science-fiction fans have reason to celebrate?

First, District 9 fans: remember that it's an honor to be nominated. When the nominees were announced, I opined that it had no chance to win Best Picture and was a very distant candidate for Adapted Screenplay. In the weeks since that prediction, there has been no measurable momentum for the movie. It's also up for Editing and Visual Effects: the latter's pretty much locked up by Avatar, and, in the former category, it's competing against Avatar, Precious, The Hurt Locker, and Inglourious Basterds. Not gonna happen. Look at it this way: no matter how you slice it, Neill Blomkamp has had a heck of run, and there's no doubt that District 9 is a classic.

If sci-fi fans want to feel bad for a movie, it should be...

Academy Awards PollsYour chance to vote for your favorites
Analysis of the NomineesAn examination of this year's contenders
Photo Gallery of Front-RunnersSee which movies are up for the most awards
Countdown to the Red Carpet VideoVideo Q&As with this year's front-runners
AMC News Text Q&AsText Q&As with this year's front-runners
Ultimate Fan QuizSee how well you know the Academy Awards
History of the AwardsA comprehensive look at Oscars past
Previous UpsetsWho overcame the odds
Strange NominationsSometimes the Oscars don't make sense

Man Keeps Landing on Mars With Mixed Results (in the Movies)

2010-03-03T04:00:45Z

Putting a man on Mars may have to wait, but that hasn't stopped Hollywood from planting its flag on the red planet. Schwarzenegger traveled there, in Total Recall (1990), and also Val Kilmer, in the aptly named Red Planet. Missions to Mars have taken place in B-movies (Santa Claus Conquers the Martians), horror flicks (John Carpenters' Ghosts of Mars), and plain old sci-fi (Robinson Crusoe on Mars ). The common thread: something's amiss on that creepy planet. Which of these otherworldly flicks is your favorite?

Still curious about life on Mars? Watch Red Planet on AMC. Click here for a full schedule.