I Love the ’80s was a ten-hour VH-1 series that waxed nostalgic for all things pop culture in the decade, and a new five-hour documentary strives to do the same thing with the sci-fi genre movies of the decade as its focus. In Search of Tomorrow: A Journey Through ’80s Sci-Fi Cinema is the result of a crowd-sourced project, now available for pre-order exclusively at the project’s website here. It is one of several projects we’ve seen like it over the years, the best being Must-See Sci-Fi (reviewed here), Turner Classic Movies’ guide to 50 significant science fiction movies, and James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction (reviewed here), a book and series which gives insight into the genre’s most significant creations via interviews with the directors that made them. In Search of Tomorrow features only a handful of A-listers in its interviews–the advertised top talent being Peter Weller, Billy Dee Williams, Dee Wallace, and Nicholas Meyer. It pulls together a group of the few remaining actors, visual effects artists, and other creators behind the scenes who fans of the genre probably haven’t seen in decades (yes, it’s been more than 30 years since the 1980s). Writer/director David Weiner focuses on a swath of 54 movies that reflects the best–and the worst–of the decade.
All my life, I’ve been waiting for someone and when I find her, she’s… she’s a fish.
With 13 nominations and expected to lead in overall wins in tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony, The Shape of Water is the film of the hour, and the popularity of the sea creature lore is at a peak right now. Taking advantage of the interest in seafaring lore and gilled creatures, the Freeform channel (formerly ABC Family) is airing new trailers this weekend for its own new mermaid/merman series, Siren. It’s not Splash or The Little Mermaid. It looks like it may have more of the feel of The Creature from the Black Lagoon at least initially more so than The Shape of Water. No, the new series Siren looks more like a thriller or horror series than a romance, something mixing Stephen King’s Haven with John Carpenter’s The Fog and The Thing, and the British space vampire cult classic, Lifeforce.
Eline Powell (Game of Thrones, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) plays Ryn, a mysterious girl who arrives in the Pacific Northwest coastal town of Bristol Cove, a town that boasts its local lore–a town once known for its mermaids. Aylya Marzolf plays a mermaid leader, and Sedale Threatt, Jr. a warrior merman. From its several preview trailers, Siren has a great, creepy look. Art direction is by The Predator and The Returned’s Peter Mihaichuk. Costumes were designed by Pirates of the Caribbean and The Exorcist’s Lorraine Carson and iZombie and The Flash’s Maria Livingstone.
Based on a story by Eric Wald and Dean White (originally to be called The Deep), marketing for Siren is evoking all the aforementioned films and TV shows in its key imagery–even the back of a man in a parka straight out of The Thing, a strange killer young woman as seen in Lifeforce and The Ring, a trapped creature being studied in an aquarium as in The Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Shape of Water. And it features that familiar coastal town seen in Jaws, Haven, and The Fog.
Check out these several previews for Freeform’s Siren:
For more than six years we at borg.com have been covering entertainment memorabilia auctions–sales of not merely replicas or mass-produced collectibles, but the real objects seen on film–rare or even one-of-a-kind costumes created by award-winning Hollywood costume designers, detailed props created by production crew, model vehicles created by special effects departments like Industrial Light and Magic, prosthetics created by famous makeup artists, set decoration, concept art, and much more. Amassing a wide variety of artifacts from classic and more recent film and television history, London and Los Angeles-based Prop Store is hosting its annual auction later this month. Known for its consignment of some of the most well-known and iconic screen-used props and costumes, Prop Store’s ultimate museum collectibles auction will be open for bidding from anyone, and items will be available at estimates for both beginning collectors and those with deeper pockets.
The Prop Store Live Auction: Treasures from Film and Television will be auctioning off approximately 600 items. You’ll find the following movies and TV shows represented and more: 3:10 to Yuma (2007), 300,Aliens, Back to the Future films, Blade Runner, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Chronicles of Narnia films, Elysium, Enemy Mine, Excalibur, The Fifth Element, Gladiator, The Goonies, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Jason and the Argonauts, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the Indiana Jones films, Iron Man, the James Bond films, Judge Dredd (1995), the Jurassic Park films, Kick-Ass 2, Kingsman: the Secret Service, Lifeforce, Looper, The Lost Boys, The Martian, The Matrix, Men in Black III, Mission: Impossible (1996), The Mummy (1999), Patton, Pirates of the Caribbean series, Predators, the Rocky films, Saving Private Ryan, Scarface, Serenity, Shaun of the Dead, Shawshank Redemption, Sherlock Holmes (2009), Star Trek franchise, Star Wars franchise, Starship Troopers,Superman films, Terminator films, The Three Musketeers (1993), Tropic Thunder, Troy, True Grit, Underworld: Evolution, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Willow, The Wolfman (2010), World War Z, and the X-Men films.
You can flip through the auction house’s hefty 360-page catalog, or start with a look at what we selected as the best 50 of the lots–what we predict as the most sought-after by collectors and those that represent some of fandom’s favorite sci-fi and fantasy classics and modern favorites.
Industrial Light and Magic 17 3/4-inch Rebel Y-Wing filming model from Return of the Jedi
Sark (David Warner) Grid costume from the original Tron (1982)
Julie Newmar’s Catwoman costume and Burgess Meredith Penguin hat from the classic Batman TV series
Buttercup (Robin Wright) Fire Swamp red dress from The Princess Bride
Chekov (Walter Koenig) “nuclear wessels” costume, Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) costume, and Sulu (George Takei) double shirt from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Full crew set of costumes (Malcolm, Zoe, Wash, Jayne, Inara, Kaylee, River, Book, and Simon) from Serenity(sold as individual costume lots)
Jack Nicholson purple Joker costume, plus separate coat and hat, from Batman (1989)
Enterprise-D 48-inch “pyro” model from Star Trek: The Next Generation
Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) stunt shotgun from Unforgiven
Star-lord helmet from Guardians of the Galaxy
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) Mjolnir hammer from Thor
Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II jumpsuits made for Bill Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman
Witch-king of Angmar crown from The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Val Kilmer Batman suit and cowl from Batman Forever
Maverick (Tom Cruise) flight suit from Top Gun
Geoffrey Rush Captain Barbossa costume from the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, Curse of the Black Pearl
It’s been nearly five years since we first reviewed the award-winning, low-budget sci-fi alien invasion flick Attack the Block. Now that Jodie Whittaker is in the spotlight for her selection as the next Doctor in the BBC’s Doctor Who, and John Boyega will be returning this December for his second stint as Imperial turned Resistance fighter Finn in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, let’s look back to them working together as co-leads in writer/director Joe Cornish’s modern cult classic. Attack the Block should be in every sci-fi fan’s arsenal. When we first reviewed Attack the Blockhere at borg.com, we compared it to another low-budget British sci-fi/horror mash-up, 1985’s Lifeforce (which co-starred a then less-known Patrick Stewart). After repeat viewings since then, it’s clear Attack the Block is a much better film, full of action, suspense, humor, and good acting by young actors who all feel very real on-screen. In 2011 only fans of the actors from the Cornetto films would have noticed it, because of the slightly larger than cameo performance by Nick Frost, one-half of the Simon Pegg/Frost comic duo (Shaun of the Dead, The Fuzz, Spaced, Paul). Attack the Block was an unknown commodity that didn’t get much reaction at the U.S. box office in 2011 because it was not marketed well and it was not a typical, Hollywood-made sci-fi epic. It was before its time–it’s Stranger Things, UK style. It’s Judgment Night and John Carpenter’s original Attack on Precinct 13 meets E.T., if E.T. didn’t have good intentions and Elliot wasn’t a nice little kid.
It takes a bit to warm up to the main cast of Attack the Block. We follow a teen gang of British kids in masks led by John Boyega’s character Moses as they unabashedly and violently mug a nurse named Sam, played by Jodie Whittaker. From the beginning Whittaker’s Sam really is the only person in the film we are completely sympathetic toward, despite efforts of the writer to get viewers to understand this gang of kids. We almost get to the point of sympathy for the others once Sam decides she may very well be killed by aliens if she does not join up with the gang, and this film takes a swing at answering the question: “Under what situation would a victim, however reluctantly, join up with her attacker?” Violent alien beast invasion, of course! Despite playing the thug, Boyega had charisma even early on and it’s understandable why he has his own band of followers. He gets in over his head dealing with a slightly older drug kingpin who “owns the block” and takes the kid under his wing for a drug sale. His followers are a motley sort. Along with a pair of much younger kids that add some comic relief, and an additional wandering, stoned teenager, they must come together to fight the gang leader and worse—the onslaught of big hairy aliens.
The scarf of a future Doctor! Jodie Whittaker in Attack the Block.
Six years later, Attack the Block easily holds its own. For alien invasion film fans, it offers one of the best aliens of any 21st century production–big or low budget—giant dark, furry beasts built like hybrid gorilla/buffalos, with phosphorescent blue fangs, able to leap and spring and climb buildings. We don’t ever see clear views of these creatures, and that mystery and an overall lack of gore throughout the movie helps form the mystique of these creatures–think the uncertainty of when the shark appears next in Jaws–and it makes them just plain scary as they chase their targets down hallways and up buildings. They aren’t hive-minded aliens from Alien or conniving predators as in Predator, but they don’t need to be.
Some call them guilty pleasures–those films that are more bad than good, but have some quality you can’t quite identify that cements them in your own memory. You might not admit how much you like those films, but you do, and you’d also willingly admit the quality of the film is still bad, bad, bad. As you watch writer/director Mark Hartley’s new film about two cousins that created one of the most well-known independent B-movie film studios, I will wager you will see at least four movies from the 1980s that you’ll admit only to yourself “hey, I loved that movie.”
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films chronicles two Israeli cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, successful filmmakers in their home country who took America by storm, taking over Cannon Group in 1980 and churning out more movies than any other studio, eventually releasing about a movie a week before it ran out of money. The documentary highlights one of the studio’s defining, over-the-top and embarrassingly bad movies: Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Cannon helped the careers of names like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren and helped propel the second phase of the careers of actors like Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, and Sylvester Stallone. The list of surprising names showing up in their films included Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Marina Sirtis and Patrick Stewart, and Sharon Stone, but even once big names like Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing could be found in a Cannon movie.
Delta Force, Missing in Action and Missing in Action 2, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Lifeforce, Hercules (with Lou Ferrigno), King Solomon’s Mines, Runaway Train, Invaders from Mars, American Ninja, Bloodsport, Cyborg, Death Warrant, Masters of the Universe, Powaqqatsi, and Superman IV, for good or bad, emerged from Golan and Globus’s years at Cannon.
When I think of good British sci-fi B-movies, one film comes to mind: the 1985 alien vampire sci-fi horror flick Lifeforce. Now I can add last year’s alien invasion film Attack the Block. You can rent, stream or stumble upon the random cable TV B-movie and you may never find one you can make it all the way through. Sometimes bad is bad. Then you begin watching something like Attack the Block and you find your head spinning saying to yourself “hey, this isn’t half bad–is anyone else seeing this?” Not since the bizarre but engrossing Lifeforce have I seen a British sci-fi B-movie that, despite making me wonder how anyone ever got this film made, it forced me to watch the movie straight-through. I had to see where this tale was going and where it would all end because there was something compelling about this crazy show. Think of it as John Carpenter’s original Attack on Precinct 13 meets E.T., if E.T. didn’t have good intentions and Elliot wasn’t a nice little kid. Guilty pleasure? That probably is the right description. And it is a bit of what I had hoped Cowboys and Aliens would be, but this is much better than that big budget effort.
Dark shows have tended to monopolize new genre TV series in the past few years. We’ve been overwhelmed with underwhelming vampire shows, and not since Buffy and Angel have we seen anything in that category worth watching. The NBC series Grimm has been an exception, and that series keeps moving along without any bad episodes so far. Sometimes you can’t even get past the pilot of new series, and shows like Being Human, Terra Nova, Invasion and The 4400 move along a slow trajectory toward cancellation.
Overall the Syfy Channel has had a good showing over the past few years, with shows like Battlestar Galactica, Sliders, Warehouse 13, Haven, and the short-lived Dresden Files at the top eschelon of what the network has to offer. The series Alphas started off slow but showed some promise, but other shows were bombs from the start, like Caprica and Bionic Woman.
So when you do find a solid, entertaining pilot episode, it really stands out. Lost Girl is one of those pilots.
From the first scene, you hope this tall, dark haired woman is the protagonist, even though she appears to have just murdered someone, albeit in a very supernatural way, seemingly sucking away the soul or spirit of a villainous scumbag, like the alien visitor in the 1980s British movie, Lifeforce. She does it in part because she has a “hunger” and in part to protect a younger woman who has just been drugged by the man. We learn our protagonist’s name is Bo (played by Canadian actress Anna Silk), and her new, younger hanger-on is Kenzie, and although they could have probably used some better character names, Kenzie is plucky and funny, and even for a genre show they immediately come off as real people.
Kenzie is a pickpocket who immediately sees Bo for what she is, some kind of superhero, even if she is a murderous self-described freak. Kenzie’s dialogue is expertly written, and the writers amazingly know their characters from minute one. Both beautiful in their own way, Kenzie more Goth and Bo in a more Xena meets Wonder Woman Amazon princess looking way, Bo actually shows some vulnerability despite her powers as she engages in a question-answer session with Kenzie. But the full scope of Bo’s powers are only partially revealed in the pilot, as we learn she is also some kind of pusher.
A pair of cops show up on the scene of the scumbag’s death, and instead of being the typical oafish humans not-in-the-know, these two guys know exactly about the supernatural nature of the crime. Clearly these cops will be recurring characters and their odd looks and style quickly grow on the viewer as they seem to walk the line between a dark world and being outright good guys. We learn there is a world of supernatural beings called the Fae, and within the Fae two rival gangs that appear to be keeping the peace so long as their turf lines are respected. We learn from a mystical bartender that Bo may be some type of prophesied visitor. The heads of the two houses squabble little instead of engaging in a time-wasting battle as you might expect, and instead follow the “old rule,” where Bo must make a choice of houses after first proving herself in a battle to the death with two creatures.
Bo acknowledges she is entering into her very own Thunderdome sequence. Her confidence throughout the episode makes it credible that she can win these battles, the first a typical thug to outsmart, and the second a brilliantly concocted act of trickery. By herself, she cannot beat the second challenge. Luckily Bo brings with her the desire for others to like her, and immediately can garner loyalty or outright love from whomever she touches. The reason for this is because she is a succubus (for South Park fans, note that she is not as vile as the succubus that married Chef and tried to kill him). This succubus is pretty kick-ass, as female protagonists in genre TV is concerned. The episode never gets silly or campy like Buffy the Vampire Slayer did (a good thing for that series), but Lost Girl takes itself a bit seriously, giving you the idea the stakes will prove to be greater as the series progresses.
The production quality doesn’t lack anything, the sets and overall design and look are dark and slick, but not grimy or ugly. The women dress cool, and the guys dress stylish as well. The story elements are fresh and original, and if you’re looking for something different in genre TV this may be the next new show to watch.
The cast is new to American TV screens, with Ksenia Solo as Kenzie. Actually you kind of wish Ksenia Solo and Anna Silk could haved used their own names as the characters, as their real names are pretty cool as slick heroine names go. The female head of the house of the dark Fae (Emanuelle Vaugier) has the same feel as the Wicked Queen of the ABC series Once Upon A Time, only this leader is less vile and over the top, and her reserved nature makes her far more compelling to watch. And a scientist played by Zoie Palmer appears to be a series regular.
It’s refreshing to see two strong female leads helm a new series like this, and you hope they can keep the world building and strong characterization moving forward into something that can last. The crazy thing is that the series is in its third season in Canada, and only just this week premiering in the U.S. So the hope from episode one that this series won’t just fizzle out has already been determined by the Canadian viewers. So even if Syfy doesn’t continue with the series there is always the boxed set or streaming video version to catch up on!
