Spies in Disguise

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Altered Carbon: Resleeved–New anime film is the next great animation feat

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April 16, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Audiences have seen some great animated films in recent years, with movies upping the ante on technology and visual magic, whether in Ferdinand or Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse or Spies in Disguise or Klaus. Netflix’s new anime movie, a sequel to its live-action, futuristic, sci-fi hit Altered Carbon, takes animation and visual effects even further. Altered Carbon: Resleeved is part Blade Runner 2049, part Marvel’s The Punisher (season two), and part Wu Assassins. Live-action action sequences are rarely as thrilling as those choreographed in this film.

As with the live-action Altered Carbon, the inspiration from Syd Mead’s trademark futurism is all over this film, and that world looks just as stunning in anime form. The storyboarding and layouts, the surprise screen angles, wipes, and character movements are like nothing you’ve seen before, and the details are at times life-like and three dimensional. The story and execution is a vast improvement on the second season of the live-action show, which was a really good season of episodes to begin with.

Two years after the end of season two we catch up with Takeshi Kovacs, resleeved and working a job for Mr. Tanaseda, who has him pursuing a girl named Holly, a tattoo artist with cybernetic eyes and pawn of the yakuza, who carries some critical secrets. Working for CTAC is Gena, a badass agent carrying secrets, who clashes with Kovacs early on. It’s two days from an ascension ceremony–the anointing of a new mob boss–and in that time Kovacs must figure out why Mr. Tanaseda has set him on this job. The anime film, available with English subtitles or dubbed, has a new hotel and a new concierge named Ogai (voiced in the dubbed version by Chris Conner, who plays the concierge, Poe, and hotel manager in the live-action series). Ogai is a holographic Japanese man loyal to the new boss, but fond of Holly. Fans of the series will find his hotel to have equally exciting defensive feature’s as Poe’s hotel, The Raven.

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The 2019 Borg Hall of Fame

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment

December 31, 2019

It’s been another long year of great entertainment. It’s time for the seventh annual round of new honorees for the borg Hall of Fame. We have several honorees from 2019 films and television, plus you’ll find some from the past, and a peek at some from the future – 28 new borgs or updated variants in all, bringing the borg Hall of Fame total to 221.

You can always check out the updated borg Hall of Fame on our home page under “Know your borg.”

Some reminders about criteria. Borgs have technology integrated with biology. Wearing a technology-powered suit alone doesn’t qualify a new member. Tony Stark aka Iron Man was named an honoree because the Arc Reactor kept him alive, not because of his incredible tech armor. The new Spider-Man suit worn by Tom Holland is similar to Tony’s, but it’s not integrated with Peter Parker’s biology. Similarly Peni Parker, seen outside her high-tech SP//dr suit in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Black Manta from Aquaman are merely wearing tech suits. We’d love a reason for a Mandalorian to make the cut, like Boba Fett, or Jango Fett, or the new Mandalorian from the series, since nobody has more intriguing armor. Maybe the second season coming next fall will give us something new to ponder.

Also, if the creators tell us the characters are merely robots, automatons, or androids, we take their word for it. Again, integration is key, but in the Hall, once a member, always a member.

So let’s get on with it. Who’s in for 2019?

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Tags: 2019 borg Hall of Fame honorees, Alita: Battle Angel, Altered Carbon, Amy Wong, Amy's Body 3050, Anthony Buck Rogers, Appleseed, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Babbage’s calculating machine, Ben Mendelsohn, Bloodshot, Bob's Burgers, borg, Borg Hall of Fame, borg technology, borg.com Hall of Fame, Briareos Hecatonchires, Brixton, Buck Rogers, Buck Rogers: A Life in the Future, Byron Mann, Carl Terminator, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Commander Forge Ferrus, Cyborg, Deadly Friend, Edgar Allan Poe, Edward Page Mitchell, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Futurama, Gabriel Luna, General John ABC Smith, Grace, Hermes Conrad, Idris Elba, Iskalloni, Jennifer Gatti, Jeremy Spensser, John Williams, Killian, Knights of the Old Republic, Kristin Ortega, Mackenzie Davis, Martin Caidin, Max Steel, Mecha Hermes Conrad, Nemesis, New New York, Olivier Gruner, Oma Tres, Pickles, Rev-9, Robo-stache, Sakaaran barber, Sleeves, Spies in Disguise, Stan Lee, Star Wars 108, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Takeshi Kovacs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Terminator: Dark Fate, The Ablest Man in the World, The Colossus of New York, The Man That Was Used Up, Thor: Ragnarok, Valance, Verminator Rex, Vin Diesel, Wes Craven

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borg’s Best of 2019–The Year’s Best Movies

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December 27, 2019

When we created last year’s preview of 2019 movies we were pretty sure we were going to have some great movies this year, but we were surprised by what ended up being the best. All year we tried to keep up with what Hollywood had to offer and homed in on the genre content we thought was worth examining. We went back and looked at it all and pulled together our annual picks in our Best Movies of 2019.

Genredom. As always, we’re after the best genre content of the year–with our top categories from the Best in Movies. There are thousands of other places that cover plain vanilla dramas and the rest of the film world, but here we’re looking for movies we want to watch. What do all of this year’s selections have in common? In addition to those elements that define each part of genredom, each has a good story. Special effects without a good story is not good entertainment, and we saw plenty of films this year that missed that crucial element.

Come back later this month for our print media picks, and our annual borg Hall of Fame inductees. And if you missed it, check out our Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2019 here. Wait no further, here are our movie picks for 2019:

Best Film, Best Superhero Movie, Best Re-Imagining on Film – Shazam! (Warner Bros.). Movies are supposed to be a wonder, right? What brought the magic of the movies back to theaters more than Shazam? Why did DC take so long to adapt a superhero to the scene perfectly? Who cares–they finally did it. Faithful to the character from the #1 selling superhero book of the 1940s, this was the superhero movie many of us have been waiting for for the past 50 years (or more). Full of superhero fun, one of the best training montages ever, Zachary Levi’s boyish hero was perfectly matched to Jack Dylan Grazer’s take on best pal Freddy. It’s also the only superhero movie we can think of that got better as it went along, culminating in a fantastic, satisfying third act and finale. This is what we want more of. And it was the first DC superhero movie of the millennium that could be watched and enjoyed by the entire family. Honorable mention: Glass (Universal), Spider-Man: Far From Home (Sony Pictures).

Best Fantasy Movie, Best Adventure Movie, Best Comedy Movie – Jumanji: The Next Level (Columbia Pictures). The only issue with this film was that its status as a sequel will prompt some to not recognize it for the gigantic success it truly is. With adventure scenes bigger and better than anything in the entire Indiana Jones franchise, two movies in and director Jake Kasdan proved a sequel can actually be as good as the original. The four stars didn’t miss a beat, swapping roles and adding new laughs, and the new characters inside and outside the game were perfectly spliced in to tell a new tale. The bridge crossing scene is now the adventure film scene to beat. An epic fantasy that’s loads of fun. Honorable mention for Best Fantasy Movie: Shazam! (Disney/Marvel), Captain Marvel (Disney/Marvel).

Best Movie Borg, Best Borg Film – Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Carl, Terminator: Dark Fate (Paramount Pictures). It would have been almost impossible for James Cameron and director Tim Miller not to get this right, a new thread through time reuniting Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor and a new T-800 with Arnold back with another take on his greatest borg of all time. New characters and new effects kept the franchise from getting boring, but this was more than just getting by, a big sci-fi spectacle with great cyborg battles, and easily the best cyborg fix this year.

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Tags: 6 Underground, All is True, Ben Mendelsohn, Best Movies of 2019, Best of 2019, Captain Marvel, Chasing Portraits, CNN Films, Dane DeHaan, Dark Star: H.R. Giger's World, Edward Norton, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Fathom Events, Felicity Jones, Field of Dreams, Glass, Happy Death Day 2U, Hilary Swank, I Am Mother, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jumanji: The Next Level, Karen Gillan, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner, Klaus, M. Night Shyamalan, Michael Giacchino, Motherless Brooklyn, Netflix, Ready or Not, Samara Weaving, Sanja Hays, Sarah Paulson, Shazam, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spies in Disguise, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Aeronauts, The Battered Bastards of Baseball, The Highwaymen, The Kid movie 2019, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, The Muppet Movie, Thomas Newman, Three Identical Strangers, Warner Animation Group, Woody Harrelson

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Advance review–Will Smith and Tom Holland team-up in exciting and fun Spies in Disguise

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December 15, 2019

Review by C.J. Bunce

A blend of Spectre, Mission: Impossible, and Zootopia is coming your way this Christmas, and it has the look, humor, strong writing, and overall vibe of The Incredibles. It’s director Nick Bruno and Troy Quane′s new animated film, Spies in Disguise. Want to see a U.S. version of James Bond? How about Will Smith as James Bond? Or a story focused on the character Q? Like The Incredibles it has a great musical score, fast action, quick edits, lifelike CGI environments, and fun that will having you laughing out loud throughout the entire movie. That and more is what you get with Spies in Disguise. In his third film this year, Will Smith isn’t actually playing James Bond, but a familiar type of spy named Lance Sterling, who works in a U.S. spy facility in Washington, DC, located under the National Mall. At the section that is the equivalent of the Bond world’s Q Branch is a host of scientists making the latest weaponry and safety equipment for Sterling and his peers.

Enter Spider-Man actor Tom Holland′s Walter Beckett, who has been an inventor of spy gadget toys since his youth, living with his mom who was a cop who later died on duty, and now he’s creating the real thing. Only Walter’s gadgets don’t kill or hurt–they resolve conflicts in other ways. Sterling learns this when he tries to set off a bomb when surrounded by 70 villains at a drug lord’s lair in Japan. Instead of leaving everyone dead, it sets off Walter’s Kitty Glitter bomb–which allows Sterling to escape by temporarily disorienting the enemy with a glitter cloud and cute cat video. This is a great family film with heart like you’d find in the Aardman’s holiday treasure Arthur Christmas, putting a stiff master spy with a young optimist very much like Arthur of the Christmas movie, borrowing that film’s theme, “being weird or different is cool.”

To defeat Sterling’s greatest foes–a cyborg with a high-tech arm named Killian voiced by Rogue One, Ready Player One, and Captain Marvel’s Ben Mendelsohn and the drug lord, Kimura, voiced by Heroes, Hawaii Five-O, and The Meg’s Masi Oka–Sterling needs the ultimate weapon. Walter thinks he has that weapon almost perfected, but before he has a chance to explain it Sterling drinks down the formula for it. As advertised in the trailer, it makes Sterling d-i-s-a-p-p-e-a-r, and in Walter’s view disappear means take on the form of a pigeon–yes, a pigeon–so the spy won’t be detected, because nobody pays attention to pigeons, right? Every city has ’em. And it only gets better from there. Walter’s Q shop of tech ideas is nothing short of brilliant, funny, and even thought-provoking, including his all-protective Inflatable Hug.

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All the movies you’ll want to see in 2019

Filed under: Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes — Leave a comment

December 25, 2018

Merry Christmas!

It’s that time of year again, time to take a look forward at what movies should be on your radar for 2019. Are you going to see them all? Heck no. These are the genre films we think borg readers will want to know about to make their own checklists for the coming year–and they are only the films we know about so far. We pulled 78 of the hundreds of films that have been finalized or are in varying stages of final production, slated for next year’s movie calendar.

What looks to top the list for most fanboys and fangirls? The last of the nine films in the Star Wars saga. Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Shazam! is DC’s contribution. Quentin Tarantino returns to movies to direct Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Martin Scorsese is back with an all-star cast in The Irishman (on Netflix). M. Night Shyamalan finishes his dark superhero trilogy with Glass. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton return in Terminator. Jordan Peele is back with another horror film with Us.

Do you like sequels? This is your year. Another Men in Black, X-Men, Shaft, Happy Death Day, Lego Movie, Hellboy, John Wick, Kingsman, Jumanji, The Secret Life of Pets, How to Train Your Dragon, Fast and the Furious, Zombieland, Addams Family, Charlie’s Angels, Godzilla, Shaun the Sheep, Annabelle,and Stephen King’s It and Pet Sematary—Disney is trying to get you to move into your local theater with another Toy Story, Aladdin, Dumbo, Frozen, and Lion King–all in one year. Yep, lots and lots of sequels are coming.

Some films don’t have locked-in release dates yet. Amazon Prime and Netflix haven’t revealed dates for these 2019 releases:

Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman, a film about Jimmy Hoffa starring Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, and Bobby Cannavale (Netflix)
The Kid, a Western biopic with Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Dane DeHaan, and Vincent D’Onofrio (Netflix)
The Man Who Killed Hitler Then Bigfoot, starring Sam Elliott (Netflix)
6 Underground, a Michael Bay film starring Ryan Reynolds, Ben Hardy, Dave Franco, and Mélanie Laurent (Netflix)
The Last Thing He Wanted, Dee Rees directs Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, and Toby Jones; journalist quits newspaper job to become an arms dealer for a covert government agency (Netflix)
The Laundromat, Steven Soderbergh directs Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, James Cromwell, about the Pentagon Papers (Netflix)
Radioactive, Rosamund Pike plays Marie Curie, with Anya Taylor-Joy (Amazon)

Some of these films will have revised release dates, or get pushed to 2020.

So grab your calendar and start making your plans–here are the movies you’ll want to see in 2019 (and many you might not):

January

Glass – Superhero, M. Night Shyamalan trilogy part 3, stars Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, James McAvoy; continues where Unbreakable and Split left off – January 18.

Serenity – Mystery/Thriller, stars Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Strong, Diane Lane; sorry, no relation to Firefly – January 25.