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Back Seat Producers Fanboy Smackdown Season 02 Shows

FBSD Episode 058: Atonement

Tony and Adam are joined by a voice from the past to continue the Oscar series by discussing the film Atonement.

Tony, Tony and Adam also make a big announcement before discussing the film.  This will change everything.

First half remains spoiler free, so if you are looking for a review of the film to see if you might be interested in watching it, listen until you hit the break.

Promo: Chasing the Bard (Hi, Pip!)

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Back Seat Producers Fanboy Smackdown Season 02 Shows Special Episode

FBSD Episode SE05: Battlestar Galactica

Herein we chat about the kick off to Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica.

There is drinking and swearing and spoiling. Kinda like the bar that the pilots all hang out at.

Phil from The Red Earth Saga and Melina join Adam and Tony for this recording that took place mere minutes after watching the episode the night it premiered.

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DVD Review Text Reviews

Alien Nation: Dark Horizon

It’s 1999. An alien race known as the Tenctonese lost a transport ship full of slaves five years ago. They crash-landed onto the third planet of a solar system, and haven’t been heard from. Until now. A beacon has been transmitting a hailing frequency, and the Overseers (the higher class of Tenctonese) send a reconnaissance officer named Ahpossno to investigate and reclaim the slaves.

The planet they’re landing on? Earth. However, the Tenctonese have internalized American culture, and enjoy being members of a free society. Anything’s better than being slaves.

That’s the premise of the TV movie Alien Nation: Dark Horizon, an extension of the FOX-TV series Alien Nation. It was created because fans demanded a continuation of the show, since it was cancelled after just one season. Five years later, after a change of leadership at FOX, they released this, the first of five TV movies made to sate the fans of the original series.

I wasn’t one of those. Being an infant when the original series was broadcast, I kinda missed the boat. Therefore, I’m going into this one with a clean slate. My expectations are pretty low, just like they will be with any other TV movie.

I didn’t expect brilliant acting, and I didn’t get it. I didn’t expect a deep, convoluted storyline, and I didn’t get one. There’s not a whole lot of character development, but I really didn’t expect that either, being the extension of a TV show.

What I got was a reasonably good, reasonably acted, buddy movie. No one really stood out, but I immediately recognized Scott Patterson as Ahpossno in an early role, long before Gilmore Girls.

The story was pretty predictable, mostly because they show the story from both Ahpossno’s point of view as well as the view of the two detectives, George Francisco (a Tenctonese, known on Earth as Newcomers) and Matthew Sikes (a human). The movie (and I presume the TV show) mainly has the themes of racism and bigotry, and they show it relatively well, if a little heavy-handedly.

There’s nothing really outstanding to this film for me, but keep in mind that I’m really not part of its intended audience. Fans of the TV show will find a lot to love in this movie, and probably in the entire collection. If you’re not familiar with the show, you probably won’t enjoy the movie. They just don’t make you like the characters enough, and the story’s kinda lackluster for a full feature. However, for what is essentially a 2 hour long season opener, Alien Nation: Dark Horizon will do just fine.

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Back Seat Producers Fanboy Smackdown Season 02 Shows

FBSD Episode 057: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Tony, Adam, Phil, Paul, Jake and (Grungy)Dan went to the movies Saturday afternoon.  Then they went back to Fanboy Smackdown’s satellite studio and raided the beer fridge.  Then the microphones went live.

This is the result.

This is a wild show and we had a great time talking about the new film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  We had an even better time teasing Phil, drinking beer and swearing.

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Contests

Contest: Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection

Win one of two copies of Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection DVD set. This is a 3 disc set.

This contest runs from April 21st, 2008 to May 5th, 2008.

To enter this contest, send an email to contest at fanboysmackdown dot com

Put the word “Alien Nation” in the subject line.

Please include your name and mailing address in the body of the email. Two winners will be chosen at random from all entries to win the movie collection.

Continuing where the television series left off, Matt Sikes and George Francisco are an unlikely team of detectives who solve crime and moderate human and alien Newcomer activity in this collection of Alien Nation movies that debuted on television. The collection features the following five films: Alien Nation: Dark Horizon (1994), Alien Nation: Body and Soul (1995), Alien Nation: Millennium (1996), Alien Nation: The Enemy Within (1996) and Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy (1997).

DVD Features

Specs:Audio: English & Spanish: Stereo
Language: Dubbed & Subtitled: English & Spanish

Disc 1
“ALIEN NATION: DARK HORIZON” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Director Kenneth Johnson
The Making of Alien Nation: Dark Horizon
Gag Reel

STILL GALLERIES:
Kenny’s Personal Album
Alien Nation Cast Reunion 2001
Production & Publicity Stills
Behind the Scenes

Disc 2 Side A
“ALIEN NATION: BODY AND SOUL” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson
The Making of Alien Nation: Body and Soul
Gag Reel

STILL GALLERIES:
Production Stills
Kenny’s Personal Album
Concept Art
Alien Nation Cast Reunion 2006

Disc 2 Side B
“ALIEN NATION: MILLENNIUM” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson
The Making of Alien Nation: Millennium

STILL GALLERIES:
Kenny’s Personal Album
Production Stills
Concept Art

STORYBOARDS:
Alien Jungle Opening
Volcanic Landscape
Alien Jungle #2
Steel Mill Finale
New Year’s Eve

Disc 3 Side A
“ALIEN NATION: THE ENEMY WITHIN” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson
The Making of Alien Nation: The Enemy Within

STILL GALLERIES:
Kenny’s Personal Album
Production Stills
Concept Art

Disc 3 Side B
“ALIEN NATION: THE UDARA LEGACY” Full Screen Feature
Commentary by Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson
A Family Gathering: The Director and Actors Look Back on Alien Nation

STILL GALLERIES:
Kenny’s Personal Album
Production Stills
Concept Art

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Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: 88 Minutes

As our story starts, it’s 1997 and the place is Seattle, Washington. A man named Jon Forster has been arrested for serial killings (as the Seattle Slayer) and is being sent to jail by the damning testimony put together by FBI forensic psychologist Jack Gramm. As Forster is found guilty, he looks over to Gramm in the courtroom and mouthes the words “Tick tock, Doc.” 9 years later, on the day that Forster is to be put to death, a new crime with the same M.O. as the Settle Slayer is committed, and Jack Gramm receives a phone call telling him that he has only 88 minutes left to live, ending with the words “Tick tock, Doc.” Now Jack Gramm must put together the pieces and keep himself alive over this short, but significant to Gramm, period of time.

88 Minutes is a new thriller from director Jon Avnet starring Al Pacino in the role of Dr. Jack Gramm, and it’s premise is pretty good, but it’s execution is pretty preposterous and almost laughable in a lot of places, but for me anyway still watchable just for Al Pacino, doing the stuff that Al Pacino does best, but keep in mind, that is not a recommendation for the fim.

What it suffers from is the same thing that a lot of Hollywood thrillers suffer from today, and that’s being overly plotted to death to give out the guise of complexity, when what it boils down to is just being ridiculous and coincidental in how everything falls into place. The majority of the film runs in a bit of pseudo-real time, though there’s nothing on-screen that indicates that, you’re just reminded of it by phone calls and other means as the story unfolds. Now this isn’t a bad way to do this at all, but here it just feels that the pacing is almost casual in how stuff unfolds, and at least in my eyes, if you’re going to do something like this, things should seem just a little more frantic than how they play on-screen.

Jack Gramm, not only works for the FBI but is also a successful college professor who teaches forensic psychology, and his students are also drawn into the events on-screen. This sets up a number of the coincedences and red herrings here that really plays into the implausibility of things, and yet oddly, I still had fun with this.

And most of that fun comes with Al Pacino. Now I’m sure that many will see this and just not think this is great work from him and in more than all likelihood, 88 Minutes is Al Pacino cashing a paycheck, but he still throws himself into this, but more as Al Pacino rather than playing a real character (and maybe it’s not entirely for the paycheck either, as another movie, Righteous Kill from director Jon Avnet is coming, teaming Pacino and Robert DeNiro together again, but I digress…). And I’m a Pacino fan so for that, it’s fun for me anyway. Pacino’s backed up with some pretty good players here including Neal MacDonough as Forster, Amy Brenneman, Leelee Sobieski, Alicia Witt, Deborah Kara Unger and William Forsythe, with MacDonough being the best of the bunch, and Amy Brenneman playing the hardest working assistant ever seen on-screen (to me, her part is almost a running gag here, the moment Jack needs anything he calls here and it comes up right away). It’s a good cast overall, it just needs a better movie to be in.

Like I said, I cannot recommend this, though if you appreciate the aspects of the character that Al Pacino has become (and a lot of that is due to an incredible impression of Pacino that comedian Craig Gass has done, made popular on The Howard Stern Show), then you might have some fun with this like I did, though I’d expect that most won’t. The biggest saving grace for me anyway is that I got to see it for free, having gotten “movie money” for this in recently buying a Special Edition DVD package for an earlier and far, far better Al Pacino film, “… And Justice For All”. Unless you did what I did, I really cannot say to make the trip to a theatre to see this, just wait for a cable run of the film. Hopefully, Avnet and Pacino will score better when Righteous Kill premieres later in the year.

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Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Street Kings

Thomas Ludlow is a driven police detective, having suffered his own personal tragedy, he’s now extra hard on himself and he focuses it all into his work, doing things that other cops wouldn’t do to see that justice is served. He’s effective in his ways, and though those ways could be professionally costly to him, he’s well-protected by his direct superior, Captain Jack Wander head of L.A.’s Vice Special unit. Ludlow’s methods have cost him the friendship of his former partner, Washington, who he’s found out is informing to Internal Affairs. One afternoon, Ludlow trails Washington to simply get in his face about this, but at the conveninece store where he catches up to him, it’s suddenly under attack by two masked men, viciously killing Washington in the process. Things look bad for Tom Ludlow, because of this, and though Ludlow is protected yet again by his captain, his own sense of justice won’t let him rest on this. Now, working with an independent detective named Paul Diskant, Ludlow seeks to find the real killers of his former partner, unaware of where the whole thing will lead him.

Street Kings is the second movie from director David Ayer, who previously made Harsh Time with Christian Bale and before that wrote the Antoine Fuqua film, Training Day starring Denzel Washington, so Ayer is no stranger to this sort of hard-hitting crime drama. I thought Harsh Time was decent but somewhat lacking, but think he’s more than made up for it with Street Kings which is extremely well-paced, well-acted and very driven in getting it’s point home.

While there’s elements of the film that aren’t anything new, the way Ayer has put everything together still comes together as an effective crime thriller with one terrific ending.

Ayer’s cast really carries the day here. Keanu Reeves plays Ludlow, and manages a way to keep himself both dark and also the focus of the audience’s concern. Forest Whitaker is quite good as Jack Wander, and the scenes that both have together, especially near the film’s climax are really nicely done. Chris Evans, who put himself more on the acting map with Danny Boyle’s Sunshine goes up another notch here as Diskant, and working with Reeves, they actually make a pretty good on-screen team. The rest of the cast, filled out by guys like Hugh Laurie, Jay Mohr and Cedric The Entertainer all play their parts very well. Honestly, I don’t have a single complaint about this cast in the slightest.

If you like hard-hitting cop/crime thrillers, well then Street Kings to fill that bill. Like I said above, there’s nothing overtly original here, but it’s all put together in a very entertaining way, and it certainly gets a recommendation here.

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Back Seat Producers Fanboy Smackdown Season 02 Shows

FBSD Episode 056: Escape From New York

Tony and Adam discuss the past and proposed future of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

During the course of the episode they also discuss how the feel of Escape from LA differed from Escape From New York and how they each speak to the era in film when they were produced.

If you are getting this before 5 PM April 16th, 2008, there is still time to enter the Netflix Contest!

Next week’s episode: There Will Be Blood (not that we are going to have a cage match, we’re talking about the flick with that title)

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Contests

Contest: Netflix Trials!!!

In cooperation with Netflix’s new YouTube channel, The Fanboy Smackdown podcast is giving away 30 ( that’s Three-Oh!) trial subscriptions to Netflix, the world’s largest online movie rental service. These trial subscriptions are valid for six months of service to Netflix.

The directions for this contest are a bit more complicated than a normal podcast giveaway, but this prize is quite a bit more than a just a DVD!

This contest has four requirements.

1. You have to be a US resident. (We are still verifying this, but considering the scope of Netflix service, this seems to be accurate. We’ll update this as soon as we find out.)

2. You have to sign up for an account on YouTube.com. If you already have an account, great! If not, you WILL need to sign up for one. The reasons become evident for requirement number…

3. You must subscribe to both Netflix’s Youtube Channel, NetFlixNowPlaying, and FarpointMedia’s Youtube Channel. Signing up for the Netflix channel is a requirement imposed by the marketing company. Signing up for the FarPointMedia YouTube channel is OUR requirement. Mostly because it’s great stuff and we are requiring you to enjoy the awesomeness of the Slice of Scifi and Wingin’ It videos.

4. You must send an email to contest at fanboysmackdown dot com with the subject line “Netflix”.

This email MUST include your YouTube account name, and your name and mailing address. All emails will be verified to determine that you have signed up for both YouTube.com channels. After your information is verfied, you will be entered into the pool validated contestants. You may only send ONE email. If you send more than one email or we find more than one contestant at the same address, you will be disqualified. (If you have roommates or some such, send an email to tony at fanboysmackdown dot com and we can work it out.)

The contest ends at 5 PM Central Time on Wednesday April, 16th. At that time, we will randomly select 30 entries and provide their information to the marketing company. The marketing company will conduct their own independent verification of the selected entries to determine the validity of their NetflixNowPlaying channel subscription.

If you have ANY questions, please direct them to contest at fanboysmackdown dot com with the subject line “Question”. We’ll respond ASAP and update the instructions if necessary to make sure the rules are clear for everyone.

Important Links:

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Back Seat Producers Fanboy Smackdown Season 02 Shows

FBSD Episode 055: The Mist

Adam and Tony discuss Stephen King’s The Mist.

We ramble a bit at parts.

Make sure you listen after the end music for a special announcement about next week’s show.