It’s a Poe-pourri (sorry, couldn’t resist) of the sublime and/or ridiculous droppin’ true this Tue.
If you haven’t seen Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity by now, what the hell is wrong with you? Unless you have a note from your doctor about a fatal allergy to Sandra Bullock, you kind’a have to. There’s really not much “science” in the “fiction” here; it’s much more your basic survival story that could just as easily be underwater or in the Arctic, but in the grand tradition of Marooned (Gregory Peck, or God’s sake! John Sturges directed that! The Great Escape! The Magnificent Seven! Bad Day at friggin’ Black Rock!), we have another stranded-in-space story that really, no kidding, shouldn’t be missed. But how does Sandy get off that island?
Then, for the mindlessly nostalgic amongst us: Hey, you remember the Second Age of the Anthology? First Age was Twilight Zone, Thriller, Suspense, and ended with Outer Limits. But years alter there was a second attempt with Night Gallery, The New Twilight Zone (twice), The New Outer Limits, Tales from the Dark Side, and wayyy at the bottom of that dark, dark barrel, Monsters. It’s been in video limbo for years but now, for some reason, it’s resurfaced. We admit it, we’re having a midnight popcorn party when the DVD comes out so we can see just how bad it really was…
Ice Soldiers is a direct-to-video (okay, maybe it was on TV, show knows) that’s a mishmosh of Cold War paranoia, post-9/11 paranoia, and fear of the cold. Seems the Nazis made a trio of supersoldiers, lost them in the Arctic; they reappeared during the Cuban Missile Crisis (whaa…?), did some raping and pillaging then walked into the Ice, and were unearthed (un-iced?) by a research team funded by some evil corporation using obsessed scientists as a cover (no, we don’t understand it either. (Starring that big guy from Prison Break who just came out of the closet then apparently was exiled to the Arcitc by vicious Hollywood thugs. Totally uncool. But least is has Michael Ironside in it. For a while.
Adventure Time is proof positive that dangerous drugs and animation can live together in peace. Fans of Adventure Time swear that there’s actually a coherent backstory to this overwhelmingly hallucinatory “kid’s” show from creator Pendleton Ward. And if you look close, there are hints that this is some kind of psychedelically transformed post-apocalypse world filled with the cutest darn mutants you’ll ever see. But don’t try to think it through, man, just go with it. There’s something undeniably sweet and even kind of brave under the kooky character designs and whacky plot complications. But describing it beyond that point would be…well, pointless.
