I was presented with a screener for a new low budget web-series titled “The Fold” from series director Matt Lambert and co-writer Polly Frost. Now, when I say low budget, this doesn’t necessarily reflect on the series’ originality but does show in the quality of filming and most of its production value. The entire series worked on a budget of only $8,000 (USD). However, because the series is a sci-fi, soft-core porn comedy, the fact that less dollars were available only added to its appeal in the sense that one is reminded of the kind of soft porn routinely vetted out on an almost daily measure, and with that in mind, and if you can get through some of the garishness of a few of the scenes, then the premise of the story itself is kind of interesting.

The story centers around Cody Ferguson, the son of a corporate giant who is financing a time travel vacationing enterprise. Cody is a true geek who also happens to suffer from Aspergers Syndrome. His father, a real hard lined “I know what’s best for mankind” kind of guy, wants to use his son’s invention to remake history after his own puritan ideology. The plot includes an investigation by a journalist for Gaming Babes Magazine, a sex-cult guru, a hot-tube salesman with an out-of-control sex drive and a mysterious force that causes the entire world to experience a universal orgasm all at the same time.

As you can tell from that description, this is not for the kiddies and is R-rated.

While I can’t recommend this web-series for our PG-13 audience, some of our adult fans will probably enjoy “The Fold” and find it enjoyable. In its own way it was funny and a comedic romp into sci-fi soft-porn. I was able to screen the first three episodes of the series for this review and can honestly say that I’ll probably view the rest of the web-series online just to see what happens next.

Don’t expect Ridley Scott or Martin Scorsese with “The Fold.” It’s called a low-budget series for a reason. I can’t recommend that all will like this, it is definitely not for everyone, but if you like biting satire, a thinly veiled plot, and the occasional bare breasts and wanton sex (ala “Barbarella”), then “The Fold” could be right up your ally.

While I will most likely watch it online to see where Lambert takes his production, I won’t stick around long if all it ends up being is just another sex farce. I can watch some of Woody Allen’s big budget flicks for that.

On a scale of 0 to 5 stars I give “The Fold” —

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Genre: Action/Adventure, Crime/Gangster, Adaptation and Sequel
Running Time: 142 min.
Theatrical Release Date: July 18th, 2008
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and some menace.
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman

“The unrelentingly baleful tone of the film makes The Dark Knight a perfect match to Batman Begins, and a real treat for fans itching for stark realism.”

SCORE = 7/10

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Genre: Action/Adventure, Suspense/Horror, Thriller, Adaptation and Sequel
Running Time: 1 hr. 50 min.
Theatrical Release Date: July 11th, 2008
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and some language.
Directed By: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Doug Jones, Seth MacFarlane

SCORE = 7/10

“The humor in the film is the defining point of singularity for Hellboy’s blueprint.”

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With “Journey’s End” Russell T. Davies attempts to bring a sense of closure to his tenure as the producer for Doctor Who. 

I’ll give him credit for what he tried to do here, even if I found the episode’s execution a bit lacking. 

It was an episode that was neither as brilliant as it wanted to be or as it horrific as it could have been.  It was definitely a step up from last year’s finale, but it still had a lot of the trademark weaknesses of the Russell T. Davies era.    

So, if you’ve seen the episode or don’t mind SPOILER for the season finale of Doctor Who and series four as a whole, join me behind the jump… (Read more…)

Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama and Romance
Running Time: 120 min.
Theatrical Release Date: July 2nd, 2008
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence and language
Directed By: Peter Berg
Starring: Will Smith, Jason Bateman, Eddie Marsan and Charlize Theron

SCORE = 7/10

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And so, here it is.  The episode whose title was kept under wraps for months because it was considered to be “too SPOILER filled.”  The episode that brought back the Daleks, yet again.  The episode that brought back an old enemy.  The episode that would bring together all of the Doctor’s companions (well, at least those seen since the show reluanched four years ago) for what promised to be an epic, ultimate battle.

It was an episode that I had pinned a lot of hopes on. As the final Russell T. Davies penned season finale, I was hoping that Davies would go for the gusto, throw in everything and the kitchen sink and give us the kind of finale that the series has wanted, demanded and needed since series one.  I was hoping he’d learned from his previous mistakes and would truly give us a classic for the ages.

Instead, we got a re-tread of “Bad Wolf.”

Big time SPOILERS after the jump….

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Genre: Action/Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller, Crime/Gangster, Adaptation
Running Time: 120 min.
Theatrical Release Date: June 27th, 2008 (wide)
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language and some sexuality.
Directed By: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Common , Kristen Hager

SCORE= 10/10

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Last week we got the Donna-lite episode of series four, so this week it’s time for the Doctor-lite installment of the season.

While having the Doctor in a reduced role is certainly nothing new if you’ve watched any of the stories from the early days of the show, watching  the new series work with have a reduced appearance by the title character and lead the past three seasons has been interesting.  Each of the three “Doctor-lite” stories have worked around not having David Tennant on-screen for the majority of the episode in interesting ways.   The first year we had the controversial “Love and Monsters” and last year we got the Hugo-nominated “Blink.”

And this year we get a story focusing on Donna and her role in the overall Doctor Who mythology.

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Genre: Comedy, Thriller and Adaptation
Running Time: 110 min.
Theatrical Release Date: June 20th, 2008
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some rude humor, action violence and language.
Directed By: Peter Segal
Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terrence Stamp

SCORE = 8/10

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Reviewed by: Samuel K. Sloan (FarPoint Media Executive News Director)

The new dramedy series “The Middleman” from the ABC Family Network premiered this week on Monday and turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable 1-hr romp into a fast-paced, satiric-laced dialogue reminiscent of the old Mel Brooks days with “Get Smart,” only with sharper wit.

The pairing of Matt Keeslar as The Middleman and Natalie Morales as his sidekick Wendy Watson is perfect casting. Their chemistry is infectious. Add to the mix veteran actress Mary Pat Gleason with her professional comedic timing and you have all the ingredients for what could turn out to be another major hit series for the fairly new ABC cable network.

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Review by: Michael Hickerson (SoSF assistant editor)

On a recent podcast commentary for “Silence in the Library,” director Eros Lynn asked producer Phil Collinson an interesting question–”What do you see as the difference between the writing style of Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat?” 

If you’ve heard the podcast in question, you know that Collinson is stunned into silence as you can almost hear the gears grinding in his head.  He then goes on to give an answer praising both writers for their own unique strengths and what each one brings to the new series of Doctor Who.

I bring this up because as I watched “Midnight” this week, I was struck by how vastly different each script was, not only in terms of the ideas but also the story telling and execution.  I’ve been critical of Davies writing in the past and I still fimrly believe he’s a man with some great ideas.  The problem is that he tends to focus on getting from one idea to the next at a breakneck clip instead of slowing down and exploring these great ideas and their implications.  He’s all about going for the next big event, the next dramatic moment, the next startling revelation and less about the impact of it on the characters or the implications of what he’s written or developed. 

SPOILERS after the jump…

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Genre: Action/Adventure, Thriller
Running Time: 91 min.
Theatrical Release Date: June 13th, 2008 (wide)
MPAA Rating: R for violent and disturbing images.
Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Spencer Breslin, Ashlyn Sanchez

SCORE = 4/10

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Genre: Action/Adventure, Adaptation and Sequel
Running Time: 1 hr. 54 min.
Theatrical Release Date: June 13th, 2008
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images and brief suggestive content.
Directed By: Louis Leterrier
Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Christina Cabot

SCORE= 5/10

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Reviewed by: Samuel K. Sloan (FarPoint Media Executive News Director)

I must admit that when a representative for Michael Grant’s publisher asked me to read and review “Gone,” Grant’s latest Young Adult (YA) novel, I was less than excited. Why? I’m simply not a big fan of YA novels. Call it my age if you want, but even when I was a young adult (can I even remember back that far?) I wasn’t a huge fan. However, after barely getting through the first chapter of this exciting SF novel I was reeled in and found it near impossible to set down until completed.

Grant has successfully written himself a real suspense-filled saga about a group of small city kids placed in extraordinary circumstances and dealing with problems that would cause any well-seasoned and trained adult to go crazy.

“Gone” takes place in the small California coast town of Perdido Beach. Its main source of revenue is a nuclear power plant that supplies Perdido and much of the northern California coast with its electrical power. The town’s young people can roughly be divided between those average kids living in the town itself and a group of gifted, but troubled teens living just north of town atop a small cliff at Coates Academy.

One day, out of the blue suddenly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, everyone in Perdido 14 and older simply vanishes, or as some of the kids called it “Poof!” Everyone 13 and younger are left behind, teens, middle schoolers, pre-schoolers, toddlers and babies. In the confusion the entire town looks to one unlikely hero named Sam Temple, age 13 and just two weeks short of his 14th birthday. They look to him for direction because it was Sam, just a few months prior who saved a whole school bus load of kids when the driver suffered a heart attach. Sam wants no part of leadership, however and that role is soon taken over by town bullies and eventually by the kids from Coates Academy, particularly a boy named Caine who possesses a unique power that allows him to exert control.

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Genre: Animation
Running Time: 1 hr. 35 min.
Theatrical Release Date: June 6th, 2008
MPAA Rating: PG for sequences of martial arts action.
Directed By: John Wayne Stevenson, Mark Randolph Osborne
Starring: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan, David Cross

SCORE = 7/10

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