movies, series

0383

Beyond Skyline (2017)

spacetime coordinates: 2010 Los Angeles //  rural Laos in Southeast Asia

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Beyond Skyline is an 2017 American science fiction action thriller film directed by Liam O’Donnell and stars Frank GrilloBojana NovakovicIko UwaisCallan MulveyYayan Ruhian, Betty Gabriel and Antonio Fargas. It is the direct sequel to the 2010’s Skyline.

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“A tough-as-nails detective embarks on a relentless pursuit to free his son from a nightmarish alien warship.”

imdb

BEYOND SKYLINE Movie Teaser 


Skylines (2020)

spacetime coordinates: mission to an extraterrestrial world to save what’s left of mankind. five years after the war against the aliens

Skylines (also known as Skyline 3 and stylized as SKYLIN3S) is a 2020 American science fiction action film written and directed by Liam O’Donnell. It is a sequel to Beyond Skyline (2017) and the final entry in the Skyline trilogy. (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes


movies

0376 – Railroad Tigers (2016)

spacetime coordinates: East China,  December 1941

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Railroad Tigers is a 2016 Chinese action comedy film directed by Ding Sheng and starring Jackie Chan.  It is about a railroad worker who leads a team of freedom fighters to oppose the Japanese during Second Sino-Japanese War.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4687848/

movies

0375 – The Foreigner (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  2010’s UK

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The Foreigner is a 2017 British-Chinese action thriller film directed by Martin Campbell and written by David Marconi, based on the 1992 novel The Chinaman by Stephen Leather. The British-Chinese co-production stars Jackie ChanPierce BrosnanMichael McElhattonLiu TaoCharlie MurphyOrla Brady and Katie Leung, and follows a humble businessman with a buried past who seeks justice when his daughter is killed in an act of terrorism.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1615160/

movies, series

373 – Land of the Dead (2005)

deadLand of the Dead (also known as George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead) is a 2005 post-apocalyptic horror film written and directed by George A. Romero; the fourth of Romero’s six Living Dead movies, it is preceded by Night of the Living DeadDawn of the Deadand Day of the Dead, and succeeded by Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead.

The story of Land of the Dead deals with a zombie assault on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where a feudal-like government exists. The survivors in the film have fled to the Golden Triangle area of downtown Pittsburgh. The region is protected on two sides by rivers and on the third by an electric barricade that survivors term “the Throat”.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418819/

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 American horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his feature film directorial debut. A remake of George A. Romero’s 1978 film of the same name, it was written by James Gunn and stars Sarah PolleyVing RhamesJake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer. James Gunn labeled it a “re-imagining” of the original film’s concept.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363547/

animation

0360 – Nova Seed (2016)

Nova Seed

NOVA SEED is a 2016  sci-fi fantasy adventure 2D animation.   a solo effort by  Nick DiLiberto, the film is the product of four years’ work and is comprised of 60,000 hand-drawn frames.  It is DiLiberto’s directorial debut feature.

Nova SEED is an action-packed, post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi adventure that follows a lion-man (a Neo-Animal Combatant or NAC) who must save the NOVA Seed, a mystic force of nature in the form of a girl, from Dr. Mindskull, an evil half-man bent on remaking the world in his image.

Nova SEED is written by Nick DiLiberto (who worked in the animation department for Asura’s Wrath, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Mass Effect) and Joe DiLiberto, and executive produced by Ricardo Curtis , Adele DiLiberto, John DiLiberto, Nick DiLiberto and Wes Lui . Music by Canadian musician, Stephen Verrall.

DiLiberto said, “I grew up with 2D animated shows like He-Man and Thunder Cats and I wanted to be a part of that, but as an adult I was disappointed that everything I saw and worked on was so slick and manufactured. I wanted to make something that made me feel like I did when I was a kid, and I was tired of waiting for Disney or DreamWorks to make it for me. So, I made it myself.” (read more)

About Gorgon Pictures: Gorgon Pictures Inc. is an Independent animation studio located in Fukuoka, Japan, established by Canadian filmmaker Nick DiLiberto, which is dedicated to creating fully 2D hand drawn animated films. With its first feature film NOVA SEED (2016), an award-winning Sci-fi adventure, Gorgon Pictures has become an inspiration to artists and filmmakers around the world and continues to push the envelope in its approach and techniques to the medium.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5569618/

movies

345 – Pacific Rim (2013)

spacetime coordinates: 2020 – 2025 Alaska // Hong Kong // Manila // San Francisco // Pacific Ocean //  Tokyo

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Pacific Rim is a 2013 American science fiction monster film directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Charlie HunnamIdris ElbaRinko KikuchiCharlie DayBurn GormanRobert KazinskyMax Martini, and Ron Perlman. The screenplay was written by Travis Beacham and del Toro from a story by Beacham.

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The film is set in the future, when Earth is at war with the Kaiju,  colossal sea monsters which have emerged from an interdimensional portal on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. To combat the monsters, humanity unites to create the Jaegers,  gigantic humanoid mechas each controlled by at least two pilots, whose minds are joined by a mental link. Focusing on the war’s later days, the story follows Raleigh Becket, a washed-up Jaeger pilot called out of retirement and teamed with rookie pilot Mako Mori as part of a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kaiju.

Knifehead, the first Kaiju to appear in the film, is a tribute to the plodding kaiju of 1960s Japanese films, and is intended to look almost like a man in a rubber suit; its head was inspired by that of a goblin shark. Leatherback, the bouncer-like Kaiju which spews electro-magnetic charges, is a favorite of del Toro, who conceived it as a “brawler with this sort of beer belly”; the lumbering movements of gorillas were used as a reference.  The Kaiju Otachi homages the dragons of Chinese mythology. The director called it a “Swiss army knife of a Kaiju”; with almost 20 minutes of screen time, it was given numerous features so the audience would not tire of it. The creature moves like a Komodo dragon in water, sports multiple jaws and an acid-filled neck sack, and unfurls wings when necessary. It is also more intelligent than the other Kaiju, employing eagle-inspired strategies against the Jaegers.  Onibaba, the Kaiju that orphans Mako Mori, resembles a fusion of a Japanese temple and a crustacean. Slattern, the largest Kaiju, is distinguished by its extremely long neck and “half-horn, half-crown” head, which del Toro considered both demonic and majestic. 

Gipsy Danger, the American Jaeger, was based on the shape of New York City’s Art Deco buildings, such as the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building, but infused with John Wayne‘s gunslinger gait and hip movements. Cherno Alpha, the Russian Jaeger, was based on the shape and paint patterns of a T-series Russian tank, combined with a giant containment silo to give the appearance of a walking nuclear power plant with a cooling tower on its head. Crimson Typhoon, the three-armed Chinese Jaeger, is piloted by triplets and resembles a “medieval little warrior”; its texture evokes Chinese lacquered wood with golden edges. Striker Eureka, the Australian Jaeger, is likened by del Toro to a Land Rover; the most elegant and masculine Jaeger, it has a jutting chest, a camouflage paint scheme recalling the Australian outback, and the bravado of its pilots.

Rather than popular culture, the director drew inspiration from works of art such as The Colossus and George Bellows‘s boxing paintings.

The classic Japanese woodblock print  The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai was a common motif in the ocean battles; Del Toro recalled, “I would say ‘Give me a Hokusai wave’… we use the waves and weather in the movie very operatically.”  The director asked that Knoll not necessarily match the lighting from shot to shot: “It’s pretty unorthodox to do that, but I think the results are really beautiful and very artistically free and powerful, not something you would associate with a big sci-fi action movie.” Del Toro considers the film’s digital water its most exciting visual effect: “The water dynamics in this movie are technically beautiful, but also artistically incredibly expressive. We agreed on making the water become almost another character. We would time the water very precisely. I’d say ‘Get out of the wave [on this frame].'”

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Rim_(film)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663662/

Pacific_rim_poster

movies

0338 – Doomsday (2008)

spacetime coordinates: 2035 Glasgow // London

doomsday poster

Doomsday is a 2008 science fiction action horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film takes place in the future in Scotland, which has been quarantined because of a deadly virus.

When the virus is found in London, political leaders send a team led by Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) to Scotland to find a possible cure. Sinclair’s team runs into two types of survivors: marauders and medieval knights. Doomsday was conceived by Marshall based on the idea of futuristic soldiers facing medieval knights.

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The director intended Doomsday as a tribute to post-apocalyptic films from the 1970s and 1980s,  (Conception)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0483607/