What a fun surprise, this movie. Guy Pearce plays a disgraced cop accused of killing another officer and hiding evidence contained in a metal briefcase. Maggie Grace (forever to me poor Shannon from Lost) is the President’s daughter, taken hostage while investigating a supermax prison that houses 500 criminal masterminds. Pearce is given the option of infiltrating the prison in order to rescue her, and he agrees to do so, mainly so that he can find his former partner who went to jail for helping hide the briefcase; Pearce believes that if he can find it again, he can prove his innocence.
Also, the year is 2074 and the prison is in space. Not that it matters, really, because this plot – allegedly an “original idea” from producer Luc Besson, but strikingly similar to John Carpenter’s Escape from New York – could be set anywhere. The real charm of the film is the script and Pearce’s gleeful commitment to it, wisecracking his way through scenes where everyone else is playing it pretty seriously – with the notable exception of Joseph Gilgun, who stands out as the uncontrollable burden and brother of hard man Vincent Regan. This is the kind of film that keeps me going to dubious SF movies, hoping for a diamond in the rough.
Why don’t I read more Richard Sala books? The guy is a genius, and I have liked everything I have read by him. The Hidden is an excellently paced tale with roots in a classic story, a lot of macabre touches and dark humour. 
The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists is a sort-of-graphic-novel from the sketchbooks of Seth, who is probably as well known these days for his book and packaging design as he is for his comics. One of his passions is the study and celebration of classic cartoonists, so much so that his sketchbooks have become a repository for semi-fictional tales of their exploits. The GNBCC takes place in an alternate world where Canada once celebrated its cartoonists as Seth would, erecting statues and supporting regional headquarters that resemble gentlemen’s clubs. 
So, the regular TV season is drawing to a close and people are mostly excited about the return of Game of Thrones, which is understandable; it’s a very good show. And Community seems to be getting a reprieve and possibly a renewal, so that makes me happy. Thanks to Netflix, Nicole has burned through most of The X-Files for the first time and we are both enjoying The United States of Tara.
Sheridan alumnus Vera Brosgol hits a home run with her debut YA graphic novel Anya’s Ghost, about a teenaged Russian immigrant who has worked hard to assimilate but still feels like an outsider. Anya discovers that things could be much worse when she falls down a hole in a field and lands next to the long-lost remains of Emily, a girl who died under sinister circumstances during World War I. Emily’s ghost haunts the skeleton, unable to stray far from it, but when Anya is rescued she accidentally sweeps one of Emily’s small finger-bones into her backpack and brings Emily with her. Not surprisingly, Emily does not want to go back, so she promises to help Anya with her problems, fetching answers for tests and finding out how to attract a certain boy. The more Emily does, however, the more Anya starts to suspect that Emily is not as helpful as she appears.
Joss Whedon and former Buffy writer Drew Goddard reunite for this amusing sendup of dead teenager films, referencing everything from Friday the 13th and The Evil Dead to Ghostbusters and The Truman Show. It is the story of five college students who take a camper to a cousin’s remote cabin for a vacation: on the surface they appear to be the usual jock, slut, fool, brain and virgin, but the opening act fleshes them out. The opening act also introduces us to a secret facility under the cabin where a large team (led by Bradley Whitford, Amy Acker, and Richard Jenkins) monitor their every move and steer them toward their doom. Thanks to the quick thinking of the fool (Dollhouse’s Fran Kranz), however, the prey become aware of the game and try to fight back.
Katherine Wirick recently 
Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella star and Sean and Ben in this preposterous but agreeable alien invasion film; they lose out on prospective Russian investment in their mobile app during a trip to Moscow, only to survive the initial onslaught of invisible invaders that disintegrate whatever they touch. With a couple of female American tourists in tow, they hide out in a club basement for a few days and emerge into a destroyed, vacant city that recalls The Day of the Triffids (or if you like, 28 Days Later). Sean realizes that the aliens can be detected the the common light bulb, which glows in the vicinity of their ambient electrical fields. After some close calls they find a few other survivors, who have started to put together counteroffensive weapons that Nikola Tesla would admire.
Untold Scandal (currently available on Netflix) is the fifth filmed version of the French novel and play Les Liaisons Dangereuses. North American audiences are probably already familiar with one of the other versions: the John Malkovich costume drama, the Sarah Michelle Gellar high school version, or perhaps the Colin Firth period piece. This version was made in Korea in 2003, and while it is generally very faithful to the plot, it also offers some new wrinkles; most notably a tension between Confucianism and Catholicism, casting the innocent virgin character as the latter. I have not seen many Korean films apart from their most high-profile releases, so I do not know the actors very well, but I was impressed with the cast, especially Bae Yong-Joon as the seducer Jo-Won and Lee So-Yeon in the Cecile role. I was also very impressed with the gorgeous art direction, costume design, and cinematography; it is really quite a beautiful film, and enjoyable to watch despite the familiarity of the story. 
