Disclaimer: I have never watched an episode of Firefly due to time restrictions so my review will not include any respective perspective. This review also contains no spoilers!

Monday night I had an opportunity to watch the preview release of Serenity. The film is a feature spinoff of the Firefly television series, however, it seems to stand quite nicely on its own. The fact that the distribution company was interested in some independent coverage of the preview event was an immediate hint that these folks had done something wonderfully non-standard, but I was not expecting quite this quality of film. This is not to say that it was an unusual SciFi or a new plot twist but it did not come off as canned or purely demographicly guided. Much to my amazement, many times I would see the first half of Hollywood formula and the director entirely chose a different second half. This made the film that much more enguaging and helped with the suspention of disbelief that I often have trouble with.

The specific class of story is a space western. In that way Serenity definately had a Cowboy Bebop feel to it. For those who have never seen Cowboy Bebop think Hans Solo type character and crew get caught up in a larger plot while trying to run some barely (or il) legal operation in a moderately small spaceship. Of course in the case of Serenity the larger plot involves a girl on board who is to be captured at all costs by powerful conspiritors. The film seldom stops the action and quips which should quiet those who did not like that aspect of Batman Begins. Eventhough I have not seen the TV series the characters were developed quite quickly and thoroughly. The opening scene provides the foundation and back story sufficient to carry the story as well.

The acting is hard to guage. In general the acting was enguaging and certainly the actors stayed in character. This is no doubt due to the time spent creating the Firefly series. However there were a few dialog exchanges that felt rather like forced volleys than natural conversations. This is very obvious in the final scenes and I will choose to blame editing. I could not help but notice a couple of doubing errors as well. These may be corrected for full theatrical release. That aside there were many lines delivered with Sean Connery – James Bond sauve and timing.

Overall I would have to give this movie a 8.5/10 in the genre targeted. I am definatly interested in DVD’s of the Firefly series now. On to another point about the prescreening itself I would just like to note how much more fun that was than a normal movie-going experience. Here is an idea for theater outlets – give people a reason not to stay home by making more medium size rooms with targeted audience:
Theater 10 showing Serenity for techies
Theater 11 showing 20 minutes of bizzare art and Serenity for people who normally go to the Ritz
Theater 12 showing Serenity for people who like to shout at the screen
Theater 13 showing Serenity for people who innapropriately brought young children

PS – Also seen with ZaMoose and SCSIwuzzy.

The Village by M. Night Shyamalan
Awesome… as usual. *****

Like his previous movies, The Village was visually stunning, suspenseful and just all-around masterfully executed. I love Shyamalan’s Hitchcockian sense of story telling. He understands that you don’t need to fill a movie with a lot of gore to make it scarey. But man can he play on your emotions. This one was more suspenseful that scarey, that’s not to say that I didn’t jump or gasp once or twice… I wasn’t the only one either I highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, to definitely check it out. http://thevillage.movies.go.com/

I have to say that it was enjoyable. I may be a little biased, being that I’m from Jersey. I think I may know some of the characters Zack Braff is a extemely talented actor/director/screenwriter.

I don’t like to give movies away, so I’m not going to talk about the about the plot. You can go to http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/gardenstate/, if you want more details.

Usually I’m a bit weary when I hear the word “sequel.” But this summer’s sequels have challenged this assumption. The sequels I am speaking of are Spiderman 2 and the movie I recently had the pleasure of viewing, Bourne Supremacy.

I like this one better than the first (2002 version). If you like action movies, my bet is that you’ll like Bourne Supremacy. I give it **** -

I have not yet seen Spiderman 2, but I may make an exception to my rule, because I really want to see it.
Here’s the rule: I will not go to a movie theater that allows small children into rated R movies.
Commence rant:
I am tired of hearing crying babies at 10pm at night when I am trying to watch a movie in a public theater. Have these people heard of BABY SITTERS! It’s this revolutionary concept where someone watches your kid while you go to the movies, so that you don’t disturb the rest of the audience. Imagine that! What will the come up with next?

Holy, crap! How could anyone make a movie this good. I am speaking of the Kill Bill combination. I feel each is weaker standing on its own and together they make the best action film I ever seen. The attention to detail on music, choreography, and genre cinema was impecible.

This movie needs to be rated in nines like server availability. Id say two nines.
9.99/10