After a summer of deep-fried, chocolate-dipped sugar balls, 'Contagion' is a real pallette cleanser. No explosions, superheroes or magic – it's just a movie that doesn't pretend to be too smart and therefore comes across as anything but stupid.

Personally I am a big fan of science fiction and horror films, I also find the NASA space missions very fascinating. In fact I recommend everyone watch the Discovery mini-series When We Left Earth. So I have to admit, the thought of combining the two into a faux-documentary style space horror was very intriguing to me.

I've always been a sucker for the Planet of the Apes movies because I've never had to pay to see any of them, that's until recently. With this latest outing, I mostly feel suckered. 

I have mentioned this before and I will say it again, James Gunn's movie 'Super' is my favorite movie of the year.  Maybe even from the last few years, yes even more than 'Scott Pilgrim.'  I just picked this up on Blu-Ray from Best Buy which had a bonus disc of features, more on that later.

One way to judge a success of a film is if it accomplishes what it sets out to do. Now the goal of a film isn't always clear but their are some that are easy to pick out. Take for example the recent sci-fi/buddy road pic Paul. Paul wants very badly to be a classic culminating experience for nerd culture. It manages to reference both mockingly and lovingly just about every major science fiction film over the past forty years. However, it doesn't manage to be much more than a collection of movie references and fails because it doesn't develop anything deeper and more meaningful.

I've never fallen in love with the Starcraft franchise and after a lot of pondering I think I know why. It feels more like you are working at a job than playing a game. You can spend hours practicing and watching replays, learning new strategies and still suck. Ok maybe that is just me but aren't games supposed to be fun?

It really seems like today we live in kind of a polarized world of gaming. Most games fall into two categories. On one hand you have games like Starcraft or World of Warcraft that require great investment of time and effort to learn and play well. On the other you have games like Farmville which are pretty much just mindless ways to waste time. One requires you to be a shut in and the other turns you into a shut in.

Reviewing Green Hornet is a task that should probably be left to the people who clean up after plane crashes. It's such a mess that I can't even figure out where to start. This is especially disconcerting because I went into the movie with low expectations. I wanted a fun campy comic book movie. I wasn't hoping for anything along the lines of Lawrence of Arabia just give me some good action some humor and don't fuck it up too much. Oh well, I had better don my hazmat suit and pick through the wreckage like a good investigator so we can have a look at the black box.

We are told that Human Centipede is the next step in human evolution. At the same time it is a step backward in film evolution. If you aren't familiar it is about a mad scientist who attaches people mouth to ass in order to create a human centipede. Two American women vacationing in Germany are abducted and become part of his experiment.

If you haven't seen Steven Seagal: Lawman you might think that it is just a vapid hollow vehicle for a Hollywood action star whose best movie making years are behind him. If you are like me and watched the first season of the show then you know this is true. If you are still curious or for some reason more curious after reading this you can catch season one on Netflix.

I have written at length here and here about how much I love the DC Animated line of movies. The most recent just came out on Tuesday so I immediately picked it up and watched it. This was one I was really looking forward to. I love the voice acting and animation. I was familiar with the story and enjoyed the comic it was based on. Everything was there for this to be amazing. Sadly, it just wasn't quite.