Theater or Renter: September 2009

Theater or Renter: September includes eight SF movies Gamer, Carriers, 9, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Jennifer's Body, Surrogates, Pandorum, Astro Boy.  Will we watch? Will we rent? or do we even care?

Rules of the Game: Watch the trailers. Rate the Trailer. Then share with us your comments: does the movie, it’s trailer and buzz make you want to watch it in the theater, rent it, or not interested at all, and why?

Gamer:

Release Date:  SEPTEMBER 4th

Listed as:  Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Studio: Lionsgate

Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor

Produced by: Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright, Skip Williamson

Written by: Neveldine/Taylor

Stars:  Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Logan Lerman, with Ludacris, and Kyra Sedgwick

The Plot / Story: It's 2034 and mind-control technology has taken society by storm.  A multiplayer on-line game called "Slayers" allows gamers to control human death row prisoners in mass-scale deathmatches. Any inmate who lives through 30 matches wins his freedom. Simon the current champion with 27 wins controls Kable who has lived through them all.  kable's ultimate challenge regaining his identity and independence by defeating the game's mastermind through launching an attack on the system that has imprisoned him.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Carriers:

Release Date:  SEPTEMBER 4th

Listed as:  Drama, Thriller, Horror

Studio:  Paramount Vantage

Director:  Àlex Pastor, David Pastor

Produced by:  Ray Angelic, Anthony Bregman

Written by:  Àlex Pastor, David Pastor

Stars:  Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Christopher Meloni

The Plot / Story: Four friends fleeing a virus pandemic find themselves stranded when their car breaks down in the wasteland, where the epidemic was spreading.  They soon find themselves battling the infected and desperate survivors, and eventually against each other as the decisions they must make to survive become increasingly more gruesome.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

9:

Release Date:  SEPTEMBER 9th

Listed as:  Animation, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Studio:  Focus Features

Director:  Shane Acker

Produced by:  Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov

Written by:  Shane Acker (story), Pamela Pettler, Ben Gluck

Stars:  Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau

The Plot / Story: The time is the too-near future. Powered and enabled by the invention known as the Great Machine, the world’s machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest, decimating the human population before being largely shut down.  But as our world fell to pieces, a mission began to salvage the legacy of civilization; a group of small creations was given the spark of life by a scientist in the final days of humanity, and they continue to exist post-apocalypse.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

• More articles on 9 here

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs:

Release Date:  SEPTEMBER 18th

Listed as:  Animation, Family

Studio:  Columbia Pictures

Director:  Phil Lord, Chris Miller

Produced by:  Pam Marsden

Written by:  Screenplay:  Phil Lord, Chris Miller  Book: Judi Barrett, Ron Barrett

Stars:  Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, James Caan, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Andy Samberg, Mr. T

The Plot / Story: Based on the book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  Scientist Flint Lockwood has a track record of creating unwanted or faulty inventions.  While trying to solve world hunger he develops a method to directly convert water into food and releases the mechanism on the world.  Hunger is eliminated as weather delivers food, but a problem of global proportions soon evolves when the food weather machine that Flint invented develops a mind of its own, and starts wreaking havoc on the world. Flint is now saddled with the task of stopping his maniac creation to stop the ensuing chaos.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

• get your copy of the book from amazon here: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

  

Jennifer's Body:

Release Date:  SEPTEMBER 18th

Listed as:  Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Studio:  20th Century Fox

Director:  Matias Anaya

Produced by:  Daniel Dubiecki, Mason Novick, Jason Reitman

Written by:  Diablo Cody

Stars:  Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris

The Plot / Story: Jennifer, a sexy popular captain of the flag team ends up as the sacrifice in a Satanic ritual, held by a rock band, hoping that the sacrifice will increase their chances of getting a record deal. The ritual goes horribly wrong and Jennifer becomes possessed by a demon and begins to feed off of the boys in her high school—first seducing them to get close, and then eating them as meals. It's up to Jennifer's childhood friend to stop her from killing more of her classmates.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Surrogates:

Release Date:  SEPTEMBER 25th

Listed as: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Studio:  Touchstone Pictures

Director:  Jonathan Mostow

Produced by:  David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Max Handelman

Written by:  John Brancato, Michael Ferris (screenplay), Robert Venditti (story)

Stars:  Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike,  James Cromwell, Ving Rhames

The Plot / Story: Based on comic book series The Surrogates.  In a future in which humans live in near-total isolation, never leaving the safety and comfort of their homes, and only communicating with their fellow man through remotely-controlled robotic bodies that serve as "surrogates", designed as better-looking versions of their human operators.  This utopian society starts to unravel with the first murder in years.  Bruce Willis is an FBI agent who enlists the aid of his own surrogate to investigate the first murder in years, however, when several humans are murdered as their surrogates are destroyed he has to venture outside the safety of his home for the first time in many years to solve the case.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

• get your copy of the book from amazon here: The Surrogates (Graphic Novels)

  

Pandorum:

Release Date:  SEPTEMBER 25th

Listed as:  Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Studio:  Overture Films

Director:  Christian Alvart

Produced by:  Paul W. S. Anderson, Jeremy Bolt, Robert Kulzer

Written by:  Travis Milloy, Christian Alvart

Stars:  Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster

The Plot / Story: They believe that they must be the only ones aboard the spacecraft, but can hear sounds coming from its center. Exploring the spacecraft, they encounter several other surviving crewmembers, and the astronauts start to learn that a terrible event has occurred on board which might affect the survival of the entire human race.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

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