The Second Annual Nova Awards - 2014

Young Ones

Written and directed by: Jake Paltrow

Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Shannon

Yikes, what a boring piece of crap. I'm not sure what it was more: boring, or a piece of crap. On one hand, it’s a pretentious piece of crap complete with awkward artsy choices, "Chapter" subtitles for no reason (does ANY movie really need chapters?), lame characters, lame story, and awful acting. On the other hand, I had little to no interest in the film.

Space Station '76

Directed by: Jack Plotnick

Written by: Jennifer Elise Cox & Sam Pancake & Jack Plotnick & Kali Rocha & Michael Stoyanov

Stars: Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler, Marisa Coughlan

Now here's an interesting, quirky little film. Unfortunately it kind of sucked, but its style gave it much more potential. Basically it follows the lives of a half dozen or so people on a space station, but the movie is produced as if it was made in the 70s. I was hoping for more technological jokes (like how all the robots in this film are like the tiny toy robots we had in the 80s) or references to cheesy movies of the time like Saturn 3 and Silent Running, but instead it tried to play it serious most of the way with these people's stupid lives. It tried to be profound and funny at the same time, but really it just came off as an awkward debut film from a director who had a couple thousand dollars to blow.

The film actually had a few hilarious spots, like anything involving the robots which were both butlers and psychiatrists in this movie. But the one scene that has to be mentioned was a brief scene involving Keir Dullea, best known for playing the lead Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey. He plays the father of the main character, played by Liv Tyler. In the scene, they are talking to each other in a video phone conversation, an obvious reference to the conversation in 2001, except with the modern twist of the old man who can't figure out technology. Most of the conversation is Keir Dullea trying to frame himself properly in the screen, but instead being out of frame, too close up, or both. A pretty funny moment in an otherwise disappointing (but not forgettable) film.

*.5/****

Sci-Fi talk with Jibbs

Now this is a fun movie to discuss. I actually had an idea long ago for a short story that would be written from the point of view of the 60s during the Cold War. So the enemy spaceships would be USSR, and so on. I was THRILLED to see someone actually try this very creative idea and I hope it’s done more in the future. The problem is, I think the director had more than he thought. Perhaps he thought he was too good for a parody, even though the fruit was ripe for the taking with this set of characters. Every idea has already been done, yes, so it’s up to filmmakers now to do them differently. We also need more comedies in science fiction.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Yes, I watched a lot of sci-fi this year. Perhaps too much.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman is the adaptation of the TV show from the 50s and 60s which itself was sort of a companion TV series to The Bullwinkle Show. It was about an intellectual genius dog and his adopted boy and they would travel through time. This is pretty much the whole movie but with an additional female child companion as a wild card and some other disappointing things I'll get to later.

It was a cute movie and for the most part I was interested in it. There were some decent history jokes, and even a few less childish ones, like Mr. Peabody writing Shakespeare's plays for him. But in the end it was definitely aimed as a children's movie. This is clear from the numerous jokes involving butts, but also less forgivable details, like a complete disregard for plot holes. In one instance Penny steals the time machine and goes to ancient Egypt, so Mr. Peabody and Sherman take the time machine to go get her. See the problem there? There's only one time machine. Ouch. Also, Mr. Peabody has to get back from ancient Rome to the present without the time machine at one point, so he explains he built one out of items from that time period and "yak fat." Kind of funny, but also just lazy writing.

Here's my main peeves with this film, though. One is that Mr. Peabody is voiced by Ty Burrell. I realize we are long gone from the golden age of animation where the movie voiceover actors were professionals and nobody knew who they were, but we're talking about an iconic voice here. Find someone who can freaking do his voice, not someone who walks around the whole movie sounding like Phil Dunphy. And my second peeve is the ending. Oh my God, the finale is based around an impending disaster (a wormhole) around New York City. Do I have to say anything else?

That leads me to my summary which is that although it was a cute, harmless movie, it also reeks of laziness and had no inspiration whatsoever. (Oh, and there was also some weird subplot about Mr. Peabody losing custody over Sherman because he was a dog.)

*.5/****

Sci-fi Talk with Jibbs

Not a whole lot to discuss seeing as time-travel might be the most common (or at least most accessible) for of science fiction. But hey, time travel is fun. You would think with the freedom of time travel, animation, and a family audience, they could have given us some good stuff, but this one was clearly on the fast track to make a few bucks. I mean, my god, who green-lit the New York in trouble thing? And if I recall, Mr. Peabody was also supposed to be educational for children, and you don’t even see much of that here either. There was some brief time travel fun in this one when there were two Sherman’s or something, but it felt like it was there because it was expected.