Is there any sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy film that sucks as bad as time travel? What is it about the concept of going backward or forward in time that seems to bleed all the intelligence and any semblance of good sense out of filmmakers? And yes, while there…
In bands like Six Months to Live and The Babysitters, Gregory Hill earned a reputation for embracing the weird and refusing to pander to expectations. His work as a novelist has followed the same path: His debut novel, East of Denver, the tale of a man who drags his Alzheimer’s-afflicted…
Summer is here at last —- or at least it will be before the month is over. That means that it’s time to get outside, even for geeks! No, there aren’t any camping events on this month’s list of great geek events, but there are a few that might require…
Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator is one of a bare handful of nearly perfect horror movies. If there was any justice in the world, it would have been the biggest movie of 1985. Instead, it’s languished as something of a cult classic, beloved by people who know it while somehow managing to…
Geek culture is big, but even in the vast, loosely defined ocean of “geek” there are a few universal touchstones. That’s not to say that everyone agrees on them — hell, if you can get five geeks together in a room who agree on more than two separate geek-related things,…
How does such a sure thing fail so badly? A casual glance at the cast tells you that the studio that made Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (showing Wednesday, May 20 as this month’s Science Friction selection at the Alamo Drafthouse) fully expected it to be the Next…
On a scale of one to Mad Max, how prepared are you for the end of the world? Chances are if you’re reading this — i.e. you’re an American who loves pop culture enough to read analysis and commentary about it — you’re as well prepared for humanity’s last hurrah…
Two powerhouses of modern comedy — one intentional, one less so — come together for one glorious night tomorrow at RiffTrax Live: The Room. The original RiffTrax for the film is one of the crew’s most popular ever, but for this live event they’ve gone back to the well for…
May is here, and that means Star Wars (as in “may the fourth be with you,” because nerds love puns). Don’t worry if George Lucas’s vision left you cold, though — there are plenty of great geek events happening this month that have nothing to do with that particular galaxy…
May 4 is just around the corner, and for many that means it’s time to celebrate the wonders of Star Wars. In case you aren’t familiar with this particular piece of nerd esoterica, allow me to elucidate. Geeks love Star Wars — you knew this, right? — and geeks also love…
You think things are bad just because we have police murdering people daily, the government spying on us 24/7 and the slowest broadband speeds in the world? Pfft, whatever. Sure, the dystopia-lite that is modern-day America is a giant shitshow, but anyone with a passing familiarity with science fiction film…
The Avengers: Age of Ultron release date is now just a touch over two weeks away, and the hype is building to a fever pitch. By this I mean that nearly every surprise, reveal and “good part” of the movie has been spoiled. Not by reckless, craven fanboys in league…
In Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, the Zellner Brothers — David and Nathan — offer a haunting meditation on the relationship between truth and fiction, and between desire and belief. Based on an urban legend about a Japanese woman who died looking for the cash hidden at the end of the…
If I had to crown a single film King of the 1980s, I’d pick John Carpenter’s They Live. Not only did the 1988 film come out at the height of its referential decade, it also managed to synthesize the most prevalent themes of ‘80s pop culture into a perfect whole,…
Some movies leave an indelible impression the very first time you see them. For me, one of those movies is Highlander (showing tonight as the debut offering from Fantastique, a new fantasy film series at Alamo Drafthouse). Something — hell, everything — about this eon-spanning, sword-fighting tale of immortals captured…
T.S. Eliot said April was the cruelest month, but that was clearly before he got a good look at all the sweet geek events happening in Denver in the coming month: Classic sci-fi, fantasy and horror movies, two conventions and our own homegrown horror-film festival are all on the calendar…
Fandom is a universal language. Once a TV, book or game series has sunk its hooks into you, you begin to understand all those other weirdos. That’s part of what makes local documentary Mile High Magic a must-see for anyone who even dabbles in geek, whether they’ve ever picked up…
The big nerd news of the week, in case you just crawled out of a cave, is the imminent return of The X-Files. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions here, but I did make a case for its return just a little more than six months ago, and here we…
AnomalyCon, Denver’s home-brewed steampunk convention, will kick off its fifth year on Friday at the DTC Hyatt Regency. The three-day celebration of anachronistic science fiction and alternate history includes everything from an interactive murder mystery to a grand ball, not to mention guests like famed Boing Boing blogger and science…
Even among the most diehard zombie fans — and I unquestionably count myself among that number — the recent bonanza of zombie everything has led to something like zombie fatigue. What was the last great zombie movie you saw? Mine was The Battery, and that came out in 2012. Similarly,…
I’ve had disease on my mind the past three days: Since small children are nature’s perfect disease incubators and all, my toddler is sick. That means I’ve spent the past sixty hours or so wiping snot, administering drugs and having someone cough directly into my mouth every time I let…
The season five debut of Game of Thrones is still a month away, which leaves you plenty of time to catch up and/or get reacquainted with its complex and detailed interweaving storylines. One great chance to do exactly that is Saturday, March 14, when the Denver Public Library’s Fresh City…
