Issue v0.11 – WANT: Movies

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists (documentary)

Meet the legend of digital experts that director Brian Knappbenberger and many others call the hacktivists in We Are Legion, a film that both illuminates and shadows the anonymous and still-growing group that is hackers. “We’ve been called kids, we’ve been called cyberbullies. I got called a terrorist sympathizer” says one. “It’s all entirely unfair.” Or is it? Either way you spin it, these tech experts have the ability to hack into your account – or Sarah Palin’s. And there’s no getting around the devastating effects that some specialists also have the ability to get into your private accounts: financials, social media, you name it. They’re all up for grabs. So, the real question becomes: who’s creating a sequel to counteract this movement?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBlTnPyQnMA

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 

Bilbo Baggins’ journey starts in an effort to recapture a lost kingdom in Erebor and takes him on a treacherous but ultimately rewarding path. Between the 13 dwarves Baggins meets (click your steel-toed boots, we’re not in Snow White anymore), spiders and wargs, shape-shifters and a myriad of other beyond-abnormal creatures and potential fates, take this novel in bits and pieces – but save the film for a rainy day, because you can’t stop once you’ve started.

Our unsurprising verdict: J.R. Tolkien has created yet another masterpiece, heightened to a series of fluid film scenes by Peter Jackson, that will make you unable to decipher where The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ends and your imagination begins. Bon voyage, traveler.

World War Z 

…As if New York City hadn’t seen enough this past year. World War Z (slated for release on June 20, 2013) pinpoints the worst series of post-apocalyptic disasters you could expect to happen in a few short lifetimes. Based on a novel by Max Brooks penned in 2003 (link to Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z), a UN agent’s accounts of zombie attacks and other personal accounts following a 10-year zombie war are brought to life – keep the pun, please. The film, directed by Marc Foster and written by Matthew Carnahan, shows our hero Brad Pitt heading up an equally-hunky all-American family. Meanwhile, Pitt’s character searches the entire world to find shreds of knowledge cemented in armies and governments, which are collapsing everywhere. If you look closely enough at this film, you can just notice the social and geo-political commentary the flick has. We suggest squinting.

Total Recall 

“Are you actually happy with how your life has turned out?” Douglas Quaid, played by Colin Farrell, is one of those ones we love to hate from the outside. He’s got a bombshell better half…but he works at a facility called Rekall that turns dreams into memories. An attempt at a therapeutic release from his emotionally taxing former life as a spy backfires, and it’s hunt or be hunted by the police, namely: Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston). Realizing he needs more manpower to be able to overcome the forces beyond his psyche, Quaid loops in Jessica Biel’s character, a government’s nightmare and fighter rebel who won’t only stop traffic and kick ass, she might just help retrieve his technology-adled memory. You won’t forget a flick like Total Recall.

Ice Age: Continental Drift
Two words: ageless hilarity. Wait, three more: no intelligence needed. Pixar’s newest Ice Age: Continential Drift places Scrat in the middle of another nutty situation where he’s forced to make a no-nonsense decision over the course of the film, but not without his pals Manny, Diego and Sid (who came up with these character names? We love them) and nasty Granny. Watch these characters escape near-death from stupidity, Ice and territorial tundra creatures while they weasel their way back to the home front.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yFM32FwrDk