I, like all right-thinking people, love Futurama. It’s up there with Mystery Science Theater 3000 as one of the best shows to ever grace the air waves. So when they recently got the band back together for four direct to DVD movies, I was pretty psyched.
But here’s a secret for you. It’s not one I like to spread around, so lean in close now…
…
The movies weren’t very good.
I know! I shouldn’t look a “gift space cow” in the mouth, but the movies were far inferior to any episode of the show. I think it was partly due to the difficulties inherent in adapting a TV show into a movie, and partly due to the fact that each movie only had one or two writers, as opposed to the entire writer’s room worth of ideas the series had.
Either way, the DVDs were a success and the show is returning with new episodes on Comedy Central this June! I’m a little wary, but very excited to see it return to the more familiar format. And while this teaser isn’t particularly funny (same joke they did in the first comeback movie), you should still watch it and get your expectations unreasonably high with me!
Bruce Campbell has announced that he will star in a follow-up to My Name is Bruce, in which he played a comically exaggerated self-deprecating version of himself that saves a small town from a demon. In the sequel, Bruce Vs. Frankenstein, he’ll wind up in Europe where he, presumably, will save a small European town from a mad scientist and his monstrous creation. I’m not sure what got Campbell going on this, but if he wants to remake the rest of Abbott and Costello’s oeuvre while he’s at it (Bruce Campbell Chainsaws the Mummy, Bruce Campbell Wrestles the Invisible Man, The Wistful She-Bitch of Wagon Gap, etc.), I’m completely on board.
Honestly, though, My Name is Bruce wasn’t all that hot. It was hokey, like a lot of Campbell’s work, but it lacked the Sam Raimi execution that makes that kind of thing work. And Ted Raimi turned in four performances that made me realize why Sam usually limits him to cameos. Here’s hoping they pull it off a bit better this time.
They live in a secret world touched by magic and surrounded by nature, and the only human who has ever been there, must now fight to save it. This is the story of FernGully: The Last Rainforest. REVIEWED: Avatar. PLUS: Bye Bye Squeaky.
Button, button, who’s got the MURDER! REVIEWED: The Box. RETRO PICK: Button, Button. PLUS: Logan faces some touch choices of his own when Ryan presents him with his own series of moral-decision boxes.
You got your sociopolitical commentary in my sci-fi popcorn flick! You got your Sam Rockwell in my Sam Rockwell! It’s a science fiction double feature with District 9 and Moon. PLUS: Whither White Chicks 2?
Another summer of reboots, remakes, and sequels begins here. Same old concepts, prettier actors. REVIEWED: Star Trek. PLUS: Ben Stiller’s Hair: Fact or Fiction?
I, like all right-thinking people, love Futurama. It’s up there with Mystery Science Theater 3000 as one of the best shows to ever grace the air waves. So when they recently got the band back together for four direct to DVD movies, I was pretty psyched.
