The Cabin in the Woods, simply put, is the best horror film to come out of the American studio system in the last 2-3 years. It’s hard to believe the film has been literally just sitting on the shelf for almost that long, waiting for a theatrical release.

Written by Joss Whedon and directed by first timer Drew Goddard, the film was a victim of the MGM bankruptcy back in 2010 and the release was put on indefinite hold until a buyer could be found and a new release date could be scheduled.

Luckily, Lionsgate stepped in and saved the day and the film opens today on the very apt Friday the 13th.

The Cabin in the Woods is the story of five friends who go to (you guessed it) a cabin in the woods for a weekend of partying and debauchery. What they don’t know is things aren’t exactly as they seem and this is made clear even before their RV even leaves for the cabin.

There are a ton of layers to this story and Whedon and Goddard have masterfully given this more than tired sub-genre with its well known tropes the shot in the arm it so desperately deserved.

The film stars a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth and Whedon Alums Fran Kranz and Amy Acker. The rest of the cast is peppered with lesser knowns and up and comers that we will definitely be seeing and hearing more from after this film hits. In typical Whedon fashion the cast is a perfect mishmash of girl power and character actors, who successfully deliver Whedon’s trademarked pop-culture aware dialog.

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I am not proud of this Photoshop

Update: Contest over! Thanks for playing! The Philadelphia Science Festival is quickly approaching, and we sure are psyched here at Geekadelphia. With institutions all over the city celebrating in their own way, there are a TON of events to check out.

But there are only twelve movies.

Listen Geeks, I know you. So we’ve teamed up with the folks at the Science Festival to run this awesome contest. We’re giving away a special film package to a lucky reader.

You’ll score two passes to see ALL THE FILMS during the festival, and each pass is worth nearly $100 ($96.50). One of the films is free with admission to the Franklin Institute, so as a bonus, you’ll get free admission to the museum for the day. Movies screening at the Science Festival include:

• 4/21: Man on a Mission *
• 4/22: Eco Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson *
• 4/22: Wiebo’s War *
• 4/23: Chasing Ice
• 4/23: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
• 4/24: The Chocolate Farmer *
• 4/24: The Corridor
• 4/24: Apartment 143
• 4/27: The City Dark
• 4/28: Flatline
• 4/28: Pink Ribbons, Inc *
• 4/29: A Fierce Green Fire *

* Indicates a Philadelphia and/or East Coast premiere.

Yes, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is seriously playing during the Philadelphia Science Festival. Do not question this. DO NOT.

So in the tradition of this being a festival about science, leave a comment about your favorite science fiction flick for a chance to win. I’ll select one of you at random on Monday, and winners will have their tickets mailed to them directly from the festival. Please note, a lot of these films overlap, so you’ll have to choose your movies wisely.

Make sure you visit the Philadelphia Science Festival’s website for more information on the awesome celebration of SCIENCE.

Philadelphia Science Festival 2012
April 20th – 29th, 2012
www.philasciencefestival.org

Our friends over at Medium Rare Cinema are screening another one of a kind cut of a film that you can’t see anywhere else. Head over to the Broad Street Ministry this Thursday, April 12th at 7:30pm to catch an uncut version of the Ringo Lam 1988 classic School on Fire.

This version, which they’ve dubbed Ringo Lam’s original cut, was achieved by restoring 36 edits. This accounts for more the 6 minutes that were forced on Lam by Hong Kong censors.

The film involves a young schoolgirl who becomes caught in a tragic stranglehold of triad activity after she testifies in court over a triad beating. When this news reaches the triad leader, she must pay him protection money for what she has done as events begin to escalate.

The film will be presented digitally in Cantonese with newly translated English subtitles. There will also be a discussion afterwards, accompanied by trivia and prizes. All this for a mere $5. Check out the trailer below!

The Indonesian film The Raid: Redemption or The Raid, has been blowing up the festival circuit over the last few months since it was purchased by Sony Pictures Classics, retitled (to give way for a trilogy) and re-scored. The film has been getting the kind of buzz in genre circles not heard since Attack the Block last year, and where Attack the Block was a throwback to 80s sci-fi, The Raid: Redemption might be one of the the greatest action films to hit our screens in a long time.

The film is the story of swat team sent to take back a building from a crime lord who has filled it with criminals, each of whom pays a fee to live there law free. Under suspicious orders the team begins to re-take the building only to have the tables turned when a bounty is offered up by the crime lord for anyone who takes care of this newest “infestation”.

What results is a hyper-violent, kung-fu action film that will satisfy anyone looking for an hour and 40 minutes of solid ass-kicking. The film is very similar to a video-game in that the team slowly makes its way through the numbered floors of increasing danger on their way to the top where the big boss and his two loyal bodyguards reside. Somewhere in there of course is more plot there to be had, but honestly, that is not this film’s strongest point.

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Cabin in the Woods will finally be getting a theatrical release on the very befitting Friday, April 13th after sitting on the shelf for almost 3 years. The film, written by Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon, has become a thing of legend thanks to some amazing word of mouth from screenings at both Butt-Numb-A-Thon and SXSW.

The film is a by the horror text book story of five friends who go for a weekend retreat at a remote cabin in the woods and insanity ensues. I really don’t want say anymore. I have seen this film and the less you walk in with the better it will be for you.

We have 25 passes for 2 to a screening of the film at The Rave, Monday April 9th, 2012. Want a chance to check this out before the Internet has a chance to spoil the film for you? Simply comment with your favorite “Cabin in the Woods” film and why by Sunday. The best answers will score some tickets.

No trailer for this one… too many damn spoilers.

You’ve probably heard of AC/DC. Back in Black, Dirty Deeds. You know, those guys. But what about OCD/C? They’re kind of the same thing, except that they’ve only had one song in the last twenty years. But it’s perfect, you guys. And now, they’re getting their own mockumentary.

Ben Mills and Mike Robinson have written a hilarious mockumentary film about a band called OCD/C. This band’s been together for twenty years, they only have ONE song… but it’s perfect. The perfect song.

The film tells the story of the band entering its’ twentieth year together. It documents their complete and total tweeking out about the most minor details of the COMPLETION of their ONLY song. The film crew visits and interviews them at their studio/rehearsal space, as well as, follows them after they get some major news.

Mills and Robinson are about to “give birth” to this film but need your financial support. Kickstarter is an all or nothing approach to fund raising: you donate whatever you can to our project and if we meet 100% of our goal then this story “comes to life”. If we don’t meet our goal of $5000, then we get nothing, your money goes back to you, and we film this story on my iPhone and it looks like sh..

Your contribution will help us cover production and equipment rental costs. Your support will be rewarded in several ways from OCD/C t-shirts, to producer credits on the film, to the two of us spotlessly cleaning your home (OCD style) when you handsomely contribute to our project.

We are passionate about music, comedy, and film and have been creating performance-based art for many years. Please help us and our highly talented film crew and cast deliver this “baby” into the realm of….manifestation.

A segment of OCD/C’s only song can be heard at the end of the video. Lyrics:

Every single thing in this world has a place to call its own, I feel it just might be my calling to put these things in their place, My obsessions keep me stalling, A dusty shelf is just appalling, And can you say you’d rather have it good than get it right?

Two things, everyone. First, the last 20 seconds or so of their video is probably the funniest thing you’ll see this week. Second, They’ll clean your house for you. Win. The film (and fake band) is made by a who’s who of local comedy talent – show ‘em some love.

The Project: OCD/C Mockumentary

Creator: Mike Robinson and Ben Mills

The Sweet Spot: $25 gets you some social media love and a sweet digital behind-the-scenes booklet, but $300 gets you all of that, early access to the film, an invitation to a live performance, a download of the song, and some sweet OCD-style cleaning action.

Funding Deadline: April 18th, 2012

More Info: Check out more info on Kickstarter.

Every Monday Geekadelphia features a Kickstarter created by locals. Check ‘em out and support our local geek scene. If you have a project that you’d like featured on site, contact geekadelphia@gmail.com

Pulp Cinema will be screening David and Lisa at Broad Street Ministry on Monday, April 2nd at 7:30pm on 16mm.

David and Lisa, which was based on a book by Theodore Isaac Rubin, is the  strange love story of a girl with dissociative identity disorder and a boy with obsessive compulsive disorder. The broken pair meet in a mental facility and form a very unlikely bond trying to help the each other overcome their psychological shortcomings.

The  independent feature was shot in black and white in and around Philadelphia for $183,000,  was written and directed by the husband and wife team of  Frank Perry and Eleanor Perry.  David and Lisa went on to make over $1,000,000 in its first week of film rentals alone and they were nominated for two Oscars in 1962, for directing and best screenplay.

The screening will be free to the public, please check out the trailer below!

Not So Silent Cinema, the same folks who brought you Nosferatu last October, will be presenting the Mark of Zorro (1920) in Philadelphia next month.

If you’ve never seen a movie older than Star Wars, it’s worth going just to see what all the fuss was about a hundred years ago with “moving pictures.” Brandon Cooney has composed an original score to this otherwise silent film, creating a unique experience not to be missed. Their previous shows have sold out, so be quick about it.

Watch Zorro fight. Watch Zorro run away. Watch Zorro woo Lolita. Watch Zorro’s words appear on the intertitles! Scope at the trailer below.

The Mark of Zorro @ the Rotunda
Aprl 13th, 8pm, $10
www.notsosilentcinema.com/the-mark-of-zorro

The Rotunda
4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
www.therotunda.org

There’s no stopping The Hunger Games phenomenon. Just as the trilogy of young adult books wrapped up, a film adaptation was announced and Hollywood is hoping that this new franchise will fill the seats left empty by the loss of Harry Potter and Twilight.

The Hunger Games is the story of a post-apocalyptic future, where for the last 74 years as penance for a rebellion 12 districts are forced to give up both a male and a female child to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. The film focuses on Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) from the poor mining village of District 12, whose younger sister is picked as tribute to fight. Katniss volunteers to take her place in the televised battle to the death where only one can survive to claim the title.

We then follow Katniss on her journey after she volunteers, as she is taken to the rich and decadent Capitol and groomed to appeal to the masses who will be watching, betting and sponsoring the games. While in the city promoting the games, she falls into the requisite love triangle with a fellow tribute right before she is thrown into the Hunger Games to fight for her life.

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Love the new Chinese film directed by Doze Niu, will be opening this Friday March 23rd at the AMC Cherry Hill for a limited engagement. The film is quite a change of pace for Doze Niu who is probably best known for his 2010 Taiwanese gangster epic Monga. Love stars a few major actors and actress from both China and Taiwan in what can be best described as the Chinese version of Love Actually.

While Love Actually followed 8 different couples, Love only follows 8 different individuals. In the film they are all looking for love in their tumultuous day-to-day lives and by the end of the film their story-lines all seem to intersect in one way or another. I have to admit I have a soft spot for Chinese romantic comedies and this is one of the better ones I have seen in a long time. Love somehow seems to manage a perfect balance of  a tear jerker and rom-com at the same time.

The film stars Qi Shu, who most of us would recognize as the damsel in distress from the original Transporter and Wei Zhao who was the shy baker girl who could make a mean bun from Shaolin Soccer. I thoroughly enjoyed Love and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The film will be presented digitally for a limited time in Mandarin with English subtitles, in the meantime check out the trailer below.

Bullet in the Head, John Woo’s Vietnam epic, will be screened by our friends over at Medium Rare Cinema at the Broad Street Ministry Friday, March 23rd at 6pm. Bullet in the Head originally started its life out as the sequel to A Better Tomorrow and when they couldn’t get the rights, the film was rewritten as an ode to Apocalypse Now.

The film was a box office bomb in China and was heavily edited to take advantage of Woo’s The Killer and Hard Boiled fame, adding in action sequences and dropping much of the dramatic elements of the film. Medium Rare will be presenting an extended cut of the film they created attempting to recapture the directors intended vision for the film with various deleted material.

Tickets are a mere $5 and there will be trivia, prizes and a post-screening discussion.

Casa de mi Padre, Will Ferrell’s Spanish language epic, is very much like The FP… in that the film’s entire concept revolves around one joke that you either get or you don’t, and your enjoyment of the film hinges on that. I found this out at a recent screening where in at about the 30-minute mark in the film. When people started to realize the entire film was actually in Spanish, quite a few walked out.

Casa de mi Padre is the story of Armando Alvarez (Ferrell) a simple cattle hand on his father’s ranch who has been belittled his entire life for being stupid, and responsible for his mother’s death. When the ranch falls into financial trouble in comes Armando’s successful younger brother to save the day with his beautiful new fiancé.

We later find out his brother made his money in the drug trade and stole his new would-be bride from a rival drug lord, who has now declared war on Armando’s family. If this plot sounds like a bit like a soap opera its because the film is a play on Spanish soap operas or telenovelas as they are called.

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