Terminator: Salvation hits theaters today and to commemorate that we’re looking at films that veer into the fourth dimension (that’s time for us non-technical folk). Time travel is a story device with all kind of possibilities built right in. If I could travel back to 2005 and locate Jennifer Aniston would I be able to convince her that making The Break-Up was a really bad idea? I can dream, can’t I? Anyway, here are seven of my favorite time travel movies. Back to the Future (1985) Between constant reruns on basic cable and just being a pretty awesome flick is there anyone in this world who hasn’t seen Back to the Future ? Eccentric scientist Doc Brown ( Christopher Lloyd ) while demonstrating his Delorean-mounted time machine sends Marty McFly ( Michael J. Fox ) back to the 1950s. Marty’s return to 1985 must be timed to the split second to coincide with a lightning bolt that will power the Delorean’s Flux Capacitor, but in the meantime Marty disrupts the event that got his parents together thus threatening his very existence. Before he can return to his own time Marty needs to put his folks back on the path to marriage, put a bully in his place and invent the skateboard all set to the music of Huey Lewis and The News. This movie is just plain fun. The following year Lea Thompson who plays Marty’s mom graduated from coming on to her own son to putting the moves on a cranky water fowl in Howard the Duck . Filed under: Cinematical Seven Continue reading Cinematical Seven: Great Time Travel Movies Permalink | Email this | Comments

My imagination was caught by the title of the upcoming movie Monsters vs. Aliens . I’ve seen a lot of monster movies and films with aliens in them. I wondered how would some of these characters fare in battle against one another. How would the gentle aliens from Galaxy Quest be able to stand up to vampires? Could Superman defeat the monster from The Host ? How would Ford Prefect deal with Noah Cross? So I decided to stage a smackdown event featuring some of the best-known monsters and aliens in film in one-on-one combat. Instead of matching up characters with similar (or notably different) abilities, I paired them up the old-fashioned way: pulling names out of a hat. Two hats — I filled one with the names of every alien creature I could think of from movies, and another with every conceivable monster. Here are the results. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Filed under: Cinematical Seven Continue reading Cinematical Seven: Monster vs. Alien Super Smackdowns Permalink | Email this | Comments