Monday, May 25, 2009

Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) (Also known as Night at the Museum 2 in Europe, to some Night at the Smithsonian) is an American adventure comedy film directed by Shawn Levy, and starring Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, and Robin Williams. The film is a sequel to Night at the Museum. It was released on May 22, 2009.









Two years after the events of the previous film, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is now CEO of Daley Devices, a direct response television company that sells inventions inspired by his experiences as a night security guard at the American Museum of Natural History. While wealthy and successful he has not had the time to see his museum exhibit friends in several months.

When Larry returns to the museum he learns that it is closed for renovations and upgrades. Interactive holograms will replace many of the exhibits, which are moving to the Federal Archives at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. While Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Rexy the Tyrannosaurus skeleton, the Easter Island moai (Brad Garrett), and Akhmenrah will remain at the museum, Jedediah (Owen Wilson), Dexter the Capuchin Monkey, and others will no longer come to life since the Golden Tablet of Akhmenrah that animated the exhibits each night will also remain.










After the exhibits leave Larry receives a call from Jedediah. Dexter stole Akhmenrah's tablet and brought it to the Federal Archives, and the evil Pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), Akhmenrah's older brother, is attacking Jedediah and the other exhibits. Larry travels to Washington and visits the National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution Building, searching for the Federal Archives with the help of his son Nick (Jake Cherry).

Larry locates the exhibits, frozen in their shipping container in the middle of a battle with Kahmunrah and his troops. As Larry obtains the tablet the sun sets and the exhibits, and others at the Smithsonian, come alive. Kahmunrah tells Larry that bringing exhibits to life is just one of the tablet's powers, and that he intends to use it to conquer the world by raising an army from the underworld.

Larry tries to dupe Kahmunrah into giving back the tablet, by telling him about the cube of rubik although is threatened by Kahmunrah. Larry escapes from the Egyptian troops with the tablet, with the help of General George Armstrong Custer (Bill Hader). He meets the beautiful and adventurous Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), who is attracted to Larry and accompanies him through the National Gallery. Larry and Amelia trap Kahmunrah's soldiers in a photograph of V–J day in Times Square, but Napoleon Bonaparte (Alain Chabat) captures them. Napoleon takes Larry to Kahmunrah—who has also allied with historical leaders Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest) and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal), and has rejected fellow villains Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch—and Jedediah is captured trying to rescue Larry.











Kahmunrah attempts to open the Gate of the Underworld by pressing the symbols on the tablet, which resembles numbers on a keypad, but the combination has changed. The pharaoh forces Larry to obtain the new combination before sunrise by trapping Jedediah in a filling hourglass. Larry and Amelia flee from Russian troops and visit the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. At the National Air and Space Museum, they consult a group of Albert Einstein bobbleheads who tell them that the new combination is the value of pi (3.14159265). When they are found by Napoleon, Ivan, and Capone, Larry and Amelia escape in the Wright Flyer and return to the Smithsonian Institution Building. The two separate, with Amelia searching for help while Larry delays Kahmunrah.

Napoleon, Ivan, and Capone obtain the combination from one of the bobbleheads. Kahmunrah opens the Gate of the Underworld and summons an army of Horus warriors. The Lincoln statue suddenly arrives, forcing the warriors to retreat to the underworld, and Amelia frees the New York exhibits from their container and recruits other Smithsonian exhibits. As the exhibits battle Larry banishes Kahmunrah to the underworld. Amelia flies Larry and the New York exhibits back to the Natural History Museum. Knowing that she will turn to dust at sunrise if she does not return to the Smithsonian, Amelia kisses Larry and leaves.

Larry sells his company and donates money to the museum to restore the exhibits. Roosevelt and Akhmenrah as tour guides, Attila as a storyteller, and other exhibits come to life in public as "animatronics" at the museum, which now stays open after sunset. Larry is rehired as the night guard, and meets a young woman who looks like Amelia.


Saturday, May 2, 2009

District 9

District 9 is a 2009 science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James. The film won the 2010 Saturn Award for Best International Film presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, and was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2010, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Editing.

The story, adapted from Alive in Joburg, a 2005 short film directed by Blomkamp and produced by Sharlto Copley and Simon Hansen, pivots on the themes of xenophobia and social segregation. The title and premise of District 9 were inspired by events that took place in District Six, Cape Town during the apartheid era. The film was produced for $30 million and shot on location in Chiawelo, Soweto, presenting fictional interviews, news footage, and video from surveillance cameras in a part-mock documentary style format. A viral marketing campaign began in 2008, at the San Diego Comic-Con, while the theatrical trailer appeared in July 2009. Released by TriStar Pictures, the film opened to critical acclaim on August 14, 2009, in North America and earned $37 million in its opening weekend. Many saw the film as a sleeper hit for its relatively unknown cast and modest-budget production, while achieving success and popularity during its theatrical run.











In March 1982 a large alien spacecraft comes to Earth and hovers motionless above Johannesburg in South Africa. After three months, a team enters the ship, discovering a large group of sick and malnourished extraterrestrials, who are then given food, shelter, and health-care on Earth. The aliens, derogatorily referred to by some locals as "prawns", are confined to a government camp inside Johannesburg known as District 9. As time progresses following the settlement of the aliens onto Johannesburg, periodic unrest occurs between aliens and locals.

In the first decade of the 21st century, the South African government hires Multinational United (MNU), a private military company under the direction of its CEO, Dirk Michaels, to relocate the aliens to the new District 10. In August 2010, Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), an Afrikaner bureaucrat, is appointed by Piet Smit (Dirk Minnaar), an MNU executive and his father-in-law, to lead the relocation with the serving of illegal eviction notices.











Meanwhile, three aliens (Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope), his son, and a friend), search for alien technology from which they distill a mysterious fluid, storing it in a small canister. Later, while raiding the shack of Christopher's friend, Wikus discovers and seizes the container, which sprays an unidentified substance onto his face. Christopher's friend is subsequently killed by Koobus Venter (David James), a xenophobic soldier leading the operation.

The mysterious fluid makes Wikus ill and begins to turn his DNA and body into those of a "prawn". MNU finds out and they force Wikus to test various alien weapons which only function when used by an alien; he succeeds at using them. The MNU scientists then decide to vivisect Wikus' organs because they are deemed to be worth billions for biotech research, but he overpowers his captors and escapes. Smit lies to the press, saying that Wikus is infected with an alien STD and is highly contagious. He also sends Venter and his men to capture him.











Wikus finds refuge in District 9 and seeks help from Christopher, who reveals that the canister would allow him to reactivate the dormant mothership and reverse Wikus' mutation. He then reveals the lost command-module hidden under his shack, and agrees to help Wikus if he retrieves the canister from MNU. Wikus agrees and steals weapons from Nigerian arms-dealer Obesandjo and his gang.

Wikus and Christopher break into the MNU offices and successfully retrieve the canister; they flee back to District 9, with MNU forces in pursuit. Outraged by illegal experiments he saw at the MNU headquarters, Christopher tells Wikus that he will need to seek help for the other aliens before curing him. Unfortunately, the trip to the alien planet and back will take three years. Enraged, Wikus attacks Christopher, then hijacks the command module. Soon after takeoff, the craft is shot down and crashes. Venter and his men arrest Wikus and Christopher, but Obesandjo's gang ambushes the MNU convoy, kills the guards, and after an intense firefight, Wikus is taken to Obesandjo, who believes that by eating Wikus' mutated alien hand he will gain the ability to use alien weaponry. Obesandjo's base is then surrounded and besieged by MNU and a firefight ensues.












In the downed command module, Christopher's son activates the mothership and an alien mechanized battle suit which, upon detecting a threat to Wikus, kills Obesandjo and his men before they can butcher Wikus. Wikus takes control of the battle suit and rescues Christopher, shielding Christopher as they run to the command module and killing many MNU men firing upon them. Wikus then aids Christopher's escape by staying behind and holding off the MNU troops in his ailing mechanized battle suit. Wikus kills all the troops except Venter, who cripples his suit and forces it to eject him. He is cornered by Venter, who tells him he plans to execute him to prevent further repercussions. However, a group of aliens surround Venter and tear him to pieces before eating what remains. The mothership leaves Earth with Christopher and his son as Johannesburg's residents celebrate its departure.

A series of interviews and news broadcasts are shown, with people theorizing about Wikus' whereabouts and whether Christopher would return with the intention to retaliate or reconcile. MNU's illegal experiments on the aliens are uncovered and exposed by Fundiswa Mhlanga, Wikus' former trainee, who is incarcerated and awaiting trial. District 9 is completely demolished, with all the aliens having been moved to the new larger District 10 several miles outside the city. Wikus' wife, Tania (Vanessa Haywood), reveals the finding of a metal flower on her doorstep, which gives her hope that her husband is still alive. The film ends with a shot of a "prawn" crafting a similar flower in a scrapyard, strongly implying that it is Wikus now fully transformed.