SyFy Disses the American Geek

TVGeek: V
Hide your hamsters! The Visitors have landed. And so far I give it a B-minus.Listen, I have an unabashed love for the original, in all its cheesy, melodramatic glory. It was big and beautiful, shocking and fun, the way big-budget science fiction is supposed to be. The best and worst of humankind vs. lizards that eat gerbils. It was great.So I was rather nervous to hear that V was getting a new adaptation - even with FIREFLY alum Morena Baccarin as Anna (why not Diana?) of the Visitors. Baccarin is an excellent actress and portrays creepy well, though clearly someone needs to hand her a sandwich - she's painfully skinny compared to her Inara self. Let's de

Dear Skynet
Dear Skynet:I want to buy back my Terminator.Okay, I shouldn't call you "Skynet" if we're trying to do business together. And probably calling you Cyberdyne would be equally counterproductive. I mean, one was a well-meaning computer company that happened to bring about the end of civilization and nearly the genocide of the human race. The other ... well, let's just be polite and we'll call you Halcyon.So you <a href="http://www.cinematical.com/2009/11/02/got-millions-you-can-buy-rights-to-the-terminator/" />have declared bankruptcy and put the Terminator franchise up on the block?</a> It does, in fact, suck to be you. I mean, you had one o

How to Survive a Horror Movie
This list has been compiled from a number of sources, beginning with the Film Professor's marvelous paper titled "Don't Do That, You Twit!" which applied Darwinian theory to horror movies (as in, the stupid do not survive to procreate) and the suggestions of the now-defunct Stephen King "Green Mile" bulletin board.And, of course, you wonderful CultureGeek readers. So if you have a suggestion for the denizens of horror movies you don't see here, put it in the comments! Maybe we'll add it next year.If there IS a next year.... muahahahaha!

31 Days of Evil: The Unholy Trinity
Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman, oh my.I could spend the whole of the month just talking about the various permutations of these three classic monsters. The vampire, the werewolf and the thing are traditions going back through the ages. We will all disagree on the best form for the vampire. Whether he's the literal fanged creature Bela Lugosi made infamous, skulking through the bedroom window in a high-collared cape, or the less-popular parasitic types that feed off spiritual energy, lust, misery or other such emotions (see: STARGATE's Wraiths or your average succubus), the vampire is the one we love to fear.And he should never sparkle. I'm just say

31 Days of Evil: The Sixth Sense
Remember when M. Night Shymalan was scary?It was a ghost movie that really worked, and the Big Twist for which Shymalan became famous was, to me, really beside the point. Haley Joel Osment absolutely shone as a kid who can see dead people, and they want him to help them rest.And sometimes they get awfully angry.The movie works because of Shymalan's atmospheric sense of tension, his ability to restrain the actors into muted yet powerful performances, and the perfect cast for this kind of film. Bruce Willis set aside his usual wisecracking tough-guy approach for the incredibly difficult balancing act his role required. Toni Collette, as the strained single