Spy Kid

With its cast of shady arms dealers and child soldiers, animated television series Jormungand is a far cry from the fantastic flights of imagination in much of the anime world. That’s not to say that its stylized spycraft is completely divorced from the anime mainstream, however. “It’s about a child…

It’s Alive

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the timeless cautionary tale of man meddling with nature and forbidden knowledge, has seen countless adaptations in just about every conceivable medium. Now, one of its best incarnations is coming to the Denver Film Society: the National Theatre’s award-winning staging, directed by Danny Boyle (28 Days Later,…

The anachronistic anarchy of Archer, television’s best comedy

If you aren’t watching Archer, you are missing out on television’s best comedy. The animated spy spoof — think Austin Powers, minus that franchise’s fundamental stupidity and tendency to recycle its best jokes until they are painfully unfunny — brings a lot to the table. The cast is excellent, with…

Magical Mystery

Some novels take a while to get going, and some give you an immortal dwarf, a time-traveling corpse and an alchemical mystery before the end of the first chapter, like City of Lost Dreams does. The followup to the best-selling City of Dark Magic finds protagonist Sarah Weston in an…

City of Lost Dreams

Some novels take a while to get going, and some give you an immortal dwarf, a time-traveling corpse and an alchemical mystery before the end of the first chapter, like City of Lost Dreams does. The followup to the best-selling City of Dark Magic finds protagonist Sarah Weston in an…

Robot Redux

The original Neon Genesis Evangelion represented the pinnacle of the giant-robot-versus-alien-monster subgenre of anime. Like so many other successful franchises, that timeless tale of a young man tasked with averting the Apocalypse by piloting a big robot is in the midst of a shiny new reboot. The latest film, Evangelion:…

Marijuana: Making cannabis history at Northern Lights

I had never seen so many people so happy to stand in line for two and a half hours. When I arrived at the Northern Lights Cannabis Company, just across from Sloan’s Lake in Edgewater, around 2:45 p.m. on New Year’s Day, I found about 100 people there ahead of…

We are geeks; we are stoners

You hear a lot of stereotypes about geeks. We get pigeonholed as pasty, overweight, socially awkward virgins pretty often. It’s not uncommon for us to be labeled bookish, fashion-challenged, or even just as losers. What you don’t often hear us stereotyped as is stoners. Well, that’s bullshit. I’ve known a…

Grave Matters

No matter where you woke up on New Year’s Day — disheveled, hung over and with holes in your memory — it could have been much worse. Don’t believe it? Consider the plight of the protagonist of Open Grave, who wakes up in a pit of dead bodies with absolutely…

The ten best geek events in Denver in January

Any new year that brings with it a slate of new geek activities is a happy new year, and this one does. In between trips to the gym to fulfill your resolutions, you won’t lack for things to do. Even after you give up on the gym mid-month, you won’t…

Geek resolutions for 2014

The clock is ticking on 2013. In less than a week, we’ll be closing the door on yet another trip around the sun, and embracing the greatest of all arbitrary calendar events, the new year. That means it’s time for that greatest of arbitrary life events: resolutions! No new year…

The Dead, Live!

Live music and film are strange bedfellows in the modern age, but it wasn’t always that way. In the silent era, a live accompaniment was standard practice for all films. Today, local musician and filmmaker Paul Buscarello will resurrect that long-gone experience with a performance of his new, original score…

White House Christmas

Some films are made to be watched, others need to be experienced — and then there are those movies that just need to be ridiculed and ripped apart. Close out the year with a gem from that last category, at Mile High Sci-Fi: White House Down. As Channing Tatum and…

2013: The Year in Geek

In less than two weeks, 2013 will come to a close. That means it’s time for that most joyous of traditions — the year-end list! Everywhere you turn, lists of the best, the worst, the most and the least are springing up, informing you about all the cool shit that…

The Write Stuff

Over the years, Brian Polk has learned that being a loudmouth isn’t always the best way to incite change. “We’re all a little bit older, and the machine has won — kind of,” laments Polk, the man behind Suspect Press, a new zine celebrating its release tonight at the Deer…

Galaxies Far Away

Any casual Star Wars fan can tell you that the Force has a light side and a dark side. This weekend, the Denver Film Society is illustrating that split with two very different Star Wars films. Tonight, see the light side in 5-25-77, a film about a young fan who…

Alamo Drafthouse delivers crazy Christmas combo

Tucked away in the wealth of holiday programming at the Alamo Drafthouse this week are two linked films with very different takes on the season. One, A Christmas Story, is an almost universally beloved seasonal classic, filled with nostalgia, warm fuzzies and just enough edge to keep it from getting…