As with my review yesterday, today's movie is, TiMER, comes from the Tribeca Film Festival. The Festival has several of their films available to view On Demand at this time! (For more information on their On Demand offerings you can head here!) The official synopsis for TiMER says "If a device could guarantee love without heartbreak, would you want to know? Emma Caufield (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) stars in this brain teasing romantic comedy about falling in love. Also starring John Patrick Amedori (Gossip Girl). TiMER is rated R for Language.

TiMER is a hard movie to describe, it's part sci-fi, part romance, part drama, and part comedy. I guess you could call it a Sci-FiRomDramedy. The easiest way to describe it though, is entertaining, as it is easily one of the most entertaining films I have seen in a long time.

Emma Caufield stars as Onna, a girl who is trying to find her "one" with the help of a TiMER. In the movies' alternate reality, the TiMER is a device from a very Apple like company, that can accurately tell you the date you will meet your soulmate. The device is implanted into your arm and counts down to midnight of the day you'll meet "the one". The TiMER only counts down when both soulmates have one implanted.

Timer uses this unique premise to look at the idea of soulmates, "the one", and romance in general in an original way and ask a lot of great questions: What does one do when their TiMER doesn't ever start counting down? What do you do, when they meet someone that they connect with, but who they know is not the one? What do you do with your life when you know that you won't meet the "one" until your middle age? To get the answers you'll have to see the movie.

The entire cast including, Caufield, Michelle Borth, John Patrick Amedori, Desmond Harrington, and JoBeth Williams does an incredible job bringing the premise to life. I don't want to say to much, as I don't want to give a lot away, but the movie is definitely one of the best romances I've seen in a long time and one I would highly recommend it.

While I was unable to attend the Tribeca Film Festival this year, as with all years thus far, I do have some good news for those of you, who like me, can't make it. The Festival has several of their films available to view On Demand! (For more information on their On Demand offerings you can head here!)

Today and tomorrow I'll be taking a look at a couple of the films currently available for your viewing pleasure. First up is "My Last Five Girlfriends" which is described as "A clever adaptation of international bestseller On Love, by Alain de Botton, in which Duncan is a young man determined to find the secret to a healthy, strong relationship. Along the way, he mines his last five doomed romances for clues."

I sat down last night and watched the movie from the comfort of my own house, and I will admit, sometimes it is nice to see film at home. But I think I'll always miss the comfort of a movie theater and the experience of seeing it with other patrons. But for those of us who can't travel all over the world for film festivals, On Demand is a nice way to see smaller films, especially ones that may never make it to our neck of the woods.

My Last Five Girlfriends, as the synopsis says, is the story of a English man who, as the song goes, is looking for love, in all the wrong places. The movie opens with Duncan writing a suicide note, specifically to his five most recent Exs. As Duncan collapses after taking a combination of some pills and alcohol, we are introduced to his Ex-girlfriends, in order. In each relationship we see how it began and how it all ended, until we make it back to Duncan and his suicide. I don't want to ruin the ending, so we'll leave it there.

First, I have to say that the visual style of this movie is fascinating. It may be one of the most beautiful films I've seen in a long time, just based on the various wonderful effects used in the film. For example, after we meet #1 in an airplane, their seats rotate away from the plane and we go on a short journey through #1's life, reenacted by barbie dolls. It sounds weird, and slightly ridiculous, but it works. There are numerous examples of off the wall techniques that the director and cinematographer use throughout the film.

Another wonderful idea, that works well, is that throughout the film, we visits a themepark, which I assume is in Duncan's head. It is the themepark of Duncan, and through the various rides we learn his past history with these Exs. It's a unique idea, one that is used just enough that it doesn't get old. It really is a great idea, and allows the use of more of the wonderful techniques I was speaking of above.

Unfortunately, while the movie is fun to look at, and something that a lot of film makers could learn from, it's story fell flat for me. For some reason, I really didn't care about Duncan, or his Exs. And when you don't care about the 6 main characters, it's hard to get invested in the movie. This isn't to say someone else can't love it, it's just that I didn't find any connection to the characters, and so in the end I didn't care.

Overall the film has a great visual style that I would like to see more of, but the story is not something I could watch more than once.

Now the next chapter of Planet Earth begins with Life.

Available on DVD & Blu-ray June 1^st

Four years in the making, filmed over 3000 days, across every continent and in every habitat, Life is the latest wildlife blockbuster from the BBC’s award-winning Natural History Unit, the producers of Planet Earth and The Blue Planet. Narrated by Oprah Winfrey, the series presents 130 incredible stories from the frontiers of the natural world, and details the extraordinary tactics that plants and animals have developed to stay alive, overcome challenges, and push the boundaries of behavior.

The series will be widely released on DVD and Blu-ray beginning June 1^st, but One Blu-Ray copy is available for giveaway here RIGHT NOW!!! I will be running the contest until next Thursday, May 27th at 11:59p.m. To enter send an e-mail to thecinemaniac.com@gmail.com with the Subject 'I Need a LIFE' include your name and address. One winner will be chosen at random.

You can check out a preview for the series along with some amazing pictures from the series below.

LIFE: Narrated by Oprah Winfrey - Blu-ray 4 disc set includes the following added features:

· Life on Location – Ten 10-minute production video diaries showing the exhaustive efforts of the filmmaking team

· Deleted scenes – Scenes removed from US broadcast

· “Music Only” viewing option

· French, Spanish and English Subtitles

©Neil Lucas

©Inaki Relanzon/naturepl.com

© Georgette Douwma

© Hugh Miller

© Alexander Safonov

©Adam Chapman

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES — “Founder’s Day” (8:00/7c)

Founder’s Day has finally arrived, and everyone is busy with last-minute preparations for floats and fireworks. Although Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Alaric (Matt Davis) do their best to stop him, Johnathan Gilbert (guest star David Anders) sets a plan in motion that brings Founder’s Day to an end amid chaos, destruction and death.

The showdown between good and evil is at hand. With the Apocalypse looming, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) realize they are out of options and make heart-breaking decisions that will change their lives forever. A beloved character faces death.

You may or not know the name Brad Meltzer. He's a prolific author who has written several legal thrillers, such as The Tenth Justice, as well as some critically acclaimed comic books, including stints on DC's Justice League of America, Green Arrow, and the award winning mini-series Identity Crisis, he also wrote a 4 part arc for Dark Horse Comics' Buffy the Vampie Slayer Season Eight. He most recent novel, The Book of Lies, centered on a conspiracy involving a book that connect the World's first murder, Cain's killing of Able, to the Murder of Jerry Siegel's father, an event which led to the creation of Superman.

Labels: Books, Brad Meltzer