Next week sees the last, major genre film debut of the year with the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in glorious 3D and an innovative high frame-rate (HFR) projection system (advance word: bring Dramamine). The film marks the beginning of a new film franchise based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic tales of Middle Earth, but of course it isn't the first time director Peter Jackson has visited the realm of elves, orcs, and humble, fun-loving hobbits. So while the film industry took this weekend to rally its strength by observing a moratorium in genre film debuts, Cinefantastique Online's Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and I take a look back at the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and weigh whether, a decade later, this is a world worth revisiting.
Plus: I give my capsule verdict of Bad Kids Go to Hell, and what's coming to theaters next week (can you guess?).
SPECIAL FUN TECHNICAL NOTE: Did you know listening to podcasts in which the audio occasionally, randomly skips makes you more popular? It's true! Find out for yourself by listening to this show, and just see how many New Years parties you're invited to. (TRANSLATION: Our audio software screwed up. It doesn't really mess up the show, but we apologize and will be better next week.)