Posts Tagged ‘sci-fi movie’
Friday, August 20th, 2010
Review:
Until the End of the World was a passion project for director Wim Wenders, who spend 14 years on it, filming in a dozen countries on four continents along the way. The story is both incredibly simple and extremely complex. Solveig Dommartin falls in love with hitch-hiker who robs her William Hurt and follows him around the globe, while also being pursued and followed by several other people, including her ex Sam Neill. So the first two-thirds of the film are basically a global road movie, set in the distant future of 1999 (the film was finished in ‘91) where a malfunctioning nuclear satellite threatens the world. But it’s not only a road movie, but also a science fiction story about that ever popular theme of the influence advanced technology has on our humanity. The film is deeply flawed, riddled with plot holes and bad acting (everyone aside from Max von Sydow catches that bug), both too simple and too complex for its own good. But the film is also deeply poetic, filled with incredible moments of natural and human beauty and memorable scenes that make you forget the film surrounding them and appreciate them on their own. The film moves at its own pace and the story is often only an excuse to showcase the director’s world and imagination, which the film does admirably. This is not a film for the masses, it’s hardly for anyone but the director and maybe his cast and crew, but if you can forget that for a while, you can get lost in the film, which maybe is the best thing cinema has to offer.
Random Observations:
Bis ans Ende der Welt at the IMDb
This review is based on the 280 minute director’s cut, not the significantly shorter theatrical release. And yes, I saw all three parts of the trilogy in one sitting.
The version I watched was also lacking subtitles (despite Italian, which is not one of my strong languages, to put it mildly), so I’m not really sure I fully understand all of the French dialogue scattered throughout the film.
Naturally, Wim Wenders’ favourite actor Rüdiger Vogler, is also in this film. And in an unprecedented turn, he is actually extremely tolerable in this film.
My favourite scene/sequence is probably in the last part, when the impromptu band is formed. It’s oddly emotional.
I’m not a big fan of the score (because to me it all sounds the same), but the soundtrack of the film is amazing, especially coupled with some of the scenes.
The film features an amazingly accurate satellite navigation system in an unusual bit of actually guessing the future right. It also features, however, video phones, which basically every sci-fi concept ever has and which have never and will never catch on.
Tags: 1991, Adelle Lutz, adventure movie, Australian Film, Bis ans Ende der Welt, Chick Ortega, David Gulpilil, Drama, Eddy Mitchell, english, Ernie Dingo, French film, German Film, Jeanne Moreau, Jimmy Little, Justine Saunders, Lois Chiles, Max von Sydow, Michael Almereyda, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Paul Livingston, Peter Carey, Rhoda Roberts, road movie, Rüdiger Vogler, Sam Neill, sci-fi movie, Solveig Dommartin, Tom Farrell, Until the End of the World, William Hurt, Wim Wenders
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Friday, April 30th, 2010
Review:
Curious incidents like missing planes turning up 30 years later and sunken ships being discovered in the middle of a desert lead to a government investigation. Meanwhile, regular people sight UFOs and are changed by it. This goes on for a good two hours before the stories somewhat merge and all is ready for the big letdown. Or is that showdown? I can never tell those two things apart… The film is competently made, features good special effects that don’t distract from the non-existing story and has become iconic. Why I do not know.
Random Observations:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind at the IMDb
For a while I couldn’t believe I was watching a Steven Spielberg film. Then, as expected, all subtlety went out the window.
Interesting bit of stunt casting: French nouvelle vague auteur François Truffaut as the UFO expert.
The best actor in the film - by a wide margin - is Cary Guffey, who played the little boy who is abducted.
Tags: 1977, Adrienne Campbell, American Film, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Drama, english, François Truffaut, George DiCenzo, J. Patrick McNamara, Justin Dreyfuss, Lance Henriksen, Melinda Dillon, Merrill Connally, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Philip Dodds, Richard Dreyfuss, Roberts Blossom, sci-fi movie, Shawn Bishop, Steven Spielberg, Teri Garr, Warren J. Kemmerling
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Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
Review:
A struggling (and failing) actor is hired by his weird neighbour to deliver a blue suitcase to a guy called Cowboy in Baker, smack in the middle of nowhere, on the promise of his credit card debt being erased. Once in the town, he connects with the local populace, many of which believe that UFOs regular visit the place. The film tries to be a combination between pitch black comedy, quirky drama and existentialist cinema in the style of David Lynch. Some of that succeeds, but ultimately, the film tries to hard to be mysterious to have any real mystery left. It’s certainly entertaining, but there is a reason why it is largely forgotten.
Random Observations:
The Big Empty at the IMDb
The cast is quite impressive for such an endeavour, including Jon Favreau, Kelsey Grammer, Rachael Leigh Cook and Sean Bean.
Tags: 2003, Adam Beach, American Film, Brent Briscoe, Bud Cort, Comedy, Daryl Hannah, David Lynch, Drama, english, Gary Farmer, Joey Lauren Adams, Jon Favreau, Jon Gries, Kelsey Grammer, Melora Walters, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Rachael Leigh Cook, sci-fi movie, Sean Bean, Steve Anderson, The Big Empty
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Sunday, March 21st, 2010
Review:
In 2047, a rescue ship is send to discover the fate of the Event Horizon, a research ship that vanished seven years before but has now returned near Neptune. The ship’s creator is on board, revealing to the other crew that the ship was to test a new engine, that allowed instantaneous travel throughout the universe - but something has gone horribly wrong and now they are stuck on a ship from hell that tries to kill them. The first half of the film is very good in its setup of an outer space thriller, including some ruminations on the loneliness of it. The second part, however, is standard fare action horror movie, with gore for gore’s sake and a plot development and (lack of) solution that is unoriginal and predictable. The film obviously tries to combine Alien with Solyaris, but ultimately fails to understand what made either film work.
Random Observations:
Event Horizon at the IMDb
The ending is not just stupid, but also completely predictable. In fact, there isn’t a plot twist in the the second half that you couldn’t see coming a mile off.
Apparently, the first cut of the film ran 30 minutes longer and contained many additional horror/gore scenes. I doubt they would have improved the film the least bit.
The “ship from hell” remark in the review was not glibly made. The ship actually went to another dimension repeatedly described as hell.
Considering that the rescue team is supposed to consist of elite astronauts and scientists, they are surprisingly superstitious. Of course, they need to be for the story to work, but still, those people are supposed to be rational.
It can’t be denied that Sunshine, the Danny Boyle film, is very similar. It also can’t be denied that it is much better.
Tags: 1997, Alien, American Film, Barclay Wright, British Film, Danny Boyle, english, Event Horizon, fantasy movie, Holley Chant, horror movie, Jack Noseworthy, Jason Isaacs, Joely Richardson, Kathleen Quinlan, Laurence Fishburne, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Noah Huntley, Paul W.S. Anderson, Peter Marinker, Philip Eisner, Richard T. Jones, Robert Jezek, Sam Neill, sci-fi movie, Sean Pertwee, Solyaris, Sunshine, Thriller
Posted in Minute Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews, Movies | 2 Comments »
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Review:
800 years in the future, the earth is a deserted dump, long abandoned by humans. There remains only a single robot, the titular WALL·E, to clean up the mess. Through his tireless work, he has developed an almost human personality, including a love for Hello, Dolly!, and befriended a cockroach. But things change when an intelligence robot arrives to find plant life on earth. Our hero falls in love with her and follows her to the spaceship where humanity has become fat and lazy. The film, by wonder studio Pixar, is good fun and especially the almost completely silent first act is a prime example of masterpiece storytelling. The last two thirds, however, are fairly run of the mill animated tale fare, albeit beautifully animated. Often decried as one of the best films of 2008, it doesn’t quite measure up to that standard, but is still very good and a joy to watch.
Random Observations:
WALL·E at the IMDb
I really, really enjoyed the part taking place on earth, but once things moved to space, the film became drastically less original and interesting.
Wait, I think I said the exact same thing in slightly more words already in the review part…
EVE, the robot WALL·E falls in love with, was designed by the Apple chief designer responsible for the iPod. The similarities are striking.
I like how Pixar always combines their feature films with a preceding short film. Especially since the short is usually much more entertaining.
Tags: 2008, American Film, Andrew Stanton, animation, Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, english, family film, Fred Willard, Hello Dolly!, Jeff Garlin, Jim Reardon, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, MacInTalk, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Pete Docter, Pixar, romance, sci-fi movie, Sigourney Weaver, WALL-E, WALL·E
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Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Review:
How do you judge a movie like Avatar? The answer to that question says probably more about you than about the film. After finally having seen it, there is no doubt in my mind that anyone will (seriously) debate that it is a technological breakthrough. The CGI, the motion capture, the 3D - it’s all very impressive. In the right theatre (i.e. a big screen with digital 3D technology), the film is a joy to watch. But is that really what a film should be judged for? What about story, originality, acting or just a unique world filled with awesome ideas? If those things matter, then Avatar is a horrible film. The story is about as new as a love story between two members of feuding families. The acting in this film would embarrass amateurs. The film is filled with many pretty pictures, but none of them is new, there is nothing that hasn’t been seen before. And that is why I hate myself for actually enjoying the film. Because I care about story and about ideas - and the film had none of that. But it was just so gorram pretty, so much fun to look at. So in a way, this film is a spectacular success. Just don’t ask me to join in with the idiots who call it a great film. Visually, it’s breathtaking, but film is a storytelling medium and there the film, as per usual with Cameron, fails.
Random Observations:
Avatar at the IMDb
James Cameron is a great technical director. He would be great as the SFX director on almost every film. But he is horrible at directing people. Just look at Titanic - there he managed to extract horrible performances from two of the greatest thespians working today - Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Here, he works with far less talented people - and the results are disastrous to behold.
The film may be unique in the history of cinema in that it manages to include every single cliché possible. In fact, the whole film is one big cliché.
I just realized that I haven’t mentioned anything about the plot of the film in my “review”. But seriously, people, you aren’t going to watch it for the plot. Nevertheless, here a one word summary: Pocahontas.
I know, my slights about the film are about as original as the film itself. I’m influenced by my betters, what can I say.
Tags: 2009, 3D motion capturing, action movie, adventure movie, American Film, Avatar, CCH Pounder, Dileep Rao, english, fantasy movie, Giovanni Ribisi, James Cameron, Joel Moore, Kate Winslet, Laz Alonso, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michelle Rodriguez, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Sam Worthington, sci-fi movie, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Titanic, Wes Studi, Zoë Saldana
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Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Review:
Made only five years after Ang Lee’s Hulk flopped, this reboot tried to please the fans of the comic book about the scientist who turns into a green monster whenever he gets angry. And please the fans it did, which speaks volumes about them. The film starts promising enough with the by now usual superhero movie trope of investigating what it means to be “special” and some nice scenes set in South America, before it becomes an action spectacle that is beyond silly, marred additionally by some of the worst CGI seen in recent mainstream productions. Ang Lee’s Hulk may not have been very good, but compared to this film, it’s a masterpiece.
Random Observations:
The Incredible Hulk at the IMDb
Edward Norton took over from Eric Bana for the lead role. In some scenes, he is wearing glasses. With glasses, he has an absolutely striking resemblance to Gary Oldman. Scary.
Liv Tyler as the love interest is about as miscast as is possible. Her damsel in distress persona is annoying at best, in the supposed to be emotionally jarring scenes of the film it’s beyond bad.
The film is part of Marvel’s attempt to turn all their most popular comic books into money-spinners, if at all possible connected. That means that it alludes to, among other Marvel properties, the infinitely better Iron Man by having a small Robert Downey Jr. cameo. As the linked review will tell you, however, I didn’t really like Iron Man all that much either. But it still is much better than this film.
Tags: 2008, action movie, American Film, Ang Lee, Christina Cabot, comic book movie, Edward Norton, english, Gary Oldman, Hulk, Iron Man, Liv Tyler, Lou Ferrigno, Louis Leterrier, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Paul Soles, Peter Mensah, Robert Downey Jr., sci-fi movie, The Incredible Hulk, Tim Blake Nelson, Tim Roth, Ty Burrell, William Hurt, Zak Penn
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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Review:
In 1938, a pilot and his engineer trying to compete in the nationals find a jetpack that a robber left behind. Naturally, that leads to the pilot becoming a comic book hero. Coincidentally, this film is based on a comic book. It’s a fairly entertaining albeit ridiculous story that makes for some nice entertainment, especially thanks to the always glorious Timothy Dalton in the main role. Sadly, the ridiculousness gets a bit much towards the end, but if you are willing to not think about it too much, you will enjoy the film.
Random Observations:
The Rocketeer at the IMDb
Note to self: Write these “reviews” before you forget everything about the film.
Tags: 1991, action movie, adventure movie, Alan Arkin, American Film, Bill Campbell, book adaptation, comic book movie, Danny Bilson, Dave Stevens, Ed Lauter, Eddie Jones, english, family film, James Handy, Jennifer Connelly, Joe Johnston, John Lavachielli, Jon Polito, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Paul De Meo, Paul Sorvino, Robert Miranda, sci-fi movie, Terry O'Quinn, The Rocketeer, Timothy Dalton, William Dear
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Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Review:
Usually, when aliens come to Earth, they need to be fought off. If Will Smith does the fighting, it is helpful, but it is not a necessity. The aliens of District 9, however, have not come to conquer. There spaceship just stopped above Johannesburg, South Africa, and the luckless “prawns”, as they are soon called due to their appearance, are moved to a refugee camp that soon turns into a slum - District 9. Twenty-eight years later, they have outgrown that temporary home and a multinational corporation (called, with as much subtlety as a sledgehammer can muster, Multinational United) is tasked with moving them to a new shelter, far outside the city, which is when things start to go wrong. The film is told as a faux documentary and carried on the shoulders of the lead actor, Sharlto Copley, who nobody had ever heard of before. The special effects, always important in sci-fi films, are impressive for the small budget and the film just manages to throw enough original ideas at the audience to be truly unique, even if many don’t really stick.
Random Observations:
District 9 at the IMDb
I had a heated argument with the friend I saw the film with about whether any of the ideas were really original. I still say they were.
There is one scene - for those that have seen the film: the one after Christopher and Wilkus have broken into MNU and when they are “discovered” by security - that is completely original, accompanied by the perfect music and one of the best single scenes I have seen in a long time. Sadly, the film largely goes into clichés after that.
There are immense plot holes throughout the film, but you shouldn’t be bothered by that. They are necessary for the story to work.
So, those that have seen the film, sequel in 2012?
Tags: 2009, action movie, Andre Odendaal, District 9, Drama, english, Jason Cope, Kenneth Nkosi, Louis Minnaar, Mandla Gaduka, Melt Sieberhagen, minute movie review, mockumentary, movie review, Movies, Nathalie Boltt, Neill Blomkamp, New Zealand Film, Nick Blake, Nick Boraine, Peter Jackson, Robert Hobbs, sci-fi movie, Sharlto Copley, South African Film, Terri Tatchell, Vanessa Haywood, Will Smith
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Sunday, October 25th, 2009
Review:
A cancer researcher fights to find a cure before his wife dies. A conquistador in the 16th century travels to Mayan lands to find a way to save Spain and his queen. And a bald man in a bubble tries to live forever. All three men are played by Hugh Jackman in this touching romantic science-fiction drama about eternal life, about sacrifice and about learning to live with death. The three stories are connected and as you slowly uncover how, you can’t help but be drawn into the world of the film. Strangely beautiful, the film is a visual and storytelling adventure that pushes the boundaries of science-fiction to the point where it might not even be that anymore. An extremely unusual film that is certainly not for everyone, but if you can get lost in it, you will appreciate it.
Random Observations:
The Fountain at the IMDb
Vaguest “review” ever? Quite possible. I guess you just have to watch the film to find out what is going on.
Due to budget restrictions, the special effects were mostly shot by photographing biological and chemical processes through a microscope. Or something like that. They are very odd, but also very nice.
The film has hands down one of the best scores ever composed. The music is the perfect companion to the pictures. And also very beautiful.
Tags: 2006, American Film, Ari Handel, Cliff Curtis, Darren Aronofsky, Donna Murphy, Drama, Ellen Burstyn, english, Ethan Suplee, Fernando Hernandez, Hugh Jackman, Lorne Brass, Mark Margolis, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Rachel Weisz, Richard McMillan, romance, sci-fi movie, Sean Patrick Thomas, Stephen McHattie, The Fountain
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