After Earth
[ Hits:43 ]
Review: After Earth is an M. Night Shyamalan film. The director’s signature film is still The Sixth Sense and many would agree that his best years, while love-or-hate projects, surround this film. His most recent “blockbusters” have not lived up to his heyday with invisible, biological retaliation in The Happening and a wishy-washy animation to live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender.
Unfortunately, After Earth is not his comeback. The film may leverage the sentimental father-son team of Wil...
|
  |
Oblivion
[ Hits:258 ]
Review: Tom Cruise has now done three science fiction films: Minority Report, War of the Worlds and Oblivion. The first two under blockbuster juggernaut, Steven Spielberg, were well-received with Philip K. Dick adaptation Minority Report winning approval from critics and audiences alike, with War of the Worlds making a less convincing case.
Oblivion, however, is a Joseph Kosinski film. While not nearly in the same league as Spielberg, Kosinski showed promise at the helm of Disney's recent remake/sequel...
|
|
Looper
[ Hits:278 ]
Review: Where will you be in 30 years? More importantly, who will you be and would you really like the you you've become? Before we get too ahead of ourselves, that is essentially what's at play in Looper, a new sci-fi actioner starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, from the mind of writer-director, Rian Johnson (The Brothers Bloom).
Time travel has become a reality in 2074 - something that has been outlawed by government, to prevent a complete meltdown in society. What happens when something becomes prohibite...
|
|
Cloud Atlas
[ Hits:476 ]
Review: The Wachowski Bros. brought us The Matrix, a film that redefined action sequences and challenged audiences to wrap their minds around a nightmarish vision of the future, now. The sci-fi actioner was revolutionary and set in motion a multi-million dollar franchise and a trilogy with diminishing returns.
It's been 13 years since The Matrix and they still haven't managed to better it. The Wachowskis have racked up film credits for The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Speed Racer, V for Ven...
|
|
Total Recall
[ Hits:384 ]
Review: It's difficult getting the balance right when you approach a remake. You need to offer the audience enough nostalgic hooks, entertainment value and enough reinterpretation to justify recycling a movie title. Unfortunately, the new Total Recall doesn't work as a tribute, only sells eye candy and delivers a patchwork refresh to a superior film that still holds up today. Instead of being set on Mars, the new Total Recall is based in an over-populated world, where an underground transporter known as...
|
|
Prometheus
[ Hits:591 ]
Review: Ridley Scott's long-awaited science-fiction film Prometheus has crash-landed. Prometheus was initially intended as a direct prequel to Alien, but has been set apart as a stand-alone work within the Alien universe. This sudden change in direction suggests that there may have been some serious problems during filming, something that Scott may have done in an attempt to salvage Prometheus and its crew from the fire.
Prometheus was the Titan who served the gods and stole fire only to bestow the gi...
|
|
Men in Black 3
[ Hits:374 ]
Review: A byproduct of '90s pop culture is the Men in Black, a fun, tongue-in-cheek science fiction comedy about aliens starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. After earning his action man badge for Bad Boys and Independence Day, Will Smith further distinguished himself from his persona as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air with the character of Jay. Five years later, a forgettable Men in Black II retread emerged, which seemed to bring the series to a grinding halt. However, the stars lined up as a lack of ...
|
|
Battleship
[ Hits:642 ]
Review: Transformers was essentially a 20 minute advert for the collectible figurines, which went on to become a series of Michael Bay blockbusters. While merchandise is probably the main reason George Lucas gave Star Wars a 3D overhaul. Just when you thought Hollywood had milked the "toy" department dry... Hasbro smashes a mini champagne bottle on Battleship, a popular table top game and now $200 million blockbuster.
Most people's first response to hearing that Battleship has been adapted to live-acti...
|
|
In Time
[ Hits:834 ]
Review: Time is money. This driving mantra for Western culture is turned into a full-blown science-fiction action-thriller in Andrew Niccol's latest film, In Time. Niccol is no stranger to sci-fi, having written The Truman Show and Gattaca. While In Time has a sharp young cast, a visionary writer-director and an intriguing premise - it's not worth your time.We're presented with a not-too-distant future where money has been converted into time and people have been genetically engineered to stop aging at...
|
|
Super 8
[ Hits:1220 ]
Review: Steven Spielberg is a Hollywood legend. This is the premise of Super 8, a new mystery, science-fiction thriller from writer-director J.J. Abrams that functions as a tribute to Spielberg, who's signed on as producer. In case you haven't heard of Jeffrey Jacob Abrams, he's the guy that brought us Mission: Impossible III and the new Star Trek. Hell, he even wrote Armageddon... making him a pretty big deal around Hollywood... just not as big as Spielberg!High-tech, action-packed entertainment is a t...
|
|
The Green Lantern
[ Hits:1009 ]
Review: Ryan Reynolds is a natural born superhero: athletic, dashing, honest and armed with a cheesy grin thanks to his Hollywood dentist. It's no wonder he's been cast as three superheroes in the last two years. He was Captain Excellent, an imaginary superhero in Paper Man, Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (with plans to have his own Deadpool spin-off in 2014) and now the Green Lantern in the DC Comics movie of the same title. Either he's scared to commit, or he's in huge demand... but what about t...
|
|
The Adjustment Bureau
[ Hits:935 ]
Review: Movie trailer voice: "David Norris is about to see something no one is supposed to see. Once you know their secret you become their target. The Adjustment Bureau." It's tragic when a brilliant concept doesn't measure up to its full potential. This is the case in The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt...Some of The Adjustment Bureau movie trailers would have you believe that you were in for a classic piece of mystery science-fiction in the style of an Alfred Hitchcock man-on-the-ru...
|
|
X Men: First Class
[ Hits:743 ]
Review: So you're a mutant. Shame. Genetic anomaly, vat of green liquid goo or ninja turtle - it's not your fault. You could blame your genes, your Dad's tight jeans, the nearest nuclear power station or your mom for dropping you on your head one too many times as a baby. Just remember you're special. No, not "Valentine's Day" special... special like those hairy wolf kids or the one with pincers. 'Freak' is a strong word... one you may have thought was your name in those formative years, but guess what ...
|
|
I Am Number Four
[ Hits:892 ]
Review: Smallville opened our eyes to the small town exploits of a young Superman slowly learning his true identity and unmasking an array of superpowers. In a similar way, I Am Number Four, positions its protagonist in the confines of a small town, discovering his abilities and protecting his anonymity at all costs. Instead of a slow, winding TV series... the romance, action, science fiction adventure and $60 million budget has all been jam-packed into 109 minutes of all out action entertainment. I Am ...
|
|
TRON: Legacy
[ Hits:734 ]
Review: TRON: Legacy is the long-awaited remake/sequel/mash-up of the original TRON (1982). Jeff Bridges returns to play an older Kevin Flynn and a much younger digital version of himself, Clu. When Sam Flynn (new kid on the block Garrett Hedlund) returns to the video game developer's arcade to discover more about his estranged father's disappearance, he manages to shift paradigms, transporting himself to the same digital world his father created.This is a sound and lights show. If you understand that a...
|
|
Repo Men
[ 2010 ] [ Hits:914 ]
Review: Repo Men is based on the novel, The Repossession Mambo by Eric Garcia, who also co-wrote the screenplay for Repo Men. It's a science fiction exploration of what the world would be like if medical agencies sold manufactured bio-mechanical organs with a severe repayment scheme - think credit card companies. The Repo Men are the final notice... cold, calculated surgeons who hunt down bad debtors like vermin, extracting their organs for reconditioning and in most cases leaving their customers in a b...
|
|
District 9
[ 2009 ] [ Hits:1491 ]
Review: Watching District 9 was a new film experience, which could only be described as Hotel Rwanda, Fido and Lars and the Real Girl... in a blender. In retrospect, it's all of that and more. Neill Blomkamp burst onto the movie scene in 2005 with Alive in Joburg, a fascinating Sci-Fi/Documentary short film about aliens in Johannesburg... what, you didn't hear about it? Don't worry, it wasn't a hostile threat - didn't even make the news.The 6-minute short film caught the eye of Peter Jackson, who instan...
|
|
The Book of Eli
[ 2009 ] [ Hits:954 ]
Review: I know I’m stating the obvious here, but Denzel Washington is not Mr. T. They act, dress and talk differently… Mr. T carries that Mad Max era cool like someone before their time and while he’s been off the Hollywood scene beating Cancer and endorsing cooking gadgets in an apron, this could have been his defining Tarantino Phoenix Performance… (just made it up, roll with it). Yet, the title character role in The Book of Eli still went to Denzel… FOOLS!I know it would be difficult to get...
|
|
Avatar
[ 2009 ] [ Hits:1169 ]
Review: Avatar is the space between dreams and reality, fantasy and science fiction, cowboys and indians. James Cameron's latest film since Titanic is a dazzling spectacle of computer-generated photographic imagery and vivid contrasting themes. The film's mesmerising visuals capture a world of their own much like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Trilogy with 3D effects giving the audience a sense of heightened reality. Cameron has been tinkering away at this project for more than a decade, proposing hi...
|
|
Hardwired
[ 2009 ] [ Hits:701 ]
Review: Hardwired was the working title for I, Robot… a man-on-the-run Sci-Fi about the evolution of robot-kind starring Will Smith. It also happens to be the title for a man-on-the-run Sci-Fi about the evolution of corporate advertising starring Cuba Gooding Jr, but “Hairbrained” seems more fitting in retrospect as the film is plagued by a number of “glitches” as the techies like to say…For starters, it co-stars three-time Razzie Award winner Val Kilmer. Now I know Sly Stallone put on a few...
|
|
