science fiction | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Gentlemen Broncos

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Darren

I’m going to be a bit of killer jo here and admit that I didn’t really “get” Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, so it’s no surprise that the latest movie from the creative team leaves me cold. That sort of overly understated sense of humour feels a bit old at this stage, as if we’ve seen it once too often. There’s a sense that the movie somehow recognises this, and decided to augment those awkward silences with incredibly gross and juvenile humour.

Grabbing the stag by the horns...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, fantasy, fantasy novels, fiction, films, Gentlemen Broncos, humour, jemaine clement, macgruber, Movies, Nacho Libre, non-review review, review, sam rockwell, science fiction | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Source Code

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Darren

A special thanks to the guys over at movies.ie for sneaking us into an advanced preview screening.

Duncan Jones really grabbed our attention with Moon, one of the most boldly original films of the last decade. However, it’s often the second film of a promising young director that is the most fascinating to watch, as the weight of expectation is measured against a (typically) larger budget and profile. Too many young talents fizzle out or stumble at the second hurdle. I’m glad to report that Jones manages to make it safely across. While Source Code might lack the power of his debut, it’s still a fascinating little science-fiction thriller, one I’m still thinking of hours after I left the screening. And that is certainly a mark of quality.

Has Colter gone off the rails?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Beleaguered Castle, duncan jones, films, Groundhog Day, Jake Gyllenhaal, moon, Movies, non-review review, philosophy, reality, review, sci-fi, science fiction, source code, source code (film), the source code, time travel, war on terror | 6 Comments »

Noir A.D.: Why Sci-Fi Is Better Hardboiled…

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Darren

We’re currently blogging as part of the “For the Love of Film Noir” blogathon (hosted by Ferdy on Films and The Self-Styled Siren) to raise money to help restore the 1950’s film noir The Sound of Fury (aka Try and Get Me). It’s a good cause which’ll help preserve our rich cinematic heritage for the ages, and you can donate by clicking here. Over the course of the event, running from 14th through 21st February, I’m taking a look at the more modern films that have been inspired or shaped by noir. Today’s theme is “cyber noir” – the unlikely combination of sci-fi and film noir to make an oh-so-tasty film.

Nobody’s entirely certain who it was that came up with the idea of combining peanut butter and jelly. It isn’t exactly a logical leap, after all. The most popular theory seems to be that it was American soldiers, who had been issued with ration packs containing peanut butter and jelly during the Second World War. With these two items in their packs, the soldiers decided to pair them up and eat them as part of the same sandwich. However, though this might suggest that the two were thrown together by coincidence, they stayed together because they just work so well. So it is with science-fiction and noir, that most unlikely of combinations which can’t help but go down a treat.

The alpha and the omega?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, Christopher Nolan, Film noir, films, For the Love of Film Noir, For the Love of Film Noir blogathon, For the Love of Film Noir: The Film Preservation Blogathon, Movies, ridley scott, science fiction, Soylent Green, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Sound of Fury (film) | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Blade Runner

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Darren

Blade Runner is arguably more of a film noir than a science-fiction film. Sure, it features robots and flying cars, but the atmosphere is set by a constant downpour in the streets, while characters wandering around in trenchcoats and questions of identity and moral ambiguity hang heavily in the air. Though the funky Vangelis soundtrack may lead you to believe otherwise, Blade Runner is perhaps one of the most faithful films in the neo-noir film movement. The flying cars are just on top of that.

Facing the facts...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: blade runner, California, Counties, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Film noir, films, For the Love of Film Noir, For the Love of Film Noir blogathon, For the Love of Film Noir: The Film Preservation Blogathon, hollywood, LA Noire, los angeles, Movies, non-review review, review, rick dekkard, ridley scott, roy batty, science fiction, United States, Vangelis | 17 Comments »

The Why of Sci-Fi…

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Darren

“Science-fiction” is one of those genres which finds itself consistently boxed in by film fans. Mentioning that hyphenated word calls to mind images of “warp speed”, space ships, transporters, aliens, time travel and all manner of weird genre devices. It’s part of the reason why so many film viewers attempt to stay away from the genre – I have encountered more than a few people will dismiss a science-fiction film or television show off-hand because it must be camp or ridiculous. I remain convinced that this is the reason that Battlestar Galactica never got the attention it deserved (with advertisements on my local channels playing down the fact that it happens “in space”). However, what is science-fiction when you boil it all down?

Are viewers spaced out by sci-fi?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2001: A Space Odyssey, arts, cormac mccarthy, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, science fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Science fiction film, Seven Samurai | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Sunshine

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Darren

Sunshine is a science-fiction movie. Well, duh, you proclaim, looking at the screenshots or having read the plot synopsis, it’s about a bunch of people in space flying to the sun. Of course it’s science-fiction! It’s hardly a comedy or musical! However, I’m talking about something more essential than its setting or its superficial elements. Although the story of a bunch of astronauts planning to reignite the dying star at the centre of our solar system may distract you, Sunshine works so well because it grabs the sorts of philosophical ideas at the heart of the best science-fiction: it’s an exploration of the conflict between the rational and the irrational, the logical and the emotional and the place of man and his understanding of the world around him. It’s movie that is far smarter than it pretends to be.

Going for gold...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 28 days later, chris evens, Cillian Murphy, cliff curtis, danny boyle, faith, Hiroyuki Sanada, icarus, ideas, John Murphy, mankind, mark strong, michelle yeoh, non-review review, religion, review, sci-fi, science, science fiction, slumdog millionaire, Sun, sunshine, the sun, the surface of the sun | 4 Comments »

Is a Film Ever “Done” These Days?

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Darren

I was reading last week about how George Lucas is planning yet another re-release of Star Wars in 2012. This time in glorious 3D. Glorious post-conversion 3D. Yes, that was sarcasm. It’s interesting that Lucas continues to push for editing and updating the saga, especially considering his earlier position on updating existing films (in this case arguing against converting black & white films to colour):

“I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them,” he said. He furthermore remarked: “In the future it will become easier for old negatives to become lost and be ‘replaced’ by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.”

And yet, he has repeatedly demonstrated over the past decade or so that he is devoted to rewriting his version of Star Wars, arguing that it is simply never complete – he’s moving it closer to complete with every update. In this era of directors’ cuts and special extended editions, is becoming commonplace to accept that the theatrical release of a film isn’t the “finished” or “completed” version.

The infamous "everyone rocks out" deleted scene...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blade runner, directors cut, DVD, extended editions, film, george lucas, Kingdom of Heaven, Movie, revisionism, ridley scott, science fiction, special editions, star wars, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, THX 1138 | 1 Comment »

Sticking it to the Fan: George Lucas and Fan/Hatedom

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Darren

By all accounts, George Lucas should be one of the most beloved people on the planet. Ignoring the fact that he was the forefather of one of the most iconic trilogies of all time (Star Wars), he has managed to expand the boundaries of what is possible with special effects (down to companies like Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound) and even in video games (many of the earliest videogames on flopdisk came from LucasArts). Beyond that he’s also the man perhaps most responsible for Indiana Jones and one of the most influential film makers of all time. And yet his name evokes a huge amount of discord when it’s spoken. Just why is that?

Lucas has un-Fett-ered control of the franchise...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blu ray, fandom, films, gene roddenberry, george lucas, hatedom, Movies, science fiction, star wars, star wars trilogy, trilogy | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Minority Report

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Darren

I don’t love Minority Report. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a well-made film – perfectly entertaining and cleverly directed by a director who is one of the best living today – but it just doesn’t feel consistent for me. The whole doesn’t necessarily add up to the sum of its parts, as it were.

They should probably screen their officers better...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: colin farrell, destiny, fatalism, fate, free will, future, max von sydow, minority report, philp k. dick, pre-cog, pre-crime, samantha morton, science fiction, stanley kubrick, steven spielberg, tom cruise | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Futurama – The Beast With A Billion Backs

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Darren

I wasn’t overly impressed with the first of the Futurama movies, Bender’s Big Score. It was grand, and a wonderful emotional kick made it worth watching, but it felt very insular and a little too random in its execution – built around in-jokes and clever ideas discarded after five minutes or so. Somewhat paradoxically, it felt more like a “final” episode than the “first” of anything, let alone a welcome to this new format for the show. So I was more than a bit relieved to discover that The Beast With A Billion Backs was a far more consistent viewing experience, but also one which felt a lot more like a regular episode of the show, just stretched to two hours. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.