Gattaca (US, 1997)

This is one of my favourite SF films. It’s set in the future where a gene test determines your future at birth; those with imperfections are ‘in-valids’, who will spend their lives in ‘lowly’ jobs, whereas the ‘perfect’, which can be arranged via pre-natal screening, form the elite. A little bit like 21st century UK, [...]

The Hunger Games (US, 2012)

The Hunger Games is a box office phenomenon: it had the highest non-sequel opening weekend ($151m), and this was outside peak season, and is independently produced by Lionsgate. Like the Twilight series (2008-12) an indie company has hit upon a franchise that Hollywood would die for. Summit Entertainment, which produced Twilight, is now owned by Lionsgate. However, [...]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (US, 1956) and The Invasion (US-Aus, 2007)

Jack Finney’s 1955 novel The Invasion of the Body Snatcher, first serialised in Colliers Magazine, has been adapted four times for cinema. The original remains the best, an independent production starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter (both of whom have died in the last couple of years). I read the novel recently and enjoyed it, [...]

Melancholia (Denmark-Sweden-France-Germany-Italy, 2011)

Lars von Trier’s need to provoke ended badly for him at Cannes this year when he professed sympathy for Hitler. He isn’t a Nazi, as he said, and it’s best to let his films do his talking. The fracas was a distraction from Melancholia and Kirsten Dunst, winner of the best actress award. Melancholia is [...]

Rise of Planet of the Apes (US, 2011)

I had low hopes for this despite the unusually good trailer; however I think it’s the best ‘summer’ movie I’ve seen this year. Usually I find CGI-based films poor as the special effects don’t work as effectively as they think and the emphasis is on them rather than the narrative. However, with the exception of [...]

Gamer (US. 2009)

This movie passed me by when it came out; I think I thought it to be a macho exploitation movie; it is but it’s also got brains. Given that much of the action is a game then the macho, first-person-shooter narrative is entirely valid but what Nevland/Taylor (producers/writers/directors) have done is use the genre of [...]

Source Code (US-Fr, 2011)

Philip K Dick adaptations are usually disappointing (the recent The Adjustment Bureau (US, 2011) certainly wasn’t bad but…) however this film, based on an original script by Ben Ripley, comes closest than most (all?) to rendering a Dickian universe. Groundhog Day meets The Manchurian Candidate might be a high concept formula of the film’s idea [...]

The Book of Eli (US, 2010)

Post-apocalyptic worlds are a staple of science fiction (SF) and serve to draw attention to what we might lose if humanity isn’t careful. Denzil Washington’s Eli describes the ‘old world’ as a place where people threw away what they now kill for. And when Gary Oldham’s – ironically named – Carnegie washes his female partner’s [...]

Avatar (US, 2009)

I don’t have much to say about the biggest non-inflation adjusted movie of all-time (Gone With the Wind, 1939, is the top adjusted) as the brilliant special effects v corny plot argument has been well rehearsed. However ploddingly presented, it’s good to see an anti-colonialist/capitalist message emerge in a blockbuster film but what was most [...]

Inception (US-UK, 2010)

Christopher Nolan managed to make The Dark Knight (2008) an exciting roller coaster ride for both mind and body; the moral mazes adding heft to the visceral action. He’s clearly attempting the same with Inception, which he wrote, produced and directed. Imdb suggests the budget was $200m and with that sort of money on the [...]