Let's Talk About Movies

Category: sci-fi

  • The 5th Wave [2016] ★½

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     The first science-fiction flop of the year is a dull, uninspired mess that rips off pretty much every “deadly alien attack” movie ever made. Chloe Grace Moretz can’t save a cheesy script, playing a girl who is constantly on the run from an alien attack, as she desperately tries to find her missing brother. The…

  • The Martian [2015] ★★★

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    “The Martian” stars Matt Damon, whose name cannot be uttered without thinking of “Saving Private Ryan” and “Good Will Hunting”. Now he’s teaming with Ridley Scott, who’s been desperate for a hit after recent misfires such as”Exodus” and the God-awful “The Counselor”. Damon plays astronaut Mark Watney, a NASA botanist who has been left for dead…

  • Terminator: Genisys [2015] ★★½

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    Going into the fifth movie of the “Terminator” series, I expected the worst. Arnold Schwarzenegger is clearly desperate for a hit after a series of flops (“The Last Stand” and “Escape Plan”). Never mind that it’s been 12 years since Arnold’s final appearance in a Terminator movie. Or that he’s 67 years old. Or that…

  • Tomorrowland [2015] ★★½

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     Brad Bird’s “Tomorrowland” has so many good ingredients, including a solid performance from George Clooney and some eye popping visual effects. Another good thing is the mystery of it all: Bird doesn’t play his cards too early and keeps us guessing at every turn. But I’ll say this much: George Clooney plays Frank Walker, a grumpy inventor who…

  • Ex Machina [2015] ★★½

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    Don’t get me wrong. Alex Garland’s “Ex Machina”, starring Domhnall Gleason as a coder who’s been chosen to spend a week with his reclusive billionaire boss (Oscar Isaacs, almost unrecognizable) in order to test his latest artificial intelligence invention  (Alicia Vikander) is a major accomplishment. It relies more on thought provoking ideas than eye popping visual effects and…

  • Insurgent [2015] ★★

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     I’m not a fan of the first “Divergent” movie, released exactly a year ago. But for some reason, I had a feeling things will get more interesting with so much exposition out of the way. I was wrong. “Insurgent” is more of the same, and to be honest, I’m already dreading the idea of a…

  • Project Almanac [2015] ★★

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    Your head will spin for all the wrong reasons while watching “Project Almanac”, the latest found-footage gimmick (yes I’m calling it a gimmick), about a group of teenagers who build a time machine and seize the opportunity to go back and fix their past mistakes while having a bit of fun along the way (hint: they…

  • Chappie [2015] ★★★

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     From the poster and trailer you might think is another “Transformers” movie (God forbid), when in fact, “Chappie” is a Sci-Fi movie from Neill Blomkamp, the man who gave us the superior “District 9” and “Elysium”. Despite a lack of stars or a recognizable filmmaker, “District 9” put many big budget Hollywood blockbusters to shame and established Blomkamp as…

  • Jupiter Ascending [2015] ★½

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    Don’t let Oscar season convince you that this isn’t a disappointing start of the year for movies. Have you seen “Mortdecai” and “Taken 3”? And wait till you get a load of “Jupiter Ascending”, the new mess by The Wachowski siblings. Smirky acting, clumsy writing and clueless direction. What happened you guys? The Wachowskis wanted to…

  • I Origins [2014] ★★½

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    Don’t let this low-budget Sci-Fi Drama put you down. “I Origins”, written and directed by Mike Cahill (who did such a good job with “Another Earth” a few years ago), offers imagination and provocation to spare. It may not be as good as his first feature, but it has staying power and it’s damn hard…

  • Interstellar [2014] ★★★½

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    The mind-blowing movie event of the year arrives just in time to hold back the flow of Hollywood junk that’s been infesting the multiplex for a while now. “Interstellar”, written and directed by the visionary Christopher Nolan, will be called many things, starting with “Inception” meets “2001: A Space Odyssey” meets “The Grapes of Wrath”. But “Interstellar” glows with…

  • The Maze Runner [2014] ★★★

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    Here’s something I never expected to say at this point in the movie season but the first installment of James Dashner’s futuristic series is exciting and entertaining to watch. The book was published in 2009 and instantly became a New York Times best-seller. It’s certainly easy to see why now: In adapting Dashner’s novel, director Wes Ball has…

  • The Giver [2014] ★★½

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    Enthralling and frustrating…grandiose and gimmicky. “The Giver” is all of these and more. It’s always interesting to watch filmmakers you admire take on the impossible. Lois Lowry’s Newberry Award-winning 1993 novel is a tough book to translate onscreen. And nobody makes it to the top. A story about a future without pain, war, suffering and love is…

  • Under The Skin [2014] ★★

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    Scarlett Johansson may be busy promoting her new movie “Lucy”, but earlier this year she was in a totally different Sci-Fi film called “Under The Skin”. I’ve taken many unusual cinematic journeys with so many different directors and enjoyed most of them, but I just couldn’t care for this one.  I find this distressing because, on the face of it,…

  • Lucy [2014] ★★½

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    “Lucy” is exactly what you would expect from a Luc Besson movie: it moves like a bullet, and almost never stops to take a deep breath (hence the short running time). This is beneficial, because the story doesn’t always make sense…but when a film is this energetic and entertaining, it would be a shame to…

  • The Philosophers [2014] ★★½

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    “The Philosophers” is provocative and interesting, so while it may be far from perfect, it’s not a movie I could easily dismiss. Writer/director John Huddles opens on a intriguing note, heads in unexpected directions, and ruins the fun in the final act. No worries. Until then, the film has many surprises in store. James D’arcy…

  • Edge Of Tomorrow [2014] ★★★

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    Think of “Groundhog Day” morphing from comedy to Science-Fiction and you’ll get an idea of the amazing stuff waiting for you in “Edge Of Tomorrow”, an incredibly entertaining summer movie from director Doug Liman that is potent enough to make us stop ID’ing him as “that guy from The Bourne Identity”. A terrific Tom Cruise…

  • Transcendence [2014]

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    For a variety of reasons, I had low expectations for this Sci-Fi movie starring Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall and Paul Bettany. As it turns out, the film was worse than I expected. Much much worse. Last month I saw “Divergent”. I thought the problem with that film was that it lost most of…

  • Divergent [2014] ★★

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    Having suffered through “The Host” and “The Mortal Instruments” last year, I wasn’t eager to see yet another movie based on a best selling book. The only reason I had any hope was the presence of Shailene Woodley (“The Descendants”, “The Spectacular Now”) in the leading role—and indeed, she is the main reason the film…

  • Ender’s Game [2013] ★★

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    I don’t know what “Ender’s Game” purists would make of this big screen adaptation, but as someone who has never read the book, I wasn’t impressed with the overall result. This is not to say that the movie doesn’t have impressive visuals. The futuristic settings, costumes and overall production design are a treat to watch.…