[5] Ridley Scott returns to the franchise he created with Alien: Covenant, which is equal parts Alien remake, Alien prequel, and Prometheus sequel. The plot is a retread of both the original 1979 film and the 2012 prequel: a group of space travelers respond to a signal on a strange planet, discover monsters, and get killed by monsters. Halfway through, we learn the planet is …
[4] Rogue One is the first of what is sure to be many stand-alone or spin-off Star Wars movies over the next few decades. This maiden venture focuses on the events leading directly into Episode IV: A New Hope, with a young woman trying to redeem her father’s coerced invention of the Death Star by leading a rag-tag team of freedom fighters into hostile Imperial …
[7] Amy Adams plays a linguist recruited by the military after aliens (the space kind) make first contact with human beings in twelve separate locations across the globe. Eric Heisserer’s non-linear screenplay (based on a story by Ted Chiang) and Denis Villeneuve’s austere direction make the first two-thirds of Arrival a pretty gripping film for people with the desire and ability to pay attention and …
[7] Charles Laughton plays H.G. Wells’ mad scientist in the first film version of The Island of Dr Moreau. It’s a reasonably faithful adaptation until the halfway point, where it gets as loose as the Demi Moore version of The Scarlet Letter. Wells’ provocative suggestions about man’s animal nature remain largely submerged in the movie’s Saturday matinee atmosphere. Leading man Richard Arlen (so striking in …
[7] Directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) and written by comic book legend Frank Miller, you’d think that RoboCop 2 would be vastly better and more interesting than it is. But for just another inferior sequel, it’s not half bad. The disjointed script eventually boils down to a big confrontation between RoboCop (Peter Weller) and the latest model from his makers at Omni …
[6] Writer/director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud) serves up a supernatural drama about a father (Michael Shannon) trying to smuggle his son cross-country while avoiding both the government and the religious cult from which they escaped. Turns out the boy is gifted with strange powers that continue revealing themselves throughout the film. Is he an alien? Is it a government conspiracy? Nichols is hoping you’ll …
[5] Mutant sea creatures attack a coastal community in this schlocky flick from producer Roger Corman. It’s pretty standard, passable, monster movie fare. The requisite boobage and gore were filmed by one director, while another handled the pesky plot and character development. Like many Corman features, this one features early work from emerging talents, including makeup effects by Rob Bottin (Legend, RoboCop) and music by …
[6] So, fifteen minutes into The Fountain, you get a bald man sitting in a snow globe talking to a tree while drifting through space. At that point, you either go with writer/director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream), or you shut the movie off to make the pain go away. Fortunately, that initial leap of faith is the hardest. I started to dig …
[4] This ‘bad in a good way’ sci-fi/horror flick features a melting astronaut who must feed on human flesh to keep from becoming a puddle of goo. I’m all for melting people, but The Incredible Melting Man is too narrow in scope. The script strings together one ‘stalk n’ kill’ scene after another, with little attention to the naturally sympathetic plight of its title character. …
[4] Also known as Quartermass and the Pit, this subdued sci-fi flick centers around a famous scientist, Bernard Quartermass (Andrew Keir), who is called to London to investigate a mysterious object and the strange effect it has on anyone who gets near it. I usually enjoy Hammer Films, but this one nearly put me to sleep. There’s some payoff, and a nice bleak ending, but …
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