Film, Sci-Fi

Flash Gordon

31 Jul 2008

SCI-FI/ADVENTURE (PG) 106min (Optimum DVD retail) Given director Mike Hodges once admitted to an Edinburgh International Film Festival audience that his 1980 blockbuster version of Alex Raymond’s comic strip was made up as he went along, it’s all the…

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

31 Jul 2008

MYSTERY/SCI-FI (15) 104min Ten years after the first X-Files film, and six years after the end of the series, Mulder and Scully are back and they are together-together. When Scully persuades Mulder to get involved in a case involving psychic priest…

Meet Dave

17 Jul 2008

CHILDREN’S SCI-FI FANTASY MEET DAVE (PG) 90mins The last time Eddie Murphy united with director Brian Robbins, audiences got Norbit as a result. Now, one of the least eagerly anticipated reunions in cinema history invites us to Meet Dave. The result…

The new X-Files film

17 Jul 2008

The new X-Files film continued to be shrouded in mystery last week, with all the actors publically refusing to reveal the plot. Billy Connolly will star as Father Joe alongside David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s Mulder and Scully, in the…

WALL-E

17 Jul 2008

ANIMATION (U) 103min Can Pixar do no wrong? On the evidence of the CG animation studio’s ninth feature film, the answer is a resounding no. Once again Pixar pushes the envelope in the field it’s been trailblazing since the early 1980s, delivering…

The Mist

3 Jul 2008

HORROR/SCI-FI (15) 126min After The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, writer/director Frank Darabont continues his one-man championing of the Stephen King estate with an adaptation of novella The Mist. After a thunderstorm in an isolated rural…

The Happening

19 Jun 2008

DRAMA/SCI-FI (15) 90min The best and worst of M Night Shyamalan’s questionable talents are on display in The Happening, but after The Village and the dire Lady in The Water, it’s good to see Shyamalan hitting any sort of form at all. The apocalyptic…

I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Ok

24 Apr 2008

SCI-FI (15) 105 min Korean director Park Chan-wook burst onto the international film scene with the ferocious Oldboy in 2003. The bleak and violent study of revenge was very publicly championed by Quentin Tarantino. However, after the unrelenting…

Teenage Hooker Became A Killing Machine

28 Feb 2008

SCI-FI/HORROR (18) 60min (Third Window DVD rental/retail) This low budget Korean entry is certainly an oddity, and has to garner bonus points as one of the most garishly outrageous film titles in many a year. The teenage hooker of the title is hacked…

Aliens Vs Predator – Requiem

17 Jan 2008

SCI-FI/HORROR (15) 86min In the ongoing saga of a faceless corporation which creates a monster it doesn’t know how to handle, there are obvious parallels between the universe featured in the Alien films and Fox’s treatment of the franchise itself.

Blade Runner: Final Cut

29 Nov 2007

Some filmmakers just love to fiddle, and Ridley Scott is one of the worst fiddlers in the business. This is (allegedly) the final, definitive cut of his already near iconic 1982 sci fi classic. In any version this great movie is well worth catching on…

Southland Tales

29 Nov 2007

SCI FI/COMEDY/DRAMA (15) 144min Los Angeles, 4 July 2008. Society is on the brink of social, economic and environmental collapse and an action star/boxer, a porn star and a police officer are making a last stand. Writer/director Richard Kelly’s…

Highly illogical? Winona Ryder as Spock’s mother

13 Nov 2007

Winona Ryder has signed up to the latest installment of the Star Trek franchise - as the Vulcan mother of a young Spock. Directed by Lost creator JJ Abrams, the film will chart the Starship Enterprise crew’s early days as they embark on their first…

Star Trek film scouting for ‘odd’ extras

8 Nov 2007

The new Star Trek movie is recruiting people with odd features to appear as extras. Anyone who is the proud owner of bug eyes, large foreheads or oversized ears will also have to agree to have their eyebrows shaved to appear Vulcan-like. The…

Star Wars spin off series gets underway

18 Oct 2007

A television spin-off of sci-fi franchise Star Wars is getting underway, said creator George Lucas, with the main characters conspicuous by their absence. The film director admitted he was ‘taking chances’ by leaving out the likes of Darth Vadar and…

Bit early in the Star Trek universe for kung fu isn’t it?

11 Oct 2007

Unless you’ve seen Chopper, that headline will mean nothing. If you have seen Chopper, it’ll remind you of the finest single line in film history. All that wittering will eventually lead us to a point where I can reveal that Eric Bana has signed on…

Terminator: I’ll be back, then again and once again

11 Oct 2007

I’ve never really seen the attraction of the Terminator - it’s alright but it’s no Turner and Hooch - so you’ll forgive me for not getting too excited at the news we are to be treated to a further trilogy of the franchise. First out of the blocks…

All aboard the good ship Emmerich for a Fantastic Voyage

27 Sep 2007

What we really need in this age of terrorism, blue tongues and crunchy credit is a remake of 70’s camp-a-thon Fantastic Voyage. Thank the lord then that Roland Emmerich has stepped up to the plate to bring us just such a wonder. The Independence…

Star Trek secures an Uhura

20 Sep 2007

The geek on the street will be turning weak cordial cartwheels at the news that JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movie is continuing apace with its casting decisions. The latest to sign up for the sort of revisionist/prequel/depressing remake is Zoe Saldana…

Transformers

16 Jul 2007

ACTION/ADVENTURE/SCI-FI TRANSFORMERS (12A) 144min In 1984 toy manufacturer Hasbro released the Transformers, and as part of its marketing strategy, commissioned a Marvel comic strip and an animated TV series that became an instant…

28 Weeks Later . . .

7 May 2007

As voracious as their flesh-eating antagonists, zombie movies can’t help coming back for more until a franchise has been picked clean. In order to maintain some semblance of fine dining from their 2003 sleeper hit 28 Days Later . . . director Danny…

Deja Vu

(12A) 126min

11 Dec 2006

SCI FI/ADVENTURE/THRILLER A massive explosion, a slow-mo on our hero arriving on the scene of a terrorist attack, and within the first ten minutes it’s clear that we’ve entered the destructive cinematic world of Tony Scott. But, unlike with the…