Contagion was not an easy movie to watch (and probably the scariest of my summer 50). Director Steven Soderbergh once again uses the technique he mastered in Traffic, the sober series of interconnected stories featuring a huge ensemble cast, to tell the larger tale of a global viral outbreak. While it’s a bit of a…
Category: Sci-fi
Movie #43: John Carter
Hearing that there’s going to be a big-budget sci-fi-fantasy movie made, gets me pretty excited. But when the movie turns out to get bad reviews, I get a bit nervous to watch the movie for fear of how they’ve botched something that could have been really good. I was going to save John Carter for…
Movie #31: The Thing
I’m not quite sure how to review a movie like The Thing. I have not seen the original 1982 horror movie classic, but I suspect that it was not too different from the pure creature-feature that this remake is. The movie is set almost entirely in Antarctica, where a group of Norwegian scientists invite a…
15 Flicks for Fall 2012
As summer is more than half over, it’s time to start thinking about movies for the fall. Sadly, I didn’t end up watching all of last year’s list (at least not in the theatres). Nevertheless, here’s what I’m looking forward to (in vaguely chronological order) for Fall 2012: 1. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 2…
Movie #26: Another Earth
I didn’t know what to expect from this movie, but I’m a sucker for indie sci-fi movies. I think sci-fi concepts open up a huge realm of storytelling — it’s a great way to explore dramatic and philosophical questions. Anyway, in this case, Another Earth is mostly a human drama about a teenage girl, Rhoda,…
Movie #25: Cowboys & Aliens
I’ve never been a fan of westerns (they are my second-least favourite genre, next to mob movies). However, when I heard about this western-sci-fi mash-up, I was intrigued. When I learned that Daniel Craig was going to star as the mysterious lead character, I was downright excited. Like many westerns (not that I’m any kind…
Safety Not Guaranteed – Movie Review
I had not heard anything about Safety Not Guaranteed before stumbling upon it in the theatre listings. It got great ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and I love discovering indie-movie gems (especially when they have a sci-fi twist). When the following ad appears in the local classifieds, some writers from Seattle Magazine are intrigued enough to…
Movie #22: Skyline
Skyline really brings home the idea of alien invasion, since it’s set entirely within a high-rise condo — Hey, that’s how I live! Unfortunately, I don’t live in a super-deluxe modern condo in L.A. with sleek modern styling and automated blinds — but then again, those blinds didn’t save these residents from being sucked away…
Movie #20: Trollhunter
At first I was growing tired of the “found footage” sub-genre of movies, but recent TV series like the now-cancelled The River, movies like Chronicle and now this movie continue to expand possibilities. The title of this Norwegian film, Trollhunter (Trolljegeren), sounds like a cheesy Syfy channel B-movie, but actually it’s pulled off with a…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 