After the first major sequence of The Tomorrow War, I looked at my viewing pal and said, “Wait, is the movie over? Did all of that just happen in 20 minutes?” We had just seen present-day Chris Pratt, a disgruntled high school science teacher named Ben, get drafted by future soldiers to help fight to …
What does one do with a movie like Liquid Sky? I saw a crappy DVD version of it years ago, and was so baffled that I forced it on my Movie Night friends as part of a double-feature. Due to protests from my friends about the movie being unbearably awful, I was forced to turn …
With minimal exposition, and even less sound, we meet a lone family in a mysteriously post-apocalyptic world. They are seemingly alone in a small town, with pillaged corner stores and abandoned cars. It is clear right away that they need to be very very quiet. They walk with bare feet, on a path of smooth …
When director Ridley Scott revisited his Alien universe for the first time in over 30 years with 2012’s Prometheus, he apparently had been collecting ideas in his head for decades. The dense, bloated with promise Prometheus attempted to create an entire world of mythology and alien races, while cramming in the requisite horror thriller to kill …
In case you’ve been living under a rock for a couple of decades, you’ve most likely seen the classic sci-fi/fantasy film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, one of the biggest money-making films of all time. I’ve probably seen the movie a dozen times, and yes, it makes me cry every time (when E.T. is lying in the …
Using an opening collage of gauzy scenes, we meet a woman (Amy Adams) as she feels the joy of new motherhood, the delight of seeing her beautiful child grow into a smiling little girl, and the crushing, devastating grief of losing her teenage daughter to nameless disease. Cue present day, and this woman, Louise Banks, …
Anyone who’s ever seen one of those movies – or, for that matter, anyone who’s ever tried to kill a big spider, only to miss and have it seemingly vanish after it scurries behind or under a piece of furniture – will therefore no doubt be familiar with the underlying sense of panic and dread …
I’m not the only one who has realized that the best movies lately are not movies at all. Cable and independent television has created some of the best and most varied entertainment the last few years, while Hollywood struggles to figure out how to get literally the biggest bang for their bucks. Blockbuster wannabes seem …
Updated in 2016, the book takes you through over a century of film, chronologically by decade. It starts, naturally, with Georges Méliès’ Voyage to the Moon (1902) and progresses up to the 2000s, with the last entry being Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (2013). This edition of the book has been updated since its previous 2009 edition, …
Under the Skin is one of those films, like the acclaimed head-scratcher 2001: A Space Odyssey, that will totally divide audiences. I’ve already seen early acclaim, proclaiming “Four stars!” and “We now finally have an heir to Stanley Kubrick!” I’m not going to pretend. In fact, my friend laughed at the end of the film, …