Never Mind Pop Film

The premise seems familiar enough: it’s the not-too-distant future and Earth is under attack by aliens. The “Mimics” arrived by an errant asteroid and now they have taken over half of continental Europe. To help combat these hyper-intelligent aliens, humans wear armored combat suits fitted with rocket launchers and side-guns. One might even confuse the whole thing for a video game, if it didn’t have Tom Cruise’s face slapped on the poster.

Edge of Tomorrow replicates the experience of jumping into a video game through the eyes of untested combatant Major William Cage (Tom Cruise). Like most video game rookies, Cage is unfamiliar with his weaponry and panicked by the rushing hordes of attackers, he dies within minutes. And when he dies next he wakes up to the shouts of master sergeants (Bill Paxton in R. Lee Ermey mode). With each new life, Cage, mirrors other trepidatious gamers gathering their bearings in a new level, testing weapons in hopes of getting a feel before close quarters c…

Walking into Predestination clean is perhaps the best advice to offer any cinephile willing to hunt down this likely future cult classic. It would be easy to just describe Predestination as Looper tossed in a blender with Minority Report, but the Spierig Brothers are going in a very different direction here. A direction that may lose a few viewers along the way.

Ethan Hawke plays a temporal agent, a time-traveling arm of the law that travels all through the ages to prevent killers from committing crimes. His next assignment, should it prove successful, will be the agent’s last. Problem with that is the criminal he is tasked with chasing is the one who has eluded him time after time. In his last tangle with the Fizzle Bomber (yes, the name sounds absurd, but roll with it), the agent momentarily apprehended his man, but the resulting blast left the agent disfigured. Now tasked with recruiting some help (played by Sarah Snook), the agent will be sent to 1975 to prevent the deaths of tho…

Major William Cage has never seen a day of combat of his life, but he sells war to millions on television everyday. A crisp officer's uniform and a broad, beaming grin are all he needs to send enlistment numbers skyrocketing. Earth is facing an all-fronts assault by an alien race and humans are losing. Badly. The "Mimics" have proven a daunting challenge, taking most of continental Europe in five years. General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), of the United Defense Force, has one last trick up his sleeve: A suprise attack against the Mimics in France.

Arthouse curios are truly one of the great gifts that cinema continually offers to fans of indie filmmaking. There isn't a lot of room for experimentation in blockbusters or mid-budget dramas, but with a film like Under the Skin, anything goes. Jonathan Glazer has turned in two off-beat pictures in Sexy Beast and Birth, but this, this is an even rarer find. With the exception of casting star Scarlett Johansson, everything about Under the Skin is a barebones production, from the use of non-actors to utilizing hidden cameras to capture scenes.

With the rise of new technology has come an obsession with said technology. Twenty years ago hardly anyone had personal computers, but now it's not uncommon for people to be "plugged in" for upwards of twelve hours a day. Technological thrillers that warned of the dangers of blindly submitting to these new inventions disappeared from the landscape as consumer electronics and computers gained popularity, but now Transcendence aims to serve as Frankenstein for a new era.

Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) has devoted his life, along with his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) to researching the singularity. Will and Evelyn Caster are truly made for one another. They bounce off each other remarkably well in the laboratory and when the Casters go home they share wine and music and laughs. In many ways, Transcendence is much more focused on the relationship between Evelyn and her husband than a mad scientist versus humanity, but as with any film with a budget over $100 million, the battl…

2013 was indeed a great deal of fun for fans of the science fiction genre. Gravity re-defined the visceral experience, The World's End capped off the Cornetto Trilogy perfectly, Hunger Games had its Empire Strikes Back moment and Her changed what a romantic comedy could be. Looking forward to 2014, sci-fi looks like it will only get better. A new Christopher Nolan film set in space, a sequel to the 2011 surprise hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a new effort from the Wachowski brothers and more. Here are six films to put down on your social calendar.

Read more over at GotchaMovies

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures co-release Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, has been given a logo today. Not much was known about the film, but fortunately, a plot description was released today as well.

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes-a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)-who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the…

Post-modern consumers are all about the quick-fix: lose weight instantly, bulk up immediately, six hours of energy drinks available in the time it takes to drink a shot. Life is moving at a much faster pace now and we need supplements that will aid that. There is no time left for those who can't keep up. Which brings us to the central character of Limitless, Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper). His girlfriend, Lindy, is moving up in the world and Eddie's life is stuck in stasis as of the moment. She loves him, but he has to make drastic changes though they are slow to come. The novel that has languished unfinished on his laptop sees no signs of being completed. Eddie is watching his future run out.

A chance encounter with his former brother-in-law leaves Eddie an opportunity to change everything. A tiny pill called NZT has provided him with everything he needs. Initially, Eddie is hesitant, his brother-in-law was always a screw-up how could that have changed? There is only one way t…

Nostalgia tripping is risking becoming it's own subgenre of film. It's a golden age for nerds: comedic geniuses like Simon Pegg riff on 80s pop-culture for hours and make watching it enjoyable. This is old hat for Pegg, who starred with Paul co-writer and co-star Nick Frost in Spaced so many years ago. Spaced pulled from the same bag of "Wars and Trek" references, and like in Paul, it didn't let the in-jokes ruin the comedic chemistry, plot and character development. Contrast this with Fanboys, another exercise in sci-fi reverence that was steeped too deep in arcana and lacked comedic wit. Fanboys featured a cameo by Seth Rogen, who gives the charming the voice to the titular alien.

Paul is the story of two aging nerds taking a road trip through some of the more alien lore rich states after a visit to comic-con. While stopped to see The Black Mailbox, a car crashes nearby that contains a lovable extra terrestrial who needs help to escape. He is being chased by pur…

Meet Bob, Bob Arctor is the head of a drug ring. Meet Fred, a narcotics detective for the city of Anaheim.   They are the same man.
The choice of roto animation is not just for fun's sake by Richard Linklater, it is used as a metaphor for what you are watching. It looks like real-life, but there is a thin separation from reality that hazes your judgement. That haze is reflected in Bob/Fred whose own dependence on Substance D is causing a rift in his mind.
Mental illness is depicted through Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) and Luckman (Woody Harrelson), Arctor's two main flackies with varying levels of psychosis. The two spend a majority of their days discussing alternative theories as to who is really responsible for their troubles. Most of these theories often lead back to the government. Ironically enough the government in charge of the rehabilitation clinic is the hub for the designer drug that is destroying the minds of citizens.
Drug culture has been more widely accepted in t…

Tron is a film about a renegade programmer trapped in a system he helped to create. The film follows the standard trope from anti-technological films of the period, where the protagonist works against a system run on logic rather than ethics. I suspect that films like this were popular at the time due to the high anti-communist and hence anti-technocrat ideals prevalent in the American psyche. 
As a bit of an aberration in the genre, Tron doesn't read as a cautionary tale, but as one of hope. A humanist hero conquers the anti-democratic system in which he is captured and returns freedom to the land.
It's an inspiring notion and a fitting image in an age where the most popular source for news in America is little more than a propaganda arm for one of the two dysfunctional political parties.

Steven Soderbergh has always been an interesting filmmaker, but for the most part all of his wide variety of films have been centered around: a cool heists (Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Out of Sight), biographies (Erin Brokovich, Good Night & Good Luck, Che), and the odd (Kafka, Bubble, Schizopolis). Solaris is a venture of sorts for Soderbergh as it is his most intimate film to date. There is no cool sheen to replace substance - only a heart that beats throughout the story.
Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) is urged to the space station by friend and colleague Dr. Gibrarian, whose distressed message to Earth lures him away from his grief of his dead wife. Once aboard the Prometheus Chris finds his friend dead on a slab and two distraught crew members left. There appears to be a small child, but Chris shrugs it off, or at least until he finds out the truth: everyone on the Prometheus has either gone mad, or killed themselves after receiving a "visitor".
Rheya (Nat…

"Now think real hard. You been bird-doggin' this township awhile now. They wouldn't mind a corpse of you. Now, you can luxuriate in a nice jail cell, but if your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you."
And with that line my infatuation with Firefly began. The Joss Whedon series ran for only fourteen episodes, of which only eleven aired - thanks again FOX - but the devotion of Firefly fandom brought the series back to the big screen.
The spaceship Serenity, headed by Captain Malcolm Reynolds, is still on the run from the Alliance (imagine the world's largest corporate merger between China and the United States, with big guns), but this time Inara (Morena Baccarin) and Shepherd Book (Ron Glass) are gone. It's not necessary to watch Firefly to enjoy Serenity although the overall experience is much richer if you have. Malcolm Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, is perhaps the most entertaining, yet perplexing, character I've …

The hype for Avatar has been incredibly publicized. 3D has been around for the last several decades, but James Cameron wanted to do something bigger, better. Known for big summer blockbusters, Cameron wanted to push the realms of cinema into something unprecedented.

You know the story from the trailers, you know the director has been working on it for the better part of two decades. So the question is this the film that revolutionizes how people see movies?

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a paralyzed former Marine joining the Avatar program after the death of his brother. He is uniquely positioned to join because he shares his brother's DNA, only Jake can control his avatar. With it, he can walk again and once he infiltrates the Na'vi and convinces them to move away from their land, Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang) promises to get Jake's "real legs back". The Na'vi must be moved because their home is based on a very valuable deposit of Unobtanium.

3D films in t…

What do you get when you mix a great cast with a poor writer and a director with a tired schtick?

You get Gentlemen Broncos!

Jared Hess was supposed to do a Q&A after the screening I attended, but he didn't come out. He was probably too embarrassed to show up. His comedic direction was very lacklustre. It's a common criticism of his work, but Hess has to learn that you can't base a comedy around laughing at ugly people and people with abnormal voices.

The writing wasn't up to scratch either. It did take the film into some unique and novel directions while exposing the sci-fi world of the protagonist's novel (these interludes were the best part of the film). However, these sci-fi scenes didn't move along the main plot; they were just goofy skits meant only to provide comic relief. This is no way to write a screenplay for a motion picture. Every scene, cut, line and hand gesture must either provide characterization or further the plot.

The script as a whole …

Surrogates are the biggest technological advancement in years. This particular advance allows people to look like whatever they want and do anything they want due to the safety of the robotic bodies. Another side effect of surrogates is that crime has been virtually extinguished. Surrogates have seemingly ushered in a perfect society.

Even in this perfect society, there are functions of society known as Dreads, hyper Christians who ceased to be a part of society after the Surrogate craze. They follow the Prophet (Ving Rhames) who is waiting for the right movement to revolt.

After the murder of surrogate inventor Dr. Lionel Canter's (James Cromwell) son, Special Agents Greer (Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchell) are left to investigate the first homicide in five years. The murder weapon in question is an electrical device that wipes out the surrogate fail-safes that protect users from dying. After learning that the suspect in question is a "meatbag", Greer heads to the Dr…

Marshal W.T. O'Neil (Sean Connery) is the new security guy on Con-Am 25 and little does he know that his wife Carroll and son Paul have both left to go back to Earth. Con-Am is a corporation that mines the moon of Jupiter for titanium ore and business is booming on Con-Am 25 all thanks to the leadership of General Manager Sheppard (Peter Boyle).

Essentially High Noon on a moon orbiting Jupiter Outland is one of the best cheaply made sci-fi films available.
Employees have begun killing themselves and going nuts mysteriously and it seems O'Neil is the only one willing to investigate the problem. Assisted by the crotchety Dr. Lazarus, O'Neil discovers that the problem is a amphetamine that is being secretly shipped into the base.
The problem is the amphetamine may cause insanity, but it also helps a worker get 9 hours of drilling in a 6 hour shift. So everyone has been looking the other way, including his "deputy". After an unsuccessful attempt to bribe the Marsha…

Some years ago aliens crashed landed in Johannesburg. Despite their insistence that they were there in peace, officials deemed it necessary to contain them on Earth. Soon, the "prawns" as they are named, are relocated from their ship to a camp below.

Citizens are outraged that the prawns live so close to their homes and a group is assembled to move the aliens once again. Should they resist, mercenaries with flamethrowers and guns will assist them. Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is a blissfully unaware bureaucrat set about earning his way up the government ladder by evicting the "prawns" from their reservation in Africa.

Whether it was a matter of hubris, or irony, while casting aliens out of their homes, Wikus contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Once that information spreads, Wikus very quickly becomes the most valuable man in the world, as well as the most hunted. In his DNA lies the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology th…

In the future, space stations can be operated and maintained by one man. There are not many accommodations for said employee though, "human" comforts consist of video chats and a small robot named GERTY. The station is largely self-sufficient, but an engineer must remain there for repairs. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is finishing out the remainder of his contract with the company that mines helium from surface rocks on the Moon.

Dealing with the mind-bending isolation of being alone on the moon is taking its toll on Sam. Sam's wife and daughter wait for him at home on Earth, although as Sam's time on the Moon stretches he begins to believe someone lurks waiting to replace him there too. His short time away from home in nearing an end and he finds that a welcome relief. An unexpected visitor arrives at the station looks to change that. There really isn't a lot that can be said about the plot without spoiling the entire thing, so I will have to leave you in the dark.

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