In Chronicle we get one of the year’s best films, a fun and cool and awesome piece of lower-budget sci-fi that uses the found footage format, a simple but neat premise and seamless special effects to deftly detail in larger-than-life fashion what I imagine are the horrors of being a bullied teenager today. Dreamed up [...]
Read More Chronicle, Dane DeHaan, David, drama, Josh Trank, Max Landis, Sci-Fi, thrillerBlack Hawk Down meets Independence Day in Battle: Los Angeles, an entertainingly gung-ho alien-invasion epic starring Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez that practically doubles as a military recruitment film.
Read More Aaron Eckhart, action, Battle: Los Angeles, blu-ray, David, DVD, Michelle Rodriguez, Sci-FiMichael Bay was originally going to direct I Am Number Four, but he passed, and the job went to D.J. Caruso. Good thing, too, because in Bay’s hands this sci-fi action flick would probably have been a bombastic mess, whereas the director of Disturbia and Eagle Eye makes it into a thoroughly entertaining mix of [...]
Read More action, Alex Pettyfer, blu-ray, DJ Caruso, DVD, I Am Number Four, PG-13, Sci-Fi, thriller, Timothy OlyphantI was about 10 years old when the original Tron hit theaters in 1982, so I have a certain fondness for it. It just looked so cool, with the Light Cycle races and giant ships, rendered via very early computer graphics, and the actors clad in glowing costumes with glowing Frisbees strapped to their backs. [...]
Read More action, adventure, blu-ray, Bruce Boxleitner, David, DVD, Garrett Hedlund, jeff bridges, Joseph Kosinski, Michael Sheen, PG-, Sci-Fi, Tron: LegacyRunning and reacting is the name of the game in Skyline, an alien invasion flick directed by the Brothers Strause (Alien vs. Predator: Requiem) that features impressive effects, annoying characters and makes the similarly-themed Battle: LA look like Shakespeare. Like that movie, it’s set in L.A., but instead of focusing on a pack of soldiers, [...]
Read More action, blu-ray, David, Donald Faison, DVD, Eric Balfour, PG-13, Sci-Fi, Skyline, thrillerIt may have cost less than a million dollars to make, but the ingenious Monsters, like most sci-fi flicks nowadays, is still all about the visual effects. Only in a good way. Instead of the CGI being the show, a la 2012, it rather refreshingly serves to enhance a simple, albeit familiar, story combining elements [...]
Read More David, drama, Gareth Edwards, Monsters, R, Sci-Fi, Scoot McNairy, thriller, Whitney AbleUntil I saw Adrien Brody in the energetic Predators, the fifth flick to feature the dreadlocked, crab-faced alien hunters first encountered by Arnold Schwarzenegger two decades ago, I never even imagined the guy as an action hero. But Mr. Skinny pumped some iron, got himself a crew cut and a macho attitude and, voilà, proves [...]
Read More action, Adrien Brody, adventure, Alex Litvak, blu-ray, David, DVD, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Finch, Nimrod Antal, Predators, R, Sci-Fi, thriller, Topher GraceThough it’s a far cry from the great superhero flick I was hoping for, the somewhat ungainly Iron Man 2 still qualifies as solid summer-blockbuster entertainment, thanks in large part to some well-done CGI set pieces and the cool and cocky charm of star Robert Downey, Jr.
Read More action, adventure, blu-ray, David, Don Cheadle, DVD, Garry Shandling, Gwyneth Paltrow, Iron Man 2, Jon Favreau, Jr., Justin Theroux, Mickey Rourke, PG-13, Robert Downey, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Sci-FiUnder no circumstances should you confuse Repo Men with Repo Man. Sure, they both feature fair-haired actors whose characters repossess things for a living. But one is a fun cult flick from the ‘80s with Emilio Estevez. The one I’m reviewing here is a stale and somewhat repugnant sci-fi concoction starring Jude Law. In 2025 [...]
Read More action, Alice Braga, David, DVD, Forest Whitaker, Jude Law, Liev Schreiber, Miguel Sapochnik, R, Repo Men, Sci-Fi, thrillerSomething in an Iowa farming community’s water is turning the townsfolk into homicidal maniacs. So goes the scenario of director Breck Eisner’s effectively frightening redo of George Romero’s 1973 virus-run-amuck classic The Crazies.
Read More blu-ray, Breck Eisner, David, DVD, George Romero, Joe Anderson, Mystery, R, Radha Mitchell, Sci-Fi, The Crazies, thriller, Timothy Olyphant