Lifer Movies

Title: Godzilla Rating: 3.5/5 Genre: Action, Sci-Fi Starring: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson Director: Gareth Edwards Let’s eschew the usual introductory exposition and drive right into the nitty gritty shall we? After all, this is a Godzilla film; an iconic and beloved character that remains the most recognisable monster of all monster movies ever created. It is the pride of Japanese cinema and recognised the world over, and that of course makes it all the more concerning when it falls into American hands. The big question of course, is—like so many of their remakes and reboots—did they manage to create a monumental fuck-up that forgets the original for big flashy explosions and bland CGI-laden action? Actually, no. Despite all my misgivings and concerns going in, it managed to exceed all expectations and do the franchise proud. Which is something I never thought I’d actually say. People may remember the original in the light of all the copycat clones and jokes made at h...

Title: Melancholia Rating: 2.5/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland Director: Lars von Trier Lars Von Trier has long struck me as one of the few remaining directors who manages to push the boundaries of modern cinema, willing to try new things and experiment, and in the process has created some of the most fascinating modern pieces that I can recall. The shocking thing is just how long it took me to watch this, and just how long I spent trying to justify what I'd seen. There's no two ways about it, Melancholia in indeed a horrifically depressing film; starring a wedding gone sour at the hands of the severely depressed and lacking in a certain degree of sanity, Justine (Dunst). Daughter to a woman who seems to enjoy insulting her and an uncaring womaniser, after failing to get any real help in dealing with her uncertainties at the recent ceremony, her apathy soon becomes apparent as she struggles to maintain her façade. So...

Title: Prometheus Rating: 4/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama, Adventure Starring:Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron Director: Ridley Scott Late to join the masses on this one, but isn't this unusual? For once I find myself not insulting a mainstream film that was well received but defending one that wasn't; a film that is layered with complexity despite it's two hour run time that requires you to pay attention so as to keep up. Events may seem to happen randomly but really, so much is occurring that you forget the subtle for the obvious, until of course the subtle becomes all that much more apparent. Looking around for opinions seem to reveal a number of supposed "plot-holes" that emerged either from a lack of attention being paid or mistaking simple unanswered questions as flaws. Truth be told, I found very few plot points that I couldn't explain, and usually I can't stand them, though certainly there are questions left to...

Title: Plan 9 From Outer Space Rating: 4/5 Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, (Comedy) Starring: Gregory Walcott, Tom Keene, Mona McKinnon Director: Ed Wood “There's no doubt about it, he's been murdered. And SOMEBODY is responsible for it” [dun-dun-duuuun] For those that are unfamiliar with the name of Ed Wood, it is a name that was re-discovered in the 80s for being quite possibly the worst director to have ever lived. His name often gets compared to Uwe Boll but there are some fundamental differences between their work; whilst Boll exploits German legislation to continually fund his films, Ed Wood, well he didn't fund his films, and even Boll isn't delusional enough to think them masterpieces. They are budget enough to use hubcaps with wires attached to them as the special effects for the flying saucers in this film. The tombstones are usually cardboard someone's written on. The plots are, well perhaps I better just explain the plot here; aliens invade and initiate “...

Title: The Avengers Rating: 4/5 Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston Director: Joss Whedon It would seem the build up to this has been monolithic, above and beyond anything else in recent memory and rivalled perhaps only by “The Dark Knight” and the ensuing circle jerking that surrounded that. It comes at perhaps a perfect time as well, after being saturated with little hints at the end of films and after two Iron Man films, two Hulk films (because they didn't like the first one), Thor, Captain America, and numerous others 'outside the Avengers mythology,' if they'd waited much longer the anticipation would have fizzled out and people would have stopped caring. I stopped caring in fact, skipping the last couple of hero origin stories and only returning because of my inherent “Joss Whedon” fanaticism (I'm not sure how many can lay claim to own...

Title: The Deadly Spawn Rating: 4/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror Starring: Charles George Hildebrandt, Tom DeFranco, Richard Lee Porter Director: Douglas McKeown Another cult classic from the glory days of America's indie horror peak; where idea's came from genre fanatics and technology had moved on enough that anyone with the drive could get it onto a film, albeit in a low budget format, and “The Deadly Spawn” is one of those classic cases of a film that ticks all the right boxes: Lousy acting, an unlikely hero, plenty of gore and violence, tongue in cheek humour and a deadly monster with a large amount of teeth. And the premise seems so simple, a meteor lands dragging with it a monster from the very far reaches of space; a creature with no desire but to feed, procreate and increase in size, with no second thoughts about resorting to cannibalism, and bearing the brunt of the attack are a single all-American family doing all they can to repel this alien invasion. It's wha...

Title: Andromeda Strain (remake) Rating: 3.5/5 Genre: Sci-fi, Drama, Thriller Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Daniel Dae-Kim, Eric McCormack Director: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott A review I wasn't gonna write until I realised just how slow work was going to be; whether you want to call this a film or a mini-series is up to you. Certainly there are budgetary concerns with many of those involved more used to TV work over feature films, and the expected midpoint cliffhanger, but at just under 3 hours long, happily works as a long film. And it's not slow and drawn out like you may expect from a long film, rather it takes inspiration from the original, as well as the Michael Crichton book and tries to do them both justice in terms of tone and atmosphere, also taking liberties with the original story (a sure fire way to disgruntle many a fan of the original), asking questions around the subject and this mysterious disease and then consequently answering them (for better or for worse), ...

Title: Star Trek Rating: 4.5/5 Genre: Action, Sci-Fi Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Karl Urban, Eric Bana Director: J. J. Abrams This is a film I intended to review a long time ago, way back when i first saw it at the cinemas but decided it needed to be watched again, just to make sure it really was that awesome and not just a pleasant surprise. For with reboots always comes more than a little dread at soiling the memory of great films, and the casual star trek fan in me acknowledges just how painful this could have been. The star trek legacy - whether you're a fan or not - is one unparalleled today; it's futuristic sci-fi still limited in what can be done and still bound by conventional physics, and still a dream of scientists worldwide trying to make it a reality. Its lore, history, politics and overarching mythos so in depth it makes lord of the rings look shallow. And through it all lies a human core, taking the action and excitement of explorin...

Title: Species IV: The Awakening Rating: 4/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror, Action, Drama Starring: Edy Arellano, Helena Mattsson, Marco Bacuzzi, Marlene Favela Director: Nick Lyon Call it my guilty pleasure if you will, particularly if you consider im rarely one to follow a series past the first couple of films, but I do hold a soft spot for this quadrilogy. The debut cult classic hitting all the right notes; a sexy and seductive alien wanting nothing more than to bed you and procreate the alien species. The sequel then delivers much the same, and quite frankly the less said about the atrocity that was the third the better, but this one seems to have snuck under the radar. Another episode in this gory sci fi flick about beautiful women wanting to sleep around. I mean surely for the premise alone most guys would be sold. But as the films developed, they quickly realised they couldnt just rehash old concepts, and so returning to the tale years later we find ourselves not dealing with a...

Title: Space Truckers Rating: 3.5/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Comedy Starring: Dennis Hopper (Waterworld, Apocalypse Now), Stephen Dorff (Blade, Felon), Debi Mazar Director: Stuart Gordon “I emit a low amp electrical wang pulse, designed to drive women wild” I'm sure everyone has some similar story to this, for this film has in a sense been on my 'to watch' list longer than any other. For some reason one of my memories as a young child involve this film, and more specifically not being able to watch it; my plucky young eight year old self spotting it in the video rental store and showing it to my father, grinning ear to ear only to hear those fateful words. “You're mother would kill me if I let you watch that.” Which on reflection is a little odd, seeing as I'd already skipped my Disney phase and moved onto classics such as “Die Hard” and “The Terminator,” and this is far more family friendly than a film about robots that take over the world. Hell, this i...

Title: Darker Than Black Rating: 3.5/5 ( Kuro no Keiyakusha – 3.5/5 / Ryūsei no Gemini – 4/5) Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller Starring: Hidenobu Kiuchi, Christopher Sabat, Jason Liebrecht Director: Tensai Okamura Language: Japanese Duration: (25mins; Season 1: 25 Episodes; Season 2: 12 Episodes; OVA: 5 Episodes) Looking over this in passing it looked a little like an anime version of the hit US TV show “Heroes,” probably not helped by the fact that it emerged just a year after its first season. The thing is, even though both dealt with the mysterious appearance of people with extraordinary abilities; flight, possession, control over the elements and so on; following a large number of characters coming to terms with their abilities and the ensuing reactions from the public, often kept in the dark as much as possible – though in this case little is known about them anyway – this is about as far from such a show as is possible. Rather than dealing with an overarching continuous...