Review: PRIEST

This a movie set in a steampunk/western/medieval post apocalyptic world; its main character is a vampire hunting, motorcycle riding, cowboy-ninja-priest played by Paul Bettany. And somehow… somehow it managed to be uncool. Somehow it managed to make such a setting feel dull, empty, and unworthy of all those adjectives. Somehow it managed to make its main character even more uninteresting than the setting he inhabits. And most surprising of all, Priest manages to be a movie without any stylistic sense, even when clearly this material would only work under heavy stylization and a very literal interpretation of “the rule of cool”

Review: THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU

            Like many Sci-Fi thrillers before it The Adjustment Bureau plays with the conflict between predestination and free will. And it has a lot of fun tossing a few ideas while Matt Damon and Emily Blunt are chased across New York by the adjusters of fate. But it doesn’t even try to arrive at a conclusion. This is not a deeply philosophical movie, and it doesn’t even pretend to be one; it is a pulpy action/romance movie and it enjoys playing with the implications of these genres.

 

Review: PAUL

            Paul is a silly and somewhat amiable R rated version of E.T. that behaves like a 5 year old who just discovered a whole new set of four letter words; I am talking of both the movie and the character. The film itself brings together the Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz team and the Superbad team. It is not as effective or good as any of either’s past work. But it is much more easygoing and likely to appeal to a wider audience than their previous works.

 

Review: BATTLE: LOS ANGELES

I am not really sure what the plot of Battle: Los Angeles was. There where lots of explosions, some very loud noises, and excessive queasy-cam movements. Every now and then Aaron Eckhart would yell at his platoon, Michelle Rodriguez would curse in Spanish and another explosion would happen after that. The rest was a blur.

Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! No, it’s a Plane! No, they’re Nazis… from Space!

            You might have heard about Iron Sky, but I just discovered it. And I have to say it looks like 110% of pulp awesomeness. I am already excited and it will probably not be released until next year, despite the fact that principal photography has warped. Why so long then? Well, Iron Sky is being financed through fan donations. So the filmmakers work at the rate the money pours in, which is very slow.

Review: SKYLINE

I really do not understand why Skyline has gotten so many bad reviews. Yes, the acting sucks. Yes, the dialogue doesn’t help it at all. Yes, we have seen better special effects. And yes, it is a story we have all seen before one thousand times. But it is undeservingly filled with beautiful imagery, and such elegant style it would make experienced big-budget action directors cower with jealousy; the Strauss brothers made this movie with less than 10 million dollars. That has to count for something, or rather everything. They made it back three days after it premiered without ever being in the top five.

Review: SPLICE

Splice treads a very fine line between a serious science fiction film and a B-movie monster thriller. It could have worked as one of the other but both styles do not mix as smoothly as one would like.

Review: SURROGATES

Just like when I saw I, Robot, when I left the theater I had one thought. Great sci-fi still exists.

It doesn't have to be hot women in tight suits fighting robots, it doesn't have to be a man who can teleport. It can be somewhat simple, and like all great sci-fi, if it uses the world it presents you with to make stinging social commentary, it can be a solid movie.