One day soon, Scarlett Johansson will be regarded as the most important female performer in cinema. That is not say that she will ever hold the title of best living actress. Even after Meryl Strep passes, there will always be a middle-aged British woman that sets the critics to full swoon through the portrayal of a royal, either dead or alive. Johansson will occupy a different position all together. She is now our premiere thespian goddess, the woman who can enthrall legions of fan boys in a comic book flick, then turn around and dominate a smaller, “serious” film.
Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category
Under The Skin Review
Posted: May 16, 2014 in Drama, Reviews, Science FictionTags: Jonathan Glazer, Movies, Scarlett Johansson, Science Fiction, The Man Who Fell To Earth
0
Snowpiercer Review
Posted: April 4, 2014 in Action, Reviews, Science FictionTags: Action, Alison Pill, Chris Evans, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Joon-ho Bong, Movies, Sci Fi, Snowpiercer, Supertrain, Tilda Swinton
In 1979, NBC broadcast nine episodes of one of the worst and, at the time, most expensive television series ever aired: Supertrain. Boasting a disco, swimming pool and shopping mall, not to mention a weekly turnover of B-list celebrities, this was no ordinary train. This was Supertrain.
Thirty-five years later, director Joon-ho Bong brings Supertrain to the big screen, only it’s called Snowpiercer, and it’s not as awful.
But it’s not good.
In the near future, mankind attempts to reverse the effects of global warming by releasing a chemical into the upper atmosphere, and it basically works, with just one niggling problem. The earth is plunged into an ice age that freezes everything and everybody, except for a train that is filled with the remainder of humanity traveling the world in an endless loop.
Enemy Review
Posted: March 31, 2014 in Drama, Reviews, Science FictionTags: Denis Villeneuve, doppelganger, Existentialism, Jake Gyllenhaal, Movies
If you like blueberries, would your doppelganger like them as well?
If your wife is blonde, would your doppelganger’s girlfriend also be blonde?
If you had a doppelganger, which of you would be the evil one?
Who am you? Who are I?
These are the questions asked, but not answered in director Denis Villeneuve’s and screenwriter Javier Gullón’s new feature, Enemy. In order of appearance, Jake Gyllenhaal stars as history teacher Adam Hall and actor Anthony St. Claire, two men of no seeming significance outside of their circles of friends and acquaintances and no apparent relation beyond an uncanny resemblance.
The Midnight After Review
Posted: March 6, 2014 in 2014 Berlinale, Action, Foreign, Reviews, Science FictionTags: Berlinale, Fruit Chan, Hong Kong, Horror, Movies, Sci Fi
In his new film, The Midnight After, director Fruit Chan learns a hard, but familiar lesson: while it’s relatively easy to strand people in a phantasmagorical situation, it’s quite difficult to find a fantastic way to explain why and figure out what’s next.
The premise Chan conceives is as intriguing as any Rod Serling offered for your consideration. A disparate group of passengers board a minibus late at night in Hong Kong. En route, the bus goes through a tunnel. When it emerges on the other side, the city is empty.
Shortly, thereafter, the bus passes a blinking billboard that reads in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese: “A great film pitch does not always a great film make.”
If only. (more…)
Meet Mr. Karma 