Sleuth (1972) review

 Number 238 on the top 1000 films of all time is Joseph L. Mankiewicz' mystery thriller 'Sleuth.'

Andrew Wyke (Laurence Olivier) is an eccentric crime writer with a love for puzzles, games and his mistress. He wants nothing more than to run off with her. The problem? He is still married. Enter his wife's lover, salon-owner and second-generation Italian immigrant Milo Tindle (Michael Caine.) Together the two hatch a plot for them to end up with their desired women.

You have to give Mankiewicz some credit. This is film with a minimal cast and sets, yet it is a true head-scratcher. It was a complicated affair. I'm not sure I understood everything even now. Despite that it is an interesting film that demands every ounce of your attention. At least for the many references to the crime genre in general. It is a meta text with many allusions to the likes of Agatha Christie etc.

It was originally adapted from a play by Anthony Schaffer and I wonder if it would have been more effective on stage and screen. The two-man cast and two or three sets would have lent itself well to Broadway. Considering it won a Tony, it obviously did.

Plus this film adaptation included a giant of the English theatrical world: Laurene Olivier. He was enjoyable as the eccentric Andrew Wyke, often giving the role an electrifying energy. This coupled with his larger-than-life performance certainly wouldn't have been out of place in the theatre. He was incredibly physical and incredibly theatrical. Andrew Wyke is an odd fellow who fancies himself the next Agatha Christie. His house is full of strange costumes and other peculiarities. Olivier played the role to a tee. He was rightly nominated for an Oscar.

Michael Caine - also Oscar-nominated - was every part his equal. He plays Tindal well and he soon enters a battle of wits with Andrew Wyke. Although the two start as uneasy allies, they then enter a cat-and-mouse game, as they desperately keep trying to outwit one another.

Although Sleuth was good on screen, I do think it was better suited to the stage. The intellectual plot, heavy dialogue, minimal sets and characters would have been perfect for any theatre hall.

Forbidden Planet review

 Number 565 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1956 science-fiction film 'Forbidden Planet.'

Commander John Adams (Leslie Nielsen) is leading a mission to the distant world of Altair IV to investigate the missing Bellerophon which disappeared 20 years before. There, he finds Doctor Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter Alta (Anne Francis) who were the only survivors of the ill-fated mission.

As you know well by now, I'm not a big science-fiction fan. Too often, I find it's a vehicle for writers to show off how clever they are by writing an over-complicated and convoluted plot. However, Forbidden Planet didn't suffer from that. Instead, it fell into another pitfall which is common in science-fiction: excessive world-building. It prioritised world-building over plot. Any film that does this is likely to be a plodding, boring affair and Forbidden Planet was no exception.

It starts slowly and never really gets going. It doesn't leave second gear. Instead of anything interesting, we're treated to lengthy info-dumps about the Krell - the extinct alien race who once inhabited Altair IV. These ultimately do prove to be relevant to the plot, but they are much longer than they need to be. The more interesting part was seeing the crew-members fight off some invisible, malevolent force, but even this comes to a disappointing and anti-climatic conclusion.

Alta's character was also incredibly annoying. I say "character," but she had no character outside of the men she meets. It was hardly the most progressive portrayal of a woman on-screen. I get this was the 1950's, but Alta was a far-cry away from the feminist women that Katherine Hepburn was well-known for portraying. Instead she was a vapid, insipid irritant devoid of personality. 

She was badly-written. Alta, having never seen a man before, has to be coached on the best ways to be coached on the best ways to act and dress around them. This is even more ironic considering how Anne Francis went onto challenge female stereotypes in the TV series Honey West. She played the lead role in that show - one of the first actresses to do so. She was very much a pioneer of her craft. It's just a shame that she was lumped with such bad characters in the earlier parts of her career.

Yes, Robby the Robot was very cute, but he wasn't enough to save an ultimately boring film that focussed too much on world-building and poorly-written female characters instead of an interesting film.

The Abyss review

 Number 709 on the top 1000 films of all time is James Cameron's science-fiction drama 'The Abyss.'

Virgil "Bud" Brigman (Ed Harris) is the foreman of the Deepcore oil rig. Joined by his estranged wife Dr. Lindsay Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio,) they and their crew are tasked with the task of salvaging a US navy submarine that inexplicably lost power and sank to the bottom of the ocean. There they find a group of alien creatures.

Intense, claustrophobic and unrelenting, the Abyss was as difficult to watch as it was to make. Shot on a gruelling schedule in awful conditions with an authoritarian dictator in James Cameron, it is no surprise that Ed Harris almost drowned and later had a nervous breakdown. On another occasion, having been pushed too far by Cameron, Mastrantonio) stormed off set. Both actors have since distanced themselves from the film. And few, if any, of the cast and crew have worked with Cameron again.

It is a shame that they were pushed so hard, because they both gave excellent performances. Their chemistry helped give this film some much-needed heart, as we watched the pair re-discover their love for each other. I just don't think they needed Cameron's tyranny to bring out the best in them.

I couldn't help but compare this film to Das Boot. It had that same claustrophobic feel from the tight camera-angles to the cramped set and dim lighting. I couldn't help but feel a little trapped myself. And, as for the scene where the divers are exploring the lost submarine, that is a hard no from me. Sure, it was intense and well-shot, but not something I would ever want to do.

The other comparison would be Cameron's Aliens. Again that is a science-fiction drama taking place in a suffocating setting. But the obvious difference is the actual aliens. In the Abyss, they are friendly, plus they looked visually gorgeous. The visuals were stunning throughout.

I have read so many horror stories about the making of the Abyss, least of all about Cameron's dictatorial direction, that I'm surprised it was made at all. He pushed his actors to their absolute limit, but was that a really necessary thing to do?

Sunshine review

 Number 997 on the top 1000 films of all time is Danny Boyle's 2007 science-fiction film 'Sunshine.'

The year is 2057. With the sun dying, the only hope for mankind is to send a team of astronauts and scientists to detonate a bomb in the core of the sun. The team consists of physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy,) Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) engineer Mace (Chris Evans) navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) biologist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh,) pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne,) Doctor Searle (Cliff Curtis) and comms/first officer Harvey (Troy Garrity.) Chipo Chung and Mark Strong also star.

There is a lot of good about this film, so let's get the bad stuff out the way first. Notably the accents. To reflect the international nature of space missions, Danny Boyle chose a deliberately international cast. Cillian Murphy is Irish, Hiroyuki Sanada is Japanese, Michelle Yeoh is Malayasian, Benedict Wong is Chinese, Cliff Curtis is Maori, Chipo Chung is Zimbabwean, Mark Strong is English, and Australia is also represented with Rose Byrne.

You have this internationally diverse cast, so why were Murphy, Byrne, Curtis and Chung all doing American accents. And why was Mark Strong doing a South African accent? One of the producers said it was to appeal more to an American audience, so why were Yeoh and Wong not included in this? Either have all the characters do American accents or none of them. It was a strange choice.

Pinbacker definitely could have used some more fleshing out as a villain. We quickly understand that he has lost his sanity, but little else beyond that. Sunrise was written by Alex Garland who had originally included strong themes of religion which were edited out. Elements of this remained in Pinbacker's character, but he remained largely undeveloped and two-dimensional.

Harvey's character was also the least developed among the crew. It wasn't really until the halfway point where Garland realised he had a scene with no conflict, and so he had Harvey commit a random villainous act that completely came out of nowhere.

But these criticisms aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Sunrise. Unlike sci-fi *cough cough* Space odyssey, it doesn't prioritise its big themes over its characters. The aforementioned characters aside, the remaining cast was well-characterised. These were complimented by some good performances. I thought Benedict Wong gave a standout performance. But this isn't to discredit the rest of the cast either.

For a big ensemble cast, I was surprised to find myself caring about most of the characters even if Garland didn't really know what to do with Cassie.

Visually, the film looked stunning. There were so many lens flares I thought I was watching a J.J Abrams film, but otherwise the CGI was gorgeous. I am, of course, excluding the final section, which looked like it had been shot and edited by a group of teenagers. Way too much shaky-cam and distortion. Also how did Cassie and Pinback end up on the same part of the ship that Capa needed to get to?

Yes, Sunshine is pure hokum, scientifically speaking, but the film's technical advisor Dr Brian Cox said that some inconsistencies are to be expected. This is a film and not a documentary after all.

Overall, I really enjoyed Sunshine. It's a great example of sci-fi done right.

Minority Report review

 Number 639 on the top 1000 films of all time is Steven Spielberg's 2002 science-fiction action film Minority Report.

Set in 2054, the Precrime police programme has virtually eliminated all pre-meditated murders in Washington DC. Three clairvoyant humans named 'precogs' including Agatha (Samantha Morton) receive psychic impressions of homicides and are able to alert the police who can stop the crimes before they even happen. One of these police is the Precrime police department chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise,) whose six-year-old son was abducted and never found. When DOJ agent Danny Witwur (Colin Farrell) audits the system, Anderton receives the disturbing news that he is about to kill Leo Crow - a man that he has never met. He quickly goes on the run, as the system he has fought to up-hold slowly turns against him.

Generally, I'm not a fan of science-fiction films. I find that they can be overly-intellectual and pretentious, with their writers being more concerned with showing off how clever they are rather than writing a comprehensible film. However, I think Minority Report struck the balance between intelligent social-commentary and thrilling action. It definitely helped that it had Stephen Spielberg directing it. Minority Report had all the excitement of his most famous blockbusters like Jaws, Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones, but also the thoughtfulness like some of his quieter works such as the Colour Purple.

Perhaps it helped that Minority Report spanned multiple genres. It wasn't just science-fiction, but also a psychological thriller. Sometimes science-fiction can be insufferably dull, slow and boring *cough cough* the remake of Solaris, but the chase element kept this film moving along nicely. John Anderton is against the clock to solve the predicted murder of Leo Crow, before the authorities find and punish him. 

Tom Cruise is well-known for his action-roles which made him the perfect fit for John Anderton. Anderton is your cut-and-dry hero - he is a handsome, law-abiding man accused of a crime that he hasn't committed yet. It isn't the most original of characters, but it didn't have to be. And Cruise did it well.

But no actor is a vacuum and Cruise did have a strong supporting cast. You had Farrell as the slimy villain-turned-unlikely ally Danny Witwur, but also Samantha Morton as the lead precog Agatha. As we learn more about her, we learn all about her tragic past and Morton did well in bringing this tragedy to life. Max Von Sydow was particularly menacing as the precrime director Lamar Burgess and Peter Stormare brought a wonderfully chaotic energy to the sleazy Dr. Solomon Eddie.

Minority Report was certainly an entertaining film. I enjoyed watching it as it perfectly balanced the big questions of science-fiction with the edge-of-the-seat action of a psychological thriller.   

Twelve Monkeys review

 Number 252 on the top 1000 films of all time is Terry Gillam's 1995 science-fiction thriller 'Twelve Monkeys.'

Set in a post-apocalypse world where 99% of the world's population has been wiped out by a disease and the remaining 1% are living underground, convict James Cole (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time to gather as much information as possible. He is aided by psychiatrist Dr Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe,) as the two of them investigate 'the Army of Twelve Monkeys' who is believed to have released this virus. Brad Pitt co-stars as Jeffrey Goines, the leader of this group. Christopher Plummer also stars as the villainous Dr Leland Goines.

This is Terry Gillam's seventh outing in the director chair having helmed productions including Time Bandits, Jabberwocky and the virtually incomprehensible Brazil. Thankfully, Twelve Monkeys wasn't anywhere near as surreal or convoluted or abstract as Brazil. While that film was weird for the sake of being weird, Twelve Monkeys was a different beast entirely. 

Time travel can prove confusing for all but the most discerning of viewers. Although, maybe I'm just not that observant, but sometimes I do get lost following the different timelines. Despite that, Twelve Monkeys is easy enough to follow. But, more importantly, considering only three years ago, we were all living under the threat of the pandemic, Twelve Monkeys did take on a different meaning. We were all living the apocalyptic nightmare that was being played out in the film: the dystopia, state-control, paranoia was all too real for us. Unfortunately, we didn't have Bruce Willis travelling back in time to save us all.

Twelve Monkeys came out seven years after Bruce Willis established himself as a solid-action star in Die Hard. But I fear that he wasn't able to step out of this huge shadow and into a quieter, dramatic role. I didn't find him very convincing as the lead character of James Cole. He is supposed to be a man embodying a Cassandra complex, but ironically, I found a hard time believing Willis in the role. Maybe he was miscast, but I don't think he carried the drama as well as he carried the action.

However, I thought Brad Pitt was great. He played the mentally unstable Jeffrey Goines who is initially in the same psychiatric institution that Cole is imprisoned in when he is sent back to 1990. He brought such a manic energy to the role that it was impossible not to be engrossed by his character. Christopher Plummer was also very good as his slimy and evil father.

The world of Twelve Monkeys is one that isn't too far from our own reality. It's revealed that the Army of Twelve Monkeys are little more than would-be eco-warriors spreading mischief. However, we only need to look into the shadier origins of the Covid virus to draw parallels with this film. I won't dive into that rabbit-hole now, but Terry Gilliam certainly presented an interesting world which is perhaps too scarily similar to our own.

Limitless review

 Number 926 on the top 1000 films of all time is the science-fiction thriller 'Limitless.'

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a writer who is struggling to make ends meet. Out of desperation, he begins taking an experimental new drug called NZT which will enable him to access 100% of his brain instead of only 10%. While things start to improve, he quickly finds his life spiralling out of control.

Firstly, I need to say that the premise of this film is fundamentally flawed. We use far more than 10 or 20% of our brains. Certainly not 100%, but far more than the mythical 10% that Limitless propagates. Bearing that in mind, this film is definitely more science-fiction than science fact.

Nonetheless, it is still an entertaining if rather uneven watch. As a writer myself, the protagonist is scarily relatable to me. And Bradley Cooper is charismatic enough to pull off the transformation from shabby artist to suave, financial investor. I also enjoyed his narration. It helped to move the film along at a steady pace.

Unfortunately, he also makes a number of silly decisions for no other reason than to affect the plot. He borrows money from a dangerous Russian loan shark who was one of the more over-the-top, two dimensional villains I've seen in a while. Secondly, Eddie Morra is due to give advice to tycoon Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro.) Van Loon wants to merge his company with another and seeks Eddie's help. He sends him a bunch of files to review. But he has allowed himself to run out of NZT and goes ahead and reviews the files anyway. This would make sense if he was an average person like you and I. But this wonder drug is supposed to make him hyper-intelligent. Surely, he would be smart enough to know he can't trust shady loan-sharks or allow his supply to run low.

Robert De Niro was good as Van Loon who was a far more effective villain than the Russian loan shark. It's never explicitly clear why Eddie is borrowing money from him, but he is little more than a thug in a suit.

This film isn't necessarily bad. It gives a chance for Bradley Cooper to show off his many talents such as languages. I can only assume he learned Mandarin for the role, but I know he learned French after studying in the south of France for six months during college, and he also learned Italian form his mother. The script had plenty of humour and the soundtrack was good too. I also enjoyed the editing and camerawork. When Eddie is off the drug, the picture is greyscale, but when he's on it, it's oversaturated.

Although Limitless is built on a false premise, it is still an entertaining ride.

Source Code review

 Number 839 on the top 1000 films of all time is Duncan Jones' science-fiction thriller 'Source Code.'

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a soldier who becomes an unwilling participant of a scientific programme called Source Code. He is repeatedly sent into an alternate reality where he has the chance to stop a domestic terrorist from blowing up a commuter train and killing everybody on board. Stevens assumes the identity of one of the other passengers and soon forms an attraction to a young woman called Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan.) Vera Farmiga plays Captain Goodwin - the soldier guiding him through the reality and Jeffrey Wright plays Dr Rutledge - the scientist who created Source Code.

I find a lot of science-fiction very pretentious. It's overly-intellectualised made by people who are not only smarter than me but like to rub that in my face. Or maybe I'm just stupid to realise their big, philosophical points. However, Source Code was not like that at all. And that's what I enjoyed the most: its simplicity. The storyline is easy enough to follow: Captain Stevens must identify a domestic terrorist to stop him from not only blowing up the commuter train but the city of Chicago as well. He has only eight minutes to do this otherwise the programme resets and he must start all over again.

The film has real heart too. Although, I thought that at first, Gyllenhaal and Monaghan didn't have the best chemistry, by the end, I thoroughly warmed to their relationship. I was rooting for the two of them to live happily ever after. But there are moral quandaries abound in Source Code. It is revealed that Colter Stevens, for all intents and purposes, has died in battle and his body is being kept alive in a life-support chamber. His mind is being stimulated within the Source Code programme. And Captain Goodwin must decide whether it is morally ethical to keep him alive or to let him die.

Source Code comes in at just over an hour and a half. A lot of science-fiction goes on far longer than it should, but Duncan Jones picked the right length. It didn't need to be any longer. As the storyline revolves around a time loop, there was a real danger of Source Code becoming monotonous and repetitive, yet this was never the case. 

I might argue that if the film could have been expanded anywhere it would have been with the villain. Derek Frost is a domestic terrorist who thinks that society is sick and should be rebuilt from rubble. But there has to be rubble at first. Perhaps an extra ten minutes or so developing his motivations would have been nice, but then again, I don't think it was that necessary. You can argue that Dr Rutledge was a more obvious villain keeping Stevens in an eternal torment, because he has been the only subject compatible with the Source Code programme. Jeffrey Wright played the villain well with his velvety tones doing little to gloss over his odiousness. 

True, a timeloop story is hardly the most imaginative, I've seen it plenty of times in Star Trek, but the execution of Source Code is what made it such a thrilling and enjoyable watch.

Mr Nobody review

 Number 396 on the top 1000 films of all time is the science-fiction film 'Mr Nobody.'

Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto) is a 118-year old man at the end of his life. He is living in a futuristic society where humanity has achieved practical immortality. A journalist (Daniel Mays) interviews Nemo about his life. Nemo gives a sprawling, contradictory story which explores the many different paths that his life could have taken. He focusses on key events that happened when he was nine, fifteen and thirty-four. Some of the events include the break-up of his parents marriage as well as his own relationships with a number of women.

If there is anything that this film taught me it's that I'm not the biggest fan of science-fiction. I'm not maligning a whole genre - there is some sci-fi I like, but a lot of science-fiction seems pretentious and self-indulgent; writers and directors trying to show off their intellectual ability. And, of course, you can argue that I'm being bitter because I'm not clever enough to understand it. Partly that is true, but, for me, cinema should be a form of escape. It should be something where I can turn my brain off and not worry about missing half the film. Sure, that doesn't mean it can't be arty or intellectual, but I want to easily enjoy and understand a film.

Anyway, I'm saying all that, because I think 'Mr Nobody' was pretentious, self-indulgent and overly-long. The concept of it was interesting enough. A multi-verse idea lends itself to lots of narrative potential - every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And every decision you do or don't take can create a whole new universe. And this could have been interesting to watch if the film didn't explore every single way Mr Nobody's life could have gone. We see what life would have been like if he had chosen to live with his mum and with his dad. We see what his life would have been like if he had dated and married Anna (Diane Kruger) or if he had married Elise (Sarah Polley) or Jean (Linh Dan Pham.) All of these different storylines bloated the film and made it far longer than it needed to be.

And because so much of the film is told in flashback, with Thomas Byrne playing a nine-year-old Nemo and Toby Regbo playing Nemo at fifteen, it didn't really give Jared Leto a chance to act. He isn't the film all that much which is weird considering he plays the main character. He's a great actor - he won an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club so why you won't allow him to do his thing is just a mystery to me. And when we do see him, he is mostly in make-up or against a horrifically, fake-looking green-screen. Seriously? The CGI was awful. Or perhaps that was supposed to be the point. Mr Nobody gives so many contradictory accounts that we're not sure which account to believe. Maybe the flashbacks with the awful CGI are supposed to be the imposters.

Although, one good thing about the film was its soundtrack. It was diverse and varied consisting of artists like Otis Redding, the Police and Buddy Holly. But this great soundtrack didn't make up for what was ultimately a convoluted, overly-confusing and self-indulgent film. And a film that severely under-utilised its lead actor.

K-Pax review

 Number 965 on the top 1000 films of all time is the science-fiction film K-Pax.

Prot (Kevin Spacey) claims to be an alien visiting earth from the planet K-Pax, while manifesting in the form of a human male. Upon his arrival in New York, he is quickly remanded to a psychiatric facility. Where he comes into the care of Dr Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges.) Dr Powell is determined to prove Prot a liar, but he is confronted with increasingly convincing evidence.

Kevin Spacey has undoubtedly become a problematic figure, but there is no denying that he was one hell of an actor. By the time he filmed K-Pax, he had already won acting Oscars for the Usual Suspects and American Beauty. He brought the full force of his acting skills to this role too. As far as aliens go, Prot is a little bit like a Vulcan - observing the customs of humans with a scientific curiousity, and, at times, a quiet exasperation. If Dr Powell asks him whether he has K-Pax equivalent of a human custom, Prot will rationally explain why something like that would be nonsense.

In the hands of a lesser actor, these explanations would sound like rubbish, but Spacey pulls off the awkward dialogue with finesse. And even a bit of humour. For a science-fiction film, there were a lot of jokes and Spacey played them well. As well as making us laugh, he pulled at our heart strings too. To unlock the truth, Dr Powell hypnotises Prot and discovers that Prot - or at least the human form he is assuming - was once known as a man called Robert Porter who worked in an abattoir. His wife and daughter are raped and murdered by a paroled convict. In his grief, Robert kills the murderer. To protect his fragile state of mind, he creates a delusion of being an alien from K-Pax. Spacey was brilliant in these scenes. 

Jeff Bridges was great too - often playing the Dr Bones to Spacey's Spock. And as he becomes more obsessed with the case, his relationship with his family becomes strained. Bridges plays a man caught between two worlds. But like Spacey, he plays the comedy well, often acting as the straight man.

A lot of science-fiction films that deal with big philosophical themes tend to be self-indulgent and pretentious, *cough  cough* 2001: A Space Odyssey, as they try to prove how clever they are. K-Pax was nothing like this. It was a simple and straightforward plot. There wasn't anything pretentious about it. Rather than vaguely answering big questions, it hyper-focussed on what it means to be human.

And was Prot really an alien or a delusional human trying to survive a severe trauma? Like any good science-fiction, it doesn't tell you what to think, but lets you make up your own mind. Personally, I think that Prot and Robert Porter had a symbiotic relationship. Prot needed a human host and Porter needed a reason to not be himself anymore. But what do you think?

The Butterfly Effect review

 Number 578 on the top 1000 films of all time is the science-fiction thriller 'The Butterfly Effect.'

Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) is a young man who used to have unexplained blackouts as a child. Once grown up, he's realised that he can time travel whenever he reads certain entries of his journal. He begins going back in time to right his wrongs and change not just life, but girlfriend Kayleigh's (Amy Smart,) her psychotic brother Tommy (William Lee Scott) and their friend Lenny (Elden Henson.)

Science-fiction films always have the tendency of prioritising the big philosophical themes over the characters sic 2001: a Space Odyssey. However, I would argue that the opposite happened here. The premise is interesting enough - a real life embodiment of the Butterfly Effect - the smallest of actions can have the biggest of consequences. Or as the opening line reads: "it has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wings can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world."

But this original concept was let down by its execution. It felt very much like a teen movie with a loose science-fiction premise. It didn't help you had Ashton Kutcher as the lead. He wasn't particularly bad as a dramatic actor, but he is much better known for his role as dumb teenage pretty boy Michael Kelso in the 70's show. He certainly wasn't able to shake off his teen heart-throb image here. It also didn't help that much of the film took place on a university campus. The film came out in 2005 and it sounds and looks like it did. The characters are so dated in the way they talk and dress. For a film about time travel, somewhat ironically, this film is anything but timeless.

Much of the film also took place in flashbacks showing our principle cast as children and alter teenagers. And the child actors were just not good especially Logan Lerman and John Patrick Amedori as Evan at ages seven and thirteen respectively. When the adult Evan goes back in time, he embodies his younger selves, but with his present mind. And so when they're speaking, it is actually the adult Evan speaking and the dialogue sounded awful coming out of the younger actor's mouths. Their delivery was just awkward and unnatural.

This is a shame as this did have the potential to be an interesting film. It was an entertaining enough thriller, but it very much failed as potent science-fiction.

The Man from Earth review

 Number 337 on the top 1000 films of all time is the science-fiction film 'The Man from Earth.'

John Oldman (David Lee Smith) is an academic moving on from his old life. At his farewell party, he reveals a big secret to his fellow academics: he claims to be a caveman who has survived 14,000 years into the modern day.

Before I watch these films, I generally take a cursory glance of their Wikipedia pages, so I know what I'm up against. When I read about this film, I thought it would be a tedious, surreal, philosophical arthouse film a la Ingmar Bergman.  And we've established that I'm not a fan of Bergman.

However, that assessment could not have been more wrong. Despite The Man from Earth being little more than a one-act play, it was very engaging. The academics discuss the philosophical nature of Oldman's being in a way that is accessible for audiences to understand. It isn't too scholarly neither is it oversimplified. I never felt like I was being talked down to or did the dialogue feel contrived.

And as the story advances things only become more interesting as Oldman's story is examined from different academic disciplines - from biology to archaeology and even theology. This culminates in the implication that even this outlandish claim didn't harm the suspension of disbelief. This claim and the others were all backed up by reasoned logic like any academic argument.

I also really enjoyed the ending. *Spoiler alert* Under duress, Oldman reveals this was all an elaborate prank. Some of his friends believe him and others. But without any conclusive evidence to either prove or disprove him, the audience is left to make up their own minds.

This film definitely surprised me. It was quiet, understated but very powerful.

District 9 review

 Number 329 on the top 1000 films of all time is the South African, science fiction action thriller: District 9.

In 1980's South Africa, an alien spaceship appears over Johannesburg. The alien inhabitants, only known by the human moniker of 'Prawn,' are rounded up into a shanty town known as District 9. Thirty years later, humanity has had enough of these aliens, whom they see as nothing more than thieves and liars, and demand their relocation. Heading this up is bureaucrat Wikus Van Der Mer We (Sharlton Copley) who befriends a Prawn called Christopher Johnson who is trying to return home with his son.

There is no denying that we are a tribal species. We are afraid of the unknown and sometimes that fear can turn into anger, as an us vs them mentality takes over. This is a theme that's been tackled many times before, but nothing about District 9 felt cliched or hackneyed. Having the "other," so to speak, being an insectoid alien was a refreshing way of engaging with this time.

District 9 is a very obvious allegory of South African apartheid. And the metaphor helped to keep the message pertinent. Wikus was a likeable protagonist starting off as a hapless, ineffectual bureaucrat and becoming an unlikely hero. After being exposed to a mysterious alien liquid, he begins mutating into one of them. This brings him to the attention of the shadowy MNU - a weapons technology who want to dissect him. They believe he holds the answer to helping humans to operate the alien weaponry. Vikus escapes and later connects with Christopher Johnson.

Sharlton Copley was very good considering that he had no formal acting experience. This was even more impressive considering that he improvised most of his dialogue. I did enjoy how he didn't fulfil a reluctant or even unlikely hero archetype. At many times he isn't heroic but cowardly. He helps Christopher Johnson, not out of altruism, but for the purely selfish reason of wanting to be transformed back into a human. But this flaw made him classically human. And he overcomes this flaw to become a hero.

And although the Prawns were little more than CGI animations they felt real. Just like humans, they weren't all the same. Some like Christopher Johnson were only trying to protect their family while others were criminals and miscreants. And the fact that we learn nothing about them except for how humans perceive them only makes them the more empathetic. You realise that there is more to them than meets the eye.

If the film falls down anywhere, it would be with the villains who were generic and superficial. The head mercenary Colonel Koobus (David James) was little more than your shouty, run-of-the-mill bad guy. He evens falls into the classic "I'm going to monologue before I kill the hero instead of killing him" cliche, which results in the Prawns catching and dismembering him. And Nigerian crime lord Obesadnjo (Eugene Wanagwa Khumbanyiwa) wasn't developed enough to be menacing. I also don't understand why Wikus would still love his wife after she betrays him to her father, who is the managing director of MNU, but I guess love is blind.

Ultimately, this was a great film. I enjoyed it immensely. It was a brilliant morality tale in how our own hatred and fear of the 'other' can tear us apart.

Donnie Darko review

 Number 209 on the top 1000 films of all time is Richard Kelly's science-fiction, psychological thriller 'Donnie Darko.'

Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a schizophrenic high schooler who also sleepwalks. He is haunted by an apparition of a man in a bunny mask who warns him about the coming end of the world. Meanwhile, Donnie also becomes fascinated by the notion of time travel and starts researching into spaceships and portals.

This was a weird, surreal film. A film that you think has to mean something. But maybe it doesn't mean anything and maybe that's the point. Nihilism is a central theme of this film. Donnie might be mentally unstable, but he is also very intelligent. His English teacher Karen Pomeroy (Drew Barrymore) thinks so when he gives an astute interpretation of Graham Greene's short story 'the Destructors.' His physics teacher notices Donnie's interest in time travel and gives him a book called 'the Philosophy of Time Travel,' written by once famed scientist Roberta Sparrow, now a senile old woman living on the edge of town. But Donnie also not afraid to challenge authority and to take the meaning that's so important to adults and reducing it to nothing.

His gym teacher Kitty Farmer (Beth Grant) plays self-help tapes by self-help guru Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze) as part of her class. Donnie openly criticises these trapes. When Cunningham visits the school, Donnie publicly challenges his ideas. A meaning that holds so much value so so many is scattered into the wind.

And, of course, lots of meaning has been attributed to Donnie's hallucination of the man in the bunny mash. As well as providing ominous warnings, it also acts as the devil on Donnie's shoulder - pushing him into delinquent acts like flooding his school or burning down Cunningham's house. Perhaps the rabbit represents our unconscious desire to cause or mayhem or to challenge the system. it's always waiting in the background ready to strike, only leashed by our own vague senses of morality. A fluid morality that can change on the drop of the hat. 

The time travel aspect links in nicely to a key theme of the film - you have to find happiness wherever you can. As the film progresses, Donnie's nihilism slowly dissolves as he starts to finding meaning, partially due to his new girlfriend Gretchen (Jena Malone.) Once he has found his meaning and his happiness, he enters a wormhole sending him twenty-eight days back in time.

Having said all of that, considering the film's nihilism, a lot of my review is completely meaningless as well. So, I'll end on an unobjectionable point. Gary Jules' cover of Mad World by Tears for Fears, is the perfect way to conclude this film, as well as one of the best covers of all time.

The Thing Review

 Number 186 on the top 1000 films of all time is John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi horror 'The Thing.'

Macready (Kurt Russell) is a helicopter pilot on an Antarctic research base. When a shape-shifting, parasitic alien attacks the research team, paranoia sets in as the men realise that any one of them could be the alien.

After my world-tour of cinema, from Serbia to Italy to Russia back to Italy to Korea and finally Japan, we are back in the States for this 80's horror classic. Although it is only a classic by modern standards. Upon its initial release, it was panned by critics with some deriding it as an Alien knock-off. While it is easy to draw comparisons between the two, the Thing is a good film in its own right.

But it isn't perfect. The cast is large and sometimes confusing. As is typical in horror films, the cast is killed off one-by-one, but I did have trouble keeping track of who was who. Every time somebody died, I had to double-check who they were and what role they played. The cast was so large that I think even Carpenter lost track of who was who. Right at the end of the film, cook Nauls (T.K Carter) goes missing. It's implied that he's been killed by the monster, it isn't specifically stated which is a dangling plot thread. It's made even more peculiar by how mechanic Childs (Keith David) also goes missing to reappear at the end - although we're not sure whether he is really Childs or not. It was a little strange that we had this certainty with one character but not with another. 

Secondly, and perhaps, I've been spoiled by modern CGI, but I'm not sure how well the special effects hold up forty years later. The various incarnations of the alien looked a little too silly to be threatening. When Dr Copper is trying to resuscitate, geologist Norris, Norris turns into the alien and bites off Cooper's arms. The fake blood was less than convincing. Later you have a decapitated head grow spider legs and some weird slug antennae before being set on fire.

However, the Thing worked brilliantly as a horror film. Rather than overly-relying on jumpscares, like many modern horror films do, John Carpenter builds tension by exploring the strained relationship of the different characters. We slowly see this group of friends turn into enemies as their paranoia consumes them. Dog handler Clark (Richard Masur) lunges at Macready with a knife and is shot dead as a consequence. Chief Biologist Blair (A.Wilford Brimley) is locked away in a cabin after he destroys the communication equipment and helicopter in a paranoid rage. 

Carpenter also balanced Ennio Morricone's original score with the use of silence. Silence is employed well in the scene where the Macready threatens to use dynamite to blow the whole base to kingdom come, after the men turn on him. This amped the tension up to no degree and a lesser director might have used tacky sound effects. But the opening scene has the film's famous space-age score which is just quiet and subtle enough to make you uncomfortable. 

I bet that the critics who initially maligned this film are now eating their words. The Thing is a definite classic of horror cinema.

Akira review

 Number 265 on the top 1000 films of all time is Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk anime 'Akira.'

Set in a dystopic 2019, the landscape of Japan has changed immensely. Tokyo has been destroyed in a nuclear blast. The new capital Neo-Tokyo is ran by a corrupt government and biker gangs control the streets. Violence and crime are rife. At the centre of everything are the ESPers - people with psychokinetic powers. One such ESPer is Tetsuo - member of a biker gang.

Other than Studio Ghibli or Pokemon, I've never been big on anime. So I was completely ignorant of Akira's reputation. This film helped introduce anime to a Western audience. In terms of the animation, it was easy to see why. It was gorgeous and really reminded me of early Studio Ghibli especially Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. And, of course, the Akira slide has become a staple of popular culture.

Perhaps it's my lack of exposure to anime, but I did not enjoy this film at all. I found the actual story convoluted and overcomplicated. The "good guys" are a biker gang - too annoying and mischievous to be likable characters. Tetsuo crashes his bike into the young ESPer Takashi which is where Tetsuo's powers manifest. What happens to Takashi? Who knows? He's taken to a government facility to never be heard from again. Meanwhile Tetsuo is taken away to be experimented on by Colonel Shikishima - leader of Japan's self-defense forces. It's revealed that Tetsuo has powers similar to the legendary 'Akira,' who supposedly destroyed the original Tokyo.

Meanwhile Tetsuo's best friend Keneda busts him from the jail and they join an ESP resistance cells. But then the friends turn on each other and Colonel Shikishima is hunting them down. Tetsuo transforms into a Godzilla type monster, goes into space and destroys an orbital weapon, and then Tetsuo and Keneda are transported to another dimension. Keneda is saved by the other ESPers, but Tetsuo is stuck in this other plane of existence. Got all that?

It was a bit like the end of 2001: Space Odyssey where Dave goes through the space tunnel and he sees the future versions of himself. Too surreal and abstract for me. It was like I had fallen asleep and woken up halfway through, but I was awake the whole time.

While this might be a favourite of anime afficionadoes, I am not one of those, so I did not care for this film at all.