WHEN HE HEARD HIS CRY FOR HELP IT WASN’T HUMAN. Psychopathologist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) begins to experiment with his mind using drugs from a Mexican tribe and a flotation tank. This sci-fi film was a departure for Ken Russell, a collaboration with Paddy Chayefsky that didn’t end well. The latter based his story on … Continue reading Altered States
BREAK FREE. In 2045, Ohio teenager Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) takes part in a high-stakes game where the reward means ownership of OASIS, a virtual-reality platform that most people on Earth take part in. Steven Spielberg is the right person to capture the essence of the novel, having created much of the pop-culture world that … Continue reading Ready Player One
HER TIME IS NOW. In 2563, Earth has been devastated; scientist Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) finds a female cyborg in the junkyard, gives her a new body and learns that she has great powers. This 3D adaptation of the Japanese manga series was long in the making, but the final result is worth a look. … Continue reading Alita: Battle Angel
A SIMPLE TRIP TO MARS WILL BECOME THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME. Sometime in the future, passengers are boarding a spacecraft that will take them from an ailing Earth to Mars, but Aniara subsequently faces a tremendous challenge… Swedish science fiction may not be a familiar thing to most audiences, but this one offers an … Continue reading Aniara
THEY’RE COMING. Baltimore, 1990; a mysterious man (Bruce Willis) ends up in a mental institution where he tells the doctors that he comes from the future, looking for a virus that’s going to wipe out billions of people. Terry Gilliam put his stamp on this feature film version of a French 1962 short called La … Continue reading Twelve Monkeys
FIVE ORDINARY PEOPLE NEEDED A MIRACLE. THEN ONE NIGHT, FAYE RILEY LEFT THE WINDOW OPEN. Tenants in an old East Village apartment building are threatened by greedy property developers, but suddenly get help from a couple of small, living space ships. This cute sci-fi comedy was developed when Steven Spielberg had a hand in the … Continue reading *batteries not included
THE HUNT HAS EVOLVED. When several alien predators appear on Earth, a former Army Ranger (Boyd Holbrook) and a scientist (Olivia Munn) are among a motley group of people battling them. Shane Black (who had a bit part in the original Predator (1987)) does to this franchise what he did to the third Iron Man … Continue reading The Predator
IT CAME FOR THE THRILL OF THE HUNT. IT PICKED THE WRONG MAN TO HUNT. Special Forces Major ”Dutch” Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his team are off to the Central American jungle on a rescue mission, but they face an unexpected and highly lethal enemy there… A sci-fi action movie whose cult status has grown … Continue reading Predator
OFF THE GRID. ON THE RUN. In a future where anonymity has been completely erased, detective Sal Frieland (Clive Owen) discovers that several murders may be connected to a girl (Amanda Seyfried) he saw in the street who didn’t seem to have an identity… A disappointment from Andrew Niccol who’s done interesting science fiction in … Continue reading Anon
A young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) joins a band of misfits led by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), as he tries to find a way to return to the planet where he lost a girl (Emilia Clarke) he loved. The X-Men Origins: Wolverine of the Star Wars franchise, this 3D spin-off and prequel to Star Wars … Continue reading Solo: A Star Wars Story
THEY KILLED HIS WIFE TEN YEARS AGO. THERE’S STILL TIME TO SAVE HER. MURDER IS FOREVER… UNTIL NOW. In 2004, Max Walker (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a cop working to make sure that time travels are not used for criminal purposes; during one of his missions, he learns that a U.S. senator (Ron Silver) is … Continue reading Timecop
FEAR WHAT’S INSIDE. When a biology professor’s (Natalie Portman) husband (Oscar Isaac) returns home very ill after a mission inside a mysterious shimmering electromagnetic field, she joins a team of three other scientists into the area… After Ex Machina (2015), Alex Garland reunited with Isaac for another ambitious sci-fi thriller, but this time women take … Continue reading Annihilation
IF THEY CAN HEAR YOU, THEY CAN HUNT YOU. The Abbotts are trying to survive in a world that has been overtaken by large, vicious monsters; the only way to escape their notice is to remain absolutely quiet. Here’s a surprise from John Krasinski as a filmmaker – a full-throated horror-science fiction movie that relies … Continue reading A Quiet Place
