Reviewed by GREG KING Director: John V Soto Stars: Jacqueline McKenzie, Myles Pollard, Ben Mortley, Ryan Panizza, Shannon Berry, Hayley McElhinney. Western Australian based filmmaker John V Soto specialises in B-grade genre films such as the 2014 crime drama The Reckoning. For his fourth feature film the genre hopping Soto ventures into science fiction territory with the low budget mind bending The Gateway, which deals with ambitious themes like parallel worlds and teleportation. But Soto’s ambitions are somewhat limited by …
BLADE RUNNER 2049
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Denis Villeneuve Stars: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Jared Leto, Ana De Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Edward James Olmos, Sean Young, Dave Bautista, Hiam Abbass, Mackenzie Davis, Barkhad Abdi, Lennie James. Blade Runner 2049 is the latest film from Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, who has an impressive track record that includes Incendies, the psychological thriller Prisoners, the war on drugs thriller Sicario, and the sci-fi drama Arrival. Here he returns to the sci-fi genre, with this visually stunning and stylish long …
VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Luc Besson Stars: Dane De Haan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Herbie Hancock, Rutger Hauer, Louis Leterrier, Olivier Megaton, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Kris Wu, Sam Spruell, Alain Chabat, voices of Elizabeth Debicki, John Goodman. Twenty years after he gave us The Fifth Element, director Luc Besson returns to the futuristic sci-fi genre with this flawed special-effects heavy space opera that plays out on a grander and visually epic canvas. Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets is based on the …
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LIFE
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Daniel Espinosa Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson, Ariyon Bakare, Hiroyuki Sanada, Olga Dihovichnaya. Some mad movie scientist has spliced together the DNA of Alien, John Carpenter’s The Thing and Gravity, and the result is Life, a slick claustrophobic sci-fi thriller. This extra-terrestrial creature feature is familiar stuff and ticks all the right boxes, and it fills a void and will suffice until Ridley Scott unleashes his Alien Covenant later in the year. The film is set aboard the International Space …
THE SPACE BETWEEN US
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Peter Chelsom Stars: Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, BD Wong, Janet Montgomery, Colin Egglesfield, Peter Chelsom. The kid who fell to Earth? In 2018 a small group of astronauts head off to live on Mars in an experimental colony known as East Texas. This space mission is the brainchild of Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldman), a billionaire entrepreneur clearly modelled on Richard Branson, who is the CEO of Genesis Space Technologies. But unknown to the mission organisers until it is too late, Sarah …
PASSENGERS
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Morten Tyldum Stars: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Andy Garcia, voice of Emma Clarke. Passengers is set in a distant future where the Earth has become overcrowded and resources are drying up. The colony spaceship Avalon is making its way towards Homestead II, a distant planet that will become the new home for humans. The journey though will take some 120 years. The crew and some 5000 passengers have been put into a state of frozen suspended animation, due to be awakened on arrival ath their …
MORGAN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Luke Scott Stars: Kate Mara, Rose Leslie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Toby Jones, Paul Giamatti, Michelle Yeoh, Boyd Holbrook, Vinette Robinson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brian Cox, Chris Sullivan, Michael Yare. Morgan: A Suitable Case For Termination? In a remote laboratory, a team of scientists have artificially created a young girl who has highly developed mental faculties. Morgan (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) has largely been raised in isolation and has little outside stimulation to shape her understanding of the world. She is confined to a …
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Jeff Nichols Stars: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Jaeden Lieberher, Adam Driver, Sam Shepard, Bill Camp. Jeff Nichols' previous two films - Take Shelter and Mud - were impressive and established his reputation as a director to watch. Mud in particular was a southern Gothic thriller that cemented Matthew McConaughey's reputation as a serious dramatic actor and appeared on many critics' best of list for 2012. The film also began with a limited art house release before positive word of mouth saw it gain a wider release. …