Never Let Me Go - based on a 2005 sci-fi novel and set in an alternate past where human cloning is a reality , the story centers around bosom buddies Ruth, Tommy and Kathy, and charts their friendship over nearly two decades, during which the girls struggle for the affections of Tommy (played by Spidey-to-be Andrew Garfield).
Sounds like a sappy love triangle? It probably would be, except the protagonists are clones who are created and fated to be gradually stripped of their organs shortly after adulthood to prolong the lives of their ‘originals’ ( a process that the characters euphemistically and ominously refer to as ‘completion’) .
Proof that sci-fi isn’t defined by laser guns or robots. This is one of the few times that my go-to source of movie reviews has let me down. I was anticipating this film months before release, but skipped it after my source slated it.
Maybe it was a poor adaptation of the novel (it is said to be excellent). I’ll have to read it to find out, but on its own merits the movie is great (in spite of Keira Knightly), but if you like your sci-fi fast and loud, best look elsewhere.
Treed Murray (aka ‘Get Down’) - a marketing exec called Murray gets lost on the way to a conference, draws the unwanted attention of a local gang, and climbs up a tree to avoid a beating. The tree-off quickly spirals out of control and Murray realizes that his only chance of escaping with his life is to turn the gang members against each other. Murray, however, is not quite the victim he appears to be…
The Revenant - lieutenant Bart Gregory is killed during a very suspicious ambush in Baghdad, and resurrects after being shipped home as a revenant; a reanimated corpse that retains the memories and personality it had in life, and that can only walk around at night (it falls into hibernation during daylight hours).
Neither vampire nor zombie, a revenant needs human blood to remain undead, so Bart enlist the help of his trophy loser best friend Joey to obtain the precious red stuff. Their plans quickly escalate from using the local blood bank as a drive-thru, to trying to coax vagrants into their car with the offer of food for work (no dice: they just want a dollar…or two), until they start offing local hoods. That’s where Bart’s newfound immunity to bullets comes in handy.
The movie only truly comes into its own during the last half hour, where the consequences of the duo’s ‘heroism’ start to surface, and the ending is so killer that it makes up for the movie being (or seeming to be) at least 30 minutes too long.
If you don’t like the sound of a disembodied head using a vibrating dildo as an improvised electro larynx (the original is still attached to the body), to explain how they came to be in that predicament, don’t sweat it - neither does the head. Nobody wants to spend an eternity with a dildo at their throat…
Time travel horror/thriller done well. In fact, I can’t think of any other movies that are classified as horror but use time paradoxes as part of the plot. It is acted out well enough and it does come across as a fresh idea. It doesn’t rely on jump scares but more atmosphere…which is a good thing. No one is afraid of that leaping black cat anymore that every haunted house has.
Real Steel - I didn’t want to like this, but I did - so much that I watched it twice in a row… It was cheesier than Jesus feeding the 5,000 with a fondue set but all the more entertaining for it. People with a lactose intolerance should stay well away, but it wasn’t the Transformers rip-off I expected from the trailers: the human characters are undeniably better written in Real Steel, and apart from one fleeting reference to human boxing being outsourced to robotic creations better equipped to sate a growing lust for violence, this is so far removed from Matheson’s short story that it doesn’t even qualify as a spoof.
Richard Matheson should be giggling in his grave, not rolling it it when the only common denominator is boxing robots. They might as well have bought the rights to Rock Em Sock Em Robots.
Jackman’s career loser was the catalyst for his negelected son to bond with abandoned plucky underbot/ surrogate father Atom.
I expected crap. It actually was pretty interesting. Charlize Theron acted her ass off and it is the first time they presenteed the “mirror” as a part of the queen’s ppsychosis and not a real object/person.
It is like The Breakfast Club meets Wes Craven…which is honestly the only way you could do a Breakfast Club type movie today and make it interesting or culturally relevant…by killing everybody off instead of the group hug ending.
It is a little light on the “scares”…but I don’t think that was the point.