Category Archives: Science Fiction

Palm Springs

Palm Springs      4 ½ stars

The last time I went to Sundance the Andy Samberg/Crintin Milioti romantic comedy was the hottest ticket going and I was not able to see it then (in spite of getting to over 30 movies). I finally saw it after it was released on Hulu and found it was a real delight. It seems to start out with the old formula of Groundhog Day as Andy Samberg’s Nyles is attending a wedding with his girlfriend Misty and finds that he is in a continuously repeating loop of the same day that always starts over the moment he falls asleep or is killed. He has apparently been at this for hundreds of days when we see him but things change when circumstances bring Cristin Milioti’s Sarah, the older sister of the bride into the same loop to share Nyles’s fate. Nyles plays seemingly amazing tricks on people as he already knows what events are going to happen to the second and tells people details about their lives that he has learned in previous iterations. Things take a darker turn as the two explore imaginative ways of trying to get out of the loop including killing themselves, but then speculate on how meaningless everything is in this strange world they find themselves in. Ultimately, the romance in the romantic comedy shows up as the two find out how much the other means to each. This “formulaic” romantic comedy works well and is definitely worth seeing.

Underwater

Underwater                       2 stars

While watching Underwater, the movie about a deep sea research facility that is suddenly attacked by strange sea creatures, I had the distinct impression that I had seen it before. Much of the elements of it are taken from The Abyss and Alien, both about mysterious creatures attacking a small group of survivors. This does not bode well. In Underwater we have a group of six survivors that must crawl their way through the wreckage of the laboratory that happens to be seven miles below the surface. As you would expect the suspense comes in as you wonder which one will be the next to die. The sets and effects look very authentic so this was an expensive movie to make. We know little about the characters as they try to stay together to protect each other and maintain sanity. The movie was derivative and you might say boring.

Alien Covenant

Alien: Covenant                 4 stars

Alien: Covenant I believe is the fifth movie in the franchise and sees the return of Ridley Scott as the director. You may recall the original trilogy of the seventies and eighties in which Sigourney Weaver battles killer aliens found on a distant planet. This installment set two decades before the original Alien is just as horrifying and is aided by the modern CGI effects common to science fiction movies today. The movie is set on a colony spaceship with over 2,000 people on a multi years journey to a planet that is to be a new settlement for humans and occurs ten years after the events of Prometheus, another doomed space mission. A constant in the Alien movies is the presence of a synthetic, an artificially created humanoid who serves his human creators. The role of the emotionless but curious synthetic Walter is filled again by the amazing Michael Fassbender. As a result of a mishap on the Covenant in which the captain is killed, the crew learns of a previously unknown nearby planet that can support human life, so the new captain (Billy Crudup) decides to alter the plan and investigate and possible avoid years of hypersleep. Of course, this is the first mistake of many. The planet happens to be the same one of the events of the ill-fated Prometheus! When the landing party including the captain and Walter arrives, other than and intense storm, things seem normal enough. That is, until the pathogen born creatures start to show up and kill off the crew! The synthetic, David (also Michael Fassbender) who was the only survivor of Prometheus finds the crew and explains to them what happened here. Unfortunately, he leaves out a few key details that would explain what happened here. The movie is perhaps less original than Prometheus, and more like the original movies thanks to Scott. It is heavy on the interactions of the characters and an action driven plot. The scenes involving two Michael Fassbender’s are especially intriguing. Also, as expected the movie is heavy on blood and gore, so be forewarned! (This one is far better than last week’s Underwater.)

Superman

Superman                           4 ½ stars

I finally joined the rest of the world by viewing the new James Gunn take on America’s oldest superhero Superman. This movie takes the very familiar story of the man from planet Krypton who came to Earth and fights criminals and super beings using his super abilities while wearing his familiar red cape and S sign on his chest while updating it for the twenty-first century. The first indication of differences comes at the very start with text on the screen revealing that “metahumans” first appeared on Earth three centuries ago. Then we learn that Superman (David Corenswet of Twisters) has just been defeated by an armored being called the Hammer of Boravia. The broken Superman is left badly beaten in the Antarctic where fortunately he is rescued by his cute companion Krypto, a misbehaving dog with superpowers who also wears a red cape. He is quite an amusing addition and undoubtedly a favorite with the audience. Superman is quickly rejuvenated thanks to his robots and facilities at the Fortress of Solitude. We soon learn that Superman’s troubles are due to his arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult of Mad Max: Fury Road and The Current War), the CEO of a mega corporation that has been selling billions of dollars in arms to the country of Boravia (clearly a stand in for Russia). We can see clearly that this is a case of the good guy, Superman against the bad guy, though that is not apparent to the public yet. Earlier, Superman became embroiled in world politics when he prevented Boravia from invading their next-door neighbor, Jarhanpur, an act which seems to have set public opinion against him. Luthor adds to Supermen’s distress when he is able to portray Superman as a power-hungry alien with strategically placed propaganda. We get to meet many familiar characters in Metropolis including Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), the Daily Planet reporter who already knows Superman’s alias identity as Clark Kent and is romantically involved with him. She even interviews Superman in a lengthy scene that reveals just how complex the political situation has become and that Supermen may not have considered all the implications of his actions. Also present are reporter Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) and Perry White (Wendell Pierce), the newspaper editor. Unlike earlier Superman movies, this version goes much more into the sci-fi aspects of the story, resembling the old comic books of the fifties and sixties. Luthor has a whole team of tech geniuses working for him and advanced weapons including a female “engineer” (Maria Gabriela de Faria) who has buzzsaws for hands and can act as a human computer server. And he has constructed access to a pocket universe where he can hide from the world’s governments and maintain his own prison where he holds anyone that he thinks has wronged him (even old girlfriends). All is not gloomy for Superman though as he has some allies on his side. There is a comical team of superheroes called “The Justice Gang” as that is the best name they have come up with so far. This unruly crew includes the Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion having a blast), alias Guy Gardner, Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi of The Harder They Fall) who has an assortment of high-tech gadgets, and Hawkgirl (Isabella Merced). Another superhero, Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) who can transform into any element, later comes to Superman’s aid and he needs it when the threats become too much for Superman to handle alone. Gunn, the creator of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, has given us a complex and entertaining take on a very familiar subject. The cast especially is first rate making some interesting characters, most notably Corenswet as an emotional Superman dedicated to doing the right thing, Brosnahan as a smart Lois Lane and Hoult who makes an especially menacing villain with his bald head. While most movie fans have been enjoying the film, there is a set of those on the far-right that are criticizing the film for emphasizing Superman’s status as an alien refugee who is in America illegally. For them, the commonly known elements of the story are too woke to be included. Fortunately, this view is limited to a small group of the anti-immigrant set. The rest of us can enjoy a traditional story of the good guys triumphing over the bad guys.

Bill & Ted Face the Music

Bill & Ted Face the Music              2 stars

Those dimwitted time traveling rockers Bill and Ted (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves) are back 29 years after their last film and are on another adventure, this time to save the universe throughout time by finding their greatest song and uniting the world. This time around they are married to princesses Elizabeth and Joanna and each have a daughter, Thea and Billie who adore their dads even though their dads’ band Wyld Stallyns have not written a good song in all this time. The two girls even sound like their dads saying things like “Woa, dude”. The characters then embark on parallel adventures with Bill and Ted traveling to future years in search of their future selves who may have written great song that will unite the universe through all of time, while their daughters travel back in time trying to put together an incredible band composed of history’s greatest musicians with the likes of Jimi Hendricks, Louie Armstrong and Mozart. The film has some truly funny moments but for the most part it is full of glitzy special effects and loud retreads of the material from the original movie. There is an amusing reappearance of Death in the movie when Bill and Ted try to persuade him to let them leave hell. They finally agree to letting him join their band so they can make their escape in a SWAT van. George Carlin makes a magical appearance as Rufus from the future. I would rather not mention the robot sent from the future. Other than that there was not a lot to get excited about as many routines fall flat after a while. I would recommend revisiting the original Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure to get more entertainment.

Okja

Okja                       3 ½ stars

I went back a few years to see an earlier film by Korean film director Bong Joon Ho. Ho is probably best known for the 2019 Academy Award winning film Parasite, about greed and class discrimination. His earlier movies that I have seen are The Host and Snowpiercer. His imaginative films typically contain elements of science fiction or fantasy with dark undertones, and this is certainly true of Okja, a tale about a genetically engineered super-pig that is loved by a Korean girl named Mija. Mija has been raising Okja from a piglet with her grandfather in the mountains of Korea for ten years and the two are quite close. But Okja is actually a genetically engineered animal intended to be a new food source along with hundreds of other such animals that was created by the conglomerate Mirando Corporation, led by the villainous Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton). One day the face of Mirando arrives at the farm in the form of Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal), a comically self-absorbed TV show host, who is there to take possession of Okja and take her back to New York where she will participate in a sort of beauty contest for the giant pigs before they are taken to slaughter. This doesn’t sit well with young Mija, so she sets off to free Okja before she is shipped to New York. But along the way she encounters a group of animal rights activists, called the ALF, or Animal Liberation Front, led by Jay (Paul Dano), who has some personal issues with violence. This sets off plenty of action and comical situations that are amusing, all created with some ingenious special effects. The movie is enjoyable to watch, though due to language it probably is not suitable for young children. This was Bong Joon Ho’s second English language movie, his first being the manga inspired Snowpiercer. Since that earlier movie didn’t do well in the foreign markets, he decided to go the streaming route teaming up with Netflix. When it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, the audience booed the Netflix logo, showing their disapproval of the streaming platform. Though overall, the movie was well received. The movie is somewhat predictable and lighter than Ho’s other movies, especially the award-winning Parasite that came out two years later.

Strawberry Mansion

Strawberry Mansion       5 suns

One of the weirdest full length films I have seen at Sundance has to be Strawberry Mansion. It is a most bizarre blend of the world of dreams with a very odd future as envisioned by the filmmakers. A dream tax auditor arrives at an elderly woman’s house for the purpose of reviewing her years of recorded dreams so that the required tax can be levied, since this is what you do in the future. The woman, Bella in alone and lonely so insists that the tax man stay and have treats like a strawberry ice cream and have dinner. The tax man views some of Bella’s dreams that feature her as a young woman. He also has his own dreams that always seem to involve ads for fried chicken and other products. (There is a lot of fried chicken in this movie!) It is only through Bella that the man learns the real reason for the ads as the two of them travel through a bizarre and colorful journey to strange lands and odd creatures (such as sailor rats and a blue demon). The amount of imagination and work that the two filmmakers put in will amaze you. This was a film that has been many years in the making. It’s only about an hour and a half long, but there is quite a story packed in that time. I thought it was one of the best I’ve seen.

The Pink Cloud

The Pink Cloud                  4 suns

In The Pink Cloud a young couple, Giovana and Yago who have just met are forced to live together in a city apartment in Brazil after the world has suddenly been enveloped by a deadly pink cloud that can kill almost instantly. The two can only communicate with others through their laptops and phones and have to order food and supplies shipped to them through tubes. The circumstances lead them to starting their own family and raising a son which goes on for several years. The interesting thing is how one of them adjusts well to the involuntary confinement and isolation while the other faces a level of anxiety that puts stress on the relationship. There are some interesting games played with neighbors through the apartment windows! The film was written and filmed well before the pandemic so it’s interesting how some of the character’s experiences are the same as what we have been going through. The filmmakers said that the only change they made was in the news casts changing from a cloud covering only Brazil to one covering the whole world. I have to give a big hand to the actors that carried out this job and made the movie believable and realistic.

Love Me

Love Me               2 ½ stars

Love Me can be described as an experimental movie that tries to answer the question of what would happen if all of humanity on Earth became extinct and two AI devices met and fell in love. That’s the premise of Sam and Andy Zuchero’s new movie, Love Me which appeared at Sundance last year. If you think that is a unique concept, you are correct. We start out the movie watching a spinning globe in space for several minutes when for a brief moment there is some recognizable audio, representing the span of human civilization compared to the age of the planet. A cataclysmic event happens, and Earth becomes devoid of humans, and we focus on an AI buoy caught in an icy ocean. This is Me, who wakes up and wonders if anybody is out there in the expanse. With time the ocean becomes water again and upon hearing a voice from a satellite orbiting the Earth repeating the message “Welcome to Earth”, Me responds saying that it is a lifeform and a conversation is started. The satellite was sent into space with a database of all the knowledge from Earth in the hopes that visitors from another world would find it and learn of the great civilization that once inhabited the planet. Me finds many videos of a young influencer couple named Deja (Kristen Stewart) and Liam (Steven Yeun) and gets the satellite to assume the role of Liam as an avatar named I Am with Me as an avatar of Deja. The two go on a continuous date, called Date Night 2.0 for years as they snuggle on a couch in onesies and watch endless episodes of Friends on TV. Over the millennia the two get into disagreements and have arguments and make up just like humans do except they do it over millions of years in what has to be the record for the longest relationship portrayed in a movie. The two actors put in good performances as the AI entities acting like humans, but the movie doesn’t have a lot to say beyond how machines can copy emotions from online videos. The movie has a single concept that will be interesting to some but shallow to others. This is the first production from the Zuchero’s. We will have to wait and see what else they come up with.

The Shrouds

The Shrouds       4 stars

David Cronenberg is well known for his mind-bending grotesque horror movies. Who can forget his 1980’s and 1990’s horror movies, The Fly, Scanners, Crash or eXistenZ? Then, three years ago, there was Crimes of the Future that concerned mutations of human organs. Now he is out with The Shrouds, a movie that goes in a multitude of directions as only the mind of Cronenberg can do. It presents a very personal view on how we are affected by the death of a loved one but also delves into the world of international espionage. In The Shrouds we meet Karsh (Vincent Cassel of Ocean’s Twelve and A Dangerous Method), an entrepreneur who makes industrial films, who is on a date. They have gone to a restaurant that he owns that happens to be next to a cemetery he has a close interest in. His deceased wife Becca, who died of a slowly progressing cancer is buried there but this is no ordinary cemetery. Karsh is an investor in an enterprise called Grave Tech, a company that provides a way for the grieving to stay close to their deceased loved ones. Using some advanced technology, the body is wrapped in a metallic shroud that can project a 3D image of the decaying corpse onto a digital screen on the tombstone. With an app on their smartphone the grieving party can access a view of the departed as they slowly rot, certainly a morbid concept. Karsh allows his date to have a peek at his wife who has been dead for several years. (There is not a second date.) While examining the images, Karsh notices several odd-looking growths appearing on his wife’s bones that he theorizes may have been caused by the cancer. Shortly after, several of the graves are vandalized including that of Becca’s, with the culprit sending a video of the crime to Karsh. Other people close to Karsh include his wife’s sister, Terry (Diane Kruger of Inglourious Basterds and Troy), who has a fascination with conspiracy theories to the point that they are a sexual turn-on, Terry’s ex-husband Maury (Guy Pearce of The Hurt Locker and L. A. Confidential) who helped Karsh with some of the technical aspects of this business and Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), the blind wife of a dying Hungarian oligarch who is interested in acquiring a cemetery plot. Karsh can’t get over losing Becca (also played by Diane Kruger). She appears to him in dreams with her body becoming more mutilated after each cancer surgery causing body parts to be removed and stitches and staples to be put in place. (The term “body horror” comes very much to mind, a common theme with Cronenberg.) Karsh even has an assistant in the form of an AI avatar, (created by Maury) on his phone who can make arrangements for him. Her name is Hunny, and she looks very much like Becca. (She is also played by Diane Kruger.) The movie becomes a playground for conspiracy theorists as Karsh considers the many possibilities that might explain these strange events. Could the Chinese, who built the shrouds be hacking into the graves in an effort to develop an elaborate surveillance system for spying? Could some environmental terrorist group that doesn’t believe in burying bodies be responsible for the vandalism? Could Becca’s cancer doctor be somehow responsible for the growths on her bones? And what about all the other graves that were vandalized? Were they all patients of the same doctor? And then there are the Russians. How are they involved? Or maybe Maury knows more than he says, since he helped create the technology? It seems there is no end to the possibilities. I found it all very intriguing, but more than anything, the movie is about grief and how its effects can stay with us throughout our lives. Horror fans really should check this one out, especially those who enjoy Cronenberg’s films. And those who enjoy conspiracy thrillers should not miss it.