An Indie sci-fi film on the precipice of where we might be heading, Creep Box, written and directed by Patrick Biesemans (and based upon his own short from 2022), ruminates on a hybrid artificial intelligence that is both intriguing and terrifying. Following Caul (Geoffrey Cantor), a PHD in psychology and parapsychology at HDTH Corp, he is currently working on a sleek black tech box... a device that can be used to collect the memories of the dead, which are then fused with an A.I. that can utilize the past of the deceased to not only communicate with loved ones, but also gather information that could lead to solving crimes of those who have been murdered.
Revelling in the mysterious aura that it builds, Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special is a love letter to the science fiction films of the 1970s and 80s. Bringing to mind motion pictures like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the story begins in earnest as we join Roy (Michael Shannon) and Lucas (Joel Edgerton) – the pair have kidnapped Roy’s son Alton (Jaeden Lieberher) and are now being chased by a number of spooks. Roy has nabbed the boy out of the long clutches of his adoptive father, Calvin Meyer (Sam Shepard), the leader of The Ranch – a cultish group of religious individuals who have spun their lives around the happenings of the mystifying Alton. Meyer has sent two of his most trusted underlings to recapture the boy.
The first stand-alone film in the Star Wars universe, Rogue One bridges the gap between episodes 3 (2005's Revenge of the Sith) and 4 (the original 1977 motion picture); it is also a movie that lives in the grey zone more than any other in the operatic space saga – depicting the complexity of the actions executed by the Rebel forces that are our protagonists. What we see is a complicated universe filled with spies, traitors and extremists – a place where no decision is an easy one. Our lead character, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), is a perfect example of this, for when she was young, her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), a weapons developer, was forcibly taken by Imperial baddie Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) to finish work on the Death Star (the planet killer from A New Hope). This leaves the impressionable girl in the hands of a radical, ultra dangerous Rebel fighter by the name of Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), who deserts her at the age of sixteen.
Clutch is a term that is often synonymous with big time athletes in sports. There are certain players that, when the match is on the line, elevate their game to another level. They have the innate ability to shift into another gear, making it feel like they are seeing the game much more clearly than the rest of the athletes. One such National Hockey League player is former New York Islanders’ goaltender Billy Smith. The winner of four straight Stanley Cups from 1980-1983,
While watching the sci-fi mystery drama Moon, I was thinking that this was going to be it. . . the first Sam Rockwell movie I’ve seen where he does not bust into a dance routine. But alas, no, he meets his quota once again in this flick, similar to his performances in Charlie’s Angels, Iron Man 2 or The Way Way Back, to name but a few. It is not that I dislike his spontaneous groove moves, they are usually highly entertaining; it is simply something that I hawkishly look for each and every time I view a Rockwell movie – feel free to join the cause.
There are a wide array of interesting and unique motion pictures nominated for this years 88th Academy Awards – from big budget epics to small time period pieces. One that follows the former is the Ridley Scott space saga The Martian.
The anti-hero, who can be described as a vital character that lacks typical heroic qualities, has been a staple of both film and television over the past several years. Actors like Hugh Laurie, who created the iconic game-playing character House and Johnny Depp, who modelled his likeable yet sketchy pirate Jack Sparrow after Keith Richards, are just two examples of the moral ambiguity that comes with many a character nowadays. Perhaps a recent film that best exemplifies this term is when a group of rag-tag criminals come together to save multiple worlds in Marvel’s 2014 space action adventure flick Guardians of the Galaxy.