2001: Vanilla Sky

David Aames has it all: Good looks, great job, shitloads of money, and he gets to dump Cameron Diaz for Penelope Cruz. Naturally, fortune must soon deal him a bad hand, and deal him a bad hand it does. - Everybody seems to like the Spanish origninal (Abre los ojos) better. I haven't seen that one; at any rate, Vanilla Sky creates a cohesive aesthetic system which is pleasant in a Dido kind of way. Suits me fine. (7)

2010: Inception

Reviewed here (6.5).

1961: The Day the Earth Caught Fire

A London reporter with personal problems is our main man and witness as the simultaneous tests of nuclear bombs by the Americans (at the South Pole) and the Russians (at the North Pole) causes the earth to shift on its axis, which brings about extreme weather changes that are depicted in a refreshingly un-Emmerichian style. Solid work. (6.5)

2009: Surrogates

The Bruce Willis flick about a future in which people mind-control human-looking robots that they send out into the streets so they (the humans) can safely stay at home is professionally done all around, but no Blade Runner (6.5).

1924: Paris qui dort (At 3:25)

René Clair's half-hour silent about a group of people who are the only ones awake and moving in a Paris that has otherwise come to a standstill is a mixture of the charming and the lengthy. (6)

2007: I Am Legend

After a supposed cure for cancer went all wrong, Will Smith appears to be the only human survivor who was not zombiefied. Being, in large part, responsible for the mess, he is trying to find a cure while staying alive in the face of zombie attacks. - Yeah, you could say it's all a bit disjointed in terms of plot and isn't really going anywhere, but the general athmosphere, driven by the excellent production design and cinematography, does enough for me to make this thoroughly enjoyable. (7)

1978: The Boys from Brazil

Josef Mengele, alive and well in South America, gathers nazi friends old and new to tell them about planned assassinations of 65-year-old fathers around the world; nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman learns of this plot. While this is still believable, the story will take a totally whacky twist later on. Filmed in the indiscriminate pale colours, the film features a dream opportunity for Gregory Peck who plays Mengele - look at his cutesy photo - but only manages a run-of-the-mill villain (written, one must add, in a run-of-the-mill villain way). Overall, a decent enough bit of seventies thriller entertainment. (6.5)

1935: Bride of Frankenstein

While I found the original Frankenstein charmingly silly, the sequel is more charmlessly stupid in my book - there are even little people in bottles. There are also bad technical glitches. (5)

1963: The Haunting

If you're a woman in her twenties still living with you're mother, then you're in trouble - or at least that's what horror films shot around 1960 would have you believe. As though trying to provide an example for the how-not-to box in the textbook, The Haunting uses voiceover to present us with the clichéd thoughts of such a spinster who is participating with two other subjects and a researcher interested in paranormal phenomena to spend some time in an allegedly haunted house. Today the film takes its entertainment value more from its quaíntness than from any shock value it might once have had, but the b/w photography is among the best examples of its kind. (6.5)

1980: Altered States

A brilliant scientist tries to find the essence of the self using unusual methods, which turns out to be a bad idea. The longer it goes on, the harder it gets to take it seriously. (5)

2009: Moon

Debutant Duncan Jones's film about an employee of an energy company who discovers he is not the only person on his lunar base after all has often been compared to 2001 because it has a talking computer in it but is actually more akin to The Shining as it exploits the setting of a large, sparsely populated building to eerie effect. The film's devoid of weaknesses, but doesn't manage to cross the threshold to greatness either. (7) Given that I blame the regrettable fact of so few films that are set in space coming out on their production being expensive, maybe the best thing about this one is that it was made for only five million dollars, but is entirely convincing in terms of special effects. Let's hope this makes some of the money men rethink their views on funding this kind of film.

2002: Whistle

Moon director Duncan Jones's half-hour film about a contract killer and his family is somewhat pointless, suffers from plot implausibilities and is otherwise o.k. (5)

1983: Brainstorm

Ah, science fiction - it doesn't age well. This flick revolves around an invention by which people's expriences can be recorded on magnetic tape. On magnetic tape! This anachronism goes well with the general trashy early '80s look of the film, which is somewhat surprising coming from director Douglas Trumbull, the man responsible for the special effects of 2001 and Blade Runner. One character has a space-themed vision towards the end, and it doesn't look like the star gate sequence at all. As for the plot, well, there's the military getting interested, etc.

I can't say I recommend it, but I certainly liked it. (7)