1990s To The Present Sci-Fi Thread.

[Inspector Abberline]

Moon (2009)

Directed by Duncan Jones.Moon is the closest film of recent years to even come close to emulating that kind of science fiction we use to get before Star Wars came along. But also taking the look and feel of those later movies like Alien and Outland,with the way it looks how industry and people would work in space,set against a giant business corporation like Weyland-Yutani Corporation,Conglomerates Amalgamated and in Moon Lunar Industries.In Moon Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell is the lone operative on the moon producing alternative fuel helium-3 and shipping it back to earth. His only companion is GERTY voiced by Kevin Spacey,a mixture of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey with just a hint of those clumsy robots Huey and Dewey from Silent Running. Its an amazingly simple story with a twist in its tale,that once revealed,makes a lot of sense once you get your head around the principle idea.Moon is pretty damn faultless in its execution,Jones direction and visual eye is very apparent and obviously he has inherited a lot of his fathers talent. But like all good science fiction films,its as only as good as its special effects,and luckily for Moon they are excellent,using good old miniature model work,that has the feel of reality as the moon buggy's trundle across the surface of the planet kicking up dust. But its Sam Rockwell who really makes the film,and gives the film its reality and humanity against the back drop of a very sterile and isolated set,also lets not forget Kevin Spacey as Gerty the sympathetic voiced robot,and look out for the Matt Berry cameo. If you have not seen it yet,then I will not spoil the twist,although you may already know as the film has been out a while,but you never heard from me right.Duncan Jones next film Source Code is a more traditional sci-fi action-er with a touch of Memento (2000) thrown in for good measure and his new film which is Warcraft , could be interesting in Mr Jones hands.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

Moon (2009)

I love Moon. One of my favourite films of the 2000s.

Nice review Inspector.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Species II (1998)

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Species II (1998)

[Inspector Abberline]

The Faculty 1998

Every few years we get another variation on Invasion of the Body Snatcher,and in this case we get a bit of teen horror mixed with alien monsters for good measure.Directed by Robert Rodriguez when he seemed to have potential before he became,well a bit rubbish really.The cast is full of up and coming young guns of the time,although it has to be said most of them were probably a bit old to be playing teenagers.Written by Kevin Williamson,a writer who seemed to be connected to everything at the time,but not one of my favourites I have to say. The Faculty has aliens who thrive in the water,but once they make contact with humans they have a habit of taking them over,and once they start on taking over the teachers ,with Robert Patrick as Coach Joe Willis first, its only time before the pupils of Herrington High School to succumb to the alien invasion. And like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers before it there intent in taking over the human race, pupil by pupil and then there families.Of course like a lot of movies at the time,we get lots of self aware references to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Puppet Masters like we did in Scream only this time its aliens form space.Its all very slickly made with a few cool effects on the way,but unfortunately its so generic of the genre that it does feel like you have seen all this hundred times before.None of it feels original or particularly cutting edge,even the fact that the alien parasite gets into its host through the ear is reminiscent of the bug scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and in few scenes I was reminded of Jeff Lieberman's Squirm (1976) and that's the problem when you homage other movie's you loose any originality.Add to that some rather terrible cover version on the soundtrack and you have a film that is mediocre at best.

[Inspector Abberline]

Judge Dredd 1995

Pretty much hated by fans and critics a like on its initial release Judge Dredd still I think has a lot to offer fans of bloated science fiction nonsense.Of course if you are gonna spend the entire film comparing it to the the comic books then you are not gonna get any fun out of it at all. Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd is perfect for the role,but lets be honest he was never gonna go through a whole movie not taking his shirt off and wearing a helmet covering his chiselled looks,this was never gonna happen. The other bone of contention was Rob Schneider as Fergee,the comedy relief, they could of dispensed with this character,but im sure he was used as a way of keeping the film from getting to dark and brutal by having Schneider act like a lesser sibling of the Chuckle Brothers. Cast wise you do not get much better than Max von Sydow as Chief Justice Fargo and Jürgen Prochnow as Judge Griffin, but Armand Assante as Rico Dredd does do a fare amount of gurning as he does his bad guy bit. Much better is Scott Wilson as Pa Angel the head of the Angel Gang,a bunch of Hills Have Eyes type cannibals hanging out in the Cursed Earth,with Mean Machine Angel (Chris Adamson) being another highlight. Of course we have been here before with Demolition Man,which was almost a dry run for Dredd with Stallone as John Spartan,pretty much a Dredd clone,but with a better villain in Wesley Snipes as Simon Phoenix. Dredd tries hard to capture the 2000 Ad universe with its block wars and its BladeRunner style neon streets,and I always liked the rather impressive ABC Warrior clunking around as well. Whether its the Gianni Versace designed costumes or Schneider acting the clown,it was never going to be received well by the comic book fans,Personally i luv it,every dumb ass moment,but what do i know I think The Howling is a classic film ,file Judge Dredd under dumb but fun. Also the Blu Ray looks stunning.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

Judge Dredd 1995

...,it was never going to be received well by the comic book fans,Personally i luv it,every dumb ass moment,but what do i know I think The Howling is a classic film ,file Judge Dredd under dumb but fun. Also the Blu Ray looks stunning.

Well you are spot on with Judge Dredd so you must know something Inspector. Excellent film, better than Demolition Man in my opinion.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Well you are spot on with Judge Dredd so you must know something Inspector. Excellent film, better than Demolition Man in my opinion.

Better than The Howling too.

[Inspector Abberline]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Better than The Howling too.

definitely better than Howling 2.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

definitely better than Howling 2.

That wouldn't be hard!