All 4 films are available on Blu Ray and DVD -
"After Earth" - (2013) - A father/son duo (Will Smith, Jaden Smith) must fight for survival when their starship crashes on a post-apocalyptic Earth teaming with dangerous creatures. Though I didn’t feel this Sci-Fi/Adventure tale from (much maligned) Director M. Night Shyamalan was as awful as most have been letting on, Jaden Smith’s shortcomings as (essentially) the film’s lead undermine the film at nearly every turn.
The effects are decent but unremarkable and the tone is overbearingly self-serious- After Earth should have been more adult oriented, maybe just featuring Papa Smith fighting off the various CGI creatures in an effort to protect his son for the duration of the film’s run time. Whoever had the idea of stripping the naturally charismatic actor of all of his inherent charms and presence for this particular role is in desperate need of a swift kick in the ass.
Skip it- One question: on a planet where humans haven’t existed for over one thousand years, how would it have been possible for all of the creatures/animals roaming about to have “evolved to kill humans”? C’mon, Man!
5.0 out of 10
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Jaden Smith, Will Smith, Sophie Okonedo and Zoe Kravitz
Run-Time: 100 minutes
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and some disturbing images
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"Cloud Atlas" - (2013) - This Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure/Drama concerning several individuals and how their actions reverberate through time is visually impressive but way too ambitious for one film- its run-time falls several minutes shy of three hours, but the narrative desperately needed to be twice as long to fully flesh out all the ideas and characters at play. Based on David Mitchell’s best-selling novel, the film has the feel of a much larger, more detailed story that has unfortunately been condensed into cliff’s notes- it should have been approached as a trilogy or a six-part (hour per episode) mini-series on HBO or Showtime.
The ill-advised makeup effects involved with the film’s principle players portraying multiple characters in multiple settings throughout time doesn’t really help matters- Tom Hanks looks just plain goofy as a British gangster turned author.
Cloud Atlas isn't awful; it's just intermittently ridiculous and rarely compelling.
5.5 out of 10
Director: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Keith David, James D’Arcy, Xun Zhuo, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandan, Robert Fyfe, Martin Wuttke and Hugh Grant
Run-Time: 172 minutes
MPAA: Rated R for violence, language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use
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"Europa Report" - (2013) – This found footage Sci-Fi/Thriller concerning the ill-fated mission of an international crew of astronauts searching for life on Jupiter’s fourth moon is healthy in the Science Fiction department but woefully thin as a thriller. Atmospheric and character driven, with the crew experiencing a series of deadly catastrophes that periodically thins out the ranks, it’s slightly reminiscent of “2010: The Year We Make Contact”. Fans of Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-Team 2010), the film’s biggest draw, may find themselves bummed with his lack of involvement here.
We might as well get this straight right now- I despise the concept of “found footage” films as a whole and rue that fateful July 1999 weekend where the highly over praised garbage known as “The Blair Witch Project” was unleashed upon unwitting audiences and subsequently became a box-office success. The gimmicky approach is a complete nightmare for anyone who appreciates fine cinematography; most found footage films are either cheap or cheap-looking and are rarely pulled off with any semblance of intelligence. Even the big-budgeted, idiotic “Cloverfield” featured a scene where the cameraman (armed with a handheld setup) is mindful to get some serviceable footage of his love interest being attacked by a bloodthirsty creature… put the fucking camera down and help, asshole!
With Europa Report, fixed security and observation cameras throughout the vessel capture the happenings in a believable, satisfactory manner- in short, it overcomes the gimmick in a commendable manner. This particular film should have ended with an 11th hour, revealing freeze-frame, yet overstays its welcome with an unnecessarily tacked-on epilogue. It’s a passable film, though missing a memorable dynamic and short on replay value.
7.0 out of 10
Director: Sebastian Cordero
Cast: Daniel Wu, Sharlto Copley, Christian Camargo, Karolina Wydra, Michael Nyqvist, Anamaria Marinca, Embeth Davidtz, Isiah Witlock Jr. and Dan Fogler
Run-Time: 90 minutes
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and peril
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“The Last Days On Mars”- (2013) – This Sci-Fi/Horror/Thriller is essentially a zombie film set on the "Red Planet"- it’s also a rather uninspired and derivative one at that. Liev Schrieber (Defiance) headlines the crew of Astronauts drilling for core samples on Mars who unwittingly discover a deadly fungus that turns it’s victims into the ravenous undead.
Aside from some pretty nifty land cruisers and a few impressive shots of the otherworldly landscape, there’s very little here of a dynamic nature to warrant a watch. Shot without a script or any decent ideas, the narrative makes itself up as it goes along- even though the film was produced with a relatively low $11.9 million budget, I’ve seen a helluva lot better made with far less.
Skip it- scrub down the toilet bowl instead, you know you’ve put it off for way too damned long…
5.0 out of 10
Director: Ruairi Robinson
Cast: Liev Schrieber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai, Olivia Williams, Johnny Harris, Goran Kostic, Tom Cullen and Yusra Warsama
Run-Time: 98 minutes
MPAA: Unrated but the equivalent of an R for violence, blood, gore and profanity
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