Displaying Review 1 - 5 of 20 in total

• John Carpenters Student Movie. — for Dark Star
  Written by random12345 on 02.07.2023

  Orginally a student film, filmed over a number of years by John Carpenter and a few of his fellow students at USC. This movie was eventually turned into a feature film and released.

  In many ways it's the anti 2001 A Space Odyssey. Instead of showing the majesty of space, it portrays the boring isolation of being in the middle of nowhere, doing a job that has no reason to be done. All the while plagued by the problems of failing equipment.

  Low budget, low plot, but not low fun. There aren't many sci-fi comedies, but this is one of them. If you're into having to speak phenomenology with an artificially intelligent thermostellar bomb, this movie may be for you!

  A movie not to be missed for Carpenter fans.

• A masterwork by Chrisopher Nolan. — for Inception
  Written by random12345 on 07.07.2023

  What if someone took some of the ideas and feel of The Matrix, added a better story, made it far more complex, 10 times smarter, and with better acting and underlying feel?

  That someone was Christpher Nolan, and this is that movie. A must see that combines action, philosophy, lost love, dreams, the power of ideas, and time dilation all in 2 1/2 hours of stunning visuals.

  The movie centers around a small group of theives that use a technology that allows people to enter a shared dream state with a target victim who doesn't know they're dreaming. Essentially a heist sci-fi movie, built on a backbone of existential philosophy.

  I doubt anyone could have pulled this off but Christpher Nolan, who wrote and directed this movie, and developed it slowly over the course of 9 or 10 years.

• Still an enduring classic. — for The Andromeda Strain
  Written by random12345 on 11.07.2023

  A contagion from a spacecraft has killed an entire town in a short period of time, and a crack team of experts, buried in a secure, remote location in Arizona has to figure out what happened, and if this is a threat to the world.

  After more than 50 years this movie is still worth watching. The technology, highly futuristic in 1971, is common today.

  A bit weak on character development, and the acting seems a bit stiff at times. There's a definite sterile aspect to this movie that can extend to the characters. It's a techno-thriller that relies more on visuals than acting to tell a story.

  The trip the characters take deep into the lab sets up the movie for a feeling of being completely insulated from the outside world, but at the same time a deadly pathogen waits to escape and kill the occupants of the lab. Surely something anyone who survived the Great Pandemic can relate to.

  The technology used, once seeming futuristic and impossible, now seems either outdated, or common. Than in itself is an interesting effect from the aging of the movie.

• A unique horror film from the master of horror. — for Prince of Darkness
  Written by random12345 on 12.08.2023

  A sleeper, under-rated Carpenter film.

  The film follow a group of researchers tasked with investigating a mysterious swirling pool of liquid, thousands of years old, kept in secret by the church that supposedly contains Satan himself.

  Part science fiction, part horror, this movie doesn't fit into easy categories. While not well received at the time, it's since become a cult classic. The film is more about character and feel than characters and acting. The truth always seems just beyond sight and understanding. Still scary at many points for this very reason.

  Like many Carpenter films, there's a bit of an Un-knowable aspect to it where nothing is ever quite certain.

• A long forgotten movie that deserves a second look. — for The Black Hole
  Written by random12345 on 12.08.2023

  A Disney movie, but unlike any other Disney movie you've seen.

  A bit of a trope plot, where a mad but brilliant scientist is enchanted by a force more powerful than him (The Black Hole), and faced opposition from the crew who discovers him. Borrows from Forbidden Planet, with special effects obviously inspired by Star Wars.

  Beautifully shot with wonderful visuals. The acting is a bit weak, and the plot a little weaker. There's still something charming about this movie that stands the test of time.