By: Addison Wylie This past Summer, R.I.P.D. received poisonous word-of-mouth and was considered a box office bomb. But, it wasn’t enough to push me away from seeing it. Call me a fool, but R.I.P.D. looked like it was up my alley. It looked like something I would want to see during some sunny doldrums. It looked like the right type of escapism that could be compared to the likes of Mystery Men. Now, having watched R.I.P.D., I understand…
By: Addison Wylie Your preconceived notions that Gravity will make your heart leap out of your chest and your stomach lurch are right on the money. The disorienting sci-fi separates the weak from the willing with its prolonged, wandering introduction to the team aboard the Explorer. We see mission specialist Dr. Ryan Stone (played by Sandra Bullock) hard at work while astronaut/commander Matt Kowalski (played by George Clooney) supervises. The operation is going as planned…
By: Addison Wylie Europa Report made my head throb from boredom and ache from excessive visual irritations. But before all that negativity, Sebastián Cordero’s found footage sci-fi opened my mind with its art direction and effects. Europa Report’s most impressive strength is its ability to make the audience feel as if we’re in that same spaceship as the featured crew members heading to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Cordero has used subtleties to blend numerous…
By: Addison Wylie The World’s End, the last outing in Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, yet again pairs the filmmaker up with actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to tell a tale of everyday men in monstrous peril. This time, Pegg and Frost play former friends who had a falling out between their teenage years and adulthood. Gary King (played by Pegg) hasn’t given up living the high life of booze and babes. Meanwhile,…
By: Addison Wylie Neill Blomkamp came out of the woodwork in 2009 with his Oscar-nominated sci-fi flick District 9. The action enthralled genre fans, but it was one of those rare films that had impacting political messages and symbolism under all the futuristic mayhem. It ceased to bludgeon its audience with the meanings and issued the right amount of trust and respect towards movie goers. With Elysium, that greatness hasn’t let up. Blomkamp proves he’s…
By: Addison Wylie Dark Skies wants its moviegoers to leave slightly chilled, but, instead we leave feeling cold. As the credit crawl began and the lights dimmed back on, you could feel the waft from everyone’s shoulders shrugging as they huffed out of the theatre. The unenthused reaction isn’t because Dark Skies is a bad movie, but because we don’t like seeing something that had so much potential settle with being “just ok”. One would…
By: Addison Wylie The crew members aboard the spacecraft Prometheus are looking for answers. Seeking explanations is a recurring theme throughout Ridley Scott’s sci-fi thriller. What the film challenges movie goers with is the idea that maybe not everything is meant to be solved. Maybe some quires are better left untouched.It isn’t a full-fledged crowd pleasing message. Movie goers may even be turned off from the film altogether because of its pro-bewilderment attitude. But, those who don’t…
By: Addison Wylie Barry Sonnenfeld’s third instalment to the popular and bizarre Men in Black series is a perfect way to cut the ribbon on the summer movie season. It also helps that this exciting slice of entertainment is a solid chapter for these characters. After a decade of fighting the intergalactic scum of the Earth, Agent J (played by Will Smith) and Agent K (played by Tommy Lee Jones) reach a crossroad in their…