121 Best Releases From the Genre Science Fiction (Page 3)
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
Watch afterBlack Adam (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022),
One thing you can say about Christmas and the Guardians of the Galaxy is that both tend to go a bit over the top. One’s affection for either depends greatly on how you feel about a good thing taken to excess. For this critic, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special hits that delicious “too much, but I can’t help but like it” sweet spot like seconds on the pecan pie. Continue Reading →
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Watch afterAvatar: The Way of Water (2022), Black Adam (2022),
How do we move on from a devastating loss? A close friend, a family member, a spouse -- or, in the case of Wakanda Forever, the twin losses of both Chadwick Boseman (who died unexpectedly in 2020 of colon cancer) and the character of T'Challa, King of Wakanda and the reigning Black Panther. But rather than recast T'Challa for the sequel (a movement that has itself garnered quite a lot of attention leading up to this), writer/director Ryan Coogler chose the harder, more innately interesting path: Follow a world, a people, a family without the nucleus around which they orbited. See what the world of Black Panther does without its central figure, and watch the mighty ensemble of Black women around him scramble to pick up the pieces of their lives and figure out what to do next. Continue Reading →
Something in the Dirt
SimilarBeverly Hills Cop (1984),
Blade Runner (1982) Memento (2000), Strange Days (1995), The Holiday (2006),
Watch afterBarbarian (2022), Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022),
Remember when conspiracy theories used to be fun? Well, maybe “fun” isn’t the right word, but entertaining? Once, they were limited to harmless weirdos who would gladly give a presentation on chemtrails or how many different assassins were actually at Dealey Plaza when JFK passed by, but could also at least maintain some veneer of normalcy. Then the internet made it easier for people to spend most (instead of just some) of their time discussing their favorite conspiracies, without anyone telling them that they were getting obsessed, or that what they were saying sounded insane. And then, of course, QAnon turned conspiracy theories into a kind of religion, one in which its followers were willing to kill to prove their belief. It stopped being entertaining a long time ago, and now, like a lot of things about the world in its current state, it’s just bleak and terrifying. Continue Reading →
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
The modern age of sequels, spin-offs, and all other franchise extensions has amplified complaints about how derivative follow-ups can be. As a result, sequels have garnered a bad reputation, and it’s not unearned. Continue Reading →
Black Adam
SimilarBack to the Future Part II (1989), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Shrek the Third (2007), Sin City (2005), The Dark Knight (2008),
Watch afterAvatar: The Way of Water (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022),
StudioDC Films, New Line Cinema,
We’re officially in the third decade of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson being a movie star. The former WWE legend made his cinema debut in the forgettable sequel to The Mummy, where he’s introduced as the dreaded Scorpion King, one of the most infamous early CGI debacles. Special effects have since improved, along with Johnson’s abilities as an actor and charismatic leading man. However, it feels like now we’ve come full circle with DC’s Black Adam. Continue Reading →
Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle
SimilarAmélie (2001), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), North by Northwest (1959), Ocean's Twelve (2004),
James Nguyen hammers down the end of his bad-movie trilogy with a true stinker of birdemic proportions... and not in a fun way.
(This review is part of our coverage of Fantastic Fest 2022.)
With its stilted acting, incompetent screenplay and direction, and special effects that looked like someone puttering around with After Effects for the very first time, James Nguyen’s "ecological horror" film Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010) became a cult favorite among bad film fanatics, especially latecomers to the hoopla surrounding The Room looking for something they could claim as their own. Continue Reading →
ドラゴンボール超 スーパーヒーロー
SimilarAlien (1979), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004),
Live and Let Die (1973) Snakes on a Plane (2006), Star Trek: Generations (1994),
Watch afterThor: Love and Thunder (2022),
StudioToei Animation, Toei Company,
Alright, there's only one way to start this off, so best to do it well. Continue Reading →
Nope
A look back at the use of chimpanzees as clowns & sidekicks for humans, & how it relates to a strange & haunting subplot of Jordan Peele's hit sci-fi horror.
Note: this article contains spoilers for Nope. Please read Jon Negroni’s spoiler-free review here.
If you haven’t seen Nope yet, you might be a little puzzled by references to a character named Gordy, especially once you learn that Gordy is a chimpanzee. It’s understandable: there’s not so much of a glimpse of a chimpanzee in any of the promotional material for Nope, and nothing that happens in its trailers seems to suggest that a chimpanzee will play any part in it. Continue Reading →
DC League of Super-Pets
Watch afterThor: Love and Thunder (2022),
StarringJameela Jamil,
Being a pet owner can enrich your life and open your heart to certain movies you may otherwise ignore. If I had watched DC’s new animated children’s film, League of Super-Pets, before being a proud doggy dad, I would have rolled my eyes. I likely would’ve declared it a blatant cash grab that distracts kids with cute talking animals, loud explosions, mediocre animation, and plenty of needle drops that date the film quicker than Shrek. Continue Reading →
シン・ウルトラマン
SimilarGodzilla Raids Again (1955), Stalker (1979), Superman Returns (2006), The Legend of Zorro (2005),
We look at the return of a tokusatsu giant to the big screen, a feature-film extension of a legendary Taiwanese series, and a South Korean romp about a man and his dead dad's haunted car.
(This dispatch is part of our 2022 Fantasia Film Festival coverage.)
2016's Shin Godzilla felt like such a breath of fresh air for a creature and a genre that'd long run around in circles. Hot off the back of America's take on the MonsterVerse, which traded allegory for AAA-budget Hollywood spectacle, Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno reinvented the character in a huge, sprawling disaster flick that was just as much about the inefficacy of Japan's bureaucracy to handle existential threats as it was an eye-opening spectacle. Now, the pair are back (Higuchi directing, Anno writing) to adapt another classic '60s kaiju staple for the modern day with Shin Ultraman, and boy, it's a winner. Continue Reading →
劇場版 美少女戦士セーラームーンCosmos 前編
Following the 1966 death of Walt Disney, the people charged with running the film studio bearing his name went into an extended period of creative paralysis that came very close to running it into the ground. So obsessed with the notion of “What would Walt do?” that they wound up repeating formulas that had worked before, it resulted in a forgettable series of films involving place-kicking mules, overly hirsute political candidates and the further adventures of Herbie the Love Bug. As for their once-vaunted animation division, that had become increasingly moribund, because the style of animation that made Disney famous was now perceived as being too expensive and time-consuming to be profitable. Continue Reading →
エクスマキナ
SimilarBlown Away (1994), Oldboy (2003), Star Trek: First Contact (1996),
StudioToei Animation, Toei Company,
Apples opens with a series of thuds. With each one, we move in until we’re close-up on details. These are little seeds of a world. Such is the process through which director Christos Nikou peels back the skin of his story. He repeatedly plants tiny granular clues that one would be tempted to spit out and dismiss, but which make all the difference to the growth of the narrative. Continue Reading →
Strawberry Mansion
Strawberry Mansion has finally come home. Newly released on Blu-ray by Music Box Films, this astonishing motion picture benefits from a well-decorated physical release. In the depths of The Streaming Age, it’s a welcome reminder of the delights and comforts of home video. Continue Reading →
Lightyear
SimilarAlien (1979), Ice Age (2002), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004),
Live and Let Die (1973) Snakes on a Plane (2006), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005),
Watch afterJurassic World Dominion (2022), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022),
StudioWalt Disney Pictures,
A movie based on Buzz Lightyear seemed inevitable, didn’t it? Toy Story is Pixar’s flagship franchise, and an action-packed sci-fi movie is primed for merchandising opportunities. There’s no way The Mouse could resist making a spin-off featuring the beloved fictional action figure. Continue Reading →
Neptune Frost
SimilarA Clockwork Orange (1971), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Fantasia (1940), West Side Story (2021), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971),
Watch afterThor: Love and Thunder (2022),
Elder statesman Saul Williams has never shied away from grandiose, multivalent projects. An early adopter of both democratic distribution methods and envelope-pushing indie noise-rap, his career has been typified by restless innovation and intimidating prolificacy. Co-directed with partner Anisia Uzeyman (her second feature), Williams’ directorial debut feature, Neptune Frost, arrives with an analogously charged and audacious context. Continue Reading →
Jurassic World Dominion
SimilarBack to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), King Kong (1933), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007),
Watch afterThor: Love and Thunder (2022), Top Gun: Maverick (2022),
In the video game version of the original Jurassic Park for the Sega Genesis, you can choose to play the side scroller as either Dr. Grant or a Velociraptor. Of course, you choose the raptor almost every time because dinosaurs are cooler than humans. It’s a great lesson for making a fun video game, but not for making a successful movie franchise. Continue Reading →
Crimes of the Future
SimilarMississippi Burning (1988), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Rope (1948),
StudioIngenious Media,
As Marvel holds its iron grip on theaters, and Netflix seems determined to focus its dwindling profits on churning out generic action movies starring various iterations of Ryan Reynolds, cineastes lament the loss of “art” films, those outliers that, whether good or bad, generate far more lively after-movie conversation than Spider-Man ever could. And yet, right now we seem to be in the middle of a weird movie renaissance. We have the joyful weirdness of Everything Everywhere All at Once, the all too topical weirdness of Alex Garland’s Men, and the over the top spectacle weirdness of Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Elvis. What better time could there be for David Cronenberg to come roaring back to form with some body horror weirdness in Crimes of the Future? Continue Reading →
Firestarter
Similar2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Metropolis (1927),
Watch afterJurassic World Dominion (2022),
Did you leave the gas on? Or does this movie stink? I’ll be here all week, folks. Continue Reading →
Everything Everywhere All at Once
SimilarBatman Begins (2005), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Zatoichi (2003),
Watch afterThe Whale (2022),
StarringKe Huy Quan,
StudioA24,
Everything Everywhere All at Once is glorious. Continue Reading →
The In Between
Young love: Sometimes it crashes into us like lapping waves hitting a picturesque beach. Other times, it’s a car wreck, leaving a mess in its wake. The In Between, Paramount+’s new teen supernatural romance, is the latter - a subpar film that can’t be resuscitated, even at the best attempts of Joey King and a solid supporting cast. Continue Reading →