John Wyndham had a tendency to write stories that set up some really funky situations, but which then failed to develop properly as satisfying plotlines. Based on his book, The Midwich Cuckoos, Village of the Damned suffers from the same problem. Read the rest of this entry »

I won’t argue that it doesn’t have its flaws, but I have to say this is still one very impressive piece of work. Visually incredible - not just in its special effects but also in its amazing set design and cinematography. The performances are also impressive and, as always, Danny Boyle uses music to great effect. Read the rest of this entry »

Just a classic apocalyptic sci fi flick. The plot is not the point (imagine a spaghetti western with V8’s and punks instead of horses and banditos) - this is one of the most exciting, cerebral action films ever made. Read the rest of this entry »

Not as bad as I had expected from a C-grade 80’s sequel, but still no world-beater. I’m not squeamish, but a couple of scenes in this were pretty gross, and completely gratuitous.

As a massive fan of Philip Pullman’ books, it’s hard to be objective. The film is visually impressive and with a great narrative drive thanks to the source material. Lyra is just a great character, and thankfully her essence is preserved in the screenplay. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s obvious that the intention was to make this look like a comic book transferred to the big screen. Nothing new there. But the result of the cheap film enhancement director Kurt Wimmer deploys is that it turns out looking like a poorly rendered computer game. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new threat facing crappy sci fi movies which may prevent them ever being worth watching again: CGI! Cheaply available computer-generated imagery must be an exciting prospect for budding young film-makers everywhere. You can create an image of almost anything and it should look so much better than the old stop-motion stuff. But guess what? Sometimes it doesn’t. Read the rest of this entry »