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    • 0 - 9 >
      • One Cut of the Dead
      • One Day
      • Two Days, One Night
      • 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy
      • 7 Days In Havana
      • Seven Psychopaths
      • Seven Swords
      • 009 Re: Cyborg
      • 11 Minutes
      • 12 Years A Slave
      • 13
      • 24 Weeks
      • 45 Years
      • 68 Kill
      • '71
      • 99 Homes
      • 300: Rise Of An Empire
      • 303
      • 20,000 Days On Earth
      • 8 Million Ways to Die
    • A >
      • A Bigger Splash
      • A Bronx Tale
      • A Cat In Paris
      • A Few Best Men
      • A Field In England
      • A Ghost Story
      • A Hard Day
      • A Lonely Place to Die
      • A Man's Flower Road
      • A Million Ways To Die In The West
      • A Monster Calls
      • A Prayer Before Dawn
      • A Second Chance
      • A Separation
      • A Single Shot
      • A Spanking in Paradise
      • A Thousand Times Good Night
      • A Walk Among The Tombstones
      • A White, White Day
      • Abduction
      • About Ray
      • Act of Valour
      • African Cats
      • Afro Samurai
      • After the Wedding
      • Alice Through the Looking Glass
      • All In Good Time
      • Alleluia
      • Allied
      • American Heist
      • American Pie: Reunion
      • Ana, Mon Amour
      • Anarchy
      • Anchor and Hope
      • Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
      • Angelica
      • Animal Kingdom
      • Animals
      • Anna Karenina
      • Anomalisa
      • Ant-Man
      • Arctic
      • Argo
      • Arrival
      • Asako I & II
      • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • B >
      • Baby Driver
      • Babycall
      • Bacurau
      • Bad Neighbours
      • Bad Words
      • Bait
      • Banshee Chapter
      • Barbara
      • Barrage
      • Barry
      • Bastards
      • Bastille Day
      • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
      • Beasts Of The Southern Wild
      • Beatriz at Dinner
      • Beauty And The Beast
      • Bee Movie
      • Before Midnight
      • Before We Go
      • Belle
      • Benny & Jolene
      • Berlin Syndrome
      • Big Eyes
      • Big Game
      • Big Hero 6
      • Bitch
      • Black 47
      • Black Coal, Thin Ice
      • Black Eagle (R2B: Return To Base)
      • Black Panther
      • Black Rain
      • Black Sea
      • Black Sheep
      • Blackfish
      • Blackhat
      • Blade of the Immortal
      • Bleed for This
      • Blue Is The Warmest Colour
      • Bobby Fischer Against the World
      • Boca
      • Bonsai
      • Boomerang Family
      • Border
      • Borgia
      • Boyhood
      • Brave
      • Brawl in Cell Block 99
      • Breaking Bad
      • Breakup Buddies
      • Breathe In
      • Breathing
      • Bridesmaids
      • Bright Nights
      • Britain from Above
      • Broken City
      • Bullhead
      • Bunraku
      • Burning
      • Bushwick
    • C >
      • Caesar Must Die
      • Cafe De Flore
      • Cake
      • Calvary
      • Can A Song Save Your Life?
      • Candy
      • Captain America: Civil War
      • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
      • Captain Phillips
      • Carrie Pilby
      • Carnage
      • Casa De Mi Padre
      • Cashback
      • Castle in the Sky
      • Catfight
      • Central Intelligence
      • Chasuke's Journey
      • Chef
      • Chrysalis
      • Cinderella
      • Cleopatra
      • Climax
      • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
      • Clouds of Sils Maria
      • Coin Locker Girl
      • Cold Eyes
      • Cold In July
      • Cold War
      • Collective Invention
      • Colonia
      • Color Out of Space
      • Colossal
      • Comes A Bright Day
      • Compliance
      • Computer Chess
      • Conan the Barbarian
      • Confession Of A Child Of The Century
      • Contraband
      • Corporate Animals
      • Cowboys and Aliens
      • Crazy, Stupid, Love
      • Crown Heights
      • Crying Fist
      • Crystal Swan
      • Cuban Fury
      • Cuckoo
      • Cyber City Oedo 808
    • D >
      • Daddy's Home
      • Damsel
      • Dangerous Liaisons (2012)
      • Dark River
      • Darkest Hour
      • Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
      • Days of Heaven
      • Day Watch
      • Dead Snow 2: Red Vs Dead
      • Dear Prudence
      • Death Proof
      • Death Watch
      • Deep End
      • Deerskin
      • Delicacy
      • Demolition
      • Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in Pyongyang
      • Deranged
      • Desierto
      • Despicable Me 2
      • Destroyer
      • Detachment
      • Devil's Knot
      • Dheepan
      • Dirty Grandpa
      • Disobedience
      • Disorder
      • Disturbia
      • Divines
      • Django
      • Django Unchained
      • Dogman
      • Don Jon
      • Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot
      • Dora or the Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents
      • Double Impact
      • Downsizing
      • Dreamgirls
      • Dreileben
      • Drive
    • E >
      • Eagle vs. Shark
      • Earth 2
      • Earth To Echo
      • Earthquake Bird
      • Elephant Song
      • Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
      • Elles
      • Elysium
      • Ema
      • Empire of the Sun
      • End Of Watch
      • End of Winter
      • Ender's Game
      • Entanglement
      • Epic
      • Equals
      • Escobar: Paradise Lost
      • Essential Killing
      • Europa Report
      • Euthanizer
      • Even The Rain
      • Every Thing Will Be Fine
      • Exodus: Gods and Kings
      • Eye in the Sky
    • F >
      • Fading Gigolo
      • Far From the Madding Crowd
      • Farewell To The King
      • Fast & Furious 6
      • Fast & Furious 7
      • Fast Girls
      • Fear And Desire
      • Felicite
      • Felony
      • Final Destination 5
      • Final Portrait
      • Fist of Legend
      • Flight
      • Flu
      • Flyboys
      • For Ellen
      • Forgetting Sarah Marshall
      • Frances Ha
      • Francine
      • Frank
      • Free Agents
      • Free Birds
      • Free Men
      • Fright Night
      • From Up On Poppy Hill
      • Frozen
      • Fuck For Forest
      • Fukushima, Mon Amour
      • Funny Cow
    • G >
      • Gang Story
      • Gemini Man
      • Genius
      • Gimme The Loot
      • Goat
      • God Bless America
      • Godzilla
      • Golden Exits
      • Good Kill
      • Grave of the Fireflies
      • Great Expectations
      • Gravity
      • Green Room
      • Grindhouse Trailer Classics 3
      • Guilty of Romance
      • Guns & Talk
    • H >
      • Hacksaw Ridge
      • Haemoo
      • Hammer Of The Gods
      • Happy Feet Two
      • Happy New Year, Colin Burstead
      • Happy People
      • Hardcore
      • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
      • Headshot
      • Heavenly Creatures
      • Hell
      • Hellboy II: The Golden Army
      • Hemel
      • Her
      • Hereditary
      • Hide And Seek
      • Hill of Freedom
      • Hitchcock
      • Hollywoo
      • Holy Rollers
      • Homefront
      • Hope Springs
      • Horns
      • Horrible Bosses 2
      • Hostel: Part II
      • Hostiles
      • How I Spent My Summer Vacation
      • How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire
      • How to Train Your Dragon
      • Hyena
      • Hysteria
    • I >
      • I Could Never be Your Woman
      • I Lost My Body
      • I Love You, Daddy
      • I Saw the Devil
      • I Saw the Light
      • I, Tonya
      • I'm So Excited
      • If Beale Street Could Talk
      • Immortals
      • In Darkness
      • In Fabric
      • In Order Of Disappearance
      • In Search of a Midnight Kiss
      • In the Aisles
      • In The Bedroom
      • In the Heart of the Sea
      • In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
      • Inside Llewyn Davis
      • Inside Out
      • Insyriated
      • Interstellar
      • Ip Man 3
      • Iron Man 3
      • Isle of Dogs
      • It Follows
    • J >
      • J. Edgar
      • Jack Goes Boating
      • Jack Reacher
      • Jackie
      • Jackpot
      • Jayne Mansfield's Car
      • Jersey Boys
      • Jin
      • Jiro Dreams Of Sushi
      • John Dies At The End
      • Joker
      • Jonathan
      • Journey's End
      • Journeyman
      • Juan Of The Dead
      • Jupiter's Moon
      • Just Do It
    • K >
      • Kaboom
      • Kenny
      • Khodorkovsky
      • Kick-Ass 2
      • Kill List
      • Kings
      • Klown
      • Knight of Cups
      • Knives Out
      • Kodachrome
      • Kosmos
      • Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
      • Kundo: Age Of The Rampant
    • L >
      • La Belle Epoque
      • La La Land
      • La Piscine
      • Lady Bird
      • Lady Chatterley
      • Lara
      • Largo Winch: Deadly Revenge
      • Largo Winch: The Burma Conspiracy
      • Las Acacias
      • Last Flag Flying
      • Last Night
      • Last Vegas
      • Laurence Anyways
      • Le Havre
      • Le Mans '66 / Ford v Ferrari
      • Le Week-End
      • Learning to Drive
      • Leave No Trace
      • Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
      • Les Affames
      • Les Miserables
      • Lethal Weapon
      • Liberal Arts
      • Life Of Crime
      • Life Of Pi
      • Like Father, Like Son
      • Limitless
      • Lincoln
      • Lion
      • Logan
      • Lone Survivor
      • Looper
      • Lore
      • Love & Mercy
      • Love Crime
      • Love Is All You Need
      • Love Punch
      • Loveless
      • Loving
      • Lucky Them
      • Lust, Caution
    • M >
      • Mad Max: Fury Road
      • Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
      • Madeline's Madeline
      • Maggie's Plan
      • Magic Trip
      • Maleficent
      • Man Of Steel
      • Man Up
      • Manchester by the Sea
      • Manhunt
      • Maps To The Stars
      • Marjorie Prime
      • Marrowbone
      • Mary Goes Round
      • May the Devil Take You
      • McCullin
      • Me and Orson Welles
      • Me And You
      • Mercy
      • Metallica Through The Never
      • Michael Clayton
      • Midnight Special
      • Miles Ahead
      • Minions
      • Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
      • Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
      • Mister John
      • Moana
      • Molly's Game
      • Monsieur Lazhar
      • Monsters University
      • More
      • Morris from America
      • Mother And Child
      • Mr. Brooks
      • Mr Holmes
      • Mr Long
      • Mr. Nobody
      • Much Ado About Nothing
      • Muppets Most Wanted
      • Museo
      • My Days of Mercy
      • My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea
      • My Friend Dahmer
      • My Great Night
      • My Neighbour Totoro
      • My Neighbours The Yamadas
      • My Soul to Take
      • My Voyage to Italy
      • My Way
      • Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Movie
    • N >
      • Nasty Baby
      • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
      • Need For Speed
      • Never Goin' Back
      • New World
      • News from Planet Mars
      • Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
      • Nightbirds
      • Nightcrawler
      • Nim's Island
      • Nina Forever
      • No
      • No Escape
      • No One Lives
      • Noah
      • Nocturnal Animals
      • Norman
      • Nostalgia For The Light
      • Nymphomaniac Volume 1
      • Nymphomaniac Volume 2
    • O >
      • Olympus Has Fallen
      • On Body and Soul
      • On Chesil Beach
      • Once
      • Only God Forgives
      • Oranges and Sunshine
      • Orion
      • Our Little Sister
      • Out Of The Furnace
      • Outrage Beyond
      • Outside In
    • P >
      • Pacific Rim
      • Papillon
      • Passport To Pimlico
      • Patti Cake$
      • Penguins of Madagascar
      • Perfect Sense
      • Pete's Dragon
      • Petra
      • Phoenix
      • Ping Pong
      • Piranha
      • Planes
      • Planet Terror
      • Pokemon Detective Pikachu
      • Polisse
      • Populaire
      • Porco Rosso
      • Possession
      • Potiche
      • Powder Room
      • Preggoland
      • Prince Avalanche
      • Princess Mononoke
      • Project Nim
      • Project X
      • Punishment Park
      • Pusher
    • Q >
      • Queen of Earth
      • Queen of the Desert
      • Quest For Fire
    • R >
      • R100
      • Racer and the Jailbird
      • Raid on Entebbe
      • Ran
      • Ratatouille
      • Ready Player One
      • Real Steel
      • [REC] 3 Genesis
      • Red 2
      • Red Dawn
      • Red White & Blue
      • Renoir
      • Requiem For A Killer
      • Requiem For A Village
      • Reservation Road
      • Resistance
      • Results
      • Return to Montauk
      • Revenge Of The Electric Car
      • Revivre
      • Revolution
      • Revolutionary Road
      • Riddick
      • Rise of the Planet of the Apes
      • Roman J. Israel, Esq.
      • Romantics Anonymous
      • Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno
      • Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends
      • Rush
      • Rust And Bone
    • S >
      • Safe
      • Safe House
      • Saint Amour
      • Salmon Fishing In The Yemen
      • Salt and Fire
      • Salt of Life
      • Samsara
      • Savages
      • Sawako Decides
      • Season of the Witch
      • Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World
      • Selma
      • Shadow
      • She's Funny That Way
      • Shepherds and Butchers
      • Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows
      • Short Term 12
      • Shotgun Stories
      • Sightseers
      • Simon Killer
      • Sing
      • Sister
      • Skate Kitchen
      • Sleeping with Other People
      • Sleuth
      • Small Apartments
      • Snitch
      • Snowpiercer
      • Snowtown
      • Sonatine
      • Son of a Gun
      • Son of Saul
      • Soul Surfer
      • Source Code
      • Southern Comfort
      • Soy Nero
      • Spartacus: Vengeance
      • Spartacus: War Of The Damned
      • Special Forces
      • SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
      • Spooks: The Greater Good
      • Spoor
      • Spotlight
      • Spring
      • Spy
      • Stake Land
      • Stalingrad
      • Stan & Ollie
      • Star Trek Beyond
      • Star Trek Into Darkness
      • Starbuck
      • Strange Weather
      • Submarine
      • Suite Francaise
      • Summer In February
      • Sunshine On Leith
      • Super
      • Superbad
      • Superman Returns
      • Sweet Country
      • Synchronic
    • T >
      • Taken 2
      • Taking Off
      • Tales from Earthsea
      • Tatsumi
      • Taxi
      • Taxi: Season 1
      • Ted
      • Terminator 2: Judgment Day
      • Terminator Genisys
      • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
      • Testament of Youth
      • Tetsuo: The Iron Man
      • That Awkward Moment
      • Therese Desqueyroux
      • They Came Together
      • Things to Come
      • This Is The End
      • Thor: The Dark World
      • Thoroughbreds
      • Those Happy Years
      • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
      • Three Christs
      • Throne of Blood
      • Tiger Girl
      • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
      • Tiny Furniture
      • Tokyo Ga
      • Tokyo Godfathers
      • Tokyo Tribe
      • Tomboy
      • Tomorrowland
      • Toni Erdmann
      • Total Recall
      • Tragedy Girls
      • Train to Busan
      • Trance
      • Transformers
      • Transformers: Age Of Extinction
      • Transit
      • Transit [2018]
      • Trespass Against Us
      • Triangle
      • Troll Hunter
      • Tron: Legacy
      • Truman
      • Tumbbad
      • Two Lovers and a Bear
    • THE >
      • The Amateurs
      • The Arbor
      • The Assault
      • The Autopsy of Jane Doe
      • The Avengers
      • The Awakening
      • The Baader-Meinhof Complex
      • The Bacchus Lady
      • The Bad Batch
      • The Ballad of Narayama
      • The Bar
      • The Bay
      • The Baytown Outlaws
      • The Be All And End All
      • The Beaver
      • The Belko Experiment
      • The Beloved
      • The Berlin File
      • The Big Sick
      • The Bookshop
      • The Boy and the Beast
      • The Brawler
      • The Breadwinner
      • The Breaker Upperers
      • The Cabin In The Woods
      • The Captain
      • The Castle of Cagliostro
      • The Cat Returns
      • The Chamber
      • The Children Act
      • The Climb
      • The Cobbler
      • The Commune
      • The Conjuring 2
      • The Counsellor
      • The Croods
      • The Current War
      • The Danish Girl
      • The Daughter
      • The Day After
      • The Dead
      • The Debt
      • The Devil's Double
      • The Dinner
      • The Dinosaur Project
      • The Doom Generation
      • The Drummond Will
      • The Dyatlov Pass Incident
      • The East
      • The Edge of Seventeen
      • The Evil in Us
      • The Expendables 3
      • The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec
      • The Fake
      • The Family Fang
      • The Farewell
      • The Favourite
      • The Fighter
      • The Five Year Engagement
      • The Front Runner
      • The Girl
      • The Girl in the Photographs
      • The Good Dinosaur
      • The Grand Heist
      • The Grandmaster
      • The Greasy Strangler
      • The Great Beauty
      • The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
      • The Guest
      • The Guilty
      • The Gunman
      • The Hateful Eight
      • The Heiresses
      • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
      • The House That Jack Built
      • The Housemaid
      • The Hunger Games
      • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
      • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
      • The Hunter
      • The Huntsman: Winter's War
      • The Iceman
      • The Imitation Game
      • The Incredible Jessica James
      • The Informer
      • The Innkeepers
      • The Interrupters
      • The Intervention
      • The Judge
      • The Keeper Of Lost Causes
      • The Killer Inside Me
      • The King
      • The Last Stand
      • The Legend of Bruce Lee
      • The Lighthouse
      • The Little House
      • The Little Tailor
      • The Lives of Others
      • The Lone Ranger
      • The Look Of Love
      • The Lost Okoroshi
      • The Man from Nowhere
      • The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
      • The Mercy
      • The Mind's Eye
      • The Miseducation of Cameron Post
      • The Mist
      • The Molly Dineen Collection Volume Three
      • The Motive
      • The Mule
      • The Muppets
      • The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman
      • The Nice Guys
      • The Nightingale
      • The Numbers Station
      • The Other Side of Hope
      • The Overnight
      • The Panic in Needle Park
      • The Party
      • The Patriarch
      • The Place Beyond The Pines
      • The Prey
      • The Proposition
      • The Purge: Anarchy
      • The Raid
      • The Raid 2
      • The Railway Man
      • The Reach
      • The Rebound
      • The Red Turtle
      • The Reef
      • The Resident
      • The Return Of The Living Dead
      • The Revenant
      • The Rig
      • The Sapphires
      • The Saragossa Manuscript
      • The Satellite Girl and the Milk Cow
      • The Secret in Their Eyes
      • The Selfish Giant
      • The Sentinel
      • The Shameless
      • The Shape of Water
      • The Shining
      • The Signal
      • The Skin I Live In
      • The Source
      • The Stag
      • The Strange Little Cat
      • The Summit
      • The Taste Of Money
      • The Thieves
      • The Thing
      • The Third Murder
      • The Tree
      • The Tribe
      • The Two Faces Of January
      • The Truth
      • The Upside
      • The Veteran
      • The Villainess
      • The Voices
      • The Walking Dead season two
      • The Watch
      • The Water Diviner
      • The Wave
      • The Way
      • The Way Way Back
      • The Whistlers
      • The Widow of Saint-Pierre
      • The Wind Rises
      • The Wolverine
      • The Woman in Black: Angel of Death
      • The Woman in the Fifth
      • The World of Kanako
      • The World's End
      • The Yellow Sea
      • The Young And Prodigious T.S. Spivet
    • U >
      • Unbeatable
      • Unbroken
      • Underground
      • Underwater Love
      • Unforgiven
      • Unicorn Store
      • Unknown
      • Unmistaken Child
      • Unsane
      • Unstoppable
    • V >
      • Vehicle 19
      • V/H/S
      • V/H/S/2
      • Victoria
      • Vidal Sassoon The Movie
      • Villain
      • Vinyl season one
      • Visitors
      • Viva La Liberta
      • Vox Lux
    • W >
      • Waitress
      • Walking Out
      • War Dogs
      • War Horse
      • War of the Arrow
      • War on Everyone
      • Warrior
      • We Are the Flesh
      • We Are The Night
      • We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
      • We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks
      • Weekend
      • Weirdos
      • Welcome To New York
      • West is West
      • What If
      • What Maisie Knew
      • What We Do In The Shadows
      • While We're Young
      • White God
      • Who Killed The Electric Car?
      • Who We Are Now
      • Widows
      • Wiener-Dog
      • Wild Mouse
      • Wildlife
      • Willow Creek
      • Wish I Was Here
      • Woman at War
      • Wonderstruck
      • Woochi: The Demon Slayer
      • Woody Allen: A Documentary
      • Words And Pictures
      • World War Z
      • Wreck-It Ralph
      • Wuthering Heights
      • Wyrmwood
    • X >
      • X-Men: Apocalypse
      • X-Men: Days Of Future Past
      • X+Y
    • Y >
      • Yardie
      • Yatterman
      • Yojimbo
      • You Are Here
      • You Instead
      • You Were Never Really Here
      • You're Next
      • Young Adult
      • Your Sister's Sister
    • Z >
      • Zathura
  • THEATRE & ARTS
    • A Walk On Part: The Fall Of New Labour
    • Akram Khan: Homeland
    • All New People
    • Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn in Conversation
    • Battle Angel Alita: volume 1
    • Battle Angel Alita: volumes 2, 3 & 4
    • Battle Angel Alita: volumes 5, 6, 7, 8, & 9
    • Brian Wilson
    • Cantina
    • Derren Brown - Svengali
    • Fourth Dimensional Minds Eye Summoning
    • Gilbert & George
    • Jumpy
    • Let The Right One In
    • Lisa Appignanesi
    • Mary Queen Of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off
    • My Girlfriend's Boyfriend
    • Othello: The Remix
    • Philip Pullman
    • Posh
    • Rob Delaney
    • Ronin
    • Sunken Garden
    • Sutra
    • The Book Of Mormon
    • The Great Gatsby
    • The Master And Margarita
    • The Silver Linings Playbook
    • The Thinking Drinker's Guide To Alcohol
    • Thriller Live
    • Touched...Like A Virgin
    • Travelling Light
    • Wah! Wah! Girls - A British Bollywood Musical
    • Wild Swans
  • FEATURES-INTERVIEWS
    • 2008 Review and 2009 Preview
    • 2010 in Review
    • 2011 In Review
    • 2012 In Anticipation
    • 2012 In Review: Part One
    • 2012 In Review: Part Two
    • Alternate Summer 2011
    • Ang Lee: A Life In Pictures
    • Atmosphere of the Berlinale
    • Autumn at the Multiplexes
    • BBC 4 World Cinema Award 2006
    • Berlin Film Festival 2011: Part One
    • Berlin Film Festival 2011: Part Two
    • Berlin Film Festival 2011: Part Three
    • Berlin Film Festival 2012: Part One
    • Berlin Film Festival 2012: Part Two
    • Berlin Film Festival 2012: Part Three
    • Best Films of 2013
    • Best Films of 2014
    • Best Films of 2015
    • Best Films of 2016
    • Best Films of 2017
    • Best Films of 2018
    • Best Films of 2019
    • Best Films of 2020
    • Busan eFM
    • Des Hamilton
    • Distant Sequels
    • Dolby Atmos
    • Edinburgh Film Festival 2010
    • Empire Presents Big Screen
    • Favourite Films of 2014
    • Favourite Films of 2015
    • Favourite Films of 2016
    • Favourite Films of 2017
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MODERN SCI-FI

28 August 2010
By Hemanth Kissoon
Raise your hand those with a working crystal ball. No? The future is the undiscovered country, to mangle Hamlet. What has cinema got to say on the subject?

Science fiction is perennial, but with the success of Inception, an especially intelligent blockbuster, it is perhaps timely to look at vivid depictions of the future on the silver screen. Not definitive then, but hopefully a way to initiate debate.

Children of Men (2006)

A modern masterpiece and one of the best films of the entire noughties, there is so much going on it is hard to decide what to start to talk about. It is a warning, extrapolating society’s current travails and extending them to a scarily logical conclusion. Opening with the Earth’s youngest person murdered, we then focus on Clive Owen’s London civil servant still grieving over the death of his child and the separation from his wife (played by Julianne Moore). An Orwellian culture now exists with rigid controls over the population, as well as an H.G. Wells idea of Eloi and Morlocks where illegal immigrants are treated in similar ways to the photos revealed from the Abu Ghraib prison. There are images of cattle being burned, a thinly-veiled reference to mad-cow and foot and mouth diseases, and genetic modified food. There is terrorism on a large scale, where he even coffee houses are targets. And the human population is dying off. No baby has been born in 18 years. This is an allegory par excellence.

Among all this tragedy is a glimmer of hope where one woman is revealed to be pregnant. Children of Men becomes a thrill ride as Owen’s Theo has to get her to safety, as everyone wants the mother and more importantly the unborn child. Director Alfonso Cuaron and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki ingrain images into your mind that are so extraordinary that you want to rewind sequences to admire theme, e.g. a car chase/siege done in one take entirely from within the vehicle as it is attacked. This will be being taught at film schools for years.


Jurassic Park (1993)

More upbeat than the above, but also a morality tale, this is a story that harks back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, scientific breakthrough unchecked and without deep thought; and The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs, resurrecting the dead. Jurassic Park is also a metaphor for The Manhattan Project; Richard Attenborough’s John Hammond as a sort of Dr. Oppenheimer facilitator. Not as satisfying as the novel, with the darker elements toned by sentimentality and the seeming desire to reach as a wide an audience as possible, this was one of those blockbusters that blew the mind of virtually of everyone. Computer generated imagery had already begun, but this took it to another level.

Scientists and a chaos mathematician are given a tour of an island that is the home to the latest theme park and scientific marvel. The dream of every child and, let’s face it, most adults, to see dinosaurs walk the Earth. However, human weakness, coupled with nature’s ways, go to scupper an act of hubris.


Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Science again. Here, robotics and time travel. America develops a computer program so sophisticated that it becomes sentient and overthrows its human master. The future is now a post-nuclear holocaust wasteland with humanity mounting a barely effective resistance. The machines send a robot into the past to kill the mother of the rebellion leader, John Connor. They fail, and in this sequel they send a more sophisticated model back to kill the pre-teen Connor, while the adult Connor sends a robot to protect himself. There is an argument as to which is superior, but the sequel for me pips the post, as it is not as simple as machines bad, humans good. The flaws and positives in each are demonstrated in one of the best action films ever made. Only Aliens (also by director James Cameron) and Die Hard can touch this.


Tron (1982)

Long before Cameron made Avatar, Disney released Tron. The most sophisticated programmers have game avatars, sentient versions of themselves existing in computers. A corporation has developed an incredibly powerful program called Master Control, which is devouring other ones. Soon it will be too powerful to halt. Former employee Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) attempts to do just that, but is sucked into this computer world by a newly developed laser.

Far ahead of its time, Tron tackled the gaming world and the issue of corporate monopoly in a dazzling designed movie.



Face/Off (1997)

Physical alteration manifests itself in an insanely energetic look at what some will do to prevent crime. To infiltrate a gang and stop a bomb going off in Los Angeles, John Travolta’s Sean Archer, swaps his face with that of Nicolas Cage’s coma patient and master crook Castor Troy. As you can imagine, such drastic surgery awakens him and Troy in turn takes on the identity of Archer. Not only as is this an example of charismatic acting taken to another level, it is an intriguing look at empathy; where two people walk in the shoes of another and understand their lives a little better and are changed for it. Oh yeah, and the action is seriously awesome; check out Cage and Travolta being catapulted through the air with a speedboat in the background and them landing on a beach.


Strange Days (1995)

Empathy reaches its zenith in Kathryn Bigelow’s extraordinarily directed pre-millennium thriller. Set in the dying days of 1999, a new technology has become the drug of choice; a device that the user wears to record sensory impressions of their activities, these memories are then sold to punters looking for vicarious thrills. Ralph Fiennes’ Lenny Nero is an ex-cop and now a purveyor of these experiences, calling himself the “Santa Claus of the subconscious”. However, he gets sucked into a conspiracy where various memories provide the evidence to multiple killings. The link between the mind and society has never been so exhilarating.


X-Men (2000)

Enhancing the human and body as a metaphor for puberty, abuse and discrimination, the X-Men universe is an allegory in particular for the civil rights movement; as those who with super-powers (telekinesis, metal manipulation, fast healing, etc.) are persecuted. The first picture in the series is a look at a Martin Luther King, Jr. figure (Professor Xavier – Patrick Stewart) attempting to thwart a Malcolm X figure (Magneto – Ian McKellen) from a violent solution to this hatred aimed at the newly established mutants. A mixture of wish fulfilment and social commentary.

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