Sci-Fi Movie Reviews | Picturenose

Cinema Movie Review: Upstream Color (2013)

Apr

2013

Fear worm Shane Carruth’s sophomore film, Upstream Color (2013), is a rich and layered story told through a series of double-entendres and paradoxes that makes the film a unique experience for its audience. Told in the same breath as a David Lynch film, attention to the details and the acknowledgment of different levels within the ...

DVD Movie Review: Tron: Legacy (2010)

Feb

2013

Really not very good It’s a competition, sometimes. James and I have a bit of an ongoing battle to see who can come up with the wittiest or most knowing title for a review. Sometimes, if pressed, we’ll just use something generic and get on with the business of writing. With Tron: Legacy (2010), I ...

DVD Movie Review: Cosmopolis (2012)

Feb

2013

Too much of a stretch Oh dear, I have a problem. It had to happen eventually, I suppose – David Cronenberg delivering a dud. As regular Picturenose readers will probably be aware by now, Cronenberg is one of my all-time favourite directors, with his 1970s body-horrors such as Shivers (1975) and The Brood (1979) having ...

DVD Movie Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

Nov

2012

Was the force with it? The first animated Star Wars feature hit cinemas back in 2008, and paved the way for a television series that began in the same year, which featured 30-minute ‘mini-movies’ from Lucasfilm Animation. Picturenose takes a look back, to hopefully open discussion and debate.

Movie Review: Looper (2012) 2

Nov

2012

Looping the loop In 2074, it’s hard to kill a man and get away with it. It’s even harder to dispose of a body. But the mob of 2074 finds a way to deal with its victims – in the same year, time travel becomes a reality, so the mob then sends whoever they want ...

Starship Troopers (1997) 1

Jul

2012

‘Medic!’ No two ways about it – I *hated* this film when I first saw it. Not least because it has Denise Richards in a starring role, namely as a Beverley Hills 90210-style dolly bird of the future (and, let’s face it, the presence of Richards, with one or two exceptions, has normally been enough ...

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 2

Jun

2012

‘Tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first…well, develop this theory?’ Well, it’s Sunday, therefore Monday tomorrow, and therefore as good a time as any to be thinking about the end of the world. And, I ask you, has it ever been more brilliantly characterized and satirized than by Stanley Kubrick, with his Dr. ...

Prometheus (2012) 15

Jun

2012

More questions than answers Right – the wait is over, and let it be first of all said that Ridley Scott‘s prequel/companion piece/whatever-the-hell-it-is to Alien (1979), Prometheus (2012), does have more than enough of the flair and invention that one might have expected from the director who first gave us the xenomorph to end all ...

Quatermass (1979)

May

2012

Harvest time Thought it was about time to tackle Nigel Kneale‘s singular scientist, the good Professor Bernard Quatermass who, in four novels, four TV series and four films, has exerted an enormous influence on directors as diverse as Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter (In the Mouth of Madness (1995)), Steven Spielberg and Lars von Trier and ...

Preview: Prometheus (2012) 2

Apr

2012

Prometheus unbound? Build-ups don’t come much bigger than this. Some ten years ago, Ridley Scott, who directed the world-changing Alien (1979), the first film (and zenith) of the franchise that sank to its nadir with Aliens vs Predator – Requiem (2007), indicated that he was very keen on directing a sequel or prequel to his ...

The Hunger Games (2012) 1

Mar

2012

Games without frontiers Now that the fame of wizards, vampires and werewolves is starting to fade, it’s time for a new saga – more futuristic and less fairy-tale. Ladies and gentleman – The Hunger Games (2012) hit the big screen! Originally a ‘young adult novel’, The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins first gained popularity ...