Recent scifi and fantasy movie and tv reviews.

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Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (Mark's take)
01/02/2012. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol still does not have the hang of what made the TV show so good. Instead of an intelligent puzzle for the viewer, it offers mindless excitement in one action stunt from Tom Cruise after another. But given that it is a Tom Cruise vanity piece and a mindless action film, it is one of the best mindless action films of 2011. Considerably better than the previous entries of the "Mission Impossible" series formerly animation director Brad Bird gives us quite a ride in his first live-action film. The film is a mixed bag of elements, but some are very good.

The Strange Case Of Angelica (Mark's take)
01/01/2012. This film is a Portuguese fantasy written and directed by Manoel de Oliveira. The pace is operatic and slow enough so that there is not much story here. Some dreamlike photography and a soothing musical score are pluses but slow, draggy telling is likely to frustrate the viewer and pay off with far too little reward for the effort of watching.

Hugo (Mark's take)
1/1/2012. There is a phantom haunting the Paris Train Station. Twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of the station and maintains all the mechanical clocks. This film is about him, but also about a lot more. This is much more than a children's film about a little boy. Beautifully filmed in 3D it, turns into an education for the viewer on a subject near and dear to director Martin Scorsese's heart.

Miss Minoes (Mark's take)
01/01/2012. A cat is accidentally turned into a beautiful woman by a toxic waste accident. Minoes, now Miss Minoes, befriends a failing newspaper reporter and uses her network of cat friends to help get the reporter the news stories he needs. Dutch author Annie M. G. Schmidt's 1970 children's book Minoes is adapted for the screen by director Vincent Bal who also co-authored the screenplay. The result is a rather slight but pleasant family fantasy film.

Cosmic Voyage (1935): Mark's take
01/12/2011. A professor, a woman, and a Young Pioneer are the first to travel to the moon in a Soviet science fiction film rarely seen in the United States. The story is only mediocre, but some of the visual effects are just stunning. The film seems to be a Soviet response to Fritz Lang's Frau Im Mond and while it is not as effective, it provides its own rewards.

The Last Circus (Balada Triste De Trompeta)
1/12/2011. This is a sensational surreal horror/comedy fairy tale co-written and directed by Basque auteur Álex de la Iglesia (The Oxford Murders). It has to be the weirdest and one of the funniest films I have seen in quite a while. As time goes on, everything in The Last Circus becomes more grotesque and dreamlike.

Contagion (Mark's take)
01/10/2011. Director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns give us a fast-paced and grim scenario of a nasty but all-too-possible avian flu was released and spread through the environment. There are about six strands of plot running through the scenario, each with a recognisable actor playing the main character. In spite of the presence of major stars Soderbergh gives us the confidence that he is not tweaking the film to exaggerate the drama or excitement. Even without the usual tropes of science fiction, this is - among other things - an excellent science fiction techno thriller.

Trollhunter (Mark's take)
01/10/2011. Trollhunter is a serious Norwegian horror film that is also a satire of The Blair Witch Project. University students making a documentary about a supposed bear poacher find the man is instead a government agent controlling and helping to keep secret the population of deadly trolls.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (Mark's take)
01/09/2011. The final Harry Potter film has Harry and friends searching out the last of the Voldemort Horcruxes for his final confrontation with Voldemort. If you don't know what I just said I recommend you bail out right now. The last Harry Potter film is a very substantial fantasy film, perhaps even beyond the level of one of the Lord of the Rings films. With one major omission the series comes to a satisfying and frequently spectacular conclusion.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Mark's take)
01/09/2011. The new Apes film is not into intelligent or even credible social comment but rather the digital spectacle of a battle between humans and apes. Human dominance of apes turns into violent rebellion when ape intelligence becomes widespread.

Test Pilot Pirx (Mark's take)
01/08/2011. Stanislaw Lem's space pilot Pirx is given a double task. He is to orbit two satellites in Saturn's rings and at the same time see if he can detect which of his crew is actually a humanoid robot.

X-Men: First Class (Mark's take)
01/07/2011. The fifth "X-Men" film is an origin story for the X-Men. It is a secret history of super-mutants becoming a powerful force from 1944 and the Holocaust to 1962 and the Cuban Missile Crisis. That crisis, we learn, was actually orchestrated by opposing forces of mutants.

Super 8 (Mark's take)
01/07/2011. J. J. Abrams, as homage to the early Steven Spielberg, writes and directs a pastiche of Spielberg's early juvenile films. A group of friends making an amateur zombie film one night witness a train derailment that involved more than meets the eye. They are soon caught up in a situation of global proportions. This would have been a fun drive-in sort of film, not the deepest film, but fun aimed at young teen level. On those terms it is acceptable family fare. Spielberg is one of the producers, by the way. Warning: Very minor spoilers. I have tried to spoil much less than most other reviews I have seen, but this review is probably not spoiler-free.

Thor (Mark's take)
01/06/2011. Thor, discovers Mark, is a comic-book film that gives us a different sort of superhero, the Norse god banished from Asgard and exiled to Earth and struggling to retrieve/earn his hammer of power. If I were to picture the gods in Asgard, what we see of them in this film is not what they would look like in my mind. Some veteran actors like Anthony Hopkins seem overqualified to play opposite Chris Hemsworth in the title role.

Hanna (Mark's take)
01/06/2011. Hanna has been raised and trained by her father to be a perfect assassin, preparing for the battle he will have with his former employer, the CIA. Director Joe Wright takes a somewhat simple story and makes it complex in the editing and camera work. The action, says Mark, is strong and well filmed, but there really is not much in new ideas or ideas at all. Complex puzzle pieces fit together to make an overly simple and familiar picture. It only seems complex because Wright does not play fairly with the viewer.

Sci-Fi Classics 2 Disc Set
01/06/2011. Region 1 DVD: Shout Factory SF 11978. 2 DVDs 3 black and white films with extras. Price: about GBP 12.00 (UK) if you know where to look.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
01/06/2011. region 2 DVD: pub: 20th Century Fox 3860211000. 1 DVD 102 minute film with extras. Price: about GBP 4.00 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston and Taylor Kitsch

4D Man (1959)
01/06/2011. region 1 DVD: pub: Image Entertainment ID6599WEDVD. 85 minute colour film. Price: about GBP 5.00 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Robert Lansing, James Congdon, Lee Meriwether and Robert Strauss

Iron Man 2
01/06/2011. Iron Man 2: 2-Disc Special Edition. Region 2 DVD: pub: Paramount/Marvel PHE1347. 2 DVDs 119 minute film with extras. Price: about GBP 9.00 (UK) if you know where to look)) stars: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke and Samuel L. Jackson

Bionic Ever After?
01/05/2011. Region Two DVD: pub: Universal FHED2764. 1 DVD 87 minute film. Price: about GBP 6.50 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Lindsay Wagner, Lee Majors, Richard Anderson and Martin E. Brooks.

Bionic Showdown
01/05/2011. Region Two DVD: pub: Universal FHED2763. 1 DVD 96 minute film. Price: about GBP 6.50 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Lee Majors, Lindsay Wagner, Sandra Bullock, Richard Anderson, Jeff Yagher and Martin E. Brooks

The X-Files: I Want To Believe
01/05/2011. region 2 DVD: pub: 20th Century Fox 3969911044. 2 DVDs 103 minute film with extras. Price: under GBP 3.00 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly and Alvin ‘Xzibit’ Joiner

The X-Files: The Complete Ninth Season
01/05/2011. region 2 DVD: pub: 20th Century Fox 23877MDVD. 7 DVDs 846 minutes 19 episodes with extras. Price: GBP 7.50 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Peleggi and David Duchovny

Alien 2 On Earth
01/05/2011. region 2 DVD: pub: Midnight Legacy B004UOW4TC. 92 minute film with a couple extras. Price: GBP14.99 (UK)) stars: Belinda Mayne and Mark Bodin.

Beastly
01/04/2011. The classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast is updated for the tweener masses, says Frank, in the lame youth-oriented sci-fi romancer Beastly. Writer-director Daniel Barnz oversees a drab and cheesy movie version to the revered literary fable by instilling a Gossip Girl vibe to the movie’s contemporary shadings.

The Adjustment Bureau (Mark's take)
01/04/2011. The agents of Fate, says Mark, battle the force of Chance in this odd romantic fantasy loosely based on a Philip K. Dick story. Angels or aliens have agents on Earth to make sure that what Fate says will happen really does. Two people who are fated not to meet do meet by chance and fall in love. If they want to stay together they must defeat the little men in suits and fedoras who are the agents of fate.

Rango (Mark's take)
01/04/2011. A pet chameleon falls from a truck in the middle of the Nevada desert. He soon finds his way to the dying Western town of Dirt where his bragging and his lucky defeat of a predatory hawk make him the town's new sheriff. Sadly, the town is drying up for shortage of water.

Land Of The Giants Season 1
1/04/2011. Land Of The Giants: The Complete Season One. region 2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films Ltd. B004BFZA6Y 26 episodes with extras. Price: GBP 39.99 (UK) stars: Gary Conway, Don Marshall, Heather Young, Don Matheson, Deanna Lund, Kurt Kasznar and Stefan Arngrim

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Season One
1/04/2011. region 2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films Ltd B004BFZA5U. 32 hours 9 DVDs 32 black and white episodes and extras. Price: GBP 39.99 (UK)) stars: Richard Basehart and David Hedison

The X-Files Season 8
1/04/2011. The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season. region 2 DVD: pub: 20th Century Fox 22308MDVD. 6 DVDs 892 minutes 21 episodes with extras. Price: about GBP 8.00 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, David Duchovny, Mitch Peleggi and Annabeth Gish