Scifi and fantasy movies from 2009.

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Terminator: Salvation - Rod's take
01/12/2009. Region 2 DVD: pub: Sony Pictures CDR 61426. 1 DVD 110 minute film with no extras. Price: £19.99 (UK). Stars: Christian Bale, Sam Washington, Anton Yelchin and Moon Bloodgood.

Doctor Who: The Mind Robber
01/12/2009. Region 2 DVD. pub: BBC BBCDVD 1358. 1 DVD 5 * 20 minute episodes 99 minutes with extras. Price: £ 5.98 (UK) if you know where to look). stars: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Hamish Wilson and Emrys Jones.

Doctor Who: The War Machines
01/12/2009. Region 2 DVD. pub: BBC BBCDVD 2441. 1 DVD 4 * 24 minute episodes 95 minutes with extras. Price: £ 4.38 (UK) if you know where to look.

Moon Phase Phase 2 Vol. 3 episodes 11-14
01/12/2009. Region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72803. 1 DVD 105 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Moon (2009): Rod's take
01/12/2009. Region 2 DVD: pub: Sony Picture Classics CDR60350. 93 minute film with extras. Price: £19.99 (UK). Stars: Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey.

Punisher: War Zone: Ewan's take
01/12/2009. Region 2 DVD: pub: Sony Pictures B001WAKCWI. 99 minute film DVD. Price: £5.98 if you know where to look)cast: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Hutchinson and Julie Benz.

Full Metal Alchemist The Movie: Conqueror Of Shamballa
01/12/2009. Region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72216. 1 DVD 100 minute film plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Where the Wild Things Are
01/11/2009. A boy with emotional problems finds himself on an island with large fluffy animal people. Spike Jonze co-writes and directs this adaptation of the popular 1963 children's book. While the book works fine for the younger set, the film tries to be too much an Alice-in-Wonderland-class story for all ages, but it rarely works for both young and old at the same time.

Doghouse DVD (2009)
01/11/2009. Region 2 DVD: pub: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment B002EL4MIY. 85 minute film with extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

The Day The Earth Caught Fire (1961)
01/10/2009. Region 2 DVD: pub: Network B002GDM322. 96 minute DVD with no extras. Price: £ 5.99 (UK). stars: Edward Judd, Janet Munro and Leo McKern.

Firestarter (1984)
01/10/2009. region 2 DVD. pub: Prism Leisure PPA1592. 115 minute film with no extras. Price: a couple quid - you don't have to wander far to get a nice price). stars: Drew Barrymore, David Keith, Martin Sheen and George C. Scott.

Suzuka Vol. 3 episodes 11-14
01/10/2009. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN73003. 1 DVD 95 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Cold Souls: Mark's take
01/09/2009. Cold Souls is a bizarre fantasy that gives us a world where souls can be removed and transplanted like kidneys. What seems at first like a blessing causes some unforeseen and fantastic problems. The first half of Cold Souls is inventive, but the film really loses steam in the second half. Too many technical problems went unsolved in bringing this story to the screen. Sophie Barthes writes and directs.

District 9: Mark's take
01/09/2009. Peter Jackson produced this film directed by Neill Blomkamp. When a spaceship brings a large load of alien refugees to South Africa, racism becomes three-sided. A government functionary charged with relocating the refugee camp finds himself more personally involved in the conflict than he expected. Blomkamp's and Terri Tatchell's script asks us to dissect racism and understand what exactly the rules are. While the film is asking difficult questions, it is a first rank piece of science fiction. When it starts to answer those questions in the easiest and most predictable ways the film becomes just another loud summer action film.

Fissure: Mark's take
01/09/2009. Paul Grunning was a good cop broken by a professional case that brought him personal tragedy. While trying to put is life back together he is sent to an odd house only to find reality breaking down on him. Anything outside his sight may not be there when he looks again from another angle. First-time director Russ Pond directs a script by first-time writer Nicholas Turner and creates a nice low-budget crime thriller with some nice science fiction turns. It is the kind of idea that would have made for a very good Twilight Zone episode, but fleshed out.

Children Of Men 2-DVD Special Edition
01/09/2009. DVD Region 2: pub: Universal Pictures B000NJM27M. 105 minute film with extras. Price: £ 2.50 (UK) if you know where to look. cast: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Peter Mullan, Michael Caine and Pam Ferris.

Moon: Rod's take
01/09/2009. pub: Liberty Films/Sony Distribution. 93 minute film on general release. cast: Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey.

Passengers (2008)
01/09/2009. region 2 DVD: pub: Lions Gate Home Entertainment B002BC9YES. 93 minute film. Price; £12.99 (UK). cast: Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, David Morse, Andre Braugher and Clea Duvall.

Babylon 5 - Crusade: The Complete Series
01/09/2009. Region 2 DVD: pub: Warner Bros Z1 68389. 551 minutes 13 episodes with extras. Price: £ 8.00 (UK) if you know where to look. stars: Gary Cole, Tracy Scoggins, Daniel Dae Kim, David Allen Brooks, Peter Woodward, Marjean Holden and Carrie Dobro.

Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales
01/09/2009. Region 2 DVD: pub: Warner Bros Z1 Y12984. 69 minute film with extras. Price: £ 4.30 (UK) if you know where to look. stars: Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins, Peter Woodward, Alan Scarfe, Bruce Ramsay, Keegan Macintosh and Teryl Rothery.

Alien Trespass (Geoff's take)
01/08/2009. Region 1 DVD: pub: Image Entertainment RKW6273DVD. 84 minute movie with lots of extras. Price: $ 27.98(US) and for those who use expensive Blu-Ray $35.98 (US). stars: Eric McCormack, Jenni Baird, Dan Lauria and Robert Patrick.

Babylon 5: The Movie Collection
01/08/2009. Region 2 DVD: pub: Warner Bros Z1 39947. 3 films 90 minute each with extras. Price: about £ 9.00 (UK) if you know where to look. stars: Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Mira Furlan, Patricia Tallman, Steven Furst, Shari Belfonte, Jerry Doyle, Tracy Scoggins, Ian McShane, Martin Sheen, Jeff Conaway, Carrie Dobro, Tracy Scoggins, Peter Woodward and Tony Todd.

Babylon 5: The Legend Of The Rangers
01/08/2009. Region 2 DVD: pub: Warner Bros Z1 22353. 86 minute film with no extras. Price: £ 4.30 (UK) if you know where to look. stars: Dylan Neal, Alex Zahara, Myriam Sirois, Mackenzie Gray and Andreas Katsulas.

Hell Girl Volume 3: Cherry
01/08/2009. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72603. 1 DVD 110 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

UP (Mark's take)
01/07/2009. Certainly UP is one of Pixar's best films to date, believes our ace film reviewer Mark. The reason is not that it has some of their best animation, though that arguably is true. But their story values are may be improving faster than their animation. UP is a story with genuine pathos on themes of loss and of unfulfilled dreams. All this mixes with an adventure story with a little bit of action. Kids will love this film, but some of the notes of this film will definitely resonate with adults. A bittersweet prologue really works to make this film a much better story.

Drag Me To Hell (Mark's take)
01/07/2009. A bank loan officer refuses a loan extension to a woman of Gypsy origin. In return, the officer is cursed. The effects of the curse are horrifying and frequently revolting. Were this a new story written by Sam Raimi and his elder brother Ivan it would have been a better piece of horror. The effects and the action are all Raimi, but the story is cobbled together from familiar pieces. Largely this is a high-octane version of M. R. James's Casting the Runes with equal parts of shock and humour.

Dead Snow (Mark's take)
01/07/2009. A week long Easter vacation visit to a remote cabin in the mountains turns into a horror for eight young medical students, finds our Mark. Following the inspiration of Sam Raimi films Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola does his own horror film of something nasty out in the woods. This is very much by-the-numbers horror film making. It is not at all bad, but it has little that is fresh and new.

Sky: The Complete Series
01/07/2009. Region 2 DVD: Pub: Network 7953059. 1 DVD 7 * 25 minute colour episodes 175 minutes plus extras. Price: £14.99 (UK))

Fireball XL5 Special Edition
01/07/2009. DVD Region 2. Pub: Network B001VAF6SE. 6 DVDs 39 black and white episodes 975 minutes with colour extras. Price: £59.99 (UK).

Doppelgänger and Silliness
01/06/2009. There is, says Mark, an old (well now it's old: from 1969) British science fiction movie called Doppelgänger. At the time it was filmed the makers assumed that that name would mean nothing to most Yanks so for audiences on this side of the pond it was called Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun. A doppelgänger is a thing from German folklore. It is an identical double to its victim and it is or our plane to replace its original.

Fermat's Room (La Habitación De Fermat): Mark's take
01/06/2009. Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopeña write and direct a very different sort of suspense film in the Spanish language, discovers Mark. Four strangers, mathematicians, must solve mathematics puzzles against a time limit. Each time they fail to solve the puzzle in time the walls of their room close in on them like the jaws of a vice. Can they solve the individual puzzles and the mystery of the room before being crushed to death?

Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer: 2 Disc Special Edition
01/06/2009. DVD region 2: pub: 20th Century Fox 3518901001. 2 DVDs 88 minute film with extras. Price: £ 6.00 (UK) if you look around. stars: Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Julian McMahon.

Saga Of A Crew 2008 Special Edition
01/06/2009. DVD Region 1: pub: Daniel R. Christopher Productions. 67 minute film. Price: $ 15.95 + $3.00 (p&p world wide) (US).

The Apollo Story: Man's Journey to the Moon
01/06/2009. region 2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. PAR61303. 1 DVD 45 minute film plus extras. Price: £ 4.99 (UK).

Star Trek: Mark's take
11/05/2009. The new film Star Trek (the title is just the two words), says our Mark, is J. J. Abrams's restart of the Star Trek series. While nobody is going to give it any awards for great new ideas, it does tell a good action-filled adventure story and makes a prequel and origin to the original TV series that is almost consistent. The viewer does see and hear the 1966 characters in their younger incarnations--no small feat for the filmmakers.

Star Trek reboot (Frank's take)
06/05/2009. The exuberant sci-fi space adventure Star Trek has entered a new frontier for the millennium audience as its refreshing and new approved package sparkles with zesty ambition. Armed with the notable anticipation that Trekkie enthusiasts were eagerly waiting to jump-start this film franchise once again, director J.J. Abrams’s sprawling and keenly energetic space opera aptly introduces us to the familiar yet modernized youthful faces of James T. Kirk and the crew with a flashy sense of vibrancy.

Battle for Terra (Frank's take)
06/05/2009. The innocuous kiddie 3-D sci-fi animation Battle for Terra is a quaint and sweet-hearted vehicle armed with a cautionary message. Unfortunately, there is nothing else redeeming about this tyke-oriented intergalactic fable that resonates with convincing gusto.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Frank's take)
02/05/2009. Talented Australian song-and-dance man Hugh Jackman scored big when signing on to assume the role of the clawed, hairy mutant breakout star of the X-Men film franchise, says Frank. Naturally, Jackman embodied the angst-ridden Wolverine with a distinctive fierceness that satisfied the most ardent fan of the Marvel comic book character.

Dragonball: Evolution (Frank's Take)
01/05/2009. So here we go again sighs our Frank... another woefully generic actioner borrowing its inspiration from a popular television series (Dragonball Z) and/or highly regarded video game of the same name. Still, how could the immensely flashy and kinetic Dragonball: Evolution go so wrong when it has also been translated into best-selling graphic novels? After all, it is derived from the desired Japanese manga created by Akira Toriyama? Well gang, let us count the ways...shall we?

Watchmen (Frank's take)
01/05/2009. We have arrived at the challenging age in cinema where sardonically bleak and cynical overtones have somehow considerably shaped the way we appreciate sophisticated action-packed superhero sagas. Previously, notes Frank, the arrestingly visual The Dark Knight captured the pure essence of a fierce fantasy that bleeds layers of ferocious forethought in its captivating confection.

Alien Trespass (Frank's take)
01/05/2009. The tongue-in-cheek humour is thoroughly realised in the movie Alien Trespass, finds our Frank. It also has that bloke out of Will and Grace (Will, not Jack), and all the clichés of 1950's horror cinema are there - and, that is a good thing!

Race to Witch Mountain (Frank's take)
01/05/2009. Race to Witch Mountain is sadly a race to the bottom of Frank's popularity scale, discovers our ace reviewer, as he delves into a sci-fi movie which offers little but lacklustre special effects and clichéd situational dilemma. Will your kids like it? Not if they've got any taste, he suspects.

Super Capers (Frank's take)
01/05/2009. Now, our Frank knows that we're all meant to be doing our bit for the environment, but recycled gags? Come on! As you might be able to gather, the new superhero spoof movie Super Capers didn't exactly tickle our movie critic's entertainment-buds. Strap your cape on and get ready to fly at the speed of sound… into a cinematic brick wall.

17 Again (Frank's take)
01/05/2009. It must have taken the powers-that-be a brief 20-minute lunch session over a stale roast beef sandwich to conceive this woefully derivative teen comedy 17 Again, rages our Frank. For the sake of argument one cannot blame the handlers of this flaccid fable to see dollar signs dancing in their collective heads. First, why not milk the body swap gimmick for the ten millionth time?

Crank 2: High Voltage (Frank's take)
01/05/2009. Predictably, discovers Frank, Stratham is given permission to crank it up a few more notches and go totally ballistic in the outrageously fuel-injected follow-up High Voltage. Brash, outrageously inane and chaotically crafty, Crank 2: High Voltage is unapologetic in its sheer penchant for graphic-induced ribaldry as its charismatic calling card.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Frank's take)
01/05/2009. There is one amazing thing that you can say about the flaccid featherweight fantasy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past in that it managed to do a handful of cinematic crimes in one sweep. First, says our film reviewer Frank, it destroyed whatever credibility legendary scriber Charles Dickens had in his cherished A Christmas Carol gimmickry of revisiting spirits to keep one's soul grounded. Secondly, it reminds us how weak-kneed mainstream Hollywood romance comedies continue to be strained in imagination and conception. Thirdly, it reinforces how much that bland box office boy-toy Matthew McConaughey has overstayed his welcome in these aforementioned fluffy fantasies.

Let the Right One In aka Låt den rätte komma
01/05/2009. movie: Swedish with sub-titles now on general release. director: Thomas Alfredsson. Writer: John Lindqvist.

Iron Man: Ultimate 2-Disc Edition
01/05/2009. region 2 DVD: pub: Paramount Home Entertainment PHE 9807. 121 minute film with extras. Price: £ 9.99 (UK) if you know where to look. Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Hell Girl Volume 2: Puddle
01/05/2009. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72602. 1 DVD 150 minutes 5 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Wolverine And The X-Men Volume One - Hindsight
01/05/2009. Region 2 CD: pub: Contender Home Entertainment B001TEKJXE . 6 * 25 minute episodes. Price: £12.99 (UK).

The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian: 2-Disc Collector's Edition
01/05/2009. pub: Disney BUA0090201. 2 DVDs 144 minute film with extras, Price: about £ 6.00 (UK) if you shop around. Stars: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Mosely, Anna Popplewell and Ben Barnes.

Monsters vs. Aliens (Frank's Take)
16/04/2009. Monsters versus Aliens may not be DreamWorks' very best work, says our Frank, but compared with the animated science fiction and fantasy flicks coming out from everyone else, it's still good enough. There are plenty of kicks for us adults, and you can expect your tots to be tickled too.

Repo: The Genetic Opera (Mark's take)
14/04/2009. This is a Grand Guignol science fiction rock opera starring Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, and Anthony Head. Rotti Largo, the man who supplies the world with synthetic transplant organs, became the most powerful man in the world during a strange epidemic. As he nears death there is a struggle for who will inherit his empire after he dies. The plot, says Mark, is minimal and for a rock opera, there is too little real melody. Visually the film is a little nauseating but otherwise very inventive. Darren Lynn Bousman, director of three sequels to SAW, helms this film with what I would guess is the same sensitivity.

Knowing: Mark's take
05/04/2009. Knowing uses ideas seemingly borrowed from The Mothman Prophecies but as a springboard to tell a larger, more engaging, and far grimmer story, says our Mark. A page of digits written by a schoolgirl in 1959 seems to list every major disaster up to the present and even a little way into the future. Nicolas Cage plays an MIT professor who does not believe in determinism, but is forced to accept that a girl in 1959 knew specific data about the next fifty years. And the implications will have world-wide impact. Still, the script balances ideas, action, tension, and even horror.

Monsters vs. Aliens: Mark's take
05/04/2009. This film has a little something for the kids in the audience and a little something for the adults, says Mark, but not so much both can enjoy. The film builds a story of cute monsters defending Earth from ugly aliens. A disenchanted young woman finds herself first turned into a monster and then called upon to save the Earth. The story is largely built from pieces taken from old science fiction films as if they were Lego blocks. For me they were more fun where they got them.

Wanted
01/04/2009. Region 2 DVD: Universal 825 560 5. 105 minute film with extras including a limited edition copy of the first issue of the original comic. Price: £ 6.99 (UK) if you know where to look. Stars: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie.

Classic Sci-Fi
02/03/2009. region 2 DVD: pub: Universal 825 1373. 553 minutes 7 films on 7 DVDs. Price: £16.00 (UK) if you know where to look, otherwise twice as much.

The Oblong Box DVD
02/03/2009. DVD Region 2: Optimum Releasing B001NDT9XW. 92 minute film DVD. Price: £15.99 (UK). stars: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Rupert Davies.

Futureworld
02/03/2009. region 2 DVD. pub: Optimum Classic OPTD1442. 103 minute DVD with no extras. Price: £15.99 (UK). stars: Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, Arthur Hill, John Ryan, Stuart Margolin and Yul Brynner.

Coraline: Mark's take
02/03/2009. With charming images in 3-D animation, discovers Mark, we have the story of a girl who finds a tunnel to a parallel world where she has two other parents who just love her to death. Everything is wondrous in this world until she finds out that ... but that would be telling.

Peach Girl Volume 2
01/02/2009. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72602. 1 DVD 100 minute film plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Moon Phase Phase 2 Vol. 2 episodes 6-10
01/02/2009. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72802. 1 DVD 125 minutes 5 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Joe 90 - Collector's Edition Complete Series
01/02/2009. region 2 DVD. pub: Carlton Visual Entertainment 37115 03943. 5 DVDs 748 minutes 30 episodes with extras. Price: about £16.00 (UK) currently if you know where to look, around £75.00 if you don't) voices: Len Jones, Rupert Davies, David Healey, Keith Alexander and Sylvia Anderson.

The Dark Knight: Two-Disc Special Edition
01/02/2009. DVD Region 2. pub: Warner Bros Z1 Y17658. 2 DVDS 152 minute film with extras. Price: £ 9.99 (UK) if you look around) stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Morgan Freeman.

Adam Resurrected (Mark's take)
01/01/2009. This, says Mark, is a bizarre surreal fantasy involving a man with psychic powers, a German Holocaust death camp, and people who are degraded to live and act like dogs. How does all that fit together? I vote for "not very well." Jeff Goldblum's performance is magnetic, but he has problems with the accent. Paul Schrader directs Noah Stollman's adaptation of Yoram Kaniuk's novel.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Mark's take)
01/01/2009. More than just a film, David Fincher's The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is a genuine accomplishment. It stylistically shows a span of history, carefully orchestrating an evolution of style and mood that tracks the passing years. This, finds Mark, is an intelligent fantasy with a beautifully sustained and intricate attention to tone. Almost certainly this haunting fantasy will be my best film of 2008.

Let the Right One In (Mark's take)
01/01/2009. With, believes Mark, marked similarities to Carrie this is a Swedish vampire film. Oskar, the most bullied boy in school, makes friends with a girl who appears to be his own age, but is somehow different. The somehow is that she is a vampire, living a life as isolated in her way as Oskar is in his. The two form a bond against a background of vampire-related killings. In spite of the fantasy motif this is a serious film about serious problems.