Oblivion (2013)

There’s a lot of hate for this Tom Cruise Science fiction thriller and I’m not sure why. It’s not a masterpiece but I was really entertained by it. Tom Cruise plays a repair man combination security guard who lives on a deserted, war-torn Earth in the future. He lives with his girlfriend played by Andrea Riseborough and it’s their one year mission to maintain various energy stations and keep them safe from leftover rogue aliens that caused Earth’s destruction. When they’re done with their mission, they will return to Saturn’s moon Titan where the rest of humanity lives out their days. Directed and written by Joseph Kosinski (of Tron: Legacy) it’s a fun dystopian adventure with many twists. Although I saw some of the twists coming as the story unfolded, I still enjoyed the overall package. As stated it’s not an instant classic, for there are some logic issues dealing with the aliens motivations, but I liked the premise enough to go with it. Andrea Riseborough, for me, stole the show; I really liked her performance. Olga Kurylenko is a bit young for the eternal young Tom Cruise but she executes her role fine enough. Morgan Freeman also stars and does his typical decent side character. Again no wow factor going on here but it’s still an enjoyable exercise of science fiction escapism. Grade: A-

Spoiler Alert
As mentioned above, the one issue I had with the film is that it’s not clear why the Alien invader needed to create clones that thought they were humans. If they could program a bunch of clones to be soldiers for them why not just program to maintain the power stations. I guess the human spirit eventually breaks free and that’s the point of Tom Cruise’s character’s journey. This might sound crazy to most people and I know it would never happen but I’d love to see a sequel. What you say? How could you make a sequel? After the alien space craft is destroyed the Earth is covered by all these clones who just realized that they’ve been deceived all this time. I’d love to see the point of view of a bunch of Tom Cruise characters trying to survive in this new world. Would they be outcasts? How would all the humans treat these clones? Would any of these clones be bad? There are so many possibilities.

Tampopo (1985)

I’m on a roll, another great film. This is a comedy about a truck driver and other ramen connoisseurs who collaborate to help a widow running a noodle shop make her place the best in town. This is what you’d call a real crowd pleaser, an entertaining tale that stirs your stomach as well as your mind. It’s just a fun film well-worth watching. I’m not a ramen foodie but I would become one if I could go to Tampopo’s noodle shop. Grade: A

Upstream Color (2013)

I absolutely am in awe of this film. Shane Carruth is my new hero. I don’t even know where to begin because I want so badly to write a blog worthy of such an original bizarre drama. Let me clarify right from the beginning, this is not a film for everyone. Many people will look at this beautifully eerie film about a woman and a man finding each other after being victims to a spiritual thief who uses a strange parasite to make them do whatever he commands them to do as being too odd. And it is odd but in such a poetic good way. I truly believe you could find a multitude of themes and inspiring ideas in this work of art. It’s open to so many theories. Amy Seimetz co-stars with Carruth and their chemistry on screen is vibrant. I rooted for these people to recover their lives and in the end realized that they ended up richer human beings for going through what they did. It’s part mystery, part science fiction fable, part love story and part metaphysical poem. After seeing Primer, Carruth’s first film, I figured a new talent had emerged but I would have never guessed he’d go completely against the grain and produce a work of art this special. Grade: A

Everything Must Go (2010)

Will Farrell can act. Really, he can. This isn’t the first time he proved this fact but if there was any doubt let this wonderful dramedy about a man who sells everything he owns to restart his life reaffirm it. Of course at first it’s not that Will’s character Nick wants to sell his stuff, it’s just that he doesn’t know what to do except sit on his lawn (to the house his soon-to-be ex-wife locked) and drink beers. But soon he befriends a teenager and his neighbor across the street played by Rebecca Hall. Dan rush the director and writer based the film the short story by Raymond Carver called, “Why Don’t You Dance?” Looks like I’m going to have to find my copy of the collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love? and read it again to see how much he made up and how much he actually used. Grade: A-

Jedi Junkies (2010)

I don’t know if I should admit this but while watching this documentary about Super Star Wars fans, the kind of nerds that collect everything and obsess on every detail of the films to the point of absurdity, I was envious. I too am a fan of the Star Wars and if I had had my way as a kid I would have become a master collector as well. I remember dreaming of having a warehouse where I could build massive dioramas recreating my favorite scenes. As a teenager I would have jumped at the chance to learn out to fight with a Lightsaber. (Let’s just say the famous Star Wars Kid and I could have been good friends.) Even today I would love to devote that much time to Star Wars. But I didn’t take that fork in the road. I conformed to society’s norms and found a multitude of other passions to take up my energies. Some might find some of people in this documentary geeky or pathetic but for me they’re heroes. They never gave up and kept the Force strong. Thank god we have people like that in our world. Grade: B+

Gravity (2013)

There is little doubt this survival in space drama, this mostly one-woman show starring Sandra Bullock, will be nominated for Best Picture. Director Alfonso Cuaron merges reality and special effect in such a brilliant way I almost was convinced he took his cast out into outer space to make this film. Every sequence delivers a highly emotional roller coaster ride and Bullock gives her best performance in her career. She commits all the way to an actual complex character, making me forget that this is the same woman we’ve seen in dozens of films. George Clooney is also good in this one, even if his minor role could have been played by anyone. At 90 minutes long Cuaron knows when to take us in and when to end the story at just the right moment. I left the theater inspired and still dazzled. Grade: A

Spoiler Alert
Even a great film like this has to have a flaw or plot hole, if you want to call it that. It bothered me for a second while watching the film and then I let it go. Later while thinking about the scene some more it bothered me again. But in the end it’s such a nitpicky thing it’s not really significant enough to lower my rating. It appears Ryan (Sandra) and Stone (George) are about to tumbling past the space station and miss their one chance for survival. Ryan gets snagged into a parachute but is able to grab Stone before he flies past. But Stone tells her to let go and that she needs to save herself because if she tries to save him he’ll only kill the both of them. Yet the problem is that in space they’re weight less. It would be very easy for Ryan to yank his arm and float him back toward the space station. Also as soon as she grabbed him he’d stop moving forward because he would be traveling at the same force as the space station and Ryan. Two professionals trained for space walking would know this and so should the film makers. I’m assuming it all comes to drama, that the story dictated that Ryan needed to make a choice and if Cuaron had bound himself to science he felt he’d hurt the story. I think they could have found a way to work around this but I can live with what happens in the movie as is.

Fringe (Season 5)

Events prefaced in last season’s 19th episode ”Letters to Transit” continues on this the last season of the Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci’s created sci-fi detective show centered around concepts on the edges of science. Here we jump forward to the future where the Observers are no longer passive record takers but dictators who’ve taken our world prisoner. Released from amber, the Fringe team must work with Peter and Olivia’s adult daughter to save the world from these unbound-by-time beings. First let me get this out of the way: wow and thank you for taking the show into a new direction that really is exciting and refreshing. Just when the show was starting to feel formulaic they do a 180 and turn our heroes into the terrorists/rebels fighting the system. I really loved this season and feel like it was the best way to end the series. It’s unpredictable, emotional and completely original. My one complaint is that it felt Olivia’s character (who started out the main character) kind of takes back seat. That said the father and son story line between the Bishops is top-notch and I am in love with Georgina Haig who played Etta Bishop. The last episode was a tad too rushed for me (it deserved a two-hour closing) but ultimately it was still very satisfying. Now that it’s over I realize I’m going to miss this show a lot. Grade: A