Countdown (1967)
Dec 15, 2001Expedition to the Moon
An early Robert Altman film about the planning and launch of a Moon Landing starring then unknown James Caan and Robert Duvall. The most realistic depiction of a space launch up to that point.
Robert Duvall
THX 1138 (1971)
Nov 12, 2002Dystopian Future
George Lucas's first film and always a puzzle to those who come to it after the Star Wars series where its antiseptic, dehumanised aesthetic and dystopian future seems almost the polar opposite of the Star Wars universe
The Handmaid’s Tale (1990)
Dec 24, 2002Fundamentalist Dystopia
The original version of the Margaret Atwood novel made way before the tv series. This aims in the general direction but is more a film that achieves a sense of disquiet rather than the true horror of its’ heroine’s situation in this world
The Plague (1992)
Apr 27, 2003Plague Outbreak/Albert Camus Adaptation
An incredibly dull version of Albert Camus's novel about a city infected by plague. Camus wrote the original as an allegory for the Nazi occupation of France but this talks itself to death
Falling Down (1993)
Nov 18, 1999Man's Shooting Rampage Against the Frustrations of Life
Though many people celebrated this as black comedy about Michael Douglas taking up arms on a shooting rampage against the petty frustrations of modern life, it is a film that is really a single redneck rant against the poor and minorities
Phenomenon (1996)
Apr 12, 2003Man Gains Expanded Mental Powers
Positive upbeat film in which John Travolta gains a supermind after seeing a light in the sky. For all its featuring a man with superior intellectual abilities, this is ironically a film that deals in simplistic black-and-whites
Deep Impact (1998)
May 31, 1999Asteroid Collision/Disaster Movie
Big serious attempt at creating an asteroid collides with Earth film, this came out the same year as Armageddon. Despite arraying much acting talent and effects artistry, this disappears into a melodramatic blandness
The 6th Day (2000)
Nov 19, 2000Cloned Man/Action
Arnold Schwarzenegger revisits something of Total Recall in this modest and clever action film in which he discovers that a clone has stolen his life
The Road (2009)
Nov 30, 2009Grim Post-Holocaust Survivalism
The extraordinary poetry of Cormac McCarthy's novel about a man trying to retain his humanity amid the harsh struggle for survival in a post-apocalyptic world is necessarily weakened in being translated to screen but the film still does a fine job of capturing the essence of the book
The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
Apr 21, 2023Edgar Allan Poe in an Occult Murder Mystery
Superlatively moody and well written film that winds a young Edgar Allan Poe into an occult murder mystery