What Lies Beneath (2000)

What Lies Beneath (2000)
Rating: ★★★½
Jul 23, 2000Ghost Story
Robert Zemeckis takes on the ghost story with uncommon effectiveness. While this is average on a story level, Zemeckis's directorial approach pushes it to the unnervingly spooky, with the last fifteen minutes being one of the most suspense-filled sequences in recent memory

A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) (2001)

A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) (2001)
Rating: ★★★★½
Jun 29, 2001Android Boy’s Quest
Steven Spielberg directs an unfinished Stanley Kubrick project about an android boy's quest. The result is a beautiful and intelligent SF film where the sensibilities of either director merge with magnificent results

Taken (2002)

Taken (2002)
Rating: ★★★½
Aug 7, 2008UFOs and Alien Abductions
TV mini-series in ten two-hour parts that deals with UFOs, covering several generations from the 1940s to the present. An interesting take on UFO encounters with the benefit of some phenomenal performances

Minority Report (2002)

Minority Report (2002)
Rating: ★★★★
Jul 15, 2002Future Precognitive Police Force
Steven Spielberg takes on Philip K. Dick in a much grittier film than he usually makes. In the strong and intelligent script, Tom Cruise is an officer on a police force that predicts crime before it happens only to then be hunted by his own side

Paycheck (2003)

Paycheck (2003)
Rating: ★★
Apr 6, 2004Precognition/Action Film/Philip K. Dick Adaptation
This Philip K. Dick adaptation has a great premise – Ben Affleck is an engineer with a blanked memory blanked only to find he has left himself clues from the future of things that are starting to come true. Alas, this is reduced to an action vehicle in the hands of John Woo

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
Rating: ★★
Dec 28, 2004Gothic Children's Fantasy
Film adaptation of the popular children's books expends much effort on the design and look and casts a wildly over-acting Jim Carrey as the villain. Beyond that, the show never much goes anywhere

War of the Worlds (2005)

War of the Worlds (2005)
Rating: ★★★½
Jul 2, 2005Alien Invasion/H.G. Wells Adaptation
Steven Spielberg remakes the classic H.G. Wells alien invasion story, liberally rewriting it for the post-9/11 world. Not Spielberg's best film but a more than solid work on most grounds

I Am Number Four (2011)

I Am Number Four (2011)
Rating:
Feb 25, 2011Alien Teenager on Earth/Young Adult
Produced by Michael Bay and directed by the perpetually insipid D.J. Caruso, this is no more than a Young Adult high school version of Disney's Witch Mountain films concerning an alien teenager with psi powers

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014)

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014)
Rating: ★★
Mar 15, 2014Animation/Time-Travelling Dog Genius and His Son
DreamWorks animated film based on an old Rocky and Bullwinkle segment about a time-travelling genius dog and his adopted human son. This takes a relentlessly content-free approach to history that strips it down to no more than a series of giddy 3D slapstick gags for the single digit age groups