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  • Mars In The Movies

    Mars In The Movies

    Mars – aka the Red Planet –  has exerted a fascination with humankind ever since it was first glimpsed through a telescope in the 17th century, and later was thought to be inhabited by intelligent beings. Would they be friendly?  Could humans ever live there – and dare we try?

    In the new sci-fi thriller SETTLERS, a family (Sofia Boutella, Jonny Lee Miller and Brooklynn Prince) have made their home in a barren wilderness on Mars, following an ecological disaster on Earth. Their seemingly idyllic – if remote and lonely – lifestyle is torn apart when a dangerous stranger intrudes into their compound. It’s not the first time the planet has been used as a cinematic backdrop – here’s a look at the Top Ten films set on Mars. 

    Total Recall (1990)

    Paul Verhoeven’s wildly imaginative film, based on a short story by Phillip K Dick, sees Arnold Schwarzenegger as a man taking a ‘virtual vacation’ to Mars using a memory implant. Unfortunately, this triggers a series of memories where he remembers being a secret agent fighting the corrupt Mars administration. He decides to travel to the Red Planet itself to separate fact from fiction – and that’s when the real fun begins..

    The Martian (2015)

    Matt Damon stars as an astronaut stranded on Mars in this Golden Globe-winning sci-fi drama directed by Ridley Scott (Alien). Left for dead by the rest of his crew, Damon must use his resourcefulness to survive, and try to send a signal to Earth that he is still alive, The film made over $600million worldwide, suggesting Mars is a rather profitable sci-fi location.

    Red Planet (2000)

    With Earth becoming uninhabitable, a mission is launched to Mars to see if the planet can be lived upon by humans, in this sci-fi thriller starring Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss. If Elon Musk is serious about colonising Mars, he might want to give this film a peek beforehand to be forewarned about some of the possible obstacles to his plan!

    Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

    A real turkey from the Sixties, in which Santa is kidnapped by Martians so they can have someone to give the alien kiddies presents! As you can see from the trailer, it’s a pretty dreadful film – the Mars setting is painfully cheap and the Martian costumes unconvincing, and the less said about the acting and plot the better – but it does have one very advantageous features – if you put on at Christmas it’s a surefire way of getting rid of unwanted house guests.

    Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)

    Another vintage Mars sci-fi, and a precursor to The Martian, with an astronaut stranded on the planet, with a monkey for company, trying to figure out a way to survive. The film claims to be ‘scientifically authentic’, although whether aliens that use slave bracelets to control their prisoners is based on fact is uncertain. Adam West appears in the film, two years before he found fame as TV’s Batman.

    The Angry Red Planet  (1959)

    One of two survivors from a doomed trip to Mars can’t recall what went wrong with the expedition – but scientists must find out what happened to her, if they are to save her surviving companion who has an alien life form attached. Through a series of flashbacks we begin to find out the terrifying and dangerous secrets of the mysterious planet.

    Ghosts of Mars (2001)

    In John Carpenter’s spooky and atmospheric sci-fi horror, Pam Grier and Jason Statham star as a part of a Mars police unit sent to a remote mining post to pick up a dangerous criminal. When they get there, they discover the inhabitants of the outpost seem to have been possessed – by Martian ghosts!

    Mission To Mars (2000)

    Brian De Palma, another big name Hollywood director, along with the likes of Verhoeven and Ridley Scott, has journeyed to Mars to expand his cinematic universe. Here, Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise are part of a rescue mission to discover what happened to the first manned spaceflight to Mars. Of course, things don’t run at all smoothly!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UccsxuP8Tk8

    Species 2 (1998)

    In this sequel to the hit alien-on-the-rampage sci-fi horror, an astronaut is infected with alien DNA on a mission to Mars, and when he returns to Earth he transforms into a vicious creature that goes on a gruesome, seemingly unstoppable rampage. The lesson seems to be, don’t visit Mars! And if you do, don’t bring anything back.

    Settlers (2021)

    This striking sci-fi film is a cross between an old school western and a cutting edge sci-fi, with the barren Mars landscape providing a suitably forbidding backdrop to a story about survival and loyalty tested to breaking point. Here, Mars is at least habitable, and food can be grown and some semblance of normal life can be led. But the settlers haven’t reckoned on the single biggest problem facing them on a new planet – each other.

    SETTLERS WILL BE RELEASED ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS IN THE UK & IRELAND ON 30TH JULY

  • Clara Sola: Review

    Clara Sola: Review

    “Clara Sola” is a film by the Costa Rican-Swedish Nathalie Àlvarez Mesén presented on July 8 in Cannes during the Directors’ Fortnight and competing for the Golden Camera. After several short films “Filip” (2015), “Asunder” (2015) and “Letting Go” (2016), this is her first feature film.  As a reminder, the golden camera rewards the best first film from the official selection, the critics’ week and the directors’ fortnight. Over the years it has highlighted directors from very different backgrounds and countries. For the 2021 edition, the Croatian film “Murina” by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović has been awarded.

    “In a remote village in Costa Rica, Clara (played by Wendy Chinchilla), a withdrawn 40-year-old woman, experiences a sexual and mystical awakening as she begins a journey to free herself from the repressive religious and social conventions which have dominated her life.” Clara is a special 40-year-old woman, she seems to be more at ease with animals and nature than with other men. Yuca, her horse, seems to be more important than anything else to her, she has a very strong relationship with him. Because of this, she seems to be maladjusted to society. At 40 years old, she lives with her mother Fresia (played by Flor Vargas) and her niece Maria (played by Ana Julia Porras). 

    Since an alleged encounter with the Virgin Mary, Clara is seen by the villagers as a link to God and therefore able to cure illness and pain. In spite of her age, her mother still has an almost total hold on her, preventing her from having access to her own body, she is sexually and intellectually totally under control. This domination also prevents her from curing herself through medicine, which would be contrary to the will of God. On the other hand, her niece Maria, seems to be much more free. This seems to gradually upset Clara’s perception of the world. With the arrival of Santiago (played by Daniel Castaneda), who is going to establish a relationship with Maria, Clara seems to be progressively invaded by a feeling that is part of the seven deadly sins, envy. 

    The photography of the Swedish Sophie Winsvist gives to “Clara Sola” a very poetic dimension, almost magical, through superb sequences of nature. Sequences of nature in which Wendy Chinchilla seems very comfortable and gives us a really convincing performance. Wendy Chinchilla is perfect in this complex role to interpret, the character can quickly bore or even annoy the viewer.   However, the film suffers from a slight lack of rhythm in some sequences, but this is not enough to lower the overall quality of the film, which remains very interesting. 

    Through her film, Nathalie Àlvarez Mesén, along with Maria Camila Arias at the writing, tries to denounce the influence of the religion which is still too oppressive in some Costa Rican places. Through superb visuals, this resolutely feminist film is a real success. 

  • Last Call: The Shutdown Of NYC Bars – Review

    Last Call: The Shutdown Of NYC Bars – Review

    Last Call: The Shutdown Of NYC Bars – Review. It’s been quite a year and a bit as of writing this review and there have been many people who have been affected in many ways over the long months that led us to this point. There have been many people who have had to give up their entire lives and had to learn to survive in many different ways.

    Some of those people have been successful and some have not. There are entire industries that relied solely on human interaction and the bars, pubs and clubs of the world are where we all gathered to share our moments and will hopefully be able to do so once again.

    Last Call: The Shutdown of NYC Bars is a documentary about a group of people whose lives and livelihoods relied on being around other people and giving them a place where they could have fun, relax and unwind. However, if the past year has taught us anything, it’s that we take things for granted and things can be suddenly snatched away at a moment’s notice.

    Last Call follows the people in Queens, New York who have all been affected in some way or another by the pandemic and using interviews with each of them, it dissects and explores their thoughts and feelings while going through our worst time in living memory.

    The documentary starts out talking about the friends, family and community that is all experienced by those who work in the bars. They call it the third place, somewhere that sits between work and home where you can relax and be around the people you love. Because their work is so much more than that and the experiences that they have working in bars give them a perspective on life that nobody else could get.

    However, Last Call is so much more than just about people who have lost their salaries as many of them talk about their thoughts and feelings to which many of us could relate. Although, there are some that see this time as a way to find new opportunities. After all, those times where we said we wish we could do something if we had the time – now we really do have that time.

    So, Last Call may not be the end of the bar industry and it shows that there may be hope. We just have to all sit tight, think of each other and look forward to better things.

  • Heatwave Edition: Bits & Pieces

    Heatwave Edition: Bits & Pieces

    Heatwave Edition: Bits & Pieces – Jan, mysterious and marked by a profound sense of guilt, tries to win back the love of his ex Violeta, who is now a psychiatrist, with a family of her own. Jan’s complex and perverse plan to reunite him with Violeta, 20 years after the events that led to their separation, will have severe consequences.

    In this frontier romance framed by the four seasons and set against the backdrop of rugged terrain, Abigail (Katherine Waterston), a farmer’s wife, and her new neighbour Tallie (Vanessa Kirby) find themselves powerfully, irrevocably drawn to each other. As grieving Abigail tends to the needs of her taciturn husband Dyer (Casey Affleck) and Tallie bristles at the jealous control of her husband Finney (Christopher Abbot), both women are illuminated and liberated by their intense bond, filling a void in their lives they never knew existed. Director Mona Fastvold (The Sleepwalker, co-writer of CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER and VOX LUX) examines the interior lives of two women resisting constraints, giving voice to their experiences. Scripted by Jim Shepard and Ron Hansen (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), THE WORLD TO COME explores how isolation is overcome by the power of imagination and human connection.

    Fast and the Furiousfavourite Tyrese Gibson takes the lead in Rogue Hostage an all-action, high-octane shoot-em-up thriller, that features a star-studded cast, including John Malkovich, Michael Jai White and Luna Lauren Velez. This adrenaline-fueled film is set for its UK premiere on DVD and digital on 26 July 2021 from 101 Films. Please see trailer here: https://youtu.be/-77qwDbDZ84

    Op and Ed are two adorable donut-shaped animals — FLUMMELS — who accidentally time-travel from 1835 to modern-day Shanghai. There, they discover traffic, trans fats, and worst of all, that flummels are now extinct. It’s up to this bumbling pair to save themselves, save their species… and just maybe change the course of history.

    A family of four. The dad seems to have a broken leg. The mom alternates between laughter and tears. The kid performs wild car karaoke, complete with dance numbers. His older brother, a mysterious air on his face, is driving them all towards the frontier. He is about to leave Iran, and his family is coming with him on this farewell road trip. Fond memories of the past alternate with fears of the unknown and uncertain future: how can you say goodbye?

    With the release of car-centric films Fast & Furious 9 and the much anticipated James Bond later in the year, Bristol Street Motors have worked out which film franchise and car can claim the right as the fastest car in film! 

    Highly trained military veteran Markus (Mikkelsen) returns home to care for his daughter after his wife dies in a tragic train accident. Meanwhile a survivor of the explosion, mathematics geek Otto, becomes convinced that the incident was part of an assassination plot involving dangerous crime gangs. When Otto and his hacker friends, Lennart and Emmenthaler, decide to confront the short-fused Markus with their suspicions, a chain of events begins which leads the mismatched group into a violent and ill-conceived revenge mission.

    THE COURIER is a true-life spy thriller, the story of an unassuming British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. At the behest of the UK’s MI6 and a CIA operative (Rachel Brosnahan), he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.

    ENEMIES OF THE STATE is a documentary thriller that investigates the strange case of Matt DeHart, an alleged hacker and whistleblower, and his former Cold War spy parents who believe they are at the center of a government conspiracy and are ready to do anything to save their son from prison. This stranger-than-fiction story takes audiences on a wild ride of unexpected plot twists and bizarre discoveries in an artistic and cinematic documentary that blurs the line between reality and paranoia. With extraordinary access to all lead characters and key sources, this film presents many contradicting viewpoints as it attempts to solve a mystery that has kept attorneys, activists and journalists occupied for over a decade. 

  • 20 Years In The Making: A New Look At Jurassic Park III

    20 Years In The Making: A New Look At Jurassic Park III

    20 Years In The Making: A New Look At Jurassic Park III – It’s understandable why there will be little fanfare for the twentieth anniversary of Jurassic Park III. The arrival of the first film, which marked a new milestone in film special effects and won over audiences across the globe, will rightly be noted and celebrated. Its second sequel was not as much of a technological advancement and, making nearly half at the box office what the in-between entry The Lost World: Jurassic Park did, it is the lowest-grossing film in the franchise to date.

    If looked at objectively though, in this writer’s humble opinion, it is the best film of the whole Jurassic Park series. There is one simple answer for this, one which made critics sniffed about during its theatrical run: it is almost entirely action scenes with dinosaurs. Good ones at that.

    The dinosaurs have always been the best part of any Jurassic film, and while it has come up with some memorable human characters over time, they were ultimately best used as live bait. At ninety-five minutes long, as well as not overstaying its welcome, JPIII has maybe the highest dinosaur-to-minute ratio in cinema. Taking over the director’s chair from Steven Spielberg, Joe Johnson cuts through all the dead weight and gets to the USP of the series: dino action.

    Almost from the start the filmmakers here show an understanding that is what they and the audience are both here for. At this point in the Jurassic Park series we all know there is an island inhabited by dinosaurs, ones some of the best technical crafters in the business have made to look so believable. All that’s needed is a reason for the characters to be there and even that is discussed in as little detail as possible.

    Sam Neill is back to headline this film as Dr. Alan Grant (Laura Dern reprises her role as Dr. Ellie Satler for a cameo). Along with his assistant Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola), he heads back to dinosaur-strewn Isla Sornar under false pretences: to act as guides to an adventurous wealthy couple. In fact, they are looking for their thrill-seeking son who went missing in the area while parasailing.

    Yes, it is preposterous, but it’s also the first fifteen minutes of JPIII. From there on it is what we came for: seeing this party at the constant mercy of the island’s dinosaur inhabitants. The most memorable is the big baddie of the piece, the Spinosaurus. Outweighing any other dinosaur in the series – both in its CGI form and as an animatronic, which was the largest every built for a film – it has a voracious appetite for humans and makes for an imposing and tenacious enemy.

    The Spinosaurus makes its presence first felt when it plucks the heroes’ crashed plane out of a tree with its teeth and, in the ensuing chase, ends up taking on the star reptile of the Jurassic Park universe, the T-Rex. It’s not done yet, though: later it turns up to give chase to the human party at a moment when things are starting to look up and later ambushes them at a river in the middle of a storm.

    They are also pursued by a pack of velociraptors and come across a mysterious, fog-strewn enclosure they hope is empty, but soon though soon find themselves face-to-face with the inhabitants: Pteranodons. Unlike the others, these are foes the party can’t escape on foot – fortunately they have a discarded parasail they can put to use in the most memorable, gleefully absurd and exciting of JPIII’s action set pieces.

    While the dinosaur action is the main focus of the film, that’s not to say it is a completely brainless exercise and some moments of character are allowed. For example, the couple who instigate the expedition to the island, Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H Macy and Tea Leoni) are divorced and have to work together in order to find their son, despite it being awkward for them at first.

    Both wanting to re-united with their son, they learn to work together and, in surviving the island, newfound respect and admiration for one another grows. At the same time Dr. Grant wants to get back to civilisation as soon as possible, which leads to tense disagreements with Billy, who sees this as a big opportunity to learn more about dinosaur behaviours. The doctor does start to find a new appreciation for the reborn beasts with help from the best of the new characters, Eric Kirby (Trevor Morgan).

    It may not be the most complex character developments, but compare them to those in Jurassic World, this film’s successor and the first in the series to make $1 billion at the box office. There the humans get as much screen time as the dinosaurs, but as well as few showing any genuine likeable qualities, they are all shells. Supposed character traits and backstory are just dropped in when the film feels a need to present them and are ignored and never resolved when the dinosaurs break loose.

    JPIII may not have the deepest character arcs but they are enough to want to see these characters through and everything the film sets up, it goes on to resolve. The third film understands trying to add character complexities which are pushed aside in favour of action is unnecessary. It knows the characters need just one primary motivation: to get off the island alive.

    Joe Johnson’s film is not without its problems: its breezy pace doesn’t do much for resonance and the dialogue ranges from perfunctory to trite. (One exchange goes: “It’s a birdcage,” “For what?” Well, what normally goes in a birdcage?) In a sense that isn’t so important, JPIII knows exactly what it is: dumb, absurd fun, a fact is never shies away from and with no higher aspirations than that.

    It’s not the most sophisticated actioner around, but that’s not what people come to a Jurassic Park film for. They come to see desperate protagonists in a series of increasingly desperate life-or-death clashes with dinosaurs, on which Jurassic Park III delivers. It is a much-maligned entry in the series but now, twenty years on from its first release and in the wake of far inferior follow-ups, the time has come for Jurassic Park III to have its dues.