Reviews

My Granpa who would be 107yo, gave me the Star Trek bite in the late 70'. Ive seen approx all 750 ep of 30 seasons and 13 movies, slowly, in 40y, exept the animated ones. You cannot compare apple and oranges. Its hard to have a fav. So Ill try stick to ST D. I thought season 1 was a rehash of only 2 TOS ep. Mudd and Mirror Mirror. The ST Discovery take on Mudd was a 10. The Mirror Mirror aspect lasted way too long. Id give a few a 5 or lower. Neo Mudd, one of my fav ep of all times, the NEW L'Rell, my fav Klingon ever, the true ALIEN nature of Klingons, and NON Captain Lorka characters saved it. Lorka could have been like a mean 1950 Marine Capt. Original! Now that they are gone. The new begining is a welcome restart. No spoilers. Like other reviews mention, it IS of 2019 sci-fi Movie quality. Definite 8. Here is the But.

Having seen them all. Apple and oranges again. The technology involved seems more appropriate to what the biggest SCI-FI franchise ever, Star Wars, sorry, far behind, never dared to go where no one has gone before. Exept in non ST SCI-FI litterature and only 4 ep of ST. After 2395, the farthest date in the series. The finale ST TNG, All Good Things. How about Captain Braxton and Startfleet's USS relativity from the the XXIXth century seen in ST ENT? Or the Century where the hilarious Matt Frewer as Berlinghoff Rasmussen stole the time machine from in ST TNG. Its never never ending so. Who knows.

Spoilers! Short and sweet. Charlie Brooker did it again. Terrifying. The reproduction of 1984 is perfect. Not 1 mistake. I did not watch it in interactive mode. All the references to older episodes. The presence of Jeff Minter himself, co-inventer of gaming, is eye popping. All freeze frames are incredible. Black Mirror episodes being so rare, 23 episodes in 8 years. It is my second favorite after the terrifying White Christmas from 2014. Is Jerome F. Davies real? If you don't know, It's even better. Bravo to Brooker.

This review contains many spoilers. I called it a mix bag because watching it, I saw the old clichés seen 100 times. Badly done. The Star Trek TOS looking phasers, the Alien suits that looks like an ant. The ships are out of Transformers. A War Of the Worlds slow to start. Awful... However, I think Michael Pena saved the movie. One of his best role since End of Watch. I predicted the Martian ant was human. But did not see the Replicant twist coming. It was enough to tilt the balance. (for me) A.I., robots, replicants, also done to the bone yes. Its no Blade Runner. Heck no. Still. A seven. For a twist Ive never seen before.

With zero advertisement and no theatrical release to speak of in Canada, or US as I saw. Foreign box office paid for it twice. 40M budget. This one went totally unnoticed for me. Avid Sci-Fi nut that I am its rare that I miss such a good one.

In sci-fi movies, in books its a given. Originality is often the key to a good concept sci-fi. This is not Marvel or Disney. Snowpiercer's concept is unique. Even if preposterous, I loved what is essentially a spaceship confinement theme movie. But in 1 dimension. Only one axis, forward and twisting.

The supporting cast is great, including Tilda Swinton almost spoofing herself as a Cruella. So is rip Sir John Hurt. A fantastic Korean actor to behold! Kang-ho Song. Many more. Chris Evans is competent. Maybe one of the movie's weeknesses. A few plot holes. And too much standard brawling although, there is a great surprise about the decadent front of the train armement. Surprising assorted living compartments.And a few more surprises.

As for the look. There is a Jean-Pierre Jeunet(Delicatessen) and Brian Singer flavor to the production design without being a copy. The raggedy clothes to the hilarious front train clothes. But Joon-ho Bong made it his own. And made a new fan. 4 years later.

This movie is a special interest movie intended for die hard fans of Frank Zappa. The more you know about his work, the more you will enjoy. I have been a Frank Zappa fan for 25 years. Roxy the Movie is unreleased music that existed since 1973. That we know. The double album Frank Zappa Live at the Roxy and Elswhere is the source. We know that as well. Both versions are a best of, of the famous 3 days at the Roxy. For big fans of this album. Or Zappa fans. This live movie version in fantastic resolution given the broken source (Zappa talks about it at the beginning onstage)is just a redux. Yes. But is so amazing to see after so many times listening to the album, you are simply flabbergasted by the different versions of the songs. It leaves you confused as to what is better, between the 42 year old known versions that you are so used to and the re-released ones. Seeing Zappa taking a break on a chair during a long sax solo, or actually seeing the be bop tango dancers is a hoot! Zappa's legendary guitar solos are shuffled from the double album songs. Making you see that he never did the same show twice. The editors removed some very obsolete comments making it a final cut. I do not give it a ten for that reason. Its 42 years old. For a very narrow audience. But if you are in that zone. Its a 10. Its an historical musical document that should be considered as such. Zappa at his best with the Mothers in a 500 people venue. And absolutely not for all tastes. Kent Nagano of the OSM and Zappa's family are about the only ones allowed to play his music in 2015... So if you are a Zappahead. This is a must.

This Uk science-fiction film is a real sleeper. It is unfortunate that it is under the radar. It is sharp, suspenseful and especially well made in the production design and anticipation visuals department. Given it's budget, the visuals could put to shame some enormously budgeted recent sci-fi films.

It is rightfully claustrophobic given its plot, the characterization is very satisfying for the genre. The cybernetic telepaths are a surprising element if not to say a hoot! The old school if not vintage Alan Howarth like soundtrack gives it a B-movie atmosphere of the good kind contrasting sharply with the 2013 visuals. Its a lot of fun!

However, it is still a variation on a theme, I could not help but to think Dr. Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Data-Lore, Ash, Terminator and the likes including the yet unfilmed R. Daneel Olivaw throughout.

That being said, yes its a mixed bag, but for fans of sci-fi robots like me. I do not think this one should be missed.