K PAX – Directed by Iain Softley

I haven’t watched a science fiction movie this interesting which doesn’t have crazy special effects or adrenaline pumping action sequences. Movies like these are a rarity; the strength of this film lies purely in the story, screenplay and the superb performances by the two lead actors. The lead character is the patient Prot who is played by the great Kevin Spacey. This guy is one of my idols, who can forget his performances in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty. K Pax is another masterpiece in his illustrious career. He plays Prot, a guy who claims to be an alien who is brought to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.

I haven’t heard much about Jeff Bridges until he won the Best Actor Oscar for Crazy Heart. He has done an amazing job as Mark Powell, the psychologist. He is a sane man who starts questioning his beliefs and reality while treating his patient; his character is so interesting that the viewer also gets entangled with his questions and search for truth.

I never write too much about the story line because I don’t like to spoil it for others. So as usual for this one: A patient claiming to be an alien and a doctor is trying to help him - Sounds like a simple story but at the end of the movie the viewer has to come to his own conclusion, is he really an alien or is he just another lunatic?     

One of the best scenes in this movie is when Mark Powell hypnotizes Prot to dig into his past. Kevin Spacey goes from playing a kid to a teen and switches back to the present with such ease; one can’t help but gasp in awe at his mind blowing performance.

Cheers

Pradeep

MOON – Directed By Duncan Jones

We all have seen Sci Fi flicks with lot of action, CGI, Robotics, crazy plots etc… but Moon is a Beautiful Sci Fi flick as the setting is breathtaking. The story is set on Moon, that’s pretty obvious but with only one main character who is isolated. We have seen other movies on similar lines namely Cast Away and I Am Legend. Sam Rockwell has done an excellent job as the Astronaut Sam Bell who is on a three year stint on the moon base. His tenure is getting over in 2 weeks and he waits eagerly to get back to earth. Half an hour into the movie I was actually bored, the narrative was extremely slow for my liking. The only thing that kept me from stopping the movie was the beautiful sequences where they show the moon’s surface. Sets and visual effects are top notch. Once the plot gets interesting I was pulled right back into the movie. Background score is intriguing which adds to the suspense. It would have made a huge difference if they had increased the pace for the second half of the movie.

I would watch Moon again just for it’s visual effects and Sam Rockwell’s performance, come to think of it there is nothing else to see in this movie :-)

Cheers

Pradeep

DISTRICT 9 – Directed by Neill Blomkamp

No big Actors, Director or Production House. The only famous name is Peter Jackson who produced this masterpiece. Yes, this one is way better than some of the big budget blockbuster Sci-Fi crap we have seen. This is Neill Blomkamp’s first outing and the movie had 4 Oscar nominations.

The story is about an extraterrestrial race which comes to earth and how they are forced to settle in the slums of South Africa. The government is as usual trying to acquire the alien weapons technology and do crazy experiments on the aliens. I don’t understand why there always seems to be only one government or agency involved in movies which has a world event like aliens coming to earth, as if the rest of the world doesn’t care or exist at all. Also the alien weaponry looks really funny. We can ignore these negatives as there are loads of positives which made this movie a huge success. The protagonist is not your typical buffed up action hero; he is just an average family man.  In the end we end up rooting for the aliens, now how many movies have we had that.

The movie is initially in documentary style but later switches mode with some crazy camera work. Due to the style of presentation this movie looks very real, the documentary style makes you feel as if watching live coverage on a news channel.

A thorough entertainer, watch out for Neill Blomkamp – this guy is going places.

Cheers

Pradeep