The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) -Garth Jennings

Grab your towel and Don’t Panic! Douglas Adam’s classic tale gets a big screen adaptation, of his book/screenplay, which had previously been so well used by the BBC as a miniseries, and before that a radio programme. There are things that work in this version, and things that don’t, but the effort is there to…

Doom (2005) – Andrzej Bartkowiak

Karl Urban, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, and Rosamund Pike head to battle in this film adaptation of the hit video game Doom, my next stop in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Strange things are happening in a research base on Mars, and a group of Space Marines, with Sarge (Johnson), kitted out to take on whatever…

JeruZalem (2015) – Doron and Yoav Paz

  Opening today in Toronto at the Carlton Cinema, and also being released on VOD, is this could-have-been-great found footage (don’t we have enough of these yet?) from the Paz brothers. This time, the film’s camera is supposedly in the form of a pair of Smart Glasses. This ends up being a nice touch, because…

Riddick (2013) -David Twohy

  So the Sci-Fi Chronicles books invited me to sit down and watch the latest (last?) installment in the Riddick series, and this one I cared for even less than Pitch Black, especially after the cool world building (flawed or not) that occurred in the second film. Once again, Twohy writes and directs, and Vin…

Labyrinth (1986) – Jim Henson 

  Executive produced by George Lucas, directed by Jim Henson, designs by Brian Froud, songs by David Bowie, and a screenplay by Terry Jones… what’s not to like about Labyrinth, first recommendation following my screening of The Wizard of Oz for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book? I loved digging into this one again, this…