ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Plenty of variety in this Variety Pack today, with a movie about things that crawl, people that jump, and a desperate group of strange little creatures created from pieces of a scientist's soul.

Bet you didn’t see THAT one coming, eh?
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Slither (2006)



Well, there's good news and there's bad news.

The bad news is, "Slither" is a comedy-horror with some really creepy alien slugs that do horrible things to the characters.

The good news is, "Slither" is a critically acclaimed comedy-horror with enjoyably creepy alien slugs that do horrible things to the characters, just like you hope they will if you're into this kind of thing.

And it stars Nathan Fillion. (Hell, he had to do something between Firefly and Castle, right?)

Horror fans will be delighted by the woman who is impregnated with the slimy little critters and kept in a dark barn until she's the size of your living room, assuming your living room is quite spacious.

Critics liked it: Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 86%. Movie goers stayed away in droves, as they say, and the film only made back $12.8 million of its $15 million budget.

Weird how that happens sometimes . . . ____________________________________________________________________

Jumper (2008)



Ever want to get away from it all?

Hayden Christensen knows the feeling -- and he can do it in blink of an eye.

Jumper was filmed in 20 cities in 14 countries between 2006-07, so you won't just see stock footage and matte shots. The premise, as you may have heard, is about a group of people with the handy little talent of going "poof" just by thinking about it. Now you see 'em, now you don't, and when the dust clears they're halfway 'round the world, sippin' a margarita and wondering which hemisphere they should have lunch in.

Hayden makes a nice living stealing things (which is certainly no challenge in view of his abilities), until Sam L. Jackson decides to kill him because Sam and his loony group of religious nuts believe that "only God should have the ability to be everywhere at once."

Gee, some folks get the oddest ideas, don't they?

Jamie Bell plays another footloose-and-fancy free "Jumper" who wants Sam dead because he killed Jamie's parents while trying to catch Jamie.

The movie was made for $85 million, and it earned $222 million, so you'd think we'd have a couple of sequels by now, but that didn't happen. Plans were heavily discussed, including the idea that jumpers could reach other planets and travel in time.

Ambitious! (Too ambitious? Hmmm. Maybe.)

The critics probably had a hand in killing the plans, because Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 16% based on reviews from 156 critics, with an average score of 4/10. The consensus was -- "An erratic action pic with little coherence and lackluster special effects."

Ouch.

I bought the DVD sight-unseen several years ago and had fun with it, but it didn't rock my world or anything. Don't expect too much and you'll probably enjoy it. ____________________________________________________________________

9 (2009)



Haven't seen this one, but Wikipedia describes it as "a 2009 American computer animated post-apocalyptic science fiction thriller film, which was directed by Shane Acker and produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov."

I'm thinkin' this would not be a good 2nd feature to watch with my grandkids after "Inside Out".

Or is it?

I skimmed through the Wikipedia plot summary, and the story seems to be about a desperate group of strange little creatures created from pieces of a scientist's soul. The creatures are trying to survive the threat posed by a supercomputer that wants to wipe out all life.

The setting is a devastated post-apocalyptic cityscape, and the focus of the plot revolves around the efforts of the odd creatures to hang onto a "talisman" ( -- don't ask me, 'cause I don't know what that means either! -- ) which the scientist who created them used to bring them to life. Something called the Fabrication Machine wants to absorb their souls so it can --

Nope. Not a good 2nd feature for the kids.

And I can't say I'm very tempted either. I'd have to take notes to keep the plot straight. Anybody want to fine tune my understanding of this movie? I'd hate to avoid it if it's actually worth watching.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)