ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Sports fans might to comment on the movie about a future society in which football is for sissies! Real men love Rollerball!

Or perhaps your taste runs to automobile races . . . that make Rollerball seem like it’s for sissies! If so, Mad Max is you man.

But if you want a really death-defying experience, join the Flatlines!

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Rollerball



Norman Jewison and William Harrison expand Harrison's short story into a full length feature film, with great results.

The story takes place in 2018 and the world is a global corporate state, a hegemony of six ruling cartels.

There are no wars, poverty, — etc

So, the cartels provide the antidote to pent up frustrations with a live-again game called Rollerball, a bloodthirsty arena sport where no quarter is given or taken. But when the sport's number one star, Jonathan E, becomes a free spirit and too big for the sport, the corporations aim to retire him!

Headed by a superb cast including James Caan as Jonathan.

His and the other cast's performances are from the high end, and the photography is superb, The action during the games themselves is beautifully choreographed.

The use of classical music to run concurrent with the themes in the narrative is smartly rendered to the tricksy plot, while the writing is sharp and deserving of the utmost attention from the viewer. It's folly to suggest that when the film is away from the Rollerball ring it sags a touch. So, patience is required, and a respect of literate posturing is also expected to get the most out of it.

A deft crafted dystopian sci-fier with literate smarts and lusty blood letting. 7.5/10
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Flatliners (1990)



The arrogance of medicinally inclined youth!

I remember coming out the theater after having seen Flatliners in 1990 and being really annoyed. The premise of the story is so superb and was so ripe for a terrifying horror film.

But Flatliners then — and now — is not terrifying. But that actually doesn't matter.

In 1990 some of the more bright young acting prospects were off making Memphis Belle. The other half was made up of potential Brat Packers like Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin, Oliver Platt and Kevin Bacon, were joining director Joel Schumacher for this delve into life after death experiments.

Here's the plot.

A group of medical students, led by a darkly egotistical Sutherland, begin inducing their own deaths to see what awaits them once the flatline has been reached. This seems great at first, but as the students push the time limits of being dead still further, what comes into their real worlds is actually not welcome.

This movie never close to being frightening, but the thematics involved are chilling and the big message at its heart is loud and clear. At times it's an uneasy blend of supernatural dalliances and medical science — but the breezy cast hold us engaged, while cinematographer Jan de Bont's misty lenses are perfectly in the realm of the ethereal. 7/10 ____________________________________________________________________

Mad Max (1979)



Low budget classic that is now a genre landmark.

Set somewhere in the future, we are privy to a world where the roads are ruled by maniac gangs with souped-up cars and bikers that literally could come from hell.

Trying to stop these marauding loons is the overstretched police force, who themselves ride in exceptionally fast cars.

At the front of this story is Max Rockatansky — a good honest cop trying to hold his own against the chaotic world that is forming around him.

After his best friend is burned and left for dead, he decides "enough is enough", and thinks about retiring from the service. But while on a vacation with his wife and child, things go decidedly bad, and Max becomes an avenging force of fury . . . with devastating affects!

When evaluating this film, I feel it really needs to be put into perspective concerning just how brilliant a job director George Miller did with next to no cash to work with. In fact, Miller edited the film in his own bedroom just to emphasise the low-fi nature of the beast.

The costumes are excellent, the cast are terrific, and Mel Gibson as Max particularly impressive, Here we have villains to truly fit the word "villainous".

But it's the stunts and chase sequences that makes this film a rich rewarding experience. The opening ten minutes alone are pure adrenaline-pumping genius.

But the film as a whole delivers a crash-bang-wallop punch that has often been imitated since its release. . . but rarely bettered. And although the heart of the film is a simple revenge story, it grabs your attention and delivers right to the corking finale, 8/10.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)