Foster on Film

In 2176 on a partially terraformed Mars, Police lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) is discovered by the Martian authorities to be the only occupant of an arriving train. She recounts the events leading to the situation: Ballard, her commander (Pam Grier), Sgt Jericho (Jason Statham) and two new officers (Cleas DuVall, Liam Waite), arrived at

This film has a vast advantage over the other two prequel films: it has parallel stories. The Anakin stuff is again pretty bad, with Christensen putting in a career-mutilating performance as he and Natalie Portman utter uncomfortable “romantic” dialog. But with this film, if we removed the bad material, there’s still something left. Obi-Wan has

After a terrorist kills Christopher Pike and escapes with extra-super-duper beaming to the Klingon home world, Kirk is sent to kill him. Kirk decides instead to capture this mysterious man… OK, it’s Khan. We all know it is Khan. The second Abrams-verse Trek film has all the same positives as the first, and all the

Sniper Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) finds himself at a predator crash site. Knowing the government will try and hush it up, he mails pieces of alien tech to his P.O. Box as evidence, but it ends up in the hands of his magical autistic son (Rory McKenna), who switches it on and calls a predator.

Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), and Dodge (Jeff Burton) survive the crash of their spaceship on an alien world in the far future. They quickly discover that apes are the intelligent and dominate life form, and the primitive, mute humans are thought of as pests. Taylor is taken captive, where chimpanzee scientist Zira (Kim

Giant monsters—kaiju—have risen up through a dimensional portal on the ocean’s floor, and caused massive death and destruction. Eventually, humans got the advantage by building giant robots they call jaegers. The robots require two closely aligned pilots whose brains are connected to the machines and to each other. Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) was such a

This film is a lot of fun, no question. I enjoyed it when I first saw it and still do. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a disaster, just an enjoyable disaster. The problems really start with the acting. Yes, all the first six films have poor acting but among the original trilogy, it stands out

Kirk, tiring of the coolest job in the universe, and Spock, planning to help breed new Vulcans, are interrupted from their angst by the survivor of a crashed ship. Their rescue mission turns out to be a trap as a bland villain with a “must destroy everything for no good reason” plan takes much of

In the near future, the Earth is dying due to multiple vaguely stated reasons. To “save humanity” a group of scientists, lead by Professor Martin Collingwood (Tom Wilkinson), who are unaware that Saturn’s moon Titan isn’t the only other object in our solar system with an atmosphere (really, couldn’t their non-science have given some gobbledygook

Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) have reached middle age without having written the song that will create utopia. They have no song, no band, no jobs, no prospects, and even their marriages to the princesses Joanna (Jayma Mays) and Elizabeth (Erinn Hayes) are fraying. One bright spot is their daughters, Thea (Samara Weaving)

Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) is an unpleasant and unlikable aid to an older magician. Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), who may or may not be unpleasant and unlikable, but becomes so after his wife dies, is a second aid. When the aforementioned wife drowns during a trick, most likely due to Borden’s tying a knot too

Star Wars 7 is a construction more than a film, made up of pieces from the other six films (mainly the original three and primarily A New Hope). It’s all homages and repeats. It’s well done, with every aspect meticulously crafted. We may have seen it all before, but the new paint looks good. The