My first reaction to seeing Pixar’s WALL•E was “This is better than Coruscant!”
All in Space Travel
Makoto Shinkai's “THE PLACE PROMISED IN OUR EARLY DAYS”
The creator of Voices of a Distant Star returns to adolescence but with a serious twist.
Darren Aronofsky’s “THE FOUNTAIN”
This dizzying and perplexing movie bathes the viewer in a warm and beautiful gauze of, love, death, loss, and redemption. Forget the narrative and go with the flow.
Fred Wilcox's “FORBIDDEN PLANET”
When I was a kid, this movie scared me, especially the Id Monster’s attack on the starship’s sleeping crew.
Steven Soderbergh's SOLARIS
The film superbly rendered on this DVD bears repeated watching. All aspects are masterfully done. It is an adult, literate, and intelligent film that swings back and forth between intellectual challenge, mystery, and wrenching emotion. The music and visuals are stunning.
Intelligent speculation and scrupulous attention to detail are ruined by repeated depictions of instantaneous radio communications between Mission Control and the magnificently detailed Pegasus space ship as it tours the planets.
Ishirō Honda's “THE MYSTERIANS”
In 1957, Toho Studios released Akira Kurosawa’s epic The Hidden Fortress, a film that George Lucas has stated strongly influenced his creation of the Star Wars saga. I wasn’t paying attention. That was also the year that Toho released Inoshiro Honda’s sci-fi epic The Mysterians.