Review Category: Movie

Review: Nosferatu / Cert: PG / Director: F.W. Murnau / Screenplay: Henrik Galeen / Starring: Max Shreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder, Alexander Granach, Ruth Landshoff, Wolfgang Heinz / Release Date: October 25th

Nosferatu is the earliest known adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was also unauthorized, incurring a lawsuit from Stoker’s widow as a result. Due to this, several prints of the film were destroyed, but this re-released version has been painstakingly put together using surviving reels from different countries.

The film starts with young, loved-up estate agent Thomas Hutter (von Wangenheim) living in the fictitious German town of Wisborg with his wife Ellen (Schröder). His insane boss Knock (Granach) sends him to Transylvania’s Carpathian mountains to sell a local house to the mysterious Count Orlok (Shreck).

The townspeople fear Orlok and Hutter soon finds out why – the looming, bat-eared, long-fingernailed Count has a penchant for sleeping in a coffin during the day and biting people’s necks at night. After reading a book on vampires, Hutter strongly suspects that Orlok is one, and he passes out as the menacing nosferatu approaches. Luckily, he awakens in time to see Orlok climbing into one of several coffins on a coach and leaving the castle for Wisborg. Hutter must then hurry back home to save his wife from Orlok, who leaves behind a trail of death on his journey which is blamed on the plague.

Released in 1922 (the same year Christopher Lee was born, ironically), the film was a product of the German expressionist movement of the time. A silent film, it features an almost forgotten style of acting that will be refreshingly new to a younger generation of horror fans and endearing to lovers of classic cinema. Despite only being on-screen for a tenth of the film, Shreck puts in a performance so creepy and compelling that it sparked rumours he was an actual vampire; this myth being explored in the 2000 film Shadow of a Vampire. In a beautiful coincidence, his surname means ‘terror’ in German. The perfectly timed score complements the haunting tone of the film, with Shreck’s prowling, unblinking monster stalking up the stairs the moment Murnau tints the film blue to signify nightfall.

Nosferatu is one of the finest movies in history, and not just in the horror genre. In a world containing The Lost Boys (great) and Twilight (utter *bleep*), this is a welcome return for the great-grandfather of vampire films.

Expected Rating: 10 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: The Dead 2 – India / Cert: 18 / Director: Howard J. Ford, Jonathan Ford / Screenplay: Howard J. Ford, Jonathan Ford / Starring: Joseph Millson, Meenu Mishra, Anand Goyal / Release Date: TBC

Another continent is taken by an undead storm as the plague of The Dead spreads to India, where it doesn’t take long at all for the groaners to get going. American turbine engineer Nicholas Burton (Millson) is working in the Indian countryside when the dead make their presence known.

In terms of scale, The Dead 2 doesn’t put a foot wrong. The Indian countryside looks incredible – a far cry from the deserted streets or boarded-up old houses we’ve become accustomed to seeing in zombie cinema. The story sends Nicholas battling through three hundred miles of zombie-cluttered desert to get to pregnant girlfriend Ishani (Mishra) who lives in the slums of Mumbai. It’s like a man-eating version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles or Due Date. In the John Candy/Zach Galifianakis role we have young Javed (Goyal), a young street rat Burton meets on his travels. It’s a striking concept, even if it isn’t that far removed from the plot of the previous film.

Sadly, it absolutely crumbles under close scrutiny. The cinematography is incredible, the setting a great idea, but everything else repeatedly comes up lacking. The Ford brothers have collected a whole host of first-time actors for their film, and it shows. All three local leads are noticeably green. This isn’t helped by the decision to have them act in English, even when they’re interacting with their friends and family. This extends to Millson, with his needlessly put-on American accent. He’s a fine enough actor, but the Yank-speak does him no favours. Many will claim that little Javed is the film’s breakout star, but we found him to be the worst thing about it. Then again, we do have a low tolerance for children in horror films (Damien from The Omen aside).

Elsewhere, the film remains pretty but dull. Burton and his zombies shuffle from set piece to set piece, with only the odd gunfight and paraplane (by far the film’s best moment) to liven things up. It feels interminably long; every step of Burton’s trudge deeply felt. As the opening film at FrightFest, it was an odd choice, dampening the mood, and even putting one or two audience members to sleep (guilty) for a few moments. While technically beautiful, it lacks a sense of excitement or fun. A good idea spoiled by workmanlike direction and bad acting, The Dead 2 really puts the ‘zzzz’ into World War Z.

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: The Mortal Instruments – City of Bones / Cert: 12A / Director: Harald Swart / Screenplay: Jessica Postigo Paquette / Starring: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Zegers, Lena Headey, Aidan Turner / Release Date: Out Now

Hollywood’s desperation to find a new blockbuster teen fantasy franchise with Twilight-like box office potential continues apace and it looks like we can comfortably add The Mortal Instruments – City of Bones to a growing list of misjudged misfires (The Host, Beautiful Creatures). This adaptation of the first in Cassandra Clare’s series of novels fumbles the ball by trying to cram in too much, too soon, and ends up punctuating its frantic action sequences with acres of clumpy exposition in a story which is already too haphazard for its own good.

It’s a shame because it all starts off quite well. Initial New York sequences are punchy and atmospheric, as our heroine Clary Fray (Lily Collins, daughter of grizzled former Genesis drummer/singer Phil) stumbles into a world of demons, monsters and mysterious, leather-clad warriors called Shadowhunters who seem to be invisible to everyone except her. It’s an intriguing set-up and the first FX setpiece, Clary trapped in her own home and attacked by a grotesque dog-blob demon, is repulsively gruesome and surprisingly exciting. But it all gets a bit sluggish when the mean and moody Shadowhunters rock up, contemporary New York is left behind and Clary and her ‘mundane’ mate Simon (former Misfit Sheehan) find themselves in the Shadowhunters’ massive Gothic folly home, a huge invisible building smack in the middle of the city. The endless info-dumping starts here as backstory is revealed in tortuous flashback and static dialogue-heavy sequences. As if sensing that the audience’s attention is wandering, the story (something to do with salvaging a mystical, magical goblet) throws in a random battle with a horde of vampires in their abandoned hotel fortress, a pack of poorly animated werewolves, some fire demons and, of course, much sighing and pouting and tortured teenage angst.

The action, when it comes, is much tougher and more brutal than most teen fantasy flicks – people die and they die nastily – but there’s altogether too much flab in between the fighting, although at least what threatened to become a dreary romantic arc for Clary and Bower’s wiry Shadowhunter Jace is derailed by a welcome, if unlikely, plot twist. Watch out for the hilarious Magnus Bane, the so-called ‘High Warlock of Brooklyn’ who makes Gok Wan look like Jason Statham as he wanders round wearing just a frock coat and underpants for no apparent reason.

City of Bones might have hit the mark with a shorter running time and a tighter narrative, and whilst it’s not a complete creative disaster, it’s clearly not the stuff long-running franchises are made of. Judicious editing and a more coherent storyline could save the day but Sony might yet have cause to regret fast-tracking the already-in-production second movie, City of Ashes.

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Cheap Thrills / Cert: 15 / Director E.L. Katz / Screenplay: David Chirchirillo, Trent Haaga / Starring: Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, David Koechner, Sara Paxton / Release Date: June 6th

Think Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, think Gareth Edwards’ Monsters. Great directorial debuts, films all produced for not much at all that made a big impression on genre fans. Well, now you can add another to the list, because E.L. Katz’s Cheap Thrills is an astonishingly assured and well-crafted piece of work that deserves a huge audience.

After being served an eviction notice and then being laid off, down on his luck new father Craig (Healy) ends up in a bar, where he meets high school friend Vince (Embry) who he hasn’t seen in about five years. The two of them encounter a wealthy couple Colin and Violet (Koechner and Paxton) who are not shy of dishing out their cash as it is Violet’s birthday. Colin starts to issue dares that start out relatively harmless ($50 to smack a stripper’s behind, etc) but soon escalate into a cavalcade of the grotesque. Craig and Vince find themselves thrust into competition with each other in a battle of greed and desperation that leads to ever increasing violence.

The film that Cheap Thrills is most reminiscent of is Reservoir Dogs as it takes place mostly in one location and has brilliant characters with well written, real-sounding dialogue. It also escalates the tension in a very natural way that never feels contrived. As the stakes increase and the desperation mounts, you are right there with the characters and in your head you start to play a game: what would you do when faced with the same situation.

Even though many of the characters’ actions are despicable, somehow they all remain likeable thanks to the brilliant performances. Pat Healy is an actor who is becoming really fascinating to watch with each new role; his character is the window into this awful night and because we start with him, he remains the anchor for the audience’s sympathy and fulfils this role very easily. Ethan Embry plays a low-life thug a world away from the teen idol characters he started his career with, but he gives a seemingly shallow character hidden depths as the film goes on. David Koechner is an actor mainly known for bit parts in raucous comedies but here his performance is more mannered and subtle and somehow absolutely chilling and one that stays with you.

Knowing very little about the unsavoury places that Cheap Thrills goes is probably the best way to see the film; its dark, funny, unsettling and sneaks up on you. E.L. Katz has made a black comedic masterpiece for these troubled times and proves to be a great storyteller and a major new talent.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: R.I.P.D. / Cert: 12A / Director: Robert Schwentke / Screenplay: Matt Manfredi, Phil Hay / Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Mary-Louise Parker / Release Date: September 20th

Summer 2013 has been the most divisive ever in terms of your modern blockbuster. Almost everything that came out got praise followed by an angry backlash by the time it was on general release. Some things flopped massively like The Lone Ranger and you could sort of understand it, but then Pacific Rim disappointed and the old adage that ‘nobody knows anything’ proved true yet again. R.I.P.D. is a film, based on a comic, with a huge budget that was a gigantic flop in the states in July. It’s a perfectly serviceable, live action cartoon of a film but because it’s uncynical and not over two hours, it perhaps was released at the wrong time.

The films that R.I.P.D. seems to get lumped in with are Men in Black and Hellboy and it does have elements of both, but beyond the initial set up it becomes its own thing, which is a witty riff on the buddy cop action movie. Nick (Reynolds) finds himself shot dead and betrayed and ends up working back on Earth for the R.I.P.D., tasked with controlling dead souls who refuse to stay dead in our world. He is teamed up with former western gunslinger Roy (Bridges) and they begin working a case that links to why Nick was killed and may bring about the end of the world.

Perhaps too simple to succeed in our over-convoluted, bloated times, R.I.P.D. works largely based on the comedic chemistry between Ryan Reynolds doing his sarcastic schtick and Jeff Bridges doing a riff on his Rooster Cogburn. Their dialogue is the most surprising thing about the film and remains funny throughout – running gags about how Roy has died and reappeared on Earth somehow never growing old.

R.I.P.D. also has some wonderful special effects. The dead souls our duo hunt appear like large bloated men with obvious undead features and when found out they end up running amok across buildings and through windows in some really impressively shot action scenes where you can actually tell what is happening, all too rare nowadays. Added to this, this is the most impressive use of 3D for a while and you can tell that they took time with this aspect behind the scenes, which makes it a pleasure for the eyes.

If there is a complaint, it’s that we don’t spend long enough in the afterlife, getting to know the rules and the big players which are only hinted at. Nonetheless, R.I.P.D. is a hugely entertaining and witty action comedy the kind of which Hollywood has seemingly forgotten how to make and shouldn’t have been so ignored this summer.

Expected Rating: 5 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Kick-Ass 2 / Director: Jeff Wadlow / Screenplay: Jeff Wadlow / Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jim Carrey, Donald Faison, John Leguizamo / Release Date: Out Now

“As a great man once said… wait until they get a load of me.” So ended Matthew Vaughn and Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass, the sage set for a showdown between the titular Kick-Ass, breakout star Hit-Girl, and the newly villainous Red Mist. With the promise of more heroes, more deliciously entertaining ultraviolence, and more Mindy McCready, Kick-Ass 2 was set to be the Dark Knight to its predecessor’s Batman Begins. All this, and Jim Carrey too. How could it disappoint? Well, wait until you get a load of this…

Kick-Ass 2 picks up three years after the previous film left off. Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor Johnson) is retired and bored, coasting through life while Mindy (Chloe Grace Moretz) continues her ass-kicking ways as Hit-Girl. Eventually, the boredom becomes too much, and Dave has Mindy train him in the art of crime fighting – Big Daddy style. Initially a lot of fun, we see Kick-Ass join his very own Justice League (led by a distractingly scary Jim Carrey) and actually grow to become competent at his craft. And then The Motherfucker makes his presence known, and suddenly things aren’t quite so fun anymore.

Unfortunately, this carries over to the film itself. Always go darker for the sequel, is the general rule for superhero films, but given that Kick-Ass ended with Kick-Ass flying around with a jetpack, blowing up Mark Strong with a bazooka, while McLovin runs around wearing eyeliner and spandex, the same rules don’t quite apply here. The irreverent cheer and bombastic silliness has returned for the sequel (see Dave fighting a gang of thugs while dressed as a Great White Pimp, and Mindy bombing it across town on her motorcycle) but it sits ill at ease with the darker, crueller themes of the comic book. True, many of Millar’s more horrid ideas have been phased out, but his influence lingers there, insipidly whispering away in the background. By the time an attempted rape is played for laughs and (another) beloved character is violently murdered onscreen, there’s a very bitter taste left in the mouth. The laughs which follow intermittently between feel tainted and cheap. Where the first film was triumphant and optimistic – its shocking violence offset with a sense of fun and, above all, wit – this seems cynical, sad and hollow. Cheap, tonally inconsistent and reliant upon easy gags, the departure of Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman is deeply felt.

Which is a shame, because there’s a lot to like elsewhere. Obviously, Hit-Girl is the star, and Carrey puts in a great performance as Colonel Stars and Stripes, but it’s the likes of Donald Faison and John Leguizamo who really anchor the film, capturing that optimistic, humanist spirit that made its predecessor so likeable. Mindy’s own story is enjoyable too, a version of Carrie or Mean Girls, crossed with Kill Bill. Her beefed up screen time really works, and Moretz is growing into quite the impressive actress, in case you hadn’t noticed already. Well done, too, with the casting of Andy Nyman and Daniel Kaluuya as Chris’s goons. There’s always that giant Nicolas Cage shaped hole at the film’s heart, but Jeff Wadlow and his fine cast of actors and actresses do a fine job of making it seem less noticeable.

Ultimately, Kick-Ass 2 is a disappointment. It’s well-acted, amusing and occasionally a lot of fun, but that’s tempered with a mean, ugly streak that makes it quite sad to watch. Another general rule for superhero sequels is that there’s always one in which the hero quits, hanging up the cape ‘forever’. In this case, one can’t help but feel that would have been for the best.   

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Man of Tai Chi / Cert: 18 / Director: Keanu Reeves / Screenplay: Michael G. Cooney / Starring: Tiger Hu Chen, Keanu Reeves, Karen Mok / Release Date: TBC

Keanu Reeves successfully moves from one side of the camera to the other with a surprising choice for his directorial debut: an old school Hong Kong martial arts film. Reeves plays the antagonist, Mark Donaka, wealthy Hong Kong security company owner and operator of a shady underground fighting ring, who sets his sights on enticing innocent Tiger Chen, (played by the martial artist also known as Tiger Hu Chen, Reeves’ martial arts teacher on the Matrix films), the titular Man of Tai Chi, into the ring.

Tiger Chen, a harried courier in Beijing, is the only heir to his particular brand of tai chi passed down through 600 generations, and he aspires to show that it can be much more of a combat-focused martial art than traditionally thought by taking part in legitimate competitions with other martial artists. However, Donaka’s fights soon set him down a dark path of needless aggression and unbalanced chi.

Parallel to this story, Sun Jingshi (Mok), a Hong Kong police officer, tracks Donaka and eventually Tiger Chen, hoping to bring down the fighting ring, as she knows that (as shown in the first sequence of the film) no one ever leaves this ring alive. Can Tiger Chen redeem himself before he loses too much of himself and what else has Donaka got in mind for him?

For a first-timer, Reeves directs all aspects of the film very well, taking the necessary time to set up the characters and stories before jumping into the fights, and the decision to keep almost half the dialogue in Chinese (25% Mandarin and 25% Cantonese if reports are correct) keeps the film firmly grounded in reality, apart from a minor fantastical element near the climax that warrants its inclusion in Starburst.

It is a martial arts competition film however, and much of the remaining running time is taken up with Tiger’s bouts against opponents from all types of martial arts – the increasing difficulty, and number, of his opponents reflecting his own problems staying true to his sifu’s teachings and his love of tai chi.

Reeves had to abandon plans to use a special rig to move the camera seamlessly around and above the actors while fighting. We can only imagine what visual delights this would have provided, but even so the fighting on display is solid and visceral, the camera staying close in to the combat but still allowing the fight progression and impressive moves to be fully appreciated. These scenes escalate in their brutality as the film progresses, starting with elegant use of tai chi to avoid and redirect blows and graduating to vicious no-holds-barred battles later in the film.

A few scenes using wirework break the tone of the fights due to the unrealistic lack of weight of some characters, but it appears that Reeves himself didn’t appreciate this approach as the technique is quickly dismissed and doesn’t seem to be used again. Acting-wise Chen is likeable as the lead and Reeves provides a first-rate antagonist, even getting his hands dirty later in the film. Man of Tai Chi should appeal to all fans of Hong Kong (and international) action cinema and shows a promising start to what will hopefully be a long and interesting directing career for Reeves.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: 100 Bloody Acres / Cert: 15 / Director: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes / Screenplay: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes / Starring: Damon Herriman, Angus Sampson, Anna McGahan, Jamie Kristian / Release Date: October 11th (Frightfest London preview: August 23rd)

There’s always been something special about Australian horror films; they are generally naturalistic yet offbeat and have a streak of black humour running through them. The brothers Cairnes’ 100 Bloody Acres carries this on tradition with ease.

The Morgan brothers, Reg (Herriman) and Lindsay (Sampson) run an organic fertiliser company, using road-kill and the like to create the best blend of blood and bone to enrich the local farmer’s soil. Reg begrudgingly offers a lift to three stranded friends, who are en-route to a local music festival – with Sophia (McGahan) up front, her boyfriend James (Ackland), and their acid-dropping friend (whom she is also carrying on with) Wes (Kristian) in the back with bags of fertiliser and rotting cow carcases. Oh, and the body of a festival roadie Reg happened to find in a crashed van. It seems the best ingredient for this plant food is a recently deceased human.

To reveal more would be unfair on the audience, as the film builds surely, with plenty of low-key surprises and tons of the aforementioned antipodean black humour. The joy comes not from standard tropes and genre trappings but from the characters and situations, where both the horror (and it does get gloriously gory) and comedy (there are several laugh out loud moments) develop entirely naturally. The fact that the ‘bad guys’ are just yokel saps looking to make ends meet with the best product they can produce instantly subverts the expectations of the audience. They are not well-equipped murderers, rather small time chancers who, by accident more than design, become involved in the killing business. Sampson sports a fabulous moustacheless beard, which is always good for a laugh, and his character Lindsay is the brains of the team, keeping his younger brother at a more subservient level, which certainly plays with the audience’s allegiances.

This is the film Tucker and Dale vs Evil should have been: a fun experience from start to finish. Make sure you stick around during the end credits, too, for a wonderful coda.

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: The Lone Ranger / Cert: 12A / Director: Gore Verbinski / Screenplay: Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio / Starring: Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, William Fichtner, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Wilkinson, Ruth Wilson / Release Date: August 9th

Today’s Generation Xbox probably won’t recall The Lone Ranger, a once-popular radio and television character. They might have heard the rally cry ‘Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!’ or know the name ‘Tonto’, but that’s all a wild stab in the cultural dark.

The film begins with a shot of an under-construction Golden Gate Bridge. Panning slowly to a fairground, an aged Tonto (Depp) stands dead still, like one of those statues outside dime stores and gas stations across the US. The expansion of America had a very heavy cost – mass genocide and the deliberate stifling of Native American culture.

Verbinski and his writers have playfully put Tonto in charge of the yarn and this tact mushes together the John Ford maxim about printing the legend instead of the facts. The subversive aspects of The Lone Ranger place it firmly alongside the likes of Arthur Penn’s revisionist Little Big Man. In both films, by total design, General Custer turns up as an idiotic figure.

Tonto is the heart and weirdy beardy soul of the movie and through his words and the camera’s eye we witness the often banal cruelty and rampant viciousness of the Old West. The Lone Ranger is a dark picture, a charge that Verbinski in interviews appears to deny. Whilst it is not exactly explicit, violence is not ignored or casually tossed aside.

Armie Hammer’s ‘hero’ – as told by Tonto – is another off-kilter portrayal. He arrives as a handsome, clean-shaven civilised man from Back East. He covets his brother’s wife and becomes a tireless avenger, transformed by his need for retribution. Again, Verbinski takes a traditional white-hatted hero and makes him less heroic than would seem on the surface of things. The central pairing is no celebration of heroism, more a gonzo iteration of the buddy cop formula.

Much has been made of the 149-minutes running time, but the movie zips along and closely echoes old serial formats with an episodic narrative that has plenty of cliffhangers. An incredible finale, set aboard a hurtling train, is nothing short of breath-taking and Hans Zimmer’s reworking of the William Tell Overture lends it a galloping pace.

Although nowhere near as crackpot as Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo, Verbinski packs his movie with plenty of oddities. Just like his last western – the animated feature Rango – the director’s quirky eye lends The Lone Ranger a humorous tone of possibly acquired taste. It’s a world where horses hide in trees, a brothel keeper packs a pistol in her tattooed ivory leg and the villain is a hare-lipped cannibal.

Expected Rating: 5 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Elysium / Cert: 15 / Director: Neill Blomkamp / Screenplay: Neill Blomkamp / Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley / Release Date: August 23rd

In 2009 District 9 catapulted South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp into the Hollywood arena with his innovative and original approach to big budget sci-fi. The setting of the slums of Johannesburg, the politics and personal passion, the original and gritty design and the discovery of Sharlto Copley made this one of the best sci-fi films of the last decade. Elysium shifts gears and location but has much of the same political fury behind it. Matt Damon is in the lead and Copley is cast in a smaller role this time as a sadistic South African enforcer named Krueger. This is a dark and urgent summer blockbuster that delivers strong ideas and imaginative effects with a bubbling undercurrent of US and global political issues.

The architecture of Elysium alone makes it special – it’s set in a world where the class and wealth division is so large they are living on different planets. Matt Damon is Max De Costa, a factory worker and ex-con who’s being hustled by a system designed to make him fail. His daily routine consists of a demeaning stop and search for no other reason than his appearance, a trip to the parole office which plays out like a visit to the job centre with a robot in place of a worker repeating government guidelines and statistics… it’s all very familiar and dehumanising. Resistance appears to be futile and disobedience is rewarded with prison time. But it only takes one to shake up the status quo. A work place accident gives De Costa a life-threatening illness to which the only cure available is on that far off land of Elysium. He turns to the underground, those working around the system, to help him get there and they ask for his help to hack the system in return.

Jodie Foster is the harsh enforcer on Elysium, Secretary Rhodes, drilling out orders like a robot and entirely evil. Speaking of robots, there are some particularly nasty man-made droids too who carry out her orders. Spaceships hurtling over the diseased and polluted vista of Earth, Damon decked out in an extraordinary exo-suit drilled into his skin and the simply spectacular looking Elysium are all expertly crafted. The special effects team have achieved something very special and unique. Add to that the brilliant Copley, who delivers another completely inspiring and scene stealing performance as the man tasked with catching De Costa and you can’t help but get caught up in this adrenalin-pumping race to save humanity.

This is highly entertaining sci-fi designed to make you think about distribution of wealth, overpopulation, a questionable healthcare system and the state of world we live in. Though it may not feel as fresh as District 9, it shows that Blomkamp is unafraid to tackle issues of race, class and immigration policy marking him as the kind of intelligent filmmaker to admire and get passionate about – he’s rebooting the system. Viva la revolución!

Expected Rating: 9 out of 10

Actual Rating: