As a follow-up to our A To Z piece on Rollerball last week, friend of the blog and avid Rollerball fan Chris Rogers approached us with a piece that digs into the themes and visual style of the classic SF movie. We’re delighted to present it, in full Multivision.
Tag: Film
The A To Z Of SFF: R Is For Rollerball
One of the classics. A gem of dystopian SF, and a great example of a sports movie to boot. A rare example of an intelligent box-office hit: a film that lets its audience make up their own minds about Jonathon E and the society that both embraces and rejects him.
Clive mentioned William Harrison’s 1973 short story “The Rollerball Murders”, the source material for the film. Read the whole thing here.
The A To Z Of SFF: H Is For Hard To Be A God
Over a decade in the making. Three hours long, black and white, an uncompromising political allegory and treatise on the dangers of anti-intellectualism.
Sounds like a laff riot, right? But Aleksei German’s Hard To Be A God has a lot to offer, if you’re prepared to put in the effort. Let Rob and Clive be your guides through a visit to Arkanar…
The A To Z Of SFF: M Is For Midnight Special
Jeff Nichol’s masterful SF road movie gets the once over from Rob and Clive. Do they embrace the mystery, or does the film maybe leave a little too much unexplained? One thing’s for sure… it’s a hell of a ride.
Clive mentions Alex Roman’s short film The Third And The Seventh as an influence on the climax of Midnight Special. Check it out below. It’s a beautiful thing.
The A To Z Of SFF: S Is For… STREETS OF FIRE
The boys celebrate their rescue from CycloMedia’s clutches with an exploration of a truly joyful piece of cinema. You could argue that Streets Of Fire isn’t SF or fantasy. Rob and Clive would argue otherwise.
We’re back. let the revels begin. Let the fires be started.
The A To Z Of SFF: A Is For A.I. Artificial Intelligence
A.I was planned and prepped by Stanley Kubrick, then taken over by Steven Spielberg after the auteur’s untimely death. The resulting film is a strange mix of the two director’s signature styles, and even now it polarises opinion. Rob and Clive take a detailed look at the film, its themes and the inhumanly excellent performance of Haley Joel Osment.
Let’s go in search of the Blue Fairy…
(we apologise for the state of Rob’s voice. The space lurgy has him in its snottily-tentacled grasp…)
The Best Western You Haven’t Seen
Consider the western. Once, it was the staple diet for cinema-goers everywhere. Cheap and easy to make, the average horse opera was appropriate for all ages, for every type of audience. It was sturdy, uncomplicated fare, with a clear moral message. From Tom Mix, through to Gene Autry and the daddy of them all, John Wayne, there was little confusion, no grey area. Westerns were a genre that hearkened back to simpler times, to a world before global conflict and uncomfortable discussions about race. Continue reading The Best Western You Haven’t Seen
The A To Z Of SFF: Attack Of The Ion Storm! (Part 2)
HOLY SMOKES! CycloMedia is getting worse, and the situation becomes ever more desperate for our hapless duo. As the ship is lashed by energetic particles, the question has to be asked… could this really be the end for the Ulysses?
Rob and Clive review:
Attack Of The Crab Monsters
The Atomic Submarine
Arena
The Astronaut’s Wife
Abraxas, Guardian Of The Universe
The A To Z Of SFF: Attack Of The Ion Storm! (Part One)
OH NO! Rob and Clive have piloted the Ulysses right bang slap into the middle of an ion storm! With energetic particles scrambling CycloMedia’s logic circuits, the deranged AI is stuck in a recursive loop, demanding more and more input.
Can our hapless heroes snap CycloMedia out of it before the radiation fries them all?
Rob and Clive review:
After Earth
Avatar
AVP: Alien Vs. Predator
AVP: Requiem
Attack Of The Puppet People
The A To Z Of SFF: A Is For Alien Resurrection
The red-headed stepchild of the Alien franchise gets a brisk going-over from Rob and Clive. Surrealist French director meets a series that badly needed a shot in the arm. It’s pretty out there. Worryingly, they find lots to like in Alien Resurrection. Have they been out in the depths of space maybe that little bit too long?
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 