I was stoked when I first heard about this movie. Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later), is one of the most interesting filmmakers working these days. And to hear that he was making an ambitious sci-fi film, was music to my mind. There aren't enough smart sci-fi films, it's a genre too little explored. Most sci-fi films follow the Star Wars mode; adventure films in a sci-fi setting, which is fine, I enjoy them as well. But I like to see films, that generate new ideas about what may lie ahead for mankind.

When Sunshine was released, it was fairly trashed by the critics. Everyone kept comparing it to Event Horizon, which I thought was an under-appreciated sci-fi/horror film, but not what I was hoping for. The bad press was enough to dissuade me from seeing it in theaters, a decision I now regret.

Sunshine isn't a new sci-fi classic, and it does share a thematic similarity to Event Horizon, but it's a much better film; well directed, beautifully shot, and great performances from everyone involved. Most importantly it actually makes you think. Sure the idea of the sun dying and being restarted with a man-made explosion, seems a little Armageddon-ish, but it's the way it's handled that makes it seem more serious and plausible.

The film conveys the overwhelming sense of their purpose, that if they fail, it means the end of the world. You get a sense of the loneliness of deep space, so when they need to make a decision about traveling off course, it really means something epic. And the last scene is so beautifully realized, it might just give you chills.

The film has a great international cast, in a mission to save the world, you'd expect to have many different countries represented. Cillian Murphy, is the star of the film; but it also includes great work from Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Rose Byrne, and I never thought I'd say this but Chris Evans. I'm used to him hamming it up, and getting by on his pretty boy looks in crap like The Fantastic Four, but this gives him some hope as an actor, he has a couple of good moments, where he serves as the cold-calculating scientific mind.

Sunshine, isn't a great film; it has too many flaws and a few plot holes that will never allow it to become a classic. But as time goes on, I think that people will appreciate it for what it is. It is another interesting film to add to Danny Boyle's resume, I'm glad that with each film, he tries something new; from family films to horror. I'd love to see him explore sci-fi again, but whatever he makes, I'm there.

This DVD caught my eye on the shelf at Blockbuster and I immediately rented it. I'm a sucker for this kind of poster, the hipper-than-though design; you know for films like Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Napoleon Dynamite and the like. Even though there's been a glut of these kind of films in the last few years, I haven't grown tired of them yet. Most of them have been pretty good, Thumbsucker and Running With Scissors being the only two I can remember not enjoying; I'm sure somebody's working on a spoof right now.

The Rage in Lake Placid turned out to be another good coming-of-age / everything-isn't-fine-in-the-suburbs type film; but it's not as "hip" as the advertising suggests. The film isn't chock full of hipster dialogue and funky, unrealistic set design. The filmmakers went for a much more natural feel; though that cool attitude bubbles right underneath, like they wanted to go all out, but were refraining themselves.

The film is about Placid Lake, that's a hippie-parent name, he's just graduated from high school; where he stood out as the weirdo. It was something he was well aware and proud of, really shoving his attitude down everyone's throats. It's particularly funny how he treats the school's bullies, literally asking them for the day's beating. When he makes a film that's shown in front of the whole school, about the atrocities that are perpetrated by the bullies, teachers and other students; he gets in big trouble, and is thrown from the roof of the school.

Waking up in the hospital, covered head-to-toe in a cast, he makes a new life decision. He wants to be normal. He gets a haircut, buys a new suit and lies his way into a job at an insurance agency. He's amazingly good at it, and genuinely wants the change to stick. His hippie parents don't approve, they want him to screw-around, to be an artist; following the societal norm equals death. Even his straight-as-an-arrow girlfriend begins to think he's going to far. He questions who he really is.

In his feature film acting debut, Ben Lee has a good charismatic screen-presence as Placid, his narration carries much of the film. I guess he usually fronts a rock band, and is the longtime boyfriend of Claire Danes, who makes an extremely brief cameo. Rose Byrne (Wicker Park) plays Placid's best friend Gemma, she's decent as the good-girl who discovers she wants to be bad, as soon as he turns normal. Miranda Richardson and Garry McDonald are both very funny as his parents.

This film also continues the trend of my enjoying Australian films, they have a really wonderful sense of humor in the Land Down-Under. Writer/Director Tony McNamara, while not knocking it out of the park with this film, proves that he's a talent to watch for.

I like seeing movies this way. Wicker Park came out a few years back, I sort of remembered the trailer, something about a girl disappearing, but hadn't heard anybody ever say anything about it; so I went in to it really fresh. I hate knowing too much about a movie before I see it.

It's not a great film, but it's a fairly interesting one. When we meet Mathew, played by the underrated Josh Hartnett, he seems to have his life together. He's got a good job and a pretty fiancee, but when a mysterious girl passes through, his life is thrown into disarray; he stalks this unknown woman, lies to his fiancee and skips a business trip. What unveils is that this girl was once the great love of his life and the strange reasons why she disappeared.

The film is structured very nicely. The mystery is unraveled at a satisfying pace. The film jumps back and forth in time, but it's always understood where the characters are. It seems like films that have this many twists and turns get lost themselves, making it uninteresting or unsatisfying in the end. It was also nice to see a mystery about something besides murder, it's all about love and the complications that it can cause.

It's a good little film if you're in the mood for something slightly offbeat.