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Sci-Fi-London · 2010

Sci-Fi-London 2010

Full Feature Line up

Programme

37 films · 17 reviews

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1 (One)

Review preview for 1

Enigmatic in form, encyclopaedic in scope, and leaving room between its lines for many different readings, Sparrow's 1 encapsulates, much like the book from which it takes its name, the whole of human experience in eccentric, elliptical cross-section.

Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
Adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's One Human Minute, sees bookshop staff incarcerated because copies of a book describing everything that happens to everyone on the planet in the space of a minute are found on their shelves.

(Country: Hungary; Year: 2009; Director: Pater Sparrow; Writer: Judit Góczán, Béla Hamvas, Pater Sparrow, Pál Závada, based on the essay by Stanislaw Lem; Stars: Zoltán Mucsi, László Sinkó, Pál Mácsai, Vica Kerekes, Balázs Czukor, Zoltán Balázs, Máté Haumann, Krzysztof Rogacewicz, Zoltán Berzsenyi, Krisztina Bíró, Péter Kalmár, István Maszlay, András Dömötör, András Már, Bence Máté)

Full review

2033

In a futuristic Mexico, where the populace are controlled by synthetic food, a rebellion is born.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2009; Director: Francisco Laresgoiti; Writer: Jordi Mariscal; Stars: Miguel Couturier, Alonso Echánove, Sandra Echeverría, Luis Ernesto Franco, Genaro Hernandez, Claudio Lafarga, Raúl Méndez, Marco Antonio Treviño, Aarón I. Campos) , Official site

8th Wonderland

A group of social networkers declare themselves a virtual country and set about changing the world around them.

(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Nicolas Alberny, Jean Mach; Writer: Nicolas Alberny, Jean Mach; Stars: Matthew Géczy, Robert William Bradford, Alain Azerot, Eloïssa Florez, Ahlima Mhamdi, Michael Hofland, Luca Lombardi, Dimitri Michelsen, Irina Ninova, Laetitia Noyon, Gerald Papasyan, Pierre-Luc Scotto, Nicolas Vayssie, Jesse Joe Walsh, Anton Yakovlev) , Official site

The Abyss

Review preview for The Abyss

The tension is never loosened, the action seldom rests and the dialogue sounds as sharp and convincing as the actors who speak it.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4.5 out of 5
Action-packed underwater rescue thriller, with nuclear warheads, explosive relationships and extra-terrestrials.

(Country: US; Year: 1989; Director: James Cameron; Writer: James Cameron; Stars: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, Leo Burmester, Todd Graff, John Bedford Lloyd, J.C. Quinn, Kimberly Scott, Captain Kidd Brewer Jr., George Robert Klek)

Full review

The Alien Factor

When aliens destined for a zoo escape during a crash landing, a small town near Baltimore is in a lot of bother.

(Country: US; Year: 1978; Director: Don Dohler; Writer: Don Dohler; Stars: Don Leifert, Tom Griffith, Richard Dyszel, Mary Mertens, Richard Geiwitz, George Stover, Eleanor Herman, Anne Frith, Christopher Gummer, Johnny Walker, Don Dohler, Dave Ellis, Dave Geatty, Marie Van Tassell, Tony Malanowski)

Barbarella

Review preview for Barbarella

Fonda's resolutely straight-faced performance makes Barbarella a character who can charm you with more than just her physical assets.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Cult sci-fi sees a sexy space agent hunt down an evil scientitst.

(Country: France, Italy; Year: 1968; Director: Roger Vadim; Writer: Jean-Claude Forest, Claude Brulé, Terry Southern, Roger Vadim, Vittorio Bonicelli, Clement Biddle Wood, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates; Stars: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O'Shea, Marcel Marceau, Claude Dauphin, Véronique Vendell, Giancarlo Cobelli, Serge Marquand, Nino Musco, Franco Gulà, Catherine Chevallier, Marie Therese Chevallier, Umberto Di Grazia, David Hemmings)

Full review See: Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Paolo Sorrentino, Harvey Keitel, Paul Dano and Rachel Weisz talk Youth

Bleach The Movie: (Gekijô ban Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion - Mô hitotsu no hyôrinmaru)

On the hunt for a stolen seal, to men discover a dark secret.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2007; Director: Noriyuki Abe; Stars: Akira Ishida, Masakazu Morita, Romi Pak)

Cargo

Review preview for Cargo

In space, it may well be that no one can hear you scream... but just about anyone who has seen any of the major space-set or futuristic thrillers from the past few decades will find the cliches of the genre ringing out in this Swiss sci-fi

Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
Trouble brews in the cargo hold of a spaceship.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Yan Vizinberg; Writer: Lee Peterkin, Yan Vizinberg; Stars: Natasha Rinis, Sayed Badreya, Philip Willingham, Raul I Torres, Vaughn Goland, Israel Hernandez, Misha Kuznetsov, Dave Powers, Seth Ruffer, Darja Schabad, Anita Storr) , Official site

Full review

Chanbara Striptease

The heir of a master swordsman finds herself transported back in time, where she must tackle an evil geisha.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2009)

Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

Review preview for Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

Delivers all-out adventure with refreshingly little messing about.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Peter Cushing's Doctor takes on the exterminating aliens.

(Country: UK; Year: 1966; Director: Gordon Flemyng; Writer: Terry Nation, Sydney Newman, Milton Subotsky, David Whitaker; Stars: Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, Ray Brooks, Andrew Keir, Roberta Tovey, Jill Curzon, Roger Avon, Geoffrey Cheshire, Keith Marsh, Philip Madoc, Steve Peters, Eddie Powell, Godfrey Quigley, Peter Reynolds, Bernard Spear)

Full review

Depositarios

Review preview for Depositarios

A sedate, not always coherent construct that somehow seems less than the sum of its harvested parts.

Anton Bitel · 2.5 out of 5
Futuristic clone thriller sees genetic doubles suffering the pain of their 'real world' twin.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2010; Director: Rodrigo Ordoñez; Writer: Rodrigo Ordoñez; Stars: Alejandra Ambrosi, Cesar Ramos, Jose Carlos Montes, Humberto Busto, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Anilú Pardo)

Full review

Drones

Review preview for Drones

Amber Benson and Adam Busch's Drones may be slight, but that low-key triviality is an essential part of its humour.

Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
An office worker discovers one of his colleagues is an alien.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Amber Benson, Adam Busch; Writer: Ben Acker, Ben Blacker; Stars: Jonathan M Woodward, Angela Bettis, Samm Levine, James Urbaniak, Tangi Miller, Marc Evan Jackson, Dave Allen, Paul F. Tompkins, Kevin Ford, Adam Busch, Simon Dasher, Elizabeth Faith, Amy Gillespie, Janie Haddad, Destin M. Hebert) , Official site

Full review

Earthling

Review preview for Earthling

In the real world of coincidence and logic there has to be meaning in order to contain the terror that naturally arises from unnatural occurances.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
A group of people on Earth discover they aren't who they thought they were.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Clay Liford; Writer: Clay Liford; Stars: Rebecca Spence, Amelia Turner, William Katt, Peter Greene, Jennifer Sipes, Savanna Sears, Andrew Sensenig) , Official site

Full review

Eraser Children

Review preview for Eraser Children

A film to be admired more for its vast ambitions than for its actual achievements.

Anton Bitel · 2.5 out of 5
In a futuristic totalitarian state, where human memories are literally converted to fuel, one man becomes convinced he can save the world.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Nathan Christoffel; Writer: Nathan Christoffel; Stars: Jasen Swafford, Andrew Lyons, Rob Alec, Andrew Baker, Saskia Sansom, Shane Nagle, Jorja Hoffmann, Adam Camerlengo, Peter Stratford, Joshua Parnell)

Full review

First Spaceship On Venus (Der schweigende Stern)

A spaceship tries to make contact with 'the silent planet'... but is there something sinister in Venus's refusal to respond?

(Country: East Germany, Poland; Year: 1960; Director: Kurt Maetzig; Writer: Stanislaw Lem, Jan Fethke, Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Günter Reisch, Günther Rücker, Alexander Stenbock-Fermor, Kurt Maetzig, J. Barkhauer; Stars: Yoko Tani, Oldrich Lukes, Ignacy Machowski, Julius Ongewe, Michail N. Postnikow, Kurt Rackelmann, Günther Simon, Tang Hua-Ta, Lucyna Winnicka, Danuta Szaflarska, Klaus Bamberg, Fredy Barten, Christoph Bayertt, Karl Brenk, Fritz Decho)

Gekijouban Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

Anime adaptation for which we can find barely any info, if someone knows, please get in touch.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2010; Director: Kenichi Takeshita; Stars: Yu Asakawa, Maii Kadowaki, Ayako Kawasumi, Kazuhiro Nakata, Tadahisa Saizen, Noriko Shitaya, Noriaki Sugiyama, Junichi Suwabe, Atsuko Tanaka, Kana Ueda) , Official site

The Hospital Of Transfiguration (Szpital przemienienia)

The experiences of a novice doctor in a mental institution.

(Country: Poland; Year: 1979; Director: Edward Zebrowski; Writer: Michal Komar, Stanislaw Lem, Edward Zebrowski; Stars: Piotr Dejmek, Jerzy Binczycki, Henryk Bista, Ewa Dalkowska, Gustaw Holoubek, Zygmunt Hubner, Ryszard Kotys, Klaus Piontek, Wojciech Pszoniak, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Katarzyna Ejmont, Adam Gessler, Anna Jaraczówna, Elzbieta Karkoszka, Wladyslaw Kowalski)

Hunter Prey

After a spaceship crashes on a desert planet a prisoner escapes and begins bumping off the survivors.

(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Sandy Collora; Writer: Sandy Collora, Nick Damon; Stars: Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Clark Bartram, Damion Poitier, Simon Potter, Erin Gray) , Official site

Independence Day

Review preview for Independence Day

What is required is not another helicopter in flames.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 2 out of 5
Alien invasion of earth demands action from the White House and a thousand heart-tugging human stories.

(Country: US; Year: 1996; Director: Roland Emmerich; Writer: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich; Stars: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, Vivica A. Fox, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstein)

Full review

Kamui: The Lone Ninja (Kamui Gaiden)

Review preview for Kamui: The Lone Ninja

Amid horrific iniquities and inequalities, the film asks, is true freedom ever possible for anyone but the privileged?

Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
Ninja-tastic adaptation of the famous manga.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2009; Director: Yoichi Sai; Writer: Sampei Shirato, Kankurô Kudô, Yoichi Sai; Stars: Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Koyuki, Kaoru Kobayashi, Kôichi Satô, Hideaki Ito, Sei Ashina, Ekin Cheng, Yuta Kanai, Naoyuki Morita, Shigeru Nakano, Suzuka Ohgo, Panta, Daisuke Ryû, Yukio Sakaguchi, Gorô Tamiya) , Official site

Full review

Love Story 2050

Indian romance... with added robots and time travel.

(Country: Australia, India; Year: 2008; Director: Harry Baweja; Writer: Javed Akhtar, Harry Baweja, Bhavani Iyer, Mayur Puri, Karan Razdan, Prem Soni; Stars: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Archana Puran Singh, Amman Batala, Kurush Deboo, Candida Fernadies, Hartley Jackson, Karan Mehra, Mehezabeen Sarela, Dalip Tahil, Rachit Trehan, Harsh Vasisht)

Minority Report

Review preview for Minority Report

Flashy future technology and architecture has been cleverly interwoven with the familiar, even the old-fashioned, to create a world which we can believe is not too far away from our own.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Sci-fi thriller about cops who predict murder before it happens with the use of psychics.

(Country: US; Year: 2002; Director: Steven Spielberg; Writer: Scott Frank, Jon Cohen, based on a short story by Philip K Dick; Stars: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max Von Sydow, Louis Smith, Peter Stormare, Tim Blake Nelson, Steve Harris, Neal McDonough, Patrick Kilpatrick, Jessica Capshaw, Richard Coca, Keith Campbell, Kirk BR Woller, Klea Scott, Frank Grillo)

Full review See: The Cinema according to Philip K. Dick

Musashi: The Dream Of The Last Samurai (Miyamoto Musashi: Sôken ni haseru yume)

Anime documentary of swordfighting tactician Musashi Miyamoto.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2009; Director: Mizuho Nishikubo; Writer: Mamoru Oshii)

Nothing

Two pals find the world outside their home has completely disappeared.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2003; Director: Vincenzo Natali; Writer: Vincenzo Natali, Andrew Miller, David Hewlett, Andrew Lowery; Stars: David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Gordon Pinsent, Marie-Josée Croze, Andrew Lowery, Elana Shilling, Soo Garay, Martin Roach, Angelo Tsarouchas, Rick Parker, Maurice Dean Wint) , Official site

Plug And Pray

Documentary about pioneers in robotics... and what they hold for the future.

(Director: Jens Schnaze)

Redline

Manga set at the bmost dangerous racing game in the universe.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2009; Director: Takeshi Koike)

Salute Of The Jugger (The Blood Of Heroes)

Futuristic football tale with Mad Max menances.

(Country: Australia, US; Year: 1989; Director: David Webb Peoples; Writer: David Webb Peoples; Stars: Rutger Hauer, Delroy Lindo, Anna Katarina, Vincent D'Onofrio, Gandhi MacIntyre, Justin Monjo, Aaron Martin, Joan Chen, Casey Huang, Quang Dinh, John Doumtsis, John Biro, Brian Cawley, Gino Terranova, Cecilia Wong)

Screamers

Mankind's greatest weapon - a race of self-replicating killing devices - becomes our greatest enemy.

(Country: Canada, US, Japan; Year: 1995; Director: Christian Duguay; Writer: Philip K. Dick, Dan O'Bannon, Miguel Tejada-Flores; Stars: Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, Jennifer Rubin, Andrew Lauer, Charles Edwin Powell, Ron White, Michael Caloz, Liliana Komorowska, Jason Cavalier, Leni Parker, Sylvain Massé, Bruce Boa, Tom Berry, Henry Ramer) , Official site

Splice

Review preview for Splice

This movie has some of the strangest moments you’ll see on film this year.

Nick Da Costa · 4 out of 5
An experiment gets out of control after scientists go on the run with their human-animal hybrid creation.

(Country: Canada, France, US; Year: 2009; Director: Vincenzo Natali; Writer: Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, Doug Taylor; Stars: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, David Hewlett, Delphine Chanéac, Abigail Chu, Brandon McGibbon, Amanda Brugel, Stephanie Baird) , Official site , Trailer

Full review

Starship Troopers

Review preview for Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers is one of Verhoeven's most underrated works.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A small group of friends join the war effort to save the Earth from alien attack. Do you want to know more?

(Country: US; Year: 1997; Director: Paul Verhoeven; Writer: Edward Neumeier, based on the book by Robert A Heinlein.; Stars: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Patrick Muldoon)

Full review

Tajomaru

Whoever kills the bandit Tajomaru inherits his name, which spells trouble for a young royal.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2009; Director: Hiroyuki Nakano; Writer: Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Shinichi Ichikawa, Mataichirô Yamamoto; Stars: Shun Oguri, Yuki Shibamoto, Kei Tanaka, Kyôsuke Yabe, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Hirotarô Honda, Hiroki Matsukata, Masaomi Kondo, Kenichi Hagiwara, Gou Ayano, Takamasa Suga, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi)

Test Pilota Pirxa

The commander of his spaceship discovers one of his crew members is a robot... but which one?

(Country: Poland, Soviet Union; Year: 1978; Director: Marek Piestrak; Writer: Stanislaw Lem, Marek Piestrak, Vladimir Valutskiy; Stars: Sergei Desnitsky, Boleslaw Abart, Vladimir Ivashov, Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Zbigniew Lesien, Ferdynand Matysik, Igor Przegrodzki, Tõnu Saar, Zygmunt Bielawski, Janusz Bylczynski, Adam Cieslak, Edmund Fetting, Józef Fryzlewicz, Marek Idzinski, Mieczyslaw Janowski)

Tokyo Gore School (Gakkô ura saito)

A high school teen stumbles upon a sinsiter violent game spreading through the classrooms of Japan.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2009; Director: Yôhei Fukuda; Writer: Yôhei Fukuda, Kiyoshi Yamamoto; Stars: Masato Hyûgaji, Takafumi Imai, Kenta Itogi, Shinwa Kataoka, Kôhei Kuroda, Shion Machida, Shôichi Matsuda, Mikiya, Masanori Mizuno, Nako Mizusawa, Makoto Sakamoto, Shun'ya Shiraishi, Sôtarô, Yusuke Yamada) , Official site

Transmission (Adás)

Review preview for Transmission

A dystopian allegory like no other.

Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
As the airwaves fall dead and communication systems become useless, three brothers try to survive.

(Country: Hungary; Year: 2009; Director: Roland Vranik; Writer: András Barta, Roland Vranik; Stars: Terhes Sándor, Rátóti Zoltán, Hajduk Károly, Wéber Kata, Kerekes Éva, Becker Hanna, Kóródi Boróka, Lengyel Ferenc, Thróczy Szabolcs)

Full review

TiMER

Review preview for TiMER

Jac Shaeffer plays around with the ideas of time and relationships like a malevolent matchmaker, finding plenty of laugh-out loud laughs in the process.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
What would you do if you had a device that told you when you would meet your romantic destiny?

(Country: USA; Year: 2009; Director: Jac Schaeffer; Writer: Jac Schaeffer; Stars: Emma Caulfield, Michelle Borth, John Patrick Amedori, Desmond Harrington, JoBeth Williams, Kali Rocha) , Official site

Full review See: Tribeca Film Festival Diary and Film/Movie reviews: Departures, The Eclipse, Timer, Fish Child

The Unearthly

A crazed doctor experiments on his patients in a bid for eternal youth.

(Country: US; Year: 1957; Director: Boris Petroff; Writer: Jane Mann, John D.F. Black; Stars: John Carradine, Myron Healey, Allison Hayes, Marilyn Buferd, Arthur Batanides, Sally Todd, Tor Johnson, Roy Gordon, Guy Prescott, Raymond Guta, Harry Fleer, Gloria Petroff, Paul McWilliams, Karl Johnson)

Vampires

Review preview for Vampires

The privilege of having a human film crew witness some of the more repulsive vampiric habits is treated with respect.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 3.5 out of 5
Mockumentary about a family of vampires.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2009; Director: Vincent Lannoo; Writer: Frédérique Broos, Vincent Lannoo; Stars: Carlo Ferrante, Vera Van Dooren, Pierre Pognay, Fleur Lise Hevet, Benedicte Bantuelle, Selma Alaoui, Baptiste Sornin, Paul Ahmarani, Alexandra Kamp, Julien Dore)

Full review