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The Creator (2023)

US 133m, Colour Director: Gareth Edwards; Cast: John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, Allison Janney The Creator is a dystopian science fiction film that checks all of the new Hollywood diversity boxes, while being anti-American, anti-Western and anti-human. Although there are plenty of dystopian anti-capitalist films in the science fiction genre, this one suggests…

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Godzilla Minus One

Japan 125m, Colour Director: Takashi Yamazaki; Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, Kuranosuke Sasaki A re-booted origin story, Godzilla Minus One is a surprisingly heartfelt family drama in which the principal character, a failed kamikaze pilot, seeks to regain his honor by killing Godzilla. Easily the best Godzilla movie to-date,…

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Ariel Phenomenon (2022)

US 100m, Colour Director: Randall Nickerson A highly engaging film documenting the psychological impact on the children who reported having contact with an extraterrestrial phenomenon in 1994 while attending the Ariel School in Zimbabwe, Africa. While some have explained the event as a form of mass hysteria, psychiatrist Dr. John Mack, and others, take the position that the children of Ariel…

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The Phenomenon (2020)

US, 100m, Colour Director: James Fox Phenomenon is my second favourite UFO documentary, and is a great primer for anyone interested in the extraterrestrial genre. While not quite as entertaining as “Moment of Contact”, this James Fox production offers a compelling history and overview of the current state of UFOs. Less interested in the politics and controversies within the UFO community than a…

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Moment of Contact (2022)

US 108m, Colour Director: James Fox Marketed as the “Roswell of Brazil”, Moment of Contact investigates the 1996 reports of alien encounters in Varginha, Brazil. Based largely on interviews and archival footage and documents, this film is even more convincing Ariel Phenomenon (2022), which also lacked any physical evidence. While the Ariel School encounter relied solely on young school-aged…

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UFO Documentaries

As a child of the 1960s, I’ve had a fascination with space travel and science fiction, but never had much of an interest in UFOs. As a teenager, I recall watching Erich von Däniken’s “Chariots of the Gods” (1970), nominated for an Academy Award in 1971 for “Best Documentary” and which first introduced me to the idea of “ancient aliens”. As a professional archaeologist I’ve long been skeptical of…

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Bullet Train (2022)

US 126m, Colour Director: David Leitch; Cast: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, Sandra Bullock Based on the 2010 novel “Maria Beetle” the second novel in a “hitman” trilogy, written by Kōtarō Isaka, Bullet Train is one of the most entertaining action comedy films in recent years. Starring Brad…

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All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Germany, US 147m, Colour Director: Edward Berger; Cast: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Brühl, Sebastian Hülk Following the classic 1930 production of All Quiet on the Western Front is no easy task, as Milestone’s classic film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 book was an astonishing piece of early film making. Nonetheless, Berger’s version is beautifully-produced and perhaps an…

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Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Sweden, Germany, France, UK 147m, Colour Director: Ruben Östlund; Cast: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Burić, Henrik Dorsin, Vicki Berlin, Woody Harrelson Triangle of Sadness is a wonderfully absurd black comedy aboard a luxury yacht that tests the power and authority of its privileged passengers. Bordering on slapstick comedy during a  Captain’s Dinner gone horribly wrong,…

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The Green Knight (2021)

The Green Knight (2021)

US, Canada 130m, Colour Director: David Lowery; Cast: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, Ralph Ineson A medieval heroic journey, this is a film adaptation of the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Faced with the opportunity to test his courage and establish his own legend, the layabout nephew of the King is challenged by a fantastical…

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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

US 140m, Colour Directors: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert: Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis Everything Everywhere All at Once is an immensely enjoyable science fiction martial arts comedy action film that seamlessly employs dialogue in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. The unlikely protagonist, Evelyn Quan Wang, is a…

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NOPE (2022)

US 130m, Colour Director: Jordan Peele; Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Keith David NOPE is a science fiction thriller that promises more than it delivers. Essentially a monster movie, we discover along with the film’s main characters that there is an extraterrestrial entity hiding in plain sight. As a circus attraction with a taste for horses, the…

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Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm (2022)

Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm (2022)

US 76m, Colour Directors: Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis; Cast: Dana Snyder, Carey Means, Dave Willis, Matt Maiellaro, Peter Serafinowicz, Paul Walter Hauser Plantasm marks the triumphant return of my favourite crime fighting trio, Shake, Frylock and Meatwad as they reunite to defeat Neil, a billionaire mogul whose company Amazin has employed aliens which have replaced its human workforce. Working…

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Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022)

Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022)

US 86m, Colour Directors: John Rice, Albert Calleros Cast: Mike Judge, Gary Cole, Nat Faxon, Chi McBride, Andrea Savage It’s 1998, two years after Beavis and Butthead Do America, and they still haven’t scored! As overly stimulated participants at the Johnson Centre Space Camp they are rewarded with a trip aboard the shuttle.  After a mishap aboard Endeavour, they find themselves transported into…

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Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

US 113m, Colour Director: Adam Wingard; Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza González, Julian Dennison, Lance Reddick, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir With a nonsensical plot and forgettable cast of human characters, Godzilla vs. Kong still manages to be entertaining owing to the simple fact that Godzilla and King Kong are involved in some…

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Army of the Dead (2021)

Army of the Dead (2021)

US 148m, Colour Director: Zack Snyder; Cast: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi, Garret Dillahunt Army of the Dead is a comedic ensemble-style zombie genre film about a group of mercenaries who plan and execute a casino heist within the quarantined borders of…

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Army of Thieves (2021)

Army of Thieves (2021)

US, Germany 127m, Colour Director: Matthias Schweighöfer; Cast: Matthias Schweighöfer, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Guz Khan, Jonathan Cohen A loosely-based prequel to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead (2021), Army of Thieves is a fun and quirky romantic comedy within the heist genre that also happens to take place about the same time as a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas. Sebastian,…