Boston SciFi Fest Monday

A real Nor'easter blew through New England leaving about 24 inches of snow most places and leaving the schedule for the Boston Science Fiction Festival in shambles. Friday and Saturday were completely adrift with snow and wind being the issues everyone was dealing with. Sunday I hear there was a showing but the digging out process was still going on in Somerville so getting there and parking was an issue. So we get to Monday and the opportunity to start anew.
Monday Feb 11:

5:00 PM MARS ET AVRIL  - Love and life meaning are explored through a love triangle between Muscician Jacob Obus (Jacques Languirand), his instrument designer Arthur (Paul Ahmarani) and the muse who enters their lives photographer Avril (Caroline Dhavernas). Tied together through the interaction of the characters and a important moment in time for this future Montreal, the first mission to mars, the film explores what it is to love and be honest. The film I think mostly if not entirely shot on green screen shows a futuristic world where the primary advances in society are strange clothes and hair cuts... okay I am being a but unfair. I am always a bit put off by crazy hairdos and dress when looking at a scifi film. There are some very science fiction set design features that allow the viewer to be transported into the future. A visually effective film with fine music it was definitely worth the view.

7:00 PM FOUND IN TIME - A time traveling "collector" in a futuristic world that looks exactly like modern day NYC this obviously lower budget film is one of those multiple outcome pieces that takes a bit too long to reach a resolution. The main character Chris (Macleod Andrews)is a psychic who makes a living selling things he finds to people on a street corner. He works this corner with a mixer, RJ (Derek Morgan) a guy who types words on a typewriter and sells coffee to customers, and a spinner Ayana (Mina Vesper Gokal) who weaves small pieces of psychically charged cloth. Each has a story of how they became the psychics they are. They are the lower rungs of society and with that comes the hassles of cops who force them to share their powers by giving them leads. Chris is being manipulated by his girlfriend Jina (Kelly Sullivan) who is a scientist studying the possible outcomes of time travel. Her and her cohort Anthony (Eric Martin Brown) seem to think that they can use the psychics to predict the future but too many variables and Chris's unpredictable behavior slow the progress of their experiments. I struggled with the repeated scenes of various outcomes to the events set in motion in the second act. The film is fine for what it is but my personal enjoyment suffered with the length of all the possible outcomes.

9:00 PM WHEN TIME BECOMES A WOMAN - Now I have to say I was a bit tired going into this film. My day had started at 4am so by 9pm I was not looking for this film. It is a seventy minute one location conversation between a revolutionary Zad and I am guessing a woman who is Time. Guessing because thirty minutes into their conversation I left... I was done and could not read subtitles for another second. It seemed to be going in the direction that he had failed to win his revolution and so some how found this woman who could help him. Help him if he could convince her to. At some point I will revisit this film but on this night it was not to be.
Premiere! From Jordan
 The night as a whole was a mixed bag for me....

Boston Science Fiction Festival 8

On the Saturday before the marathon I went in for two feature films both premieres. The first was a film called Time Again (2011) written and directed by Ray Karwel it is a story of fixing the past. It is not a bad first time out for Karwel The imdb plot description, "A mysterious woman helps prevent a notorious underworld criminal from getting his hands on a set of strange coins that can tip the balance between life and death." Does not quite explain this story. After her sister Sam (Tara Smoker) is killed by a thug named Mr. Way, Marlo (Angela Rachelle) is visited by an old woman offering her a chance to change the past. Mr Way (Scott F. Evans) is trying to get his hands on some ancient coins that allow the user to travel back in time. hmmm wonder how pretty little Marlo travels back? Since Marlo attempts to head back to save her sister and get the four coins so guess how many chances she gets? So the cycles of her trying to change things are destined to fail at least until she gets to her last try. Now lets give credit where it is due, the director earned some credit through the editing of this film. Holding back some pieces of information in each of the cycles and showing others the film remains pretty entertaining. The lead Angela Rachelle is a beautiful woman although she still needs to grow more as an actress. I saw her in the film The Kiss (2008) where her stunning blue eyes caught my attention. The film although not the best acting and the easy to see twist at the end is also limited by location blues. Made for very little money 125k it pretty much stays in one building and so is very limited in scope. It feels like a small budget film and but still does a lot with very little. We at these science fiction festivals are audiences that have seen many time travel films so we are hard to please. This one showed some promised but ultimately needed more money and time than it had to get a recommend from Soresport Movies.
The second feature was a wonderfully complete story of time travel and love lost called Dimensions: A Line, A Loop, A Tangle of Threads (2011) - A brilliant physicist haunted by the loss of friend in the past figures out a way to travel back in time and change the past in one of the infinite time threads that make up our universe. The film is well written by Antony Neely and directed by Sloan U'Ren it builds slowly but with a care to develop the characters and motivations needed to hold the audience. Set between the first and second world wars the film follows three young friends as they play together on the edges of wealthy society. The setting where the fathers of the children have not returned from war is a world where their Mothers set the supervision of the children. It leaves the children with way too much unsupervised time. Young Steven (Sam Harrison) and Victoria (Hannah Carson) are close friends with Conrad the third wheel but all are welcomed in this almost "out of time" childhood. Their reality is shattered by a horrible accident that leaves poor Victoria dead and both boys blaming themselves. Years later and still troubled with the loss of their friend Steven (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) and Conrad (Sean Hart) work diligently on a time machine so they can go back and change their past.
Now that simple explanation is not even close to the depth that this film has. This is a film built through the characters and their relationships so it is not so easy to tell the story without giving too much detail. The young men driven through the genius of Steven are close to having their dreams come true. At this same time physics student Annie (Olivia Llewellyn) comes into the picture as an assistant to the men. She is soon very in love with Steven and her role is so heartbreaking. She ends up loving a man who can never return her love. Of course three people in interaction often create triangles and because of that new conflicts surface in the group. In the one really cliche moment in the film poor Conrad, falling for Annie walks in on a hug that sends his mind spinning. He moves towards a betrayal that leads to a death and leaves the three questioning the work.
When the climax of this film comes it is bittersweet but also a wonderfully and carefully built reveal. There are so many things I liked about this film. It deals with the idea of time travel a staple in science fiction. When "the Professor" (Patrick Godfrey) shares his ideas about it at the garden party he uses a mask with eye slits that becomes a visual queue throughout the film holding the time travel idea in the forefront. There is the use of the tree the children run around as a transition tool for moving forward in time to the adult versions of the characters. There were the mirror scenes of the fist fight at the well. The boys in the first occasion it being about the boys fear of going down the well and in the second about who should go down. The wonderful way film spends time with the characters and their motivations so every decision is organic and real.
Beautifully filmed it is an idyllic setting outside the turmoil of the world outside where the story is allowed to grow and come to completion. Cinematography is stunning and moody and the acting is excellent all the way through. If there were any criticisms that should be brought I would say that the music is a bit too strong and sentimental. It was strongly pushing the emotional impact points at times instead of accentuating them. Already mention the betrayal scene was initiated through a very cliche piece of writing and really was the only time I was pulled out of the story. Some may also point at the final scene and how it could come off as a bit gimmicky but I actual hope for that.
Overall this was a wonderful film and although received a bit luke warm at the Marathon I think the fact it was shown after a long night of films when people were tired that such a character driven film probably was not a good fit in the time slot. I loved it.

Bloody New Year (1987) Horror Sci-Fi Ghost

Bloody New Year (1987) - This film is a bit of a mess, not sure if it is a sci-fi film with horror elements or a Horror film with some sci-fi mixed in, probably the latter. What it is for sure is a somewhat poorly done and not well though out film from the eighties, with unfathomable scenes that really add nothing to the film. Okay that's being a bit harsh, it is just the early scenes really have just one purpose, to bring a group of people together for the main story. The problem is all except one is already in there group so why have such an elaborate set up to get that person onto the sailboat. Lets start from the beginning:

The first scene is at the cusp of the new decade of the sixties. A New Years eve party with a drinking and conga line and fun. The night is winding down and the last of the participants is closing the room. She walks over to a mirror and suddenly her reflection reaches out and grabs her pulling her through the looking glass. Ghost story? You don't know but at least later on when the sci-fi plot point comes up you can judge whether this was effective or not.

Cut to the group who will be the focus of the film, all young and having fun at an amusement park.When a woman, Carol (Catherine Roman) is harassed by some carnies the group help her get away and are all chased into the fun house. This whole scene seems to have just a few reasons, it brings Carol into the group for the story to come later. It also foreshadows that bad things are going to happen by having Janet (Nikki Brooks) and Lesley (Suzy Aitchison) visit a fortuneteller who is terrified by what she sees in the crystal ball. It is a elaborate set piece that ends with one of the group drives his Land Rover, sailboat in tow, through the wall of the fun house and picks everyone up. They drive off with the carnies running behind them. The third thing it does is introduces the sailboat which is used briefly in the next scene.
Next we see the now six people are out on said sailboat having a good time. Joining the girls are the brave men who defended them, Spud (Colin Heywood), Rick (Mark Powley) and Tom (Julian Ronnie). Very quickly the boat hits a rock and the group has to swim for the shore of the island they are near. As they are struggling onto the rocks and out of the water someone is watching from the woods. Searching they come across some old plane wreckage and then the old abandoned Island Grand Hotel and we see it is the same place that was in our opening scene. Now the bulk of the film can take place. They are at this big creepy hotel and we get to see it get scarier as the film goes on. Well not really because although they were going for scary they really only reached the level of strange.
Ghosts and things moving on there own, then aggressive ghost and the deaths of some of the characters it is all so weird. We learn from a 1959 television report about a experimental plane that is trying to bend light and do some sort of time travel experiment. What seems to have happened is the plane doing the experiment crashed on the island back then and the people that were there are some how trapped in time, as ghost or some such thing. They are pretty pissed off from what I can tell. It does not make a lot of sense that the victims in that experiment would kill these new arrivals. It is what happens though right down to a final girl. One of the strangest things in the film is Spud Janet and Rick are watching a movie that is playing in the mini cinema of the hotel. Spud is up from doing impersonations of what is happening in the movie. Suddenly and without explanation the Arab stereotype in the movie leaps out of the screen and onto Spud and proceeds to kill him. WTF! Other equally bizarre things include a killer possessed fishing net, footprints appearing on the sand of the beach but no one connected to them, snowing in the living room of a house, a table monster that you have to see to believe, and random quicksand that is in the paths for no other reason then to kill them.
This movie is really a mess from beginning to end. About the only positive thing I had happen in my time working with this film is that I was researching the actresses and Nikki Brooks happens to also be the name of a porn star so a bunch of her images came up when I searched the name. Made by the "cult" director Norman J. Warren who did Inseminoid(Horror Planet), and Alien Prey I was expecting a bit more from this. Why I was thinking that I don't know neither of those films was particularly good but one always hope for good. I might cover his 1976 Satan's Slave at some point but it will not be until I get the taste of this one from my mouth. That might just take awhile. This film just did so many things wrong that it can't even be put into the category of campy fun.
Rating (3.5) 5.0 and up are recommended

Source Code (2011) - Action Thriller

Source Code (2011) - SPOILER ALERT!!! Through the magic of quantum mechanics scientists have made it possible for a personality (entity, soul, consciousness) to travel from the current time back in time to the body of another person's last eight minutes of life. Really that is the science fiction of this new film by the director Duncan Jones and writer Ben Ripley. In case you are not as into science fiction as I am, Jones made the wonderful and thoughtful Moon (2009) which asked a lot of good question about the meaning of life and what it means to be human. If you have not seen it you may want to find it. Ripley gets his first big gig in this script that has kicked around Hollywood for many years. What they create is a decent science fiction effort with the usual holes left by the time travel theme. You would be hard pressed to find a film involving time travel that has not been picked apart b y the fandom, it is just the nature of the beast and so with that in mind the rating of this film will only slightly reflect the issues around time travel. As the film begins we see sweeping vista as a commuter train rolls towards Chicago. The music in these opening credits is definitely thriller suspense in mood and as the credits end Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes on the train confused. He is greeted by the lovely Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) is such a familiar way that he is totally freaked out. Colter is a soldier who has been flying sorties over Afghanistan not some commuter on the C train. WTF is going on! When he gets to the bathroom and see another mans face staring back at him in the mirror his mind is blown, but since right at this time the train also is blown, up that is, it does not get to sink in. He comes alert in the cockpit or some such place and is being spoken to by a firm by kindhearted officer Collen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) about his mission. Stevens is part of a secret military program, even though he does not remember volunteering that uses the "source code" and quantum equations to place his consciousness into the body of Sean Fentress (only seen in reflection Frederick De Grandpre) at a time eight minutes before Sean bit the big one in the train explosion. That train explosion happen earlier in the day of this film and the military is asking Stevens to try to figure out who the bomber was. They have information that he will strike again later in the day and wish to head off the second attack. So the good soldier begins his quest and through many "Groundhog Day" cycles attempts to track down the bomber while at the same time seeming to fall for the girl across from him on the train. At first there is a lot of adjustment and he does not yet know why he is looking for the bomber, a necessary plot device for the audience but a serious flaw in the script. If Stevens does not know that the bomber is going to attack again later in the day then he can go through several cycles of picking out suspects. Each time the train blows up and he is reset he has a bit more knowledge of those on the train. Problem with this is the awkward excuse making Goodwin has to make while prepping him for another cycle. If they just tell him that the bomber is going to strike again then he would know the bomber has to be someone who got off the train and can narrow his search.

After leading us through several cycles where he gets it wrong he eventually figures out who the killer is but has some failed attempts in getting the name. Then there is the whole thing that he wants to go back in and save the people in the train. Even though he was told that he really is not effecting the outcome of the events, that they are just shadows of a past that will come to pass anyway and nothing will change that. Still the unfocused and confused Colter wastes valuable time personalizing everyone around him instead of concisely seeking the bomber. Unlike Groundhog Day though he is not there enough cycles to learn the piano and memorize entire movements of everyone in the town. No he finds the bomb and gets the name of the bomber and then his mission is over.

Or is it? He begs Goodwin for one more go at it since nothing actually will change he wants the satisfaction of stopping the train bombing even if it is in this memory world. Against the wishes of her boss Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) she allows the final time. During this time you can guess what happens. Yes that's right he saves the day captures the bad guy and gets the girl. Things are not so smooth back in the office as Goodwin has to physically lock herself in the room with the partial body of Stevens to keep the evil Dr. Rutledge from prematurely rebooting him. We get to see at this point the horrible real life condition of Stevens, pretty much he is a torso and a partially active brain. You can see why fellow soldier Goodwin wants to give Stevens his final wish. Just out of shear respect for the service he has performed. So she guards the room while his eight minutes runs.

Then the film give us the ending where we learn that since Stevens has stopped the bomber and gotten the girl that when the eight minutes are up in the memory world the train does not blow up. His personality is still in the teacher and he can spend the rest of his life with the beautiful Christina. Happily ever after. Except for the wonderfully dirty left overs for us in the audience. Stevens has created a new version of the universe, there is this tripe in Science Fiction writing where we pretend there is basically a new universe created every time a decision is made. An infinite number of universes existing all at once through space time allowing everything to be possible. It is a really horrible theory and an easy out for the science fiction writing like in this film to manipulate for a happy Stevens ending. In this case the consciousness of Steven is now in that universe where he saved the day and got to keep the bod of the teacher and now can start a life with the woman he now is getting to know. In this reality the teacher Sean Fentress is dead, not by being blown to bits but by being displaced by Stevens. I am sure when the glow wears off Stevens is going to see the myriad of problems he now has being in Fentresses body. Then the ending also shows up that the memory world was much more, as we learn not only did Stevens change things on the train, back in what supposedly is the real world he contacts Goodwin and we learn that he actually changed reality for her also. In her day the train never blew up and the entire movie from her perspective never happened. She knows about his body in the the tank and can guess that the program they are running has amazing implications for changing the course of human events. BUT it also means there are two versions of Stevens in this reality, one that is in Fentress's body and the torso in the tank. Just not a very clean ending.

Feelings about this film overall are pretty good. It was a fairly tight action thriller that kept the tension twisted up aenough to entertain. Although there are problems with some of the logic in the movie so be it. That is a common sciencefiction time travel issue and I can let it go. In fact I sort of like that it leaves the reality flawed, if everything was solve I may have been more critical. There are many films besides groundhog day that this takes ideas from, 12 Monkeys, Quantum Leap (the TV show) and Deja Vu to name a few. It is certainly most like the last of this list and even could be seen as remaking that idea.

Rating (6.2) 5.0 and up are recommended In the Zombiegrrlz system I would say rent it.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) - Comedy

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) - Hot tub as time machine puts three friends and a dork back in the 1980's. Their lives in various levels of dysfunction they have the opportunity to change there futures by changing their pasts. Lou (Rob Corddry) made a suicide attempt before the trip and now is still willing to try not to mess up the past. Adam (John Cusack) brings Lou to the place where there greatest weekend adventure of the eighties took place. Instead of finding the magic of that time in the now run down ski lodge, they find a night of drinking that leads to the trip in the hot tub time machine. With Nick (Craig Robinson) reeling from finding out his wife has been cheating on him Lou Adam and his nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) try to not destroy the future while in the past. Still it is impossible to get everything right and these guys are damaged from the start. When they wake in the morning in the eighties the gags are about the exaggerated 80s clothes and hair styles and although at times there are some funny bit they never quite get hilarious. Chevy Chase plays the hottub repair man who flits in and out with useless warnings about the machine, or is he talking in secret messages. The problem is that he never fully is explored as a character. The buddy movie aspect of this film does work but it is the laughs that come out flat.

Rating (5.2)

Los Cronocrimenes (Time Crimes) (2007) - Sci-Fi / Thriller

Cronocrimenes (Time Crimes) (2007) - A man accidentally ends up traveling back in time an hour. Realizing that events that lead him there must happen the same way they did for him; Hector (Karra Elejalde) sets about trying to recreate the circumstance for his passed self. The consequences of his action are far greater than he expects as he struggle to make things right.

Writer/Director Nacho Vigalondo does a fine job with the design of this film. This smart time travel feature holds up well in a genre that easily muddles the time space continuum. Keeping the story small but only revealing the needed information has created a taught and exciting film. Is Hector is faced with a horrible decision, or do the time travel limits and rules make his crime forgivable? Is he a selfish man or just completing what has already happened?

Vigalondo is working on a English version of this film slated for 2011. I think it is not necessary since the dubbed version from Spain is quite well done. If you like time travel and thrilling stories this is the movie for you.
Rating (8.5)