Shane Acker’s Oscar-nominated animated short “9″ impressed on ingenuity and creative visuals. Its anthropomorphic googly-eyed burlap protagonist, 9, connectedly instant with the short’s viewers, and the wealth of imagination poured into his world and surroundings made it fascinating. With the help of numerous producers including “Wanted” director Timur Bekmambetov and legendary stop-motion filmmaker Tim Burton, [...]

Sure, the idea of the Star Trek crew going where several million men (and women) have gone before — 1980s San Francisco — is an amusing possibility. The futuristic technology and mindset of the Star Trek universe meeting current times is ripe with gag potential and in many cases, “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” [...]

Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s book “Slaughterhouse-Five” is a classic and the film version gets by on this fact alone. The rather faithful adaptation is enough to satisfy fans of the novel, but not even the great George Roy Hill can manage to turn Stephen Geller’s uninspired script into a more meaningful movie experience.

In a decade of reboots comes perhaps the most daring and challenging: the Star Trek franchise. With 40 years of history including a total of around 15 movies and/or TV spin- offs, a database of hardcore fans and a recent history of trailing off into oblivion, Star Trek has been on life support for about [...]

If 1979′s “Alien” was the original hypothesis that the best science-fiction thrillers are psychological, then John Carpenter’s “The Thing” is the study that proves it true. A remake of John W. Campbell Jr.’s 1951 classic “The Thing from Another World,” Carpenter’s re- imagining is another brilliant execution of quiet suspense that gets quickly into your [...]

If you read the plot summary for “Mad Max,” you’ve just ruined the first 1 hour and 10 minutes of the film. You’ve also found out that “Mad Max” takes place in post-apocalyptic Australia, which will be helpful because otherwise you won’t have any idea what’s going on. The film, made in 1979, tries really [...]

It’s not unfair initially to dismiss “The Day the Earth Stood Still” as sci-fi pulp from an era full of it, but the film’s anti-war message given the Cold War context it was released in makes it nothing short of a classic. Its commercial exterior featuring posters with Gort the space robot pales in comparison [...]

Since I haven’t reviewed an older sci-fi movie and it’s my favorite genre, I reached into my archive and pulled out one of my favorite movie discoveries, “Dark City.” One thing that science-fiction junkies often consider is what aliens would think of us if they studied our planet. Alex Proyas’ mystery thriller “Dark City” tells [...]

Alien invasion stories can often seem a bit far-fetched, but making a great action movie with a compelling story for just $30 million shouldn’t. If “District 9″ scores at the box office, maybe it will drive home to Hollywood that eternal but oft forgotten message that great films come from great stories. “District 9″ is [...]