Danny Boyle directs Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne and Michelle Yeoh in this sci-fi psychological thriller where a team of scientists must complete their mission to launch a nuclear device into the sun to reignite it.

Blindingly bright. A script by Alex Garland influenced as much by 2000AD and popular speculative science as Alien and Event Horizon. The domino rally of escalating calamities over the first two act is intense. The space walk where two astronauts are protected by a malfunctioning solar shield is a highlight. The ensemble is perfectly cast, over qualified really for their stock, thinly sketched roles. You never feels like you get enough of Yeoh, Cliff Curtis or Benedict Wong. The third act is an incoherent mess but at least it is still quite chaotically exciting. Sunshine’s production values are the stand out. The design of the spindly ship and chunky spacesuits are lush. They help make for visually memorable spectacle where the slow burn disagreements and disasters can simmer away at their own niggling, erratic pace.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Event Horizon (1997)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Allan Arkush and Joe Dante directs Candice Rialson, Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov in this sexploitation cheapie where a girl with a big dream of becoming a star lands on the seedier side of the movie making street.

Before Mulholland Dr. and yet (somehow) after Babylon, there was this. 25% titty shots. 25% footage from other Corman flicks. 25% cartoon romps around other Corman sets with recognisable props, costumes and vehicles. 25% dark satire about what a human meat factory showbiz is. Listen, the endless parade of healthy Seventies breasts is lovely, the kinetic set pieces are larks. The rest is filler. For every telling shot where the LA newsagents sells one trade mag for every 10 pornos, there’s a couple of weird gang rape moments that are way too full on to be as wittily point scoring as they are intended to be. Hollywood Boulevard really is a poor man’s stew scraped together from found footage, pick up shots and off cuts. The murder mystery subplot culminates in an axe fight around the dilapidated, graffiti strewn Hollywood sign. Rialson is a truly magnetic presence, sunny and game. Dick Miller is fantastic fun as a terrible agent. It just never all combines together into a consistent feature. At 70 plus minutes it often is boring.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Hardcore (1979)

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Cover star Michael Douglas talks about how producing kept his acting career alive and The Jewel Of The Nile was zero fun to make as nobody wanted to be there.

A trade article covering how the VHS market is shifting from a purely rental window to simultaneous sell-through releases. Danny Champion Of The World and Rain Man were the first to take a gamble changing the pattern.

The rise of the multiplex gets a well researched essay. Did you know they had a mechanism built into the ceilings above projector booths to run one print from a first projection booth and then have it spool across the vents to be used again soon after in a nearby screen?

A begrudging interview with Ken Russell whose career was on a downward turn.

A very candid feature on the crew’s first hand experiences on the set of The Abyss. The lower rung cast members talk of the backwards hick town they were trapped in, the danger of filming in a water flooded nuclear reactor and their minor rebellions against the James Cameron regime. Still, all that suffering produced one of the best sci-fi movies ever… so shut the fuck up.

Some recent releases covered. They did not enjoy Two Moon Junction, shortsightedly stating Sherilyn Fenn had no screen chemistry. Audrey Horn wants a word with you Empire. The two genre flicks that have stood the test of time (Dead Calm and Road House) are buried seven pages deep into the New Releases review section.

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/