Europa Report

One of the better sci-fi films I have seen in recent years.

Never mind that this is a 'found footage' film, which are usually pretty blah (no explanation needed, because the footage is so sketchy. Well, *shrug*, we tried.). Here, the images are clear most of the time because they are supposedly transmitted with high tech equipment and filmed with steady cams from within a spaceship.

An international group of astronauts if on a mission to collect probes from the fourth largest moon orbiting Jupiter, Europa. There is supposedly water under the icy surface and in space travel terminology water = life.

After having gone the furthest for any human ever, the crew eventually loses contact with mission control. While the head of the mission is shown in an interview detailing when they lost contact and what the findings and failings of the mission were, one crew member (Rosa) also talks straight to the camera in an interview setup, This initially made me think that maybe the crew - at least in part - survived. It is only later that it becomes clear that is is part of the footage that was sent back home after communication had been re-established. But it was already too late for them at that point.

The deaths of the crew members are rarely extremely violent, and if they are, there are no clear images of it. Some deaths are heartbreaking - in particular the first one, when James cannot return to the ship because he got hazardous matter onto his space suit and even as it dawns on him what this will mean, he still pushes Andrei, whose glove has ripped and who is losing oxygen quickly. back into the safety of the inside of the ship.

Also, and thankfully, there are no big arguments as so often appear in films involving a group of people in a dangerous situation and confined space.

Some of the cast I don't know and some are rather well-known - Embeth Davidtz is the head of the mission, Michael Nyqvist (of the Swedish Millennium Trilogy) is Andrei, Sharlto Copley is in this as the unfortunate James and Daniel is portrayed by Christian Camargo (the ice truck killer from the first season of Dexter).

Not sure why this film stayed well under the radar last year. It deserved a wider audience.

8/10

Fracture

Ted Crawford shoots his wife. He knows she is cheating on him and she knows with whom. So, yes, it is pre-meditated. There is never any doubt that he did it. There are, however, several problems, not the least of them the fact that the arresting officer is Lt. Nunally, the guy the wife was having an affair with.

When Nunally comes to the scene he does not know who Crawford is, as he has only been meeting with his lover under the names 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith'. Crawford lets him into the house under the condition that both men put their guns down. He confesses to Nunally then and there. When the policeman sees the victim, he goes off on Crawford (not proper conduct for a police officer). Crawford later repeats his confession and signs it at the police station - with Nunally in presence during interrogation.

The prosecutor of the case, Willy Beachum, does not know the connection between the victim (who is still alive, but in a coma that she has very little chance of ever coming out of) and the arresting officer. Beachum is very ambitious and has secured a new job at a prestigious law firm ('it's all about the money, money, money') and this is to be his very last case. Unfortunately, he grossly underestimates Crawford and isn't paying as much attention to the task at hand as he should be.

Crawford chooses to defend himself, offers to start trial right away, recants his confession and pleads not guilty. Beachum's underestimating him is not the biggest problem with the case. The gun they find at the Crawford house - the only gun they find, no matter how many times they turn the house upside down - is not the murder weapon. And then, when Beachum learns that Nunally was having an affair with the victim right when he is on the witness stand, the case falls apart.

Thanks to his failure, Beachum loses the new job he has not started yet and - despite his (old) boss having his back - he is done with being a prosecutor. But when he realizes that Crawford is about to pull the plug on his wife's life support, he begs for any help he can get to stop it. He does get the paperwork legally required but does not make it on time.

And then all the pieces fall into place and Beachum goes to see Crawford at his house. He explains his theory of where the murder weapon is - Nunally's gun that Crawford replaced while the officer attended to the victim. Crawford, thinking himself in the safe haven of 'double jeopardy', is as condescending as can be, owning up to everything because he is convinced nobody can touch him now. But the big mistake he made was taking his wife off life support. He beat the trial for attempted murder due to lack of physical evidence but will now be retried for murder in the first degree - with the murder weapon in evidence.

Justice is served.

A brilliant group of actors make this much more exciting than I made it sound.

7/10

Winged Creatures (aka Fragments)

This is the story of a random shooting spree in a diner and how the survivors deal with what they have been through.

The waitress, probably not a good mother to begin with, neglects her infant son and tries to get close to a doctor, who left the diner just before the shooting started. In fact, he held the door open for the shooter on his way out. In the aftermath, he starts giving his wife medication that cause her massive headaches.

The black guy, who apparently just go the news that he suffers from cancer, starts to have incredible luck and takes it into a casino where he wins massively before getting in bed with the wrong people and having his arm deliberately broken by them.

The daughter who loses her father goes all born again Christian (as if Dakota Fanning wasn't annoying enough simply by being Dakota Fanning) and tells tale of her father's bravery. Her friend simply stops talking altogether, until the very end when he finally makes her tell the truth about her father's 'bravery'.

Aiming to make you cry, which doesn't quite work. It is just too sentimental.

3/10