Lucy

This film works on the premise that a human only uses 10% of his/her brain. While this is not quite accurate it's probably just as well. We don't watch action films for their scientific soundness. My guess would be that most would watch this particular one for Scarlett Johansson. And maybe the shooting and reckless driving and stuff.

Granted, this is fun and all.

However, for me there was one big nuisance. People walk through this film in broad daylight, in crowded areas clearly brandishing guns and nobody reacts in any kind of way to that. Seriously, if you have a bunch of Koreans taking machine guns out of the trunks of big black cars in the middle of Paris, someone would see, no? Sure, it doesn't matter one way or the other for the way the film turns out, but nevertheless it is cause for irritation.

The film is visually cool, the premise is interesting, the shootouts are plentiful and the inclusions of animal scenes to hint at what is about to happen (a mouse right before stepping into a mouse trap representing Lucy right before entering a fateful meeting) are kind of cool, too.

There are some scenes that look like a tribute to Terrence Malick (the locust in Days of Heaven, the dinosaurs in The Tree of Life) and evoke a similar WTF? reaction, but they do make a weird kind of sense in Lucy.

Interesting. Entertaining. Imperfect.

6/10

Interstellar

This is all kinds of awesome. It looks great and it is engrossing. Everything that a sci-fi film should be. And I have absolutely no idea what was actually going on. Also a standard in a sci-fi film.

Lemme see if I can convey what happened - as I understand it.

Cooper used to be an astronaut and is now a corn farmer. The year is sometime in the future. Not sure when. The bookcase corresponds with his daughter Murph, or so she thinks. What or who truly communicates could be anything from a poltergeist (Murph's initial idea), 'them' or maybe Cooper himself from the future. Anyway, the message is either coordinates or the word 'stay' or both. The coordinates lead to NASA, where Cooper runs into his old pal Dr. Brand. He is recruited to go on a mission to find an alternative planet for the people of earth, because the one currently occupied is dying and/or killing them all.

Plan A is to find a planet and take earthlings to that planet. This turns out to have never actually been a viable option. Dr. Brand simply made up this story for people working on the project to keep working on it. Because (presumably) you will work harder to save yourself and your families than all mankind.

Plan B (and this is the one that was always going to be put in action) is to send frozen embryos to whatever livable planet is discovered on the mission and sort of reinvent mankind.

Cooper goes on the mission under false assumptions. So, apparently, does everyone else on the spaceship with him, including Dr. Brand's daughter. Of course, time passes with different speeds depending on where you are in the universe and whether or not you go through a wormhole/black hole. The difference on the other end of the hole relative to time on earth is 1 month = 7 years. This sucks for someone who left behind his two young children, as Cooper has. When he realizes what this could mean, the mission becomes more desperate for him. He needs to complete the task as quickly as possible. But then he learns of Dr. Brand's rouse and several complications along the way make the mission even harder.

While Cooper and his fellow astronauts are off in space, back home on earth life moves on for his children, as well. The son, Tom, takes over the family farm and the daughter, Murph, was always a potential scientist. After she learns of Dr. Brand's story and plans, she tries saving mankind from her end, as well.

And yes, I know how all of this sounds.

I maintain that I barely understand whatever was going on onscreen. But it sure is pretty to look at.

8/10

The Thing

An alien taking over bodies of living beings (a dog to begin with, whoever is available after) to 'imitate' the host ends up in an American station in Antarctica. Scientifically, this is new and exciting and horrifying. Definitely something the scientists and/or doctor at the station should probably try to figure out. Stat. So....

Let's put the helicopter pilot in charge!

Never mind that he drinks way more than he probably should (and why is there so much alcohol available in the middle of nowhere, anyway?) and doesn't know the difference between Swedes and Norwegians (and, boy, does that joke get old quickly!). He is Kurt Russel so to him we shall listen.

What he has going for him is clearly being the inspiration for Pharrell's ever present hat! Behold!

 

If we chose to overlook the implausibility of the worker bee running the show (and we do chose that) than we can appreciate the dark atmosphere in this and, indeed, many other of John Carpenter's films. Sadly, he seems to have lost his touch as of late, painfully obvious in his latest film, The Ward.

But The Thing was made in his heyday, when the special effects could still gross you out. The dog splits open, for Christ's sake! And a head grows legs and turns into a giant spider thingy. Awesome!

If this film were made today, however, the first Norwegian on the scene might still have been shot (in that all-American Shoot First, Ask Questions Later! attitude) but the main objective of the team of scientists (and the trigger-happy, rough guy pilot, obviously) would be to isolate the dog or anyone suspected of being an imitation to see if this cannot be used in warfare somehow.

So a lot could have been handled better if, I dunno, the guy that figured out that one or more of the team may have been infected/imitated said something to his colleagues about it. They might have had some valuable input. As it happens, when something needs to be told they tell it to the pilot first. Why? Because he is Kurt Russell.

And a good thing too, because he does have a theory on how to test who of their group is/are affected. He knows science and medicine now! He has theories! If this were indeed made today, he probably would have been a scientist because at some point it became okay for them to be tough and sexy and bad-ass. The are also allowed to be women now! Imagine the possiblities.

I don't mean to sound like I didn't like The Thing. It did what it set out to do, which is entertain and gross out.

A friend pointed out this story to me, which tells the story from the thing's perspective.

8/10

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

Barbarella

Barbarella is called upon by the President of the Republic of Earth to find the runaway mad scientist Duran-Duran and bring him back to earth before he destroys, well, everything with his newly created weapon (a ray of some sort, I forget).

But first, she must undress in zero gravity, very slowly, to music.

Throughout the remainder of the film, she will change from one skimpy outfit to the next and sleep with every man that helps her in any way (more or less). Also, she is the ditziest of blondes.

Then the peace-loving earthling is given weapons for her mission. This does not make her particularly happy, but she takes off in her spaceship anyway. The inside of the spaceship appears to be covered in muppet skin (Fozzy Bear) or deep shag carpeting.

Barbarella crash lands on her target planet, where she is taken by a group of children, tied up in a cave and attacked by creepy dolls. She is, however, saved in the nick of time by a catcher who - you guessed it - catches children. As a thanks he suggests sex, but not the new, clean earth kind, but the savage old-fashioned way. This is so old, it is new to Barbarella, but she concedes. She loves it.

Next she crashes into the labyrinth, the exile in which all the good creatures live. One of them is a blind angel. With her spaceship all trashed, she looks to him for help. Alas, he has lost the desire to fly. The solution for this particular problem is sex, of course. ('An angel doesn't make love. An angel is love.')

Revived by this encounter he flies Barbarella to her final destination. Basically a creepy, bad town, run by the great tyrant, who turns out to be a woman. Among the things that happen next are: the angel gets crucified, which elicits the wonderful line, "De-crucify him or I will melt your face!", Barbarella joins the revolution (led by a rather hapless idiot), she gets 'tortured' by the concierge by a sort of organ that will kill her with physical pleasure. Also, the concierge is Duran-Duran and he wants to get rid of the great tyrant to take over this planet and then maybe the earth and then, who knows?, the entire universe.

Big shoot-out.

Barbarella and the great tyrant are flown to safety by the blind angel, who has been previously tortured by the tyrant, but 'An angel has no memory'.

The End

No, seriously.

2/10

After Earth

Will Smith is not afraid of anything.

Jaden Smith is afraid of everything. And he is very, very worried.

They are Cypher (the elder Smith) and Kitai (the younger Smith) Raige and their home has been Nova Prime since mankind was forced to flee what used to be their home planet because they finally killed of the environment. Or something.

There are many evil forces to fight off, apparently. The most vicious come in the form of a space monster (a poor man's H.R. Giger thing), the Ursa. To re-connect with his son, who blames himself for the death of his sister, who was herself killed by an Ursa a few years earlier. Why then there is an Ursa as cargo on the ship that takes Cypher and his offspring on the father's last mission, I do not know. If they explained it, I don't remember.

Another thing I don't know is how Diego Klattenhoff ended up in this for one (and only one) scene. The scene, of course, is very significant and depicts a show of level of respect for Cypher that he does not yet have himself for his son. As the scene happens you just know that this will be repeated with Cypher showing little Kitai the respect he will have earned by the end of all this. You just know. Also in this, in the background but with lines (!) is David Denman (Pam's original fiance on The Office).

Through a number of misguided decisions by Cypher (not as big a honcho as he is supposed to be, huh?), the ship crash lands on earth (*gasp*) and breaks into. Survivors: two (guess who!). Father is injured and sends son on a mission to find the other half of a ship and retrieve the beacon to contact the home planet that will come to collect them.

The son flips out at the drop of a hat and is either scared shit less or angrily crying and whining like a 4-year-old. Also, his liquid oxygen (or whatever) is running lower than should be and when daddy tells him to abort mission because he would, you know, suffocate under normal circumstances, he defies him and jumps off a cliff (literally). Of course, he is always going to make it, despite many an angry animal out to get him. He is a Smith after all and saving the world, the father, everything and you-name-it is in his film DNA.

The last great obstacle is the Ursa. This is why it was brought along on the ship! To make the final act of the film more exciting! Kitai prevails, leans to control (or possibly eliminate altogether) his fear and saves himself and daddy. Now repeat Klattenhoff scene.

All is well.

3/10

The X Files: Young at Heart

Yet again, Mulder gets hunted by someone from his past. This time it is one John Barnett. During his very first FBI case, Mulder had the possiblity to shot Barnett, who held a gun to a hostage. Going by the book, Mulder did not take the shot, which cost the hostage (actually, Barnett's original complice) and an FBI agent (father of two) their lives.

Not Barnett is back from the supposed dead - with certificate stating that he died of cardiac arrest four years previously - to take his revenge on Mulder. In the wake of the hunt - the FBI's for Barnett or whoever this may be claiming to be him, Barnett's for Mulder and his assorted friends - Mulder's fromer mentor falls victim to the culprit and Scully gets this close to being killed, as well.

As if this were not enough going on already, there is also the question of what really happened to Barnett and why is he not dead as he is said to be. Dead, cremated, ashes spread. In comes a Dr. Ridley (aka Dr. Mengele aka Dr. Frankenstein - so called by his peers), who has secretly been conducting human experiments in order to reverse aging.

Barnett is his only success story, young and healthy looking - except for the eyes, they look pretty dead. Somehow he had to grow a new arm for all this. They do explain the connection in a very civil and quite discussion, but the details escape me. Barnett's right hand - previously removed by Dr. Ridley - did grow back, but looking more amphibian than human. This has nothing to do with the story of the episode, really. It looks pretty weird, though.

In the end, Mulder does kill Barnett like he should have all those years ago.

6/10

The X Files: Lazarus

Again, the title tells you everything you need to know. No beating around the bush. A man dies and gets resurrected. In this day and age (meaning the mid-1990's) of advanced medicine, people are brought back to life all the time. What is rather unusual is that two people die at the same time and when one body is resucitated, the spirit/soul/personality of the other comes back to life. So, the first of a few body switch/shape shifting episodes The X Files have brought us over the years.

The formerly dead guy is Agent Jack Willis, a former lover of Scully (yes, former used to have a love life, as well). He has been hunting a thieving/murdering couple for a long time and gets shot along with Warren James Dupre, who now inhabits his body.

Mulder suspects something is wrong, of course. He knows that Scully and Willis share a birthday for example and Willis is right-handed. He tests this new Willis by asking him to sign Scully's birthday card (two months early) and Willis does so with his left hand.

Dupre is not really interested in pretending to be Willis. He just uses this situation as a means to an end. He want to find his wife again and when he does so, the duo decide to make a quick buck by trading Scully for 1,000,000 $. Dupre's wife, Lula, however, had actually planned to get rid of her spouse and sold him out to the FBI and that is how he got shot in the first place.

The moment she choses to reveal this to Willis/Dupre and Scully is when Scully is about to give him an insulin shot. Willis is diabetic, which Dupre doesn't know and he has drunk enourmous amounts of soda, and is now in dire need of the medicine. Lula steps on the saving bottle of insulin but makes a mistake eventually, when she believes Willis to have died and gets too close to throw the wedding ring at him. Willis snaps awake, takes her gun, and shoots her just as the FBI is taking down the door to rescue him and Scully.

The second death takes.

6/10

The X Files: Gender Bender

This is what it says on the tin - a person that can change from female form into male and vice versa. Of course, this is an alien we are talking about.

Oops. Did I just give away the ending there?

After five victims along the coast (starting up in Massachusetts and going South) are found that apparently died right after sex, Mulder and Scully start investigating around the town a case with the MO occurred. It just so happens that a group of the citizens of the small town they travel to are members of a sect called The Kindred.

Now, The Kindred have a certain touch. This is not a euphemism. They touch your hand in a certain way, you will let them bed you no questions asked. Scully gets dangerously close to one of them, who turns out to be the killers former best friend.

Other strange things happen around the group, like Mulder swears he recognizes some of the people from a photograph that is supposedly from the 1930s. Also, the members of the sect don't die, they are just prepped up for some sort of hibernation that brings them back good as new.

This case the agents do not solve. Or they do, but the culprit escapes them, because the sect "takes care of their own" and they do. They collect the wayward member and disappear into thin air.

Upwards.

This episode sees the first appearance of Nicholas Lea, but not as the role X Files fans will get to know him (and love him or hate him) in, Alex Krycek. Here he is a would be victim that gets picked up in a bar by the murderous man/woman/alien.

5/10

The X Files: Beyond the Sea

The kidnapping of two college students co-incides with a family tragedy. Scully loses her father (after having a vision of him sitting in her living room trying to tell her something without actually making a sound).

As if that alone weren't enough to keep the agents busy, a conviced serial killer, Luther Lee Boggs, awaiting his execution, offers up information on the recently kidnapped kids. How does he know? Through his 'psychic powers'. Mulder, knowing Boggs, does not believe for a minute that the guy knows anything other than what he may have learned simply by being involved in the actual crime.

He wants to be granted a permanent stay of execution, but Mulder does not play ball. Scully, however, has some rather weird encounters with Boggs, who channels her late father and speaks out warnings against certain symbols that are a little to close to actuality. Like, he would talk of a waterfall that Scully later sees (sort of, it is acually a sign for the Niagara Hotel) and warn Mulder to stay away from the cross (he doesn't, which doesn't end well for him).

So, for once, Mulder is the sceptic and Scully is the believer.

It is interesting to see their roles reversed. Mulder can't believe that after having witnessed so much unexplained phenomena, she choses to believe in psychic powers where he believes that there are none. Scully is uncomfortable with going against Mulder, with having to deal with supernatural signs, her father's passing.

Emotionally, she is a wreck, but once again she is left holding the reigns, because Mulder was shot and is in the hospital for the better part of the episode.

My favorite bits are the two times Boggs is shown going to the gas chamber, a walk during which he sees every person he killed standing in the corridor in a pretty b/w shot.

Hey, isn't that...?
Scully's father is played by Don S. Davis, whom I have only ever seen in US military uniform. He played Major Briggs, father of Bobby Briggs, in Twin Peaks. Looking through his list of credits, it looks like he was very comfortable in that uniform. He always appears to be a kind of authority figure, friendly enough but not willing to take shit from anybody (see the scene in Twin Peaks, when Bobby lights up at the dinner table and Major Briggs slaps him across the face without breaking stride and sends the cigarette flying onto his wife's dinner plate).

Luther Lee Boggs is portrayed by Brad Dourif. When this episode of The X Files aired he was best known for playing young Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a role that got him an Oscar nomination. He has since had a small role as Wormtongue in the second installment of The Lord of the Rings.

7/10

The X Files: Fire

It has been 8 months since I last watched an episode of The X Files. Which is to say it has been much too long. So, onwards to the next one in season 1: Fire.

Here, we learn a smidge of Mulder's past, back when he apparently had a social life or, more to the point, a love life. Onto the scene comes an annoyingly British agent from Scotland Yard, Mulder's former lover Phoebe Green. And, no, I don't much care for this character. She's not even all that nice to look at, with a destinctly 1990's tough-girl hairdo, often regarded as a lesbian tell (not by me).

The case is one of fire, that looks an aweful lot like spontaneous combustion but is definitely murder. The culprit is a man who appears to control fire, Lighting a cigarette, his hand, a building, or a person, through his thought. His targets are English gentlemen of distinction. He poses as 'Bob', the local caretaker at a house in the States (New England, near Boston).

Now here is another thing we learn about Mulder: he hates fire. So, this is not the best case to be working on, least of all with the tricky Phoebe, who rather enjoyes making Mulder squirm. Scully doesn't like Phoebe from the get-go. Bless her.

Anyway, in order to save some British Lord and his family from the previously mentioned 'Bob' (no, this is none of the FBI's business, really, but such is the power of Phoebe) Mulder will have to overcome his fear and literally go through fire.

The hero of the piece, however, is Agent Scully. Initially, she is excused from the case, because Mulder doesn't want her wasting her time on Phoebe's little games. But Scully being Scully, she cannot stay away and has a sneak in the file. She goes off on her own and follows her hunches and eventually finds the evidence that leads the team to the elusive killer.

Overall, an uneven episode, since the addition of an outsider to throw a wrench into the works of Mulder/Scully is just that: an outsider. There have been other, better guests before and after.

5/10

Guardians of the Galaxy

What to do on a rainy day in New York City? Watch a film, of course.

Now, on paper, I should not enjoy a film like Guardians of the Galaxy. I have never been much of a sci-fi fan to begin with and I am so over comic book films and superheroes. But, you know what...it was fun.

What set it apart from the pack for me were the raccoon, Groot, and the Awesome Mix of (mostly) 1980s tunes.

Most of the full-on action scenes were downright stupid and I don't quite see the point of disguising a handsome man like Lee Pace. I mean if you got it why not show it off, ya know? Fortunately, it was also very funny (Groot FTW).

Of course, I couldn't retell the story if my life depended on it. Something with a metal globe that everyone wanted to get their hands on and the main character turned out to be much more genetically blessed than he appears...and he appears just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Zoe Saldana is showing up a different hue this time around. Here she is green instead of blue. Seriously, girlfriend needs to find herself a film that does not play in outer space.

7/10

Pandorum

I'm not sure what happened but it was awesome!

Corporal Bower (Ben Foster, looking raggedly handsome) wakes up in one of those hyper-sleep pods that we have seen in many science fiction films. Initially he can't remember anything (a side effect of very long hibernation). An hour later his lieutenant Peyton (Dennis Quaid, looking as raggedly handsome as always) is also awake and together they are trying to figure out what their mission could be.

The space ship they are on appears to be running on limited power and the door to the bridge is therefore impregnable. While Peyton stays behind to try and open the door, Bower sets out to find the reactor and reboot it.

For dramatic purposes the reactor is situated as far away from where they started as possible. While stumbling through the half lit ship, Bower encounters long dead bodies, some hanging from the ceiling. He also encounters monstrosities. They may or may not be mutant travelers and they look like zombies with thorns. Also they are very, very tenacious. You can chop of bits and they will still come at you.

One of the bodies hanging from the ceiling is called Shepard (Norman Reedus, you guessed it, looking raggedly handsome) and is still alive. But not for long. Bower cuts him down but he is quickly re-hung by the monsters, killed and gutted. And then they feed on him. Shepard, we hardly knew thee.

Bower encounters a few more people on his way to the reactor. All of them appear to be from different missions and have woken up at different times. Since then they have been merely surviving the steady raids for food of the monsters.

Peyton, meanwhile, is going insane. Or maybe everyone is. I dunno.

In the end, the reactor is restarted, Bower and Peyton are reunited and then there is a big twist.

Very exciting, this.

8/10

Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment

Waldo is a blue cartoon bear that - voiced by comedian Jamie - interviews politicians for his TV show. Wouldn't surprise me if this actually happened soon-ish. He is rude and a very uncomfortable interviewer, especially to one Liam Monroe. The producers of Waldo's show even go as far as gate crashing small local events Monroe is holding.

And then Waldo himself is put up for election. Something Jamie, who wants nothing more to be recognized for himself rather than as a cartoon bear, only reluctantly agrees to. The situation gets really complicated after a one night stand Jamie has with another candidate.

Not all the episodes can be great and this one was just all right. Luckily, Liam Monroe is played by Tobias Menzies, who is very easy on the eyes.

Could this really be the last of the series? I am so hoping that Black Mirror will continue in the near future (ha!).

6/10

Julie and Jack

I don't know what to say.

Thankfully, James Nguyen - writer/director and supporting actor in this film - provides not only his own biographical info on any open source website, but also reviews for his own films (under false names).

About this he (or maybe it really was Dan Auiler as stated) said,

"The story was very interesting, suspenseful, Hichcockian. I was intrigued all the way through the film. It really is an original story. Julie and Jack is a kind of film that Mr. Hitchcock would have made. It's kind of 'Vertigo' for the 21st Century. And of course, it was also great seeing all of the Vertigo locations used in the film and seeing Tippi Hedren in her role."
Dan Auiler, Author of "Vertigo: The Making of A Hitchcock Classic"

Um. Right.

Nguyen has an obvious obsession with Hitchcock's films and especially loves The Birds. This spawned of course his later, exponentially more hilarious Birdemic films. And he inexplicably managed to get Tippi Hedren to actually appear in this one and provided her with the best line of the entire film, "Oh, listen to those birds. They're calling me again."

The possibly worst part of Julie and Jack (and there are many, many bad things to pick from) is the soundtrack. New Age synthesizer drivel at its most annoying with occasional orchestration.

Should I allow myself to give minus points to films? I am tempted....

0/10

Film Quote

from Firefly

Black Mirror: Be Right Back

When Ash dies in an accident, his grieving girlfriend Martha is informed about a possibility to re-create his online presence in a way that it/he could communicate with her again. Ash was basically online 24/7 and has left sufficient traces on various sites and his personality, his humor, his voice can be pieced together quite easily.

So Martha and Ash's online presence start writing to each other first and talk for hours on the phone. It is more or less like a long distance relationship. Eventually, new Ash suggests to go a step further and Martha acquires a robot? likeness of her diseased boyfriend.

This creeps me out to no end.

And it creeps out Martha, as well. Turns out, she is pregnant with his child, though. In the end, a jump years into the future is made when the girl, turning 10 (I think) is allowed to visit Ash in the attic, where he is apparently kept. Also, he doesn't age.

Probably not the best of the series but quite possibly the creepiest.

6/10

Serenity

I have been slacking with my film reviews a little. This happened simply because I did not see that many actual films. Don't take me wrong, I have been watching plenty. But I have simply nursed my newly found addiction with Alan Tudyk by binge watching Suburgatory and then Firefly. Obviously, the next step would be Serenity.

Here we get the answers to all the open questions left over by the untimely demise of the Firefly. There is a new super villain, played by the wonderful Chiwetel Ejiofor. He is ruthless and refers to himself as a monster. But - most rewarding - we get the back story on River and how she got to be this deadly weapon.

It is a rousing finale to a nice little sci-fi show that makes it very clear that this is the end of the line. Not all of the beloved crew survive the big adventure. True, most only take one hell of a beating but the casualties are Shepard, who has left the ship some time earlier and is at a settlement where he offered the Serenity crew a save haven whenever needed. This is what finally causes his demise.

And we lose - after putting in one final grand performance at the helm of the spaceship - Wash, who gets impaled onto the seat he was mostly confined to while others were off having adventures.

Of course, none of this will mean anything to you if you have not watched Firefly.

What a fitting farewell to Serenity and all the people it harbored.

8/10

Black Mirror: The Entire History of You

In this episode everyone records what they see through a lens and an implant. That way you can replay any episode from your entire life - maybe to look more closely at the picture that presented itself or to review moments and learn what you could maybe do different in similar situations. Of course, you can also show your daily adventures off to others and get their input.

This instrument then turns into an obsession for a husband who - on closer/second inspection - notices his wife laughing a little more loudly and readily at some other man's joke and how the way she looks at the other guy differs from the way she looks at the husband. From a drunken night and a very uncomfortable conversation, that even the babysitter is drawn into, this spins into a visit to the expected rival.

The situation gets entirely out of hand when the husband realizes that the other man is a former boyfriend of the wife, whom she was not completely honest about. What is more, there is a growing suspicion that the couple's child may not actually be his.

Like so many new electronic inventions that everyone partakes in, this total record of one's life can be both, a blessing and a course.

Again, very intriguing.

7/10

Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits

Of all the futures shown in Black Mirror (yes, I have already watched all episodes available at this point...lagging behind in the blogging department) this is the one that is the most disturbing to me.

Young people earn their keep by riding stationary bikes and live in rooms with vidiwalls surrounding them. The constantly popping up commercials would absolutely freak me out. You can use the merits you earn by riding that stationary bike to skip the ads, but you have to be careful to not use to many of them up as you obviously need them for something bigger.

That something bigger in this case is buying you way into the waiting room of a casting show. If you are unlucky, you don't look appealing enough to actually be called to the stage. This is no first come, first serve situation. Of course, looks and mass appeal are all that matters. It helps if you have some sort of talent, I guess but surely you wouldn't mind taking that top of, honey?

Again, impressive cast (this features Rupert Everett and Downton Abbey's late Lady Sybil).

7/10