DVD OF THE WEEK

MOON ****
Dir: Duncan Jones
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey

Perhaps because of the expense of special effects, sci-fi films tend to be aimed purely at the popcorn crowd. Which is all very well - who doesn't enjoy some extravagant space-aged action – but it does leave a bit of a hole and an occasional longing for the science fiction of the pre-Star Wars seventies, when the genre was also a vehicle for exploring complex philosophical ideas and pushing the boundaries of thought as much as space.
Moon is an unashamed return to those days, bringing to mind films such as Silent Running, BladeRunner and even 2001: A Space Odyssey, made on the tightest of budgets and showcasing a superb solitary turn from Sam Rockwell. He is the lone astronaut manning a mining station on the dark side of the moon, and is about to complete his three year tour of duty. His only companion is the all-seeing computer, voiced with predictable class by Kevin Spacey, but, as his departure time approaches he begins to wonder if he is alone after all…
This is only the most basic set-up, but to say more would be to reveal too much of a plot that keeps twisting and turning in unexpected ways.
So let me just mention, in case you didn't know, that director Duncan Jones is the same man who was once known as Zowie Bowie, son of the famous musician. He has obviously abandoned that extravagant moniker and is, just as obviously, a director to keep a close eye on. Don't expect explosions and aliens, but don't miss this: it's a damn good story and a haunting examination of what it means to be human.

Gamer (***) takes a whole lot of ideas from other films (the recent Death Race in particular), mixes them up and presents them with extreme violence and dizzying editing. This is a future world where you can control an 'avatar”, a soldier in an online game who fights to the death. Only the avatars aren't simulations, they're real people with their brains wired-up, high-security prisoners hoping to win a chance of freedom. Gerard Butler's soldier is suitably rugged, the F/X are wild and the odd hint of an intelligent subtext about society is ignored in favour of more explosions.

The Final Destination franchise is nothing if not bold. Rather than creating sequels they simply remake the same film over and over. Fourth version is called The Final Destination (**). Plot: someone foresees a disasters and saves a small group of people from it. Then those people die one by one because they have cheated death. The accident this time is a speedway crash. The only attraction of these films is the manner that seemingly unrelated incidental details build to create extravagantly choreographed death scenes. Kinda like porn, but the money shot is someone dying. Oh, and the film's 3D is particularly irritating since every death involves something flying directly at the camera.

Canadian Atom Egoyan makes serious films that explore the nature of identity, truth and all sorts of serious subjects.
He doesn't go for laughs. Adoration (***) is his latest and is something of return to form in that it is very much a 'thinking person's film”. A schoolboy is encouraged to present a monologue for drama class in which he claims his father was a terrorist who planted a bomb that would have killed his mother on a plane. The story soon spirals out of control and links emerge between the schoolteacher, the boy, his uncle, and other cast members. This is a thoughtful, sombre, satisfying film, very much a film festival 'arthouse” picture.

The film of Brett Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero, a scathing indictment of shallow eighties LA rich folk, was a defining film of its decade. The Informers (**), based on another of his books, feels like the same thing done again twenty years too late. Rich movieland brats and general Hollywood players all live miserable lives while overindulging in shallow sex and drugs. Despite a game cast it all sounds a lot more fun than it is.