Reviews

This is just a fun movie. The acting is campy at parts but the action sequences are better than expected. We had a lot of fun watching this. There's a pointless out of the blue lesbian scene and "drug addict" acting of the caliber of an after school commercial.

I know it sounds like I'm taking digs at the film, but I'm not. Watch the trailer on the Blue Underground site... it might be on IMDb too... but the trailer was delicious enough to get me to rent it (just as the trailer for Street Law did that title). David Hemmings is great.

Basically... "fun" is the key point of this review. Fun.

8 out of 10

This film is quite simply one of the best science fiction films made in recent years. The Fountain comes to mind for many, I'm sure... but depending on your interpretation of the film, you may not see it as science fiction. I don't. So it is out of the running. Soderbergh's Solaris is another. A film about individuality and emotional development when faced with the solitude of eternity... it's a great film... but it doesn't have the science fiction feeling to it. Soderbergh described his film as Last Tango in Paris meets 2001. It's a pretty good description.

Sunshine is an adventure. It is about the battle of logic vs. emotion and it is very intelligent. It is about power vs. sacrifice. It is about hope. It is about reality.

The film is very skillfully structured. It starts off at the appropriate pace to allow us to really grasp the different feelings on the space ship. From the obsession of the sun... which itself is sort of a matriarchal Freudian obsession... being so close to the source of all life would likely drive people to stare and be fascinated, much like people do with the sea. The ship has a sitting room where the computer allows in 2% of the sun's light so that they can see it. This is not for study or anything of that nature, this is just for admiration. One character reasons with the computer and the computer says she will admit 3.1% in for a few seconds and that should not cause damage to the character's retinas. This sight might hold a religious quality for many. People worshiped the sun for thousands of years. It was a God that they could see. Before development of more complex religions, it is only natural that such a sight might hold the same primitive comfort our ancestors may have felt.

I don't want to go into the story too much... or for that matter, anything past the first twenty minutes. The plot, known to those who have seen the trailer, is about the death of our sun. Not through it's own life coming to an end but due to a particle (currently theoretical) known as a Q-Ball - a super-symmetric nucleus, left over from the big bang - that is disrupting the normal matter. (Source: IMDb). And based on the trailer, you know that a return trip is not necessarily guaranteed. Now some may say that God decides when it's our time to go while others might say it's up to us to take care of ourselves. Instinctively, no matter who you are, you will shift towards the latter in a time of crisis. As living creatures, self preservation is our primal instinct. We won't let the sun die without a fight. BUT, if saving the rest of us may cost a few lives... a few astronauts and scientists... how can we not expect them, when faced with the reality that they may have to sacrifice themselves for the mission... how can we not expect them to decide that self-preservation is necessary to them as well? This film plays out beautifully. Even if you sit there with the thoughts you have during other sci-fi movies like the "why didn't he just..." or the "Nooo, what a dumb mistake"... you still feel the weight and the responsibility that the characters put into their decisions and you don't feel as if they're deliberately screwing up. It's a gamble. Cillian Murphy phrases it perfectly when asked to bring logic to a decision that he states is like asking him heads or tails.

The film has opened on 10 screens this past Friday and it will expand to 400 this upcoming Friday. I URGE everyone to see it. From last summer filled with X3, Nacho Libre and The Break-up. From this summer to which the most anticipated films have mostly rendered mediocre approval from the audiences spending the hundreds of millions on them... we need to make it clear that we can't put up with so many years of *beep* coming our way from Hollywood. We want our films smart. We started with Knocked Up. Hopefully Hollywood will listen. We didn't see Fantastic Four 2 and Evan Almighty... HOPEFULLY... Hollywood will listen. We're going to see SUNSHINE. Hollywood WILL listen. Maybe we can bring back the integrity that went into film-making thirty years ago... or even eight years ago.

See Sunshine. It's a science fiction masterpiece. It's a great film. It's an experience.

Could we all go camping and exploring in a house owned by someone else while the house itself is sideways and on a cliff. Could we watch a one man show of Jurrasic park while eating tacos from our mailbox? Could we ride a Harley with God to the Porcupine Races? Could we play naked battleship in a prison with open gates while our hormones dance? Can a Jew, an Italian and a redhead-gay live in the same apartment without strange people jumping out and dancing? AND?????? Let's have staring contests and always remember that children of coal miners are worthless. Let's watch men in bikini thongs perform drama while a man in a suit and tie dips his balls in some things. Could there be a better show? If you don't get these references but want to, watch the show. Soon to be on DVD with commentaries!!! But most importantly, aquaman, go talk to some fish.

I have been looking for this film for some time, and it's everything I've waited for. For 1960, this film has some rather advanced themes. A black jazz musician named Traver winds up on an island used by a hunting resort. He has run away from a town after being accused of rape. The resort is kept by a middle-aged man named Miller and an older man who has just died leaving his granddaughter Evalyn (no older than 14). Traver finds the Miller's shack and takes some items. Miller wants to kill him, we assume for racial reasons. Miller is also in love with Evalyn, now in his care, and wants to make her a woman. This subplot is used through the eyes of two other characters who learn about Miller's relationship with Evalyn. You will notice quickly that one man, Jackson, wants to shoot and kill Traver for what others say he's done, and jokes with Miller about what he knows Miller's done. Statutory Rape is worse than rape, but to these people, black crimes are worse than white ones. Other reviewers seem not to pick up that Miller knows what he has done is wrong. He knows he is a worser man than Traver. After he finds out Traver left money for the stuff he stole, Miller no longer wants to kill him. Miller is not a racist man, any hatred for Traver that Miller has is spawned only from the fact that he's a stranger.

This film is the ultimate drifter film (under Tokyo Drifter)...like a Spaghetti Western or a Samaurai movie, it starts as the man drifts into this new environment and follows him till he leaves this environment. The film is book-ended with a great exterior scene with a compelling song playing about running away. Traver's name is short for Traveling Man, what better for a drifter?

As one of Bunuel's two English films, I wish Anchor Bay would pick this up and put it on DVD, or whoever distributed it if they still exist. Bunuel's attention to detail helps mix in some hidden undertones of prejudices. A clarinet called a 'Licorice Stick'. A priest offered a bed slept in by Traver asks how long Traver slept in it. "Only one night" the girl tells him. "It's okay, I'll just turn the mattress over." I'm frightened to even think what the character would have asked if Traver has stayed a week. Knowing Bunuel, the priest would probably say he'd just sleep on the floor after running to wash his hands.

Bunuel is no stranger to prejudices, see Exterminating Angel. As a window breaks, the host shrugs it off and says "probably a passing Jew". Generally he is so much harder on Catholics than anyone else, yet in this film, the priest is the only character that wasn't flawed. Obviously, I love this film, if you can find it, you must see it. The scenes between Traver and Miller have such style in their words, you'll like them both. Every exchange they have is so smooth, I can't believe that Bunuel didn't make more films in English.

RENT THIS FILM!!!!!!!

I was lucky enough (?) to see this film, kind of. If you are up and it is 3:00 a.m. and you are watching showtime on digital cable and see Shanks. You'll probably change the channel or see Marcel Marceau and think that it must be intellectual. If for some reason you then decided that you should see what people on the internet think, you have wasted far too much time. If you are an insomniac, you are in luck. I have problems falling asleep and tried watching this movie three times. Because frankly, the storyline made me laugh. All three times I made it no further than eight minute intervals. Should you choose to continue viewing... best of luck to you.