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Showing posts with the label space opera

STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - REVIEW

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After the runaway success of Star Wars , George Lucas handed the directing reigns to Irvin Kirshner for the sequel which is still seen by many as the franchise's best instalment. The Empire Strikes Back , as the title suggests, is not the upbeat adventure with the fairy-tale ending the first film was. This time, the Empire gets its revenge following the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope and our heroes suffer for it. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), after having a bad run-in with a Wampa (some abominable snowman-looking beast) and a chat with the ghost of Alec Guinness, departs for the Dagobah System to learn the ways of the Force from Yoda (Frank Oz) leaving Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Chewie (Peter Mayhew) and Leia (Carrie Fisher) to be betrayed by old friend Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams). This gives ample opportunity for galactic badass Darth Vader to plot against our heroes. Character development-wise, a romance finally brews between Solo and Leia, Luke goes

INTERSTELLAR - REVIEW

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After finally letting go of his (and our) beloved Dark Knight trilogy, Christopher Nolan finally ventured into the unknown, to more ambitious cinema where no man has gone before. Well, maybe Kubrick... Still, with Gravity greedily and, some would say, undeservedly claiming the space opera genre last year, only Mr Nolan could swoop in and reclaim it with a movie crazy enough to make you completely forget that Sandra Bullock was once spinning around somewhere. The film, of course, is Interstellar : a grand sci-fi blockbuster in which an ex-engineer/space pilot-turned farmer leads an expedition through wormholes and strange planets in what is essentially Earth's very last hope for survival as our world literally turns to dust. We spend some time with Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his family which includes his young daughter Murph (later played by Jessica Chastain) who seems to believe in ghosts and his father-in-law, played by a sadly once again restrained John Lithgow. C

SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA - REVIEW

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I'd never heard of Cobra , the manga or the anime series, before watching this feature so imagine my confusion when presented with all the random space madness this little goofy flick had to offer! Following the exploits of Cobra, some blond, cigar-smoking dude with a "Psycho-Gun" embedded in his arm who goes around fighting evil space Guilds or whatever, Space Adventure Cobra is a surreal action flick that's kind of a cross between some cheesy 70's cop show, Zardoz and Star Wars . Ok, maybe not Zardoz, so much. Actually, the character of Cobra was inspired by French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, who was mostly famous in the 70's for OTT action thrillers. Cobra's partner is a mouthless robot gal called Lady Armaroid, she's usually in charge of piloting the ship, secretly lusting after Cobra and exposition dialog. There's an obvious charm to Space Adventure Cobra : it's corny as hell but in a good way. You've got a tough guy who smokes cig