Movie Review: Source Code

Last week I finally got around to seeing the film Source Code, directed by Duncan Jones, who made one of my favourite Science Fiction films of recent years, Moon.

The premise of the film follows a man named Colter Stevens who awakens on a train without remembering how he got there and quickly discovers that everyone on the train sees him as someone else. Then eight minutes later he and everyone else on the train die in a horrible explosion.

Stevens then awakens in a chair and is told he is on a mission where he must figure out who set the bomb in a repeating eight minute chunk of time - being the last eight minutes of another mans life.

The story moves quickly and I liked the acting of all the leads, but it wasn't quite as fun a movie as Moon (which I talked about here). The movie is a lot of fun, an although I probably won't end up owning it, it is definitely worth the watch.

Bookmonkey's Top 5 films to see before summer 2011

This summer has got a lot of genre picks I'm going to see, and it starts in May with the release of Thor. Although I'm not a big fan of the Marvel Character, I am a big fan of director Kenneth Branagh and I've enjoyed the Marvel films over the last few years. The four months between now and Thor, however are filled with a lot of Genre films I'd like to see, so I thought I would share it with all of you.

1. The Green Hornet

Although I never saw the classic '60s series, my interest in the film comes from two distinct factors: a) Canadian Actor Seth Rogen, who I've loved since his days back in Freaks & Geeks, b) Director Michael Gondry, whose film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind may be a strong contender for my favourite SF film of the last ten years.

2. Your Higness

A send-up of fantasy films starring Danny McBride (who I've loved in everything I've ever seen him in, from Land of the Lost to Up in the Air), and James Franco (another actor I've been following since Freaks & Geeks), this movie looks like it may do for heroic fantasy what Hot Tub Time Machine did for time travel SF.

3. Limitless

Starring Bradley Cooper, this film looks at a miracle drug that can open all of mans potential, I wonder if there will be a horrible downside? Regardless I'm looking forward to checking it out.

4 Paul

Much like Scott Pilgrim last year, Paul mixes some of my favourite things (Shawn of the Dead stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and again (wow!) Freaks & Geeks alum Seth Rogen in a buddy film involving a tour of the great alien contact sites throughout America and the chance to help out a real live (and disgusting) alien called Paul.

5. Source Code

From the Director of my favourite SF film of 2009, Moon, comes this film about a man using technology that allows him to live the last 8 minutes of someone elses life over and over in an attempt to discover who killed him, only problem, he doesn't just want info, he wants to change history.

Genre Character of the Week: Sam Bell

Let's try a quick experiment - Imagine that wherever you are reading this post (your house, office, or elsewhere) had no one in it except for you. If you're like me it means you would suddenly be alone in your house. If your reading this at work or in a public space like a library, it means a certain sense of isolation. Now imagine that you are the only person in your city, your country, your world. That is the situation astronaut Sam Bell lives in for a three-year contract in the film Moon.

Sam is working for a company called Lunar Industries which has found a cheaper, easier fuel for Earth - Helium 3. This fuel can be mined on the moon and shipped back to Earth at a reasonable cost, but someone needs to keep an eye on things. Enter Sam Bell - he's married, has a new daughter, and is currently finishing up his three-year contract to be the guy who keeps an eye on the mining process. The main problem - the base has a crew of one. It's just Sam and a helpful computer called GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey).

Like a Lighthouse operator, or Desmond from the second season of Lost (sorry if that is still considered a spoiler), Sam has a routine, a way in which he self motivates and can function in this strange and lonely environment. He sends and receives videos from his family, he makes models, he's found a way to adjust. Then he hits his last couple weeks before he gets to go home and things start going strange.

Without going into spoilers, what I like about Sam (played wonderfully by Sam Rockwell), is his ability to function in a difficult place. A little bit like Sam, I work in an isolated work environment - I run a one-person library, so I'm the only staff and for those stretches of time when I don't have library patrons, it can feel a little isolating. My job does require me to work certain tasks on a specific schedule and a call from my wife or a friend can definitely brighten my day.

For those of you who haven't got around to seeing this film yet - check it out. I'll be owning it pretty soon and a big part of that choice is the character of Sam Bell (pictured above).