Browse Category: Future

RECAP: Cyborg

Cyborg (1989): Albert Pyun

In the future, anarchy, genocide, and starvation preceded The Plague, which wiped out an untold proportion of the population. A group of scientists in Atlanta believe they can find a cure, if only they could get the information lodged inside a cyborg in Manhattan, fleeing a gang of bullies.

Fighting for the cyborg is JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: A rogue “slinger” takes revenge on the man who killed his adoptive family, and there’s also a cyborg for some reason.  Continue Reading

RECAP: Hardwired

Hardwired (2009): Ernie Barbarash

In a near future in which corporations control everything, what happens when they control your mind? What happens when a corporation can kill you if you don’t buy the right products?

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: An unwilling test subject fights the corporation that tried to kill him.  Continue Reading

RECAP: Equilibrium

Equilibrium (2002): Kurt Wimmer

Have you wanted to watch a movie in which emotionless automatons kill each other with guns in a sophisticated, statistically precise gun fighting method, and for that movie to not be a Transformers? Equilibrium is a movie for you.

After the Third World War, humanity decided it could not survive a fourth. A drug was invented that suppressed all emotion, rendering war, crime, and violent outburst nonexistent.

Some people, however, refused to take this drug. They enjoy things like art and music and shit. They are DANGEROUS. To stomp out these people and their aesthetic pleasures, the powers that be created a group of über-police called, I kid you not, Grammaton Clerics.

Using special martial arts and dressed all in black, these clerics are the best at rooting out and destroying emotional content.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: In an emotionally repressed future society, war is a thing of the past and the only crime is…to feel.  Continue Reading

RECAP: Mockingjay (Parts 1 & 2)

Mockingjay (2014 & 2015): Francis Lawrence

Not the first and not the last to try it, studio executives at Lionsgate split the final book of The Hunger Games series into two films.

The movie were hits at the box office, and likely made more as two movies than as one, but each of the two parts of Mockingjay paled to the huge box office and high quality of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

It probably didn’t help that Katniss Everdeen, the hero, stood on the sidelines for much of the final installment. The driver of her narrative when in the arena, Katniss takes orders from those who’ve fought the war against President Snow for decades.

Much like Aaron Rodgers backing up Brett Favre for three seasons as Green Bay Packers quarterbacks, Katniss waits her turn until the final moments, when one decision changes history.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: Newly minted symbol of the resistance, Katniss Everdeen fights President Snow as a propaganda tool in District Thirteen’s war against The Capitol.  Continue Reading

RECAP: Catching Fire

Catching Fire (2013): Francis Lawrence

She thought she was out, but they pulled her back in.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: Katniss Everdeen, reigning champion of the Hunger Games, re-enters the arena, but this time the stakes are higher.  Continue Reading

RECAP: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (2012): Gary Ross

In the future, the United States no longer exists. In its place is a state called Panem, ruled by The Capitol [sic] and comprised of 12 Districts. At least 74 years ago there was a District 13 and rebellion. The Capitol squashed both, and The Hunger Games were born, all the better to remind the districts to forget about future rebellions.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: In a future autocratic society, a teenager living in the sticks volunteers to compete in a 24-person fight to death, broadcast live, for the amusement of many.  Continue Reading

RECAP: Judge Dredd

Judge Dredd (1995): Danny Cannon

Judge Dredd was a comic book first. It never reached the cultural cache of Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, or the X-Men, much less the cultural icons Batman and Superman. However, the helmeted judge patrolling the streets of Mega City One still made it to the big screen before those first three characters I mentioned.

The character calls for a subdued but principled man to play the by-the-book character. Instead, he got Sylvester Stallone at his hammiest and steroid-est. The movie suffers for it.

In this future megalopolis, 65 million people are policed by judges. Men and women are trained to be cop, judge, jury, and, sometimes, executioner.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: I AM THE LAW. Continue Reading