This does not sound good - HAL by Cyberdyne

The HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) suit works by detecting faint bioelectrical signals using pads placed on specific areas of the body. The pads move the HAL suit accordingly. The Cyberdyne website explains: "When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles via motoneuron, moving the musculoskeletal system as a consequence. At this moment, very weak biosignals can be detected on the surface of the skin. HAL catches these signals through a sensor attached on the skin of the wearer. Based on the signals obtained, the power unit is controlled to wearer's daily activities.

That's right, Japanese scientists at Cyberdyne are making an exoskeleton named after the psychotic computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey that will be super strong.

Robots destroying the world just got one step closer.
Source: Topless Robot

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Moon, 2009 - Movie Review

Director: Duncan Jones
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey
Running Time: 97 minutes

Another great review by Richard Bodsworth who is having a great time at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

Check out my interview with the director, Duncan Jones.

Transformers and Terminator Salvation are just two of the multi million pound budgeted blockbusters released this summer. We all love a good sci-fi film, but what the majority of the current crop neglect is a fundamental rule of filmmaking, a proper story with interesting and engaging characters. It is a well known fact that Michael Bay is more interested in blowing shit up rather than developing a character or having an intelligent plot. With his debut feature, MOON, Duncan Jones shows that a big budget isn't everything when creating a sharp, smart and frankly brilliant film.

With the Earth's immediate energy crisis, corporation Lunar have began extracting helium 3 from the Moon as a viable alternative. Rockwell plays Sam Bell, a lone astronaut stationed at the lunar base with only a talking computer, Gerty (Spacey) for company. His job is to oversee the helium 3 extractions. With only two weeks left of his three year tour, things take a disturbing turn when Sam finds someone else on the Moon. Is he hallucinating, or are the corporation trying to replace him? I don't really want to go any deeper into plot details in fear of giving anything away, but what ensures is a taught psychological battle and the one man Rockwell show.

At first glance you could easily mistake Moon for a Hollywood picture. It boasts some great visual effects and features two very well know actors in Rockwell and Spacey. I was shocked to discover the film is in fact an independent British film, with a reported budget of less than 5 million dollars, and that most effects were completed using models. The set built lunar surface is a beautifully bleak landscape, its desolation helps enforce the fact Sam is all alone in lunar base Sarang.

The film pays homage to some of the classic sci-fi films of the late 60's and 70's, at points you could be forgiven for thinking you are in the Nostromo. The environmental theme parallels with Silent Running and most people will quickly draw a 2001 comparison with the talking computer, Gerty. Jones direction however, stops the film from falling into a simple retro rehash. His razor sharp direction keeps the film fresh and a with the help of Clint Mansell's wonderful score, creates a eerily claustrophobic and ultimately uneasy atmosphere. Mansell is always an underrated commodity, but his scores often add that extra something as seen in his collaborations with Darren Aronofsky.

Sam Rockwell is outstanding as the astronaut slowly losing his sanity. It must be terribly difficult to be the only person on show, he is rarely off screen, but his intensity holds the audience like super glue and it is impossible to tear your eyes away. Going from bored worker, to emotional husband and father to mentally tortured, Rockwell delivers perhaps his greatest leading role. His performances in The Green Mile and The Assassination Of Jesse James amongst others have always been a personal highlight for me. Throughout all the tension he manages to give the film some breathing room with lightly comical interactions with Gerty.

For the whole 97 minutes there is not a boring moment and is paced just right. Although the plot is tight, there are points where you think you have the whole thing sussed but somehow it manages to make you doubt yourself. This is the thing I enjoyed and admired the most.

The lack of knowledge behind the Lunar corporation adds to the mystery, and if Jones continues with future films based in the Moon realm, there is vast amounts to build on. Moon is the perfect launch platform into a great sci-fi trilogy which, at the moment, the genre sorely needs. My only hope is that Jones sticks to formula that worked so well for him here, and doesn't jeopardise his outstanding work when offered a bigger budget. I implore everyone to see this amazing piece of British cinema, you will not be disappointed.

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Timeline of Sci-Fi movies

Dan Meth put together this brilliant chart putting futuristic films into their chronological order. He should have put Star Wars on A long time ago, but apart from that he seems to have got all the major movies.

Has he missed any classics?



Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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POLL: Which is your favourite Stanley Kubrick film?

Leave a comment on this post below.

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Stanley Kubrick: The Napoleon Film - I want this book

This book features the greatest film never made. It features Kubrick's unfilmed masterpiece. Tucked inside of a carved-out book, all the elements from Stanley Kubrick's archives that readers need to imagine what his unmade film about the emperor might have been like, including a fascimile of the script; a unique art object, historical document, and artistic statement. For 40 years, Kubrick fans and film buffs have wondered about the director's mysterious unmade film on Napoleon Bonaparte. Slated for production immediately following the release of "2001: A Space Odyssey", Kubrick's "Napoleon" was to be at once a character study and a sweeping epic, replete with grandiose battle scenes featuring thousands of extras. To write his original screenplay, Kubrick embarked on two years of intensive research; with the help of dozens of assistants and an Oxford Napoleon specialist, he amassed an unparalleled trove of research and preproduction material, including approximately 15,000 location scouting photographs and 17,000 slides of Napoleonic imagery from books and libraries across Europe. No stone was left unturned in Kubrick's nearly-obsessive quest to uncover every piece of information history had to offer about Napoleon. But alas, Kubrick's movie was not destined to be: the film studios, first M.G.M. and then United Artists, decided such an undertaking was too risky at a time when historical epics were out of fashion. Taschen's sumptuous, limited-edition tribute to this unmade masterpiece makes Kubrick's valiant work on "Napoleon" available to fans for the first time. Tucked inside of a carved-out book are all the elements you need to imagine what Kubrick's film about the emperor might have been like. Along with the fascimile of Kubrick's final draft of the screenplay are 10 individual books exploring the various chapters of the director's work on the project: writing, research, costume design, location scouting, budgeting, and correspondence. The text includes the complete original treatment, an essay examining the screenplay in a historical context, an essay by Jean Tulard on Napoleon in cinema, and a transcript of interviews Kubrick conducted with Oxford professor Felix Markham. At once an art object, historical document, and artistic statement, this unique publication offers readers a chance to experience the creative process of one of cinema's greatest talents as well as a fascinating exploration of the enigmatic figure that was Napoleon Bonaparte.

Alison Castle received a BA in philosophy from Columbia University and an MA in photography and film from New York University (NYU/International Center of Photography masters program). The editor of TASCHEN's Some Like it Hot and The Stanley Kubrick Archives, she lives in Paris, home of the world's best cinemas.


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Stanley Kubrick Remix - Amazing

LFF regular Daan sent me this remix tribute to the films of Stanley Kubrick. The remix was done by Paul Proulx and it really is a thing of beauty. Thanks to Daan for pointing it out.

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Rendezvous with Rama - Short Film

A short student film inspired by the Arthur C. Clarke novel. This is absolutely amazing for a student made film. Directed and animated by Aaron Ross, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU in 2001. What do you think of it?

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Cool T-Shirt - 2001 HAL as the X-Box 360 Red Ring of Death

Cool T-Shirt in my opinion. Luckily, I have yet to see the red light on the X-Box! You can buy the shirt here.

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7 Cut Moments in Cult Film

In Hollywoodland, that missing scene can make the difference between PG13 and R. Between classic and hysteric...

Article by Martin Anderson @ Den of Geeks.

Having reviewed the excellent new Wings Of Desire special edition yesterday, I was shocked to find that Wim Wenders’ classic and esoteric tale of angels in Berlin was at one point set to end with a pie fight. All the footage – and I mean the footage from all four cameras covering the slapstick fight between Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander and Solveig Donmartin – is included in the 30 minutes of deleted scenes, and Wenders himself is offering a prize to whoever can edit it back into the film on Final Cut Pro (or whatever) most effectively.

Thank God, he recognises it was a mad end-of-shoot idea, and constitutes more the beginning of the wrap party for Wings Of Desire than the end of principal photography, but...blimey, he was close there, for a while.

It set me thinking of the other near-misses from cult film…

7: HOURS of incomprehensible shit - Fire Walks With Me (1992)
As a lover of Eraserhead, The Elephant Man and Dune, and a big respecter of Wild At Heart, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, I have to date the release of FWwM as the point where the last of David Lynch’s very useful anti-psychotics left his system. I hear that drugs can be stored in body fat and release their effects in later years, when the fat becomes metabolised for sustenance; therefore a rigorous diet must have kept ‘Out To Lunch’ Lynch balanced enough to make the delightful The Straight Story (1999), before getting utterly lost again in Mulholland Drive (1992).

Anyway, this is a director who makes legendarily lengthy cuts of his movies (see Dune below), and FWwM/Peaks fans are still clamouring for the missing three hours of Lynch’s cinematic outing for his Twin Peaks retinue. ?yhW

Maybe it’s an Alien 3 deal, where the restoration of essential footage will suddenly make sense of the whole thing. But if it takes three hours extra for that to happen, it does suggest a certain want of narrative economy.

6: Jessica and Logan pose for ice-sculpture – Logan’s Run (1976) My motives for wanting to see this, though not the purest, are mixed up with annoyance at how close this scene came to being in the movie. After Roscoe Lee Brown’s robot guardian ‘Box’ has welcomed our heroes to his ice-cave, but before he lets slip the fact that he has flash-frozen all the other ‘runners’ who came there looking for Sanctuary, the eccentric cyborg asks the stunning couple if they will pose nude for an ice-sculpture. Being good guests, they agree…

That scene was refused as too provocative for the rating that Logan’s Run was going for, but annoyingly it is rendered in the Marvel comics adaptation! Arghhh. So close.

Since I can’t really put Logan’s Run in twice, I’ll have to also mention the other legendarily missing scene, which is the bawdier original cut of Michael York and Jenny Agutter’s slightly-hilarious slow-motion escape from Rihcard Jordan through the ‘Love Shop’, which is basically a cross between Starbucks and a 70s orgy. Michael Anderson’s racier edit also fell victim to the MGM blue pencil, and the director admits on the commentary that the bowdlerised version familiar to audiences is only a shadow of it.

5: Kurt Russell gets the all-clear – The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter makes clear in the extras on The Thing (R1 release) DVD that Universal wanted coverage of a happier ending to his nihilistic cult shocker. Being a practical man and not committed to using it, Carpenter quickly threw together a set-up at the end of shooting where Kurt Russell is in a hospital, having been recovered from the arctic pyrotechnics that now close the movie, and being given a test that proves he is not infected. Russell gives a sigh of relief and that’s it.

I don’t know if the test given is the rather dramatic ‘hot metal’ one that proved a hallmark of the film, but Carpenter’s decision not to include this scene in the otherwise very comprehensive extras on the laserdisc/DVD Thing was the right one, in my opinion. This was not something I needed to see, and it was never part of the reality of the film. Apparently the scene was cut into the movie at certain test screenings; since it proved to have no discernible effect on general audience reaction, Carpenter was allowed to keep the finale bleak and bereft of comfort.

4: James Remar as Hicks – Aliens (1986) Yup, Dexter’s dead dad shot a full two weeks on James Cameron’s sci-fi horror classic as Ripley’s squeeze before being replaced by stalwart Cameronite Michael Biehn. Reports at the time cited a family emergency, though Remar is said to have since admitted that it was due to his excessive drug-use at the time. In the same period Cameron was forced to replace an obstreperous director of photography, and was as plagued by British working practises as LV426 was by xenomorphs, legendarily having to stop work every three minutes for a round of bad sandwiches and greasy tea.

One shot of Remar’s work as Hicks remains in Aliens – as the camera pans down from the alien-encrusted walls to the marines approaching the reactor core, the Hicks walking away from shot is Remar. This was an early SFX shot using a hanging miniature that had just been trashed, and would have been prohibitively expensive to re-shoot. Luckily Remar looks away from camera as soon as it lights on him, and there’s really no telling anyway who is who with all that grungy military get-up.

3: Ripley slapped by Lambert – Alien (1979)
This minor deep-space cat-fight has actually surfaced in recent years, but was quite a curiosity until the Quadrilogy edition; the more so because, as with the Logan’s Run ‘box sculpture’ (see above), the scene was removed after the film had been turned into a graphic novel. So again, this was one that I got to see only in comic form.

Outraged that cool-as-ice Ripley wouldn’t let Dallas and her back on board with the infected Kane (a pretty fucking wise move foiled by the traitormatic Ash), Veronica Cartwright’s character lays into Ripley as soon as she arrives at the infirmary to see how Kane is getting on, but Parker (Yaphet Kotto) quickly intervenes.

Ridley Scott recounts on one of his several commentaries for various versions of Alien that he wasn’t getting the energy and conviction out of the conflict, and told Cartwright to really ‘go for it’ with the slap. Used to the feints, Weaver burst into tears when taking the full force of the blow and remonstrated with herself – so she recounts in Quadrilogy – because Ripley ‘would never have cried’.

Since I can’t mention Alien twice, I will also add that I would love to see more of John Finch’s takes as Kane, before John Hurt was called in to replace the very ill actor, who was subsequently diagnosed with diabetes. That said, the one shot of Finch in the role on the bridge of the Nostromo, which is available on the Quadrilogy edition, finds the actor clearly on the point of passing out. As this was one of his first shots for the film, there may be no more of Finch to see in the role.

2: The ‘star child’ blows up Earth’s nuclear arsenal – 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) The evolved Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) was originally to not merely go into orbit and gaze fawn-like at the camera but detonate the entire arsenal of Earth’s nuclear weapons. It would have been a ‘nuking from orbit’ that predated Aliens by nearly twenty years, and Kubrick is said to have avoided the idea ultimately because of its similarity to the conclusion of Doctor Strangelove. Since such an aggressive act would possibly mean the end of all life on Earth, this alternate ending paints 2001 in a shockingly different light…

Having spent millions of years growing a civilised race from a bunch of vegetarian monkeys, why punish the very war-like behaviour that you instilled in them yourself with your big black monoliths at the dawn of time? All the space-borne remnants of the human race were clearly dependent on Earth and a long way from any real colonisation, so in effect it would have been kaput for mankind. Perhaps the Star Child was intending to jettison Earth and its people like a second-stage rocket, and continue a new and better race via parthenogenesis?

Apparently special effects for the nuclear wipe-out were actually done – though not finished – by Douglas Trumbull. Again, as with Kurt’s miraculous escape in The Thing (see above), I’m not sure I ever want to really see it…

1: The ‘Little maker’ – Dune (1984) This was for a long time a mystery to all but those who watched the ‘Alan Smithee’ version on network TV in the 1980s, which – in a typical ‘network-cut’ deal with the devil – traded off censorious snips for extended and non-controversial footage that never made it into the cinematic version. One of those cut scenes was an elaborate ritual where the Fremen show Paul how spice is extracted from the baby worms. It’s pretty disgusting, actually, and is found or found absent in various of the five known versions of Dune, but the Smithee abomination – a bloat-out at 177 minutes – definitely has it, and that has been released on DVD after many years of curiosity by fans.

In a side-note, an early script treatment of the adaptation, by Rudolph Wurlitzer (a writer on Sam Peckinpah´s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) would have had the fugitive Paul Atreides and his Bene Gesserit mum, the Lady Jessica, in an incestuous tryst after the death of husband/father Duke Leto. Ridley Scott was behind the idea during his involvement on the project before David Lynch was invited to the helm, and the oedipal strand was then firmly nixed. Ten years later, Lynch would probably have done it…

Discuss in the forum.

Poll Results - Favourite Stanley Kubrick Film

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. The Shining
3. Full Metal Jacket
4. A Clockwork Orange
5. Dr Strangelove...
6. Eyes Wide Shut
7. Spartacus
8. Barry Lyndon
9. Lolita
10. Paths of Glory

416 people voted. 2001 had 20% of the votes and The Shining beat Full Metal Jacket by 1 vote.

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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Blu Ray Review

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Douglas Rain

Running Time: 141 minutes

Score: 10/10

Another review from Andy.

A classic and influential Sci-Fi film like this is surely a must-buy Blu Ray disc from the word go. But does it transfer to hi-def acceptably? Is it a quick lazy production or did Warner Brothers dedicate a bit of effort for this flag ship space epic?

Well Chisholm and I sat down last night to debut this disc. We were both very familiar with the film but neither of us had watched it for many years. I first saw the film about 20 years ago but I was a bit too young to understand everything that was going on... at the time seeing space ships was cool enough. I'd watched at again some time later and, being a bit older, followed it better. But it was as a teenager reading Arthur C Clarke's book and then hoovering up all the sequel novels that the story really gripped me. And so it was last night that I returned to 2001 for the full theatrical, hi-def, cinema roomed, blu ray'd epic viewing.

First off, some comments on the Hi-defness. Perhaps most people reading this will already be familiar with the movie and are only interested in whether it’s worth buying again on Blu Ray. Space Odyssey fans can relax... nay, not relax, …get positively excited! This is an incredibly good transfer to Blu Ray with lots of bonus material. There was no graininess that could have been expected from the original tapes, the picture is very sharp and the colours nothing short of gob-smacking. Particularly impressive are the sunrise vistas extensively presented in the “Dawn of Man” chapters of the movies. This is perfect wide screen eye candy. The hues of the clouds bathed in the early morning sunshine where rich and well saturated, the barren landscapes impressively huge and pin sharp in 1080p. The contrasts of brightly lit greys and deep space darks in the subsequent chapters based on the moon where equally impressive for their lack of colours letting the pin-sharpness of the hi-definition show itself off in a very stark environment. We did detect some minor tape damage (or something) at some points in the movie, but it was borderline irrelevant and easily ignored. The master tapes are in very good condition for their age, 40 years old this year, and the quality has come across in this reproduction.

The soundtrack is only in stereo so there's no 7.1/5.1 True HD or DTS, however the film simply doesn't need such modern cinema tricks like surround sound. The quality of the sound track was CD-perfect with no noticeable hissing or back ground white noise. The voice tracks where very clear and the music of Strauss is beautiful and haunting. The excellent heavy breathing we hear during the first EVA make us claustrophobic as though we too were in the Pod. The echoes of Bowman's movements in the alien 'cell' at the end heap on us the feelings of loneliness and emptiness that surely Bowman is feeling.

The special effects in this movie are gob-smacking to say the least. Whole sets were built to rotate with a fixed camera to give us the impression of zero gravity corridors, and the ingenious torus of the Discovery hub. The shuttle landing at the lunar base still looks better and more realistic than any modern day CGI efforts and I can say with earnest that this movie has not dated one iota since 1968. Hell, even the furniture and fashion is back in style. What this film does, cinematically, is hold a huge mirror up to modern day directors so that they can very embarrassingly see how lazy they've become with special effects and dumbed down narrative. 2001 doesn't have any narrative! Instead it relies on the audience to actually process what they're watching and then coming to conclusions as to what is being portrayed. This is the most powerful approach to story telling. And Arthur C Clarke's stories are amongst the most profound and brilliant out there. It demands further watching as you thirst to gleam more from it. Stanley Kubricks' genius is also exemplified in this film. Obviously the two giants worked very closely with each other to create such a masterpiece so stooped in accurate scientific detail yet so careful played out so to make everything seem so everyday.

Everyday, that is except for the last 15 or 20 minutes. Here Kubrick goes nuts with gloriously gaudy oil on water effects during Bowman's journey to the alien habitat. This version on the Blu Ray is completely uncut and this trippy segment lasts much longer than I can remember from my previous viewings.

I woke up this morning still thinking about this movie. How even the apes at the start out-acted most of today's plastic Hollywood stars. How the unsaid in the movie is just as powerful as the said. How fantastic and realistic it all looked. And how subsequently copied it has been over the years. The look of Star Wars is taken directly from this film. Event Horizon too mimics it in many ways. Space 1999, Red Dwarf, Star Trek.... all of them owe something to Kubrick and Clarke. This story has always been one of my favourite Sci Fi novels, but having watched the Blu Ray last night and got so much enjoyment out of it I think I can now upgrade the movie from “a film I like but haven’t seen for years” to be amongst the best movies I've ever seen. Possibly now my favourite film... for this week at least! The Chisholm and I where grinning from ear to ear for much of the length of this movie, for it is incredible. It’s well worth the Blu Ray price tag, and I'm now going head back into the movie room and absorb all the featurettes and extras for another few hours. Oh, and watch 2010: The Year We Make Contact, for the first time....

10/10 Perfection.

Stanley Kubrick Season on More 4

Here is what will be on during the Kubrick season on More4 here in the UK.

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes (2008)15 July, 10pm.Documentary. A biography of a remarkably talented man as seen though the rich collection of material he left behind. Presented by Jon Ronson.

Day of the Fight (1951)15 July, 11.05pm.Documentary short. A day in the life of a middleweight Irish boxer named Walter Cartier, particularly the day of his bout with black middleweight Bobby James.

Barry Lyndon (1975)16 July, time tbc.Kubrick's oeuvre was never more lavish, ravishing or brilliantly eccentric than in his 18th Century story of pugnacious Irish chancer Barry Lyndon, a man with a talent for money and appearances, but with a crippling lack of love in his heart.

Paths of Glory (1957)17 July, 11:55am.A story designed to make the blood boil: blameless French soldiers carry the can for their superiors' mistakes after a botched WWI assault. A work of genius from Kubrick, with a brilliant performance from Kirk Douglas.

Flying Padre (1951)18 July, 12.55pm (Friday afternoon).Documentary short. Two days in the life of priest Father Fred Stadtmuller whose New Mexico parish is so large he can only spread goodness and light among his flock with the aid of a mono-plane.

Lolita (1962) 18 July, 9pm.Kubrick's controversial and deeply ironic black comedy stars James Mason as a middle aged professor obsessed with a precociously sexual minor. Adapted by Nabokov from his own novel.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)19 July, 1.30pm.Spectacular, trailblazing and philosophical, it's an undisputed masterpiece.

Killer's Kiss (1955)21 July, 11.30pm.Stanley Kubrick's stylish second feature, shot on a shoestring but a clear indication of the great things to come. Intricately plotted, it tells the story of a has-been boxer who falls for a beautiful broad with a violent boyfriend.

The Killing (1956)23 July, 12.05am.Tightly plotted heist-goes-wrong thriller.

The Shining (1980)25 July, 9pm.Stanley Kubrick's atmospheric adaptation of a Stephen King tale. Jack Nicholson stars, in maniacal, terrifying form.

Stanley Kubrick's archive is now housed at the University of the Arts London.

Kubrick Season on More 4

More 4 in the UK are showing 10 Stanley Kubrick movies from July 15th. To help promote it they recreated the set of The Shining, got some look a like actors and did a 65 second tracking shot from Kubricks POV.

I've just watched it and it is very impressive. Take a look at it here. Apparantly lots of the equipment used in the shot were actually used to make the original movie.

The documentary Citizen Kubrick by John Ronson will kick of the season.

Some cracking movies then for us all to watch. I think 2001: A Space Odyssey is my favourite Kubrik movie. I just love the whole feel of it. It just seems so real. Oh and my Mum once met the bloke who played the ape who smashes all the bones up which is pretty cool!

What's your favourite Kubrick movie?