My series of movie previews continues this evening with an obscure choice brought to my attention a while back by my cousin Chris. It’s called Sunshine.
Technically, as of last Friday, it’s already out; I could hop in my car and go see it tonight. Despite that fact, and unlike other “now playing” movies like The Simpsons Movie or Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (and as with the other movies to which I’m drawing attention this week), I’m guessing you haven’t heard of this one, either.
The official plot summary of Sunshine, as given by ComingSoon.net, goes like this:
Fifty years from now, the sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope: a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. There is an accident, a fatal mistake, and a distress beacon from a spaceship that disappeared seven years earlier. Soon the crew is fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.
As I mentioned, this movie is out now. Which means a decent number of people have already seen–and reviewed–it. RottenTomatoes gives it a freshness rating of 71%, which is pretty good. The film also has some pretty credentialed creators; director Danny Boyle also directed indie faves Trainspotting and 28 Days Later (neither of which I’ve seen, but both of which have garnered no small amount of critical acclaim), and writer Alex Garland penned the script for 28 Days Later and is, apparently, also writing the screenplay for the rumored upcoming Halo movie.
As far as performing talent goes, Sunshine features Chris Evans, who you last saw burning up the screen (har) as the Human Torch in Fantastic Four and its sequel, as well as Cillian Murphy, who previously teamed with Boyle and Garland on 28 Days Later. More recently, though, Murphy was busy being delightfully creepy as Dr. Jonathan Crane (aka the Scarecrow) in Batman Begins and being all assassin-y in Red Eye.
Yet another reason to check out this movie: several have said that Cillian Murphy looks kinda like me. I’ll, uh, let you decide whether or not that’s the case and whether or not that’s actually an advantage for this movie.
Some are claiming that Danny Boyle is single-handedly “resurrecting science fiction,” or something like that, with Sunshine. I didn’t realize it was dead (though I’m not a hardcore sci-fi guy who thinks that only Bradbury, Clarke, Asimov, or Heinlein can create real science fiction, so who am I to say? And, yes, I know that some people believe there to be a difference between “sci-fi” and “science fiction.” I’m typically not one who makes such fine distinctions.) I guess all that remains to be seen once Sunshine hits Redbox.
Meantime, if you’re up for the trailer or even a few clips, the ComingSoon link above has the trailer and the clips, or you can just click here for the trailer (in either HD or regular Quicktime). Oh, and by the way…given that this movie was a suggestion from someone else, if there’s a film you’d want to see here (because this blog is soooo famous), let me know. I’d enjoy checking it out and spotlighting it here (as long as it’s not too weird, Mike).
Thanks to UCillian.com for the Cillian Murphy picture.
You need to stop posting about movies, I keep wanting to post comments!
Anyway, I’m still stoked about this movie and despite knowing someone who has an, ahem, copy of it, I’ll be going to see this in theaters sometime this week. I have heard good things, especially for those who like great space cinematography like 2001 or more recently Solaris. As you can tell, I have pretty high hopes.
Now I need to go write something for my blog so it doesn’t look dead since you linked to me (thanks, by the way).
No problem. And what’s wrong with wanting to post comments. Please do! This blog could use a little more interaction sometimes…
Nothing wrong with it as long as no one thinks of someone as a web stalker—usually accused by those whom don’t know what RSS is and how easy it is to keep up with blogs and comments.
Aaron, I just got back from Sunshine and this movie is not, by any means, a rental. It is every respect a very good film that I think you’d like a lot and the cinematography and sound make this one you’ll want to see on a big screen with great speakers. I almost hate to do this to Pixar and Transformers, but this is probably my pick for the summer (so far anyway). If you have a chance to see it I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I think Britt liked it as well, but she said it was a little too intense for her.
So, I’ve been behind in reading posts lately (obviously), but I wanted to tell you that I did know about this movie a while ago. This can be completely credited to my addiction to watching trailers on apple.com.