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"Solaris"

Watched this last night, avoided it for a while but someone recommended it to me.
And?
Thoroughly enjoyed it. A sci-fi film with no aliens, no laser weapons, no star battles, no murderous plot to take over world, nothing you'd usually associate with "oh, it's sci-fi"

George Clooney is sent to a spaceship orbiting Solaris after recieving a weird message from one of his mates onboard. The company has lost contact with the ship, a security force sent out to retrieve them never came back so they send him to see what's going on and to convince them to come back.
Usual "Lone hero sent to discover what's gone wrong" scenario.
Except nothing has gone wrong, they just dont want to return.
He arrives and sees blood, finds a couple of crew dead and only 2 other people alive.
1 has gone utterly insane, the other locked in her room and refusing to come out.

It's not about aliens, it's not about discovering what killed the people, it's not about blowing anything up and narrowly avoiding death at the hands of some CGI monster.
It's about grief, loss, longing, regret, love & memories.
Don't think this is Alien 5 or Pitch Black. Think Magnolia on a spaceship and you're getting the idea.
Nothing much really happens, there's no chase through dark corridors or a last-minute escape from exploding ship.

It's all about George Clooney coming to terms with the death of his wife, how he remembers her and one line summed up what it's about for me:
"I found myself practising smiling, standing, walking. All those things until they became reflex again, and I was left wondering did I even remember her properly anymore?"
A thoughtful, prosiac eulogy to what it is to be human, how we choose to remember loved ones and how we deal with loss and grief.

If you could have that person back, but they only exist based on your memories of them - would you choose that? They remember nothing outside of what you remember about them, they act based on only how you percieved them to be. They are not that person you fell in love with, but only a simile of that person through your filter of memory. Is that the person you loved, not their own independant person but a reflection of what you liked about them?

One of those films that left an impression on me for reasons I'm not sure about.
I do know George Clooney is fast becoming one of my favourite actors for daring to take roles and make films that may not be box-office gold but attempt to say something and mean something more than "Explosions! Guns! Quips!".

Recommended if you like films that try to make you think and try to deal with emotions and thoughts.
Not recommended if you like films with lots of running and shouting in.

Unbeliever wrote:
> Hmmm...
>
> I did watch Daredevil last night.

I think the time of westerners warming to films with people wearing spandex and fighting crime are surely at an end. Perhaps it's just me but when I saw that advertised 'garbage' alarms were going off all over.

Of course, mindless killing still sells, I enjoyed watching the matrix reloaded again at weekend. 15 minute fights are completely poinless and unrealistic - but hugely entertaining.

That, and thinking mans films like Donnie Darko, Jacobs Ladder, Memento, Ace Ventura and DVD Lens Cleaner.

Well, perhaps not Memento .....

Hmmm...

I did watch Daredevil last night. It was the most ridiculous film I've seen in a while. Ok, it's based on a comic but I found it to be quite absurd and full of idiotic cliches.

I think I'm quite a harsh critic these days.

There's no action in it at all.
No shooting, no shouting, no lasers or owt. It's 100% talking whilst standing around in a spaceship.
Soderbergh plays with the notions of memory, individuality and loss.
It's not mainstream at all and yep, it bombed big time.

I enjoyed it a lot because it made me think, made me question relationships I've had etc. I can see why it wouldn't appeal, but strangely I thought it was excellent and shall be buying it.

I've heard it was pretty poor.

But I shall reserve judgement until I see it.

Solaris. The trailer told me all I needed to know. I saw the film, and it was exactly the same as the trailer, only much, much longer.

I mean, it had it's moments, the fact that the he only remembered his wife's flaws, that she was depressed, unhappy, etc.

But I shalln't watch it again, didn't do much for me.

Didn't the film flop majorly?

I haven't seen it (yet) so I'll say -

"Stupid film goers" and "They were right not to see it."

I'll make up my mind after I see it.

yeah, but you like films with 'guns, running and shouting' too, surely? I wasn't that impressed with solaris, not because there were no guns in it, but because it was like titanic in space - too much time spent with Clooney boy and big nose loving it up.

Though brainless, Event Horizon at least had me on the edge of my seat (the first time I watched it), and had some genuine frightening bits in it (in my opinion). I compare these two films, as I reckon EH was copied from the original solaris.

Anyway, glad you liked it, not for me though.

No it's not "Colombo in space", there's no investigating or suspect unmasked at last.
It's not even about what happened to the rest of the crew.
Sent to find out what's going on isn't the right thing, they just refuse to come home and Clooney is sent to persuade them.
I'd guess from the responses that most of you should stick to Terminator 3 and Tomb Raider. You'd sit there moaning "it's dull, where's the guns? What's that then? Why's he upset?".
Bless....

Yep, Intolerable Cruelty is on my list, but it's only adapted by one of the Coens and directed by one of them, not a 100% Coen Bros movie so it may not be their usual gold. Could be wrong though.
It's not cliched sci-fi Bell, well worth checking out if you can watch something that presents ideas and emotions, leaves you to draw your own conclusions and discuss afterwards.

Everyone else? Final Destination 2 is available, rent that and be happy with the deaths and nu-metal assisted McMovie delights.

Going to see Intolerable Cruelty then, Goateth?

Ocean's Eleven ruled. As did O Brother Where Art Thou? I also approved of Welcome to Collinwood.

Boo hoo me wife died gizza shag luv.