The Adjustment Bureau, Gibsons Cinema
Friday 25 to Thursday 31 March, 7:15pm
Don’t be fooled by the rubbish title and almost equally as dull trailer, The Adjustment Bureau is well worth a peek. Starting tonight at Gibsons Cinema, the film based on a Philip K. Dick short story, is sci-fi with brains. The flick tackles the idea of controlling your own fate and making choices for the greater good, with a little bit of good ol’ romance chucked in. Starring Matt Damon (reliable as ever), Emily Blunt (she's smokin’! - what was Buble thinking?) and, as is seemingly de rigueur for any film released now, at least one person from Mad Men. This time it’s Roger Sterling.
If the thought of those not-so-comfy seats at Gibsons is slightly off putting then it's worth checking out Take 5 Media to grab a DVD of some other movies inspired by the writing of Philip K. Dick.
Screamers (1995)
It might have had a modest budget and it may have received a few scathing reviews in its day but Screamers is a great little film with creepy ambience, paranoia and a ton of jumpy moments. It deviates quite a bit from Philip K. Dick's short story, Second Variety, but that doesn’t detract from the atmosphere created by this darkly enjoyable film. Set on a far away mining planet in a dystopian future, populated by self-replicating killing machines – that also look like children (!), a handful of soldiers must trek across a treacherous wasteland to attend some negotiation or another which will end a war or something. Clearly a riveting plot... but who needs a good plot when you've got good sci-fi.
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
A faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel, A Scanner Darkly takes the viewer on a visual and mind-blowing journey into the author's conception of a drug-addled and politically unstable world. Richard Linklater created the perfect look for this movie, with themes of drug-induced paranoia and police surveillance captured hypnotically through the use of rotoscoping, a process of animating over digitally captured footage. It’s to the actors’ credit that, although smothered in animation they’re never overshadowed by its use. The top notch cast starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder adds some serious street cred.
Blade Runner (1982)
Using the novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? as its inspiration, Blade Runner would reinvent the future for us in a neon-noir nightmare. Misunderstood when it first hit theaters, the influence of Ridley Scott's mysterious Blade Runner has deepened with time. A visually remarkable, achingly human sci-fi masterpiece. With the universal theme of what actually makes us human, a key element in Dick’s writing and the driving force behind the movie, coupled with incredible set pieces and effects, it’s a film that has rightly earned its status as a bone fide classic with some iconic casting in Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer.
