The Matrix (1999)

Written and directed by the Wachowskis, this much hyped sci-fi thriller turns out to be a huge disappointment. It's dull and vacuous, as well as tonally all over the place. 

The dialogue is trite, preventing any development of the characters (weakly portrayed by Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss). There's an ugly aesthetic, too. The plot isn’t explained very well and there's not even much action – just a lot of “enigmatic” non-conversations that go nowhere. You get no sense whatsoever of the wider world or the notion that humanity is in peril. 

I really couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.

Contagion (2011)

A pandemic thriller made fascinating by the real-world events in the era of Covid 19. 

Matt Damon’s wife (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) contracts a mysterious virus and is quickly dead. From this initial beginning spin off a variety of threads and characters as we see the virus spread around the globe, accompanied by panic and social disorder.

The narrative perspective shifts across an ensemble cast also featuring Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle and Sanaa Lathan. Director Steven Soderbergh just about holds it all together. 

Knowing what we now know, it’s almost uncanny to watch scenes in which the “R” number is explained. It also deals with the conspiracy theorists – in this case, Jude Law, who’s told “Blogging is not writing, it’s graffiti with punctuation” – who try to scare people from taking the vaccine.

Mystic River (2003)

Compelling drama directed by Clint Eastwood. 

Three Boston-based childhood friends are reunited in unhappy circumstances. They discover how the events of their youth have shaped their lives and relationships, and continue to do so as events play out in the present day. 

Sean Penn is the gangster-like Jimmy Markum. Tim Robbins is Dave Boyle, who has become a damaged, haunted man after being abused as a child and now finds himself the prime suspect in the killing of Jimmy’s daughter. Meanwhile, Kevin Bacon is a detective named Sean Devine (assisted by a further detective played by Laurence Fishburne). 

The performances are hugely credible, leading to an unbearably tense couple of hours as this painful human tragedy plays out.

Passengers (2016)

Engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is accidentally awakened 90 years too early from long-term hibernation on the spaceship Avalon on the way to a colony planet with 5,000 passengers – a plot seemingly borrowed for Alien Covenant. Lonely, suicidal and craving company, he deliberately wakes up fellow passenger Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), thus essentially sentencing her to death on the trip with him. The film explores these moral issues as well as their complex relationship, which gets a lot more complex when she learns how she awoke. But then other things start to go wrong...

It’s a funny, scary, dramatic and romantic story that works because it’s so simple. The ship looks stunning, as do all the effects (a swimming pool during a gravity-loss malfunction), and the two main actors are perfect in the lead roles.

It’s clever the way the film parodies the bland commercial corporate-speak of the company organising the colony. Also appealing is the droid barman (Michael Sheen), who acts as a confidant to the characters and seems almost human. Rather than offering a cold, technological experience, the narrative focuses on the humanity of Jim and Aurora. It’s a delight to see a space film that’s so full of warmth.