Lowe's reviews often mix up the creative compromises involved in making a film with the content of the film itself: 'As the first British space movie for a generation, Sunshine is all too aware that it's on a one-shot mission to rekindle the classic deep space movie, and to demonstrate the possibility of doing internationally competitive spectacle from a shed in Limehouse.'
On Ghost Rider: 'The word 'rider', drawled in the accents of hell, is indistinguishable from 'writer', resulting in a rich succession of unplanned metafilmic negotiations between the factions of the plot: Send me your precious writer, I will deal with him!'
He also suggests his top ten SF films of the last 25 years (Interzone's lifespan) which are...
I've seen all of these, bold are the ones that I think are tops.
1: Spirited Away (not sure it's SF but thumbs up)
2: Brazil (yes, yes ... etc. like that woman in the shampoo advert)
3: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (very good, but not sure it's the third best film of the last quarter-century)
4: Blade Runner (One of the best SF films ever made)
5: The Prestige (a good film, and it's hard to judge about something so recent, I probably wouldn't put it in the top ten)
6: Starship Troopers (I quite enjoyed it, but I didn't think it was that great)
7: Fellowship of the Ring (Not SF of course, but an outstanding film, pity about the next 2)
8: Repo Man (Oh, good choice, I would have thought it was more than 25 years old)
9: Revenge of the Sith (what's that doing here?)
10: Dark City (A film I like more and more all the time)
I would have definitely put The Thing on this list, and probably 'Existenz' (can't be bothered with the funny spelling), perhaps something by David Lynch, perhaps Alien 3. What do you think?
