MyReviewer Best of 2012 - Part 4

Continuing our look back at what we thought was best during 2012, we look at our reviews for the last twelve months and see those we rated a 9 or 10. Today we have a gander at sci-fi and documentary releases this past year.

Jitendar took a gander at what feels like the most re-released movie of all time, none other than Blu-ray title Blade Runner: The Final Cut, the definitive version to own, the final dip if you like. Here is a quote from his review...

"What you do get is the film looking pristine, as good as it possibly could look, and on Blu-ray, there will be no nit-picks about digital artefacts or compression to mar your viewing experience. You’re getting the film as the director intended, and I have to say it looks glorious. The whole attraction of Blade Runner was the creation of a realistic, lived in, enveloping future world, where you could pause any frame, and any aspect of that frame could prove inspiration for a dozen other stories."

Keeping it old school, Jitendar and David checked out Total Recall: Ultimate Rekall Edition on Blu-ray, hoping to find a transfer worthy of this action classic, made back when Arnie was at the height of his box office draw.

David pondered, "If the Colin Farrell remake has had any input into the re-release of this cleaned up and restored print of the original Total Recall, then that is surely one positive to come from that misadventure, for Total Recall has never looked as good, and I enjoyed it even more last night, then when I first saw it in the cinema back when I was seventeen."

Whilst Jitendar simply said, "Total Recall is not an amazing film that will fill most people's top tens. However, for me it is a guilty pleasure that i can't help but enjoy."

And lastly for this genre, we go to TV land and one of those single season affairs which got cancelled way before its time, Space: Above and Beyond - Complete Series Collector's Edition arrived on DVD.

Si thought, "Wong and Morgan knew the end was coming to this series and the two part ending is quite superb, being both bleak and poignant. It lay the foundations for a possible reprieve and second season but also provided a sudden ending that made the viewer long for more. It didn't feel like it was over, there was no satisfactory resolution. In that respect it was the perfect ending to a slightly flawed but in my opinion superb series, rather like this set actually."

Jitendar rounded off his critique with the fact that, "In reality these are small, almost insignificant nitpicks, against the backdrop of an amazing, and very engaging sci-fi action show. Space Above and Beyond is one of the better television shows to come from the mid nineties, and if you miss out on this collection, especially with its appealing extra features, then you'll be doing yourself a disservice."

Now onto two documentaries that we rated very highly, the first being The Story of Film: An Odyssey, Mark Cousins' story of international cinema. Lovingly researched and five years in the making, it covers six continents and 12 decades, showing how film-makers are influenced both by the historical events of their times, and by each other. It provides a worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made; an epic tale that starts in nickelodeons and ends as a multi-billion-dollar globalised digital industry.

Simply an epic series, as Stuart says, "This set falls into the category of 'no brainer'. Like Cousin's says of 'Performance', everyone should be made to watch this at least once in their life. Possibly the best buy you'll make this year."

And lastly, what might be just the perfect anti-thesis to the aforementioned title, Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel is about Roger Corman's life, career and remarkable influence on modern moviemaking. Blue jeans, sock-hops and drive-in movies, the Fifties were America's age of innocence. But stalking the depths of its post-nuclear bliss, mass paranoia became fuel for Joseph McCarthy's brand of Red Scare terror propaganda. It was here, in the last-ditch machinations of a dying juggernaut, that a mild-mannered, civil engineer's son would become the most influential force in modern moviemaking.

Jitendar said, "If there is one thing to take away from Corman's World, it's that we need more filmmakers like Roger Corman, now more than ever. It's almost obscene the amount of money mainstream Hollywood pours into movies these days, and the most horrific irony of it all is that they are making 'Roger Corman' movies, and they've been doing so ever since 1976."

Tomorrow, we'll look at musical releases!