Anti-Life (15.)
Directed by John Suits.
Starring Cody Kearsley, Bruce Willis, Rachel Nichols, Kassandra Clementi, Timothy V. Murphy and Thomas Jane. Out on Digital platforms 12th February and DVD Feb 15th. 92 mins.
I wouldn't say he was quite Anti-life, but there is definitely a cavalier nihilism to the joyless work ethic of Bruce Willis. He's got money and he doesn't seem to enjoy the work, yet this major motion picture star still feels compelled to keep making movies with no seeming regard for their likely quality. Which is why he finds himself stuck on a Space Ark travelling to New Earth, 200 years in the future, cast again as the archetype of cynical bald embitterment and playing second fiddle to the janitor (Kearsley) in the battle against a pesky non-terrestrial parasite.
Anti-life (AKA Breach, a name that would surely deter anybody from watching it) has a few interesting moves – making the man cleaning the toilets the protagonist and having everybody smoke and drink constantly to a degree that suggests it's Spaceship 1970s. I like the idea that two hundred years in the future a giant space ark doesn't have en suite facilities and the crew not in cryogenic sleep have to make do with two 20th Century style public conveniences that have doors which don't come down to the floor.
Most of this though is just walking through the Alien/s playbook. And if it isn't very good, it's not painful. Three or four decades ago, this would've been a cheesy B-movie with wobbly sets and crap model spaceships. Now, computer effects have advanced to a level where it's just efficient and anonymous.
Finally, I have to question some aspects of the premise. Will it really take another two centuries for the rich elite to try and ditch the remaining 19 billion (by 2242 in this film) of us? And when they leave, is this – Bruce Willis, some soldiers and a toilet attendant - truly the best humanity will have to offer? You wonder if the crew hadn't fallen foul of a cunning ruse by the other19 billion to rid themselves of humanity's most boneheaded faction.
Directed by John Suits.
Starring Cody Kearsley, Bruce Willis, Rachel Nichols, Kassandra Clementi, Timothy V. Murphy and Thomas Jane. Out on Digital platforms 12th February and DVD Feb 15th. 92 mins.
I wouldn't say he was quite Anti-life, but there is definitely a cavalier nihilism to the joyless work ethic of Bruce Willis. He's got money and he doesn't seem to enjoy the work, yet this major motion picture star still feels compelled to keep making movies with no seeming regard for their likely quality. Which is why he finds himself stuck on a Space Ark travelling to New Earth, 200 years in the future, cast again as the archetype of cynical bald embitterment and playing second fiddle to the janitor (Kearsley) in the battle against a pesky non-terrestrial parasite.
Anti-life (AKA Breach, a name that would surely deter anybody from watching it) has a few interesting moves – making the man cleaning the toilets the protagonist and having everybody smoke and drink constantly to a degree that suggests it's Spaceship 1970s. I like the idea that two hundred years in the future a giant space ark doesn't have en suite facilities and the crew not in cryogenic sleep have to make do with two 20th Century style public conveniences that have doors which don't come down to the floor.
Most of this though is just walking through the Alien/s playbook. And if it isn't very good, it's not painful. Three or four decades ago, this would've been a cheesy B-movie with wobbly sets and crap model spaceships. Now, computer effects have advanced to a level where it's just efficient and anonymous.
Finally, I have to question some aspects of the premise. Will it really take another two centuries for the rich elite to try and ditch the remaining 19 billion (by 2242 in this film) of us? And when they leave, is this – Bruce Willis, some soldiers and a toilet attendant - truly the best humanity will have to offer? You wonder if the crew hadn't fallen foul of a cunning ruse by the other19 billion to rid themselves of humanity's most boneheaded faction.
