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Starring: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Category: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Rated: R

In the futuristic action-thriller “Repo Men”, humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called The Union. The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don’t pay your bill, The Union sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property…with no concern for your comfort or survival. (Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

Chicago Tribune: *1/2 (out of four)
New York Post: * (out of four)
USA Today: *1/2 (out of four)

Overall: *1/2 (out of four)

Starring: Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp
Director: Terry Gilliam
Category: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Rated: PG-13

The “Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus” is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present-day. It tells the story of Dr. Parnassus and his extraordinary “Imaginarium”, a traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Doctor Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. An inveterate gambler, thousands of years ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick, in which he won immortality. Centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his daughter reached her 16th birthday, she would become the property of Mr. Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this “coming of age” milestone and Dr. Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr. Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr. Parnassus promises his daughter’s hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr. Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles – and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all. (Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

Chicago Tribune: **** (out of four)
USA Today: *** (out of four)

Overall: ***1/2 (out of four)

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana
Director: James Cameron
Category: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Rated: PG-13

“Avatar” takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately fighting to save the alien world he has learned to call home. We enter the alien world through the eyes of Jake Sully, a former Marine confined to a wheelchair. He is recruited to travel light years to the human outpost of Pandora, where corporations are mining a rare mineral that is the key to solving the Earth’s energy crisis. Because the atmosphere of Pandora is toxic, they have created the Avatar Program, in which human “drivers” have their consciousness linked to an avatar, a remotely controlled biological body that can survive in the lethal air. Reborn in his avatar form, Jake can walk again. He is given a mission to infiltrate the Na’vi, who have become a major obstacle to mining the precious ore. Jake is taken in by a beautiful Na’vi female, Neytiri, after she saves his life. As Jake’s relationship with his reluctant teacher deepens, he learns to respect the Na’vi way and finally takes a place among them. Soon he will face the ultimate test as he leads the Na’vi in an epic battle that will decide nothing less than the fate of an entire world. (Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

Chicago Tribune: *** (out of four)
New York Post: ***1/2 (out of four)
USA Today: *** (out of four)

Overall: *** (out of four)

Starring: Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo
Director: Spike Jonze
Category: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Rated: PG

Innovative director Spike Jonze collaborates with celebrated author Maurice Sendak to bring one of the most beloved books of all time to the big screen in “Where The Wild Things Are”, a classic story about childhood and the places we go to figure out the world we live in. The film tells the story of Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy who feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. Max lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions. The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought. (Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

Chicago Tribune: **** (out of four)
New York Post: ** (out of four)
Rolling Stone: **** (out of four)
USA Today: ***1/2 (out of four)

Overall: (out ***1/2f four)

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Benedict Wong
Director: Duncan Jones
Category: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Rated: R

It is the near future. Astronaut Sam Bell is living on the far side of the moon, completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth’s primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a lonely job, made harder by a broken satellite that allows no live communications home. Taped messages are all Sam can send and receive. Thankfully, his time on the moon is nearly over, and Sam will be reunited with his wife, Tess, and their three-year-old daughter, Eve, in only a few short weeks. Finally, he will leave the isolation of “Sarang,” the moon base that has been his home for so long, and he will finally have someone to talk to beyond “GERTY,” the base’s well-intentioned, but rather uncomplicated computer. Suddenly, Sam’s health starts to deteriorate. Painful headaches, hallucinations and a lack of focus lead to an almost fatal accident on a routine drive on the moon in a lunar rover. After returning to the base (with no memory of how he got there), Sam realized that he is fighting the clock to discover what’s going on and where he fits into company plans. (Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

New York Post: **1/2 (out of four)
Rolling Stone: ***1/2 (out of four)
USA Today: *** (out of four)

Overall: *** (out of four)