Dark City (1998) | Alex Proyas

July 3, 2024 ~ Vince Leo

Rufus Sewell stars as John Murdoch, who wakes up one day with amnesia in an non-descript hotel room with a butchered woman, immediately having to go on the run as the prime suspect in a series of murders of prostitutes around the city — but he can’t remember if he did it. In addition to the police force, Murdoch is also hotly pursued by a shifty psychologist named Dr. Shreber (Kiefer Sutherland), a tenacious detective, Frank Bumstead (WIlliam Hurt), a woman claiming to be his philandering wife, Emma (Jennifer Connelly), and a spate of pale and creepy-looking, trenchcoated Nosferatus (or so they appear), who are looking for Murdoch because he seems to possess abilities above and beyond what normal men have, which makes him a danger to them. As Murdoch seeks to get to the bottom of who he is and what’s going on, he discovers that there’s an even bigger mystery, which is who everyone else is, what kind of city they all reside in, why is it being controlled by these shady creatures who seem otherworldly, and just why does it always seem to be nighttime?

Cube (2021) | Yasuhiko Shimizu

February 17, 2024 ~ Vince Leo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This Japanese remake of the 1997 Canadian thriller depicts several strangers awakening in a prison of cubic cells, some of them booby-trapped, not knowing how they got there or why. The prisoners must use their combined skills if they are to escape alive.

Cube Zero (2004) | Ernie Barbarash

January 13, 2024 ~ Vince Leo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A group of strangers awakens with very little memory of who they are and finds that they have been involuntarily placed in a maze containing deadly traps. Meanwhile, a young technician watching over the Cube grows appalled at what he sees and endeavors to rescue a woman he finds a connection to who is trapped within.

Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) | Andrzej Sekula

December 26, 2023 ~ Vince Leo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this follow-up to the 1997 futuristic cult thriller, Cube, another group of strangers find themselves transported into a maze of cube rooms for unknown reasons as they try to make their escape.

Cube (1997) | Vincenzo Natali

November 8, 2023 ~ Vince Leo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Without knowing how they got there or why they were there, several strangers awaken in a maze of cube-like rooms, some of them containing deadly booby traps. There’s tough cop Quentin (Maurice Dean Wint), doctor Holloway (Nicky Guadagni), young math whiz Leaven (Nicole de Boer), escape artist Rennes (Wayne Robson), autistic savant Kazan (Andrew Miller) and architect Worth (David Hewlett). The cube inhabitants must rely on each other’s strengths if they are to have any chance to escape.

Sphere (1998) | Barry Levinson

September 18, 2023 ~ Vince Leo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The remains of a crashed spaceship, over three centuries old, is found on the ocean floor somewhere in the South Pacific, and a psychologist and his crew of scientists are selected to investigate. On board the ship, they encounter a strange spherical object, and after one of them enters the sphere, strange and not-too-pleasant things begin happening to them.

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) | Colin Trevorrow

January 2, 2023 ~ Vince Leo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Activist Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard_ is still leading the Dinosaur Protection Group to break up illegal breeding operations. Claire’s partner, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), captures and relocates stray dinos before they’re slaughtered by poachers. They live in a cabin in the Sierra Nevadas with 14-year-old experimental human clone Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), raised as their surrogate daughter in secret to protect her from exploitation. The velociraptor raised by Owen, Blue, lives in the nearby woods with her asexually created younger hatchling, dubbed Beta by Maisie. Maisie is unhappy in isolation and occasionally strays beyond her parents’ border, ultimately getting captured by mercenaries, who also kidnap Beta.

Meanwhile, genetically modified locusts begin consuming and destroying farm crops in America’s heartland and will soon be a global threat. Paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) discovers that crops from Biosyn seeds remain unaffected, suspecting foul play to monopolize the world’s food market. She consults former paleontologist colleague and romantic partner Alan Grant (Sam Neill) for help. They discover that the locusts have been genetically modified using Cretaceous period DNA. Their detective work finds them joining forces with Claire and Owen to infiltrate Biosyn, where Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is currently employed, to expose the greedy corporation’s plans to the world.

Jurassic Park III (2001) | Joe Johnston

May 2, 2022May 2, 2022 ~ Vince Leo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Jurassic Park III starts off with a man and a young boy that go paragliding only to have a forced crash landing on the island of Isla Sorna, the infamous second Jurassic Park island. The boy’s parents, played by William H. Macy and Tea Leoni, travel to the island in hopes of rescuing their son, dragging along Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill, from the first film), who is none too happy about being thrown among the ruthless predators again. Golly gee, you don’t think their plane might crash causing them to have to deal with dino-angst for 90 minutes, do you? Joe Johnston directs.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) | Steven Spielberg

March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 ~ Vince Leo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It’s four years later, and the chief creator of Jurassic Park sends an expedition of four people to check on “Site B”, a secret place where the dinosaurs were developed and which now sports dinosaurs roaming free. The quartet is supposed to document the goings-on, but soon discover they will not be alone on the island, as the creator’s nephew envisions Jurassic Parks across America and wants to capture some dinos to exploit for profit. Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, and Vince Vaughn star. Directed by Steven Spielberg.

Promising Young Woman (2020) | Emerald Fennell

February 17, 2021February 17, 2021 ~ Vince Leo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Cassie Thomas (Carey Mulligan) lives with her parents in Ohio while working in a dead-end job at thirty years old, a barista in a small coffee shop. Her parents have been encouraging her to get on with her life in ways that aren’t even subtle. Their latest birthday gift: a suitcase.

Cassie spends her evenings at the local watering holes to the point where she’s in an obvious stupor. Inevitably, someone will offer to do the right thing and give her a ride home. However, temptation gets the better of them and they’ll tell the cab driver to take her to their home instead. There, they reveal themselves as not so good and she’ll reveal herself to be not so drunk, shaming them for essentially trying to rape a woman who is too intoxicated to truly give consent.

At work, Cassie has a run-in with Ryan Cooper (Bo Burnham), a former colleague from medical school now working as a pediatrician. Here we pick up clues learning about how she was once on a fast-track to becoming a doctor, but she dropped out for mysterious reasons involving her best friend Nina Fisher, the victim of a sexual assault that never got justice – until Cassie made it her mission to stop predators in their tracks. Ryan seems different, cracking through Cassie’s tough exterior, offering a bright future. However, when she learns that the person most responsible for Nina’s rape is nearby and about to get married, she has to decide which path she should go down, the path of promise or the path of vengeance on everyone who done them wrong, including the seemingly indifferent school educators and lawyers who downplayed the allegations.

Emerald Fennell writes and directs.