While Soylent Green may be one of the many dystopian visions of the future, the film stands out because it's one of the few titles that addresses current environmental issues head on. Adapted from Harry Harrison's novel Make Room, Make Room, it gives us a nightmarish vision of an over-populated, polluted future on the brink of collapse--a vision that gets uncomfortably closer every year. Charlton Heston as police officer Thorn investigates a murder in between suppressing food riots and uncovers the nightmarish truth about Soylent Green, the new foodstuff being sold to the poor. The film neatly combines police procedural with conspiracy thriller. Heston's scenes are counterpointed by more elegiac ones in which the centenarian Edward G Robinson as his friend Sol broods on the world he has outlived--his death in a euthanasia chamber is a gloriously lachrymose moment, which he plays to the hilt. Heston, too, is good as Thorn, a morally equivocal cop who loots the apartments of the victims whose deaths he investigates--he's a man just getting by in an impossible world. On the DVD: Soylent Green on disc comes with a commentary from director Richard Fleischer, the highpoint of which is a memorable description of what it was like to work with the brilliant ailing, entirely deaf Robinson. He is joined by Leigh Taylor-Young whose work on the film as heroine led to years of serious environmentalist commitment. It has a useful contemporary making-of documentary and touching shots of Robinson's 100th birthday party with telegrams from Sinatra and others. The feature itself is presented in anamorphic widescreen with its original mono sound. --Roz Kaveney
Science fiction took a grim turn in the 1970s--the heyday of Agent Orange, nuclear peril and Watergate. Suddenly, most of our possible futures took on a "last man on Earth" flavour, with The Omega Man topping the doom-struck heap. Charlton Heston plays the government researcher behind the ultimate biological weapon, a deadly plague that has ravaged humanity. There are two groups of survivors: a dwindling band of immune humans and an infected, psychopathic mob of light-hating quasi-vampires. The infected are led by Mathias, a clever, charismatic man set on destroying the last remnants of the civilisation that produced the plague. Heston has a vaccine--but he and the few remaining normals are outnumbered and outgunned. By day, he builds a makeshift version of the nuclear family (with Rosalind Cash as his afro-wearing, gun-toting little lady). They plan for the future while roaming freely through an empty urban landscape, taking what few pleasures life has left. By night, they defend themselves against the growing horde of plague victims. Both a bittersweet romance and a gothic cautionary tale, The Omega Man paints a convincing portrait of hope and despair. It ain't pretty, but it's a great movie. --Grant Balfour
The story of Fortress takes place in drastically overpopulated America of the year 2017, where each woman is allowed only one pregnancy. John Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his wife Karen (Loryn Locklin) flee to Mexico when she becomes pregnant after the death of their first child. They are captured by border police and sent to the Fortress, a subterranean high-security prison owned by the Men-Tel corporation and operated by "Zed-10", an omnipotent computer system, and a sadistic, genetically "enhanced" warden (Kurtwood Smith) who has nefarious plans involving Brennick's wife and unborn child. Along with his cellmates (including Jeffrey Combs, a favourite of director Stuart Gordon), Brennick plots a breakout and Fortress shifts into auto-pilot action mode. After making his reputation with such audacious horror films as From Beyond and Re-Animator, Stuart Gordon graduated to a bigger budget with Fortress but his penchant for exploitation remains deliriously intact. While borrowing elements from a variety of better sci-fi movies, Fortress indulges every prison-flick cliché, but does it with such enjoyable B-movie vigour that it qualifies as a bona-fide guilty pleasure (indeed, it deserves to be ranked with James Cameron's original Terminator in terms of its budgetary ingenuity). Featuring such giddy (and gory) devices as "intestinators" (deadly obedience devices implanted in prisoners' bodies) and a torturous "Mind Wipe Chamber", this is really just a drive-in action movie with lofty ambitions and the schlocky script hasn't a prayer of rising above the level of juvenile popcorn fodder. But there's no denying the energy and enthusiasm that Gordon brings to the film, which understandably became a global box-office hit and spawned a 1999 sequel starring Lambert and Pam Grier. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Viggo Mortensen plays Charles Forsyth a prisoner wrongly accused and sent to the electric chair. When the prison he died in reopens under management of the man who framed him Charlie sets out to exact his bloody revenge.
RollerBall (2001): Rollerball takes place in the not too distant future and the future is fierce. A notorious renegade sport Rollerball packs arenas all over the world. A global viewership bets and roots for star players Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein) Marcus Ridley (LL Cool J) and their beautiful teammate Aurora (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) who skate and motorcycle past opponents to score. Despite the danger of the fame the real threat lies in team owner Petrovich (Jean Reno) who sacrifices anything and anyone to maximize ratings which are worth more to him than the final score. In an heroic move Jonathan and his teammates attempt to expose the corruption and treachery. It's a risky play and the penalty is lethal... Fortress: Christopher Lambert stars as John Brennick a man about to experience the ultimate in criminal punishment - the Fortress. The setting is the United States in the future. With resources scarce and population soaring couples are allowed just one child. Former Black Beret Captain John Brennick and his wife Karen have broken the law. After the loss of their first child Karen is pregnant again. Caught and tried for their crime they are sent to the Fortress the most sophisticated maximum-security prison on the planet a jail built 30 storeys underground and equipped with technology beyond imagination. Each prisoner is implanted with an 'intestinator'; a device designed to inflict severe pain or death for any violation of the prison rules. Unrelenting and unforgiving the Fortress is a hellhole prison of the future. Escape-proof. Built to hold anything...except an innocent man. Future Sport: Wesley Snipes and Dean Cain star in the turbo charged sci-fi thrill ride where the only game is war... The year is 2025 and global tension is rapidly growing between the Hawaiian Liberation Organisation and the North American Alliance. On the brink of war superstar athlete Tre Ramsey (Cain) must fight with all his powers to save himself his team and the fate of his country. The question of the territory is set to be solved by holding a game of futuresport - a violent basketball and skateboarding which requires the utmost skill and agility - hold on to the ball for more than five seconds and electricity shoots through your body. Obike Fixx (Snipes) the creator of the game is coaching the HLO team - who seem willing to play by Street Rules thus increasing the danger level in the high-stakes game.
An unstoppable force is about to meet an immovable object as tough LA cop Frank 'Bulletproof' McBain embarks on a dangerous mission to retrieve a top secret attack vehicle. The vehicle code named Thunderblast can withstand the impact of just about any weapon imaginable. Cuban Libayan and Russian terrorists plan to seize the much coveted battle machine at a Mexican village near the Texan border. A convoy led by the beautiful Lt. Devon Shepard is escorting Thunderblast when it is amb
Soylent Green is landmark science fiction film, a cautionary tale that holds a mirror to a tomorrow rife with ecological disaster. Working well again in the futuristic genre following Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man, action titan Charlton Heston portrays Thom, a detective prowling the dank streets of a polluted, overpopulated Big Apple gone rotten in 2022.He's trailing a murderer and the trail leads to a stunning discovery. Vividly realised, Soylent Green's world gains its power not just from its special effects but from its heart a human dimension magnified by the performance of legendary Edward G.Robinson in his moving screen farewell.Product FeaturesCommentary by Richard Fleischer and Leigh Taylor-YoungA Look at The World of Soylent GreenMGM's Tribute to Edward G.Robinson's 101st FilmDebossed finish on the title treatment of the Steelbook
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