Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (August 2017)

Official Australian release date: 10/8/17. Viewed: 13/8/17.

Director: Luc Besson

Actors: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Sam Spruell, Clive Owen

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

Rating: M

‘Valerian & the City of a Thousand Planets’ is director Besson’s return to science fiction, after ‘The Fifth Element’ (classic – now 20 years ago!) and ‘Lucy’ – which this is thankfully better than. ‘Valerian’ obviously doesn’t quite live up to the bar set by ‘The Fifth Element’, and while it has a few similarities, it’s sufficiently different to be it’s own entity. I haven’t read any of the graphic novels, so I went in just expecting a big space adventure – and that’s pretty much what you get.

Valerian (DeHaan) and Laureline (Delevingne) are two agents in the galactic federation (sort-of in love – they have a fun chemistry) and are called on to protect the General (Spruell) and the Commander (Owen) of Alpha, which is the so-called “City of a Thousand Planets”. The start of the film – set to Bowie, always a plus – does a great job of introducing how Alpha came about and what it stands for, and letting us know that we’re ~700 years in the future – as well as making the titles go by faster! We’re also introduced to the ‘Avatar’-like species from Mül, who link in to the plot later on.

There’s not really a whole lot you need to know, and it’s a bit ‘Star Wars’-lite at times, but there’s certainly plenty of aliens, robots and action scenes to see. A few odd cameos (Ethan Hawke, Rutger Hauer, Rihanna as a pole-dancer!?), but it’s really all about Valerian and Laureline trying to save the space station. While not really having anything groundbreaking or revolutionary, ‘Valerian’ has moments of humour, some great action scenes, plenty of colour and is an above average film.

Overall: Enjoyable, fun sci-fi adventure.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Big Sick (August 2017)

Official Australian release date: 3/8/17. Viewed: 12/8/17.

Director: Michael Showalter

Actors: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, Holly Hunter

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

‘The Big Sick’ is a rom-com, but not of the usual formulaic variety, with no clichés, due to it being based on Kumail (Nanjiani, from ‘Silicon Valley’) & Emily (Kazan, from ‘Ruby Sparks’)’s real-life story. Directed by Showalter (‘Wet Hot American Summer’) and produced by Apatow (every comedy from the last 10 years), the film starts as a simple boy-meets-girl story – he’s a stand-up comic in Chicago, she’s studying to become a therapist. They steadily fall in love – it’s nice & unforced.

Because this is a true story and not a fictional “everyone’s happy” tale, Emily gets an infection and has to be put into a coma. Kumail then meets her parents, Terry (Romano) & Beth (Hunter), who are cold at first, as he wouldn’t even tell his traditional Pakistani parents about Emily. The film handles the time at the hospital and dealing with strangers that all care for a common person very well.

There’s plenty of laughs, and heaps of heart, with both the leads being charming and coming across as normal and relatable. The parents are great, with all the actors being in fine form. It’s possibly a tiny bit long, but even though it has some sad moments, it has a good ending and leaves you feeling happy.

Overall: Great comedy about love.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.