Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of May 28, 2018
Annihilation
Rated R for violence, bloody images, language and some sexuality
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%
Available on disc and streaming
This very risky Rated R sci-fi project stars Natalie Portman as a scientist who joins a military mission into a giant alien bubble that has appeared on Earth in order to both discover its contents as well as possibly find her missing husband (Oscar Isaac). Written and directed by Ex Machina auteur Alex Garland, the film is equally as trippy and fantastic as his freshman outing. It’s a beautiful nightmare of a film that will have you both in awe and biting your fingernails with every step forward. It’s a bit weird for some audiences but many will find it refreshingly horrifying. B
Early Man
Rated PG for rude humor and some action
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%
Available on disc and streaming
While theaters are noticeably vacant of good family films, this great little Aardman stop-motion animation pic will at least give you something great to watch at home. Here a group of neanderthals are stripped of their homeland only to find themselves in a soccer match with a more civilized group of humans in order to hopefully win it back. It is a charming, clever and frequently funny adventure that should get you by until some decent family fare hits the big screen again. B+