Movie Review: Sunshine

My next stop at Mockinbird Station, was the Angelika to see Sunshine. This is a movie I wanted to see at the beginning of The Summer of Steve but it fell through the cracks of my life when I went to Jersey and came back and was sick for two weeks. So, while looking for where The King of Kong was showing (to be reviewed Friday) I was delighted to see that Sunshine was still showing.

Sunshine tries to be a better, smarter Armageddon or The Core. Basic plot -- a group of scientists/astronauts race to save the world as they get picked off one by one. In Sunshine, the sun is dimming and our group of heroes must race to the sun and deliver a package that will jump start it.

One of the nice things about Sunshine is that it starts in mid story. One expedition has already been sent, and failed. And we pick up this second expedition midway to the sun. And then we get little moments of the characters' lives as they plummet to sun to their likely demise.

Then, as they're whipping around Mercury, they find the first expedition and decide to go to it. Of course this causes bad things to happen and people start dying. Up to this point the movie was smart and interestingly played with the concepts of long voyage isolation. The plot is largely grounded in science. And then, inexplicably, the movie turns into an Alien-like monster movie. I guess the writers couldn't think of a better way to add drama to the last act. Will our heroes jump start the sun?? Well, we can't just have them do it. We need something for them to overcome. I know! A monster!

While the scenes of the sun are beautiful, I would not describe this as an FX extravaganza. The effects are seemless and, for the most part don't jump up and down out you like some movies about stars and wars.

I really wanted to like this movie and was until about the last 30 minutes.

• 0 breast
• 1 beast
• explosive decompression fu
• drill to the sternum fu

King Wally says check it out.

B for the first 90 minutes.

D for the last 30.