HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Last Journey, The Missing Moon Man
Year: 2020
Director: Romain Quirot
Stars: Hugo Becker, Jean Reno, Paul Hamy, Lya Oussadit-Lessert, Philippe Katerine, Bruno Lochet, Emilie Gavois-Khan, Jean-Luc Couchard, Darius Garrivier, Jean-Baptiste Blanc, Sonia Okacha, Franc Bruneau, Anthony Pho, Dorcas Coppin
Genre: Science FictionBuy from Amazon
Rating:  5 (from 1 vote)
Review: It is the future, and a catastrophe is threatening the Earth as the new moon has broken free of its orbit thanks to a series of fuel-bearing, red magnetic fields, and if a string of nuclear blasts are not set off by a spaceship that can be piloted through those fields, then it spells the end of all life on our planet. There is only one man who can rescue the population, and he is the mysterious astronaut Paul W.R. (Hugo Becker), son of the scientist and businessman Henri W.R. (Jean Reno) who has designed the spaceship and the mission he is expected to pilot. However, something has gone wrong at the eleventh hour: Paul has gone missing, and the authorities have been alerted to track him down, wherever he may be...

The Last Journey, or Le Dernier Voyage as it was called in its native France, was yet another genre movie to adopt two themes or premises that were prevalent across the twenty-first century. Those were grief and the end of the world, not two subjects exclusive to one another of course, but becoming very familiar at this stage in the millennium as it seemed any protagonist in a science fiction or horror movie was struggling with some emotional loss to give them a bit of depth. Christopher Nolan had boosted this trend with Interstellar, and it seemed science fiction was rife with anguished characters in need of therapy to get them through losing a family member, friend or pet, something to show the audience, look, this is a thinking, feeling person.

This was little different, applying the Nolan Interstellar style to one of those movies that fantasised about the conclusion of it all for us, a matter that had evidently been pressing on the back of the collective consciousness, only to make itself concrete in our fears in the pop culture we entertained ourselves with. Call it the psychological effects of climate change, or the concerns that there were still enough nuclear warheads on the planet to destroy us all many times over, or a more personal crisis that we worried we may not mentally survive born of social media obsession, well: here was a hero to embody all of that in a compact, just under ninety minutes of screen time. Whether Becker was the star to carry that weight on his shoulders was more debatable, but there was a lot to be said for coasting through the hackneyed tropes and enjoying the CGI assisted scenery.

This was a very good-looking film, mostly set in a desert environment with various bells and whistles of design added for futuristic atmosphere, and reminiscent of the sort of artwork you would customarily get in a French comic book of a science fiction inclination. In fact, it appeared to be more in the thrall of an artist like Moebius than it was any tradition in French film, which did not often resort to this genre, though when it did, it would either be miserabilist or containing imagery that, if you were lucky, you would not have seen very often before. That image of the massive red moon hanging menacingly in the blue sky over the characters was such a potent one that director Romain Quirot returned it to over and over, though he had other tricks up his sleeve: the nifty hovercars, for instance, that look customised from scrapyards, or the final flight into the magnetic fields that naturally evoked 2001: A Space Odyssey, but was a lot more Nolan. If you wanted a second-hand science fiction tale that simply had a great appearance to it, this wasn't going to revolutionise the medium, but it passed the time. Music by Etienne Forget.

[The Last Journey, the Sci-Fi action thriller available on digital and DVD from March 7th 2022.]
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 1395 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Darren Jones
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
Graeme Clark
  Desbris M
   

 

Last Updated: