Catching Up on SciFi Movies (Part 6)

Here are my quick takes on the genre-related films I’ve watched in the last several weeks…

1. The Happening (2009) – Suspenseful for about the first 30 minutes, but when it became Plans vs. Humanity it devolved into nonsense.
2. Space Chimps (2008) – If you squint a little, you can find a decent time-passing film about smarter-than-human chimps that overthrow an alien overlord.
3. Resident Evil (2002) – While there’s nothing really new here, it does nicely mix a rogue AI with zombies and mutants, which is always nice.
4. Shorts (2009) – A fun-but-silly movie about a magical rock that grants wishes, and the kids (and adults) that misuse it.
5. Dead Like Me: Life After Death (2009) – Offers some (but not all) much-needed closure to the storylines of the season, but the absence of Mandy Patinkin’s Rube character in this black comedy is a serious blow.
6. 

   A Clockwork Orange (1971) – What starts as a horrific glorification of violence in Act I turns to a thoughtful dissertation on crime and rehabilitation in Act II. The inevitable act III, however, felt more drawn out than it needed to be.