City of Ember

Rating: ****/*****, or 7/10

Underrated, enjoyable post-apocalyptic fantasy family flick. After a devastating world war, mankind retreated underground with the hopes of once returning to the surface. Hundreds of feet below ground, the City of Ember was constructed as a safe house to the last remnants of humanity, its lights kept running by huge machinery. However, after several generations had passed, the descendants of the original survivors forgot about their origin and the world above, while the technology keeping them alive slowly degraded, threatening to leave them in everlasting darkness. Superb child actress Saoirse Ronan (nominated for an Oscar for Atonement) stars as young Linda Mayfleet, a girl driven by curiosity and intelligence who wants to fight off the imminent undoing of her home town and the corruption of Ember's greedy Mayor (Bill Murray once more excels at playing a scumbag) and his sinister henchmen, but is confronted on the one hand by narrow minded doctrine stating Ember is all there is, and on the other by giant men-eating mole creatures (making this movie a tad too scary for younger kids). The film sports a tremendously exciting look, almost making Ember itself a living, breathing entity, but we get to explore this ingeniously crafted world less than we would want in exchange for a fairly typical coming-of-age story about kids fighting the older generation's strict rules that seek to keep them mentally chained, breaking loose in the worn out 'follow your heart' style. Still, the delightful fantasy tones of this oft neglected film make for a pleasant surprise to those who bother to check it out.

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Bill Murray, Toby Jones

Directed by Gil Kenan

USA: Walden Media, 2008

Boy and His Dog, A

Rating: ***/*****, or 7/10

Screwed up post-apocalyptic thriller like only the seventies can provide, based on the novella by Harlan Ellison. After a devastating nuclear war, the planet scape has been reduced to a desolate wasteland where scavenging marauders roam the plains living off the scraps on the past. The young Vic searches the dusty wastes for anything that can help him survive another day (particularly food and sex), accompanied only by his loyal telepathic (!) dog Blood. One day Vic meets Quilla June, a young girl sent to the surface by a secret underground community of survivors. She hooks up with Vic and lures him down to her home so he can provide seed to father a new generation of underground dwellers. This is not done via regular good old-fashioned sex as Vic had hoped, but through electroejaculation which will cause him an agonizing death. Warning! Spoilers! With Blood's help, Vic manages to escape this nightmare with Quilla, who he has developed romantic interests for, but Blood is injured in the process and will need a few weeks rest and food, something Vic can only provide by “sacrificing his love” for Quilla in the most disturbing meaning of the term possible, since 'a boy just loves his dog'. Often accused of blatant misogyny for portraying women as sex objects (and food...) at the mercy of cruel horny men, but I'd say the portrayal of men in this film is far from laudable and so over the top it's hard to take seriously. Shot on a very low budget, the look of this film, with its display of deserted stretches of land filled with rusty cars and random junk inhabited by primitive brigands fighting over what little food and shelter is left, inspired many a post-apocalyptic flick that followed, including the Mad Max movies. However, it remains a little known film outside the realm of die-hard science fiction lovers.

Starring: Don Johnson, Susanne Benton, Jason Robards

Directed by L. Q. Jones

USA: LQ/JAF, 1975