District 9

Go see this movie. It's as simple as that. I think this has been the best movie of the summer. Good story? check. Good acting? check. Good action? check. Good effects? check.

Basically it is filled with lesser to unknown actors (you might recognize a few of the people, but probably won't know from where) that do an admirable job. The roles are played brilliantly and maybe more importantly - believably. Much of the movie is shot documentary style (think Cloverfield with 50% less shaky-cam) which sets up the movie nicely. There are interviews with various characters at the beginning of the film, bringing up various questions in your mind which are answered over the next 2 hours or so. If you can take for granted that so many people are able to understand the alien language, everything seems perfectly normal for the premise of the movie.

The action sequences are amazing considering the budget was only around $30 mil if I remember correctly. The prawns (aliens) look great too and they seem to integrate almost flawlessly into the scenes. The fact that the movie is an allegory for apartheid is also very interesting (albeit a little depressing). It would be nice if this movie were able to get some love come award season, though as an action/sci-fi movie that seems unlikely.

Anyway - action and effects - 9/10, story - 10/10, acting/characters - 10/10.

Overall - 10/10. high quality movie - best of the summer IMO.

Binary score - 1/1. (ie. I am very pleased to have spent my time and money to see this movie.)

yeah, after hearing about this on IRC, I was going to ask someone to go see it and give a review. It's been getting awesome reviews from the internets, and hopefully if it's still playing by the time I get back, I'll definitely give it a watch.