0671 – Beirut (2018)

spacetime coordinates: 1972 – 1982  Lebanon

Beirut, also known as The Negotiator (UK), is a 2018 American period political thriller film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Tony Gilroy. Set in 1982 during the Lebanese Civil War, the film stars Jon Hamm as a former U.S. diplomat who returns to service in the titular city of Beirut in order to save a colleague from the group responsible for the death of his family. Rosamund Pike, Dean Norris, Shea Whigham, Larry Pine and Mark Pellegrino also star.

Taglines:   Beirut: 1982 – The Paris of the Middle East Was Burning   imdb

0657 – Mind Game (2004)

Mind Game (マインド・ゲーム) is a 2004 Japanese animated feature film based on Robin Nishi’s manga of the same name. It was planned, produced and primarily animated by Studio 4°C and adapted and directed by Masaaki Yuasa in his directorial debut, with chief animation direction and model sheets by Yūichirō Sueyoshi, art direction by Tōru Hishiyama and groundwork and further animation direction by Masahiko Kubo.

It is unusual among features other than anthology films in using a series of disparate visual styles to tell one continuous story. As Yuasa commented in a Japan Times interview, “Instead of telling it serious and straight, I went for a look that was a bit wild and patchy. I think that Japanese animation fans today don’t necessarily demand something that’s so polished. You can throw different styles at them and they can still usually enjoy it.”

The film received a cult audience and was well received, winning multiple awards worldwide, and has been praised by directors Satoshi Kon and Bill Plympton. Allegedly, according to Tekkonkinkreet director Michael Arias, there was consideration for a release of the film on R1 DVD but it fell through. The film is now available to stream on Netflix in Australia as of 2016. GKIDS announced that they licensed the film, which will be streamed on VRV Select on December 29, 2017 followed by a limited theatrical run in February 2018 and a home video release in spring 2018. (wiki)

imdb

648 – Corbin Nash (2018)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2948160/

0647 – Timecop (1994) / Timecop 1983

spacetime coordinates: 1929 NY / 2004 / 1994 Washington 

Timecop is a 1994 American science fiction action film directed by Peter Hyams and co-written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden. The film is based on Timecop, a story created by Richardson, written by Verheiden, and drawn by Ron Randall, which appeared in the anthology comic Dark Horse Comics, published by Dark Horse Comics.

The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Max Walker, a police officer in 1994 and later a U.S. Federal agent in 2004, when time travel has been made possible. It also stars Ron Silver as a rogue politician and Mia Sara as Melissa Walker, the agent’s wife.

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Timecop1983

0642 – 48 Hrs. (1982)

spacetime coordinates: San Francisco 1982

48 Hrs. is a 1982 American action comedy film directed by Walter Hill.  The film stars Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy (in his film debut and Golden Globe Award-nominated role) as a cop and convict, respectively, who team up to catch two cop-killers, Albert Ganz and Billy Bear, played respectively by James Remar and Sonny Landham.

It is often credited as being the first film in the “buddy cop” genre, which included the subsequent films Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon, and Rush Hour. (wiki)

imdb

623 – Contagion (2011)

Contagion is a 2011 U.S. medical thriller-disaster film directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, and Jennifer Ehle. The plot of Contagion documents the spread of a virus transmitted by fomites, attempts by medical researchers and public health officials to identify and contain the disease, the loss of social order in a pandemic, and finally the introduction of a vaccine to halt its spread. To follow several interacting plot lines, the film makes use of the multi-narrative “hyperlink cinema” style, popularized in several of Soderbergh’s films.

H1N1

Steven Soderbergh was motivated to make an “ultra-realistic” film about the public health and scientific response to a pandemic. The movie touches on a variety of themes, including the factors which drive mass panic and collapse of social order, the scientific process for characterizing and containing a novel pathogen, balancing personal motives against professional responsibilities and rules in the face of an existential threat, the limitations and consequences of public health responses, and the pervasiveness of interpersonal connections which can serve as vectors to spread disease. Soderbergh acknowledged the salience of these post-apocalyptic themes is heightened by reactions to the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. The movie was intended to realistically convey the “intense” and “unnerving” social and scientific reactions to a pandemic. The recent real-life epidemics such as the 2003 SARS epidemic and the 2009 flu pandemic (H1N1) have been inspirations and influences in the film. The chain of contagion involving bats and pigs is reminiscent of the trail of the Nipah virus (which infects cells in the respiratory and nervous systems, the same cells as the virus in the movie) that originated in Malaysia in 1997, which similarly involved the disturbance of a bat colony by deforestation. (read more – themes – wiki)

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Macau

0620 – The Last of Us (2013 Video Game)

spacetime coordinates: 2013, suburbs of Austin, Texas  2033 quarantine zone in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts >  post-pandemic  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania > fortified settlement in Jackson, Wyoming > 2034  Salt Lake City, Utah

The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 worldwide on June 14, 2013. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States.

The game is considered one of the most significant titles of the seventh generation of video games, and has been included among the greatest video games of all time.

The Last Of Us Remastered Walkthrough

The Last of Us Original Soundtrack

Adaptations   Sequel   imdb