Ex_Machina 2015 : Code writer, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) enters and wins a contest sponsored by his company's founder Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Nathan who wrote software that revolutionized the Internet at age 13 is an eccentric billionaire who's walled himself inside of a high tech fortress far away from civilization. Caleb has no idea what to expect from the meeting but upon his arrival learns that he will serve as a test subject to interact with advanced artificial intelligence. The A.I.'s name is Ava who is beautifully realized by actress Alicia Vikander and computer generated effects. The films asks important questions about human nature, sentience and technology that could conceivably exist in the near future. Couple that with great acting, beautifully shot locations and you're left with one of the better films in the genre and possibly of the year. Many current science fiction films are following the model of the new age "blockbusters" with elaborate action sequences and overblown special effects. Ex_Machina plays out deliberately and doesn't preach to the viewer allowing the three leads to play out their story without being jarred by rayguns and explosions. It's reminiscent of the tales told by Issac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. I couldn't help being reminded of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone or Charlie Brooker's excellent Black Mirror series (which Gleeson appears in) that warns of what could happen in a very near future. Unlike Chappie (released in March of 2015), a film that introduced intriguing concepts but was trampled by mass marketing and broke under the weight of including too many plots, Ex_Machina stays on target and asks can a machine ever become sentient and if it becomes what we consider a "human being", does it learn to inact the good or terrible things that we do to each other?Final Rating: 4 out of 4 stars.

Aloha 2015: Aloha tells the story of Brad Gilcrest, a celebrated former military pilot turned contractor who returns to Hawaii, the place he achieved the greatest accolades of his military career. Now employed by Carson Welch (Bill Murray), Brad is on a ceremonial mission to gain favor of Hawaiian elders to launch Welch's satellite into space. He is assigned a military liaison named Allison Ng (Emma Stone) who is of Hawaiian decent to help along with this task. During his stay Brad also runs into his former lover Tracey Woodside (Rachel McAdams) and her husband "Woody" Woodside (John Krasinski). Brad finds himself caught between his job, regret and potentially a new path for love and happiness. I always enjoyed Cameron Crowe's ability to write such amazing characters - many of who are deemed special by the perceptions and standards of the American public and and then strip them down to being relatable to everyone. Unfortunately, he's trying to balance messages of the woes of businessmen buying themselves into the military and breaks away to shots that try to loosely tie Hawaiian culture into the themes of his story, both of which are extremely flimsy. I have zero problems with that subject matter but it took away from the core of what Cameron Crowe is known for - the interpersonal relationships of people. I think his subplots should have been left to a political thriller that he could have explored with a full film instead of short changing the characters that I was ready to like as much as the actors that portrayed them. With lesser actors this film could have turned out to be a far huger mess than the final product. FINAL REVIEW: 2.5 out of 4 Stars