Sunshine (Blu-ray) (2007)

"Beam yourselves aboard Sunshine, set 50 years in the future. The voyage works, beautifully.  Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
"...the most visually audacious and startlingly beautiful space opera since the original "Solaris."  Ken Fox, TV Guide
"Another thinking-person's thriller from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, also co-pilots on "28 Days Later."  Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"A first-rate, seemingly sweat-free entertainer, Mr. Boyle always sells the goods smoothly...  Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
"...near-classic modern science fiction...  Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

Editor's Note Danny Boyle has excelled in nearly every genre he's touched from the family film (MILLIONS) to the zombie movie (28 DAYS LATER) to the drug-fuelled drama (TRAINSPOTTING). With SUNSHINE, he brings his style and verve to the futuristic world of science fiction to great success. In a mere five decades in the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is running out of time. After the failure of a previous mission, it's up to the crew of the Icarus II to reignite the star with a stellar bomb. But the crew faces more than just the blistering heat of the sun and the freezing cold of space as they grapple with the limits of the human mind and heart. As in Boyle's previous work, the visuals in SUNSHINE are stunning. It's a beautifully shot film filled with contrasts, juxtaposing light and dark, sound and silence, and life and death. SUNSHINE resides in the respected realm of smart science fiction films such as 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and SOLARIS. Alex Garland's fine script never dwells on the specifics of the technology, but instead spends its time on the characters. For these roles, Boyle has assembled an excellent cast that includes Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, and Cliff Curtis. Like the classic 2001, SUNSHINE's appeal extends beyond its genre. Though it's packed with special effects and heart-stopping action, it's an intelligent film that should be enjoyed by everyone who loves movies, not just those who like science fiction.

	Chris Evans
	Cillian Murphy
	Michelle Yeoh
	Rose Byrne
	Alex Garland - Writer
	Alwin H. Kuchler - Cinematographer
	Andrew Macdonald - Producer
	Bernard Bellew - Producer
	Chris Gill - Editor
	Danny Boyle - Director
	Gary Freeman, et. al. - Art Director
	John Murphy, et. al. - Original Music By
	Mark Tildesley - Production Designer

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[E]legance permeates nearly every frame, Boyle's honed craft seeping like morning rays through a Venetian blind. The production design is exquisite." 05/01/2007 p.32

Sight and Sound
"Boyle and ace DoP Alwin Kuchler exploit elemental contrasts of darkness and light, heat and cold, with the CGI and model work beautiful but mostly unobtrusive..." 04/01/2007 p.81

Entertainment Weekly
"Boyle and his team ground the story in details chosen for their sophisticated, underplayed authenticity." -- Grade: B 07/27/2007 p.51

New York Times
"[A] spooky and spookily beautiful science-fiction thriller..." 07/20/2007 p.E15

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "[A] film that will leave you wide-eyed, heart racing, on the very edge of your seat." 08/01/2007 p.93

Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "[An] entertaining sci-fi thriller....It's intense, paranoid and bathed in golden glows..." 10/01/2007 p.132

Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "Overall, a surprisingly meditative sci-fi epic." 02/07/2008 p.87

ReelViews 8 of 10
...every once in a long while [in "science fiction"], along comes something like Sunshine that tries to take a step back toward reality. Among Sunshine's credits is a science consultant, and the filmmakers made every effort to follow his suggestions. The result is that, while Sunshine may not feature space battles and ships zipping around at warp speed, it provides a window into what it might really be like traveling around in the solar system in another half-century...Sunshine has a more ethereal look than the average science fiction movie but, considering the subject matter, it works. With the sun in such close proximity, we're treated to a number of shots when bright white bleaches the screen. Other times, there's darkness. The film is in color, but there's a lot of literal black and white. The special effects, while not on the spectacular scale of something like Transformers, are impressive. This is Boyle's third partnership with Garland, and their second consecutive genre effort (following the horror movie 28 Days Later). Hard-core science fiction fans will likely greet Sunshine with a smile. Others may find this to be an odd motion picture, but there's enough going on that even those who are expecting something flashier should still be engaged. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
The movie was written by the sci-fi novelist Alex Garland, whose "28 Days Later" made a scary film, and directed by Danny Boyle, whose work ranges widely, from the world's filthiest toilet (in "Trainspotting") to a young boy who chats with the saints (in "Millions")...The actors (Michelle Yeoh, Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Benedict Wong and Hiroyuki Sanada) are effective by trying not to be too effective; they almost all play professional astronaut/scientists, and not action-movie heroes. The design of the ship itself is convincing; it looks like the inside of a computer used as the bunkhouse at a boys' camp...The special effects in outer space are convincing and remorseless. The drummed-up suspense at the end is not essential, since Boyle and Garland seem more interested in the metaphysics of the voyage; Tarkovsky's "Solaris" demonstrated that if you go all the way with the implications of such a situation, it's more interesting than using plot devices...science-fiction fans will like it, and also brainiacs, and those who sometimes look at the sky and think, man, there's a lot going on up there, and we can't even define precisely what a soliton is. - Roger Ebert