Sunshine Review Country : USA Year: 2007 Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Format: Cinema Running Time: 109 minutes Distributor: Twentieth Century-Fox Fifty years into the future, a spaceship with a crew of eight is Earth's last hope to save our dying sun, but deep in space the mission begins to unravel.... Credits Directed by Danny Boyle. Written by Alex Garland. Starring Michelle Yeoh, Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Troy Garrity, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis and Benedict Wong. Sunshine is the latest entry into the sci-fi/horror sub-genre of movies about weird stuff happening in deep space. With its ominous-looking visual design and its setting on a spaceship heading on a collision course with the Sun itself, it aspires to be a claustrophobic piece of isolation and fear in the tradition of Alien. As the film begins, we learn that in the not too distant future, the Icarus 2 is on a mission to re-ignite the Sun. This is the second mission to attempt this, but the Icarus 1 disappeared some years before. As they pass Mercury, the find the Icarus 1 in orbit and decide to alter course to investigate. While they find everyone on board dead, or so they believe, an accident results in the Icarus 2 having barely enough fuel to reach the Sun, let alone return to Earth. This mix of science fiction and supernatural horror is on tenuous ground from the beginning. Science fiction normally lends itself to strange and fantastic events that are nevertheless explainable, at least according to some sort of movie pseudoscience. In any case, this concept is handled consistently by the filmmakers. The scares and tension are quite effective; and at times, the film is genuinely scary. Director Danny Boyle manages to conjure up some claustrophobia and dread with the movie's remote setting, and this setup invests a certain chill into a series of gruesome confrontations that otherwise might have been merely disgusting. Something pretty frightening is happening in this movie, though it's anyone's guess as to exactly what. Until the end, when the almost predictable 'twist' is revealed and carries the film to a "draw your own conclusions" finale. Sunshine gets a passing grade as a horror flick, but also will impress fans of the sci-fi genre: the plot is a original, and the scares don't rely too heavily on shock and gore. The isolated outer space setting and the ambitious, extravagantly creepy design of the ship's interior are also very noteworthy about this film. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland once again prove they are a great team, and I honestly can't wait for what they bring us next. MORE INFO DISCUSS ON OUR FORUMS Review by John Gray, for Pitofhorror.com