Reviews by Matt

One of the downsides to being someone who spends a lot to time looking at movie news and watching movie trailers is that I have trouble going into a movie blind. I usually know some detail of the movie either from the trailer or from news items I have read about the movie.

It is a rare thing when I can go into a movie and know little more than the basic plot. “District 9” was one of those rare opportunities.

Over 20 years ago an alien ship settled over Johannesburg South Africa. After weeks of no contact or movement, the government sent a team up to the ship to investigate. What they found was a group of aliens who had fled their home planet.

The South African government relocated them to a slum outside the city called District 9. They are treated with disrespect and contempt. They are largely ignored by the government and hated by the people. Years later the government decides to move them to a new home. MNU agent Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is charged with leading the eviction.

“District 9” is stunning in every respect; even more so when you take into account that it was made for $30 million dollars. The effects are incredible and the story is riveting. Sharlto Copley does a great job as the bumbling agent. This is his first big acting job and had no acting aspirations leading up to this role. He is as much of a jerk to the aliens as anyone else is. He refers to them by the racial slur of “prawns” and makes jokes as he and others destroy the eggs of the aliens. It is not until he is sprayed with an alien substance and the resulting consequences that he finds himself on the side of the aliens.

$30 million. That was all it cost to make this. James Camreon’s “Avatar” will come out within the next year and it was made for over $400 million. “District 9” shows that you do not need a lot of money to make a good sci-fi movie. The aliens are really well done and look so real it’s scary.


9 out of 10
Rated R for bloody violence and pervasive language
112 min