Alex Garland

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on May 19th, reviewing “Men,” the latest film from visionary directory Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”), in theaters beginning May 20th.

CHICAGO – Alex Garland, the standout creator/director of “Ex Machina,” is back with “Annihilation,” another science fiction story. And like the previous film, it explores implications of a sci-fi event, in this case an outer space incident that restructures a cellular code, that ends up destructive.

CHICAGO – The title “Ex Machina” is a play on Deus ex machina, the stage/scenario term meaning god from the machine, or the basic happy ending. By cutting out the “Deus” in the phrase, the film is left with just the machine, and the humans.

CHICAGO – Who are we anyway, when as inventors of artificial intelligence, we can create a new wave of thought process? That is what writer – and now director – Alex Garland (“28 Days Later…,” “Sunshine”) has been grappling with his entire career. His directorial debut is the stunning and prescient “Ex Machina.”

CHICAGO – One of the most surprisingly-accomplished and well-executed titles of the season has to be “Enslaved: Odyssey of the West,” a gorgeously-rendered blend of combat, puzzle solving, and climbing that gets a bit repetitive but stays entertaining due to its incredibly high production values and beautiful graphics.