Oblivion (2013)

Futuristic thriller “Oblivion” is a surprising effort from Tom Cruise and director/writer Joseph Kosinski for all the wrong reasons: It’s a dud film timed for Earth Day. Every scene, fight, character, and reveal is recycled from better films in my DVD collection. 

Cruise is Jack, a memory-wiped repair guy on a wasted 2077 Earth who looks after massive machinery that provides energy for humanity, now stored up on a spaceship and ready to bolt for distant refuge. Jack is alone but for his monotone (and ginger-haired) companion (Andrea Riseborough) who runs his life. A robot in high heels, her.

“Oblivion” is a knock-out artistically, but it’s also -– in case you haven’t been paying attention -– a nonsensical awful reverse of “Moon,” a new-classic sci-fi films. Yes, Jack meets another Jack. Really. Duncan Jones could sue. Also lazily ripped: “2001,” “Star Wars” and “Independence Day,” among others. No moment of this thriller thrills, it rehash future where reveals land like bricks.

When Cruise’s hero inexplicibly (mind wipe!) recalls a football game, I forgot I like him as an actor. Kosinski made “Tron: Legacy,” another great-looking sci-fi epic stuck in the past. Pattern? C

Iron Sky (2012)

“Iron Sky” has the greatest story pitch ever: Nazis from the dark side of the moon attack Earth using flying saucers. How crazy cool is that? Much of this Finnish-German-Austrian B-flick -– special effects, political satire aimed at American bravado and U.N. incompetence -- is hilarious fun, but there’s so much more that falls flat like a bad sci-fi version of “Springtime for Hitler” from “Producers.” Put bluntly, the trailer is better than the movie, the latter fumbled by flat acting and ugly stereotypes, as in all black youth pack Glocks. The gravest error: Great actor Udo Kier (“Suspiria”) plays the Fuhrer II, does nothing but die halfway in, replaced by a C-grade henchman. Why!?! The lead characters are a Nazi schoolmarm with clue zero; a black astronaut turned white by drugs; and a Sarah Palin clone as president who decorates the Oval Office with dead polar bears. Palin jokes were funny in 2009. Never funny: A Nazi scientist made to look like Einstein, a Jew who fled Hitler’s grip. “Sky” thinks its guns are as big as Tarantino’s “Basterds” and “Django” history remixes, but these barrels fire blanks. So much promise wasted. C+

Source Code (2011)

Duncan Jones’ “Source Code” is a wild take on “Strangers on a Train” – except two men don’t meet and conspire, one guy goes inside another’s mind – literally -- to stop a massive Armageddon massacre on a commuter train in Chicago. Jake Gyllenhaal is the soldier who keeps finding himself, “Groundhog Day” style, placed inside the noggin of a school teacher who is now deceased, a victim of a train explosion. The dire mission given to Gyllenhaal’s soldier: Stop the bomber. His handlers are Jeffrey Wright, all wiggly, whacky mad scientist, and Vera Farmiga, all stiff as a month-old pretzel. Will Jake stop the killer? Will he fall in love with the young woman (Michelle Monahan) in the next seat? For 75 minutes of this sci-fi time-travel twister, I was stoked to find out. I loved Jones’ instant-cult-classic “Moon,” and this flick also follows a loner hero. But then just at the climax, the film doesn’t just go off the rails, it commits suicide in a jaw-dropper immolation of Hollywood hokum and nonsense. As the end credits rolled, I sat stunned wondering if Jones really intended to dis teachers so, and if he is a one-hit wonder. A huge let down. C+