In Deepest Space, 'Sunshine' Offers Rays of Hope

Chris Evans, front, and Cillian Murphy in "Sunshine." (By Alex Bailey -- Fox Searchlight Pictures)

There are few things more nail-chewingly satisfying than an uber-cool space crew movie. You know the classics: Stanley Kubrick's 1968 "2001: A Space Odyssey," and 1979's "Alien." In these two films -- and frankly, there are precious few others -- you get a full picture of the humanity on board, the society they come from and, most important, a rocking good suspense drama. (Let's not even waste space, so to speak, on turkeys such as "Red Planet" and "Mission to Mars," which made great unintentional comedies at best.)

- Which is why I am turning gravity-free somersaults in anticipation of Danny Boyle's "Sunshine." An alternative approach to the genre! The maker of "Trainspotting" turning his talents to a space movie! Scottish-accented cursing in the outer galaxy! Well, maybe not. But there's a great premise -- a crew of eight men and women (including Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh) sent out to trigger a device to save the dying sun. And the staples of the genre will, no doubt, follow: a loss of radio contact with Earth; the drifting ghost ship in which a previous crew tried a similar mission and failed; and everyone will come to terms with the great Out There and the escalating problems In Here. Don't let me down, Dan-O.

- There's that look in people's eyes -- 99.9 percent of them female -- when they say, "I loooove Johnny Depp," and it becomes even worse as they look at you for affirmation as they add, "and wasn't he sooooo funny in 'Pirates of the Caribbean'?"

Yeah, I know. He is adorable, cute and funny. But can we go easy on the campaign for sainthood, folks? The first "Pirates" was fine. But the second, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" was just horrible -- a string of gags designed to satiate Depp groupies and filch their disposable Saturday night income. And now -- cue the harr-harr pirate laughter -- we have the upcoming "Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End" to look forward to. Or is that "At Wit's End"? And now our shameless sequel-meisters are going to vanilla-ize Rolling Stone Keith Richards (Depp's inspiration for his character), in a cameo and Chow Yun Fat, hip action star of all those 1980s John Woo gangster films, uh, before Woo turned Hollywood. Oh don't get me started.