District 9

Theatrical Release Date: 2009 08 14 (USA)

UPC: 043396292260

Studio: Sony Pictures

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Graphic Violence, Profanity, Gore]

Summary: Director Neill Blomkamp teams with producer Peter Jackson for this tale of extraterrestrial refugees stuck in contemporary South Africa. It's been 28 years since the aliens made first contact, but there was never any attack from the skies, nor any profound technological revelation capable of advancing our society. Instead, the aliens were treated as refugees. They were the last of their kind, and in order to accommodate them, the government of South Africa set up a makeshift home in District 9 as politicians and world leaders debated how to handle the situation. As the humans begin to grow wary of the unwelcome intruders, a private company called Multi-National United (MNU) is assigned the task of controlling the aliens. But MNU is less interested in the aliens' welfare than attempting to understand how their weaponry works. Should they manage to make that breakthrough, they will receive tremendous profits to fund their research. Unfortunately, the highly advanced weaponry requires alien DNA in order to be activated. When MNU field operative Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is exposed to biotechnology that causes his DNA to mutate, the tensions between the aliens and the humans intensifies. Wikus is the key to unlocking the alien's technology, and he quickly becomes the most wanted man on the planet. Ostracized and isolated, Wikus retreats to District 9 in a desperate bid to shake his dogged pursuers. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Category: Science Fiction

Awards: Best Edited Feature - Drama – American Cinema Editors Guild Best Independent Film – National Board of Review Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Producer of the Year – Producers Guild of America Best First Film – Austin Film Critics Most Promising Filmmaker – Chicago Film Critics Association Producer of the Year – Producers Guild of America Best Picture – Austin Film Critics Best Art Direction in a Fantasy Film – Art Directors Guild Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Production Design – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Cinematography – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Production Design – British Academy of Film and Television Arts

Features: Deleted Scenes
Director's Commentary
The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker's Log - Three-Part Documentary
Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus
Innovation: Acting and Improvisation
Conception and Design: Creating the World of District 9
Alien Generation: Visual Effects

District 9

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 12/22/2009

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DHMA null

Runtime: 112 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Jason Buchanan

Every once in a great while -- perhaps only a handful of times each decade -- that rare film comes completely out of left field to let us know that there are still some original ideas out there, and that cinema can still be fresh and exciting. District 9 is just such a film. Perhaps the most original sci-fi feature to come along since the turn of the millennium, it's also one of the very best in recent memory. Compelling, captivating, occasionally hilarious, and refreshingly unpredictable thanks to a smartly structured script that builds impressive momentum, District 9 surprises at every turn while holding a mirror to society in a way that will likely find the film ranking favorably amongst the best of the genre. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise that director Neill Blomkamp's much-touted Halo project ultimately stalled out, because while he may well have been capable of beating the odds and delivering a video game adaptation that wasn't a total disaster, what we get instead is a complex yet compact sci-fi romp that's more than worthy of all the advance buzz. It's the type of potential genre classic that some moviegoers approach cautiously for fear of getting burned by the hype machine, but which ultimately exceeds those tempered, cynical expectations through sheer innovation and solid storytelling. It's been 28 years since an enormous alien spacecraft came to a standstill over the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. After cutting their way into the ship to find a million malnourished extraterrestrials, authorities ushered them down to terra firma and set them up in District 9, a makeshift refugee camp that quickly became a slum, replete with crime, vice, and overcrowding. The locals want the aliens gone, and a private firm called MNU (Multi-National United) has been assigned the task of evicting them to what is, essentially, a concentration camp. Heading up this mission is Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a bumbling bureaucrat who basically serves as a figurehead for MNU -- which is more concerned with harnessing the visitors' highly advanced technology (read: weaponry) than looking out for their well-being. While evicting the aliens (derogatorily referred to as "prawns" due to their resemblance to the oceanic bottom-feeders), Wikus is inadvertently exposed to their biotechnology, prompting a strange metamorphosis that makes him the most wanted man on the planet. Historically, science fiction has been the genre of choice for socially conscious tales that put our struggles into perspective through fantastical storytelling; The Day the Earth Stood Still did it with nuclear weapons, Planet of the Apes did it with race relations, and now District 9 does it with the topic of refugees. These are the kinds of films born of a storyteller's concern for humanity, and because of that, they resonate. Being from South Africa, director/co-writer Blomkamp no doubt grew up with a keen social perception of the refugee's plight (a large portion of the nation's informal population is comprised of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo and other poorer neighboring countries) and the issues that can arise due to xenophobia. So while District 9's setting alone sets it apart from the vast majority of sci-fi films, it's also of crucial importance to understanding the film's not-so-subtle subtext about allowing our fears to govern our humanity. But you don't have to be from South Africa to appreciate the dangers of this; just ask any American whose life was uprooted by Hurricane Katrina or any Afghan whose home was destroyed during the War on Terror. As the world gets smaller, our obligations toward our fellow man grow, but what happens when the system gets strained, and personal preservation supersedes civil rationality? That's when things start to turn ugly, and that's where we find ourselves at the beginning of District 9 -- where the locals just want the refugees gone, and don't particularly care where they're shipped off to. But when these kind of ruminations start to get too heavy, it's the filmmaker's job to dress them up so we're entertained by the story while getting insight into the human condition. As Mary Poppins once sang, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." District 9 does have some pretty potent medicine, but just when things start to get grim, Blomkamp smartly satisfies our sweet tooth by shifting gears to sci-fi action mode with effortless efficiency. We're drawn into District 9's story by its deeply humanitarian message -- delivered with disarming humor and a knowing wink -- and then blown out of our seats by the kind of outrageous, high-tech action that gets movie message boards buzzing with wild speculation. Not only that, but it does so with a stylistic flair that seamlessly fuses the subjective style of cinema made popular by The Blair Witch Project with the kind of traditional narrative that is Hollywood's bread and butter. The faux news footage that opens District 9 plays with our perception, making the improbable not only possible -- as Rod Serling might say -- but entirely believable through convincing state-of-the-art special effects and keen humanistic insight. After that, the thrill lies in discovering where the story goes. And while that aspect of District 9 may be a bit more traditional, Blomkamp and screenwriting partner Terri Tatchell still manage to keep the thrills coming by humanizing the aliens as the stakes get higher. By the end of District 9, we've seen our world irrevocably changed, and have been tantalized by the possibility that the real story is only beginning. In most instances this would feel like a shameless attempt at manufacturing a franchise, but given the situations the characters have been put through and the changes they've endured, it comes off as genuine here. Sure Blomkamp could botch the deal by going all George Lucas and dumbing things down to the point where the magic slips away, but for now it feels safe to say his vision is still uncompromised, and his dedication to simply telling good stories paramount. The energy in the theater following District 9 is likely the same kind of charge that surged through moviegoers after seeing Star Wars for the first time back in 1977. So while only time will tell whether Blomkamp is the radical sci-fi visionary he appears to be, if things don't work out down the road he'll still be considered one hell of a one-hit wonder. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Peter Jackson  Producer 
Carolynne Cunningham  Producer 
Clinton Shorter  Composer (Music Score) 
Neill Blomkamp  Director 
Neill Blomkamp  Screenwriter 
Ken Kamins  Executive Producer 
Bill Block  Executive Producer 
Paul Hanson  Executive Producer 
Elliot Ferwerda  Executive Producer 
Terri Tatchell  Screenwriter 
Sharlto Copley  Actor 
Jason Cope  Actor 
David James  Actor 
Vanessa Haywood  Actor 
Mandla Gaduka  Actor 
Kenneth Nkosi  Actor 
Eugene Khumbanyiwa  Actor 
Louis Minnaar  Actor 
William Allen Young  Actor 
Nathalie Boltt  Actor 
Sylvaine Strike  Actor 
Elizabeth Mkandawie  Actor 
John Sumner  Actor 
Greg Melvill-Smith  Actor 
Nick Blake  Actor 
Jed Brophy  Actor 
Marian Hooman  Actor 
Vittorio Leonardi  Actor 
Johan van Schoor  Actor 
Stella Steenkamp  Actor 
Mampho Brescia  Actor 
Tim Gordon  Actor 
Morne Erasmus  Actor 
Anthony Bishop  Actor 
David Clatworthy  Actor 
Mike Huff  Actor 
Anthony Fridjhon  Actor 
Jason Cope  Actor 
Hlengiwe Madlala  Actor 
Siyabonga Radebe  Actor 
Melt Sieberhagen  Actor 
Andre Odendaal  Actor 
Jonathan Taylor  Actor 
John Ellis  Actor 
Louise Saint Claire  Actor 
Alan Glauber  Actor 
Nicolas Herbstein  Actor 
Norman Anstey  Actor 
Nick Boraine  Actor 
Robert Hobbs  Actor 
Sibulele Gcilitshana  Actor 
Mahendra Raghunath  Actor 
Phillip Mathebula  Actor 

Country: USA