3 underrated sci-fi movies on Freevee to watch in February | Tech Reader

Known as Abre los ojos in its native Spanish language, Open Your Eyes is one of those clever sci-fi movies you might not have heard of but for the fact that Penelope Cruz stars in it. She’s Sofia, a woman who flirts with Cesar (Eduardo Noriega), a man experiencing strange happenings he recalls, while wearing a mask, to a psychiatrist. As it turns out, after being caught with Sofia, his jealous ex-lover tries to kill him and the car accident leaves him horribly disfigured. Since then, the odd happenings have been plaguing him, with one being so violent that he winds up in jail.

Open Your Eyes is wonderfully weird as the story follows Cesar’s attempts to reconcile what’s happening to him with the memories that slowly return, in dream form. The truth about what’s really going on is something you won’t see coming, and the puzzle to try and solve it is more complex than you can possibly imagine. If the plot sounds familiar, that’s because 2001’s Vanilla Sky is a remake of Open Your Eyes. Vanilla Sky stars Tom Cruise while Cruz reprises her role as Sofia. Whether or not you watched Vanilla Sky, Open Your Eyes is a fascinating move that is admittedly weird, but will appeal to those drawn to such films.

It’s the worst-case scenario when a child is given a pet the parents don’t want. Rather than return the baby alligator to its natural habitat, dad decides to flush it down the toilet. Against all odds, however, the baby alligator manages to survive in the sewers by feeding on the carcasses of animals that were discarded from illegal experimentation projects. The goal with those experiments was to increase agricultural livestock meat production. But the result is that the animals became larger than expected and develop a voracious appetite. As you can guess, baby alligator picks up these traits from the remnant animal bones and eventually mutates into an 11-foot monster. Now, the creature is out for blood, devouring anyone who comes near it. As it turns out, Marisa, the young girl who once bought the pet, has grownup to study amphibians and reptiles, and she’s now inextricably tied to the case.

Alligator stars the late Robert Forster (Better Call Saul), Michael V. Gazzo (The Godfather Part II) and Robin Riker as Marisa. Despite the corny storyline, Alligator garnered surprisingly positive reviews. It was praised for being aware of its clichés, but also for being witty and suspenseful. It’s a perfect B-movie when you’re in the mood for one.

The pair (and the robot head) eventually pivot to look for a mythical water basin they believe can replenish them and keep them going on their quest. Everything Beautiful Is Far Away was lauded for its stunning cinematography. It’s a simple, yet endearing independent movie worth checking out.