PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 843

Escape 2120 2020 Based on The Magician's Horses by Brian K Bennett, he also wrote the screenplay and directed. A science fiction time travel movie.

A guy is hired by some scientists to help them with their time travel project. They've built a foil lined box that keeps them in some sort of stasis. The guy's job is to take care of their hiding place. Thing happen, I got bored and I could barely finish the movie.

The script is sloppy and weak, the acting amateurish, the production values are nearly non-existent. I saw it on YouTube and I'm not supplying a link. You shouldn't waste your time.

Alien Intervention 2023 Written by Adam Seidel and directed by Janet Grillo. A science fiction movie about a visiting alien.

A woman lives in a rundown motel with her husband and elderly mother. She'd like to turn it into an artist colony. Her parents ran the place for years. Twenty five years previous she meet an alien in the nearby desert. The alien gave her a blue rock before he got arrested by the government. He told her to keep it safe. He'd be back. He shows up in the present day to retrieve the blue rock so he can catch a storm to his home planet. The alien leaves her a big briefcase filled with cash. I'd like to meet that benevolent alien. It's a bit better than the previous but still below average. I wouldn't need to watch it again.

Science Fiction Sunday 839

Bolt From The Blue 2023 Written and directed by Jack Martin. This is Jack's first feature film, he'd directed a few shorts. He worked on a few films in other capacities, he was a PA on Godzilla VS Kong. I found the film on YouTube at one of those channels that chop the credits off the film and re-title the movie to hide the real title from the real owners. I find that rather sleazy in general.

Matt Walsh plays a crooked scummy business type called Micheal, his company works on various alternate forms of energy, he's always looking for government money to fund projects. Amy's proposal is passed over for a similar project from Danny. The company's gotten letters from a guy in Alaska and Micheal thinks there might be something there he could use. He sends Mia to Alaska to steal what she can. Matt doesn't like her, he loves his favorite employee Danny, Mia goes because she's weak and tired.

The guy in Alaska is Lucas Fletcher, he's the son of a couple of who were lightning catchers. They were trying to harness the power of lightning strikes. They disappeared in a big lightning storm 25 years ago. Lucas grew up hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, all the people on the whole island on thinks Lucas is a crazy person. He lives with his aunt Amy, she thinks he's crazy too. He's is a crazy person, totally lost in this catching lightning project. I found him very annoying. The movie is written so he's the hero and that makes the story rather weak. Most of the characters are dopey and poorly developed. 

I could hardly get to the end. FF saved me. The movie looks nice, they have nice locations and decent production values. I gave it a 3 on the IMDb, the story pulls it down for me. Not something I would watch again, same with the next movie.

TwoTwo 2023 Written and directed by Jun Hoskulds. This is her second feature, she directed The Sublet in 2008 and a short a couple years before that.

I'm not sure what the movie is about, there's so little explanation about what's going on. Mostly it's random scenes with characters interacting with other characters but doing very little to flesh out the story. I gave up on it pretty quickly and sped up the movie to get to the end faster. Nothing much explained there either and an enigmatic ending. Very much a waste of my time. Not going to watch it again. 

Science Fiction Sunday 837

The Veil 2023 Written and directed by Cameron Beyl. It's called SF on the YouTube page for the movie. It's not, it's some sort of redemption fantasy. The YouTube page also lists the movie as being released in 2024.

A retired priest lives alone. During his dinner the sky fills with green aurora borealis lights and his power goes out. He has a memory of another dark night when an Amish woman stepped out in front of his car. She asks for a ride but he gets scared by some flash of darkness from her eyes. He leaves her and drives off. He's been bothered by that for 40 years.

He hears noises outside and goes out to take a look. He finds an Amish woman outside, she's got a hurt foot. He invites her in and bandages her foot. Her name is Hannah and she would like to use the phone. He has no land line and his cell phone is dead. He offers to drive her too the doctors in the morning. He offers her a bed and goes to his room. Magically he's transported back 40 years and he discovers the woman he didn't help was Hannah. He helps her this time and takes her to the doctor. The green lights disappear and the movie is over.

It's rather pedestrian and cliched. It's good that it's only 70 mins long. Lucky for me YouTube has a 1.5 speed, there's nothing there to spend 70 mins on. I wouldn't watch it again that's for sure. 

The Book 2010 Written and directed by Richard Weiss under the symbol ∅. An SF film about a future society and their special book.

This is Richard's only film. Not surprising. The only thing interesting in it to me was when he'd filmed some scenes outside the Marin County Courthouse by Frank Lloyd Wright. It's design lends itself to SF but it does little to elevate this way below average film.

It's a jumble of images and noise. Not something I liked and not something I'd recommend to anyone. The movie only has 10 votes on the IMDb. Eight votes are a 6 or above, 2 votes are a 1. I added my 1 for the 11th vote. There are no reviews in 15 years. Not surprising. Lucky for me I'll forget it soon enough.

Science Fiction Sunday 834

2033 2009 Screenplay by Jordi Mariscal and directed by Francisco Laresgotti. A Mexican SF film. Touted as the first of a trilogy but there's been no sign of the other two. I found it on YouTube.

In 2033 Mexico has a totalitarian government that drugs the citizens to make them more controllable. There's a resistance movement that works to overthrow the government and free the people from their chemical slavery. We mostly follow Pablo, the son of a powerful man in the government. He's a creep who finds out his real dad is a prisoner of the government. He flips and helps fight the government.

It's a decently made picture that's not quite up to average story wise. Lots of cliched characters and scenes. It kept my interest for a while but it waned in the second act. It's got some nice camera work showing off architecture and scenery. I wouldn't bother to watch it again.

Jack's Apocalypse 2015 Written by Jonathan Ray Case, Bradley Montesi and Will James Moore, directed by Will James Moore.

Jack is a ex-politician with a taste for booze and drugs, his addiction drove his family away. Jack's brother is in the Army, he meets with Jack and asks him to pick up his wife and daughter and get out of town. The family have a cabin in the country by a lake, on the way to pick up his brother's family he stops in and buys a kilo of some white powder.

Soon after leaving town there's some attacks on the power grid and the water supply. The wife's purse is stolen at a gas station and it contains the daughter's insulin. Jack leaves his wife a message to get to some place safe but he doesn't make any attempt to pick them up and take them to safety. Jack's a pretty big jackass. Especially after a nuke falls on the city. Jack collects a few old friends and invites them to the lake house. Trouble comes and they have to fight for survival.

It gets pretty bad for Jack, he's murdered by a bad guy and his life flashes before his eyes, then he wakes up from his dream. Sad, huh. It's one of my least favorite plot devices. I wouldn't need to watch this one again. Another from YouTube.

The Gorge 2025 Written by Zack Dean and directed by Scott Derrickson. Released on AppleTV+ on 2-14-25. An SF movie starring Sigourney Weaver, Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.

Levi is an ex-military sniper who's asked to take a year long mission guarding a gorge in an undisclosed location. His new home is a huge, heavily-armed tower overlooking a fortified gorge, opposite is another huge, heavily-armed tower with it's own occupant. The previous occupant of Levi's new home fills him in on the situation. There's to be no contact between the two occupants. There's no contact with the rest of the world other than a once a month check in with the company. The gorge has high tech stealth towers that mask it from satellites. 

The gorge is filled with something dangerous and Levi needs to keep it from escaping. It's been there since the 1940s. The original lab was run by Western and Eastern governments, something happened and the gorge became contaminated. Creatures mutated and were highly contagious. They built the towers to keep the humanoid creatures from escaping.

A biotech company controls the program to protect the gorge, they are developing a super soldier that can survive longer in the battlefield. They are a bunch of ruthless pricks. The previous guard makes his rendezvous with the pick up chopper. The rope pulls him up, the man in the door gets his ID, then shoots him dead, a quick cut and the body drops into a lake. Nice retirement plan, huh.

Levi watches the woman and in a few months she makes contact with Levi. He learns her name is Drasa. Levi figures out how to get across the gorge and they hang out for the day. On the way back Levi falls into the gorge, Drasa goes after him. She finds him and they find the lab that had been created during WW2. They learn about the project from a handy film. Lucky for them the lab still has power. The couple learn that the creatures have mutated and intermingled with plants, insects and animals. Levi and Drasa have to battle the vicious mutants and try to escape.

The company sees something is up and decides to kill the tower guards. Unbeknownst to them Levi and Drasa have activated the fail safe device that will nuke the valley, just in time to kill the baddies as they ride in on their helicopter. Drasa escapes but can't find Levi. Don't worry he'll turn up in the epilogue.

It's a decent looking film, the location is cool, the CGI is well done. Much of the film was shot in Wales. The scenery in the gorge is heavily augmented with CGI. There's plenty of gun battles and explosions. It's way too much like a video game. The main premise of the gorge and how things are run is dumb. It makes so sense to run things with so few people. Ruthless companies running secret projects is one of my least favorite plot points. 

I still mostly enjoyed the movie but thought it way to long at 127 mins. I might watch it again someday but unlikely. If it comes out on Blu-ray I wouldn't see myself buying a copy. There's so many more interesting pictures to buy, ones I haven't seen yet.

Science Fiction Sunday 831

The Broken Key 2017 Written, produced and directed by Louis Nero. Louis also did the cinematography and editing. An Italian SF film that hired a few older actors.

A tedious confusing bit of junk not worthy of my time. The damn thing is 125 minutes long. Even at 1.5 speed the story is excruciating. It gets a 2.4 on the IMDb where 35% of the votes are a 1, I joined that crowd. I won't even put a link up for the movie.

Day Of The Clones 2024 Written and directed by Eric Steele. A British SF film about the days after a clone rebellion.

We follow the couple that created the clones as they try to survive in collapsed Britain. They've hold up in a farm. They only leave their farm to find food. The clones kill humans. The couple have a loyal clone to help them. Stupidly they let a younger couple stay with them. That doesn't last long and the young couple leave only to get caught by the clones. They grass the older couple out and give up the location of the farm. The clones murder the young couple. Well played clones.

It's rather tedious, the script is poor, the production low budget and the score annoying. It's bit better than the first film so I gave it a 2. Not something I would want to watch again. I wouldn't even bother downloading a free copy.

Friday Night Movies 1027

Alienoid: Return To The Future 2024 Written and directed by Choi Dong-hoon. A Koreaan SF film that is a sequel to Alienoid. 

Pretty much picks up where the last one left off. The aliens have plans to kill off the human race with poison in the present. A group of humans and robots fight to stop that. It jumps around from the present to the past. It's packed with plenty of battles, there's lots of sword fights, explosions, gun fights, noise, leaping about and death. They do save the world.

It was entertaining. I might be interested in watching the pair of movies again but I've no plans to buy the Blu-rays.

The Hitman's Bodyguard 2017 Written by Tom O'Connor and directed by Patrick Hughes. We'd watched the movie back in December 2018, FNM 715.

Ryan Reynold's has to protect Samuel L Jackson from a Belarusian dictator who's on trail at the International Criminal Court. Samuel is the witness who could put him away. It's packed with action, noise, gun fights and plenty of chases.

I enjoyed it all over again. There's a plan to watch the sequel soon.

Science Fiction Sunday 826

Metamorphosis 2022 Directed by Liangyan Chen. The film and the IMDb list no writer. An Asian dinochomp film that's mostly people running in corridors.

A scientist has created a T-rex that can turn invisible. It gets out when the cleaning lady opens the cage to clean up the meat blobs on the floor. The beasty pops into view and gobbles her up right quick. Given free range of the lab the T-Rex starts chomping on the other scientists. People run around yelling and trying to escape.

Besides the T-Rex there are two giant snakes to run away from. Hardly anyone survives but it's not overly gorey. It's like a PG rated film, maybe it was made for TV. It scores 4.8 on the IMDb. I gave it a 3 because of the giant snakes. They were entertaining. The story on it's own would get a 2 from me.

Danger! Danger! 2021 Written and directed by Lexie Findarlee Trivundza and Nick Trivundza. A time travel movie with too little time travel and too much blather.

A guy parachutes onto a tiny island near Africa. He hopes to find a time machine in a temple. Trouble is there are Nazis there looking for the same device. He gets shot by the Nazis and rescued by a couple of Americans. He manages to find the machine and the movie ends like it's part one.

It scores a surprising 2.8 on the IMDb, I gave it a 3 but only because of all the nice location shooting at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. I love that place, I don't care for the movie that much. I'm not going to watch it again, that's for sure. This one was on free with membership on Amazon Prime.

Science Fiction Sunday 824

Meteor 2021 Written and directed by Brett Bentman. A disaster movie that's set 10 years in the future.

The story takes place 10 years after the meteors crashed into the Earth and knocked it on it's ass. There seems to be some level of civilization left but many millions were killed. It's only 84 mins so there is little time to spend on detail, especially since they've wasted the first 15 mins on personal development. We meet a guy who lives on a ranch and he spends more than 10 mins pining for his recently deceased wife. There's no dialog for about 15 mins.

The rich live on isolated islands and harvest the peasants for lunch. A trio of villains track a young woman to a ranch house. She's on someone's menu and the baddies don't plan to stop. The rancher befriends the young woman and helps her escape. He doesn't fair so well, he's too careless. It ends with the woman connecting up with someone who could be help, or he could be a harvester. Who knows. Who cares. I was less interested by the end of the movie.

It's way below average and it barely scrapes by on the SF label. The script is cliche ridden and the dialog poor. The villain is rather embarrassing. I didn't care much for the ending.

It's IMDb score is a 3.0 and 34.8% of it's total votes are a 1. The comments are filled with haters warning people away. There's some good CGI of the meteor destruction footage in the news flashbacks, there are decent flooding effects and and the film is competently made, it's just not quite enough for me to give it more than a 2.

Astro 2018 Written by Asif Akbar and Bernard Selling, directed by Asif Akbar. An SF movie about a secret space travel operation run by a billionaire.

One of the company's robot controlled spaceships has crossed over to another dimension and brought back a living alien. The alien's DNA is the same as that of an Earth guy the billionaire knows. Odd. The billionaire strong arms the DNA having guy into coming with him, he'll have his robots soldiers kill the man's daughter if he doesn't. That billionaire guy is a real prick. He wants to send the DNA having guy into the other dimension. The movie goes on for a bit and abruptly ends with the story unfinished. I think that a lot of people were annoyed by that, I was, I don't read anything about a sequel.

Script and dialog were sub par and cliched. Many of the actors were amateurs who didn't help much. They were supplemented by some experienced actors, Louis Mandylor, Dominique Swain and Michael Paré, sadly, they couldn't do much for the script. At least they get a paycheck. Hopefully. There's some decent CGI but it's not enough to help overlook it's deficiencies.

This movie scores a 2.2 on the IMDb, not surprising since I've just sat through it. I went with the 45.4% that gave it a 1. There were 59 people, 9.59%, that gave the movie a 10. Are they 100% paid? Who knows?

Both of these are on YouTube, but don't waste your time. No matter how young you are, there's just not enough time left for you to waste it on these films.

Science Fiction Sunday 823

Andromeda 2022 Written and directed by Brett Bentman.

An SF movie of dubious quality, the script is poor, the acting challenging, the science dubious and the plot embarrassing. Now that I've seen it I wouldn't need to see it again. Wish I hadn't seen it in the first place.

Solar Crisis 1990 Based on Crisis 2050 by Takeshi Kawata, screenplay by Joe Gannon and Tedi Sarafian (under the name Crispan Bolt), directed by Richard C Sarafian (under the name Alan Smithee). Alan Smithee is the name people use who aren't happy with their own name on a film.

Astronauts have to fly to the moon and nuke a solar flare from destroying the Earth. It's a bit below average and filled with cliches. I saw it once in 1993, I won't need to see it any more.

Science Fiction Sunday 820

Aliens: Dark Descent 2024 Written by Matthew Ward and directed by Jason Baughan and Rob Rowe. The film itself has no listed credits. An animated film based on a video game. I found it on YouTube.

A group of marines wind up on a planet where they get attacked by aliens. There's plenty of fights and the humans get picked off one by one. A few of them escape at the end.

It's was about average. I didn't find it that exciting, way too much blather among the characters. I wouldn't need to see it again. I'll stick with the live action movies.

Offworld: Alien Planet 2024 Written by Terry Cooper and Chris Lynch, directed by Terry Cooper. A UK film that was filmed in Wales. It cost about £10,000 because most every body worked on it for free.

A space ship crashes on a planet and the people try to survive. They struggle with the fauna and one by one the people get picked off, only to find themselves stranded on the wrong planet.

It's pretty much below average. A lot of talking and wandering about make the movie a bit tedious. I wouldn't need to see it again.