PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 810

Project Gemini 2022 Written by Natalia Lebedeva and Dmitry Zhigalov, directed by Serik Beyseu. A Russian SF film that was filmed in 2016 but not released until 2022.

The Earth is dying and the humans have sent a ship to another planet to terraform it for colonists. The human's are using alien tech that they found in a cave on Earth. The alien tech jumps the ship to another planet. Trouble is, it's not the planet they planned to terraform. They set up the device anyway and it starts terraforming the place. Trouble is, the settings are wrong for humans. There's a lot of tension in the crew while they try to figure out what's going on and what to do. On top of that a strange energy beast has popped out of the alien device. People start dying and things get pretty hectic for a while. It's got a bit of a positive ending.

It a good looking film, the space ship and effects are decent. The story is where it goes off for me. How easily the human's were fooled by the alien tech. The script has the crew make irrational choices when things go wrong. They turn on each other every quickly. Oh, well, wish it was better but it saves me from bothering with it again.

Aniara 2018 Based on the poem Aniara by Harry Martinson, screenplay and direction by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja. A Swedish and Danish production.

A spaceship transporting Earthlings to Mars launches from the Moon's orbit. The ship is the Aniara, before it travels too far it has a  collision with some space junk. That causes the Captain to dump the damaged nuclear reactor. They're stuck in space with no way to return home on their own. The Captain says there's a chance they can slingshot around some large body and be rescued when they get to Mars. They've got power from the backup supply and the food machine will make food for years and years.

A time goes by there's no slingshot and things are getting tough for the hundreds of passengers. The main character runs a room where an AI with brain probing powers helps keep the human's from going mad. The demand is high and the poor AI blows itself up. The death count rises as the months pass. Cults form and things get worse and worse. It doesn't end well for the people but it was nice to see that the ship was still traveling through space nearly 6 million years in the future. That's reliable.

It was keeping my interest to the end but I don't think I'll bother with it again. It's rather dire and depressing.

Friday Night Movies 1009

The Primevals 2023 Story by David Allen, screenplay by David Allen and Randall William Cook, directed David Allen.

A yeti is killed during an avalanche in Nepal, scientists travel there to search for more yeti's. They find the hidden homeland of the yeti and have an adventure with prehistoric animals, hominids and an alien race.

It's an unusual movie, most of the footage was shot by David Allen in 1994 but it was never finished. Full Moon Pictures had financial troubles when they split from Paramount Home Video and the movie never got finished. Allen died in 1999. Charles Band had the movie finished and released last year. You can read a more detailed on the Wikipedia.

It looks fairly good and I enjoyed the movie. It's a fairly decent but simple story packed with a good bit of stop motion animation.The cast is of mixed ability but most of them do a serviceable job. I liked it enough to watch it over again sometime.

Cosmic Journey 1936 Written by Aleksandr Filimonov and Konstantin Tsiokovsky, directed by Vasili Zhuravlov. A Russian silent film about a trip to the moon in 1946.

Professor Sedikh leads a team of scientists to the moon. They have adventures exploring the moon, with some jeopardy, and return to Russia. The film has nice looking sets and effects. There's even some stop motion animation of the scientists leaping about the lunar surface. That animation was something that caused the censors to pull the film. It was thought: the stop-motion animated sequences of cosmonauts hopping across the low-gravity lunar surface were antithetical to the spirit of social realism. It was not widely seen again until the 1980s.

I found it entertaining but a bit slow at times. I liked the miniature and full size sets. It's got a good bit of rather decent space travel and lunar activity. Despite the lack of social realism I enjoyed the stop motion astronauts bouncing around the lunar surface. You can see if you might like it by clicking on the title above. I'll want to watch it again but I don't think I'd need to buy the Blu-ray.

Science Fiction Sunday 808

Midnight Movie Massacre 1988 Written by Roger Branit, John Chadwell and David Houston, directed by Laurence Jacobs and Mark Shock. Filmed in 1984, released in 1988. It's also known as Attack From Mars. Don't be fooled.

The movie is set in the 1950s, people are watching a movie at a theater when an alien invasion happens. Exciting, huh. Not in the hands of these film makers. The film is poorly shot, written and acted. I couldn't think of anything good about it so I'll just say: Stay Away! Don't waste your time. I watched a poor copy on YouTube, I wouldn't bother posting a link.

Monolith 2022 Written by Lucy Campbell and directed by Matt Vesely. An Australian bottle movie set in a living room of a podcaster. I watched this on Amazon Prime.

Lily Sullivan plays a disgraced reporter who's turned to podcasting. She finds out about a conspiracy that is connected to her and her family. The whole movie takes place in her house with phone conversations and a few slight flashbacks. Lily was alright, she handled being the only actor on screen. The story was less than interesting to me. The Wikipedia says it's a science-fiction thriller but it certainly lacks the thriller part. Give it a miss. I should have.

Science Fiction Sunday 806

Dark Asset 2023 Written by Michael Winnick and Terri Fraley-Teruel, directed by Michael Winnick.

A company's secret project creates augmented humans for spy programs. Robert Patrick is the chips creator. He's ruthless and so is his staff. The guy in the upper right on the poster is the newest of the augmented agents.  After he's activated he goes rogue and escapes. He meets a woman in a bar and tells her about the project and what happened to the augmented folk. Some of the story is told in flashbacks. There's plenty of fighting and murder.

It's watchable and looks fairly decent. I thought the story was below average and gave it a 4 on the IMDb. Of course, I'm thinking the secret program plot is a tired one. I enjoyed some of it but it's not going to be something I would rewatch.

Final Voyage 2019 Written and directed by Marcel Barion. A German film that was estimated to cost €20,000. It looks fairly decent for that money.

Two men escape prison on a  dusty wind blown planet. They escape the planet in an old spaceship and pick a preprogrammed route to take them to another planet. Most of the movie takes place in a claustrophobic space ship, there's hardly any light and the men are grimy and sweaty. They barely talk and there's hardly anything going on. It goes on a long time and I was getting tired of them. 

Eventually they come to a planet which doesn't look very inviting. One guy goes to see what's up and disappears. The other guy sets the ship for another destination and heads off into space. The movie ends there.

I thought it was watchable but not that enjoyable. I learned that sometimes prison is a fine place to live. Not something I would watch again. Just too long and slow. Both of these are on Amazon Prime right now.

Science Fiction Sunday 805

Jurassic Triangle 2024 Written by Harry Boxley and directed by Victor De Almeida. There's nothing in the movie that is as good as that poster. The CGI is especially low budget and awkward.

A portal to another dimension appears in the sky. A helicopter full of people passes through it and winds up somewhere else. It's a place with dinosaurs, some based on real dinos, some imaginary bitey scuttley things. Everyone gets killed because the pilot was trying to find his daughter, she was a previous victim of the portal. They find her long dead body just before the movie ends so it was all for nothing. That's what I feel about the movie, it's all for nothing. Lucky for me my failing memory will wipe it from my noggin. I recommend staying away, it might linger in your memory and you'd only have yourself to blame.

The Loch Ness Horror 2023 Written and directed by Tyler-James. Another poster filled with lies. Nothing in the movie looks that good.

Just about everything about this movie is poor, the script, the dialog, the actors, plot devices. You name it's bad, except for the ship. It looks a real ship. The unrealistic bit about the ship is that 3 or 4 people are going to run it along with a few scientists. As the movie starts a submarine is attacked and goes off line without us knowing for sure what happened. A corporate type sends 4 people to take a big ship out to sea with a handful of other characters like a medic and a guy who runs the submersible.

The crew turn out to be gun toting psychos that have been secretly told to kill the beast. It's such a cliche move it's embarrassing. It continues in that same vein to the Gorgo like ending of the movie. Nothing original, nothing to elevate the film, nothing to make me more entertained than the slight amount I get from complaining. Another one I should have given a miss.

The Black Demon 2023 Story by Carlos Cisco, screenplay by Boise Esquerra, direction by Adrian Grünberg. The movie is set in Mexico but it was filmed in the Dominican Republic.

A man and his family are on a vacation trip in Mexico, the man is an inspector for an oil company. He's a bad man, falsifying records of poor working conditions and bad safety habits, the company gives him lots of money to cover stuff up. He's got to take an afternoon out of his vacation to inspect an offshore well just a short way from the town.

They find the town nearly empty and everyone is hostile to them. He goes out the ship and the family stay in the town. Things continue to go downhill as the man finds out there's a giant megalodon attacking the well. The townie's pick on the family and chase them to the shore. A man takes them out to the boat, he leaves them and runs, the shark eats him a short way from the well. Ha ha.

The man discovers he's being set up for poor practices by the company, they've set a bomb to go off while he's there, he uses it to destroy the shark, sacrificing himself to save the others.

Another cliche ridden film. The acting was better than the script. The CGI was at the lower end of acceptable. I enjoyed it more than the previous two but I wouldn't need to see it again.

All three of these were in the free section of Amazon Prime. I'm not including links, can't be arsed, you shouldn't watch these anyway.

Friday Night Movies 1002

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny 2023 Screenplay by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp and James Mangold, directed by James Mangold.

The movie opens with Indy trying to steal treasures looted by the Nazis. Indy and his pal Basil are after the Lance of Longinus. The pair sneak about but are ultimately captured by the Nazi scum. Hitler wants the Lance but Indy and Nazi astrophysicist Voller say it's a fake. Voller has half of the Archimedes Dial, he thinks it will be more valuable to the Reich than the Lance. There's plenty of mayhem as Indy and Basil escape.

In 1969 New York Indy is retiring from teaching at a college. Basil's daughter Helena shows up to see Indy, she believes he's still got the Dial. She claims she wants to study it. Indy reveals he still has the device. Voller and his Nazi pals show up to steal the Dial. They kill a lot of people but Helena steals the Dial and leaves. Voller blows off a meeting with the President to chase after Indy who's gone to Tangier. Indy and the Nazis interrupt Helena's plan to sell the Dial at a stolen antiquity auction. There's a long chase through the city and the Nazis get the Dial. The story moves on eventually leading to the past and a chat with Archimedes.

The fifth Indiana Jones movie sure doesn't live up to level of the previous films. The film was considered a flop, not making it's nut back at the box office. There's a good bit of action with plenty of yelling, gunfire and explosions but it doesn't make up with the weak film. Crabby old Indy isn't that much fun to be around. It's a long film that seems longer, it could have been tightened up to it's benefit.

Lucky for him Indy manages to get through the fights and survive getting shot. Conversely I was disappointed Helena survived. I really disliked her, she's truly a scumbag. Trying to redeem her character in the last minutes of the film is positively weak. I doubt I'll wind up watching this film as much as I would the fourth film and I know it's going to be way less than the first three.

The Catman Of Paris 1946 Screenplay by Sherman L Lowe, directed by Lesley Selander. Lesley directed over 100 westerns in his 32 year career. Occasionally he'd direct a horror film, we watched The Vampire's Ghost at movie night back in 2017. He also directed the 1951 SF film Flight To Mars and the first two Lone Ranger films in the 50s. This is also on the Repubic Picture Horror Collection. Not a stellar package so far but watchable films.

In the late 1800s a Paris novelist called Charles has penned a controversial book,  he claims the book has made him enemies among the public. Charles tells his friend Henry his troubles. Soon after a man who had damning documents detrimental to Charles is found dead, strangled and slashed. Charles former sweetheart is killed in a similar way. Charles is suspected of being the so called Catman.

The rest of this low throttle thriller is a tad lack luster. There's a bit of action but it's spread thin. There's not much suspense and the ending isn't much of a surprise. It was made to be the second half of Republics first horror double bill with Valley Of The Zombies. I still enjoyed it but couldn't give it more than a 5 on the IMDb. I'd  watch it again sometime and I plan to listen to the commentary on the Blu-ray.

Friday Night Movies 1000

Godzilla x Kong - The New Empire 2023 Story by Terry Rossio, Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, screenplay by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slatter, directed by Adam Wingard. A sequel to Godzilla vs Kong from 2021.

Kong is adapting to life in the Hollow Earth and Godzilla is still bashing monsters on the surface. Kong finds an enslaved camp of giant gorillas under the thumb of Skar King. Kong gets Godzilla to help battle Skar King and free his people. Some humans get tossed in the battle blender and eventually find a colony of humans who live in the hollow Earth. Their descendants lived on the surface but were all killed off in the first film, except for one telepathic girl who calls up Mothra.

There's plenty of battles and big blasts, there's lots of noise and oodles of collateral damage. Mixed in is a lot of personal baggage. The monster fights were good but I'm not getting much out of the humans. It was OK but not as entertaining as Godzilla Minus One.

The Valley Of The Zombies 1946 Story by Royal K Cole and Sherman H Lowe, screenplay by Dorrell McGowan and Stuart E McGowan, directed by Philip Ford. Another film from the Republic Pictures Horror Collection.

A dead man called Murks returns to life with the help of voodoo and blood. Murk's  seeks revenge on the men who locked him up in an asylum and the doctor who killed him on the operating table. Murks had faked his death and his body was revived by his brother. A doctor and his fiance help defeat the insane man. There's some police help.

Sadly it's rather slow despite being 56 mins. I'd seen it before and since I bought the Blu-ray collection I'll watch it some more when I get around to the commentaries on the four films.

Science Fiction Sunday 795

Alpha Code 2020 Written by Milan Friedrich and Keoni Waxman, directed by Keoni Waxman. Claims to be based on a true story. Keoni has his own company that seems to make low budget genre pictures. He started in 1996 and has made 27 films. This is the first one I've seen. I doubt I'd need to see any of his other films.

A secret alien invasion movie with a family that's caught up in the middle. The hubby and the daughter drive up to the family cabin. At night the daughter is abducted. The hubby wakes up in hospital. An investigator comes to visit and strange stuff starts happening. The man escapes and the investigator chases after him. Most of the movie is run and chase, there's some fights and gun shooting. More about the invasion is revealed. There's some telepathy too.

Bren Foster plays the guy, Denise Richards plays a strange lady he starts making out with, Randy Couture plays the investigator, most of the rest of the cast are from the Czech Republic.

I thought it was an average story with poor dialog but a fairly decently made film. It had a $3 million budget. You know that will go far in the Czech Republic. I got through to the end with the help of 1.5 speed but I wouldn't bother with it again. You can see it on YouTube.

Alpha Rift 2021 Written and directed by Dan Lantz.

A guy owns a gaming shop. He's also the secret warrior of a society that fights evil. Lance Henriksen plays the head of the society. A robbery at Lance's mansion releases an apostle of the devil, one of the robbers is killed, another taken over by the apostle, the third one helps him escape. The rest of the movie is the gaming boy complaining and training.

Eventually the evil is defeated for the time being. The gamer comes into his won but it was a bit of a struggle to get there. All that training and complaining is a bit tedious. I speed up a good bit in this one too. I'm not sad to have seen it but I don't plan on watching it again. Another one on YouTube.

Science Fiction Sunday 784

A Trip To Mars 1918 Based on the novel Himmelskibet, adapted by Ole Olsen, directed by Holger-Madsen. A Danish film about a trip to Mars. It's called Himmelskibet which translates to Heaven Ship. Denmark didn't make another SF film until Reptilicus in 1961.

Some scientists build a space ship and fly to Mars. They encounter a pacifistic society and kill a swan. When the crowd gets upset they toss a grenade at the crowd and kill a man.

You really couldn't ask for worse guests. Lucky for the ignorant Danes the Martian leader forgives them and they are humbled. The head Dane takes the leader's daughter back to the Earth to marry.

The story is pretty naive and the accompanying piano was annoying to me. I liked all the sets and locations but the Danes are not very interesting. Not something I would want to watch again.

Woke 2023 Written by Ron Bonk and Bobby Canipe Jr, directed by Bobby Canipe Jr. A very low budget film about an alien invader.

The alien takes over a guy by dribbling black goo into the human's mouth. The human helps him take over other humans. A young woman and her 3 friends fight back.

It's all cliches and jabber. I didn't care that much for it. It scores a 2.4 on the IMDb with 22 votes. Fifteen of those votes are a 1 and two are a 10. I gave it a generous 2. I wouldn't want to watch it again and would tell people not to bother. You can see if you like it, it's on YouTube, link above. I did like the illustration on the poster.

Friday Night Movies 982

Santet 2 1988 Written by Naryono Prayitno and directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra. An Indonesian sequel to Santet. It's part of a double film Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome. 

Having killed off the baddie in the first movie Katemi tries to give up the black magic life and settle back into village life. She's forced back into the black magic lifestyle by Nyi Loreng, the ghost of the long dead master of Katemi's recently dead master Nyi Angker. Nyi Loreng puts a curse on Katemi which turns her into a tiger. At night she terrorizes the village as a tiger. Nyi Loreng wants revenge for the murder of her pupil but Katemi doesn't want to kill anyone.

The son of the baddie in the first movie is a drug smuggler in Jakarta. The same actor plays father and son. The son moves to the seaside village to run his business. The local police are rather dim but the Jakarta police are there to wreck the son's drug smuggling operation. Luckily the local Muslim teacher helps Katemi fight the bad influences. Eventually things are sorted out and Katemi gets to marry the local Muslim teacher.

It wasn't as much fun as the first but I did get a few laughs. There's not as much black magic stuff going on in this one. It's more a comedy with a large bit of on screen time devoted to the local comic relief machine constable and his wife. It's pretty lowbrow and only marginally funny. I was laughing at the film making more than the jokes. The effects are fair to poor with the tiger suit getting plenty of laughs.

Infinity Pool 2023 Written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg. A science fiction movie that's heavy on the drama.

The movie is set in the fictional country of Li Tolqa. Tourists have to stay in the resort as the locals are a bad lot. A writer and his rich wife are befriended by a couple who convince them to take a trip to a beach outside the resort. On the way back the writer is driving the car, he hits a local who dies. They leave the body there and run away after the husband of the other couple convinces the writer that the police are corrupt and it will go bad for them once they fall into the police's hands. It's astonishing to me that people would pick that country for a vacation.

The next morning the police come and arrest the writer and his wife. They know everything and the writer is given the dead penalty. He's also given a tourist out option, for a large pile of cash the police will provide a clone for the dead man's family's eldest son to kill. It's a pretty old school, an eye for an eye, sort of country so you know there's plenty of opportunity for corruption. He takes the option and pays for the clone. They have sit and watch the son of the dead man kill the clone.  His rich wife is horrified and really wants to leave.

It's just the start of a downhill slide for the writer. He becomes a complete piece of shit joining some other tourists who have been cloned before in beating a local police man. More badness follows. Eventually he finds out his new pals are just fucking with him, trying to turn him into another murder tourist like them. They break his brain and he winds up sitting in the monsoon rain staring out to sea across the infinity pool. 

I certainly didn't care for the pieces of shit that the writer got involved with and for the man the writer became. I can't see spending time with that sort. The movie is a good reminder to distrust the rich and powerful. It's not hard to imagine many of them turning into murder tourists and killing for fun. I didn't care much for the movie despite it being well made and the cast doing a great job. I wouldn't need to watch it again.