PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

M 1951

M 1951 Screenplay by Norman Reilly Raine and Leo Katcher with additional dialog by Waldo Salt, directed by Joseph Losey. The 1931 German film M was originally written and directed by Fritz Lang. Lang was asked to direct the remake. The Wikipedia says he was "appalled and outraged by the idea of anyone remaking a film he considered to be his masterpiece." He later said "the release of the 1951 film earned his 1931 original the best reviews of his career." The first Losey movie I ever saw was either Modesty Blaise or The Boy With The Green Hair. I've seen a few of his later films: The Damned, X The Unknown, and The Big Night. 

The film moves the film to Los Angeles. David Wayne plays the child murderer. He's got the city in an uproar and the locals want the city to catch him. The constant police raids on dive bars and criminal hangouts disturb the local criminal element enough that local crime boss assigns some of his men to catch and kill David. 

It's a fairly entertaining film despite it being about such a bleak subject matter, I'd still want to watch it again someday. Link in title.

Science Fiction Sunday 853

Alien Country 2024 Written by  Renny Grames and Boston McConnaughey, directed by Boston McConnaughey. A nice mix of SF, horror, comedy and running about while yelling. 

A gal called Everly wants to be a country singer, she's just found out she's pregnant, on her way out of town to seek fame and fortune her car breaks down. Jimmy is the father of her child, he's a reckless layabout who's been raised without a mother and father. He comes by to pick Everly up and she takes his truck, Jimmy's left by the road with her car. He still doesn't know he's a dad to be yet.  Everly doubts he's up to the job and his friends and family can't disagree. 

A couple of low life guys find a glowing thing out in the desert and it winds up in Jimmy's demolition derby car when the police stop to talk to them. It turns out to be a device for opening a portal. Everly and Jimmy walk right into it and find themselves on an alien planet. They manage to get out before the portal closes but so do a couple of killer alien critters. That's when things take a turn for the locals. The critters chomp a local and Jimmy and Everly meet an alien guy who claims he wants to help them. Everly's grandmother is a believer in aliens. She's been researching them for decades. They team up with her, the alien and some friends to fight the aliens. The ladies put up as good a fight as the men.

Every now and again I find a nice SF film that I enjoy, it almost makes up for having to sit through the dogs I do watch. It's got a decent script, some characters I liked, a few villainous types and a nasty beastie that a person can kill. The movie looks good and it moves along at a nice clip when the action kicks in. The personal drama doesn't drag down the story, very common in a lot of modern SF films. The cinematography is good and the special effects are decent. I thought it was better than average, I'd recommend it for the SF horror fan who likes a bit of humor and a good critter. It's free on Prime if you're a member. I watched it on YouTube for free. Link in the title. It's Boston's first feature film, he'd been an assistant camera man on a few other films, I hope to see more from him. 

Deus: The Dark Sphere 2022 Written and directed by Steve Stone. A British SF story. I thought I'd give it a go because I like Phil Davis, sadly he only appears as a video image. It also has Claudia Black, David O'Hara, Lisa Eichhorn and Richard Blackwood in the cast. 

A giant black sphere appears near Mars, the government sends out a space ship to investigate it. The crew is in hibernation for 8 months to get to it. When they wake things go south fairly quickly. One guy goes nuts and kills another crew member. Things get worse when Phil reveals the real story behind the sphere. 

The script isn't quite as entertaining as the first movie, It's a bit pokey, the story is darker, another writer might have fine tuned it a bit. The effects are OK and there's an ending that wasn't too bad. You can see it on YouTube too. 

Friday Night Movies 1053

Devil Girl From Mars 1954 Based on a play by James Eastwood and John C Mather, screenplay by James Eastwood, directed by David MacDonald. A British Lion Films production about the first vanguard of an alien invasion. It was produced by Harry Lee and Edward J Danziger. 

A group of people wind up in a remote Scottish country inn the day an alien called Nyah comes by looking for some human men to repopulate Mars. She was headed for London but the Earth atmosphere was a bit thicker than expected and part of her ship fell off, it caused her to land for repairs before invading London. Nyah's traveling companion is a giant robot called Chani. She's a coldhearted woman armed with a disintegrating raygun and mental powers beyond human ken.

Nyah seals the area around her ship with an invisible wall, She makes a dramatic entrance into the inn and lords it over the humans. She's not impressed by the humans, even the notable scientist gets put down by her arrogance. The others try to fight back but they are too weak to succeed. The scientist offers to be Nyah's guide in London while touring her ship. She thinks that's a useful thing but she doesn't know he has a plan to destroy her and her chip by attacking the power source. Since the ship is the first one of it's kind it could mean that there wouldn't be a follow up attack. As the movie plays people jockey for the opportunity to blow up the ship. Nyah ignores them and picks the man she wants to come with her. 

My favorite character is the sadly underused robot. He's powerful and armed with a disintegration ray. Lucky for the human's he's in the ship most of the time. He's one of the reasons I liked the movie so much. It gets a 5 on the IMDb and the score isn't too far off. I gave it a 6 years ago and still stand by that. Nyah elevates the average score but Hugh McDermott's acting brings it down a bit. Some of the dialog is clunky and the romance between Hugh and Hazel Court is is like a Cliff Notes version. It's a short film, 77 mins, so there isn't time to expand on much. You can see it on YouTube, link above.

Dark City 1998 Story by Alex Proyas, screenplay by Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs and David S Goyer, directed by Alex Proyas. We watched the new 4K version from Arrow.

I'm assuming that most people reading this have seen the movie already. A guy wakes up in a bathtub. While trying to figure out what happened he changes the world around him. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's unique. 

Dark City is a favorite and the new 4K is a good reason to upgrade your Blu-ray player and TV. It looks great. We watched the director's cut which eliminates the voice over and adds about 12 mins of extended scenes. 

Transaction Series 1 2025

Transaction Series 1 2025 Created and written by Jordan Grey, directed by Ollie Parsons. Jordon created a series of shorts for Comedy Central in 2020. These were the basis of the series. None of that material was used in the ITVX series. Six episodes just aired a few days ago. 

Jordan Grey is a trans writer, comedian, singer and actor. She's joined by a great cast who all work at Pellocks, a chain supermarket. Nick Frost is the store manager, Doon Mackichan is head of HR and Nick's wife, Thomas Gray is Jordan's roommate, Francesca Mills is a little person with a bit of a different take on the world, and Kayla Meikle is a deli manager. Nick has just posted an ad that's got him in hot water with the trans community, he winds up hiring Jordan to try to counteract the backlash. The problem is, Jordan's an egotistical narcissist with a heavy streak of selfishness and meanness. 

Each episode is a new story and the whole series has a shallow story arc. All the main characters get an episode that looks into their lives a bit. Poor Nick is recently divorced, he's better off, his wife is a vindictive monster. Thomas has a thing for Francesca but he's afraid of revealing it. Francesca is lonely and hoping for love. Kayla is a surprising mystery. 

Each episode is filled with chaos, yelling and plenty of physical comedy. It's a bit dark but there are plenty of positive moments too. I enjoyed it and laughed out loud several times. I'd watch it again. 

Trapped Series 1 2015

Trapped Series 1 2015 Created by Baltasar Kormákur, written by Sigurjón Kjartansson and Clive Bradley, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, Baldvin Zophoníasson, Börkur Sigthorsson and Óskar Thor Axelsson. An Icelandic police procedural set in a remote port town of Siglufjörður. 

A limbless and headless torso is found in the water b a fishing boat. The police are called in, they think the torso might be from the ferry boat that has just arrived. They hold the boat from leaving and let the passengers find places in the town to stay. The ferry doesn't want them on board as they haven't enough fuel aboard to heat the ship if they have to stay there for several days. A big storm dumps a lot of snow on the place and everyone has to make due. 

We follow Chief of Police Andri Ólafsson and his two officers Hinrika and Ásgeir around as they try to figure out who the torso is and who killed him. They're told that the case is going to be handled by senior officers from the Reykjavik Bureau of Investigation. The storm keeps them from getting there for several days. Andri and co-workers keep working on the case anyway. Other mysteries show up as the 10 episodes play out. 

It's a compelling show with a fist full of sub plots going on. I liked the characters and their story lines. It's a bleak place in the winter and the film makers use that to their advantage. After the first murder the sun appears to go away and it doesn't return until they find the murderer. I enjoyed it and chain watched the first series in one go. I have series 2 but not series 3. Someone was nice enough to pass them along, the first two series are avail to buy on Prime. 

Science Fiction Sunday 852

Moonbase 1997 Written by Brian DiMuccio, Dino Vindeni and Paolo Mazzucato, directed by Paolo Mazzucato. A low budget American SF film about space garbage. This is Paolo's only film, he made a music video in 1988 and a short in 1990. I'm not surprised. At best the film is low end SyFy channel stuff. 

In the future waste is dealt with on the moon and criminals are stored in space. Some low life scum escape from prison in garbage pods, they wind up at the space waste disposal site on the moon. They threaten the garbage men with guns and death. Kurt Fuller plays one of the garbage men. He's the only actor who had a recognizable name, he's also a bit of a turncoat, what with helping the criminals and all. A pilot and a lady save their own bacon and that of a few others. 

It's pretty mean on effects and the ones there aren't anything very showy. Like many of these cheaply made movies the behind the scenes crew does a decent job with little or no money. The script is the let down, it's got poorly written dialog with weak jokes and plenty of cliches. Nothing much interesting happens, nothing original either. The acting was a mixed bag of talent, some of them did poorly selling the dialog and story. Kurt was certainly the strongest actor and character in the show. I'd not bother with it again. It makes more sense to watch a film over that I liked better and hadn't seen very often. Sometime seeing a film once is enough.  

The Day The Earth Stopped 2008 Written by Darren Dalton and Carey Van Dyke, directed by C Thomas Howell. C Thomas also stars in the movie. His career took a hit after the 1986 film Soul Man where he blacked up. He had a good start with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Outsiders and still gets a decent part occasionally. Nowadays he mostly makes low-budget genre films, having thrown in with The Asylum. This is the second film for them as a director. David Michael Latt, is the co-owner of The Asylum and the producer of this film. I don't have much respect for the company, I rarely watch any of their films.

Giant robots arrive on Earth and a naked couple pop up to visit the locals. They wind up in the hands of the military quite quickly. Of course the guy dealing with them is a pure asshole. A nicer guy, C Thomas helps the female alien and gets relieved of duty. C Thomas helps the lady alien escape. He learns the alien society wants to evaluate the humans to see if they are too dangerous to let live. The humans barely pass the test and the giant robots leave. The Earth has been damaged from the visit. 

The robots were huge but they didn't do much other than blast people, planes and buildings with rays. The CGI is weak and the script is a mashup of other film ideas. It's similarity to the 2008 remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still got The Asylum threatened with legal action by 20th Century Fox but nothing ever came of it.

That's what's wrong with The Asylum, they make similar films to what's currently coming out, often they are released first because the company moves quickly and spends no money. Lots of people work for The Asylum for little or no pay, looking for a credit they can put on their resume. Their product turns up in the free section of many streaming services, like YouTube and Prime. 

Friday Night Movies 1052

Starve Acre 2023 Based on the novel of the same name by Andrew Michael Hurley, screenplay and direction by Daniel Kokotajlo. A British folk horror film with Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark. 

Richard, his wife Jules and their young son Owen have moved into Richard's deceased father's farm. The story is set in the mid 70s, Richard is a teacher and Jules is a stay at home mom. The farm is located in the Yorkshire Dales, in northern UK, about 50 miles south of the Scottish border. The farm is isolated, just the sort of place for supernatural shenanigans. Owen is the first to fall, he has an asthma attack and dies while his mother stares vacantly into the mist. The grief turns Jules into a depressed sack of anguish stuck in bed most of the time. Her sister Harrie comes to help out. 

Richard is digging up the lower garden, he's looking for the entrance point to evil that his father mentioned in his journal. As a child Richard was mistreated by his father who wanted Richard to be the sacrifice to a spirit of nature called Jack Grey. He didn't love his son so the sacrifice was never accepted and Richard grew up to be an eyebrow-less teacher. Richard finds the skeleton of a rabbit which he saves. The rabbit bones grow flesh and the rabbit develops into a living breathing bun. Richard later finds a buried tree in the field and realizes it's entrance point his father was looking for. That's when things really start to fall part. Richard and Jules get crazier and crazier and a couple of people die.

It's a fairly well made movie, moody and atmospheric but the story spends more time being a drama than I care for. It's much like a 70s British horror film, something akin to The Blood On Satan's Claws or The Wicker Man. Both of those are more entertaining to me. I don't see a need to buy the Blu-ray as I doubt I'd watch it again. 

Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow 2004 Written and directed by Kerry Conran. We watched the new 4K edition of the movie.

The movie is set in the alternate reality of the 1940. Conran borrows images and ideas from the sort of movies that I like and packs them into a kitchen sink filled action story. As the movie opens a city gets attacked by some flying robots that are highly reminiscent of the robots in the Fleischer Superman cartoon The Mechanical Monsters. Sky Captain attacks the giant robots and manages to knock one down. He sends it to his base to be looked at by scientist Dex. Sky Captain is hindered in his work by reporter Polly Perkins. She's annoying, always holding her cards close to her chest. Her clumsy coverups and lies tend to put the poor Captain in jeopardy on a regular basis. 

The story moves at a nice quick pace and there's plenty of gun battles and explosions. I liked it when I saw it ages ago. I haven't seen it for 10-15 years and I had forgotten much of the story details. It was fun to watch it play out, except for that Polly poking her nose into things. What the Captain ever saw in her, I just don't know. 

The 4K looks fine but I doubt I'd buy one as I haven't upgraded to 4K. I was happy to see it.

Der Rote Rausch 1962

Der Rote Rausch 1962 Written by Hellmut Andics and Hans Ulrich Horster, directed by Wolfgang Schleif. A German Krimi film with Klaus Kinski. The film was thought lost in the early 80s but a copy surfaced in 2002.

Klaus escapes from a mental institution where he was locked up for strangling women wearing red necklaces. He'd already killed 4 women before the movie starts. While on the run he makes friends with a woman and her small child. He still has the urge to kill. The woman lives on a small farm and Klaus helps out. He's rather safe there for a while, he makes friends with the woman's daughter. Things fall apart when he goes into the town to buy the daughter a Christmas present, he sees a wanted poster with his face. It recovers some memories of the forgotten murders he'd pushed from his mind. The locals find out and chase Klaus, they even use fire to drive him out of the fields. It's nearly a sad ending for poor Klaus.  

More of a psychological thriller than a straight up crime film. Klaus is quite good as the poor guy who has a mental problems. You can see it on YouTube, see link in title.

The Ugly Duckling 1959

The Ugly Duckling 1959 Story by Sid Colin, screenplay by Sid Colin and Jack Davies, directed by Lance Comfort. A British SF comedy produced by Hammer Film Productions. It steals bits from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson but there's no connection to the novel.

 

Bernard Bresslaw plays the inept and bumbling descendant of the Dr Jekyll with the man changing formula. Henry's brother Victor, played by Jon Pertwee, is a pharmacist in the same pharmacy that the original Dr Jekyll started in 1812. Henrietta is Henry and Victor's sister. She has her own dance troop. An explosion in the pharmacy's lab reveals a box that has a formula that claims to change a timid man into a bold fearless dragon. Henry whips up a batch and gobbles it down. Almost instantly he's changed into a dashing figure who's a hit down at the local dance hall where he's calling himself Teddy Hyde.

Some crooks own the dance hall and the head of the gang is a guy called Dandy. He takes a liking to Teddy when he pushes Victor around. Dandy wants Teddy to help with a robbery. As Henry and Teddy switches back and forth things get more complicated before they work it all out and Henry gets to dance with a girl.  

It's pretty silly but not overly funny, I still got a couple of laughs from it. Sadly Hammer lost the negatives and it never had a DVD release. You can see it on YouTube. I'd watch it again but I do like Bernard from the Carry On series of films.

Science Fiction Sunday 851

Roswell Delirium 2023 Written and directed by Richard Bakewell. An American movie that struggles to be SF. I saw it on Amazon, it's also on YouTube.

It's the 80s and Reagan is the president, Russian nukes fall on the US, lots of people get blown up, the rest are trying not to get radiation sickness. The President says that too many people died and they should just move on. A young teen likes ham radio, she tries to make contact with her astronaut father who's up in space. Flashbacks portray her father as a angry man who treats his family poorly. The young teen is in contact with aliens. 

Turns out none of that's true, it's a movie about the daughter's trauma from being sexually molested by her father. Some people like it and some don't, it scores a 3.9 on the IMDb. I couldn't give it a 4. There's way too much character development and family drama and too little science fiction. I won't watch it again.

Foil 2023 Screenplay by Zack Green and Devin O'Rourke, directed by Zack Green. Both Zack and Devin play the main characters in the movie. It was filmed mostly in Lancaster California. It's actually a science fiction film that has aliens and a spaceship. 

Zack plays Dexter and Devin plays Rex. Rex lives in the small town he'd been in all of his life. Dexter lived there but left after graduation from high school. He went off to California to make films. Ten years later he's back home with his mom. He'd made a film but it was a porn film and hardly anyone saw it. He didn't make more films, he got fired from his day job, ran out of money, then got evicted from his apartment

Zack and Dexter make a trip into the desert to visit the spot where Dexter said he had contact with an alien when he was a teen. No one believed him back and he got picked on at high school, it made skipping to the high school's 10 year reunion that weekend an easy choice. In the desert the guys argue before meeting Tom. Rex welcomes the break but Dexter is none to happy. He wants Tom to go. He's rude and Tom leaves. The next day things start to get interesting. 

It's an alien encounter on a personal level, it reminds me of Paul or Aliens & Gufors. Despite Dexter's annoying personality I found some of it fun, there were a few good gags, especially after Rambo shows up. It's not as good as Paul but it's a bit of decent entertainment and it's fairly well made. It's not quite one of those little gems I'm looking for but it's close. I'd watch it again.