PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 568

The 2004 Hallmark mini-series Frankenstein was pretty faithful to the Mary Shelley novel and it reminds me once again what an ass that Frankenstein was. Surely not the sort of person that you'd like to get to know. Alec Newman plays Viktor Frankenstein, some might remember him from the Dune mini-series of a few years ago. It's directed by Kevin Connor and the screenplay is by Mark Kruger. They follow the novel quite well, much more so than most of the other adaptations, and it's a sad ass story. One bad thing after another happens to Frankenstein, fueled by his fear of death. It looks good and there's lot of nice locations and sets. William Hurt plays Viktor's professor and William Hurt plays the ship captain that Viktor tells his story to and Luke Goss plays The Creature.

This is the place Viktor lives in. I liked the wedge coming out of the front of the building. It's a fairly long production, 204 minutes, in two parts. I was happy enough to see it but wouldn't rush to see it anytime soon.

Science Fiction Sunday 567

I watched Soylent Green today, then I watched it with the commentary by Richard Fleischer and Leigh Taylor-Young. I saw the picture in the theater when it came out in 1973 and thought it was great. I thought a horribly over-crowded future, with pollution and starvation working hand in hand to keep the population down, was something that easily could happen. It seems even more possible today. Richard Fleischer is the director and Stanley R Greenberg adapted Harry Harrison's novel Make Room! Make Room!. I read that novel back in the 70s and seem to remember it was pretty different. Fleischer touches on the differences in his commentary.

Charlton Heston is a cop in the corrupt future with the rich segregated from the masses in fancy towers overlooking the day to day squalor of the poor. Edward Robinson is a "book" who works with Charlton. Books do research and share knowledge with other books. There's not much by way of computer based infrastructure going on in their world of 2022.

Joseph Cotton is a rich guy, a man is sent to Joseph's apartment to kill him, Charlton is sent to investigate. Leigh-Taylor Young is the young woman who comes with the apartment Joseph lived in, she's there for his pleasure, these women are called "furniture". As Charlton digs into the death he suspects it's not a simple robbery. Eventually someone high up puts the kibosh on the investigation and Chuck Conners is sent to kill Charlton. In his escape Charlton winds up in the Soylent Green factory where he find out that SG is people.

I hadn't seen the movie in a number of years, I didn't even have a copy, I saw a cheap used copy of the DVD recently and thought I should see it again. I enjoyed it and I also enjoyed the commentary with Fleischer and Taylor-Young. I'll hopefully watch this again someday.

I watched Alien Arrival next, it's a 2016 SF movie that's also called Arrowhead. It's from Australia and it's written and directed by Jessie O'Brien. It's pretty low budget but it's looks fairly good. Mostly it's a guy in the desert with some decent CGI. Dan Mor is the guy and he's sent to an alien planet to retrieve some data that might save his father from execution. The ship has some issues and all crew get out in escape pods. Dan takes a shuttle from the ship and lands on the alien planet to find the dead body of the ship's security officer and the unopened escape pod of a young woman played by Aleisha Rose. They find the alien planet has some weird stuff going on. Dan is killed by a bug creature and a crystal revives him, it even grows his missing foot back. It gets more interesting and eventually Dan and the lady get off planet in a ship. It's a bit better than average. I wouldn't need to get a copy, I saw this on AP, and I doubt I would watch it again.

Science Fiction Sunday 566

Ascendance is a tedious 2017 SF film about the end of the world. I watched it, and the other films mentioned here, on Amazon Prime. It's made in New Zealand and it's written and directed by AK Strom. It's absolutely dull and uninteresting and they fail to use the New Zealand countryside to any advantage. Much of the movie is shot in some sort of bunker and there is a lot of stock footage. A young woman has some dreams about giant meteorites hitting the world and she gets visited by an Angel that's played by the director. He's no real help and the movie goes nowhere in it's journey. Well, just down into the bunker. I joined the third of the voters that gave the movie a 1 on the IMDb. Thankfully I'll be forgetting this soon enough.

Legends From The Sky is a 2015 film written and directed Travis Holt Hamilton. A battle scared soldier comes back to his home to find his grandfather's land has been taken over by the government. A spaceship had crashed on the farm and his grandfather is supposed to be dead. Edsel Pete plays the Navajo soldier, it's his first film role and he's a bit wooden, it kind of works for his character, a depressed soldier with survivor's guilt. Most of the other actors are amateur and they vary in talent. I often liked the characters despite the actor's flaws.

Edsel has been seeing his grandfather in his dreams and believes he's still alive. Edsel starts digging into his grandfather's disappearance with the help, or hindrance, of some of the locals. He finds there is a secret organization of Seekers and Watchers, people with supernatural powers. The guy in charge of quarantining the grandfather's land is aware of that and he's looking for something in the desert. He's got a sad backstory. Boo hoo.

The movie moves along fairly briskly as the various people chase about the desert. Some of the scenery in the South West is quite nice. Eventually the goodies and the baddies come together and there's a big light show with good coming out on top. Nice.

The film is fairly well made, despite the uneven acting and script. I did like the way they worked the Native legends into the film. You don't see many films with Native actors and that's kind of interesting in itself. I liked it better than a lot of the SF I've been seeing of late but I don't know that I'd need to go buy a copy for myself. Maybe if it turned up in one of those Mill Creek multi movie packs.

I tried watching The Bestowal but could not get past the first 15 minutes. It's just two people talking in a room. A guy is going to kill himself and a woman comes to talk to him. The IMDb says it's an inter-dimensional being but I never found out, I was too bored with them to continue listening to them blather on.

Malefica is a 2017 fantasy adventure short that turns out to be continued. Annoying. Still, that might save me time in the long run. I don't have to be disappointed by a feature length film. It's about a guy who goes into the wastelands to kill a powerful witch. There's not a lot of detail despite the good amount of blather going on. I was starting to speed it up before it was half over. Looks fair but lacks any flare.

Science Fiction Sunday 565

My Alien Girlfriend is a 2019 SF movie directed by Sean King, he co-wrote the script with son Taylor King. Taylor has a part in the movie. A guy named Joe is getting married, his wife is off for her bachelorette party but he's supposed to stay home and out of trouble. Joe's a super nerd who does a podcast show about SF culture. His friends want to take him to a strip club but he decides to stay home. Good thing he did, an alien landed in his backyard and turned into a beautiful naked woman. The alien copied it's human disguise from a movie poster on Joe's wall and everyone who sees her thinks she's the actress. That creates more problems for Joe and during all the running. He also finds out some stuff about his girlfriend he didn't know. Joe spends a big part of the movie helping the alien with language and clothes, it really slowed the movie but the last half picks up a bit as more characters start to interact. It's got a fairly good idea but the execution is a bit weak. There are few special effects and most of them are in the first 10 minutes. The actors are amateurish, some are a bit better than others but they get the job done. I wish the jokes were punchier but I got to the end. I wouldn't need to see it again. It was on Amazon Prime as is this second film.

I hadn't seen Mutiny In Outer Space before, at least it's not on my watched movie list. It's getting to be harder to find an old SF film I haven't seen before. It came out in 1965 and it was directed by Hugo Grimaldi and an uncredited Arthur C Pierce, they co-wrote the movie with Bernard Woolner, David Woolner and Lawrence Woolner. Astronauts return to Space Station X-7 to have their cargo of rocks inspected before they head for Earth. One of the astronauts collapses and eventually dies from a fungus. It's possibly dangerous to everyone on Earth but the Captain goes a bit nuts and tries to cover up the situation. The fungus takes hold and the crew fights back as best they can. The Italian poster shows an alien, there are no aliens like that, just that fuzzy feather boa like fungus. The film is barely average, it's got a 5.0 on the IMDb with 300 votes but there are a good number of 10 votes. I'd give it a 5 for the story idea but 4 for the execution. I gave it a 5 anyway. It won't ever be a 60s favorite for me but it's watchable. I got to the end. I might even watch it again someday but I wouldn't need to buy the DVD, I downloaded a copy from YouTube. You an check it out there by using the link in the title above.

Science Fiction Sunday 564

Sci-Fighters is a 1996 Canadian direct to video movie starring Roddy Piper. I hadn't ever seen it before so I picked up the two movie DVD. The other movie isn't SF, it's called Terminal Rush. Sci-Fighters is SF, set in a future where they have put prisons on the moon. Roddy is a special cop with extras powers, Billy Drago was Roddy's old partner. Billy killed Roddy's wife and now lives in prison on the moon. Billy gets infected with an alien virus and manages to escape to the Earth. He infects some people before Roddy gets on his trail. There's a bit of romance between Roddy and Jane Heitmeyer. There's random fighting, some good amount of sneaking about, some yelling, not much of anything original. It still manages to deliver a story but it's barely average. I wouldn't bother with it but I bought the DVD, lured in by a two pack of Rowdy Roddy Piper films. Turns out Terminal Rush is a Don Wilson movie and it's a good bit worse than Sci-Fighters. Roddy plays a terrorist who's taken over Hoover Dam. Don plays the sheriff who goes after him. I wouldn't watch it again but I might watch Sci-Fighters again.

Scorched Earth is a 2017 Canadian US post-apocalypse movie that's below average. If it wasn't for John Hannah I wouldn't have watched it on Amazon Prime. It was free. I can't seen paying to stream crap movies, it's different with buying a shit DVD, you've always got the option of throwing it in the river. The movie parades around as a Western and it borrows a common plot from both the Western and the Martial Arts movie, a young child sees their loved ones killed by the baddie, they grow up and fight that creep to the death at the end of the movie. Ryan Robbins plays the guy who killed Gina Carano's sister, she finds him as an adult and takes a go at killing him. Ryan's a good actor and he's been in some entertaining TV and film but I wouldn't need to see Scorched Earth again.

Science Fiction Sunday 563

Arachnoquake is a 2012 disaster movie that has imaginary spiders from the center of the earth. They don't look anything like the spiders in the poster above. The story is by Eric Forsberg, the script is by Paul A Birkett, the director is Griff Furst. He's the son of Stephen Furst. The only movie of his I've seen is Lake Placid 3.

The movie is set in New Orleans where earthquakes have damaged the ground, leaving huge holes in the roads, starting fires in the city, and releasing man eating spiders of various sizes. Bug Hall is a tour guide in charge of a cute little tram. That's his real life name. His movie sister and father are on a boat on the river. Both groups encounter killer spiders. There's plenty of chasing and being bitten. Often people break out in a big pusy sore that explodes.

Edward Furlong is the only one in the cast that I knew. He's got to drive a bus load of cheerleaders out of danger, he crashes the bus but they get rescued by some soldiers. Edward's wife in the film is a 6th grade biology teacher, she autopsy's one of the critters and figures out what inside the beasts. There's no real need for the info, stomping and bullets kill off most of the spiders. I guess it fills time and adds some gore value.

There's a real sloppiness to the movie. In one scene the tour bus stops at an intersection for a bit of business, it's facing an area we can't see, there are buildings on it's left and right. In the overhead shot it's in the middle of a street with a huge park on it's right side. We never see the park in any of the ground shots. Too costly for a continuity person I guess. There's more of that lazy film making going on, near the end one guy keeps commenting on what's going on, he spots Bug in his diving suit but Bug's face is obscured by the gear, that guy wouldn't have any way of knowing who that was just by seeing him. The movie isn't keeping my interest if I keep noticing all the mistakes. I suppose many of the viewers on SyFy wouldn't care. I don't either, what a crappy movie, way below average. I gave it a generous 2.

Phoenix: The Warrior is another dip into the post-apocalypse genre. Unlike last weeks highly entertaining Turbo Kid, P:TW fails to elevate the PA film in any possible way. The movie is also known as She-Wolves Of Wasteland. It came out in 1988 and it was directed by Robert Hayes who co-wrote the script with Dan Rotblatt. Kathleen Kimmont plays Phoenix, she's one of the many women left after whatever happened happened. Men are scarce. She helps a runaway escape from Persis Khambatta. She works for an evil boss lady who experiments on people. Persis is her enforcer, she heads a gang of poorly clad ladies with guns. There's nothing good about the movie, it's a boring slog through all the junk yards and gravel pits in and around Riverside California. The Mojave Desert is nice but even that they manage to make dull. It's not worth a look, go watch the Turbo Kid. Fuck this piece of shit.

Science Fiction Sunday 562

Turbo Kid is a 2015 Canadian, New Zealand and US post-apocalypse movie that made me laugh out loud 3 or 4 times. It was the totally wacky gore effects that had me guffawing , they were great. Three people, François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, share the writing and directing credits. They wound up with a fun story about the post-apocalypse. They have a great sense of humor.

Munro Chambers is a young man living in the wastelands. There's a sort of community nearby, he scavenges to survive, trading with a man in the village. There don't appear to be any cars about, everyone rides bicycles. Munro's a fan of the Turbo Kid, he finds a comic and then the Turbo Kid's suit with it's still active weapon gauntlet. He also runs into Apple.

Laurence Leboeuf plays Apple, Munro runs into her in a playground, she follows him home and he decides to let her stay. She's odd, no doubt about it, but there's a sort of a reason. She adds a nice bit of humor to the movie.

Michael Ironside plays warlord Zeus, he like to torture people, he makes them fight in his arena. Hardly anyone survives the fights, if they do, he kills them anyway. The corpses of the dead are placed in a water reclamation machine and Zeus sells the water. No one will miss him when he's gone.

All the stuff going on is the usual sort of thing you'd expect in this sort of movie, it's just got a nice bit of a skew that makes me smile and occasionally laugh out loud. I saw it on Amazon Prime and put the DVD on my want list.

I wouldn't bother watching Global Meltdown again, it's a 2017 Canadian film about the end of the world. A bunch of people in a small town have to evacuate and they enlist the help of Michael Paré, he's a survivalist loaner who has a radio. Two news people from the west coast bring news of massive damages to cities there. They see a news clip of San Francisco being covered in water and hear that the rest of the places the TV people flew over where the same.

The town grows too dangerous and they head into the mountains where it's likely to be more stable. Society breaks down in two days and Michael goes full on cannibal. He gets more rabid and murderous, especially after joining up with some other scum.

It was going on for a while and I was thinking it was about average and watchable but nothing special. It took a downward turn when the conspiracy guy showed up. Then it was all preachy and annoying. I got to the end and didn't much enjoy it.

Science Fiction Sunday 561

Annihilation is a 2018 adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's novel of the same name,  Alex Garland wrote the script and directed. A meteor hits a lighthouse and creates a zone that's bordered by a soap bubble like shimmer.

Over time the shimmer has gotten larger. Natalie Portman's husband is a military man who went into the shimmer and didn't come out. A year has passed and he shows up in the hallway of their house. He can't communicate well and a short time later some men come and drug the couple and spirit them away to a secret military base near the shimmer.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is a scientist who's going into the shimmer with some other women. The meteor has released something that's changing things around it, mixing DNA and such stuff, it infects the women. Why anyone would go in there, I can't imagine. Things don't go well for any of them really.

It's all slow paced and meandering. My mind wandered while I was watching it. Some of the effects are fairly good, especially the physical set dressings, the CGI critters weren't very good at all. I wouldn't need to watch it again.

Invader is a 1992 low budget SF film written and directed by Philip J Cook. He mostly makes commercials, this was his second movie, he directed one more film and then made a series of web TV shows. The military takes a crashed UFO and puts the computer in a newfangled fighter plane. Of course it takes over the plane and then the local soldiers. A reporter for a sleazy tabloid and a DOD Captain fight back.

The script is weak and filled with all the cliches you'd expect. There's a fair sense of humor but the jokes are weak. The actors are not great but adequate. Same for the sets, props and CGI. Pretty much below average, I wouldn't want to see it again. That sure seems to be a common comment on the SF films that are available for free on Amazon Prime. Admittedly they are the ones that I haven't seen already. There are plenty of good SF films out there, I should watch some of those sometime.

Science Fiction Sunday 560

Branded is a 2012 Russian American film that takes a potshot at advertising. It's all allegorical and shit. I didn't find it that entertaining but I got through to the end. I wouldn't want to see it again.

The Jurassic Games is a 2018 action movie with dinosaurs eating people. Sadly it's all digital. The games of the title are a sadistic battle royal pitting 10 death row prisoners against each other. They are hooked into a deadly VR machine and their digital versions are on the TV screens. If they die in the game they die in real life. The VR machine injects them with a deadly poison. The live TV host is a nob end and the producer is a cold heartless bitch. There's a movement to stop the show and one of the prisoners might be innocent. All the rest of the prisoners are cookie cutter vicious and stupid. It's all runny chasey fighty with dinosaurs. The dinos look fairly good but the movie is barely average to me. Not a movie I'm going to need to see again.

Science Fiction Sunday 559

Fast Color is a 2018 film about some ladies with mental powers and the government dicks after them. It's more a family drama than anything. There's lots of talking and little action. I thought it dragged a bit. I wouldn't need to see it again.

Replikator is a 1994 Canadian movie about cloning problems. It's some corporate secret project bullshit that wasn't much fun. It's a sucky future and the population needs replacement body parts. I liked Ned Beatty but I didn't care for most of the other characters. The poster features Italian pornstar and politician Ilona Staller, La Ciccolina is her porn name, she appears for little or no reason and doesn't even take her clothes off. The rest of the movie is people chasing each other around, there's dirty dealing and double crossing going on, it's all rather sordid and uninteresting. The movie scores low on the IMDb for good reason.