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 842

Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams Series 1 2017-8 Developed by Ronald D Moore and Michael Dinner. Ten episodes based on PKD short stories aired on Amazon Prime in 2017-2018.

Half the episodes were filmed in the UK and half in the US. There's a bunch of name actors involved: Timothy Spall,Geraldine Chaplin, Steve Buscemi, Greg Kinnear, Sam Witwer, Anna Paquin, Maura Tierney and Brian Cranston were the ones I knew. There were plenty more I didn't know.

Episode Titles and Story Title:

The Hood Maker - The Hood Maker

Impossible Planet - The Impossible Planet

The Commuter - The Commuter

Crazy Diamond - Sales Pitch

Real Life - Exhibit Piece

Human Is - Human Is

The Father Thing - The Father Thing

Autofac - Autofac

Safe And Sound - Foster, You're Dead

Kill All Others - The Hanging Stranger

The episodes were about 50 mins each and the stories adapted were rewritten, some more than others. The Hanging Stranger get re-titled Kill All Others and the story changed from a secret alien invasion to mind control by the government. I actually read the story just a few mins ago. Way different. Autofac was a bit more like the story. I didn't check any of the other stories. 

Enjoyment wise, it's a mixed bag, some I found more interesting than others. Some just left me cold, I didn't care for those stories. It's often compared to Black Mirror, which started in 2011, the 3rd Series came out in 2016, PKD's Electric Dreams came out the following year. It has a similar feel but not quite as sharp as BM. Sometimes BM leaves me cold too. I still prefer Charlie's Wipe Work.

I don't think I'll ever get back to Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams but I know I'll watch some of my favorite Black Mirror stories again. 

Science Fiction Sunday 841

Karaoke 1996 Written by Dennis Potter and directed by Renny Rye. A BBC & Channel 4 co-production. Dennis Potter was dying of pancreatic cancer during the writing and production of the TV productions.

Albert Finny plays Daniel Feeld, he's a well known and well paid writer, he writes books, plays and TV programs. He likes to drink, lately he's been feeling poorly. Daniel's out at a restaurant with his agent Ben. Daniel thinks he hears people at another table speaking lines from his as yet unreleased TV program Karaoke. It's being edited as Daniel and Ben have a drink. Trouble is, the table is too far away, Ben isn't hearing any lines, neither is Anna, the producer on Karaoke who just dropped by for a chat. Daniel drinks more and his agent gives him a ride home. Daniel gets out of the car, goes for another drink and collapses in the bar.

Daniel's taken to hospital. While there he learns there's something seriously wrong with him. He'd better get his house in order. Daniel decides to write a play set in the future. We meet a bunch of people over the 4 hours, several stories are revealed, small incidents give Daniel his end plans. He helps some people and punishes a really bad man. Couldn't ask for a better ending.

There's a good cast, the ones I knew were Albert Finney, Roy Rudd. Richard E Grant, Keeley Hawes, Hywel Bennett, Saffron Burroughs, Ian McDiarmid, Liz Smith, Alison Steadman, Julie Christie, Fay Ripley and Ewan MaGregor. It's a good production with plenty of interesting bits going on. The musical numbers were worked in well and there's a nice version of Pennies From Heaven near the end.

Cold Lazarus 1996 Written by Dennis Potter and directed by Renny Rye. Each story was aired as 4 episodes, each about an hour.

In 2370 some scientists are working in a bio-lab in Britain. They're trying to access the memories of Daniel Feeld's long frozen brain. They've managed to retrieve some memories but with great cost. The company that owns the lab is headed by a horrible woman called Martina, she's tightfisted with her cash and vindictive when you go over budget. She's not happy with the lab spending so much money on some bio products and cuts it's budget. A media company owner called David is thinking he needs to steal the head and peddle the memories as reality TV. He approaches the head of the lab and she's interested in his money. David's offering a lot of cash.

The Britain of the future has a heavily damaged landscape with armed guards guarding buildings. Conglomerates run things and the police are rather fascist. Citizen's stay home and experience virtual reality. There's a resistance groups called RoN, they want Reality or Nothing. They're disruptive and murderous. One of people in the lab is in the group. There's a good amount of time spent on the RoN part of the story. I found it the least interesting bit of the story.

The head is stolen and installed in David's lab. Lots of money and equipment open up more memories. Things go south after that. Most of the lab staff don't make it to the end of the story. It's a tough world in the future. There's a good bit of story near the end pondering the ethical side of revealing a person's memories to the general public as entertainment. 

Besides Albert Finney I knew some of the cast, Frances de la Tour, Ciarán Hinds, Henry Goodman, Donald Sumpter and Rob Brydon as a head in a jar.

I enjoyed both stories. I hadn't seen them before. Not sure if I'd watch them again.

Science Fiction Sunday 840

Alien Domicile 2: Lot 24 2018 Written and directed by Curtis Johnson.

Some young people vacation in the woods. Rachel's uncle disappeared from the woods and no one knows where he went. Things go badly for the campers. The local sheriff isn't much help.

It's got a poor script and equally poor actors. It gets a 2.2 on the IMDb because 59.8% of the 674 vote are a 7. At least the jokers didn't give them 403 #10 votes. I gave it a 1, it was filled with boredom and cliches. Don't watch it, I won't even tell you where I saw it. I'd seen Alien Domicile several years ago and it wasn't very good either.

Project Ithaca 2019 Written by Anthony Artibello and Kevin C Bjerkness, directed by Nicholas Humphries. A Canadian SF film about an encounter with aliens. I watched it on Amazon Prime.

Aliens are harvesting humans as a power source. The human's are trying to figure out what's going on. The humans were harvested over a large period of time, from 2000 to 2400. The alien's can somehow move through time. The human's are placed in a room of five with some organic tech that attacks their bodies and extracts the fear which the aliens covert to energy. The pod of people we see are the ones that break the alien system. A telepath and a researcher are the main characters, they're the ones that figure out what's going. They damage the aliens only to have another alien armada come through a jump point in space.

Unlike a lot of the newer SF films I've been watching this one was fairly decent. It gets a 4.1 on the IMDb, that's about right, I gave it a generous 5. I enjoyed enough of it but I don't see myself watching it again anytime soon.

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 838

The Martians And Us 2006 Written by Laura Humphreys, directed by Rachel Bell, Lucie Donahue and Laura Humphreys. Narrated by Peter Capaldi.

A three episode documentary on British SF writers and Martians. Commenting are Kim Newman, Brian Stableford, Doris Lessing, Brian Aldiss, Will Self, Arthur C Clarke, Margaret Atwood, Nigel Kneale, Christopheer Priest, Iain Banks, China Miéville, John Christopher and several other people I didn't know.

Plenty of info on SF writers of the past by current SF writers,. I thought it was entertaining despite being 20 years old. You can watch the episodes on YouTube.

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 836

Displacement 2016 Screenplay by Kenneth Mader and Chelsey Crisp, directed by Kenneth Mader.

A woman gets caught in a time slip and has to repeat bits of her life. It might have been interesting but I've seen this sort of thing many times before. The script is a bit of a let down, bad because there's a lot of conversation. Some of the cast do better than others. It's all rather slow on top of that. Even at 1.5 speed it plodded along. Not something I would want to see again.

Light Years Away 2006 Written and directed by Bryan Michael Stoller.

Christopher Knight used to play Peter Bradey on The Brady Bunch. In this movies he's called David and he's an astronomer who's discovered a new planet. Eric Robert's Dr Howard Melvin, he's another astronomer but he's working on getting a space telescope launched. His project is shot down but he steals David's new find and convinces some backers to fund the rocket launch. David tries to get justice from the college but they toss him aside. The rest of the movie is David trying to recover his work while dealing with an ethereal lady from the planet he's discovered. Eventually the truth comes out, Dr Melvin is dishonored by his actions, David gets his job back and the misty lady becomes his solid new wife.

It's a bag of cliches and familiar plot points. Another one I didn't need to watch. I got through to the end with a little help from the variable speed control. Both are on YouTube, view at your own risk.

Science Fiction Sunday 835

Masters Of Science Fiction - The Complete Series 2007

A series of six stories that were adapted from SF writers John Kessel, Howard Fast, Robert A Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Walter Mosley and Robert Sheckley.

The stories are a mixed lot but none of them are very positive. Kessell's is post apocalypse, Fast's story has alien's tell the Earth to stop fighting among themselves or die, Heinlein's story is about a synthetic man who just wants a cigarette or some candy, Ellison's story is about a plague ship of mutants getting screwed by the Earth government, Mosley's story is a look at laws and policing, Sheckley's story is about a robotic bird that meters out justice.

Mick Garris is involved and this is a series that apes the format of his Masters Of Horror series. Like that series the stories here have a bit of a sting at the end that reminds me the future isn't going to be so bright with certain people in charge. Sadly the message isn't going to get to the bad people, they don't read or watch this sort of nonsense.

The production values are pretty good and there are plenty of great actors in the cast. Most of the stories were OK but I didn't think I'd bother with the series again. I've got more entertaining shows to watch and rewatch.

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.