I must admit that I was a little reluctant to rent this latest outing from "Re-Animator" director Stuart Gordon because, quite frankly, the story did not appeal to me. I finally was in the mood to see it one night and it was a pleasant surprise. The video store clerk was babbling something about how bad it was which also piqued my interest as I usually seem to like stuff that the average Joe would deem as "crap". This tells me that a movie is not average and might have some redeeming value. "Space Truckers" was saved by Stuart Gordon. If this movie had been directed by some hack director with no vision, it would have sucked major pineapple but because Stuart Gordon believed in the idea so much and spent so much time trying to get it to the screen, you can see his passion. The set design is completely original and the robot design is a cross between Giger aliens, the robot in "Saturn 3", and Natasha Henstridge in the non-sexy state in "Species". Dennis Hopper stars as John Canyon, a space trucker who is good at what he does but is having trouble staying independent and not becoming a company man. He agrees to haul a load of unknown cargo to Earth and he brings along a hot shot kid (Stephen Dorff) and the girl he hopes to marry (Debi Mazar). They decide to take a shortcut through what is known as the scum cluster and they meet up with an evil mutant bio-guy who dresses like a SS commandant and has a pull cord boner. The robots are cool looking, the effects are quite good, and dare I say it, the story wasn't bad either. Look for appearances from Gordon regular Barbara Crampton as Mazar's mom and the obnoxious mohawk villain from "The Road Warrior" as an obnoxious henchman.
This is another one of those "I should have seen this a long time ago movies" that for some reason I neglected to see. The basic premise concerns a future society where every one of our pleasures and desires are catered to and life is meant for the sole purpose of enjoyment. The only catch is that you are forbidden to live past the age of thirty. Those who refuse to accept their fate willingly are known as runners and these people make an attempt to leave the society to find a place called Sanctuary. There a a group of police known as Sandmen whose job is to hunt down these runners and terminate them. Logan is a Sandman who is assigned to find Sanctuary and destroy it but he must go undercover as a runner to do so. He meets a girl named Jessica and together they seek Sanctuary and are relentlessly pursued by Logan's former partner and best friend, Francis, when Logan turns his back on society and his mission. The nearly perfect casting of the key players includes Michael York ("The Three Musketeers") as Logan, Jenny Agutter ("An American Werewolf In London") as Jessica, Richard Jordan as Francis, and Peter Ustinov as an old man. We also see Farrah Fawcett in her pre-"Charlie's Angels" days and Roscoe Lee Browne as a robot. "Logan's Run" is a great example of a seventies sci-fi movie with great effects, a really cool and original idea, and a style all it's own courtesy of director Michael Anderson, cinematographer Ernest Laszlo, and production designer Dale Henessy. It's too bad that they are going to remake this.
I was scared shitless for years after seeing this when I was young thanks to the emotionally scarring "hell" sequence that Disney decided to put into this "kids" movie. Most people write this off as a bad "Star Wars" rip-off but I really liked this movie. Perhaps it is because it revels in its cheesiness or perhaps it is because it has kind of a cool story. Maybe it's because the robots and other effects are really cool or maybe it is because it has a cast of ex-stars that make b-movies so much fun. Robert Forster stars as Dan Holland, the captain of a small spaceship called the Palomino that is cruising the universe looking for stuff. Soon, they find a really big ship called the Cygnus that is teetering on the brink of a black hole. This ship is occupied by a nutcase named Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell), a robot army, a humanoid work force, and Reinhardt's lover (I mean henchman robot) named Maximilian. Forster's crew consists of a cowardly old guy played by Ernest Borgnine ("The Poseidon Adventure"), a creepy scientist (Anthony Perkins), a babe (Yvette Mimieux), a hotshot co-pilot (Joseph Bottoms), and a lippy robot named Vincent (voice by Roddy McDowall). Lots of stuff happens on the Cygnus including it being pummeled by giant meteors as well as a couple of gunfights. The effects are really good for the time and I still really enjoy the movie today. I'm glad that Anchor Bay re-released a widescreen version of this and I still don't understand why it gets such mediocre reviews. As a b-movie, this is one of the best science fiction pictures ever made as it was fun to watch and had all the right ingredients. Director Gary Nelson went on to make "Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold" and a LOT of TV movies.
This
was a decent thriller in the "occult induced child" genre of the
seventies that began with "The Exorcist".
Marsha Mason and John Beck star as a couple who are living happily with
their daughter Ivy except for the fact that the daughter is having horrible
nightmares and that there is a creepy man following their daughter around.
It turns out that the creepy man was the girl's father but she died
horribly and was reincarnated as Ivy.
Her name before she died was Audrey Rose and unfortunately both
personalities are intertwined in the body of Ivy.
Audrey's father is played convincingly by Anthony Hopkins (and I noticed
some Hannibal The Cannibal creepiness that I have not really noticed in any of
his other roles).
The most important role in the show was also played the best and this is
the role of Audrey/Ivy and the performance by Susan Swift.
This girl broke into some really crazy fits and they were extremely convincing as she was burning her hands on cold glass and flying through the
room like the Tasmanian devil.
This movie was a bomb back in its day but I thought that director Robert
Wise did a good job.
This
is the first film in the series of Andy Sidaris "girls with guns"
movies that was actually lacking substance or perhaps there was too much.
All of the other movies that I have seen of these had alright stories and
enough b-movie conventions to make them entertaining as what they were,
b-movies.
I would almost compare Sidaris to Russ Meyer in the fact that he knew
when it was and wasn't ok to show some skin and he showed enough to merit the
box cover and what the fans have come to expect.
Unfortunately, this latest film in the Sidaris genre seems to have
reversed its intentions and it now seems like the plot is there only as a mere
outline to see ample boobs.
I guess that I am trying to say that I was looking for a silly b-movie
that I have come to expect but I almost felt like I rented a special interest
T&A tape.
What I got out of the plot was that L.E.T.H.A.L. force was trying to
recover some treasure from Savage Beach (another Sidaris film) while also
avoiding being killed by the evil Phantom of the Opera mask wearing weirdo named
Rodrigo.
That's the plot and it is carried out by such Sidaris regulars as Rodrigo
Obregon, Julie K. Smith, Julie Strain, and the relatively new Shae Marks.
We also see Carrie Westcott, Ava Cadell, Carolyn Liu, wrestler Marcus
Bagwell, martial arts regular Gerald Okamura, and Heavy Metal editor/husband of
Julie Strain Kevin Eastman.
The lead guys were really really bad and did not have the cult appeal of
Bruce Penhall or Erik Estrada.
I can't say that this film was a complete departure for Sidaris as it
still had the remote control bombs, a James Bond rip-off title sequence featuring
Julie Strain swimming to bad music, a skidoo chase, and lots of stuff blew up.
I just have to say that we could have done without the stripper fantasy
sequence and the "let's go for a swim before we have to have an action
scene and let's expose our breasts under water for no reason" scene.
I guess that Andy thought there was a reason for the extra
nudity. I
guess that I would just rather it be a part of the story.
I
liked the look of this film and I really enjoyed the whole film up until the
last half hour.
I don't know if I missed something or what happened but I felt that
most of the suspense disappeared and I ended up feeling kind of cheated.
I guess with such an incredibly strong buildup and sense of dread, I felt
very disappointed with such a tidy ending.
As for the rest of the film, it had an incredible look, great
performances, way above average cinematography and some creative and interesting
editing techniques that are seldom seen anymore (eg. split screens, wipes, etc.)
An ensemble cast of James Olson, Kate Reid, Arthur Hill, and David Wayne
star as a team of scientists who are brought in to figure out what killed an entire
small town save for an old man and a baby after a satellite crashed.
The team is brought to a government facility called Wildfire which
investigates biological viruses and the like.
The facility is very cool as it consists of five levels each with a
different color and varying degrees of sanitation.
The teams must go though a cleansing process and then investigate the old
man and the baby to try and figure out why they survived the mass death.
These scenes of the descent to level five were my favorite scenes of the
movie although the whole thing was very enjoyable.
I also liked the fact that our "heroes" all had flaws and the
fact that director Robert Wise gave the viewer a little credit in that he used
scientific explanations to explain the problem rather than explaining everything
in layman's terms as we see too often in science fiction movies.
I guess that is why I was so disappointed by the climax.
It seemed to cave to the Hollywood ideal of pleasing the masses with a
little bit of action and seemed to drop some of the intelligence.
On the whole, this film is highly recommended as long as you don't dwell
on the end.
Kind of like "Interview With The Vampire".
Maybe it's just because I am a guy in my twenties but I didn't mind this movie. I mean, it held my attention. Maybe it is because the costume designer chose to make costumes that reveal just enough of Pia Zadora's assets to keep a young male (or older male) interested. Or maybe it is because the movie wasn't half bad. Stacy Keach stars as Jess Tyler, a watchman of an abandoned mine that lives in a shack in the desert by himself until his long lost daughter (Zadora) decides to pay him a visit and tempt him with her sex appeal (for whatever reason). The movie studies their relationship and slowly builds up to the inevitable brief sex scene and it's aftermath. I thought Pia was pretty good in the role as was surprised as all I have really heard about her is that she is one of the worst actresses ever and I always think that she starred in "Roller Boogie" for some reason but that was Linda Blair. The performances by everyone were descent and although this story contains the same relationship structure as "Melrose Place", it was entertaining as the silly sexy melodrama that it was. Some of the other cast members include Orson Welles as a judge, James Franciscus ("Beneath The Planet of the Apes") as a redneck, Stuart Whitman ("Shatter") as a preacher, Ed McMahon as a rich tycoon, and genre giant Buck Flower as a hillbilly redneck. I would recommend this movie if you collect rare movies and see it for sale for $5 of under. I guess it wasn't that good.
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