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Reviews
Erotica X: Midnight Threeway (2019)
New Comedy Team
Aidra and Tyler make a passionate couple. And they also are good at comedy. They have come upon their niche area. Also their film Morning Sex, for romanticism.
The Removals (2016)
What did he say?
Basically incoherent. Combined with the attack of the Traffic Cones. You might be able to understand the story-line, if it was not for the atonal music, and unceasing background sound effects, that drown out the majority of the dialogue. It taps on the theme of 1984's constant rewriting history, but the baddies do it in real-time.
Ellipse (2019)
A dog's life.
Don't be fooled: the star of this film is the dog: Mac. The 'space pilot' Jim is a loser, who has no bearing, and for some reason is wearing the patch of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. So space dude and dog are walkin' and walkin,' in the desert and forests, and all that planetary stuff. And he's an alcoholic, just to round things out. Space dog has save space dude, because dude is in a drunken stupor. But he film is a nice travelogue of the west. Enjoy.
Senn (2013)
A good journey
An interesting and absorbing film. The film is able to avoid almost all science fiction cliques, and that is an immediate positive, with an inventive plot-line. The two main characters move from a life of drudgery to one of possibilities, and you can't help but feel moved for them. The special effects only enhance the story, not overwhelm it. The story is almost like a fairly tale, not of the sanitized Disney type, but in the end it is a film that just makes you feel good.
Horsehead (2014)
Artsy-Fartsy
What does Artsy-Fartsy produce? It produces horse-s**t. And that about all that can be said about this car wreck. Every time a new plot element is introduced, its just left there hanging with no resolution. The director spends a lot time on images to go on and on and on. He violated the first tenant of horror movies: tell a good scary story that is coherent. I am continuously amazed how people can be bamboozled into spending real money to make these phoney art films. And the people who think they just seen something magnificent are more confused that the director.
Terminus (2015)
Good things in small packages.
A surprisingly well made little film. With nice atmospherics, and standout introspective performances. With its telegraphing of world events, you know the two routes that film might take. But it is able to keep your attention without the standard heroic stances. Actually it is some of the character's short comings that enhance the film. And its reversal of the alien invasion theme is rewarding. It shows that good science fiction films do not need a Lucas budget. The 94 minutes is a good investment of your time.
This Is Not a Test (1962)
If you take this test, you will not fail.
Regardless of what the critics and some Sci-Fi buffs say this is a very good film. Yes small budget. Yes in black white. And with a cast of unknown actors. Although they are out in the Californian desert, and it is still night, as the Deputy Sheriff gathers his disparate group of travellers, their situation gets increasingly oppressive, ominous, and finally claustrophobic, as they wait for the bomb. One person at a time begins to lose their nerve and sanity. And if that's not enough, on the fringes, there's psychopathic serial killer, who won't leave until he gets possession of his suitcase. But not even he can escape, so he takes his frustration out on truckload of chickens. And of course there is the Deputy Sheriff, who from the first moment seems wound a bit too tight, we cannot find any sympathy for, as he too slowly becomes unhinged. Who commits unthinkable crime! The characters are all prisoners of their time, when Americans still believed in authority, did what they are told, that the government never lies, and that the police were the good guys. A must see film. It is a cult classic, without having a cult.
Sette uomini d'oro nello spazio (1979)
A movie from The Alcatraz of the Heavens!!!!
Star Odyssey is an 1979 Italian Sci-Fi Semi Space Opera, which cannot make up its mind if its serious or a comedy or both. Earth in the future is under invasion. It is sold in auction to the same Evil leader (whose face is built of gold mosaic squares), that's doing the invading. They are abducting people to be sold on the galactic slave market. All the men at earth defenses either wear mustaches or have male pattern baldness. There is a reclusive bald headed master scientist, with extensive psychic abilities, who can save the world, but first must put together his 'team.' It includes his busty nice, two escaped scientists prisoners from THE Alcatraz of the heavens, a lover boy and cheating gambling addict, a human acrobat who prize-fights with robots, and two suicidal robots salvaged from the junk yard (who are not the smartest tin cans in the world). There is of course, a lot pseudo-light saber fighting( they are cardboard swords with fluorescent paint), and a lot of circus music. The movie is also know as Space Odyssey, Metallica, Captive Planet, and Seven Gold Men In Space. I swear I cannot make this up.
Helix (2014)
The writers tried, but died like all the characters
Although Helix is a serious show, I do not think the producers considered it to be. Especially with its smirky jingle for its title music, or the sophomoric insertion of old pop music tunes during dramatic non-dialogue parts. Oh yeah, another thing: where did these immortals come from? Are they marooned E.T.s? Offspring of E.T.s? And the Mother Tree? And the Bleeding Tree? And spreading an infection using bees? That's stolen from The X-Files. Billy Campbell's acting is tops. But the writers do not know direction in which to send him.
A Field in England (2013)
Beware, The Shrooms!
Well what can we say about this disaster? First we have four guys leaving a 17th battle in order to find themselves beer. First they chow down on magic mushrooms, and then 'dig' up an alchemist- conjurer, who forces to them look for, you guessed it, buried treasure, so he can pay off his debts and rule the world. I was expecting Vincent Price's Witch Finder General to show up. The movie was filmed in black and white for some 'artistic' reason that escapes me. I think the investors saw what was happening, and started to pull their money, so now they had to go cheap. Ignore all the praise for its photography, and its underlining meaning because there is none. There are a number of hallucinogenic sequences that you can miss. We are also treated to someone coming back from the dead, and an ending that makes no sense. And of course, our 'heroes' never do get that beer.
Love (2011)
I, alone, am escaped to tell thee
So in 1864 a four star general (they really only three star Generals back then), orders a Captain to go out west to record a discovery, which is the Barringer Crater in Arizona, which seems to have in it a crashed alien ship? Probe? Device? Or dare I say it, Monolith? It is not exactly clear what happens to it in the intervening 181 years. I assume its responsible for killing off human life. When Miller finds the 'book,' with a massive index of names followed by a reference number for each of them, you might think its is a genetic electro-magnetic regeneration code to repopulate the earth. Wait a second isn't that Demon With A Glass Hand? And to save everyone some time and let-down, the ending is the same as 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film is supposedly about Love, but we only have the writer-director's word for it.
Wayward Pines (2015)
Maybe a Spoiler
I am wondering whether Pines is version of the Outer Limits episode "Feasibility Study." This episode was also remade in the second reboot of the series. As those dastardly aliens kidnap humans on a grand scale. For those unfamiliar with Feasibility Study, Aliens (ETs), simply dig up a neighborhood with its human population and ship them to their home-world. The study is to ascertain whether humans would make good slaves for the ETs, since they cannot do physical labor. The ET home world has a harsh environment outside the barrier, and a contact disease that kills by calcifying soft tissue. Of course everyone recognizes the similarities with Patrick Mcgoohan's The Prisoner. Except in The Village, they were English, who did not go around slitting throats. That's where the smoldering evil came from: the civilized English, never, never getting their hands bloody. Be seeing you!