This is the type of campy craziness that the Syfy network wished it could do. Basically a bunch of ninjas are ninjaing about. There's a little rivalry between them all but mostly they are a bunch of good guys for murdering assassins. SUDDENLY!! a huge fireball descends from the heavens.
Well now the ninjas have to fight killer aliens of the "Aliens" school of extraterrestials. Can ninja skill defeat monsters from beyond? Of course it can, but it's still a fun fight to watch.
The aliens are knock offs but good ones. They remind me of certain burrowing amphibians if they were eight feet tall and had more sharp edges than a Lewis Black routine. They also have cute mind control fetuses which lead to an incredibly tasteless but funny scene as the ninjas are forced to pull out cute gummy fetuses from the throats of their brother ninjas.
Overall a fun film if you don't think about things, and why would you?? Enjoy.
STRANGE SPANNERS being an accounting of strangeness of the warp and woof of my mind For those of you new here, think of this as 1/2 "Night Gallery" Our Motto: Nos somnium quisnam es futurus fatum quod insolitus tutus vos!
Showing posts with label SF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SF. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Gintama
When the Japanese let themselves go, they don't muck around. This is daffy, loony toons anime. It's set in an alternate Japan where aliens have landed and banned swords putting the samurai out of work. One of these fellows is Gintama our hero, we know he's our hero cause they say so. He and his band of warriors have formed an odd jobs corporation where they will fight the good fight for a good price. From this premise is spun just wild ass craziness. The characters are constantly breaking the 4th wall as they bounce of the walls from one crazy siuation to another.
Honestly I don't get all the jokes since many are cultural in jokes on other parts of Japanese media, but for every joke I didn't get there were five that I did making it a joy to watch. It had enough energy to keep me going.
Honestly I don't get all the jokes since many are cultural in jokes on other parts of Japanese media, but for every joke I didn't get there were five that I did making it a joy to watch. It had enough energy to keep me going.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Moby Dick 2010
The Asylum is a slick little outfit that tries to be the Syfy of direct to DVD movies. They have two general strategies. The first is to see what's coming out in theaters and then make a quick knock off of it and release it direct to DVD at the same time it is in theaters. Their second idea is to take something that is in the public domain and name rape it enough to direct their version of it to DVD.
Hello Moby Dick 2010.
Ok, they get points for keeping all the names of the characters in the book. Also, there IS a whale so I guess that counts. Other than that, there's no real connection between the book in the movie. Here we have submarines being attacked by a 500 foot long CGI whale. A one foot Captain Ahab is chasing said whale in his custom sub and he picks up a lady scientist because she knows whale sounds and because you need a lady scientist of course. Ships get sunk and nukes get used, and still is fairly boring 90% of the time. About the only clearly cool moment of the movie is where Ahab has lost his foot again so takes an old cross off a grave and puts it on like a size nine. Other than that this is a miss and a whiff.
Hello Moby Dick 2010.
Ok, they get points for keeping all the names of the characters in the book. Also, there IS a whale so I guess that counts. Other than that, there's no real connection between the book in the movie. Here we have submarines being attacked by a 500 foot long CGI whale. A one foot Captain Ahab is chasing said whale in his custom sub and he picks up a lady scientist because she knows whale sounds and because you need a lady scientist of course. Ships get sunk and nukes get used, and still is fairly boring 90% of the time. About the only clearly cool moment of the movie is where Ahab has lost his foot again so takes an old cross off a grave and puts it on like a size nine. Other than that this is a miss and a whiff.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Damn You Roger Corman
Roger Corman has entered that stage of his career that we could call, "The Victory Lap." He has gone from exploitation master, to indie fav, to joke, to now a well respected icon of cinema. Good for him, he deserves it. No one can stay alive in the business as long as he has without doing a lot of things right. Some of his movies are truly good films.
Then there are "The Terror Within," and "Dead Space." Both made late in career pretty much in the joke phase. Unfortunately, I didn't laugh. Maybe if I had some company or if I were one to partake of certain herbs it would have helped.
The Terror Within is alien. Creature bursts out victim. Grows big. Eats people. The End. Roll Credits. Of course there are differences, there has to be according to the lawyers. Here our core group are gutsy survivors in a government lab in the middle of the mojave desert. They have survived a super plague but things are looking grim supplies wise. They discover a bunch of dead people and a suspiciously pregnant woman. They take the woman in and suddenly they have a mutant problem. The mutant looks like a peeled alligator crossed with the pillsbury doughboy. Not very frightening. Like other films of this era the mutant is a serial rapist. Oh goody, oh joy oh fun. Not.
Dead Space, is forbidden world. Yes Corman rips off himself. Space jockey goes to an alien world where a lab specimen has gotten out of control. Our space Jockey is played by Beastmaster Marc Singer as he waits for a check. There is nothing else going on here.
To be fair, both films have decent values of production given a dollar and ten cent budget. Corman by this time had a crew of old hands and hungry young students that tried to do as much as they can with a smoke machine and a corridor. One the commentary track of Dead space the director said he had just finished his UCLA student film when Corman asked him direct a movie week from then. The student asked for a script and Corman said, "It will be there when you get to the set." Corman was true to his word, but it shows just how crazy tight things were at the house of Corman.
Then there are "The Terror Within," and "Dead Space." Both made late in career pretty much in the joke phase. Unfortunately, I didn't laugh. Maybe if I had some company or if I were one to partake of certain herbs it would have helped.
The Terror Within is alien. Creature bursts out victim. Grows big. Eats people. The End. Roll Credits. Of course there are differences, there has to be according to the lawyers. Here our core group are gutsy survivors in a government lab in the middle of the mojave desert. They have survived a super plague but things are looking grim supplies wise. They discover a bunch of dead people and a suspiciously pregnant woman. They take the woman in and suddenly they have a mutant problem. The mutant looks like a peeled alligator crossed with the pillsbury doughboy. Not very frightening. Like other films of this era the mutant is a serial rapist. Oh goody, oh joy oh fun. Not.
Dead Space, is forbidden world. Yes Corman rips off himself. Space jockey goes to an alien world where a lab specimen has gotten out of control. Our space Jockey is played by Beastmaster Marc Singer as he waits for a check. There is nothing else going on here.
To be fair, both films have decent values of production given a dollar and ten cent budget. Corman by this time had a crew of old hands and hungry young students that tried to do as much as they can with a smoke machine and a corridor. One the commentary track of Dead space the director said he had just finished his UCLA student film when Corman asked him direct a movie week from then. The student asked for a script and Corman said, "It will be there when you get to the set." Corman was true to his word, but it shows just how crazy tight things were at the house of Corman.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Syfy update....
Syfy, you still suck.
Behemoth was horrid, and worse boring. Take the old Mt. St. Helen story, then mix in global warming concerns and 2012 fears. Then add a dash of poorly realized monster and have the actors point in random directions. I'd almost give you points for an original creature design but I own that album cover from Blue Oyster Cult.
I still have my fingers crossed on "Being Human," since the folks in charge of the weekly shows have nothing to do with the movie division and vice versa.
Behemoth was horrid, and worse boring. Take the old Mt. St. Helen story, then mix in global warming concerns and 2012 fears. Then add a dash of poorly realized monster and have the actors point in random directions. I'd almost give you points for an original creature design but I own that album cover from Blue Oyster Cult.
I still have my fingers crossed on "Being Human," since the folks in charge of the weekly shows have nothing to do with the movie division and vice versa.
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