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November 2002 Damnaliens DVD Review by Steve Sawicki
Note: order the films from Amazon by
following the hyperlinks to buy junk food for the aliens and keep them
away from the dog.) Want a second opinion? We suggest www.imdb.com
- Ernest
Let’s kick aside the
detritus of the Fall and get ready for those long cold days of Winter. Now’s
the time to start picking out what DVD’s you’ll be watching over and over and
over again as the snow piles against the door. This is particularly true for
those of you in Buffalo who have already had snow and typically see hundreds of
inches of the white stuff. Of course Miami also sees hundreds of inches of the
white stuff too but that’s a different story. I’m giving up on the rating
system as no one really seemed to understand it, myself included, and I’m
falling back on the old Roman saying, Caveat Emptor. This is my new motto. It
goes right under my old motto which was ‘hey, are you going to finish that?’
And speaking of themes, we’re going bare this month so feel free to make up your
own, but be careful it’s not the kind of work for a novice.
Recent
Releases / Classics
/ SFTV / Anime
Recent
Releases -
Because
there are still probably close to six people out there who haven’t seen this
yet, I’m leading off with
Star Wars II, Attack of the Clones, and I’m
going to tell everyone now that there’s a spoiler coming so if you want to
savor the mystery then read on at your own expense. Clones shows that Lucas
still knows how to put on a show even if he has forgotten how to write. It’s
a bit odd watching these things because we know so much about their future.
Oh yeah, and the annoying Jar Jar does not get killed. Even with that it’s
still pretty to watch, if a bit too long.
Some
would say I’ve given in to the dark side while others would say it’s simply my
quest for balance, but I felt, given the Star Wars entry that this deserved some
mention as well.
Chopper
Chicks in Zombietown, is a Troma entry so you know it’s got nothing
going for it at all except for cheap effects, scantily dressed women and a plot
that was written by the director’s dog between naps. So, run for your lives,
that would be away from the zombies and toward the chopper chicks for those of
you who might be wondering.
Reign
Of Fire, has everything you’d want in a movie; dragons, post apocalyptic
destruction, dragons, gritty realistic grit, dragons, helicopters, dragons and,
lest we forget, the all important dragons. This is a film about, well,
dragons. They’re everywhere and, given that, and the fact that they seemingly
have destroyed the planet, you’d think they’d be hard to get rid of. Evidently
not as the flick advises. So, lock and load, and use the forts Duke, at least
until they’re burned to the ground
Not
a flick or a movie or even a series of short-shorts but the one thing all of
them need to survive.
All
Monsters Attack, is a series of trailers from 55 different movies. You
get all the standards, King King, Godzilla, Kronos, Gorgo, Gwangi, plus that
woman and the Colossal Man and Yog, Monster from Space. See cities get attacked
by all manner of giant insects and the occasional mammal. Think of all the time
you’ll save by not having to watch the actual movies? A great idea and great
fun to put during a party where you don’t have to spend a lot of time stuck to
the screen.
And
now for a total waste of film, time and talent. The powers behind
Men
In Black II, thinks so badly of it’s audience that they didn’t even
bother to write a new story. This is nothing more than a remade Men In Black,
although the funny bits aren’t funny because we’ve seen them, and the shockers
aren’t shocking for the same reason and the whole thing just stinks to high
heaven which is the exact opposite direction most of the folks in Hollyweird are
heading for foisting this crap on us month after month after month. Sheesh,
they should have had someone with those memory wipe things at the exits.
Classics -
Okay,
so there’s bound to be some holdovers from Halloween.
Curse Of
The Vampires, is one of those flicks that really makes you wonder just
what were they thinking? First off the real name of this is Blood of the
Vampire so while they’ve changed the name everywhere else they forgot to
change it on the box. Makes it kind of hard to find unless you really, really
look. And why would you want to do that? The box says this is so scary that
you’ll be gripping your own throat. I don’t think you’ll be gripping it from
fear though.
What do you get when you
cross Beast Master and Clash Of The Titans? Well something like
Hawk The
Slayer. This flick is put together from
pieces of other post apocalyptic/fantasy movies and it’s done in such a poor way
that it’s not even fun playing identify the B-Movie parts. Jack Palance is in
this which makes you wonder if all those rumors are true.
SFTV
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Now
that the Fall television season has self destructed we can turn back to
see what television used to be like in the old days.
The X-Files, The Complete 6th Season. Of course as
time passes the crap rises to the top and there’s more and more of it.
There are 23 episodes in this season and probably more than half are
barely watchable. Well, you can watch them but you laugh a lot at the
idiocy. The remaining episodes contain about a half dozen great ones and
an equal number of really good ones. Nothing really gets tied up because
that would end the show. Instead we get more teases and more questions
than answers, along with the occasional alien, demonic baby, time travel
escapade (they must watch Star Trek), mutant beast, and conspiracy
cartels.
Gene
Roddenberry is seen as a genius by most when in actuality he’s not much more
than a one idea guy. Roddenberry wanted to do westerns in space. In fact,
Roddenberry wanted to do Firefly. Instead he got to do Star Trek and ended up
being hailed a genius. Andromeda, taken from notes scanned off Roddenberry’s
DNA by an electron microscope, hit the tv screens last year. It’s been pretty
much a wash, falling into that great wasteland of shows on the non big three
networks and having to make very little money to stay alive. Now, you can
relive many of those adventures once again with the release of
Andromeda
Season 1, Vol 3. That is you could watch it if the studio actually
decided to release it, which, at this time, they have not.
Anime
-
I find that either
you like this stuff or you don’t. Very few people run luke warm on it. As
for me, I like it when it’s good which is not very often.
Star
Blazers, Comet Empire Parts 1-6, is quite a bit dated at this
point and it’s old school in terms of the animation. Still, the episodes
are done well and can provide a few hours of viewing pleasure.
While not really fitting
into this category I didn’t watch enough Anime to add anything more and my
search for the giant mumblers has come to a standstill. So, here it is,
Ice
Age, while not as funny as Monsters, Inc., is still funny enough
and proof that animation is still done best by the boys in Hollywo---Disneyland.
It’s funny, it’s got good voices, although at times the celebritiness of it all
can distract, and it’s got a decent story-line.
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