Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17558 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 2:45 pm Post subject: FEATURED THREADS for 12-20-22 |
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Here’s three unusaual movies that are well worth watching.
~ The first one is a grim and scary version of the “invisible man” concept that has Kevin Bacon going just as crazy as Claude Rains did in the 1930s original.
~ The second one is a mission to Mars that tells a very complex and imaginative story . . . with a spoofy and and well-designed robot.
~ The third one is an unusual tale about four aging astronauts who suddenly become mankind’s only hope when threaened by an old space platform the Russians placed in orbit . . . armed with nukes.
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Hollow Man (2000)
Okay, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is, this movie has terrific special effects.
Unfortunately that's about it for the good news.
The bad new is, director Paul Verhoeven wasn't happy with this movie, and I'm not too thrilled with it either. It works way too hard to be grim and dark, and the main character (Kevin Bacon) is written so that he starts out unlikable and then makes absolutely certain that everybody's opinion of him goes downhill.
Elisabeth Shue is miscast as a gutsy Ripley-type heroine who battles an unstoppable foe. She looks too much like she's trying hard not to glance over at Marty McFly and smile sweetly.
Actually, Keven Bacon suffers the same fate, acting wise. He was better when he was trading quips with Fred Ward and warning Michael Gross on the radio that there were two more — repeat, two more — mother humpers on the way in "Tremors".
That's not to say Kevin can't act. He was certainly AOK in Apollo 13, and he showed us he could certainly play a really nasty Nazi in "X-Men: First Class".
But this movie just didn't do what those movies did — give me a good story to enjoy.
But hey — how 'bout those special effects, eh?
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Red Planet (2000)
Well, I didn't love it, but there's nothing really bad I can say about it either. Certainly I couldn't have made a better movie, and it definitely has one of the better robot designs in the Totally Non-Human And Very Mobile class.
The fact that the robot goes a little nuts and becomes one more dangerous problem for astronaut Val Kilmer to face on the Red Planet seems kind of a waste. It wasn't really a villain with a an interesting evil nature to contemplate, it was just more like a computer running on Windows Vesta and doomed to fail from the get-go . . .
The plot is hellishly complex, involving the terraforming of Mars, a host of dormant Martian insects that wake up and eat the growing Earth algae (a bad thing), and then fart oxygen as a waste product (a good thing).
Damn near everything goes wrong, most of the characters die (another bad thing), and Carrie-Anne Moss stays in the orbiting spacecraft the whole time and never gets to wear tight shiny black outfits like in the Matrix (and very bad thing).
But the ending is science-minded, intelligent, and optimistic. If you haven't seen it, give it a try.
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Space Cowboys (2000)
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The problem with this movie, pardners, is that it's a one trick pony.
Four old test pilots are brought out of retirement (way out) because they have the knowledge needed to deal with a Russian satellite that's falling out of orbit (way, way out) and only they can prevent the catastrophe that will be caused by blah blah blah blah . . .
With a cast like this, you'd think the movie would do more than just have the old timers prove to the young tin horns that they have one last cattle drive left in 'em.
The movie roped me in with nice trailers showing these four top cowhands ridin' the high range of outer space, but the movie turned out to be more like a dude ranch than a real rodeo.
Maybe I should take a few shots 'a rot-gut whiskey and saddle up this old nag one more time. Hell, couldn't hurt nuthin', could it? No, sir, I reckon not. _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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