An engaging 1970’s era documentary that examines reports of strange flying objects from ancient times up until the present which was 1974 when this documentary was made. Cool recreations of eyewitness accounts are interspersed with actual pictures and films taken by pilots, military personnel, NASA astronauts and civilians alike. The whole shebang is hosted by the great Rod Serling, the creator of “The Twilight Zone” and MC of “The Night Gallery”. It appears as though his recorded segments were filmed among the remains of his “Night Gallery” set: spotlight on Rod, and various illustrative props given a bit of highlight [More]
I was struck immediately by two things in this movie. “Taurus” follows a spaceship journeying out from Earth to look for a new habitable planet for humans to reside on. On the trip, we become aware of the rampant similarity this ship and its crew have to earlier, similar cinematic journeys. Think of “Destination Moon (1950), “Conquest of Space” (1955), and “Rocketship X-M” (1950), to name just a few. A small crew ambles around a rather spacious space vehicle and spends the majority of their time talking about what they’ll do when they get home and other details of their [More]
This alien on the loose in a small community film caper has the great advantage of having two acting legends as part of the cast: Jack Palance and Martin Landau. Add in their over the top characterizations, manic is a kind word, and this makes for a moderately memorable viewing experience. There are some nasty attack sequences by some flying nasties that clamp on and zombify their victims. The main alien actor is a towering apparition that appears closer to the end of the film to maintain some dread and mystery as to his purpose and appearance. Landau’s bug eyed [More]
Very bizarre movie about an alien visitor to Scotland who assumes the form of actress Scarlett Johansson and proceeds to lure unwary men she picks up in her vehicle to their ultimate doom. Johansson lures them to her flat where they both disrobe with the promise of a sexual encounter but end up sinking into some unseen pool “holding tank” to be “consumed” later by the alien. These are some of the many arresting visuals which occur throughout this picture. I was reminded of Bowie’s “The Man Who Fell To Earth” with its tale of an alien who tries to [More]
Alien 3 is not my favorite entry in the Alien film franchise. After the kinetic pace and firepower of “Aliens” before it, this tale of the Ripley character marooned on a planet serving as a prison for male only inmates who have no access to guns, explosives, etc. was, to say the least, a letdown. It was also in this David Fincher directed piece that people started fucking with the alien character itself. We started to see the alien hybrid creature emerge which is meant to add to its character development as it can’t speak and deliver lines of a [More]
This immortal classic has been making the cable TV rounds this holiday season and “Alien”, for me, still holds up as my favorite science fiction/horror film EVER! I have always been partial to the first part of the film where the crew find out about the strange “distress” signal they are sent to investigate, up until Kane (John Hurt) is brought back to the ship from the surface of the planetoid with a “guest” attached to his face. There is nice cast interaction and an effective depiction of a trek across a rather hostile planet. The rollercoaster ride of horror aboard ship which [More]
A harrowing account of a collection of dubious characters involved in a drug deal that goes bad. A counsellor, in need of some heavy cash, agrees to go in on a deal with some of his drug connected buddies. Little do they know that they are being set up by a member of their inner circle. Visually stunning work with an equally stunning cast. Ridley Scott directs a cast that includes Michael Fassbender ( who took a turn as a sadistic artificial person in Scott’s “Alien” prequel “Prometheus”), Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, and Javier Bardem. Incidentally, the screenplay [More]
Great Sixties science fiction/horror film from master fantasy director Mario Bava. Two ships in outer space end up setting down on an alien planet. After losing communications with one of the ships, the crew of the other vessel goes to investigate. Many of the occupants are found dead, having seemingly lost their minds and killed each other. Many crew members cannot be found. It appears that there is an alien presence on the planet that has taken over the bodies of one of the space crews. A struggle to survive the alien vampires and escape the evil planet and get back into [More]
I love this flick. Atmospheric, indeed! An otherworldly craft touches down in the British countryside. Three aliens are variously seen in the shadows. A military unit picks up the craft on radar and begins to search for whatever appeared on the scope. One of the aliens is struck by a car when the fellow tries to dash across a fog enshrouded road at night. He is taken to a hospital where he is looked after. The other two aliens track his whereabouts and put an invisible barrier in place around the hospital. What are the aliens’ intentions? A lot of engaging night time [More]
An oceanic mining team is coming to an end of a long tour of deep water duty. It is their misfortune to stumble upon a sunken Soviet ship close to their base of operations. Seems that there were dubious genetic experiments taking place aboard the Russian ship that led to its being sunk my the mother country. Our ever resourceful American divers are able to “tap” in to the remnants of the experiment and find that a couple of their crew members become infected with a nasty gene altering material. It isn’t long before it is a battle between humans [More]
Placed here for laugh value only. Truly, one of the worst movies I have seen. Cash in on the stalker/slasher and alien film genres popular with movie goers at the time. Here we have an alien visitor to our planet vaporizing innocents with his laser blasting eyeballs. William Devane to the rescue to deliver us from the unwarranted alien barbequing of earthlings. A suitable double bill partner for other frightful turkeys of the ’70’s such as Nightwing, The Car, The Manitou, etc.
This was a cool scene from ” Aliens: The Director’s Cut”. The Colonial Marines stranded on the Alien planet set up robot sentries in the hallways of the complex where they are trying to survive. The sentries detect motion and are programmed to fire upon any intruders tripping the sensors. Needless to say, the ammunition runs out fast as the Marines figure out that they are overrun with deadly Aliens trying every means possible to get to the Marines. Very effective editing and use of sound effects. We don’t ever clearly see the Aliens being blasted into smithereens by [More]
This video short starts out in a forest with the innocent taping of the flora and fauna. There is movement on the trail ahead of you. Is it a deer? No, something a bit out of the ordinary shows up in your viewfinder. What is it? See something alien? You’ll be surprised at what shows up!
Very twisted clip from John Carpenter’s The Thing. A chest that opens up and sports big, jagged fangs? The better to bite your hands off with! Ugly. Outstanding mechanical visual effects by Rob Bottin. All these monster effects had to be built from wire frames and then dressed to achieve the required look and then remotely made to function by one or more operators A lot of motors, wires, cables and what have you brought these monsters to life. Disney called them animatronics. They don’t make them like this anymore. CG is much quicker and cheaper.