LIQUID SKY -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 4/15/18

 

 

I first saw Russian director Slava Tsukerman's 1982 avant-garde cult sci-fi classic LIQUID SKY back in the early 80s when it came out on VHS looking a heck of a lot cheaper and dingier than it does on Vinegar Syndrome's richly vivid new Blu-ray/DVD combo set (scanned and fully restored in 4k from the 35mm original negative and packed with special features).

Now, the film still looks low-budget but the talent and imagination that went into transcending that budget are allowed to shine through.  The visuals are a feast of 80s proto tech and economical cinematic imagination, all day-glo and neon and glam-punk and New Wave and ugly fashion and jaded cynicism set to robotic industrial music performed on a Fairlight. 

The setting is an urban milieu where sneering androgynous scarecrows get made up as though for Halloween so that they can express derision to either clicking cameras or their fellow drugged-out dance club denizens.

Our heroine, tall blonde beauty Margaret (co-scripter Anne Carlisle, CROCODILE DUNDEE, DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN), is one such model so disaffected by her lifestyle that any hint of normality now seems abrasively foreign.

Margaret is a victim not only of the lecherous men she invites back to her apartment simply because they have drugs--making her a victim also of her own flagrant self-destructiveness--but of the equally-violent, overbearing, profane, drug-pushing dyke Adrian (the great Paula Sheppard of ALICE, SWEET, ALICE) with whom she shares both a penthouse apartment and a sick, abusive relationship.

The main attraction of LIQUID SKY for me has always been Carlisle's exquisite dual-role performance as both Margaret and her nemesis, a preening male model named Jimmy with whom Margaret shares a mutual loathing.  Carlisle pulls off the feat of creating two intensely interesting and perversely compelling characters whose split-screen interactions are always utterly convincing and scintillating. 

But the weirdness really starts when tiny aliens land their spaceship on a nearby rooftop and start feeding off both the heroin-enhanced brainwaves of Margaret's visitors and also the chemical reactions caused by their orgasms, which proves lethal to them.  Thus, anyone who has sex with Margaret dies.

In this world the most appealing characters, for me anyway, are the more normal ones such as Margaret's older friend Owen, whose genuine concern for her makes him the first alien orgasm casualty, and Jimmy's indulgent single mother (to whom he is utterly dismissive except when begging for money) who lives nearby and is visited by an eccentric German scientist on the trail of the alien ship. 

It turns out her apartment window offers a fine telescope view of the tiny spaceship, giving her a chance to vainly try and seduce the man while he keeps an eye both on the ship and the lethal sexual activity going on in Margaret's apartment.  There's a mundane charm to their scenes that's a stark contrast to the infinitely stranger things going on elsewhere.

Meanwhile, our wacky nihilistic misfits continue courting death, a condition hastened by constant drug use--they live to snort and shoot up--and sexually-transmitted disease, upon which dwells much of the film's symbolism. 

Their casual cruelty to each other comes to the fore when they get together in the penthouse for one of their tacky, drug-fueled modeling shoots, during which Margaret's deadly new sexual side-effect will shock even these jaded louts of their curdled complacency in a big way.

LIQUID SKY is a low-key slice of wildlife that doesn't explode like THE FIFTH ELEMENT or mesmerize like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  It's simply the story of an aimless New Wave waif named Margaret numbly wandering through a harsh world of hurtful people and some weird little aliens who help her by hurting them.  And watching it is like a dark but colorful carnival ride through a combination art gallery and spook house. 

TECH SPECS:Vinegar Syndrome/OCN Digital Distribution 
Genre: Cult/Science Fiction
Blu-ray/DVD Combo (2 Discs)
Original Release: 1982 Color
Rated: R
1:85:1
DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Running Time: 112 Minutes (Plus 160 Minutes Special Features)
Suggested Retail Price: $32.98
Pre-Order: April 3, 2018
Street Date:  April 24, 2018

BONUS FEATURES:

Director’s introduction and commentary track
Interviews with Tsukerman and Carlisle
Alamo Drafthouse screening Q&A with Tsukerman, Carlisle and Clive Smith (co-composer)
“Liquid Sky Revisited” (2017), a 50-minute, making-of feature
Behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage
Never-before-seen outtakes
Isolated soundtrack
Alternate opening sequence
Photo gallery
Reversible cover artwork by Derek Gabryszak
Multiple trailers
English SDH subtitles

LIQUID SKY -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

STAR TREK: BEYOND -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 11/22/2016

 

Often I'll like a movie better upon repeat viewing, but rarely have I gone from "disappointed" to "delighted" as drastically as I did during my second look at STAR TREK: BEYOND (2016). 

The trouble is, the darn thing is just so dense, so packed full of action, dialogue, special effects, etc. which are all edited together like a Tsui Hark movie but without the light-fingered finesse.  To be honest, I missed so much of the story details and subtleties the first time around that much of what I saw seemed like a jumbled mess. (Plus, Zachary Quinto's Spock wig looks pretty bad this time.)

Not so upon second viewing, one free of the need to decipher the plot points that go sprinting past in competition with the constant barrage of sound and fury and motorcycles and demolition derbies with starships instead of jalopies.  (The wig still looks bad.)

 

 All of which, by the way, is fantastic and at times a bit staggering.  There's one sequence about twenty minutes into the film, in fact, that's so blazingly, heart-poundingly catastrophic for the Enterprise and its crew that it's pretty hard for the rest of the movie to top it--which it never quite does.  But it tries, bless its little dilithium crystal heart.

With this, the third installment in the Abrams-verse reboot (with its all-new altered timeline that keeps us from knowing what will happen next) Chris Pine's Captain James T. Kirk and crew have been out there on that five-year mission for almost three years and this Kirk, who didn't grow up with a father's guidance and is still maturing and feeling his way through life right before our eyes, finds the whole deep space experience repetitive and boring (or as he puts it in meta terms, "episodic.") 

But an alien woman's distress cry for help to rescue her stranded crew on a planet deep inside an uncharted nebula sends the Enterprise on a mission that will give Kirk more excitement and danger than even he could bargain for.  Not surprisingly, this involves yet another alien bad guy out for revenge, this time against the entire Federation for reasons we'll discover after lots of fighting and shooting and starships going boom.

 

Idris Elba guest stars as bad guy Krall, who resembles the reptilian villain from the sci-fi spoof GALAXY QUEST (which this movie resembles in other ways as well).  Krall wants a device in Kirk's possession and will do anything to get it because it's vital in his plan to destroy an entire Federation space outpost known as "Yorktown" which is home to millions of intergalactic citizens.

My favorite new character is the endearingly plucky Jaylah, played by Sofia Boutella who will be the title character in the upcoming MUMMY reboot. Here, Sophia looks great as an albino with long white hair and elegant ebony facial markings.  As another stranded prisoner of Krall's hostile planet, Jaylah forms a special bond with Simon Pegg's "Scotty" and supplies the Enterprise bridge crew with something vital: a derelict ship (her "house" as she calls it) that might, with Scotty's expert help, be coaxed into flight once again.

Each of the main characters is allowed ample screen time.  John Cho's Sulu, of course, gets to be the new "gay" character in the series, even though Sulu has always previously been hetero.  (Even George Takei is adamant on this point.)  It's not such a big deal, though--we see him greet his little daughter Demora in Yorktown and put an arm around his male partner (director Justin Lin), and that's it.

Spock and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) have their first lovers' spat, with an amicable yet painful breakup.  Anton Yelchin, tragically gone from us now, offers his charming interpretation of Ensign Chekov one last time.  And upon the main three--Kirk, Spock, and "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban)--the script dotes with disarming fondness.

For action fans, STAR TREK: BEYOND kicks plenty of intergalactic ass both on the planet, where Kirk, Spock, Bones, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura must rescue their captured shipmates from Krall and his army, to the Yorktown space-city itself once Krall launches his all-out attack involving thousands of prickly little drone ships that swarm like bees and utterly obliterate whatever they descend upon.  All of this goes by fast and furious, so this is where that second viewing comes in handy.

Speaking of which, director Lin of the "Fast & Furious" films does his best to emulate J.J. Abrams while not quite capturing a certain candy-counter, toy-store, Christmas morning kind of essence his predecessor seemed capable of injecting into these films. In my review of the first STAR TREK reboot I described it as a "grandly entertaining cherry-red fire engine of a space flick", something Lin doesn't quite pull off.

Still, he does a capable job and manages to keep the series on a high level.  What seems most problematic for many Trek fans, in fact, is that there's so much action effectively dominating the proceedings that no time is left either for meaningful character interaction or contemplation of the deep, intellectual themes Gene Roddenberry was known for in his original vision of the "Star Trek" universe. (At least in hindsight.)

As for the former, I think these films contain a wealth of terrific character interaction, highly meaningful little moments that occur at scattered points throughout each installment in the series, some lighthearted and frivolous (old philosophical adversaries Spock and Bones get several choice exchanges), some deeply moving (such as Kirk's ruminations on his late father and how different are their career paths and goals as Starfleet captains). 

The latter, I admit, is pretty accurate--these films aren't always that thematically profound.  But neither was every episode of the original series.  And this is a brash young version of the Enterprise crew, impatient to go out there into that last frontier and raise some hell.  They don't want to stop and take the time to be all that thoughtful and contemplative, nor do they have as much life experience to be all that thoughtful and contemplative about.

There are different kinds of Star Trek and they don't all have to be alike.  This is Action "Star Trek."  For a change of pace, it suits this long-time Trekker just fine.

The 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo from Paramount Home Media Distribution contains a Blu-ray disc with the movie and special features, a DVD with the movie, and a code for downloading a digital HD copy of the film.  The Blu-ray disc contains a gag reel, deleted scenes, and the following featurettes: "Beyond the Darkness: Story Origins"; "Enterprise Takedown: Destroying an Icon"; "Trekking Into the Desert: On Location in Dubai"; "To Live Long and Prosper: 50 Years of Star Trek"; and tributes to the late Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin. 

STAR TREK: BEYOND is brand-spanking new and scintillatingly different, yet filled with welcome echoes of the past (there's a particularly poignant Spock moment, and an ending which recalls STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME in a big way).  With this latest entry in the rebooted series, what's old is new again, and I love warping off into the final frontier with this young crew that's so bursting with promise for the future.

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STAR TREK: BEYOND -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

FLIGHT TO MARS (1951) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

 Originally posted on 7/12/21

 

One of the best of the wave of fanciful space exploration thrillers that helped usher in the science-fiction-heavy cinema of the 1950s, FLIGHT TO MARS (1951) has been given a lush restoration and released on Blu-ray by The Film Detective along with some interesting extras.

With surprisingly good production values for a Monogram Picture (the studio best known for its lurid 1940s Bela Lugosi chillers), it still retains an endearingly corny B-movie atmosphere.

In such a setting, a historic expedition to Mars can still be manned by a team composed of stuffy old scientists, a brainy woman for whom science is a poor substitute for domestic bliss, her pipe-smoking mentor who is oblivious to her love for him, and a cocky reporter (Cameron Mitchell, THE KLANSMAN, THE SILENT SCREAM, THE TOOLBOX MURDERS) along for the ride who ends up the third corner in their love triangle.

 

One can hardly fault the story for getting so much wrong about space exploration since so little was known about it in 1951. Still, it's amusing when the crew must have the concept of a shower of meteors burning up in the Earth's atmosphere as "shooting stars" explained to them, and certain members are so dourly pessimistic about the mission's success that one crewmember refers to the ship as his "coffin."

Fans of this sort of entertainment will enjoy the ride from Earth to Mars (in the same spaceship interior left over from ROCKETSHIP XM, according to IMDb), including a thrilling crash landing brought off with obvious yet impressive model work.

Once on Mars, the crew encounter a race of intelligent men and women who live in a vast underground complex composed largely of colorful matte paintings that recall the best illustrations from science-fiction pulp magazines of the era, whose wildly imaginative stories seem to have provided much inspiration for this one. 

 

 

With the seemingly kindly Martian leader Ikron (Morris Ankrum, ROCKETSHIP XM) promising to help the Earth people repair their ship for takeoff, Dr. Barker (Arthur Franz, THE CAINE MUTINY, MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS) and his crew soon discover Ikron's more dastardly intent--to take over their repaired spacecraft and use it to escape the dying planet and conquer Earth.  

It's here that the film's star, Marguerite Chapman (THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN), finally appears as Alita, a Martian woman assigned to help Dr. Barker (and arouse the jealousy of the Earth woman in the bargain). After discovering Ikron's plan, she will side with the Earth people and aid in their attempted escape.

Again, production values during the Mars scenes are quite lovely in a pulp sci-fi kind of way, helped in large part by the use of Cinecolor. Costumes are attractive as well, with Marguerite Chapman an absolute knockout in her micro-mini uniform (Dr. Barker's lovelorn assistant Carol gets one too) and even Morris Ankrum looking spiffy in his stately Mars garb.

Societal norms of the time will either amuse or annoy various viewers (Carol regards Mars' domestic conveniences as "a heaven for women"), although the female characters are all noteworthy for their above-average intelligence.  

 

The film is aided immeasurably by the smoothly capable direction of Lesley Selander, one of the most prolific directors of all time who helmed most of the "Hopalong Cassidy" series as well as countless other westerns, while also venturing into other genres (THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST).

The Blu-ray from The Film Detective is restored via a 4K transfer sourced from the original 35mm Cinecolor separation negatives.  Bonus features consist of two new documentary shorts, "Walter Mirisch: From Bomba to Body Snatchers" and "Interstellar Travelogues: Cinema's First Space Race", an audio commentary by author/film historian Justin Humphreys, and a full-color insert booklet with essay, "Mars at the Movies" by award-winning author Don Stradley.  Subtitles are in English and Spanish.

Despite a rather abrupt ending, FLIGHT TO MARS pays off with a final sequence that is exciting and suspenseful. The whole thing's as corny as can be at times, but that just adds to what amounts to one of the most absorbing and enjoyable space exploration yarns of the 1950s.




FLIGHT TO MARS

The Film Detective
Genre: Science-Fiction, Fantasy
Original Release: 1951 (Color)
Not Rated
Running Time: 72 Minutes
Language: English
Subtitles: English & Spanish
SRP: $24.95 (Blu-ray) / $19.95 (DVD)
Discs: 1
Release Date: July 20, 2021 (Pre-order now)
UPC Code:  760137572985 (Blu-ray) / 760137572893 (DVD)
Catalog #:  FBR1011 (Blu-ray) / FD1011 (DVD)

FLIGHT TO MARS (1951) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

ARRIVAL -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 2/19/17

 

There are at least two kinds of sci-fi movies that I love.  One is the slam-bang space opera with explosions in space, spaceships having dogfights in space, and/or space monsters destroying the world before returning to outer space.  These are awesome and I wouldn't dream of looking down my nose at them because they're just so much dumb fun.

The other kind of sci-fi movie I love is the kind that's good because it's just so much smart fun.  Movies such as 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, DEEP IMPACT, and CONTACT.  I love them because they present scintillating scenarios and ideas which are often both illuminating and, in the best cases, mind-expanding.  And they explore these things in relation to how they would affect humanity in the really-real world. 

With ARRIVAL (2016), you get all that in addition to the kind of intensely emotional situations that can only exist in science fiction.

Upon the arrival of 12 massive egg-shaped spaceships which park themselves over various locations around the world, linguistics expert Louise Banks (Amy Adams, THE MASTER, SUNSHINE CLEANING, STILL STANDING) is pressed into service by the government to help establish contact with the aliens, an experience that will dovetail in ways she can't yet imagine with the tragic death of her daughter Hannah, whom we see in fleeting flashbacks. 

Director Denis Villeneuve turns this into a gorgeously-photographed dreamlike journey for her and us in which we're never really able to recover from the disorienting unreality of the situation. 

The hard-edged military protocol of the base camp adjoining one of the ships (embodied by Forest Whitaker's no-nonsense "Colonel Weber") and all the scientific mumbo-jumbo that's thrown around only serve to make Louise's entry into the mysterious craft and her attempts to communicate with its ultra-strange occupants seems even more breathlessly surreal.

Memories of her daughter keep haunting her throughout the experience, visions which are seemingly unstuck in time as Louise is drawn into the aliens' non-linear concept of past, present, and future.  Scenes of her inside the cavernous spaceship, interacting with her otherworldly counterparts on an increasingly emotional level, are among the most compelling and thought-provoking of any I've seen in any sci-fi film.

In addition to this ARRIVAL deals in a fascinating way with the catastrophic effects such an event would have on humanity on a global scale.  Much of this is conveyed by news reports of violent societal upheaval (without, for once, a bunch of CNN personalities playing themselves badly) and the growing paranoia of various government leaders who are inching toward war against the outworlders. 

The juxtaposition between the genuine desire for peaceful understanding and empathy shown by Louise and her science-expert cohort Ian (Jeremy Renner, "Hawkeye" in the AVENGERS movies) and the increasingly hostile attitude displayed by Earth's military leaders is jarring.

It also leads to some of the film's most suspenseful and disturbing moments, especially when a mutinous faction within Colonel Weber's own ranks devises a plot to sabotage the ship.

But despite the dramatic urgency of this global countdown to interplanetary war, much of the story is devoted to diligent cerebral research and detective work along with Louise's own intense emotional journey through the whole experience and how profoundly it changes her life. 

Amy Adams is a joy to watch as she fully inhabits the role of the pensive yet passionate Louise, with Jeremy Renner providing capable support as Ian.  Forest Whitaker (THE MARSH, PAWN, CATCH .44, HURRICANE SEASON), of course, is pretty much a national treasure by now and can do no wrong.

SPFX are as fine as modern CGI can devise, but it's the full-scale ship interior that's most impressive.  I won't go into the appearance of the aliens or the nature of their written language, which both Louise and Ian struggle mightily to make sense of, but both are sufficiently bizarre.  All other aspects of the production are first-rate. 

The Blu-ray from Paramount Home Media Distribution is widescreen with Dolby 5.1 stereo in English, French, and Spanish and subtitles in English.  Also included is a download code for a digital HD copy.  Bonus features consist of lengthy featurettes (over 80 minutes total) including "Xenolinguistics: Understanding 'Arrival'", "Acoustic Signature: The Sound Design", "Eternal Recurrence: The Score", "Nonlinear Thinking: The Editing Process", and "Principles of Time, Memory, and Language."

ARRIVAL is slow and thoughtful, but continuously fascinating--it never lags or loses interest for those serious sci-fi lovers who are truly along for the ride.  And the ending delivers the kind of thought-provoking yet deeply emotional payoff that should leave them contemplating certain mysteries of life, love, and the universe for some time to come.  


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ARRIVAL -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

SPACE PRECINCT: THE COMPLETE SERIES -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 12/10/10

 

Looking like a kiddie show but playing like a futuristic primetime cop series, Gerry Anderson's SPACE PRECINCT: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1994-95) may take an episode or two for members of its target audience to realize what they're watching.  I didn't really like it myself at first, but boy, did it ever grow on me.

Despite its Saturday-morning look, SPACE PRECINCT is a sci-fi variation of the traditional hardboiled cop show complete with sexuality, violence, and other adult themes.  Familiar cliches abound, but with a subtle satirical edge that never veers into farce or self-mockery.  The characters and situations are always realistic enough to be taken seriously even though the show itself is one big, elaborate elbow in the ribs.

Ted Shackelford plays Lt. Patrick Brogan, a former NYPD cop who's now part of the 88th Precinct, which happens to be in orbit around the distant planet Altor.  Brogan's a devoted family man and a good, honest cop, but he's not above bending the rules a little when the situation calls for it.  His main beat is gritty metropolis Demeter City, a bustling hotbed of crime and corruption that looks like something out of a bargain-basement version of BLADE RUNNER, complete with flying cars (known here as "hoppers"). 

Since this UK show is produced by the same guy who brought us "Thunderbirds", "UFO", and "Space: 1999", everything's done with obvious models and the hoppers zip around on wires, but that's part of the fun.  Once you get used to it, it looks pretty cool--in fact, the SPFX guys manage to pull off some awesome "car" chases and stage an endless number of entertaining crashes and explosions.  This model work often has an updated "Flash Gordon" vibe which tends to give my inner geek a real buzz.  (Some CGI does crop up occasionally, mainly in the outer space shots.)


 

Down on ground level, the life-sized inner city sets are appropriately grimy and foreboding as lowlifes lurk in the shadows and crime runs rampant.  Here we find the main draw of SPACE PRECINCT--a variety of wonderfully designed aliens sporting some of the most lifelike, expressive animatronic masks I've ever seen.  The movements of the eyes and facial muscles in conjunction with the actors' performances creates a stunning effect which really makes these characters come alive despite a certain "cartoony" quality. 

In addition to its human population, Demeter City's two main alien races are the Creons and the Tarns.  Creons resemble gnarly versions of E.T. with big wide-spaced eyes and prunelike skin, and comprise most of the city's blue-collar element.  Tarns are somewhat more streamlined in appearance and sport a third eye which gives them limited telekinetic and mindreading abilities.  With Demeter City serving as a melting pot for the surrounding star system we also get to see a wide variety of other alien species with similarly ingenious design.

Back at the precinct, Brogan's cocky but capable young partner Jack Haldane (Rob Youngblood) is forever trying to break through the romantic defenses of beautiful Officer Jane Castle (Simone Bendix, who looks just plain awesome in uniform).  Her partner, Aurelia Took (Mary Woodvine), is a sensitive, soulful Tarn who uses her third-eye powers as an interrogation aid.
 

 

Buddy cops Orrin and Romek are a couple of likable Creon sad sacks who provide much of the comedy relief, while another Creon, Captain Rexton Podly (Jerome Willis), is the stereotypical gruff, hardnosed boss with a heart of gold.  ("Sometimes," Podly philosophizes in one episode, "reality takes a hammer to your dreams and smashes the hell out of them.")  Rounding out the group is a diminutive robot named Slomo who actually manages to not be overly cutesy.  On the homefront, Brogan's strongwilled wife Sally (Nancy Paul) and tweener kids Matt and Liz provide moral support and also feature prominently in several storylines.

While Shackelford, Youngblood, and Bendix are talented enough to give their thinly-drawn characters sufficient depth and charm (Shackelford in particular is so good here that I've been forced to forgive him for being in "Knot's Landing"), it's those alien characters that I find so mesmerizing.  Brimming with personality, each is capable of expressing subtle emotions in closeup (Officer Took in particular), with surprisingly convincing results.  Although you never forget that they're actors wearing articulated big-head masks, the effect is never less than impressive.

Stories alternate between cop-show staples, "X-Files" strangeness, and pure sci-fi, sometimes in various combinations.  The wide-ranging array of plotlines include black-market organ harvesting ("Deadline"), a Terminator-like cyborg with its sights set on Brogan and everyone around him ("Time to Kill"), interspecies racism ("Hate Street"), and a new, highly-addictive drug that causes its users to spontaneously combust ("Flash").  Things get tense in "Body and Soul" when Brogan and his son Matt find themselves trapped in a derelict spaceship that's on a countdown to self-destruct.


 

"The Fire Within", a two-parter from late in the season, starts out on the dull side as Brogan and the gang investigate a shady fire-worshipping religious cult.  But part one ends with a bang and part two builds to a spectacular finale with movie-level thrills and suspense. "Deathwatch", another two-parter which brings the series to a close, features a deadly alien spore that threatens to wipe out all life on Altor.

"James Bond" alumnus John Glen directs several episodes of this flashy, fast-moving series, with a rousing musical score by composer Crispin Merrell.  British viewers will probably recognize more of the guest stars than I do--"Divided We Stand", for example, features Suzanne Bertish of the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Ray Winstone's name shows up in the end credits for the prison-asteroid hostage drama "Two Against the Rock" although he must've been playing an alien because I couldn't spot him.  Also appearing in various episodes are Burt Kwouk (THE PINK PANTHER series), Maryam D'Abo, ALIEN 3's Danny Webb, and Christopher Fairbank (BATMAN, THE FIFTH ELEMENT).

The five-disc DVD set from Image Entertainment is in 1.33:1 full-screen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.  There are no subtitles or extras.  Total running time for the 24 full-length episodes is 17 hours, 43 minutes.  Again, Simone Bendix looks awesome in uniform.

It's a shame this series didn't last longer, because it just gets better and better during its single season.  Kids may find the stories too grown-up, while many adults will initially be put off by its seemingly juvenile veneer.  But for the discerning geek who thinks a cross between "Jason of Star Command" and "Hawaii Five-O" sounds like a cool idea, watching SPACE PRECINCT: THE COMPLETE SERIES is like going to Disneyland and riding all the rides. 

SPACE PRECINCT: THE COMPLETE SERIES -- DVD Review by Porfle

BEHIND THE MASK -- THE BATMAN: DEAD END STORY -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 7/8/17

 

Focusing not just on the title subject but on the entire life thus far of its uber-geek creator Sandy Collora, BEHIND THE MASK -- THE BATMAN: DEAD END STORY (Candy Factory Films, 2015) is the sort of documentary that offers fanboys both interesting information and a sort of vicarious wish-fulfillment fantasy.

I myself certainly would like to have lived Collora's life, or at least certain aspects of it. Turning on to comics at a very early age, and then movies with the release of such films as STAR WARS, Sandy Collora followed his dream into a job at Stan Winston's studio and, later, work on such films as JURASSIC PARK and MEN IN BLACK. 

As the brashly forthcoming Collora admits, his ego often worked against him even as it acted as a driving force in his ambitions.  He comes off, to me anyway, as an interesting and likable guy with a strong personality.

And he's incredibly creative, as the documentary never fails to demonstrate with plenty of visuals to augment the talking-head stuff.  The entire film, for that matter, is an easy watch--clean but unobtrusive graphics, well-presented interview and clip segments, and lots of interesting comments from genre notables such as Neal Adams as well as friends, coworkers, and family members (Collora's mother died tragically of cancer during the making of the Batman film).

Collora himself is an easygoing interview subject, coming to life when talking of Batman comics, genre films, or his favorite director, James Cameron.  He waxes excitedly about past and present film projects, modest productions over which he retains maximum creative control--a control for which he has sacrificed jobs on much higher prestige pictures. 

But what most viewers will be interested in, including myself, is that 2003 indy "Batman" short that Sandy Collora decided to put together one day in order to both show his stuff to Hollywood and to pay homage to his favorite incarnation (the Neal Adams period) of his favorite comics character.

Collora's drive and attention to detail are fascinating, as is his imagination in concocting one of the best Batman films ever made, one which captures the flavor of Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", "Batman: Year One", "Batman: The Animated Adventures", the Neal Adams comics (which reinstated Batman's serious side after the frivolity of the 60s TV series), and several other influences.

The short itself is a dark, rainy, and wonderfully gritty tale in which a beefy Batman encounters the Joker (the late Andrew Koenig in a stunningly good portrayal) in an alley shortly after his escape from Arkham Asylum.  But that's just the beginning, because the Caped Crusader soon tangles with Aliens (yes, those Aliens) and Predators in a mash-up that had packed comics convention audiences on their feet in furious applause.  

Clark Bartram's Batman is a solid take on the character, eschewing body armor for an old-fashioned Batsuit that he fills out well, and a surly attitude that bodes ill for wrongdoers.  (Collora initially interested Sylvester Stallone in the role and does a great impression of him.)  Technically, the film is exquisite and captures the spirit of the classic comics while often being dazzlingly cinematic.
 

While the story of this celebrated film serves as the main course, BEHIND THE MASK -- THE BATMAN: DEAD END STORY helps us better appreciate it by giving us a full perspective on the creator's life before and since, in about as compelling a manner as such a documentary can manage.  All that's missing is the eight-minute Batman film itself, which, although it's available to view online, seems a curious omission. 


PROGRAM INFORMATION
 
Type: DVD//Digital HD (iTunes, Amazon, Google Play) 
Running Time: 99 mins.
Rating:  N/A
Genre: Documentary
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: Stereo

Street Date: July 18, 2017

Buy it at Amazon.com

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BEHIND THE MASK -- THE BATMAN: DEAD END STORY -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE GREEN SLIME (1968) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/9/21

 

Currently watching: THE GREEN SLIME (1968), a collaboration between Italy, Japan, and the USA, with the disparate cinematic styles of each clashing together to create a wild space opera-slash-monster movie that's both exhilaratingly strange and delightfully bad.

Some time in the future an orbiting space station detects an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Commander Jack Rankin (TV star Robert Horton, "A Man Called Shenandoah", "Wagon Train") is called out of retirement to head a team of astronauts to take off from the space station, land on the asteroid, and plant bombs that will blow it to smithereens.

The team does so in what is basically a small-scale dry run for the later epic ARMAGEDDON, but this time the astronauts bring back an unexpected souvenir from the asteroid in the form of a strange green slime which, when charged with electricity, grows into a horde of grotesque, very hostile alien creatures with pincer-tipped tentacles and one big red eye. 

 

 

Feeding upon the space station's various energy sources, the creatures grow in size and multiply rapidly until the station's inhabitants begin dying horribly one by one and end up fighting hand-to-tentacle for their very survival.

Hence, the entire second half of the film is a furious and at times incomprehensible series of frantic battle sequences splattered with red blood and green slime, as the space soldiers struggle to protect the station's medical and scientific personnel as well as other civilians.

To make matters worse, Rankin's romantic rival, Commander Vince Elliott (Richard Jaeckel, THE DIRTY DOZEN, STARMAN) chafes at having his command usurped by Rankin, with the mutual object of their affection, beautiful medical officer Dr. Lisa Benson (Luciana Paluzzi, THUNDERBALL, MUSCLE BEACH PARTY), adding fuel to the fire with her very presence.

 

 
From the film's first scenes, we're treated to an environment almost totally comprised of miniatures--cityscapes, rocket launch pads and spaceships, the rotating space station itself, etc.--which sometimes approach the quality of the usual Toho/Kaiju stuff we're used to, while at other times are markedly cheap and fake-looking.

Space station and spaceship interiors have the low-budget look of the old live-action Saturday morning sci-fi shows from Filmation such as "Space Academy" and "Jason of Star Command", and even such earlier series as "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger." On the plus side, vivid colors abound in most scenes, especially those involving the approaching asteroid, giving them a pleasing comic-book quality.

The low-rent feel of the film also shows in the artless, almost amateurish direction and camerawork, which, combined with the freaky slime-monster costumes and other slapdash special effects, make the film either an object of boredom and derision or, for bad movie lovers such as myself, a delightfully dizzying wallow in junk-movie joy.

 

Amazingly, this movie was directed by the same man, Kinji Fukasaku, who would go on to helm the spectacular sci-fi classic BATTLE ROYALE in 2000.  The consistently tense screenplay also boasts as its co-writer another familiar name--Bill Finger, who, along with Bob Kane, created the legendary comic book character, Batman.

Square-jawed and stern, Horton's Commander Rankin could almost have stepped right out of an episode of "Thunderbirds Are Go!" Jaeckle gets a rare chance to stretch his considerable acting chops in a major role, while Paluzzi has a cult appeal all her own as the woman who keeps the film's romantic triangle fired up while protecting her patients from the rampaging slime creatures.

While none of this looks or feels convincing for a second, THE GREEN SLIME is such a relentless onslaught of splashy, full-tilt space madness that one can hardly fail to enjoy it to some degree, on its own oddball terms, as an old-fashioned space opera laced with cheesy 1960s mod stylings and juvenile Monster Kid fun.

THE GREEN SLIME (1968) -- Movie Review by Porfle

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/25/21

 

I've been a bad movie lover for so long, I can sit back and enjoy movies like FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965) just as much as I would CITIZEN KANE or THE SOUND OF MUSIC, whereas your average normal person might find both their gag reflex and their flight instinct activated by the very sight of it.

I pity such people their inability to watch stuff like this with the same giddy delight I felt as I ordered the DVD from Amazon, knowing that when it arrived, I would be able to immerse myself in low budget, ineptly made, but wonderfully entertaining sci-fi goodness about aliens from Mars who have come to Earth to kidnap women as breeding stock to help repopulate their atomic war-ravaged planet.

As if that weren't enough, NASA scientist Dr. Adam Steele (venerable actor James "Jim" Karen in an early role) and his co-worker Karen (Nancy Marshall) have just made space travel safer for humans by creating an android astronaut, whom they've named "Colonel Frank Saunders" (Robert Reilly). 

 

 

 
Right after Frank is launched into space, the Martians shoot his rocket down, leaving the horribly disfigured humanoid robot roaming the countryside killing people a la "Frankenstein."

Not only am I not making any of that stuff up, but it's even nuttier than it sounds. The head Martians are played by former Playboy Playmate and Three Stooges co-star Marilyn Hanold (as "Princess Marcuzan") and familiar face Lou Cutell (LITTLE BIG MAN, PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE) as her second-in-command Dr. Nadir, a bald, white-skinned alien with pointed ears and a high camp sense of humor that kicks in whenever he's ordered to blow something up or shoot it down.

Their bargain-basement spaceship is also populated by a gaggle of henchmen whose spacesuits, confusingly, make them look like Earth astronauts. There's also a tall, brawny alien played by the great Bruce Glover (CHINATOWN, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, WALKING TALL), recognizable even under heavy makeup in his second movie role. He also plays the fearsome space monster of the title, who will indeed meet "Frankenstein" during the film's furious climax.

 

 

 
The story begins in Florida, where, at a press conference, we're treated to the sight of Frank rather comically going freeze-frame during a press conference and having to be hustled back to the lab for repairs by Adam and Karen.

Then we're whisked off to Puerto Rico after Frank's disfiguring crash, allowing the director to shoot a lengthy montage of the two scientists riding a dinky motor scooter along scenic motorways and beachfronts to the film's sappy and rather incongruous love theme, "To Have And To Hold" by The Distant Cousins.

While the two young lovers search for their runaway robo-astronaut, the Martians terrorize the countryside kidnapping bikini-clad women from beaches and pool parties, disintegrating any men who get in their way with sunlight-reflecting ray guns like the ones used in TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE.

 

 

 
Also like that film, this one is surprisingly well-edited, with a gradually quickening pace that leads to a fast-moving, exciting finale that sees the Martians attacked by our air force and Frank, his rational mind now restored, going mano-a-mano with that really cool space monster.

Just as Johnny Depp claims in ED WOOD that he could construct a whole movie out of stock footage, this one goes a long way toward doing just that by using tons of the stuff for any scenes involving either the military or NASA spacecraft (including much footage from Mercury launches and orbital photography). The final five frenetic minutes or so are evidence that the film's editor was having a ball putting this thing together, and it's infectious.

Granted, the shamelessly warped FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER would fit comfortably onto any list of the worst films ever made, but that doesn't keep it from being just as much fun as a lot of "good" movies that I could name. Maybe even more fun if, like me, you're just a tiny bit warped too. 

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER -- Movie Review by Porfle

IN SEARCH OF ANCIENT MYSTERIES -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/19/14

Some movies can pretty much divide a roomful of people in half. That is, one half will sit in rapt attention while the other half flees the room in all possible haste to escape paralyzing, soul-crushing boredom.

IN SEARCH OF ANCIENT MYSTERIES (1973) is one of those movies. Many viewers will find its dry, pseudo-scholarly tone, glacial pace, and static images of crumbling ruins and desolate landscapes to be the absolute opposite of entertainment.

And yet, those who used to sit fascinated week after week by every episode of the subsequent television series "In Search Of" (1976-1982, hosted by Leonard Nimoy) will most likely be riveted to the screen from beginning to end.

The open-mindedness of this film's producers and writers--which skeptics would no doubt find excessive--is what allows host/narrator Rod "Twilight Zone" Serling to pose baffling questions about ancient civilizations and then offer theories involving alien visitors from outer space and other paranormal phenomena.

Most of the now-familiar subjects are touched upon, from the mysterious lines carved into the vast Nazca plains of Peru--which Serling supposes may have been a landing field for alien aircraft--to the gigantic etchings of people and animals seen here and in England which can only be discerned from the air. Were these created for the benefit of our ancestors from the sky?

The ruins of Inca cities and other wondrous sites such as Troy and Jericho are examined for further evidence of such visitors sharing their advanced knowledge with ancient humans. Serling, along with various scientists, historians, and other experts whose credentials may or may not be impeccable, endeavors to explain why we should suspect an alien influence shaping much of our shared history as citizens of Earth.

In a seemingly stream-of-consciousness manner, Serling whisks us from Peru to the Bermuda Triangle for a quick retelling of the famous tale of disappearing military planes, and then it's off to search for the fabled lost city of Atlantis.

Unexplained artifacts are examined as well, including human skulls that display evidence of successful brain surgery, intricately designed machines created seemingly ahead of their time, and painted or sculpted images that resemble modern-day astronauts or aircraft.

Serling follows all of this up with some NASA-related anecdotes and a tale of unexplained radio waves received from outer space, again told by guest "experts" whose reliability we must either accept or discount. More interstellar speculation wraps things up, unsurprisingly, on an inconclusive note.

The DVD from Film Chest is in full screen (4 x 3) with original mono sound. Running time is 53 minutes. No subtitles or extras. The picture quality varies between okay and "ehh" (some of the stock footage shots in particular look like somebody's home movies) but then again the "In Search Of" shows always looked like that and it never really made that much difference.

While I don't know how every diehard skeptic will react to IN SEARCH OF ANCIENT MYSTERIES, I'm pretty sure the less patient ones would rather skip it altogether. But if you've ever entertained the notion that we've been visited and indeed colonized by aliens throughout history, you may find this documentary's earnest "what if" tone to be both intriguing and fun.

IN SEARCH OF ANCIENT MYSTERIES -- DVD Review by Porfle