Reviews

How does the imagine-less Scott Gimple still have a job? World beyond was horrible. Fear was a ridiculous, TWD light. This is just horrible. It took years to make this trash? Another worthless, weak episode with one ridiculous event after another. Oh Rick & Michonne save some people who instantly turn on them. Jadis/Anne shows up, had the jump on them and they defeat her. She runs into the losers from earlier, Rick and Michonne defeat them again. So on and so on. Is AI or some talentless hack writing this? I can't believe I stick with this when I still haven't watched the second half of the ridiculous Fear the walking dead. Time for this universe to end. Please.

OK. When I first heard about this, I was going to skip it because anything done by The Asylum is trash. However, this wasn't done by the Asylum. It's a dumb as most of their movies, but the practical effects are better as is the CGI (not up to the standards of say, Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings, but still better). The Cajun accents are weak and those characters, a bunch of hillbillies are quite stereotyped, but that's neither here nor there. Most of them are present just to push the 'we have a feud for a hunnerd years' part of the story and, of course get killed by the Alligators that one family, by dumping their chemically tainted 'bad' moonshine in the bayou, have caused. Let's face it, there is no better Alligator movie than 1980's Alligator. But this is fun, especially when the gigantic mutant alligators show up. These are like alligator-stegasauruses. They have spikes in their tails WHICH THEY CAN FIRE. As one young female cop discovers just before a tail takes her head off (a decent enough effect). Almost everyone ends up killed and one, the main characters daddy becomes - I am NOT kidding here, a were-gator. I'm still trying to figure out how his little gold covered canine became a gigantic pointed gold covered alligator tooth, but that's how darling daughter, who he saves from another gator, recognizes him. This has all the usual stuff; characters doing stupid things, characters getting killed gruesomely and a gator slaughter at the end where the black sheriff, who escaped several close calls (he does a lot of running to his car and fleeing), finally gets swallowed. At least the grenade he drops kills his killer. Yes, this movie is really dumb. The only thing it was missing was some nudity. Perhaps they're saving that for the sequel. Worth at least one view for fans of dumb movies.

While DC animation is usually miles ahead of Marvel's, this one is bad enough to be a Marvel animation. Did the writers even read the comic? Based on this, I'd have to say no. Not at all. Bad enough they took elements from the now dead CW DCverse. Most of it is taken up with a bad Flash story that goes nowhere and barely accomplishes a thing. I didn't even recognize Amazo from the tepid design they used. About the only thing they really got right were the Crime Syndicate and the massive amount of heroes in the monitors station. Why is Kara now Harbinger? That made no sense and they didn't even explain. They also ruined the Pariah character. Could it be that all the successes previously (with the exception of Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes, which was horrible) have gone to their heads?

So, What did I learn by wasting ninety minutes of my life. That black filmmakers can make just as poor a low budget slasher film as white filmmakers! I mean white filmmakers have made way more than their black counterparts, but with cheap films on the rise, I'm sure they can catch up. This is really a terrible movie. It's simply a grandchild of every single bad, waste of time slasher movie going back to the 1970's. Take a little Chainsaw massacre or Friday the 13th (The mask), the hulking geek who walks silently (Halloween remake, Texas Chainsaw again), the lame games that couldn't frighten anyone (any of the Saw films and their horrible remakes) add in so-so to decent acting, but leave out any gore or decent SFX (far too many films to be names here) and you have BA. I wish I could sue to get the ninety minutes I wasted on this trash, back.. I almost left out the lighting is terrible-likely to hide the terrible sets, the music is putrid and the game of Battleship the killer forces another to play-ripped off from Bill & Ted, only not as good. Just a truly tepid, terrible movie. Has to be seen to be disbelieved.

While the Snyder cult will rally to defend this, I am not and have never been a fan. While he's done a few good movies; 300, Watchmen, the flawed Man of Steel, most of his movies are too slow, too filled with plot holes, unimaginative use of slow motion and one dimensional characters. The poster advertising it is certainly derivative of any star wars poster. Rebel Moon falls into much of this. There isn't one original idea is this obvious rip off of: Star Wars: A New Hope, Fury Road, The Seven Samurai AND The magnificent Seven among others. The small craft that invade the farm planet (shades of Battle Beyond the Stars!) look like the Firefly-Class Serenity. The dreadnought looks like a submarine. General Noble dresses like a Nazi and, as it turns out, is like a cheap version of Darth Vader. The Hero, Kora,is ok, but once again, the audiences is expected to believe that a slight woman can kick the crap out of men nearly twice her weight? Why not cast the woman who played Cara Dune in a role like this? Anyhow, She sets off with a farmer to find people to fight. We get the general in hiding, the burgeoning resistance, the rogue pilot and so on. Still, for all this, its vaguely entertaining, even if it doesn't, as I said, have an original idea in it. Akira Kurosawa must be rolling at how many times the Seven Samurai has been rip... er homaged. (And the most recent version was a terrible movie). So I'm giving this a five. It's a very average film. As usual Snyder uses way too much slow motion. Maybe he should watch more John Woo films-but I wouldn't want him ripping them off! So in the end, it's worth a view, but if I never watch it again, I'll be fine with that. Part 2 coming in 2024, and then we'll likely get a six hour (there seems to be quite a bit of character building missing here) cut of each movie, or perhaps one mega cut of 12 hours! (Yes, I'm poking fun at his overlong, over dull, silly extended cut of Justice League).

First, I must again question the veracity of some reviews posted on IMDB. 10? Really? No self-respecting SF fan would ever give this derivative, dull story a 10. If I could, I'd give it a zero, but IMDB won't allow that...yet. Gareth Edwards, was Rogue One his lone great movie? Godzilla was just OK and this, well, its terrible. John David Washington has as little a screen presence here as he did in Tenet. Unlike some, I found some of the visuals in this fine. But when Washington is carrying Alphie around, it's clear that's a doll. The entire story is silly. Once again, a white director/writer damns white people for the evils of the world. Sorry to tell you this, but all the weeping and hand wringing in the world, the constant damning of one segment of society isn't going to undo the past, nor is this the way to heal. But onto the movie. So there's a war between the US (Europe is barely mentioned) who have this giant space platform called NOMAD, which strikes with impunity wherever they wish. They constantly tout they're not at war with the people of New Asia (which sounds suspiciously like Japan's WW2 idea of the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere), only with the AI, who didn't really nuke Los Angeles, that was a human error blamed on AI. OK, so if Japan is part of this silliness, am I expected to believe that, with their technology, Japan couldn't stop NOMAD? How does Washington's character come to love this little robot kid? And is Gemma Chan making a career out of playing robots/androids? The story itself is dull the American soldiers are like robots themselves, totally given in to fighting the AI menace, only one questioning anything, and that's five years later, and he's dying. So his white guilt makes him give up the info. Alphie is based on John and Gemma's unborn child, a total tear jerker idea. Really not too many original ideas in this. The robot cops and soldiers appear to be lifted from about 100 different Animes. NOMAD is sort of original looking, but also, from the size of it, looks to be too low in earth orbit to not get pulled down. The movie ends abruptly, like Edwards ran out of money, time or ideas. This is one I'll never watch again. Want to see good AI movies? Colossus the Forbin Project, Terminator 1 and 2, Upgrade are all better than this.

Another alien invasion movie. In this case the aliens have come to mate (not that original idea) with human females to propagate their species. And while the idea may not be that original, it's far better than say, Mars Needs Women. On their wedding night, a young brides groom is abducted by the invading aliens and replaced with one of themselves. Of course, many of the men in their home town have been replaced (which is why no one believes her!) Shades of Invasion of the Body Snatchers! What to do? WHAT TO DO? Well, if I tell you, whats the point of watching it? The makeup on the aliens is superb and keep a close eye on their hand weapons and think: Klingon Disruptor! A fine, fun movie.

Brian Donlevy is back as the no-nonsense professor, now planning earth's first moon base. Unfortunately, aliens are planning on taking over earth. And the little devils are coming here aboard-a very unique way-in meteors. When a human comes in contact with one of these meterors: BLAM! Infected. Once infected one becomes part of their group mind. Worse than this, these aliens have compromised Quatermass plan, built a duplicate of his moon base! And they're using to to... well, that would be too much information. This is a worthy sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment and well worth seeing. It's too bad there wasn't a Quatermass III.

Another of Roger Corman's fun movies, which has been remade twice. (Avoid the Jim Wynorksi version, the Michael York one is ok), where an alien has invaded earth to get blood. Seems his planet had a terrible nuclear war, their blood supply is contaminated and their doom is near. Rather than use spaceships, these villains are using an interdimensional gateway. An interesting idea in this particular era of films. Starring the tremendous Beverly Garland, who was practically a studio actor for Corman, having starred in many of his films, this movie also features one of the strangest monsters ever! It looks like a mutant brat and is obviously made from an umbrella!

I've watched this for years and, a decade before Taylor and crew went into the future of earth, this four man crew, including Hugh Marlowe (stalwart actor from many 50's science fiction movies) and Rod Taylor (two years before he'd crack the time barrier again in the excellent The Time Machine), end up breaking the time barrier on a return from Mars. Earth has been devastated by nuclear war, the frail survivors (the men only, the women are super hot) live underground while hideous mutants-who kill any children born looking normal-rule the surface. Of course, common with many 50's films, the crew is attacked by a giant spider! Anyhow, they're return to earth helps usher in a new chance for humanity as the norm's begin retaking the surface. A fun movie that goes swiftly, it shows not every movie need a gigantic budget to be a success.

From the opening of this movie, where Kevin McCarthy runs screaming through traffic (and California traffic is still pretty horrible), to the near end, when he realizes the woman he loves has become a pod person-this film is relentless. The creep factor begins early and continues through the entire film, with brilliant scenes like seeing a pod person be 'born', to the group mind chasing the uninfected. Directed by the brilliant Don Siegel, who would go on to mentor Clint Eastwood, it's just a great, great movie that withstands the test of time. This towers above even the overrated 78 version with its depressing ending. Take it from someone who's seen this hundreds of times. Stick with the original.