SCI-FI September!

[MrBarlow]

The Wasp Woman. 1995.

Remake of the 1959 film this time round Jennifer Rubin plays Janice, a owner of a cosmetic company trying to find the ultimate cure for ageing. A doctor has used a enzyme from a wasp which Janice uses and turns her into a wasp.

Another made for T.V. film, some are good as the makers get creative with a budget but this one is certainly not the best, we had a good star cast but the acting is not everyone's best deliverance. The make up and creature effects were decently done and do see a bit of Rubin's bosoms which seems to be the only decent part of the film. The original has its moments of daftness but it's more watchable than this version.

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[MrBarlow]

Demon Seed. 1977.

A scientist creates a super sonic computer that develops it's own artificial intelligence and becomes obsessed with it's creator's wife.

A movie based on the same novel by Dean Koontz, that centres around three characters, one being Fritz Weaver who designed the prototype of creating a computer to act like a butler. Julie Christie who is the beautiful wife and also prisoner in her own home thanks to the new A.I. that's named itself Proteus voiced by Robert Vaughn who wants to live in human form and goes out his way to make it possible. A idea that was ahead of it's time in the 70s is still thrilling with every viewing.

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[MrBarlow]

Phantoms. 1998.

Inhabitants of a small Colorado town have either died or vanished, the local sheriff calls for help and the F.B.I bring in a academic who believes they are up against a ancient enemy,

You get a decent monster movie idea which Dean Koontz created and then a assortment of people who try one way to kill a monster and when that fails everyone begins to get creative and more ideas pop into their heads. But some ideas to create a monster have already been done but other's take that concept and change it around ie, we get a dog in this that's gonna turn out the same way a Huskey did in a film. Ben Affleck seemed to got a few haters in this with his role but he was actually not bad. Peter O'Toole is decent as the academic and occult professor. The alien/creature design is creative and has feel to it like H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu monster. This is one i'd come back to watch again.

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[MrBarlow]

D.A.R.Y.L. 1985.

A young pre-teen boy Daryl,is found in the wilderness and is fostered by a family and forms a friendship with another boy but soon becomes apparent that Daryl isn't a normal boy.

I haven't watched this since the late 80s and enjoyed it more than what I did back in the day. Barret Oliver plays the young lad who goes from strength to strength and from being awkward to acting like a youngster. Michael McKean and Mary Beth Hurt plays the foster parents unknown of Daryl's background they still take him in and treat him as one of their own.Josef Sommer plays the scientist who created Daryl and begins to question his own antics. Nostalgic feel good family movie yet he was never told what a hooker was .

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[Justin101]

I watched Phantoms last month and I really hated it haha. It felt like none of the cast wanted to be in it and were just there for a payday.

Been meaning to watch DARYL for ages, like you I have not seen it since I was a kid.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Justin101

meaning to watch DARYL for ages, like you I have not seen it since I was a kid{
.

Think the last time I watched it, it was on BBC in 1990, the day after I went to Alton Towers.

[MrBarlow]

The Alpha Incident. 1978.

Let me get this right, a micro organism that was brought down from Mars somehow has been developed in a water based chemical is being transported by train and a worker accidentally drops a vial and at a railroad office a few people are quarantined.

A mix of The Andromeda Strain with paranoia on who is infected and who isn't and a woman being the affections of one or two men. The pace is bit over the place with a bit too much talking and two doctors trying to find a cure for something they have created and a race against time before a few soldiers get happy trigger fingers. We only get to see someone die from the exposure and was decently crafted, so the film had that going for it, think this is now seen it that's it movie.

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[MrBarlow]

Hangar 18. 1980.

After a satellite collides witha U.F.O. which crash lands in Arizona, the U.S. government tries to create a cover up.

This is like three stories spliced into one, the astronauts trying to clear their names and prove that they witnessed a collision and seen a U.F.O. The big heads trying to cover it up for political reasons and scientists trying to learn something from the space ship and alien they have rescued. This had a good star cast with Robert Vaughn being the sneaky little bugger trying to create some dirty tactics. Darren McGarvin as the NASA official trying to investigate the ship and James Hampton as one of the astronauts setting out to prove of alien existence. I'm still in two minds to give this a re-watch again, it was good but no spectacular.

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[MrBarlow]

Hand Of Death. 1962.

Doctor Alex Marsh has created a new serum combining with a hypnotic drug and a nerve gas. After accidentally dropping some on him he begins to turn into a monster.

A nice little monster feature for the early morning while having the first cup of coffee of the day. John Agar plays Alex who is working for the government and slowly becomes something else while maybe trying to find a cure. Clocking in at the near 60 minute mark this was better than I expected it to be, for it's time the monster make-up effects were actually decent, as well as the acting. Certainly one to come back to every so often.

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[Frankie Teardrop]

THE DEAD MOUNTAINEER'S HOTEL - Here is a movie that seems the perfect analogue of its soundtrack, a trippy mirage provided by one Sven Grunberg. We're in the snow-capped mountains, where a police inspector is called to a remote hotel - murders have been happening, it seems. Or maybe not, but then again... etc. It's difficult to watch a movie that at one point involves a dying robot / alien who resembles a less bald Howard Devoto and feel like you can be clear about anything, really. What is clear, or rather what is striking, is the visual style, a shifting, shimmering neon-noir that out-Manns Mann by several years (it was made in 1979 but feels so out of time) and transforms its setting into something that recalls a shadowy pop-art aquarium. This film is big on enigma; those mountains in the distance remind me of the crags of 'Picnic At Hanging Rock', earthen rocks that somehow pulsate with eerie life. You can struggle to make sense of what from one angle is an Agatha Christie chamber piece warped into the contours of freaky Euro sci-fi, but in the end it is not so unyielding, it does give up something of its secrets; at its heart is a social commentary about the dangers of totalitarianism, and can you expect anything less from a film that so obviously marches to the beat of its own drum?