The Eighties Sci-Fi Thread.

[nosferatu42]

I saw this at the cinema as a kid, so it holds a special place, somewhere, even though it is admittedly a bit shit.
Anyone fancy squashed dog soup?

[Inspector Abberline]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

I saw this at the cinema as a kid, so it holds a special place, somewhere, even though it is admittedly a bit shit.
Anyone fancy squashed dog soup?

That's no way to talk about Kirk Douglas's naked bottom.

[nosferatu42]

That's made my night.

[Inspector Abberline]

Hands of Steel (1986)

Vendetta dal futuro (aka Hands of Steel, aka Fists of Steel, Vendetta From the Future and Atomic Cyborg)

The trouble with the post apocalypse world is that every body seems to be dressed in 1980's fashion,either that or the variation of the coloured boiler suit. Daniel Greene is Paco Queruak EH! (who seems to have worked a lot with the Farrelly brothers ) is a killer cyborg,with you guessed it Fists of Steel. Paco is programmed to kill a renowned scientist who is on the verge of saving the planet ,(im assuming from nothing specific,just general doom and gloom,and probably industrialist Francis Turner, played by John Saxon). In fact im not sure if this film is set in the present or the future as the film sets seem to go from futuristic wobbly sets,to what looks like rather dodgy bar in Arizona,full of sweaty arm wrestlers and baseball cap wearing truckers. Sergio Martino (as Martin Dolman) saves himself time and money alluding to the fact that Greene is a cyborg but without going to all the fuss of showing the audience much in the way of special effects. Daniel Greene is certainly no worse in this role than say Dolph in Universal Soldier or Arnie in Raw Deal,he stares quite a bit and delivers his dialogue like he really is a robot. Taking his shirt off every so often just to flash his biceps, and remind the audience that we are in the presence of a dude who is built like the preferable brick out house.In fact Greene has quite a good screen presence,whether its being tortured with his top off or beating up the bad guys with his top off,and in the hands of a better director with a better script etc this could of been a minor classic.Of course this is all just an Italian rip off ,of Terminator even down to the adjusting of his robotic arm. Hands of Steel (1986) is flawed and stupid,but it does have a charm of its own.

[Inspector Abberline]

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

While not being the horror classic everybody expected from Steve King's directorial debut,and seemingly flopped on its release,Maximum Overdrive has probably aged damn sight better than a lot of 80's movies. In fact with its AC/DC soundtrack its shelve life has probably lasted longer with the help of the ageing rockers seemingly never going away.King freely admitted its a dumb ass science fiction film about machines coming to life because of a comet passing by the earth's atmosphere.Its basically Night of the Living Dead with trucks,and the Truck-stop diner substituting as the farmhouse. It could also be noted that the Dawn of the Dead remake also steals Maximum Overdrive's ending when the last of the survivors head for a sail boat and try to find an island with no machines/zombies on it. The characters are all pretty much the usual list stereotypes,hero,feisty female,coward,corrupt boss ,comedy relief couple and numerous customers who get offed as the film progresses along. There was a level of criticism aimed at Kings directorial effort,but that doesn't mean it is a total loss,the film juggernaut's along at a fare old pace,never letting the action or dialogue bog it self down to much,and there is a few nice little set pieces along the way as well.The baseball coach getting a beating from a can drink dispenser,one in the nuts and another in the nut.Giancarlo Esposito getting electrocuted by the video arcade machines and Pat Hingle blowing up a trailer full of toilet rolls with a rocket launcher. King may of realised he may of been in for some criticism ,so he got in first by having the cash machine call him an ass hole before everybody else did. Its fun and dumb

[Inspector Abberline]

No point in reviewing this film,I mean if your not a fan by now then your never gonna be.But what makes a film stay with you years after you have first seen it,why can you re watch the same film over and over again,you can recite the dialogue and you know what's coming yet your still able to enjoy and appreciate the on screen tension and ever present paranoia.We all know the butler did it,and there is certainly no need for plot spoiler warning alerts.The Thing has a lot of mystery to it,we are never told where the alien originates,we never really know its true identity,although it some times uses the shape of a spider occasionally. The entrance of the Norwegian helicopter is another unexplained event,when we first see it ,there shooting at a running dog ? We do not know why ? and of course are instincts is to side with what we think is an innocent animal being hounded.Its almost like we have started watching the film from the middle rather than the beginning,as we hit the ground running. Of course the major fascination with the film and one of the reasons it has lasted so long is Rob Bottin and his special make-up effects, we have all seen special effects before, but none as visceral , every time the creature or creatures are introduced to the audience your left thinking what the hell is it. When we first see the Norwegian-Thing, Wilford Brimley as Blair walks around the burnt and bloody remains,and every so often he will point at a body part with his pen only to stick it back in his mouth while he is thinking,was this done on purpose?,Blair is the first to get paranoid and the first to go really nuts. Although the whole Who Goes There? story is what makes the film stand head and shoulders above its rivals,I've come to realise like 90% of the people who watch the Thing that its the monster effects that have stayed with me,whether its the mutating dogs or the spider head creepy crawling across the floor or the snap of chest teeth as Richard Dysart tries to resuscitate Charles Hallahan only to end up with a pair of stumps as thanks.Or maybe its the pounding of the Music by Ennio Morricone ,which to me sounds like a Carpenter score? Its hard to define a classic,maybe that's what makes them classics?

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

The entrance of the Norwegian helicopter is another unexplained event,when we first see it ,there shooting at a running dog ? We do not know why ? and of course are instincts is to side with what we think is an innocent animal being hounded

I can't remember if this scene is subtitled, but if you speak Norwegian, the spoken dialogue does explain what is happening. "Get the hell outta there. That's not a dog, it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! Get away, you idiots! "

[Inspector Abberline]

Altered States 1980

You pretty much know that what ever genre ken Russell worked in your always going to get something wild and bizarre,and Altered States (1980) is no different.Based on the novel by Paddy Chayefsky, it looks at a scientist William Hurt as Dr. Edward Jessup who is conducting experiments in sensory deprivation and psychoactive drugs. And while under the influence of drugs and being submerged in a flotation tank Jessup starts to show actual physical signs of regression due to the experiments he is conducting on himself. Eventually he regresses into some sort of Neanderthal man. Of course the more Jessup (Hurt) experiments the more this increases his chances of him being effected by the research.Well eventually Jessup transgress into a Neanderthal man and escapes the flotation chamber and runs amok beating anybody over the head that gets in his way. Being as this is a Ken Russell movie nothing is or seems straight forward,so when Jessup is hallucinating we get a dose of religious imagery,which include Christ crucified with a goats head,and of course a goat with a goats head.? The imagery and psychedelic images are slightly over whelming and very reminiscent of the ending in 2001 A Space Odyssey . Although the whole hallucinogenic drug taking seems right up Ken Russell;s street, the science and the science fiction parts seem lost amongst all the drug talk..Towards the end it all gets very cosmic and very weird,as the results of Jessup experiments in the isolation tank seem to be growing into a powerful energy that now exists outside of the tank and in Jessup himself. What does all this mean,? Im buggered if I know,It seems Jessup goes through all this just to appreciate his wife and family? I've never read any Paddy Chayefsky so to me it just seems like another variation on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Its not my favourite Russell film,he is much better when he is wallowing in the weirdness of sex and violence,but Altered States is still an interesting film if some what bonkers.

[Inspector Abberline]

Leviathan (1989 )

Another entry in the underwater monster mash stakes,you would think that with all theses people underwater doing stuff for the military like in DeepStar Six or robbing cruise liners in Deep Rising or seeing if rats can breath in water as in James Cameron's The Abysmal er I mean the The Abyss ,somebody might of mentioned the sea beasties that soon appear when mankind is minding his own business and just helping to destroy a bit more of the environment by blowing up the sea bed or just generally antagonising mother nature. George P. Cosmatos directs this science fiction mish mash of ideas about a undersea mining geological facility ran by Peter Weller as Steven Beck. Leviathan resembles a underwater version of Alien,with its over worked and strung out crew members discovering a large shipwrecked space craft,sorry I mean large Russian war ship called the Leviathan. Slightly better than it should be and certainly looking good for its 20 million budget,it has a strong cast list headed by Peter Weller and Richard Crenna , both of whom never fail to deliver the goods,whether its giving people 20 secs to comply or ordering Stallone to kill lots of people. Leviathan is certainly not as dumb as a lot of Alien rip off' clones,but it does take its time to get under-way,but once bodies start mutating the film then kicks up a gear.Of course no movie like this is complete without its monster,and luckily Stan Winston and his crew are responsible for the effects,and we get some rather cool looking beasties attaching themselves to the ever dwindling crew members.Its underwater Alien,its Jaws with tentacles its The Thing with a snorkel,it has teeth in places you never expect but more importantly it has a Ghostbuster in it .

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

...and Amanda Pays.