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  #371  
Old 14th September 2022, 09:47 PM
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Outland. 1981.

Our good ole Sean Connery is the new mining station Marshal, dealing with a few workers going a bit crazy and before doing any further investigation, general manager Peter Boyle has the bodies shipped away until latest worker Steven Berkoff goes a bit crazier than usual giving our hero time to analyse a blood sample and then we know why the cover up.

A nice little tense action sci-fi film from the early 80s, that doesn't require much effects or and dramatic background stuff except towards the finale and Connery can take a good beating as well dish out a good ass kicking. Peter Boyle plays a good part as the smug manager who seems to get away with a lot but he meets his match.

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  #372  
Old 15th September 2022, 03:47 PM
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Cowboys & Aliens. 2011.

A lone stranger arrives in a town with no memory and a bracelet on his wrist, soon the town is besieged by a alien attack and leads the towns people to attack.

We got Daniel Craig as the amnesiac cowboy who is wanted, Keith Carradine as the law enforcement and Harrison Ford as the rich farmer who has a son that feels his daddy can get him out of trouble that he creates. Who'd thought cowboys would team up with indians to take on a horde of aliens, Jon Favreau did just that. The start of it is decent with a character build up of the town even Clancy Brown shows up as the town's preacher and Sam Rockwell as the bartender. As it goes on the pace gets picked up and nice little battle towards the end, it's not perfect film but certainly worth a watch.

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  #373  
Old 15th September 2022, 05:34 PM
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Tarantula. 1955.

A spider escapes from a laboratory during a fire which has been injected with a serum that makes it grow in size.

Another classic 50s B movie that showed you didn't need to have big special effects but a creative mind on how to show things in a bigger way and influenced the makers to do the same for The Incredible Shrinking man.

Leo G. Carroll plays the scientist who has co developed the serum that can help world hunger and trying it on a varied set of animals and insects except his colleagues have tried the serum on themselves that didn't go exactly to plan. John Agar plays the young doctor who goes out to prove that one doctor died from a rare disease and slowly uncovers the truth. Mara Corday plays the new lab assistant who sees the change in her new teacher.

With next to the film Them, this film can certainly put you off insects and arachnids, this film is well acted and and the spider itself is not robotic just filmed at a normal size and projected up and nicely created for the up close shots of the face.

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  #374  
Old 15th September 2022, 07:30 PM
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Robocop 2. 1990.

Detroit now a drug fulled city, OCP trying to re-create a new Robocop and a female member goes rogue and uses the brain of a sociopath drug dealing killer.

This sequel was not greatly appreciated by the audience and film critics, Paul Verhoeven left and Irvin Kershner stepped in to take the rains for the film and make it look more violent. Frank Miller stepped in to create a script that was labled unfilmable and changes were made. Paul Weller and Nancy Allen returned and were not happy about how the film was but still managed to give a decent film. I was never a fan of this but after seeing the remake this was better.

Tom Noonan plays the unstable nuke drug lord who has his brain placed in a new Robocop and goes a bit haywire and becomes trigger happy. Dan O'Herlihy returns as The Old Man of OCP who the company wants to invest in the police department amongst other things. This is a sequel that has grown on me alot over the years.

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  #375  
Old 15th September 2022, 08:04 PM
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Cyborg Cop II (1994)

David Bradley returns as Jack Ryan this time up against three Universal Soldiers in a film that loads up on action and shit blowing up out on the desert highways.

Much more fun than the first film, this pacy direct to video offering was pretty entertaining all told even if the acting is fairly wretched.
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  #376  
Old 15th September 2022, 09:14 PM
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Robocop 3. 1993.

OCP now run by another chairman who deals with a Japanese business corporation want to tear down Cadillac Heights to build a new area forcing people to turn rebel until Robocop is framed for a crime and joins them to take down OCP and a team of mercenaries created by the company.

Robert Burke steps in where Weller should have been but he was off doing another movie, Nancy Allen returns but only in a smaller role (at Allen's request her character to be killed off early). Robert DoQui returns as Sgt Reed along with Felton Perry who plays Johnson the new Vice-president of OCP beside Rip Torn.

Fred Dekker takes the directors chair for this last outing of the original trilogy and goes with what he can do, does the director and writer deserve the bashing for this of the studio who funded it? Orion where in dire straits with bankruptcy and needed a good pick me up but with not so great funds to shell out, seems like they stepped aside the blame for the mess to other people. The violence is well toned down a bit from the first two movies, there is a bit of a laugh in this and seems a bit shorter in running time, it's not the best way to end the trilogy but entertaining.

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  #377  
Old 16th September 2022, 03:26 PM
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The Matrix
A groundbreaking film when it first came out, The Matrix harnessed popular culture by referencing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz and then spawned numerous memes and cultural references.

With a brilliantly imaginative and intelligent script by the Wachowskis, superb direction that, with fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping, married wuxia with Hollywood's finest visual effects, creating the spectacular 'bullet time' sequences, the film is a visual treat. The aesthetic choices and designs, particularly the costumes, still look incredibly cool and stylish.

In terms of the casting, everyone in the major roles is perfect: Laurence Fishburne gives Morpheus the necessary gravitas and authority, Keanu Reeves is appropriately wide-eyed and confused as Thomas Anderson and Neo, the computer hacker for seeking Morpheus and answers about what 'The Matrix' is, before being freed and burdened with the expectations that he is 'the One', mankind's saviour who will end the war with the machines, before realising his potential. There is great support from Joe Pantoliano as the treacherous Cypher, Hugo Weaving as the deadly computer program Agent Smith, and Carrie-Anne Moss, an actor plucked from relative obscurity to play Trinity, a skilled fighter, loyal crew member on the Nebuchadnezzar hovercraft ship, and Neo's love interest. Of all the fine performances, hers is probably the most surprising and impressive.

I've seen this countless times since watching it at the cinema as it's a brilliant mix of popcorn entertainment and intelligent, thoughtful scriptwriting which incorporates philosophical and religious themes to create something a step above the standard story for a sci-fi-action movie.

Watching the 4K Ultra HD disc today was a fantastic experience because the picture quality is exceptional, better than I expected, and the Dolby Atmos soundtrack makes the viewing experience even more involving and exciting than on any other home video format.

The Matrix Reloaded
It was almost impossible for any sequel to live up to the expectations left by the Wachowskis at the end of The Matrix, a film which took the world by storm and created diehard fans who analysed and interpreted the many mythological or spiritual elements in the 1999 film's screenplay.

There are many who feel The Matrix Reloaded is a huge disappointment, a sequel that is a pale shadow of its predecessor. I'm one of the few who think it is almost as good as The Matrix, and is a genuinely intelligent and exciting film. The cast are just as good as the first film, if not better, thanks to sizeable roles for Monica Bellucci, Jada Pinkett Smith, Harold Perrineau, Gina Torres, Lambert Wilson, and Essie Davis

This is a film which treats its audience as intelligent adults who want to grapple with its philosophical concepts (determinism versus free will and choice), making Neo's conversations with the Oracle and the Architect deep and challenging interactions that benefit from repeated viewings. The Wachowskis no doubt hoped audiences enjoy every minute of the highway sequence, a phenomenal piece of action filmmaking that thrilled me as much yesterday as it did in the cinema nearly 20 years ago and, with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, it's an AV treat and reference quality material for any 4K home cinema setup.

As with the first film, there are moments of heartfelt emotion, glee, and almost disbelief at the scale of the visual carnage which CGI has made possible. The 'To Be Concluded' ending was an audacious cliffhanger and a benefit of making the two sequels back to back so the final instalment could be released very soon after the second film (they were in cinemas about six months apart, an appropriate gap) – I intend to watch it a little later today.
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  #378  
Old 16th September 2022, 03:33 PM
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The Fly. 1958.

A scientist that has created a teleportation device tires it on himself with disastrous results.

This one does start off a bit slow, we see a death that has happened and police investigation going on then a wife tells the story of how a man became to meet his fate. The look of the film even with the lab looks like something you would see in the present and almost forget its a 50s movies, even with the deformity of the scientist yiu want to see the results of what became of him and then you don't. the make-up department done a decently good job of the half human half fly like creature. The acting has always been brilliant even with David Hedison as the scientist who is mixed up in his work, Patricia Owens as the wife who seems to leave her husband to work and Vincent Price as the brother who feels no ill worth towards his sibling. Another great classic film.

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  #379  
Old 16th September 2022, 05:35 PM
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The Incredible Shrinking Man. 1957.

After sailing through a mysterious mist, Scott Carey begins to shrink in size while doctors try to find a cure to stop it.

Grant Williams plays the lead as Scott who seems happy with life and his wife played by Randy Stuart who after a sailing trip notices his clothes seem bigger then he begins to shrink and his condition begins to baffle doctors until he is at a height he feels happy with then the process begins to happen again.

For a film made in 57, this has always been a entertaining film, with Williams providing the narration of his struggle to find food and coming up against a ultimate foe. Based on the Richard Matheson novel who also wrote the script, this was decently directed by Jack Arnold and gave out some good set designs as what would be normal for us shows everything is a struggle for a smaller person.

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  #380  
Old 16th September 2022, 08:54 PM
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Nazis that have been living on the moon since there defeat , hatch a plan to take over the earth. It's all very bonkers and silly but highly enjoyable.



Take place a number of years after the first we find out that most of the world's leaders are lizard people from space that have been manipulating the human race since the dawn of time , they are now living in the centre of the earth that is hollow. While not as silly as the first I still enjoyed it.

Those whack jobs on ancient aliens would be pulling each other of when they watched this as all there bonkers theory's are here!





My favourite of the bunch and even none star trek fans can enjoy this film . Here the earth is being destroyed by a probe it's up too Kirk and his crew to once again save the earth by going in the past to the 20th century and getting some whales . All very tounge in cheek with a ecological message , also it's a fish out of water story .




Regarded as the worst while it's not as good as the last few , I still find it enjoyable because of the connection between Kirk , McCoy and Spock even if the story is laughable.




My second favourite after the Klingon empire is on the verge of collapse , Kirk and his crew who are about to retire are ask to escort the Klingon chancellor to a peace conference. But many on both sides don't want this and Kirk is set up with the chancellor's death so once again it's up too him and his crew to save the galaxy and bring peace.

This mirrored the fall of the Soviet Union and the chernobyl disaster. A fitting end for the original cast.



A mixture of star trek and the three amigos . The stars of a cancelled sci-fi show who make there living at conventions and opening malls , don't know what they are getting into when the except a job from what they believe to be fans who are in fact real aliens who think the show was real and have recreated there ship for real and want them to help save there planet.

Highly enjoyable and funny with a great bunch of characters and Sigourney Weaver is surprisingly hot as a blond. A better star trek movie than some of the prober ones.
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