Post by Bartwald on Apr 2, 2005 2:18:27 GMT -5
TERMINAL INVASION (2002)
DIRECTOR: Sean S. Cunningham
CAST: Bruce Campbell, Chase Masterson, C. David Johnson
GRADE: 4,5/10
Why would anyone on Earth like to rent this one? Easy – ‘cause Bruce Campbell plays here (looking more menacing than usual), it’s directed by Sean S. Cunningham (I never was a fan of the original Friday The 13th but at least it started a new chapter in horror movie history; and Deep Space Six was not bad) and Harry Manfredini took care of the score (sounds always seemed to me the best thing in the first few Fridays). Is it worth renting, then? Well, the people mentioned above were a magnet for me but I never expected this movie to be anything more than an average horror about aliens with good music in the background and at least one good actor. And I got just that.
The opening titles and the opening scene (Bruce Campbell’s silent convict at the backseat of a police car, snowstorm outside, two policemen warming themselves with hot tea) give you hope for the future – this may not gonna be as cheap as expected! Then the police car gets stuck in the snow and we go to a nearby airport where the police dudes with a handcuffed Bruce are heading as well. When at the airport, you’re not as sure about the movie’s alright-quality anymore – since the first frames there you’re attacked by two children’s irritating voices and when you see them running ‘round the place it doesn’t help the matters: the brats are not little Osments or even little Culkins, can’t act for the hell of it. And the new setting gives the Invasion the feel of some weird episode of Wings that makes you expect Lowell pop up from around the corner anytime. Easy to imagine, the Waiting For Lowell factor doesn’t make it any easier for us to believe that the airport is probably full of alien creatures hidden perfectly in human bodies. The movie doesn’t try to answer why the hell would they like to kill off the airport population (“‘Cause we don’t like you, thass why!” is more or less the answer we get somewhere in the middle of the film) but it rather wants to force you to guess WHO of the people gathered is not human enough and HOW, if at all, will the good guys escape.
The first alien meeting is OK. – the ‘eye tick’ is unsettling enough and I guess we all honestly wish Bruce did something manly with the space stuff, it’s kind of difficult to be AGAINST Bruce, really, so at least in this area it surpasses the usual teen horrors, where you wish to see guts of the annoying characters being taken out as soon as possible. The special effects are also, all in all, not so bad. They work best when they’re just used for the eye-rolling and they suck when they’re supposed to be showing the aliens die and disappear.
The movie never reaches any admirable levels of suspense but some scenes come somewhat close to that – searching for the alien among the characters with the use of an airport metal detector machine (they go inside one by one to show they’ve got some skeletons – and not just goo - on them, until...) is probably the best example to prove the point; what’s even better, the scene finishes with a nicely black ‘Keep Your Hands Off’ joke and I guess if Cunningham, or the scriptwriter, used more of such antics this Invasion could really rock.
As it is, though, it soon loses its initial charm: it’s easy to predict who’s got any chances of getting out of the movie alive and even easier to guess the identity of the last alien... which sucks as you can see it was supposed to be the movie’s greatest surprise. Disappointing, then? No, if you know what to expect. Cool, maybe? Not really. But it has cool parts. And Bruce is cool. Can rent it if you like the man.
DIRECTOR: Sean S. Cunningham
CAST: Bruce Campbell, Chase Masterson, C. David Johnson
GRADE: 4,5/10
Why would anyone on Earth like to rent this one? Easy – ‘cause Bruce Campbell plays here (looking more menacing than usual), it’s directed by Sean S. Cunningham (I never was a fan of the original Friday The 13th but at least it started a new chapter in horror movie history; and Deep Space Six was not bad) and Harry Manfredini took care of the score (sounds always seemed to me the best thing in the first few Fridays). Is it worth renting, then? Well, the people mentioned above were a magnet for me but I never expected this movie to be anything more than an average horror about aliens with good music in the background and at least one good actor. And I got just that.
The opening titles and the opening scene (Bruce Campbell’s silent convict at the backseat of a police car, snowstorm outside, two policemen warming themselves with hot tea) give you hope for the future – this may not gonna be as cheap as expected! Then the police car gets stuck in the snow and we go to a nearby airport where the police dudes with a handcuffed Bruce are heading as well. When at the airport, you’re not as sure about the movie’s alright-quality anymore – since the first frames there you’re attacked by two children’s irritating voices and when you see them running ‘round the place it doesn’t help the matters: the brats are not little Osments or even little Culkins, can’t act for the hell of it. And the new setting gives the Invasion the feel of some weird episode of Wings that makes you expect Lowell pop up from around the corner anytime. Easy to imagine, the Waiting For Lowell factor doesn’t make it any easier for us to believe that the airport is probably full of alien creatures hidden perfectly in human bodies. The movie doesn’t try to answer why the hell would they like to kill off the airport population (“‘Cause we don’t like you, thass why!” is more or less the answer we get somewhere in the middle of the film) but it rather wants to force you to guess WHO of the people gathered is not human enough and HOW, if at all, will the good guys escape.
The first alien meeting is OK. – the ‘eye tick’ is unsettling enough and I guess we all honestly wish Bruce did something manly with the space stuff, it’s kind of difficult to be AGAINST Bruce, really, so at least in this area it surpasses the usual teen horrors, where you wish to see guts of the annoying characters being taken out as soon as possible. The special effects are also, all in all, not so bad. They work best when they’re just used for the eye-rolling and they suck when they’re supposed to be showing the aliens die and disappear.
The movie never reaches any admirable levels of suspense but some scenes come somewhat close to that – searching for the alien among the characters with the use of an airport metal detector machine (they go inside one by one to show they’ve got some skeletons – and not just goo - on them, until...) is probably the best example to prove the point; what’s even better, the scene finishes with a nicely black ‘Keep Your Hands Off’ joke and I guess if Cunningham, or the scriptwriter, used more of such antics this Invasion could really rock.
As it is, though, it soon loses its initial charm: it’s easy to predict who’s got any chances of getting out of the movie alive and even easier to guess the identity of the last alien... which sucks as you can see it was supposed to be the movie’s greatest surprise. Disappointing, then? No, if you know what to expect. Cool, maybe? Not really. But it has cool parts. And Bruce is cool. Can rent it if you like the man.
