Land Shark Movie Review

Trailer here.

Land Shark is a 2017 horror/ Sci-Fi movie directed by Mark Polonia and starring Sarah French and Peter Baldo.

The film begins with a woman who is walking on the beach. She notices a shark but goes sunbathing. It attacks her on the beach. Cut to MALCO Oceanic Research facility. A worker called Lucinda(French) talks to Dr. Foster(Baldo) about strange things happening with their sharks. He tells her that it isn't possible. He speaks to his boss, Dr. Lorca(Kathryn Sue Young) about it. They are involved in some plan together. They are experimenting with sharks. Lucinda notices that a shark is missing. Foster tells her that he has it. The shark claims more victims. This is a shark that can survive on land. How can that be?????

Lucinda and Foster find the body of a worker at the centre. Dr. Foster won't allow her to report it. He tells her that she has to help him cover it up or lose her job. She has no choice. They talk to Lorca and she threatens Lucinda. Foster informs her that they are trying to make sharks to adapt to living on land so that they can be used by the military. Three of their sharks are on the loose. Lorca tells them that they have to find the sharks and kill them all. When Lucinda is out of the room, she tells Foster that he has to take care of Lucinda when the sharks are dead. Foster and Lucinda head off to find the sharks.

They have a tracker to trace the sharks. Foster has a laser gun. They meet a homeless guy who says that he saw a land shark. They split up to search. They find one. They shoot it and they burn it. Two fishermen get another one and kill it. There is one left. It kills the homeless guy. Lucinda and Foster arrive at an old house where the tracker says the last shark is. They find it and he comes after them. They shoot at it. The shark goes into the river and they manage to get it out and electrocute it. Foster has been bitten and he feels unwell. He tells her that they have gotten all the sharks. He injects himself with the same serum that he used on the sharks. He turns into some sort of man shark hybrid. Lucinda tries to kill him. She ends up doing it but he tells her that there are other experiments. The movie ends with a shark jumping up in the water.

This film is cheap and silly. I mean, when you have a title like Land Shark, it can't be taken seriously. This was fun but the film was just too cheap. The shark was obviously rubber and the special effects were dire. The acting was bad but I still think that there is fun to be had here. If you know what you are getting, then you won't be disappointed. Just be warned. I give this a 3/10.

These are the Damned Movie Review

Trailer here.

These are the Damned is a 1962 Sci-Fi/horror film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Oliver Reed and Alexander Knox.

A man called Simon Wells(Carey) meets a young girl called Joan(Field). She leads him to a motorcycle gang, led by her brother, King(Reed). They beat him up. He is brought to a restaurant to recover. A man called Bernard(Knox) is working on experiments in the area. He has a lover called Freya(Viveca Lindfors) who wants to know what is working on. He won't tell her anything. Joan visits Simon and she tells him that her brother beats up anyone who shows interest in her. She jumps onto his boat. The gang are watching. Bernard meets with scientists and army personnel. There are children being kept in a secret facility. Bernard speaks to them. They want to leave.

Simon takes Joan ashore and they end up at Bernard's house. There is nobody there. They kiss. Freya also shows up at the house. King follows. He destroys a sculpture she has made. She is upset. The gang find Simon and Joan and they are after them. They end up at the facility and end up meeting the children. They tell Simon about their teachers. These children are not normal. They are fascinated by the warmth of Simon and Joan. The two talk to the children.  King is there too. He is scared by the children. A man in a radioactive suit arrives to see the children. King isn't feeling well. Bernard knows that the children have three people with them. He tells them that they will get sick if they stay. They decide to leave.

King, Joan and Simon decide to help the children escape. Bernard sends men to get them.

King knocks one out and shoots one. Simon gets the other one. Simon realises that the children are radioactive. He is disgusted by the experiment. Bernard and a military man called Captain Gregory try to stop them from leaving. Freya sees something happening and so does a local man called Sid(Kenneth Cope). Some of the children get recaptured. One of them goes with King, while Joan and Simon are caught but allowed to leave. Bernard tells Freya about the kids. Their parents were exposed to radiation and that is why the children are affected. He thinks that they will be able to survive a nuclear disaster. Bernard thinks Simon and Joan will die before long. King is killed as he tries to escape with the kid. Joan and Simon try to escape on the boat but a helicopter follows them and waits for them to die. Bernard kills Freya after she refuses to be a part of his plan. The film ends with the children back in captivity, shouting for help as the people on the beach enjoy their holidays. 

This was a good film. I liked the cast and the story was interesting too. It kind of reminds me of Village of the Damned, but the kids aren't evil in his one. I liked Oliver Reed in this. He plays a good villain. This is actually a Hammer film and it does have a good cast. I definitely recommend it and I will give it a 6/10.

Significant Other Movie Review

Trailer here.

Significant Other is a 2022 horror/sci-fi movie directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen and starring Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy.

The films begins with something falling from the sky into the woods. It is some sort of alien being. Cut to a couple called Ruth(Monroe) and Harry(Lacy). They are are on a trip into the woods. They set up camp for the night. Ruth sees a weird deer when she gets up to go to the bathroom. It stares at her. She feels weird. Harry proposes to her and she turns him down. She doesn't want to get married. They argue about it. She wakes up the next morning and Harry has gone for a walk. She finds a dead deer. It has been sliced in half and covered in some sort of fungus. Harry comes back and he sees it. They look for it in a book they brought and discover that it is a virus. Ruth is worried about what killed the deer. She and Jack make up.

Ruth goes off the find a spot to pee in. She sees a cave and there are glowing things in there. She finds a puddle of glowing goo. Something is in there. Harry looks for her and he finds her standing in the woods. She seems odd. She starts behaving strangely. The next day, she tells him that she was wrong about turning him down. She says that she wants him to ask her again in the same spot as before. When they get there, she pushes him off the cliff and kills him. She passes out and a couple find her. They ask her what happened and she can't remember. They take her to their camp. Harry appears. He is fine. Ruth runs away. Harry kills the people who helped Ruth. He confronts her and she tells him that she knew that Harry was dead. She saw his body in the cave. She realised that the alien was in Harry and that is why she pushed him off the cliff.

Harry tells her that he is a scout. He can't kill her. He tells her that he loves her. She runs away. She tries to attack him but he says that he is Harry. He can feel everything that Harry felt. They go to the beach and he shows her his spacecraft. He wants to take her to another planet. He tells her that more of the aliens are coming to earth. She agrees to go with him to distract him then he runs into the water. He follows her but gets attacked by a shark. He revives himself again. He gets her and puts her into a cocoon in the cave. Harry can turn into her.  She lets all of her fears and anxieties go into him. The creature has a panic attack and looks for something to help. There is nothing. She breaks the cocoon and she kills it as it has been weakened. She reaches her car and she drives off. The creature talks to her through the radio. The movie ends with the aliens coming.

This film wasn't bad. It was comedic in parts and I didn't really like that. I thought that this film would be different. I thought that it would be more about something evil in the woods rather than a body hopping alien. It could have been better, I thought. I wanted more of a killer alien hunting them down. That would have been more interesting. I don't want to put you off, though. If you enjoy a bit of horror with a lot of sci-fi, then give this a try. I wouldn't class it is as straight horror, but there are horror elements in it so I can't call it a sci-fi film alone. I will give it a 5/10.

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The Faculty Movie Review

The Faculty is a 1998 sci fi /horror movie directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Robert Patrick and Famke Janssen.

The movie begins with Coach Willis(Patrick) chasing after Principal Drake(Bebe Neuwith) at Herrington High. He and a teacher, Mrs. Olsen(Piper Laurie) chase her and stab her. Cut to the next day and the students are arriving. They are the nerd, Casey(Wood), the cool guy Zeke(Hartnett), new girl Marybeth(Laura Harris),bitch Delilah(Jordana Brewster),athlete Stan(Shawn Hatosy) and weirdo Stokely(Clea DuVall). Casey sees the Coach at school and he is acting really strangely. Casey finds something on the football field and he brings it to  Mr. Furlong(Jon Stewart), the science teacher.

Zeke is selling drugs out of his car at school. A meek teacher, Miss Burke(Janssen) tries to tell him off but he laughs at her. Meanwhile, Mr. Furlong looks at what Casey has found and it turns out to be a sea dwelling creature. He thinks that it is a new species. He puts it in water and it comes to life. It bites the teacher. Casey takes pictures of the Coach. He and Delilah hide and watch the Coach and Mrs. Olsen infect the school nurse played by Salma Hayek. They run away and tell their teachers, but they are all infected too. Casey gets his partner and the cops to come to school to investigate but it backfires on him when there is no evidence of anything amiss. His parents think that he is taking drugs. He looks out of his window and sees the teachers outside. He doesn't want to go to school, but his parents make him.

Delilah meets him there and she tells him that the teachers are after her. Zeke notices that some of the students are acting strangely too. The once meek teacher Miss Burke is now bitchy and confident and she gives Zeke a hard time. Casey tells Stokely about it but she doesn't believe it. The kids all come together and talk about it. Casey tells his pals what has been happening. They go to Mr. Furlong and he has been turned and tries to attack them. Zeke uses his drugs that have been stored inside a pen and stabs him with it. It kills him. It turns out that the alien things don't like the drugs. The group make a plan to get out of the school. They get into Zeke's car and drive away to Zeke's house. He has a drug lab there.

Zeke works out that the drugs dry the creature out and it dies. They squabble as they don't know who is infected. They all have to try the drugs to see. It is Delilah. She escapes. They decide that they need to find the queen and destroy her. They go back to the school. They are chased by the football team who are super strong as they are infected. The creatures come and try and stop them from leaving the school. They kill Principal Drake but she isn't the queen. Zeke needs to get more drugs to kill the aliens.Stan gets infected. Zeke needs to go out to his car and get his drugs. Delilah shows up and tries to infect Casey. Miss Burke tries to get them, but they kill her .

It is revealed that Marybeth is the alien queen. She didn't take the drug earlier so she was not found out. She chases them and tries to kill them. Casey kills her. The movie ends with everyone being back to normal and happy. Everyone was reverted back to their former selves after the creature was killed.
This was a good, fun movie. Think Dawson's Creek with a bit of sci fi and horror thrown in. I liked it a lot and the cast were great. This was more of a teen movie, I think, but that wouldn't put me off at all. I had fun with it and I would certainly recommend it. I will give it a 7/10.

Get Out Movie Review

Get Out is a 2017 horror/thriller directed by Jordan Peele and starring Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams.

A guy is kidnapped while walking through a neighbourhood. Chris Washington(Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose(Williams) are a couple. He is black and she is white and they are going to visit her parents for the weekend. He is a bit nervous about it. They travel to her parents house and he meets them. They are neurosurgeon Dean(Bradley Whitford) and his wife Missy(Catherine Keener) who happens to be a psychiatrist. They seem overly nice to him and he feels a little uncomfortable, especially when he sees the black maid, Georgina and the black groundsman, Walter. They seem a bit weird to Chris. Rose's weird brother, Jeremy arrives for the weekend too and there is something really odd about him.

Chris ends up being hypnotised by Missy and she messes with his mind and asks him about his mother's death when he was young. She has done something strange to him. There is a party on that day and the guests are mostly white with one other black man, Logan,being present. He seems very strange too as he is with a much older woman. Chris calls his pal, Rod, who is a TSA agent and he tells him all about what is happening. Chris takes out his phone and he is going to take a picture of Logan but he succeeds in causing him to have some sort of fit from the flash. Chris wants the get out of there. He tries to tell Rose to go with him. That evening, there is an auction with all of the odd party guests in attendance. Chris' picture is up and they are bidding for him. A blind guy called Jim Hudson(Stephen Root) wins him.

The whole thing becomes clear when Chris sends Rod the picture of Logan and Rod recognises him as someone who had disappeared. Chris also finds pictures of Rose with her other boyfriends, who have all been black. What is going on? SPOILER ALERT. STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING....
Rose turns on him and he realises that the family are weirdos. They want him to use as a host body for Jim Hudson. Jim's brain will be inserted into Chris. This will allow Jim to see through his eyes and become whole again while Chris will be lost forever thanks to Missy using her hypnosis to send him away. In short, Chris will be the body, but Jim will control it all. Jim is ready for his operation and the family try to get Chris to surgery, but he fights back and kills them, except Rose.

Meanwhile, Rod is at the police station, telling them his story about Chris. They think that he is insane. Chris finds out that Georgina is actually controlled by Rose's grandmother's brain and Walter is controlled by her grandfather's brain. Georgina is killed in a car crash and Walter kills himself, but not before coming back to himself and realising what has happened. He shoots Rose. She doesn't die immediately. Chris is going to kill her, but he can't do it. Rod turns up to save the day and he takes Chris away to safety while Rose dies.

I wasn't crazy about this film at all. It did remind me of The Stepford Wives. The twist was obvious from the beginning and I was not surprised at all how things worked out. It was unfortunate that it was so predictable and just plain obvious. It had little in the way of scares and the ending was just dull. I am one of the few that didn't love this film and I will not change my mind on it. I got a sinking feeling about thirty minutes into this and realised that I knew what was happening already. I hoped that there might be a different twist, but it ended as I assumed it would. I wanted to like it and I tried to like it, but I just didn't. So, in my opinion, this is a predictable sci-fi/thriller. Not much horror in this one really. If you are expecting a horror movie, then you will be disappointed. I will give this one a 4/10.

10 Cloverfield Lane Movie Review 440

10 Cloverfield Lane is a 2016 sci-fi/thriller movie sequel directed by Dan Trachtenberg and starring John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr.

Michelle(Winstead) is a young woman who has fallen out with her boyfriend. She drives off in her car through Louisiana. She hears that there is something happening on the radio but she crashes her car when she hits something. She wakes up in a room where she has been chained. Her leg is hurt and she is terrified. A man comes in to talk to her. His name is Howard(Goodman) and he tries to help her but she is very wary of him. He tells her that there has been some sort of attack. He doesn't know if it is nuclear or alien and he tells her that she cannot go outside because the air is contaminated. She doesn't believe him.
 

It turns out that she is in Howard's bunker and that he has been preparing for this for years. He has everything that you could want in his place. He is a little odd though and he insists on keeping the place neat and tidy. Michelle meets a guy there called Emmet(Gallagher Jr.) and they talk. He tells her that he used to work for Howard and then when the invasion happened, he made sure he was in the bunker. Michelle steals his keys to the bunker and she is going to escape when a woman with horrible injuries to her skin bangs on the door begging to be let inside. Sh becomes violent when Michelle doesn't open the door. Howard tells Michelle that that is what happens to people outside.
Michelle finally believes him. She realises that Howard hit her on purpose but he explains that he was upset and he didn't realise what he was doing. They all settle down in the bunker, adjusting to life there.

Michelle becomes suspicious of Howard when he talks about his daughter, but doesn't say what has happened to her. He shows Michelle a picture of a young girl and says that it is his daughter, but it is actually a missing girl. Michelle tells Emmet and they come up with a plan to make a protective suit so that they can go outside and escape. Unfortunately, Howard is clever and he finds out what they are doing. He asks them what they were doing and Emmet takes the blame. Howard shoots him dead. Michelle is horrified and she realises that Howard is dangerous. She continues making her suit and bides her time until she can get out. He knows what she is doing and things turn nasty. She manages to get outside in her suit and causes a fire which makes the bunker explode. She sees aliens outside and realises that Howard was telling the truth. SPOILER ALERT!!!She hides from them and manages to blow up one of their ships . She drives off and thinks that she is safe but there are loads of ships in the sky. She hears on the radio that there are survivors and she drives to Houston to meet them.

I liked this movie a lot. I liked the storyline and I liked Goodman's portrayal of the odd Howard. He plays it perfectly and you do wonder what is behind his seemingly normal facade. I really think that the story was interesting. Is there really an invasion? Is it nuclear or chemical? Is Howard a total weirdo who tells lies to trap people in his bunker? So many possibilities here and this did keep me guessing about what would happen next. I liked Cloverfield and really enjoyed it but the found footage camerawork was hard on the eyes. This is easier to watch and I like the way that it ties in with the original. There will be a third movie and I will be interested to see where the story goes from here. This movie belongs to Goodman who is perfect as Howard. The other two were watchable, but Goodman steals the show. I will give it an 8/10.

The Purge Movie Review 328

The Purge is a 2013 Science Fiction/Horror movie directed by James DeMonaco and starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey and Rhys Wakefield.

The year is 2022 and there is hardly any crime and unemployment in America. The government is called the New Founding Fathers of America and they have a 12 hour purge where people can vent their frustration and commit any act of violence they like. People who can afford it have security systems while the poor or homeless people get the brunt of the violence. James Sandin(Hawke) sells the security systems and he and his wife Mary(Headey) live in a very nice neighbourhood with their two children, Charlie and their daughter Zoey. They get ready for the purge and they start to shut down everything. Zoey's boyfriend, Henry gets into the house and he confronts James with a gun.
Meanwhile, in an act of utter stupidity, Charlie sees a wounded man on the cameras and he decides to let him in.

This leads to a group of youngsters, led by a masked leader(Wakefield) who calls on them and tells them that they have something he wants. The homeless guy that they were chasing down is theirs and they want him back so that they can kill him. They give them time to decide before they break inside and kill everyone. At first James wants to hand him over, but it doesn't work out that way and the group breaks in and it is a game of cat and mouse as they try and survive. James and co battle their way through the group but James is mortally wounded and he eventually dies. Mary survives and she is faced with some crazy neighbours who want to kill her family too. The homeless guy pops up and saves them from death and Mary lets the neighbours go when the purge is over.

This was an entertaining movie. I liked the premise and it was good fun. The twist at the end where the neighbours were trying to kill them too was a bit silly, but overall, this wasn't bad. I will give it a 7/10.

Ice Spiders Movie Review 316

Ice Spiders is a 2007 Sci-Fi/Horror movie made for the Sci Fi Channel. It is directed by Tibor Takacs and stars Patrick Muldoon, Vanessa A. Williams and Thomas Calabro.

The story begins at a ski resort in Utah. Dash Dashiell(Patrick Muldoon) is a former Olympic skier and he is now working as a ski instructor. He hurt his leg years ago and that put an end to his career. He works with Frank (Stephen J. Cannell). There is a large group of young people at the resort and they are looking forward to a great skiing vacation. Two hunters are in the woods and they come upon something large and something with a lot of legs. It is a giant mutant spider! It devours them and goes looking for more nibbles! It turns out that there is a lab there and they have been working on mutating spiders for their web silk and the larger the spider, the more silk it will make. Dr April Sommers(Vanessa A. Williams) has been experimenting on the spiders, along with Professor Marks and they have created massive monster spiders. April didn't realise that Marks was accelerating their growth and making them too big.

The spiders begin to take over the ski lodge and go on a killing spree. Dash and April have to try and get the skiers to safety while the spiders try and get them. The army is called in but there are only a couple of guys who are working with Marks to capture the spiders, not kill them. Captain Baker(Calabro) has his army guys on the hunt for the spiders and they are at odds with Dash and the others as Dash thinks that the spiders should be killed, not captured. There are plenty of comedy moments as the spiders try and kill everyone. In the end, most of the spiders are killed, but one. The army guys come and take one away, alive. Dash tries to kill it, but he is stopped as the army drive away with the spider in their possession. Dash has no choice but to forget it.

This was a fun movie with some funny moments. The spiders are massive so if you are like me and don't like them, be warned. I watched this and tried not to shudder as the massive spiders scuttled around. It is better than a lot of bigger budget movies and I would recommend it for a good laugh. I will give it a 6/10.

Shivers Movie Review 311

 

Shivers is a 1975 horror/sci-fi movie written and directed by David Cronenberg. It was his first proper movie and it stars Paul Hampton and Lynn Lowry.

Dr. Emil Hobbes(Fred Doederlin) is performing strange experiments with parasites. He has designed one which is an aphrodisiac and when it is implanted in a person, it causes sexual desires which are totally uncontrollable. He thinks that if people are having sex, then they will be more peaceful etc but it all goes wrong. He implants it into his mistress and she cannot control her lust. Emil kills her and himself, thinking that this will stop the parasite, but she has already infected plenty of people in the apartment building where she lived. People begin to get infected by sexual contact and they turn into sex crazed zombies. Roger St Luc(Hampton) is a doctor in the apartment complex and he sees that people are exhibiting very odd behaviour. He looks into it with his nurse/lover, Miss Forsythe(Lowry).

They go through the building and they are chased by the sex crazed inhabitants. They try to escape, but the zombies are after them. Roger gets to his car, but they are after him and they trap him. Miss Forsythe gets infected and Roger has to go without her. As much as he tries to, he cannot escape and he gets trapped and infected by the zombies. The end of the movie shows the sex crazed people getting into their cars and heading for the city where they will infect everyone...

 

I liked this film. It is low budget, but good entertainment. It has everything that a good horror movie should have. It is far from perfect, but I enjoyed it and it showed that Cronenberg had great promise as a filmmaker at that time. If you enjoy cheap horror with an edge, then this is for you. I will give it a 6/10.

The Running Man Movie Review 298

  
The Running Man is a 1987 Sci-Fi movie directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura,Richard Dawson and Maria Conchita Alonso. It is based on a Stephen King novel of the same name.

The year is 2017 and America is a police state.There is a game show called The Running Man and it features a criminal who has to survive being hunted and attacked by different warriors. If they escape, they are supposedly free to go. A police man called Ben Richards(Schwarzenegger) is accused of a crime that he didn't commit and he is sentenced to jail. 18 months later, he and some others escape from the jail. They go to a rebel camp where some resistance fighters are.He meets the leader, Mic(Mick Fleetwood) who wants him to join, but he doesn't want to. He go to his brother's place but finds a woman called Amber Mendez(Alonso) living there. He takes her hostage, hoping to escape, but she shops him in and he is caught. She works for the TV company who makes The Running Man. She thinks that she is doing the right thing but later, she wonders.

Richards is put into the game show The Running Man as a contestant and his two friends from jail are there too. Richards makes his way through the warriors as they attack him. The audience are amazed as nobody has ever survived so long. Amber is discovered snooping through files at the TV station and put into the game show too. There are access codes to the games system and Amber gets them. The shows presenter Killian(Dawson) is stumped and he creates a computer generated video of Amber and Ben dead to placate the audience.Amber and Ben get kidnapped by the resistance and they go to their hideout and give them the access codes so they can get into the system. They show that Richards is innocent and that the past winners of the show were killed anyway and not freed.Richards takes care of Killian and Amber and Ben walk away from the show together.

This was an entertaining and interesting movie. The baddie Killian was good and I liked it overall. Not an Oscar winning movie, but good fun. If you like Arnie movies, then you will enjoy this! I give it a 6/10.

Chronicle Movie Review 239

Chronicle is a 2012 Sci-Fi movie which is directed by Josh Trank who hasn't done a lot of movies. The main  stars are Dane DeHaan who you might have seen in True Blood or In Treatment.Michael B Jordan appears in this too and he has been in The Wire and Friday Night Lights. Aussie Alex Russell is also in this and he hasn't been in much.

The story is pretty simple. Andrew has a camera and he is filming everything that happens to him. Him and his friends go down into a hole and there is some alien thing down there which gives them superpowers. The three guys are Andrew(DeHaan) who is having a hard time at home with his sick mother and drunk dad, Matt(Alex Russell) who is his cousin and popular guy Steve(Michael B. Jordan). They discover their new powers and at first, it is fun and games but they don't realise that they need to control it. The three of them are having a ball flying and making things move with their minds but Andrew is getting more serious. The guys agree to fly around the world together when they graduate. Andrew wants to go to Tibet. Steve hangs out with Matt and Andrew and he tries to make Andrew more popular.

The rest of the movie is about the guys having fun until Andrew gets annoyed with his dad etc and he goes berserk. He kills Steve and then he loses all control. This movie is a fun way to pass an hour and a half, but I did find it a bit dull in parts. If you like the premise then you will probably enjoy this kind of film. The lead characters are okay in it and it isn't bad for a PG-13 film.

Chronicle-5/10

Moon 44 Movie Review 221

Moon 44 is a Science fiction movie from 1990 that is in the vein of Bladerunner and Aliens.It stars Michael Pare and is written and directed by Roland Emmerich.Michael Pare is a guy I recognised from The Philadelphia Experiment which is another good old sci fi movie.Roland Emmerich is a name you will probably recognise from Independence Day and Stargate and many others.This movie is one of his first ones and is heavily influenced by the movies previously mentioned.

Its set in the future and Pare stars as Felix Stone, an undercover/internal affairs agent who is hired by a mining company to investigate goings on at Moon 44.This is a universe where mining companies work on planets in outer space and battle each other for control.Recently a rival mining company have been taking over planets by attacking them with battle robots and of course Moon 44 is next! 2 shuttles have disappeared and Stone, played by Pare is sent up to investigate. The mining company is too mean to pay people proper danger money so naturally have decided to use prisoners as pilots!! They in turn will be guided by navigators who are only teenagers!! Surely nothing can go wrong! If you can get your head around this premise then the movie settles down nicely into an enjoyable ride.

In charge of the mining operation on Moon 44 is Major Lee played by the always good Malcolm McDowell and just under him is Sergeant Sykes played by Leon Rippy.He is a guy who you will say " oh wait, haven't I seen him in something before" and the same goes for Brian Thompson who plays Jake O'Neill.He is a big, square jawed guy who is basically one of the leaders of the prisoners sent to Moon 44.Stone's chief navigator is Tyler played by Dean Devlin and he acts as his confidante while he is there.

Pare is a guy that I wondered why he wasn't in more things as he was good in this.I liked the 'dark look' of this movie and it has the same one that Bladerunner and Aliens have and for the most part the effects are okay. It's when there are outside shots of the helicopters that they are piloting that the movie falls down a bit. It's clearly just small remote controlled helicopters filmed close-up! Other than this the movie is very enjoyable even though it's predictable.It's just a simple sci fi movie that is worth a look.Yes it's old and dated but you would do a lot worse than to rent this out or try to get a cheap copy online especially if bleak sci fi is your thing! 

Moon 44- 5/10

The Thing (2011) Movie Review 220

The Thing is a prequel of the 1982 version of The Thing. It is directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

The movie begins in Antarctica where some Norwegian researchers discover a huge alien ship under the ice and there is some sort of creature trapped in a block of ice. Kate Lloyd(Winstead) who is a palaeontologist and she is recruited by Dr. Sander Halvorson(Ulrich Thomsen) to investigate this. They all go to Antarctica and meet up with the team of researchers who are all interested in this new form of life. Kate is amazed when she sees the alien ship. Dr. Halvorson asks her to take a tissue sample from the creature in the ice. She is reluctant, but she does so.  Unfortunately, the block of ice is starting to melt and the creature eventually breaks out and goes AWOL. They don't know what it is so they have to look for it and try and capture it again.

They find the alien and they shoot it and kill it, but it can spread from person to person so there is no way of knowing who has been infected by it. Dr. Halvorson looks at the remains of the creature and sees that it was digesting one of the team. Kate finds fillings on the floor of the bathroom covered in blood. She realises that the creature can replicate a human being but that it couldn't absorb the fillings so it throws them out. The thing is on the loose in the building and it corners Kate. She is saved by the others and they kill that one and set it on fire but there is no telling if it has passed onto someone else. They have to isolate it and kill it once and for all.They disable the vehicles so nobody can escape. They take blood from each other and they take it to the lab to analyse it, but the lab is set on fire so they can't do that. Kate checks each of them for fillings and the ones who do have them are okay but there are a few who don't. They are under suspicion.

They have a flamethrower and they search to see if they can find the thing. It passes from one to the other and they have to kill each person it infects. Eventually Kate realises that it is in Dr.Halvorson and it is going for the ship so it can escape. She chases it and falls into the ship. She searches and finds the thing. She manages to destroy it by blowing it up. She is left shattered by the experience. The next day, a helicopter comes to the base and they see what has happened. There is one survivor called Lars and he orders the person in the helicopter to show him his fillings so he knows that there is no danger. He does so. Lars has a dog who was killed by the thing earlier, but it now running along with the thing inside it. Lars and the pilot chase it and try to shoot it.

This movie was not bad. It was not a patch on the 1982 version by John Carpenter, but you wouldn't expect it to be. Movies are not of the same quality these days , I think and this was not a brilliant horror/sci-fi film.

It is watchable though and I would say that there are some good scenes in it. I liked the thing itself and the special effects were quite good. This will  pass away a couple of hours, but it isn't anything special. I am giving it 5/10.