Director Sandy Collora is known around the country for being one of the most, if not the most talented fan filmmaker of the modern era. Collora is a skilled artist and a man capable of creating his own visions of a mythos that are nothing short of brilliant and dazzling. Not surprising, Collora eventually took time out to create his own world with his own characters and it happens to be a pure work of science fiction excellence that channels the likes of “Hell in the Pacific” to convey a wide scope of a grander story that is scaled down to the personal battle of two soldiers in the middle of a inter-galactic war. Collora paints the picture of two soldiers stranded on an island during a great war that eventually becomes their own personal battle.
Tag Archives: Aliens
Species II (1998)
I never actually understood the appeal of the first two “Species” film. The first film basically piggybacked on the revelation of sex bomb shell Natash Henstridge who incidentally ended up being a one note actress, and then the series inevitably fizzled out in to obscurity. Natasha Henstridge looks about as incredible as ever, and as Eve she presents a surprisingly significant change in personality and demeanor. This is a new shade of the monster where as Sil was much more “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” based around its predatorial habits, Eve is The Creature in “The Creature Walks Among Us,” still vicious but much more vulnerable and open to humanity, for better or for worse. It’s easy to buy that Sil and Eve are different entities, and Henstridge carries this career making role well and looks dynamite with shorter hair.
Species (1995)
Let’s face it, the only reason why “Species” was remotely a financial success was because of Natasha Henstridge. The newcomer not only radiates on-screen but her searing sexuality and ability to look incredible no matter what position or what kind of gelatinous goo she’s covered in outweighs any quality of the film. Sure, the fans can attempt to argue the film’s merits by claiming my own reasoning faulty, but let’s cut the crap here. “Species” was a hit because it offered up two key elements. It had a gorgeous woman was a decent actress, and had an iconic moment of 1995 where the predatory Sil proceeds to bust the backs of heads off of a few unlucky guys who don’t meet her standard for mating.
Aliens, Abductions & Extraordinary Sightings: A Paranormal Documentary Collection (DVD)
“There’s twelve hours of this?” I asked myself while watching what I can only assume are a series of completely disconnected featurettes and “documentaries” about UFO’s and abductions, all of which are about as half baked as I expected them to be.
When I put these DVD’s in my player, I almost expected documentaries in the vein of the 90’s television show “Sightings,” but in reality this is just a compilation of various documentaries and television specials that discuss UFO’s and don’t really try to decipher anything regarding the anomaly of UFOlogy. Unless you’re a die hard fan of this sort of phenomenon and want to soak in twelve hours of documentaries and specials, there really won’t be much to lure audiences in, in the end.
There's Nothing Out There (Two-Disc 20th Anniversary Edition) (1990) (DVD)
From Troma comes the twentieth anniversary release of “There’s Nothing Out There!” a film I’d admittedly never heard of and was most surprised to see that not only was “There’s Nothing Out there!” something of a fun early nineties horror comedy, but one that was a self-aware jab at the genre long before “Scream” ever convinced audiences it did it first. “There’s Nothing Out There!” is about a bunch of high schoolers who out in to the woods for Spring break to party, drink, and bone each other senselessly. Around the same time as their arrival, an alien being has just crash landed in to Earth, and is now lurking in the woods. Is it out there? Where is it if it is out there? Why is it not in there with them?
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
“That’s what you’re all becoming… Martianmallows.”
So the Martians of this piece have no idea what television is, despite watching it often. They have no idea what dolls are. They have no comprehension of the idea of tender loving care, but they’re fans of hamburgers and chocolate cake in pill form? How does that work? I have a feeling even with the notorious “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” being touted to children in its original release, the kids in the audience sat through about twenty minutes, and thought this experience would be much better with some acid at hand. It’s not so much that “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” is a bad movie, it’s that it’s so terribly put together and written that it ends up watching as a slow and painful death that you can’t help to look at with sheer disbelief.
Skyline (2010)
I’m still trying to wrap my head around why the Strause brothers included a very superfluous prologue of Balfour’s character being sucked in by the bright lights of the alien ships and then suddenly zooming back to him and his girlfriend in a plane with the card reading “15 Hours Earlier…” Why is that opening scene important to know? What relevance did that have to anything? Did they feel the movie was so mind-numblingly stupid they’d have to lure us in from second one? “Skyline” (a movie Roland Emmerich would groan at) is the “Dragon Wars” of 2010, a movie with a great concept that fails on every conceivable level of entertainment, competence, and creativity imaginable. This is a movie–much like “Dragon Wars”–that should rightfully have been relegated to cable television but somehow warranted a theatrical release all for a PG-13 B grade science fiction movie about aliens consuming Earth and Eric Balfour… well you’ll see.