I’m among the legions of fans who grew up on cable television watching the geniuses at “Mystery Science Theater 3000” (Don’t know it? Look it up), or as we people in the know call it “MST3K” spoof films like “The Mole People” and “The Horror at Party Beach”. Yeah, it’s official I’m a nerd. Anyway, I spent many a long day watching Servo, Crow, and Mike watch bad movies only to trash them with their witty one-liners which often made me laugh, so when I was chosen to view the newest gag film “Don’t ask Don’t Tell”, I was more than willing to discover what lay ahead of me. “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is a spoof, but it also becomes its own entity in the process as a film within a film. The people at “Refried Flicks” take the 1954 junk heap “Killer’s from Space”, an old schlock science fiction film directed by legendary director Billy Wilder’s younger brother W. Lee Wilder which starred Peter Graves and re-dub it, add new comedic scenes and masterfully edit this old piece of junk.
Tag Archives: Science Fiction
5ive Days to Midnight (2004)
Timothy Hutton plays physics professor JT Neumeyer, a prominent professor and widow who is very close to his daughter. One her birthday he and his daughter go to visit his wife’s grave and discovers a thin silver brief case only a few feet away that shows up seemingly from thin air. He takes it home out of curiosity and tucks it away, but the curiosity gets the best of him. He opens it and discovers a group of files showing pictures of his death and newspapers clippings. First declaring this as a practical joke from one of his students or colleagues, he sets it aside, but as the days progress, the events in the files play out slowly but surely, and now convinced that he’ll die in five days, tries to find a way to prevent himself from dying and must change his destiny. Plus, he must also find out who out of his friends, family, or colleagues will murder him.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
It ends here. Let’s hope. The finisher to the Matrix trilogy begins where we last left off from “Reloaded”. Now the Sentinels are making their way into Xion faster and faster and the crew are looking for a way to seal off their exit. Meanwhile Neo has awoken from his coma and is unaware of the traitor in their ranks. You’ll have to forgive me for not finishing, it gets a little confusing from there. But nonetheless you have to wonder why the classic “The Matrix” was so poorly received when the sequels made its way into theaters years later. Was The Matrix, after all, just a one trick pony? Just a fad? Or was it the Wachowski Brothers’ plan to have the sequels fail? Maybe the Wachoski’s didn’t give their all in the sequel story arcs, or is it all a trick of the architect?
Das Experiment (The Experiment) (2001)
Based on a true story, the “Stanford Prison Experiment”, some of the scenes of which are featured are actually based on true events during the experiment, the German originated thriller “Das Experiment” gives a true glimpse into the human psyche. There’s this great Looney Tunes episode (aren’t they all?) in which a truck filled with hats falls off the back and scatters along the forest where Elmer Fudd happens to be chasing Bugs Bunny; while they’re in pursuit, the hats happen to fall onto their heads and they take on the characteristics of the hats (Ex: Cop hat: Policeman, Magician Hat: Magician); why I bring up such an obscure pop culture reference is that “Das Experiment” poses the question that that cartoon did, “If put in a particular role for a certain number of time will we act upon the role?”
Solaris (2003)
The film “Solaris” poses some interesting questions about life; How much of life is reality and how much is illusion? How much of life is illusion we’re not aware of, and illusion we prefer to endure for the sake of going on in life? When someone dies, how much of their memory that we store in our minds is real and how much is distorted by the way we preferred to see them as? And, finally, one of the truly provocative questions: Do we ever really know someone? Do we know their flaws and personality inside out or do we just create our own images of them.
.com for Murder (2002)
“.Com for Murder” and director Nico fails in every aspect of what may have been a good horror film. This film is so laden with attempts at borrowing from other films, its original product is lost in the process. Heck even the high tech computer system the characters use in the film is called HAL which is another attempt at winking an eye at the super-computer from the masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey”, but the name is such a blatant reference it becomes distracting.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Loosely based on the critically acclaimed comic book from critically acclaimed author Alan Moore, “LXG” tells the tale of Allan Quartmain, an aging adventurer in 1899 who is called upon by a mysterious man named M who enlists him and six other super-powered beings whose powers are parallel to legendry literary characters who must fight a warlord called “The Phantom” who plans to take over the world. Alan Moore presents an idea and concept so ingenious and brilliant, I was stunned upon hearing of it. Take some of the most famous heroes and villains in literary history and turn them into superheroes. What turns up as the end result is a guilty pleasure that kept me entertained all the way through.