The first two reviews recently appeared on Amazon UK.Sea Beast (2009, 87mins)
I gave it a 4-star rating in comparison to other creature features of its ilk, the sort you get on the Sci-Fi and Zone horror channels. It's not a great movie by any standards but it is a nice little thriller.
A good attractive Canadian coastal location that is well-photographed certainly helps. A competent cast of actors playing it deadly straight and characters that behave like real people is also a plus. The monsters, given the inevitable cgi, are relatively acceptable and there's a fair amount of gore -severed body parts and innards made outtards, plus one nice head biting off scene.
It's all very efficiently and capably done making this a good example of its type -the low budget made-for-cable horror movie. Undemanding fun for the monster movie fan of which I am unrepentantly one.
Never Cry Werewolf (2008, 90mins)
(Another 4-star rating for being good of its type.)
Probably first shown on cable in the States, this is a better example of that type of creature feature. Teenager Loren (well played by Nina Dobrev) finds herself the unhealthy obsession of her new neighbour whom she quickly realises is a werewolf. After a moderately paced start, it picks up well focussing on its core players of Loren, Jared the Werewolf, the kid brother who refreshingly for once is neither irritating nor cute, Loren's geeky suitor, and Redd the big game hunter (Kevin Sorbo)as the comedy relief.
While hardly original, the key cast give their all, especially Nina Dobrev as the gutsy heroine, and there's enough going on to make this a good fun movie.
Alligator/Alligator 2 -The mutation (1980/1983 approximately)
The original Alligator had a script by the legendary Indie genius John Sayles, though he's done better commercial writing. Still, it's good fun with some nice dialogue. Daughter's pet baby alligator flushed into sewers by daddy. 20 years later, daughter, now a herpetologist, unknowingly has to track down her monster ex-pet with rugged hero whom no-one believes until minced morsels are everywhere.
Alligator 2 is just a competent creature feature with decent actors. This time there's one at large in a lake. Passable timewaster.
King Kong Escapes (1968, 92mins, a Toho-Universal co-production)
This sequel to King Kong vs Godzilla is pretty much what you'd expect -dire. Kong's face is wrinkled rubber and horrible beyond belief. Why they didn't do a better job escapes me. This alone ruins it for me but don't worry, there are plenty more things which annoy me. Being a co-production, we have two male leads, the American one being the wooden Rhodes Reason, a b-movie lead who never made the big time and this movie is one reason why. The handsome Japanese lead is better with a sternish charisma. Linda Miller, the female lead, has an excruciating voice and seems to alternate flirting with the two men.
The villain is called Dr.Who which cheap laugh is the only thing which makes it remotely bearable. Personally, I reckon it's The Master pretending to be Japanese and adopting the name Dr.Who to smear the original. Or maybe not.
Dr Who has a robot Kong to mine a valuable rare radioactive mineral. This doesn't work too well so he decides he needs Kong. Kong lives on an island and sometimes fights Rubber-Tyrannosaurus Rex which regularly drop-kicks Kong. After the fourth time this happens you begin to realise that Kong isn't too bright. Mind you, he understands English pretty well. The rest is too tedious to relate. Suffice to say it ends on what looks like the Tokyo equivalent of the Eiffel Tower.
I only paid £1.80 for this including postage and that's more than it's worth.
No comments:
Post a Comment