ALIEN INTRUDER

 

The official DVD for Alien Intruder (© Ricardo Jacques Gale/PM Entertainment Group – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The movie that I watched on 28 May 2021 was Alien Intruder, a sci fi film that I'd never previously heard of and had actually purchased a few days earlier in DVD format simply to make up the required number in a special DVD bargain sale offer. Yet, surprisingly, it proved entertaining viewing – a frequently-experienced paradox whereby the least of expectations ultimately lights the way to the greatest of enjoyments.

Directed by Ricardo Jacques Gale, and released in 1993 Alien Intruder stars Maxwell Caulfield, Tracy Scoggins, Billy Dee Williams, and Richard Cody, among others. It also includes a special appearance by Jeff Conaway in a literally all-guns-ablazing prelude scene to the main plot.

Set in what back in the early 1990s when this movie was made was still very much the future, namely the year 2022, the novel storyline of Alien Intruder features four longterm high-security convicts, including top-notch former space navigator Nick (played by Caulfield) and genius computer nerd DJ (Cody), who are promised the commuting of their prison sentences if they volunteer to serve on an important mission aboard the memorably-named U.S.S. Presley spacecraft captained by taciturn, secretive Commander Skyler (Williams). Skyler is seeking any survivors who may be on board fellow craft the U.S.S. Holly, lost within what turns out to be an ominous, uncharted zone in deep space.

Providing further enticement to sign up for this hazardous task, which they ultimately do, every weekend from 5 pm on Friday evening onwards until Monday morning each of the four convicts is permitted to spend his entire time having fun within a virtual-reality fantasy world of his own choice, and always containing a beautiful woman with whom he can play tiddlywinks or whatever else he may decide to play with her...

So far, so good – but then a second, very mysterious but exceedingly voluptuous woman named Ariel (Scoggins) inexplicably begins appearing in their VR-simulated fantasies, even though she is not part of the VR program being utilized (aptly named Aphrodite). Moreover, she then begins appearing in their real world too, aboard their spacecraft Presley, and has no scruples about inciting raging jealousy between them and pitting them against one another, fighting fiercely among themselves for her favours.

But who, or what, is the anomalous Ariel, and is she somehow connected to Holly, the spacecraft that went missing? Abruptly, Presley's computer malfunctions, locking the crew out of its controls, and when DJ is ordered to investigate and rectify the situation, he is both startled and totally perplexed to discover a strange virus hidden deep within its system, but one that seems to be less a computer virus and more a weird, unrecognisable form of DNA...

Finally, Skyler and the convicts locate Holly, and some of them go aboard it, only to discover that Holly's crew appear to have gruesomely killed one another. But guess who else is there, very much alive, and just as seductive and sensual as ever? To say that the situation back on board Presley between its crew members deteriorates rapidly thereafter would be putting it mildly, especially when the true purpose of Ariel's sexually disruptive presence is at last revealed. Speaking of which: there is a delightfully tongue-in-cheek twist right at the very end of the movie, which if I'm honest I did see coming, but it was no less humorous when it was duly unfurled.

Although it is quite lightweight in overall content despite the abundance of action-pumped scenes and liberal smattering of expletives throughout, and presumably due to its low budget the special effects are less than special, at least Alien Intruder is fast-moving and blessed with a cast who flesh out their respective roles not only effectively but also amusingly when required. And whereas this movie certainly could never lay claim to being a purveyor of cerebral drama or cinematic sophistication, for me it passed 94 minutes in a breezy, enjoyable, undemanding manner, which in these currently stressful times I am personally most grateful for.

In short, I'm very pleased that I followed my hunch and included this particular film in my selection of bargain-sale DVDs recently.

If you'd like to check out more concerning Alien Intruder, be sure to click here to watch an action-packed official trailer for this sci fi movie on YouTube.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

 

ALIEN AUTOPSY

 

The official UK DVD of Alien Autopsy (© Jonny Campbell/Ealing Studios/Fragile Films/Warner Bros Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie DVD viewing on 27 May 2021 was the docu-comedy movie Alien Autopsy, in which the extraordinary saga of the controversial Ray Santilli/Alien Autopsy footage was reconstructed.

Hitting the world's headlines in August 1995 when it was publicly screened globally on TV (click here to view it on YouTube; NB – age verification is required by Google), this silent b/w 17-minute footage allegedly constituted the filmed autopsy in 1947 at a secret American military base of a dead alien entity lately retrieved from a crashed spacecraft at Roswell, New Mexico. However, the footage was later revealed to be a hoax, or, as Santilli claimed in 2006, a staged recreation of some genuine footage from 1947 that he had viewed and purchased while visiting the USA in 1992, but which had subsequently deteriorated chemically to the point of becoming completely unwatchable.

Directed by Jonny Campbell, and released by Warner Bros Pictures in 2006, Alien Autopsy stars in their movie debuts those two Geordie rascals Ant (McPartlin) & Dec (Donnelly). If I'm honest, I wasn't expecting a great deal, as my own prior familiarity with this British TV duo's work as adults had tended to involve their reading off autocues and looking rather pleased with themselves, with Ant's default TV persona being the more adventurous, cheeky, outward-going member of the pair, and Dec's being the more reined-in, precise, uptight member.

Consequently, I was taken totally by surprise to discover that in this movie they completely reverse these tried and trusted roles, with Dec playing Santilli as an unshaven, risk-taking wide boy (in reality he is a TV and record producer) and Ant playing his law student friend and collaborator Gary Shoefield (in reality a TV producer) as a very cautious, punctiliously methodical, absolute non-risk-taker who is only very reluctantly drawn into the Alien Autopsy footage affair by Santilli. And what's more, it works!

Dec in particular is a revelation, totally believable in this wholly atypical role for him. So much so, in fact, that from now on, whenever I see him standing on the right of Ant on stage delivering some well-rehearsed lines from an off-camera 'idiot board' (as they call autocues in the States), I shall never not be able to see his stubble-faced wheeler-dealer Santilli alter ego lurking just beneath his clean-shaven face, ready at any moment to break through and regale Ant with another dodgy deal. Moreover, in a noteworthy departure from their TV partnership's normal alphabetically-ordered 'Ant & Dec' joint name, it was Dec by himself who received top billing in this movie's cast list – and rightly so (Ant received separate, second billing).

Just in case you're wondering how Ant & Dec came to make their film debuts in such an ostensibly unlikely, unusual vehicle for this event: back in the early 2000s, their manager had received a number of film scripts submitted for their consideration to star in, but none had attracted their interest, until the script for Alien Autopsy came their way. Dec in particular was very intrigued by it, because not only was it based upon a true story but also it included two male leads – and the rest, as they say, is history.

Alien Autopsy has to be one of the most pleasant movie surprises that I've experienced for a very long time, and albeit in a light-hearted vein it charts quite closely the remarkable real-life story of the Alien Autopsy footage. But above all else, it shows that Ant and (especially) Dec are capable of much more than their TV presenting roles would ever suggest. A great shame that they haven't invested more time in movies, because they clearly have the talent to do well not just on the small screen but also on the big one. Highly recommended!!

Worth noting is that the DVD of Alien Autopsy includes among its extras some deleted scenes, including one quite extensive section featuring a dramatic falling out, but subsequent reconciliation, by Shoefield with Santilli, conveyed very effectively by Ant & Dec. In my view, this thoroughly deserved to have been included in the movie, as indeed, for that matter, did most of the other deleted segments. Incidentally, the real Santilli and Shoefield actually make a 'blink and you'll miss them' cameo in Alien Autopsy – but I'll leave you to discover where!

If you'd like to get a taste of the remarkable role-reversals by Ant & Dec on display throughout Alien Autopsy, be sure to click here in order to view on YouTube a compilation video for this very engaging and thoroughly entertaining movie.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

 

The official German DVD of Alien Autopsy (© Jonny Campbell/Ealing Studios/Fragile Films/Warner Bros Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

MALEFICENT

 

Publicity poster for Maleficent (© Robert Stromberg/Walt Disney Pictures/Roth Films/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Many months previously, knowing that I've always been a massive Disney fan, a friend lent me her DVD of the movie Maleficent, which on 7 April 2017 I finally got around to watching. It's the Disney live-action reworking of their sumptuous animated feature film Sleeping Beauty, released in 1959 and based upon the classic Charles Perrault fairy tale 'La Belle au Bois Dormant'.

A dark fantasy film directed by Robert Stromberg, and released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in 2014, Maleficent provides a back story for the eponymous wicked fairy that is wholly original in every sense! For according to this retelling, Maleficent is evil only because she had previously been grievously betrayed by her human lover – none other than the youth who would in time become King Stefan (father of the future Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora), who cuts off her wings while she is asleep (a controversial scene that has been interpreted in a number of different ways…).

Consequently, Maleficent is actually misused and misunderstood rather than malevolent. Yeah, right! Also, if she really did begin as a sweet, pure-hearted child and maiden, I cannot help but wonder why she had been given the name Maleficent, bearing in mind that it is derived from the Latin for 'evil-doer'…

The special effects in Maleficent are breathtakingly spectacular, as you would both imagine and expect from Disney's CGI department. However, there is only so much reworking possible with anything, and I'm sorry but in the original Perrault fairytale (in which she is called Carabosse), and especially in Disney's original animated film, which I have viewed many times down through the years from childhood onwards, Maleficent is the absolute embodiment of evil. There is not a glimmer, not the slightest scintilla, of goodness in her. Consequently, for me it was impossible to suspend disbelief and pretend that she's really not that bad after all.

Equally, as Stefan, albeit little more than a cipher in the original movie, was a good, noble character there, his wholesale conversion here into an actively malicious, black-hearted, deceitful betrayer of a young, innocent Maleficent is just too implausible, too unrealistic a transformation for me to countenance. Bending the rules is one thing, but snapping them in two and then shattering them into a myriad of shards is something else entirely, yet the latter action is, I feel, the more accurate description of this extensively-manipulated storyline's modus operandi. A sequel movie, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, was released in 2019, but I haven't watched it so far, partly because I dread to think what further liberties with the original fairytale may have been taken in it.

Having said all of that, Maleficent is an enjoyable romp (which is why I later purchased it myself in DVD format), with a perfectly-cast Angelina Jolie portraying the title character superbly, especially in her more sinister scenes, and showcased throughout by wonderfully rich, lavish visuals. It also includes a most unexpected (albeit imho entirely nonsensical) twist upon who actually wakes Sleeping Beauty (played by Elle Fanning) with true love's kiss. The phrase "Yeah, right!" readily comes to mind yet again.

Interestingly, Princess Aurora as a child is played by none other than Jolie's own daughter, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, having been chosen to ensure that she would not be frightened by Jolie in her role as Maleficent. And Kristen 'Twilight' Stewart had been considered for the role of the adult Aurora. Indeed, during casting for this movie, a fair few famous names came and went. For instance, the adult King Stefan is played by Sharlto Copley, but Jude Law had earlier been considered for this role, just as Judi Dench and Emma Thompson had been considered to play two of the three good fairies.

In addition, former Doctor Who actor Peter Capaldi had actually been cast and filmed in the role of Maleficent's uncle, King Kinloch, the fairy monarch of the Moors, but his scenes were cut from the movie's final version, as were those of Miranda Richardson, playing Queen Ulla, Maleficent's aunt and Kinloch's consort.

Oh yes, almost forgot: a beautiful Tchaikovsky-based song ('Once Upon A Dream', created from the Grand Waltz in the Russian composer's immortal ballet Sleeping Beauty) and the vocals of Lana Del Rey really don't go together, honestly – just sayin'...

Anyway, if you haven't seen the movie, click here to view an eye-popping trailer for Maleficent.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

A meeting with Maleficent! (© Dr Karl Shuker)

 

 

IMAGINAERUM: THE OTHER WORLD

 

Publicity poster for Imaginaerum: The Other World (© Stobe Harju/Solar Films/Caramel Films/Scene Nation – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Having purchased it in DVD format earlier that day, during the evening of 2 May 2021 I watched one of the most extraordinary movies that I have ever seen. A joint Finnish-Canadian production entitled Imaginaerum: The Other World, it was part-dream, part-nightmare, part-fantasy, part-fading memories of a dying mind, and wholly spellbinding in its melancholy majesty and magic.

Directed by Stobe Harju, and released in 2012, Imaginaerum is the extraordinary cinematic brainchild of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, who perform in several musical segments throughout this film and have released an accompanying eponymous concept album. No Hollywood stars appear in Imaginaerum, but this is fitting, because the movie itself is the star here.

Replete with flashbacks and potentially baffling albeit beautiful phantasmagorical imagery, the storyline of Imaginaerum is intricate and by no means easy to follow, especially upon first viewing, unless you have read anything about it in advance. As this happens to be a movie that I had indeed read about earlier (after having seen its DVD once before, a year or so ago, but failing to buy it back then as I wasn't at all sure what to make of it from its cover's description), I was thankfully equipped with a basic knowledge of what to expect, which proved exceedingly useful.

I have seen Imaginaerum billed as a Tim Burtonesque movie, but in my view it is much more mesmerizing yet far less macabre than his general output. Having said that, it does feature some seriously sinister, fright-inducing clowns, plus the most hideous, terrifyingly evil snowman that I have ever seen. The morbid fear of clowns has its very own official term, coulurophobia. After watching this movie, I feel very emphatically that there should also be one for the morbid fear of snowmen, for if you weren't suffering from it beforehand, you may well be afterwards! And in fact there is such a term, chionoandrophobia – so now you know!

As for this movie's inordinately intricate plot: here is my valiantly attempt to unravel and summarise it.

SPOILER ALERT: If you do not want to know the plot of Imaginaerum, read no further.

 

Nightwish's 'Imaginaerum', their seventh studio album (© Nightwish/Scene Natio Oy/Sony Music/Nuclear Blast/Roadrunner Records – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

It begins with a young woman, Gem, at the hospital bedside of her elderly father, Thomas Whitman, a former musician but now in a coma due to advanced dementia. Gem has been estranged from him since childhood, as he has always seemed so distant and disinterested in her. Meanwhile, comatose Thomas's mind has regressed into a dark fantasy world where he is once again a child, a young orphan at the orphanage where he grew up, along with his friend Ann, after his mother had died and his father had placed him there.  Playing for a while one evening with seemingly his only notable possession, a snow globe containing a dancing lady, Arabesque, he hears someone calling to him from his shuttered window, and when he opens the window, floating outside is the afore-mentioned frightening snowman, who calls himself Mr White and offers to take Thomas flying through the sky with him.

However, you can forget any similarity with the famous 'Walking In The Air' scene from the classic cartoon version of Raymond Briggs's children's story 'The Snowman'. Here in Imaginaerum, Mr White takes Thomas on a wild and scary aerial journey, in which they chase after Thomas's airman father Theodore's plane, before Thomas eventually falls precipitously to earth, where he encounters a broken-down rollercoaster track symbolizing his failing mind, and a mechanic symbolizing his physician who states that it is beyond repair. Gem is also there, as a young girl, who agrees with the mechanic, symbolizing her adult lack of empathy and sympathy for Thomas as her elderly father. Thomas also meets an elderly Ann, who warns him that Mr White is evil and not to be trusted.

After entering a house where a spooky musical/circus performance is taking place, featuring creepy clowns aplenty, Thomas enters a room where his father Theodore is sitting, only to see him shoot himself dead. An older Thomas is also present, who smashes the younger's snow globe, which symbolizes the older, traumatised Thomas becoming distant from Gem.

The story then switches back into the real world, where Gem has left the hospital and returned home, only to find the now-elderly Ann there. Ann turns out to have stayed friends with Thomas throughout their lives, becoming a member of his band, and the source of much resentment from Gem, who feels that Thomas was more interested in Ann than in her, his own daughter. However, Ann explains that Thomas's father, Theodore, had always been very distant and cruel to Thomas, causing him so much unhappiness that Thomas became determined not to be the same toward his own child, Gem. Tragically, however, his fear led him to pull away from her and, as a result, precisely what he'd tried to avoid duly took place – an estrangement between him and Gem that Gem had never been able to understand, until now – never having previously realized just how much he did, and still does, love her. Gem then finds a trunk containing many sheets of paper upon which Thomas had written in the form of an intricate pattern as many of his thoughts and memories as possible before his dementia took them from him. And as Gem attempts to arrange them in their correct form, she discovers more proof of his love for her.

Gem and Ann drive back to the hospital, during which time in his dying mind's fantasy world Thomas finally realizes that the malevolent Mr White represents his baneful father, Theodore. So he flees on the rollercoaster, relinquishing the snowman and therefore the bitter memories of Theodore that it embodies, and holding on to his last memories of his daughter Gem instead. Thomas opens his eyes, back in the real world at last, and sees Gem standing beside him. They make their peace, then Thomas closes his eyes for the last time, passing away in the knowledge that his daughter now recognises that he did love her, very much. There is a very poignant final scene that takes place when Gem returns home, featuring her late father's Arabesque snow globe, but I'll leave you to discover that for yourself.

Imaginaerum is appositely entitled – a haunting but fascinating exploration and depiction of human imagination, a veritable dream captured on celluloid forever.

If you would like to experience a fleeting foray into the rarefied 'other world' of Nightwish's Imaginaerum, be sure to click here in order to watch an official trailer for this dark yet truly mesmerizing movie.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

 

Mr White, one seriously sinister snowman, meeting the young Thomas at the orphanage (© Stobe Harju/Solar Films/Caramel Films/Scene Nation – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)