mike@cs.keele.ac.uk (Michael A. Green) (09/14/90)
Two Video Reviews
by Michael A. Green
Copyright 1990 Michael A. Green
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SOMETHING IS OUT THERE
This is another good example of the people who wrote the
advertising blurb on the back of the video having never seen the film!
Either that or they slept through it.
The general story is about a nasty alien who escapes from a prison
starship and comes to earth. The sole survivor of his escape comes to
Earth to try to kill it. A local cop helps out.
This film has great atmosphere, and a continual will they / won't
they tension. There are also several suprises and twists. If you like
detective stories you should see these coming, you are given the clues
earlier.
The effects are good to excellent with one exception. The
spaceship/shuttle scenes reminded me of the original Flash Gordon. The
effects include the ground tunneler from THE THING and TREMOURS, and a
lot of stomach busters like Alien.
I found the story to be similar to THE HIDDEN, but it is
sufficiently different in execution to still be interesting.
On a +4 to -4 I would give it a +2.
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ARENA
In the year 2500-ish (?) there is a galaxy of many weird and
wonderful aliens all getting along reasonable okay. The main source of
entertainment is the Arena. This is on a planet that appears to exist
for the game.
The Arena is like the boxing ring in the Rocky films, but with an
SF touch to it. The combatants are of mixed races in a one-on-one type
unarmed combat. The mixed abilities are regulated by an inhibitor that
makes the effective strength the same for all competitors.
Into the scene steps our hero. He came to the planet to try to be
a champion. *But* the game is controlled by a ruthless type who controls
the betting/drugs/etc. He "owns" the current champ and rigs the
competitions to keep him this way. He also runs a protection racket for
the other managers of players, who have to do what he says.
The heroine is the only manager who will stand up to him. Her
father had the last Human champion, back before the game became
"controlled."
These two team up, and the rest follows.
The film has some good effects, a selection of aliens that look
like they just came from the Star Wars lot, and some fight scenes that
are not too believable. There is romance, betrayal, friend, enemies,
good guys, bad guys. I could imagine Cagney being in a black and white
film with the same storyline based in Chicago.
On the +4 to -4 scale, score a -1.
--
Mike Green, Comp. Sci., Keele University.
Internet:mike@cs.keele.ac.uk {BITNET:mike%cs.kl.ac.uk@ukacrl}, DoD#0184