Showing posts with label David Webb Peoples. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Webb Peoples. Show all posts

Soldier (1998) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignright" width="263"]Official Score = 3 Devils Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]

If you are a fan of movies or the theater, and you grew up loving one or the other, then there was at least one actor or actress… or even group of actors or actresses that you would grow up watching either on TV, on the big screen or on the stage… For me, one of those actors that I grew up watching is Kurt Russell (The Thing)!

Now Kurt Russell is one of my favorite actors, and the reason being is that no matter what form of leading role he played, rather it was playing Snake Plissken in such Sci-Fi/Action movies as the, ‘Escape’ movie series, or as R.J. MacReady in, The Thing (1982), or even in the comedy, Overboard (1987)… This guy brings a certain set of sarcastic humor, that will almost have you rooting for him even if he is a bad guy!

And you know what? A great example of this is, Soldier (1998), and that is really saying something… What I mean by that is that this movie which was written by: David Webb Peoples (Twelve Monkeys), and Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil), and which also starred, Jason Scott Lee (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story), Jason Isaacs (Event Horizon), Connie Nielsen (The Devil’s Advocate), Sean Pertwee (Equilibrium), Michael Chiklis (Fantastic Four), and Gary Busey (Predator 2), told an interesting tale of how, ‘if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it’ and how, ‘arrogance destroys all…’

What do I mean by this? Well simply put, in the future the American Government creates a band of super soldiers that are able to pretty much easily and exclusively win every war that they fight in…

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] The super soldier program[/caption]

Now with the success of these Soldiers, the government goes ahead builds the next generation of super soldier and arrogantly believes that these soldiers are above and beyond better than their predecessors! So much so that Colonel Mekum (Isaacs) brings his new soldiers over to the barracks that houses the old soldiers…

After they arrive, the Colonel pits one of his soldiers against 3 of his predecessors, and it looks like he may have killed all 3 of them… Or so he thinks…

You see it turns out that Todd 3465 (Russell) was still alive and gets dropped on to a dumpster planet along with some waste refuse… While there he comes across a group of people that had crash landed on the planet and made it their home.

During his time recuperating with the villagers, this super soldier finds more than he ever expected when he discovers his emotions, and that for the first time in his entire life that he actually cares about these people!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="699"] This old Super Soldier finds friendship when he is dumped on a Garbage planet![/caption]

With that in mind though, his old crew comes to the planet for an annual security sweep and to eradicate those that remain on the planet… And it will be up to this antiquated super soldier to go up against the next generation of his brethren, before they destroy the village that he has grown to love!

Another thing that I found that I really like about this movie is that it does show the horrors of war, but besides that, it also shows the power of the human spirit, and that despite the horrors that some people can do to other people, that it only takes the acceptance and love of the right person or people to destroy all of that evil programming!

In the end though, this is an action packed, special effects extravaganza that was definitely worth the experience!

http://youtu.be/AGuwzYN4qAc

Leviathan (1989) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_385" align="alignright" width="353"]Official Score = 2 Devils Official Score = 2 Devils[/caption]

When I was a kid two of my favorite science fiction movies (still are) are Alien (1979) and The Abyss (1989). I mean these movies were great, what with having some fantastic direction from Ridley Scott (who directed Alien) and James Cameron (who directed The Abyss) great acting from some amazing Hollywood veteran Hollywood A-listers in the earlish years of their careers, and special effects that would both shock, amaze, and in some cases scare the hell out of you!

The reason that I mention this is because Leviathan (1989) had a lot of these elements in them as well!

Written by: David Webb Peoples (Blade Runner) & Directed by: George P. Cosmatos (Cobra). Starring Peter Weller (RoboCop), Richard Crenna (First Blood), Amanda J. Pays (The Cold Room), Daniel Stern (Home Alone), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Michael Carmine (Band Of The Hand), Lisa Eilbacher (10 To Midnight), Hector Elizondo (Pretty Woman), and Meg Foster (They Live).

Leviathan tells the story of team of undersea miners that are about to be sent home after a 90 day rotation, when they find something down there a little more unique then any of the ore that they have been pulling out of the ocean floor!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350"] This crew realllly wants to go home![/caption]

What I mean by this is that one night while goofing around Six Pack (Stern) who while being the consummate jokester ends up pissing off the more serious, ‘Willie’ (Pays), but when he finds a weird looking dead under sea creature in his bunk, he freaks out and goes to confront Willie about it, and the two of them end up in a fight!

While all of this is going down though, the leader of the group that goes by the name of, ‘Beck’ (Weller) comes in, and to punish them both for the fight, decides to have them both head out for mining duty outside of the station!

Now the next day while Willie and Six Pack are out doing their duty, Six Pack trips and falls off a ledge and finds an old vessel , the, ‘Leviathan’.

Thinking that there is something wrong, Willie goes down after him, only to find him with a safe full of contraband that after Six Pack and Willie get back to the station ends up getting, ‘impounded’… except for a flask that is supposed to be filled with some vodka… and something else…

You see Six Pack had taken the deadly flask and had shared some with Bowman… Well it turns out that this flask was full of a compound that changes your basic genetic structure in to a hideous monster!

And now with this monster on their tail, and the company that they work for keeping them down there, it will be up to the Tri-Oceanic Miners to stop this monster in its tracks, before it reaches the main land!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480"] I guess he should have followed the, 'Wash Your Hands' Sign after using the bathroom, eh?[/caption]

Anyway the truth is, is that this movie despite being fun one was fairly unoriginal, the reason that I mentioned, Alien and The Abyss, above is because in all truth, this movie I believe was heavily influenced by both of those movies!

But despite that, it was a fun one, and it was great to see people like, ‘Daniel Stern’, Hector Elizondo, and Peter Weller in younger roles!

All in all, definitely worth the viewing experience!

http://youtu.be/V7FskSqAQis