"Wes Craven's Mind Ripper" is a surprisingly fun entry if it can only get around the clichés.
**SPOILERS**
Out in the desert, Jim Stockton, (Lance Henriksen) and a fellow scientist, Joanne, (Claire Stansfield) working for a company called Gentec, save the life of a seriously injured man, known as Thor, (Dan Blom) using an experimental virus. When he takes a turn for the worse, team leader Alex, (John Diehl) calls for help and reluctantly, Stockton, who quit three months earlier, heads for the bunker in company with his son Scott, (Giovanni Ribisi), daughter Wendy, (Natasha Gregson Wagner) and Wendy's boyfriend, Mark (Adam Solomon) in tow. When the virus turns him into a super-soldier and escapes into the complex, he begins to hunt down the team one-by-one. As the lone survivors of the assault meet up with Jim and his family, he is confronted with the realization of his work and what's happened to the experiment. When nothing seems to work against it, they devise a series of plans to put it down for good.
The Good News: This here is a pretty surprising entry. The best thing about it is that there's a large amount of action present. This makes the film go by rather quickly with a brilliant pace. That's a great move, since there's always something going on with the film. The fact that the killer escapes into the facility within the first twenty minutes, despite being captured, experimented on and then argued over is a superb sign of the quality of the film's pacing. There's some great chases and encounters that lead from this, all of them good enough to either entertain, shock or up the suspense-factor. There's some nice jumps from the sudden appearance out of the darkness, including a masterful one in a darkened elevator shaft that is quite tense. That there's a lot of short encounters spread out is actually nice here, as it keeps moving forward rather than engaging in a couple super-long showdowns punctuated by long periods of inactivity. That's really important, as it even manages to put over the maniac's raging strength and brutality more so. There's even a plot about the invincibility it has, and are captured in two spectacular scenes. His regenerative powers are demonstrated by having his body expel first a knife, then shotgun pellets. They're done live and don't really have much of anything stopping them. The method of killing the victims is quite gruesome, and there's a few pretty cool deaths that result from it. Overall, a really fun and entertaining entry.
The Bad News: There isn't really that much wrong with this one. One of the biggest ones against it is that there's way too much clichéd scenes, themes and ideas which come from other films that are plunked into this film. This here is pretty much filled with these kinds of scenes and are quite easy to spot as well. The usual stuff, including things such as the team leader's a raving psychotic, the rest of the crew are a bunch of panicky idiots, the high-tech equipment's faulty, and at the first sign of crisis, all the power fails, are utilized like clockwork. Still, these are just a small sampling of the kind of clichéd things popping up in the film. Even the surprise given in the second half, that the original scientific research intended to benefit mankind, the development of a virus capable of assisting the regeneration of human tissue, has been hijacked and corrupted by the military, who want a "super-soldier," is simply one of the most over-used plot points ever that shows up in simply every single movie of this type without exception. There's even a rather weird dream sequence that shows up which comes from the creature that is simply confusing. It's certainly out of the ordinary for that to appear, and it comes across as pointless other than to put in some more gore effects. Otherwise, these were the only real flaws with it.
The Final Verdict: Even though it's incredibly clichéd and not that original, it's still a rather fun experience that can provide some nicely needed entertainment. Recommended to fans of this style of film or the just plain curious, while those who aren't that into the negatives aren't advised too strongly with it.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity
**SPOILERS**
Out in the desert, Jim Stockton, (Lance Henriksen) and a fellow scientist, Joanne, (Claire Stansfield) working for a company called Gentec, save the life of a seriously injured man, known as Thor, (Dan Blom) using an experimental virus. When he takes a turn for the worse, team leader Alex, (John Diehl) calls for help and reluctantly, Stockton, who quit three months earlier, heads for the bunker in company with his son Scott, (Giovanni Ribisi), daughter Wendy, (Natasha Gregson Wagner) and Wendy's boyfriend, Mark (Adam Solomon) in tow. When the virus turns him into a super-soldier and escapes into the complex, he begins to hunt down the team one-by-one. As the lone survivors of the assault meet up with Jim and his family, he is confronted with the realization of his work and what's happened to the experiment. When nothing seems to work against it, they devise a series of plans to put it down for good.
The Good News: This here is a pretty surprising entry. The best thing about it is that there's a large amount of action present. This makes the film go by rather quickly with a brilliant pace. That's a great move, since there's always something going on with the film. The fact that the killer escapes into the facility within the first twenty minutes, despite being captured, experimented on and then argued over is a superb sign of the quality of the film's pacing. There's some great chases and encounters that lead from this, all of them good enough to either entertain, shock or up the suspense-factor. There's some nice jumps from the sudden appearance out of the darkness, including a masterful one in a darkened elevator shaft that is quite tense. That there's a lot of short encounters spread out is actually nice here, as it keeps moving forward rather than engaging in a couple super-long showdowns punctuated by long periods of inactivity. That's really important, as it even manages to put over the maniac's raging strength and brutality more so. There's even a plot about the invincibility it has, and are captured in two spectacular scenes. His regenerative powers are demonstrated by having his body expel first a knife, then shotgun pellets. They're done live and don't really have much of anything stopping them. The method of killing the victims is quite gruesome, and there's a few pretty cool deaths that result from it. Overall, a really fun and entertaining entry.
The Bad News: There isn't really that much wrong with this one. One of the biggest ones against it is that there's way too much clichéd scenes, themes and ideas which come from other films that are plunked into this film. This here is pretty much filled with these kinds of scenes and are quite easy to spot as well. The usual stuff, including things such as the team leader's a raving psychotic, the rest of the crew are a bunch of panicky idiots, the high-tech equipment's faulty, and at the first sign of crisis, all the power fails, are utilized like clockwork. Still, these are just a small sampling of the kind of clichéd things popping up in the film. Even the surprise given in the second half, that the original scientific research intended to benefit mankind, the development of a virus capable of assisting the regeneration of human tissue, has been hijacked and corrupted by the military, who want a "super-soldier," is simply one of the most over-used plot points ever that shows up in simply every single movie of this type without exception. There's even a rather weird dream sequence that shows up which comes from the creature that is simply confusing. It's certainly out of the ordinary for that to appear, and it comes across as pointless other than to put in some more gore effects. Otherwise, these were the only real flaws with it.
The Final Verdict: Even though it's incredibly clichéd and not that original, it's still a rather fun experience that can provide some nicely needed entertainment. Recommended to fans of this style of film or the just plain curious, while those who aren't that into the negatives aren't advised too strongly with it.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity