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matthew-hyatt
Reviews
Dark Enemy (1984)
Not worth the bother
How can this film be a low budget British gem? It ain't. As the late John Brosnan would say, the message in a film like this is the usual old one - science and technology are evil, and nature is good. Or, as the late John Brosnan would put it again, there are those who think that if you add the sci-fi elements to a movie like this, it automatically becomes a science fiction movie. Because I am afraid that is just about all that sums up a film like this, especially as it has loads and loads of holes. For a start, who is the Great Spirit supposed to be? Is the Great Spirit God, Mother Nature, Mother Earth? The audience is simply not told. What's more, why were there brand new wind turbines in the valley? Who put them there? And before Aron makes the journey to the edges of the valley, we are told that others have done this already. Well what happened to them? Did they settle out beyond the edges of the valley and never come back? Or did they come back and tell everybody what they had seen? If that is the case, why was not their observations passed down to future generations? Even more annoying is this - when Aron gets to the edges of the valley, he sees fields, a house with smoke coming out of the chimney and sheep in the fields. Surely he should be seeing a ruined nuclear burnt landscape - but he doesn't. Or is he seeing ghosts from the past? Not only that, others who double cross Aron and go beyond the edges themselves come back and claim they have met and spoken to other people beyond the valley edges! Well, how come Aron didn't meet them? As John Brosnan would put it - it simply does not pay to ask. Because writer Colin Finbow just simply abandons all explanations for an all out attack on human greed and exploitation, which is what the rest of the children succumb to. And there is only one expression to make on all of that - Good God!Honestly, this film simply is not worth watching because it just does not have a proper vision on what it is supposed to be about. Nice countryside around the Welsh valley used, though!
Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956)
12th Moon of Jupiter? Looks more like England to me!!!!
I first saw this film back in 1992, on ITV. I wanted to see it because I had read in Phil Hardy's Aurum Film Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies that the film's one major claim to fame was its use of classical music, such as Borodin (and, of course, Stanley Kubrick would use classical music in 2001: A Space Odyssey - mind you, did Stanley Kubrick ever see this film?). Anyway, watching it makes me to admit that it really is a laugh. It begins at an oh-so important space centre in Britain (I think - or was it America?)where the announcer says a 12th moon of Jupiter has been discovered and there are signs of intelligent life on it (!!!!!!!?????????). So, off goes Anthony Dexter (not that chap who played Rudolph Valentino again - well, the late Dennis Gifford said he did!) along with loads of Britishers in the stock footage of a rocket (tsk, tsk, tsk)- and funnily enough, they are not even sitting down in accelerator couches but most are standing up! No mention is made of G-forces - but then again, what's a little gravity amongst friends? Well, Anthony Dexter is sitting down and he is pulling and pushing a lever backwards and forwards to make the rocket go where he wants it to go (Gordon Bennett!). They pass through stock footage of asteroids then land on the 12th moon of Jupiter - which looks more like the green fields of England! Wow, I am impressed! They encounter descendants of the lost civilisation of Atlantis (well, how did they get there?) as 12 beautiful young ladies, who dance well, plus an old bloke and some unfortunate bloke monkeying around in a extremely tatty monkey suit! He's the monster, by the way. The monster gets destroyed and the Atlantean descendants get accepted by Earth society. The End.
L'inafferrabile invincibile Mr. Invisibile (1970)
Mr Superinvisible - the second film I saw at the ABC Cheltenham
I remember seeing Mr Superinvisible at the old ABC in Cheltenham in Spring/Summer 1975, near Royal Well Bus Station (which sadly closed in the early 1980's). It was partnered with another sci-fi film with space rockets and a fiery red planet - one of the rockets crashed on the planet's surface and was swallowed up. Sadly, I cannot remember the second film's title - does anyone else remember this film? Approaching eight years old, I enjoyed watching Mr Superinvisible, as well as the other film, but it probably does not stand the test of time nowadays. Don't know if I want to see it again - but I'd certainly like to see the other film again, if only I could remember the title.