Combo! Un film (ri)visto di recente, ed uno ad esso collegato da consigliare.
Rivisto: Screamers. Piccolo gioiello horror fantascientifico, poco noto e ampiamente sottovalutato: in un non lontano futuro l'umanità ha colonizzato molti mondi ed ha risolto i problemi energetici grazie alla scoperta di un nuovo minerale estratto su un lontano pianeta. Sfortunatamente, le miniere diventano ben presto radioattive e non più utilizzabili: viene fondata l'
Alleanza, decisa ad impedirne l'ulteriore sfruttamento al fine di tutelare lavoratori e popolazione; scoppierà quindi la guerra col
N.E.B. (New Economic Bloc) che le gestisce. Le battaglie si limitano al pianeta
Sirius 6B, mentre sulla
Terra N.E.B. ed Alleanza proseguono una precaria guerra fredda.
Inferiore come mezzi, l'Alleanza si decide ad utilizzare gli
screamers, veloci robot autoreplicanti che si muovono sotto al terreno attaccando con le loro lame ogni forma vivente non trasmetta il codice identificativo opportuno. Dopo uno stallo di molti anni, qualcosa sembra essere cambiato: il N.E.B. propone una tregua, mentre dalla Terra giungono notizie contraddittorie; presto compariranno nuovi modelli di screamers, non più in grado di distinguere tra amici e nemici.
Quella che sembrava una occasione per porre fine alla guerra, si trasformerà in una corsa per salvare la pelle, per il comandante dell'Alleanza ed un ristretto gruppo di persone.
Ben diretto dal poco noto
Christian Duguay, il film si basa su un romanzo di
Philip K. Dick; eccellente la capacità di creare una ambientazione precisa, abbastanza innovativa e ben caratterizzata: i tocchi di classe che contribuiscono a rendere l'idea di "guerra dimenticata da tutti su un pianeta ormai allo sbando" si sprecano. Gli screamers sono una idea spettacolare e sono ben realizzati, così come la maggior parte degli effetti speciali (qualche caduta di tono c'è, ma visto l'anno ed il budget ci si può passar sopra).
Nel complesso, tiene alta la tensione con un passo veloce e con molte trovate che finiranno col far montare la paranoia, fino ad un finale molto ben costruito.
E poi diamine, il protagonista è il mento di
Peter Weller!
Voto: 8.5. (
posso venire con voi?)
Tags: horror, fantascienza, thriller, guerra, drammatico, avventura, azione, rovine, pianeta, miniera, centro di comando, militari, ologramma, robot, autoreplicanzione, amputazione, decapitazione, tregua, bambini, lame, morte, sabbia, trappola, orsacchiotto, strage, intelligenza artificiale, splatter, androidi, bombe atomiche, fuga. Combo: Hardware (
Metallo Letale). Diretto da
Richard Stanley, regista con un notevole potenziale che non è mai stato sfruttato a dovere, è ambientato nel solito deserto post-atomico: un cacciatore di reperti recupera, da una zona radiottiva, la testa di uno strano cyborg; dopo alcuni passaggi di mano, finirà in mano ad una giovane artista che la utilizzerà come parte di una sua scultura.
Ahilei, la testa si rivelerà essere quella del robot
M.A.R.K. 13, prototipo militare abbandonato per l'eccessiva instabilità, che dimostrerà appieno riattivandosi ed utilizzando il resto della scultura per ricostruirsi come nuova letale macchina omicida.
Tantissima tensione, violenza in quantità industriali e tanto stile (c'è chi lo critica per aver più stile che sostanza; forse è vero, ma tutto è tenuto insieme meravigliosamente bene), per un altro film sottovalutato che merita una visione da parte degli appassionati degli horror fantascientici e delle ambientazioni
cyberpunk. Tratto dal fumetto
"SHOK!".
Voto: 9.
Tags: horror, fantascienza, azione, thriller, robot, androide, macchina da guerra, cyberpunk, morte, radiazioni, artista, scultrice, visione infrarossa, doccia, guardone, motosega, lame, deserto, deserto atomico, violenza, gore.
Screamers (1995)
Screamers - urla dallo spazio
Regista: Christian Duguay Scrittore: Philip K. Dick,
Dan O'Bannon Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Valutazione: 5.8/10 (4683 voti)
Durata: 108 min
Paese: Canada, USA, Japan
Lingua: English
Cast:Trama:(SIRIUS 6B, Year 2078) On a distant mining planet ravaged by a decade of war, scientists have created the perfect weapon: a blade-wielding, self-replicating race of killing devices known as Screamers designed for one purpose only -- to hunt down and destroy all enemy life forms But man's greatest weapon has continued to evolve without any human guidance, and now it has devised a new mission: to obliterate all life. Col. Hendricksson (Peter Weller) is commander of a handful of Alliance soldiers still alive on Sirius 6B. Betrayed by his own political leaders and disgusted by the atrocities of this never-ending war, Hendricksson decides he must negotiate a separate peace with the New Economic Bloc's decimated forces. But to do so, he will have to cross a treacherous wasteland where the deadliest threat comes from the very weapons he helped to create.
Trivia random: In the original short story by P. K. Dick the plot takes place on Earth, instead of Sirius 6B. Originally, Screamers were designed by Americans troops hiding in the moon to destroy the Russian Army after the Soviet Union had completely wiped out the United States.
Citazione random: Ross: Once they get in, that's when the killin' starts.
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Hardware (1990)
Metallo letale
Regista: Richard Stanley Scrittore: Steve MacManus,
Kevin O'Neill Genere: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Valutazione: 5.2/10 (2026 voti)
Durata: 93 min
Paese: UK
Lingua: English
Cast:Trama:A wandering soldier finds a robot head in the post-apocalyptic desert. He brings it back to his girlfriend for use in one of her sculptures. He investigates the origin of the head, and discovers it's from the Mark 13 project, canceled because of unreliability. His girlfriend, nay, society at large become endangered when the robot puts itself back together using the parts she has for her sculptures.
Trivia random: Richard Stanley wrote a sequel to the film, called "Hardware II", and tried to get the project off the ground for a few years. The sequel would have been somewhat different than the original film, closer to a western, with a much larger scale. The project stalled because the rights to the original movie are split between several parties (among them Miramax and producer Paul Trijbits).
Citazione random: Jill: It's stupid, sadistic and suicidal to have children right now.
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Stanley, Richard (I)
Data di nascita: 22 November 1966
Altezza: 5' 10¾" (1.80 m)
Ultimi lavori: Biografia:Richard Stanley is the award-winning South African-born filmmaker, who made a name of himself with his first feature film, the sci-fi movie Hardware (1990). A low budget movie about a mad-dog android loose in an apartment was released in 1990. Critics slammed it as a Terminator rip-off, yet the film became a financial success. The 1.5 million dollar budget was paid back quite handsomely and continuation was imminent.In 1992, Stanley followed Hardware with Dust Devil (1992), a story based on the myth of a Namibian serial killer. A fallout with the distributors led to the re-cutting of the US version, while the bankruptcy of the British-based production company Palace Pictures temporarily shut the post-production down in Europe and the film remained mauled or unfinished, depending how you look at it. Finally Stanley himself managed to finance a new, restored print from the original negative, which has later gained a cult following similar to Hardware.His third feature was to be The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), an adaptation of the famed H.G. Wells novel. Unfortunately it ended up a victim of creative disputes, leading to him being sacked a few days after production began. The finished film, released in 1996, carries little to no resemblance to the version he was originally set to make, using only about two words of his original script.This, however, hasn't beaten the visionary filmmaker down and horror movie fans are now waiting for him to come back... with a one mean vengeance.
Trivia random: Turned down an offer to direct "Judge Dredd."
Citazione random: "I do not feel that at any time it was ever my decision to make any of the movies I made, although I don't regret them."
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Weller, Peter (I)
Data di nascita: 24 June 1947
Altezza: 6' (1.83 m)
Coniuge: Sheri Stowe::(24 June 2006 - present)
Ultimi lavori: Biografia:Peter Weller is the youngest son of a career Army helicopter pilot. He was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin but traveled extensively as his father literally flew around the world. Before he was out of his teens, he had attended high schools in Heidelberg, Germany and San Antonio, Texas, then enrolled the University of North Texas -- attracted by the chance of playing trumpet in one of the college's celebrated jazz bands.Music is in his family. Three generations on his mother's side were piano players and jazz is still his overriding interest. Ask him who his favorite performer in any art form is and he'll say Miles Davis. It was with a B.A. in Theatre and a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts that he left Texas for New York. Two weeks after graduating, he made his first appearance on Broadway as David in Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival production of David Rabe's "Sticks and Bones", a role he repeated on the London stage. While a student of legendary actress and drama coach, Uta Hagen, Weller appeared on and off Broadway in works like William Inge's "Summer Brave", Thomas Babe's "Rebel Women" and "Full Circle", one of the last plays directed by Otto Preminger.He began garnering critical acclaim with his portrayal of Billie Wilson in "Streamers", directed by Mike Nichols for Joseph Papp at Lincoln Center. He continued that success with his performances as Cliff in "The Woolgatherer" and as Nick in the first American production of David Mamet's "The Woods". During this period, he became a member of the highly respected Actor's Studio, under the aegis of Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg.Weller's film debut was in Richard Lester's Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979). He then co-starred with Alan King and Ali MacGraw in Sidney Lumet's Just Tell Me What You Want (1980) and, with Albert Finney and Diane Keaton, in Alan Parker's Shoot the Moon (1982). Other film credits include Firstborn (1984) with Teri Garr, the HBO made-for-TV Apology (1986) (TV), co-starring Lesley Ann Warren, and Of Unknown Origin (1983), the film which won Weller the Best Actor award at the Paris International Film Festival for his performance as an upwardly mobile bachelor with a serious rat problem. That same film also marked his first association with Leviathan (1989) director George P. Cosmatos.
Trivia random: Was chosen to play the lead character in RoboCop (1987) because of his slender build. The producers feared that having a large actor would require too big a suit that would look ridiculous, and insisted on a thinner actor. Weller found he sweated so much weight off in the suit that a fan had to be built into it.
Citazione random: [On the enduring popularity of RoboCop (1987)] "It was my contribution to cinema".
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Duguay, Christian (I)
Data di nascita: 1957
Coniuge: Liliana Komorowska::(? - ?)
Ultimi lavori: Trivia random: Husband of Liliana Komorowska.
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Dick, Philip K.
Nome di battesimo: Dick, Philip Kindred
Data di nascita: 16 December 1928
Data di morte: 2 March 1982
Coniuge: Tessa Busby::(18 April 1973 - 26 March 1978) (divorced) 1 child, Nancy Hackett::(1966 - 1973) (divorced) 1 child, Anne Williams Rubinstein::(1958 - 1964) (divorced) 1 child, Kleo Apostolides::(June 1950 - 1958) (divorced), Jeanette Marlin::(May 1948 - November 1948) (divorced)
Ultimi lavori: Biografia:Philip Kindred Dick was born in Chicago in December 1928, along with a twin sister, Jane. Jane died less than eight weeks later, allegedly from an allergy to mother's milk. Dick's parents split up during his childhood, and he moved with his mother to Berkeley, California, where he lived for most of the rest of his life. Dick became a published author in 1952. His first sale was the short story "Roog." His first novel, "Solar Lottery," appeared in 1955. Dick produced an astonishing amount of material during the 1950s and 1960s, writing and selling nearly a hundred short stories and some two dozen or so novels during this period, including "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," "Time Out Of Joint," "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch," and the Hugo-award winning "The Man In The High Castle." A supremely chaotic personal life (Dick was married five times) along with drug experimentation, sidetracked Dick's career in the early 1970s. Dick would later maintain that reports of his drug use had been greatly exaggerated by sensationalistic colleagues. In any event, after a layoff of several years, Dick returned to action in 1974 with the Campbell award-winning novel "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said." Perhaps more importantly, though, this same year Dick would have a profound religious experience that would forever alter his life. Dick's final years were haunted by what he alleged to be a 1974 visitation from God, or at least a God-like being. Dick spent the rest of his life writing copious journals regarding the visitation and his interpretations of the event. At times, Dick seemed to regard it as a divine revelation and, at other times, he believed it to be a sign of extreme schizophrenic behaviour. His final novels all deal in some way with the entity he saw in 1974, especially "Valis," in which the title-character is an extraterrestrial God-like machine that chooses to make contact with a hopelessly schizophrenic, possibly drug-addled and decidedly mixed-up science fiction writer named Philip K. Dick. Despite his award-winning novels and almost universal acclaim from within the science-fiction community, Dick was never especially financially successful as a writer. He worked mainly for low-paying science-fiction publishers and never seemed to see any royalties from his novels after the advance had been paid, no matter how many copies they sold. In fact, one of the reasons for his extreme productivity was that he always seemed to need the advance money from his next story or novel in order to make ends meet. But towards the very end of his life, he achieved a measure of financial stability, partly due to the money he received from the producers of Blade Runner (1982) for the rights to his novel "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" upon which the film was based. Shortly before the film premiered, however, he died of a heart attack at the age of 53. Since his death, several other films have been adapted from his works (incuding Total Recall (1990)) and several unpublished novels have been published posthumously.
Trivia random: Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors." New Revision Series, Vol. 132, pp. 125-132 (as David Cornwell). Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
Citazione random: Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
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