Reviews

Visually, the movie is stunning and harkens the romance of early pulp science fiction. I found the acting stiff but would attribute that mostly to the dialog and the manner in which the movie was made (no real "sets" as I understand.) The movie probably could have been made more cheaply if they didn't hire big name talent to read (not act) what amounts to a grade-school play. The plot has so many holes that it became annoying. The laws of physics are regularly violated. Old SciFi can be like this but the good writers were arguably more skillful in framing their stories so you wouldn't notice such things. Having said all this, I enjoyed the movie but would have enjoyed it more as a rental. I'd buy the DVD if the producers dubbed in snappier dialog ala MST3K - it screams for that kind of treatment.

I saw this in the theater in its original release and was immediately reminded of Hal Clement's early 60's SciFi novel called "Needle". Same alien-cops-and-robbers-on-earth theme but the protagonist host is a young boy and the setting is a remote Pacific island. Much more suspense and intrigue and originality (no alien weapons!) in the 'original' story. Think about it - how does a boy and his gelatinous host smoke out the bad guy? The processes of deduction, reasoning, and elimination are interesting.

The movie is fun and is, in some ways, a commentary on U.S. culture in the late 20th century. My guess is that a movie based on the original story could be a bigger hit than "The Hidden".

If you read the books first or see the series first, either is a very satisfying experience. Lovers of romantic period novels should give this series a try. If I remember correctly, the first series covers the first 3 books; the second, books 4, 5, and 6 (the titles escape me). Graham wrote more books after the first six but those have never been dramatized for movie or television. Look this up on Amazon for more user comments.

I have to admit that this movie had escaped my attention even though I'm a fan of 50's and 60's SciFi films. I disagree with the other comment here about inappropriate music. I feel the music as well as the look of the film add to the uniqueness of the effort. My only question is if Congdon's head (Tony Nelson character) is as huge in real life as it appears in some shots in the movie. There's a scene towards the end where Congdon is facing the viewer and Lee Meriwhether's character is facing him (her back is to the viewer). When I first saw this shot, I could've of sworn his image was being projected on a drive-in theater screen since Meriwhether looked disproportionate in front of him. A hilarious shot.

I saw this in theatrical release at a late, Friday afternoon showing. The audience was so 'interactive' with the movie that the rowdiest were thrown out. Too bad, the hecklers' comments made this one of the most enjoyable movie-watching experiences I've had.

Some humorous items to watch for:

1. Pan-shot of Van Damme sitting in front of a campfire. The original shot was close-in then pan-out. When put into the movie, it was edited in reverse so the smoke goes back into the fire as the shot pans down into his face.

2. You can always tell when the antagonist is angry - he removes his shades (which, BTW, he wears in the dark)

3. Chase scene at the abandoned factory near the beginning of the movie: Van Damme and the girl drop down into the manhole/sewer and are pursued by the 'native american' bad guy. The bad guy is running too fast and has trouble stopping himself before going down the manhole. Should've been a blooper since the guy's spastic efforts discredit him as a toughie.

4. Of course, every person in a post-apocalyptic world will have perfectly coiffed hair!

As my one-line summary states, a good party movie or one for MST3K.

I didn't expect much after hearing some advance reviews and I was not disappointed. I think I laughed out loud about 5 or 6 times, the rest of the movie didn't even get a chuckle out of me. The movie suffers most from no plot and poorly-recycled gags from the first movie. The bath and sex humor is expected but the gross-out mode (promoted by 'Something About Mary' success) is handled clumsily either through poor judgement or poor editing. I got the feeling that Myers added some of this stuff in at the producers/studio's request rather than through his own comedic judgement. The actors (especially Seth Green) appear to be embarrassed as well. Scott Evil seems to comment about the movie's idiocy rather than his father's in the final moonbase scenes. The awkward silences and mismatched tone of performances is really apparent there. See this one free on cable or after it moves to the dollar shows where it belongs. On the plus side, Elvis Costello's performance of 'I'll never fall in love again' is too short and sweet. The penis pun sequences were the only slightly original gags in the movie.