Archive for October, 2009

The Mechanical Man – 1921 Brazilian sci-fi silent film

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

An evil mastermind kills a scientist and steals his plans for a mechanical man. After failing to claim the plans the evil mastermind escapes the police. Once free the fiend kidnaps the inventor’s niece who possessed the plans. The criminal builds the mechanical man and terrorizes the dead inventor’s family. Only another mechanical man can save them.

I realize my review of this movie is a little choppy. Unfortunately the movie itself was incomplete. Over half of the footage is missing from the original. What remains intact is some of the middle and the ending conflict between the two monstrosities. For silent film made in 1921 the special effects are quite good. The mechanical men were very well done. Even the chase scene with the mechanical man chasing down the car was impressive. In its entirety, the movie would have been a masterpiece.

Red Dwarf – Back to Earth

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

The Red Dwarf crew is back with the catchy theme song, original cast and another odd ball adventure. The crew is attacked by a sea monster living in the water tanks of Red Dwarf. Only this strange motley crew would have a sea monster problem on board a space craft in deep space. Soon the adventure turns even stranger when they find themselves in another dimension where they are characters in a TV show called Red Dwarf (bet you didn’t expect that).

This is not a reboot of the series, but more like a recycle. If you are a fan of the original Red Dwarf series, this is a good refresher. If you are expecting something new and different, you’ll be disappointed. It’s a new extended episode of the original Red Dwarf show. Don’t take that as a bad thing, it’s still fun to watch. In part 3 of the movie watch for the blatant tribute to Bladerunner. If you’ve seen Bladerunner, you won’t miss it.

If you haven’t watched the series, watch it. It’s smegging fun! All of the seasons can be viewed online through Netflix. No reason to miss out on this unusual Sci-Fi show.

The DVD is based on a 3 part series broadcasted in early 2009. There are plenty of hints in the movie and on the internet of a possible new season. Unfortunately, at this time, they are just rumors