Today your Cap'n will be looking at two different movies: one starring a cult actor and the other the third part of a trilogy. While neither of them got close to a projector's bulb, both were entertaining in small doses.
#1 : Terminal Invasion
Cranpire's love of this film used to vex me. Admittedly, I'd only seen it in pieces on the Sci-Fi Channel and it looked like their run of the mill crap, just with Bruce Campbell. Now that I've watched the whole thing, I can understand why he enjoys it so much. Kind of.
I'll give credit where credit's due: director Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th) is a more competent director than most of the "Sci-Fi Original" stable of no-names. Terminal Invasion is a cross between Pitch Black and John Carpenter's The Thing, with a small dose of Assault on Precinct 13 thrown in for good measure, and Cunningham rises to the occasion. For what's essentially a ripoff of other sci-fi / horror movies, it's pretty good. There's certainly no fat on this movie, so every scene exists to set up something later.
The story takes place on a snowy night while a small band of travellers are trapped in a charter plane lobby. Campbell is a criminal being transferred who ends up in their midst, along with some nasty alien invaders disguised as humans. You can figure out where it goes from there if you've seen any of the movies above.
What I appreciated about Terminal Invasion is the way it sets up twists in the story based on things you assume to be true at the beginning. While I was pretty sure I knew who was an alien and who wasn't (and was mostly right), there's at least one genuine surprise halfway into the movie. Cunningham uses the limited geography of the terminal to telegraph plot points later, which I find to be rare of Sci-Fi Originals*.
That being said, this is still a made for TV movie, and it shows. Most sets are overlit so that shooting can commence from any angle, so even the dark scenes are pretty bright. The cgi, while used sparingly, is still five or six steps below the early Nasonex commercials. At least twice during Terminal Invasion, the movie "Fades to Commercial", and it looks silly without actual commercials.
However, most of these are acceptable if considered in the context of how Terminal Invasion came to be. The unfortunate cost cutting exercise comes during "attack" scenes involving the aliens. The camera is normally pretty stable, but when the aliens attack there's a postproduction "herky-jerky" effect that just looks dirt cheap.
Still, with expectations set properly, Terminal Invasion is pretty good for what it is, and I'd probably watch it again. Bruce is pretty good despite having to play the "stoic" type for most of the movie. Not many wisecracks to be seen here, but there is some decent gore and Terminal Invasion would be good times with a six pack and your buddies.
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#2 Feast III: The Happy Finish
First things first: this is anything but a happy finish. Even in John Gulager's twisted world of ironic horror-comedy, Feast III doesn't quite get where its going after 80 minutes. Anyone who didn't like Feast II might as well skip Happy Finish, because most of what you didn't like is still present. Most of the outlandish monster sex has been replaced by pointless scatalogical humor (there's plenty of farting and at least one character shits himself).
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'm going to present my case for Feast III, which more or less picks up immediately after Sloppy Seconds. Gulager wisely tries to restore the claustrophobic feeling of Feast by moving the survivors of part II into smaller spaces and keeping them there. He also introduces new characters, including a survivalist, a mentally retarded "prophet", and a kung fu master. Needless to say, new characters don't fare well in a Feast movie, especially competent ones.
I mean, if I was a character named Shitkicker of Jean-Claude Seagal in a Feast movie, my name might as well be Dogmeat. The kills are still extremely violent and Gulager finds new and horrible ways to punish the idiots that populate this film. The ending makes no sense whatsoever but it's clear that Gulager and writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Duston just needed to end the movie.
The song that follows a giant robot attack (you heard me) hints that maybe Feast IV will explain what's going on, or maybe we're just shit out of luck. Either way, it's an audacious "fuck you" to people expecting a conclusion.
Feast III has one serious problem. Like Terminal Invasion, it employs a particular effect during a major action setpiece that almost ruins everything. In Terminal Invasion's case, it was a matter of budget, but in Happy Finish it must've been a stylistic choice. Gulager introduces a new variation of monsters - people who survived being vomited on - in the sewers, and they live in a chamber lit by strobe lights.
The entire fight scene is lit like this, but instead of motion, Gulager takes frozen images punctuated by darkness for far too long. More than once during the scene I completely lost sense of the geography in the fight or what exactly what was happening. Since a major character from Sloppy Seconds is affected by the outcome of the fight, it gets frustrating trying to work out what happened to her.
The Happy Finish doesn't really live up to the promise of the first film, and while it makes steps to address problems from Part II, the Cap'n is hard pressed to recommend it. At 80 minutes, it's not a huge time investment, but if you're in any way lukewarm about the first sequel, this won't win you over. I'm torn between calling the ending retarded or inspired. Some of the developments in the sewer were cool, but handled poorly in transition. It's a maybe renter, but largely a skip for most of you.
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The Cap'n never thought he'd say this, but if you're torn between the two for some reason, go with the dvd that says "Sci-Fi Essential**" on the cover. Bruce is usually the safer path to go anyway.
* No offense to Cranpire, who loves them, but almost every SF Channel Original sucks donkey balls.
** sigh.
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