Two common ingredients of science fiction movies came up in a couple of DVDs we watched recently: robots taking over, working against human interest; and corporations taking over and.... working against human interest. Both were "B"-ish movies at best, probably made for TV, low budget jobs but still interesting: Nuclear Hurricane and Absolon.
In Nuclear Hurricane (2007) a computer called STACI, with a sweet-cum-bitchy female voice has been allowed complete control of a nuclear plant situated on a remote island - location undisclosed. The cooling system becomes a problem just as the father of all hurricanes is headed straight towards the island and the plant. As the hurricane gets stronger, and with the nuclear core in serious danger of meltdown, time is not on its side, nor it appears is STACI. HAL of 2001 a Space Odyssey and GERTY of Moon have nothing on STACI when it comes to malevolent intent!
I picked up the DVD in a rental store for two reasons: the thought of life imitating art (cf. Fukushima), and the fact that Jack Scalia plays a leading part. OOOhhh - I remember Jack Scalia from TV's Dallas in the old days. Loved him. He was one of Sue Ellen's many love interests (see below).
I note that he was born on 10 November 1950 -Sun in Scorpio. Dang those Scorpio males, they do have some kind of hypnotic magnetism, arising from either looks or writing style: Carl Sagan, Richard Grossinger, to name a couple of others mentioned in past posts. As it turned out I didn't even recognise Jack until the last 20 minutes of the movie, I'd been waiting for the Dallas version to miraculously appear (silly me!) He has aged and widened quite a bit. Once recognised, though, the twinkle in his eyes and the kindly aura I fell for was still there.
Nuclear Hurricane held our interest - that's as much praise as I can muster. The storyline is fairly predictable for anyone familiar with the genre. For Jack Scalia fans of yesteryear though, it's good to see him again.
Absolon (2003) is yet another post-apocalyptic tale. Embarrassingly for the author it's set in 2010. A deadly virus has emerged and killed off at least half of the planet’s population. A scientist created a drug known as Absolon. The drug nullifies symptoms of the viral disease, enabling users to continue to live, but they must keep taking the drug - and guess who owns the drug: an evil corporation! They obtain even more power and domination than we yet see in real life (but we shouldn't hold our breaths). However, the same scientist also created a complete cure which would wipe out the disease forever. He is killed....surprise surprise. Guess by whom!
Lead actor is Christopher Lambert, female interest Kelly Brook. We didn't recognise Lambert, but we both remarked on his rather strange demeanour and accent. We decided he must be an unknown actor from somewhere in Europe. He's American-born it turns out, but of French parentage. His father was a United Nations diplomat assigned to Switzerland. Christopher was educated at private boarding schools in Geneva and at the Paris Conservatoire. In his glory days, the 1980s and 90s, he was as co-star of Highlander and its sequels. He also played Tarzan in the Greystoke movie.
From information gleaned online it appears that Lambert is myopic and cannot wear contact lenses. This means that when playing a role that doesn't allow him to wear eyeglasses he can't see much on set - which well explains that rather odd demeanour of his when not wearing the tinted shades.
I picked up a junk store VCR tape of Highlander the other day, it's a film I didn't see back in the day. It'll be interesting to note how Christopher Lambert rolled in his heyday.
He was born 29 March 1957 in Great Neck New York with Sun, Mercury, Venus in Aries, close to midheaven; Moon in Pisces; and (according to Astrodatabank) Cancer rising. Moon in Pisces and Uranus (in Leo) in first house of self go some way to explaining his draw to the fantasy/sci-fi genre. He was well-cast as The Highlander, a tale depicting the climax of an ages-old battle between immortal warriors, through interwoven past and present day storylines. Triple Aries at midheaven - immortal warrior? Yes siree-bob!
In Nuclear Hurricane (2007) a computer called STACI, with a sweet-cum-bitchy female voice has been allowed complete control of a nuclear plant situated on a remote island - location undisclosed. The cooling system becomes a problem just as the father of all hurricanes is headed straight towards the island and the plant. As the hurricane gets stronger, and with the nuclear core in serious danger of meltdown, time is not on its side, nor it appears is STACI. HAL of 2001 a Space Odyssey and GERTY of Moon have nothing on STACI when it comes to malevolent intent!I picked up the DVD in a rental store for two reasons: the thought of life imitating art (cf. Fukushima), and the fact that Jack Scalia plays a leading part. OOOhhh - I remember Jack Scalia from TV's Dallas in the old days. Loved him. He was one of Sue Ellen's many love interests (see below).
I note that he was born on 10 November 1950 -Sun in Scorpio. Dang those Scorpio males, they do have some kind of hypnotic magnetism, arising from either looks or writing style: Carl Sagan, Richard Grossinger, to name a couple of others mentioned in past posts. As it turned out I didn't even recognise Jack until the last 20 minutes of the movie, I'd been waiting for the Dallas version to miraculously appear (silly me!) He has aged and widened quite a bit. Once recognised, though, the twinkle in his eyes and the kindly aura I fell for was still there.
Nuclear Hurricane held our interest - that's as much praise as I can muster. The storyline is fairly predictable for anyone familiar with the genre. For Jack Scalia fans of yesteryear though, it's good to see him again.
Absolon (2003) is yet another post-apocalyptic tale. Embarrassingly for the author it's set in 2010. A deadly virus has emerged and killed off at least half of the planet’s population. A scientist created a drug known as Absolon. The drug nullifies symptoms of the viral disease, enabling users to continue to live, but they must keep taking the drug - and guess who owns the drug: an evil corporation! They obtain even more power and domination than we yet see in real life (but we shouldn't hold our breaths). However, the same scientist also created a complete cure which would wipe out the disease forever. He is killed....surprise surprise. Guess by whom!Lead actor is Christopher Lambert, female interest Kelly Brook. We didn't recognise Lambert, but we both remarked on his rather strange demeanour and accent. We decided he must be an unknown actor from somewhere in Europe. He's American-born it turns out, but of French parentage. His father was a United Nations diplomat assigned to Switzerland. Christopher was educated at private boarding schools in Geneva and at the Paris Conservatoire. In his glory days, the 1980s and 90s, he was as co-star of Highlander and its sequels. He also played Tarzan in the Greystoke movie.
From information gleaned online it appears that Lambert is myopic and cannot wear contact lenses. This means that when playing a role that doesn't allow him to wear eyeglasses he can't see much on set - which well explains that rather odd demeanour of his when not wearing the tinted shades.
I picked up a junk store VCR tape of Highlander the other day, it's a film I didn't see back in the day. It'll be interesting to note how Christopher Lambert rolled in his heyday.
He was born 29 March 1957 in Great Neck New York with Sun, Mercury, Venus in Aries, close to midheaven; Moon in Pisces; and (according to Astrodatabank) Cancer rising. Moon in Pisces and Uranus (in Leo) in first house of self go some way to explaining his draw to the fantasy/sci-fi genre. He was well-cast as The Highlander, a tale depicting the climax of an ages-old battle between immortal warriors, through interwoven past and present day storylines. Triple Aries at midheaven - immortal warrior? Yes siree-bob!
4 comments:
Always love your take on those obscure movies you manage to find, T!
XO
WWW
WWW ~~~ I'm on a definite sci-fi binge just now, plenty of obscurities to unearth. ;-)
Always loved The Highlander but have to say more for Sean Connery than anything else.
Despite his reputation, his voice has always done it for me. Must be the accent. (My ex is Scottish) And he was my favourite Bond. Prefer the rough diamond to the smoothie, like Roger Moore.
And he outdid Harrison Ford when he played Indie's Dad with a good sense of comic timing and some good one liners (well the script delivered it).
Rossa ~~~ I stumbled across an old VCR tape of Highlander the other day and watched it. Sean was at his handsome best in those days wasn't he? Movie was okay - but nothing special, I thought.
The only Bond movies I can tolerate are those with Sean in the lead - but I'm not very keen on the whole Bond idea.
The other thing I always think of when Sean comes to mind is his rendition of the Beatles' song "In My Life" - if you've not heard it have a look on YouTube, sure to be there. Makes yer toes curl it does!
;-)
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