Out Of Their League

 

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA-1997-This CBS TV movie was an unsold pilot based on the DC comic book team. I see why it was never released (but is readily available as a bootleg).  It takes place in New Metro where a tornado is created by bad guy The Weatherman threatens the city. The Flash, The Green Lantern and The Atom destroy the tornado and save endangered residents (and a cat). Guy Gardner (Matthew Settle) and Ray Palmer (John Kassir) are roommates with Fire (Michelle Hurd) but Barry Allen (Kenny Johnson) is a dysfunctional jerk who gets thrown out of his apartment so he later joins them. Tori (Kim Oja)), a meteorologist who works at a weather institute run by Dr, Eno (Miguel Ferrer) later becomes Ice and joins the league which is run by Martian Manhunter (David Ogden Stiers). The SFX aren't very good and the story is just like some disaster movie. It's further bogged down by wraparound scenes of the main characters talking about themselves and each other.

Director Felix Enriquez Alcala is still a busy in TV (BLUE BLOODS, THE GOOD WIFE, CRIMINAL MINDS). I read Lewis Teague (ALLIGATOR) may have directed some scenes. 

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Various Junk

I watch a lot of movies I shouldn't bother writing about. Here are a few of them!

PINK KILLER was made in Hong Kong in 1996. It was hard to follow since there were no credits in English and the sub-titles were very hard to read. It's about a group of women who take revenge on various bad guys (wife beater, gangsters, etc.). There's a few shoot-outs and car chases and slo-mo action scenes and a lot of talk. Charlie Cho Cha-Lee (PLAIN JANE TO THE RESCUE, POLICE STORY 2) is in it. I've seen two different directors credited for it.....So I also watched SEATTLE SUPERSTORM (2012) and you can probably guess what that was about. Two soon to be married scientists (Esai Morales and Ona Grauer) bicker over their kids who argue over everything while trying to battle some kind of man-made super storm that kind of looks like "the smoke monster" from TV's LOST. It's a triple threat of bad acting, talky script and topsy turvy direction (by Jason Bourque, the Canadian director of the similar DARK STORM)...

In a similar stormy Canadian vein, there's SPACE TWISTER (2011) about a school science project gone wrong. Electrical storms from outer space destroy NYC and Boston (well, a news report says it anyway) and much of the story revolves around the survival of some teens who are in detention. I didn't know anyone in it except Mitch Pileggi. The story is fairly predictable and boring but the SFX and acting this time out aren't bad. Director/co-writer Sheldon Wilson also made SNOWMAGEDDON. Warning: This movie is now known as MEGA-CYCLONE! I guess Canada can't stop making bad horror and science fiction movies! 

SWAMP DEVIL-(2008)-A woman (Cindy Sampson) goes looking for her estranged father (Bruce Dern) after she's told he's gone crazy and killed someone. The real culprit is an evil Ent-like creature who can take human form and uses roots to kill its victims. It's pretty boring and talky.




And finally, there's: PROMETHEUS-20I2-I'd rather watch Ed Wood Jr.'s BRIDE OF THE MONSTER backwards than have to had to sit through this pretentious, tedious, idiotic 2001 rip-off disaster. A spaceship from Earth arrives at a far distant planet (the crew is in suspended animation) where it seems humankind began. Charlize Theron is the tight ass commander. An android named David (Michael Fassbender)) takes care of them. They are looking for some very tall beings and you'll be looking for another movie while watching this!

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Gamma One Returns

SNOW DEVILS-1967-Another crazy art-deco designed Italian science fiction movie directed by Antonio Margherriti (Anthony Dawson in the US prints). 

After a weather station in the Himalayas is destroyed the commander of space station Gamma One Rod Jackson (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart aka Jack Stuart in American prints) is sent to investigate. A woman lieutenant Lisa Neilson (Ombretta Colli aka Amber Collins in American prints) insists on going along because her fiance was a victim of the destruction and she believes he is still alive (“I don't know. Call it woman's intuition, ESP or whatever you want”). Wilbert Bradley is their crazy talking Sherpa guide Sharu. After their “heli-jet” and other equipment are destroyed in a freak accident,the group must go on foot which becomes a 4 person mission when the Sherpa guides (except for Sharu) run away. Seeking shelter in a cave they encounter big bluish hairy “snow devils”. 

They are actually aliens from a dying planet trying to flood Earth and then freeze it so they can live there. For some reason their skin and fur change color in a few scenes. When the group is held captive they somehow escape and drug the aliens. They kill the leader and go back home to find the Earth plagued by storms, floods and polar meltdowns so they must find the hidden alien base before all is lost! 

The buildings, ships and SFX look like Gerry Anderson's FIREBALL XL-5 and the story is similar to one used on TV'S VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA! If it seems a little episodic that's because it's all part of the Italian “Gamma One” space series which also includes the THE WAR OF THE PLANETS and THE WILD WILD PLANET. (last review)

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