Cult Movie Alien

Cult Movie Alien
15 mm scale

"Sorry to interrupt your recreation, fellows, but it is time for Sgt. Pinback to feed the alien."

John Carpenter's 1974 film, "Dark Star", is a weird, fun, low-budget story about a cranky crew of oddballs dealing with life in space and trying to save themselves from an intelligent bomb that has decided it wants to explode.  A major subplot features the shenanigans of a maliciously mischievous beachball-shaped alien (obviously made from... a beachball, and a pair of Halloween fright hands) which wreaks havoc on the ship while moving around via the ventilation ducts.

Dark Star was co-written by (and co-starred) Dan O'Bannon, who went on to write a rather more well-known 1979 film about a cranky crew of oddballs whose spaceship was destined to self-destruct, confronting a malicious alien traveling through the ventilation ducts:

"Look, we have actual money now!"

I saw "The Wolverine"...

Artist's impression of about half the film.

The wife took me out to see the new Wolverine film for my birthday.  Without getting into plot too much, this is a solo story about Logan after his self-imposed exile from the X-Men and human society following the death of Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix.

Though it is based on the 80's comic miniseries, what you do not get is this:

... as a film.  Most of the same players are there: Mariko Yashida, Yukio, Lord Shingen, ninjas, the wounded bear etc.  But they are changed substantially in their actions, interactions, alliegances and motivations.  Also, there are (spoilers, highlight to read) the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, a toxic/power-stealing mutant, a fight on top of a speeding bullet train, a freakin' giant robot samurai, and Wolverine losing his metal claws... but growing back his organic ones. I rather missed the more pronounced good girl/bad girl contrast between Mariko and Yukio from the comic, it paralleled the two sides of Logan's character. Here the women are as close as sisters (and that's nicely done), and Yukio helps Logan as much out of loyalty to the Yashidas and her best friend as anything else.  And as reviewers seem to have noticed, it can't seem to decide if it's an action drama about a character tormented by his own inner nature... or a summer blockbuster spectacle with the requisite over-the-top special-effects-driven finale.

But I liked it anyway, and if you like Wolverine, you probably will too.

(Hmm, I should re-paint that Clix figure some time...)

I saw "Iron Sky"

It's been reviewed properly elsewhere, but MY capsule review:

1. Not great
2. LOVED it!  So much fun!

For those of you who haven't heard about this B-grade, crowd-funded indie-blockbuster film, it's very briefly about Moon Nazis invading the Earth.  It's 2018, and US President cough totallySarahPalin has sent a mission to the moon to boost her popularity.  The astronauts quickly encounter a secret Nazi moon base, and the survivor is captured, precipitating some wildly improbable adventures and eventually a full-on Moon Nazi attack.

Yeah, it can't quite decide if it's slapstick, goofy political humour, dark political satire, an action film, or what.  Surprisingly good at times (especially for a $6 million budget), painfully clunky at others, if you like Weird War 2/dieselpunk/wacky Nazis and don't take it too seriously it's definitely worth a watch.  Also, the heroine Renate is just about the cutest little National Socialist since Helga from "Allo Allo".

Its ok, she doesn't KNOW she's a baddie, or that she looks eerily like Claire Danes c. 1996