Underman's Other Movies

* Polluting Shanghai harbour * What to do when Arnie calls * I AM sexy! I am, I am!
* Bill's interns * Fabricated heroism * Real world = heap of dirt
* My manager in the movies * Deprived hence depraved * Travelling machine vs. Interociter
* Yuppies and Volvo drivers * "Still got your brain? Lost mine" * "I'm a Good Guy." "SPLAT."

Underman manages to drag all of the above into these reflections of movies he has enjoyed, watched or dozed through (at the end you can even see what he has to say about some movies he has stayed awake for, and STILL not enjoyed). And he KNOWS you want more! Soundtracks, video playlists, even a snapshot or two of his own are included. Use the Soundtrack and Video information buttons for more details of CDs and videos.

Enough! In this page, you will find:

*
Underman's picks...
* Steven Spielberg's
"Empire of the Sun"...
*...and
"Saving Private Ryan"
*John Boorman's
"Excalibur"
*John Carpenter's
"The Thing"
*David Fincher's
"Alien 3"
* Michael Mann's
"Manhunter"
*Walt Disney's
"Fantasia"
* Isle of Wight Festival 1970
"Message to Love"
*Pink Floyd in concert:
"Delicate Sound of Thunder"
*Tangerine Dream's
"Three Phase"
*
...your suggestions...
*Robert Zemeckis'
"Contact"
* Christian Duguay's
"Screamers"
* Television series
* Other possibilities
including Abyss; Bladerunner; Eraserhead and the films of David Lynch; Event Horizon; Sphere
*
...and Underman's stinkers
* Footnote
Lost In Space and The Avengers
*
But don't let any of that put you off! Most of it's free. Until you get as far as:
*Buy them here

J. G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun

Spielberg's Empire of the Sun

Empire of the Sun CD

Until Spielberg decided to redefine the war film genre with "Saving Private Ryan" (see below), "Empire of the Sun" (1987), based on writer J.G. Ballard's autobiographical memories of childhood in wartime Asia (that is, World War II-time), was the only film of his that had ever really clicked with me. But does this one click! All you want to do in the first half hour is push that kid ("You know, kid, you have a talent for getting on people's nerves") into Shanghai harbour in the midst of its grim flotsam ("Jim was struck by the contrast between the impersonal bodies of the newly dead... and these sun- warmed skeletons"), and then the whole film turns around. This is a celebration of the triumph of one human spirit over the most crushing of hardships, and if that sounds cheesy, well, a good hunk of double gloucester goes down well sometimes ("'Eat the weevils,' Dr Ransome had told him, and he did"). The silent aurora of the atomic bomb over distant Nagasaki is just one of many scenes that do special things to me ("...white light...", says Jim, his brain all over the place by this time. "I thought it was Mrs. Victor's soul, going up to heaven" (which might sound irreverent, but doesn't, in relation to the countless lives that were snuffed out in that appalling moment, which for a long time was beyond the imaginations of many more people than Jim)).

The young star, Christian Bale, has gone on to become an actor with a refreshingly different style from your typical spoiled- rotten Hollywood brats (most of whom, if pushed into Shanghai harbour, would make for even grimmer flotsam than that which Spielberg shows us).

Fabulous and moving score, too, by John Williams, very classical with some haunting choral work, a great contrast in style from his rollicking Star Wars work.

"Empire of the Sun" (1984), written by J. G. Ballard

Steven Spielberg's
Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan CD

Any lingering after- taste from Steven Spielberg's earlier forays into saccharine- land ("E.T.", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") is washed away for once and for all in the appalling red tide of Omaha Beach in his wonderful tribute to the fortitude of ordinary men thrust into unspeakable situations: "Saving Private Ryan" (1998).

This relentlessly disturbing telling of how it really was for those who took part in the Normandy landings of 1944 ("We expected thirty- two tanks to float to the beach... twenty- seven went underwater"), surrounded by the grisly aftermath of the suicidal (literally, for so many thousands) quest for victory over the Dark Forces insultingly trivialised in "Star Wars", is hard viewing indeed ("Caparzo's head was tilted toward that expanse of shimmering red, eyes wide open and unblinking..."), yet Spielberg has, at a stroke, redefined for ever more our expectations and understanding of what war films are attempting to portray ("She was alone on the farm. Just how alone, she would soon know."). All previous military- based "adventures" that do not constitute outright propaganda are finally revealed for what they are - indulgences in sugar- frosted, fabricated heroism which only mock the truth held inside the memories of those who were there ("He didn't hurt, exactly, though the burning sensations in his chest told him he'd been wounded").

Anyone who can watch "Saving Private Ryan" without averting their eyes leaves the movie all the more fulfilled for coming face to face with what is likely to be the closest they will ever come to accompanying those men - all now in advanced age - whose youth, and more, were stolen to feed a horror beyond telling ("Miller's men heard it now: the deep rumble of diesel engines... 'Here they come', Miller said... 'here they come'").

Superior Beings may carp over Spielberg's "soft" dialogue and instinctive meanders into unmistakable Hollywood territory, while Determined Moralists may draw comfort from lessons, real or imagined, about the follies of war and the inadequacies of its (male) perpetrators, but ultimately there can be no misunderstanding of where Spielberg takes his audience: it is a place open to all, who may only quit by death or victory ("I didn't invent anything. I didn't cure any diseases. I worked on a farm... I lived a life").

The soundtrack by John Williams has already been misrepresented by those whose only expectation of life is to be entertained, but Williams has consciously rejected the composition of another work which seeks to rival as opposed to complement and enhance the visual feature. In Spielberg's own words: "Restraint was John Williams' primary objective. He did not want to sentimentalize or create emotion from what already existed in raw form."

Aware of the likelihood of gross emotional overkill in trying to match such extreme graphical portrayal with strident music, Williams has followed a simple but inspiring theme through a series of sombre variations interpreted through subdued but never muted brass. Taken out of context, this downbeat soundtrack means little, but fulfills its purpose exactly, underpinning Spielberg's meticulously detailed work without ever challenging it or attempting superfluous emphasis.

"Saving Private Ryan" (1998), written by Max Allan Collins, based on the screenplay by Robert Rodat

John Boorman's Excalibur

Excalibur CD

CD-R version now available! Click for details

"Excalibur" (1981) is certainly the only film that has successfully captured the luminous spirit of Sir Thomas Malory's 15th century classic Le Morte d'Arthur.

"I, William Caxton, simple person, present this book following, which I have enprised to imprint; and treateth of the noble acts, feats of arms of chivalry, prowess, hardiness, humanity, love, courtesy and very gentleness, with many wonderful histories and adventures."

Almost 500 years after Caxton wrote his preface, John Boorman brought to life the stained glass world of ancient history; all of the wonders hinted at by Caxton; yet, simultaneously, the squalor and deprivation of the Dark Ages, hanging amidst the palpable atmosphere of a period when destinies could be controlled by supernatural forces, a period about to draw to a close.

Boorman allows his cast to positively radiate personality, in preference to insisting on more conventional rules of on-screen etiquette, with the result that acting throughout is of breathtaking quality. Helen Mirren (also in 2010) gives one of many fine performances, Patrick Stewart dons full armour in an early pre-Star Trek role (and still manages to look just like a time-travelling Jean-Luc Picard), and nothing slick- Hollywood (à la Conan mindlessness) is used to spoil the eerie mystery. A master director at his peak, meeting the daunting challege of turning Malory's ancient, beautiful and celebrated words into stirring visions.

For some reason, the "official" Excalibur soundtrack has been unavailable for many years, except as a very rare "bootleg" version (I am not sure that it was ever released officially). Shown here is one of a limited edition CD-R release which I had the good fortune to obtain after a long search.

"The music of "Excalibur" proved to be no less than a landmark itself", runs the liner notes. "Unlike other films where an original composition is thrown out in favour of a classical temp-track ("2001: A Space Odyssey", notably), composer Trevor Jones was contracted with the knowledge that Boorman intended to score the film primarily with classical music... Boorman... asked Jones to compose both a main theme and an end credit suite... but in the end Boorman chose to re-record many of the classical selections using the London Philharmonic under the direction of Norman Del Mar."

John Carpenter's The Thing

The Thing CD

When I first saw John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982), I spent most of the time looking the other way. Some viewers didn't seem inclined to open their eyes at all and clung to fond memories of the 1951 version, in which the most frightening scene was someone opening a door to find a giant turnip on the other side. Giant turnips were probably the stuff of nightmares in 1951, but that was a long time ago - nowadays he'd just say, "oh, it's you, Arnie, come on in". The sense of scalp- crawling claustrophobia in Carpenter's remote Antarctic outpost is overpowering, with transformations taking place that human minds have never evolved to countenance. ("That, for instance, isn't dog at all; it's imitation").

How the infamously stomach- turning special effects were done was a complete mystery back in 1982 - thankfully, there was no "making of" money- spinning extra, though I do recall seeing some behind- the- scenes shots that by no means revealed how the final results were achieved. Some of the more extraordinarily mobile effects seemed to involve a fair amount of tugging of strings off- camera ("What about Connant in the meantime?" Kinner demanded... "He may be human...").

In the last extremity, social cohesion goes out the window and it's "look after number 1" time. Been done before? Sure, but the pertinent questions this time around are, who is number 1 ("What the hell're you looking at me like that for?"), and what in heck do they look like ("Is that a man in there...or something?").

"The Thing" has many obvious similarities to "Alien" (1979), but John Carpenter's alien makes Ripley's version seem positively neighbourly, and I have no doubt he was using the opportunity to say, "Hey! Aliens are not going to look like people dressed in funny costumes, or frighten people by snapping their teeth and dribbling over them". ("I don't know what the hell's in there," runs the dialogue, "but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is"). Exactly the way I think about my manager's office. ("Kinner was a lifeless corpse on the floor here when we arrived. But when It found we were going to jab it with the power... It changed.")

Carpenter had also been watching 2001, as we are entertained by his own variation on the chess playing computer theme. This computer also wins, but MacReady (Kurt Russell) responds with considerably less respect for intelligent hardware than Frank's meek bowing to Hal's superiority (and no respect at all for good Scotch whisky). "The Thing" is definitely not going to be sidetracked into a man vs machine conflict.

And yet, might not John W. Campbell's words (using the pseudonym "Don A. Stuart", he wrote "Who Goes There?", on which "The Thing" was based, in the 1940s) have been noticed and picked up by Kubrick and Clarke? Compare these words, and try to work out who wrote which:

"...instruments...detected a...magnetic influence...From the surface indications, the secondary pole we found was small, so small that the magnetic effect it had was preposterous. No magnetic material conceivable could have that effect."

"At first we thought it might be an outcrop of magnetic rock, but all the geological evidence was against it. And not even a big nickel-iron meteorite could produce a field as intense as this."

Interesting, yes? (Campbell / Stuart was responsible for the first extract, Clarke the second).

Those who couldn't watch "The Thing" consoled themselves by asserting that anyone who liked it was irretrievably sick- minded. I counter by saying that, pleasant it isn't, but it is an outstanding and gripping movie right from the opening sequence (what madness could provoke the Norwegian scientists to go to such extreme lengths for the sake of a dog?), through to MacReady's memorable closing words of resignation: "Well, we'll just...wait here for a little while...", keeping a wary eye on his sole surviving companion, who may or may not be what he appears to be, " ...see what happens...".

John Carpenter is quite right - if aliens really do turn up the experience will not be entertaining, it will be outside all points of reference for human sanity.

Alien 3

Alien 3 CD

Despite the fact that, to this day, I receive emails chastising me for my stupidity, I maintain that "Alien 3"(1992) may well be the only true science- fiction film made for and during the 90s. What could possibly reduce a mere human being to this sorry state? Well, while I may not have a great deal of first hand experience of life on a penal colony in outer space, I actually found it easier to empathise with the late Brian Glover's band of cutthroats and ruffians ("All twenty- five of them. Hard, lean, bald, young and not so young, and those for whom youth was but a fading warm memory") than any of the wisecracking "you still got your brain? Lost mine back on Alpha Zeta Cyclops IX" space marines of "Aliens", or the rather wimpy colonists who were dispatched without ceremony in what I took to be rather a satisfying payback for interfering with the ecology of an entire planet.

What is the significance of the '90s? Namely, that most contemporary films have given us little more than lavish variations on things already done to death in a dozen movie lots, while anyone out in the real world - that annoying little heap of dirt that always stops Hollywood's doormat lying quite straight - has found themselves having to do it very tough indeed without a space marine or mutant turtle in sight. They had to do it the tough way in "Alien 3", too. The language was tough. The set design was among the most imaginative and expertly realised of any film - what was this penal colony, a crumbling monastery, an abandoned steel works, an insecure nuclear processing plant? ("Used to be a mine cum refinery... most of the equipment here's been mothballed... this is a double Y chromosome facility... strictly male.") The "creature" effects changed our whole perspective on what these aliens were like ("Golic... didn't look back... he knew he might see something"). There were no more moments of banality than in most films. Ripley got laid. I mean, come on, what's the problem?

Even if weight of opinion has negatively influenced David Fincher's own perceptions of what he achieved, there is an unsettling grittiness to "Alien 3" that is absent in any of its counterparts in the series. I would dare to suggest that over- production in the interests of commercialism left a gloss on numbers 1, 2 and 4 which made them easier for audiences to swallow. Whether by design or accident, Fincher gave viewers the opportunity to pick at the surface of his film, and paid the price. His film was less financially successful than its predecessors (the only standard of quality in the '90s: How Much Value Does It Add To The Share Price? -"2001: A Space Odyssey" could not have happened, though see the "Contact" piece below for an indication of how it might have turned out) and people moving in circles of their own who thought they should have had a shot at such a high- priority project got stuck well into him, finding him guilty of such heinous crimes as having made one or two rock videos.

Well, for myself it is that very "outsider's edge" that imbues "Alien 3" with a quality all its own, even if I am alone in perceiving it and even if I am the only person in the world who happens to think there are more important things in life than the value of share prices. Being held "guilty" of directing a genuinely original film that some critics have, ever since, used as an easy target for venom spitting practice puts Mr Fincher in good company.

"Alien 3" (1992), written by Alan Dean Foster, based on the screenplay by David Giler, Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson, story by Vincent Ward

Manhunter

Manhunter CD

Michael Mann must have wondered whether movie audiences had been collectively asleep after he presented them with his "thinking person's shocker", "Manhunter" (1986), and to get his own back he promptly came up with the improbable though undeniably popular TV series "Miami Vice".

Thomas Harris' introduction to the world of the appalling Hannibal Lecter did not occur in the (rightly) acclaimed "The Silence of the Lambs" (first published in 1988), but in his lesser- known though every bit as memorable 1982 novel, "Red Dragon", which remains one of the most icily chilling thrillers ever written ("When all of them were dead... the smashing of mirrors began") and includes scenes so disturbing that I remember sitting in a crowded commuter train one hot Sydney morning with my brain refusing to accept any more until I had reassured myself that the world outside the windows was still as it should be ("'Freddy was a sport. He shouldn't have to go out that hard'"). The outcast Francis Dolarhyde is perhaps a more merciless depiction of deprived hence depraved humanity than even "The Silence of the Lambs"' frightful Jame Gumb ("The authorities never linked him with the sad little bloodstains soaked into the dirt floors of garages").

Michael Mann pulled no punches, and gave us an adaptation of clinical precision and numbing suspense that remains one of the most stylishly presented of all thriller movies ("I never heard him coming. I felt his breath was all, and then... there was the rest of it"). We have the intellectual satisfaction of following the progress of a gifted yet tragically vulnerable "cracker" (Will Graham, played by William Petersen) whose own skill renders him unable to pull away from a world of savagery never far removed from the normalcy he so yearns for, even as we shrink from the horrors he must confront and count our blessings to live inside our own normalcy. ("And with the thought of the Leedses and the Jacobis alive came the thought of how they were afterward, and Graham couldn't watch basketball any more"). Mann, who put his own spin on Harris' powerful work, pinpointed the fragility of that normalcy with one of those occasional moments of inspired cinema, as the awful photographs that Graham must steel himself to examine slip from the weary agent's grasp, in front of his fellow airline passenger's horrified gaze.

Many people, indeed, rate this overlooked gem more highly than its generously- awarded successor, which is both a tribute to Mann's interpretative skill in fully retaining Harris' unshakable balance between complex psychology and visceral sadism ("I didn't think I could look at him, but I did"), and an indictment on the ability of the average movie goer to make their own mind up rather than following the recommendations of industry "professionals" ("He wanted very much to go home, knowing that he would not, could not, until the Dragon was dead").

A film, and a book, that you may not particularly want to remember, but cannot forget.

"Red Dragon" (1981), written by Thomas Harris

Hmm, I am beginning to worry about myself, watching all these morbid films. Time to change the mood!

Disney's Fantasia

Fantasia CD

"Fantasia" (1940) shows how good Walt Disney really was, in the days before the marketers and accountants took control. Producing feature- length animations without a computer in sight meant many person- years of dedicated and expert effort. Each one was a rare and unforgettable treat. How would Walt have felt in the 1990s, when another new animated "blockbuster" seems to hit the big screen every few months, and a carefully controlled policy of releasing "limited edition" videos in huge numbers keeps the money flowing out of parents' pockets? Doubtless, if it was profitable, he'd have loved it.

Signs of the gagging cuteness and insultingly anthropomorphic treatment of innocent animals (insulting to the animals, I mean) that later became such a Disney trademark are there in "Fantasia", and it will always be marketed as something to do with Mickey Mouse (surely one of the least of its attributes), but the art is still the most important thing,. The Mussorgsky piece near the end did similar things to me as Dave's blast through the infinite, the first time I saw it, and it has never lost its power.

I have lost count of the number of times I have read the explanation of how the final sequence ("Ave Maria") was filmed, and I still find it hard to understand. The intricacies of 2001's Stargate sequence seem straightforward in comparison, though no doubt if someone actually showed me it would become obvious.

Isle of Wight Festival cover

Isle of Wight Festival video

Video information

Isle of Wight Festival CD

Yes, it's true, I was at the great "Isle of Wight Festival" of 1970. I have the original programme here with me right now (in the same folder as my 2001 programme). It never took on the infamy of Woodstock, but for those on the right- hand side of the Atlantic East Afton Down became a place of whispered legend and later pilgrimage, just as Max Yasgur's Farm did. Had a look myself, in 1990, and repeated the brief homage in passing in both 1997 and 1998. Very peaceful it was, too (see below). I believe some of the original visitors loved the island so much (understandably so, it's a beautiful place), they never left - you may find them tucked away in odd corners of the Isle with minds still tuned to distant echoes of Jimi Hendrix.

Even today, it is not clear whether the festival was the final flourish of what made the 60s memorable for so many, or the first triumph of the latter- day materialism and cynicism - "me first" - that has now engulfed us. Whichever, it remains an uneasy mixture of both, and the memory is bitter- sweet. The realisation that the "alternative lifestyle" image loudly proclaimed by some of the key players was little more than a front for shameless materialistic ambition helped kill the innocent optimism of the age stone dead.

Shame about the outcome...but thanks for the memory (yes, even the bitter parts)...and greetings to anyone reading this who was there "on the hill" (middle picture) facing "the dogs of war", yet still managed to make it this far without suffering from the fate that afflicted Woodstock visitors (some of whom were known to turn into yuppies and Volvo drivers, and clearly would not have lasted five minutes on Desolation Row).

East Afton Down, 1997
Pink Floyd's Delicate Sound of Thunder

Video information

Pink Floyd CD

It was Pink Floyd's "Delicate Sound of Thunder" (1989) that belatedly reminded me that once upon a time I listened to rock music, a habit I lost for years after the dreams of the Isle of Wight Festival collapsed into nothing more constructive than punk, glam rock and "up yours, Jack". These guys were old enough to be fathers to the people churning out the commercial junk, and there they were with none of the pretensions or "look at me, aren't I sexy" gesticulations (all together now, let's hear a deafening "NO, you look like a posey old f***") that certain other ageing pop stars embarrass us with. If you've got it, you don't have to flaunt it - just get up there and blast them all to hell.

But everyone and the dog knows all about Pink Floyd, so you don't need me to say any more about them.

Except that, yes, I have heard the tales of how Pink Floyd were in line to write the score for "2001: A Space Odyssey", but, no, I won't believe it until I have time to synch 2001 with Pink Floyd's "Echoes" for myself.

Tangerine Dream Three Phase

Video information

Tangerine Dream CD

For many years I would almost literally play no other music than that of Tangerine Dream, and as I write these words they are still rarely out of my CD player. With well over 50 releases to choose from (to date and counting) anything else has to be super- special to get a look in. More changes in line up than Bill's had interns to ogle, but Edgar Froese is still The Man and he's even older than I am (richer, too, darnation).

Many people seemed to give up on them when analogue synthesizers went digital and could never bring themselves to appreciate, much less admire, such "later" masterpieces as the transcendent "Turn of the Tides" (1994), which holds a permanently reserved spot high in my own Desert Island all- time Top Ten. Nonetheless, Froese's genius (too strong a word? Well, I can't think of many occasions when I would use it otherwise) means he is constantly several jumps ahead of where other peoples' heads are, the owners of which are always naively, if not downright aggressively, convinced that he is the one out of step (Q: Would you consider bringing back some of the older keyboards? Edgar: What for?). It is a bit worrying to think that one day he might just win one of those awful Grammy things he is continually being nominated for, but I am sure we can rely on him not to let it go to his head.

Until recently, 1993's "Three Phase" was the only offical video of their music and performances, and it's much too short.

This 2001 site being subtitled "30 Years On" reminds me that September 1997 marked the 30th anniversary of something to do with Tangerine Dream (I'm not sure what). Keep us all guessing for another 30 years, Edgar, and never listen to what anyone else tells you. We'll catch up with you sooner or later. (Edgar: "A lot of people say (of Tangerine Dream), "What are they doing?!" All right, please... stop buying our records and stop complaining...")

Q&A with Edgar Froese taken from "Voyager" Issue 16/17, Volume Two, 1998.

Robert Zemeckis' Contact

Click here for Larry Klaes's extended review of "Contact"

Robert Bayes saw Robert Zemeckis' "Contact" well before I had the chance.

Just a note to let you know that I got a chance to see "Contact" the other day and highly recommend it... try to see it - you won't be disappointed.

Of course, it's not 2001, but the alien contact and deeper questions it poses are handled intellectually. Although you'll have to stomach looking at our president for too long a time, it is well worth seeing. I think it's much better than 2010.

No sooner had that one arrived, than my friend Lorie A. Johnson backed it up with this.

Silence... Is there something wrong with the sound system?... an orbital shot of Earth pops up on the screen. The silence is shattered by the cacophony of dozens of radio stations playing at once... The camera pulls away from Earth, and... the music from the radio stations changes. As the shot pulls back through the planets of the solar system... the music and broadcasts are getting older and older. The POV leaves the solar system, the local group, the arm of the galaxy, and the galaxy altogether. And the electronic voice of Earth becomes older, fainter, and finally fades out into dots and dashes of Morse Code.

If you don't darken a cinema door for the rest of this century, GO SEE THIS FILM!!!... If 2001 were to have a sequel in spirit, or be made for the Nineties, this movie would be it. Carl Sagan authored it, and it took them 17 years to finally get it on the screen. He worked on this film right up to his death last December, the magazines say... Arthur C. Clarke makes a quick appearance on the screen...

So, what did I make of it when I finally caught up with it on a trans- Pacific flight (and subsequently confirmed with the slightly less unsatisfactory assistance of a video)? Well, it was hardly a big- screen multi- channel- sound experience, and unfortunately the comments I had heard had led me to anticipate something in the spirit of 2001. I am bound to say that it struck me as being firmly in the mould of "conventional" science- fiction, albeit with some clever twiddly bits. The notion of building a machine capable of transcending time and space by following instructions considerately provided by some alien force goes back at least as far as "This Island Earth" in 1955, when the cranially- advantaged Jeff Morrow introduced Rex Reason and Faith Domergue to commercial- free television with his ultra- cool Interociter, and whisked them off across the galaxy complete with a mutant or two and an interplanetary war to greet them at the other end. Jodie Foster's pop hanging around on a beach seemed a little anti- climactic in comparison.

I found it impossible to look at the machine in Contact without inserting my own caption: "A sketch (circa 1862) by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for a novel means of affording Queen Victoria a crossing of the River Thames without wetting the royal feet (unless she falls through the middle)". Any alien race that seriously proposes something that cumbersome for pan- dimensional travelling has got to be bad news, or was it merely an obscure homage to the satisfying simplicity of Kubrick's monolith?

Oh, I enjoyed the film (I enjoyed "This Island Earth", too), but a complement for 2001? I don't think so. An indication of what 2001 might have been like, had it been attempted today? Well, perhaps. If so, let us all be thankful that messrs Kubrick and Clarke were at their creative peak thirty years ago.

Postscript to "Contact" John A. Frye had some further thoughts.

Just thought I would return a comment on the criticism of the time machine in Contact. To give the director the benefit of the doubt... I would assume that the complexity of the machine really was necessary for its operation... while a simpler machine could be built by the alien species... the method of construction needed to be generic enough that any species in the universe capable of interplanetary communication should be able to build it; remember of course that when the transmissions were received... the technology level of mankind was at pre-WWII... a design that didn't introduce too much new technology and science to a society would ensure that... as little history- altering as possible is maintained by the machine. What if they had told us how to make a monolith? At our current state, we'd probably end up making a weapon out of it and destroying our corner of the universe.

In closing, there also is the possibility that the whole episode indeed was conceived by Hadden, and therefore, the technology used for the machine would be within the spectrum of Hadden's intelligence.

Peter Weller in Screamers "Contact" nearly got away from me, but Peter Weller in Christian Duguay's "Screamers" is one that I missed altogether. Well, I was busy when it came out in 1996. Adam Parker pointed out my omission.

I agree that Alien 3 is underrated... Another even- more- underrated '90's sci-fi movie... is "Screamers"... an incredible movie, period. I don't understand the response it received in the U.S. Peter Weller gives yet another great performance like he did in Robocop... The backgrounds are brilliant considering they are only matte paintings (and the broken down city is only an abandoned cement factory!), and the special effects are amazing... the Holographic wall (one side being a wall, the other side being a video screen) is the most original effect I've seen lately. Also, the spaceship which crash lands outside the bunker is INCREDIBLE, as well as the spaceship at the end that Weller eventually flies off in (I was so happy when he got into it, and flew off, I thought they'd never do something that cool in a movie anymore...). Screamers has its influences such as Aliens and Star Wars, and never overuses these influences to sacrifice originality.

I finally tracked Screamers down in an ex-rental sell-off. What a heap of hooey. If there was any justice in the universe, the Screamers would have chopped up all those boring human beings in the first five minutes and left us to enjoy the special effects without interference from actors looking disappointed that this wasn't a Coke commercial shoot, after all. Putting the scriptwriters face to face with angry Screamers seems only fair. (For the uninitiated, "screamers" are highly- mobile buzz- saws in the process of determining their own chosen course of evolution - yes, really. I think there is more than a hint of Stephen King's "Langoliers" in here somewhere.)

Yet, something is not quite right... I keep feeling this urge to go and watch it again...

Television series

Outer Limits

Antii Tolamo observes:

You don't seem to have anything about science fiction series on your site. I admit there are not many worthwhile, but what about X-files, Outer Limits etc.?

To which, I reply:

You are right. SF series are a whole new subject, and I have my hands full with 2001! I'm a great fan of both "X Files" and "Outer Limits" (the original ones), and loved the "X Files Movie" - could even be tempted to add that one in my page. Used to like "Sliders" too before it got the under 5s audience fixed firmly in its sights (John Rhys-Davis did well to get himself written out and avoid the degenerative stages of what was once a witty, intelligent and observantly- written series), and "Babylon 5" before it forgot it was supposed to be original (leaving us with fond memories of two excellent series). Too much for me to cover!

Shortly afterwards, Ray Miller asked:

Are you interested in the famous "The Prisoner" TV series starring Patrick McGoohan? The series was allegorical, surreal and open to interpretation in a similar vein to 2K+1. It crossed my mind that you might be interested because of this.

I was happy to confirm my interest, despite not having seen that series for many years.

Other possibilities

Event Horizon

Despite the range of subject matter evident in my movie "picks", all the other films people ask me about relate to science- fiction. Pigeon- holed by 2001, I guess.

For the record, though I always enjoy a good SF movie and can never praise highly enough the "classic" writers such as H. G. Wells and John Wyndham (who have been at best neglected and at worst trashed by Hollywood, despite the attention of such as Byron Haskin and John Carpenter), so far from being an SF afficionado I actually consider most of it to be lacking in any real substance and not particularly interesting, regardless of how many explosions it involves.

However, in response to other suggestions that have come my way, I was very impressed with the workmanlike "Event Horizon" (1997, Paul Anderson); bored witless by the pretentious "Sphere" (1998, Barry Levinson); hold the pointless "Abyss" (1991, James Cameron) to be as over- rated as "Event Horizon" is under- rated; and have never spent long enough with the much- celebrated "Blade Runner" (1982, Ridley Scott) to form an opinion one way or the other.

In the meantime, Harry S. Truman has brought up another interesting name in the world of contemporary visual arts:

I find a great many of the things you have to say about critic, audience, and Hollywood response to 2001, very similar to my thoughts on David Lynch films - "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" and "Eraserhead", in particular. I was wondering, have you seen FWWM or any of David Lynch's other films, and what do you think of them?

I had to confess to Harry that the only David Lynch experience I can call on is trying to wrap my brain around the extraordinary "Eraserhead" (1978). Nevertheless, I have picked up enough about Lynch along the way to recognise that he is a rare figure who certainly deserves attention, increasingly so in our insidiously encroaching end- of- twentieth- century world of corporatisation and submersion of constructive individualism. If I ever have time, I ought to do some more homework on David Lynch.

Footnote Robert, Lorie and John are all entitled to defend "Contact", whatever I might choose to say about it; and Adam Parker is right in finding some satisfaction in seeing Weller escape in the end to act, or maybe scream, another day while the regulation bimbo got her come- uppance. The effects in "Screamers" are pretty neat (steady on, Underman, don't go getting carried away), and I am sure Weller's teddy bear has little in common with Mr. Bean's.

Here, though, are a few of Underman's choice stinkers: movies he has inexplicably stayed awake for, but would be embarrassed to be associated with. Both of these are long- delayed spin- offs from television series, an observation which has no particular significance.

Lost in Space

Arguably, an award for achieving a logical impossibility might be due to whoever turned this one out. The "Lost In Space" (1998, Stephen Hopkins) movie may actually be worse than the atrocious TV series that blighted so many innocent childhoods all those years ago. A comparison may be drawn by anyone with access to the Scifi Channel in the U.S., where this nadir of entertainment is offered to this day as a wake- up greeting, even compelling the desperate among us to view repeats of Scooby Doo or The Flintstones. Imagine a day - any day - that got off to such a start.

The Avengers

"Is it a cliché? Then stick it in". Take every last one of the marvellous qualities that made the British TV series "The Avengers" (1998, Jeremiah S. Chechik) such an enduring and influential classic, and turn them inside out. The result? That rare thing, a movie that has you joining the critics in their chorus of derision, and is not even worth viewing for the sake of spotting the redeeming feature - there isn't one. Patrick Macnee was unnecessarily charitable in his quoted approval, or perhaps he was indulging an opportunity for reverse reflected glory - it makes his performances as Steed, and the constant wit and subtlety of the original scripts, seem even more satisfying. Grab all the videos you can lay hands on of Patrick with Diana Rigg et al.

CDNowCDNow for cds and Reel.com for videos
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Reel.com for cds and CDNow for videos
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oh, you work it out

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POSTSCRIPT

Out of interest, how come in the movies it's always the baddies who lose? Why can't someone make a film based on real life, for a change? You know how it goes: "I'm a Good Guy." "SPLAT."

OK, that's far too much irrelevant stuff about me and what I happen to think of the efforts of others (but irrelevant things are so interesting, don't you think?). For all I know there may once have been a human being somewhere who actually liked "Lost in Space". Rather than brood over such an improbability and what it reveals about the human condition, you would be better advised to get out there and let your spirits bask in the radiance of Stanley Kubrick and Andrey Tarkovsky.

All text: Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998 by Underman except where otherwise stated.

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