Innerspace (1987)

Film of 2012 #75


Starring Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan and Martin Short this film is from the family science fiction corner and has the premise of minaturising a test pilot to inject him into a Rabbit but something goes wrong and he ends up being injected in to Martin Short, who plays a Hypochondriac Jack Putter. Directed by Joe Dante this is a fun film that has a sense of danger and excitement as Jack Putter discovers his inner hero through helping Dennis Quaid as Lt Tuck Pendleton get safely resurrected and get Meg Ryan back. 

The effects in this film are for the time fantastic you do actually believe that Dennis Quaid has been shrunk and is floating around inside Martin Short. The danger posed by the evil corporation is while quite cartoonish fits in really well with the film. You have Victor Scrimshaw and Dr Margaret Canker played by Kevin McCarthy and Fiona Lewis ably supported by the ever imposing Mr Igoe played menacingly by Vernon Wells. Capers and comedy ensue and you have good old fashioned character development of Jack Putter to the realisation from Tuck Pendleton what is important. 

This film is great it is a bit dated with the styles of 1987 and they play loose with scientific possibility but overall this really is a fun and enjoyable film, I have seen it several times and will watch it again in the future. Overall this is a 4 star recommend from me go and see how a sneeze can save your life. 

Piranha (1978)

This is the 1978 killer fish film from Joe Dante, starring Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies-Urich it is from a grimy time and low budgets. I have to come out and say that I can see past all of the problems of this film to state that I love it. Even the problems when you stop and go would you really do that? Really? I still love it, there is a dark humour that comes from the way that the film is put together and it is as funny now as it was when filmed with a comedy in mind.

This film starts with a couple of hitchhikers who go for a swim in a tank of water that they had to climb through a fence for, it is dark and I ask would you really swim in a tank of water in the middle of nowhere? Then you have Maggie looking for the lost couple who drags the drunk Paul along to try and find them and quickly they end up in the same place as the couple and they break a lock to get in, I mean this is all set up which makes me think there is a level of let us quickly get to killer fish without worrying about believability. In her desperate search for the couple instead of contacting the authorities they go inside ignore the clearly twisted genetic experiments and drain the tanks and so you have killer fish in the water. And from there the fun ensues with a race down river following the path of destruction that the fish leave in their wake.

Joe Dante sculpts this film expertly along there is character development so that you care when someone is eaten and you know what is going to happen and how it is going to work but that is all part of the fun. I will admit that there are some serious flaws in this but you cannot really fault this film, so for me it is a 4 star review and a recommend, certainly if you enjoy dark horror comedy.

Twilight Zone the Movie (1983)

Having had the chance to see the first half of the original season from the 1950's I was interested to see the 1983 film. I have to say that I was seriously disappointed, I have seen this before but it was actually that bad i had forgotten I had seen it. So the film is split in to 4 with separate stories that do not interlink and there is also an opening scene starring Dan Ackroyd which was a highlight even though it was not very good.

The Twilight Zone to me has been about this is the world the characters live in, whether it is real or not and the twist at the end is based upon the audience perception of what is normal. However each of these segments seems to be a normal person in our world gets either moved or finds themselves in a weird and wonderful world and they are all quite drastic, obviously what you need for the big screen.

I was very disappointed with this film, with none of the segments being very good for me so a 1 star film and well worth avoiding. I would recommend the original TV Series as so far it is awesome and most of the 15 or so episodes I have seen are worth watching.