Now and Then Blogathon (Now): Independence Day Resurgence (2016)

Independence Day Resurgence (2016)

Twentieth Century Fox, TSG Entertainment, Centropolis Entertainment, Electric Entertainment, USA, 2016. 

Participating the Now and Then 2017 Blogathon event, arranged by Realweegiemidget Reviews and Thoughts of All Sorts! This is part 2 (Now!) of 2 part post.

20 years have passed since the space alien attack was struck back barely saving the humans from extinction. The ex-President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) suffers from telepathic scars caused by the previous encounter. David Levinson (Jeff Glodblum) and his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) are still around but Will Smith's character is not so fighter pilot ace Steven Hiller had to die in a flight accident. However his son Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher) continues his legacy.

New President Lanford (Sela Ward) and ex-President Whitmore

Dylan Hiller and Rain Lao

Of the younger generation are also President's daughter Patricia (Maika Monroe) and hotshot pilot Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), and his teammate Charlie Miller (Travis Tope) and Chinese pilot Rain Lao (Angelababy). Dylan and Jake have a drudge, Patricia wants to help her father and Charlie wants a romance with Rain.

Patricia Whitmore

Jake Morrison

Dikembe Umbutu and David Levinson

New weapons based on alien technologies has been developed and David Levinson is now the Director of Earth Space Defense. Someday the aliens will return...

In Africa guerilla leader Dikembe Umbutu (Deobia Oparei) has been waging war against the remaining aliens. He has invited scientist Catherine Marceaux (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and David to nvestigate strange things happening at stranded spaceship. All points to that a new war is beginning. A continent-sized spaceship appears and uproots whole cities. How can humankind survive this time?

Catherine Marceaux and David

Don't park here

Whereas last time the on-screen desruction was still relatively limited, this time Roland Emmerich does so grand scale destruction scenes that physicists rip their hairs off. The alien spaceship has its own gravity and plows half of the Earth while landing. Spectacular, yes, but not very believable. Better to leave the brain out and just enjoy it as a popcorn movie. The story goes on the familiar path of last minute saves, adventures of the survivors, and some new and old friends making sudden appearances. There are some updates to the formula of "Independence Day", last time it was America saving the day, but now in the style of "Pacific Rim" the cast is a more multicultural team of heroes. Couple of budding bromances are there too.

It is nice to have many characters from the first film around, however overall the characterizations feel weaker, as the turbo-charged plot does not allow much character development and lacks the heart and bombastic fun that the prequel had. This is visually impressive with huge spaceships and bigger alien monsters, it is occassionally fun but sacrifices the plot to special effects. With the recent flood of big scifi/superhero films it fits in the trend, but it is just one more spectacular movie in the crowd. Also in the end it is clear that there will be at least a trilogy of these films.

Rating: Average

Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T. Usher, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Sela Ward, William Fichtner, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner, Patrick St. Esprit, Vivica A. Fox, Angelababy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Deobia Oparei, Nicolas Wright, Travis Tope, Chin Han, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Robert Loggia, John Storey, Joey King, Jenna Purdy, Garrett Wareing, Hays Wellford, Mckenna Grace, James A. Woods, Robert Neary, Joshua Mikel, Joel Virgel, Arturo del Puerto, Matthew Munroe, Jacob Browne, Ryan Cartwright, Travis Hammer, Lance Lim, Zeb Sanders, Donovan Tyee Smith, Stafford Douglas, Jade Scott Lewis, Beth Bailey, Mona Malec, Omar Diop, Ron Yuan, Grace Huang, Stephen Oyoung, J.P. Murrieta, Casey Messer, Ben Wang, Nicholas Ballas, Jonathan Richards, Ivan G'Vera, Michael Davis, Brandon K. Hampton, Sam Quinn
Director: Roland Emmerich 

Now and Then Blogathon (Then): Independence Day (1996)

Independence Day (1996) a.k.a ID4

Twentieth Century Fox, Centropolis Entertainment, USA, 1996.

Participating the Now and Then 2017 Blogathon event, arranged by Realweegiemidget Reviews and Thoughts of All Sorts! This is part 1 (Then!) of 2 part post.

Independence Day of the United States is approaching and so is a gigantic spaceship. The President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) suffers from waning popularity. Although he was a popular war hero, media says that his achievements as the leader of the country have been disappointing. His day becomes worse when a gigantic UFO emitting a strange signal sends smaller smaller spaceships above major cities. SETI scientists open Champagne bottles but cable-TV technician (and former university guy) David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) cracks the code and notices that the signal send by the spaceship is a countdown to destruction.

This is not a weather balloon!

Thomas J. Whitmore

David Levinson

The humans try peaceful greeting but the extraterrestrials answer by blowing whole cities up. After a worldwide destruction, the survivors try to save their families who have been lost in the chaos. Army attempts a strike back (nuke 'em!), but that only makes aliens laugh. However some promising technology is hidden in Area 51. Eccentric scientist Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner, Data from Star Trek TNG) shows the secret alien artifacts retrieved after the Roswell Incident.

Dr. Okun

Alien warrior

After David and his daddy Julius (Judd Hirsch) invent a way to destroy the mother ship, the different nations join the counter attack. And should they win, the Fourth of July will no longer be only an American holiday, but the Independence Day of the whole Earth! ID4 is a shamelessly patriotic movie with good old flag waving.

Julius

Saving the world are drunk pilot Russell Casse (Randy Quaid) and his family, hotshot pilot Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) and his girlfriend Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox). There is also important motivator for David, his ex-wife and President's Communication's Director Constance Spano (Margaret Colin). David and Constance separated because David was unambitious with his career and more interested in protecting the environment. Well, now he has a chance to save the world. Helping the heroes is also Major Mitchell (Adam Baldwin). Interestingly, Adam played also part in latter X-Files episodes as an alien-human hybrid supersoldier.

Jasmine and Steven

Russell

Major Mitchell and Constance Spano

The movie come out when the space aliens were hot and I had spent considerable time watching "The X-Files" and playing "UFO: Enemy Unknown", so the movie left a big impression. It was a perfect movie for the 1990s UFO boom. The combination of disaster film and B-film style alien attack film made with a big budget made it a summer box office hit film, with thrills, drama and witty one-liners.

The all-star cast had a bunch of new faces and already established actors. Will Smith was still in the early phase of his film career, at the time that he made his iconic roles (in "Bad Boys", "Men In Black" and "Enemy of the State") and here he does great action-comedy. Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman take care of the dramatic arc while Judd Hirsch and Randy Quaid have more comical characters. For Vivica A Fox this movie was very important for her career. James Duval plays here Russell's son, he is rarely seen in big budget films and has apperared more in indie films.

Rating: Very good

Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, Vivica A. Fox, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstein, Adam Baldwin, Brent Spiner, James Duval, Lisa Jakub, Giuseppe Andrews, Ross Bagley, Bill Smitrovich, Mae Whitman, Harry Connick Jr., Kiersten Warren, John Storey, Frank Novak, Devon Gummersall, Leland Orser, Mirron E. Willis, Ross Lacy, David Pressman, Vivian Palermo, Raphael Sbarge, Bobby Hosea, Dan Lauri, Steve Giannelli, Eric Paskel, Carlos Lacamara, John Bennett Perry, Troy Willis, Tim Kelleher, Wayne Wilderson, Jay Acovone, James Wong, Thom Barry, Jana Marie Hupp, Matt Pashkow, Robert Pine...

Director: Roland Emmerich

Movie Review: Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534

Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 a.k.a Rough Sky
Carlton America, Tele München Fernseh Produktionsgesellschaft (TMG)  USA, Germany, Canada, 2001.

First Officer Mike Hogan (Eric Roberts) has a trauma because of a failed crash landing years ago. He is assigned as replacement co-pilot on short notice as no one else is available. Flight attendants Katy (Alexandra Paul from "Baywatch" and "Melrose Place") and Tracey (Anne Openshaw) try their best to serve the spoiled passengers. There are students, soccer player Ty (Mark Lutz) and airplane engineer Roger (Russell Yuen). On the flight there is also convicted murderer Grant Blyth (Dean McDermott) on his way to prison escorted by Detective Muldoon (John Furey). 

Mike Hogan

Katy

Tracey

Captain Jack Brooks (Kevin Jubinville) is pompous and full of himself. Captain Jack (hey yo captain Jack!) believes in the flawless modern flight technology but Mike is an old school pilot (of the Real Men(TM) era) who believes that pilot's skills are important when the technology fails.

Detective Muldoon and Grant Blyth

Wrongly attached shipping container gets loose, breaks cargo bay door and causes a pressure leak. Storm hits the plane and Mike must get it to safety.  Heroics await for the brave passengers too.

Although it was meant to be a realistic drama about airplane passengers in dire situation, after the accident struck it went kind of silly. When Captain Jack got concussion, he was all like "lemme fly, lemme fly!" And Mike was like "Nope." Then Jack was tied to a seat to let Mike fly in peace.

Grant tries to escape, but where would he go? Worst of all, VIP Mr. Matthews (Carlo Rota) runs of whiskey. Grant has also piloting skills so he can help Mike. But the darn computer breaks and won't let the Real Men(TM) fly! (Unrealistic? Just wait when self-driving cars decide that the shortest route goes through a brick wall!)

Mr. Matthews

I won't let you fly!

There are also Real Women(TM). Katy and Tracey use their wits to calm the panicking or arrogant passengers and Icelandic air traffic controller Sara Lundattir (Leah Pinsent) has a rough night shift.

Sara Lundattir

Roger and Mike

TV-movie is quite light to watch, with some thrills, heroics and unintentional comedy. The traditional script could be from 1970s airplane disaster film, and it is just the type of film "Airplane!" parodied. Eric Roberts does a solid role and the other actors are decent too. As a TV-movie it goes but otherwise there's nothing too special.

Rating: Average

Starring: Eric Roberts, Alexandra Paul, Anne Openshaw, Kevin Jubinville, Russell Yuen, Mark Lutz, Sergio Di Zio, Carlo Rota, Dean McDermott, John Furey, Ryan Scott, Kelly Ivey, Susan Aceron, Eliza Roberts, Daryn Jones, Leah Pinsent, Andrew Gillies, Larissa Gomes, Alexis Cassar
Director: Jon Cassar

Movie Review: Air Panic

Air Panic a.k.a Panic
Nu Image, Millennium Films, USA, India, 2001. 

Terrorist hackers remote control airplanes and cause deadly crashes. This time the culprit is not an Islamistic  fanatic but a crazy computer genius Cain (Alexander Enberg). Federal Aviation Administration analyst Neil (Rodney Rowland) tries to tell that the new Oxceelis-computer chip is easy to hack, but do his superiors believe him. Oh no they don't. 

Neil

Cain

Air hostess Josie (Kristanna Loken, before her role in "Terminator 3") has a last day at work. She plans to open a company selling hippity-hoppity clothes. Neil tracks the next possible target for the terrorist attack, and gets on board the plane. Unluckily for Josie it is her plane. And so Cain hijacks the plane and plans to strike Washington DC. The pilot is injured and Cain is listening every discussion in the cockpit, so how to cut the remote control is the million dollar question.

Josie

Along the passengers are annoying besserwisser Ray (Billy 'Sly' Williams), mysterious woman Bernadette (Barbara Carrera) and workaholic Doctor Philip (Gulshan Grover) with his family. Somehow all of them become important for the survival of the passengers. Although Ray's importance vas vague to me, i must have blinked at the wrong moment.

Ray

Bernadette

Doctor Philip

Direct-to-video Terrorsploitation was filmed in 2001 but apparently it was unreleased until 2003 in USA after 9/11 strikes. Understandably so as the airplanes striking buildings feel unnervingly prophetic. The movie is not as bad I was hoping but not nearly good enough to be memorable. Basic thriller repeats the usual tricks of airplane disaster films. Airplanes crash and some passengers are given more screentime to make them sympathetic. If there was something going in the direction of real drama, it was Captain O'Kelly (Ted Shackelford) and Bernadette getting acquainted. Kristanna Loken is pleasant to watch and Alexander Enberg boasts entertainingly as a psycho, while the other actors feel average at best.

Rating: Average

Starring: Rodney Rowland, Kristanna Loken, Alexander Enberg, Ted Shackelford, Barbara Carrera, Scott Michael Campbell, Tucker Smallwood, Billy 'Sly' Williams, David Bowe, John Bishop, Boti Bliss, Tereza Rizzardi, Gulshan Grover, Duke Stroud, Sanyogetta, Armaan Kandhari, Bob Misiorowski, Stephen David, Scott Putman, Roly Jansen, Rashmi Sharma, Brian O'Sullivan, Shaun White, Lalith Sharma, Grant Hulley, Tiger Ali Razavi, Samsher Pawer, Lucky Louie
Director: Bob Misiorowski

Movie Review: Skypirates (1986) a.k.a Dakota Harris

Skypirates (1986) a.k.a Dakota Harris
John Lamond Motion Picture Enterprises, Australia, USA, 1986.

Apparently Erich von Däniken was right, and in the ancient times extraterrestrials visited Earth and constructed cool monuments. In 1886 stone tablet was found on Easter Island but it broke into three pieces. When combined, the table would give its owner unimaginable powers. And the Easter Islanders used the alien powers to erect gigantic stone heads? Seems legit to me.

In 1945 Aussie pilot Lt. Dakota Harris (John Hargreaves) gets a mission to fly a cargo plane to USA. Actually the first name Dakota comes from the German title of the movie, being a playful reference to C-47 airplane used in the movie and Indiana Jones. The cargo is important as it is disguised as whiskey shipment. And so it goes that the stone table that is hidden in the whiskey boxes gets drunk (obviously) and causes a storm in time. The time warp causes e.g. visions of modern fighter planes and flying stone heads. After the fun the plane crashes into sea killing most of the crew. 

Dakota Harris

Rev. Mitchell (Simon Chilvers) and Savage (Max Phipps)

The stranded survivors find a spooky graveyard of lost ships. The ship from the Philadelphia Experiment is there too. It is better to not stay there too long or they will get trapped in time. After spending days in lifeboat Harris, his superior Savage (Max Phipps) and  scientist Reverend Mitchell (Simon Chilvers) are saved. Somehow they are thousands of miles from where their airplane was lost. 

Savage tries to put the blame about the accident on Harris, but he daringly escapes before he is sent to jail. Reverend's daughter Melanie Mitchell (Meredith Phillips) asks Harris to find her missing dad. But a Savage killer is after her in a museum. Hey, Mel don't get trapped under a screaming mummy! Savage tries to kill Melanie dropping a hand grenade into Melanie's elevator, but luckily it only blows a hole in the floor, sending a poor cleaning lady into abyss. Can Harris save Mel before it is too late? But Melanie is not as helpless as it seems and she can be feisty when she wants to be. In bar fights he punches like a Manly Man being on par with hard-fisted Harris. In the air there is a sense of big adventure!

Melanie Mitchell

Screaming mummy was quite random

The heroes fly around the Pacific to find missing dad and at the same time getting information about the lost stone tables. The trip is dangerous both on air and land, on air the threat comes from enemy fighters and on land there are bandits. There is also time for romance. The story climaxes on the Easter Island much like "Raiders of the Lost Ark"-lite.

Adventurer's normal day

The movie feels like a pastiche of Indiana Jones and adventure movies of Steven Spielberg, drawing inspiration from popularity of paranormal phenomena in the 1980s. Therefore it feels like pulpy B-movie version of its predecessors. Although it is not on the level of the originals, there is a fun adventure and plucky heroes, it even enjoys a small cult reputation in Germany. Random humour comes from some absurd situations. In one scene a girl pushes a fat man out of tavern. Then Harris gets information by playing Russian Roulette and quotes Dirty Harry. And in Australia there are always motorized desert gangs à la Mad Max. When Harris needs a plane, he buys it from always laughing funnyman Hayes (David Parker) for a roll of money and a bottle of beer. After a slowish start there is a lot of action in 85 minutes. It is in no means a masterpiece but weird enough 1980s adventure.

Time to go home, fatty!

Always cool Moai-statues

Music was composed by Brian May (not from Queen). As a curiosity there is also young Hugo Weaving in small role as thug.

Hugo Weaving as Thug

But why was it called Sky Pirates? Umm, i don't know. There are airplanes but no no pirates.

Rating: Good

Starring: John Hargreaves, Meredith Phillips, Max Phipps, Bill Hunter, Simon Chilvers, Alex Scott, David Parker, Adrian Wright, Peter Cummins, Tommy Dysart, Arron Wayne Cull, Alex Menglet, Nigel Bradshaw, Chris Gregory, John Murphy, Victor Kazan, Clive Hearne, Bill Fozz, Hayes Gordon, Adam Joseph, Hugo Weaving

Director: Colin Eggleston