Ruptured Review: Moontrap

Country of origin- USA  

Year of release- 1989  

Director- Robert Dyke                             

Stars- Walter Koenig, Bruce Campbell, Leigh Lombardi 

The film follows two veteran space shuttle pilots, Colonel Grant played by Walter Koenig (Star Trek) and Tanner played by the brilliant Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead series) who are flying a routine mission. However the two pilots soon stumble across a vast spacecraft, of which neither the pilots nor NASA have any clue or information about. Colonel Grant suits up and leaves the shuttle to investigate. He eventually finds a metal pod embedded in a huge hole in the mysterious ship’s hull. Apparently not having seen Alien Colonel Grant decides to bring the mysterious alien pod on board the shuttle. The two pilots eventually return to earth with the pod in hand and it ultimately transpires that the pod originates from the surface of the Moon, and both the pilots become eager to investigate its origins. However, when the pod opens and proceeds to build a robotic killing machine of its own accord, which then go’s on a rampage in the NASA base, the need to investigate its origins becomes a little more urgent. Once on the Moon Colonel Grant and Tanner discover to their horror that the alien pod that they brought back, has some friends, and their a bit pissed off. 

This film is a good example of what happens when a fairly decent concept becomes polluted by poor writing and a bizarre urge by the film makers to try and take from just about every other Sci-fi film. In this film we see plagiaristic nods towards 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars: A New Hope and unsurprisingly, Star Trek to name just a few. The film becomes so bland, and filled with cliché that not even the hugely energetic and fun performance of the one and only Bruce Campbell can save it. The film is also marred by the wooden performance of Walter Koenig, who seems to reflect the feelings of the audience as he becomes increasingly distant and cardboard like as the plot progresses. But hey, at least he isn’t doing a ‘Russian’ accent.

The film does have its good points however. The practical effects on both the sets and the robots in the film are surprisingly well executed despite the films noticeably low budget, which shows very alarmingly in one or two moments throughout the film. The films score is also very good, although noticeably reminiscent in parts to that of 2001: A Space Odyssey, it still manages to deliver tension.

Overall however this film is a turd, and no matter how much you polish a turd by adding Bruce Campbell or enjoyable practical effects, it’s still a turd. While watching Moontrap it is impossible to ignore the poor script, pointless scenes, misguided ‘comedy’, lack of drive and just general blandness, enough to enjoy the sometimes worthy sceptical of Bruce Campbell fighting killer alien robots with an M16. This disappointment gets a 3.5/10 from me, this is wasted opportunity at its most boring.                  

           

Ruptured Review: Blastfighter

Country of origin- Italy 

Year of release- 1984  

Director- Lamberto Bava (as John Old Jr.)                            

Stars- Michael Sopkiw, Valentina Forte, George Eastman
          
The film follows Jake ‘Tiger’ Sharp (played by Michael Sopkiw of 2019: After the Fall of New York fame) who is a former police officer who has just been released from an 8-year prison after he tracked down and killed his wife’s murderer. Tiger returns to his hometown in Georgia as he tries to pursue a quiet life and escape from his past violent past which still haunts him. However this is an Italian action film from the 80s so the chances of poor old Tiger getting a moment of peace and quiet are fairly slim. And of course it isn’t long before Tiger must step up to restore order when he gets cruelly taunted and threatened by a group of deer poaches, led by an old acquaintance Tom, (played by the great George Eastman) who are employed by a rich businessman from Hong Kong, who is using the deer’s they maim and kill to make medicine. After shutting down the poaching operation Tiger and his long lost daughter Connie (played by the always wooden Valentina Forte) are brutally attacked by the poachers. Tiger is left with no other option but to deliver blazing justice with his experimental military shotgun in a bloody rampage of vengeance. Loaded with grenades, rockets and shells that will blow the limbs off a poacher at a hundred paces, Tiger once and for all takes out the trash.

This film is a very odd combination of Death Wish and First Blood in that we get both a very strong, if all be it short vengeance plotline, along with a story of a man trying to escape a dark past only to be dragged back into violence because of rednecks who ultimately get more than they bargained for. The First Blood style plot line takes up around two thirds of the film compared to the disappointingly short vengeance plotline. To the point that this could easily be considered as an Italian exploitation response to the Rambo boom of the early 80’s. Treating this as nothing more than Rambo knock off however is to do Blastfighter a bit of a disservice, it stands up fairly well on its own shell case strewn, blood soaked ground as a fun and solid, if slightly drawn out and cheap action effort from one of the masters of Italian exploitation Lamberto Bava.

The films two major problems do set the film back a little however. Firstly, the films puts far too much focus on Tiger and Connie fleeing the poachers, this part of the film really drags and made me care a whole lot less about Connie. This brings me on to the second issue with Blastfighter, Connie. Every time she is on screen the combination of her resting bitchface, shrill voice and whiny dialogue and demeanour leaves me wanting to take Tigers shotgun and swiftly remove her appalling character from this film. 

Leaving aside this two issues the film has many strong points. Michael Sopkiw is superb as the troubled Tiger, although his dubbing is typically poor his acting is surprisingly good. The films action pieces are all very well executed from both a special effects point of view and lighting/cinematography point of view. There is also a nice amount of dismemberment and gore towards the films climax, which is made all the better by the superb synth soundtrack composed by the masterful Fabio Frizzi the whole film is set to. Overall this is very enjoyable watch despite its problems, and considering it is now available on Blu-ray from 88 Films you really don’t have an excuse not to check it out, I’m giving Blastfighter a 6.5/10.