Sci-Fi Malady

We end Sci-Fi Fondu month with the John Carpenter's classic They Live. What's better that Roddy Piper and Keith David shooting 1950's aliens, that you can only see are aliens if you are wearing cheap sunglasses with shotguns and rifles? Nothing. Nothing is better. This movie has Roddy Piper giving wrestling promos in a grocery store, amazing one liners and deep social commentary on corporate greed, Reganomics the power of the media and our own willingness to play by "their rules" in the hope for a slightly better life. 

Put your sunglasses on, obey, consume, do not question authority, stay asleep and listen to Symptom 67. 

The link to the article on class mobility discussed on the show is below:

https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2018/02/daily-chart-9

Sci-Fi fondu month gets an extra dose of cheese thanks to a request from listener Josh. This week we discuss The Running Man. Its got Arnold, Jesse Ventura and Richard Dawson - the real question is how did we not have this one in the rotation anyway. The cheese starts early and never stops and seriously, what in the world is Jesse Ventura's battle gear in this movie? 

Somewhere in this movie is an excellent discussion of the power of the media to control the people and the use of government propaganda. There is also a discussion of what happens when the mob turns against and how easy it is for the common person to strip away the humanity of a human and treat them without the dignity all humans should be accorded because they are guilty of a crime - but its buried under a major serving of gooey, melty cheese. 

Next week - They Live

Sic-Fondu month roll on as this week we tackle the Cloverfield series, specifically The Cloverfield Paradox. Now you might say that's not a cheesy movie it is just bad. Nope, it is cheesy, one of the character talks to his severed arm which is acting on its own. It is both bad and cheesy, not not mention largely poorly acted with plot holes and a storyline that stops making sense after 25 minutes.  This movie was originally known as the God Particle-wait, this movie was originally Event Horizon and the writers of the God Particle ripped off that great flick, but I digress. Originally this was a movie called the God Particle and we all think that this movie would have been better as the God Particle than with Cloverfield monsters rammed into it. 

Once again The Ragemaster has found a rip worthy clip. This week his anger is directed at Ridley Scott in Prometheus and frankly, he is correct. The scene in question is absurd and anyone who has ever had abdominal surgery (me) will attest that no, you are not running anytime soon (weeks) after surgery. In fact, it might be days before you walk or even sit up straight in bed.  

With that, here is a healthy dose of rageohol with Ragemaster Rips a Clip V .

This week we review the worst movie ever made - StarCrash. Seriously it is not possible to make a worse acted, directed, written, filmed, edited or produced movie, even if you tried. The only saving grace of this movie is that actress who plays Stella Star is in a bikini half the movie. Discount Han Solo can't act, Stella Star can barely read her lines, there is a robot that is a cross between a old western sheriff and Colonel Sanders. Christopher Plummer does a lot of ACTING! and can't save the film and David Hasselhoff is at his absolute worst, so bad it should have killed his career. There is no plot, there is no point, the resolution of the story makes no sense and the special effects are horrible for 1982.  At one point the Imperial Battleship is commanded to halt the flow of time. Its so bad...its bad and somehow this piece of s$%^ took 18 months to make. 

We kick off Sci-Fi Fondu, our exploration of cheesy science fiction with 1993's Demolition Man, the pun and cliche filled romp staring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock and Captain Ben Maxwell from Star Trek The Next Generation. Ok, you know him better as the warden in The Shawshank Redemption.

This movie is often dismissed as another 90's action film with terrible comedy writing that panders to the lowest common denominator.  Yes, it is all of those things, as well as awesome. The strange thing is that as this film ages the message beneath it seems to grow more and more relevant.  But, this month is about cheesy science fiction and not the deeper meaning, so while there is a deep message about a stratified society controlled by extremists and the dangers of trading freedom for safety, rest assured we know the only question on your mind - how do the three seashells work? Well, we have an answer or three for that. 

This month on Sci-Fi Malady we are discussing the cheesy, over the top, sometimes cringe worthy science fiction. We are taking a step back and remembering that sometimes science fiction can be funny and that while Science Fiction movies are no longer low budget B flicks, the roots of the genre sometimes still shine through. 

Xenomorph March concludes with a discussion of the Alien expanded universe, including the novels, graphic novels and all the films after Alien Ripley Has A Weird Scene With Her Alien Surrogate Baby - I mean Alien Resurrection. Fair warning - for the most part we are discussing where this franchise went wrong. With Corey it is coming from a place of love, the rest of us, not from a place of hate, except for Prometheus, but more from a place of, ok, these are average movies that just can't recapture the magic of the first two. 

Next week we kick of Cheesy Sci-Fi month with Demolition Man. Get your three seashells ready. 

Xenomorph March is going strong and this week, well, this week we move on from the great entries in the Aliens franchise into the one that, well, make no sense whatsoever. 

Alien to the power of 3 - the one where Ripley crash lands on a prison planet full of sex offenders and murderers and proceeds to become an idiot. Also known as the one where absolutely none of the characters aside from Ripley are likable or redeemable in any way. 

Alien Resurrection - The thing that almost ended Joss Whedon's career? You know, the one where they cloned Ripley 200 years later from some old blood samples to bring back the Xenomorph's because she had a queen in her? Yeah, her blood had human and alien DNA in it and that means a clone of her clones the growing Xenomorp and dear god, ok, lets say I buy this, why did it take 200 years to figure this out and try it? Also, this movie as well has almost no redeemable characters. We have shady military people killing civilians to grow Xenomorphs in an effort to weaponize them and we have horrible space pirates willing to kidnap people in cryofreeze and deliver them to be experimented on by the shady military jerks. Aside from the android all these characters are hatable, even Ripley because Ripley 8 is clearly not Ellen Ripley but some weird, soulless echo of her combined with an alien queen. We also get whatever the newborn is and that uncomfortable bonding scene between it and its adoptive mother, Ripley 8. No, don't youtube it if you have never seen it or are lucky enough to have deleted the dramatic memory from your brain, I am considering therapy to deal with having seen it. 

So yeah, Xenomorph gets to Alien Cubed and Resurrection this week. I'd like to say better things are ahead but next week we tackle Prometheus, AVP, AVP Requiem and Covenant. So, yeah, joy. Ok, Covenant was good and the first half of Prometheus was amazing, and AVP was a fun action movie, so there is some good ahead next week and we did find some good in both of these turd sandwiches this week. Maybe its just comparing them to the masterpieces that came before in Alien and Aliens that make them seem so bad...and maybe, they just aren't that good either. 

Xenomorph March continues as we move onto James Cameron's masterpiece, Aliens. This movie introduces us to the Queen, furthers our knowledge of the Xenomorph species as well as the universe Aliens takes place in. We also meet the colonial marines and of course Hudson. While this movie is great without Hudson, Bill Paxton's character gave us all the most memorable lines, lines which became mired in our social lexicon. 

It is not often that we as a crew all agree we love a movie, we all love this movie. 

Next week - Alien 3 and Resurrection.