Posts Tagged ‘Skyline’

OK, that’s going too far

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

Skyline: The Most Inept Alien Invasion Film Since ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space”.

Sir! You have gone TOO FAR!

Plan 9 came out in 1958.

But Monster-a-Go-Go came out in 1965. The Creeping Terror (featuring killer carpet samples from outer space) came out in 1964. Prince of Space (which possibly shouldn’t count, since it was cobbled together from Japanese kiddie serials) came out in 1959. Laserblast (which sort of counts as an alien invasion movie) came out in 1978. All of those are, I assure you, much much worse than Skyline. Granted, most of those are available in a form in which Crow and Tom Servo are there to help ease the pain, but still.

There are much worse films than Skyline out there. Let’s not get carried away, people…

Massawyrm Chimes in on Skyline

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

Ain’t It Cool News movie reviewer Massawym also reviewed Skyline. He was even less impressed than Howard and I:

The Brothers Strauss are perhaps the single most inept filmmaking duo working in the studio system today. There isn’t a moment here they get right, not a single decision they make that doesn’t end ridiculously. In fact, there are three chief moments in the film where they seem to be making bold, inspired choices, only to completely fuck it up each time. The film opens with light descending from the skies – the alien invasion beginning right there in frame one. Wow, you think. They sure are dispensing with the bullshit. There’s no foreplay, no dicking around; just aliens showing up to kick some ass. And then, a moment later, just as things are getting really interesting, the movie jumps back 15 hours to give us 20 minutes of needless exposition (that never amounts to anything) about wafer thin characters we never are allowed to really give a shit about anyway.

Honestly, who the fuck thought it would be a good idea to make an alien invasion movie that, rather than following around scientists or soldiers or reporters or anyone interesting, follows around a group of AFFLICTION wearing, narcissistic, LA douchebags “living the life” off of new money they have no qualms about throwing around? These aren’t the types of people we want to connect with – these are the first ones to die in every other film EVER MADE. They are every bit as hollow, vapid and unlikable as they are when they are *supposed to be* hollow, vapid and unlikable; only here they get to be the protagonists. And the Brothers Strauss have no idea how to make them in any way endearing. They are thoroughly unlikable and just plain annoying from beginning to end. So when they start dropping off like flies, you not only aren’t invested in them, you kind of wish they would die off faster.

But don’t let that excerpt fool you. He also has some negative things to say about it.

Howard Waldrop and I Review Skyline

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Over at Locus Online. We were not impressed.

Sadly, Skyline 2 is already in development.

As the first post put it in this Fark thread:

Skyline was a bigger budgeted SyFy movie of the week. I am waiting for the sequel, “Skyline vs MegaHorizon”.

Not Going to the Austin Comic Con

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

As I’m going to be busy watching Skyline (another movie Howard and I are reviewing) and they didn’t have any literary SF guests, I won’t be going to The Austin Comic Con (though I have friends who are going). But they do seem to have rounded up a surprisingly large number of 70s TV stars (plus Chewbacca, Darth Maul, Billy Dee Williams and, err, the cast of The Film I Refuse to Name). (And I’ve already met Lee Majors, for certain values of “met” that include “have your hand touched briefly as you walk past in a line with 10,000 other kids and their parents at a Toys”R”Us opening in the 1970s.” Also “met” William Shatner that way. I wonder when Toys”R”Us stopped hiring TV celebrities for store openings?)

But I must admit I’m a little bit tempted to go just to meet Oscar Goldman.

Oh, and here’s a hint for the Austin Comic Con Webmaster: if you’re going to copy text out of a Wikipedia entry, it’s usually best to take out the “[citation needed]” bit…