Space Marines

STAR RATING: ***** Unmissable **** Very Good *** Okay ** You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead * Avoid At All Costs

In the future, all is kept fine and dandy by a group of men and women called The United Federation of Planets. But when some dastardly fellows take over a space-ship to enforce a gold deal, some fellows called the Space Marines are called in to sort them out.

This is a far glossier presentation than Talaat Captan's earlier work such as Digital Man and A.P.E.X., but it's still glaringly low budget. It all basically just feels like Under Siege in outer space (even the spaceship is named the Missouri as in Under Siege!) In fact, there are weird scene references through-out to that particular film that left me with the impression that the writer had some special kind of liking towards it. Aside from that, it's just the usual collection of clichés that are typical of a straight-to-video work such as this. Not to mention some really bad acting, from the token black guy to the lead bad guy who seems to think he's in some production of Hamlet at the local rep as opposed to such a flimsy piece of work as this. Glossier and more violent, certainly, but definitely not as enjoyable as Captan's earlier work. **

I'm dead serious. I caught this one during a Showtime free preview weekend real late at night, drunk off my ass. I must say though, it wasn't that bad. The acting was fairly decent and John Pyper-Ferguson's Colonel Fraser was just an awesome bad guy. I'm serious, this unknown actor actually did an incredible job in an otherwise average B-movie. The action scenes ranged from p***-poor (rifles that eject spent casings, but make laser sounds?!?) to pretty cool. This was a better than average direct to video flick and not a bad way to kill some time though cliched as hell. I give it a 5/10.

From the creators of APEX & just as bad... This film has an 18 certificate god knows why? The acting is very cardboard, the story predictable & boring, even the FX & design are poor, I've seen better on 'Thunderbirds'. Not even Meg Foster could stop this space ship from sinking, avoid at all cost, go see Starship Troopers instead.

To me it is a great mystery that movies such as Space Marinies actually get made. The plot is ridiculous and predictable, the acting one big joke. The only thing preventing me to rate this movie a plain zero is the unability to do so.

It's predictable, and not very realistic, but the stereotypes are so clear it's actually funny to watch!

Not in the same class as the Pink Panther films with Peter Sellers, but at least in the same category.

The bad guy seems to be a rip-off from a James Bond movie or something, but not as convincing.

One thing that surprises is that the film is rated for viewers 18 and up.

In all, a fine film to reset your brain with after a week full of ugly work, but nothing more.