The Visitor

Must be the worst film i've seen this year. William Shatner... Somehow that name told me I was about to see some interesting Sci-fi. How wrong I was. This is not good sci-fi. It is awful sci-fi. The effects are bad, the hand-camera choice isn't a wise one, for starters.

This is nothing. It's so lame, so bad actors, so bad a script you just want to die while watching. It isn't even funny. Some flicks are bad so they become fun, but this isn't even that.

Somehow I had the bad taste to pick this one time I was to rent a movie. It was so boring I had to fast-forward the last two thirds of the film. Never see this!

Just a friendly warning.

William Shatner has been around the movie and tv business long enough that he ought to be able to do simple things like choose film stock, know when something looks cheesy, and know when acting is bad.

In Groom Lake, Shatner simply did not consider quality. One scene looks like a movie set and another looks like someone's bedroom, shot with a home 16mm film camera. Maybe he did put some love into the film, but that is not what moviegoers come to watch.

This is a horrible movie. Don't rent it unless you absolutely have to see how low Shatner can go. If you do rent it, be prepared to scratch your head in confusion, and groan with pain over the this turkey.

I love Bill Shatner. I have seen most anything he's done, and even went to Ssplat attack II to see him. Still, he shouldn't just take any damn movie. I mean, there is that stupid chef show, now this, this horrible, horrible movie. You may think 'how bad can it be?'. Well, I was dehydrated for two days from spitting on the DVD and cursing Bill Shatner's name.

To call this movie good would be an exaggeration, but it wasn't THAT bad. Amy Acker's character was likable, and I have a fairly high tolerance for William Shatner's acting, so I made it all the way through it. The plot could have been tightened up a lot, and some jokes would have helped. This movie is worth watching if you happen to be bored, and it's free. You should only purchase it (if it's available on DVD, which I honestly don't know) if you're a completionist fan of one of the leads. The special effects were dull at best, and the mechanics overall lacked dazzle, but they really weren't distractingly bad. Mostly. In short, the film met the standard formula for a sci-fi channel Saturday night feature: take a screenplay nobody bothered to edit, add a few actors who sci-fi fans will recognize, film it as quickly as possible, and release it with a minimum amount of post-production attention. This one's a masterpiece compared to Manticore, but not quite as good as, oh, say, Darklight.

You know you have to wonder what's going on with Bill Shatner. He's a talented actor with a beautiful speaking voice, capable of superior performances.

But some of the stuff he is involved in makes you want to shake your head. And this stuff isn't off-the-wall good. It's off-the-wall poor. Poorly made, poorly paced, poorly edited, poorly written, etc. It's as if he is someone who is not quite in touch with himself; and it shows in the projects and people with which he gets associated.

And now we have 'Groom Lake'. It wouldn't make you winch so hard, if it hadn't also been written and directed by Shatner. The logicalness and continuity is uncomfortably close to what you'd expect from an Ed Wood-level production.

Here's this bonehead boyfriend risking life and limb roaring up a treacherous hillside with his dying girlfriend, all the time assuring her that it'll be all right. Well, it's not all right, Mr. Genius. Their vehicle overturns and rolls completely down the hill. And this is only one part of a heavily fragmented, unsupported story line. The negative comments could go on.

For the record this viewer would like to be a full-time fan of Shatner. But, Bill, somehow you just aren't getting the job done. You are capable of a much more brilliant body of work.