Habitat

Based on the promotional picture with the tag line "Welcome to a living Hell" you might be led to believe this is a horror. Don't be fooled. Habitat is a science fiction/thriller movie and much more like an Outer Limits story than a Dead Zone one. The story is one we have heard before: "We are killing Mother Earth". Hank Symes (Tcheky Karyo) has radical plans to put an end to this destruction. His plans "accidentily" include his family. This was not a box office hit. It is not a faced paced action movie like Running Man or Total Recall. It is a movie trying to highlight an underlying issue. It is very enjoyable. The acting is mostly solid with very good performances by the older performers. The story moves along quite well and the special effect are believable with some "Hollow Man"-like tricks. Habitat does contain some nude scenes, mostly topless, and some swearing. This is mostly not out of place or out of character but does limit the audience the movie's message could have reached. The movie carries a message that we all should start taking notice of. Overall an enjoyable movie for me and that is why a 7 out of 10.

This is by far, without a doubt, unquestionably the best movie I have ever seen in my life! Do not listen to anything anyone else tells you, this movie is awesome and I have never been contradicted on this in person. Forget the fact that it is in the sci-fi section of movie stores (well, except that you have to go there to rent/buy it), this movie is a comedy. There is no way the writers of this movie could ever have intended it as anything but a comedy, the sets are outlandish, the special effects must have cost them a (small) handful of dollar bills, and the actors over-do everything to the point of hilarity. Not only is the premise of the movie entirely ridiculous even to the most outlandish of sci-fi writers, it makes statements contradictory to obvious, proven science and even contradicts itself in several scenes. If you haven't had a good laugh in a while and really need one, you are guaranteed to find it in this movie, as long as you don't take it seriously as a sci-fi movie.

Honestly: I enjoyed HABITAT !! I switched on TV while doing some other stuff, checking my emailbox etc., and found myself suddenly under HABITAT's spell.

(Maybe it was necessary to do something besides watching the movie: thus it was easier to sit through all this much too long and too often sparkle-flowing through the air, and the high school-talk scenes. - And, I must admit, I also missed the beginning, maybe 15 minutes...)

First I was bewitched by the mother figure. Large brown eyes, innocent like a child, at the same time there was an aura of knowing, of wisdom and peace about her... she forgave her enemies, she slept peacefully, while a posse of army/police/FBI/NASA/neighbours invaded her house - her beautiful Garden Eden - full of life, while the world outside was dry, sunburnt, hostile.

Yes, I DID LOVE, absolutely, the set design: the ever-changing/growing family's house, the contrast to the stupid neighbours (with their umbrellas), the torture schoolyard (yes, the high school has a large torture stone outside in the yard, where pupils can be chained! A nice prophetic idea!), the cars wrapped in blankets (they look like publicity for a Bed Shop), the desert (I think I know it from some holidays in the Southwest)...

And the mother stayed calm, in face of the enemy = the fascist/redneck physical education trainer (beating and insulting his pupils)(a man you love to hate!). He had entered her peaceful home, insulting and threatening her, but she stayed friendly and calm, softly teaching him facts and arguments (about the small parts of his skin which serve as food for tiny little beings), while slime and snot are running out of his nose, dripping down his chin in beautifully shimmering closeup... GROSS!

This was one of the most weird/disgusting/wonderful/shocking scenes in the history of cinema: the bad guy sweating, snot all over his face, coughing and cursing, while a beautiful calm lady is teaching him facts about his body functions (did I mention her curly hairdo?! I loved it!She's definitely the Good Witch!). I could hardly believe it!

Well, and the girl that Laura Harris played: the script must have said that she is a normal young high-school girl, without any magic powers or secrets about her. But the way she is presented in HABITAT: she looks so strange, so rare: the camera and lighting treat her that she appears like an alien from outer space. Her surface is so unreal - her image can serve as an explanation why men fall for women; why men cannot resist; why males HAVE TO follow whatever female is near them. Her appearance of unearthly beauty promises hidden secrets - then she kisses passionately without reason - paradise is near!

(Besides: when they finally had sex in the lake, it was disappointing, compared to the disturbing promises during her first close-ups; but the mood was set already, and could never be lost again.)

PS: don't forget the ecological/preservation ideas! They are right! Strange but daring in this weird B-movie full of over-the-top eccentricities.

Never mind the guilty fact that i actually sat through the entire film, this was basically the worst movie i have ever seen. It it pretty much on par with Ridley Scott's LEGEND which was a fantasy stinker as well. They tried to save HABITAT with nudity, swearing, and teen angst. I thought it must have been an 80's film, set in the future, because it was such weird stuff. The costumes are reminiscent of some bad 80's drama, and the silver space suits belonged in a family channel robot movie. Shame on 1997 for releasing that garbage. As a point of reference: other films that came out in 1997 include Boogie Nights, Grosse Pointe Blank, and Life is Beautiful. Watch Habitat for kicks but don't expect to like it.

Right off the bat it must be said that 'Habitat' is very poorly directed film, and as bad as the direction is the script (by Director Rene Daalder) is even worse. The script is so utterly derivative and over the top ridiculous that it's amazing the typewriter it was conceived on didn't explode in shame. It also contains some of the most astonishingly bad dialogue in recent years (The line "It's you isn't it? You're that one potato" deserves it's place in the bad dialogue hall of fame).

The special effects are equally poor, most of the time looking like something out of a bad 1980's Duran Duran video...And then there's the performances.

The term 'almost universally bad' springs to mind here. Balthazar Getty, Alice Krige and Chris Heyerdahl all act like they're in a coma, but compared to the rest of the cast thats a good thing. The rest of the cast ranger from truly bad (Bruce Mackay, Kris Holdenreid) to unbelievably irritating (Kenneth Welsh, Katherine Trowell, and Tcheky Karyo, who seems to have forgotten how to act altogether). In fact the only passable performance comes from Laura Harris, but even that's far from good.

Not even so bad it's good, this is a painful experience to watch and is utter crud even for the most ardent (or hard up) sci-fi fan. Stupid in the extreme, this has absolutely nothing to recommend it other than a little exploitative nudity (and if you're truly that desperate rent a porno or a Troma film instead) this is the type of film making that makes Ed Wood seem like a genius in comparison. 99 minutes of your life that you will never get back, this is the very definition of a terrible film. Avoid (and thank me later).