Within the Rock

I'm one of those people that actually enjoy B-movies. Well, B-movies that aren't stupid. Anyways, I watched "Within the Rock" with very low expectations. My expectations were exceeded. Let's face it: 90'S Horror and Sci-Fi movies were mostly crap. However, this film manages to pull off being crappy with a good story, average acting, average effects, and a pretty cool monster. This film has cool fights, suspenseful jumps, and an interesting look at space-mining.For the little amount of money that was used for this film, it was used well. I recommend "Within the Rock" for anyone who will settle for an average, entertaining Sci-Fi flick.

Its cheap. The effects, the actors, everything on low budget. However, the script and direction are is quite good - compared to Michael Bay's Armageddon, which is extremely lame and boring once you leave out all the expensive effects and high-pay actors. Heck, it is even _with_ them, if your mind happens to wake up during the show. In contrast, this movie is original (in parts), it's refreshing low on pathos, and by far less expensive in production. I'd chose it over Armageddon anytime.

The alien sidestory is obvious, and OK. I hope director and writer Mr. Tunicliffe, whose other works are primarily in the special make-up department, will find time to hone his directing and writing abilities. There's potential, but he needs training.

Not bad for his first script and direction! 6/10, especially in comparison with Armageddon

I received this movie from a friend, claiming that it was a great movie I couldn't afford to miss. I asked him what it was about, and he said the story involved rock aliens, which immediately attracted my interest. After watching it, I thought the movie was average in every aspect, but leaning more towards the 'bad' side.

The movie is about a huge asteroid heading towards good ol' Earth, and (not to the viewer's surprise) people are sent up in a space ship to drill the asteroid to pieces. The spaceship "Galileo's Child" is a cheap piece of plastic, which they have projected onto the Windows 95 Starfield screensaver to create the flight-through-space scenes. That's the way it looks like. Aboard the ship are the typical bad ass "space pirates" plus a "misunderstood" scientist played by Caroline Barclay. They land on the red asteroid (which looks like a floating meatball) and start drilling away. With big drills. There is no logic in this, however.

This movie is set in the far future, so why not have automated drills, so they don't need to spend money on oxygen canisters etc. "Because then there'd be no killing scenes." Oh boy.

But hell is set loose when on the 3rd day (I think), the guys stumble across a grave filled with artifacts and other styrofoam crap. Of course, everybody (except the 'cool' scientist) goes nuts and start stealing the valuable alien plastic, but OH NO, the ancient guard of the stone grave is resurrected, to protect the grave from Zzzzz...

I won't tell you about the rest, but it is all so predictable. Most of the scenes are blatantly "ALIEN" rip-offs, and it all happens so slooowly, that the scenes get boring. There's only one good kill scene, and that's where one of the bad asses gets a drill through her head. Slowly, too - but painful. The alien itself looks like a walking piece of styrofoam rock. And it looks happy the whole time.

Even though it has it's extremely bad moments, the movie is enjoyable at times. The actors are complete crap, so you'll love it when they die. DIE.

Overall: 4/10

A rather large moon is on course for a collision with Earth. Dr Shaw (Caroline Barclay) is sent with a team of space miners to drill tunnels into that moon, preparing its destruction with explosives. However, they discover an ancient hostile life-form 'within the rock', and then they are killed one by one. Their survival is not made easier by Ryan (Xander Berkeley), the captain of the spacecraft who wants to use the opportunity and run with a fortune of platinum they discovered, too.

To many viewers, "Within the Rock" (1996) looks like a rip-off to "Armageddon" (1998) but looking at the dates, it can't be. Instead it is borrowing a lot from the usual monster movie sources "Alien" (1979) and "Predator" (1987) as well as earlier collision stories, a classic sci-fi theme going way back for example to "When Worlds Collide" (1951). The spaceship, where they still use floppy disks in the control room, looks early 80s rather than mid 90s; even for a TV production the effects are quite embarassing. So are the characters, because they leave tons of powerful explosives in the crates while trying to hit the monster with a pickaxe. The predictable story may be OK to watch once, but you won't remember it next week.

In a nut shell, this is quite the good movie for a low budget film. Theis crew hit all the right buttons, and with a bit more budget could easily have ranked higher.

My biggest marker, the script, was very solid. All the actors were given believable, appropriate dialog. The actors, with a few very recognizable names, nailed their parts, without trying to go overboard or out an appropriate character expectation. As a low budget movie their sets were limited and the creature wasn't extreme, but neither were any of them shoddy. The direction and scene setup were well thought through. All in all a SOLID performance by every segment of the cast and team.