miketraverss

All Descent, No Ascent.

This starts off well and, while above the gorge, is a decent mystery.

Then it goes into the gorge and stays there, never to rise.

The actors are good, no worries there but it is another of 'those' streaming "Movies" where everything is done in the VOLUME not a real location in sight, all colour coded and adjusted to give us golden glows and falsely smokey evil gloom. Whole scenes are ripped off from far better movies and the ending is copied blatantly from The Bourne Identity.

I was irritated more than entertained with the second half in equal measure so that dropped my score to a middling 6.

One of the greats of the cinematic year of 1982.

You gotta love the 80's when a young kid like me, not even into my teens, could easily get into theaters to see such classics as Road Warrior(2 times), Blade Runner(x3), The Thing(x2), First Blood(x2), Sudden Impact(x2) The Shining, this and many others.

For many years I had this on VHS, taped off the TV from probably the only showing (the days when we would scour the TV schedules and wait , remote in and and finger poised to edit out the add breaks). I also taped to cassette some of the soundtrack directly from the TV speaker, dialog and all.

This is short and sweet from the Roger Corman stable, nothing wasted. Interesting watching the end credits as to how many people moved on in the cinema world including James Cameron who had a hand in the design- love the run-down style of the space station. Also some of the themes that recur in the Terminator films, particularly the Moral Governor scene and when Max 404 briefly becomes the Terminator.

A hidden gem, acting is okay and standouts in Don Opper and the great Klaus Kinski.

Recommended.

Season 2 07Jan 2025 Rated 7

Well it certainly improves in the second season, more focused and better flow.

Harfoots are still as dull as dirt though.

Season 1 18 Oct 2022 Rated 5 Very disappointing. Started off quite well but then the descent into nothingness.

I waited and then watched the entire season over a couple of days, If I had watched week by week I would never have made it through.

It is all very po-faced, not a hint of humour to lighten proceedings, no Peter Jackson flourishes to get a chuckle. Only the Dwarves lift this slightly.

Production values and performances are generally ok but the Harfoot come across with a large wiff of Ewok. Every time we see them the music swells and tells us these are so 'cute' and we must 'love' them and their Oirish accents. But they are just twee and irritating.

A huge miss.