Movie Review: The Abyss (1989)

An ambitious science fiction underwater survival adventure thriller with cold war undertones, The Abyss is visually stunning and technically astounding, but sidelines people in favour of machinery. 

The nuclear-powered USS Montana submarine sinks after an encounter with an unidentified object in deep waters near Cuba. With a hurricane moving in, the US Navy launches a rescue attempt. The crew of the nearby Deep Core underwater drilling platform led by Virgil "Bud" Brigman (Ed Harris) is hurriedly recruited to support a SEAL team under the command of Lieutenant Coffey (Michael Biehn). Deep Core's designer and Bud's wife Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) joins them, although the couple are on the verge of divorce.

Underwater, tensions rise when Coffey starts suffering from the effects of high-pressure nervous syndrome. Then mishaps leave Deep Core stranded at the bottom of the ocean without surface communications. Encounters with alien beings continue, with Coffey attributing the activity to enemy action and unilaterally deciding to nuke the area using one of the Montana warheads. Bud and Lindsey have to set aside their differences and work together to prevent a series of catastrophes and save each other.

Written and directed by James Cameron and clocking in at 140 minutes (an Extended Cut adds another 20 minutes), The Abyss borrows themes from science fiction landmarks including The Day The Earth Stood Still, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. The plot unambiguously stands against military action and nuclear escalation, and argues for protecting the environment and the majesty of the oceans. Meanwhile, technologically superior friendly beings keep watch on humanity's progress (or lack thereof).

To achieve his vision Cameron subjected himself, the actors and crew to a gruelling schedule of almost continuous filming in massive water tanks, with Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio taking the brunt of the physical strain. The effort registers on the screen, the action taking place almost entirely under water, the characters' exertion and exhaustion in battling frigid waters, deep underwater pressure, and the continuous risk of drowning adding to the drama's intensity.

But the film tries to do too much and never latches onto to a cohesive, human-centred direction. Bouncing from rescue mission to natural disaster then a survival ordeal before veering towards a crew-versus-SEALs hostage drama followed by a nuclear device countdown preceding a deus ex machina finale embellished with psychedelia, the narrative lurches from one crisis to the next, barely catching a breath or pausing for an explanation.

Along the way the machines take centre stage, especially in the clumsy and awkward opening 90 minutes, so eager to get wet that character definitions and human emotions are forgotten somewhere on the shoreline. It's late in the day by the time Bud and Lindsey finally break through the stock bickering and round into people worth caring about. Harris and Mastrantonio then deliver a couple of stellar and unforgettable sequences of love, heroism and sacrifice merging in exceptional tests of endurance. The Abyss is a technical marvel, but only soars when human warmth overcomes the frigid hardware.



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Movie Review: The Seventh Sign (1988)

A supernatural thriller, The Seventh Sign imagines the end-of-the-world with a mixture of derived and original ideas.

A series of strange and cataclysmic events occur around the world. All marine life starts to die off the Haitian coast; a town in the Israeli desert is destroyed by a freak ice storm; and many people die in Nicaragua, turning a river red with blood. A brooding stranger (Jürgen Prochnow) breaks a mysterious seal at the location of each apocalyptic event, while Father Lucci (Peter Friedman) investigates the phenomena on the behalf of the Church.

Meanwhile in Venice, California, Abby Quinn (Demi Moore) is pregnant but anxious, having previously miscarried. Her supportive husband Russell (Michael Biehn) is a lawyer trying to save convicted killer Jimmy from the electric chair for murdering his incestuous parents. The stranger, now calling himself David, arrives to rent a carriage house from Abby and Russell. She starts to experience disturbing visions, and finds ancient scrolls in David's possessions leading her to believe he is threat to the unborn child. She reaches out to a rabbi for help, but a young Jewish student is more accommodating and starts to help her interpret Biblical prophecies.

Drawing on elements from Rosemary's Baby, The Omen and The Exorcist, The Seventh Sign feigns a devilish story but then heads in a different direction. Director Carl Schultz and writers Clifford and Ellen Green have a sly agenda in mind, and go searching for more religiously themed interpretation of the end of the world. The film is a combination of a familiar but benign level of spookiness mixed with some clunky execution (perhaps betraying a limited budget) and ending with some nice human-focused touches.

By not conforming to expectations the film both befuddles and surprises, and the wayward oscillations occasionally threaten to hamper enjoyment. The more common components dominate the early scenes and include a likeable but anxious couple, unexplained destructive forces and events, a priest chasing after an explanation, the intermittent intervention of animals seemingly serving a higher purpose, ancient scrolls in impenetrable languages foreshadowing something really bad happening, and the obligatory scenes in creepy churches.

But as The Seventh Sign reveals its real intentions though a slightly jerky left turn, the story becomes less about abominations and more about a here-and-now challenge to Abby, and a more contemplative film emerges.

With a strong assist from Jesus Christ himself, in one of his more unusual and memorable screen appearances, and a game Demi Moore working hard to move past brat pack territory, Schultz lands The Seventh Sign with a tolerable amount of damage. It's always a good sign when the film's better moments arrive late, and by the time the fifth and sixth signs are out of the way and humanity's future is at stake on the delivery table, the momentum and emotions are palpable.

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Movie Review: The Rock (1996)

A simplistic action film, The Rock piles on the thrills in a story of rogue soldiers threatening San Francisco with chemical weapons, but despite a good cast the film lacks soul and sophistication.

Highly respected and battle hardened General Frank Hummel (Ed Harris) is disgruntled at the lack of proper recognition afforded to Marines who die while on covert missions. He recruits a group of soldiers to break into a military facility and steal several rockets equipped with deadly VX gas. Hummel and his men then storm and occupy Alcatraz, formerly a top security federal prison and now a tourist attraction. They hold tourists as hostages, point the rockets at San Francisco, and Hummel demands a $100 million ransom.

As the negotiations bog down, a Navy Seal team is recruited to infiltrate Alcatraz through the sewer system and end the threat. FBI chemical weapons expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) is added to the team, as is the mysterious John Mason (Sean Connery), a prisoner in his 60s held by the US government for more than 30 years and the only man to have successfully escaped from Alcatraz. With Commander Anderson (Michael Biehn) in charge the Navy Seals run into a lot of trouble, and it is left up to Goodspeed and Mason to rescue the situation. Goodspeed, who has no combat experience, soon comes to learn that there is a lot more to Mason than initially meets the eye.

Director Michael Bay's second feature film after Bad Boys (1995), The Rock is a routine high-concept action thriller in a big rush to find the next noisy set-piece at the expense of logic, plot, and characters. While the firefights and explosions are handled proficiently and with reasonably good tension, the film is a missed opportunity to do so much more with an excellent cast.

The script takes itself far too seriously and is not up to the task of developing rounded people. Instead Connery, Cage and Harris are reduced to pre-packaged and empty characters. Connery does come off best and tries to hold the film together, and occasionally the glint in his eye is enough to overcome the rather juvenile events unfolding around him. A lame attempt to give Cage a pregnant girlfriend (Vanessa Marcil) to worry about is almost forgotten amidst all the mayhem. Most often The Rock resembles a routine video game adaptation where the heroes have to run, jump, hide, crawl, shoot and overcome ridiculous odds to achieve the next objective, and then repeat.

As far as action thrillers that demand minimal mental engagement go, it's all professionally executed and Bay puts the $75 million budget to good use. The three lead actors are always watchable despite the material, and dutifully execute their assigned roles of hero-gone-rogue (Harris), technician-thrust-into-combat (Cage) and resourceful-prisoner-with-dark-past (Connery). They dodge all the necessary projectiles until the grand finale approaches, complete with an incinerate-everything countdown threat. The Rock is solid entertainment, but as mindlessly dense on the inside as it is spectacular on the surface.

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Movie Review: Aliens (1986)

In director James Cameron's hands, Aliens is a spectacular, tension-filled, adrenaline-drenched, combat-rich sequel that matches the original for tension, and far outmuscles it for action.

After drifting for 57 years in hypersleep, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is rescued and transported back to Earth. During her long journey, planet LV-426, where her cargo ship the Nostromo picked up the deadly alien, has been inhabited by a small human colony working to transform the atmosphere to make the planet inhabitable. Ripley's employer, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, is bankrolling the work. Ripley is suffering from nightmares, and her tale of killer creatures on LV-426 is met with extreme scepticism, until contact with the colony is lost.

After some convincing, Ripley joins company man Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) and the android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) as civilians accompanying a group of Colonial Marines sent to LV-426 to investigate the fate of the workers. The Marines include the thoughtful Hicks (Michael Biehn), the loudmouth Hudson (Bill Paxton), the super confident Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) and their useless commander Gorman (William Hope). They find the human colony devastated and only one survivor, a young girl called Newt (Carrie Henn). Soon the Marines encounter a large number of aliens, and the battle commences.

Aliens is a well-crafted masterpiece. Particularly in the Special Edition, which features 17 extra minutes and the reinstatement of several scenes, Cameron dedicates the first hour fully to fleshing out the premise. Ripley is provided with a backstory as a mother who has now outlived the daughter that she never returned to see. She suffers from recurring nightmares, and is victimized by the money-driven executives of Weyland-Yutani. Carter Burke provides a human face to the company, despite his underlying smarm.

On the long trip through space, the Marines are introduced, and Cameron provides quick but effectively distinct sketches for the key soldiers who will be shouldering the brunt of the battle. When the shooting starts these Marines will matter, and creating people out of soldiers proves to be a worthwhile investment. Meanwhile, the Special Edition also brings to life the small human colony on LV-426. Humans, including Newt's parents, are on a hostile planet and getting on with the work of creating a new, breathable atmosphere, until that abandoned spaceship is once again discovered, and a facehugger makes an appearance.

Rarely has an action movie invested in such a long introduction with virtually no action, but the pay-off is immense, and the final 90 minutes of combat action are outstanding and simply breathless. Ripley and several of the Marines are people worth caring about, and having been introduced to the loss of Ripley's daughter and the fate of Newt's parents, the relationship between Ripley and Newt becomes intensely poignant. Several of the rugged Marines are afforded personalities, to ensure that every injury and fatality is meaningful, as Aliens delivers its action with a pounding heart.

While Alien was an uneven and terrorizing fight between unarmed cargo ship crew members and an advanced killing machine intent on spawning and multiplying, Aliens attempts to create a more level battlefield. Now the humans are trained combatants fully equipped with sophisticated heavy weaponry, cocky and confident, arriving on the planet to kick butt and take no alien prisoners. Cameron still populates the war with moments of building tension and creeping terror, but once the shooting starts, it's a full-on war, and the emphasis is on unstoppable, breathtaking action with a rarely seen level of kinetic energy. The aliens prove to be a formidable foe, using the force of numbers and capable of changing tactics to defeat the best that the Marines can throw at them.

The first encounter between the Marines and the aliens proves just how great the alien advantage is, the human soldiers transformed from arrogant cockiness to traumatized victims after just the one engagement, Ripley the first to realize just how much trouble they are all in. Offense becomes defence, then defence becomes survival. As the humans stumble onto more of the aliens' ecosystem, the terrifying nature of the creatures become clearer, until the mammoth, hideous alien queen herself makes an appearance.

Sigourney Weaver proves that smart actresses can be terrific action movie heroines. She takes centre stage for the final 45 minutes in a display of wild courage and steely determination, but without ever losing Ripley's soul and vulnerability. Aliens ends with Ripley deploying brawn and brains in a final epic battle for survival. Regardless of the species, beware the wrath of a wronged mother, intent on avenging her young.

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Movie Review: The Terminator (1984)

A high octane science fiction thriller, The Terminator launched a franchise and boosted the careers of star Arnold Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron into a high orbit. The film introduces an outstanding premise rich with possibilities, and executes with joyful aplomb.

In the year 2029 and after an apocalyptic war, evil machines have taken over the world, and are attempting to crush a human rebellion. John Connor is the rebel leader, inspiring a small band of humans to increasing success. To retaliate and alter the destiny of the rebellion, the machines send a nearly indestructible cyborg "terminator" unit (Schwarzenegger) back in time to the Los Angeles of 1984, with a mission to find and kill John's mother Sarah (Linda Hamilton), a lowly waitress, before she can even conceive him.

The rebels try to protect Sarah by sending back in time a soldier of their own: Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) finds Sarah just as the Terminator is moving in for the kill, and as he helps her dodge death he explains the incredible events of the future and Sarah's role in humanity's destiny. With the Terminator in relentless pursuit, Kyle and Sarah begin to run out of places to hide but nevertheless fall in love.

It does not take long for Cameron to rev up The Terminator into an all-action monster, and once the chase is on, it maintains a brilliantly incessant pace. Cars, motorcycles, trucks, building, bums and bystanders are destroyed with pizzazz the Terminator programmed for wanton destruction of anything that gets in the way of the mission, Reese and Sarah equally determined to avoid death by cyborg.

The highlight is the Terminator assaulting a police station. The "I will be back" promise, delivered to the desk sergeant with monotonal determination, is followed by a sequence of wanton annihilation and mayhem, one human-shaped machine decimating a precinct that dared protect a cowering Sarah.

Cameron gives The Terminator an intimidating metallic dark blue and black tint throughout, most of the action taking place at night or in the darker corners of Los Angeles, the Terminator adding to the always-night aesthetic by wearing stylish shades at all times due to damaged flesh around his red electronic eye.

Schwarzenegger perfectly embodies the Terminator, his outrageous physique believable as an over-armoured cyborg, and his limited vocabulary and thick accent suitable for robot-speak. Linda Hamilton grows into the role, from a clueless waitress to a woman on the run and finally a warrior willing to fight for her life. She is the only character to evolve during the movie, and Sarah Connor becomes the heart of the story, just as she represents humanity's central hope for salvation.

Michael Biehn, near the start of a career that would not head in any stellar direction, is adequate but not necessarily memorable as Kyle Reese. Lance Henriksen appears as a police detective and Bill Paxton has a small role as a punk, among a group who are first to experience the Terminator's murderous tendencies.

Hectic, brutal, funny, tense and smart, The Terminator delivers death, destruction, and unconstrained entertainment.

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