Saturday, November 7, 2015

"Phase IV" - Worst Sci-Fi Movie Evah

The reason for watching is intelligent ants attack humans and this I saw as a metaphor for what the Tea Party has done to America.  In that respect, it's accurate as the ants destroy everything but don't give anything back.  Watching the movie for that point alone isn't worth it but there were some other oddities about it which make it unusual.

The wreckage part is because a large part of the story is watching ants while spooky music plays ... and plays ... and plays ... but sometimes breaks to a truck driving around ... and around ... and around ... or ... for some real dynamics, you can watch two guys fiddling with knobs on machines ... while annoying spooky noise plays.  In short, it's a 15-minute story spun out to an hour and a half.

In the end the humans lose because they hook up the young scientist with the hot babe (almost) and take over their minds for the ant colony.

Insofar as we see the almost complete destruction of the GOP as a rational force, it corresponds well to the Tea Party ... but it still ain't worth watching.


Every sci-fi movie needs a hot babe but this one is a junior and junior babes may be hot to juniors but they aren't sci-fi.  Yes, I have read "Podkayne of Mars" by Heinlein and he was a god who can write anything he likes but, puh-leeze, don't make it a movie.  From Heinlein, the one you want for hot babes is "Glory Road."

So, the junior hot babe is Lynne Frederick and I like looking up the cast for movies; the quickest way to do it is imDB.  I have not ever seen an actress lambasted such as was written for Lynne Frederick and they said straight-up she was a professional wife and gold digger who died in the early 90's from alcoholism and substance abuse.  She had married four times and quickly moved to the next after the divorcing or burying the last.  There's much more insidious detail and the reason for mentioning is I was shocked to see them so harsh with her.  I'm assuming it must be valid as I have never seen that before from imDB.

The contrast of that image with the child-like image she portrays in the movie is one huge bounce so, sure, I was surprised.


Nigel Davenport played the lead as the crusty but determined English scientist.  He appeared in some really substantial movies ... but this wasn't one of them.

Michael Murphy plays the supporting scientist and he you would probably recognize because he's been a supporting actor in a great many movies and really good ones.  I don't remember him from the series but one of his credits was performing in the TV series, "Combat," which was a big hit ... until Vic Morrow, the star, got rubbed out by a helicopter crash which resulted from a failed stunt for a movie.

Note:  'rub out' is a euphemism for what really happened to Vic Morrow but research that one at your own risk.  Be warned, it was a horrible thing and was definitely not his fault.

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