Slipstream:
My interest in this old flick was piqued by the name Mark Hamill, old Luke himself, in the cast list, so I decided to give it a whirl on You Tube.
I have this flick on big box VHS stored away. I was reminded of it in my loo library, whilst browsing through my book, the W.H. Smith Guide to Videos from the 1990's.
The three main actors in Slipstream are:
Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill; A L I E N S' private Hudson aka the late Bill Paxton and Jurassic Park's embattled gamekeeper to be, the late great Bob Peck.
An auspicious trio with a not-too-bad screenplay about a global wind encircling a shattered society.
Yes, Slipstream is about a post-apocalyptic world in which the dominant feature is a tremendous wind [no jokes please!] blowing across the Earth's surface, which is the slipstream of the title.
The story follows a grizzled bounty hunter turned cop [Hamill], his equally tough female assistant [Kitty Aldridge] and a dodgy peddler [Paxton] who, along with a suited man [Peck], is the film's central figure.
Bob Peck has the most interesting character and in a windswept world seems completely out of place with his suit and suave accent. There is more to him than meets the eye but you'll have to watch the film to find out what. There are a few interesting planes and kites too.
I enjoyed it to start with, especially the Mos Eisley-like settlement complete with cantina and music. I also liked the harder edge to Mark Hamill, a sort of older bitter Luke tinged with a little dark side.
I did think the ramshackle plane at the heart of the film and the video sleeve was a bit weak though and lacked any screen presence. In the end I had to turn it off!
Overall it reminded me of a sort of Waterworld mixed with something like Blade Runner - lite. Sadly, apart from the initial interest of seeing a new role for Mark Hamill back with his old Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz, I found the film boring.
I can see why it flopped back in '89. Viewing format: You Tube and PC. Score: 3 out of 10.
Have you seen Slipstream?
The airplane was an Edgley Optica....this and Solar Crisis needed better press.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to remember a sci-fi documentary Mark did voiceover work for. There was animation of a rakish pointed ship with quite a flare.
Mark visits the RPF very seldom...and is an artist himself I gather.
Interesting stuff Anon. I'll have to look out for Solar Crisis.
DeleteIt comes up on the Freeview channels Legend and LegendXtra every now and again. I saw it on there for the first time last year. Interesting to see Mark Hamill playing a darker character, He's not bad in it but IMHO the story is not very interesting and there are lots of dull scenes. The low budget doesn't help either and I can see why it bombed when it came out.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, my first bona-fide Visual Effects job was with an Australian start-up company called Mirage Effects, back in the early 80's.
ReplyDeleteIn the workshop was a filming miniature of a sort of dirigible sky raft. It was a proof of concept model for their attempt to bring Slipstream to the screen.
In this version, the world was like an endless Grand Canyon and the heroes travelled through the gorges, propelled by the always blowing Slipstream.
This peoduction never saw the light of day, but the latex moulds of shale structures, cast from real landscape, continued to be used for miniature landscapes right up to The Matrix in 1997.
Fascinating Looey! Does that version exist anywhere?
DeleteI saw it years ago - possibly at the cinema. The Optica was probably the high spot of the whole thing, the rest of the film was incredibly dull and far too 'talky'. Pecks character always puts me in mind of the Alien franchise in his role. Bill
ReplyDeleteWhich was your local cinema Bill?
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