TWISTERS with an S

Later this month a new disaster flick hits the cinemas, Twisters. 

You'll recognise the name from the Nineties guster, Twister. They've just added an S.

The old Twister starred the late great Bill Paxton, who is best known to Sci-fiers of our age as the jittery private Hudson in ALIENS. I remember clearly Bill chucking a shed load of small balls up into a tornado in Twister. I think they were trackers. I wonder if the new Twisters film has balls?

Twister was part of that Nineties disaster triple that defined the genre for the decade in my mind: the other two flicks being Dante's Peak and Deep Impact.

You could shove in Independence Day, Armageddon and Lake Placid as well, but they seem outliers to the main hat-trick of disasters.

All three had there peaks and cracks but I recall them all fondly. 

Memorable bits for me were: the balls of Twister, the pyroclastic cloud in Dantes Orak and probably the most memorable bit among many in Deep Impact for me was early on when the astronomer Dr.Wolf checks the kid Beiderman's floppy disc, says something like 'now were you going in such a hurry little fella?' and drops his slice of gooey pizza when he sees the end-point! I love that scene! Dunno why! 

Did you like Nineties disasters readers?

Alien Autopsy

Hi Paul,

If you have ever wanted to dissect an Alien, here is your chance. The Wild Science WS102L - Alien Autopsy Lab, which I spotted in a local toy shop.

Here is a You Tube commercial for the set. Pretty gruesome looking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv-Q4qhrwOg

I also found another set, by a company called Weird Science. It seems humans are very fond of cutting up visiting Aliens - so be careful out there.

Four photographs from Ebay.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

SLO MOBILE SPACE ALIEN SET

This set is new to me, seen online.

By GLJ toys of Syosset, NY [anyone know that town?] dated 1979.

Its one of four sets.

There's quite a few parts to the set. Anyone got one?

ANTI ANTI LIFE

I've seen some ALIEN turkeys in my time but last night's ANTI LIFE takes the biscuit. Shame on Bruce Willis for being connected with such derivative rot. Even the title is almost an anagram of ALIEN and a poor one at that.

The copying begins immediately with the cryo-chambers. It staggers on from there with flame throwers, gooey monsters, crazed crew members and lots of gunk. All that's missing is the nodding bird.

Have you seen ANTI LIFE? Am I missing something?

JOHNNY HICKS: TOPPER PULSE RIFLES

 I mentioned Corporal Hick's pulse rifle the other day and looking at it again something clicked.

Its bulk and angles really reminded me of my beloved Johnny Seven, that glorious big brother repellent of the Sixties.

and even more that other Topper behemoth, the Screaming Mee Mee rifle, which could almost be Hick's pulse!

Or am I seeing things?

The Screaming Mee Mee had its own TV ad. I mean wow! Those kids could almost be colonial marines! Wish I'd had a mee-mee!

Screaming Mee-Mee Rifle Commercial from IRA GALLEN on Vimeo.

and for comparison here are a bunch of those colonial space grunts ready to hunt some bugs with their own Screaming Mee-mees!

They're in the pipe, five by five!

CORPORAL HICKS'S TOY RIFLE OR NOT?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gordy-toy-alien-aliens-hicks-gun-toy-gun-Knock-off/254862261381?hash=item3b56f97c85:g:8sEAAOSwyuNgIyp1 

I was amazed when I saw this. Is this really an ALIENS knockoff toy rifle? There's no mention of it on the blister card. But is there even an official ALIENS toy rifle so this wouldn't be a knockoff at all. It would be it I suppose! What do you think readers?

A L I E N T R A C Y I S L A N D

toys courtesy of moonbase junior

L . A . N . C . E

I was thinking about Lance Henriksen the other day. He was once the go-to weird guy a bit like Steve Buscemi was the natural maniac.

I remember Lance in Aliens playing Bishop the android. I'm reminded of his famous knife trick on the terrified Hudson aka the late Bill Paxton every day when I see skoolkids attempting the same with biros! I don't think his role was as iconic as Ian Holm's Ash in the first film but I enjoyed the Android element in both films tremendously.

Lance also had roles in old horror films like the video nasty Massacre Mansion [along with Richard Basehart of VTTBOTS], which I used to see at Blockbusters in its early days and also the neo-vampire classic Near Dark directed by a young Kathryn Bigelow of The Hurt Locker fame, where Lance plays the patriarch of a modern family of undead ruffians living in a van. Near Dark also starred Bill Paxton!

For many sci-fi fans its Millennium that Henriksen will be remembered for in his role as Frank Black. This old TV series was a sort of X-Files spin-off, written by Chris Carter. Black was able to see into the minds of killers and as I recall it was a rather gloomy affair all round. I wish I'd have seen more but nothing could compare really with the first season of the X-Files, which for me was groundbreaking and gave me all the X-appeal I needed.

For myself its another horror film that will always remind me of Lance, the eighties schlocker Pumpkinhead. Henriksen plays a grief-stricken father hell-bent on avenging the killing of his young son by a bunch of city types. His wrath takes the form of a demon summoned from the pit, the Pumpkinhead of the title. For those like me who like big monsters then this flick didn't disappoint. The demon is fabulous.

What do you like about Lance Henriksen readers?

Aged 80, he's still alive and kicking!

INANIMATE: I WAS

Caught the movie Inanimate last night. The UK Horror Channel really bigged it up as a creature feature and FX fest. Starring Lance Henriksen, veteran of ALIENS, Millennium and Pumpkinhead, the mention of his name finally did it. I gave it a whirl.

I wish I hadn't. Made in 2015, it was a brazenly shameless ripoff of The THING, the iconic Carpenter polar horror from 1982.

Now The THING itself was a form of re-make, a homage to the much earlier Thing from Another World released in 1951, an important black and white Sci-Fi B-movie. 

The 1951 flick was an amazing movie for its time, stuffed with menace and paranoia and delivered a real punch when the tall man-thing staggered into view like Lurch on ice.

Carpenter's THING took things to another level and added body-melting special FX to the pot and together with Kurt Russell and the crew of excellent actors the whole has become justifiably classic.

Inanimate adds nothing to the Thing manifest. A low-budget, ill-acted pile with cheap effects using rubber and milkshake. From the off it screamed either ALIEN or the THING and not pressing the off button became a test of will. It even includes a pair of tipping glass birds, which was I suppose a gentler nod to its inspiration and one I did appreciate.

Set on a polar crabbing ship captained by Lance Henriksen, the vessel houses an awkward bunch; its gritty crew and a team of genetic researchers including the Captain's daughter. The 'thing' comes in the form of a Soviet cosmonaut and his capsule [almost topical!], which had purportedly landed on the moon in secret in the Eighties but was lost when it touched down. Something touched down with it too and it wasn't borscht! Ter der!

I'll cut the drum roll short. Despite Lance Henriksen's grungy acting kudos I had to finally reach for the remote after a particularly cruddy FX scene involving wobbling rubbery body back tubes made from wellingtons and slicks of budget strawberry yoghurt sprayed round the walls and faces. Yum!

I was truly inanimate at this point.

Have you seen this mess?

Barry norman and bill paxton: both sadly missed

Reading Martin Landau's obituary I couldn't help noticing other notices of deaths among actors and TV personalities this year.

I was saddened to see that Barry Norman has also passed away this month as well. Like the old cinema magazine Film Review, for me Barry is synonymous with  the cinema and especially his TV show Film ... I always loved his film show and watched it religiously for years and years, hanging on his every word and taking his advice about what to see seriously. 

Naturally being a horror and sci-fi fan I was always the most interested in these and what Barry had to say. I can also add Kung Fu films as he began the show with Film 1972 just as the martial arts craze was kicking its way onto our screens. He may have even told me about Enter the Dragon that year, one of my favourite flicks of all time.

RIP Barry. Hope you got the best seat.

I was also saddened ... and shocked ... to read of the death of Bill Paxton in February. He was just 61, barely five years older than me. I thought Bill was great and I shall forever associate him with playing Hudson in ALIENS, a role he truly made his own and brought welcome humour and humanity to the unfolding carnage. 

I also loved Bill's role as the new recruit in Danny Glover's precinct from hell in Predator 2. Bill's comic feel was perfect in bringing light relief to the grim proceedings and made him the ideal foil for Glover's highly-strung Harrigan and Gary Busey's menacing Government man.

RIP Bill Paxton. Hope you fly home.