Ferocious Planet (2011)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Captivating movie !

As Good As It Gets

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This film had us in fits from start to finish. I don't think it's deliberately funny more just a touch tongue in cheek but it's definitely worth watching for its comedic value. Not that it's without a serious moral message. I'll tell you this at the end.A group of bigshots in a lab to observe an experiment are accidentally moved through time and space by a couple of Irish scientists to the eponymous Ferocious Planet.The planet bears an uncanny resemblance to a wood anywhere on Earth (with a few cheap sfx such as violet smoke and flashing lights) although this doesn't stop one of the inadvertently intrepid travellers from taking cell phone photos of trees, mushrooms and other flora which look exactly the same as their Earthly equivalent, to document the experience, while continually failing to even attempt to take any photos of huge dinosaur-like creatures that give chase to our merry band and we assume give the planet its moniker as the place itself is no more ferocious than Central Park. As with the latter, it's the natives that are ferocious rather than the habitat.There is quicksand though and two of the men get stuck in it. The woman says: 'Don't worry. I go to Pilates six days a week.' Who knew that this would give her enough strength to pull two heavy blokes out of quicksand? I'm having words with my yoga teacher as I still struggle to carry my suitcase.A straight-talking type with a deep southern drawl (a least to begin with), identified as the Colonel, takes control, (the likable Joe Flanigan doing a passable impression of Christian Kane), and points out the obvious: 'We're not safe here.' Someone asks: 'Where do you suggest we go?' Colonel: 'Somewhere where our asses aren't sticking up in the middle of the air.'Every now and then, it falls to a character to deliver some of the Colonel's backstory, which is entirely unnecessary but is there to prove that, although he's someone who's been wrongly discredited, he is really an all-round good guy. The dialogue is horribly 'on the nose', so: 'It wasn't your fault that hospital was destroyed.'Here's an absolutely priceless comment from the female Irish scientist or voice of doom: 'According to my calculations, we only have six hours before the aligned conjunction of this dimension with ours suffers quantum collapse. … Once the dimensions fall out of alignment, we're stuck here forever.'However, whenever the Colonel asks how long they have, which he does periodically, neither of the scientists is able to give him any idea, saying things like 'Two hours? Three hours?' or 'Not long now'. They're rather vague. I wouldn't trust scientists that can't even read a wristwatch myself.Anyway, time is supposedly of the essence but the characters still take what can only be described as a desultory stroll through the woods as if they really were wandering in Central Park on an extra long lunch break. My sister comments 'I've seen people move faster than this in Morrisons'. If you've ever been in Morrisons, you'll know that its shoppers move at a snail's pace.Possibly the most hilarious sequence is when the two scientists communicate by scribbling hieroglyphics on a pad, after each scribble, saying stuff like: 'Could it be?' (more frantic writing such as 223-4(x) + å17³²) then 'But' (a few quick pencil scratches) or 'What if' (more frenetic scrawling) then 'It's theoretically impossible!' and so on. This episode stands in for the need for any real scientific explanation of how they got in their current predicament and how they're going to get out of it. Neat.Hapless expendable no. 1 pokes the alien they've captured, which seems to be dead. This results in his death. Scientist: What the hell happened? Hapless expendable no. 2: He poked it with a pen and some black stuff shot out and hit him in the face. Scientist (reprovingly): Don't poke the alien. (This has to be one of the best lines in a sci-fi movie ever and surely a creed we need to adopt for life but it's still not the moral of the tale.)Meanwhile, the Irish accent has proved contagious and has spread from the scientists to the rest of the cast. Even the Colonel is speaking with a slight Irish brogue.So, the moral of this tale would be 'Do not allow Irish people who can't tell the time to fiddle with the space-time continuum' especially one who boasts 'I'm one of the most intelligent people in the world.'

Title review is quoted from the movie: the script is fun, I laughed a lot watching this movie and NOT because of "So bad, so good". The movie is as absurd as "Land of the Lost" but it was much cheaper to produce. Just like a couple of "Twilight Zone" episodes. It will not win best effect or best acting Academy Award, but it deserves a watch. Another crazy quote is "How much water do we need? 50 gallons."I mean: it's about 190 liters, into a device smaller than a suitcase!Very funny are the "calculations" that the scientist O'Hara does with her assistant Murphy to understand what went wrong.One of the female character, the scientific adviser of the president, says: "Looks like a building. Only intelligent life could build something like that." And she goes there to contact the aliens :)The movie never takes itself seriously, that's why I gave a pretty fine score.Edit: Feb 2018 One of the few few movies with a black/white sexual relationship with "French kissing". IMO it increases sci fi atmosphere because I never saw it in an US movie! They are Irish, indeed :)5/10

A team of observers check out a groundbreaking scientific device with the ability to open windows into other parallel dimensions. However, said team find themselves in considerable peril after they are accidentally transported to a hostile alien world populated by vicious predatory beasts. Director Billy O'Brien, working from a compact script by Douglas G. Davis, relates the entertaining story at a snappy pace, delivers a few cool bits of mild gore, generates a reasonable amount of tension, and further spices things up with an amusing sense of inspired sarcastic humor. The competent acting by the solid cast keeps this movie humming: Joe Flanigan as scruffy, disgraced Colonel Sam Synn, John Rhys-Davies as the arrogant and overbearing Senator Jackson Crenshaw, Catherine Walker as the spunky, willful Dr. Karen Fast, Dagmar Doring as the frosty Dr. Jillian O'Hara, Robert Soohan as O'Hara's twitchy assistant Brian Murphy, and Yare Michael Jegbefume as the amiable Lt. Rivers. The CGI creatures look pretty hokey and convincing, but nonetheless still possess a certain tacky charm. Moreover, the plot is admittedly silly, yet fortunately gets handled with a sincerity and a dry self-deprecating wit that's both refreshing and appealing. Both Peter Robertson's sharp cinematography and Ray Harmon's spirited marital score are up to par. A fun little flick.

Gosh! Why all the bad reviews? It's a made-for-TV movie that could easily be turned into a series. I know John Rhys-Davies makes a cameo appearance and is killed off 5 minutes into this movie about sliding into a parallel dimension and the cast's frantic attempts to return, but there's no reason he couldn't be brought back for a TV series with that same concept. Heck, we could call the show "Sliders." OK, sarcasm mode off.The acting was fine. The CGI, while limited (budget I suppose) was OK. However, the script was pathetic. I couldn't even find a credit for who wrote this. Was it unscripted or was the writer too ashamed? We get to hear one of the characters ask "are you tapping that?" The only possible purpose of the line at that point in the story was to demonstrate that the writer knows 21st century locker-room lingo. Hm... maybe that's it: it was written by a high-schooler.Aside from the cheap lines, why do hack writers have to create military personnel incapable of following orders, otherwise intelligent adults suddenly incapable of cooperating and yet other adults in a life threatening emergency suddenly deciding that THEN is the time to hatch a transparent money-making scheme or wander off alone to examine the flora and fauna? The "don't poke the alien" line is funny, but several people manhandle the alien. While there's a certain satisfaction that one of the idiot characters gets what he deserves as a result of alien poking, it made absolutely zero sense.With some good writing this have been a watchable -- even though rehashed -- film. I know I could have personally made something better of the writing. As it was, for the lack of any appreciable budget for decent writers, this film is a total waste of time.