From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Feb 9 14:32:30 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!chi-news.cic.net!news.midplains.net!gw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.att.com!not-for-mail From: RYHN49A@prodigy.com (Don Mcclain) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: SCREAMERS Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 5 Feb 1996 18:41:08 GMT Organization: Prodigy Services Company 1-800-PRODIGY Lines: 81 Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Message-ID: <4f5j04$233@nntpb.cb.att.com> Reply-To: RYHN49A@prodigy.com (Don Mcclain) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtgpfs2-bgate.mt.att.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #04651 Keywords: author=McClain Originator: ecl@mtgpfs2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3917 rec.arts.sf.reviews:897 SCREAMERS A film review by Don McClain Copyright 1996 Don McClain for The Ganymede Times Newswire Let's be upfront about this - this is one very depressing film. It is grim. It is violent. It offers little hope for humanity. It shows that, in the year 2078, mankind still possesses his greatest flaws of greed and the thirst for power. With that out front let it be said that this is also one well-made film. Not a great film, but, a well-made film. The setting for SCREAMERS is the planet Sirius 6B in the aforementioned year 2078. Two forces are battling it out. As usual, it is the haves versus the havenots. One side, the haves, is the New Economic Bloc. The other side are those that the N.E.B. has abused to mine the precious energy ore on Sirius 6B. This side, the havenots, is the Alliance. Depending on who you want to believe, the war has been going on from ten to twenty years. And it appears everyone has finally tired of it. In the beginning, a lone figure approaches the heavily fortified bunker of the Alliance. Before a few of the Alliance members have their way and shoot the intruder on sight, he is efficiently torn into shreds by the centerpiece of terror and horror for the film - Screamers. Screamers are small, metallic robot-like creations of the Alliance. Their ultimate weapon. The Screamers, with their razor-like appendages, can slice a human being into pieces in seconds tearing arms and legs from bodies. Their name - Screamers - is a nickname derived from the sound made as they strike. If one thinks of the terror fomented by the sound of the German Stuka dive-bombers of World War II, one gets the idea behind the effect. The Alliance creations are quick, effective and numerous. The only problem is that they have started thinking on their own and have altered the rules of engagement - all humans are now targets. Not just the unfortunate souls from N.E.B. The unfortunate N.E.B. soldier we find out was carrying a message asking that immediate peace talks be held. The Alliance leader, Hendricksson, though suspicious decides to make his way to the N.E.B. headquarters to pursue these peace prospects. The problem is, of course, that to get there he has to traverse a wasteland literally crawling with Screamers. Talk about unenviable jobs. Peter Weller is good as the Alliance leader. He has the appearance and attitude of a man tired of what can only be described as a sad existence. Roy Dupuis, as Weller's N.E.B. counterpart, matches well with Weller's Hendricksson. Jennifer Rubin provides the apparently mandatory nudity and sexual offering, but, she also pulls off a believable hardened black marketer. The script, based on the Philip K. Dick short-story "Second Variety," by ALIEN scripter Dan O'Bannon and Miguel Tejada-Flores provides the necessary action and blood-letting. But it does not measure up to the apprehensive terror viewers experienced with ALIEN. It is doubtful that SCREAMERS will ever be listed at the same level as ALIEN. SCREAMERS is more of an action-war film with gallons of gore whereas ALIEN was a classic example of science-fiction and horror mixed superbly together. SCREAMERS is visually striking. It is striking not that there are panoramic scenes that will make audiences go "ooh" and "aah," but, in that there is a true sense, feel and look of desolation. There are scenes of total devastation and industrial suicide. As stated earlier, this is one depressing film. Perhaps the filmmakers outdid themselves in their efforts to make the audience feel the hopelessness and depression felt by the protagonists in the film. SCREAMERS is not the kind of film that will appeal to those who like their science-fiction subtle. Or to those who like to have their science- fiction paint mankind's future as good triumphing over evil and man coming to terms with himself ala STAR TREK. Basically, SCREAMERS' vision is simply "same stuff, different day." Man still manipulates, still abuses and still kills his own in the year 2078. And, in SCREAMERS, we discover that his inventions have begun to emulate their creator. A violent circle depicted in a violent film. And so very depressing. Reviewer Rating : *** (Out of possible *****) MPAA Rating : R Running Time : 107 minutes Distributor : Sony Pictures Reviewed For The Ganymede Times Newswire http://members.aol.com/ganymedet/gt/gt.htm From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 26 09:21:44 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!eru.mt.luth.se!pumpkin.pangea.ca!news.mira.net.au!news.netspace.net.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!newspump.sol.net!howland.erols.net!news2.digex.net!news7.digex.net!news1.rcsntx.swbell.net!news.pbi.net!cbgw3.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: ram@iris3.carb.nist.gov (Ram Samudrala) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: SCREAMERS (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 21 Nov 1996 21:15:51 GMT Organization: The Centre for Advanced Research in Biotechnology Lines: 30 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <572gq7$beg@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: ram@iris3.carb.nist.gov (Ram Samudrala) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #06373 Keywords: author=Samudrala Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5774 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1119 SCREAMERS A film review by Ram Samudrala Copyright 1996 Ram Samudrala The year: 2078 A.D. The location: planet Sirius 6B. The New Economic Block (NEB) and the Alliance are at war with each other over the mining of Berynium, the solution to the energy crisis on Earth. During the course of the war, the Alliance manages to create autonomous machines to attack the enemy (they're called screamers, and for good reason). However, these self-replicating and self-evolving machines have gotten more and more sophisticated with their tinkering and now pose a threat to all living beings on the planet. The evolution of the screamers reaches a point when a screamer is indistinguishable from a human. Most of the action in /Screamers/ revolves around the remaining humans fighting off the screamers. There is a great deal of suspense created in this movie, like in the books by Philip K. Dick (whose 1953 story Second Variety forms the basis for the plot), in not being able to distinguish human from screamer. There are also some thought-provoking moments when we are confronted with screamers that not only acquire intelligence that would enable them to pass the Turing test, but also feel human-like emotions. The setting is bleak and desolate and it works quite well for the theme of the movie. It's definitely worth renting if you're a sci-fi and/or a Philip K. Dick fan. me@ram.org || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 8 07:11:10 2003 Path: news.island.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!uninett.no!news.net.uni-c.dk!aotearoa.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!skynet.be!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-06!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Dragan Antulov Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Screamers (1995) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 19:16:00 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 34593 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1126091 X-RT-TitleID: 1069696 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 2/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #34593 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 68 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6419 rec.arts.sf.reviews:530 SCREAMERS (1995) A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003 Great literature seldom gets adapted into great movies. In the world of science fiction Philip K. Dick was exception to that rule. Two pieces of his work were adapted into two extraordinary films - BLADE RUNNER and TOTAL RECALL. For a long time many believed that Philip K. Dick's fiction guaranteed quality films. All that changed with SCREAMERS, 1995 Canadian science fiction drama directed by Christian Duguay. The plot of SCREAMERS takes place in 2087 AD. Sirius 67B is a distant planet rich in resources that could solve all of Earth's energy needs. Control over that planet was the issue that led to vicious war between Alliance and New Economic Block. In order to prevent enemy from overwhelming their positions, Alliance has equipped its garrison with screamers - killer-robots able to replicate themselves. After many years and war that turned the planet into completely desolate place, Colonel Hendrickson (played by Peter Weller), commander of small Alliance unit, receives armistice offer from decimated New Economic Block troops. Hendrickson agrees and leads small expedition towards enemy base. However, first he must cross no man's land infested with screamers. Lately those machines stopped making distinctions between friend and foe, but Hendrickson soon finds even more disturbing development. Screamers have evolved and started taking human form in order to get as close as possible to their targets. The script for SCREAMERS (based on Dick's 1952 short story SECOND VARIETY) was written by Dan O'Bannon, screenwriter well-respected for his previous work on such films like DARK STAR or ALIEN. The beginning of film leaves impression of SCREAMERS being a film in the same league with those genre classics. Christian Duguay manages to overcome budget constraints and uses wastelands of Quebec locations in order to paint very convincing picture of desolate world and world-weary protagonists unable to cope with technology that turned against their makers. Unfortunately, as soon as plot starts to accelerate, cliches become more and more numerous and the film starts looking like a cheap knock-off of late 1970s and early 1980s classics (ALIEN, THE THING) rather than original piece of work. All that escalates in finale that sacrifices last traces of plausibility and common sense for the sake of "surprise" twist that any experienced viewer could have predicted ages ago. SCREAMERS can't be recommended for viewing, because those who like science fiction and works of Philip K. Dick should be spared from one big disappointment. RATING: 2/10 (-) Review written on April 9th 2003 Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society ========== X-RAMR-ID: 34593 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1126091 X-RT-TitleID: 1069696 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 2/10