by Erik Carollo

Jan 25, 2000

Species II is such a pathetic movie that it uses exessive gore in favor of cheap thrills. Surprisingly enough I found myself liking it. Species II begins with the first manned mission to Mars. We see an astrounaut taking samples of dirt etc. He later boards the ship to go home and we see some green ooze crawling and jumps at the crew. The seen ends there. We later find out that 2 of the 3 members on board became infected with alien DNA. A man(the primary alien) and a woman(who gives birth in a grotesque manner and then dies). The surviving one is a man(the guy who played Bubba in Forrest Gump)who help Michael Madsen find the deadly alien before he mates any more. Also helping out is Natasha Henstrige's character Eve, a genetic duplicate from the original alien made docile. There are many scenes that will make you cringe because of the excessive amount of gore(This one will win an Oscar for "Most Internal Body Parts Showed On Screen But most of the time you'll just enjoy it. This is not one that the critics will love because it's simply in bad taste, so bad that you can only smile and enjoy it.

*** out of ****

Rated R for strong sexuality, excessive violence, extreme amount of gore profound carnage......and language.

 

by Randy Culp

Jan 25, 2000

You'll laugh or you'll walk out. This movie is so bad it's good. It is hard to take seriously from the opening scene, and from there it rolls merrily downhill. The plot displays garish disregard for logic, the facts of the film thumb their noses at reality, the special effects could be beat by a ninth grader with a video camera, and the reasonably distinguished cast are, to a person, on paid vacation. I should have been annoyed. I left the theater thoroughly entertained.

Go figure.

Some questions to ponder as you watch the movie:

1) When an actor forgets his/her lines, don't they usually re-shoot the scene?
2) Will the big nasty general actually do something, or is it his job to stand around?
3) Why is it bad for men to be in the lab sometimes, and ok others?
4) Why does the super-strong alien struggle with the babe in the grocery store?
5) If the aliens were already on Mars, why did they radio instructions to earth for how to make an alien in the first movie? And if they destroyed Mars, does that mean there was a civilization there already? Is that where those canals came from after all?

 

by Rick Gagliano

Jan 25, 2000

First of all...I hated it! Okay hate might be a strong word and as a society we should not use it when referring to others, but since this movie is about aliens, I think it is an acceptable reference for them and the movie. Where do I begin? Let's begin with the basic technical aspects of the film...the sound was terrible. I would actually encourage people to go see this film just to hear how bad the sound can be in a film. The sound kept fading in and out depending upon if the characters were running, sitting, talking from a distance or wherever, then suddenly the sound volume would go back up. Now if you think you can overlook the sound quality and just focus on the content of the film, then you're still going to be at a loss. Justin Lazard is one of three astronauts to make a Mars trip and during the journey they become infected by this alien species. The screenwriter adds a bit of "Children of the Corn" and Lazard becomes the father of about 50 kids in less than a few days. Trying to keep a lid on this spreading epidemic is Marg Helgenberger (of "China Beach" fame) who has a clone made of the original "Species" alien just in case such an incident would occur. Now bring back Michael Madsen, team him up with Marg, and have them set out to destroy these aliens. Periodically bring Peter Boyle and George Dzundza around to promote the theme of a government cover-up and have James Cromwell play a US Senator fighting for his son's (Lazard) life. Now I do want to say that there are three scenes (out of a few thousand) which were actually quite good...the opening scene of the Mars Spacecraft with its "Lite Beer" advertising on the side was actually quite funny and two additional scenes in which aliens jumped out, which in turn made me jump, were well-done. Bottom line...do not go to a theater to see this, but rather wait until this movie appears on Mystery Science Theater where it belongs.

 

by B. Mykel

Jan 25, 2000

First of all let me start off by saying I didn't hate this movie but "Species II" is nowhere near as good as the original. But to be fair you can't go this kind of movie and expect "Good Will Hunting" and still enjoy it. And I did have fun at this movie. Some of it was actually clever. In the beginning when you see all the logos on the the spacecraft that is funny. But there is also a lot wrong with this movie. I almost hate to say it but much of the nudity and graphic violence is pointless. After the first scene where the 2 alien birth occur showing the subsequent births are redundant. It would have been much better show the start of the birthing process and then cut to the astronaut'sface as he becomes less and less human. And the nudity was an obvious attempt to keep the males in the audience interest peaked. The other thing wrong is the total lack of logic the movie displays. First the NASA doctor says the astronauts are under a 10 day quarantine but then they are allowed to go home. That doesn't make sense. The second is that every baby that is born is half alien and half human. The movie constantly asserts that Eve is half human. Then according to my high school biology the offspring of a human and a half alien should produce the following a 50% chance a full human and a 50% chance of a half alien child. And if 2 half aliens reproduce you get a 50% chance of half alien, 25% chance of a full alien, and a 25% chance of a full human. But perhaps I'm "suspending my disbelief" enough. I do agree this would make a good MST3K movie.

 

by D.J. Kolins

Jan 25, 2000

Hi Readers'

My husband is more of a Si-Fi Fanatic then me but, I say that this is a MUST SEE Movie. The movieas far as I'm concerened it Rates 4*****.

Sincerely,
D.J. Kolins

 

by Carlos Ramirez

Jan 25, 2000

Dear Natasha fan:

Species II is a movie. I have to state what seems obvious just for the fact that neither director nor screenwriter(s) showed any appreciation of this fact. The whole exercise seems to have come out of some Kinkel-like fantasy world of turbocharged-psycho-stupidity in charge of a mega-buck production budget. The producers must be fun people to be around with as long as you have a flak jacket on and know your escape routes. If you must see Natasha at any cost... Ok. Go ahead. You'll only think of the time lost: the nausea, the Horror, the boredom, the embarrassment of seeing what amounts to a decent cast doing the most undecent soiling of the acting trade. But since you are this really hardcore fan of this potentially good actress with a bad script habit The only redeeming thought for yourself will be. "I share Natasha's grief at having to endure this 93 minutes of pure oligofrenic directing in front of me.

The only relevant question that remains as the picture fades from my memory is: Where does the father of the little zombies get the t-shirts to have them all in uniform gray?

Afterthought: Ed Wood would NOT like this movie.