Following my move in with Simone, I found I had to change my viewing habits to find things more worth my time. As a result, I really haven’t visited the horror section of the Rogers Video for some time, and I’m more inclined to throwing in a tried and true blockbuster Sci-fi than a B-movie.
Working on the DVD for the Canadian distribution version of “Screamers 2: The Hunting” and seeing a handful of Canadian actors play in congested corridors revived my desire. So as I was doing research in the local Blockbuster (and yes, I can call it “research” now), when I picked up “The Black Hole” - a TV movie/Direct-to-DVD disaster flick that features a black hole created by a LHC-style machine, a monster made of electricity, and Judd Nelson playing a neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie scientist.
Actually, he looks a bit like my friend, Jo, through the entire film.
Almost in homage (but more likely just a revealing mistake) to Jurassic Park where they were watching the “live camera” on a QuickTime player, the start of the movie involves playing back “real time statistics” in Windows Media Player. That, along with some people in the background of a supposedly evacuated facility and the brutally cheesy dialogue make this a fun waste of 90 minutes.
Perhaps the most entertaining part was before the movie even started, as the other TV movie/Direct-to-DVD disaster flicks aire trailers beforehand.
The first trailer is the much-anticipated sequel to 10.5, “10.5 Apocalypse”. Starring Dean Cain. Woo!
The next one is about scientists predicting (and the subsequent follow-through) that the Sun will go supernova and obliterate the earth. Starring such convincing smart-guy actors as Luke Perry, Tia Carrere, Peter Fonda and Lance Henrickson as the token army general. Would it be a b-movie without Lance Henrickson?
The third is a miscellaneous weather-disaster movie, where the big reveal of the hero waits half-way through the trailer when “Amazing Grace” starts to play and Randy Quaid, Gina Gershon and … wait for it… Shannon Doherty are revealed.
Sometimes, you need to watch some bad movies, to really enjoy the good ones.