The Memoirs Of Ianto Jones

Gareth David-Lloyd, Torchwood's Ianto Jones, was cornered by the utterly irrepressible Gerri and Eugenia at an Aussie sci-fi con and interviewed for the Women Talk Sci-Fi podcast - you can listen to the episode here. During the interview, Gerri and Eugenia gently remind Gareth that he did indeed appear in one of the Sherlock Holmes movies. In other news, this podcast always makes me green with envy - those Aussie sci-fi fans clearly got it goin' on.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex Of The Baskervilles [Review: Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes]

Who is Shane Van Dyke? [Titanic II Week]

A message to everyone who sailed with me on Titanic II Week, I hope you've had a pleasant voyage. It's been a lot of fun writing these posts. I had hoped to bring you a review of Titanic II along the way but it hasn't been possible - in retrospect, shipping the review copy to me across the Atlantic by sea might have been asking for trouble...

Shane Van Dyke, director and star of Titanic II, comes from a hard-grafting cinematic dynasty: the Van Dykes. His grandfather Dick Van Dyke cut a swathe through Hollywood as cheery Cockney chimney sweep Bert in the classic witchcraft horror Mary Poppins. In his later years he would also become known as Dr. Mark Sloan of the long-running series Diagnosis: Murder. Dick Van Dyke's son Barry and another grandson Carey also worked on Diagnosis: Murder, Shane's aunt Stacy Van Dyke made a guest appearance, and the Happy Families set was completed when Shane himself appeared as medical student Alex Smith.

Shane has worked on other Asylum movies: he appears in Transmorphers: Fall Of Man which he also wrote, and Paranormal Entity which he also directed. I'm pleased to report that according to IMDb his next film Super Shark is in post production - you can never have enough films about sharks. What has the rest of the dynasty been up to? Shane and Carey Van Dyke also co-wrote The Day The Earth Stopped with Darren Dalton. You can look forward to seeing Carey again in Mega Python Vs Gatoroid, alongside Debbie Gibson and Tiffany who, contrary to popular belief, have not been cast in the title roles.

Source: IMDb

Jumpin' Jack Flash [Titanic II Week]

Following the success of Titanic I, a sequel has been on the cards for a long time as this trailer, completely unrelated to this week's Asylum movie release, proves. This is my favourite of the many re-cut Titanic sequel trailers out there on the Interwebs.

Incidentally did you know that another film titled Titanic 2 was released in 2002? The director was James Whalley and the plot of this short - an unlikely romance between an obsessive Titanic I fan (Elizabeth Ammann) and the janitor at a Titanic museum (Will Sexton) - sounds intriguing, I might have to get hold of that one.

[edit 28.8.10: grammar corrections, this Titanic 2 was a short film not a feature]

Mockbustin' makes me feel good [Titanic II Week]

It's always been my impression that it is not only the mockbuster studios that make mockbusters. The Asylum has cornered a reputation for films such as Transmorphers: Fall Of Man, The Day The Earth Stopped, and Snakes On A Train, which apparently resemble other movies although I'm not sure which.

However, I can't help but notice that, for example, a number of films released by Disney/Pixar, Dreamworks and other mainstream childrens' film studios bear curious resemblances to each other: Antz and A Bug's Life, The Wild and Madagascar, Finding Nemo and Shark Tale, WALL-E and Robots.

Another example is the run of post-apocalyptic road movies including Zombieland, The Road, The Book Of Eli, Carriers and so on.

The Asylum released their own version of Sherlock Holmes - with pterodactyls! - but at the same time the BBC released a present-day TV mini-series Sherlock. The BBC did exactly the same thing in 2005 with Casanova, starring a pre-Doctor Who David Tennant, around the time of the Heath Ledger movie of the same name.

When a movie or franchise proves successful, you get not just one lookalike but a flood: the success of Harry Potter led to a run on the children's literature bank with adaptations of C.S.Lewis, Susan Cooper and many more. Vampire movies have been on the ascendant for some time but in the wake of Twilight you can be sure there are plenty of sparkly lookalikes still to appear. And why is it both Tom Cruise and Kate Winslet appeared in Nazi movies so close together? Meanwhile, my wonderful guest blogger Amanda mentioned Paranormal Entity but somehow omitted Paranormal Calamity, Abnormal Activity and Paranormal Effect.

Sometimes the doppelganger isn't quite what you'd expect: I vaguely remember a reviewer pointing out that Super Mario Brothers turned out to be about dinosaurs - a departure from the theme of the computer games which, they speculated, might have been an attempt to cash in on the success of Jurassic Park.

Releasing movies that resemble other movies works for the same reason we go to see sequels and re-makes, because a good movie leaves us wanting more. Right across the industry, producers are whispering to each other in smoky speakeasies: "Warner are releasing a mummy/ insect/ robot/ octopus/ supermarket trolley movie next Spring - quick, can we get one out too?"

Iceberg! Dead Ahead! [Titanic II Week]

One hundred years after the maiden voyage of the Titanic, a replica ship sets off on to retrace the original course - with disastrous consequences. Titanic II, directed by Shane Van Dyke and produced by The Asylum, is released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 24th August. Welcome to Titanic II Week at The Sci-Fi Gene! Over the next few days join in the fun with reviews, commentary, tenuous links and bad puns: we're really pushing the boat out here.



Returning readers: please do not be alarmed. The Sci-Fi Gene remains as noncommercial, incorruptible and unsinkable as ever. Titanic II Week has been assembled at my own request and is an exercise in fandom rather than product placement: why miss the boat when you can go overboard?

Trilogy III: Revenge Of The Return

I felt like having a rant about sequels, but it would probably just be an unimaginative and derivative cash-in reboot of a previous rant lacking the humorous charm and style of the original. Instead I recommend you head on over to Sci-Fi Songs, where John Anealio and Dale Case put this better than I ever could.

And yes, the poster is from a real film to be released this summer. What's the betting this one will have a shark in it? Still, beats Irish dancing...

Lost In Your Ice [Review: Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus]

Before I watch an Asylum film I always wonder if it will cure my sci-fi gene deficiency and restore my critical faculties for sci-fi. So far it hasn't worked - despite sometimes laughable production values, I have to say they've all had something to redeem themselves, whether it's the performances, the sense of fun, or just the audacity with which they have been made.

Cruelly overlooked at the Oscars, Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus is nevertheless another such film, and despite aspects which are undeniably cheap and silly, I have to admit as usual that I enjoyed the ride. The plot concerns two prehistoric beasts frozen in an ice-shelf and released due to global warming and military interference - this is a metaphorical film with a strong eco-message but that's not really the point. What's not to enjoy about a film which features an oil-rig eating octopus, an aeroplane-eating shark (technically a megalodon) and, playing their oceanographer nemesis, singer-songwriter Debbie Gibson?

I am inconsistent. I complained here about the poor depiction of gravity in Armageddon which jumped the shark (although I enjoyed that movie too) but I wasn't troubled in the slightest by this shark jumping out of the sea to eat a plane - my sole complaint was that it only happened once! Far too much of this film was about beautiful Debbie Gibson moping around on beautiful beaches watching beautiful sunsets and there was not enough aeroplane chomping.

There is no cure for me. I am lost in the eyes of a giant octopus and I am doomed to continue loving bad sci-fi. Hit it, Debbie!

Crash and Verne

A review of another Asylum mockbuster: Journey to the Centre of the Earth is based (predictably loosely) on Jules Verne's classic novel - released in the UK under the title Journey to Middle Earth, and of course timed for release alongside the recent imax-3D film starring Brendan Fraser. They've succeeded in confusing IMDb who have mixed up pictures from both films. This film is a mix of themes from the original novel and from another movie, The Core, as the crew of a drilling machine race to rescue a teleport team stranded in a dinosaur-populated world below the Earth's crust. It's all good harmless fun and reasonably well made - acting, effects and cinematography are all adequate if not completely convincing, and unlike Monster all three are consistent throughout the film - although don't expect to see this one nominated at the Academy.


Just one plea though - can we now move on from parasitic monsters? It was fantastic and original in Alien, and "that John Hurt moment" is surely a singularity of cinematic history - but since then I've seen the same plot device in the Species series, The Faculty, Spiders and any number of recent movies - it's hinted at in Cloverfield too when a victim has to be killed by the military before something worse happens. Alien has at it's heart a really good, original sci-fi idea - an alien species that has evolved to prey parasitically on any lifeform it comes across from planet to planet; but since then it seems any cinematic hostile lifeform, alien or otherwise, has to be parasitic.


Out of curiosity I checked out Asylum's website here and am pleased to report that there is absolutely no attempt to take their work seriously (this would have been unforgiveable) and that the use of titles and themes from mainstream studios is utterly shameless - coming soon "The Day The Earth Stopped." Journey to Middle Earth was directed by Davey Jones and Scott Wheller, previously sfx specialists, and their interview with B-Movie News here is very amusing and sheds more light on the Asylum.

Drop the camera and run - again

A creature attacks the metropolis, survivors go on the run shooting everything on camcorder as they go. Sounds familiar? Monster, made by The Asylum and distributed by Lighthouse, is as close to a rip-off of a certain other monster movie as it is possible to get (even though it was released first!) and it set me wondering about why people make derivative films. Cloverfield itself actually has very high production values - this film clearly cannot afford the same values so this is a cheap attempt to mimic an expensive attempt to look cheap.

Having started with a negative point, I have to say I really enjoyed this film, although more in the way you might enjoy an amateur or fringe theatre production. There's a lot to learn here about how to make films on a budget - clever use of sound and camera angles to convey panicking crowds without actually showing any people, etc. I might try some of this if I make any more short films. Most of the film seems to have been made by a handful of people - actually I was surprised by how many names were on the credits!

The two stars are Sarah Lieving and Erin Sullivan. Sarah is apparently a regular at Asylum, Erin has only a few credits including "Transmorphers" (I wonder what that one's about...) They're both endearing and reasonable actresses - this film gets a lot of criticism at least on imdb but this is mainly because it's derivative. It's also fair to say that unlike a film with a larger budget, the pair pretty much have to carry the whole film - clearly there was only a budget for a few minutes of film with other actors, plus the brief action climax at the end, plus a few extra dollars for special effects, so most scenes just feature the two girls, and a lot of the action can't be shown so they have to rely on their acting skills to convey it. The whole shoot must have been hard work.