Crap cinema, distilled: Your input please.
A question has come in to a member of our august body (okay, it was me) from an indie filmmaker who’s working on a spoofy genre script. He wants to take one of the hoariest SciFi Originals-style cliches and propel it to its most ridiculous extremes: “Hero Scientist and his estranged also-scientist Heroine wife are thrown together to stop said monster/impending mega-disaster.”
To do that, he wants to take a look at some of the most egregious examples of the cliche. How about it? what are your recommendation for sci-fi/monster flicks whose idea of characterization is “divorced yet torch-bearing”?
Nathan Shumate is the proprietor of Cold Fusion Video Reviews.Comments
Comment from Tim Lehnerer
Time: September 12, 2007, 1:58 pm
This was also the plot of the uber-crappy American Godzilla movie.
Comment from Nathan
Time: September 12, 2007, 2:34 pm
Yes, but please — those have budgets. What crappy shot-in-Bulgaria-starring-former-Playmates D2DVD flicks can you think of?
Comment from KeithA
Time: September 12, 2007, 3:30 pm
There was one where the hot chick from 24 (Michelle Dessler) and the guy who flew a plane into the desert to blow up (also in 24) try to stop a volcano or possibly an earthquake. I’m pretty sure they were an estranged couple brought back together. It was a Sci-Fi Channel movie.
And Lake Placid II has the slight variation of small town cop and estranged scientist lover. I think Dinocroc had the same thing.
Man, I should get out more on Saturdays.
Comment from kermode
Time: September 12, 2007, 5:09 pm
Brainstorm with Christopher Walken comes to mind. Granted, it’s also not incredibly bad nor micro-budget, but…
Comment from Chris @ Stomp Tokyo
Time: September 13, 2007, 5:22 pm
I freakin’ LOOOVE “Brainstorm.” What a great old-school sci-fi movie.
Comment from Zack Handlen
Time: September 18, 2007, 2:33 pm
Keith beat me to it–he’s thinking of Magma: Volanic Disaster. The chick is Reiko Aylsworth, and the plane dude is Xander Berkley. They were an estranged couple, and it’s worth noting that they reconcile–despite never actually being in the same room together till the last shot of the movie. Before that, they just talked on cell phones.
Also, it has the Pink Power Ranger. Great flick.
Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: September 21, 2007, 6:40 am
My first thought was Creature, but I remembered that that’s actually done pretty well. My next thought–Beneath Loch Ness. It’s obvious long before they make it clear that the two bickering leads were once together, and I’m pretty sure they’re back together again by film’s end.
Comment from Liz Kingsley
Time: September 21, 2007, 5:28 pm
I’d say he’s got his cliche wrong: it’s far less likely (as we can tell from the lack of response here) for both estranged parties to be scientists; it’s usually just one of them, with the other being in a different line of work that forces them to team up. I could quote you a thousand films with *that* set-up. Last one watched: Deep Shock, from my old friends at UFO, which has Simmone Jade MacKinnon as the scientist (heh!) and David Keith as her naval officer ex. This is actually a less annoying example than most, as except for one brief reconcilary snog, the two of them keep it in mind that they’re there to save the world, not to scratch each other’s itch.
Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: September 25, 2007, 9:22 am
Upon further review, my example doesn’t work…the lady’s not a scientist. I had thought I remembered her being so, but no, she’s a TV producer.
D’OH!!!
Ah well, back to the drawing board…
Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: September 12, 2007, 9:59 am
The first one that comes to mind is “Godzilla vs. Mothra ‘92″, especially the English dub. While they are relegated to spectator status by the climax, they do seem to be a good example of a divorced couple who learn to sort out their differences. And didn’t “Tornado” with Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton do the same?