7 August 2011
This film begins as pure camp, positively "B" material, Plan 9 from Outer Space. But there is a bit of quality to this film.
Dennis Hopper, always the crazy Photographer from "Apocalypse Now", drives a beat up "Pachyderm 2000" Rig in Space, first carting square pigs from Mars, then a more diabolical cargo he doesn't know about.
Hopper plays "John Canyon" - The last Trucker in space who does not work for "The Company". After he has a load 'jacked by company goons, he has to make a rapid exit from the space station/diner after George Wendt (Keller) gets sucked out guts-first from a broken porthole. He avoids the Station cops, but he gets trapped in a debris field filled with "Black Rock" Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy, Scientist Charles Dance ("Nabel") has created "perfect soldiers" equipped with "State-of-the-art-Disintegrators" (and that right there is a giveaway for some great Incredi-Gore) , which works so well that the boss "EJ Saggs" (played by Shane Rimmer) has him "killed". But Nabel had made 5,000 of these soldiers - Guess where they are going and guess what trucker is carting them? Enough of the spoilers - You can see what mischief is going to happen. Super Soldiers, Space Pirates, a crazed mad Scientist who has made himself a "super male body part" - A cute Space Waitress/NY chick (Debi Mazar) and the kid who is on his very first trucking job (Stephen Dorff), all ingredients for horror-comedy in space.
Supporting Character spots played by George Wendt, Shane Rimmer and Charles Dance give this a bit better quality than your average B movie. Basically, this film is a nod to Truckers, and especially, the lone entrepreneur - Much like "They Drive by Night".
The superb special effects and Make-up are sometimes combined with very clever gags, one-liners, and clichés turned on their ear. This is typical Hopper faire, the nonsense just does not let up, it builds past the point of credibility very early in the film - And this actually increases the comedy to a high degree. The characters of the Pirates are great, especially the guy who gets blasted and mistakes his own flesh cooking to someone making hamburgers. The pure inanity makes this film worth watching - At least once. It's like one of those Band movies from the 80's.
There is a section of this film, which is rather creepy, regarding the super-soldiers, this occurs in the last act of the film, and it actually adds pure-horror elements into the mix, it has to do with the nature of the soldiers themselves.
Once the destruction starts - It don't stop until the movie's done, so if you like wanton carnage mixed with your comedy and a touch of horror, this is for you.
Dennis Hopper, always the crazy Photographer from "Apocalypse Now", drives a beat up "Pachyderm 2000" Rig in Space, first carting square pigs from Mars, then a more diabolical cargo he doesn't know about.
Hopper plays "John Canyon" - The last Trucker in space who does not work for "The Company". After he has a load 'jacked by company goons, he has to make a rapid exit from the space station/diner after George Wendt (Keller) gets sucked out guts-first from a broken porthole. He avoids the Station cops, but he gets trapped in a debris field filled with "Black Rock" Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy, Scientist Charles Dance ("Nabel") has created "perfect soldiers" equipped with "State-of-the-art-Disintegrators" (and that right there is a giveaway for some great Incredi-Gore) , which works so well that the boss "EJ Saggs" (played by Shane Rimmer) has him "killed". But Nabel had made 5,000 of these soldiers - Guess where they are going and guess what trucker is carting them? Enough of the spoilers - You can see what mischief is going to happen. Super Soldiers, Space Pirates, a crazed mad Scientist who has made himself a "super male body part" - A cute Space Waitress/NY chick (Debi Mazar) and the kid who is on his very first trucking job (Stephen Dorff), all ingredients for horror-comedy in space.
Supporting Character spots played by George Wendt, Shane Rimmer and Charles Dance give this a bit better quality than your average B movie. Basically, this film is a nod to Truckers, and especially, the lone entrepreneur - Much like "They Drive by Night".
The superb special effects and Make-up are sometimes combined with very clever gags, one-liners, and clichés turned on their ear. This is typical Hopper faire, the nonsense just does not let up, it builds past the point of credibility very early in the film - And this actually increases the comedy to a high degree. The characters of the Pirates are great, especially the guy who gets blasted and mistakes his own flesh cooking to someone making hamburgers. The pure inanity makes this film worth watching - At least once. It's like one of those Band movies from the 80's.
There is a section of this film, which is rather creepy, regarding the super-soldiers, this occurs in the last act of the film, and it actually adds pure-horror elements into the mix, it has to do with the nature of the soldiers themselves.
Once the destruction starts - It don't stop until the movie's done, so if you like wanton carnage mixed with your comedy and a touch of horror, this is for you.
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