Here’s a post about the validity of the film’s “documentary footage” and true story claim. Review below.

Milla Jovovich, bathed in white light, steps into the foreground. As the camera circles her and abruptly changes angles, the actress delivers a spiel about the film’s production, its authenticity, our freedom to draw our own conclusions, and she wraps things up with the caveat that “some of what [we]’re about to see is disturbing.”

If you start things off with a proclamation like that, you’d better have the goods to back it up.

Set in a small town in northern Alaska in October 2000, the movie purports to use real video and audio from various interviews conducted by Dr. Abbey Tyler with several of her patients who were experiencing alien encounters in conjunction with dramatizations of those interviews and events. With that premise, one would think having convincing documentary footage would be the logical place to start. One would be wrong.

Right off the bat, “The Fourth Kind” can’t get its act together. The footage that kicks off the actual feature is of Dr. Tyler being interviewed by the film’s director, Olatunde Osunsanmi, and it’s so awkward and obviously scripted that the immediate effect is incredulity.

This persists throughout the entire film. None of the footage is convincing and the insinuation that it’s authentic becomes insulting. It doesn’t do itself any favors when it goes into split screen, either, showing the dramatized action alongside its allegedly real counterpart, often revealing the former to be more startling.

With that crippling problem set aside, Jovovich, playing Dr. Tyler, turns in a surprisingly decent performance. She’s convincing as a woman grieving the death of her husband while juggling motherhood and her duties as a psychologist.

Elias Koteas is good, too, as her visiting colleague who champions hard evidence, the scientific method and…yet…denies the validity of his own extraterrestrial encounter later on in the film.

And Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Dr. Awolowa Odusami (said to be an alias), a scholar of ancient languages, provided the film’s one sincere moment of intrigue and disturbance when he discussed the relationship between aliens and ancient Sumeria.

But then we have Will Patton as Sheriff August (another alias) who brings things to a screeching halt with his self-aware, arbitrarily hostile and unreasonable antics which make no sense and do further damage to the credibility the film so desperately needs.

He acts the way only a character in a bad movie would: ignoring evidence, making hasty, irrational decisions that negatively affect just about everyone, withholding basic information about Tyler’s husband’s death without purpose. Did Osunsanmi honestly think we wouldn’t find his character insufferable?

If for nothing else, the film fails by not living up to its own hefty proclamation. It isn’t scary in the slightest. The interviews seem fake and so much of the action borrows from “The Exorcist” and other possession films that it’s laughable. The scares that do occur are simply surprises and couldn’t haunt you if they wanted to.

I have a friend who’s never watched “E.T.” all the way through because he’s terrified of aliens. Just the other day, he was whining to me about being bullied into seeing “Signs” in theaters and how it nearly ruined his life. This wouldn’t faze him.

Tags: 2009, abduction, alaska, Alien, fourth, fourth kind, kind, movie, movie review, review

Warren J. Cantrell is a writer based out of Seattle, WA. In his email to us, he listed his interests/likes as skydiving, boat racing, bull fighting, midget wrestling, and generally staying as extreme as possible. He described himself (seriously) as “a long-gone-daddy standing seven and a half feet tall with a chin as mighty as any on Rushmore, calves like cinder blocks, with ten feet of #*&@, and two buckets of *@#&.” (Censored for effect in the intro here, but Warren’s story is censor-free! Read on.) He is also the first Scene-Stealers sitegoer to write a Top 10 list about ONE MOVIE, a 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger-less sequel at that. This Top 10 is also notable for its creation of the past-tense word “wad-shot.” Love it.

Here’s Warren with the Top 10 Reasons “Predator 2” Is the Best of the “Predator” Franchise:

10. Danny Glover

While many might maintain (and with little argument from the majority) that this film was but a diversification attempt at a resume which had, up to this point, disgustingly few “Alien”-themed roles: look deeper. Not only is D. Glove ripped as shit for this role (an obvious sign of Arnold-like commitment to some serious other-world ethnic cleansing) his mere presence in the film is enough to draw out the Captain from “Lethal Weapon” in a bit part as the SWAT Team Commando (check the credits, yeah, that’s Steve Kahan). In short, Danny Glover and the script were so awesome that people obviously had a line forming to the left to get in on “Predator 2”—this miracle of cinema.

9. The Setting

While a group of commandos gone missing in Central America has its charms, let’s be honest: We all wanted to see ol’ pussy-face go crazy in South Central, raising indiscriminate hell with both the bloods and crips. While the script goes a bit off-course with a curious cartel war between the Jamaicans and Columbians (ah, the 90s!), the fact remains that the possibilities were endless. What if we want to break the tension by inserting Final Jeopardy music and an old woman stalking the antagonist with a broom? No problem. What if we want to introduce a spurious car-chase scene to prep the finale? Check. What if we want to use that bad-ass trumpet music to underscore another death, yet need an urban cemetery to set up the shot? Piece of cake. That every “Predator” movie since has not taken place in a bustling metropolis is a tragic crime.

8. Lack of Creativity

Nothing ruins a movie like a plot that’s too damn creative for its own good. In a Predator film, there’s only a few necessary ingredients—all other contributions are a threat to a perfect formula. These necessities are: a generous body count, an impeccably masculine lead, and few if any breaks in the action (which should remain human v. alien-based). That’s it. No need to earnestly delve into secondary characters or get creative with the deeper meaning or context of who is right, wrong, evil, or good (seriously, I mean, they actually teamed the Predator up WITH the hero in “Alien vs. Predator”? What the crap?). Let’s keep it simple: a badass runs afoul of an alien during an intergalactic slaughter-vacation—violence ensues. Don’t fix things that aren’t broken.

7. The Final Showdown

While Arnold gets extra points in his column for his monstrous, mud-covered, torch-in-hand battle-cry prior to the final duel in 1987’s “Predator,” D. Glove once again takes it a step further. If observed from a distance, few can argue that the finale of “Predator 2” takes its predecessor’s best intentions and accomplishments, and absolutely beats them into a fever. Arnold covered all of 100 square yards from end-to-end in his battle while the sequel takes extra advantage of roughly 40 city blocks, including a slaughterhouse (extra awesome points for that alone), and ending at last in an underground subway/hobo sanctuary. Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola, all of the greats learned a valuable lesson from this film: If given the chance to chase an alien, use as much real-estate as possible!

6. The Subway

While already mentioned in regards to setting, this particular sequence deserves its own discussion, as there’s too much awesome to reign in with this category. Not only does this section of the film kick off the ensuing climax (pretty much the last half of the movie), it houses probably the greatest killing in film history. What do you do after you and every other armed patron of the underground-long-bus unloads all 47 dozen rounds to no effect? I’ll tell you what, you pick up a 2 ft. machete (who cares why it’s there, it is!), squint into the coming darkness, and repeat Bill Paxton’s greatest line of the film: “Come on, motherfucker! Let’s dance!” I still weep every time I watch this scene; the purity of manliness simply too much to bear.

5. Conspicuous Lack of Important Female Characters

Just because Ridley Scott and James Cameron miraculously pulled it off doesn’t mean it’s a formula for success. “Predator 2” keeps the camera and the action rooted in what invariably puts movies in the “awesome” column: Male, no-nonsense hot-heads that play by their own rules and the bloodthirsty seven-plus-ft.-tall space creatures they are chasing. Period. End of story. No sideplots about deeper emotional involvement or budding romantic chemistry. The one female character with more than two minutes of screen time is utilized as an ancillary plot-filler to keep the audience busy while D. Glove’s crew is slowly reduced to naught. The moment her character is given even the slightest depth (we find out Maria Conchita Alonso is pregnant), she is immediately crammed into a waiting ambulance, never to be seen again. After I’m done writing this, I’m penning a note to the producers of “Predator 2” thanking them for their courage and foresight, and will forward a copy to every piece-of-shit Hollywood hack that force-feeds romantic involvement and R-to-PG-13 editing adjustments.

4. Increased Violence Levels

While credit should be given where due (The first “Predator” was violent as fuck), “Predator 2” takes murder, mutilation, and torture to new heights. The assault on the prison camp at the beginning of “Predator” certainly deserves a nod for a sustained orgy of automatic gunfire and death, yet like so many to have come before and since, the movie finds itself wad-shot and out of spooge for the remainder of the picture. Sure, over 60 seconds of jungle blind-firing and a one-armed Apollo Creed spice things up later, but the body count is suspiciously low for the second half of 1987’s “Predator.” In “Predator 2,” we get an open-air police v. cartel gunfight, drug kingpin torture and mutilation, a subway holocaust, and special government ops dudes in a veritable frozen limb pile. This is all aside from the fact that D. Glove finishes the goddamned Predator off in #2 with a spinning dagger-blade-thing as opposed to letting the slimy space-cunt finish the job off itself. That each new Predator installment should incrementally increase the violence level ought to be written into the franchise contract, something this film took to heart. [Special note/evidence: “Predator 2” had to re-edit roughly 20 times to get an R rating, as it was originally slapped with an NC-17.]

3. A Promise of Good Things To Come
Never has a film said so much with so little. As many noticed in the years between “Predator 2” and the abortion that would come to fruition as “Alien Vs. Predator,” once Glover’s character is aboard the Predator’s vessel near the end of the movie, an Alien skull is visible on the trophy mantle. With this second or two of screen time, endless possibilities grew into realistic promise. And not in an amateur “the movie is over, but here’s a quick teaser clip” moment either, but with a subtle, silent image that opened up a universe of awesome sequel/prequel scenarios. It would be over a decade until this promise was ruined by an absolute shit-storm of bad leads and even worse acting. Personally, when I go to sleep at night, I like to pretend that “Predator 2” really was the last film in the franchise thus far, and that if one waits long enough, the true promise of “Alien vs. Predator” will be fulfilled.

2. The Perfect Storm of Awesome: Busey and Paxton

Let’s face it, Christmas only comes once a year, and while birthdays, the Fourth of July, and St. Patty’s provide wonderfully reliable excuses to drink and celebrate the awesomeness of awesome, the best gifts always come at the end of December. That this movie provided the union of two of the greatest forces on the planet is—to use a tired expression—the gift that keeps giving. Gary Busey and Bill Paxton in the same movie: What took so long? The inclusion of either is usually enough to elevate a mediocre movie into Oscar-contention, that this film threw two extra logs on the fire makes this one of the biggest award snubs in all of history. Academy: For shame!

1. A Moment of Honor

Who saw this coming? In the original, the villainous creature is so disgusted with the dishonor of miserable defeat, it kills itself rather than further advance humiliation. This is understandable, and worthy of a man-nod (it would be like you getting out-thought and killed by the scheming deer you were hunting, and all of your friends finding out later because the news made it large as a humorous aside on Letterman). In the glorious sequel, the Predator attempts the seppuku-like maneuver, yet can’t even get THIS right, losing an arm in the attempt. I’d like to think that it was this kind of dumb-fuckery that convinced the Predator Council at the end to spare D. Glove rather than exacting vengeance for butchering one of their own. Surely, had a puny 20th century human bushwhacked a Predator heavy, the ending would have been drastically different, our proud hero losing his skull and skin in a Hollywood minute in a reflexive act of revenge. Yet somehow the good lieutenant found the sweet spot, killing a sturdy Predator (yet obviously one not well-liked by its peers, as it seems enough respect got conveyed that the Predators understood killing a man as rock-solid as D. Glove would be a tragedy in any universe). As if signaling to the audience that a worthy installment had just entered the holy lexicon, the Predator Council lets the hero walk, even tossing a stupid human weapon/keepsake as if to state, “Good job on this one. Take this for later: You’ve earned a return visit.” Indeed D. Glove and company did. This cannot be said, however, for those who would follow.

Tags: 10, Alien, aliens, best, film, franchise, list, movie, predator, reasons, series, ten, top, Top 10 Lists, Top 10 Reasons Predator 2 Is the Best of the “Predator”, top ten, vs. predators, Worst

J.J. Abrams, the man behind the new reboot of the “Star Trek” franchise (and the amazing new issue of Wired magazine, which is one big puzzle), gave a fascinating and entertaining TED lecture about the use of mystery and the intentional withholding of information a while back. Coming from one of the co-creators of ABC’s “Lost,” it should come as no surprise to hear this strategy. What was interesting to me, however, was hearing how George Lucas’ “Star Wars” was an influence on the man who is charged with making “Star Trek” a valuable movie franchise again.

“Look at Star Wars. You got the droids, they meet the mysterious woman, who’s that? We don’t know—mystery box. Then you meet Luke Skywalker, he gets the droids, you see the holographic image, you learn, “Oh it’s a message, she wants to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, he’s her only hope,” but who the hell is Obi-Wan Kenobi—mystery box. So then you go and he meets Ben Kenobi. Ben Kenobi is Obi-Wan Kenobi—holy shit, you know?”

Another highlight: What are stories but mystery boxes? The withholding of information intentionally—“Jaws,” “Alien,” “The Graduate”? You’ll have to hear his explanation of “The Graduate” for yourself. Watch the video.

About that , he says: “Don’t rip off the shark, rip off the character—that’s what makes it interesting.”

Having seen “Star Trek” this past weekend, I can assure you that the “mystery box,” as Abrams calls it, is alive and well and goes a long way towards building a sense of wonder in the new storyline of the Enterprsie and its crew.

Tags: Alien, graduate, influence, j.j. abrams, Jaws, magazine, mystery box, Star Trek, star wars, video, wired

My love affair with Pixar’s latest animated masterpiece “Wall-E” is so absolute that it has inspired this list of my Top 10 Artificial Intelligence Movies, or savvy circuit-board flims. That is to say, more specifically films featuring memorable robots. It is entirely possible that robots and artificial-intelligence storylines have ultimately been best served by the very best of small screen sci-fi, in endless episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” or “Doctor Who,” but over the years there have been some extremely interesting and philosophically profound films that attempt to deal with humanity’s curious destiny to recreate ourselves in the form of wicked smart machinery. So, dig in and as always tell us what you think.

10. Artificial Intelligence: A. I. (2001)

Movie magicians Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick teamed up just the once, and their undearppreciated effort received a mixed reaction from audiences. I defend the film on the strength of the ideas and themes it so boldly plays with, and not on the terrifying voicework cameo by Robin Williams. I still maintain that the film would be far more compelling if the film had ended with the Haley Joel Osment character entombed, frozen and alone for an eternity at the bottom of the ocean, but, robot or not, Steven Spielberg can’t just abandon a kid and then run the credits. The film’s art direction and visual style are brilliant, and the challenging narrative has all the hallmarks of top-notch philosophical science fiction.

9. Alien (1979)

One of the more memorable moments - outside of the alien exploding out of John Hurt’s chest - in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic “Alien,” is the big reveal that Ian Holm’s character, science officer Ash, is an android. For me, subsequent “Alien” pictures failed to capture the claustrophobic paranoia and creepy thrill of the original. And while only a part of the larger story, the skillfully crafted arc of Holm’s mysterious character proves yet again that he’s a total badass.

8. Robocop (1987)

Director Paul Verhoeven would go on to commit such celluloid crimes as “Showgirls” and “Hollow Man,” but in 1987 he was busy making a machine-meets-man classic in the original “Robocop” starring “Buckaroo Banzai” himself, Peter Weller. A 2010 remake is in the works, but I for one don’t need a rehash of this gem. I say leave well enough alone, unless of course they can see to it that “That 70’s Show” co-star Kurtwood Smith is the baddie again, at which point I may revise my previous statement.

7. Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

While “Generations” was in many ways a superior film, both “Generations” and “First Contact” continue the Data (Brent Spiner) character’s search for self-awareness. The “Next Generation” series had more time to devote to Data’s ongoing adventures, but the films continue to explore the iconic android’s fascinating journey to find emotion and purpose. Sure, “Generations” boasts original cast members, but the thing “First Contact” has going for it is The Borg. Easily one of the Star Trek universe’s most righteous players, The Borg have burned the words “futile” and “assimilation” into the brain of any serious sci-fi fan, making them both educational and frightening.

6. The Matrix (1999)

The Wachowski brothers went and completely besmirched the legacy of this film with uninspiring sequels, but the concept of an illusory world contained within a planetary wide computer matrix remains one of the modern era’s most undeniably original storylines. The computer brain is personified by Agent Smith, played marvelously by one of modern cinema’s finest support players, Hugo Weaving. Without the sequels, “The Matrix” goes down as a landmark film. With them it’s just number six on some silly list of movies about artificial intelligence.

5. Transformers (2007)

Everyone has their roles to play. Apparently one of mine is to defend Michael Bay films to an audience of film lovers. It’s not an admirable position, but I will attempt to fulfill my duties with what little dignity I’m allowed. There’s red velvet cake and then there’s a Hershey’s bar, there’s Tiramisu and then there’s Twinkies. Sometimes you want the fancy stuff with the depth and substance which can only come from skill and artistry, and then there’s the good stuff without all hassle that’s just pure sugary joy. Michael Bay movies are big screen candy and don’t usually take themselves too seriously, and frankly, sometimes that’s all I’m looking for. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: There has never been a more perfect match than Michael Bay and the Transformers. “Transformers 2″ is an eminent reality, and I can’t wait to get back on the ride.

4. “Wall-E” (2008)

I absolutely hate it when self-important magazines include new albums on lists of the most important records of all-time. Long before time has had the opportunity to take a good wack at their standing, audacious writers want to be the first to call out Nirvana’s “Nevermind” or Radiohead’s “O.K. Computer” as classic works that will stand as pinnacles of achievement for decades to come. In the spirit of those brave souls, whose haste I so vehemently criticize, I nominate “Wall-E” as a film which will be remembered for its bold message and heavy themes, right there in a financially successful animated feature for kids. The filmmakers have balls as big as Texas to bite off the philosophically challenging story which is such a blatant indictment of modernity- and to do so with almost no dialogue whatsoever for the first half an hour. This movie is courageous and entertaining. And who knew that was still possible?

3. Blade Runner (1982)

During the time it took to write this list, there are two new versions of “Blade Runner” available on DVD and Blu-ray. This Ridley Scott masterwork, based on the Philip K. Dick novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is a must on any list of great films about “smart machines.” It doesn’t get much more intellectual than “Blade Runner” when it comes to literary science fiction on the big screen, which is why so few films have attempted or succeeded in chasing its tail.

2. The Original Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983)

Let’s pretend for a moment that the prequels were all just a bad dream from which we are all about to wake. In this fantasy there’s no Jar-Jar Binks, no Trade Federation representatives with offensive accents, and no greenscreen acting from capable veterans and disappointing neophytes alike. Let’s think back to the good old days before George Lucas decided to direct the prequels himself and picture the original trilogy as it was in 1983, finished and perfect. There are a pair of droids that are excuse enough to land at the top of this list, but the circuit board standout in the Star Wars universe is obviously Luke’s pops. The Darth Vader character is, of course, one of the all-time greats in the dilemma of man and machine. Like Robocop, Anakin Skywalker is “more machine than man,” but somewhere amidst all the circuitry and wiring some vestige of humanity still lurks. Lucas was right to realize the Vader character’s transformation from man to machine, and back again, was strong enough to build six movies on, he just wasn’t able to recognize that Irvin Kershner (who directed “The Empire Strikes Back”) should have directed all of them.

1. The Terminator (1984)

Like “The Matrix,” this film, if taken all by it’s lonesome, is a monument of modern science-fiction storytelling. Humanity itself is faced with extinction, in the not so distant future at the hands of Skynet, a computer network that we created which has decided we’ve outgrown our usefulness. The inherent danger in creating artificially intelligent beings is that they might figure out eventually that the world just might be a more efficient place if there weren’t so many humans messing up the works. One of the problems with exceptional sci-fi is that audiences want more and studios are willing to give it too them, whether it dilutes the power of the original ideas or not. Half the films on this list prove that if humans could just leave well enough alone, we might all have fewer DVDs, but we’d also have a few more untarnished legacies to quibble about and defend at conventions.

Although he provided the voice of Hot Rod in “The Transformers: The Movie” (1986), this actor is best known for playing this character (first and last name).

Tags: Alien, Artificial Intelligence: AI, blade runner, Blue Harvest, Return of the Jedi, Robocop, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Generations, star wars, Terminator, The Empire Strikes Back, The Matrix, Transformers, Wall-E