Captivating movie !

Boring

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

MInd Ripper is a ridiculous, clumsy, sloppily directed B movie from Joe Gayton. Written by Jonathan Craven (son of the late great Wes Craven) Mind Ripper is a film about an underground government research team, that attempt to reanimate a corpse, only for their creation to backfire and kill them. The film is a not so subtle re-telling of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein. The only difference being this monster has a penis that comes out of his mouth, that sucks out peoples brains. ( and yes I'm laughing as I type this.)This film feels as though it only got funded due to Wes Craven's name being attached to the project. That's not too say the film is completely joyless. Lance Henriksen and Claire Stansfield do a great job of taking the material somewhat serious, and they manage to keep a straight face through-out. The rest of the cast is pretty bland though, and there's not much to add.This is the sort of film where you either accept the ludicrous premise and go along with it. Or you don't and have to fight the urge to turn the film off at every stupid moment that occurs in the film. For the most part I went along with it, and in the end it's nothing more then a campy schlockfest, that has its characters run around the same poorly lit corridors for ninety minutes.

Okay, stop me if you've heard this one before. Your usual bunch of scientists doing morally dubious and ill-advised experiments in a secret subterranean laboratory create a super-strong brain-eating mutant named Thor (handsome, muscular Dan Blom, who's actually quite good) who gets loose and goes on a destructive rampage. Fortunately, the always reliable Lance Henrikson as a bitter, cynical doctor who quit the project a few months ago arrives back on the scene to help save the day. Strangely enough, Henrikson brings along his estranged, rebellious smartaleck metalhead son (a then unknown, pre-stardom Giovanni Ribisi, who's every bit as obnoxious as you think), lusty hottie daughter (the luscious Natasha Wagner, looking mighty fine in skimpy shorts), and the daughter's libidinous tool of a boyfriend (the supremely irritating Adam Solomon). Swell dad, eh? I think you can basically fill in the blanks as to what happens next.All kidding aside, this nifty little low-budget direct-to-vid horror item manages to be a great deal of enjoyably cheesy fun. It's directed with considerable rip-snorting verve by Joe Gayton, with a spooky, rousing, rattling score by J. Peter Robinson, dark, claustrophobic cinematography by Fernando Arguelles, funky make-up f/x by Image Animation, a cool lethal humanoid creature that's both scary and pitiable, and a nonstop breakneck pace. The solid cast do their best with their stock roles: tall, leggy, statuesque brunette beauty Claire Standsfield tackles her Ripley-like two-fisted tough chick heroine part with tremendous lip-smacking gusto while ubiquitous character actor John Diehl jerks it up nicely as the overbearing team leader. Bonus points are in order for the freaky and startling unexpected monster nightmare sequence. Granted, we're not talking work of art here, but this snazzy B-horror flick does the trick just the same in a pleasingly brisk and efficient enough manner.

It's a trifle, of course, and it IS hard to know what attracted Wes Craven to such a degree that he lent it an "Executive Producer" credit, but it does have some interesting touches. The first is the compassion it shows for the "monster". In fact, although many have made the "Alien" connection (mainly because of the underground tunnels and shafts), it really plays more like a variation on the "Frankenstein" myth; there is a scientist who wants to "play God" and a sad creature that is forced to become murderous (and his killing method owes more than a little to Cronenberg's "Rabid", too). Another interesting idea is the way all the characters are initially presented as either bland or obnoxious (and boy are the two male teenagers obnoxious!), only for most of them to reveal some redeeming side later on. And the gore fans will get some moments they can appreciate in this one, particularly an eyeball-piercing in close-up! Lance Henriksen reportedly said that this is one of those films that "pay your alimony", but at least he handles it like a pro and doesn't show any contempt for his audience. The film's worst part is the ending, which gets so far-fetched it's almost funny. But all-in-all "Mind Ripper" is worth one viewing. (**)

When the only reason to watch a movie is for Claire Stanfield naked buns (and they come very early and very quickly during a shower), you know that you've badly spent the cost of the rent. This movie boasts Wes Craven in the title (it's the executive producer in fact and one other Craven, Jonathan, is credited with part of the script of this mess), but it's mostly an Alien rip-off, placed in the typical underground military secret scientific laboratory, where a group of scientists, once led by Lance Henriksen, created the super-soldier of any bad-writer dreams: an almost unstoppable killing machine, that must feed over human brains to survive. There is only one unexpected moment in all the movie and it is a dream of the monster. A complete waste of talent.