#20 - Apollo 18

MOVIE:  Apollo 18 (2011)

OVERALL ENJOYMENT:  Not much!  Very little, in fact.

PLOT:  Supposedly released footage of the final apollo 18 mission reveals an alien presence on the moon.

GOOD POINTS:  Unique aliens, i guess.

BAD POINTS:  Constant breaking up of "found footage," constant breaking up of communications, constant loss of video feed due to camera being"off."  Doubtless done to enhance the "suspense," only ended up driving me nuts.

SPOILERS:  Why would an alien-infested, wounded guy pick up a camera and start filming another guy in his sleep?  Honestly?  Also, it's at least -300 degrees fahrenheit on the moon's surface, yet the astronauts, who are in spacesuits, repeatedly mention how much colder it's getting when they go into craters.  There's no atmosphere on the moon.  It's not any colder in the craters.  If there was any change in atmosphere at all, it would be warmer since the actual presence of any atmosphere would tend to warm things up.  But they still wouldn't feel it through the suits.  That's the whole point of having the spacesuits, to protect the wearer from the environment.  They aren't big, funny-looking raincoats!

IMPRESSIONS:  I really despise these "found footage" pieces of trash.  They save money on cameras, film, acting talent and special effects by making the film quality look "old and grainy" or repeatedly cut out while the camera is supposedly "off" so they don't have to show any actual action, or only a little of it.  There's long shots of darkness or nothing while voices pantomime shit happening offscreen that we can't see, so we're supposed to use our imaginations to fill in the gaps.  I couldn't even watch Blair Witch project because of that bs, and that was the first film that used this crappy style of filming, and the novelty of it sold a few tickets.  The novelty has long since worn off.  Trying to watch this movie was like trying to watch a bad B-movie while my cable tv kept cutting out.  It's just not worth the annoyance level.  This is why I dropped satellite TV, because we'd get a lot of storms moving through our area and the TV would repeatedly cut out and you'd miss what was going on.  Just spend money on the damn film, show the action on camera, stop making the audio cut out, and you might keep a few viewers.  Currently playing on showtime or something like that.  I'm not watching it again and I recommend a pass on this one if you're even remotely interested.  Not even worth it.  The "found footage" of the astronauts having a barbecue in their yards (how that got added to the supposedly released lunar footage makes no sense either) was more interesting than the actual film.

BONUS REVIEW:  "Creature" (1984).  Not a bad little sci-fi B-movie!  Not the same "Creature" as the one I reviewed earlier this month, this one has a crew of research scientists going to rescue the crew of an archaeological dig on Jupiter's moon, Titan.  unfortunately, when they get there, they discover the archaeological dig happening to find an alien zoo.  Several of the critters were still alive after 200,000 years.  And, understandably, a bit hungry.  Bit of nudity, 80's hair, Klaus Kinski, aliens and zombies!  Can't go wrong here!

OTHER NEWS:  Watching Elizabeth Shue in Piranha (2010).  Still looking hot after all these years!  lol  See you guys tomorrow night.