Movies

"Species" has a hopelessly derivative premise that makes it a completely unnecessary view for anyone who has ever seen "Alien" or "The Predator" (or their sequels), but it does have some things going for it. To be short and specific: Natasha Henstridge is dreamily, extraordinarily beautiful; the rest of the cast is distinguished, with a very cool Michael Madsen stealing the show; the special effects are convincingly yucky; and the pacing is fast and unrelenting, with the "search-and-destroy" team being always only one step behind the pursued alien "monster". A forgettable film, but not nearly as bad as many reviews have suggested. (**)

While "Species" has as its actual plot a group of scientists looking for an escaped alien specimen - did somebody say "Alien" ripoff? - I derived that the whole movie was really an excuse to show off Natasha Henstridge's breasts. If in fact that was the film's purpose, then they did a pretty good job with it (seriously, not many movies get sexier than this). If the flick was supposed to have any real purpose beyond that, then I don't know what they were thinking. Just accept that the movie probably got made with the aim of sexually arousing teenage boys, and it'll be perfectly easy to enjoy the flick. Personally, I wouldn't mind getting slinky with that alien babe! Also starring Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Marg Helgenberger and Forest Whitaker. I don't know whether or not they want to stress this film when discussing their careers.

It's kind of sad this one didn't get better reviews really, it is a pretty good movie for its time...I've waited 27 years to review it, so my bad too...with Ben Kingsley in it this should have had much better receptions, he always gives everything he has into a character. In Species he is sort of the nemesis to the young girl who was 'grown' from alien DNA sort of. The special effects are pretty good, so I'd like to see the score go up a bit, even though I know it won't after all this time...