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Slipstream (1989)


Cast:

Mark "Never escape the shame of the Star Wars Holiday Special" Hamill is Will Tasker
Bill "James Cameron kills me in most of his movies" Paxton is Matt Owens
Ben "At least I was in film where Natasha Henstridge was naked" Kingsley is Avatar
Robbie "I'm in most of the Pierce Brosnan 007 movies" Coltrane is Montclaire
Kitty Aldridge is Belitski
Bob "I was in Jurassic Park" Peck is Byron


What the box says:

In a post apocalypse world racked by devestaing winds, two lawmen fight a renegade bounty hunter as they chase a fugitive into the deadly jetstream and across the atmosphere. Stellar performances.


Plot:

I cannot in good faith not let any Luke Skywalker jokes escape. You have been warned.

A plane is in flight. We learn that man ruined the Earth. Disasters destroyed most of the planet before leading to massive windstorms, called the Slipstream, ravaging what is left.

Byron, the business suit clad guy, is being chased by the plane. Mark Hamill shoots some sort of hook through Byron’s arm. Byron is arrested and taken aboard the plane.

A cantina scene ensues. Bill Paxton arrives and feels up a waitress. Later, the charming Hudson tries hitting on Belitski, or as I think of her, Surly Chick. Paxton makes some small talk with Mark Hamill who confiscates Paxton’s weapons arsenal.

Paxton learns that Byron killed a man. He gets very interested when learning about the very large reward.

Paxton manages to steal Byron away from Skywalker.


I've never heard of the Millennium Falcon. Is it a fast ship?
Surly Chick tries to distract him by offering to let him plumb unknown depths. While distracted, Paxton gets shot with one of Skywalker’s poison darts. Some guy knocks the very blonde cop down. Paxton escapes with Byron unaware of the radio tracker in his blood.

Paxton and Byron fly off in Paxton’s plane. Scenic view ensues. Byron eventually bursts into poetry. A Pseudo Duran Duran assails our ears.

They fly to Turkey. Paxton goes into a bathhouse to pick up some of his stuff. The idea Bill Paxton lives in a bathhouse run by Robbie Coltrane is almost Lovecraftian. Somehow, Byron manages to get away. Paxton finds his prisoner has just healed a little blind boy.

They fly away.

Surly Chick and Skywalker are tracking through the forest. They find Robbie Coltrane fresh from the bathhouse with his cronies. They would be arrested until a gunfight breaks out and the Skywalker shoots them all. It is as if he has fallen to the Dark Side of the Force.

The cops are in flight again. To Hamill, the law is everything. He makes Dirty Harry look like a slacker.

Back to the flight of the Paxton, he is flying low enough to the ground to spy a chick dancing around naked. Byron asks Paxton about his dreams. They camp out at night. Byron is acting awfully strange, even stranger than before. Paxton awakens to find Byron’s hands around his neck. The prisoner explains he was checking for any signs of poisoning.

Surly Chick is flying while the Skywalker sleeps.

Elsewhere, Paxton realizes he is lost. They land and discover a wind-worshipping cult. Byron checks on a wounded villager. Apparently, marauders attacked them. Paxton even helps, too.

Byron is able to free the village chief who was trapped under a large rock. The chief isn’t exactly happy that Byron helped at all. A few chicks crawl over the Chief who demands that Byron be tested. Well, the nutty chief promptly dies.

Paxton awakens to find he is hogtied.

The village has tied Byron to a giant kite. This is the test. God will free Byron if it is part of the plan. The Slipstream brought them and will take them.

The cops are still flying around. Surly and Skywalker find Paxton. They learn the villagers have tied Byron and are flyi8ng him on a giant kite. They agree to free him.

Paxton finally learns that Byron is an android. You would think a guy who acts so strange, is interested in helping people, speaks poetry, and can heal people would draw some attention.

Paxton sails up to Byron to cut him loose.


Hail to the KING, baby...
Surly parasails up to stop him. The kite cuts free of the rope tying it to the ground and crashes.

Ground crawling ensues. Byron helps Paxton into a cave with Surly. The android goes back out to find Skywalker and returns with Ariel, one of the wind chicks. Skywalker’s grapple is found. They can only hope he wasn’t eaten by a Wampa.

Paxton oozes on the charm to no avail. Byron returns. The windstorm continues raging as everyone decides to go on. Surly is going to look for Luke.

Byron, Paxton, and Ariel head for the plane. They repair it and head for the village Ariel originally came from because it is nearby.

Aerolite fu ensues. The plane stalls as they approach the village. The plane crashes. Our characters trek not anywhere near where we saw some huts. They enter a secret tunnel. Ariel goes through the massive door and leaves Paxton and Byron behind at first. She brings them in.

Ok, somehow, this movie has gotten into Zardoz territory. It’s a bunch of old folks in evening wear, like the Renegades in Zardoz. In the museum interior, Byron is ranting about something. He starts talking about his master, and Ariel is getting really turned on or impressed.

Later, Byron and Paxton are dressed to the nines, and everyone is partying like the last 2 digits of the year are 99. Some old folks are swinging. Not like that, in actual swings on play set. The people are terrified of the outside world. The party is dying faster than my Senior Prom when I was third person left.

Byron is high stepping with Ariel. It is like some twisted version of Riverdance. Byron shows Paxton how to cut a rug old school. Fred Astaire fu ensues.

Paxton and some strumpet ride his wild Hudson. Contents are under pressure.

In a zoo diorama, Byron and Ariel are getting to know each other and impersonating lions and tigers.

The two couples bask in their respective afterglows.

Paxton discovers his strumpet is gone.

The council is debating the 2 strangers. Ariel reveals that Byron is fixing the air conditioning. She reveals that only Byron is an android. The council may force them to stay forever. Some want to reveal their existence to the world. Byron’s potential could help the community.

Paxton finds Byron who is ecstatic about sleeping and dreaming. He is sure of where more androids are living. Paxton is letting Byron go, not going to turn him in for a bounty.

Surly and Skywalker break into the community.

Paxton wants Byron to be his business partner. Byron reveals that Ariel wants him to stay. The android is having a hard time deciding what to do.

Skywalker demands the Council turn over Byron. He pistol whips some guy for not turning the android over immediately 3 seconds after demanding. This Skywalker is getting almost as violent as Anakin around the Sand People.

Some guys go to retrieve Byron for Skywalker.

Surly shoots Paxton with a dart. He handcuffs her and learns the dart was the cure to the poison. Suckin’ face ensues. Paxton goes after Skywalker.

Byron is brought to the maniacally evil Skywalker. Paxton arrives with an assault rifle. A gunfight ensues. Skywalker shoots Ariel. Byron holds her as she dies. Paxton is shot, too.

Byron goes after Skywalker.

Skywalker gets his sniper rifle from his plane. He manages to shoot Byron which only manages to piss off the android even more. Skywalker tries running over him with the plane.

Byron is sucked into the engine of the plane and crawls his way through to strangle Skywalker. The plane begins a power dive. Byron trashes the controls. The plane is getting closer and closer to the ground. Byron manages to pull up on the controls at the last possible second. Skywalker is laughing even crazier than before. Byron crashes the plane into the side of mountain. Bet you didn’t see that coming.

Byron walks away from the wreckage. Paxton is waiting for him. Byron is sure he is too dangerous to be human. He will search for where the other androids are.

Paxton and Surly are together. They fly off past a lot of weird shaped hot air balloons.


What I say:

After some sort of ecological disaster, the population centers have been destroyed. The world now contends with massive, complex streams of winds. Shouldn't an environmentally ruined world look like it? Having a post-apocalyptic movie not set in a desert is unique. Most of the background looks like the green hills of Scotland or Ireland. Slipstream reminds me a lot of Zardoz without the screwed up 70s pseudo-philosophy and lack of middle aged diaper clad men in thigh high boots.

Slipstream tried to be an original sci-fi movie. Most sci-fi movies have some sort of galactic federation or a devestated future. In a way, it has a different view of the ruined Earth. In fact, I can't escape the idea of how it reminds me about Zardoz without the insanity of Sean Connery. The other movie is Midnight Run with Robert De Niro as a bounty hunter. Bill Paxton has to keep rescuing Bob Peck not because he's trying to escape but keeps getting into trouble. Those movies don't completely jell into Slipstream. However, they do have that sort of vibe.

Most post-apocalyptic movies have guys wearing shoulder pads and have cool names like "Humongous" or the "Aytollah of Rock and Roll". This movie gives us a guys named Matt, Byron, and Will. Slipstream is a artistic European version of a post apocalyptic movie. I don't mean that an Italian director did it. The movie could have been bad but at least been entertaining. This is some sort of pseudo-environmental sci-fi movie.

Slipstream had a fairly decent budget that Charles Band could have used for several Puppet Master movies. The locale shots are pretty impressive. The aerial shots are far better than you expect in such a movie. Those shots may not be repeated like the training scenes in Pocket Ninjas or the police driving down that one stretch of road Plan 9 from Outer Space. With the number of flights in Slipstream, it almost seems having 5 or 6 scenes that are in midair is worse than reusing footage over and over.

Think about some of the movies the actors have worked on. Mark Hamill either gained popularity from Corvette Summer or playing Luke Skywalker. Bill Paxton was in James Cameron's Aliens. (Sorry, never saw Titanic and don't intend to...) Bob Peck starred in Jurassic Park. Ben Kingsley was in Ghandi, but I remember him more for Species. (Could any guy really forget such a thought provoking movie with Natasha Henstridge? Thought provoking sounds better than "checking out her rack.")

A lot of the actors only have cameos. Robbie Coltrane shows he has more depth than in the Pope must Die(t) or Nuns on the Run. I didn't spot Ben Kingsley or F. Murray Abraham with them only having a couple of minutes at screentime at most. I wasn't that interested in spotting anyone in cameos.

It is easy to say only Harrison Ford was the only actor that suceeded outside of Star Wars. Carrie Fisher made more of a name as screenwriter than for her tour-de-force performance in Hollywood Vice Squad. Mark Hamill will never escape the Guyver jokes. He should be thankful that the jokes aren't about this movie. A blond Mark Hamill trying to kill Bill Paxton. I thought he looked awfully fey in Star Wars Holiday Special with more eye makeup than Tammy Faye Baker. It is hard to picture Luke Skywalker as a villain excluding his cartoon voice work, the Trickster on the Flash series from the early 90s, and Cock Knocker in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Ok, he plays a villain more often than I originally thought. However, Will Tasker in this movie is the kind of guy that would burn the village to save it even if he had to kill the villagers in the process.

Bill Paxton seems to only have 2 acting speeds: manic or no personality. Near Dark and Aliens show he can do a good manic just about to snap at any time. If you contrast either of those roles with Twister, I could hardly believe it is the same man. He showed no personality whatsoever in that movie. The flying cow was a more expressive character. Too bad the computer effects weren't able to digitally convey emotion for Mr. Paxton.

I had forgotten Bob Peck was in Jurassic Park. However, he seems to do a good job at impersonating Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek: the Next Generation.) An android struggling with trying to comprehend humanity. Stronger and more intelligent than people, he also has a deep love of Fred Astaire movies. It would have far too much for him to enjoy Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Normally, I ignore mentioning the director unless I have something interesting to bring up. (Don't laugh, it happens every few months.) Slipstream was directed by Stepen Lisberger. I'm sure you are wondering who that is. Does an early 80s computer movie by the name of Tron ring a bell? Tron never was as big a hit as hoped though it didn't flop anywhere as bad as some of the epic failures of the 80s like Howard the Duck and Leonard Part 6.

This is one of those movie that show up a lot in DVD compilations almost as much as Jesse Ventura's Abraxas, Brandon Lee's Laser Mission, or the numerous public domain movies. They aren't really public domain. Look at how the copyright getting screwed up on Night of the Living Dead has led to so many different version of it. The cheaper DVD seem to have the same problem. The 50 movie packs or the $1 movies just keep getting marketed over and over. Here's a little example. I've seen at least 6 different DVD version of Fist of Fear, Touch of Death.



2 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"This isn't rabbit. This is squirrel."
"Lets go, Cochise."
"Generosity of women never ceases to amaze me."
"Why didn't you tell me you were a toaster?"
"I'll curse you last. You got us here."
"If dancing ain't dirty, it ain't be done right."
"Ariel slept with a robot?"


Morals of the Story

Criminals can easily survive 500 foot falls.
Planes park right outside bars.
CDs are still popular in the post apocalypse.
People live in mud huts but have super complex androids.
Maniacal Mark Hamill Laughter is truly frightening.