Shocking Dark

release year: 1989
genre: cheap sci-fi/horror ripoff
viewing setting: home DVD 9/2/17

synopsis: A military team investigates loss of contact with a scientific base.

impressions: This was horrible. Aside from being a rip-off (of both Aliens and Terminator) it wasn't even a sensible ripoff - they just copied key scenes which were out of context in the bigger picture of what was going on...whatever the hell that was. Sometimes, characters' actions in one scene had nothing to do with what had happened in the previous scene. To be honest, the most excitement during this movie was when my brothers and I paused the movie and turned on the lights and chased a cockroach around while spouting lines from 1980s action movies. The movie looked like it was filmed in some steam tunnels (and a generic control room.) One character had a bad sunburn on (just) one sie of his face. The soldiers' weapons were just shotguns. The monsters looked like cheap rubber costumes. The robot had varying levels of damage resistance which were totally inconsistent. And, at the end...time travel! And a remote control that can somehow destroy a robot. WTF?

overheard: "I think the best part of that movie was when we stalked the roach."

acting: Nope.

final word: Bad would-be ripoff of multiple better movies.

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