Actuarial Science Movie Reviews

While the graphics and animation are extremely well done, the show is clearly targeted at a fairly young audience (8-13). Older viewers expecting a show with the sophistication of Starship Troopers will be disappointed. Each episode is more or less a 1/2 hour CGI movie that feels like a video game session (put a bunch of robots in an arena and fight it out with a bare semblance of a plot).

The film itself, though somewhat abstract, is compelling and absorbing. It is not just a science fiction film with a twist. It is a film that explores themes that are timeless: desolation, alienation (no pun intended), and loneliness. At times, these themes are palpable due to David Bowie's wondrously androgynous performance, which is heartbreakingly moving at times.

The plot is fairly simple. An alien, Davie Bowie, leaves his family on his dying and arid planet in search for water. He lands on earth and begins his project to send water to his devasted planet by amassing the wealth that he needs to do this. He patents numerous lucrative inventionsand eventually finds himself at the head of a world wide conglomerate. He joins up with a kindly, though stupid and vapid, woman who drinks gin like a fish, Candy Clark, with whom he begins a liaison of sorts. Yet, he is always lonely and melancholic, and like her, begins to spiral into an alcoholic haze, sometimes sidetracking him from his purpose here.

At some point, excruciatingly sad and lonely, longing for his family, he reveals himself to her for who he truly is, shedding his earthly appearance, only to be met with absolute horror and repugnance by her at the sight of him. She ultimately tries to understand him, but it is truly beyond her ken. He is infinitely sad at this and longs all the more for home.

On the threshhold of returning to his planet and loved ones, he is kidnapped by corporate raiders who take over his holdings, and it is here that the movie begins to disintergrate somewhat. Yet, it remains strangely hypnotic and compelling, and becomes a sort of "Lost Weekend" of betrayal, booze, and promises that will never be kept. A parable of wanting to belong, yet knowing that you truly never will. A story about wanting to go home, but knowing on some level that you truly can never go home again.

No attempt was made at all from what I could see to restore the original version for transfer to DVD. In fact it seems from what we viewed that they must have simply copied a not to great film copy over to DVD. The images are fuzzy at times and depth and clarity, which we have come to expect from DVD versions, is simply not there at all. The full screen version even seems to have cut some stuff out of the screen view in some scenes which leaves you guessing at what the actors are looking at.

If you have VHS version of this film, keep it instead and pass on this badly done DVD version! I am very unhappy with it. The only reason that I rated it a 3, instead of a 1, is that the film is not at fault, just the DVD treatment of it.

It's sad that Anchor Bay Entertainment and Touchstone Films chose not to not make any real effort to give this film the DVD treatment it so richly deserves. Two thumbs down on this DVD version!

Enter Miranda Clark (Chase Masterson), a dedicated social worker looking for a kidnapped child. She tries to enlist the local sherriff and doesn't get very far. Then she meets up with Cam, a young man who's parents entered Sammyville many years ago but never came out.

Chase is very engaging as Miranda. Her performance moves the action along. Miranda is dedicated to finding the truth no matter the cost. She and Cam sneak into Sammyville to discover the secrets it holds and to learn the answers she and Cam both need.

The DVD has a behind the scenes video montage, showing the real Sammy, who is even scarier than the movie Sammy. While they were filming Sammy was on the set making noise. He didn't like a scene they were filming, especially since the movie Sammy was about to execute a guy in cold blood. Sammy pulls out his gun but fortunately he thought better of killing the actors and headed off to the donut table. Yes indeed, Sammyville the town and the movie are not your average run of the mill places.

It is nice to see Chase Masterson active in a starring role, she certainly has the talent and the determination to prosper in Hollywood. The rest of the cast are relative newcomers but they all mesh well with Masterson's performance.

chuck2001

"A Town Has Turned To Dust" was a television play written in the 1950s, the heyday of live television drama (I can't recall if this was a Playhouse 90 offering). Serling's original script focused on a real-life case involving the lynching of an African-American man, with the complicity of local law enforcement officials. The network feared that this was too inflamatory and controversial to be produced in Serling's original form, so it was rewritten extensively. The version that *was* produced and aired in the 1950s changed the setting to New Mexico in the late 1800s, and changed the victim's character from African-American to Mexican immigrant. Rod Steiger played the local sheriff.

Rod Serling was extremely upset about these alterations, and felt that they had gutted his story, putting too much distance between audience and subject. The "old West" setting, in his opinion, dulled the impact and relevance that his play was intended to have. The play, as written, was not "allegory" at all -- it was a somewhat fictionalized retelling of recent (or current) events, whose impact came from its *contemporary* relevance.

I can't help wondering what Serling would have thought of this recent version, which now has two thick layers of reworking. It is no longer a "1950s lynching placed in a Western setting", it is now a "1950s lynching placed in a Western setting and moved to a Science Fiction setting." The setting -- and the relevance -- of Serling's original have been distanced even further from his original intention. In drawing the play further and further from its intended context, Serling's voice is increasingly muted.

In Serling's "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms," a trio of men in a National Guard tank on maneuvers near the Little Big Horn keep coming across signs that "Custer's Last Stand" is about to take place. Connors (Ron Foster) and McCluskey (Randy Boone) become convinced they are chasing the past, but Langsford (Warren Oates) believes they are crazy. Then McCluskey is shot in the back with an arrow. This episode harkens back to those days when Custer was still admired. "Uncle Simon" by Serling stars Cedric Hardwick as Simon Polk, an inventor who has kept his only heir, niece Barbara (Constance Ford) as his servant. The pair detest each other, and when he tries to strike her with a cane, Barbara pushes Simon down the stairs. Thinking she is finally free of her uncle, Barbara learns that his will stipulates she has to look after his last invention, a robot. This does not prove to be as much fun as you might think. Again, you will not find any classic episode of "The Twilight Zone" on this volume, so there is nothing that particularly recommends this specific DVD.

The other three episodes are average with "The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms" probably the best of the lot. Once again "Uncle Simon" is the real catch here. If your a true fan of the Twilight Zone, you certainly won't throw this disc on the floor for not being hot enough!