Millennium (1989)

After watching the boy, I attempted to go back into Arthurian mythology, but I couldn’t sit through my low budget selection. Instead, I turned to some sci-fi from my formidable days, the 1989 time travel flick Millennium.

Plot/ An NTSB investigator seeking the cause of an airline disaster meets a warrior woman from 1000 years in the future. She replaces the people from airplanes before they crash with corpses with the same features.

Time travel movies can often be a mixed bag, and this one is no exception. A low budget sci-fi gem from the 1980s, this one actually has an interesting storyline and takes on time travel in an intriguing manner. The performances are solid, that cast is a fine mix, the scripting thought-out and layered, and for the era and budget, the effects are not that bad. Yes, there is some campiness and some of the elements are a touch over-the-top, the ending leaves a bit to be desired, and at one glance, you can tell the movie was shot in the 1980s, but those flaws do not bring the movie down. In the end, this is a good but not groundbreaking or memorable time travel film. Sure, it could have been better and the ending does hurt the overall feel, but for what it is, the movie is better than most of the low budget stuff that is forced upon us today.

Seven Below (2012)

With Halloween just two days away, I decided to kick back and relax and see what I could find on Netflix. There are some flicks that I have passed over in the past, but could slide in this week. Before I get to my review for 7 Below, I would be remiss if I did not mention the passing of former Velvet Underground front man, and punk poet Lou Reed. Reed was an inspiration for me, and his CD, The Raven, is a perfect soundtrack for Halloween. Here is a sample.

Plot/ a group of strangers are trapped in a time warp house where a terrible event transpired exactly 100 years prior.

Now I know why I had bypassed this flick for so long. This one was not really worth the time I invested in watching it. A thriller, this one suffers from some head scratching flaws. From poor scripting and dialogue, to terrible sound quality, to uneven performances, this one scuttles the small creativeness allowed for in the storyline before it can get started. More importantly, as a ghost story, it truly falls flat and produces nothing more than a slowly paced and boring thriller. If you are reading this stay away… Stay far away.