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Species (1995)
Species (1995)
1995 | Sci-Fi
Ahh Species. A film I loved to watch when I was a young teen for...research purposes...
It's a bit rubbish really though isn't it? Watching it again now, it's pretty much a bunch of characters talking their way through a manhunt, strung together by regular moments of nudity.
It's suitably corny, boasts some terrible CGI (effects that may have been good back in the 90s, I honestly don't really remember) but in spite of all this, it's still pretty entertaining.

It's cast boasts the likes of Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, Marg Helgenberger, Forest Whitaker, Michael Madsen, even a young Michelle Williams...it's pretty stacked. Natasha Henstridge of course plays the creature, and gives the role a sense of empowerment rather than exploitation.
The rubber suit aesthetic of the alien is pretty awesome (in the parts where it's not haunting CGI) and it has a pretty decent music score.

I fully see why a lot of people consider Species to be trashy, but honestly, it's a fun slice of 90s (as fuck) sci-fi horror. Enjoy it for what it is and just pretend the sequels don't exist.
  
Species II (1998)
Species II (1998)
1998 | Mystery, Sci-Fi
4
4.8 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Species II adds more of everything that made the first one such a success, but unfortunately with lesser results.

It obviously has a bigger budget this time around, the spaceships in the opening shots look pretty decent (even if they are plastered with product placement), it's has noticeably more gore, more nudity, more tentacles flying out of nipples, more Marg Helgenberger, more full body shots of the aliens, but have no doubt, this sequel is the epitome of guilty pleasure trash - it's obviously a bad film, but is so much goddam fun.
The bad CGI is a slight improvement on the first film, but I can respect the numerous practical effects in use, and the aliens seen near the end look both silly and quite horrific (good old H.R. Giger). The dialogue leaves a lot to be desired, but when you have lines like "They could fuck the human race into extinction" being thrown around, it hard to not ironically enjoy yourself.

Ultimately, Species II is a worse film than it's predecessor (which is hardly a masterpiece in the first place) but it's loud, dumb, gory, sci-fi action that equates to that age old saying - it's so bad, it's kind of good.