| Species | | Cast : | Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Natasha Henstridge | | Director : | Roger Donaldson | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound | | Released Date : | July 07, 1995 | | DVD Released Date : | October 19, 2004 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 01, 2005 | | Summary | A remarkable and original proposal! | Content
 | The most remarkable science fiction movies in the nineties were undeniable Gataca, 12 monkeys, Species, Contact, Jurassic Park, The machine (an original French movie), The crow, Armagedon and The dark city. About Water world and Godzila is better not talk.
In this new century the cloning has meant a true twist of paradigm, and once more despite there were spread efforts on screen, certainly didn't leave notable traces.
Species' concerns turn around the remote but possible circumstance about a meteor that crashes against the Pole, from a very distant galaxy.
But it seems thousand years back a collision in Mars, determined the absolute collapse of living. After an expedition to the Red Planet three cosmonauts are invaded for a aliening way of live, being therefore the vector once they get back to the Earth
Even there are grotesque sequences and brutal bloody murders, a brilliant scientists command will become the implacable chasers to stop the impressive easiness of reproduction.
The cast is outstanding: Ben Kingsley, Forrest Whitaker, Michael Madsen, the attractive Marc Herlenberger and the ultra sensual Natasha Hensridge conform an interesting and entertained picture. Some double sense jokes and good cinematography.
|
| Rating | | | Date | May 28, 2005 | | Summary | Don't bother buying it. | Content
| This movie is nothing but cheap porn, don't bother its just an excuse to show off some ugly chicks (...)and just focuses on the straight male's want to see a naked woman. Anyone a fan of boys? Forget this movie completely. Trust me. You'll feel alot better and probably live longer ignoring this stupid, crap movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 24, 2005 | | Summary | Not Bad, But Stupid | Content
| Species isnt that great. That is all I have to say. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 01, 2005 | | Summary | Mating Season Begins | Content
| Species is a great science fiction action film. It benefits from an all star cast, a surehanded director, and cool special effects. And oh yeah, it helped launch the beautiful Natasha Henstridge into the stratosphere. What more could anyone ask?
A genetically engineered, shape-shifting creature with extraterrestrial intelligence called Sil (Henstridge) was created by a team of scientists, led by Xavier Fitch (Ben Kingsley), adopts the form of a beautiful woman to mate with humans and unleash a brood of offspring that will destroy mankind. Charged with stoping her are a team of experts, in various fields, who must put aside differences and work together. Joining Fitchn is bounty hunter Preston Lennox (Michael Madsen), anthropolgist Stephen Arden (future Doc Ock Alfred Molina), empath Dan Smithson (Forest Whitaker), and Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger) to round out the team.
Director Roger Donaldson (13 Days, No Way Out, and Dante's Peak) keeps things moving at a nice pace. Dennis Feldman's screenplay, may have a few problems to contend with, but things are so much fun--you really don't need to care all that much. The creature Sil is based on concepts by H.R. Gieger, the man also behind the look of Alien, looks darn good--although I do prefer looking at Sil's perfect human form. The film's true secret weapon though is the cast, who have no trouble selling the premise--even elevating it.
Even though MGM's first edition of Species was a no-frills disc, (save for a Gieger featurette) the special edition has problems too, that count against it. This edition takes basically the same audio-video transfer and adds a pair of audio commentaries to it. The first commentary is with director Roger Donaldson and actors Michael Madsen and Natasha Henstridge; and the second one is with director Donaldson, producer Frank Mancuso, Jr., visual-effects supervisor Richard Edlund, and creature and special makeup-effects creator Steve Johnson. The two tracks are ok, but not as good as I thought they would be. Big Shock There's a five-minute look at "Species III," again starring Ms. Henstridge, basically a promo for the worthless direct to video sci-fi channel sequel. A widescreen theatrical trailer for the original and some additional trailers/ads for various other MGM products tops off the DVD.
The film is a must see for genre fans. I just wish the bonus material were a bit more meaty. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 03, 2005 | | Summary | It's Pretty Good | Content
| The thing that amazes me about "Species" isn't the story, special effects, or musical score, it's the cast. You'd think that a movie with a fairly average sci-fi plot like this one couldn't muster the A-list actors that it did. However, "Species" comes with a solid cast that includes the wonderful Ben Kingsley(Ghandi), Michael Madsen(Reservoir Dogs), Marg Helgenberger(CSI, China Beach), Alfred Molina(Boogie Nights, Spiderman 2), and Forrest Whittaker(Phenomenon). It also introduces us to the lovely Natasha Henstridge, who is probably the main catalyst for so many men who love this film.
As stated earlier, the storyline is fairly standard. Man gets a message from space containing information on a DNA strand. It's mingled with human DNA and the result is a creature hellbent on destroying mankind by breeding with any man it can get its hands on in order to produce more alien offspring. In a nutshell, it's the end of the world as we know it thanks to a bunch of randy aliens.
The alien is a young child at the beginning of the film(Michelle Williams of Dawson's Creek). When the scientist(Kingsley) leading the team responsible for the alien child sees that it is not worth researching anymore, he decides to have her destroyed. But of course, she escapes, hitches a train ride, cocoons herself and rises out of the metamorphisizing goo as Natasha Henstridge minus clothing. She kills a train worker for clothes, then sets out to breed.
Kingsley gathers a group of professionals to help him hunt down the alien, who goes by the name of Sil. Sil manages to stay just one step ahead of the team as they trace her steps from body after body of men and predatory women. The ending is pretty stock, though it does leave a slightly silly window for a sequel(I haven't viewed either of the sequels).
The movie is fun to watch. The story is just interesting enough to keep you intrigued. You know what is going to happen in the end, but you still want to see how the team is going to finally catch up to and destroy Sil. The special effects are pretty good. H.R. Giger had a hand in designing the Sil creature, so expect something similar to the "Alien" creature here. There is plenty of eye-candy, but the nudity seems to work pretty good in this flick. Naturally, Henstridge's character spends a lot of time naked, but not so much that the film comes across as a late-night flick on Showtime or Cinemax. Only one of the nude scenes came across as awkward, and it involved a brief glimpse of Marg Helgenberger while she's having a fling with Madsen's character. The whole sequence seemed unnecessary. You'd have to be an idiot to not understand what was going on between the two.
I'd rent this flick before purchasing it. If you like somewhat cheesey sci-fi, then you'll probably enjoy this flick. If you just want a little titillation, there are plenty of films out there that can satisfy your cravings better than this movie. |
|
|
|
|
