Space Marines (1996)

User Rating:

3.4/10   

Director:

John Weidner

Writer:

Robert Moreland (writer)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

It's A Big Bad Universe ...

Plot:

Space pirates, led by diabolical Colonel Fraser, take over a cargo ship carrying anti-matter explosive and an important official...

Plot Keywords:

Space Marine | Pirate | Spiral Staircase | Elite | Laser Gun

Cast

Billy Wirth	...	Zack Delano
Cady Huffman	...	Dar Mullins
John Pyper-Ferguson	...	Col. Fraser
Edward Albert	...	Capt. Gray
Meg Foster	...	Cmdr. Lasser
Blake Boyd	...	Tex
T.J. Myers	...	Hologram
Michael Bailey Smith	...	Gunther
Ed Spila	...	Hot Rod
Sherman Augustus	...	Rudy
Bill Brochtrup	...	Hacker
Kevin Page	...	Lucky
James Shigeta	...	Ambassador Nakamura
John Mansfield	...	Vice Minister Adams
Sean Hennigan	...	Chuck

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

USA:95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Australia:MA | Germany:16 | Portugal:M/12 (video premiere) | UK:18 | USA:R (certificate #33001)

Filming Locations:

Dallas, Texas, USA

Company:

Green Communications

Trivia:

The futuristic looking assault vehicle used by the marines is in fact a somewhat modified Alvis Stalwart: a British amphibious truck of 1950s vintage.

Is there some sort of Central Casting for disposable goons?

The only reason to watch this cliché ridden piece of crap is to watch John Pyper-Ferguson chew up the scenery as the villain. He's great! The accent wobbles a bit from time to time though. It was the fashion when this movie was made that all the baddies in Hollywood movies had to have English accents. Charles Dance, Alan Rickman, and Jeremy Irons made a lot of money out of this sort of thing. John Pyper-Ferguson blows them all away.

As I said up top there, the rest of it is cliché-ridden tosh with little or nothing going for it. The plot (such as it is) is a war movie and has clean shaven Gung-Ho Marines blasting vast numbers of evil-looking, scruffy, unshaven bad-guys (sometimes in slow motion*) and has just had SF element nailed onto it because... I dunno, maybe they got the SFX cheap.

As soon as the Rookie is teamed up with the Beloved Old Sargeant at the start of the movie you know that a/. the BOS is going to be dead by the end of the reel and b/. the Rookie will have redeemed himself with a selfless act of valour by the end on the film.

As soon as battle-hardened, sexy, young Marine is teamed up with innocent, Liberal, female diplomat (they obviously hate each other's guts on sight) you know that a/. they will end up in bed and b/. the innocent Liberal female diplomat will be blasting evil-looking, scruffy, unshaven bad guys by the end of the second act.

The film ends weirdly. It's a very anti-climactic ending after all the pyrotechnics and mayhem that leads up to it. It just stops. Rookie shoots Evil guy dead and manages to get himself killed as well - somehow - it's not very clear quite what happens. Then there is a quick Marine and Diplomat in bed moment. Then suddenly a shot that was obviously done as a gag on set. Credits. Bizarre.

So if you like watching men in uniform shoot scruffy biker types so stupid they stand up in plain sight while millions of people shoot at them This is the movie for you. Where do these megalomaniac villains get all their disposable goons from anyway? Is there some sort of Central Casting for Bad Guys. "Hi I'm a Megalamonic Villain set on Global Domination, I'd like to hire 200 idiots who can't shoot fish in a barrel please".

* By the way. How is it in crap like this, bullets make big, messy holes in people, whereas grenades just toss them up in the air to do nice, graceful somersaults?

...and why are all spaceships fitted with an 'Auto Destruct' button - even freighters, as in this movie? Trucks don't have an auto destruct button, cars don't, planes don't - so why do spaceships? (Answers on a postcard please).