If you find yourself with 15 min invested into watching this movie and wondering if you should stick it out to see what happens.... Run, nothing happens.
Having actually watched this entire movie brings me face to face with the cold hard reality that I need to develop my social life, get a steady girlfriend...
I'll go Google - Russian Brides -
5 Reviews
Not sure if this is the same movie, or not
seybernetx13 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Either the Plot Summary is wrong, or this movie went through a whoole lot of editing before being released.
Anyway, I downloaded a movie with the title "Dark Side of Heaven" from Amazon. The movie I saw had four main characters, boarding an huge, abandoned spaceship, planning to take it back to earth(?) for salvage. Once all four are on board, the find a swimming pool, so they decide to strip to their underwear and take a swim. After they swim a while, a glowing asteroid (or moon) (or something) buzzes the skylight over the pool, so they all quick get dressed. Next they find a church, so they stop there for a while, and the captain goes up into the pulpit to give a sermon about how there is no god. Then they all leave the church.
I could go on, but most of the movie is like that. Something happens, every one reacts, then everyone just forgets about it. Eventually, the crew figures out that as soon as they were aboard, the autopilot on the ship took off for the other side of the universe, maybe. Why the ship needed people on board before leaving the solar system is never mentioned. The people had no control of the ship, and for the most part have no meaningful interaction with the ship.
Under other conditions, I would guess this was a student film, but I would like to think a movie has to have a bit more to recommend it than an A from film school to make it to Amazon Instant Video.
PS: I'm not sure who to blame, but the copy I watched was all but unintelligible in a lot of places. After a while, I just quit trying to understand what the cleaning robots were trying to say.
Anyway, I downloaded a movie with the title "Dark Side of Heaven" from Amazon. The movie I saw had four main characters, boarding an huge, abandoned spaceship, planning to take it back to earth(?) for salvage. Once all four are on board, the find a swimming pool, so they decide to strip to their underwear and take a swim. After they swim a while, a glowing asteroid (or moon) (or something) buzzes the skylight over the pool, so they all quick get dressed. Next they find a church, so they stop there for a while, and the captain goes up into the pulpit to give a sermon about how there is no god. Then they all leave the church.
I could go on, but most of the movie is like that. Something happens, every one reacts, then everyone just forgets about it. Eventually, the crew figures out that as soon as they were aboard, the autopilot on the ship took off for the other side of the universe, maybe. Why the ship needed people on board before leaving the solar system is never mentioned. The people had no control of the ship, and for the most part have no meaningful interaction with the ship.
Under other conditions, I would guess this was a student film, but I would like to think a movie has to have a bit more to recommend it than an A from film school to make it to Amazon Instant Video.
PS: I'm not sure who to blame, but the copy I watched was all but unintelligible in a lot of places. After a while, I just quit trying to understand what the cleaning robots were trying to say.
Unconvincing science fiction tale
Leofwine_draca18 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
DARK SIDE OF HEAVEN is a cult film from Scottish director Robbie Moffat. I previously know him from a couple of historical adventures he made, which by their very nature were more convincing than this lame science fiction wannabe. The film is set on a huge space ship and follows the crew in their day-to-day existence, but it was just filmed in a simple office and attached cafe.
For his historical films, Moffat just needed a few costumes and some unspoilt countryside in which to shoot. Here, nothing convinces for a second, and the budget doesn't stretch to much in the way of effects aside from some high school-style stuff. The CGI budget is about the same as an average episode of an old BBC sitcom from the 1980s; RED DWARF did it better. The performances are, shall we say, tongue in cheek. The PVC costumes are a hoot, and there are some talking-to-camera chair interviews that seem to be inspired by BIG BROTHER.
For his historical films, Moffat just needed a few costumes and some unspoilt countryside in which to shoot. Here, nothing convinces for a second, and the budget doesn't stretch to much in the way of effects aside from some high school-style stuff. The CGI budget is about the same as an average episode of an old BBC sitcom from the 1980s; RED DWARF did it better. The performances are, shall we say, tongue in cheek. The PVC costumes are a hoot, and there are some talking-to-camera chair interviews that seem to be inspired by BIG BROTHER.
Wow This was really bad
djg3251425 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I have Amazon prime fire so I tend to watch lots of streaming entertainment because all that is on TV sucks. I saw the rating of 5.3, which often means decent to good. Not so in this case. Four main characters, four terrible actors and I mean really bad. A story that is so convoluted and pointless one can't help but wonder why anyone would fund it. Oh wait! Probably cost next to nothing since it looks like it was shot at the local community center. Supposed to be a huge spaceship. Not even barely credible. Directing is terrible, acting terrible, story terrible, you get my point. I watch tons of sci-fi but I would classify this as plain garbage not sci-fi. I have to be honest. I didn't watch the entire movie. I couldn't. Lasted maybe 10 minutes which was 9 too many.
A Random Offering of Dull Scenes
tabuno8 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
5 November 2017. After some decent opening celestial special effects with the opening credits along with some acceptable music, this movie starts with inconsistent photographic effects. As a warning of the dumbed down focus on this overly ambitious movie, one of the astronauts pushes the red button when told not to. There's no introduction at the start as four people enter a large spacecraft and they first thing they want is a shower along with a light, tipsy soundtrack that is disconnected to the tone of the scene and then they go swimming. This cheesy beginning has nothing about Stanley Kubrick about it. Why are these people on this spaceship? The beginning of the movie is a recreational outing instead of going to the bridge and getting control of the situation as some crew member suggested earlier. It's not until five long minutes into the movie that the audience is told that the mission of this crew is to bring the ship back for scrap. The emotional reaction of the crew after the first big surprise is unconvincing with their relative lack of concern. There is the use of a plasma ball as something that's supposed to be mysterious and futuristic by a door which only provokes mild distain as plasma balls are really toys for elementary school children in our early 21st Century. It's thus a 300-year old artifact on the ship.
The acting is amateurish something that one might find in a high school production as well as the quality of the set design and cinematography. There is a cheap feel to the whole film. The attempt at some deep substantive debate on religion and God in the 24th Century seems out of place this early in the film with more pressing matters to address. The awkward scene is seems either an act of desperation or an unsuccessful attempt to look sophisticated. As for the crew, it there's very little connection on screen between these characters almost as if they were randomly dropped into their roles each reading from a script with little direction and connectivity. This is sort of a mishmash or word salad that is until the script dictates introductions after supposedly the crew has been together for three years. The crew member reactions to various conflicts at times are inconsistent or hypocritical. All this occurs within the first ten minutes of the movie. Later on, more background information is revealed in an untimely and seemingly unreasonable order, information that the crew would have known years ago or information about the space vessel they are on. The unusual use of crew member video journal logs about themselves seem out of place, overly cute, something better presented through the unveiling of the story itself, instead of some supposedly new "innovative" film technique.
The crew discovers and gets excited over two comedic robotic vacuum cleaners something that the audience however might be less than enthused about. The movie descends into a parody of the old by now quaint and dated Doctor Who television series of the 1960s and 1970s. There really isn't anything that could be called a real engine room on the ship, though there is some sort of basement with a lot of pipes and a plastic skeleton. Towards the end of the movie there's even the use of something like unflattering flaky paper wiring stuff in place of fiber optics for connectors for running the ships engines.
The film seems to just wander from one scene to another scene. As a result, the movie drags without much drama or intrigue, nothing really to maintain the interest of an audience. The acting wobbles as the script has the performers almost having to make up motivation and situational presentations on the spot without real artistry. There's no sense of urgency as the crew are flung far beyond any reasonable form of rescue. There are even female costume changes without any apparent reason and there's even drinking on the job, improbably even over-indulgence along with lame dancing and karaoke that don't really have anything to do with the movie except to add unnecessary time to it.
The plot reveal is actually a decent one, but it seems that the crew commander isn't really that convincing and the drama like the rest of the crew as well as the audience is likely to deflate as well. Later another crew member attempts to offer up some explanation of why he's there and what's happening which offers some inkling of interest but the crew laughs him off. It's hard to take a movie seriously when it seems like neither the director or the cast do either. Somewhat predictably the second half of the movie becomes darker and there's an almost silent era feel in one a scene supposedly four years later now and the relationships between crew members become more convoluted like a silent movie soap opera or a movie being shot in a home movie format and in turns into a torturous melodrama using bluesy rock music as an accompaniment. The movie then takes another turn towards a pseudo-existentialist inquiry into forgiveness and God along with perhaps even a fake beard and a reading from an AA meeting experience.
By the end of the movie, its tone, its focus of storyline, and its emotional center of the characters actually begin to coalesce into a more somber, intriguing, and almost appealing script and performance by the actors. Even the music becomes more in sync and enhancing the movement towards the climax. But unfortunately, with an extended attempt to pay homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) with its light show that had some promising effects then it begins to repeat itself and gets lost in some blackhole of its own with a last quite unsatisfying scene to end the movie. The epic sci fi space adventure, Interstellar (2014) has nothing to worry about here.
The acting is amateurish something that one might find in a high school production as well as the quality of the set design and cinematography. There is a cheap feel to the whole film. The attempt at some deep substantive debate on religion and God in the 24th Century seems out of place this early in the film with more pressing matters to address. The awkward scene is seems either an act of desperation or an unsuccessful attempt to look sophisticated. As for the crew, it there's very little connection on screen between these characters almost as if they were randomly dropped into their roles each reading from a script with little direction and connectivity. This is sort of a mishmash or word salad that is until the script dictates introductions after supposedly the crew has been together for three years. The crew member reactions to various conflicts at times are inconsistent or hypocritical. All this occurs within the first ten minutes of the movie. Later on, more background information is revealed in an untimely and seemingly unreasonable order, information that the crew would have known years ago or information about the space vessel they are on. The unusual use of crew member video journal logs about themselves seem out of place, overly cute, something better presented through the unveiling of the story itself, instead of some supposedly new "innovative" film technique.
The crew discovers and gets excited over two comedic robotic vacuum cleaners something that the audience however might be less than enthused about. The movie descends into a parody of the old by now quaint and dated Doctor Who television series of the 1960s and 1970s. There really isn't anything that could be called a real engine room on the ship, though there is some sort of basement with a lot of pipes and a plastic skeleton. Towards the end of the movie there's even the use of something like unflattering flaky paper wiring stuff in place of fiber optics for connectors for running the ships engines.
The film seems to just wander from one scene to another scene. As a result, the movie drags without much drama or intrigue, nothing really to maintain the interest of an audience. The acting wobbles as the script has the performers almost having to make up motivation and situational presentations on the spot without real artistry. There's no sense of urgency as the crew are flung far beyond any reasonable form of rescue. There are even female costume changes without any apparent reason and there's even drinking on the job, improbably even over-indulgence along with lame dancing and karaoke that don't really have anything to do with the movie except to add unnecessary time to it.
The plot reveal is actually a decent one, but it seems that the crew commander isn't really that convincing and the drama like the rest of the crew as well as the audience is likely to deflate as well. Later another crew member attempts to offer up some explanation of why he's there and what's happening which offers some inkling of interest but the crew laughs him off. It's hard to take a movie seriously when it seems like neither the director or the cast do either. Somewhat predictably the second half of the movie becomes darker and there's an almost silent era feel in one a scene supposedly four years later now and the relationships between crew members become more convoluted like a silent movie soap opera or a movie being shot in a home movie format and in turns into a torturous melodrama using bluesy rock music as an accompaniment. The movie then takes another turn towards a pseudo-existentialist inquiry into forgiveness and God along with perhaps even a fake beard and a reading from an AA meeting experience.
By the end of the movie, its tone, its focus of storyline, and its emotional center of the characters actually begin to coalesce into a more somber, intriguing, and almost appealing script and performance by the actors. Even the music becomes more in sync and enhancing the movement towards the climax. But unfortunately, with an extended attempt to pay homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) with its light show that had some promising effects then it begins to repeat itself and gets lost in some blackhole of its own with a last quite unsatisfying scene to end the movie. The epic sci fi space adventure, Interstellar (2014) has nothing to worry about here.
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