Movie | Screamers (all) | Pass

It should come as no surprise that I would get a little excited about news of a sequel to the scifi cult classic movie, Screamers. Certainly not the best movie ever, it's still a fun mix of Tremors, Pitch Black and Alien with a dash of Terminator. The 80s-style stop animation and cheesy effects were fun, there were enough plot twists to keep a casual observer interested and Peter Weller's gruff and grumpy performance really took it to another level.

But I had reservations when I found out the sequel was direct to video. Eh, I watched it anyway. It's a continuation of the story and does a nice job tying the previous elements together, with some new twists. There's more blood and gore, which was unnecessary and it's bit more towards the horror genre (think Pandorum). Still, if you liked the first for all the reasons I listed above, then you should check it out. Weller's out, but they tried to compensate by having the super cool Lance Henrickson in it for about 20 minutes. They should have had him in it from the start, but the rest of the cast is not half bad. And they don't seem to be embarrassed in the slightest by the ridiculous props (their space-age backpacks are clearly vacuum parts).

In the end, though, these two are for genre fans only. One thumb up and a Pass for both (the original being superior, of course).