Why so much hype?

Better Late Then Never

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Even good old boy Wes Craven has associated himself with some rubbish in the past, and, it seems, present. If you've ever wanted to see a film which rips off ALIEN to the extreme, with the monster hiding in air vents, then don't even bother watching this one - try THE TERROR WITHIN instead, it's more fun. It hurts me to say that Lance Henriksen appeared in this film, and I really like him as an actor as well.A group of scientists inject a dying soldier with a drug which makes his muscles bulge, his tongue become pointed and his ears and hair fall off. He's called Thor, and he eats human brains. The monster is so laughable as to be totally unscary. He looks like some kind of lunatic wrestler, and even bears a passing resemblance to Yul Brynner. The film is your standard "walk around in the dark and get killed off one by one" affair, detracted by some dingy camera-work, uninspiring sets and possibly the most annoying person ever seen in a film (if you don't count that transvestite in THE FIFTH ELEMENT) in the character of Henriksen's son, who spends the film listening to heavy metal music and acting like a total loser. This is one of those actors who plays the same role in every film, anyone catch him in THE X-FILES? Don't bother.As if things couldn't get any worse, there are a number of ludicrous multiple endings where Thor comes back from the dead for one last attack...and another attack...and another attack. At this point I was praying for the film to end, my finger was hovering over the fast forward button and I was crying with relief in anticipation of the closing credits. But still it went on and on and on and on! My goodness, don't watch this garbage if you value your sanity.

"Wes Craven's Mind Ripper" is a surprisingly fun entry if it can only get around the clichés.**SPOILERS**Out in the desert, Jim Stockton, (Lance Henriksen) and a fellow scientist, Joanne, (Claire Stansfield) working for a company called Gentec, save the life of a seriously injured man, known as Thor, (Dan Blom) using an experimental virus. When he takes a turn for the worse, team leader Alex, (John Diehl) calls for help and reluctantly, Stockton, who quit three months earlier, heads for the bunker in company with his son Scott, (Giovanni Ribisi), daughter Wendy, (Natasha Gregson Wagner) and Wendy's boyfriend, Mark (Adam Solomon) in tow. When the virus turns him into a super-soldier and escapes into the complex, he begins to hunt down the team one-by-one. As the lone survivors of the assault meet up with Jim and his family, he is confronted with the realization of his work and what's happened to the experiment. When nothing seems to work against it, they devise a series of plans to put it down for good.The Good News: This here is a pretty surprising entry. The best thing about it is that there's a large amount of action present. This makes the film go by rather quickly with a brilliant pace. That's a great move, since there's always something going on with the film. The fact that the killer escapes into the facility within the first twenty minutes, despite being captured, experimented on and then argued over is a superb sign of the quality of the film's pacing. There's some great chases and encounters that lead from this, all of them good enough to either entertain, shock or up the suspense-factor. There's some nice jumps from the sudden appearance out of the darkness, including a masterful one in a darkened elevator shaft that is quite tense. That there's a lot of short encounters spread out is actually nice here, as it keeps moving forward rather than engaging in a couple super-long showdowns punctuated by long periods of inactivity. That's really important, as it even manages to put over the maniac's raging strength and brutality more so. There's even a plot about the invincibility it has, and are captured in two spectacular scenes. His regenerative powers are demonstrated by having his body expel first a knife, then shotgun pellets. They're done live and don't really have much of anything stopping them. The method of killing the victims is quite gruesome, and there's a few pretty cool deaths that result from it. Overall, a really fun and entertaining entry.The Bad News: There isn't really that much wrong with this one. One of the biggest ones against it is that there's way too much clichéd scenes, themes and ideas which come from other films that are plunked into this film. This here is pretty much filled with these kinds of scenes and are quite easy to spot as well. The usual stuff, including things such as the team leader's a raving psychotic, the rest of the crew are a bunch of panicky idiots, the high-tech equipment's faulty, and at the first sign of crisis, all the power fails, are utilized like clockwork. Still, these are just a small sampling of the kind of clichéd things popping up in the film. Even the surprise given in the second half, that the original scientific research intended to benefit mankind, the development of a virus capable of assisting the regeneration of human tissue, has been hijacked and corrupted by the military, who want a "super-soldier," is simply one of the most over-used plot points ever that shows up in simply every single movie of this type without exception. There's even a rather weird dream sequence that shows up which comes from the creature that is simply confusing. It's certainly out of the ordinary for that to appear, and it comes across as pointless other than to put in some more gore effects. Otherwise, these were the only real flaws with it.The Final Verdict: Even though it's incredibly clichéd and not that original, it's still a rather fun experience that can provide some nicely needed entertainment. Recommended to fans of this style of film or the just plain curious, while those who aren't that into the negatives aren't advised too strongly with it.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity

Okay, stop me if you've heard this one before. Your usual bunch of scientists doing morally dubious and ill-advised experiments in a secret subterranean laboratory create a super-strong brain-eating mutant named Thor (handsome, muscular Dan Blom, who's actually quite good) who gets loose and goes on a destructive rampage. Fortunately, the always reliable Lance Henrikson as a bitter, cynical doctor who quit the project a few months ago arrives back on the scene to help save the day. Strangely enough, Henrikson brings along his estranged, rebellious smartaleck metalhead son (a then unknown, pre-stardom Giovanni Ribisi, who's every bit as obnoxious as you think), lusty hottie daughter (the luscious Natasha Wagner, looking mighty fine in skimpy shorts), and the daughter's libidinous tool of a boyfriend (the supremely irritating Adam Solomon). Swell dad, eh? I think you can basically fill in the blanks as to what happens next.All kidding aside, this nifty little low-budget direct-to-vid horror item manages to be a great deal of enjoyably cheesy fun. It's directed with considerable rip-snorting verve by Joe Gayton, with a spooky, rousing, rattling score by J. Peter Robinson, dark, claustrophobic cinematography by Fernando Arguelles, funky make-up f/x by Image Animation, a cool lethal humanoid creature that's both scary and pitiable, and a nonstop breakneck pace. The solid cast do their best with their stock roles: tall, leggy, statuesque brunette beauty Claire Standsfield tackles her Ripley-like two-fisted tough chick heroine part with tremendous lip-smacking gusto while ubiquitous character actor John Diehl jerks it up nicely as the overbearing team leader. Bonus points are in order for the freaky and startling unexpected monster nightmare sequence. Granted, we're not talking work of art here, but this snazzy B-horror flick does the trick just the same in a pleasingly brisk and efficient enough manner.

This is Wes Craven at his worst! this is the very worst horror, if you can call it horror, you will ever watch, esp from one of the masters of horror Wes Craven, Poor Direction, Poor Acting, Poor Set, Poor Atmosphere makes this the biggest pile of rubbish ever! the bad guy is totally unconvincing, you couldn't even feel sorry for the guy! the gore, and horror involved in the film is laughable, it's just plain rubbish! the only good points i can think of is, It stars Natasha Gregson Wagner, Giovanni Ribisi, and Lance Henriksen, but not even that cast, could stop this from spiralling out of control, and into one of the worst horrors ever. If you still ain't watch it yet, don't bother, you'll only hate it.