Stranded (2013)

Oh my lord, I've just wasted an hour and half of my life on this? I thought that if it had Christian Slater starring it might actually be alright, how wrong I was. I can't think of a worse film I have seen Slater in. Predictable story, wooden acting (that's the second time this week I've said this about a film featuring Brendan Fehr - check out my other reviews), embarrassing effects (wait till you see the external moon base shots which make "Blake 7" look totally authentic). Directed and written by Roger Christian with additional writing credits for Christian Piers Betley this 2013 84 minute sci-fi film hurt me to watch. The story sees a lunar base called Ark hit and damaged by a meteor shower, Carbon Monoxide is slowly filling the station leading to paranoia and hallucinations. In addition spores on the meteor are carrying some weird alien virus, the person in charge of testing the spores accidentally cuts her finger and is infected by the spores leading to her getting pregnant and birthing an alien. The alien offspring bites a crewman producing an evil clone of the crewman. From here on in it's a survival sci-fi movie which doesn't bring thrills or spills but more moans and groans from the audience as they are let down turn after turn. As well as what I've mentioned already it was littered with obvious mistakes and plot holes - for example, it's announced that Carbon Monoxide is flooding into the ship but the computer read out says CO2 which is Carbon Dioxide - similarly the computer announces a storm approaching the moon but it doesn't actually have an atmosphere to have a storm on. Even as a fan of bad films this one rates low against my other reviews. Giving this 2 out of 10 seems too generous but I really didn't enjoy the film and wouldn't want my friends to suffer this pile of space cack.

This movie is so bad it is funny. What ever happened to setting up characters and a establishing a setting etc.? When did movies just get straight into the main plot (a ludicrously stupid plot with this film) right off the bat? You could honestly care less about anyone in the film from moment one. Their choices are completely stupid and make no sense. Why would the supposed Doctor take an unknown, apparent life-form aboard and not quarantine it immediately? Especially when the commander basically says to. Why would that doctor wait to quarantine it, and then still leave some out of quarantine for testing?? Why would another supposed scientist then reach for the broken petri dish said open sample of life-form is in and not think that she could cut herself?? Why was she only wearing latex gloves and no mask when handling said life-form?? Upon cutting herself on said container, why would she not immediately tell the doctor??? Why would they need only oxygen masks in an area of the ship that is exposed to space? Why did they not freeze instantly?? Why did someone then need a spacesuit in the same section of the ship at the same time??? And the others without were completely fine?????????????? This is only a fraction of the stupidity in the first 20 minutes of this movie. It goes on and on and on and on. Good for a laugh though that's for sure.

Having found this movie in a local secondhand store, I purchased the DVD, as the cover looked interesting enough, Christian Slater in a spacesuit where the glass of the face shield was broken, plus it was a Sci-Fi movie, so it had potential.And the keyword here was 'had'.This movie was bad on almost every account. The storyline was just ridiculous and ludicrous. It started out well enough, but when the pregnancy and the growth of the creature started to take place, it just went downhill fast, despite there being no gravity on the moon.The movie had a very b-movie from the mid 1980's feel to it, especially the lunar scenes, because the base looked like a badly constructed toy.As for the acting, well it was alright, nothing mind-boggling though. So don't expect anything in the league of academy award winning.Truth be told, this movie was so bad that I actually fell asleep and missed the last 15 minutes or so, I assume. Not that I am bothering to go back and find out what happened in those minutes, because the movie was just not worth it."Stranded" is a snoozefest and it is hard to find anything about it that makes it worth recommending to other viewers, unless, of course, you are a die-hard fan of someone on the cast list.

A mining company on the moon has one of its bases damaged by a meteor storm. Some of the rocks break open after finding their way into the station. Some sort of life form is detected; it multiplies rapidly. Communications are out; attempts to re-assert communications fail.Ava gets a knick on her finger through which she is infected. This gives rise to a rapidly accelerated pregnancy. She gives birth, but no one will believe her.Bruce Johns gets cloned by the aliens. It takes the Colonel and the Dr a long time to figure this out. In the meantime, they blame Ava and keep her locked up. After a pleasant chat, they let her go and enlist her help.The alien, as Bruce Johns, starts to shut down their oxygen supply system. They attempt a counter-strike, but this fails badly. Will their next attempt? Does anyone survive this one? ------Scores-------Cinematography: 4/10 Dark, with shadows placed so that significant things are hard to make out, but trivial objects are clear as day.Sound: 8/10 Reasonably good.Acting: 1/10 Zounds. Terrible. Brendan Fehr: better in Roswell or Bones or CSI:Miami; not all that believable as a staff physician on a moon base. Christian Slater: one of his worst performances ever. Amy Matysio: have not encountered her before, and this was a bad start. Michael Therriault: plays a weak, incompetent whom no one believes, and who is short on emotional stability. Why would such a character ever be hired for work in space?Screenplay: 1/10 Absurd dialog. Weak, derivative story. Logical mistakes aplenty.SFX: 0/10 Terrible. The opening sequence with the meteor storm was laughably bad. Creature effects were ridiculous.