Crawlspace (2012)

This is a very well done grade B film in the tradition of well crafted, unpretentious projects by people who don't mind making a good movie while they are at it. In the '50's they were usually noires, and this movie has some of the elements of a mystery. The acting is good, the characters are well developed and they don't act like idiots. The mystery is not too difficult to work out, but the action is more about how it will play out, who will survive and who you want to survive. The explosions and splatters are graphic. One of the reasons the mystery is easy to figure out is that there are lots of little incidental touches that turn out to be clues, and they help to create the atmosphere and the personalities.

We're told by the writing at the beginning of 'Crawlspace' that all contact with a top secret Australian military base has been lost (don't you just hate it when that happens?) and now, the only thing left to do is send in a platoon of gruff, rough-and-ready soldiers (think that squad of 'Colonial Marines' from 'Aliens') armed with motion trackers (think those 'motion trackers' the Colonial Marines used in 'Aliens') to see what's gone wrong.Of course Aliens had about an hour of screen time before the Marines arrived. In that time we were shown who was who and character was developed. In Crawlspace, we're just shown them in a helicopter arriving at the facility. Of course there's the cocky one (think Hudson from Aliens) and the tough female one (think Vasquez from Aliens) and the dependable one (who, in my opinion, was Australia's answer to Jason Statham).Once inside the base they creep around tunnels and air ducts (think a cross between the air ducts Newt leads Ripley through at the end of Aliens, only with those circular doors that were being closed behind Captain Dallas in Alien) and other sets that look straight out of the colony on LV-426. Then, while doing so, we're treated to some 'first person' shots showing our heroes' gun barrels that make you feel like you're playing Doom while some of the lines the characters speak are directly lifted from Aliens (in particular the scene where the Colonial Marines first get attacked under the Cooling Towers and their motion trackers are going crazy).So, what's waiting for our Aussie Colonial Marines? Well, there's a couple of scares where the base's locals jump around ahead of them (the way Newt did when the Colonial Marines first found her in Aliens) then they meet a Gorillagram, who comes out of a smoky background the way some xenomorphs do in Aliens. But then the whole film turns into something more like Scanners.There's a couple of nice twists in the tale that you might not see coming. All in all this film is too average to be that memorable, which is a shame, because Australia is gaining quite a nice reputation for coming up with films that are a little bit different to Hollywood's output.Watch if you really want to (or have scratched your Aliens DVD and can't be bothered to buy a new one just yet).

In 1966 the Australian and U.S. Governments established Pine Gap, a top secret research facility in the remote Australian outback. Fifteen hours ago all contact with the facility was lost, cause unknown. Then there are messages telling that the prisoners have escaped. Three helicopters with a group of elite soldiers are sent to rescue the scientists and eliminate the dangerous prisoners. Commander Romeo (Ditch Davey) leads the team formed by Fourpack (Eddie Baroo), Wiki (Peta Sergeant) and Kid (Fletcher Humphrys) that is mysteriously attacked by strange creatures in the underground. When Romeo meets the amnesic prisoner Eve (Amber Clayton), he protects her compromising their mission. When his team questions who Eve is, Romeo tells that she is his wife that died years ago in Paris. When they find the scientists Darious Caesar (Nicholas Belt), Emily (Ngaire Dawn Fair) and Matthews (Samuel Johnson), they learn that the scientists are developing powerful psychic soldiers in the facility. Who is Eve? Will the soldiers succeed in their assignment?"Crawlspace" is a claustrophobic movie with a promising idea, good acting but poor beginning and conclusion. The story begins without any development, with a group of soldiers breaking in a facility in the outback of Australia. The viewer does not know whether the story happens in the present, past or future; how is the government of this society; and who are the prisoners (criminals, political). The action is reasonable and when Eve opens the body bag and is surprised with her discovery, the viewer never knows who was there (might be the alien in her recollection, but it is not clear). What Romeo did to his wife and why is also confused and not clear. Last but not the least, the conclusion is totally disappointing. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Fortaleza Secreta" ("Secret Fortress")

'CRAWLSPACE': Two Stars (Out of Five)An ultra-low budget Australian sci-fi/horror flick about a team of special forces soldiers sent in to a secret military compound underground to rescue a group of scientists there. They find a woman with no memory of who she is or how she got there and something much deadlier that is unknown in origin. The film was directed and co-written (with Adam Patrick Foster and actor Eddie Baroo) by Justin Dix (a special effects and makeup artist making his feature film directing debut). Baroo stars in the film with Ditch Davey, Amber Clayton and Peta Sergeant (one of my favorite new actresses, to look at at least). The movie is one of those 'wannabe' sci-fi monster flicks that you can tell is heavily influenced by bigger and better films. It's pretty bad but given it's limited resources it's understandable. A special forces team is sent in to a secret military compound underground (known as Pine Gap) to find and rescue a team of scientists there. The compound was attacked by something but it's unknown what it's attackers were. The soldiers find a young woman in the compound named Eve (Clayton) who has no memory of who she is or what she's doing there. The leader of the military unit (Ditch Davey) thinks he knows who Eve is but the woman he thinks she is drowned some time ago (or at least he thinks she did). It's clear that the scientists were performing some kind of deadly experiments there and something very powerful has been unleashed. The movie is really just a much smaller-scale and much lower budget 'wannabe' 'ALIENS' film (one of my all time favorite movies). It has a team of soldiers in a small claustrophobic base and monsters (of some kind at least). It's of course not one-fifth the film that the classic and epic James Cameron masterpiece is but I can almost admire it's effort. I really just watched the film to see Peta Sergeant. She's not as hot here (playing a soldier named Wiki) as she was in the 2012 campy sci-fi flick 'IRON SKY' but she's still gorgeous. She's more of a tough action heroine in this film (she's no Ripley but she still has presence). Amber Clayton is really pretty to look at as well. As far as action and scares go the movie is extremely lacking but it's almost a 'well spent waste of time'. The women are beautiful and the atmosphere is nostalgic. A bad film indeed but not painfully bad.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuVxCgCFIf8