ANTIBODY

Robin Givens and Lance Henriksen

ANTIBODY (Made-for-Cable/2002). Director: Christian McIntire.  

In Munich a terrorist named Moran (Julian Vergov) has placed a detonator to a massive bomb inside his own body. If he dies the bomb will detonate, demolishing the entire city and everyone in it. When Moran is shot, he is taken into custody and put under, while a team of scientists -- along with former FBI agent Gaynes (Lance Henriksen) -- are miniaturized, put into a sub called the Helix, and injected into Moran's body, where they only have a certain number of hours to find and destroy the detonator. The stakes are even larger when the team discover that Moran also placed bombs in several other cities, including Paris, where Gaynes' daughter is. 

Okay, it's obvious that Antibody -- an offering of what was then known as the Sci Fi Channel -- is a complete rip-off of the vastly superior Fantastic Voyage. Admittedly, Antibody has come up with a clever alternate scenario, and the film is especially suspenseful in the tense final minutes, but it's a major understatement that it doesn't get any points for originality. The prologue of the film depicts Gaynes dealing with a terrorist bomb in the Russian consulate in New York, a situation that doesn't work out so well, forcing the agent into private security management in Germany. The prologue is exciting and well-handled, as are the early scenes with Moran and his men invading a conference in Munich. 

Once inside Moran's body, the FX are nowhere nears as good nor as elaborate as in Fantastic Voyage. The danger comes from white blood cells, which look like something from a video game, and there are also some lively skin mites that are somehow in the blood stream and are creepy scuttling creations. To distract the white blood cells, the head of the team, Dr. Saverini (Robin Givens), orders cold viruses to be injected into Moran's body. 

a skin mite attacks the sub

As for the actors, both Henriksen and Givens give satisfactory performances, although they rarely seem to be displaying the extreme fear or tension they would be feeling in such a bizarre situation, at least not until the final moments. As an ice cool former agent, Henriksen plays it essentially in an unemotional fashion -- he was criticized for this -- but I at least think he hit the right note considering the level of the material. The supporting performances are mostly more than competent. It's interesting that the Helix apparently has no seat belts despite the fact that it is noted in the dialogue that a trip through the heart will be difficult (as it was in Fantastic Voyage). Also amusing is Henriksen's comment when Givens complains about the quality of the men she's been dating. "Brad Pitiful?" he says. 

Verdict: Watchful but highly derivative sci-fi with some interesting aspects. **1/2. 

ATLAS AGAINST THE CYCLOPS

Chelo Alonso and Gordon Mitchell

ATLAS AGAINST THE CYCLOPS (aka Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops/Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi/1961). Director: Antonio Leonviola.

The forces of evil queen Capys (Chelo Alonso) overrun the land of Sadok, killing the king and capturing Queen Penope (Vira Silenti). However, Penope manages to save her baby (Fabio) by sending the infant off with someone who is loyal to her. Capys is under a spell crafted by the sorceress Circe, and it will not dissipate until the last cyclops (Aldo Pedinotti) devours the last descendant of the hated Ulysses, who just happens to be that innocent baby. Strong man Maciste (Gordon Mitchell) saves this baby from a lion after his guardian is killed, and much later has to save the boy and his mother from the hulking cyclops. In between Maciste dallies with Capys, saves her life when a temple's ceiling threatens to fall on her, and gets involved in several sweaty battles ...

That cyclops is hungry!

Atlas Against the Cyclops is one of the better "peplum" movies that I've seen. While the cyclops is hardly the scariest one-eyed monster in the movies (and his appearances are fairly brief), he is at least twice of the size of the beefy Maciste and the process shots blend the two together well, especially in one shot when they are engaging in battle around a column. Another great scene has Maciste caught in a tug of war with a group of white slaves on one end of a rope, black slaves on the other end, and a pit of lions below them all. Maciste is a good guy who comes to the aid of anyone who needs it, including a guard nearly crushed beneath a wagon, or a black man who nearly falls into the aforementioned pit. Maciste also has a lively  battle with the black Mumba (Paul Wynter), who is not on the side of the angels, and at one point single-handedly rows a boat to the island of the cyclops after Mumba drugs all of the other oarsmen. 

Gordon Mitchell with future romance book cover boy Fabio

Gordon Mitchell had been one of Mae West's strongmen in Hollywood -- not the only one of them to wind up in Italian peplum movies -- and even when that period ended kept appearing in movies until he amassed about 150 credits! Chelo Alonso was a Cuban actress who also appeared in a number of Italian movies. Fabio, who plays the little infant king, grew up to become an actor and a cover boy for numerous paperback romance novels. Strikingly handsome Paul Wynter certainly makes an impression, but he only did four movies. Dante DiPaolo also makes an impression as Queen Capys' good right hand and adviser, Iphitos, who happens to be in love with her. 

Verdict: A surprisingly entertaining peplum extravaganza with lots of beef. ***. 

CONTAMINATION

Louise Marleau and Marino Mase

CONTAMINATION (aka Alien Contamination/1980). Director: Luigi Cozzi.  

Colonel Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau) is called in when a derelict ship floats into New York Harbor containing corpses and a lot of weird little eggs. Helping with the investigation is Lt. Tony Aris (Marino Mase) of the NYPD, who at first isn't crazy about the lady government agent and scientist. They bring in a third member of the team, Mars astronaut Ian Hubbard (Ian McCulloch of Zombie), whose stories about finding the eggs on Mars were never believed. The eggs contain an element that can make people literally explode, with their internal organs bursting out of their bodies. The intrepid trio travel down to South America where they determine these Martian eggs are being distributed.  

Watch out for that egg!

Director Luigi Cozzi [The Dark is Death's Friend] originally conceived this as a sequel to Alien (!), and the deadly eggs are the element that most reminds one of that far superior movie. Despite all the splattery effects, which never come off as being too realistic, the film is slow-moving and in the middle section in particular becomes rather dull. Although they seem to be speaking English, the print I saw was dubbed, so it's difficult to judge the performances, which seem competent. 

              The Martian Cyclops -- watch out for that eye!

The most interesting element of the film is the Martian "cyclops," which appears at the end. Several feet tall, it is a squiggly wet thing with one enormous yellow eye like a flashlight (reminding one a bit of the cyclops in The Atomic Submarine), with more than one large, wide, uneven maw. The best scene has one of the characters being sucked head first into a tentacle from this creature, devouring him. The cyclops creates and incubates these eggs, although how they got to earth is never explained. The noises that the eggs make are really creepy and effective. The three leads -- Scottish McCulloch, Canadian Marleau, and Italian Mase -- all had a great many credits. 

Verdict: Some fun in this but the pace drags a little too much. **1/4.