Stranded (2001)

Film directed by Maria Lidon
Written by Juan Miguel Aguilera

At some point during the mid-21st century, the first manned mission to Mars goes wrong and the crew of six crash lands to the surface of the Red Planet. With the realization that a rescue mission will not arrive anytime before at least two years go by, the crew must find a way to survive in their cramped living space.

First of all, do not let the first five minutes of this film decide the rest for you. The first actor to appear in the movie actually made me laugh it was so bad. It was like someone recorded their presentation for a freshman...for a freshman class that required a video project. The intro sequence is actually annoying too, the way the credits go in and out. BUT BEAR WITH IT.

After the annoying intro, we get to the beginning of the movie...The acting really doesn't get any better to be honest. In fact, one of the worst actors is also the director of the film. There are two actors that seemed to be kind of professional but no one that I had heard of. Oh! I did recognize one: Fabienne, Butch Coolidge's French girlfriend in "Pulp Fiction". She has the same accent in this movie, too.

Anyways if you stick through the bad acting and poorly written intro, the movie actually develops a pretty interesting and somewhat-realistic plot--until towards the end where it gets ridiculous. Should you see this movie? Well, I enjoyed the middle and if you liked sci-NON-fi movie "Apollo 13" you will probably like "Stranded", too. Or at least up to the middle of it.

If you do so choose to check it out, I found it on Netflix Instant up to the date this was posted.

Omega Boost

Video game by Polyphony Digital, 1999

"Omega Boost" was a great PlayStation game I played a lot in middle and high school, simply because it was one of those games you could throw in and casually play over and over again. In the game, you fly around in your giant robot spaceship and shoot up other robot spaceships and, for some reason, this never gets old. But the review of this game is besides the point. Here is what I really want to bring to your attention:

THE INTRO SEQUENCE.

The intro to this game is so cheesy awesome I just had to share it. It's hard to get a full idea for the plot from just watching it, but if you had access to the manual that comes with the game you could piece together that a rogue artificial intelligence is trying to go back in time and make itself more powerful. But YOU, key-tossing, giant-robot-flying, COOL GUY, are not going to let that happen. 

Enjoy the hard rock music that doesn't seem to fit the video. Fortunately some more appropriate Static-X appears in the actual game. If you would like your own copy, it's around $20 new, and a measly dollar-or-so used, on Amazon.