The Meat-Heads vs. The Thing From Space

Rating: Null/10 (3 October 1999)

I saw this first on T.V. and initially thought it was simply another Rambo-esque live-action cartoon (2-D 'characters', mindless machismo, tedious gunplay, etc.). In fact for the first three-quarters of an hour my finger was hovering over the remote control - there was a programme about knitting on another channel which looked more interesting...
And then, one by one, the macho's started getting killed off. With every demise - I cheered each one - I got more intrigued, and I began to see the film's positive attributes: fabulous jungle setting, fine camera-work, great direction. And a story which was thankfully devoid of emotional/motivational clutter. It was just The Meat-Heads vs. The Thing From Space. And The Meat-Heads were losing! Hurrah!
Until finally we were left with King Meat-Head standing defiantly alone. From this point on the film soared. Human ingenuity pitted against alien ruthlessness (backed-up by some pretty impressive technology). Some great scenes - particularly when Arnie lit his torch and screamed Tarzan-like into the night. Superb alien facial design - for once an alien who didn't look like a human with a wrinkly forehead (Star Trek take note...)
I didn't want to like this, but in the end I couldn't help it. The first third of the film was boring nonsense (2/10), the middle third increasingly interesting (6/10), while the last third was mind-blowing (9/10)!