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From Other Worlds
R2 - United Kingdom - Simply Media Review written by and copyright: Matthew Crossman (28th January 2016). |
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The Film
 Brooklyn housewife Joanne (Cara Buono) is almost literally sleepwalking through her life. She does her shopping in a daze and picks up her two children from school and listens to them talk without hearing them. She seems obsessed with patterns and shapes on cookies and a fish shop which features a lighthouse outside captures her imagination to the extent that she spends hours in the shop just staring at the fish. One night she ventures into the kitchen and a red dot appears on her body as if shone from somewhere. The next morning her Husband Brian (David Lansbury) discovers Joanne, seemingly collapsed, outside on the patio. He rushes to her aide and she awakens as if from a deep sleep unaware how she got to be outside. She then goes to the bathroom and discovers an odd looking bruise on her side. Brian suggests that she goes to the Doctor to get checked out, which she does, reluctantly. After listening to her story the Doctor suggests that she visit a psychiatrist. Joanne does this an is diagnosed as being depressed and is given some pills to help her. Later, whilst shopping at the supermarket Joanne sees a flyer for a UFO help group. On a whim Joanne attends the meeting which seems to be populated with ‘crazy’ people. Outside after the meeting Joanne runs into a man she saw in the meeting called Abraham (Isaach de Bankole). After a brief conversation Joanne finds out that this was Abraham’s first meeting too. On a hunch she invites him to a cup of coffee. The conversation over the cup of coffee reveals that Abraham’s recent experiences mirror Joanne’s. On the bus home Abraham shows Joanne a strange bruise/tattoo that he was left with after his recent experiences and it mirrors Joanne’s exactly. The two agree to exchange telephone numbers in case they need to talk further. Joanne arrives home to find Brian asleep on the couch. She checks on her children and finds her young daughter still not asleep. Her daughter asks if Joanne will read to her before bed and Joanne agrees. Whilst reading a book on the Wonders of the Ancient World Joanne is particularly taken with a drawing of the Pharos of Alexandria, an ancient lighthouse which was destroyed in 1480. Later the next day and Abraham is taunted by a homeless man who seemingly leads him on a chase which ends at the library. Abraham calls Joanne and says he wants to talk. Joanne meets up with Abraham and shows him the picture of the lighthouse. Joanne then suggests that they both do some research on the lighthouse at the library…The same library the homeless man led Abraham to. The next morning the television news reveals that an ancient scroll has been found in the Brooklyn Museum, a scroll that seemingly dates from the time of the Pharos Lighthouse. Joanne and Abraham start to investigate, all the while Brian thinks that Joanne may be having an affair. If you think the above synopsis sound rather silly then that is nothing compared to the actual film. The film starts off as a serious alien abduction movie and then decides it wants to be a comedy after all. At least I think that was what the makers were going for because quite frankly the comedy is risible to say the least. The film is shot in a sort of episodic form where scenes end and new scenes begin almost completely unaware of what happened before. Abraham, for instance, has several jobs including selling counterfeit watches on the streets, driving a taxi, and working in a market. He has these jobs, it would appear, solely to service a poor script and have his character in certain places to try and move the story forward. The movie is populated with D grade actors, and that comment, to be honest, is being kind. The script is delivered as if the words are being whispered into the actors ears and then repeated with barely any nuance. It’s the sort of film that would have not looked out of place on ITV in the mid 1980’s being shown at 2.30 am to fill in the schedule. When The X-Files initially was released the World, or so it seemed, went alien crazy. With the new series of The X-Files now being shown across the World again it would make sense to re-release some of the films that jumped on that particular band wagon but ‘From Other Worlds’ should not have been one of them. It has no redeeming qualities at all and it is best left on the bargain rack where it belongs.
Video
The film is presented in 1.85:1 and is anamorphic. Despite being filmed in 2004 the picture has all the hallmarks of a shot-on-video feature from the mid eighties. An over bright picture with garish colours is offset with artefacts crawling all over the place. Cast your mind back to the presentation of television shows such as ‘The Twilight Zone’ (1985), and ‘Friday The Thirteenth’ and you will have some idea of what to expect. Even with the best films this picture quality would have been unacceptable but with such poor faire as this it’s just another nail in the coffin.
Audio
The only option available is the English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix. This in itself is not too bad but the actual soundtrack seems to be made up of library music cues from old television shows from the 1980’s, the most annoying of which is the comedy cues. Actually, I should be grateful those cues are there as I would have never guessed that those scenes which feature these cues were supposed to have been amusing in the first place.
Extras
None.
Overall
It’s been a long time (thankfully) since I have seen a film that is this bad. It has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I am a big fan of the science fiction/science fact films and am willing to overlook much that is bad about a film from those genres but sadly there is nothing in ‘From Other Worlds’ that even remotely held my interest or showed that it would produced by actors, directors or script writers that have any skill to their trade at all. I despise writing bad reviews. I appreciate that many people have spend time and money to make movies for our enjoyment but in this case they really shouldn’t have bothered. And neither should you.
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