Species II (1998)

From The Changeling to Species 2, Peter Medak knows how to make totally different genre movies. But what can you accept from a classic gun for hire? Actually, Medak is doing an excellent job on both movies - it's just that The Changeling is a low key, intelligent ghost-movie and Species 2 is a sleazy, gory, stupid helluva silly sequel to a movie that wasn't that smart from the beginning. Now, I respect Medak for what he did with Species 2, because he delivers exactly what we want and nothing more.

This time it's some astronauts coming home from Mars and they are infected with an alien-species. One of them, the hunky horny son to a respected senator (played by the brilliant James Cromwell) is extra nasty and fucks one woman after another to death, makes they super-pregnant and everything ends with exploding bellys! Of course Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger from the first movie) has with some genetic hocus pocus made SIL come alive again, this time as Eve - under strict quarantaine of course. Michael Madsen, still quite big star, repeates his character and together with one of the astronauts, a token black guy who chooses a machete for the final battle because of some obscure joke about Africa, they fight the new alien species before he can mate with Eve and destroy the earth.

Oh yes, this is stupidity in the form of cinema. But what a fucking awesome trash-movie this is! Really! From the beginning with the product placement in space, to very bloody and juicy gore-scenes - this is a sequel that throws away all pretentions and aims for the quality-jugular! It reminds me of a big budget Roger Corman-movie from the eighties, where there's tons of nudity, tentacles and at least one exploding human per hour. The scene where the pregnant women get's ripped to pieces reminded me of such classics as Humanoids from the Deep, The Terror Within and Carnosaur. For those who like it, this is a movie with a lot of dead women! ;)

The dialogue (poor Peter Boyle by the way, with a couple of the worst lines in history! I hope he got a big fat paycheck!) is beyond realistic, but it adds to the goofiness of the movie. I'm sure Peter Medak took a look at the script, then his paycheck, then the script and thought "What the hell, let's have some fun with it!". Everyone takes the movie seriously, except maybe Madsen, and that's the way we want it. Movies like this should be serious in tone and absurd in story.

Species II has the deepest respect from me, believe it or not! But don't expect a masterpiece, which neither of the movies in the franchise is. Just some fun and retared gory fun. What else do you need?