I'm happy to say that I'm moving right along with movie reviews so far this month. I managed to get another review done at my other blog, so if you are interested in reading about my thoughts on The Girl With All The Gifts, be sure to check out that review. My goal for this month was to get at least ten posts in. This will make my eighth post, so I don't see a problem getting to ten. If all goes well, I might even go over that mark. I also wanted to do a better job getting reviews done at my other blog, which I feel I have been doing. Anyway, it is time for another at home review. Today I picked out another movie that my friend Terry sent to me. I still have a few to go and I plan on pushing them out, outside of an upcoming book review. I decided to go with the movie Ombis: Alien Invasion (2013).
Sheriff Thomas Bracket (Richard Satterwhite) is busy dealing with abusive husbands/fathers and other things that one finds in small towns. He gets a call one night from Lucy (Sarah Manzella) about finding someone that seems really sick. Lucy was out with her ex-boyfriend Mark (Jason John Beebe), trying to work things out between the two when something crashes nearby. They discover Glen (Robert Bozek), a homeless guy, who has been exposed to something green and slimy. They manage to get Glenn to a doctors house, but it is too late. The slime attaches itself to the doctor before it disappears down a drain. The slime is looking for others in order to spread. An alien arrives, but is it here in order to help?
Ombis: Alien Invasion was co-written by Janeen Avery, Terry Kimmel, Mark Mendola, Michael Sciabarrasi, and Adam R. Steigert, who was also the director. I was a little mixed about this movie. I liked that it started off with getting to know some of the characters and showing us what life is like in this little town. Mark sort of becomes the main character. I was wondering why he was wearing his letter jacket that I assumed he got in high school. He looks older than high school age, but then the father of Lucy doesn't look old enough to have a teen daughter. To my surprise, one of the other characters asks Mark about the jacket. Turns out Mark is four years out of high school and is dating Lucy who is still in high school. I'm assuming she is a senior at least. While all this was amusing, I really enjoyed the different character interactions. The alien invasion part of the story ended up being where I was mixed about it. The slime kind of looks like jello sometimes, which was fine but funny. The early scenes with the slime reminded me a lot of The Blob. The later scenes didn't remind me of that film at all, as no one seemed to get dissolved by it. Instead, those that get attacked by the slime go around and attack people who aren't under the slime's control and correct that. An alien shows up and it is hard to decide whose side he is on. He, if it is a he, seems to be going after people who are under the control of the slime, so I assumed he was there to help in a way. Every character that comes across this alien would attack it though. I guess I couldn't blame the people for doing that, but I still got annoyed by it all the same. They don't see the alien doing anything bad but they still attack the poor guy. Bullets don't seem to do anything, and yet people still try to empty their guns. If one bullet does nothing, surely four more will! I was also getting a bit annoyed by the sound. Sometimes it was pretty hard to hear what was being said by the actors, even without any background music going. Of course, this is a low budget film so that may have played a part in the sound issues.
The effects can be a little gory at times. There is a mix of effects with blood and slime. For the most part, the effects can look pretty good. I ended up being a little disappointed with the effects at times because it was inconsistent. The slime, once on someone, would look dark green, but there are plenty of times when it looks dried out and becomes a much lighter green. That would have been fine but it seems to change from scene to scene at times. Mark is a good example of this. He gets slime on him, it looks dark green and then suddenly it is lighter in color. Some scenes there isn't as much of it on him and then it is back again. The alien looked pretty cool at least. I'm not always one to notice things like that, but it started to really stand out. The acting was okay. I wasn't all that impressed by anyone. I certainly didn't feel anyone was bad, but it was just so mixed at times and never seems to become great.
The ending was also something I didn't care a lot for. Some things were going on and suddenly it just ends. I'm not sure how some characters managed to escape, even while having a ride out of town. Ombis: Alien Invasion isn't a really bad movie and it came close to me giving it an average score, but there were just too many smaller things that kept me from doing that. To be fair, this seems like a pretty big project for local filmmakers. At the same time, I'm glad that they set their sights high. I may not have felt that Ombis: Alien Invasion completely worked out, it is still a film that makes me interested in seeing what else they will do. I do believe I have at least one other film to check, so I will probably watch it for my next at home review. If you don't mind low budget films, you should give this one a look.
2 out of 5 No one better get any of that Slime on my work clothes
Sheriff Thomas Bracket (Richard Satterwhite) is busy dealing with abusive husbands/fathers and other things that one finds in small towns. He gets a call one night from Lucy (Sarah Manzella) about finding someone that seems really sick. Lucy was out with her ex-boyfriend Mark (Jason John Beebe), trying to work things out between the two when something crashes nearby. They discover Glen (Robert Bozek), a homeless guy, who has been exposed to something green and slimy. They manage to get Glenn to a doctors house, but it is too late. The slime attaches itself to the doctor before it disappears down a drain. The slime is looking for others in order to spread. An alien arrives, but is it here in order to help?
Ombis: Alien Invasion was co-written by Janeen Avery, Terry Kimmel, Mark Mendola, Michael Sciabarrasi, and Adam R. Steigert, who was also the director. I was a little mixed about this movie. I liked that it started off with getting to know some of the characters and showing us what life is like in this little town. Mark sort of becomes the main character. I was wondering why he was wearing his letter jacket that I assumed he got in high school. He looks older than high school age, but then the father of Lucy doesn't look old enough to have a teen daughter. To my surprise, one of the other characters asks Mark about the jacket. Turns out Mark is four years out of high school and is dating Lucy who is still in high school. I'm assuming she is a senior at least. While all this was amusing, I really enjoyed the different character interactions. The alien invasion part of the story ended up being where I was mixed about it. The slime kind of looks like jello sometimes, which was fine but funny. The early scenes with the slime reminded me a lot of The Blob. The later scenes didn't remind me of that film at all, as no one seemed to get dissolved by it. Instead, those that get attacked by the slime go around and attack people who aren't under the slime's control and correct that. An alien shows up and it is hard to decide whose side he is on. He, if it is a he, seems to be going after people who are under the control of the slime, so I assumed he was there to help in a way. Every character that comes across this alien would attack it though. I guess I couldn't blame the people for doing that, but I still got annoyed by it all the same. They don't see the alien doing anything bad but they still attack the poor guy. Bullets don't seem to do anything, and yet people still try to empty their guns. If one bullet does nothing, surely four more will! I was also getting a bit annoyed by the sound. Sometimes it was pretty hard to hear what was being said by the actors, even without any background music going. Of course, this is a low budget film so that may have played a part in the sound issues.
The effects can be a little gory at times. There is a mix of effects with blood and slime. For the most part, the effects can look pretty good. I ended up being a little disappointed with the effects at times because it was inconsistent. The slime, once on someone, would look dark green, but there are plenty of times when it looks dried out and becomes a much lighter green. That would have been fine but it seems to change from scene to scene at times. Mark is a good example of this. He gets slime on him, it looks dark green and then suddenly it is lighter in color. Some scenes there isn't as much of it on him and then it is back again. The alien looked pretty cool at least. I'm not always one to notice things like that, but it started to really stand out. The acting was okay. I wasn't all that impressed by anyone. I certainly didn't feel anyone was bad, but it was just so mixed at times and never seems to become great.
The ending was also something I didn't care a lot for. Some things were going on and suddenly it just ends. I'm not sure how some characters managed to escape, even while having a ride out of town. Ombis: Alien Invasion isn't a really bad movie and it came close to me giving it an average score, but there were just too many smaller things that kept me from doing that. To be fair, this seems like a pretty big project for local filmmakers. At the same time, I'm glad that they set their sights high. I may not have felt that Ombis: Alien Invasion completely worked out, it is still a film that makes me interested in seeing what else they will do. I do believe I have at least one other film to check, so I will probably watch it for my next at home review. If you don't mind low budget films, you should give this one a look.
2 out of 5 No one better get any of that Slime on my work clothes
