The original title of this one was ATTACK OF THE HORNY
SUPERMODEL FROM BEYOND, but the director changed it to
SPECIES when he realized a title like that would doom the film to
years of USA Up All Nite airings. Still, the horny alien supermodel is
the main attraction of the movie, despite the top-billing of
SCHINDLER'S LIST star Ben Kingsley. It's probably the only time in
film history that bad science fiction has been given the Oscar-quality
treatment. Of course, in movies of this genre, good acting is the last
thing we want or expect. We need the bad acting as much as the
obligatory shots of slimy, pulsing cocoons and drawn-out climaxes in
the sewer, both of which are featured in SPECIES.
The acting, in fact, seems to be the only part of the movie that
makes it seem like an actual movie, not just some showcase for cheesy
effects and a foreign model to take her top off at the drop of a
spacecraft. Natasha Henstridge makes her movie debut as half-
supermodel, half-alien. She escapes government surveillance to begin
a cross-country flesh rampage in an attempt to breed. Yes, she's
horny--and dangerous. Called in by the government to hunt her down
are a couple scientists, a hitman (Michael Madsen) and a guy with
some unspecified psychic power (Forest Whitaker). Good idea. Read
her palm to death.
Although the plot dictates that Henstridge be naked half the
time in her ongoing attempts to conceive a child, most of the time her
pods (so to speak) are strategically covered, so don't rent the movie if
all you want is a peek of flesh. Besides that, there's a certain degree of
repulsion when Henstridge changes back and forth between
supermodel and grotesque alien. Thankfully, all the nude scenes are of
the model and not the alien, though some science-fiction nerds would
undoubtedly be turned on by the nude alien as well.
SPECIES is for the most part entertaining, if you overlook
some of the ridiculous plot points and ineffective scenes of
manufactured tension (i.e. the one where the two scientists are locked
in the lab room with the growing alien). The climax scene is boring
and unoriginal, but the rest of the movie is interesting and made
watchable by the performances from Kingsley, Whitaker and the rest,
including beautiful yet mostly silent Henstridge. And those gratuitous
pod shots don't hurt either.
Copyright © 1996 Andrew Hicks
