Convict 762 |
USA • 1997 • 97m •
   • Directed by: Luca Bercovici. • Starring: Shannon Sturges, Michole Briana White, Charlie Spradling, Shae D'lyn, Merle Kennedy, Tawny Fere, Frank Zagarino, Billy Drago. • Music by: Marco Marinangeli.      A spaceship with an all female crew runs into a meteor field because of a navigational mistake. They lose a lot of their fuel and realise they cant get home on what they've got. They are forced to land on a planet which has been reformed into one of the most dangerous penal colonies in the universe in order to refuel. Once there they realise only two men are left on the planet and they are engaged in hand to hand combat. The women cant figure out which one of the men is the officer and which one has systematically slaughtered the rest of the inmates. One by one each of the women is killed. Just who is Convict 762?
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Review:
... of "Wha?" "Huh?" "Uh...."
So, Convict 762 starts off with a ship in "hyperspace" being flown by an all female crew, with various personalities. They joke, laugh, argue, and even screw up at their jobs. Unfortunately, the screw-up costs the crew too much, as their ship is thrown out of 'warp' into an asteroid field. Tricky piloting, with budget CGI, is thrown in... and the ship escapes; but manages to burn 80% of its fuel in the process; prompting the crew to make an emergency refueling at a prison colony. They land, while disrupting Star Trek fighting between two people in armor and manage to save one, who identifies himself as 'Vigo', corrections officer. He tells them that there was a riot, and that everyone is dead minus a convict dubbed "762", and that he will kill them all if they don't leave. Since they don't have the fuel to leave, they descend into the colony for refueling.
The rest of the plot you can gather from the movie whenif you watch it, as this is only to establish the main conflict and motive.
Now, it really baffles me that this movie had such a plot... and we're not talking about the '762' angle, with the twist ending... it's how the actual thought process of the crew works out. Every single decision made by the captaincrew just left me befuddled. The captain was the worst; her actions really make me doubt how she got command of a ship anyways, with her crew choice... the way she handles them throughout the movie (Who leaves an expedition with 5 people?! 3 people to patrol the ship, three people to watch each others backs)... and so on.
But what really bring down the logic of this movie is two major things:
-The ship had internal scanners. -The ship could interface with the colonies logs.
These two things would have prevented the deaths of everyone on board, and they probably would have made it out without problems... minus the defense grid. You see, because they declared those two things as existing in their world... the movie kinda falls apart.
The ship had internal scanners. They could have detected one of the humans board the ship; and probably know where it is at all times... meaning the girl could have been savedkilled in another more exhilarating way... like the motion tracker deaths in the Alien movies. What we get is a frightened girl, who is left to keep an eye on the ship by herself, with a pistol and hand-held scanner; and whose promptly killed, in a death that could have been totally avoided. Now, it's a slasher movie, so obviously you need to have death scenes and crew being picked off one by one, but be intelligent about it! Have the captain stay on the ship in the command chair, and monitor the ship... so when the girl dies, it's not a complete surprise to everyone but the audience. Have a scene where he's being tracked in the hull of the ship, and brig him (have Billy Drago's character 'Mannix' introduced in a more meaningful, yet crazed way). Don't have the frightened girl put down her pistol, the only thing that could have technically protected her, when she hears footsteps.
But the scene that really got me on-edge was that they used the logs to find out 'Mannix' was actually a corrections officer. Woohoo! Finally, something done right... now if they could only search up Vigo, to verify who HE is. After all, they don't know what's going on... so maybe Vigo's identity plays an important role. But she doesn't. Not until much later, where he's revealed to be convict '762' on the screen while flashing CLASSIFIED.
Hey gals, I think Vigo was lying to you.
Also, he's "Convict 762"!
But not only is this reveal downplayed, it spoils the ending and isn't used in any meaningful way! Did we really need a scene where it's established after rampant sex that Vigo has 762 burned on his back? No. We already got that from the logs! Hell, the captain already knows... so why is she so surprised when she finds out? It doesn't really matter after this point, because in the 'quote-quote' "Double Twist" you find out that BOTH men were Convict '762' because 762 is a disease that takes over people, or something... they don't really explain it.
I actually was watching this with my brother, and he called the twist at the end of the movie being "Vigo's '762', yes... but Mannix is nuts. What would be great is if Mannix was abusing prisoners constantly, and '762' was actually the good guy; who saves the ship at the end. That would explain the riots that were started, because of prisoners being killed by an insane warden." But it's not. It's dumb. The double-twist is to add a layer to the movie it didn't have.
In the end, I felt disappointed. This movie could have been so much more. The action was alright, and the setting was fun... the concept, while not fresh, could have been great! I really wanted to engage in figuring out who Convict '762' was. But the horrid writing kept this movie from Saturday-Evening popcorn flick, to Direct to VHS.
Review by Fatbackwards from the Internet Movie Database.
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