Specimen

Ok, well, maybe it was! But don't be too hard on Mark Paul Gosselaar! He didn't do that bad of a job. I actually rented the movie because of him. I guess you would have to be a fan of his to enjoy the movie. It really dosen't make any sense. So, if you think he is cute, get it. I guess I am one of those people who actually liked Saved By The Bell. I like him as Zack better.

A child of extraterrestrial origins is found walking through the fires of a burning building. He's promptly adopted, but still has questions about where he came from. Years later, the boy, now a young man (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar of Saved by the Bell fame) can start fires with his mind and frequently dreams of his forgotten earlier life while he submerges himself in bathtub water. Another alien (Douglas O'Keeffe) wants to get the young man back.

With shades of much better films (such as Firestarter, the Terminator, and even Starman), this movie can't help but epicly fail in comparison. It doesn't help that the film spots horrendous acting (especially by Gosselaar and O'Keeffe extremely sub-par special effects, and a plot that is a clichéd muddled mess. This is one movie that makes those that are made for the Sci-fi channel (I refuse to call it by the insanely stupid SyFy moniker, but that's another rant) look of Oscar-caliber. That's no hyperbole, this movie is just that bad.

Eye Candy: Carmelina Lamanna gets fully nude

My Grade:D-

Oh, overall, this movie is very cheesy, and I wish the aliens had been something other than walking blocks of muscle, but the story was a good idea in its inception. I thought Mark-Paul's acting was just fine, actually. He took the role seriously, regardless of the movie's lower budget, which denotes him as a good actor. Granted, it's been a while since I've seen it, so I can't give a good take on the supporting actors, but aside from the villain's one-note plot motivation, I don't remember groaning too badly. :) The handling of some of our main character's heritage problems (the whole problem with starting fires while asleep) was a particularly nice touch. Considering the budget, I thought they did the best they could--I'd like to see it redone.

One of the worst movies ever made. At first I thought it was a made for TV movie since there a number of pauses where the movie goes to black (insert commercial here). However, since it has full frontal nudity (female) and full rear nudity (males), eliminates it as a made-for-TV-movie.

It took the best of "Firestarter" and "Terminator" and created a rather anemic alien. If it looks like a Terminator, walks like a Termminator, talks like a Terminator, and creates fire (it's only weapon), then it must be "Termifirenator".

Awful special effects, acting, plot line, and continuity. Definitely should be on the 100 worst movies ever made. Shining a search light on the water for the effect of landing aliens was a insult to the viewers.

I deliberately try and opt for a bad movie sometimes, just so that I can rag on it (I find doing so quite therapeutic), and Specimen bore all the hallmarks of a real stinker: a no-name TV director, Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) in the lead, a dreadful DVD cover bearing the lousy tag-line 'Be very quiet... They might want you...'. But although the film is definitely a cheap piece of derivative cheeze, a mish-mash of ideas stolen from 'Firestarter', 'The Terminator' and a whole handful of other sci-fi films, it still managed to be slightly more fun than I had expected.

The film begins with a pre-credits sequence in which a young boy, Mike, somehow unwittingly causes fires in his sleep, resulting in the accidental death of his mother. That boy grows up to be Gosselaar, who—after the death of his grandmother—finds a box of his mother's belongings which leads him to her hometown in search of the identity of his father, and an answer to his uncontrollable pyrokinesis. All of this is handled pretty well by director John Bradshaw, and Gosselaar is actually decent; at this point, Specimen is shaping up to be a surprisingly classy flick.

And then 'The Terminator' arrives—or rather Eleven, an extraterrestrial in human guise (played by Doug O'Keefe, doing his best Schwarzeneggar), arrives—and the film becomes an unintentionally laughable mess. Eleven's mission is to find and destroy Mike, who is an alien/human hybrid, the result of his mother being abducted and impregnated by scientists from another world (and who can blame the naughty ETs? Mike's mother is played by the very probe-worthy Carmelina Lamanna, who flashes full-frontal during some flash-backs), but is thwarted by another alien named Sixty-six who happens to be Mike's father!

Matters get progressively sillier here on in, with the two aliens battling it out with each other while Mike tries to come to terms with his bizarre lineage and the fact that he might not be able to get it on with new girlfriend without causing her third degree burns. Expect a lot of pyrotechnics, a Terminator-style synth score, plenty of dreadful dialogue, no explanation as to why Eleven wants Mike dead, and an open ending that makes one wonder whether this was intended as a pilot for a TV series that (not surprisingly) never happened.