Another mini-blog...
Fire Serpent [Lions Gate; 2007] was a made-for-TV movie that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel before it changed its name to Syfy. I’d seen it when it originally aired, but, since I was able to get the DVD via my local library, I decided to watch it again.
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
A solar flare sends a snake-like creature made of fire to Earth in 1975. After killing a female firefighter in the woods, it goes into hiding for thirty-odd years until the woman’s firefighter fiancé [Diego Klattenhoff] can age into weathered monster-hunter Randolph Mantooth, who played a firefighter on the 1970s show Emergency and whose character Dutch Fallon comments during the film that he used to be a firefighter in Los Angeles county.
Correction: the blazing snake doesn’t go completely into hiding as it makes enough appearance to alert the government to its existence and for Dutch and lunatic government agent Cooke [Robert Beltran] to capture it for all of about a minute. The experience turns Cooke into a religious fanatic who believes the creature is actually one of God’s angels, sent to purge the world of sin.
In 2007, we met fireman Jake Relm [Nicholas Brandon], his pal Dave Massaro [Steve Boyle], National Fire Agency investigator Christina Andrews [Sandrine Holt] obnoxious TV reporter Heather Allman [Lisa Langlois] and TV cameraperson Billie [Patrice Goodman]. Brandon is best known for playing Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He does a good job in this movie, which made me wish he had done more films like it. He had the potential to become a solid B-movie battler of monsters and maniacs.
When the blazing snake, which can change its size from a wee little glow to a full-size Ghidorah head, makes its reappearance, it kills Dave by grabbing him and pulling him into a food-truck fire. Jake sees this, but doesn’t realize what he’s dealing with. Dutch tracks him down to tell him what’s what, but Jake ain’t listening.
Christina investigates. Cooke uses his top-secret credentials and obstructs the investigation, since he plans to help the fire-snake consume a strategic fuel reserve and take out a state or three in the process. The fire-snake possesses some people, but they tend to burn out internally and literally. A character gets cut in half by a flame-blast. Cutting people in half was a popular CGI effect in Sci-Fi Channel movies and never looked remotely real. Jake gets a graphic example that the fire-snake is real and that he can’t trust Cooke. Dutch and Jake and Christine team up to destroy the blazing snake-monster and stop Cooke.
The fire serpent is destroyed, thanks to Jake’s courage and fire-fighting knowledge, aided and assisted by Christine’s mutant power of changing one gun into an entirely different gun as she shoots at an open fuel spigot. Jake and Christina hug, despite the fact that the fire-resistant suit he was wearing had been surrounded by fire just a couple minutes prior to the embrace. Before anyone realizes Christina is going to need to go to the burn unit, the movie cuts to the sun and another solar flare and another...do I really have to finish this sentence?
One more note. This movie happened on George W. Bush’s watch. It’s yet another example of him not keeping us safe, what with it being a NSA official who collaborates with a deadly enemy from beyond our borders.
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
Fire Serpent was directed by John Terlesky and written by Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens. There’s a “created by William Shatner” credit, but I have no idea what that means.
Fire Serpent isn’t a great movie, but I’ve now watched it twice and enjoyed it both times. The basic story is a good one, even though the presumably low budget keeps the film from being all it could have been. Brandon and Mantooth are very good in it. Beltran chews scenery. The other actors are adequate. The CGI effects are nothing to write home about, but do their job well enough.
I like Fire Serpent. I don’t love it, but I like it.
I’ll be back soon with more stuff.
Fire Serpent [Lions Gate; 2007] was a made-for-TV movie that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel before it changed its name to Syfy. I’d seen it when it originally aired, but, since I was able to get the DVD via my local library, I decided to watch it again.
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
A solar flare sends a snake-like creature made of fire to Earth in 1975. After killing a female firefighter in the woods, it goes into hiding for thirty-odd years until the woman’s firefighter fiancé [Diego Klattenhoff] can age into weathered monster-hunter Randolph Mantooth, who played a firefighter on the 1970s show Emergency and whose character Dutch Fallon comments during the film that he used to be a firefighter in Los Angeles county.
Correction: the blazing snake doesn’t go completely into hiding as it makes enough appearance to alert the government to its existence and for Dutch and lunatic government agent Cooke [Robert Beltran] to capture it for all of about a minute. The experience turns Cooke into a religious fanatic who believes the creature is actually one of God’s angels, sent to purge the world of sin.
In 2007, we met fireman Jake Relm [Nicholas Brandon], his pal Dave Massaro [Steve Boyle], National Fire Agency investigator Christina Andrews [Sandrine Holt] obnoxious TV reporter Heather Allman [Lisa Langlois] and TV cameraperson Billie [Patrice Goodman]. Brandon is best known for playing Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He does a good job in this movie, which made me wish he had done more films like it. He had the potential to become a solid B-movie battler of monsters and maniacs.
When the blazing snake, which can change its size from a wee little glow to a full-size Ghidorah head, makes its reappearance, it kills Dave by grabbing him and pulling him into a food-truck fire. Jake sees this, but doesn’t realize what he’s dealing with. Dutch tracks him down to tell him what’s what, but Jake ain’t listening.
Christina investigates. Cooke uses his top-secret credentials and obstructs the investigation, since he plans to help the fire-snake consume a strategic fuel reserve and take out a state or three in the process. The fire-snake possesses some people, but they tend to burn out internally and literally. A character gets cut in half by a flame-blast. Cutting people in half was a popular CGI effect in Sci-Fi Channel movies and never looked remotely real. Jake gets a graphic example that the fire-snake is real and that he can’t trust Cooke. Dutch and Jake and Christine team up to destroy the blazing snake-monster and stop Cooke.
The fire serpent is destroyed, thanks to Jake’s courage and fire-fighting knowledge, aided and assisted by Christine’s mutant power of changing one gun into an entirely different gun as she shoots at an open fuel spigot. Jake and Christina hug, despite the fact that the fire-resistant suit he was wearing had been surrounded by fire just a couple minutes prior to the embrace. Before anyone realizes Christina is going to need to go to the burn unit, the movie cuts to the sun and another solar flare and another...do I really have to finish this sentence?
One more note. This movie happened on George W. Bush’s watch. It’s yet another example of him not keeping us safe, what with it being a NSA official who collaborates with a deadly enemy from beyond our borders.
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
Fire Serpent was directed by John Terlesky and written by Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens. There’s a “created by William Shatner” credit, but I have no idea what that means.
Fire Serpent isn’t a great movie, but I’ve now watched it twice and enjoyed it both times. The basic story is a good one, even though the presumably low budget keeps the film from being all it could have been. Brandon and Mantooth are very good in it. Beltran chews scenery. The other actors are adequate. The CGI effects are nothing to write home about, but do their job well enough.
I like Fire Serpent. I don’t love it, but I like it.
I’ll be back soon with more stuff.
© 2015 Tony Isabella
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