Rating: C+
Dir: Armen Evrensel
Star: Billy Boyd, Kristin Kreuk, Amanda Tapping, Robin Dunne
This low-budget Canadian SF entry just about manages to skate by. It does so on a combination of moxie and invention, which hold proceedings together, when the shortcomings elsewhere suggest it might fall apart under the strain. What’s clear is, writer-director Evrensel is a fan of Dark Star, and I suspect Red Dwarf as well. For this is a distinctly low-fi future, with the “entry level” crew of the spaceship Regina, parked in low Earth orbit, and tasked with keeping things free of any debris bigger than a screw. If you’ve seen Gravity, you’ll know this is a legitimate problem. But those on board the Regina, are basically space janitors, and get all the respect you’d expect i.e. very little.
Like Red Dwarf, there’s a pompous blowhard who is not in charge as much as he thinks: Captain Anton Balvenie (Boyd). There are two female crew members, Tilda Gennero (Kreuk) and Anton’s girlfriend Valentina (Tapping), plus newly-arrived computer repair man, Jimmy Anderson (Dunne). Though the Captain is more interested in Jimmy fixing the malfunctioning food creation unit, which can now only make sandwiches. Such concerns become secondary after a salvage operation brings on board a container which triggers a shift into a parallel universe. In this plane, everyone on Earth has been wiped out, and the ship has been invaded by a shape-shifting rubber duck, that’s actually theoretical physicist and Valentina’s ex-boyfriend Professor Gary Pinback (the name is another nod to Dark Star), voiced by George Takei).
It all boils down to a battle for a Mcguffin called the Time Cube. It could reverse events, or destroy everything, because the Regina is at the nexus where all possible existences cross. The crew get help in their battle against Pinback from another universe hopper, a robot in the shape of Tilda, having an RS-232 port in a rather awkward anatomical location. With a cast all experienced in genre work, the film sometimes feels like an idea born from a second-tier convention panel. This is both a blessing and a curse, because the film basically spends the whole time keeping its fingers crossed behind its back, as if to say, “You weren’t taking any of this seriously, were you?”
It is not as funny as it needs to be. The humour tends to trigger a reaction of “Heh” rather than a laugh, or even a chorale. I think the cast perhaps don’t have the necessary comedic chops, Boyd in particular, since his character just comes off irritating. The pleasures here come mostly from the absurdity of the situations, such a rubber duck which grows tentacles (top) and becomes predatory. Its low-budget shows up most in the creature’s final form, a static creature reminding me of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors. The rest, such as the limited footage set outside the corridors and rooms of the Regina, just about pass muster. The same goes for the movie as a whole: a trifle, albeit an intermittently amusing one.