Badmovies.org Forum

There's chase scenes to spare, lots of stock footage of wild animals, a musical sequence or two, white dots moving across postcards of outer space and various Earth panoramas and fast-motion scenes of African tribal hunters running around, a la Benny Hill, BUT when you couple all for this with scenes where Railsback and Johns have lukewarm heart-to-heart talks about whatever, heartless scientists being heartless to ugly aliens, and depressing scenes of expressionless aliens dripping snot, mucus and various fluids from every available orifice while squealing like pigs cross-bred with prunes, the Spielbergian sense of wonder is gone. Instead, the only wonder associated with Nukie is, "I wonder what kind of weird psychedelic head trip the guys who did this thing were on?"

And speaking of the actors, I remember when Steve Railsback was in his heyday in the Seventies and illuminated the small screen with his electrifying performance as Charles Manson in the made-for-TV film "Helter Skelter". Then again in 1980 when he shone brightly in that wonderfully artistic stunner The Stunt Man. I mean, he was quite literally lauded all over the place for a breakout performance against the likes of Peter O'Toole. That was such a loooong time ago.

What about Johns, though? She was in such classics as The 49th Parallel, Mary Poppins, The Sword and the Rose, Rob Roy The Highland Rogue, The Court Jester and Around the World in Eighty Days. But like everyone else, she fell on hard times after a while and took a job wherever she could get one. Apparently it's a toss-up as to whether she thought she was in a comedy or a drama, judging from her performance which teeters dangerously between doddering dottiness and grim talkings-to.

At one time they were both their respective darlings of their respective cinemas but Nukie contained some pretty high hurdle to clear. Some people make it over such hurdles, some clip the bar, other times still the runners stumble. This, however, was a race run in scuba flippers.

Nothing about this film comes even close to hitting the tone of E.T. - heck, they don't even reach a Mac and Me vibe. How did something like this go so wrong and fail so completely? I'll tell you exactly why: because Odendal, Pakleppa and Taylor saw E.T., came up with a cute title, then completely forgot to do anything original once they got past the "hey, let's make a movie" stage. Nukie is a product of people who not only didn't care about what they were making but made darned sure no one else involved cared and that no one who watched it would care, either.

Nukie 2: well, THERE you are!   :teddyr:

Thanks for not only reading it but also liking AND quoting the review!  I knew if there were anyone on this board who would read this particular review it'd be you.   :cheers:

- TGWD