How I made it to 23 without ever having seen “Species” is beyond me.
I’m sure that when it came out in 1995 my mother threw down the big fat “NO!” because, you know, it had boobs in it. And I was only 10.
But at long last I watched the film last night and wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I believe I’m a better person now that I’ve seen it.
This movie is awesomely bad, so kitschy, so unoriginal, so stupid. And I enjoyed every minute. It’s a five-symphony orchestra of bad taste.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, “Species” falls somewhere between an ineptly made 1950s monster movie and a soft-core porn film. It is, in essence, the perfect film for a Saturday night with a couple of inebriated friends.
For those of you who missed out on the ’90s, ‘Species’ stars Nathasha Henstridge, in one of her very early roles, as a woman/monster/alien hybrid created by a group of government scientists. Turns out their little experiment was a mistake. The monster’s goal is to reproduce and create a race of other aliens that will wipe out humanity.
So the scientists decide to kill her. But these things never work out the way you want them to, and she escapes.
So you would assume they’d call on the army, right?
Nope. That wouldn’t have enough of a dynamic.
Instead, head honcho scientist (played by an almost daydreaming Ben Kingsley) wrangles up a ragtag team of people with different skills to find and destroy the monster.
You’ve got Michael Madsen as the tough guy bounty hunter, Alfred Molina as an anthropologist and Forest Whitaker as a psychic of sorts. Madsen especially has a lot of fun with his bad-line-spouting character. After an agent tells Madsen that “Criminologists said there’s no evidence of semen in the hot tub water,” Madsen cracks, “Well, maybe she took it with her.”
The rest of the flick is this motley crew chasing after Henstridge while she tries to nab a mate and make a baby.
I should mention that the beautiful Henstridge is naked more often than not in this film. Lots of steamy sex scenes. Lots of botched attempts at baby-making.
And it should also be noted that even when Henstridge changes into the horrific monster, she’s still kind of hot, certainly anatomically correct.
And how many monsters can say that at the end of the day?
I totally would have dug this film when I was 10.
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