“The Bunker” – The evil is within.

Wow, it’s been a spell. Anywho I’ve jumped back in with what appeared to be a low-budget horror flick from 2001 called “The Bunker”. This is the third film I’ve seen that has to deal with German soldiers and sealed up bunkers during WWII, and at this point I’m starting to think they lost the war due to paranormal activities. Sadly none of these films really hit “outstanding” on any scale so I’m not sure why they keep getting made, but for what it’s worth “The Bunker” was decent enough and something I may in fact watch sometime in the future. How’s that for a ringing endorsement?

As far as haunted bunker stories go, there isn’t much variation. Generally some Nazi’s stumble upon some sort of building that they need to hide in and there’s always the one older guy who’s seen some sh&* in his time who warns everyone about “the tunnel” or “the basement”, but either through necessity or stupid curiosity everyone winds up below and starts dying. “The Bunker” is no different than this, except that the story is just a tad more interesting than some creature killing everyone off. Without giving away the ending (albeit a cop-out of an ending), the movie has flashbacks every now and then, just a few seconds long, finally leading up to the big reveal of what’s actually haunting these dudes. It’s pretty easy to guess before the ending actually occurs but meh. Unlike its siblings, “The Bunker” focuses more on the paranoia the soldiers experience while being trapped and how it starts to affect each of them in turn. It’s similar to one of my favorite horror movies of all time, “Session 9″…except not as well executed.

I wouldn’t have chosen to nap there, but that’s just me.

I’ll be honest, for a low-budget thriller like this one it was actually done decently well. The first internship I ever had was for a straight-to-DVD movie called “Halloween Night” which was downright terrible. This film didn’t rely on gore or overused explosions to freak out the audience, but rather the acting and well timed shadows. I honestly thought it was a film made in the late 80’s/early 90’s when it first started because the music and title screen was very reminiscent of John Carpenter’s early work (look at me being all connoisseur-esque). The cast is also pretty impressive, filled with actors from the UK that you’ve seen before, such as Jack Davenport, Jason Flemyng, and Eddie Marsan. Much like the Tom Cruise film “Valkyrie” they didn’t hide their accents at all, even while portraying German soldiers but if that honestly bothers you then you have bigger things to worry about. With a good cast of veteran supporting actors, they all did a good job making it seem like they are actually terrified of what the tunnels in the bunker have in store for them. Probably the best part is that very few of them are actually scared of “things” down below, but rather the American army they believe themselves to be surrounded by. Interesting to watch a WWII movie where the Americans are in a sense the bad guys.

So there you have it, easy enough storyline to follow, pretty decent acting, and no scares big enough to make you jump but rather make you glad you aren’t in their position. Out of the other bunker films I mentioned earlier, this is definitely not the best nor the worst of them.

DIRECTOR’S CUT: Not too long and creepy enough to give you slight chills, but that also might be due to the air conditioner being on too high.

FLICKCHART RATING: 957/2188

“The Final Countdown” – Trapped outside the boundaries of time and space…102 aircraft…6,000 men…all missing.

I don’t watch a lot of TV…but when I do, it’s “Fringe” (Dos Equis reference, for the young ones). Anywho, I am a huge fan of the show “Fringe” on Fox. It deals with space/time continuums, alternate universes, shapeshifters, etc. The best part of the show is that it handles all of these different plots so well that it holds my attention, four seasons deep. Therefore when a movie comes along that also plays with jumping around on several timelines, I’ll do more than read the synopsis; I’ll read the Wikipedia page.

“The Final Countdown” is an older movie, coming in at 1980 and starring the then young Martin Sheen and the even younger Kirk Douglas (I literally had to check to make sure he’s still alive. Man’s almost 100). Douglas plays the captain aboard the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier carrying roughly 6,000 men and Martin Sheen, a civilian observer under the employ of a mysterious man named Mr. Tidewater. I’m pretty sure his explanation for being on board is, “…to see how you do stuff.” Some great writers there. Shortly after they leave port and head into open water they encounter what appears to be a thunderstorm in a ball. Desperately trying to maneuver the thing, which rivals the Titanic for trying to miss the iceberg, the whole ship winds up going through it instead. While the crew experiences the highest pitched dog whistle noise that humans can possibly endure, nobody decides to take the time to look outside and see what’s actually happening. Luckily when it all stops, they’re still in the ocean and clearly nothing has changed. Being the smartest man aboard, Douglas sends out a few jets to find out what’s going, check their surroundings. The planes report back that there are old Japanese WWII Zeros in the area, and that Pearl Harbor isn’t that far away with the entire fleet just hanging out. Unlike most movies where this may get drawn out for awhile since people refuse to believe what they can’t comprehend, Sheen calmly suggests that they’ve been sent back in time and the whole ship just kind of shrugs and goes, “Oh…well alright then.”

This is about as much as I can give you without ruining the entire story. After re-reading all of that though I want to make sure that I get the point of the movie across, which is not necessarily that a ship goes time traveling. When faced with the dilemma of changing history because you have the power to, would you? Obviously this aircraft carrier with planes nearly 40 years ahead of those used in WWII and over 6,000 men on board would tear through the Japanese Navy like butter, but what would the consequences be? Very “Planet of the Apes”, but without the apes.

I liked it, but then again I like most films that deal with the supernatural, the undiscovered, and the “what if’s”. An 80’s movie with a veteran going toe to toe with an up and coming star, the acting definitely didn’t suffer. It’s an interesting plot that I would bet hinges slightly on the Philadelphia Experiment, which is always fun for people willing to chomp at the bit for conspiracy stories. Kind of makes you hope that when a government employee took his kid to see the movie, he started to sweat a little.

DIRECTOR’S CUT: It’s fun. Yes it’s old but you can’t really tell, nor let it bring down what you’re expecting to see. “What if” movies are aplenty, but when dealing with something so close to home it will definitely keep you intrigued.

FLICKCHART RATING: 947/1877