Nemesis 5: The New Model (2017) Movie Review

Nemesis 5: The New Model is a 2017 action/sci-fi VOD movie directed by Z-Movie director Dustin Ferguson and written by Mike Reeb. It's the fifth and final feature film in the Nemesis film series created by Albert Pyun. It stars the usual cast from some other films by Ferguson like Schuylar Craig, Joelle Reeb, Mel Novak, Edwin Garcia, Daniel Joseph Stier and Dawna Lee Heising. However it does feature series regular Sue Price in a rather small role, a bodybuilder who played Alex Sinclair from part 2 onwards. This movie was probably made because Ferguson got the rights to the name of the series after watching the movies during the nineties and being a fan of them.

The Red Army Hammerheads have taken over Earth in the year 2077 and it's up to Ari Frost, who trained with Alex Rain, to rise up against the cyborgs and resist their conquest.

First thing you gotta realize is that this is a microbudget and very short Z-movie made strictly out of a fan's love for the original movies rather than a giant corporation trying to get a few bucks out of the few people who still remember the Nemesis movies, so you have to put up with some low production values, unpolished acting, rushed shooting and staging and some very rudimentary special effects but if you enjoy no-budget cinema this might be for you, particularly if you have some sort of nostalgia for the other Nemesis films. These conditions create a similar feel to the abstraction and surrealness of the original sequels this one takes a lot from but on a much meager budget.

Sue Price comes back for her role and you can tell it's been almost 20 years since the last flick but she still looks very good and has some fun (funny) moments that you can have a good time with. Other characters also come back or are added to continue the storyline of part 2 and 3 specifically, mostly ignoring the unrelated storyline from part four. I forgot to mention that Sue Price is about five feet, so she looks way shorter than the rest of the cast. In the other movies they played this off well enough that some people couldn't notice but as the series went on they stopped using lower angles or tricks to make her look bigger in front of the camera.

Visually there are some inspiring touches like the monochromatic color filters that give some flair and a distinguishable quality to the image, it's quite varied and well done so it never gets tiresome. The rest of the style is typical static camera and very few, if any, movements or flashy techniques. A lot of the movie doesn't really go anywhere and the plot meanders a bit too much from the central characters but I cant say I was bored while watching it even if not much impactful usually happens on Ferguson's films, this one is different in the sense that it has some conventional plot points and development for instance. Like most of his other movies Nemesis 5 is also about an hour and ten minutes long, so it never overstays its welcome.

Only recommended for those who are already familiar with the director and who know what they are getting into. Even if you are a Nemesis completist you might be bewildered by this one.

Gall Force: Earth Chapter (1989-1990) Anime OVA Series Review

Gall Force: Earth Chapter was an action sci-fi war anime OVA series that was released from 1989 to 1990 and functions as a continuation to Rhea Gall Force (1989) and it's the fifth installment in the Gall Force franchise. The same creative team with Katsuhito Akiyama and Hideki Kakinuma was incharge of it, with the voices of Naoko Watanabe, Michie Tomizawa, Eriko Hara, Yuko Mizutani, Maria Kawamura, Naoko Watanabe, Hiromi Tsuru, Chieko Honda and Naoko Matsui.

We follow the same human resistance against Paranoid machines. Sandy leads her group of guerrilla fighters to face off against their non-human foes traveling across Earth and uniting the entire race against the menace, awaiting Martian reinforcements and meeting a group of ecological christians, the Geo Chris, as the MME menace approaches.

I do think that the post-apocalyptic setting was a nice modification to the Gall Force formula, it was a fun way to show a needed counterpart to the space setting of the first trilogy, but while Rhea benefited from a short runtime and wonderful action this sequel OVA three-parter isn't as fortunate, even with its merits. The drama is pretty weightless and most of the plot points don't really have much staying power with you, the personality of the characters has also been put on a secondary plane, with the exposition-heavy talks taking the majority of the screentime.

It's a shame that they didn't explore more of the characters considering that this time we follow the exact same ones for an increased amount of time, would have been neat to see more of Score and Sandy developing as friends, or maybe the vagrant Mitty could have been fleshed out or could have been given a bigger role in the narrative but not much is done with them. Score never really does anything else besides being a badass chick with weapons who says one liners and mocks others, but she is very good in that role so I cant really complain about that. At certain moments they make her more sensible and she begins to worry a lot about her companions, giving her a bit of character, stopping her from becoming some sort of walking cliche for some brief scenes. Sandy is the same optimist and the intimate relationship she feels, the responsibility, is very palpable and allows her to reflect on the relationship between her enemies and herself as well as her kind. This pays off to some degree in the climax of the series.

We have some pretty awesome action but the overall animation kind of varies in quality throughout the three episodes, it never reaches the level of incompetent but you can tell there were some shots and scenes that feature some stilted or downgraded animation. Nothing awful but it's a bit distracting. The rest of the OVA series has some delightful sci-fi action that keep you entertained, but they aren't the most impressive or fantastic out of the franchise and might not be enough if you want to binge the series.

It's nothing stellar but it gets the job done as a light action anime. It's a bit convoluted at times, which hurts the engagement and the pacing, but in general I believe that even non-fans of the franchise can jump on either Rhea or Earth Chapter and get something out of it, considering that most of the essential elements were removed or altered.

I mostly recommend the show to those who are already into Gall Force and are completists, stick with it until the final OVA to see how the conflict from the previous chapters gets resolved but don't expect a breathtaking script or outstanding animation.