Customer Reviews

Project Viper

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Film makers are always looking for new and interesting monsters. This one is certainly different.

Viper is the codename for a lifeform engineered to live on Mars. We later find out it is a living acid. It also somehow incorporates a computer chip. The Shuttle Olympus has a canister with Viper. We don't know if the Shuttle is going to Mars or merely acting as a launch platform, but whichever it is, it never happens as Viper gets loose.

Well, Viper is not alone, there is another prototype on Earth, but that one gets stolen but escapes in a small town where the original development team and special agent Mike Connors have to stop it.

Fans of creature movies will recognize a lot of footage lifted from the movie Species (car crash, shooting flares, etc) but they are used in a different way so their use is not too jarring. The effects and the creature are pretty good although while the creature has some effect on electrical systems, the characters never seem to catch on.

It was refreshing to see the Agent not trusting the scientists (he thinks it's an inside job). It was also good to see Tim Thomerson again (Trancers, Doll Man, etc.) as the local sheriff.

If you like creature films you will probably want to take a look at this one.

"Project Viper" is actually an above average B-flick. The star of this flick is the likeable Patrick Muldoon, who's been a second-rate star for some time now. Another second-rater, Tim Thomerson, plays as the unfortunate smalltown cop who's trying to keep his smalltown alive. The plot is simple, an experimental "thing" meant to clean Mars and make it suitable to live there kills the crew of the shuttle it's on. It's counterpart escapes on Earth thanks to a few baddies and it wreaks havoc on Thomerson's town. Muldoon is a federal agent dispatched to kill the "thing." He attempts to do this with the help of the team that developed it, lead by Theresa Russell.

The action in this flick is above average for B movies. The special effects are par for the course, with a pretty fake looking "Viper" that slinks and slimes its way through the hapless citizens of the town.

There's a brief glimpse of the dude who played Booger from "Revenge of the Nerds" fame, as a lawyer hoping to cash in on the shortfalls of the town. He's mainly there to supply food for the "Viper," as most folks in this flick are.

If you're wanting to kill a little time with a B-movie that isn't all that shabby, give "Project Viper" a shot. It's worth a rental, but you might think twice before plunking down money for this one.

I had to laugh every time Patrick Muldoon referred to the scientific geniuses as "The Hee Haw Gang." Muldoon stars as rogue investigator Mike Connors (a tribute to "Mannix?) who is investigating the team that designed a genetically enhanced computer program called Viper. After the Viper takes care of the men on the shuttle Olympus, all hell breaks loose. The only other prototype is stolen by a woman supplanted to take the place of one of the team members. Darn good woman, too. She manages to take out all the government agents, crash her car, and then outsmart her pursuers. What is Viper and how can it kill? That's where the film's core takes place.
I had to admit..I loved this movie. I thought the creature effects were brilliant, sort of a silly putty alien monster. It strikes quite quickly and unexpectedly; my favorite attack is with the nice neighbor and his little french poodle. It's priceless.
The cast is good, too. Theresa Russell, still looking as lovely as she did in "Insignificance" and "Black Widow" plays her scientist role with a glibness and tenacity that matches Muldoon's sarcastic, macho lawman. Tim Thomerson does well as the local sheriff; Billy Keane is effective as the Viper programmer; and the rest of the cast lends its ilk to the proceedings.
I credit the writers for coming up with such a uniquely disgusting creature.
This may not be a classic film, but in the B-movie category, it's a winner!

This isn't really a movie. It's a movie-lette, with different types of movies morphed together. In other words - no real plot. There's a kind of a "The Arrival" storyline at the beginning, (by the way, NASA security really sucks - they can't hit two slow moving targets with automatic rifles) followed by the arrival of a tentacle monster to a small town. Some guy who works for the government, a scientist, and some more scientists are assigned to find out where this "Project Viper" is. Attempts at subplots are made, then quickly flushed like used toilet paper.

Below par special effects (dark purple-colored phong shader 4 teh win) isn't helped by an atrocious script. Horror movie cliches (two kissers at lover's lane killed) combined with dumb characters (no one notices their Project Viper sensor ringing like mad until ten minutes later) and overall bad dialogue ruins any hope this movie had of at least being craptacular.

You have to wonder what was going through the minds of the screenwriters as they wrote this. It was most likely along the lines of:

"How do pop-tarts work?"
"What color is orange?"
"What is this fluid in my mouth?"
"Mustard tastes funny when eaten through my nose."

A low-budget remake of "The Blob," "Project Viper" is fun to watch. One night, Dad and I were watching a boring movie; I inserted a DVD of "Project Viper" and we never yawned again. It is part action adventure, part science fiction, and part horror. A globular, living substance known as VIPER is stolen from a high security lab. The glob kills its thief and escapes into the pond of a small New Mexico town. With its gray tentacles, it's able to grab hapless citizens and ingest them. The glob grows stronger and more powerful with each victim.

Gorgeous Theresa Russell (who gave an awesome performance in "The Black Widow") is the bioengineering scientist who must destroy the glob before it begins to multiply. She has great chemistry with Patrick Muldoon, the handsome playboy agent assigned to aid her. The CGI special effects are interesting. The creature's final appearance is horrifying. "Project Viper" moves along at a fast clip thanks to shoot outs and gory killings committed by the creature. This film is highly recommended for fans of science fiction horror such as Dean Koontz's "Phantoms," the "Species" saga, and "The Blob."

A team of NASA scientists has created an organism that is being sent to Mars to terraform the planet, only it never gets there. It is somehow released on the shuttle and kills the entire crew. Back on earth, a second organism is stolen from NASA. The plane the thieves are using to get away crashes near the Mexican border and the organism is loose, growing and changing in an atmosphere it wasn't meant to live in. An investigator is brought in to work with the scientists to find and kill the organism.

Project Viper is basically a low budget waste of time. There is no reason for this movie to exist except to employ a crew and some actors for a few weeks. There is no suspense, no fear, no real interest. The organism grows into a monster but is just stupid looking. The scientists don't explain anything. They never figure out why the creature is growing or taking the shape it is. The investigator is an obnoxious twit who never really investigates anything, just yells at the scientists because he doesn't trust them. The only fun I had was seeing Tim Thomerson again. It's too bad he can't get better work than this meaningless piece of work.

If you survive this movie then you will be ok. A creature from mars lands on earth, making the title of the movie pivitol to the story but it's a bad monster movie with the special effects of the monster being ridiculous and mindnumbingly awful. Patrick Muldoon (Starship Troopers, The Arrival II) and Theresa Russell (Black Widow) join forces to try to stop the creature before it inhabits the town and everywhere else. There's always gotta be some guy not beliving the possibility of such creatures until he sees it in his jail room. Man, if they do make a sequel then jesus crist I will strangle myself. A pile of goo on the walls of society.

Project Viper is the code name for a terraforming agent that's accompanying the first group of humans to Mars. The basic idea is that it has been designed to excel in the Martian environment, and it's waste products will leave the planet ready for human life. There's only one problem... they never get to Mars. Before the shuttle (yes, a space shuttle was going to mars... without extra fuel tanks... without warp engines... without a lot of food...) leaves orbit the canister containing Viper opens, and the crew is killed.

No problem, it's still in space right? Well there was the second prototype in the lab of course, and it's promptly stolen by well, by some bad guys. We never really find out who they are and it doesn't matter anyway. The Department of Defense calls in Captain Mike Connors to find Viper and clean this situation up. Viper of course gets away, and of course it gets away in a small town, and Connors and crew have to chase it. That's enough plot, you get the idea.

The acting really isn't that bad with the exception of a few scenes, and the special effects were pretty good for what is essentially a made for TV movie. I really wanted to give this one 3 stars, but with the storyline holes, so-so special effects, and totally bare bones DVD I just couldn't justify it. Don't avoid it as a rental though, it is worth watching if your in the mood for a cheesy sci-fi/thriller/b-movie evening.