Customer Reviews

Shapeshifter [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I stumbled across this movie OnDemand some years back, and simply HAD to own it! I am a fan of incredibly terrible movies. Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a favorite series of mine, and I can't think of a better way to spend an evening than making fun of some awful movie that was either directly sent to video or aired solely on the Sci-Fi channel. Shapeshifter was a direct-to-video movie, filmed in Romania on what one hopes was a pathetically low budget, and it is one of my very favorite terrible movies ever.

The plot begins straightforward enough: teen spy Alex must rescue his parents from a stereotypical Eastern European tyrant who longs to nuke the entire planet. The "twist" is that he discovers that he fulfills an ancient gypsy prophecy, and is actually the Shapeshifter of legend! Gasp!

If the plot were that simple, this movie would only be moderately bad. However, the plot inconsistencies and random other genres thrown in make it a nonsensical ride of epic proportions. The plot, furthermore, is not the only terrible thing about this movie. The dialogue is ridiculous and forced, the acting is laughably bad, and the special effects would be better if they were done in somebody's basement.

If you have a good sense of humor and enjoy laughing at the expense of an awful movie, this is right up your alley. If you're looking for an action-packed, incredible sci-fi thrill ride. . . best to look elsewhere.

With all the reviews that I have read for this particular movie. The written english on all of them are just terrible. Plus, they are probably not well educated. Their reviews on this movie are ones to be desired. I thought the movie was well made. But, they really don't explain the beginning very well. I would like to see a series of this movie with the same actors. Like "Back To The Future" movies. And by the way I love all the Godzilla movies, especially the older ones!

Alex (Paul Nolan) belongs to a family of ex-spies for the CIA. However a nasty evil leader of an East European country with solicited help from a witch (Catherine Blythe) decides to capture them and squeeze out some info. Naturally, it is up to their son to the rescue them. Only this is a big kid older than most teenyboppers are.

While he is searching for his parents, he stays in a hostile. There a coming of age cutie (Emmanuelle Vaugier) and an old dude that found a magical, digital rock as a kid assist him. Alex soon conveniently learns he can shape shift.

Can his shifty shapes and his cutie friend help him extricate his parents?
What is the shifty witch really up to?
Will he keep his new pet rock and/or the cutie?

I know this is a pilot for a kid's series (probably to replace Alex Mac) but how dumb do you think kids are? Don't answer that. Believe me kids would barf if you try to feed them this pseudo science, quasi-mystical [explicatory deleted].

Aside from this the acting, what acting? Well where there should have been acting, they use fake Romanian accents. The witch looks like the cousin to the woman who narrates "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

The props are just junk leftover from "Lost in Space" (the TV series). The story has no cohesion. They must be banking on the viewer having attention deficit disorder. Once again, we have a story where the kid is much cleverer than his catatonic parents are.

this movie is about some genius kid and his folks.theyre cia spies.they chase around russians.the parents get parent-napped.then the boy must save them.he inadvertantly discovered the power to shapeshift.but dont get exited.the so called genius teen was a total moron in the physics department.he could take the form of any being,including mythological ones.so does he turn into a dragon?or how about a fly so they wouldnt notice him?no.the idiot turns himself into a dog.he sniffs his way to them but then barks at the russian guards.oh brilliant!later he turns into a bird to escape and even a d and d type creature to freak them out for a second.it was stupid!it could have been really good,but like a lot of movies,the character with the gift is a total moron.it reminded me a lot of like bill and ted or beetlejuice in that respect.except they were cool movies and this one sucked!no wonder it was on on demand for free!

first off, I just want to say that if I could I would of given this movie no stars. THE SPECIAL EFFECTS-what special efects? when alex transforms into the horse-bird thing it looks like something you would see in the making of a better movie- except it looks like the unedited vesion, a raw computer image, no attemp at making it look real just making the shape and color.
THE STORY- the story starts out okay, but later on it begins to make you say "huh?!" they diffinetly had a great idea, with the shapeshifter thing, but they turned it into crap. the acting wasn't that great either, I really doubt this movie cost more than $3,000 to $5,000 to make. overall this movie really sucked, I wouldn't recomend it to anyone, not even a family with little kids who would believe alot of things in movies, they would think it's crap too.

This new video was interesting. A young man 20 maybe is told by a mentor he is a shapeshifter, his parents are retired spys who are caught by KGB and grilled for their knowledge of field ops... He uses his powers to free them, and has entanglements with Cia type who was parents contact. Two minor Gts, interesting computer graphics.. and a Thermin! (I think)

I (being a fan of werewolves and other shapeshifters) rented this movie, and was greatly dissapointed. The story is poor,the transformation scenes are un-impressive and too fast to be visually interesting, and many of the computer-generated special effects don't look real. I think it's a bad movie all around (except it was filmed in Romania, so you can see some interesting architechture). If you like movies about shapeshifters, I would recomend the movies: "The Company of Wolves" (starring Angela Lansbury) and "Wolf" (starring Jack Nicholson).