Customer Reviews

Specimen

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

 

 

SPECIMEN is a molding of two other movies: "Firestarter" and "The Terminator." They even have the two aliens appear in the buff, cute little buns and all. Mark Paul Gosselaar plays Mike, a young man who has the ability to start fires; he is the spawn of an alien who impregnated his mother, and the aliens have sent a terminator type guy (played with muscular aloof by Douglas O'Keefe) to bring him back or destroy him (why, they never say). In steps another alien, Andrew Jackson, who we find out has closer ties to Mike.
Mike teams up with a teacher and the local sheriff to understand what's going on; the sheriff (played dead pan by David Kerman) believes the story about Mike's birth, but Mike doesn't. How else can he explain his powers, though?
Low budget and corny, SPECIMEN nevertheless works because there's a modicum of sincerity to its thin storyline. The special effects are chintzy, but the locale is beautiful.

I liked this movie. The story is intriguing. The only problem I had with this movie was with some of the writing--it was a little bit stilted in some places. The character of "Eleven" was just a little bit lame. I thought Mark-Paul Gosselaar was great. He made the character (Mike) believable and sympathetic and made the whole movie watchable and enjoyable. I liked that this movie wasn't just a bunch of scenes jumbled together for effect, but told a slowly unfolding story as it went along.

I would almost consider the movie "Specimen" a high class "B" movie in the SciFi genre. If you liked the movie "Firestarter" with Drew Barrymore in the '80's, you may like this movie.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved By the Bell) actually does a decent job in his role as Mike Hillary. In this, what I consider to be, a low buget film.

Think of "specimen" as an updated version of the movie "Firestarter." Specimen has more of an alien feel to it, on a low budget scale. I am not into "B" type movies. However I can say I liked this movie. A movie so bad it's good.

Recomended for the SciFi or "B" movie fan

The singular point of watching this is the considerably lovely footage of MarkPaul Gosselaar, soaking wet, in the bathtub, in his underpants. Otherwise, it's a paperweight.

i have met a lot of famous people in my time. my family are of english royal decent. but mark paul gosselaar is the best his acting skills are truly amazing and the ability to make the audience believe what ever he wants them to believe. i have every single film of his in my collection and there is not one i dont dislike.
in this film he plays his character amazingly well and what a great story mark is my favourite actor and i dont know if we shall ever meet again or if he will read this but he is the best at what he does in the world.

buy this film now you wont be dissapointed

lee w frayling. hr7 4js herefordshire england

I saw Specimen about 3 years ago on the SCI FI Channel and for the life of me not one memorable scene stands out.