Tuesday, April 17, 2018

VENUS RISING (1996) *


A young woman named Eve (Audie England) escapes from a futuristic island prison and winds up in a resort area.  She befriends a pill-popping woman (Meredith Salenger) who shows her kindness and takes her in.  When her host disappears mysteriously, Eve is left to her own devices.  She then noodles around on her Virtual Reality headset and begins frequenting online sex rooms.  She even manages to find love with her cyberspace boyfriend (Billy Wirth) in real life.  Eventually, another prisoner (Costas Mandylor) comes looking for Eve, which threatens to ruin everything for her.

There are times where Venus Rising almost feels unfinished.  I don’t know if the budget ran out of money or if the script was already wonky to begin with.  It tosses a lot of elements together like prison escapes, futuristic advances (there’s a silver pyramid that offers mood-enhancing pills), and Virtual Reality (which was big at the time and is now enjoying a sizeable renaissance today), but nothing really sticks.  The sci-fi elements seem half-hearted at best (or maybe that was due to the restrained budget) and are incongruous with the main thrust of the action. It’s also slow moving, awkwardly paced, and not very involving.  

Its biggest crime though is that it manages to waste a good cast that includes Joel Grey, Dennis Dun, Morgan Fairchild, and Jessica Alba (who plays a young version of Eve in a dream/flashback).  None of them are given anything remotely useful to do, which makes the movie even more frustrating.  I guess it would be one thing if Audie England could carry the film on her own accord, but she just doesn’t have the chops to portray a likeable heroine.

In short, Venus Rising sinks to the bottom of the barrel.  

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