The Wraith

 Watched July 4, 2025

 

1986

Starring: Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn, Nick Cassavetes, Clint Howard

Director: Mike Marvin

 

Magical lights come out of the night sky to create a car! ... the Turbo Interceptor!

 

A couple is night driving when Packard (Nick Cassavetes) and his gang stops them and forces them to race for the car or they hint at raping the girlfriend. He loses the race and the gang takes his car, leaving him and his girlfriend on the side of the rural highway. 

 

Keri (Sherilyn Fenn) is walking out of her house when Jake (Charlie Sheen) rolls up on his motorcycle asking for directions. She offers to show in the way but then her not boyfriend Packard shows up. They all go to the local swimming hole. Jake meets Jamie's little brother Billy, Jamie was killed a year ago but they never found the murderer. Packard threatens everyone and forces Keri to be his girlfriend, but she isn't, she likes Jake.

 

The Interceptor shows up and the car gang tries to race it. The Interceptor stops and the other racer crashes into it! Huge explosion and goes down a hill. Lots of cars explode in this movie!

 

Officer Loomis (Randy Quaid) shows up and talks to the gang. The recovered body isn't charred, it's clean with the eyes gouged out.

 

The car gang has a sweet garage hang out. Rughead (Clint Howard) is the tech guy with Skunk & Gutterboy being the punk dirtbags. There are a couple more guys in the gang. Billy works at the drive in burger joint where Keri is a roller skate server.  

 

The Interceptor shows up again and another guy is dead. The mysterious helmeted dude gets out of the Interceptor and shoots up the garage. Then he blows up a bunch of cars. Rughead is the first one to call the helmeted figure a wraith.

 

One night Skank and Gutterboy see Keri on the back of Jake's motorcycle. They follow and try to shoot him but they total their car instead. Packard watches Keri and Jake kiss, then the Interceptor shows up and pushes them into the cemetery where Packard's headstone is.

 

Jake and Keri go swimming and make out.

 

Packard grabs Keri at work to take her. Billy stand up but gets punched. In the car, Keri says she knows it was Packard and his gang who killed Jamie. Jamie was her boyfriend.

 

The Interceptor shows up and races Packard,  with the cops following. A hauler car trailer is run into, lots of car explosions. The Interceptor runs into Packard and he's dead. Each time this happens the Interceptor is fine.

 

Jake says bye to Billy who now knows he's Jamie. Jake gives Billy the Interceptor. Jake and Keri ride off into the moonlight on his motorcycle.

 

Keri's outfits are great! Clint Howard's hair and outfits too. Lots of rad car explosions and great stunts. Well shot on location in Tucson, Arizona. The mystery of the wraith isn't much of mystery. It seems pretty clear when the new guy in town Jake shows up at the same time as the mysterious car. You are just waiting for each time the Interceptor to keep chipping away at the gang that killed Jamie. I couldn't find this one for awhile and was psyched to find a DVD widescreen at a thrift store. I always looked at the poster/video box art and though the wraith would ride a motorcycle because he always wears a full face helmet.

The Omega Code

Watched August 23, 2024

 

1999

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Catherine Oxenberg, Michael Ironside, Michael York
Director: Robert Marcarelli

I had seen this one before but I kept the VHS, so I assumed that was for a reason. I usually get rid of the movies I don't have an interest in watching again. I recently picked up Megiddo: The Omega Code 2, so I forced everybody to watch the first one in preparation of the sequel.

Dominic (Michael Ironside) is disguised as a Hasidic Jew in Israel when he sneaks up on a man who has been deciphering the Omega code from the Torah. The man tears out the last line of the code and puts in his pocket but then Dominic shoots him and steasl his computer files.

 

Gillen Lane (Casper Van Dien) is a motivational speaker/mythology expert. He goes on Cassandra Barashe's (Catherine Oxenberg) talk show to share his new book. He does mention the torah code and that is predicted Princess Di's death. He's very enthusiastic and the audience loves him.

 

In Italy, Stone Alexander (Michael York) gets a humanitarian award. Gillen and Cassandra are there too. There is a horse that makes Gillen have a spooky vision. Gillen wants to connect with Stone about something. Meanwhile in a tech basement, a guy with a Russian accent is using the Omega code to spit out prophesies.

 

Gillen goes back to his estranged wife Jennifer (Devon Odessa, Angela's old friend on My So-Called Life) and their daughter. They are only having problems because his job takes him away. They both appear to want to reconcile. He takes a teaching job locally.

 

Stone gets the prophecies and bombs the Dome of the Rock to make the prophesy come true. Israel and Palestine rebuild together and there is three years of peace. Gillen breaks his promise and doesn't stick around with his family, instead he joins Stone and Dominic on their 'peace' mission. Stone needs Gillen as part of the prophecy.

 

From the beginning, there are two angel protectors who look like men who have been sent by Job to make sure the prophecies don't come true. 

 

Stone is shot by Dominic when he feels betrayed by not being made the prophet. Stone magically recovers at the hospital revealing he is not human.

 

Here's what I got out of it: Stone is the demon/devil and figures out the prophesies then makes them happen. Gillen is the neutral good but is needed by Stone to make it all happen. Cassandra seems good at first but then betrays Gillen. Dominic is bad all along then pissed when he isn't chosen as the prophet. Stone wants Gillen as the chosen prophet instead. God stops Stone with a blinding blast of light.

 

I guess if you're really religious and know the bible, it's like the bible brought to life in a thrilling way! Except it's not thrilling, there is no suspense. The mystery to me was more "what the hell is going on?" instead of "what will happen next?" There are some cool practical effects car chases and crashes. I loved the visualization of the code on the 90s computers. Stone does manage a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine, unfortunately a real life thing that doesn't seem to have a nonviolent solution. Gillen's monochromatic suits are cool, the acting is fine. There is minimal horrible CGI with some around the world explosions. I appreciate a lot of things filmed on location. 

 

These "star" studded Christian movies are very weird.I don't know why I kept the VHS. I also have Left Behind. I do have some interest in the Christian apocalypse even if it's real preachy and not enough people die.

The Net

Watched August 25, 2015

1995
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, Dennis Miller

I've continued watching movies based around the internet that were made in the mid-1990's. The Net is another one on the list, it's less about virtual reality and more about the fear of all your information being accessible online.

Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a computer beta tester who loves the internet. She barely needs to leave the house because she can always order out from Pizza.net, her favorite online pizza delivery site. She lives in the larger Los Angeles area somewhere and works for Cathedral systems, an IT company based in San Francisco. Her mother has Alzheimer's and is in an assisted living facility. Angela visits her regularly, but it's hard watching her mother forget who she is. She doesn't have a lot of friends because she loves computer so much. A coworker from Cathedral Systems sends her a disk for a program they've been debugging called Mozart's Ghost. Once the program launches, there is a pi symbol in the bottom right corner, once pressed it opens a back door to top secret files. She talks to her coworker and they are both curious about what the pi symbol means. Her coworker wants to talk in person so her and he flies down in his personal plane down but a glitch in air traffic control computer makes him crash into some power plant towers. 

The next day Angela heads to Mexico for a beach vacation. That's where she meets Jack (Jeremy Northam.) He's kind of charming and creepy, but he manages to trick her into a date on his boat. A weird dude keeps watching them, eventually he steals Angela's purse on a beach walk. It's all a trap because Jack just wanted the Mozart's Ghost disk. He takes Angela further out on the boat to kill her, but she just thinks it's a nice date and they have sex. While he is below deck, she puts on her clothes and his jacket where she finds his gun. She asks him about the gun and he takes it from her saying it's for shark fishing, with a silencer. Luckily she took clip out so he couldn't shoot her.  She hits him with a bottle of wine, and escapes in the little motor boat only to crash into some nearby rocks. 

Several days later she wakes up in a Mexican hospital without any personal identification. At the US embassy they grant her a temporary visa with the name Ruth Marx, she reluctantly signs it even though the name is wrong. At the airport she goes to where she had left her car and it's gone. When  she gets to her house, it's for sale and open house is going on. Angela goes in and starts freaking out at the realtor.  The cops are called and Angela tries to explain her situation.  The cops run Ruth Marx's name, since that who they think Angela is and she has a bunch of warrants that Jack just added to get her into trouble. Angela escapes out the back door and steals the realtor's phone. She doesn't have any real life friends, but she has an ex-boyfriend Alan (Dennis Miller), who also used to be her therapist. Alan doesn't believe Angela's story at first, that her identity has been switched. They do get Angela checked into a hotel. 

Jack is still tracking Angela since he botched up killing her.  Jack and his group of bad guys mess with Alan's medication and give him penicillin which he is allergic to and he ends up in the hospital. He starts to recover but is then killed. He was the last person who could verify her identity, since her mom has Alzheimer's.

Angela is arrested and tells her story to her court appointed attorney, who doesn't believe her anyway. She is released from jail by a supposed FBI agent who turns out to being working for Jack. She manages to escape the clutches of the fake FBI guy and hitchhikes to San Francisco to the Cathedral offices to figure out who is behind the Pi symbol. She gets into the office and forces everyone out with a fire alarm. She finds out that Jeff Gregg Microsystems guy who created the whole Gateway security system included the Pi back door to manipulate information and people. She copies the info and runs to the Pan Pacific Computer Convention that just happens to be going on down the street. She finds a computer and emails the info to the FBI. Jack finds her chases her onto a cat walk where she hits him with a fire extinguisher and he falls, presumably to his death. The movie ends with her and her still Alzheimer's afflicted mom back at her house. She got her identity back, she is Angela Bennett again.

One of the funniest parts to me is when Jack is flirting with Angela at the Mexican resort. He traces her accent to Southeastern Colorado, which to my knowledge is not a region specific accent at all. Jack also call Angela a clever girl just like in Jurassic Park.

While Jack is still trying to seduce Angela and they are walking on the beach at night she gets cold. She is only wearing a crop top and Jack has a casual suit jacket on. Instead of offering her his jacket, her pulls a large napkin out of his pocket and ties it around her waist. 

It was alright, but overall too long. The pace could have been sped up. The hacking and internet stuff was pretty realistic. She ordered pizza on the net, which is something you can do today. It could easily be remade, the same security issues exist, but that doesn't necessarily make it a compelling movie.