Species II 93mins 18 Dir Peter Medak HOW anyone can say that The Avengers is the worst film ever made once Species II hits our screens is beyond me. Honestly, the scariest thing about this sequel to the 1995 hit is the prospect at the end of there being a Species III.

There are rubber-pants moments (when you leap from your seat), but only because a loud noise on the screen or sudden movement has startled the slumbering audience. The dialogue is atrocious, the plot riddled with more holes than some of the bodies oozing on screen, and the whole thing so corny, African nations are sending their starving people along to harvest it. It should go straight to video.

Senator's son Patrick Ross (unknown Justin Lazard) and his fellow crew aboard the first manned flight to Mars get infected by an alien DNA that begins to take over their bodies. While one of the crew dies, another, Gamble (Mykelti Williamson), finds he is immune to it and joins with Press (Michael Madsen) to pursue Ross who is impregnating the local whore population with his poisonous seed.

Helping them in their quest is Eve (Natasha Henstridge) -- a half-alien, half-human hybrid cloned from the same embryo that created the monstrous Sil in the first instalment. This time, for a twist, she is a nice alien. Nobody mention Terminator II.

Species had an amateurish charm that worked. Species II gives the impression that it was written on the back of a napkin during a particularly short working lunch.

Madsen, for instance, superb in Thelma and Louise and Reservoir Dogs, seems at times to be struggling to believe that he has to say some of his dialogue. George Dzundza as Colonel Burgess, doesn't even bother to put any feeling into his dreadfully, dreadfully written part. It's like watching a rather poor amateur dramatics group wishing they were elsewhere.

Oddly enough, in the middle of all this is Henstridge who seems to be the only one trying. Okay, so she's not exactly pushing the boat out for an Oscar, but there is a feeling of youthful naivety and humanity that was not there for Sil -- or is that just her haircut?

Fans of breasts and violence, however, will think they have died and gone to heaven. The first shot of Eve has her strapped into a chair, naked with just the hint of a nipple showing from underneath one of the seatbelts covering her body. There's plenty of graphic sex, plenty of stomachs exploding and, just for good measure, a head being blown off and regrowing.

But running along with all this are questions. Why, for example, is there gravity on board the space shuttle? Why, for instance, are all of Ross's alien off-spring born wearing the same Oliver-like rags? Honestly, at one point I thought the little group of his children was going to burst into a chorus of Food, Glorious Food. In fact, I think I was rather hoping for it.

Director Peter Medak made Romeo is Bleeding, Let Him Have It and The Krays. He has a great future behind him. Jeremy Austin

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