SyFy Channel movies - The OK, The Confusing & The Cheesy

Yesterday was my day to catch up on my DVR'd SyFy channel movies. Three to be exact and without further ado...here they are.

First, I watched Riverworld, a four hour movie event based on books of the same name. It was well made, special effects were decent, acting was pretty good, cast was appropriately attractive for everyone concerned, characters were mostly fun but some left me wanting. The story seriously left me confused. SPOILER ALERT: I'll try my best to describe it (difficult though) - earth may have been destroyed by some blue alien people but after the humans died they kept a bunch around (not sure why) in big water tanks (think Matrix without the wire hookups) and randomly choose to put them in a land that is just a river and the forest on either side of it and act as caregivers pitted against each other and trying to have the humans help them beat each other in some vague goal. Confused? Me too. And I watched all four hours. And to top it off the main guy, Mat is perpetually hunting for his lady love, Jessie. Problem - that they only knew each other two months before dying and his only purpose in living, getting beat to hell, tortured, etc... is to find Jessie. And even after he finds out that perhaps she is not all that and a bag of chips - he still continues to search for her obsessively. Had me scratching my head - I can tell you. Maybe the books were better.

Next in my little marathon was 100 Million BC. Not to be confused with the 1966 One Million Years BC with Raquel Welch. This one starred Christopher Atkins (remember Blue Lagoon), Greg Evigan and Michael Gross. It was such a cheesy bad movie and yet I still watched every minute. Why? I'm a sucker for that cutie-pie Christopher Atkins - that's why! The special effects were so bad and funny because of it. The storyline was dubious and and the science behind the story probably even more questionable. There is time travel, practically everyone dies and a dinosaur ends up in Los Angeles. And with all our modern technology - it was still surprisingly difficult to kill this rampaging T-Rex (or something similar). In the end, they had to send the dinosaur back to its own time but did so by landing him in the middle of giant rock which I found cruel and unnecessary since he was only doing what's in his nature. So, not gonna recommend this one unless you too have a weakness for that cutie-pie Christopher Atkins.

Third was Lost City Raiders. A story about the future where the earth has mostly become covered by rising water levels. The goal - everyone wants some ancient artifact that may be able to control the water and save (or not) mankind. It stars James Brolin, Ben Cross as our villain, and Ian Somerhalder (dreamy!). This one had OK special effects and action scenes. The acting was mostly good and the story was mostly OK too. It was good just not great. I would not seek it out to watch again but if I was channel-surfing and came across it, I'd probably get sucked in again (if for no other reason than to check out the hottie Ian S.). The resolution seemed a little futuristic (considering how ancient the artifact is) and out of place, but it got the job done. So, if you can't find anything better to watch you could do worse than this one.