Species II (1998)

Directed by Peter Medak. Starring Michael Madsen, Marg Helgenberger, Mykelti Williamson, Natasha Henstridge, George Dzundza, Justin Lazard, James Crowmell, Peter Boyle, Myriam Cyr. [R]

Soil samples collected from the first manned mission to Mars contain an alien substance that infects at least one of the astronauts (Lazard). Back on Earth, scientists have cloned the creature from the first film for the purposes of study, and wouldn’t you know it, the clone (Henstridge) has a telepathic link with Lazard; when it comes to getting these two together, Egon Spengler said it best: “I think that would be extraordinarily dangerous.” Pitiful sequel offers up generous amounts of gore, bare skin, and inadvertent laughs, but does posit at least one thought-provoking premise: what if you could impregnate your wife on your wedding night and the kid would be born, grown, and ready for college by the time you get back from the honeymoon? Henstridge spends most of the movie in a glass cage (not sound-proof, regrettably); a half-hour in, Madsen makes his grand entrance in a scene so hysterically awful it had to have been intentional (then again, most scenes play out that way—where’s Leslie Nielsen when you need him?). Richard Belzer cameos as the President.

21/100