Dark Angel - So bad (and yet so enjoyable)

I first watched Dark Angel in the eighties - which was impressive as it came out in 1990. However, the reason I keep telling myself I saw it about five years earlier was (a) because I was about twelve at the time and (b) because everything about Dark Angel says EIGHTIES.

It's about a nasty old alien who comes to Earth to steal people's endorphin straight from their brains. However, luckily we have tough, no-nonsense cop Dolph Lundgren to sort the rotter out.

It's no masterpiece by anyone's standards. When I first decided to watch it again after over twenty years, I worried that it might spoil the memories of my childhood favourite. I'm pleased to say that it didn't. Dark Angel is as ludicrously daftly enjoyable today as it was back in the eighties (sorry, nineties).

It treads a fine line between being really dark and serious, and slightly tongue-in-cheek and self-knowing. Not many films can get away with this, but somehow Dark Angel pulls it off.

The dialogue may be corny, the special effects aren't really that special, the acting is questionable (and the over-acting from the `mad scientist' is truly a joy to behold) and you could spend longer listing the plot holes than actually watching the films, but, at the end of the day, Dark Angel is enormously silly fun.

If you really don't want to think about plot, story or characterisation the why not immerse yourself in this `Terminator-esque' action flick from the eighties +1? I defy anyone not to cheer when Dolph finally delivers his cutting put-down to the bad alien near the end of the film!

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that