View a clip from the movie   Rick Springfield - Legion    

 

 

  Release Year: 4/18/98 (shown on HBO in 1997?)
Cast: Parker Stevenson, Terry Farrell, Corey Feldman, Rick Springfield, Audie England, Gretchen Palmer, Trevor Goddard, Elston Ridgle, Tricia Peters, and Troy Donahue
Director: Jon Hess
Categories: Sci Fi
Running Time: 97 minutes
Rick's Character Name: Corporal Ryan

Synopsis:

"Alien Meets the Dirty Dozen"

Its the years 2036. War is raging on earth and its spilled out into the vastness of space. Both sides are evenly matched and the war is kind of at a stalemate, but billions have died. Some of those that die weren't killed in combat. The army is executing soldiers for a variety of crimes. Captain Aldrich is one such soldier. He's a highly skilled warrior but he disobeyed orders and pulled his men out of a no win situation. For that he is to die. (Damn...UCMJ is tough!*) Aldrich is given a choice by his former commander "Colonel" Flemming. Go on a dangerous mission with other convicts or go into the death chamber. Aldrich chooses to go on the mission. (if he didn't it would be a really short movie)

The mission is led by Major Agatha Doyle. Doyle is given a team of really screwed up convict soldiers. In addition to Aldrich there's Poe, a constantly angry killer; Cutter, a drug addict and rapist; Jones...a medic that worships DEATH; Carlson, a nymphomaniac engineer; Goodis, convicted of killing soldiers that raped her; Koosman, a pilot that stole a ship; Siegel, a weasley computer hacker; and Ryan. I can't remember what Ryan was convicted for. Maj. Doyle, herself as a bug up her ass. She lost an entire battalion on a previous mission and is eager to succeed in this one to impress Flemming.

The mission is to destroy an enemy refueling base on some hellish planet. Surprisingly, Doyle is willing to go right to it with this motley band. Now, Doyle is an attractive woman. She's also the only non-convict person on the mission. I don't know about you, but I'd think she'd be more concerned with her own safety. Screw the mission! She's alone and in command of a group of convicted killers, rapists and psychopaths. Funk Dat! Even the medic, Jones, constantly talks about Death as her only commander. Would you go anywhere with these people?

When the team arrives on the planet they find the base deserted. There's a room full of bodies in various states of decay. Bodies of other soldiers. Its painfully obvious to the audience, but not the characters, that someone or something killed all of these guys and it wasn't enemy troops. Fortunately each soldier carries a "black box" recorder. Siegal gets to work on one of them. Its information is encrypted so it takes time to decode. Meanwhile, the mysterious something begins to snuff our heroes one by one. (You won't be shocked to know that Carlson buys it first as she's the nympho) Siegal and Doyle discover that the dead troops were convicts. Just like them. But they keep this information from the others long enough for most of them to get killed. Suspicion is cast on Poe, who runs away. But Poe isn't the killer. I won't tell you who it is, but suffice it to say that its one of the team that is presumed dead.

When it comes to the end, the only two left alive are Doyle and Aldrich. Flemmings and a relief team land on the planet and that's when Flemming tells them the truth. The monster, Legion, is a genetic experiment to create a perfect killing machine. This will change the balance of power in the war. Doyle and her group were sent to test Legion's ability against actual soldiers. (One of many tests it seems considering the bodies piled up in the base) Unfortunately, since this project is all hush hush, Doyle and Aldrich are to be killed. Well, Major Doyle takes a dim view of that idea. Just before Flemming's men can kill our heroes, she grabs a rifle from one of them as Aldrich disables another one. Bullets fly and within seconds only Aldrich and Doyle are left standing. They take Flemming's shuttle and disappear. Reports are that they are listed as Missing in Action.
(synopsis is from the website:
http://www.badmovieplanet.com/inferno/archives/legion.html
This website also has a review and some very funny comments
)

 

FAN REVIEWS:

  
I had to watch this movie twice to really be able to do a review on it.  Science Fiction is not my "thing".  However, I do have to say that this a pretty cool flick. In my opinion, the movie starts out relatively slow, but then once it gets going and the storyline progresses, it is tolerable.  When the characters are first introduced, my first thought was that Rick was portraying another psychotic (a la' Dead Reckoning). But, alas he quickly becomes just another nervous member of the mission to hunt down this "Legion".

Some parts of the movie come across as comical and I believe Rick is in most of those scenes.  One of the female members of the mission has a thing for Ryan(Rick). He has two short, but steamy scenes with her.
 
I hate to give away anything to anyone if you haven't watched this yet, but as the movie continues, it becomes obvious that the "Legion" is a person among the group in the mission.  Some of the gang start to be killed off one by one, and it really starts to get interesting.  Eventually Ryan/Rick is sent off on an investigative mission.  As luck would have it, his character is "killed off" and I thought: well, there goes the movie for me!  Not to be one to give up on it, I continued to watch anyway, and lo and behold~~ Ryan is not dead!  He is the "Legion"!!  It was so weird to see Rick with that mask and have his voice coming out of such a horrid looking creature.  Unfortunatly the Legion/Ryan is killed in the end and the finale is quite sudden. Overall, I would say that the movie is quite interesting and definitely one to see.


 
Science Fiction isnt really my bag either.  I did like certain parts of this movie.  Overall, I do have to say the one thing that bothered me the most about this movie was the fact that the scenes were so dark.  Hard to see anything most of the time.  It dragged on and on, too long, in my opinion, and it wasnt really scary, just dark.  They should have had more lighting, even if they wanted the scare of the darkness to be there, there is a way to do it.  I guess if I could change one thing about this movie, it would be that.  The lighting definately needs some help.  I even tried to adjust my TV set, but it did no good.

There is a terrific scene at the end of this show, played by Rick's character, that just displays the talented, compassionate soul that he is.  In my opinion, that moment towards the end, the last scene that Rick is in during this movie, is one of his best acting moments that i've ever seen.

Another opinion I have of this movie is the lack of story.  I get that there is a story, it just seems that it is written badly.  Maybe it is that I am not a Sci-Fi buff, but I don't really care for the story at all.  It's like they turned an anthill into a mountain.  It is a whole lotta nothing.  It lacks action, it is very slow, and boring at times.  The highlight is Rick in this movie.  If it didn't star Rick,  I can't say that I'd have even watched this all the way through, I'd loose interest.