Remember the frustration you and the rest of America felt this summer when BP was unable to plug its Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico? Viewers will feel equally as restless at the sci-fi thriller "The Rig." Too soon?
More like too late, as "The Rig" is yet another copy of the 1979 classic "Alien," only set on —? spoiler alert! —? an offshore drilling rig. The Weyland crew (that name is a direct reference to the evil Weyland-Yutani Corp. of the "Alien" franchise) sticks its drill where it shouldn't, disrupting the otherwise peaceful existence of a creature, who climbs aboard to show his displeasure.
You know how this goes, right? One by one, the crew members die until a chosen few ball up to fight back. In the midst of all this, there's a hurricane. And one round of shower sex. Note that the monster is not a huge, imposing, "Jaws"-like beast as depicted on the cover, but a hissing, reptilian-looking guy in a suit. In these days of CGI, that's actually admirable, because it feels more real.
Yet it doesn't make things scary. Peter Atencio directs ably, but the three-writer screenplay simply goes through the motions, checking off the genre's clichés as it goes. You've seen this all before — just not with William Forsythe oiled up to resemble Wayne Newton. —Rod Lott
