'Tasmanian Devils' on Syfy, A Review

A TV review of Tasmanian Devils.

The ads for Syfy's Tasmanian Devils promised us a cast of Apolo Ohno, Danica McKellar and with them, we also have Kenneth Mitchell, Mike Dopud, Roger R. Cross, Rekha Sharma & Terry Chen.

The movie, for a Saturday night Syfy channel event, actually develops into a well acted out script that is a notch above most Saturday night Syfy movies.  I said a notch, not a Golden Globe or People's Choice winner.

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Yes, the cast has some familiar faces.  McKellar's early days, she was in The Wonder Years.  Later, The West Wing, and she voices Miss Martian in Young Justice.

The big sales pitch for the movie was the inclusion of Apolo Ohno!  The Olympian speed skating champ.  This would be his second swing at a role, after his one-episode stint in Hawaii Five-0.

Stargate fans should recognize the name Mike Dopud.  He's been busy, holding roles in Continuum, and Grimm.

Roger R. Cross has been in 24, The L Word, The Gates, Continuum, and Arrow.

Rekha Sharma has been in Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, and V.

Terry Chen has been in Sanctuary, and Continuum.

Jericho fans will recognize the name of Kenneth Mitchell, who has of late, been in Ghost Whisperer and a million guest spots in very popular TV shows.

So as you see, Tasmanian Devils has a known list of a cast members, ala, acting chops.

It's directed by Zach Lipovsky and produced by Lindsay Moffat.

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This is a huge, movie opening spoiler, but I can't help myself...  you should be warned... and that is if you tune in to watch Apolo Ohno in his second-ever TV role, you will only get 9 minutes of his showing off his acting chops.

And he is pretty good for an "athlete!"

Also... I do have some advice for the filmmakers and that is if your opening scene shows a helicopter flying into the most famous tourist attraction on the planet, aka Yosemite Valley, you should not have your characters say they're flying into uncharted, never-before-seen territory.  I'm just saying.

So our intrepid cast are base jumping illegally and Stone (Ohno) goes first.  Everyone else follows.  But Stone's jump goes awry, and lands on his back, in an underground cave, skewered by a huge stalagmite looking thing.  Ohno has a nice, gruesome, body splitting death, and his character's blood oozes into some mystical depressions that make the Tasmanian Devils spring to magical and angry life!

And it goes from there.

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Normally, when you have a single known actor in a Syfy original movie, they can be the light in a dark, ill-acted movie.  But this TV-movie is filled with veteran support actors and the story is kept alive by these guys.

But...

The CGI monsters, what with all the money spent on the seasoned cast, weren't that great.

And just in the first hour alone, I saw what looked like mirror scenes from Aliens, Predator, and a few other movies I couldn't put my finger on, but they seemed... obvious.

Other than the obvious, Tasmanian Devils is an entertaining few hours for a Saturday night.  The story made some form of sense throughout and I found myself rooting for the cast at different points. 

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 BeS