Some movies and series from ones childhood or teen years tend to bring back all the great memories from that time. There's a tv station that still shows reruns of "Miami Vice" and i'm pretty sure that i'm not the only one watching the show late at night. Now "Miami Vice" was revolutionary in so many ways, the acting, the music, the plots, everything hit bullzeye. This was a top primetime show, but there were also other shows that didn't get the same attention or were forgotten as the 80's drew to a close. 

"Knockoff" is a well known word in the movie bussiness. Movies that have at some point in time done well at the boxoffice or deploy some new ideas, get recycled or exploited. The funny thing is that many viewers don't have any idea about this re-animation (now that's a great movie). We have some good examples on movies that have been knocked off in one point or another, here's small list over flicks with origin and explotation;'

•  "War of the worlds" - ideas regarding alien mentality, hostile takeover, and the use of something natural to elliminate the aliens ("Signs")
• "Matrix" - actionscenes copied in way to many action movies
• "Star Wars" - almost every sci-fi spinoff
• "Bloodsport" - started the underground fighting competition movie phenomena
  

I don't mind that storylines from certain movies are reused, but i think it's sad that people aren't aware of the origin.

"V" was originally aired as mini-series back in 1983, it's succsess caused the production of sequal in 1984. Since they weren't theatrical releases, a weekly series wasn't far away though it didn't last long. "V" was the forerunner for major sci-fi movies released in the 90's, "Independece day" has used many aspects of this movie/series. Most appearent is the design of the alien motherships and their attitude against humans, "V" does however provide a deeper understanding of the alien race aswell as we get close and personal on their mentality.

I like to watch movies that are deeply consentrated on characterbuilding, it's important to know why somebody performs a certain action. "V" doesn't disappoint in this field, we get close on a group of personalities within different groups, this gives us a better understanding of their character.

The plot of "V" isn't awesome just because of its scifi aspects, but it also explores the mentality of humans, our emotions and there's also a underline of morality here. Mike Donovan (Marc Singer), a cameraman, is the first to experience the arrival of the "Visitors". While shooting a war in El-Salvador, he suddenly sees a gigantic spacecraft approaching him. This is much like "Independence day" as more and more motherships show up around the world, with each sighting we meet new characters that will play a important role in the plot.

The following day UN receives a request from the Visitors of a meeting at their headquarters. Upon this meeting we see the first alien coming out of the mothership, he looks like an human and is called John. He is the supreme commander of the aliens and explains that he needs earths help to generate important chemicals that are used on his planet, he suggests a friendship between humans and aliens where they can share their technology. It doesn't take long before the aliens get integrated into the society and are looked upon as friends of the earth, their integration is largely based on the aliens big campaign towards humans portraying them as peacefull.

Not long after their arrival, strange dissappearences of scienticts take place. This gives Mike the idea to smugle himself into the Visitors processing plant where they fly the supplies to their motherships, he has strong support of a smaller resistance group. On his surveilance trip to the mothership he discoveres many disturbing facts about the red clothed alien race. First of all they don't eat regular food, Mike sees some aliens eating live animals like rats and mice.

Secondly he sees that they don't have regular eyes either, one visitor is seen taking out his masking human eyes only to reveal his reptilian eyes. It doesn't take long before Mike is caught by a visitor, but Mike manages to escape after revealing the true identity of the aliens, in his fight he rips off a mask that the visitor has on, underneath he sees the true lizard-like face of the now not so friendly race.

Mike tries to air his footage but gets interupted by the Visitors, they also declare martial law in order to keep the resistance at hand. At this time there is a large group of people who are trying to overthrow the Visitors controll on earth. Mike joins one of these groups and infiltrates one of the motherships, here they get anothers shock. The aliens aren't in the need of any chemicals, they're infact stealing water from earth and storing it in large tanks. The most terrifiyng secret is however the Visitors second export from earth, humans. The Visitors have a shortage og water and food on their planet, so they're also holding humans incapsulated upon their arrival back to their planet. The fight is on to save mankind.

This is a very shallow outline of the plot since "V" actually spands from two sets of mini-series and a weekly tv-series, so the plot thickens after each episode. We find some really great acting in the whole series, worth mentioning is ofcouse the character Mike played by Marc Singer. He show great leadership without overacting or becoming overdramatic. We also have the great Marc Singer ("Total Recall") who plays a lead role in the resistance group, fans of his movies know that his stoneface can turn any scene into a thriller. On a funny note, mr.Nightmare On Elm Street Robert Englund shows up in a larger role in the tv-series, and no, he is not as scary and tough in this role.

I've put "V" on my list of titles to buy on DVD, it has great entertainment value in both action and drama. Keeping in mind that it was made in the beginning of the 80's, much of the sci-fi effects may seem outdated. But in the spirit of "Star Wars", one can not put this fact into relevance when the movie as a whole is all in all fantastic. The sci-fi isn't that important either since "V" plays on the political sides of this takeover rather than focusing on a large scale war, the human resistance plan on fighting back in smaller battles. It's very interesting to see how humans approach the new race with their naive mind, embracing the Visitors without any questions or investigation.