AllMovie

It takes 60 minutes for the monster to finally make an appearance in Project Viper, which leaves 29 minutes for the special effects to assume control of a lukewarm, derivative story. For the first hour, it's the familiar cat-and-mouse peek-a-boo -- the biggest shock is a hose that falls from the ceiling and scares Dr. Burnham -- but things are rendered so routinely that there's no suspense. The script has been cut-and-pasted from any number of Jim Wynorski directorial efforts -- using his Jay Andrews nom de plume for this one -- with all the performers playing up to the usual cardboard cutout standards. The last reel has its moments -- the swirling clay gray blob with tentacles is vaguely intriguing but hardly the planet-threatening menace intimated -- but the appeal is only as eye-candy. There is a very convincing airplane crash, however, but it looks like it was superimposed onto this low-budget effort from a movie with a much bigger budget. Theresa Russell, who is married to a proper director (Nicolas Roeg) and thus should know better, is slumming here and looks out of place.