tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29227303718366576832024-03-18T18:42:37.237-07:00Expelled Grey MatterEric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.comBlogger1185125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-21198097589601225042024-03-14T23:10:00.000-07:002024-03-14T23:10:12.112-07:00Child's Play 3 (1991)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRaAQSxccnNDCHrrAk1Qsjc0ukVI77uLl_PTIrylCX3iVRy5vyEM1lomHpCXwNjGh7uPODImdpEN4WMDzyPhjKhRHsXYAPpBqz1g0TgihtkZZEExwA0aXcAatLJ3acC0TUKyb0EIuZiKf02VxYZa-8KLftfOWRx8eDw8MQ_qKisrO1lNleLoPScfYPdk/s3000/Child's%20Play%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2015" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRaAQSxccnNDCHrrAk1Qsjc0ukVI77uLl_PTIrylCX3iVRy5vyEM1lomHpCXwNjGh7uPODImdpEN4WMDzyPhjKhRHsXYAPpBqz1g0TgihtkZZEExwA0aXcAatLJ3acC0TUKyb0EIuZiKf02VxYZa-8KLftfOWRx8eDw8MQ_qKisrO1lNleLoPScfYPdk/s320/Child's%20Play%203.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2023/10/childs-play-2-1990.html">Child's Play 2</a> </i>it was obvious that Universal had another franchise on its hands. There had already been some drift in that movie from the psychotic killer Chucky was in the first to the wisecracking murderous doll he would become, but the second movie did a good job of continuing Andy's story from the original. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So good that, after its success, Universal wanted another Chucky movie out as soon as possible. Don Mancini, who had written both of the first movies, was not expecting that and had not really given much thought on how the story would continue. He did want to have multiple versions of Chucky, but the budget just wasn't there, so instead we have him catch up with Andy eight years later. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thinking that the public has forgotten about the killer doll the Good Guys factory is reopened and production resumes. Problem is when cleaning up the place some of Chucky's (Brad Dourif) blood gets into the mix, leading to his rebirth. His first order of business, after getting back to killing, is to find Andy (Justin Whalin), who is now 16 and remanded by the state to a military school. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Chucky has himself mailed there but, rather than reaching Andy, he is intercepted by a young boy named Tyler (Jeremy Sylvers). Realizing that it's a brand-new body and he hasn't told his secret to anyone yet, he decides to abandon plans to possess Andy and focuses on Tyler. He's still not done with his former playmate, as he tries to dispatch him and, failing that, goes on a murderous rampage at the school while Andy attempts to save Tyler.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The military school is coed, so Andy gets a love interest in De Silva (Perrey Reeves), but it's undercooked and doesn't lead to anything other than a little necking. His best friend is Whitehurst (Dean Jacobson), who is the victim of bullying from the vicious Shelton (Travis Fine), who seems to model himself after the drill sergeant from <i>Full Metal Jacket</i>. In fact, entire lines are taken from that movie, whether in homage or just because Mancini was out of material. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Dourif seems game, the doll is further improved and some computer assistance is used to synchronize the voice. Otherwise, it's the last <i>Child's Play </i>movie to rely on practical effects, since when he did return in <i>Bride of Chucky </i>CGI had advanced enough that the animatronics were no longer needed. Despite being a neat little puppet the movie is a fairly bloodless affair. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I find it to be merely an average horror film, despite the fact it doesn't devolve into being a slasher. Chucky is more humorous and, unlike the first two films, this seems to have been written for teenagers rather than adults. <i>Child's Play 3</i> is one of two feature films director Jack Bender made, spending most of his career doing television, and it looks it. There is also little characterization beyond stereotypes, and not a lot of excitement. The final chase through the funhouse is good, but so much more is set up to happen that doesn't because of budget or studio interference.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This pretty much ends Andy's role for a while until Mancini brought him back in later movies - going with original actor Alex Vincent when he did - and it's not really necessary for the enjoyment of either the first two or any of the movies that came after it. It just exists to make money and, since it didn't, the killer doll vanished for the next eight years himself. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Child's Play 3 </i>(1991)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>90 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Justin Whalin, Brad Dourif, Dean Jacobson, Travis Fine, Perrey Reeves</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Jack Bender</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-34792273898794301552024-03-13T11:18:00.000-07:002024-03-13T11:18:07.508-07:00Evilspeak (1981)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLeVSDIRk6qOwWzVvpjLMln5zmWGppylgmQgqyZCWJOTc4EU6EIY7udXvAWHkaBBfpYnwhCuacG5tXckdM0CySrHDQ25c0HQJ9qbFWR-CWmJyn5-XVCeNZt_R2rWfrefaBRX9lR45SO8_IILgm8XjD9HXKlXeKSpFKuXzj7NIKiCfA1gifUyiNbvP9uwM/s907/Evilspeak.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="907" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLeVSDIRk6qOwWzVvpjLMln5zmWGppylgmQgqyZCWJOTc4EU6EIY7udXvAWHkaBBfpYnwhCuacG5tXckdM0CySrHDQ25c0HQJ9qbFWR-CWmJyn5-XVCeNZt_R2rWfrefaBRX9lR45SO8_IILgm8XjD9HXKlXeKSpFKuXzj7NIKiCfA1gifUyiNbvP9uwM/s320/Evilspeak.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A large selection of Boomers still think that computers are conduits to Satan. I don't think <i>Evilspeak </i>had much to do with that, as I am sure they weren't rushing out to see it when it came out in 1981 unless they really wanted to see what adorable little Clint Howard was up to after leaving Mayberry. They would have been in for a shock, much like the first time their grandson figured out his name was their password and racked up a few thousand dollars in online games or adult websites. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In this particular case, however, the computer is how our main character summons the Devil or, technically, one of his servants. He manages to do so on an Apple II which, for context, it was the IIe that most of us played <i>Oregon Trail</i> on. The graphics on that game were probably a bit much for the Apple II but, unlike other computers at the time, it did have color capability. I doubt it had the ability to do some of the graphics we see, which look like an arcade game from 1981, but it adds a nice additional layer of retro cheese to this strange little horror film. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the 16th century Father Esteban (Richard Moll) is excommunicated for practicing forbidden rites. Throwing his lot in with Satan, he travels to the New World - specifically southern California - and establishes a church outside the watch of the church. Around 400 years later the remains are part of the chapel on the grounds of the Andover Military Academy where Stanley Coopersmith (Howard) has been remanded by the state after the death of his parents.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Coopersmith suffers constant bullying from his classmates, led by Bubba Caldwell (Don Stark), the son of one of the academy's biggest donors. He is also constantly reprimanded by his teachers as well as the head of the academy, Colonel Kincaid (Charles Tyner) and their chaplain, Reverend Jameson (Joe Cortese). When Coopersmith finds a hidden room in the cellar of the chapel filled with tomes of black magic he begins spending more time there, eventually sneaking one of the school's computers into the room. Esteban, who wishes to return to life, provides Coopersmith with the means of bringing him back, as well as the promise of revenge against his tormentors. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The plot about the tormented nerd getting revenge in the end owes quite a lot to <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2020/10/carrie-1976.html">Carrie</a></i>, but writer and director Eric Weston gets away with it because he was able to breathe some new life into the story with the computer angle, despite the fact it's the silliest part here. The ending, except for the set-up of a sequel that didn't happen, pretty much abandons that for full-on mayhem. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are several issues as it seems some parts may have been reassembled out of order or were left in after changes were made. There are also a few times where things happen but other characters seem to know nothing about them despite the fact they should have been told by Colonel Kincaid. There is an unfortunate beheading gag at the beginning of the film where too many frames were left in when it cuts from the actress to a fake head, although the resulting cut to the modern day is quite well done.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Clint Howard does a decent job in the lead in what was his first major part in a feature film. He was 21 at the time, though he looks older, as do many of the other actors that are supposed to be 17 or 18. Don Stark is average as Bubba, who is a stock bully character right out of any Stephen King novel. Most memorable other than Howard, though, is R.G. Armstrong as the drunken school fix-it man Sarge, chewing scenery every time he is on screen. There is also a brief appearance by Lenny Montana as Jake, the schools' cook and one of the few people sympathetic to Coopersmith. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Evilspeak </i>was not meant to be taken too seriously so the sillier parts throughout are forgivable. It is another victim of extreme cutting, a good amount for time and some for violence, a number of which, according to Howard, made the movie a bit better. It's still a lot of fun as it is and, though it did well when it came out, it's a bit obscure, so it's something to visit that's a bit more interesting than the rote slashers of the time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Evilspeak </i>(1981)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>97 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Clint Howard, Don Stark, Charles Tyner, R.G. Armstrong</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Eric Weston </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-63584136105306791912024-03-12T23:10:00.000-07:002024-03-12T23:10:19.273-07:00Pet Sematary (1989)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_P4q4Egzh_VmzoQFwRFC75juLlqceC699J-UWlLAfnGO84mNHG9qUYQ94R5ynZf2Uvj88X6ciFhTnXqZJudL-HkxT7O3nFdb6KPQJEuXf7Hy68J9EFXDwhHcCKIpBr8b6Eit9FGE49SjcGnBbf1OfN9pR_TFDCBPu3OTBrYz-XBSZ0IddYeA9LdoO-hk/s873/Pet%20Sematary.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="873" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_P4q4Egzh_VmzoQFwRFC75juLlqceC699J-UWlLAfnGO84mNHG9qUYQ94R5ynZf2Uvj88X6ciFhTnXqZJudL-HkxT7O3nFdb6KPQJEuXf7Hy68J9EFXDwhHcCKIpBr8b6Eit9FGE49SjcGnBbf1OfN9pR_TFDCBPu3OTBrYz-XBSZ0IddYeA9LdoO-hk/s320/Pet%20Sematary.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Pet Sematary </i>was the first novel I read from Stephen King. The first of anything tends to stick, but since I started reading his other books soon after I discovered that he had much more to offer. <i>Pet Sematary</i> was written at a time when King still had major substance abuse problems, but it was a decent pulp novel nonetheless. It wasn't a patch on most of his others at the time, but it's an easy read and has a number of great King moments.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After the debacle of <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2024/01/maximum-overdrive-1986.html">Maximum Overdrive</a> </i>King began to get himself cleaned up. Although I find many of his books from the 1980s to the early 1990s to be overlong (except <i>It</i>, which earns its length), his writing improved. Also his judgment did as well. When it came time to make a movie based on <i>Pet Sematary </i>he wrote the script and demanded that it be made in Maine, but that was about it. He knew to stay out from behind the camera and, at first, George A. Romero was set to direct. Once he bowed out due to delays that job went to Mary Lambert, whose only feature film prior was the 1987 mystery thriller <i>Siesta. </i>Still, she was friends with the Ramones, and as their song "Blitzkrieg Bop" was referenced heavily in the novel a point on her end was that she could help make sure something from them appeared on the soundtrack. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) is a doctor from Chicago that moves to rural Maine to work at a local university hospital. His wife Rachel (Denise Crosby) and kids Ellie (Blaze and Beau Berdahl) and Gage (Miko Hughes) have some trouble adjusting, but things are made a little easier by a friendly neighbor named Judd (Fred Gwynne) who lives across the road. He warns them about how dangerous the narrow road is as it is frequented by truckers that often speed through, thus leading to the existence of the pet cemetery behind the Creeds' property. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When a student named Victor Pascow (Brad Greenquist) dies in the operating room after a truck accident he returns as a spirit to warn Louis about the cemetery and what lies beyond a deadfall. Despite this, Louis follows Judd to what lies beyond after the Creeds' cat Church is killed while the rest of the family is away. The cat comes back, but it is no longer the lovable creature it was, something Ellie notices right away. After further tragedy strikes the family Louis, overcome by grief, defies the warnings of both Victor and Judd and does the unthinkable, sealing the fate of everyone involved. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The movie was heavily cut - with all of the footage now missing, according to Lambert - as the studio felt it was too long. It still comes in a bit longer than most horror films of its type, but does leave out some important details from the novel, including why the Micmac burial ground was abandoned and what haunts the woods beyond the deadfall. It's not information that is crucial to understanding the movie, but if included would have explained some of the decisions that Louis make which, in too many cases, seem ludicrous, particularly after the way Church is when he returns. Despite the cuts there are still plenty of gooey practical effects. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This came out a year after <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2023/04/childs-play-1988.html">Child's Play</a></i>, and some of the changes from the book to the movie seemed to have been made in order to cash in on that film. I saw <i>Pet Sematary </i>a couple years after it was released and didn't care for it, part for that reason and that I found the tone was off. Having a chance to watch it again after this long I find the reason for that is because of Dale Midkiff. He may have conventional good looks - at least for the '80s - but Louis Creed was a figure that slowly got seduced by his grief and loneliness in the book. Midkiff just can't convey that properly. Also, there are some overly dramatic sequences that change what should be numbing drama into near hilarity. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This movie is saved by Fred Gwynne, who seems like Judd incarnated from the book, and Denise Crosby. Since most people remember her as Tasha Yar in part of what was the worst season of <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i>, they probably think of her as being a wooden piece of eye candy that didn't do much for the show. Like Wil Wheaton that seems more to be unfortunate directing and writing choices made for the show, as she carries the movie more than Midkiff, especially in the last third when Rachel is attempting to get home to make sure Louis is okay. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lambert, whose main expertise was in music videos, does make the movie visually interesting and worked out well enough to be brought back to direct the sequel as well. As for the Ramones, "Blitzkrieg Bop" was replaced by "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" while the band recorded the theme song that plays over the end credits. The movie was savaged by critics at the time it came out but has received a needed reconsideration over the years despite Midkiff being miscast. It still didn't keep Lambert from spending a large part of her career doing SyFy and Asylum movies while falling into directing television episodes. That seems to be the fate of many who produced a classic horror film here and there, but at least this is something to be remembered for. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Pet Sematary </i>(1989)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>103 minutes </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne, Miko Hughes, Brad Greenquist</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Mary Lambert </div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-15356418440007464872024-03-07T10:43:00.000-08:002024-03-07T10:43:43.058-08:00Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja8NQb-5A-vJxRZ4L2E6o2Nbfg83lkerxi_toaSEzfzl5s_Q2WU0jls4zMbV_zBWwg-dkyXlr_fXM0uaAToR8isuU75VJdseJsfc6O49l1QNQFkHNcs2V9xPKXIbFmz06mGRjWGgXusx729f9acQ7Ljpjag5dCAJAdjUxyYsbkLZLjnddAc2U7a8d4eTE/s892/Manos%20-%20The%20Hands%20of%20Fate.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja8NQb-5A-vJxRZ4L2E6o2Nbfg83lkerxi_toaSEzfzl5s_Q2WU0jls4zMbV_zBWwg-dkyXlr_fXM0uaAToR8isuU75VJdseJsfc6O49l1QNQFkHNcs2V9xPKXIbFmz06mGRjWGgXusx729f9acQ7Ljpjag5dCAJAdjUxyYsbkLZLjnddAc2U7a8d4eTE/s320/Manos%20-%20The%20Hands%20of%20Fate.jpg" width="196" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I first experienced <i>Manos: The Hands of Fate </i>the same way anyone who wasn't packed into the 1966 premier in El Paso did. It was through <i>Mystery Science Theater 3000</i>, the little Minneapolis late night show that made fun of bad movies by talking back to them. The show blew up in the early 1990s and is still popular today. <i>Manos </i>was one of the movies that that it is most famous for lampooning. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The first time I didn't get through it. The group of people I was watching it with decided they had enough - it was at about the part where one of the Mads is apologizing for even showing the movie - and we put on an MST3K underground parody video that riffed on <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2021/05/star-trek-v-final-frontier-1989.html">Star Trek V: The Final Frontier</a>. </i>It was years before I gave the episode a full go, since the idea of watching the movie without their commentary was a frightening one. What I discovered, though not a hidden gem of any sort - <i>Manos: The Hands of Fate </i>deserves its reputation - was a somewhat enjoyable mess of a film that at least <i>tried </i>to be a movie, unlike so many other contenders for worst movie ever. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Michael (Harold P. Warren) is heading to an isolated lodge with his wife Margaret (Diane Adelson) and daughter Debbie (Jackey Neyman Jones). After getting lost they come across a home that appears out of nowhere. With it getting dark and nowhere else to go, Michael knocks on the door to ask directions. He meets Torgo (John Reynolds), the home's caretaker, who informs them that the Master (Tom Neyman) will not be pleased with their arrival. However, he relents, and decides to allow them to stay.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Strange events begin to happen. There are strange sounds in the desert, and soon a sinister dog featured in a portrait of the Master appears with Debbie in tow. Torgo informs them that the master has taken a liking to Margaret, but so has he, thinking that he deserves to have a wife when the Master already has his own harem. While Michael looks for some way to escape the Master awakens and, displeased with Torgo's disobedience, arranges for him to be punished, while his wives discuss what to do with Margaret and Debbie. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Manos: The Hands of Fate </i>was made on a bet that Warren, who wrote and directed the picture, made with Stirling Silliphant that he could make a horror film on his own because it was not too difficult. It turned out that he found the second part of that statement was not so true, but he managed to win the bet, getting a premier at the Capri Theater in El Paso and then some regional drive-in showings before the movie disappeared. Almost no one, outside of those who had seen it at the time or had been involved in making it, knew it existed until MST3K dug it up. Warren had failed to put proper copyright disclaimers on it, thus <i>Manos</i> fell into public domain. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are many problems with the film. The rented cameras only ran for a bit over 30 seconds, meaning a scene would need to be shot and then the film re-loaded and the whole thing edited together. The editing was done in the space of a few hours, resulting in many weird jumps as well as the clapperboard making an appearance at one point. The beginning is a long driving sequence that proved to be torturous at the above-mentioned party in which we tried to watch it but was supposed to have opening credits played over it. There are also several scenes of a couple making out that have no bearing on the plot, but were just in there because Joyce Molleur, who was supposed to be one of the Master's wives, broke her foot during filming. Warren had run out of money and, I assume, patience by the end of the production, so the movie came out as it was. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Since that first attempted watching I have seen so many movies that are worse than this, many with better production values. Warren wasn't trying to do much more than win a bet, so the plot is right out of any Hammer or American International horror film that would have been its contemporaries. There are long stretches where nothing happens and some scenes that are laughable but were done the way they were because of the lack of a even a moderate budget. Still, there is something about John Reynolds's portrayal of Torgo - that something may just be the LSD he was on - that makes him one of the most memorable villains in cinema history, and that theme music that goes along with him is unmistakable now. Even better is Tom Neyman who hams it up as the Master, having to write or improvise most his dialog so he didn't just stand there trying to look evil. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It is short enough that the dull parts don't drag on forever and, unlike most movies of its type, I have to admit it is quite watchable. The plot is thin, but at least there is one, and the actors were putting in some effort. Everyone, including Warren, realized what the movie was and had no illusions about it, but after all the years the Neymans were happy to be a part of something that so many enjoyed, even if it was for a different reason than Warren intended. I'm not alone in that as there has been enough interest to produce a prequel dwelling on Torgo and, after years of attempting to do so, a sequel produced by Jackey Neyman Jones in which her father got to return to the role as the Master. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Manos: The Hands of Fate </i>(1966)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>70 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Harold P. Warren, Diane Adelson, Jackie Neyman Jones, John Reynolds, Tom Neyman</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Harold P. Warren</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-64300908862558819252024-03-06T22:44:00.000-08:002024-03-07T10:44:17.520-08:00Things (1989)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mcPgAHhcCNqQN9w3Jm7HXkNhw0wEaUiKQOze7AhLeRKYLz2s4UwkHMeASTKlphkPaUg8np-WkWNC1DWArQ6um4G8JakekYxmY-N_W0yby8MnZI5aQOt1fTVkECzGg0TbPTi9JAYy7tF1t4_JFKY0EyzXskKYk2Dd71-0sJ8sl2kPwQSQLyJ-fflGBhk/s1338/Things.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1338" data-original-width="736" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mcPgAHhcCNqQN9w3Jm7HXkNhw0wEaUiKQOze7AhLeRKYLz2s4UwkHMeASTKlphkPaUg8np-WkWNC1DWArQ6um4G8JakekYxmY-N_W0yby8MnZI5aQOt1fTVkECzGg0TbPTi9JAYy7tF1t4_JFKY0EyzXskKYk2Dd71-0sJ8sl2kPwQSQLyJ-fflGBhk/s320/Things.jpg" width="176" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Most of the time when I hear a movie is the worst ever I know that is hyperbole. There are few candidates and I would even say the famous book chronicling the worst movies ever made got it wrong. <i>Plan 9 from Outer Space </i>is laughably incompetent, but enjoyable. The worst kind of films are the ones where no joy can be found in the watching experience, for reasons ranging from unlikeable characters to just sheer boredom. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A truly horrible movie is something like <i>Things.</i> This is a 1989 direct-to-video horror film from Canada, filmed on 8mm and dubbed once it was completed and the makers realized most of the sound was unusable. Director Andrew Jordan and writer Barry J. Gillis managed to grab porn star Amber Lynn for an hour to shoot her as a news reporter just so they could put her face on the video box. Most of the music was done by Gillis, and some of it by a local band called Familiar Strangers. It was filmed in large part in Andrew Norman's basement, and most of the props were slapped together with paper-mâché. It still managed to get a wide release in video stores, trapping the unwary into an hour and a half of boredom and confusion.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Don (Gillis) and his friend Fred (Bruce Roach) visit Don's brother Doug (Doug Bunston) in his isolated cabin. Doug is impotent but has been able to find a way for his wife Susan (Patricia Sadler) to have a baby, using an experimental procedure invented by Dr. Lucas (Jan W. Pachul). Something goes wrong and Susan dies, giving birth to various killer insects that soon infest the house.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With no phone, surrounded by dangerous terrain and with Fred sucked into another dimension, Don and Doug try to survive the night while Dr. Lucas performs bloody experiments in his lab. At some point Fred returns to help fight the bugs, while Lucas also shows up to find out what happened to Susan, leading to a final confrontation between him and Don.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is one of those movies in which nothing happens for a good deal of the runtime. Amber Lynn remains fully clothed. She was making twenty-five thousand down the road to take her clothes off in a strip bar, so she wasn't going to do anything for $2500.00, especially Canadian dollars. There is nudity, but it's in a dream sequence at the beginning, featuring a prostitute they picked up in Toronto wearing a devil mask - a casting choice which got Pachul in hot water with the police. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Familiar Strangers has a couple memorable tracks on here, but a few years ago TerrorVision released the soundtrack, meaning if one wants some of the music - the only thing good about this movie - then it's available without ever having to see the film. Otherwise, the entire movie involves two, sometimes three, guys wandering around a house, drinking beer and occasionally taking a chainsaw, a drill or a knife to some terrible props. There are long spaces where nothing happens and, when something does, it's too poorly lit to matter. It is also dubbed so badly that it is distracting.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There is a cult following for this film that revels in its supreme awfulness rather than its entertainment value. It has none of the latter but does serve as a cautionary tale that not all dreams are worth pursuing. The filmmakers have tried to put an artsy spin on what they created but, if anything, that just makes it worse. Still, I would argue against this being the worst film ever made. Maybe the worst to come out of Canada, but I have seen some abysmal European films that, even though they have better production values, have even less going on. Still, it does make <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2024/03/manos-hands-of-fate-1966.html">Manos: The Hands of Fate</a> </i>look like professional filmmaking. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Things </i>(1989)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>85 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Barry J. Gillis, Doug Bunston, Bruce Roach, Amber Lynn</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Andrew Jordan</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-49356230156289212052024-03-05T22:23:00.000-08:002024-03-05T22:23:44.281-08:00Superman III (1983)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidQ1hKW5_tmLZLRN5OwOUXYCUsjusjdlnWcpbF5zRfsarmvzAnqUNNCFbmnEQb5GhAa0xwXMkS8AlrAX-pkskjrbdQmH7RbgC1Misud2tvpWy7qlRrkQXEw2DJh5IP4NUXlLX5Nl31jUPnWk-4xOongpU9qD-UKvOH1Y8Jv0scNM-TGA6LGhihRTuk3UY/s1152/Superman%20III.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="757" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidQ1hKW5_tmLZLRN5OwOUXYCUsjusjdlnWcpbF5zRfsarmvzAnqUNNCFbmnEQb5GhAa0xwXMkS8AlrAX-pkskjrbdQmH7RbgC1Misud2tvpWy7qlRrkQXEw2DJh5IP4NUXlLX5Nl31jUPnWk-4xOongpU9qD-UKvOH1Y8Jv0scNM-TGA6LGhihRTuk3UY/s320/Superman%20III.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2024/01/superman-1978.html">Superman</a> </i>was bloated and often times too silly for its own good, but it was a major hit. <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2024/02/superman-ii-1980.html">Superman II</a> </i>was better and, despite all the drama behind the scenes, was also well-received. It was also viewed by many, including myself, to be a vast improvement on the original movie. That means another sequel was inevitable.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">However, the off-screen drama didn't end once the second movie was made. Margot Kidder was outspoken about Alexander and Ilya Sakind's decision to fire Richard Donner when he had already directed a good portion of <i>Superman II</i>, while Christopher Reeve flat out refused to return until director Richard Lester begged him after the Salkinds considered Tony Danza as a replacement. Tom Mankiewicz, who along with Mario Puzo had helped write the original two movies, was also out, which means a third film featuring Brainiac and Mr. Mxyzptlk was out. Instead, the Salkinds hired David and Leslie Newman to come up with a whole new script. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Clark Kent (Reeve) is about to head to his high school reunion in Smallville with photographer Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure) to do a feature on what it is like to return after being away in the big city. Lois Lane (Kidder) is off on a vacation to Bermuda, no longer having any attachment to Superman or knowing Clark's secret identity after having her memory wiped at the end of the previous movie. Meanwhile, unemployed dishwasher Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) enrolls in a computer course and finds out that is his calling.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Gus also finds out what getting a real paycheck is like and, after discovering that the fractional cents removed from his pay are still stored in the computer's memory, decides to add a bit of a bonus for himself. He is quickly found out by Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn), the owner of the company he works for, and Webster's sister Vera (Annie Ross). Rather than send him to jail they decide to encourage him to use his skills to corner the market on coffee and oil. One thing stands in the way of their plans: Superman. After figuring out how to synthesize kryptonite, the combination is delivered to Superman, with the effect of it turning him evil. With him out of the way Webster, with Gus's help, aims to make himself the most powerful man on Earth. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The general plot of <i>Superman III</i> is banal, but not terrible. What is terrible is the supposed comedy. I know this is not the first or last unfunny movie that Richard Pryor starred in just to get a paycheck - at least it's not as offensive as <i>The Toy</i> - but it is horrible to see him wasted on cartoon-style slapstick throughout instead of just letting him play Gus straight. The character ends up in a moral predicament of his own making and keeps getting deeper due to his own spinelessness, but if Pryor hadn't been directed to be a goofball it would have had more impact. Robert Vaughn is a one-note greedy businessman, so making Gus a bit more serious would have given the proceedings a bit more of an anchor.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As it is, from the first scenes to the last, it's almost all bad comedy. Christopher Reeve gets to play a bit of a bad guy for a bit, but his bad deeds tend to involve straightening the leaning tower of Pisa and blowing out the Olympic torch, as well as almost committing sexual assault with his high school sweetheart Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole), who replaces Lois as the main love interest since Margot Kidder got her role cut to punish her for speaking out about Donner's firing. Inevitably things work out, and this bit of the plot does lead to the only true part of the movie that shines, which is the battle in a junkyard between Clark Kent as the good side of Kal-El and the evil version that the tainted kryptonite has brought to fore. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The other thing that stands out is some good set design. Webster's office is all different shades of grey with little color - one of the few exceptions being a picture of Richard Nixon - and the final Grand Canyon lair that house's Gus's supercomputer looks straight out of a 1960s James Bond film. I also admire it for being one of the first films to feature computer hacking, as well as being an influence on the plot of <i>Office Space</i>, but the admiration is more for the ideas than the execution. <i>Superman II </i>had humor that worked, but also proved that a serious plot with interesting villains could work. <i>Superman III </i>undoes all that. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The movie was still financially successful, although it was disappointing enough that when Bryan Singer made <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2015/08/superman-returns-2006.html">Superman Returns</a> </i>he ignored the third and fourth movies, continuing the plot from the consequences of the second with Superman having conceived a child with Lois Lane and Lex Luthor continuing with his usual schemes. It is bad enough that despite the money it made <i>Superman III </i>is still considered a failure, even if worse was still to come. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Superman III </i>(1983)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>125 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, Annette O'Toole, Robert Vaughn, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Richard Lester</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-26196111455552719412024-02-29T14:26:00.000-08:002024-02-29T14:26:16.827-08:00Hatchet III (2013)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaCrOtDyzZX9o_MSkXwXDo-bQLYLe9Dlv06jaON82kSoqbWLrI-me6EkTImdP_-I2ZmmFaEwCZLgy2gDSDOp7twfGBtvfbXaeTg1RrYBjKC0PbOr-xrgkWent1PydTJc3h1enX2gne5lnaJwvPJnMxGCJdul1OAYh6xc4JQAz-illWYuEZpdmvfA9mk4/s755/Hatchet%20III.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="509" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaCrOtDyzZX9o_MSkXwXDo-bQLYLe9Dlv06jaON82kSoqbWLrI-me6EkTImdP_-I2ZmmFaEwCZLgy2gDSDOp7twfGBtvfbXaeTg1RrYBjKC0PbOr-xrgkWent1PydTJc3h1enX2gne5lnaJwvPJnMxGCJdul1OAYh6xc4JQAz-illWYuEZpdmvfA9mk4/s320/Hatchet%20III.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I did not care for <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2022/10/hatchet-2006.html">Hatchet</a> </i>as it seemed to be too much like other horror films of the 2000s. The characters were not likeable, the music was horrible and the only good thing was the practical gore effects. Otherwise, despite writer and director Adam Green being a big fan and casting a number of horror movie veterans - including Kane Hodder as Victor Crowley - there wasn't much there to get excited about. I knew that at some point I would watch the rest, but I wasn't too thrilled about that, especially after <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2023/08/victor-crowley-2017.html">Victor Crowley</a> </i>turned out to be too much like <i>Hatchet</i>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When I watched <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2023/10/hatchet-ii-2010.html">Hatchet II</a></i>, however, it felt like what Green was trying to do clicked. Derivative as it was the movie worked. So, despite how I came into the series, I have been hoping to close the door on it and see how it originally concluded before the unfortunate coda.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Marybeth (Danielle Harris) is once again the only survivor of Victor Crowley after Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd) attempted to bring those responsible - and the descendants of such - to Victor Crowley's cabin so he could kill them all and have his final revenge, thus ending the curse. It didn't work, and Marybeth shoots him in the face. He still gets up, and ultimately she pushes him down on a large chainsaw that seems to do the trick. She makes her way back to New Orleans and walks into the sheriff's office carrying a gun and his scalp. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Naturally the police lock her away and do not believe her story but, concerned about the missing people, go out to investigate and find the bodies. While doing so a blogger named Amanda (Caroline Williams), the ex-wife of Sheriff Fowler (Zach Galligan), arrives to speak with Marybeth. Amanda has been chasing the Victor Crowley story for years and, with proof he is real, has an idea of how to stop him, as he is cursed to rise again no matter how much damage is done. This he does, attacking both the state police and the Jefferson Parrish Sheriff's department as well as several EMTs. In the end Marybeth once again must face Victor Crowley alone. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Like the other films this is filled with names and faces one will recognize from other horror movies. Parry Shen returns again, this time playing an EMT unrelated to the two brothers he played in the previous movies. Derek Mears, who played Jason in the <i>Friday the 13th </i>remake, is the leader of the Louisiana State Police S.W.A.T. team that is dispatched the swamp. Caroline Williams has been in several movies, while Rileah Vanderbilt, who plays one of the state police officers, portrayed the child version of Crowley in the two previous films. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This takes up a minute after the second one ended and, though directed by BJ McDonnell instead of Green, still thrills like its predecessor. The makeup on Kane Hodder looks great, the kills don't feel as mechanical, and the humor works, particularly in an hilarious cameo by Sid Haig. It may not bring anything new to the slasher genre or horror in general but Green hit his stride with <i>Hatchet II </i>and McDonnell followed through. It's just unfortunate the other two movies are nowhere near as entertaining. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Hatchet III </i>(2013)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>81 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, Zach Galligan, Caroline Williams, Parry Shen, Rileah Vanderbilt</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>BJ McDonnell</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-7327987447538788092024-02-29T00:09:00.000-08:002024-02-29T00:09:33.136-08:00Sledgehammer (1983)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qheb0U-pLmDR_o0bdhphO7mDo_ZpU9j-NjHID66l5K4N6CGJ8g0-KY7RxG2MxbGFTKShSEL6ZI5iWSgsKwUF-cThcxSE49gHvhY5YT82suJlKuSPIpsoUT7Mn7QyvY0_HDH6V58sH_E02uywq2JVfC2P6CW1Umtu_Jmg3ZAG502_lxBGf6Zi1iZHE68/s869/Sledgehammer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="869" data-original-width="552" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qheb0U-pLmDR_o0bdhphO7mDo_ZpU9j-NjHID66l5K4N6CGJ8g0-KY7RxG2MxbGFTKShSEL6ZI5iWSgsKwUF-cThcxSE49gHvhY5YT82suJlKuSPIpsoUT7Mn7QyvY0_HDH6V58sH_E02uywq2JVfC2P6CW1Umtu_Jmg3ZAG502_lxBGf6Zi1iZHE68/s320/Sledgehammer.jpg" width="203" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I remember a few years ago with one of the iterations of the iPod Apple advertised it showing scenes from a movie shot completely on a phone. I never watched it, but the shots from it looked not too removed from what a professional director or cinematographer should achieve. Most likely the person filming <i>was </i>a professional of some sort and could make a convincing short film using any type of film medium.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For the longest time the only medium was film. There was 8mm, with or without sound, often used for home movies but also as a tool for people like Steven Spielberg to make some of their first films as a kid. 16mm was a blessing to many low-budget directors, allowing them to make something that could get shown in a drive-in or a grindhouse theater without breaking the budget and, for those who had studio backing or rich parents, there was always 35mm and 70mm. Even 16mm, though, cost money to both obtain and develop, which meant there was an investment in time and raising the funds to get the movie made. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the early 1980s video cameras went from the being giant, clunky things that were almost immobile to items one could purchase at an electronics store. With video stores being an outlet for renting movies it wasn't long before direct-to-video started replacing many of the drive-in features. It also wasn't long before someone got the idea that, if the movie was never going to make it to the theater anyway, maybe video was the way to go. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A woman (Mary Mendez) decides to run away with her lover (Michael Shanahan), but for some reason brings her kid (Justin Greer) with her. She locks him a closet so she can have some alone time, but that is interrupted by her beau getting a sledgehammer to the head. Years later the isolated house is rented by a group of college kids for a weekend who hope to have a few days of drunken debauchery.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When Chuck (Ted Prior) decides to hold a joke seance he accidentally calls forth the spirit of the murderer (Doug Matley), who proceeds to use his chosen tool to take out the unwanted visitors. Realizing that more than just a normal murder occurred, Chuck and his girlfriend Joni (Linda McGill) try to survive the night.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Director David Prior made <i>Sledgehammer </i>because he thought, for a small amount of money, he could get one of his scripts made and then use it as a piece of advertising to get more studios to buy his screenplays. He was only able to raise 10 thousand dollars, so he made the decision to shoot the movie on VHS. Except for external shots of the home the entire movie was shot in Prior's apartment, with sets built to represent the different rooms of the house. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">David Prior did not intend to be a director. He had no experience at the time and no formal training in making a film. He just figured a cheap way to get a film made was to go the way of <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2022/12/friday-13th-1980.html">Friday the 13th</a> </i>and churn out a slasher, which was still popular at the time. He often lingers too long in establishing shots, repeats the entire prologue to the movie in a flashback scene barely 20 minutes in and spends a huge amount of time filming unnecessary things, such as his cast getting out of a van or a slow motion romp with Chuck and Joni. Much of it, per Prior, was to pad out the running time of the movie as otherwise there wasn't much there. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The culmination of his effort is a weird, frustrating film where if sober one is going to spend a lot of time asking why Prior is doing the things he does. One might miss much of the dialog doing this, but there isn't much to miss, and his brother is a lead as a favor to David and not to Ted, who at the time was working on becoming a professional bodybuilder. It is as if a whole bunch of different ideas from other slasher films were put in a blender, chugged with a can of Budweiser (which figures prominently throughout the movie) and regurgitated onto the screen. The characters are not likeable, the story is all over the place and the whole thing feels like a high school film project. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This did become the first shot-on-video movie to get release in video stores and, in recent years, has a developed a bit of a cult following due to the surrealistic nature that is a result of the incompetence of the direction. Prior, to his credit, did have a decent career making low-budget action films, many of which did become cult favorites as well. <i>Sledgehammer</i> is an interesting beginning, if not necessarily a watchable one. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Sledgehammer </i>(1983)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>87 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Ted Prior, Linda McGill, John Eastman, Janine Scheer, Tim Aguilar, Sandy Brooke, Steven K. Wright, Doug Matley</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>David Prior</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-90220724953226907332024-02-27T23:45:00.000-08:002024-03-03T11:14:33.836-08:00The Marvels (2023)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifwhxOfYboVcNBBTuLr9kOJ-0Ye12QhtWdVrj1E8njYu_i_FMd0-AlpXx7WuBReBeC9h-8ZhHXawAoD1Ad0TzYzumsvAC41TN7PAewaiR7fD_wKqdTd6lf_We_9MZ5g5FG1FgGhpM9LM3urvvmzD8Fo0A9IBT6S3EtSNGthmfrJeuXhnqwbWXisTeRzFQ/s2400/The%20Marvels.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="1620" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifwhxOfYboVcNBBTuLr9kOJ-0Ye12QhtWdVrj1E8njYu_i_FMd0-AlpXx7WuBReBeC9h-8ZhHXawAoD1Ad0TzYzumsvAC41TN7PAewaiR7fD_wKqdTd6lf_We_9MZ5g5FG1FgGhpM9LM3urvvmzD8Fo0A9IBT6S3EtSNGthmfrJeuXhnqwbWXisTeRzFQ/s320/The%20Marvels.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It was bound to happen at some point. Call it superhero fatigue or just growing indifference to the product that Disney and other major film studios have been putting out for over a decade, but <i>The Marvels </i>was the first out-and-out failure that Marvel Cinematic Universe has had since <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-incredible-hulk-2008.html">The Incredible Hulk</a></i>. There have been superhero movies that have done worse, but they were never officially part of the MCU, or were swept in later. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Despite a number of people blaming Kathleen Kennedy and female-fronted superhero movies the problem is that in the last few years good MCU films have become few and far between. The last great one was <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2023/08/guardians-of-galaxy-vol-3-2023.html">The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3</a>, </i>and Disney almost messed that situation up by firing James Gunn due to some unfortunate tweets he had made long before he was working with the MCU. It's a combination of many things combined that have nothing to do with comic book heroes. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The television shows, though some have been decent to good, dilute the movie "phases," and at some points have been hostile toward the comic book fans that should make up their core audience. For the most part, however, it's a string of mediocre to bad shows and movies, with one of them being <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2023/05/ant-man-and-wasp-quantumania-2023.html">Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania</a></i>, which preceded <i>The Marvels. </i>No one should have been surprised that the next movie, unless it was Spider-Man or Captain America, was going to be the one that was punished.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is living alone with her Flerken on spaceship when she is notified by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) about a surge in the jump point network. While investigating it causes her to be entangled with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) when they both touch it at the same time, as well as her biggest fan on Earth, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani). Khan has a bangle she got from her grandmother which is the twin of one found by a Skree soldier named Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who is using it to open her own jump points to steal resources to heal her dying planet of Hala. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With several planets in danger, including Earth, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel and Rambeau must find a way to work together and use the entanglement to their advantage to defeat Dar-Benn. At the same time Fury and his team try to find a way to stabilize the jump point network as Dar-Benn continues to destabilize it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Unlike a lot of people who have been waiting to see a Marvel film - especially one with female leads - fail like <i>The Marvels</i> did, I was curious to see if this was going to be similar to <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2022/07/x-men-first-class-2011.html">X-Men: First Class</a></i>. The trailers for that were horrible, it followed two of the worst movies in the series and it felt like that franchise was over. It didn't do well at the box office, but the movie itself was quite good, and it helped save the series. I was hoping maybe <i>The Marvels</i> would be similar, where it got punished because of <i>Quantumania</i> but went on to find an audience and was itself a turning point in the fortunes of the MCU. It encouraged me that many people who did go see it liked it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I wish I could say that was the case, but, although <i>Quantumania</i> and the <i>Secret Invasion </i>television show helped lead to its failure, <i>The Marvels </i>did a good job of failing on its own merits. <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2020/02/captain-marvel-2019.html">Captain Marvel</a> </i>was rather thin on plot, but it had the advantage of being a stop-gap film leading up to the conclusion of the original Avengers story. The whole Multiverse plot has been floundering about for a while now with no point and no resolution. Kang the Conqueror was set up to be the next Thanos, but Jonathan Majors’s new legal problems derailed both his career and Disney's plans, and the combination of writer and actor strikes didn't help. <i>The Marvels </i>does nothing to help reverse that slide. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What we get is barely a television episode's worth of story stretched out to feature length. The good thing is it's the shortest MCU movie, which means watching it isn't a torturous experience. In fact, on the surface, it's just another dull piece of product from Disney and Marvel, rather than anything terrible. Iman Vellani is annoying, Samuel L. Jackson and Brie Larson look like they are sleepwalking through the whole thing and the villain is once again underdeveloped and inconsequential. The only one that seems to be putting forth any effort is Teyonah Parris and, if they are going to keep pushing films using minor characters, giving her a solo film may be interesting as long as Nia DaCosta isn't the director. She is supposedly a big comic book fan, but that's not evident here, as there is no individual style to this movie that sets it apart, good or bad. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It also gets me that over 220 million dollars was spent on this. Everyone involved must have known this was going to fail. It takes no chances, causes no controversy and serves no purpose, unless the whole point was a tax write off. If DaCosta was hoping to add some moral ambiguity to Captain Marvel she failed. Either DaCosta doesn't have the writing skill to pull it off or Larson doesn't have the acting skill to do so. I think it's more a combination of the former with the fact that Larson just doesn't care as long as her check clears. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>The Marvels </i>(2023)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>105 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Samuel L. Jackson, Zawe Ashton </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Nia DaCosta</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-59159725235150727862024-02-22T11:44:00.000-08:002024-02-22T11:44:20.863-08:00Troll (1986)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiagPMyR3YxE4rRrSNGF8ibM-vrWfmxTnRNXiHpnxN9EJ-eQtd7Y3PQN2B1zUwkBnTP0z6VnRdOb12WDPJFuuGqpkFqjRq9SRuZEm8UL9aonGx4T6c8k1PYBlpWJWiWKcTpVO6VQO48XbgGe86NgZ-03KXLmK7ciic6e9QAYhd-M8l29D2aS7xyE_aME8/s1471/Troll.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1471" data-original-width="829" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiagPMyR3YxE4rRrSNGF8ibM-vrWfmxTnRNXiHpnxN9EJ-eQtd7Y3PQN2B1zUwkBnTP0z6VnRdOb12WDPJFuuGqpkFqjRq9SRuZEm8UL9aonGx4T6c8k1PYBlpWJWiWKcTpVO6VQO48XbgGe86NgZ-03KXLmK7ciic6e9QAYhd-M8l29D2aS7xyE_aME8/s320/Troll.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The one thing that can be said about <i>Troll </i>is that it was ambitious. John Carl Buechler was a special effects artist who also spent some time writing, directing and acting in the same sort of low budget films he did creatures for. Prior to <i>Troll </i>he had directed <i>The Dungeonmaster</i>, and had done the creature effects for the <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2018/12/gremlins-1984.html">Gremlins</a></i> knockoff <i>Ghoulies. </i>Not content to just do another in a long line of movies about little creatures run amok he decided to write and direct a major fantasy movie starring Noah Hathaway of <i>The Never Ending Story</i> as well as having June Lockhart and Sonny Bono in small roles. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The problem is, ambition is often limited by budget, and <i>Troll </i>was made for Empire Pictures, Charles Band's predecessor to Full Moon Productions. As good as Buechler was at creating animatronic monsters on a budget he was limited to doing the best that he could. Despite its limitations <i>Troll </i>still manages to be an entertaining film.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Harry Potter Sr. (Michael Moriarty), his wife Anne (Shelley Hack) and kids Harry Jr. (Hathaway) and Wendy Anne (Jenny Beck) move into a new apartment in a building in San Francisco. While exploring Wendy Anne is captured by a troll named Torok (Phil Fondacaro) who then assumes her shape and moves in with her family. They are concerned about their daughter's sudden change in behavior, while Harry Jr. begins to suspect sometime more sinister may be going on. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">While Torok begins breaking down the barrier between our world and that of the faeries Harry meets another resident, a cantankerous artist named Eunice St. Clair (Lockhart). She knows more about what is going on, although she has realized too late that Torok has started breaking back into our realm. In order to keep him and the world of the fey from taking over, and to rescue Wendy Anne, Harry must travel into Torok's world and destroy the troll's champion.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I can understand why someone may not get this movie. I think I enjoy it more because it is part of my childhood, often seeing <i>Troll </i>and <i>Ghoulies </i>pop up on cable. I often get the two confused because many of the creatures look similar; in fact, one from <i>Ghoulies </i>does pop up in this movie. <i>Troll </i>is the better film of the two. Part of it is Buechler's story, which feels epic even if the budget keeps it within an apartment building. The other is the performances, including Michael Moriarty as a somewhat unhinged father and Jennifer Beck going wild and biting people over hamburgers. Lockhart and her daughter Anne, who plays a younger version of Eunice, are quite good in a role that could have been phoned in. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hathaway is decent, but it is Phil Fondacaro who is outstanding. Not only as Torok, for spending time in the animatronic troll suit, but as Malcolm Mallory, an English professor that Torok, in the form of Wendy Anne, befriends. His quiet melancholy and acceptance of his fate and the life he has led is quite heartbreaking, and Fondacaro sells it well. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It is too bad that Buechler never got to do a big-budget remake of this before he passed away. That was something that he always wanted to do, and something that <i>Troll </i>deserves if anyone ever decides to revisit it. The musical number in it was supposed to be a huge production, not unlike the musical portions of <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2016/03/labyrinth-1986.html">Labyrinth</a></i>, and it would have been interesting to see the movie as he intended. Still, he was skilled enough to provide audiences with an entertaining bit of '80s nostalgia, even if not everyone gets what he was doing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Troll </i>(1986)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>82 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Noah Hathaway, Michael Moriarty, June Lockhart, Jennifer Beck, Phil Fondacaro</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>John Carl Buechler</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-43999842568560365772024-02-21T23:49:00.000-08:002024-02-21T23:49:31.123-08:00Spookies (1986)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDVw-dH4w-XFgLVNEqZ1Spa0TiBTRy1N9E9Rs2lZGJ_EK9NDsffZPZt1BHLAk_ttTDOn5FRUuq9zxVry2sAoVgg7LGNPurFbeZSjPxmAX138BrWaLFn9cjdaGExrUgiuyDP_xa_AQyY_VtFLfCxBlMM3I4F3IiJvo-yNH6JNf2LE0X1fewMQjxLe5YAg/s811/Spookies.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="520" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDVw-dH4w-XFgLVNEqZ1Spa0TiBTRy1N9E9Rs2lZGJ_EK9NDsffZPZt1BHLAk_ttTDOn5FRUuq9zxVry2sAoVgg7LGNPurFbeZSjPxmAX138BrWaLFn9cjdaGExrUgiuyDP_xa_AQyY_VtFLfCxBlMM3I4F3IiJvo-yNH6JNf2LE0X1fewMQjxLe5YAg/s320/Spookies.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Gremlins </i>unleashed a slew of little vicious creature movies in the 1980s. <i>Critters </i>is the most memorable, followed by low-budget fair such as <i>Troll </i>and <i>Ghoulies </i>that, while not great films, at least provided some decent effects and were passable enough to watch on cable during Halloween. They all made a bit of a profit even if it came from video sales and cable repeats, but they became part of the background of an '80s childhood.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Into this line of films came <i>Spookies</i>, with a title that was an obvious attempt to keep riding out the trend. Originally called <i>Twisted Souls, </i>the movie was written by Thomas Doran and Frank M. Farel and directed by Doran and his film school friend Brendan Faulkner. It does include a slimy reptilian monster similar to the creatures in <i>Ghoulies </i>or <i>Troll, </i>but that's as far as the comparison went. Instead, this turns into a bad zombie flick toward the end instead of the <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2012/10/house-1986.html">House</a> </i>ripoff it seems at the beginning. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Billy (Alec Nemser) runs away from home after his parents forget his 13th birthday. Along the way he stop at an old mansion with a cemetery out front and is lured within. He finds a table set with presents and a cake and, thinking his parents tracked him down and planned a surprise party, is lured in. It turns out that it is a trap set by a sorcerer named Kreon (Felix Ward), who has been stealing the souls of young people in order to resurrect Isabelle (Maria Pechukas), the woman he loves.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When a group of partygoers arrive soon after they find themselves trapped in the house as well. They discover a strange Ouija board in the possession of a dead body and they start to play with it. Soon their friend Carol (Lisa Friede) is possessed by Kreon. This leads to the death of one of their party as they try to escape and Carol's disappearance. Unable to leave the house by the front door the visitors go in search of an exit, each running into creatures brought to life by Kreon. Soon Isabelle is resurrected, but spurns Kreon's advances and finds herself trapped as well. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Doran and Faulkner directed all the parts dealing with the partygoers and the creatures they run into. The house, the family home of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, served as the location, provided cheap to the crew as the owners were hoping they would trash it. Instead, they restored it to a livable condition, and went about making a movie with a number of great creature effects, including reptilian snake monsters, a spider woman, "muck men" and an animated statue of the Grim Reaper. I am not able to find the original script online or any information saying the original footage, which was pretty much in the can and ready for post-production adding of a soundtrack and polishing effects, exists. What I can piece together from what did make it in the movie is it probably involved an evil, killer Ouija board that possessed Carol and then used the creatures to take everyone else's souls.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The reason it is so different from what intended is that, instead of letting Doran and Faulkner finish their movie, producer Michael Lee snatched the film from them and hired Genie Joseph to direct the parts involving Kreon, Isabelle, Billy and the zombie attack at the end. Other characters thrown in were a werecat (Dan Scott) doing Kreon's bidding and Kreon's son Korda (A.J. Lowenthal), whom he was breeding to take over. Parts of what had already been filmed were spliced with this, with the result that it feels like Kreon exists somewhere in the house but outside of time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Because of the tampering trying to make sense of this movie is impossible. Even as <i>Twisted Souls </i>the highlight would have been the creature designs by John Dods, as there are no characters to root for. There is a greaser named Duke (Nick Gionta) who is constantly fighting with Peter (Peter Dain), who despite everyone else (including his wife) being 20-somethings, appears to be in his 40s. Peter Iasillo Jr., as the comic relief Rich, is memorable, but not in a good way. The whole point of the film was to make a traditional horror film after which Lee had promised Doran and Faulkner that he would fund the movie they wanted to make. This never happened, and things soon fell apart between them and Lee because the interference started even before the film was finished.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So what we do get is Felix Ward overacting, Maria Pechukas barely emoting when reading lines, other characters looking and sounding like they are seeing their lines for the first time on cue cards just out of the shot, as well as a movie largely constructed of people wandering around the house followed by a terrible ending. I can understand why this has become a cult hit, as I am sure that getting the right group of people together with the right "enhancements" would allow for having a big laugh at the film's expense, but it is not even a watchable or enjoyable bad film. In its current form it is annoying and boring and just this side of unwatchable. It is bad enough that a flatulence joke, insisted on by Lee, doesn't even liven things up. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Spookies </i>(1986)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>85 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Felix Ward, Maria Pechukas, Lisa Friede</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Directors: </b>Thomas Doran, Brendal Faulkner, Genie Joseph</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-11910970951250717192024-02-20T23:20:00.000-08:002024-02-20T23:20:59.973-08:00Casablanca (1942)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc3_1wUCQW6ZrDkZ1Bst86nS78ZCLFgQpxyhD-BA58nFMLXA1x_GFiHNOStV7OcW2j3yRd0aHOznZrqeFl1hFThGQ3KPBWD-cPcIYHAndAw-W5fawBajIcAPjaLCwc9Avtjb0qmOv2D1qfsaZrNkbWI0uiLHQ2z7eKX4h2xITtU-p8w1XBpKLwf-ns_HU/s4569/Casablanca.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4569" data-original-width="2400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc3_1wUCQW6ZrDkZ1Bst86nS78ZCLFgQpxyhD-BA58nFMLXA1x_GFiHNOStV7OcW2j3yRd0aHOznZrqeFl1hFThGQ3KPBWD-cPcIYHAndAw-W5fawBajIcAPjaLCwc9Avtjb0qmOv2D1qfsaZrNkbWI0uiLHQ2z7eKX4h2xITtU-p8w1XBpKLwf-ns_HU/s320/Casablanca.jpg" width="168" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Classic movies are classics for reason, just as in literature. Also, just as in literature, being a classic doesn't always mean that the movie will appeal to everyone. <i>Citizen Kane </i>is one that comes to mind. It is a classic not so much for its story - which is quite good to begin with - but because of many of the cinematic innovations Orson Welles used for the first time, or borrowed from filmmakers outside of the United States, to bring his movie to fruition. To put it in perspective, <i>Birth of a Nation </i>and <i>Triumph of the Will </i>are also classics for many the same reasons, and watching either of them for reasons beyond the technical brings the entire idea of what classics mean into question. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are those times when the reason a movie is considered a classic is just because it holds up so well and the majority of people, despite the age of the film, antiquated story telling or technical limitations of the time, still continue to watch and like it. <i>Casablanca </i>is one of those. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is an American ex-pat who owns a popular club in Casablanca. Morocco us still under French rule despite the German occupation of Paris, as a small part of France run by a puppet government exists and is technically neutral. This means Casablanca is a stop on the route for those refugees escaping World War II, as with an exit visa they can fly to Lisbon, Portugal, and on to the United States. Rick turns a blind eye to all this, happy to run his club and leave the politics to people like Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), the local corrupt police chief, who makes sure all the young ladies have a chance at a visa. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Renault is now in a pickle because of the arrival of Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt) who is in Casablanca due to the theft of travel documents after the death of two German couriers on the train from Oran in free French-held Algeria. The papers, signed by General Charles de Gaulle and just needing to be filled in with names, are thought to have made their way to Casablanca, as has a dissident named Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) that Strasser would like to see permanently waylaid if not killed. Where Rick comes in is that Laszlo has brought his wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), a woman with whom Rick has a past. Having come into possession of the documents Rick must choose between his love for Ilsa or making a decision that would alter his life in Casablanca forever. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When I first saw <i>Casablanca </i>it was at the opening of the Harkins Shea 14 theaters in Scottsdale, Arizona. For opening weekend they played nothing but classic movies and, at the time, I had not seen most of them. This was when I had begun to not only broaden my horizons with movies but literature, so I figured whether I liked them or not I still had to see them once. With <i>Casablanca </i>I was afraid that I was in for a melodramatic love story that I would find unbearable. Instead, I found where about 90 percent of the classic movie quotes come from as well as a story that was part romance and part spy thriller. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This does reunite much of the cast of <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-maltese-falcon-1941.html">The Maltese Falcon</a></i>, with Bogart again in the lead and Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet playing bit parts. The direction is by Michael Curtiz, based on an unproduced play written by Julius and Philip G. Epstein called <i>Everyone Comes to Rick's</i>, which Warner Bros. bought and had Howard Koch adapt into a screenplay. Bogart thought little of it and at one point discussed with Bergman ways of getting out of the movie. The budget was low due to being made during World War II, reusing many sets from previous Warner Bros. movies with only Rick's Café Americain being new. Instead of a full airplane prop at one point it was a cardboard cutout with little people filmed in forced perspective. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Despite everything against it <i>Casablanca </i>turned out to be one of the biggest hits of 1942 and decade after decade appears on lists of best movies ever made, sometimes topping them over 80 years on. Keep in mind when I first saw it on 35mm on a decent size screen it was already just over 50 years old and, if anything, my estimation of the movie has gone up over the last three decades. I find more to like every time I see it, and the reason I watched it again is because of the <i>Sea of Tranquility </i>podcast mentioning it as one of the 4K restorations that one needs to own. They were right, of course, as the current disc available from Warner Bros. is the best I've ever seen it and, try as I may, that airplane does not look like a cardboard prop surrounded by dwarfs. It looks real enough - I'm sure the fog helped - but a movie that would have looked cheap in someone else's hands shines in Curtiz's. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The center of the movie is Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, and they work so well on screen it is surprising there wasn't something else going on when the filming stopped, as Bogart's then-wife was worried about. In truth, they rarely spoke off the set, and if anything Bogart was more concerned with his long-distance chess game than he was with chasing skirts. Still, this pairing worked better than anyone involved would have expected, and it is most likely the professionalism of both actors that led to this. What could have been a laughable potboiler is rescued by two of the best performances of all time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is helped along by Claude Rains, providing the needed comic relief as Renault, and Dooley Wilson as Sam, Rick's constant companion and piano player. Another thing that one has to respect the movie for is that Sam, though an employee of Rick, is never put in a subservient role. He is also neither a buffoon nor a minstrel. He is an integral part of the action and the only true friend that Rick has in the world. Then, of course, there is Conrad Veidt, whose anti-Nazi stance forced him to flee Germany. During the war he typically took on the roles of German villains in order to make sure the American public remembered what they were fighting against. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Pretty much everyone involved in this movie is long gone, but it is one of a handful of films whose lasting reputation is deserved. As a play I can see how it would not have been received well, and the original script was often laughed at when sent around in the late 1970s to see what the reaction would be, often from producers who did not know what it was and thought it was a bit too talky and old fashioned. There have also been attempts to remake the movie or do a sequel over the years, but apart from a television prequel, a novel and the Pamela Anderson sci-fi vehicle <i>Barb Wire</i>, none of them have come to fruition. That is because the story of Rick and Ilsa ends where it should and, despite the movie becoming a huge hit, it is one of those things that will never happen twice. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Casablanca </i>(1942)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>102 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Conrad Veidt</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Michael Curtiz</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-15497982519313287372024-02-15T13:30:00.000-08:002024-02-15T13:30:43.643-08:00Horror Express (1972)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSpEl5tjCSzLcbPzNxo2O9dL9S50UKIXOToLFHCsSuBv73Fwne1GXgiR5YdegiawENhbIgbbyAbPrpvCHHRUyHz2oLrOsSoL6zYg03Jb5FO4HE6Ap4kh9biJPai1Itc43vpirtVLMVkbOasIrqme3Fas_wdFsVWNPGkD6UAOqyp7SZfGER2hPwNuvuurs/s718/Horror%20Express.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSpEl5tjCSzLcbPzNxo2O9dL9S50UKIXOToLFHCsSuBv73Fwne1GXgiR5YdegiawENhbIgbbyAbPrpvCHHRUyHz2oLrOsSoL6zYg03Jb5FO4HE6Ap4kh9biJPai1Itc43vpirtVLMVkbOasIrqme3Fas_wdFsVWNPGkD6UAOqyp7SZfGER2hPwNuvuurs/s320/Horror%20Express.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is not a Hammer film, but it sure feels like it, despite being a low-budget Spanish production directed by Eugenio Martín, mostly known for westerns and torrid romance dramas. It's a by-the-numbers horror film, but the main hook is that it has Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing together, both in substantial protagonist roles, with Telly Savalas popping in toward the end to liven up what is already a good monster film on a train. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Professor Alexander Saxton (Lee) discovers a mummified primitive human in Manchuria and prepares it to be shipped home. The first leg of the trip is from Shanghai to Moscow. While waiting Saxton runs into Doctor Wells (Cushing), a colleague and sometime rival who is traveling with his assistant Natasha (Helga Liné). When a thief dies trying to steal what is in the crate police become suspicious, and even more so when a baggage handler (Victor Israel) dies on board the train after Wells asks him to have a look.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Inspector Mirov (Julio Peña) takes charge and confines Saxton to his room while Wells and Natasha try to piece together what is going on. It turns out the creature has escaped from confinement and carries with it a microscopic alien that can use host bodies to do its bidding as well as suck the knowledge from others in a way that proves fatal. After taking over Mirov it tries to do what it can to make it to Moscow, with hopes of assembling a ship to return home. Saxton and Wells, concerned that it may have more sinister motives, search for a way to destroy it. Meanwhile, Captain Kazan (Savalas) hears about the murders on the train and brings a regiment of Cossacks to take care of the problem himself.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Although made in Spain the film was produced by Bernard Gordon, and at first he had a hard time convincing Peter Cushing to join the cast as it was shortly after Cushing's wife had passed away. Cushing got through it with the help of Christopher Lee, and it is a shame the two were usually paired as rivals in most of their films. Cushing also gets some great lines in as well. Both Cushing and Lee, as well as Telly Savalas, were able to dub their own dialog for the English version. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Savalas was a lucky get, and it is obvious in some shots toward the end that they had to use a substitute after his actual acting role ended. Although he shows up at the beginning of the last third of the film his appearance is quite memorable, and he supposedly ad-libbed most of it. While Julio Peña does a memorable job as Mirov, both before and after possession, many times his scenes are stolen by Albert de Mendoza as Father Pujardov, a mad Russian Orthodox monk in the employ of Count Maryan Petrovski (Jorge Rigaud) and his daughter Countess Irina (Silvia Tortosa). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Horror Express </i>bears more than a little resemblance to John W. Campbell's <i>Who Goes There?</i>, which provided the basis for <i>The Thing from Another World! </i>and John Carpenter's 1982 remake. This is closer in tone to the latter, as a major plot point is in discovering who the creature has jumped into, something that can only be seen in certain circumstances. It does add a bit more tension to what would normally feel like a rote plot if the cast wasn't as good as it is. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Horror Express </i>(1972)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>88 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Julio Peña, Alberto de Mendoza, Silvia Tortosa, Telly Savalas</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Eugenio Martín</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-21030503597410708282024-02-14T19:19:00.000-08:002024-02-14T19:19:39.744-08:00Train to Busan (2016)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0X3t9zTGrXESg818JMXvSRTd8F-2M94qi3uzhTBeThiATfo8Sob9xfozXV5UYeyDdCgUCwlQWEB6HHkX1W1Ier1dzyy5HKQSnUAA_Ry5fkfgbxOClB9dyuP-fU9fZ0Ago62ZW1_4Y7X-tk_ptbaqGHO-1a7pzU57VrCzG2Up3j7mXtVh0gaxv633XzBo/s2145/Train%20to%20Busan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2145" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0X3t9zTGrXESg818JMXvSRTd8F-2M94qi3uzhTBeThiATfo8Sob9xfozXV5UYeyDdCgUCwlQWEB6HHkX1W1Ier1dzyy5HKQSnUAA_Ry5fkfgbxOClB9dyuP-fU9fZ0Ago62ZW1_4Y7X-tk_ptbaqGHO-1a7pzU57VrCzG2Up3j7mXtVh0gaxv633XzBo/s320/Train%20to%20Busan.jpg" width="224" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I don't think I actively avoided <i>Train to Busan </i>once I started hearing about it a few years ago. It has just reached a point where new zombie films don't excite me. Between <i>The Walking Dead </i>and all the bad Romero knock-offs the idea of zombies doesn't thrill me like it used to when this genre of movies was still a niche horror genre that produced some excitement from the fact that fans were being recognized by a movie like <i>Shaun of the Dead</i>. It has reached the same saturation point as vampires did long before the <i>Twilight </i>series further tainted their legacy. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">All I knew was that it was a South Korean movie about zombies on a train. I didn't know if they were going to be the fast, CGI-enhanced creatures of Zack Snyder's <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2021/06/dawn-of-dead-2004.html">Dawn of the Dead</a> </i>or the lumbering creatures from George A. Romero's films. What interested me was when I started hearing that <i>Train to Busan </i>was an actual good movie rather than another sad, bloodless cash-in like <i>World War Z</i>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) is a funds manager for a firm in Seoul. Although he has custody of his daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) he doesn't spend much time with her as his work takes up the majority of his life. It is the day before her birthday and what she wants most is to go to Busan to visit her mother, something she guilts her father into after he gives her a thoughtless gift. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After everyone boards the train a young woman showing signs of an infection sneaks on, as does a homeless man who is saying something about everyone being dead. It turns out that the infection turns the young woman into a mindless, rabid creature that attacks a high school baseball team that is taking the train back home. The victims who are bitten change fast and soon attack other passengers. The only weakness appears that they need to see or hear their victims to attack, as otherwise they have forgotten how to work the simplest of technology. The survivors on the train become aware of the rest of South Korea falling under the same plague and hope that their train is able to make it to its destination and safety. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Unlike most zombie films the reason for this is clear from the beginning: a chemical leak caused by a major biotech firm. The creatures themselves, though of the fast variety, are different than previous western versions, as they move in a jerky fashion, often contorting their limbs. Though parts of the film were sped up the zombie effects were done through choreography rather than CGI, resulting in some genuinely creepy moments. The CGI itself is used effectively in crowd scenes and large-scale shots of the devastation that is happening, but never looks like the cut-and-paste pixilated video game style that marred scenes like the breaching of protective walls in Jerusalem in <i>World War Z.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is also a star-studded production, with Gong Yoo being a famous actor in South Korea before this and Ma Dong-seok, who plays a working class father-to-be named Sang-hwa, being Woo's former personal trainer and well-known the MMA circuit. Kim Su-an does well, with her character often trying to do the right thing and even calling her father out for his amorality. The one villain, in a predictable turn, is a CEO that will do anything to survive, played to the hilt by Kim Eui-sung. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This was Yeon Sang-ho's first live-action feature film. His previous work was serious animated dramas, and he uses his animation experience to push what can be done on screen. It is a major feat to bring something like this to the screen the first try and, so far, it's been something he hasn't been able to duplicate, even with the movie's 2020 sequel <i>Peninsula</i>. Whether he remains a flash-in-the-pan director is to be seen, but if he is at least he left us with an exciting take on a worn-out genre. This still has much of the human drama and the "we are the monsters" theme, and putting class warfare on a train was done quite well with <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2017/02/snowpiercer-2013.html">Snowpiercer</a></i>. Still, <i>Train to Busan </i>feels new, much the same way the current run of <i>Planet of the Apes </i>movies has rescued that hoary series as well. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Train to Busan </i>(2016)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>118 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Gong Yoo, Kim Su-an, Ma Dong-seok, Jung Yu-mi, Kim Eui-sung</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Yeon Sang-ho</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-61771988017169385072024-02-13T16:56:00.000-08:002024-02-13T16:56:13.433-08:00Stand by Me (1986)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7KL3CmZCCqUwL0hT9iQIgCrceCzmUpmLKpnLIM4WZCgOddLq0b780DvmDu2WnaRJMZiP7-mw9oqEj0K_Ni5dXccpCSe369ljP4lb9gn9p64Pqy1v8N1HjXx69yCwC2kIDqpI_inQkSnnLR06wN_mhZ-ng75EthnPGmclFSA9-K9w_q5nlqYn-ebxCqE/s3100/Stand%20by%20Me.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3100" data-original-width="2175" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7KL3CmZCCqUwL0hT9iQIgCrceCzmUpmLKpnLIM4WZCgOddLq0b780DvmDu2WnaRJMZiP7-mw9oqEj0K_Ni5dXccpCSe369ljP4lb9gn9p64Pqy1v8N1HjXx69yCwC2kIDqpI_inQkSnnLR06wN_mhZ-ng75EthnPGmclFSA9-K9w_q5nlqYn-ebxCqE/s320/Stand%20by%20Me.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I read <i>The Body </i>when I was not too much older than the characters depicted in the story and <i>Stand by Me</i>. <i>Different Seasons </i>was a different kind of Stephen King experience for me. I had started with <i>Pet Sematary </i>and had read several other books, but at this point the ones I liked best were his short story collections, <i>Skeleton Crew </i>and <i>Night Shift</i>. I expected <i>Different Seasons </i>to be much the same.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the age of 13 I wanted to read what I liked to read. I loved King, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Andre Norton. The only material I liked that was considered "classic" literature at the time was Edgar Allen Poe, since I had not yet discovered H. P. Lovecraft or had taken time to read H. G. Wells. Although I was in advanced English classes I had no interest in reading what the teachers wanted me to read. I realize now why many of those works were important but, as a young kid, they didn't connect with me. <i>Tom Sawyer </i>took place before the Civil War and, though it was a story about young people, it wasn't one that contained anything I recognized. My introduction to Shakespeare was <i>Romeo and Juliet </i>rather than his shorter, more action-filled plays that could hold a kid's attention like <i>Macbeth </i>or <i>Titus Andronicus. </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, here I was with a book by Stephen King filled with material that it felt like my teachers would want me to read. I had already experienced this with Bradbury's non-fantasy work, and had felt hoodwinked, though I stuck with it. I stuck with this as well. <i>Apt Pupil </i>was decently creepy in its own way, while <i>Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption </i>I ended up liking quite a lot. He did throw horror fans a bone with the forgettable <i>The Breathing Method</i>, but it was <i>The Body </i>that connected with me. Much of what was in the story reflected Stephen King's own childhood in the 1950s, and it was not idealized. The kids all had troubled families and often were knocked around by the local bullies when their dads weren't wailing the living tar out of them. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My parents were not saints, but they were good parents. The bullies, however, I could relate to, and I knew many children going through the same things as the boys in the story. It was the 1980s when I read it, which was a time when the 1950s were idolized as "the good old days" when things were simpler, similar to the way many people speak of the 1980s today. They were about as right then as they are now, and I appreciated that King did not sugarcoat what being on the cusp of a teenager was like, since 12 and 13 were the worst years of my childhood when it came to bullies and learning, much like Chris Chambers does, that adults are just as bad as kids. The reason that <i>Stand by Me </i>works so well is that Rob Reiner, as well as writers Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans, didn't bowdlerize King's story. It is still an accurate portrayal of what growing up as a boy was before the internet age. It makes no excuses nor pulls punches, and it had the perfect group of actors to bring the story to life. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton) is a 12-year old boy growing up in the small town of Castle Rock, Oregon, in 1959. It is six months since his brother Denny (John Cusack) died and his parents, who didn't pay him much mind while his brother was alive, have checked out. His best friend is Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), one of a large family that has a reputation for always being up to no good. His other two friends are Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman), whose father has been incarcerated in an insane asylum after attempting to kill him, and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell), an awkward heavyset boy. Vern overhears his brother Billy (Casey Siemaszko) talking with his friend Charlie (Gary Riley) about finding the body of a young boy whose disappearance has recently been on the news.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Vern tells his friends and the four boys decide to go seek out the body themselves so they can then bring it back and notify authorities. Problem is that Billy and Charlie, after agreeing to keep it secret, eventually break the news to Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland), the leader of a local gang of teenagers. They decide to go to the location and report it themselves to collect the reward money. Meanwhile, the younger boys go through a number of trials of their own hiking to the location on foot, as recounted by an adult Lachance (Richard Dreyfuss). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At this time Sutherland was still cast as a young heavy in most films he was in, while Feldman had not yet gone fully off the rails with the problems fame brought him. Both bring great performances to the film while O'Connell, who would grow out of his awkward stage, is able to do more with Vern than make him simple comic relief. The big two are Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix. A couple years ago I made my way through the entirety of <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation </i>for the first time since the 1990s, or possibly ever since I probably missed a lot of the first two seasons when they were on. One of the things I wondered was why Wil Wheaton was cast as Will Crusher when it seemed he could hardly act. <i>Stand by Me </i>makes it clear why, as it is obvious that it was many of the production troubles on those first seasons that undercut Wheaton's ability to give a convincing performance. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">He and Phoenix carry the movie, with the latter giving one of the best child performances I have ever seen in a film. It is sad to see a boy who has barely entered puberty already giving up on life as well as almost being a father figure to Gordie despite only being a year older. Phoenix had his own problems and it is a shame we lost him as early as we did. This is one of his earliest roles and it is one of his best, giving Chris both the toughness and the vulnerability the character needs.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The main quibble I have is changing the location from Maine to Oregon, which is rumored to have been confusion on the screenwriters' part about the mention of Portland and them going with the most well-known one. To his credit Reiner filmed the story in and around Brownsville, Oregon, rather than doing the common thing and substituting a different state. It does confuse things a bit with all the French names flying around, as part of the reason mentioned in the story for certain attitudes toward different families is because of lingering bigotry between French and English settlers in that area of Maine. Castle Rock, though fictional, is still a conglomeration of the rural areas of the state where King grew up. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The other problem is that, after the final confrontation between the boys and Ace Merrill, there is no wrap-up. In the story it turns out like it would in reality, with the boys severely hurt after Merrill's gang gets their revenge. It also gives some of Gordie's friends happier endings. One thing it does right is keep the one story within a story, the pie-eating contest, that was a highlight of the novella. The other, a sample of Gordie's adult writing, drags the original down a bit, and I was glad that it was skipped. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Stand by Me </i>remains one of the best Stephen King adaptations and it is no surprise that he enthusiastically allowed Reiner to also adapt <i>Misery</i>. It introduced the general public to the fact that Stephen King was more than just a writer of spooky stories and was, in fact, a writer to take seriously, though at the time that was still just as hard of a sell to any of my English teachers as they had trying to sell the school-board-approved classic literature to me. <i>The Body</i>, as well as <i>Apt Pupil </i>and <i>Shawshank</i>, did open my eyes to the fact there was other literature out there as well and that, with a more open mind, I just may enjoy it. Both the story and the film also reassured me that what I was going through wasn't unique, and that it could be much worse. This is still a good story for someone that age, and it hits a bit harder as an adult who has started to see many of his own friends and family pass away. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Stand by Me </i>(1986)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>89 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, Richard Dreyfuss</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Rob Reiner</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-20857345813671308232024-02-08T11:21:00.000-08:002024-02-08T11:21:00.358-08:00Crimewave (1985)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL2mrn0-ScCn6wPU93EG_aApgSC9JHwO1H1XuFW71R6bCs-26Z_wAGmwYwJ7DzPYdhkq_LX3AwB2-XV6dJh4tS3Y-nK2mYpmVzIitybOnEhSqBnpT-1iQbh7AQdGNqIhpEmVY1cAWWizWY2P2iTzqEQD8GiGhSJFM2-yooMRLflWmXHd0MbCMvRVjT9vM/s878/Crimewave.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="878" data-original-width="595" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL2mrn0-ScCn6wPU93EG_aApgSC9JHwO1H1XuFW71R6bCs-26Z_wAGmwYwJ7DzPYdhkq_LX3AwB2-XV6dJh4tS3Y-nK2mYpmVzIitybOnEhSqBnpT-1iQbh7AQdGNqIhpEmVY1cAWWizWY2P2iTzqEQD8GiGhSJFM2-yooMRLflWmXHd0MbCMvRVjT9vM/s320/Crimewave.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After making <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-evil-dead-1981.html">The Evil Dead</a> </i>Sam Raimi began to get some attention as an up-and-coming director. For his next project he became interested in a script he read by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, which was a slapstick comedy about bumbling hitmen and a nebbish hero. Initially Embassy Pictures had some faith in Raimi, thinking that the movie, called <i>The XYZ Murders</i>, and later <i>Relentless</i>, might have potential to for mainstream appeal and help pull the ailing movie studio out of its tailspin. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Crimewave, </i>as Embassy retitled it when they released it to little promotion in Kansas and Alaska before dumping it on HBO in hopes that it would be a hit with the cable audience, didn't achieve what they hoped. After Raimi quickly went overbudget while filming in Detroit the studio execs stepped in, started looking over his shoulder and questioning everything he did. After the movie was completed they shelved it and then, after some time, released their own edit of the film, which failed to find an audience. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Vic Ajax (Reed Birney) is being dragged to the electric chair but continues to proclaim his innocence. While being prepared for execution he tells the story of how his boss, Ernest Trend (Edward R. Pressman), hired hit men to get rid of his partner Donald Odegard (Hamid Dana). The killers, strongman Faron (Paul L. Smith) and psychotic Arthur (Brion James), are none too careful with who they kill and, after botching the job, go on a rampage. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ajax, at the urging of his boss, goes looking for love and finds Nancy (Sheree J. Wilson), who happens to be smitten with a sleazy playboy named Renaldo (Bruce Campbell). Despite initially being annoyed by Vic, Nancy soon warms up to him. Problem is, the killers, while pursuing Trend's wife Helene (Louise Lasser) to make sure there are no witnesses, kidnap Nancy. This forces Vic to become a hero, but he is blamed for Faron and Arthur's murders, with his only hope that Nancy, who has disappeared, can show up to vouch for him. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sam Raimi has always been a fan of the Three Stooges, and that influenced much of the humor in <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2017/10/evil-dead-ii-1987.html">Evil Dead II</a> </i>and <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2023/10/army-of-darkness-1992.html">Army of Darkness</a></i>. <i>Crimewave </i>is the only film that he made as a straight comedy and, while it has a number of weird aspects and some of the cartoonish violence that would be expected, it is a modern slapstick comedy. Much of the style is taken from the 1940s despite the setting being in the '80s and, even though such films as <i>Airplane! </i>were popular at the time, they were a different type of slapstick. There wasn't a big demand for this type of movie and Embassy soon realized that Raimi had delivered another cult film and not the big mainstream smash they had expected. There is frequent use of cartoon sound effects, and I am sure that many people who saw the film, with its weird mixture of mayhem and mirth, were confused about what it should be. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Although Reed Birney does a good job in the lead role it was originally meant for Bruce Campbell and, as would happen a number of times, the studio refused to allow Raimi to use Campbell as a lead. He still has a great role as Renaldo the Heel, but his absence in the lead isn't as noticeable as it could have been. That is because the most interesting characters are Faron and Arthur, the latter with a portable electrocution machine. Louise Lasser was supposedly a cocaine-addled mess, though her role as Helene allows her to hold her own against Faron. Sheree J. Wilson also shows some great comic timing in her role as Vic's reluctant love interest.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Although Raimi never got to film the Coens' script as he liked <i>Crimewave </i>is still quite entertaining and funny. It also has many of his signature directing techniques on display during the fight between Helene and Faron as well as in the climactic car chase. There is a lot to love in this movie and it is good that it is easier to find than it used to be. When I first saw it I had to hunt down a copy at a particular video store as almost no one carried it. Raimi may not be proud of it for various reasons but it still deserves a lot more attention than it gets. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Crimewave </i>(1985)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>86 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Reed Birney, Sheree J. Wilson, Paul L. Smith, Brion James, Louise Lasser</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Sam Raimi </div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-83978380028584942182024-02-07T16:26:00.000-08:002024-02-07T16:26:14.616-08:00Relentless (1989)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhODPF0fjlPL6lRU4kxqbl8AgI4a_yR9bnXgkbAo588BT5HmCui-J3LEFLG-z9Cp1EuicX35StZoZQuWnFsjfox77hIK3VxFbYn8Z0RhyphenhyphenLnYTMLGgr5zDxa-mVM2941Q32ov3V_QophsU7kdfaBj7aboAg9OXObchbD1SertL7ImV73sSwvcLtii5ne2wY/s880/Relentless.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="594" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhODPF0fjlPL6lRU4kxqbl8AgI4a_yR9bnXgkbAo588BT5HmCui-J3LEFLG-z9Cp1EuicX35StZoZQuWnFsjfox77hIK3VxFbYn8Z0RhyphenhyphenLnYTMLGgr5zDxa-mVM2941Q32ov3V_QophsU7kdfaBj7aboAg9OXObchbD1SertL7ImV73sSwvcLtii5ne2wY/s320/Relentless.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I can't say any member of the 1980s "Brat Pack" had a lasting career. Emilio Estevez had the most success after <i>The Breakfast Club</i>, with Molly Ringwald being fondly remembered for the few movies she was in around the same time. Judd Nelson was the one that I'm sure a lot of people thought would go further. Traditionally good looking and able to play the bad boy with a heart of gold he instead became evolved into a b-movie actor. One of those happened to be William Lustig's 1989 serial killer film <i>Relentless. </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sam Dietz (Leo Rossi) is a former New York police officer who has relocated to Los Angeles with his wife Carol (Meg Foster) and son Corey (Brendan Ryan). On his first day being promoted to detective he is teamed with veteran detective Malloy (Robert Loggia) who has become disenchanted with his job to the point of not caring if a case is solved or not. Dietz, however, is of the opinion that he is the only one concerned with doing real police work.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The case they are assigned is that of a serial killer that leaves pages torn out of the phone book with messages mocking the police. That killer happens to be Buck Taylor (Nelson), the son of a former police officer that was rejected for service on the force. Feeling that he is a failure to his father he begins his reign of terror, daring the police to come find him. Soon Dietz manages to get Malloy involved in solving the case, but his obsession with catching the killer may have personal repercussions.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Like much of Lustig's director-for-hire material <i>Relentless </i>is thin on plot but worth a watch because many elements bleed over from his own horror and exploitation films. One of those elements is Rossi, who frequently collaborated with Lustig, and would play a major role in <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2016/10/maniac-cop-2-1990.html">Maniac Cop 2</a>. </i>He typically does a great job, and here he has some easy chemistry with both Robert Loggia and Meg Foster, despite the short run time stripping back much of the character development. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Rossi may get a good portion of the screen time, but Judd Nelson got top billing. Buck Taylor is not the most memorable serial killer, but at least Nelson does a solid job. Taylor often goes into a robotic mode when it comes to killing, methodically obeying all the laws and rules until he makes it to the location of the murder. He is also thin-skinned which, like a lot of television and movie serial killers, proves to be his undoing. He is able to maintain an unsettling aura when committing the murders, so he is at least believable.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As usual Lustig is good at set pieces, and the best here is a musician being stalked by Taylor through her house and a scene near the end where Dietz desperately tries to make his way through the crowded streets of Los Angeles to bring the killer down. The movie was popular enough to make a slight profit at the box office, resulting in three direct-to-video sequels with Rossi reprising the role of Dietz as he goes after a number of other serial killers. This film will not be on the top of anyone's list for crime films of the 1980s, and it certainly did more for Rossi's career than it did for Nelson's, but it has its moments and is a decent enough hard-boiled thriller. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Relentless </i>(1989)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>92 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Leo Rossi, Judd Nelson, Robert Loggia, Meg Foster</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>William Lustig </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-89385770898113951082024-02-06T23:16:00.000-08:002024-02-06T23:16:11.578-08:00Superman II (1980)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYc_HZsb4WxDoKWOD2liDrGPSGjQaYj4yKoVN3yTduHcaTSIEO2PRcL4uIT5cvVnpvTlAr72hT9edqmMyX80yYQLLQR1JXM5wbzXp7PEaAhqj8MUbvU-Hx8fJ_Rc7DyOG9meN6SbYAJppPTNl5A9d6cL3zhr92sL2i16GEpCBLWJDuKEZb6iNdFN_8ByE/s879/Superman%20II.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="879" data-original-width="588" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYc_HZsb4WxDoKWOD2liDrGPSGjQaYj4yKoVN3yTduHcaTSIEO2PRcL4uIT5cvVnpvTlAr72hT9edqmMyX80yYQLLQR1JXM5wbzXp7PEaAhqj8MUbvU-Hx8fJ_Rc7DyOG9meN6SbYAJppPTNl5A9d6cL3zhr92sL2i16GEpCBLWJDuKEZb6iNdFN_8ByE/s320/Superman%20II.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2024/01/superman-1978.html">Superman</a> </i>became the first superhero film to get a serious adaptation to the big screen. Christopher Reeve fits the part of both Kal-El and Clark Kent and Gene Hackman turned out to be a good Lex Luthor. It was also enhanced by a score from John Williams, who was on a role after scoring <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2015/07/jaws-1975.html">Jaws</a>, <a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2020/05/star-wars-1977.html">Star Wars</a> </i>and <i>Close Encounters of the Third Kind. </i>It did have its issues. The movie was overlong and director Richard Donner had a hard time reconciling a long, serious beginning with a campier middle and end. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Still, Warner Bros., and in particular producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, initially had enough faith in the film to finance two movies to be made back to back. The introductory portion of <i>Superman </i>introduced three criminals that were sentenced to banishment in the Phantom Dimension: General Zod (Terence Stamp) and his accomplices Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran). They are not mentioned again throughout the first movie, but we are reminded of their crimes as the second one begins.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Not long after the criminals are banished Krypton is destroyed, with Kal-El being sent to Earth. A short time after the end of the first movie, with Superman spoiling Lex Luthor's plot to use nuclear missiles to sink a large portion of California west of the San Andreas Fault in order to corner the market on beachfront property, Luthor is serving his sentence along with his henchman Otis (Ned Beatty). While in prison he has been working on a plot to track Superman to his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic and, with the help of former associate Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perine), he escapes and finds it. Meanwhile, Superman foils a terrorist plot in Paris, but his disposal of a hydrogen bomb results in Zod, Ursa and Non being released.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The three come to Earth and realize that the yellow rays of our sun enhance their powers. Luthor also realizes that other beings like Superman have arrived and decides to ally himself with them. As for our hero, Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) finally figures out who Kent really is. In order to be with Lane he returns to the Fortress of Solitude and becomes human, destroying the control center in the process. Problem is, he is unaware of Zod's arrival on Earth, finding out soon after. Aware that his romantic plans will have to wait he returns to the Fortress to find a way of restoring his Kryptonian self before it's too late. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Superman II </i>had a troubled production, so much so that it is surprising it turned out as well as it did. Luthor is absent a good portion, and both Otis and Eve, who were featured as comic relief in the first film, disappear early on. This is because Richard Donner was fired by the Salkinds after he had completed a good portion of the movie. Hackman was not available for reshoots when Richard Lester took over, so what there was of Donner's footage had to be included unless the plan was to remove Luthor from the movie. As for the rest Lester reshot most of Donner's work in order to maintain sole director credit as Donner, angry at his firing, refused to have his name on the film. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The result is that there are a number of spots where it feels like <i>Superman II</i> is not finished. Superman shows up for a final battle with the evil Kryptonians, but it is never quite explained how he gets his powers back, something that the recording of his mother (Susannah York) says is a permanent change. There are many baffling decisions throughout that either make no sense in the context of the finished film or seem to be offbeat ideas that Lester added in for fun.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Despite this <i>Superman II </i>is far superior to the first movie. Superman's powers, and those of his enemies, are more clearly defined, and the way he handles them at the end is logical within the story and not a <i>deus ex machina </i>like in the first where he suddenly has the power to fly around the Earth and make time go backwards in order to save Lois during the earthquake. Margot Kidder, for her part, feels much more comfortable with the role, although from her perspective she had a lot less to do this time around and was not happy about Donner's firing. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As for the villains Luthor's arrogance is still played for laughs, though he doesn't serve a pivotal role other than to get the final battle going. Terence Stamp plays Zod with a cold, detached amorality, while Jack O'Halloran offers some actual humor as cloddish Non. Sarah Douglas does the sexy and dangerous thing as Ursa, and it works. Despite some ridiculous costume choices it was a wise decision to bring in villains that were the match of Superman as a problem with the character has always been he is too perfect and too capable.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In 2006 Warner Bros., along with Richard Donner, assembled the footage that they had in order to release a version of <i>Superman II </i>that was more in line with what he wanted. It includes Donner's original versions of the material Lester re-filmed, skips the opening in Paris and includes Marlon Brando's portions as Jor-El. I think I may have seen it at some point, but the original theatrical version is nowhere near an unwatchable travesty as one would think. It is a lot of fun, keeps things within a reasonable time and, most important, keeps the action going throughout. The special effects also hold up quite well. It is too bad the movies that followed did little more than kill the franchise. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Superman II </i>(1980)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>127 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas, Gene Hackman, Jack O'Halloran</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Richard Lester</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-4765799002290556882024-02-01T11:06:00.000-08:002024-02-01T11:06:02.515-08:00Taken (2008)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4EYGxKhpS_uVGVs5Uc2ntN4c0OQGwHrvzvGlzJVEoxDtAk6ihyHtFrr7PboPbqouUjaCLSAub2QzTW3Cm05fbIbbO2tNeDsfUIIWwBnnPSAdr-jD8gHs4p0TLbZIe4L26AM9lqgyj3iX9VUMIeQydlORCxpfRZ-Cp4SfCw4TTLJ02SawIKPvF24u5t-o/s864/Taken.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4EYGxKhpS_uVGVs5Uc2ntN4c0OQGwHrvzvGlzJVEoxDtAk6ihyHtFrr7PboPbqouUjaCLSAub2QzTW3Cm05fbIbbO2tNeDsfUIIWwBnnPSAdr-jD8gHs4p0TLbZIe4L26AM9lqgyj3iX9VUMIeQydlORCxpfRZ-Cp4SfCw4TTLJ02SawIKPvF24u5t-o/s320/Taken.jpg" width="222" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have seen critics bring up many concerns about <i>Taken.</i> The problem is trying to get a good grip on what is good and what is wrong with this movie means dealing with virtue signalers and their list of approved buzzwords and absolute fanboys who think this is the greatest action film ever. I had heard about it and was surprised to find out how long ago it came out, although I have never actively avoided seeing it. It was something that I would have ignored at the time because, while I love action films, few modern ones are worth seeing. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I was also surprised to find out it was French and written by Luc Besson. Besson's career hasn't been stellar for a long time as he directed a number of flops and, although I was an early fan with films such as <i>La Femme Nikita </i>and <i>Leon</i>, he pretty much lost me with <i>The Fifth Element</i>. He also turned out to be more than a little bit of a creep, which is why I'm sure his name is back there in the writing credits while Pierre Morel took on the job of directing it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a retired CIA operative who does occasional security work. He quit his job to be closer to his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). She lives with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and her rich stepfather Stuart (Xander Berkeley). Kim has just turned 17 and wants to go to France with her best friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy), but needs Bryan's permission to go. He reluctantly signs a permission slip but gives her an international phone and a number of rules to follow to make sure she is safe.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Upon arriving in Paris they meet a man at the airport named Peter (Nicolas Giraud) who shares a cab with them back to where they are staying. That is a mistake, because Peter is a spotter for a human trafficker named Marko (Arben Bajraktaraj). Amanda and Kim are kidnaped, but not before Kim is able to give her father a description of Marko. Bryan travels to Paris to find her, working his way up through the organization to rescue Kim, much to the displeasure of an old French colleague named Jean-Claude (Olivier Rabourdin) that has to clean up the mess Mills leaves behind.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Liam Neeson did not take the role of Bryan Mills to revitalize his career, although that is exactly what <i>Taken </i>did for him. He took it because he was offered four months in Paris with the promise to learn martial arts and get paid for the whole thing. He thought the now iconic speech he gives to Marko when Kim is kidnaped was cheesy and that the movie would be lucky to get released on the DVD market, much less make it to theaters. Instead, it turned into an entire franchise although, despite what some comedians have proposed, it doesn't have to do with Kim getting repeatedly kidnaped. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Pierre Morel only directed the first one, and his no-frills style helps move the story along. There is no subtlety or real character development, but that also means there isn't a lot of fat either. Maggie Grace and Katie Cassidy are a bit annoying, acting more like tweens than teens, but there isn't much time to dwell on that before the main plot gets rolling. Morel definitely has an eye for action scenes and, no matter what he thought of the movie, Neeson didn't phone it in. He always gives his all and this is no exception.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It is lucky, however, that it is a French film. If this was an American production it would have had protests even in 2008. Albanians are treated as barely human and, despite Mills busting up a human trafficking ring, he is laser focused on getting his daughter back. He seems little concerned with the fate of all the other women. I find that part to be realistic, but it is a bone of contention for detractors of the film, not understanding the futility and danger of mission creep. It also fits in with his amoral outlook on achieving his goals, as he is more than willing to at least wound innocent people to get his way. In a way his callousness is the most telling part and makes Lenore look less nasty the more one understands who Bryan really is. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Not going out of the way to explain nuances that the writer and director believes audiences should get is one of the more typical French things about this movie. Other than that it is atypically an escapist popcorn film, fulfilling the audience's desire to see a bunch of sleazy bad guys get what's coming even while wondering if we should as Luc Besson where on the doll the bad Albanian touched him at some point. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Taken </i>(2008)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>90 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Olivier Rabourdin</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Pierre Morel</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-70050495929138806102024-01-31T22:29:00.000-08:002024-01-31T22:29:58.011-08:00Hit List (1989)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYI5KaDjX1SG3yR8DLbVqf2KPZf7cnEhj9z5MFRz4SbFGRDdaLMpgp_4XoiQjmnQeJ4rTAVeRs6knNpwKhZOWCVDdIiDz0E5Hk3Oe-p_e6VPjoBjZoWbYb6198OWMeIZ64dRwGEk0i_szgO8VmKJep_z9oM8TSoObFS6IHaZ_QUssAzX4P57RgmokHo3U/s750/Hit%20List.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYI5KaDjX1SG3yR8DLbVqf2KPZf7cnEhj9z5MFRz4SbFGRDdaLMpgp_4XoiQjmnQeJ4rTAVeRs6knNpwKhZOWCVDdIiDz0E5Hk3Oe-p_e6VPjoBjZoWbYb6198OWMeIZ64dRwGEk0i_szgO8VmKJep_z9oM8TSoObFS6IHaZ_QUssAzX4P57RgmokHo3U/s320/Hit%20List.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">William Lustig famously followed up <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2023/05/maniac-1980.html">Maniac</a> </i>with the similarly titled <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2016/10/maniac-cop-1988.html">Maniac Cop</a></i>, cementing himself a reputation among cult movie fans. While he had a specific style, albeit highly influenced by Larry Cohen and other exploitation directors before him, Lustig appeared destined for a mainstream career after <i>Maniac Cop </i>became a bit of a hit on home video. In this case he was hired to do an action film to help restore the career of Jan-Michael Vincent, who had previously starred in the television series <i>Airwolf. </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Detective Tom Mitchum (Charles Napier) is trying to put away mob boss Vic Luca (Rip Torn), but all the witnesses keep having accidents. Their hopes lie in the testimony of Frank DeSalvo (Leo Rossi), an undertaker who was using his business as a way of trafficking heroine. Luca, concerned that DeSalvo may talk, sends hitman Caleek (Lance Henriksen) to take care of him. Due to an unfortunate accident Caleek instead invades the house of Jack Collins (Vincent), killing his best friend Brian (Harold Sylvester) and kidnapping Jack's son Kenny (Junior Richard).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In order to get his son back Collins breaks DeSalvo out of police custody, and through him he finds Caleek. As things progress both DeSalvo and Mitchum begin to take Luca's betrayals and killing more personally, with Frank and Jack eventually teaming up to take care of Caleek and rescue Kenny.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There is a lot to like in <i>Hit List</i>. Henriksen plays a convincing bad guy and committed to the role even though he took it just to make sure he had enough to make his alimony payments. Although he is skilled in both his front profession - selling shoes - and his chosen one, it is obvious that Caleek is no genius. He's just tough and hard to kill, making for an exciting final fight in a Los Angeles parking garage. Leo Rossi gives a good, humorous performance, Napier was pretty much born to play police officers and Rip Torn hams up yet another bad guy role.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The weak link is Jan-Michael Vincent. This was supposed to be a way for him to move from the small screen to feature films and, though the plot is about as by-the-books as possible, Lustig includes enough style and memorable set scenes that this should be more well-known. Problem is Vincent was far gone down the road of alcohol and other substance abuse and could barely be relied on to remain standing while running. In one instance he was almost killed during a stunt because he fell down in front of the stunt car due to being too intoxicated. Things got so bad that at one point Lustig was fired from the project after demanding that Vincent be removed, only to be rehired by the end of the day. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The way the movie suffers is that much of it should have revolved around the Jack Collins character and him bonding with DeSalvo over their sons and, at the end, their mutual hatred of Luca. Vincent was never a great actor, but neither were many of the major '80s action stars, and most of them could have pulled off a movie like this with no hitch and it would still be making the cable or streaming rounds. Instead, we get little of Vincent throughout most of the movie until the end, and little of him and Rossi together. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Hit List </i>failed at the box office, but Lustig still was able to use his salary to help fund <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2016/10/maniac-cop-2-1990.html">Maniac Cop 2</a></i>, and his next director-for-hire project, <i>Relentless</i>, would fare a bit better. It's a pity since this has so much going for it and Lustig was still able to salvage an enjoyable film from the project. Someone just needed to give up on Vincent at the time, as even Michael Pare could have gone a long way toward saving the film. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Hit List </i>(1989)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>87 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Jan-Michael Vincent, Leo Rossi, Charles Napier, Lance Henriksen, Rip Torn</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>William Lustig</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-40467929673067812072024-01-30T22:38:00.000-08:002024-01-30T22:38:15.930-08:00Leave the World Behind (2023)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClGn6I270zoNthqdPBGc9kVYn5ePT90DxkNqGvmKTZrO2raaoglPY5kyLXSPVHEXhehE0Fy39XLJB0uc2dYaSfjcGqFROB4Y9cuWHo_uRXr69AsgXsecEh1lXSXTqxcmJ_220a4NufoOsevTc5QAhyCvpH05gaYgRUHD1hK8OmXrY7-vmpfUP0cVV5gk/s2222/Leave%20the%20World%20Behind.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2222" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClGn6I270zoNthqdPBGc9kVYn5ePT90DxkNqGvmKTZrO2raaoglPY5kyLXSPVHEXhehE0Fy39XLJB0uc2dYaSfjcGqFROB4Y9cuWHo_uRXr69AsgXsecEh1lXSXTqxcmJ_220a4NufoOsevTc5QAhyCvpH05gaYgRUHD1hK8OmXrY7-vmpfUP0cVV5gk/s320/Leave%20the%20World%20Behind.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The end of the world has been on a lot of people's minds in the last few years. The war in Ukraine began with Vladimir Putin threatening to use whatever rusty tin cans in his arsenal would still do any damage, things are heating up once again in the Middle East with Iran now antagonizing a nuclear power - Pakistan - who might have less restraint than many of its peers, and there is a mentally unbalanced ex-President that has too much of a chance of returning to power. With various media outlets using social networking as a place to chum the waters it seems like everyone is more on edge than ever. One of the more interesting television shows in recent years, <i>Evil</i>, often uses these provocations as plot points in its own end-times scenarios.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Leave the World Behind </i>is a 2020 novel by Rumaan Alam detailing the beginning of a worldwide societal breakdown due to the loss of certain modern functions such as electricity and internet. It doesn't move on with any of the normal pat solutions of the military returning things to normal or people banding together to overcome adversity, but rather just shows what the first few days of such an event would look like. The book includes a bit more wrap-up, in the way a literary narrative can and a film narrative cannot, but it is not as focused on one place and time. Sam Esmail, in writing and adapting the book and directing the film, kept much of the plot but further isolated the location in order to, instead of making a story about how disparate people would react to such an event, make a comment about reliance on technology and the state of American politics. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) decides she has had enough of New York for a bit and plans a surprise vacation for her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) and their children Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). She books an expensive vacation home on Long Island and the family settles in. While at an outing to the beach an oil tanker suddenly runs aground and, when the Sandfords return to the home, they find that the internet is out as well as television reception. In the middle of the night they hear a knock on the door and are greeted by a man introducing himself as G. H. Scott (Mahershala Ali), who has arrived with his daughter Ruth (Myha'la).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">G. H. introduces himself and informs the Sandfords that he is the one they are renting from, asking to spend the night as there is currently a blackout in New York. Clay is willing, but Amanda is suspicious that they may be trying to pull a scam. Ruth is hostile toward Amanda as well, suspecting that racial prejudice may be behind her reluctance to believe them despite all the evidence they can provide. Soon the question is put to rest when other things begin to occur, including the surprise appearance of large amounts of migrating deer and a piercing sound coming from everywhere at once. When Archie falls ill G. H. and Clay attempt to illicit aid from a local survivalist named Danny (Kevin Bacon). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Although I know that Esmail wanted to score political points and make some clever comments about technology and our current use of it to ignore what is going on the world, concentrating on the United States as the target was a mistake. I haven't read the novel so I don't know if there is ever a specific reason given for the events, be it an attack or a natural disaster, but Esmail goes out of his way early on to make sure it is clear that it is manmade. He just never lets us know who, whether it is domestic or, as Danny supposes, a coalition of America's enemies cooperating to bring the country down and get America out of their way. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This makes the movie version of <i>Leave the World Behind</i> too much like many similar films and television series about the end of the world. The default is that when faced with adversity most nations - especially America - will fold and devolve into chaos. I have always thought the reality is more in the middle and, to Esmail's credit, he allows the situation to play out between the Sandfords and the Scotts to where they reach a way to cooperate despite initial mistrust, even if scenes later in the film give a sense that there is a larger breakdown in more urban areas.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As for the much-criticized ending, I feel that Esmail was going for a final punchline to drive home his views on technological dependency and the pacifying of the public with bread and circuses. It makes sense in the context of the movie he made, even it doesn't quite work. There is more to the ending of the novel, which was not seeking to make a dark-humored comment on such, but was aiming at a realistic depiction of what a severe disruption to the modern world would look like. Still, Esmail manages to come up with some effective scenes, including the one with runaway Teslas and the standoff between G. H. and Danny. Budgetary limitations, however, result in some dodgy CGI that renders the encounters with deer and flamingos almost laughable and the initial oil tanker accident looking like an unfinished effect. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This benefits from having actors the caliber of Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali, giving a bit more gravitas to a script that can't decide whether it wants everyone to be archetypes or have a bit of grey area in their morals. The sense of isolation works and allows for the bigger scenes to look a bit better than they may have otherwise, but it just seems that so much more could have been done with the long runtime of this movie and that it could have focused on this being a worldwide disaster rather than, as usual, treating the United States as it was the center of everything.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Leave the World Behind </i>(2023)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>138 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, Myha'la, Charlie Evans, Farrah Mackenzie</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Sam Esmail </div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-26222147517433388952024-01-25T11:11:00.000-08:002024-01-25T11:11:06.250-08:00I Bury the Living (1958)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOblMYFKZtZRuanVx1CalW600jNupf7B2iO91FWj69qGGuRIfOwiSaVr9QDncI27e7MgNLG4XW5LXB7dFkzZtzp_8OYVYZTghXQICQkA2T2csrx_Ib4wj1VNJqAkk9TIaGq2W1mMGPfOnzlzaeqOqQiKzo1ZTq4w6ykQXsPztFSU-RlsbX7wLxPZhazAY/s869/I%20Bury%20the%20Living.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="869" data-original-width="572" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOblMYFKZtZRuanVx1CalW600jNupf7B2iO91FWj69qGGuRIfOwiSaVr9QDncI27e7MgNLG4XW5LXB7dFkzZtzp_8OYVYZTghXQICQkA2T2csrx_Ib4wj1VNJqAkk9TIaGq2W1mMGPfOnzlzaeqOqQiKzo1ZTq4w6ykQXsPztFSU-RlsbX7wLxPZhazAY/s320/I%20Bury%20the%20Living.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When on a shoestring budget one can either just do everything as cheap as possible or get creative. In this case Albert Band chose the latter. <i>I Bury the Living </i>sounds like a serial killer movie and the lurid poster makes it look like a precursor to <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2021/02/night-of-living-dead-1968.html">Night of the Living Dead</a>, </i>but it is a well-done thriller about a rational man suddenly faced with the unknown.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Robert Kraft (Richard Boone) is part of a family that owns a successful department store in a midsized town. The family members traditionally takes turns chairing the committee that runs the local cemetery. Robert is none-too-pleased, but his uncle George (Howard Smith) is insistent that tradition be kept. The cemetery is tended to by an old Scottish man named Andy McKee (Theodore Bikel), whom Robert informs needs to find a replacement as it is soon time for his retirement.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On his first day there Robert accidentally places two black pins - marking graves that are occupied - on the site of the future grave sites of a newlywed couple. They shortly afterward die in a car crash. Thinking it may be more than a coincidence Robert puts a random black pin in another area, and that future occupant dies as well. He tells his friend Jessie (Herbert Anderson), a reporter for the local newspaper, as well as a homicide detective named Clayborne (Robert Osterloh). They all believe it to be coincidence, as does George and the rest of the committee, until things begin to go beyond obvious chance. At that point Robert decides to see what happens when he puts the white pins in the occupied graves.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The one thing that lets <i>I Bury the Living </i>down is the ending. My understanding is the original script, by Band and Louis Garfinkle, featured some real supernatural consequences to Kraft changing the black pins to white. By the time the movie was made, however, a different ending was agreed upon that tries to tie things up in a more rational fashion. This makes a good part of the buildup not make as much sense as it would if everything was playing out was as Kraft thought. That ending was also rather bleak, more in line with <i>Night of the Living Dead </i>than with other 1950s thrillers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Despite the ending Richard Boone does a great job portraying a man who is losing touch with reality. The more he obsesses over the map the bigger it seems to get and, despite the budget, there are some great composite shots that amp up that terror. It is the only movie I can think of in which a map seems to have a life of its own. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>I Bury the Living </i>(1958)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>76 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel, Howard Smith, Herbert Anderson, Peggy Maurer</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Albert Band</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-74468847172838784922024-01-24T19:58:00.000-08:002024-01-24T19:58:18.284-08:00Dead & Buried (1981)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAAM9m5XhYWGJznr1r7b0YABK7uiDOkg9ovUNRBMuXkKsYvqe-zo2LQZJNt_6kX8ita8Ttpr8lxlBPPdcz38taolCIFVxeKe-wcSBmWwhObe4LX2m0ssq4hUsfOvw1INPEC0Wh-f3j6HA2C6ybybrQiC7Jep-yE2uIX3h8VjUi0OHi6puS_YFLs6ELlcA/s3636/Dead%20and%20Buried.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3636" data-original-width="2400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAAM9m5XhYWGJznr1r7b0YABK7uiDOkg9ovUNRBMuXkKsYvqe-zo2LQZJNt_6kX8ita8Ttpr8lxlBPPdcz38taolCIFVxeKe-wcSBmWwhObe4LX2m0ssq4hUsfOvw1INPEC0Wh-f3j6HA2C6ybybrQiC7Jep-yE2uIX3h8VjUi0OHi6puS_YFLs6ELlcA/s320/Dead%20and%20Buried.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As the opening credits ran for this movie I was wondering why I had never heard of it. Dan O'Bannon is listed as one of the writers, while well-known scream queen Lisa Blount has a significant role and Melody Anderson, who would go on to play Dale Arden a few years later in <i>Flash Gordon</i>, has a major part to play as well. In addition it has Grandpa Joe himself, Jack Albertson, playing an eccentric mortician, and even a pre-<i>V </i>Robert Englund in a small role. As icing on the cake Stan Winston did most of the effects. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Watching it I soon became aware of why it is not so well known and, upon hearing much of the backstory on how it was made, it was cheated out of its chance. It's not a rote slasher film of the time and Ronald Shusett, who is the real writer on the movie, had planned for this to be a horror comedy. Director Gary Sherman was right their with him and that's what they did and, to hear it from them, audiences loved it. That was before the people backing it began to stick their beaks in. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sheriff Dan Gillis (James Farentino) is the entire law enforcement of the tiny Maine town of Potter's Bluff, save his dispatcher Betty (Estelle Omens) and part-time officer Harry (Robert Englund). An accident call involving a photographer (Christopher Allport) doesn't sit right with him, and for good reason. Soon a number of people, all visitors to the town, turn up dead. Even stranger his wife Janet (Anderson) seems to have a sudden fascination with witchcraft. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As the sheriff looks into things further, with the help of mortician William G. Dobbs (Albertson) and the local doctor (Joseph G. Medalis), he soon finds that there are reports of the people who have been killed being seen alive and walking around town. As he looks further into it the murders begin to include the locals, and it looks like his wife may have more than a little to do with it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This has a twist ending which, though it seems a bit silly, makes some sense if the movie is watched carefully. Still, as it is presented, there are problems with how it resolves, problems that may be the result of the heavy editing. It also featured some backlash from one of its supposed writers. <i>Dead & Buried</i> was advertised as being from the creators of <i><a href="https://expelledgreymatter.blogspot.com/2021/03/alien-1979.html">Alien</a></i>, when Shusett was the sole screenwriter; O'Bannon was paid some money for some rewrites there were not used just so the production company could use his name on the poster. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The reason for the edits is because the movie changed hands throughout production, with the last company demanding the comedy be cut and the blood be amped up. At that point Winston, who does some of his best work on this movie, had moved on to other projects. Thus, there are such great gags as a hypodermic through the eye and what they think is a burned corpse suddenly coming back to life, while in another a cheap Halloween mask is used during a key death scene that wasn't done by Winston.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The movie has an interesting concept and it is presented well. This was Jack Albertson's last film that he made before his death and the role of Dobbs is one to be proud of going out on. He is a big-band-loving frustrated artist, far from the goofy old man he would play in a number of his later roles. James Farentino overacts wildly in places to the point of hilarity, which seems incongruous with the rest of the film but makes sense knowing that it was supposed to be more comedic. Lisa Blount is the femme fatale leading some of the unsuspecting victims to their death, while Melody Anderson has an amazing bit where she realizes the truth about what is going on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The big issue with the film is the pacing. A slow burn is fine, and this was supposed to be a tense thriller, not a slasher. Still, that pace should be to build up tension, where in many cases I was wondering why we are dwelling on people doing mundane things with little to no payoff. The last third of the movie is payoff enough, but there is no reason for having to sit through the entire process of preparing a sample for a microscope when the scene can begin with the slide already in and follow it up by the character's reaction. It's almost as if after much of the good stuff was cut someone realized there wasn't enough movie left and, instead of restoring what audiences loved, they just put in filler scenes. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It was a hard movie to rate, but I would give it a tacit recommendation because of Winston's effects work, Albertson's performance and the fact that the story is not a typical zombie film or slasher. I just wish that we had a chance to see what Shusett and Sherman meant to put on the screen. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Dead & Buried </i>(1981)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>94 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Lisa Blount</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Gary Sherman</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-29922590749945707492024-01-23T22:46:00.000-08:002024-01-23T22:46:12.423-08:00The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinblS3WQpV2u0N6sChERhtbTdyEmfZgCp0BMONbZ9fe5kWlFzVpFJmPTv8lNL3w8tVdwmdzTN9aCMiO0SmFeFiGX4RvOQBSqpWPz2G5EeXqzt9D7lBRtgcTVMN_1rTo5ttjTq4Gi-rPKoFRQTkLRloxhgWmkg4zYHrZU-c1OM39P6yDJ-Y22J6EDp9XII/s878/The%20Day%20the%20Earth%20Stood%20Still.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="878" data-original-width="608" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinblS3WQpV2u0N6sChERhtbTdyEmfZgCp0BMONbZ9fe5kWlFzVpFJmPTv8lNL3w8tVdwmdzTN9aCMiO0SmFeFiGX4RvOQBSqpWPz2G5EeXqzt9D7lBRtgcTVMN_1rTo5ttjTq4Gi-rPKoFRQTkLRloxhgWmkg4zYHrZU-c1OM39P6yDJ-Y22J6EDp9XII/s320/The%20Day%20the%20Earth%20Stood%20Still.jpg" width="222" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The general attitude toward science fiction has often been that it is a lesser form of entertainment. It didn't help that the magazines that specialized in it featured bug-eyed monsters abducting scantily clad human ladies, leading many people to consider the genre barely above that of children's books and comics. There were many stories and books that fit the stereotype, but the ones that were most popular with fans were the ones that were based more in science than fantasy. That's why "speculative fiction" was often a favored description of the genre. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As intelligent as a script or tale may be it still couldn't escape the company it keeps. <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still </i>was based on a short story by Harry Bates called "Farewell to the Master" that also dealt with a first contact situation gone wrong. It fell on the more thoughtful side of the genre, as does the movie, but alas the poster - as striking as it is - shows the robot Gort with a half-dressed blonde in his arms while destroying the massed armies of the free world. Little of anything of that type happens throughout the movie which, instead, is focused more on the stupidity and destructiveness of the Cold War and our own propensity toward violence than on giant robots carrying off Earth's women. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On a sunny day in 1951 a spaceship lands near the Mall in Washington, D.C. It is surrounded by the Army and local police and cordoned off, though it naturally attracts a number of curious onlookers. The man who emerges identifies himself as Klaatu (Michael Rennie), and he is accompanied by a robot named Gort (Lock Martin). When Klaatu draws an object and holds it out to the crowd he is shot, leading Gort to immediately melt all military weapons in the vicinity. Though he is wounded it is not mortally, and Klaatu is taken to a hospital where he says he wants to meet with the leaders of all the nations. They refuse due to bickering about where the meeting should be held. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Frustrated, Klaatu breaks out of the hospital and, taking on the identity of a Mr. Carpenter, goes out among the normal population to see what Earth is really like. He rents a room at a boarding house owned by widow Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and soon befriends her young son Bobby (Billy Gray). Through Bobby he learns of Professor Jacob Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), a theoretical physicist with sway in the scientific world. Barnhardt agrees to arrange a meeting with other scientists so that Klaatu may deliver his message to the world but, after a demonstration of his power, the Army enhance their search for the spaceman. He is forced to reveal himself to Helen, enlisting her help to keep Gort from retaliating if he is wounded or killed, and to help make sure the message is delivered.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>The Day the Earth Stood Still </i>was released shortly after another well-received sci-fi thriller, <i>The Thing from Another World!</i>. Both dealt in a more scientific and intelligent manner with the subject of alien contact, even if the latter was more in the typical vein of the "other" being the enemy. The entire decade would be filled with movies about aliens coming to Earth, and <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still </i>stands out both in the way it takes the idea seriously and also shows humanity as being the monsters they are. It also doesn't present the aliens as all-knowing or their way being a panacea; to the contrary, the galactic society to which Klaatu belongs sounds as oppressive as any military dictatorship and with peacekeeping administered in a similar fashion to that employed by the supercomputer in <i>Colossus: The Forbin Project</i>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are a few problems, most of them foist upon director Robert Wise when making the movie. One is some sped-up scenes, which never look good. There is also some forced Christianity thrust in by censors and the mistaken idea that Venus was an inhabitable world, which was something pretty much known to be wrong even in the 1950s. One thing that seems an error, which is the distance Klaatu travels being about that of Mars, makes sense when one thinks about his mission and that, even with the primitive technology of the time, there would be no way he would want his true origin to be known. Mars, after all, would be a good place to observe humanity without being seen at a time before we had even put a human being in space. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Despite these quibbles Michael Rennie puts on a great performance as Klaatu. Though nominally looking human and seeming to have evolved in a similar manner his gaunt appearance and ability to bring a stiff, awkward formality to the role helps make his otherness believable. The special effects still manage to stand up after this long and Gort is an imposing figure. A good portion of this was shot outside in broad daylight so it is surprising that it still comes off as well as it does, but being filmed in black and white certainly helps. Robert Wise helps make sure this is nowhere near as stiff and hammy as many of its contemporaries. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>The Day the Earth Stood Still </i>is also quite a progressive film for its time. The military, usually the hero in most of these stories, are portrayed as trigger-happy and paranoid. There is the rare nod toward the segregated society a good portion of the United States lived in - Washington, D.C. being one such place - and which Hollywood tended to ignore. It is a product of its time but it is a lot more honest about its time than most movies and television shows. It is also much better than many of the imitators that would come after it that largely stuck to the status quo formula. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>The Day the Earth Stood Still </i>(1951)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>92 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe, Lock Martin</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Robert Wise</div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2922730371836657683.post-34186701634967735792024-01-19T00:02:00.000-08:002024-01-19T00:02:29.946-08:00Vampire's Kiss (1988)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjti1L9Nn9Vy_hPBRDdjmLKtjokHDJmgNspUCowl72nU5NbEWerKzqY__ByteYmagCX0spHV7UmS4G7tH3_zvPh94E9tc_LIh1ldHTg3Qc1Ip2XWi-arYUlkOb-blo5S3OdddmeEx1w6lYyWDU9VHlctreizpqGME6bc0eJqB-0nIx_pgeWdmg4HWMAtv8/s1023/Vampire's%20Kiss.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1023" data-original-width="682" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjti1L9Nn9Vy_hPBRDdjmLKtjokHDJmgNspUCowl72nU5NbEWerKzqY__ByteYmagCX0spHV7UmS4G7tH3_zvPh94E9tc_LIh1ldHTg3Qc1Ip2XWi-arYUlkOb-blo5S3OdddmeEx1w6lYyWDU9VHlctreizpqGME6bc0eJqB-0nIx_pgeWdmg4HWMAtv8/s320/Vampire's%20Kiss.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Nicolas Cage is known for making many films just because he needed the money. He is also known for taking on challenging roles and, in many cases, taking his acting to outrageous extremes. In the 1980s he still believed in method acting - something he abandoned while working with David Lynch on <i>Wild at Heart </i>- and that led to some interesting performances. Perhaps the strangest was in <i>Vampire's Kiss</i>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Peter Loew (Cage) is a literary agent in New York. He is constantly jumping for one woman to another hoping to find true love. The stress of this, and his job, has led him to seek psychiatric help from Dr. Glaser (Elizabeth Ashley). One night after meeting taking home a woman named Jackie (Kasi Lemmons) a bat flies into his apartment which, he admits to Dr. Glaser, turned him on for some reason.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At a party not long after he meets a woman named Rachel (Jennifer Beals) who turns out to be a vampire. She bites him and soon he feels that he is having the usual effects of turning into a vampire: aversion to sunlight, unable to see his reflection in a mirror and the need to drink blood. As his new vampiric personality takes over he becomes increasingly hostile toward his secretary Alva (Maria Conchito Alonso). His berating and obsession over a missing contract turn into physical assaults and, afterward, a break with reality as his new personality takes over.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Nicolas Cage went all out for this role, wandering the streets of Manhattan and frightening the locals. Many of the scenes from the movie have become memes and his method acting led to him eating a live cockroach for effect. There is a point to all the madness, but that doesn't mean it's not difficult to watch. The portrayal of Loew is so over the top that, until it becomes clear at the end the point that director Robert Bierman and writer Joseph Minion are trying to get across, the movie can at times be unwatchable.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Bierman is most to blame. I wouldn't say Minion's script is perfect, but Bierman is at times both vague and heavy-handed in showing Loew's breakdown. Cage has explained a number of reasons for the things Loew does, from the fake pretentious accent to the reasons for his downfall, but it should not be up to Cage to tell us. It is up to the director to tell the story with through his lens and by making sure his actors work toward that goal. Despite Cage's antics, a great supporting role by Maria Conchita Alonzo and Elizabeth Ashley's excellent comic timing, he fails at this. What the movie needed in places was subtlety even if the ending was meant to be obvious rather than ambiguous. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The story would have been more interesting if handled by someone with a little more skill. It would have also benefited from a director who was willing to tell Cage that certain things are unnecessary. It is obvious that some point this project got out of everyone's control, even if Cage considers this one of the favorite movies he has been in. It is an interesting movie to watch, but not an enjoyable one by any standard. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Vampire's Kiss </i>(1988)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Time: </b>103 minutes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Starring: </b>Nicolas Cage, Maria Conchita Alonso, Jennifer Beals</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Director: </b>Robert Bierman </div><br /> <p></p>Eric Wincentsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649164276058469446noreply@blogger.com2