S K Y L A R K I N G: MOVIES

Showing posts with label MOVIES. Show all posts

Sunday, June 23, 2013

ME AND THE MAD MONSTER PARTY (1967)

So here's my story: When I was a kid, around 11 or 12, I turned on the TV and caught the last five minutes of this movie. It blew my mind and I was outraged that I had missed the whole thing. The next day at school I asked all my friends if they'd seen it. No one had.

Back then, in rural British Columbia, we only got two television channels, so it was inconceivable that none of my friends -- NONE OF THEM -- had seen it.

Looking back, maybe there was a big hockey game on the other channel, I don't know. Nevertheless, for years I doubted that I had actually seen it. I convinced myself that I'd dreamed it or something.

Then I started hearing about it on the internet. It was real! I hadn't dreamed it! Then yesterday I found a VHS copy in my local thrift store. I picked it up and last night I forced my family to watch it.

Well, it was entertaining, but not without its problems. It's very dated and certainly NOT politically correct. The film was produced in 1967 by Saul Rankin and Jules Bass, the same guys who made Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. It was co-written by Harvey Kurtzman who wrote for MAD Magazine.

The film features Baron Boris Von Frankenstein, voiced by Boris Karloff, gathering all the monsters at his castle to retire and pass on his secrets. The other monsters, Dracula, The Mummy, the werewolf, the creature, etc, realize that he is going to give his secrets to his nephew, Felix. Each wants the secret for himself and chaos ensues.

The film has some good performances and some bad ones. The animation is really clunky and Phyllis Diller plays, Phyllis Diller, which can get old pretty quick.

Some of the musical numbers are good and some are terrible -- I mean really bad! And the attitudes are very dated. The female lead, Francesca, wants the secret for herself and hates Felix until, in a moment of hysteria, Felix slaps her around. Then she falls in love with him! Wow! Not cool!

Should you see it? Yes, particularly if you are old enough to have potentially seen it as a kid. It's loaded with nostalgia. If you are younger it probably will mean little to you without the cultural context. This is stop motion animation -- NOT CGI.

Anyway, now that I have finally seen the thing after waiting for 36 years, I can cross THE MAD MONSTER PARTY off my bucket list. Yay!

UPDATE: If you really want to see it, you can download it from the itunes store (U.S. only, though) but at $9.99 you'd better be really sure you want to watch it!

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Monday, May 21, 2012

THE RAVEN

The Raven, far from being an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's immortal poem (nor a remake of the 1963 Roger Corman movie), is one of those movies of a particular genre of which I am quite fond. That is, a movie about a famous author being dragged into an adventure that is just like those that he or she writes about.

Not a biography at all, these films are adventures in their own rights but usually contain many literary allusions. Wim Wenders' 1983 film Hammet, starring Frederick Forrest as author Dashiel Hammet who gets involved in a Hammet-like hardboiled mystery, is one of the best examples. Another is Steven Soderbergh's 1991 Kafka in which Jeremy Irons plays the author Franz Kafka as he gets involved in a mystery that is... well... kafka-esque.

In The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe, played with a manic intensity by John Cusak, is drawn into a mystery that has overtones of Poe's own writing. Someone is literally recreating murder scenes from Poe's stories.

The film opens with a recreation of the murder scene from Murders in the Rue Morgue. Anyone who is vaguely familiar with the story can see it right away. Unfortunately the police in Baltimore are clueless except for Detective Fields (played by Luke Evans) who has read a book or two. He calls Poe in, at first as a suspect, then later to consult on the case.

What is the case? In a nutshell a deranged serial killer is racking up a body count all the while orchestrating the murders to resemble Poe's stories and poems. As a turn-of-the-century serial killer movie The Raven hits all the familiar notes: taunting messages to the police from the killer, a living hostage (in this case Emily, Poe's fiancee) whose life hangs in the balance, cryptic clues placed on the victim's bodies which tip the erstwhile investigators to the location of the next murder (where they arrive just slightly too late, of course). Time is running out for poor Emily and the detectives become more desperate as the movie progresses.

As a serial killer movie there is little here that is new, other than the inclusion of Edgar Allan Poe. Cusack plays Poe with a manic intensity and anger that seems more like a 19th century Harlan Ellison rather than the sedate and gloomy author that most would have expected to see. I'm not sure if I buy Poe as action hero, but then again, this is Hollywood.

Luke Evans is rather stiff as Detective Fields and Alice Eve plays Poe's love interest with a predictably modern sensibility, only falling into 19th century stereotypical behaviour when the plot calls for it.

The movie is kind of fun if one doesn't take it too seriously. The allusions to Poe's work are interesting, if not overly clever. Nor is it entirely historically accurate. One of the victims, Griswald, was a real-life critic and rival who actually survived Poe and wrote some nasty stuff about him after his death. The film takes its revenge on Griswald in a particularly nauseating scene where the critic is very messily eviscerated by a giant pendulum (I saw that one coming) lovingly rendered using make-up and CGI. Not for the squeamish. I was only thankful that the film was NOT in 3D.

The film is visually arresting, particularly the opening a closing sequences which take historical fact and stitch it together with the movie's plot to try to explain the mysterious circumstances surrounding the final days of Poe's life. The cinematography is well done and the whole atmosphere of 19th century Baltimore is rendered well.

I do not know if the film is still in theaters, so even were I to recommend it (which I do, just) you could try to hunt it out, or wait until its arrival on DVD. It would certainly be worth the rental.

Or you could just go read some Poe. Hunt up a copy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination from the library or bookstore or Amazon.com and read for a change and stop being illiterate cretins!

Kidding... just kidding. Love you all, you know that.

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Thursday, November 17, 2011

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

This one kind of caught me off-guard. It looks really cool and one of the production designers was artist Justin Sweet, who is one of my favourites. That having been said, the concept is kind of goofy. What if the Evil Queen hired Thor to kill Snow White and instead he trains her to become a kick-ass warrior?

Oooookay.

And another thing: In what universe is Kristin Stewart fairer than Charlize Theron? Not mine, that's for sure.

I guess that's where that "willing suspension of disbelief" comes in.

Friday, November 11, 2011

THE BIG RED ONE

It's Remembrance Day here in Canada, Veteran's Day in the U.S. and Armistice day in the U.K. I have nothing to say on the subject that hasn't been said by others and in a much more eloquent way then of which I am capable.

I do, however, have a movie recommendation. If you have the urge to watch a war movie on this day (some do. Go figure) try seeking out Samuel Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE. It stars Lee Marvin and a young Mark Hamill as World War II soldiers in the 1st Infantry Division. The title refers to the red patch that the division`s soldiers wear on their uniforms.

The film is exciting, sometimes funny and at times touching. The film doesn`t preach or hit you over the head with a MESSAGE, but it does say a lot about war and its dehumanizing nature. Ultimately, however, it is about the triumph of humanity despite war.

You can find the film on DVD or likely online somewhere. Here is the trailer:

Friday, October 7, 2011

THE RAVEN

The first trailer for The Raven is out, showing off John Cusack as the goateed poet who's tracking down a serial killer (with the cops) who's leaving pieces of his stories as clues.

Here's the synopsis:

Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack, Being John Malkovich) joins forces with a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans, Immortals) to hunt down a mad serial killer who's using Poe's own works as the basis in a string of brutal murders. Directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin), the film also stars Alice Eve (Sex and the City 2), Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Faster).

When a mother and daughter are found brutally murdered in 19th century Baltimore, Detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) makes a startling discovery: the crime resembles a fictional murder described in gory detail in the local newspaper-part of a collection of stories penned by struggling writer and social pariah Edgar Allan Poe. But even as Poe is questioned by police, another grisly murder occurs, also inspired by a popular Poe story.

Realizing a serial killer is on the loose using Poe's writings as the backdrop for his bloody rampage, Fields enlists the author's help in stopping the attacks. But when it appears someone close to Poe may become the murderer's next victim, the stakes become even higher and the inventor of the detective story calls on his own powers of deduction to try to solve the case before it's too late.

Here is the trailer:

It looks somewhat reminiscent of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (the sequel for which opens in December of this year).

The Raven opens March 9, 2012.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

SOUL MAN

I don't know what this is. But it looks really, really cool.

SOUL MAN™ Teaser 2 Guillaume Ivernel (Blacklight Movies) from Blacklight Movies on Vimeo.

Friday, September 23, 2011

FOX TO FILM ASIMOV'S CAVES OF STEEL

My favourite Asimov novel is about to get the big screen treatment (for better of for worse -- fingers crossed on this one).

Deadline reports that 20th Century Fox, is developing a live-action feature film version of adaptation of Issac Asimov’s 1954 novel The Caves of Steel.

The Caves of Steel will be produced by Simon Kinberg, the X-Men scribe whose Genre Films banner is based at the studio. Similar to I, Robot (which Fox turned into a hit film with Will Smith), The Caves of Steel is a murder mystery that takes place 1,000 years in the future, on an overpopulated Earth where there is a phobia about robots. The title refers to giant city complexes that are necessary because Earth is so overpopulated. While robots are used for labor in outlying “spacer worlds” where the rich live on spacious parcels, the robots are outlawed on Earth. A Spacer Ambassador lobbying to loosen Earth’s anti-robot restrictions is found dead, his chest imploded by an energy blaster, and a detective is matched with a human-looking robot to solve the crime. Hobson is repped by CAA and Energy Entertainment.

Henry Hobson is attached as director, with John Scott 3 (yep, that’s his moniker) set to write the screenplay. Hobson is know primarily as a titles designer for films such as SHERLOCK HOLMES and RANGO, while Scott 3 works with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Seems like an odd pairing, but the two are first collaborating on a teenage Zombie film entitled MAGGIE.

Asimov’s The Caves of Steel was first published as a serial in Galaxy Magazine in 1963, and quickly picked up as a novel by Doubleday. The tale is a murder mystery sent on an over-populated Earth about three thousand years in the future. Here agoraphoic humans live in domed cities and rarely if ever see the outside world.

THE CAVES OF STEEL was previously adapted for live action on BBC televsion in 1964 starring Peter Cushing as police detective Elijah Baley and John Carson as R. Daneel Olivaw. That version, directed by Peter Sasdy, with a teleplay Terry Nation (DOCTOR WHO, BLAKES 7), is considered lost, with only a few fragments remaining.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

FIRST CLASS

We watched X-MEN: FIRST CLASS on DVD the other night. This was my favourite scene:

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

HORIZON

Just when I thought there was no more Space Opera in the movies, this shows up. Horizon (link may be NSFW) is described as:

A high-tech step into the year 2085, Horizon unfolds as a civilization of extraterrestrial origin has invaded Earth. Of the planet’s nine billion inhabitants, approximately one third have been killed and nearly two billion more have been evacuated to a military base dug into the core of Mercury. Of the four billion humans who remain on Earth, none are expected to survive beyond the next 48 hours.

Taking a last stand against the alien onslaught, one Marine battalion remains on the surface. But they are in retreat, desperately attempting to reach the safety of the space cruiser Horizon, when events occur which place the future of the Earth and all of its remaining inhabitants in peril…

In addition to the Wicked Girls, the universe depicted in Horizon features some of adult’s brightest stars, including AVN Best Actress winner Kimberly Kane, Bobbi Starr, Misty Stone, Aiden Starr, Rocco Reed, Bill Bailey, Tony De Sergio, Xander Corvis, and Danny Mountain.

Wait... adult's brightest stars?

Okay, it's a porno film. Wicked Pictures, a studio specializing in pornographic pictures, has released this film from director Sam Hain (samhain? I'm thinking it's not his real name).

Well, it's pretty sad when the only new release that has spaceships in it is a porn movie. But look at their patches: they're Canadian!

Here's the trailer. Don't worry, it's safe for work.