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Mom and Dad Save the World (1992)
Pick Me Up
It's sad how defensive positive reviews of this movie are. It as though the reviewers fear upsetting that Great Todd Spengo of the film world, the Cult of Star Wars.
This is one of the last and best products of the pre-CGI dictatorship that fantasy and sci-fi now labor under. The art direction is imaginative and very accomplished, presenting a steampunk by way of Oz physicality denied those raised on green screen.
The cast is perfect. Jon Lovitz absolutely becomes the essence of every overcompensating "small man" who ever got an ounce of authority. His smallest gesture or expression project his total inadequacy. I laugh at his every scene.
I've loved Teri Garr since I first saw her on an episode of the Andy Griffith show, and this is a fine capper to a showbiz career which she seems to have retreated from.
Everyone else throws themselves into their roles with a joyful abandon. I'll bet the set was a fun place to be.
The story pops along at a brisk pace, never once looking back over it's shoulder, or digressing into something "meaningful". Every time I watch this I'm once again surprised to realize, as Mom and Dad wheel back into their driveway, that their kids haven't been seen since the beginning of the movie. Any director of this today would have layered some crap "coming of age" parallel plot line and stretched the flick to two-plus hours.
Is this film silly, escapist? Is the science pure bunk? Is Spengo and it's society improbable and ridiculous? You darn betcha!
But so is Star Wars.
Stick that in your planet destroying death ray and smoke it.
PS. I've got a feeling there's a raunchier version of this that hit the cutting room floor.
From Beyond (1986)
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. (But sometimes it's a penis.)
With all the reviews here, I won't waste your time with redundancy. But I do have a word to add.
First: This is available to watch free here at IMDb. Get it while it's hot!
Second: Jeffery Combs is one of my favorite actors, and I harbor deep resentment at the fact that he was never elevated to mainstream success. The emotions, thoughts, and inner conflicts of his characters flicker across his visage in a way that few actors can manage. There are many actors who can do "twitchy", and a few that can't help but come off as deranged, but the discipline Combs brings to gradual mental deterioration shows great craft.
Take a bow, Mr. Combs!
Third: This is a rip-snortin' roller coaster of a movie. It's funnier, smarter, sexier, and more creative than the genre, audience, or era demanded. Like "A Boy And His Dog", "Flesh Gordon", "Liquid Sky", "Eyes Of Fire" or "Sore Losers", this flick rises above every expectation the uninitiated may have for it.
Old school? You bet!
But on a psychologically fantastic level not affected by changing fashion and technology, this little bugger should be able to freak people out for generations to come.
Fright Night 2 (2013)
Fright Slight
This thing is chugging right along as I write this review.
I rented it from a Red Box today. I've hated every Fright Night flick except the 1st 1st, but I know that sometimes when a franchise spins far enough into obscurity, oddly compelling movies can be made...Though they may have little to do with the original concept.
This isn't one of the good ones.
This is one of those movies that make you scratch your head at the mysterious positive role that badly made movies must play in the economy of filmdom. It's hard to believe that any number of people couldn't have coughed up better product than this. How is it that movies are so frequently made these days that show no worthwhile sense of craft, let alone artistry? There must, as they say, be a reasonable explanation.
All that aside, don't watch this. Don't watch the 1st number 2. Don't watch the 2nd number 1.
Watch the original number 1.
It's funny. It's sexy. It's got a great cast. The writers understand Vampires and their darkly seductive nature. The art direction is superb. But most of all, when it gets scary, it gets SCARY!
Skip Fright Night 2 number 2.
You'll thank thank me me if you do.
Oblivion (1994)
Like the Discovery Channel recently, only funny.
My passion for Western Movies lost out to Sci-Fi in the early 60s.
Well, if you want to wallow in the goofiness and clichés of both highly abused genres without a speck of the po-faced seriosity that ruined Outland or Cowboys and Aliens, then saddle up!
THRILL!...as a cast of recognizable faces chew up the scenery and their own careers with abandon!
GASP!...as giant claymation scorpions stalk our heroes!
LUST!...as a damn fine Bettie Page look-a-like cracks her whip!
If you are one of the increasingly hard to find Fantasy movie fans with the ability to relax your sphincter, then I heartily recommend this, and it's follow-up, Oblivian: Backlash.
If you are one of those sad little souls who think humor is just something used to spice up torture scenes, then watch this. It might do you some good.
But above all, if you ever spent an afternoon in front of a B+W TV watching bad Cowboy and Indian movies and rubber-suited monster flicks, this is for you!
Take a little trip to Oblivion...Where the YeeHaw! meets the CreeGah!
El vampiro de la autopista (1971)
Something...Hell!...EVERYTHING'S Lost In The Translation.
I won't rehash the plot. The above reviews got it right enough.
But I will say that this is one of those weirdly graphic Spanish horror(?) flicks. It repeats itself mercilessly, but gives you a new bit of nudity at the end of each screensaver of a plot development.
It just so happens I was in the perfect mood for for some groovy moderns and their struggle with ah...er, a sexy vampire? This is one of those movies that make so little sense that you wonder if the voice-over guys who did the English version didn't just say anything that popped into their heads.
But the weirdest thing of all, was when our phosphorescent protagonist orders a Mercedes Convertible at a rental agency.
What is strange is that there's about 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground. Not exactly weather where you'd need the top-down option.
So, anyway, someone must have gotten into a tizzie because the producer made them use his car to make some extra change, and they felt compelled to explain the use of a convertible in the movie.
I don't know. But considering how nonsensical the rest of the movie is, this bit of overcompensation stands out like a nervous tick.
NIPPLES! Had to put a word in for the nipples.
They were quite good.
El monte de las brujas (1973)
Which Am What?
Back in the early and mid-70s, I delved into the effects of certain mind altering substances that resulted in what the hipsters called "Tripping".
Said substances made, for me, the watching of TV a strange experience. The artificiality of adults play-acting was so apparent that I could not, even with the finest and most recommended of productions,(2001: A Space Odyssey, for example.), surrender my disbelief enough to give a whit about the storyline. I just saw adults stumbling around dioramas like lunatics lost in a museum.
"So?", you ask? Since being in that state usually had nothing to do with sitting around watching TV, my experiences were usually relegated to the wee hours when I got home and out of habit switched on the TV.
By some cosmic joke of serendipity, the last 4 times my psychedelic experience coincided with TV viewing, this movie was on the local late night UHF movie show.
If regular broadcasts confounded me, this one did the same with a mind-blowing power. "Huh? Wut? Did that just happen? What are they doing? His distributer is in his pocket? Chastity belts? What happened in the cave? Look at that mustachio!"
I haven't seen it since, but it has retained a certain monumental presence on my mental landscape.
Well, I just got a $5.99 collection of 20 horror(?) movies called, UNDEAD: THE VAMPIRE COLLECTION, which features this chunk of movie gristle. It's rated R, so I'm hoping it's an uncut version, which might give it some sort of continuity. As well as providing the comforting presence of mammalian exclamation points.
Much lazier in my mental gymnastics these days, I plan to simply get baked and see how the ride goes. If the above reviews are accurate, I most probably won't have any better luck finding a lick of sense in it's JOURNEY INTO HORROR! AHROOOOOOO! SCARY!
So, I'll leave you now. If anything of significance occurs to me in the experience, I'll amend this non-review.
Thank you for your time.
Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls (2008)
Like watching golf hungover on a Sunday morning
Ho HO! This film is crawling to it's death on cable even as I type.
I had to come here and find what people were saying about this stillborn turd of a movie. I gotta tell you, the reviews are the best part of the viewing experience. Even the two good ones are so obviously self serving they might have been written by the director's mother.
I won't rehash what so many others have already said. Every criticism is spot on and should be accepted as fact.
It's as if someone said, "The problem with the Indiana Jones movies is that they rely too much on action, personalities, spectacle, and special effects, so I won't put any of that in my film!" I can imagine how the film was so badly made, but I have one complaint that I have never thought to make of ANY movie, no matter it's budget or terribleness.
The woman who plays the 'romantic interest' in this film is probably the least convincing seductress ever to appear in a movie. This slightly doughy mouth breather made me question my sexual orientation, as I have never in my life been so unmoved by a feminine presence on screen. I'm not one to demand classic beauty from any woman, and indeed have lusted greatly after some pretty odd looking ducks from the days of direct to VHS creepitude, but this woman...GOD! Is she the money man's sister? "You told me I could be in your MOVIE! MOMMMM!"
I'm sorry if you bought this hospital food as adventure flick, because you got it on DVD. A few years ago, you could have taped over it and gotten a little return on your investment.
But as it is, enjoy the bad reviews.
I know I did!
Drones (2010)
Nice surprise
I tuned into this reluctantly, expecting Cone-Head type nonsense, but was pleasantly surprised to find a dialog driven comedy both smart and funny.
If only my selection of movie channels would schedule more like this. I almost missed it, I've become so cynical about the constant barrage of action, crime, bad horror, and cheap sex farces, that dominate the selection.
If you like being treated as if you have a grain of brainpower, then watch this little gem.
Maybe the aliens will evolve us.
Angel in My Pocket (1969)
Good luck finding this little gem
I saw this as a child in the theater. Turns out I'm lucky I did. I was never a sucker for 'Family films', and as a kid my radar for idiot sentimentality was very twitchy. So when I say that I was completely satisfied with this it's high praise indeed.
Andy Griffith has been painted as some kind of icon for all that's good about the American character, but thinking of his work as wholesomeness served up like apple pie ala mode, completely misses what he has accomplished here, and in most of his work.
From 'Andy' to 'Matlock', he portrays a humble, good, man placed in a position to referee self absorbed, vain, power hungry, evil, and weak people as they spread chaos through their universe. And he always portrays honestly, and holds an honest respect for, the loser among us.
Thus, far from being a Norman Rockwell postcard of human endeavor, his body of work reflects society, warts and all, while offering solutions based on tolerance, humor, and dignity.
So it goes here. I remember being extremely happy to see Jerry Van Dyke, one of my favorite underdogs of the entertainment world as a kid, as the useless lush in this. I wish that I could go into more detail about what grabbed and held my hyperactive self glued to the screen, but as I haven't seen it since then, I can't trust my memory.
So...count me in on pleading for this to be released on DVD.
My God, the industry acts like they just laid a diamond every time they finally put out a "DIGITALLY ENHANCED" product.
Get a grip. put out the back catalog for a low price and rake in the bucks. You can keep the 'EXTRAS'.
The Company of Wolves (1984)
A short recommendation
90 reviews! I'm surprised! When Tower Video went out of business, this is one of the DVDs I made sure to grab in the close-out sale. The movie was so obscure that I had used it as a go-to whenever I wanted to turn someone on to a rare treat.
I won't rehash all that's been said before.
I'll just say to the guys, if you want to show a fantasy with horrific elements to a lady who can't stand horror movies, this is a great way to go.
The sexual symbolism may be open to interpretation, but I've found that this movie really got under the skin of every woman I've showed it to. Like a vivid yet unexplainable dream, the emotional charge is there despite the surrealism. Or maybe because of it.
Besides, who better to lure a nervous girl into a true fantasy than Angela Lansbury?
Mwa Ha HAAA!
Choose Me (1984)
Magic Realism disguised as a Chick Flick
Having recently arrived in LA, being single and alone, I wanted to indulge in the crassest display of sex available in a legitimate theater. I went to Choose Me, because the movie's ad seemed to promise the kind of sex farce that abounded in the 80's. I stoked up in the parking lot and drifted into this prepared to laugh at myself, and the film.
What I found turned out to be one of the most fascinating and engrossing film experiences of my life. There on screen was my new home, there was the suburban bungalow where I rented a room, and there was a dreamscape of possibilities, magical encounters, charismatically understated nutcases, and hidden visual surprises, all wrapped up in a sensual masterpiece of a soundtrack by the MAN, Teddy Pendergrass.
I won't rehash the plot or the cast. I'll only tell the guys that if you want to give your lady a break from your action film jones, then plug this in and enjoy the ride. Don't worry, what first appears to be a soap opera is a much more perverse beast than you can imagine. And believe me, if she isn't a bit frisky at it's conclusion, then you should seriously rethink your relationship. This movie, as surreal as it is, riffs on so many truths about men, women, sensual desire, and conflict between and within the sexes, that any thinking adult can't help but be drawn into the highly detailed set pieces.
There were so many additional personal references in this film, that I wish everyone could share in the many shocks of recognition this gives me. I lived in Nashville when Altman filmed his masterpiece, and drew great joy from the subversive realism that outraged the Chamber Of Commerce boosters and the Country Music community that expected a simple minded 'Wish You Were Here' postcard. The connections with that film are numerous. My first art house movie experience was seeing 'The King Of Hearts' at Vanderbilt University, where a young Genevieve Bujold melted my heart. Gailord Sartain, the intellectual, multilingual poker meister, who appears briefly, was a comedian in Heehaw drag, and quite familiar to Nashville audiences. Later, I was in a doomed relationship with a dead ringer for Lesley Ann Warren. Watching this with her was a very peculiar and erotic experience. I once sat leaning against a tree on a hillside by the Nashville Speedway's parking lot at Fair Park, getting buzzed and watching Teddy Pendergrass conduct his mostly female audience like a God. They swayed, moaned, and shrieked on command, completely under his spell.
I love this movie, and find something new to enjoy every time I watch it.
The Creeps (1997)
The poor little devotees of goreporn get their noses tweaked again!
If you've watched a few Full Moon videos, you've seen much of the mad scientist set used elsewhere, and that Corman philosophy of film making pretty much defines, yet doesn't limit, this comedic gem. You've read the plot, so I won't repeat it. Watch this shiny little trinket for the over-the-top dialog, inventive character acting, and the topsy-turvy nonsense of tiny Universal monsters. Rhonda Griffin portrays an earnest goof and a bit of a ditz with great comic timing, Kristin Norton shines as a socially incompetent amazon lesbian, and Bill Moynihan creates a wonderfully nerdy and inept mad scientist. Watching his character stutter his way through over-intellectualized justifications of his misspent education is a joy to behold. The 'monsters' are silly in the extreme, except for Phil Fondacaro's Dracula, which is played mercifully straight. Crank up the popcorn maker, light a medical fire, and have a laugh. It's good for you!
Hideous! (1997)
HA! My kind of FUN!
Not quite the seamless bit of work that Band displayed with "Head Of The Family", but a worthy satirical hoot with much of the same cast. Once again, the fanboys of goreporn can't see how this is horror, but maybe someday they'll grow out of their obsession with guts, grime, and films that look like they're shot in King Kong's colon. Perhaps the portrayal of perverse, obsessive, doctrinaire collectors of horrific medical oddities cuts a little close to the bone for their comfort. J. Lovell's hijack scene is one of the best riot-girl moments of cinematography. Take that, Suicide Girls! In fact all the women here chew up the scenery like it's a cocaine laced Cinnabun. The oddball premise delivered, it becomes a deranged take on drawing room murder mysteries and haunted house extravaganzas. The ensemble cast ping-pong one liners off each other with aplomb, as the quite ridiculous collectibles go about their quest for...respect? Freedom? Who knows? This is a flick about subverting expectations, and it carries that goal off better than many an effort by David Lynch. Take a deep breath, loosen your funny bone, and enjoy the ride. Don't worry, you'll be able to return to the comfort of torture and entrails soon. HAR!
Head of the Family (1996)
You're a bunch of poor little babies, scared of nekkid women.
I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, this movie! I can't believe the reviews I've read here concerning the wonderfully handled nudity of this satirical bit of horrific joy. The fact that many of the reviewers can't call this a horror movie because it doesn't contain heaps of graphically tortured, dismembered, and degraded victims, yet express shock at the sexuality, shows how far the horror genre and it's devotees have fallen. Everybody involved with the film rises above any expectations of a direct-to-video production. The direction is crisp, legible, and to the point. The acting is full of fun, and the redneck characters are artfully realized. The sex is a hoot, and played much more satisfactorily than the average stripper-playing-vampire flick of the era. You can even see what's going on when a scene is in darkness, something many directors of modern day horror films might study. The full soundtrack is a rush. No one-finger synthesizer, screamingly bad metal, or Godawful techno crap here! Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a double feature with "Hideous", another Full Moon flick with much of the cast and wit of this little gem! But first, unclench those cheeks. You'll be better for it!
Shadowlands (1993)
Honest and moving. THE movie Hopkins should be known for...
I'm impressed with the volume of favorable reviews of this film. If you've gone this far, there's no reason at all for me to rehash the plot, the marvelous acting, or the directorial skills displayed here. If I may add something new to the reviews, I would like to say that it's a sad world where Anthony Hopkins is much more known for his portrayal of Hannibal Lechter in The Silence Of The Lambs franchise. I despised those movies, not because I don't like horrific flicks. Check out my other reviews if you think I'm a sob sister who just can't take it. But this is not a review of those films, so I'll proceed...What makes this film rise to greatness is it's portrayal of a man who thinks he has life, the universe, and everything, all wrapped up in a tidy intellectual package, and then finds himself doing and feeling things which force him to completely reevaluate the foundations of his life and faith. I can't help but think that there are many Christians who considered the subject of C. S. Lewis to be safe ground to venture through. Those who only know him through his Narnia stories, and the approval given for those films by their clergy, must have been quite surprised to find the man willing to break immigration laws to wed a somewhat bohemian woman for reasons of citizenship. I hope that those who first recoil at the truth of his life, grow as Lewis did as he faced the contradictions to his smug, self satisfied, view of himself and his faith. If you're a macho man who can't imagine himself capable of crying at a film, get ready to have the rug pulled out from under your pretension. This film hits notes of truth in sadness that are specifically male, and completely missing from 99.99% of cinematography. You will cry not because you are manipulated, but because you recognize yourself in this gentle intellectual facing the glory of love, the pain of unfair tragedy, and the responsibility that endures beyond the drama. Whoever you are, whatever you believe, watch this wonderful film. Share it with a loved one.
Penance (2009)
Say WHAT??????
I haven't watched all of this mess. Besides, it's screening on Chiller right now, which means I would only see an extremely censored version anyway. This is the kind of movie that makes me wonder what has happened the the American horror film industry. At one time this might have fit into the old misogynistic grind-house genre. But instead of being a Something Weird Video study in cinematographic personal weirdness, what we have here more closely resembles a badly written bit of internet degradation erotica. The very idea that this could get financed without a house being mortgaged astounds me. The idea of a group of people assembling to work on it without the hiring of friends, drug addicts, prostitutes, and/or low level porn vets says something wretched about America today. Somewhere along the line, cheap horror has lost it's charm. Where once we had a fairly consistent flow of wacky attempts to astound, we now are asked to watch some writer and director indulge in their crude, ugly, masturbatory, fantasies. This is not only true of the discount direct-to-DVD market, but of the well financed Hollywood horror flick of the day. The depths that the director's imagination is willing to plummet is the star of the film. It's as though we are reviewing the portfolios of potential serial killers and sexual sadists. So, if I haven't sat through the whole thing, and I dismiss the current trends in horror cinema, why am I even bothering to comment on something I obviously think is beyond is beyond contempt? Simple. As I said, it's screening on Chiller. For this oozing scab to appear on a basic cable channel in mid afternoon, speaks loudly of how far we have fallen. Chiller and the SyFy network were two channels I hoped to be places where I could indulge my lifelong fandom of fantasy cinema. I'm certainly no elitist. I can speak for hours about the oddball and perverse cheap thrills I've had romping through the twisted subconscious of our less fortunate film makers. But now after more than 50 years of fun, I find myself wondering what the Hell happened. Are the media financiers so cynical and disrespecting of their audience that they can ladle this mung on the publics head without a speck of regret? Like I said, I'm no naive child losing my innocence. I'm a lifelong fan of the good, the bad, and the gloriously loopy in the fantasy realm. I've rationalized this by believing that vigorous fantasy is always a revealing social self portrait, thus worthy of serious attention. I still believe that is true, but the portrait I see is of a grimy, bleak, sadistic, mediocre, artless, landscape that can't even bother to create and present something that approaches competency. The fantasy genre now resembles the cafeteria at the end of Orwell's 1984. A gray place serving inedible food to degraded lost souls who realize that all their dreams were just delusions, and reality is just something so pitiful that suicide isn't worth the trouble. How sad....
Gebissen wird nur nachts - das Happening der Vampire (1971)
They Did The Mash
What a hoot! I can't believe the amount of hot air delivered in the reviews featured here over this Euro-Trash vampire comedy! Forget the pedigrees of those involved, get wasted, and enjoy this mess for what it is: A bit of 60s nonsense that kicks the butt of any modern cheap thrills offered up in today's cinematic landscape! Stupid? Loony? Meaningless? YES! YES! and more YES! HALLELUJAH! ...BONUS SPEW!....Evidently I didn't write enough to satisfy the lofty heights of IMDb's review terms, so here goes nuttin'. I got this flick in the 3 for $9.99 box at Tower Videos a few years back. I found several similar movies from foreign sources that compared much closer with this than the oft-mentioned, and over-rated, Fearless Vampire slayers. There seems to have been a herd of crackpot cinematographers roaming the authentic castles and villages of 60's Europe making fantasy flicks. They aren't all comedies, they aren't all bad, but they share a sensibility that removes them from their American cousins. If you can't appreciate them for what they are, then I feel sorry for you. I'm just glad that I mined the discount racks when you could find a 10 movie box set of oddball horror flicks for five bucks.
Kalimán en el siniestro mundo de Humanón (1976)
Fever Dreams Are Made Of This
Holy Frijoles!
I got this with a heap of DVDs at the local .99c store. What a find! The impossibly righteous Kaliman (think Dr. Strange in Hadji drag, driving a Mustang) saves the day from various oddball threats.
I won't try to outline the whole stew, but if you like your fantasy fare served up with a heaping dash of the absurd, then this is the ticket! The scene where Rio beach babes lust after a guy wearing a white turban and silk pajamas, is worth the price of admission.
There's no way any gringo out there will be able to guess ahead in this baby! By the time you meet the villain, El Perfecto, in his jungle lair, your mind will be well and truly refried.
Try to find the .99c version like I did, you'll feel like you've kicked butt on DVD rip-offs for $29.00!
Jack the Giant Killer (1962)
Childhood favorite, trampled by the net.
This was the first movie I ever saw at a drive-in in '62. It completely transported me to a realm of story book fantasy, and upon finding a VHS of it several years ago, I found it still carried it's old magic.
Moderns may not be able to see past it's dated special FX, but I find moderns to be desperately self-centered and shallow. I recently asked a 26yr old lady if she liked the Marx Brothers, and she whined, "I was only born in 1984!", as if anything before that date was irrelevant.
This brings me to my real motive for writing this review. Upon seeing that "Jack The Giant Slayer" was being released, I was prompted to see how the "Killer" movie was regarded on the net. I searched "Jack The Giant Killer" on Google, and found it listed buried in "Slayer" hype. The exact wording of my search was discarded by Google as irrelevant to some aspect of advertising or modernity that assumed it knew better than I what it was I was looking for. Even the IMDb listing for "Killer" was below the IMDb file for "Slayer".
It makes me wonder what else is being shunted aside as students and researchers go about their business on the net.
Don't tell me it's my business to decode Google's ignoring of the exact spelling of a search. There are subjects I look up that I am so ignorant of that I would never know what I have missed due to Google's arbitrary search results, especially if my search terms are somewhat ambiguous.
All that aside, I hope that anyone seeing this can feel a bit of the magic that made this such a special movie for me at the age of 8, and again at 50.
The Sore Losers (1997)
A splendid surprise so overdue, it almost hurts to watch it.
Reading the reviews of this movie, even the positive ones, you might get the idea that this is one of those impenetrable stream of capriciousness flicks. It's not, though repeated viewings are recommended for the full effect. The film Liquid Sky presented us with a pop-culture stepping from the steamy emotional jungle of hemp and hallucinogens into the bright, shiny, scientifically specific land of cocaine and pharmaceuticals. This film symbolically dishes up the dilemma faced by hardcore anti-hippy reactionaries who dove back into the pre-Pepper past and have been stuck in two decades of time for 40 years. I'm about 15th reviewer in line, so I won't rehash the lunatic plot. From the moment a flying saucer right out of PeeWee's Playhouse Morphs into a Candy Color red '56 Chevy Bel Air on a back road in red-clay farmland, you're in for a wild ride. The world you're in is a world dead-set against Hippies from God on High to the lowest of the low, but the dang things won't go away no matter what's thrown at them!(It's significant that this is made in Memphis. Punks and freaks got along quite well in the S. East) Once we meet the protagonists, a lowbrow Americana road trip ensues, sidetracked by general mayhem, supernatural encounters, two sets of Men In Black, Zombie Mom, Bokononian foot sex, flashbacks, strip clubs, the Gubment, Hippy massacres, and X-Ray Specs. As the alien assassins stumble on, the arbitrary rules and punishments guiding their mission start to wear on them, and they begin to sound positively Hippyish themselves! (Now think of the Clash's Sandinista, or Johnny Rotten's PIL). Every scene, no matter the budget, is a delight of design. There are moments of quiet beauty as well as jarring EC Comic style violence. Pop culture references abound, slyly enriching the narrative. The women are amazing, the soundtrack inspired. This movie should have reached many more people in a timely manner. Why it took so long to arrive in my reach says much about the collapse of the creative media universe. I live for this kind of artifact. Until mom and pop rental shops closed I could support and share significant indi efforts. No longer. I'm reduced to digital dumpster diving. Watch and wonder. Sure beats the crap outa "Spun".
The Colour of Magic (2008)
Stock up on the snacks, you might just sit through all four hours at once.
I've read the books several times, and have watched this film several times. I love them both. To quibble about the FX or the bits left out is to ignore the entire history of cinematic failure when it comes to adaptations of novels. To push play and actually see a labor of love come alive is always a pleasure, whether it's Plan 9, THX1138, or Shadowlands. The excellent cast are obviously having a great time with this. Nobody can embody quiet menace like Jeremy Irons, and he positively radiates danger with the merest raised eyebrow or bit of dignified wit. You'll never want someone in real life to say, "What are we going to do with you...." in that tone of voice. Tim curry is perfect as a power hungry wizard, barely able to keep from acting out his avarice at all times, and NEVER able to keep it from his face. Christopher Lee continues the best second act in moviedom as the voice of Death. The art direction is fantastic, whether it fit your imagined preconceptions or not. Pratchet spends so much time in the original books ladling on the sensual joys of Ankh-Morpork that nothing but a total immersion virtual reality version could ever match it's huge greasy splendor. The vision presented here has none of the stitched together second unit feel that many similar films labor under. It has the feel of a lushly illustrated Victorian fairy tale with a nod to Terry Gilliam's Brian. I obviously could go on and on, but I won't. This is an affectionate, fun romp and deserves none of the obsessively contrarian grousing Fanboys stew in. So give yourself a break from the grim Sturm and Dang of this week's fantasy release, forget the economy, and dive right in. The water's....substantial.