Reviews

I finally got to see the 2005 version of King Kong. I had no intentions of seeing it. Mainly because of that fiasco that came out in 1977 and of course my loyalty to the original Willis O'Brien version. But, it was on one night and I decided to watch, all the time ready to hate it and rip it to shreds. But for 3 hours I sat glued to the screen and saw something I had never expected to see. I used to know a lot about how they made movies, all the tricks and miniatures and blue screen, etc. After this I just threw up my hands. There were some major plot changes but it didn't take away from the movie at all. If for no other reason you didn't want to see this film the dinosaur scenes alone were worth the price of admission. Absolutely incredible. In the original Kong battles one T-rex. In this he battles three very lively creatures. The recreation of New York City in 1933 was also astounding, especially the Times Square scene at the end. There were lines taken from the original movie and some "in jokes" and names like Fay (Fay Wray, star of the original film). Naomi Watts was amazing as Ann Darrow. Adrien Brody was good and Jack Black as Carl Denham - well, I think this was his best performance ever. In 1933 they wanted to use some giant spiders to attack the men as they fell off the log into the ravine below but production costs forced them to eliminate that scene. In this film there is every kind of insect imaginable. It gave me the creeps! This was truly an action film, a love story, a great adventure from beginning to end and I endorse it as one of the finest films to come along in years.

When Thriller first came on TV I didn't pay much attention to it. Naturally I watched it because I heard that Boris Karloff would be the host and assumed these would be one hour mini movies of horror. Nothing could be farther from the truth! They were mystery shows, told in segments with Boris telling us a bit about the show before each episode began. Thriller was doomed from the start. It seemed it didn't know which direction to follow and each show was in no way related to the previous one; ranging from mystery to comedy. I soon grew tired of this and went back to Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Then came that fateful night. I decided to give it another try. After airing something like 14 episodes I tuned in to one titled The Cheaters. It started out grimly enough with a hanging and Boris, with that wonderful voice, assuring us that this would be a Thriller. Well, by the final episode when Harry Townes dons the special eyeglasses and looks into the mirror, what he sees sent me into total goosebump shock! I had nightmares for a week. It's all I could talk about at school. For a 12 year old boy this was the scariest thing I had ever seen. So I watched again the following week. This time it was an episode called The Hungry Glass with William Shatner. A creepy old house with images appearing in the windows, a really horrific ending, but still not as scary as last week. OK, I said to myself, this isn't so bad. Sure enough the next few episodes went back to murder and suspense and I again lost interest. But along comes Well of Doom which was a mystery in disguise. They tried to trick a wealthy man with magic and a giant hulk of a man to gain possession of his estate. At the end we discover all the horrors had been staged and the man ended up scaring his tormentors half to death! Directors on this show ranged from Ida Lupino to John Brahm, one of the finest TV and movie directors of all time. The rest of the season went back and forth between horror and mystery and again I stopped watching. But I did catch the last show of the season and I'm glad I did. Called "The Grim Reaper" it starred William Shatner. His wealthy aunt had purchased a painting of the grim reaper, a really horrid thing, and when Shatner comes for a visit he tells a tale of murder and intrigue and terror. Those who owned the painting all met violent deaths. As he tells his story to his aunt and guests he stops, looks at the painting, touches it, then turns toward his audience extending his hand. There's blood on his fingertips! At the end, his aunt dies and no one is left in the house except the secretary. Shatner explains the whole thing was a gag to scare the old lady and get her fortune. The secretary locks him in the room with the painting and goes for help. I shall never forget what happens next as long as I live. Alone in the room he taunts the painting, wallowing in his victory. But when he turns to see what made a noise he sees the character in the painting is gone! He looks around. There is no music, only deadly silence as the look on his face says it all. He is so terrified he can't even scream; no sound comes out. What does he see? Finally the police arrive and break down the door. The inspector and his partner find Shatner dead on the floor. Then someone says, "Oh my God. Look at the painting!" The camera slowly zooms in and we see blood dripping from the scythe. I thought that since I was so young yeah, that's why it scared me. I bought this episode on videotape and played it again. Knowing the plot, knowing what would happen, and being 58 years old, I still got chills at the end! Karloff himself appeared in several episodes, and to fans there's a top 20 list of the best shows. They include the ones I just mentioned of course plus The Incredible Doctor Markesan, A Wig for Miss Devore, Waxworks and more. Sadly the show went off the air that second year but it left it's mark on TV history. Stephen King was influenced by it, as was I. The one episode that scared both of us was Pigeons From Hell. He was inspired to write several stories watching this and I won a short story contest at that time. I also didn't sleep for weeks after seeing it. It was scarier than any horror movie of the time, and most of today! In fact, this episode would not even be allowed on TV today. The censors would not allow it. Critics hated it, fans were confused, so much behind the scenes bickering finally killed off Thriller. Yet Hitchcock was so envious of the show he expanded his own show to one hour, a terrible mistake. While his little stories worked well in the half hour format, the one hour shows did not. If you have never seen this classic horror fest by all means do so. It's black and white which adds to its air of suspense and terror. Sit back and prepare to see something you will never see on TV again!

I saw 2001 back in 1968 at a theater in Philadelphia, shown as intended: in Cinerama. To see this movie any other way is like watching House of Wax without the 3D glasses. Still, in 70mm widescreen theaters it is still a visual feast. I can sum up this movie in one sentence: The greatest sci fi film ever made. No need to go into detail, by now just about everyone has seen this movie in one form or another. But it holds one giant disappointment for me. I so looked forward to the year 2001 after seeing this film. I had high hopes for the future and thought for sure we'd have a base on the moon. Instead 2001 turned out to be one of the darkest days in American history. And for that I was sadly disturbed. Hard to believe also that it's nearly 40 years since its release. I keep track of how many times I see a movie. If it's really good I count to 100 and stop counting after that. I have now exceeded 300 times, maybe more, and never grow tired of watching this epic. While Citizen Kane has to be the number one mundane movie of all time, 2001 is the number one sci fi film. Forry Ackerman hated it which doesn't make a bit of sense since he is the foremost fan of science fiction. The late great magazine Castle of Frankenstein couldn't lavish enough praise on it. It won an Oscar for visual effects, innovative at the time using computers in a way that was never done before. The beginning is enough to grab your attention, when the ape-man tosses the bone into the air and in a flash we're transported 4 million years into the future, into outer space. That scene will never been duplicated. Then the discovery of a monolith buried on the moon. The team sent to investigate says "It was purposely buried." The deafening transmission that came from the monolith aimed at the planet Jupiter and the amazing trip thru time and space as the lone astronaut enters the black rectangular box. In 2010 his last transmission was played back: "My God! It's full of stars!" Indeed. The ending still gives me chills and yes, it was open to the viewer's own interpretation. For me, seeing the birth of stars, the wonders of the universe, creation in space then Bowman seeing himself grow old and eventually die. His last act, to point at the black monolith as if to say "I understand". He died and is transformed into the Star Child. From there you can decide whatever you wish. It's all symbolic after all, a way of telling us the Earth needs a rebirth, a reawakening, a fresh start. The sequel 2010 explained this briefly at the end, when the Earth now had two suns and another monolith appears on one of Jupiter's moons. It's a continuous cycle taking us from ape to man and beyond, to the beginning of a new life cycle and hopefully a better understanding of our universe and ourselves. What more could you want from a movie??!!

For me hospitals are creepy places anyhow, no matter how brightly lit or decorated. This Japanese import takes that phobia a step further. This hospital is isolated, off the beaten path, and staffed by (seemingly) inept doctors and nurses, but worst of all, it's dimly lit, dark and foreboding. Nothing I like better than a good scare tale and this movie delivers. Not a Godzilla type film with laughs and so-so f/x, just an old fashioned haunted house story set in a hospital. It's creepy, sometimes sickening, eerie, has a few good scares, an ending that makes you think and I guess it can be called psychological horror. As one of the doctors explains, "This is not a virus that is airborne. It is spread thru the subconscious. In your dreams." It starts with a burn victim who dies. The hapless man is burned over 70% of his body but when a nurse injects him with the wrong serum the patient dies. Then the doctors and nurses try to cover it up. Big mistake, for shortly after this bizarre things begin to happen. Bodies dissolve into a mass of green liquid. Internal organs are dissolved. The :"infection" spreads from nurse to nurse, doctor to doctor, until the film reaches a satisfying climax, only to hit you with one last shock. Excellent movie. I can't say enough good things about it. A must see for any horror fan.