Reviews

For a prequel, this one exceeded "The Grinch That Stole Christmas" in many ways. It's a more secular ethic being presented in an almost Oscar Wilde fashion. We are taught by a precocious child ( Eukariah ) that pragmatism and a strong identity are tools that can overcome adversity, despite all the ballyhoo and bluster the Grinch may present.

After all we all go to the euphemism all the time.

Eukariah presents us with an ideal of dignity in the face of calamity. The Grinch's bag of tricks confound and befuddle, but our diminutive hero takes a straight and sober view of these hi-jinx and wins the day.

The sub text to this film is Eukariah's poor judgement insisting he go to the euphemism in the first place. What if the Grinch managed to grinch him? All the Who's fears would be realized.

In a movie full of classic lines, my favorite is " Welcome back to the land of the living, brother! Now pick up a shovel and get digging!".Ha! Poor skeleton just gets back to life and it's gotta go to work! I love it!

Army Of Darkness is a lot like Shakespeare, except it's got Ash. To say Ash is the movie is an understatement because there's two of him. The only flaw to this movie is Hercules and Xena, they stand between me and S-Mart Ash; ("Lady, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the store.").

There are two kinds of people,those who haven't seen Army Of Darkness,and those who love it!

Ash stumbles through this misadventure with a groo-like grace, but he's way cooler. I especially love the skills he acquires from the trunk of his car.

If I'm to have one movie to watch over and over in hell, I sure hope it's this one and not Gymkata!

But, why am I telling you? Your primitive mind couldn't possibly comprehend alloys and things with molecular structures and the.....

The manner in which the film was chronographed was somewhat unique. In real time the main character, Morlar, is comatized by severe head trauma. In fact the movie opens with his attempted murder. The unfolding of events in the ensuing investigation are presented with smooth transitions from flashback to present in order to create a sense of fatalistic inevitability. The director takes a very difficult path to achieve this but I think he pulled it off very effectively. Look for little tricks to smooth out the staccato chronological transitions. Small similarities between outgoing and incoming scenes create a more seamless effect.Also, the sounds of a former scene would linger for a couple of seconds after the transition, further uniting past & present to emphasize the inevitable hopelessness of the inspectors situation. It also serves to demonstrate Morlar's indomitable, fatalistic will.

All the characters are well (and cleverly)cast, particularly Richard Burton as Morlar. VonGreenway's book comments on the intensity of Morlar's character and his riveting gaze. Burton was obviously intimately familiar with the text as his rendition of Morlar is, to say the least, riveting.

The apocryphal elements added by the director, the cataclysmic disasters vastly improve the story's big-screen appeal, even if they were a bit of a departure from the text. The director simplifies the text by only indirectly referring to Morlar's political agenda. To follow the text in this would be setting up an entirely different story and would distract from the immediacy of the peril Morlar represents for the inspector and the psychiatrist.

The "tongue in cheek" manner in which these two meet serves to show a comprehensive understanding of the text, it gives clear notice (to those familiar with the book) the text cannot realistically be followed in every way. "I'm sorry I was expecting a man." the inspector explains his reaction to her. "That's alright, I was expecting an English Inspector." She responds. This, of course, was a reference to the characters as they appeared in the book.

This is a well directed film, making sense of a difficult text in an acceptable time frame. Richard Burton was an excellent choice as Morlar, he has a dominating presence that lends well to the character. These things along with an excellent rendition of a sensational, compelling story make the Medusa Touch one of the best suspense films ever.