Playing With The Girls: Carrie Poster Makeover Adds Back A Little Suspense…

Posted on June 10, 2013 by geelw

OK, I was bored last night poking around the internet for E3 news and such, so when I happened to see this new Carrie poster, I had to chuckle a bit because it was a case of a little too much TMI in having the tagline AND title on the same ad. So, a quick MS Paint edit and voila! – you get at least a tiny bit of suspense back in a film that pretty much gives it all away in the poster and trailer anyway (just like the original did).

Hey, it only took me about 30 seconds to do this, so it’s not like I really did anything amazing… OK, back to actual work!

Humor: Old Goats Butting Heads – Coming to a Theater Near You!

Posted on June 9, 2013 by geelw

Hoo boy. Other than the obvious joke “One or both of these movies will be subtitled”… well, I’m at a loss for words here other than wondering how fast both of these will pop up on cable so I can see them back to back and fall off my couch laughing in the comfort of my own home. Hey, those theater floors can be sticky sometimes, you know?

Yeesh. Well, thank Dionysus and The Muses they’re still kicking around and able to collect those paychecks, I suppose…

Random Film of the Day*: Mighty Joe Young

Posted on May 14, 2013 by geelw

*For the next week or so, I’m going to add a random film the great Ray Harryhausen worked on. The legendary special effects MASTER passed away on May 7, 2013 at age 92 in London and yes, the film world has lost a true giant as well as a fine and talented gentleman…

Mighty Joe Young poster With Ernest B. Schoedsack’s 1949 film Mighty Joe Young, stop motion animation fans saw the torch passed from the past master of the technique, Willis O’Brien to his willing, eager and more than able apprentice (and future master), Ray Harryhausen. Where 1925’s startling The Lost World and 1933’s epic King Kong helped pioneer stop motion (and its more comedic sequel, Son of Kong added a neat dinosaur chase scene to the list of O’Brien’s classic scenes), Mighty Joe Young was pretty much Harryhausen’s film from start to finish.

O’Brien hired Ray as an assistant animator, but based on different accounts, ended up letting the young man handle the bulk of the actual animation while he supervised the technical aspect of the special effects. While the film’s story was provided by King Kong co-writer/co-creator Merian C. Cooper and has some direct thematic resemblances to that earlier film (to the point were some less astute viewers think it’s an actual Kong sequel), Joe’s smaller size, demeanor and human-like qualities were greatly enhanced by stellar animation, some fantastic action scenes and a really great use of humor throughout that makes it nowhere as dark as Kong, nor as silly as its rushed into theaters sequel…
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Random Film of the Week: The Twonky

Posted on May 14, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, Professor Craigles!)

twonky I find it absolutely and awesomely hilarious that the word “Twonky” has been swiped by a few people who probably thought it sounded cool but never, ever saw this oddball 1953 flick that now pops up on Turner Classic Movies from time to time. I’m also sure that some of these hipsters with no sense of film history would be shocked (SHOCKED, I say!) to find out that the titular Twonky of this little film is a nasty alien machine that tries and nearly succeeds to take over the life of the poor sap of a professor who inadvertently ends up with a VERY self-aware robot instead of the TV his wife bought to keep him company.

Writer/director Arch Oboler tries a wee bit too hard to generate laughs and despite some interesting special effects (well, for 1953), the film’s seemingly anti-technology/anti-freedom message overwhelms any chance of it being anything more than a curious artifact of a more paranoid age. Then again, that age seems to have circled back around with a much bigger influence on the more information-rotted minds in today’s heads, so perhaps it’s worth a second (or first) look, hmmm?… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: The Window

Posted on May 6, 2013 by geelw

I remember seeing The Window as a kid on TV and probably laughing a wee bit too much because the lying wolf-crying brat who no one believed about the murder he finally DID see was getting his just desserts when all those chickens came home to roost. Seeing it a few times more as I got older (and thankfully, wiser) revealed a pretty sinister film noir thriller with probably the best child performance I’d ever seen in a film that old.

Granted, I’m not advocating the already generally creepy “Child in Danger!” flick or that entire sub-genre of flicks made throughout cinematic history as a “must-see” collection of films if you’ve got a very soft spot for your own brood of lovable lamp-breaking, cookie stealing ankle-biters. However, as a chilling little classic film that’s never been remade properly (at least in my humble opinion), it’s a total spine-shaker right from the beginning…

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Random Film of the Week: Le Mans

Posted on March 28, 2013 by geelw

(Thanks, motorsportzx!)

I still remember seeing Le Mans as a kid and, despite the fancy cars I was so attracted to zooming around that legendary race course, found myself falling asleep before the first hour was up. I think it took another three or four attempts as I got older to get through the entire movie, but today it’s one of my favorite racing films. Granted, it feels like more of a documentary of a particular race day that happens to dip behind the scenes to focus on a few people not talking much mostly about a few things that tie into to the overall story being told. Nevertheless, there’s a story that kicks in if you pay attention that works quite well in its low-key way that sets up a pretty exciting final reel.

Of course, this means as a timepiece of a particular period in auto racing history, it’s really an important work. Where the great-looking and innovative 1966 film Grand Prix got too caught up in its romance triangles and some dramatic sections (and had a poor stunt dummy go flying out of a car in one crash sequence that still makes me laugh), Le Mans is purely and primarily about the race. Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: DUNE

Posted on January 30, 2013 by geelw

(Thanks, MovieClips Classic Trailers!)

Recently, someone who hadn’t seen it yet asked me “Is DUNE a great movie or not?” My answer was (and has always been) “Well, it depends…” I certainly didn’t hate it when I first saw it, but having not read the massive sci-fi novel it was based on at that time, my brain had to hold onto the inside of my head for dear life a few times during the more heady moments of mass exposition. I actually liked that David Lynch brought his trademark visual style to the film and some of the ickier visual effects (the alien navigator in the glass case, for example) were there to show this wasn’t yet another budget Star Wars clone.

Granted, the big, loud battle scenes were a big, loud mess and some of the “special” effects were reused too many times (for example, that same enemy ship swooping over the battlefield on Arrakis became a running gag to some friends I saw the flick with). Nevertheless, I liked the production design and facts that the different alien cultures were well portrayed thanks to some solid casting and it was a “pay attention” flick that demanded more of viewers than almost any other American sci-fi film of that period. Of course, it’s no Blade Runner by a long shot, but that’s another post for another random week… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week Quickie: From Hell It Came

Posted on January 18, 2013 by geelw

(Thanks, Blazing Trailers!)

Oh, I should have done this one a while back as a RFoTW, but I kept hoping SOME smart cable station would show it again because I haven’t seen it in ages. That hasn’t happened, but there was a DVD release back in 2009 from Warner Bros., meaning you too can snap this up and check it out legally at some point. Sure, this 1957 flick has a hilarious looking tree monster (once you see that Tobanga, you’ll have it stuck in your head for a few days), a plot chock full of wormy holes and you can’t say those natives are anything resembling realistic.

Nevertheless, the film works in it’s own weird way as a sort of remake of Universal’s classic The Mummy, only in a quasi-Polynesian setting with an unstoppable wooden fiend as the monster to be feared. As for actual scares, there are a few here and there and as a kid, I think I laughed a lot at/with it only after I saw the film once or twice and realized it just wasn’t that frightening. Of course, most modern folks will be doubled over laughing at all that’s on display, but I guess it’s better than beating oneself on the head with a real tree branch after one too many hits off a pipe full of funny smelling dried leaves, right?

Anyway, I’m not sure if this flick helped inspire the Swamp Thing or Man-Thing at all, but it’s not hard to see that stiff tree thing being accepted into the Parliament of Trees based on his looks and mythology, getting piss drunk off his wooden ass at the bar there and getting kicked out later for peeing in the bushes. Anyway, someone REALLY on the ball needs to start preserving/restoring these old horror and sci-fi gems so they can be aired on a rotating basis. As in on a REAL horror/sci-fi channel run by genre fans, not a corporation that shoves out the same old crap reruns and lousy made for TV movies that are intentionally awful because they “think” they know what fans want.

If only they knew…

Random Film of the Week: Fiend Without A Face

Posted on December 2, 2012 by geelw

If you’re old enough and recall camping out in front of the TV on Friday or Saturday nights long after the sun went to sleep (Chiller Theater or Creature Features, anyone?), you probably saw a ton of horror and sci-fi flicks from the 50’s and 60’s. For some reason, Hollywood’s “B” movie makers were brain-obsessed during this period, churning out films good to terrible with titles such as Donovan’s Brain, The Brain From Planet Arous, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die and so forth and so on.

All those brains on screen and yet, in my opinion the best one wasn’t even made in the USA. For years I always thought Fiend Without A Face was a US-made “B” flick, but I just found out recently that it’s British. Oops. Granted, that doesn’t make it any “classier” at all – it’s just yet another reason you should check out this classic 1958 sci-fi/horror gem.

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Random Film of the Week: Attack!

Posted on August 24, 2012 by geelw

(thanks, Ray Acton!)

As far as war movies go, Robert Aldrich’s 1956 film, Attack! isn’t the predictable, lavishly produced jingoistic, rubber-stamped by the military rah-rah fest glorifying World War II as a unifying fight against the Axis where everyone on our side is perfectly portrayed as a sterling citizen soldier of upstanding moral fiber with one or two likable quirks. Instead, it’s a gripping slice of drama that pulls no punches as it details the breakdown in command of a whittled down unit of soldiers under the command of a cowardly captain (portrayed perfectly by Eddie Albert) and how another officer tries to bring a moral center back to the men before it’s too late.

According to a few sources, Aldrich didn’t get the usual assistance from the Department of Defense when making the film and in fact, had to make do with shooting the entire thing in just over a month using borrowed, bought or rented military gear including two tanks (that military purists will note were badly disguised as German Panzers). Despite this, it’s a powerful, must-see film that’s on par with Sam Fuller’s The Steel Helmet, or Kubrick’s Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket as one of the best films in the genre.

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