*For the next week or so plus, I’m going to add a random film the great Ray Harryhausen worked on. The legendary special effects MASTER passed away yesterday at age 92 in London and yes, the film world owes him more than they can ever repay.
Without Ray Harryhausen’s still impressive special effects, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers would probably have been just another 1950’s “B” movie lost to the ages, only popping up on one of those cheapo compilation DVD’s you see as impulse items at some big box stores. However, thanks to those awesome saucers and some fine destruction of federal property by some rather cranky aliens, the film has been a favorite as well as an inspiration for other flicks from Independence Day to Mars Attacks! and more. The somewhat clunky acting and use of WWII stock footage don’t hurt the film one bit because they’re usually only a few minutes from one of Harryhausen’s cool animated saucers blowing the heck out of something or simply flying across the sky…
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Forget about today’s overblown CG effects, many of which make modern movies worse than better. Ray’s best work was all about blending fantasy into the assorted realities of the worlds he created and transporting viewers to places and making them forget about the outside world for about an hour and a half or so.
I usually avoid sticking my nose into other people’s conversations, but I had to poke and sniff lightly into a heated debate this week about 
I found the first two Hatchet flicks pretty fun and funny because they’re so “old school slasher movie” that you can’t help but crack a smile at how well they work in presenting the requisite unstoppable big killer with PLENTY of victims to turn into assorted hash and that one character he’s after who won’t go down without a damn good fight. Granted, the films aren’t perfect at all, but that’s part of their charm, I say…
While the middle to late 1960’s weren’t too good for Alfred Hitchcock’s film output, his fantastic 1972 thriller, FRENZY saw the director return to fine form with a chilling blend of murder, “wrong man” plot, police procedural (of sorts) and black comedy. Between the solid casting of mostly imperfect-looking British actors, actual London locations blended perfectly with studio sets, a bit of nudity and one very unsettling (and lengthy) assault/murder scene that’s shocking but necessary to drive the plot, this is one of those films where you can feel the director’s complete confidence in himself, his cast and crew.
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