Random Film of the Week: The Twonky

(thanks, Professor Craigles!) 

twonkyI 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: Love and Death

Love and Death poster Probably the most amusing thing about Woody Allen’s 1975 film Love and Death is how well it works despite practically hitting you over the head with how literate you need to be to get some of the best (and funniest) jokes. On the other hand, you don’t need to be a student of Russian literature or philosophy at all to nearly die laughing when Woody’s character, Boris, is trapped inside a gigantic lit cannon that rolls downhill during the big battle scene and fires him into a tent full of French officers, making him a temporary war hero of sorts.

There are a few other big laughs as well, but the bulk of the film’s humor springs from the one-two punch of Allen’s writing and flawless direction as he captures the moods of his put-upon characters as they go through their dramatically (and intentionally) dreary lives in 19th Century Russia. As bleak as that last sentence sounds, it’s one of Allen’s best comedies because it skewers its subject matter (and subjects) so well that you can’t help but laugh even when the worst is happening…
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Random Film of the Week(end), Too: Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

As directorial debuts go, Michael Cimino’s 1974 film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot makes for a weird and wild first film that’s chock full of quirky characters, absurd situations and plenty of action. It’s also one of Clint Eastwood’s best performances of that decade as Thunderbolt, but Jeff Bridges steals the film with his offbeat Lightfoot, a happy-go lucky misfit who’d teamed up with Eastwood after he inadvertently saves his bacon from an assassin. The film is part drama, part comedy, part action and all Cimino rolling the dice, letting his cast have their way with his script and whipping out a wild ride that’s still a pretty memorable movie. Just the absurdity of Thunderbolt pulling off a bank job using a wheeled 20mm cannon is reason enough to see this, but toss in Bridges in drag at one point plus a crazy guy in a car with a raccoon and trunk full of rabbits, shake well and watch what happens…
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Carrie Remake Trailer: Spoiler Theater Is Actually Just More Deja Vu…

Amusingly enough, this trailer from the upcoming Carrie remake has actually been criticized a bit too harshly for basically spoiling the entire film even more so than most other genre flick trailers. While this may indeed be true, it’s actually just copying the same marketing from the 1976 original, which by the way, WORKED fine in filling seats way back then. Check out both (look up! Look down!) and see what I’m babbling about.

Granted, Brian De Palma’s film was probably a great deal more shocking back then this remake will be seen as when it hits theaters, but we’ll see if the actors in the new film can deliver performances as memorable as those in the original. As always, class… we shall see… we shall see…

Toy Fair 2013: Mezco Toys Brings Chucky Back + Some Living Dead Dolls Banner News…

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Chucky smallSay a happy “Hello!” to Mezco’s 15″ Mega Scale Chucky doll. Well, say that happy “Hello” NOW, as once he arrives on your doorstep, it may be the last we see or hear of you. This latest incarnation, available for pre-order NOW and shipping out in September 2013, is decked out in his colorful Good Guys outfit, comes packing a knife (well, not a REAL knife, but you do have some in the kitchen he’ll get a hold of, right?) and will look quite good in your collection. You may want to add a steel-barred locked cage to your shelf, though. Plunk down $90, and he shows up a few months from now all ready for your collection. You can pretend that’s because he walked all the way from the factory, but do you REALLY want to take this fantasy that far?

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Me, I’ll just pass out and dream about Jennifer Tilly chasing after me with an inflatable axe in one hand and a Tiffany doll from Bride of Chucky in the other (hmm, does Mezco have one of these for sale?) because there are much more *fun* ways to leave the planet. Of course, the actual GF will be chasing me with a REAL axe if I keep this stuff up, so it may be a messy demise after all… Ouch, ouch, ouch!!!

As for that Living Dead Dolls banner, read on…

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Random Film of the Week(end): Sleeper

 

sleeperIf you stripped away the comedic elements and rewrote a few scenes, Woody Allen’s classic 1973 film Sleeper would actually make a pretty solid futuristic drama about a man wakened from a long cryo-sleep who ends up becoming part of a revolution against a totalitarian government. Fortunately, the film never even tries to be that serious and you end up laughing your ass off at its near-flawless writing acting and overall pacing. Granted, the film actually won a Hugo Award for “Best Dramatic Presentation” in 1974 (beating out the deadly serious Soylent Green, the mostly serious Westworld and two so-so fan favorite TV melodramas, Genesis II and The Six Million Dollar Man), so I’d gather there’s a pretty solid futuristic drama underneath all that slapstick after all…

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Random Film of the Week (Corporate Edition): Rollerball

rollerball_ver2_xlgSo, I’m looking over the notes for my Prometheus plot dissection (which probably won’t be as critical as my picking apart of The Thing from a few months ago), and that fun GE robot ad pops up. While writing up that last post about it, I got to thinking about a few of my sci-fi flicks that had evil corporations running things unto the ground for the purposes of profit and proving class struggle is a useless pursuit.Oh, what a fun time that was (he said, depressingly).

Norman Jewison’s excellent Rollerball was one of the first films that popped into my head (along with Soylent Green and Logan’s Run in case you’re interested) and amusingly enough, it just so happens to have popped up on cable recently. For the younger crowd out there, stay FAR away from the truly terrible 2001 remake and check out the darker, more violent and surprisingly deep 1975 original.

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