Pretty Bleak

CHILDREN OF MEN-2006-This nightmarish thriller is based on a novel by mystery writer PD James. It’s set in a violent, chaotic London of 2027 in a world where no baby has been born for 18 years. Office worker Theo (Clive Owen) agrees to help his ex-girlfriend (Julianne Moore) protect a young pregnant woman (Clare Hope Ashitey) and take her to “The Human Project”. They wind up in the crossfire between the government and revolutionaries. Michael Caine plays Theo's old hippie friend.

The direction, cinematography and music are all well done but I thought the violent and episodic story itself could have been better. Director Alfonso Cuaron (from Mexico) directed Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN and HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN.

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it"-Oscar Wilde

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Everything's Gumby!

GUMBY DHARMA-2006-If you’re my age (over 50; ok I admit!) and you watched a lot of TV as a kid in the ‘60’s then you probably were a fan of “Gumby” the clay animated character created by Art Clokey. This is a documentary about how it all started.

Clokey (still alive at 87 at the time of this writing) is interviewed throughout. He tells of the genesis of the clay boy and his pony pal Pokey, how Hollywood producer Sam Engels produced the TV pilot and that the reason Gumby’s head is that funny shape was the prototype looked to phallic! He says two supporting characters “Goo” and “Itchy” were inspired by a talk British Philosopher Alan Watts gave!

After making the first two batches of shows (and DAVEY & GOLIATH) Clokey dropped out and became a hippie, met Timothy Leary and dropped acid. Steel guitar playing Sneaky Pete Kleinow (who died in 2008) wrote the theme (and many later episodes) and was paid 100 dollars for his efforts. The great Ray Harryhausen says Clokey helped keep stop motion animation alive. And “Moody Rudy” isn’t forgotten either! Great stuff!!

"A book is a mirror. If an ape looks into it an apostle is unlikely to look out"-Georg Christoph

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Tripping With Corman

THE TRIP-1967-This Roger Corman directed psychedelic drama is the first and best of ‘60’s “drug culture” films. Although it’s sparse on storylines and character development Corman manages to keep it all together in a low budget miasma of lights, sex scenes and various weird scene changes. Peter Fonda is a director of TV commercials who’s going through a divorce with his wife (Susan Strasberg). Bruce Dern convinces him to try LSD. The remainder of the story has him wandering the city “tripping”. Corman uses a lot of quick editing and weird lighting to achieve this and basically succeeds but there’s not much of a plot.

Two years later Fonda and Hopper would team up to make EASY RIDER.

THE TRIP also features appearances by Barboura Morris, Dick Miller, Luana Anders, Michael Blodgett and Angelo Rosetti. Screenwriter Jack Nicolson had an un-billed role in Corman’s THE ST. VALENTINE’S MASSACRE and co-starred in HELLS ANGELS ON WHEELS and THE SHOOTING the same year.

"Perhaps it’s a mutation. There’s a lot of that going around"-Patrick O’Neal in “Fear of Spiders” (NIGHT GALLERY TV episode)

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RIP

Patrick McGoohan: 1928-2009

Miike Strikes Again!

ZEBRAMAN-2004-Japanese maverick director Takashi Miike scores again with this insane super hero comedy/drama/takeoff. Shin’ichi (Sho Aikawa) is a doormat teacher who’s ridiculed by the school staff and students, his wife cheats on him, his daughter is a slut and his young son is bullied at the school. To escape reality at night he dons a home made costume of Zebraman, based on a long forgotten TV show. But when slimy real aliens actually invade the Earth it’s up to Shin’ichi to become the real Zebraman and save the world! The first half hour is tough going but after that it really takes off. Star Aikawa also appeared in Miike’s DEAD OR ALIVE series. Miike made this after ONE MISSED CALL.

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Good Bye Ray...

RIP Ray Dennis Steckler 1938-2009





Steckler's low budget movies were some of the most entertaining ever made. His alter ego was Cash Flagg who starred in many of his early movies. Besides the one above he also made WILD GUITAR (starring Arch Hall Jr.), THE THRILL KILLERS, BAT FINK A BOO BOO, THE LEMON GROVE KIDS MEET THE MONSTERS (a Bowery Boys take off), BODY FEVER, BLOOD SHACK, THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER and LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER. He also directed porno films under a variety of alternate names.

Maid For Horror

THE MAID-2005-A girl named Rose (Alessandra de Rossi) leaves her home in The Philippines and goes to Singapore to live and work with a superstitious family (husband and wife and their mentally challenged son). She begins to see ghosts and other strange apparitions that seem to lead to Esther, the young girl who worked there before Rosa. Death by burning, rape and a plan to marrying Rosa off to a ghost all figure in this weird and entertaining horror film from director Kelvin Tong.


"Most of us love from our need to love, not because we find someone deserving"-Nikki Giovanni

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Invasion of The Inept Film Makers

THE INVASION-2007-Nicole Kidman tries to save her Hollywood movie career by starring in this new adaptation/remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (based on the book by Jack Finney).

She plays a psychiatrist who notices people are “changing” after a space shuttle crashes and spreads a flu like disease. Current James Bond portrayer Daniel Craig is her scientist boyfriend. The transformed humans do a lot of spitting into the faces of their intended victims. Alien police round up people who show emotion. Kidman pops a lot of pills and washes it down with Mountain Dew.

The whole intent of the original story is kind of twisted here. Where as in the original version aliens taking over human beings against their will and turning them into emotionless drones, stealing their individuality and making them incapable of feelings like love was to say the least a pretty evil act! However in this version the aliens are actually seen as a force for good because while people might lose their emotions they have somehow eradicated the war in Iraq and gotten George Bush and Hugo Chavez to work together (and get oil for NYC!).

You would think that Kidman would have seen her ex-husband’s WAR OF THE WORLDS remake and learned from his mistakes.

Also with Veronica Cartwright (who was in Phillip Kaufman’s 1978 version), Jeffery Wright, Jeremy Northam, Josef Sommer and Roger Rees. Former video action star Jeff Wincott is a small role as a cop.

This was the first English language film by German director Oliver Hirschbiegel (THE DOWN FALL). After it was finished the studio (Warner Bros.) was unhappy with his final cut and brought in THE MATRIX brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski to do some re-writing and James McTeigue (V IS FOR VENDETTA) to direct some new scenes. This may account for dismal premise and the shoddy ending that ties everything up and makes no real sense.

"The road to a friend’s house is never long"-Danish proverb

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Unknown Way To Make a Movie

UNKNOWN WORLD-1951-Very low budget drama from Lippert Studios about a group of scientists (and their playboy financier (Bruce Kellogg)) who use a special machine, The Cyclotram to journey into the Earth and find a new habitable place for mankind. They encounter lots or rocks, gas and water shortages but not much else.

The scientist who leads the expedition is played by Victor Kilian but he doesn’t receive any credit. According to the IMDB he was blacklisted shortly after making this movie and his name was purposely left off the credits! He later became very well known playing the grandfather on MARY HARTMAN MARY HARTMAN but he was killed by burglars in 1979.

Another scientist is played by familiar character Otto Waldis. A woman scientist (Marilyn Nash) provides some love interest.

UW is very cheap and fails to deliver any thrills or surprises. I remember watching this flick as a kid with my friend John in the early ’70’s. We kept waiting for some monsters to show up. We’re still waiting!

Although chiefly an editor Terry O. Morse directed other low budget films including BRITISH INTELLIGENCE with Boris Karloff and a couple of Charlie Chan entries. He also directed the inserted American scenes in the original GODZILLA.

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Three Very Fast

Three short reviews tonight:


THERE WAS A FATHER-1942-(CHICHI ANIKI)-A poignant film from the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu that details the long relationship between a kindly sacrificing father (Chishu Ryu) and his devoted successful son (Shuji Sano). It’s up to the viewer to decide whether the father made the right decisions or not. A beautifully made film that fans of Ozu seem to go out of their way to criticize.



THE DELINQUENTS-1957-This serious look at juvenile delinquency was one of the first feature films by director Robert Altman. Future Billy Jack star Tom Laughlin is Scotty a seemingly decent guy but for some reason his girlfriend’s parents won’t let them go steady. He winds up getting involved with a guy named Cholly (Peter Miller) and his gang of punks (featuring perennial snot nosed greaser Richard Bakalyan). They have an illegal party and get busted by the cops and later they get Scot drunk and pin a gas station hold up on him but eventually Scotty gets tough.



MANSLAUGHTER-1922-Cecil B. DeMile directed this highly moral melodrama about a self possessed high society woman (Leatrice Joy) who accidentally kills a policeman with her car. Her own fiancée (Thomas Meighan) prosecutes her and she’s found guilty and sent to prison. Demile moves the story along fairly fast and the acting (especially by Joy ) is highly dramatic.

At the time Joy was married to John Gilbert and would work in several more DeMile projects including THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Her great grandson is low budget film making David Prior. Lead actor Meighan was a major star at this time but unfortunately is forgotten today.


"It takes a great man to be a good listener"-Calvin Coolidge

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Happy New Year!

THE BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL-(KYUKETSUKI GOKEMIDORI)-1968-After a bomb threat a plane has an encounter with a UFO and crashes. Survivors include one of the pilots (Teruo Yoshida), a stewardess (Tomomi Sato), a dirt bag politician (Eizo Kitamura; later in THE STREETFIGHTER’S LAST REVENGE) , his toady assistant and his wife (also the politician's mistress), a sniper who assassinated a British ambassador, a fat guy who had intended to set off a bomb and a scientist (Kazuo Kato from several Kurosawa films). The one non-Asian is an American woman (Kathy Horan; also in THE GREEN SLIME) who’s husband was killed in Vietnam. It turns out Earth has been invaded by an alien race called The Gokemidoro who plan on destroying all Earthlings. They are gray blob creatures that put an opening in their victims’ foreheads and then inhabit the body. They kill by sucking all the blood out of their victims. The politician causes a lot of problems as they fight to survive. The chilling downer ending is very well done.

Director Hajime Sato had made a few other films including BATTLE BENEATH THE SEA but BODY SNATCHER (aka GOKE-BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL) was his last. Here he uses different color lighting when the alien kills it’s victims creating some eerie effects.


"Learn from yesterday. Live for today. Hope for tomorrow"-Anonymous

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