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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Aug 201979

The Original Series crew reunites to stop an all-powerful alien spacecraft headed for Earth. Kirk has weaseled his way back onto the bridge, demoting its new Captain, Decker. Along for the ride is new navigator Lieutenant Ilia, an empath, who has a romantic history with Decker.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the most cinematic feature in the Trek series, in every way that can be taken. It is by far the most competently made film. It has the finest direction, due to having the finest director in Robert Wise, and it out performs the other films in basic qualities such as camera angles, lighting, over all cinematography, sound design, and scene transitions. No Star Trek film looked better till Abrams threw loads of money at the franchise. The scoring is superb, giving the project a sense of power. This is an epic film, dealing with aliens, gods, the breadth of the universe, massive powers, love, aging and acceptance, and the meaning of life. It also contains a sense of wonder almost completely lacking from the later films. This is a science fiction film with purpose, not just the action popcorn movies that would come later. And it is more than an overlong episode of the TV show. This is a movie of grand scale. It introduces us to new characters, who could have taken their place amongst the original series pantheon if their path did not lead them elsewhere—and did pop up slightly altered in the Next Gen as Riker and Troi. There is emotion here.

Yes it is the most Star Trek of Star Trek films. It is hopeful without making excuses. It points to a better tomorrow while acknowledging our flaws. It suggests that battle is not the answer to our problems.

The Motion Picture could have been, and should have been, the finest Trek picture, but everything didn’t quite work out. It has become a much maligned film, often for silly reasons. The uniforms come in for a fair amount of derision, as if modern fashion sense is a clever basis for judging clothing three hundred year in the future (take a look at three hundred years in the past). Sure, to my eyes, the uniforms adopted for the follow-up film look better, but they only make sense if Star Fleet really is a military organization (which was not the original idea) that spends most of its time fighting on ice planets. I’d rather wear the breezier clothing here than the winter-wear that they went to. And people complain that the special effects have not aged well, which is true, but a trivial matter.

But there are two problems that do weigh the film down. One is understandable; the other is not. The first is the reintroduction of everything. A lot of time is spent showing us who these people are and what the Enterprise is. Each character is given a moment to do something stereotypical so that we know them, and the story slows to a crawl as they do. That seems absurd now, but in 1979, Star Trek was not so well known. The average person did not know what the Enterprise was, or who Kirk and Spock were, and even a majority of science fiction geeks were unlikely to have seen all of the old series. The problem never occurred again, with Star Trek rising out of the SF gutter to the heights of pop culture, but that came later. For this film, the studio felt it necessary to start from scratch and talking to people at the time, I’d say they were right. Unfortunately, these reintroductions are carried out in a clunky fashion. And perhaps things would have been fine if we didn’t know that Nurse Chapel was now a doctor and that Bones hates transporters and that Kirk really wants a Vulcan as a science officer. Yes, they did have to squeeze in a lot, but it wasn’t done with finesse.

That could have been excused if Wise wasn’t so infatuated with the sheer spectacle. Following in the mold of Close Encounters and 2001, the film expects the audience to be in awe of space and the enterprise and the great alien V’ger, but we’re not. Shots linger, then hover, then die, showing us gruesomely unending wiggly lines and clouds, and of course, the Enterprise itself. And because we, as the audience, need time for our reverence, we are joined in this by the crew. For every far-too-long shot of V’ger, there’s two painfully long shots of Kirk and company reacting to the shot.

Even now I suspect Star Trek: The Motion Picture could be the best of the series and generally great science fiction if Paramount was willing to do a new cut that took a hacksaw to the picture and chopped out thirty minutes. But for now, it’s a good, but too slow, movie.

My ranking of all Star Trek movies is here.

Reviews, Science Fiction, Space Opera Tagged with: Three & 1/2 Reels

Phantasm (1979)

Aug 141979

Things are just not right at the cemetery. Jody and Mike attend the funeral of their friend, only for Jody’s compulsively spying little brother, Mike, to spot the undertaker lifting the 500 lb coffin with ease. Soon, hooded dwarves are coming after Mike and a living amputated finger persuades Jody that there is evil that they will have to face, evil in the form of The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm).

Phantasm is some strange hybrid of horror, old-school science fiction, and afternoon special, wrapped up in a stoner’s dream. How entertaining you find it will have more to do with how many friends you watch it with and your state of mind. I suggest high.

It starts as a horror film, but then the low budget or low talent kicks in and we drop into drama mode with the most unlikely brothers you are likely to encounter. Jody apparently learned to speak by watching a combination of ‘50s biker pictures and ‘60s hippy flicks. He likes to enunciate and over-emote. He also likes to drink beers, talk about leaving town, and instantly pick up girls at bars. He stops to play guitar on his porch with his pony-tailed, ice cream delivery truck-driving friend because… I have no idea why. They found they had extra film perhaps? Mike spends his time following Jody—really following. He runs after him down the street, which is a bit odd for a teenager. He is also friends with a psychic who has the fear/pain box from Dune, and after telling Mike that fear is the mind killer, she ceases being relevant to the film and is never seen again.

When Phantasm settles on a protagonist, it is Mike, who breaks into the cemetery ushering in the second horror section of the movie. But it is horror movie weird, not horror movie scary. Stuff happens. Some of it is amusing. Some of it would be gory if it looked anything close to real—instead it is more like a Monty Python sketch. None of it makes a great deal of sense. Yes, we get answers to the big horror/sci-fi questions, but that doesn’t help to decipher why people do what they do.

Even die hard fans admit it all falls apart at the end. Mike and Jody’s plan, and how it comes to fruition, is unlikely to put it politely. The “twist” that follows makes most of the movie irrelevant.

If I sound harsh, well, we’re in so bad it is good territory, so many of the flaws are also virtues. The iconic flying killer orbs are pretty cool if you’ve had enough beer, and The Tall Man is an enjoyable villain if looked at either through the haze of time or a haze of pot smoke. Even sober, the Goblin-inspired music is excellent, setting a tone the film can’t live up to.

Some have tried to claim the film is either a parody or an homage to ‘60s and ‘70s drive-in horror. Seeing it as a parody is reading in far too much, but it certainly borrowed liberally from earlier films.

Looking for scares or art or good filmmaking? Look elsewhere. Looking for a good party film? You’ve found it.

Horror, Reviews Tagged with: Two & 1/2 Reels

The Phantasm Series

Aug 131979

Surrealistic or just nonsensical, the low-budget to low-low-budget Phantasm films (four with a fifth past-due for release) have a reputation for being original fright-fests. That’s unfortunate as that raises the wrong expectations. Far from attempting for originality, the series is a conglomeration of what came before. Scenes and even lines are taken from previous films. They are painfully self-aware, name-dropping horror icons and putting Alex Murphy (RoboCop) in the cemetery. Phantasm wasn’t something new, but an ode to drive-in schlock horror of the ‘60s and early ‘70s.

As for scares, again, that’s not the tone. We are walking the line between horror and comedy, gleefully and randomly leaping back and forth. Phantasm comes from the pool of The Evil Dead movies, though in the shallow end with nothing like Ash to distract from myriad plot holes. There’s plenty of blood and related fluids, supplied between jokes and “cool” one-liners, chainsaw fights, and the occasional bare breast.

Writer/Director Don Coscarelli has worked the better part of thirty years on the Phantasm world. Outside of it, he’s known only for the sword & sorcery The Beastmaster and the horror-comedy Bubba Ho-Tep. With such single-minded devotion, I’d have expected the series to make more sense, but if one word can sum up the films, it is incoherent.

Phantasm (1979)

Things are just not right at the cemetery. Jody and Mike attend the funeral of their friend, only for Jody’s compulsively spying little brother, Mike, to spot the undertaker lifting the 500 lb coffin with ease. Soon, hooded dwarves are coming after Mike and a living amputated finger persuades Jody that there is evil that they will have to face, evil in the form of The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm).

Looking for scares or art or good filmmaking? Look elsewhere. Looking for a good party film? You’ve found it.

Phantasm II (1988)

Mike is released from the insane asylum he’s been in since the first film and immediately Reggie’s family is killed. That means it’s time for revenge. The two set off on a road trip, from cemetery to cemetery, with Mike’s dreams of a girl in need of their help as their guide, searching for The Tall Man.

Since the first movie ended with one of those not-so-clever twists that imply much of what we saw didn’t happen, there were several ways this film could have started. Coscarelli went with the worst option—to the extent that he decided anything. Apparently, most of Phanstasm was a dream and The Tall Man won. Since Mike’s version of events and Reggie’s don’t match, there’s no way to know what was supposed to have happened specifically. All we know is The Tall Man exists and Mike and Reggie want to kill him, even if Reggie doesn’t agree that The Tall Man did most of the things he did. This isn’t weird, “question-reality” filmmaking. Just lazy scripting.

And it is lazy instead of threadbare as Universal pictures was now paying the bills. Money does make a difference, even if it is only three million. Low-budget is a big step up from the first film’s no-budget and it shows in set design, locations, editing, and camera work. This is a far more competent film than Phantasm. The acting is better as well, including from a recast Mike, and though dialog is still painful, it is less painful. So everything that was bad in Phantasm is less bad.

As for the good, that’s a harder call. This is less of a party film and more straight horror with a heaping helping of road picture. It is pretty silly horror, with blood just for the sake of blood and boobs because all horror films of the period had boobs, but at least it is clear what kind of film you are watching. Even more than the first, it tries to be cool rather than make sense while nodding to every type of horror film (and sometimes just other films and directors—yes Sam Raimi’s name is on a cremains bag). And like the first, the twist ending makes it all pointless.

Still, if you want nothing more than some weird midgets, an evil mortician, a lot of running around, and some flying bladed orbs, Phantasm II has you covered. This is lowest common denominator horror, but it isn’t boring.

Phantasm III: Lord of Death (1994)

The Tall Man captures Mike, who he wants for his cryptic psychic powers. Reggie follows, finding himself in a ghost town when he is attacked by crazy looters because in the Phantasm universe things just happen. He picks up a gun-toting kid and a martial arts woman who both want revenge and the three, along with a friendly silver sphere, attempt to rescue Mike and stop The Tall Man for good.

Here we are again, with The Tall Man and Reggie and Mike, played by the original actor since Universal, who insisted on the change for Phantasm II, is no longer paying the bills. The female character that was supposed to be of such great importance in the last film is killed off in the first minute, which is odd since The Tall Man wanted her alive, but sense has never been part of the Phantasm series.

Mike’s brother, Jody, from the first film, is back from the dead, and he’s aged while dead, as well as gotten a hair cut. He’s also become a silver killing ball…because… Oh, really best not to think about it.

Like its two predecessors, Phantasm III is more about scenes than a story. It answers some questions but only by asking many more and leaving as many gaping plot holes as before. There’s more action this time around, and The Evil Dead factor is ramped up, with comedy zombies making an appearance. The powers of The Tall Man are left undefined, allowing him to do whatever is desired at the moment, and making it clear (if it wasn’t already), that no action taken by anyone matters.

With Mike sidelined for most of the movie, Reggie becomes the protagonist. He fits the sidekick role better and mainly continues in that vein, getting into awkward sexual situations and having monsters run up his pants leg. The new additions, including the kid who is supposed to remind us of Mike in the first film, if Mike was an unnaturally good shot, get to be the bad asses, killing zombies over and over, only for them to get up again.

Once again, the ending is a statement that nothing in these films matter and leaves things open for yet another sequel.

Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)

Mike, having found out that he is going to become an alien, or is already an alien, or is carrying an alien in his head (it’s not clear, and is never made clear) goes off on his own, chased, often in his dreams, by The Tall Man. Reggie tries to either rescue Mike or kill The Tall Man—again, it’s not clear.

The fourth outing in the Phantasm series is cobbled together from outtakes from the first film combined with new footage. The effect is what you’d expect. Things happen because they had old shots of those things. The new stuff is just as incoherent as ever, leaving a film that’s nonsense even by Phantasm standards. Some of that nonsense is fun, but it is still nonsense.

For much of the film, Reggie is on his own, running into the occasional zombie or monster. He journeys through empty towns and picks up a girl with peculiar breasts but for the most part does nothing related to the story for the first hour..

Mike spends this time in surrealist landscapes that sometimes are dreams and sometimes aren’t. He also develops telekinesis, which is later ignored, attempts suicide, and travels in time. The last is the strangest as it is a new power that comes out of nowhere, is then suggested to be the answer to everything, and then comes to nothing.

The plot, such that it is, doesn’t move much till the end. It is just “stuff happening.” With that stuff, the mythology of Phantasm gets switched around and any answers we’ve gotten the past are thrown out. The Tall Man is no longer an alien, a good guy is now a bad guy, Jody died in a car crash while his parents were still alive, and Mike’s alien side isn’t at all what it was implied to be in the last film. And Tim, one of the lead characters in that last film, is absent without comment. There could be multiple well considered reasons for all that, but I tend to think it is related to two of Coscarelli’s statements: First, that he’d run out of ideas after Lord of Death, and second, that he was only making another Phantasm film for the money.

Does all that make Phantasm IV weaker than its prequels? Not really. It is the same meaningless, flightless, surreal drug trip that any Phantasm fan should expect.

The ending is annoying, being even more open ended than in previous installments, but these films never left anyone with a sense of completion.

Horror, Reviews

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Jan 011979

George and Kathy Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder) and their three kids move into a house where there had been a mass murder a year earlier. The house is possessed and affects everyone who enters it. A priest (Rod Steiger) attempts to save the family from the Satanic forces, but is driven away.

The Amityville Horror greatest claim to fame is as a hoax. The film is based on a book which claimed the evil events really happened, and many gullible people bought it. It was years later that it was finally admitted to be a fake. Sorry folks, neither ghosts nor the Prince of Darkness showed up in the Amityville house.

If there is a deep truth in this film, it is that Satan is a wimp. As the king of hell, you’d think he could do some big time evil, but all he manages in The Amityville Horror is to rock furniture, give people the flu, mess with doors and windows, and swipe money. And he does it slowly. This is a plodding movie that builds and then ends. Apparently they forgot to film a climax. The sub-plot with the priest could still be removed (and should be) as he never interacts with the Lutzs. With that out, The Amityville Horror could have dropped the demon angle and been a ghost story; it would have been a poor ghost story, but that’s better than what it is.

The cinematography is pure movie-of-the-week and the acting doesn’t help. Margot Kidder is believable (and very sexy in the scenes designed to show her off), but she’s the only one. Brolin and Steiger combine to form one actor, with Brolin displaying nothing except what appears to be constipation while Steiger tosses his arms around, yells, and pounds on his breast. Subtle acting for a subtle film.

Back to DemonsBack to Christian Myth

Christian Mythos, Demons, Reviews Tagged with: One Reel

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Oct 101978

People begin to act differently, losing interest in their normal activities and becoming emotionless. Public health chemist Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) notices the change in her boyfriend, and tells coworker Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland). Bennell assumes she is having emotional problems and brings her to pop psychologist David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy), who explains that her fears are due to the lack of commitment in her relationships. But when spa owners Jack and Nancy Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright) find a half formed body, they all realize that humans are being replaced.

By the late ’70s, America was a very different place than it had been when the classic 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers was made. Gone was the fear of reds hiding under the bed as well as goose stepping McCarthyism. But paranoia is omnipresent and new fears ruled. It was a time of growing impersonalization, with the cozy neighborhood eclipsed by the urban jungle. It was also the time when people looked back and realized that the idealism of the ’60s was gone. Flower children had become Wall Street brokers. In other words, it was the perfect time for a retelling of the ultimate tale of isolation.

This version isn’t a remake. It has an entirely new set of characters, in a new place and time, undergoing horrors similar to, but not the same as those in the original film. If it wasn’t for the gap of twenty years, this would be a sequel. It even has a cameo by Kevin McCarthy (the star of the original), yelling a warning in the streets.

Like the first, it conjurers up a world of paranoia which should have you glancing uneasily at the person sitting next to you (personally, I wouldn’t trust him!). Shadows abound, and even the day is gray and unpleasant. I can’t recall if the sun ever shines. Even when the leads are doing nothing more than strolling down the street, everything looks off. People are constantly staring or in the wrong place (an unaccredited Robert Duvall, as a priest on a child’s swing, is particularly unnerving). Then there is Nimoy, who is disturbing, particularly when he’s smiling and tossing out useless self-help slogans. There are no moments when you can relax. It’s a tense world and a tense film.

But this time, I was never completely brought into that world. Director Philip Kaufman makes the mistake of supplying no entrance. In the ’56 version, we see the world through the eyes of a nice, normal, rational guy, and are taken with him into paranoia. But here, we are first presented with the already-paranoid Elizabeth, who is a believer in evil possession from moment one. Additionally, Adams plays her too sedately, as if she has already lost her soul. It’s harder to care about the population of the world being replaced by emotionless clones if everyone is already half way there. Then the point of view switches over to Sutherland’s Matthew. Now I enjoy Sutherland, but he is never warm and cuddly. Is there any difference between a Sutherland pod-person and a Sutherland non-pod-person? He’s pretty creepy no matter who he is playing. Goldblum amps up his nerd stereotype to make Jack such an annoying person that I want him to be gobbled by the nearest alien plant, and while Cartwright’s Nancy is better, I can’t say that I was deeply concerned with her welfare. When the situation is so bleak and strange, some kind of happy normalcy is needed to trick you into joining the party, and to show you what is being destroyed. Here, it looks like the world was lost before the movie started, and we’re just along to watch it gasp.

A third, slightly less successful version, entitled Body Snatchers, was made in the early ’90s, and Sutherland starred in the similarly themed The Puppet Masters in ’94.

Aliens, Reviews Tagged with: Three Reels

Damien: The Omen II (1978)

Oct 061978

Damien, apparently not living with the President as the end of The Omen implied, has been adopted by his uncle (William Holden) who runs the powerful Thorn corporation. Like in the past, those who get in Damien’s way die and things will only get worse when he learns who he is.

Sequels—so many ways to fail. The Omen II chooses the repeat method. The same things happen as in the first, but without the originality, impact, or mystery. While The Omen unfolded before Robert Thorn, a sympathetic character that allowed the viewer to enter the film’s world, the story of The Omen II is laid out at the beginning without any character to follow. Thoughts of the coming apocalypse are forgotten and fierce dogs have been replaced by crows (apparently, an adult human female cannot overpower a crow). It might have been interesting to see Damien struggling with the knowledge that he is the Antichrist, but we’ll never know as that is just one of many plot threads that were dropped. There is the suggestion that the Whore of Babylon could be pertinent, but that is dropped as well. With its simple plot, undeveloped characters, and meaningless murders, The Omen II flows more like a Slasher than a horror story based on Christian myth, and not an entertaining one.

Christian Mythos, Reviews Tagged with: One Reel

The Initiation of Sarah (1978)

Oct 051978

Self-conscious Sarah (Kay Lenz) and her prom-queenish sister Patty (Morgan Brittany) start college, and concentrate on the only thing important: getting into a sorority. Patty is accepted as a pledge at the house where all the girls are pretty but bitchy, while Sarah is only wanted by the smart-but-plain house. Naturally, the bad girls, led by Jennifer (Morgan Fairchild), abuse Sarah, and her sister does little to help. But they didn’t take into account Sarah’s innate telekinetic powers that come out when she gets angry (“You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry”). The weird house mother (Shelley Winters) wants Sarah to use her powers for revenge, which, as this is a late seventies TV movie, means things are not going to end up well for anyone.

What kind of college did the filmmakers go to? Were there schools like this in the ’70s? Or in the ’50s when the writers went to school? The college dorm is a single room with bunk beds, and every girl pledges a sorority (hey, who wouldn’t with the entire freshman class in close quarters). A house mother with no sign of a degree gets to teach a class on “magic” while the psych course has no connection to psychology. The classroom (the only one shown) is large, but most of the seats are empty. This gives the few freshmen who show up an opportunity to ask questions that could only pop up in a teleplay written by people who have no idea what Psych 101 is like: “Do you believe that a person could be both good and evil?” Ummmm. Is that in the text? I suppose I shouldn’t count it as odd that all the students are far too old to be in college—that’s normal for film.

So, what’s here once you get past the unlikely campus? Carrie. There are changes, but it’s far closer to that high school telekinetic shocker than most remakes are to their “inspirations.” That doesn’t mean it’s all bad. Copies can exceed the original, and Carrie is one of the most overrated horror films. Still, this isn’t a case of the rip-off replacing its predecessor.

For a made-for-TV flick, it looks good, with better than average production values and direction that’s more than workman-like. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see this at a theater. The characters are generally well drawn, and while stereotypes abound, they are fleshed out stereotypes.

But the whole thing gets tiring. I’ve seen enough insecure-nerd-rising-up flicks for a lifetime. Sarah gets annoying very quickly, which is a problem when we’re supposed to be on her side. Why do people with superpowers always whine about them? “Oh no, I’ve harmed the guy who was assaulting my sister; how can I live with that?” Hey, give me the ability to move things with my mind and you won’t see me crying about it. “With great power comes great responsibility.” Yeah. Right. Only if you feel the need to dress in spandex.

There are surprisingly few answers given to the many questions brought up over the hour and a half. Sometimes ambiguity and uncertainly lend an air of suspense and terror. Sometimes they do nothing but leave gaping holes in the story. This is an example of the second. It feels like a half hour was chopped out by the assistant to the associate editor.

Most of the flaws could have been overlooked if the ending had been more satisfying. Carrie at least knew how to be cathartic. Not here. Instead we get a more socially acceptable finale, and what’s more exciting than being socially acceptable.

It was remade in 2006 as The Initiation of Sarah.

Reviews, Witches Tagged with: Two Reels

Halloween (1978)

Oct 031978

Years after he killed his sister, the now grown Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and stalks babysitters.

I didn’t see Halloween in ’78. Then it was a phenomenon. It was the beginning of a new kind of film (Not really; Bay of Blood was the beginning, but everyone didn’t start copying it till Halloween). By the time I got to it, I’d seen dozens of films exactly like it. There’s no question of its importance to the Slasher sub-genre. There are however, lots and lots of questions one can ask about it.

Outside of its place in history, is it a good film? The sad answer is no. It doesn’t have a story, just a mood. It leads nowhere. Michael kills some babysitters, chases one, is killed several times, and gets up each time. He does all that because he is the personification of evil. I suppose that’s a reason. Not much of one. The other characters have little personality and behave stupidly so that they can get attacked. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) hides in a closet so that she will be trapped. She also likes to hang around Michael’s dead body, with her back to him. This can be forgiven once, but is a bit much the second time. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence), the worst psychiatrist in the world, just mutters that Michael is evil (no wonder the Sheriff doesn’t take him seriously) and lurks in the bushes. Not everything is bad. John Carpenter has more style than most Slasher directors. The music is memorable and there are several well-crafted scenes (the best has Laurie by a door frame as Michael’s face fades in above her). But that isn’t worth 90 minutes of your time.

It was followed by Halloween 2, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Halloween: Resurrection.

Halloween, Reviews, Slashers Tagged with: One Reel

Romeo and Juliet (1978)

Oct 031978

Romeo (Patrick Ryecart) and Juliet (Rebecca Saire), the children of warring families, fall in love and secretly marry. When Tybalt (Alan Rickman), a cousin of Juliet, is killed by Romeo after he slays Romeo’s friend, Mercutio (Anthony Andrews), the… Well, you know what happens.

This stage-like presentation was the first version of Romeo and Juliet that worked for me. I’m happy to say that I’ve seen many more live and cinematic versions over the years and found a good many that have the right elements, but in 1978, this was a revelation.

Certainly, it is far from a perfect adaptation. Shot as a stage play, almost no use is made of the advantages of film. The sets are claustrophobic, the camera work simplistic, and the music repetitive. The fight scenes, which would be barely acceptable in a live performance, are embarrassing. It is also a very standard adaptation. Everything has been done many times before. There are no new insights into why the characters do what they do, and most of Shakespeare’s bawdier lines are recited as if they are normal conversation (a common flaw—making Shakespeare socially proper).

Additionally, Ryecart is an unexciting Romeo, demonstrating none of the passion the part requires. He is also too old. (See my review of three other versions of Romeo and Juliet for my thoughts on the importance of age in the play).

But with all that, it still works, due to a few fine casting choices. John Gielgud is always welcome, even in so small a roll as the Chorus, and Michael Hordern, who specialized in confused characters who somehow retain their dignity, gives depth to Capulet. Alan Rickman (who has impressed me over and over in such films as Die Hard, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Dogma, and Galaxy Quest) is an intense and wonderfully oily Tybalt. I can’t think of any other performance that made me so gleeful at Tybalt’s death. Then there is Anthony Andrews as Mercutio. Mercutio is a difficult role that almost no one gets right. He should be slightly manic, the quirky high school/college clown with something to prove, but too often he just comes off as a nut. Andrews walks the line and succeeds in making him likable if still exasperating.

But successful secondary performances, no matter how superb, can’t make Romeo and Juliet sing. It is Rebecca Saire who does that. Age appropriate, she imbues Juliet with innocence, intelligence, a desire to please, and passion. She makes Juliet what she needs to be, a near-fourteen year old girl. The party scene is the best I’ve seen (well, her part of it anyway) as Juliet cautiously flirts with Romeo. She swept me into the tragedy.

A good cast can overcome all flaws in a production of Romeo and Juliet (and any Shakespearian play). With a better Romeo, this would be the definitive version.

Reviews, Shakespeare Tagged with: Four Reels

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Oct 021978

As civilization falls, two SWAT team members (Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger), a TV journalist (Gaylen Ross), and her helicopter pilot boyfriend (David Emge), take refuge from the zombie hordes in a shopping mall.

Quick Review: This is the iconic zombie film. The modern concept of zombies was started in Night of the Living Dead, but here is where it all comes together. What was crudely done in the first film is done with finesse here. The characterizations are still weak, but much improved. The violence is extreme, often cartoon-like, and mostly committed on zombies, but when it is on humans, it is visceral. Plus, Dawn of the Dead is funny; it’s pretty dark humor, with entrails on the side, but funny. More than in the first, the zombies represent us. After death, they still shop. Their unlives are just as empty and meaningless as their lives had been. The survivors are us too, and when they are given a chance, they too fall into old meaningless habits of collecting “stuff.” Then there is the road gang. Guess who they represent?

Like many so-called horror films, you won’t be frightened by Dawn of the Dead. Sickened, maybe, but not frightened. It is an adventure film, with social commentary and gore. Enjoy.

Followed by Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead.

Back to Zombies

Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews, Zombies Tagged with: Four Reels

The Big Sleep (1978)

Sep 291978

In London, General Sternwood (James Stewart) hires American expatriate detective Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum) to deal with blackmail threats. However, what he really wants is for Marlowe to uncover what happened to his missing son-in-law. Marlowe finds that both the blackmail and the disappearance are tied up with Sternwood’s wild daughters, Charlotte (Sarah Miles) and Camilla (Candy Clark), a gangster named Eddie Mars (Oliver Reed), and a homosexual pornographer.

The 1946 Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall The Big Sleep is a Film Noir classic. Truly one of the great films. But it doesn’t always make a lot of sense and varies from the Raymond Chandler novel by adding a romance and obscuring all of the sex, drugs, and homosexuality that couldn’t be put onscreen at the time. This 1978 version does succeed in putting the racy bits back, and sticking close to the letter, if not the spirit, of the novel. But in putting back all those words from the book, I’d have thought that someone would have bothered to read them. Writer-director-producer Michael Winner obviously didn’t. He saw them, but had no idea what they meant.

The mistakes start with the casting of Robert Mitchum, and he is by far the best thing about the film. I enjoy listening to Mitchum’s velvety, reverberating voice, and he has an air of nonchalance that is seductive. But he’s not Marlowe. He is far too old for the role, looking tired when he should be ready for action. And Marlowe isn’t a nonchalant guy, though he can appear to be calm. He’s an aggressive man who can get wrapped up in his passions. I’m not pointing out what Marlowe is like in the novel, but rather what Winner mindlessly ported over to his screenplay. So, here’s a character who is sticking with the case long after he’s officially done because he cares, and Mitchum plays it somewhere between “I need a nap” and “I couldn’t give a damn.”

The rest of the cast is a disaster. Sternwood is a bitter man whose own failings are responsible for his twisted daughters, but he’s portrayed by Stewart in typical Stewart fashion. It’s Mister Smith goes to London. Sternwood first meets Marlowe in his hothouse where he stays for his health. But no mention is made in this version of why they are hanging out there, and with the all-American Sterwart looking only slightly down, and Mitchum appearing perfectly comfortable, I’m left wondering if any of these people knew what the scene was about.

Miles, Clark, and Reed are far worse. Charlotte Sternwood has nothing to do in this adaptation so Miles overacts for no point and then vanishes for most of the picture. Clark prances about as if she’s in a comedy about insane people and occasionally takes off her clothes. Yes, she’s topless (and bottomless, but you don’t see much in that regard), but not for that long so don’t think you’ll find anything exciting. Reed whispers his role. Did Winner tell him to do that or did he decide on his own? Either way, someone needed to approach him during filming and tell him to cut it out.

Far more is wrong than the cast. Once again, Chandler’s work has been ripped out of its time (and this time, place) and it doesn’t fit where it’s been dropped. Much like in 1969’s Marlowe, that put the detective in the summer of love, Marlowe and company are anachronistic to their surroundings. This is a hardboiled detective story with all the trimmings, and it feels silly in the late ’70s. Gone with the time and place (Chandler’s novels are quintessentially American) is the Noir style. There are no shadows or interesting camera angles to show the corruption of the world. Instead there is the same kind of cinematography I might expect on an episode of The Love Boat.

The changed time period also turns the story into a comedy. Apparently, one of the characters is selling—are you ready?—dirty books! Oh no. Wow, I can see why he has to sneak around with his hardbound “filth,” as Marlowe calls it. Then there are the tasteful nude photos of Camilla. That’s hardly the stuff of blackmail in 1978. Perhaps if she was the type of girl who attended upper class tea parties, but everyone knows she’s an uncontrollable, violent, drugged-addicted nymphomaniac.

The Big Sleep almost gets my rating, but Mitchum, though wrong for the role, still manages to slide some value into this crude affair just by speaking, though not enough to make it worth your time.

The other actors who have portrayed Philip Marlowe on the big screen are: Dick Powell in Murder My Sweet (1944), Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake (1947), George Montgomery in The Brasher Doubloon (1947), James Garner in Marlowe (1969), and Elliot Gould in The Long Goodbye (1973).

Film Noir, Reviews Tagged with: One Reel

Doctor Strange (1978)

Mar 021978

The barriers between worlds are falling as the current sorcerer supreme (John Mills) comes to the end of his time. He and his associate, Wong (Clyde Kusatsu), must find the new sorcerer, Dr. Strange (Peter Hooten) in three days. In that same amount of time, Morgan LeFay (Jessica Walter) must destroy them to allow a new age of darkness.

Yes, it was the ‘70s and Stephen Strange has a porn mustache. Get over it. It looked fine to me in 1978 when I saw this as a pilot for a series that never happened. This was the time of Marvel’s foray into television with Spider-Man, Captain America, and the Incredible Hulk. Doctor Strange took a less juvenile route, and instead of looking like a spandex boy’s adventure, took its inspiration from Italian horror. The psychedelic trips through astral planes and the dream-running through fog are the sorts of surreal elements they were premiering. Those are horror clichés now, but were innovative in ’78. The music is reminiscent of the scores Goblin composed for a range of European monster movies around this time.

Instead of Doctor Strange being an ass as he was in the comics, it is his boss and the head nurse who are uncaring wretches. The damaged hands plot is jettisoned as well, and I’m glad to see it go. His was always a hackneyed origin and keeping to it is what held back the 2016 MCU version. This Stephen Strange has always been a good man and a lady’s man, though him being destined to be the next master of magic with zero training is a bit hackneyed too. Morgan’s obsession with getting some Strange meat is trite as well.

Hooten is functional as the lead and on par with what I would expect from a TV movie of the time. John Mills was too good an actor to be stuck in TV films, but he didn’t put in too much effort. Jessica Walter is the MVP, hamming it up just enough to make LeFay sexy and fun.

Doctor Strange is about as good as it could have been under the artistic and budgetary limitations of network TV. With the character now portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch and backed by many millions of dollars, think of this as a novelty.

Fantasy, Reviews, Superhero Tagged with: Two & 1/2 Reels

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