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Reviews
Malcolm in the Middle (2000)
Mystery writer!
Terrific, twisted and dark television - which also happens to be hilarious.
BUT - anybody know who the writer "Plug-In Modem" is, is supposed to be, or a fake name for either Tom Holland or Jeff Melman - MALCOM's main directors, who just happen to be dark and twisted also....
House of Dracula (1945)
Lon finally gets cured!
Sort of a Betty Ford Clinic for the classic Universal monsters, notably in the case of Larry Talbot, who finally gets cured by the mad doctor of the piece, Dr.Edelman (Onslow Stevens). A very, very entertaining B-film written by the fine Curt Sidmak (who really was put through the wringer in devising these sequels - starting with FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN, comparing food like herring is good and other dinner is good, but try and put them together.... well...). Anyhow, the Wolfman (Lon Chaney, Jr) is cured - something Universal just chose to forget when a couple years later they made ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Beautiful black-and-white photography, and not an ounce of footage wasted.
Berserk (1967)
Only in Hollywood...
BERSERK! is certainly one of the most oddball films around - but not as shoddy as so many other just-plain-bad movies are. There's no question it's bizarre and - with Joan Crawford as the love interest - very, very creepy - and although in was acully made in England, I think it will go down as a bit of tragic macabre trivia that could only happen in Hollywood: Mr. Cohen must have been watching this on AMC right before he died of throat cancer on July 2.
While not a maker of spectacular movies, he was another of those Hollywood super independent producers that worked out of the same office at Raleigh Studios, seeing it change hands several times over the last 50 years.Those of us - including his partner, Didier Chatelian - who work there only found out about his death today, June 7th.
Invaders from Mars (1953)
Perspective is everything
Like most of the user comment folks, I grew up with this film, and thus have always had a fondness in my science fiction heart for it. It's totally right-on as a child's nightmare (forced perspective, huge sets, adults seen as stereotypes, horror) which makes me think William Cameron Menzies really knew how to make his tiny budget stretch and become an engrossing children's fantasy. Many other filmmakers (Tim Burton, et al) have duplicated Menzies' sense of wonder in consruction of sets. I don't know if it ever was released in 3D, but I'm assuming it was. - everything seemed designed for that process.
Nothing awful in the film (in adult eyes, such as the zippered monster costumes)matter at all next to the truly incredible sets, the grand Mars "master" in it's globe (actully a woman playing the surreal head), and the still gruesome (by suggestion) shots of the Mars crystal bored into the back of necks to make adults willing slaves while more and more folks are captured in sand-dunes opening up beneath them.... well, whew! It's an supurb rendition of a kid's most terrible sweat dream.
Tobe Hooper's version touches on none of this - why, I don't know - and is a very, very bad "remake". It's one of those "what were they thinking" sort of thing.
Eegah (1962)
Neanderthal filmmaking...
I've been to plenty of bad movies - believing in all sincerity that a filmmaker should see everything - but I'd have to say this one takes the Caveman Cake.I and my girlfriend saw it at a midnight (at least it seemed like midnight - time being relative) screening, and she actully BEGGED me to leave. And we've been through some pretty awful films.Shockingly pointless, on the most primitive level possible. I was surprised to read in HARPO SPEAKS! that the film was made on Mr. Marx's private little ranch area (without permission from Harpo, who spotted the actors in their ratty costumes and little equipment U-Haul. and sauntered by to give Arch Hall a little nod to let him know it was OK to shoot there.... the same story is mentioned in the book INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS). In any case, my vote for the WORST piece of cinema of all time... it has to be, otherwise I'd turn in anything I own that has to do with films!
The Front Page (1974)
Hey, Universal!!!
While not one of Wilder's best, THE FRONT PAGE is still engrossing and shows how two top-notch directors handle the material: Howard Hawks in the "take-a-deep-breath-and-begin" screwball comedy, HIS GIRL FRIDAY - and Billy Wilder's more serious film (well, a little more, anyway) and much, much slower approach to the same Hecht-MacArthur play. But, hey, Universal - for cryin' out loud get the undubbed one on cable... Wilder was about words, and the version I've seen for years is a censored one.
Queen of Outer Space (1958)
Simply amazing!
Incredible that such good writers as Charles Beaumont and Ben Hecht did the deed for this insane, cliche-ridden, and hilarious film. Guns must have been held to their heads. Best line: (Eric Fleming): "How do you know our language....?" Reply: (from Zsa Zsa) "Ve learned it from yer radio broadcasts". I guess the Venus women listened to Radio Free Europe. A real corker.How it got made is a total mystery, but it exists in the realm in truly so-bad-they-are good movies.
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997)
Well, it ain't "Sunset Boulevard"
It (the film) really, REALLY makes you saddened for the loss of Billy Wilder, not that in any way the combination of Arthur Hiller and Joe Esterhas is anything short of unholy. Hyper, unrelenting look at Hollywood tactics - but truly boring. Just an awful movie.