Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Watched the Romero original for the first time. Although it seems pretty lame by today's standards (with annoyingly overdone music, as per old films) I can see how this was groundbreaking at the time.
Now watching Nosferatu (1922).
I can't help thinking of that SpongeBob episode...
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY 1981 - How many times I would catch this on tv---and bail out after the title song. I never bothered watching the movie. Finally I have. And I would agree with those who rank it with The Spy Who Loved Me as the two best Moore films. I am not a James Bond fan--I find that the romance antics tend to derail the movies most of the time (OHMSS being an exception) and some of the humor but in this case I think it mostly succeeds in being a more serious and focused spy adventure. There are a couple of things that bother me but overall-the action scenes were great--the ski stuff, the underwater sequences, and the cliff scene! I always dread seeing those spikes being drive into rock and wondering how anyone would trust that to hold you up.
James Bond: Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.
Q: That's putting it mildly, 007!
WILLARD 1971 - A Bing Crosby production. It has been a long time since I watched this--I remember the sequel BEN more. It's intriguing that Spartacus composer Alex North did the music for this.
It feels less like a exploitation film and more of a 1950s-60s studio drama production. It's not really horrific--if AIP had made this it would have been more explicit. I found the theme was intricate in that Willard is a weakling and perhaps his father was as well--unable to stop the takeover by his stronger business partner. Willard gains power through his kindness to some rats, and before long he is given a small white rat as a familiar--and then a dark rat (Ben) shows up. They represent two sides of himself--the more docile side and the aggressive wild suppressed desires.
The ending suggests that Willard assumed he had found himself and gained lasting power but in fact he owed it all to the rats and Ben was there to punctuate that message. I have not seen the remake.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY 1981 - How many times I would catch this on tv---and bail out after the title song. I never bothered watching the movie. Finally I have. And I would agree with those who rank it with The Spy Who Loved Me as the two best Moore films. I am not a James Bond fan--I find that the romance antics tend to derail the movies most of the time (OHMSS being an exception) and some of the humor but in this case I think it mostly succeeds in being a more serious and focused spy adventure. There are a couple of things that bother me but overall-the action scenes were great--the ski stuff, the underwater sequences, and the cliff scene! I always dread seeing those spikes being drive into rock and wondering how anyone would trust that to hold you up.
James Bond: Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.
Q: That's putting it mildly, 007!
WILLARD 1971 - A Bing Crosby production. It has been a long time since I watched this--I remember the sequel BEN more. It's intriguing that Spartacus composer Alex North did the music for this.
It feels less like a exploitation film and more of a 1950s-60s studio drama production. It's not really horrific--if AIP had made this it would have been more explicit. I found the theme was intricate in that Willard is a weakling and perhaps his father was as well--unable to stop the takeover by his stronger business partner. Willard gains power through his kindness to some rats, and before long he is given a small white rat as a familiar--and then a dark rat (Ben) shows up. They represent two sides of himself--the more docile side and the aggressive wild suppressed desires.
The ending suggests that Willard assumed he had found himself and gained lasting power but in fact he owed it all to the rats and Ben was there to punctuate that message. I have not seen the remake.
The Window from 1949 (Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Ruth Roman, dir. Ted Tetzlaff
I loved this movie and wondered why it's not better known -- but I spend so little time talking about movies or at movie sites that I wouldn't necessarily know if it were. It's based on a Cornell Woolrich story and has a delectable sense of place, in this case a neighborhood with tenements, etc. A young boy is known for his inventions and isn't believed when he tells that he saw a murder committed in the apartment upstairs when he was lying on the fire escape to deal with the sweltering city heat. Great camera work. I half felt like watching it all over again the same day. I love these old movies that get in there, tell an interesting narrative, have excellent visual storytelling, and get the job done in 80-90 minutes or so. I've had a lot of good luck with RKO movies.
I watched I Am Dragon. I'm not sure what possessed me to watch an obvious Russian Fantasy Novel, but I rather liked it. I'm now slowly working through The Tomorrow War. It's passing muster with me so far.
Fantomas contre Scotland Yard - en Français sans sous titres et j'ai compris! (C'était pas difficile. il étais une film très stupide.)
As part of my learning French by just doing it (rather than learning grammar and all the rules) I listen to French talk radio when I'm at work, read French and Belgian comics when I get home and, when the mood takes me, and I'm feeling confident, watch French language films with the subtitles on (in French, not English). Tonight I didn't have any subtitles available to me so I just went for it. I can't say I understood every single word but I knew what was going on for most of the time and - slightly amazingly - got a few of the verbal gags too.
Having said all that Fantomas contre Scotland Yard is a pretty easy to follow, comic book crime comedy enlivened by the opening second unit establishing shots of a Rolls Royce filmed driving on local roads (Argyll, Scotland) which then arrived at a very French looking châteaux - where most of the action took place.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Watched the Romero original for the first time. Although it seems pretty lame by today's standards (with annoyingly overdone music, as per old films) I can see how this was groundbreaking at the time.
Now watching Nosferatu (1922).
I can't help thinking of that SpongeBob episode...
Fantomas contre Scotland Yard - en Français sans sous titres et j'ai compris! (C'était pas difficile. il étais une film très stupide.)
As part of my learning French by just doing it (rather than learning grammar and all the rules) I listen to French talk radio when I'm at work, read French and Belgian comics when I get home and, when the mood takes me, and I'm feeling confident, watch French language films with the subtitles on (in French, not English). Tonight I didn't have any subtitles available to me so I just went for it. I can't say I understood every single word but I knew what was going on for most of the time and - slightly amazingly - got a few of the verbal gags too.
Having said all that Fantomas contre Scotland Yard is a pretty easy to follow, comic book crime comedy enlivened by the opening second unit establishing shots of a Rolls Royce filmed driving on local roads (Argyll, Scotland) which then arrived at a very French looking châteaux - where most of the action took place.
No idea about the books but Fantomas contre Scotland Yard was the third film in the series and, from what I can gather, by far the weakest. (It didn't help that clips from the two earlier, and obviously more expensive and inventive, films in the series were used to set up some backstory.) Still a better way to learn a language than learning <<'le singe est sur la branche... >> et tout ça.
THE MAD BOMBER 1973 - Rewatch. Bert I Gordon film about a father (Chuck Connors) who goes nuts after his daughter's drug overdose and seeks revenge by blowing up places.
Vince Edwards is a cop who, a partner tells him, he would arrest if he didn't have a badge, because he is so high-strung and looks ready to shoot someone.
Divorced, fed up, and all he wants is to nail the bomber.
He has to turn to rapist Neville "My name is George Fromley" Brand in order to help identify him.
From 1985? Don't fancy it. Most horror after the original is all blood and gore, Friday the 13th type stuff. Not my thing. I prefer psychological horror.
From 1985? Don't fancy it. Most horror after the original is all blood and gore, Friday the 13th type stuff. Not my thing. I prefer psychological horror.
ROTLD is more of a send up / satire, directed and written by Dan O'Bannon, so it has his trademark humour, replete with zombies chanting "brains" and exploitation parodies galore. It's the best of the "living dead" series, including the original - but yes, being an 80's horror it does have nudity and gore.
Warning Shot (1967) dir. Buzz Kulik; starring David Janssen, Ed Begley, Keenan Wynn, Joan Collins, Stephanie Powers
Janssen plays a cop with a history who shoots in self-defense, killing a local doctor who seems like a saint from early reports. To defend himself, the cop has to find out more about the doctor, certain the guy was not as clean as he was made out to be.
Sort of a standard plot, but well-done and with a good score by Jerry Goldsmith. It was introduced by Eddie Mueller and Ben Mankewicz as a neo-noir (apparently a new feature on Turner Cable Movies on Friday nights). Janssen could portray a world-weary man with a code as well as any '60s actor, and he gives it his all here. He also didn't head up many big budget movies, and this isn't really an exception, feeling a bit like a made-for-TV movie in look and content. Worth noting for the well-established actors getting a pay day for cameo roles: Lillian Gish, Walter Pidgeon, Eleanor Powell. Nice turn by George Grizzard as a chipper, flipant, helpful source.
Werewolves Within (2021) dir. Josh Ruban; starring Sam Richardson, Milana Vayntrub
If Stephen King and Christopher Guest (Best in Show; This is Spinal Tap) collaborated on rebooting the '80's (U.S.) tv show Northern Exposure, you might get this. An isolated community of eccentrics is completely cut off by a snow storm just as one of their number is found murdered, his body ravaged as by an animal attack. An environmental scientist at the scene to fight a proposed pipeline through the area determines a hair found on the body isn't exactly canine and isn't exactly human. And so, werewolf.
In spite of that description, this is not gory though there is some violence and threats of same. As horror/comedy goes, it's quietly amusing, depending on character driven humor, often dead on (*cough*) in it's depiction of panicked reactions and greatly enhanced by the chemistry and comic timing of the two leads. They deserve being paired in another movie. For viewers acquainted with older tv shows, the plot and it's eventual denouement may remind them of
The Twilight Zone's "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"
ROTLD is more of a send up / satire, directed and written by Dan O'Bannon, so it has his trademark humour, replete with zombies chanting "brains" and exploitation parodies galore. It's the best of the "living dead" series, including the original - but yes, being an 80's horror it does have nudity and gore.
ROTLD is more of a send up / satire, directed and written by Dan O'Bannon, so it has his trademark humour, replete with zombies chanting "brains" and exploitation parodies galore. It's the best of the "living dead" series, including the original - but yes, being an 80's horror it does have nudity and gore.
Yes, it is in the mode of NOTLD and it's unofficial sequel. In almost all respects it's better than the original movie, and more to be watched for laughs than shivers; closest comparison is probably Evil Dead.
Ultra-cheap, amateurish, bottom-of-the-barrel attempt at making a horror film. The confusing plot has something to do with a cult of Druids who somehow wind up in a small town in the USA. They drain blood from their victims, which has something to do with reviving their queen, who lies in a glass coffin like Sleeping Beauty. There's also one not-very-bright guy who just drinks the blood, including from a dog. With this guy, and the cult leader in a black robe, I was very strongly reminded of Manos: The Hands of Fate. There's something about an important key that the not-very-bright guy loses while attacking the dog. There's also something about the blood of the victims bubbling and growing in volume. The cult leader tells us these two odd subplots have something to do with each other. He also lets us knows they need the movie's heroine as a "host" of some kind or other. Add the worst acting you've ever seen and incoherent editing and you've got quite an experience.
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