Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Rouben Mamoulian

Starring: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert, Halliwell Hobbes

From: Paramount

You may not have heard of this Pre-Code horror film before... but it is well worth seeing, says I: 

As sometimes happens, this viewing came about due to a messageboard discussion, and the person who put this over did a good job so I paid for the streaming rental on Amazon and it was a wise selection on my part.

The first act is not a horror film at all; it sets up the story and shows how Dr. Jekyll (pronounced “Jeekyll” but I understand that is the proper way to say it, at least according to the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story) is a wise doctor in Victorian era London who is willing to help the poor and crippled. I will safely presume everyone is familiar with the general story so I don't need to dwell on how the good doctor believes everyone has two sides so he creates a potion that releases the evil Mr. Hyde. Well, in this film Hyde does not only act like an animalistic brute, but also looks like one; still effective dissolve effects show the transformations and Hyde resembles an ape. Late in the film you see he hops and moves around like one too.

Jekyll has a love interest named Muriel but her military father wishes they wait a few more months until they marry. Considering that you find out they hadn't been engaged for long... the wait is understandable, even if they have to wait to live together. There's also a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks named Ivy who the Dr. meets and Hyde quite fancies. Their relationship is especially disturbing in these modern times as it's an abusive one and Hyde possesses her. In 2018 when it comes to horror elements, their pairing and how she is terrified of him and he revels in her fear... it is rather effective and as this is Pre-Code, that means the toxic relationship is not filtered.

The film has nice sets that create the appropriate mood and there's are such visual treats as some split screen action and a few minutes which include what had to be a novel idea at the time-first person perspective from the viewpoint of Jekyll-but it is Frederic March as the leads who is the true highlight. He even won the Academy Award for the performance, shared with Wallace Beery for his role as the lead in the original The Champ. This is a rather dynamic early horror film well worth seeing.

Short Circuit 2

Short Circuit 2 (1988)

Runtime: 111 minutes

Directed by: Kenneth Johnson

Starring: Fisher Stevens, Michael McKean, Cynthia Gibb, Jack Weston, Dee McCafferty

From: TriStar

Go with me on this journey as for one more night I continued down the path of rewatching films from my youth:

Let me kick your balls into outer space by talking about another revisit to my youth; last night I saw something I saw a few times when I was a kid but it has to be a VERY long time since I saw the film in full. It's been even longer since I've seen the first Short Circuit; hopefully no one thinks of me as a craphead for preferring the sequel to the original. It may take a long while but eventually I'll see the OG Short Circuit for a review.

It is no wonder that plenty of kids around my age enjoyed the film, considering that some juvenile things happen and the lead is a cute and funny sentient robot who calls himself Johnny Five. He, his co-creator Ben and a huckster named Fred end up in New York City, which is a boon for Five as he loves acquiring input, and he has “megabytes of storage.” He wishes to be treated the same as a human being but naturally most strangers just don't understand and unfortunately his naivete causes him to trust some sleazy people who wish to use him for nefarious purposes.

There are a few very silly moments, perhaps Ben did not need a romantic interest (even if it was Cynthia Gibb) and the film is long at almost two hours; yet I was still entertained... as I did when I was a young boy, I felt bad for Johnny Five as he was not accepted by most of society and there was also a specific moment or two that I imagine was a tearjerker for many kids back in the day. Michael McKean was fine as Fred, who may be as rotten a character as you first think. Fisher Stevens as Ben... yeah, by modern standards it is not a good look. The character is supposed to be from India and Stevens is a white dude doing a stereotypical act. It was not so heinous to me that it ruins the film but then again I am a Caucasian man and if anyone from India is offended to a grievous degree, I get it.

I am not sure what Hispanics will think of the minor characters known as the Los Locos gang as they also play up stereotypes there. Yet to me they were yet another example of a 1980's movie gang that in no way reflects an actual inner-city gang from any time period. I will presume that there never have been too many that have a catchphrase and actually say it out loud. Anyhow, at least for me I still enjoy the film, problematic lead human character aside.

Flight Of The Navigator

Flight of the Navigator (1986)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Randal Kleiser

Starring: Joey Cramer, Cliff De Young, Veronica Cartwright, Sarah Jessica Parker, the voice of Paul Reubens, even if he billed himself as PAUL MALL in the film

From: Disney, although they made this with a Norwegian company

What a blast from the past this was: 

I was not expecting Turner Classic Movies to allow me to see a film I saw a few times as a kid, but here we go. A few times a year TCM devotes an evening to showing old movies, shorts and cartoons from Disney, and last night was one of those nights. 

I presume that many people around my age (late 30's) watched Navigator as a kid and were big fans. Seeing this as an adult, the first half is more impressive than the back half, which was not how I felt back then. Now, I realize that it is a rather terrifying scenario to be knocked out for what seems like a few hours in 1978 after falling into a ravine but somehow it is 8 years later and you have not aged a day... oh and there is mysterious alien data in your brain. Not even Sarah Jessica Parker with 80's hair will help you feel better about the scenario, where you are confused by how things are different now and you are understandably baffled by a Blancmange music video.

The second half of the movie becomes sillier as you find out all this is because of a spaceship that took our lead David back in '78, and he boards the ship and discovers it is sentient. Their interactions become goofy after a mind meld and the ship (nicknamed Max) acts and talks like Pee Wee Herman, because... it was voiced by Paul Reubens, who billed himself as Paul Mall in the credits. The film meanders around a lot during this section before reaching its conclusion.

Despite the silliness, overall I'll say this is fine. I don't know if it's nostalgia talking or not, but that's how I feel. Speaking of that, in 2018 how 80's the movie is really shines through: the synth score from Alan Silvestri and a sweet Miami Vice t-shirt are two shining examples there. It was a relief finding this film to still be watchable with my modern eyes. Not to end this on a downer, but only a few hours ago I discovered that Joey Cramer (who played David-real name Deleriyes Joe Cramer) was unfortunately a typical child actor in that as an adult he was screwed up... as in, developing a drug problem and getting arrested. Well, in this case he robbed a bank a few years ago! Of course he went to prison and him being sentenced is the latest news I can find, but hopefully Cramer can turn his life around.

Fangs

Fangs (Anyab) (1981)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Mohammed Shebl

Starring: Ali El Haggar, Mona Gabr, Ahmed Adaweyah, Hassan Al Imam, Talat Zein

From: Heck if I know

One thing I did not mention in my review of this bizarre curio: there are vampires who wear Ziggy Stardust-esque makeup! This phrase does not sound as strange in context:

Would you believe this is an Egyptian version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, except that the villains are vampires... and there is a DISCO soundtrack? I swear, this is not a fib. I've known of this film for awhile now and all that time it's been available for viewing on archive.org; about time I finally sat down and watched this. Turns out, it was not a painful sit or insufferable, but there is a bizarre stretch...

The general idea is the same: the movie's version of Brad and Janet (known here as Ali and Mona) are a young couple who break down in the middle of nowhere and end up in a mansion which is full of vampires-and also a hunchback-and the head of the clan is... Dracula! No, he is not a sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania, as at least in the early 80's Egypt had stringent censorship laws so that couldn't be done. Still, he fancies Mona and he gives her sex looks; I will presume that Drac is at least not overtly queer as he still has DISCO PARTIES nightly in his home and lives with his minions, so in my canon he swings both ways.

There is a rather odd turn where for twenty minutes (!) the Fangs version of The Criminologist explains to Dracula that there are bloodsuckers in Egypt, and they are those filthy capitalists that rip off the common folk. This is demonstrated in various sketches with the three leads where they play different characters and they show that there are a-hole doctors, plumbers, taxi cab drivers, and others that gouge poor people of their money and they are the true vampires; I am not making any of this up. I am not sure why all that time was spent flogging this point until it becomes a dead horse but at least it demonstrates that apparently Egypt was a crappy place to live in back then.

Plus, I was amused by the musical covers during that section. Most of the soundtrack is either some well-known classical music or a disco score that was catchy. The songs that are sung in this horror musical are not bad nor is the staging of them. Then there are the covers of such tunes as the James Bond Theme and the themes to the like of The Pink Panther, Jaws, For a Few Dollars More, A Clockwork Orange and for some reason, The Munsters! Again, I cannot explain why this was done.

Director Mohammed Shebl obviously must also have been a fan of Hammer horror as he tries to add atmosphere with plenty of fog that is in the mansion itself. I realized quickly that he loved RHPS with how he recreated it here with the limitations of budget and the country he lived in; hell, at one point a vampire puts on a RHPS t-shirt. There are visual flourishes throughout and some funny sight-gags; the 1960's Batman TV show was another obvious inspiration.

Director Shebl passed away in late '96 so he did not live to see this unexpectedly receive some notoriety in the West these past few years, to the point that it played last year at Fantastic Fest. I wonder what he would have thought of that twist. I am glad it is easy for something so odd to be tracked down and watched by anyone who is genuinely curious about such a thing as Egyptian Rocky Horror.

First Man

First Man (2018)

88% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 270 reviews)

Runtime: 138 minutes

Directed by: Damien Chazelle

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Corey Stoll, Pablo Schreiber, Jason Clarke

From: Universal/Dreamworks

Fly me to the moon...

For a film where you already know what the ultimate outcome is, this is an incredibly compelling journey with great acting and some brutally intense moments. I can admit that I've been interested in space since I was a little kid so perhaps I am a little biased here but I found this movie to be great, even if the focus was on a stoic figure who often did not say a hell of a lot. Plenty of acting had to be done without the benefit of speech and as Ryan Gosling is a natural at that, I thought he was tremendous as the lead.

First Man spans a lot of material in a two hour and eighteen minute motion picture as you see NASA go through the various steps in attempting to have Americans land on the moon first before those damned Soviets do, from the perspective of not only Neil Armstrong but also his family. There are plenty of books and documentaries that go more in-depth on this arduous journey to allow Apollo 11 to occur but this is a nice summary of all the challenges that occur and how it results in a lot of strain on the family lives of those in NASA; at least with Neil, he was often focused on work at the expense of being around his family. He is a loving dad and all and yet he became preoccupied with this goal. Claire Foy was also great as Neil's wife and among other things she had to tell him to avoid the difficult task of telling their kids that he may not make it back home from the unprecedented mission. A big reason for this is due to tragedy that happens to the family in the first act; it was one of a few tearjerker moments but this was the most important one due to how it affected him for the rest of the picture.

I was not worried if this would be a well-made film, and of course it was between the musical cues and soundtrack & the cinematography that made much of the film appear as if it was made in the 70's; the cast was uniformly fine but Gosling and Foy were the true highlights. As I alluded to, there are some intense moments; to echo something I heard a few days ago, you don't always need monsters & aliens to make outer space terrifying as hell. When things suddenly go wrong, it becomes edge of your seat entertainment where you may grab tightly onto the armrests of the auditorium seats.

I get why some have felt underwhelmed by this picture; thankfully for my tastes this was not the case and it was an inspiring tale which demonstrates how it was such a difficult task to have someone land on the moon and why it was a monumental achievement in human history. Also, you learn that apparently Buzz Aldrin was a loose cannon who was unfiltered and uttered statements out loud he probably shouldn't have. Considering that in the past decade he punched some toolbag who confronted him and said he believed in the moon landing hoax theory... I'll presume that is how Buzz actually is.

The Swarm

The Swarm (1978)

Runtime: I saw the 155 minute extended cut

Directed by: Irwin Allen

Starring: Again, WAY too many to list

From: Warner Bros.

Yes, this movie unBEElievably bad... and plus, wasps are the real enemy anyhow: 

This was not only a bee movie, but also a B-movie... and a pretty bad one at that. To clarify, I saw the 155 minute extended cut, which is the far easier version to find these days. I did not watch the recent Blu release from Warner Archive but instead watched it in standard definition via a streaming rental from Amazon Video.

For years I had heard this was a stinker and yet it wasn't until the new Blu release was referenced elsewhere that I was finally brave enough to see how poor this was, and indeed it is no surprise the combination of this and When Time Ran Out not only ruined Irwin Allen's career but stopped the disaster genre dead in its tracks for years. I can't give it an extremely low rating as there are moments of tremendous comedy-unfortunately for the film it was unintended as this was played deadly serious-but much of the movie is so... damn... boring.

There are many famous faces in the cast (everyone from Olivia de Havilland and Henry Fonda to Patty Duke Astin (as she was known then), Bradford Dillman, Slim Pickens and Richard Widmark, but it don't matter much unless you want to see all these stars made to look foolish or have to spout poor dialogue. Time is wasted on such things as which old man will take de Havilland as his girlfriend, and it's all corny and it don't really matter in the long run. Then there is the ludicrous plot where entomologist Michael Caine is somehow granted all power by the United States government and has impunity... or how killer bees that apparently can eat through plastic don't go through hazmat suits... or someone can blackmail a General into entry on a military base, or different people hallucinate a giant bee after they are attacked separately.

Of course, there is the glaring issue that no bee ever acts the way they do here, killer or not. They don't go after helicopters or attack people in a nuclear power plant. All that killer bees are were products of genetic engineering gone wrong and they are more aggressive than the typical honeybee. Only like two people a year are killed by their attacks and their venom is not incredibly potent either. Plenty is scientifically inaccurate; at least an important truth was mentioned in that the typical bee is incredibly important to Earth due to all the pollinating it does-the issue to colony collapse disorder and other issues resulting in their populations declining has far worse catastrophic effects for this world than killer bees-although I am not sure how seriously audiences would treat that message considering it was delivered by Caine in one of his many epic moments of yelling.

Lord, Caine in this film... it's one of his paycheck roles. He at times comes across as a loon, he usually dresses either in a sort of leisure suit or turtleneck, and his work vehicle is actually a 70's Ford van that is pretty much a shaggin' wagon where you expect shag carpeting in the back. Then there is the finale and the portentous dialogue he has to deliver; that finale is incredible in many different ways. It was overwrought and it's great how the plan to destroy the villains results in an environmental catastrophe when the lead spent so much time stressing how he does not wish to harm the environment or its ecosystem. What a stupid film this is!

The rating not being even lower is due to the laughs that do happen amongst all the ennui, along with the usually good effects, there being some moments of mild terror (and the movie is not afraid to show children being killed by the bees) and a fine score from Jerry Goldsmith. But this is not enough for me to say that this does not deserve the reputation as a turkey that this has had for the past four decades now.

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)

Runtime: I saw the version on the Criterion Blu release that is 197 minutes long; no that is not a misprint

Directed by: Stanley Kramer

Starring: WAY too many to list

From: MGM

I saw this on Wednesday night after taking a break from movies on Tuesday. I was glad I saw the over 3 hour cut for the first time: 

NOTE: The version of the movie I saw was the 197 minute cut from the 2014 Criterion release; this is as close to the roadshow version as can be possible; some scenes had to be done with still shots as only the audio and not the film is still around. Other inserted footage was from a variety of sources, including about 20 seconds that had white kanji subtitles. It was my first time viewing this 197 minute cut.

What an absurd movie this is. I mean, even in the shorter theatrical cut it was over 2 ½ hours longer and when it went out for roadshow engagements the length was almost an hour longer. As I've heard people say, most comedies should be 90 minutes or shorter and personally, the ones we get in these modern times should follow that rule and also cut out all the dumb improv s*** that ruins jokes and makes the overall product too long. Anyway... this is an epic length comedy shot in Cinerama, although by this point it did not mean the three screen deal but instead the term was used for motion pictures shot in Super Panavision at 2.76:1.

The premise is simple enough: Jimmy Durante is driving on a windy California road like his hair is on fire; he crashes and before literally kicking the bucket before he kicks the bucket, he tells some random motorists who stop & try to help him the location of a lot of money, only it is the location of a park and the exact location was left vague. From there is a mad scramble to find the loot, and the amount of chaos and havoc is insane. Also insane is all the comedic talent that appears in the film, whether in bit parts or substantial roles. No way could I list them all here but the variety is tremendous: people who were around since the silent/vaudeville era like Milton Berle, Buster Keaton, and The Three Stooges... those from the 30's like Joe E. Brown and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson... those that were popular at the time like Don Knotts, Buddy Hackett and Sid Caesar... and those that would later become more famous, like Jonathan Winters, Peter Falk and Norman Fell. There was even a Broadway legend in Ethel Merman, who provided arguably the most memorable character in the picture and was the butt of the final punchline. Of course some of the cast I wish would have appeared for more than just a few seconds but that's just personal preference.

I do understand how this wouldn't be for all tastes; a lot of it is slapstick/physical humor and there is plenty of yelling and screaming from the substantial cast; even for me, at times it was an exhausting three hours plus. Even then, I enjoy this picture because it is constantly over the top with all the slapstick and the calamities the main players stumble into... there are plenty of highlights, from a plane flight gone wrong and getting stuck in a basement to Winters destroying a gas station and discovering that Berle and Terry-Thomas made for a hell of a comedic duo. There's also plenty of big stunts, fistfights, car chases, etc.

A common complaint is that director Stanley Kramer was not great at comedy and it's true; this definitely is not in his wheelhouse. Yet for me it doesn't ruin the picture and at least the film is otherwise well-shot and he was able to juggle many different balls in the air with this large cast and all the big moments that happen and none of those balls dropped to the ground. In the future I'll look at the special features but I can say that the picture and sound on the Blu were great, so it was the expected quality job from Criterion, and if you want to see this beloved movie in its full form, it is a purchase I highly recommend making.