Twilight Zone: The Movie

"You're travelling through another dimension...a dimension, not only of sight and sound, but of mind...a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.  Next stop... The Twilight Zone!"

Growing up, I'd watched a lot of syndicated television, especially shows from the 50s and 60s-all in black & white-and I must say it was the highlight of my life.  Laughing through classic shows like "Leave it to Beaver" and "The Munsters" was what I remember doing most afternoons once returning home from school.  But one show that was equally enjoyable, although more on the serious side, was "The Twilight Zone."

Yes, most people know the music intro and will usually hum it or imitate it when something strange happens to them.  Or they may recognize the image of Rod Serling-the creator of the show-when seeing his image on books, magazines, or other types of media.  It helps, for many generations to come, that the ride, The Tower of Terror in Disney's California Adventure Park, contains video footage of Serling during the progress of the ride so that kids today will know of him.

I am truly a fan of the series that ran from 1959 until 1964 and will watch it any time it shows up on television.  Sadly, that's a rare occurrence and a lot of networks don't show as many syndicated shows as they did long ago.  I guess there are just too many new programs to air that they can't go back to the glorious yesteryear of the Golden Age of television.

Back in 1983, Warner Bros. set out to make a movie anthology, based on the famous television series, calling it Twilight Zone: The Movie.  Four stories were incorporated into the film with four well-known directors helming them.  Before the film was even released, it made the news as, sadly, Vic Morrow was killed during the production due to a stunt performance gone wrong.  Although Morrow was known for films like Blackboard Jungle and The Bad News Bears, I'll always remember him for his awesome performance in this movie.

The film opens with two men driving at night on a rural road, making a game of guessing television theme songs; it becomes obvious that the driver picked up the passenger as a hitchhiker.  The passenger (Dan Aykroyd), at one point, asks the driver (Albert Brooks), "Do you want to see something really scary?"  The driver reluctantly pulls over at the behest of the passenger and waits.  The passenger turns away, and then turns back as a demonic creature of some sort, attacking the driver.

And that's when the familiar opening, we all know so well, begins.  Except, instead of the voice of Rod Serling, we get the equally recognizable voice of Burgess Meredith, which is fitting since Meredith had starred in a number of original "Twilight Zone" television episodes.

In the first segment, "Time Out," directed by John Landis, Bill Conner (Vic Morrow) gets together with some friends at the local tavern after work.  He begins to be seriously pissed off because he was passed up on a promotion, citing that the company wanted to make sure they promoted another ethnicity besides white.

 Going on a tirade about other cultures and using racial slurs, Conner gets up and leaves.  However, when he goes out the door, he begins to be seen as the ethnicities he had just degraded minutes ago.  In different worlds and timelines, he now know how it feels to be persecuted as a Jew, an African-American, and a Vietnamese, as he goes through different dimensions to have these lessons taught to him.

"Time Out" is my favorite of all the segments in this film.  Morrow was perfect for the part and the story was incredible.  Strangely, yet remarkably, this is the original of the stories, as the others are remakes of actual episodes.  Unfortunately, this is the vignette where Morrow lost his life.  Turns out, there was to be a very enthusiastic scene where Morrow's character saves two Vietnamese children during the war.  Included were numerous pyrotechnics and a helicopter that flew overhead as the scene played out.  Well, the helicopter pilot lost control or something malfunctioned and the helicopter went down, the blades decapitating Morrow and one of the children, while the helicopter itself crushed the other child on impact.  It's a very forlorn swansong for a great like Vic Morrow.  I always keep him in mind when I watch this segment, because it could have been even more mesmerizing of a story.

In the second segment, "Kick the Can," a cheerful old man, Mr. Bloom (Scatman Crothers), shows up to teach the other aging residents that you're never too old to play a game of 'kick the can'-in other words, you're never too old to enjoy life.  However, Leo Conroy (Bill Quinn), resists, saying he's too old and that the other residents shouldn't play as well, citing they'll end up hurting themselves as they shouldn't engage in such activities.  But later, he learns how wrong he was and how right Mr. Bloom had been.

"Kick the Can" is not one of my favorites from this film...in fact, it's my least favorite.  Amazingly, it was Steven Spielberg who had directed this part of the film.  It's still nice to view, but it makes the film, as a whole, a little uneven to watch.  The other three stories feature more shocking themes to them and this little family outing seems a little soft in comparison.  Still, it's a nice story and a basic premise that you might've seen on one of the original television programs.

The third segment, directed by Joe Dante, is "It's a Good Life" and is taken from one of the well-known episodes featuring Billy Mumy (who has a cameo in this piece).  Helen Foley (Kathleen Quinlan) is a teacher travelling to her new job and stops at a local diner for directions.  When leaving, as she backs away from the

diner in her car, she ends up hitting a young boy named Anthony (Jeremy Licht) on his bike, knocking him off but not hurting him.  She then offers Anthony a ride home, to which he accepts.  Upon arrival at the boy's home, she finds herself in a strange place where the boy has the power to control everything and create anything he wants.

This is another nice one featuring some truly terrifying practical special effects.  If you're familiar with the works of Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins), then you'll know the look of his films, which is what you have here.  The story is a little tighter than the original, definitely goes a little further then what they did in that episode, but it still lags a little here and there.  But as I'd said about the theme of the movie as a whole, it gets the movie back on track and sets up the last terrific segment.

The fourth story, directed by George Miller, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," is yet another remake of a classic episode.  The story is about a nervously stressed out passenger, John Valentine (John Lithgow), on a flight to L.A.  The core of his stress-being afraid to fly-is eating at him as he annoys the flight attendants and other passengers throughout the flight.  To add to his anxiety, Valentine begins seeing a strange creature on the wing of the plane, ripping pieces of paneling off and hurling them into the engine.  Every time he has someone look out the window, the creature is not there.  So...is Mr. Valentine hallucinating?  Or is the creature real?

Man, this segment really hits home, as I'm nearly as crazed and tense when flying on an airplane as Lithgow's character in this part-although I pretty much keep it all inside.  The whole segment is such a suspenseful experience; you really sit on the edge of your seat, wondering what's going to happen next.  Though the story is taken from the classic episode starring William Shatner, Lithgow really turns it up a notch-or ten-with his wild-eyed performance.  While the first segment is my favorite, this one's a close second.  The segment concludes, wrapping up the beginning prologue with Dan Aykroyd (as an ambulance driver taking Lithgow's character away) repeating his question from the start of the film, "Do you want to see something really scary?"  The famous theme music begins as the end credits roll.

Thoroughly, I think this movie is great with superb performances and great direction.  With the odd exception of "Kick the Can," all the stories-including the bookend segments-fit nicely together and mesh well, going from one to another.  The film was certainly an ambition project, but done well so I don't know why it didn't garner better box office receipts.  Who knows?  Maybe the movie-going audiences weren't ready for it back then?  Perhaps the negative publicity, due to the film having three deaths during production, caused Warner Bros. not to promote it as much.  I actually don't remember hearing about it back then, but I do remember seeing advertisements for it.

Anyway, let's get my final "bit" on Twilight Zone: The Movie.

The film could've been a strong beginning to a continuation of many sequels.  One can only imagine how cool it would've been to have a four-segment movie come out every few years, remaking classic episodes of the show.  Without having the constraints television would've put in place if this was to be aired on TV, the shock value is a lot higher when including a bit of gore and believable dialogue infused.  It's sad that this film has been forgotten and not really known for anything but the tragic accident during filming.

As a post "bit," word has it that Warner Bros. wants to try a full-length feature again.  This time, however, they want to have one story as opposed to making another anthology of tales...big mistake, in my opinion.  When the show ran in the early 60s, CBS had Rod Serling change the episode lengths from half-hour shows to full-hour ones.  They were noticably drawn-out and had a lot of obvious filler in each episode, making them kind of boring.  The following season, however, the format went back to half-hour, so that should clue in Warner Bros. to their harebrained idea to make a 90-minute movie with just one story.  Learn from history, Warner Bros.

Thanks for reading...and I welcome any comments!

You can also tweet to me on Twitter: @CinemaBits.

Robocop (1987)

Part man.  Part machine.  All cop.  The future of law enforcement.

The words above were the tag line for this film from 1987 and it rang so true when I’d watched this movie.  It’s a film that still amazes me to this day, with the sci-fi aspect, the practical effects, the gory violence, and the performances, making this a very memorable movie from the year that I had turned 19.

Growing up during the 80s, the best thing I remember about it were the fantastic movies that were released in theaters.  The second two films from the Star Wars trilogy stand out in the early part of the decade, so did E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, parts one through eight of the Friday the 13th franchise, about four sequels of the Halloween series of films, the Back to the Future trilogy, and so many others.

Yes, the 80s were big for horror and sci-fi—all original and nary a remake to be seen (The Thing is the only one I can think of).  But as the 80s were coming to an end, the movies seemed to be coming out more and more, with a lot sci-fi and horror that featured big improvements in special effects.  One of those films was 1987’s Robocop.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven, a virtual unknown in Hollywood (at the time), he only directed a handful of films—mostly Dutch films—before being hired to take on this task of making this film.  What he gave us, however, was a classic.  And what a way to jump start his career in American film!  He continued with quite a few hits afterwards, with Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and Starship Troopers.  But it’s Robocop that I identify with him the most.

The film begins in a near-futuristic, yet dystopian, Detroit, where crime is skyrocketing and law enforcement is corporately owned by a powerful conglomerate, Omni Consumer Products (OCP), causing the cops of the city to be inimical in their jobs as cops.  Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) transfers to the city’s precinct, partnered with Officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen), and takes to the streets right away.  Meanwhile, Senior President and second-in-command of OCP, Dick Jones (Ronnie Cox), tries to introduce a new weapon for OCP to sell to the military, an enforcement droid, dubbed ED-209, but it malfunctions, killing a junior exec during a presentation.  Seeing his chance, another junior executive, Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer), explains to the OCP Chairman (Dan O’Herlihy) how he has a “Robocop” program that he can have ready to go within 90 days once he gets a candidate from the police department.  The chairman agrees to see it and Jones is not happy about being outdone.  Back to Murphy and Lewis going after a getaway from a bank heist, they’re on the trail of Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) and his gang of thugs.  They follow them to their hideout in some abandoned industrial factory and, without any backup available, decide to go in to find them.  Splitting up, Murphy finds some of the gang, but is quickly outnumbered and disarmed.  Boddicker shows up, taunts Murphy before shooting his hand off, and soon, the rest of the gang unload their guns on him as well, leaving him for dead.  Murphy is then brought to the hospital and declared dead, but before long, through Murphy’s point-of-view, we see that he’s the candidate for Bob Morton’s “Robocop” program.  Soon, we see that Murphy has been made into a cyborg, half man-half machine, memory wiped and programmed with prime directives: 1. Serve the public trust, 2. Protect the innocent, and 3. Uphold the law.  A fourth, classified directive is programmed as well that comes into play later in the film.  Murphy, as the cyborg police officer, is then dispatched with his own car to carry out his directives, soon catching up with the men who had shot and left him for dead, as he starts to remember, little by little.

Wow, Verhoeven definitely made a name for himself when he directed Robocop, and it’s a wonder he was able to get this movie passed with just an R-rating.  With all the people getting viscerally shot, as blood is being splattered everywhere, it’s amazing.  Especially the scene where Murphy is being mocked by Boddicker as he shoots his hand off, and the joking and laughing as the rest of his hoods are shooting him, I’m surprised the MPAA let this film be released as just an ‘R’ movie.  But that’s what makes this film so special, making the audience get behind Murphy when he goes after each member of Boddicker’s gang, carrying the motivation of what they did to him.  I still get so angry as a certain scene plays out, where after Murphy gets his hand blown off, one of the characters asks, in a mocking voice, “Does it hurt?” as he smiles and laughs afterwards.

What’s great is that Robocop features more than one baddie in it, but it doesn’t get confusing because it’s left black-and-white that Murphy is the protagonist and Boddicker, Jones, and anyone associated with them are the antagonists.  Even as the scene plays out where the police are called in to take out Murphy after he confronts Jones, we know that they’re just following orders straight from Jones, no matter how bogus they feel it is.  Overall, we get a heroic story, complete with a superhero that has a need for vengeance.  For me, any movie that has that formula will score every time.

So many memorable scenes and lines are in this film.  The voice of Peter Weller, himself, is so unforgettable, I can’t see (or hear) anyone else in the roll.  “Your move, creep” is one of the memorable lines in this film, “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me” is another, and as cheesy as they sound, it fits this movie perfectly.

The design of the armor is spectacular and certainly gives the character a tank feel to him, especially with the sound effects accompanying every footstep and movement he makes.  Although, as an adult, I can see that it’s just a bulky suit, probably made of plastic, it’s so streamlined and metallic-looking, it’s still believable that I’m watching a real cybernetic organism walking around and catching bad guys.  Rob Bottin, who had a hand in designing it, should’ve gotten an Oscar for it…I mean, look at the cult status this movie has and how that suit is so recognizable!  We really need to applaud him, if anybody, for the look of this well-known character.

Sometimes, when watching these films from the 80s, especially these fantastical sci-fi flicks where grown men are wearing robot suits and actors all around have to perform their parts seriously around them, it amazes me that these actors take the parts and go with it.  I’ve got to give it to them for putting on such a great act for the audience’s benefit of entertainment.  When you get to the second sequel, it almost seems like a comedy and that’s usually what I expect out of a movie with such a far-out premise.  But Robocop embraces it, as well as the lead actors in this one, and all together we get a great 80s sci-fi flick.

One thing that dates this movie—and I hate to sound nitpicky—is some of the scenes that feature stop motion special effects.  Phil Tippett is famous for his stop-motion effects in the Star Wars films and it’s as real as it’s going to get in this one, but with CGI being as well-known as it is today, and everyone expecting to see it used in scenes with giant robots, watching the stop-motion used when ED-209 is moving around definitely makes this movie seem very old.  But it’s forgivable and easy to get past it, so the movie can still be enjoyed as it was over 25 years ago.

It’s funny…this is the second Paul Verhoeven movie that’s on the remake block, right after the Total Recall debacle that was unceremoniously released last year and forgotten soon after it hit theaters.  I feel that the remake of Robocop, due out in February of 2014 may fall right behind it, but the trailer I’ve seen does look pretty interesting.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

So…my final “bit” on Robocop?

Who is he?  What is he?  Where does he come from?  He’s Alex Murphy.  He’s a cyborg police officer.  He comes from the great minds of Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, writers of this film.  Robocop is no doubt the epic staple of sci-fi cinema from the 1980s.  It doesn’t hold back, didn’t give a shit what its film rating was going to be, it took an outlandish story and made it into

the kickass movie that we know today.  It has heart and soul, great characters you love and some you hate, the chemistry is there within the cast, and above all else, it’s a great time.  If you haven’t watched it, you need to.  And if you tell me that you love it, all I can say in return is…I’D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR!  You thought I wouldn’t mention that, huh?

Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments!

You can also tweet to me on Twitter: @CinemaBits.

The Monolith Monsters

A while back, I wrote a little retrospective on a director, Jack Arnold, who had directed quite a few B-movies for Universal Studios that I love watching every so often.  Most of them were part of a DVD collection that I own called “The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection.”

As I’ve mentioned many times, I enjoy going to the Universal Studios theme park in Hollywood, mostly for the back lot tour that highlights a lot of old sets and stages.  From the Psycho house and motel set to Wysteria Lane (formerly the street that included the “Leave it to Beaver” house), the tour brings back memories of my childhood as I watched a lot of television and movies that used those sets.

I’ve also declared in the past that my favorite film franchise is the Back to the Future trilogy which was filmed mostly in the Universal Studios back lot, especially Courthouse Square--that’s where the scenes of Doc and Marty are trying to get the time machine back to 1985, while Doc is hanging off the clock tower on top of the courthouse.  Many famous films and television shows have used that area for certain scenes and whenever I pass that area in the tram tour, I become transfixed.

One cool movie from the 1950s which uses that set almost entirely throughout the film is The Monolith Monsters.  I’d mentioned that I had written a retrospective of Jack Arnold and, although he didn’t direct this one, he had a hand in writing it.

The film takes place in, and near, the small desert (fictional) town of San Angelo.  A meteor comes down and explodes in the nearby desert.  A local geologist drives through the next morning and sees some of the unusual pieces of rock that came from the downed meteor and takes a sample back to his office in town.  The next day when the lead geologist, Dave Miller, comes back from a business trip, he finds his colleague hardened into rock, dead.  Miller also finds the sample of rock that had

grown and destroyed the office.  As a little local girl is found under the rubble of a house destroyed by the same type of rock—which has multiplied infinitely—and has been stricken with whatever killed Miller’s colleague, Miller finds out that the rock matter when in contact with water, multiplies the rocks and causes anyone in contact with them to suffer the same fate as his colleague and the girl.  Miller also comes to find out that the meteor rock in the desert hills are multiplying, growing into giants pillars with the rainfall, and are on a collision course with the small town as they keep growing and falling over, coming closer and closer.  He then has to race against time to figure out how to save the girl and to stop the giant rocks from crushing the town.

Directed by John Sherwood, who’d only directed three features in his career, the film is well done and takes the B-movie subject matter by injecting a serious tone into it.  You may recognize the lead in the film, Grant Williams, as the star of The Incredible Shrinking Man, but he was definitely a genuine leading man back then before his life was cut short at the age of 53.  He had quite a presence and probably made this film more serious and interesting than if someone else had played this character.

Now, I was a little fooled when I first saw the title as the second feature on The Incredible Shrinking Man disc, because I thought it was going to be your typical monster movie with giant creatures coming to eat people or something of that caliber.  Instead, the growing rocks in the film are the monsters, they resemble monoliths.  So when put together, you get the name of the film.

Overall, there’s really nothing special about this film except for the nostalgia of these atomic age films that we’ve seen so many times, but it’s quite an original story and that’s what makes it interesting.  Much like Tarantula or Them!, the film is about a threat that needs to be killed or thwarted, so this film doesn’t disappoint in that aspect.  For me, seeing the Courthouse Square predominantly throughout this flick warms my heart, looking amazing as it hasn’t changed a bit in 50 years or so.  To me, it’s just like watching a home movie.  I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’ve invested so much time on the tram ride that drives through the back lot of Universal Studios, but it’s just a special place in my heart.

To people who do not like watching black & white movies—and I’ve met quite a few people who just absolutely refuse to watch one—you should skip it.  But for those of you with an open mind and who like to watch these oldies, especially from the 50s, this is a great watch.  I really can’t understand why people would refuse to watch a black & white movie.  I’d had a conversationPsycho.  After I told him it was a black & white movie from 1960, he said he probably wouldn’t watch it, even after I gave him my DVD copy when I bought the Blu-Ray.  I guess it’s just beyond me.

with a coworker one time regarding the film,

My final “bit” on The Monolith Monsters?

A black & white movie from the 1950s is my cup of tea, but it may not be everybody’s.  I guess it’s probably the nostalgia of growing up in the 1970s and watching these types of movies on Saturday afternoons on our black & white TV set, which is probably why I don’t mind watching these types of movies—back then, everything was in black & white.  If you can still find it, I highly recommend purchasing “The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection.”

Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments!

You can also tweet to me on Twitter: @CinemaBits.

An American Werewolf in London

Before I even get into this, I must say that when I think of the pinnacle of werewolf films, I think of two-in no particular order-and I think most would agree with me.  At least anyone with a taste for horror films-especially the classics from Universal's heyday to the cheesy B-movies we'd gotten in the 50s, all the way to the best decade of horror...the 1980s-would appreciate my choices.  1941's The Wolf Man and 1981's An American Werewolf in London are the two films I think about when thinking of werewolf films-one being a classic of its time, the other being a classic for its special effects.

John Landis directed this 1981 classic and, at the time, was known for directing a handful of comedies like Animal House and The Blues Brothers.  It's a wonder how he had gotten this gig, but I'm glad he did.  He put together such a classic horror/comedy (more horror than comedy by the way) that, to this day, I don't think any other werewolf movie has matched it.

The film is a simple tale of two friends, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne), who decide to trek on a backpack tour of Europe together, travelling by thumb (hitchhiking is highly acceptable to this day over there) and going where their journeys take them.  As they turn up through the countryside of England, they stop into a tavern-The Slaughtered Lamb-to try and get something warm to eat and drink.  Met with sour looks of disdain, they sit and make the mistake of asking about a pentagram drawn on the wall.  Feeling unwelcomed, they leave, but not before

hearing the advice about staying on the road and avoiding the moors.  Unfortunately as they become frightened by a deep howling coming close to them, they forget the advice given to them and are attacked by something big and ferocious.  It kills Jack and mauls David before a gunshot rings out, stopping whatever was attacking David.  As he begins to pass out, he sees some of the men from the tavern-one with a shotgun-and looks to see a bloodied man, dead, beside him.   He wakes up in a hospital, has terrible dreams during his stay, falls for the nurse, Alex (Jenny Agutter)-who lets him stay with her-and, as he begins seeing the living dead corpse of his friend, Jack, realizes he's been cursed by a werewolf.

 In every sense of the word, this film is a classic.  Some younger people might not like the approach of the "less is better" technique when it comes to the reveal of the werewolf, but I definitely understand it and embrace it.  While watching this film, you sit at the edge of your seat, wondering-much like the potential victims in the movie-what's lurking in the shadows.

Rick Baker is probably the most well-known special effects make-up artist in film history.  He's right up there with Jack Pierce and Lon Chaney (Chaney, as an actor, performed his own make-up effects).  He's done make-up effects in a lot of famous films, such as 1976's King Kong, Star Wars, Videodrome, and so many others.  But the special effects he created in An American Werewolf in London are phenomenal!  To date, I have not seen a better transformation of man into werewolf.  Even though CGI is near perfect these days, films still haven't perfected the werewolf conversion.  I thought for sure it was going to be outdone in 2010's The Wolfman (especially since Baker was involved with that one), but it really fell flat, as they went with CGI throughout nearly the whole thing.

In this film, we have quite a bit of comedy, with the relationship and back-and-forth witticisms between the two main characters, David and Jack, at the beginning, as well as when David starts seeing the living corpses of the people he has killed when he had been in his werewolf form.  The scene after David's first night as a werewolf and how he ends up in the city zoo's wolf cage is

pretty hilarious, how he has to find a way back to Alex's flat-as well as find some clothes before doing so-is a very funny part of this film.  When the kid goes to his mother and tells her, "a naked American man stole my balloons," still cracks me up even though I must've seen this movie a hundred times.

David Naughton does quite a job in this film, especially when he has to act by himself in certain scenes or when he has to converse with a decomposing puppet.  He's a very likable person in this film and you really feel for what he goes through in the story.  His performance when going through the first on-screen werewolf change is great, accompanied by Rick Bakers effects, and you really feel the pain he goes through.

Griffin Dunne is very memorable as well, stealing the scenes he's featured in due to his funny quips, not to mention the make-up he has on to show what happened to him when the werewolf attacked him and how it's decomposing more and more each time his character visits David.

The Piccadilly Circus scene is very well done and it's a wonder they were able to pull that off, due to the work involved as well as getting permission to film there in the first place.  But the chaos depicted with the werewolf running around had my mind stunned-and scared the crap out of me-when I first saw that as a kid.  Nowadays, I can see how they cleverly only showed part of the werewolf-in all scenes-but seeing this scene in particular had me on the edge of my seat.

Above all else, the design of the werewolf, when you finally see it, is so frightening and foreboding, I sometimes wonder what I'd do if I would ever come across a creature like that...and I always come to the conclusion that I'd shit my pants and be frozen in place as I waited for the inevitable.

 When I used to go to the Halloween Horror Nights in Universal Studios, they always had a full-scale model copy of the werewolf, from this film, on display.  Standing next to it...it's pretty intimidating.

If there's anything I can nitpick about is the dream sequence, where David is back at home with his family and is suddenly attacked by these Nazi creatures that come into the house, shooting and knifing everyone.  It was a little strange and didn't seem to fit in the movie.  I understand he was having some bad dreams where he saw himself in the woods, killing a deer or just running around, but this dream was way out in left field.  Otherwise, it's still a shock and had me fooled the first time I saw the flick, because I had thought that he returned home to be with his family.  I guess it just shows the warped mind of Landis at his best.

So, what's my final "bit" on An American Werewolf in London?

The film is most certainly a cult classic and one of the best films John Landis has directed and best work Rick Baker has done on a creature design.  Although this film has been around for over 30 years and special effects have taken leaps and bounds in improvement and perfection, no one has ever made a better werewolf film since.  Maybe one day someone will see the importance of using more practical effects over CGI and surpass this film with a better werewolf transformation (although I don't see that happening).  However, more than likely, what'll happen is Universal Studios (if they still hold the rights to this film) will green light a remake.  I'm sure the latter is more plausible.  Until the day a better werewolf movie happens, stick to renting-or owning-An American Werewolf in London and enjoy a really scary movie.

Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments!

You can also tweet to me on Twitter: @CinemaBits .

Friday the 13th Part III

1982 was a big year for me in my movie-going experience-it was the year I saw my first Friday the 13th movie in a theater.  Parts one and two were seen at home on a video rental or on cable television, but this one was the real deal.  Which, as I recall this experience, I don't know how I had accomplished this because I was only 14 years old at the time and movie theaters were pretty strict back then about letting adolescents in to films with R ratings.  I seriously can't remember how I did it, but I did.  And not only did I watch Friday the 13th Part III, but I had watched it in 3D.

Back in the director's chair is Steve Miner, opening the film with a recap of the last ten minutes or so of part two-albeit, not in 3D-reminding us what had happened as Ginny slams a machete into Jason and leaves him for dead.  Leaving the confusing part out that had Ginny and Paul in the cabin with Jason crashing through the window (it's widely believed that that was a dream sequence), we see Jason pulling out the machete (the film now in 3D) and dragging himself out of screen, jumping into the opening credits with the movie's theme music, which I'll talk about later.  After the credits, the story begins with Harold (Steve Susskind) and Edna (Cheri Maugans), owners of some little market near the woods, as Jason stops by to take some new duds off the clothesline and kills the store owners while he's there.  We're then introduced to some of the main characters of the film as they're driving in a van to pick up a friend for a drive to the woods, to spend some time in a cabin.  But they're too close to Crystal Lake and Jason's there to make them pay.

Again, we have quite an eclectic group of characters in Friday the 13th Part III.  I'd already mentioned Harold and his wife, Edna, who own (or used to own) the market nearby.  Our main protagonist is Chris (Dana Kimmell), whose family owns the cabin which her and her friends are heading; we have the pregnant couple, Debbie and Andy (Tracie Savage and Jeffrey Rogers), along for the ride; there's the annoying practical jokester, Shelly (Larry Zerner), who is responsible for Jason's signature hockey mask in this outing; our movie's token Hispanic, Vera (Catherine Parks), is the love interest of Shelly's, even though she shoots him down hard; there's macho man and Chris's summer boyfriend, Rick (Paul Kratka); the film's comedy relief stoner couple-and who seem really out of place in this film because the others don't seem to be their type of crowd-Chuck and Chili (David Katims and Rachel Howard); and the local three-person gang, the leader, Ali (Nick Savage), his main squeeze, Fox (Gloria Charles), and their third wheel, Loco (Kevin O'Brien).  And yes, you've read those last four character names correctly: Chili, Ali, Fox and Loco.

I really like the cast, though some of them are really not that great of actors, but the standout of this film is Dana Kimmell as Chris.  She's the most believable of the group and really turns it up a notch towards the end, seeming like she was really terrified.  David Katims and Rachel Howard as the stoner couple were just as good, but because they seemed to be shoehorned into this film just to give us one half of Cheech & Chong (Katim looks so much like Chong in this film, I'd find it hard to believe that someone didn't plan this on purpose), that I can't take them seriously.  I can relate to Larry Zerner as Shelly in this film, because I was always the "Shelly" in whatever crowd I tried to be a part of in my teens, using comedy or other means to try and get people to like me.  With all the silliness in the casting of characters in this film, I still love it and relish it for the beginning of hockey-masked Jason.

As for the three-dimensional effects in Friday the 13th Part III, I've got to say they really weren't necessary and probably gave us a lower level of practical effect because of it.  I don't know why they decided to make this in 3D because there weren't too many 3D movies in the 80s.  Back in the 50s, there were a lot and nowadays there are quite a few as well.  One thing they both had in common was that the 3D effect was used to show depth and expanse.  The few films in the 80s used 3D in rather silly ways.  For instance, in this flick, we're sort of reminded quite often that we're watching 3D.  Some shots actually have something to do with horror and giving you a scare, like a snake jumping out at you or an eyeball popping out of the screen.  Other times, the 3D is done just to do it in a useless way and making it totally obvious, like a joint being passed towards us or Andy playing with a yo-yo...things like that.  From what I remember about this film when I saw it as a kid, the 3D wasn't that great and, as I bought the deluxe edition of the DVD that includes the 3D cut, it hasn't improved.

Okay, so about that music in the opening credits.  When I first watched this film, I was taken aback by it as it seemed that the filmmakers wanted to make the film appeal to the in-crowds or something.  If you've never heard it, the music is your typical rap beat from the 80s, complete with 80s synthesizers, sounding waaaaay out of place in this movie.  But over the years, I've grown to love it as it just brings me back to that year, that decade, and gives me a sense of longing for those days when I was just starting high school, not working for a living, and just sponging off my parents as most 14-year-olds do.  The rest of the film has its familiar music cues that we've come to know and love over the years, but it's just that funky rap beat that seems so out of place.

As for Jason Voorhees (played by the late Richard Brooker in this one), he definitely makes the character ominous in this sequel, more confident and meticulous.  While he seemed a little bumbling and clumsy in part two, in this one, he's one that you don't want to cross.  As with most of the franchise, Jason is played by a different actor each time (with exception to when Kane Hodder took the role in part seven and made it his own for four films), so there's always a noticeable difference in the physique each time.  In part two, he seemed kind of small and not that powerful; in this one, he's a lot taller and poised in his gait.  As the movies continue, especially if you see them one right after the other like I do, you'll definitely notice.  In part two, we'd gotten our first glimpse at Jason unmasked as he crashed in through the window to grab Ginny, but the makeup effect on his face looked phony and very obvious it was a guy wearing some rubber prosthetics.  Here, in part three, the makeup work looks pretty real and shocking.  It's rumored that Stan Winston had a hand in some of the work, but not all of it.  Perhaps that's why the unmasking scene in this film looked so damned good.

Anyway, without going on and on about this-because I can gush about the first four films relentlessly-let me give you my final "bit" on Friday the 13th Part III.

As a first-time Friday the 13th viewer, you'll see the lower caliber of acting right away.  You'll also notice there's nobody you'll recognize-besides the character of Jason, of course-and that may put you off since, nowadays, most horror movies produced includes some well-known actor or actress in it.  But that's what made Friday the 13th Part III, and most horror movies of its time, awesome.  It gives it a sense that the characters we're watching could be real people and not associated with some other movies we've seen them in before.  Because that's what filmmakers or movie studios are doing way too much of...putting too many well-known faces in these horror films, making it too surreal to take seriously.  Friday the 13th Part III is a fun time and it's the beginning of the famed "hockey mask" Jason, so you can't miss it.

Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments!

You can also tweet to me on Twitter: @CinemaBits.

The "Boycott Remakes" Movement

#BoycottRemakes.  What does that mean?  I’ll explain later.

Okay, we all know the ever growing trend going on in Hollywood right now where almost half the movies being green lit are remakes or reboots.  Both terms refer to the same thing, where a stories made previously on film are being filmed again.  I love the labels these remakes get from the studios—obviously they see how tiring this is, hearing movie after movie is getting the remake treatment.  So, besides being called remakes or reboots, we hear terms like “reimagining” or “redux.”  It doesn’t matter how you slice it, as long as the prefix “re” is in the word, they’re all do-overs.

Let’s face it, the only reason studios are doing this is for the money.  It’s a guaranteed cash-grab because we, the audience, will go see the movie no matter how upset we are over the fact that it’s a remake.

But why is that?  Why do we go see the movie if we hate the idea a movie we loved from not-too-long-ago gets the reboot designation?  Why don’t we make a statement and refuse to see it?  Why?

Curiosity.  That’s the reason, pure and simple, it’s curiosity.

The biggest disappointment I’ve heard regarding remakes is when, in 2010 or 2011, I heard Spider-Man was going to be remade.  Spider-Man!  The film that was finally made in 2002 after years of court litigations for some studio to get the rights—which Sony Pictures was the winner—and garnered great admiration with three successful films under Sam Raimi’s direction gets the reboot route after a mere ten years!  You’re kidding me!

Boy, was I fit to be tied!  I was horrified!  I had sworn, at the time, that I would NOT watch that reboot!  How dare Sony start over after ten years and three successful (yes, even the third one) films!

But guess what?  Even though I waited a few weeks, I finally found myself in the movie theater watching that crap.  I’d even seen it in iMax in 3D!  Why???

Curiosity.

Now we’re a few months away from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  And guess what?  After watching the few trailers for this film…I’m intrigued.  The first one (of the reboot) was crap, changed up the costume to every fan boy’s disappointment and had this lifelong Spider-Man comic book fan take umbrage to the stupidity they permeated into that superhero’s myth, so why would I go see the sequel?

Curiosity.

Curiosity is why I watched the Rob Zombie Halloween remakes, why I watched Fright Night, Total Recall, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc…and it’s why I’ll continue to see any upcoming remake.  It’s just pure curiosity.

So, as I had a conversation with a co-worker the other day, discussing the news about the confirmed cast for the Fantastic Four reboot, I came up with a solution to make our collective voices heard.

How can we satisfy our inquisitiveness for these repeats of films yet make our voices heard in our protest of this method of filmmaking?

Boycott them!

I propose to you all: The Boycott Remakes Movement!

It’s simple and will actually help out other lesser-known films of your choosing.  What you do—and what I’ve been doing—is when these remakes are released, I usually wait a week or so to see them and take a drive to the local movie house.  I walk up to the ticket window, pay to see another movie in their establishment, but walk into the theater that’s showing the remake in question.

Of course, this works best if the movie is playing at a multiplex and if they’re pretty casual about the entrance to the screening.  That’s why I wait at least a week, when the hype for the movie has died down a little and the ticket-taker is not being as vigilant as to who’s coming and going.

Now, I’m not sure if this will get me into any trouble for trying to spread this, but I feel it’s worth it to see if we can stop this trend.  Let’s face it, the movie studios don’t care about us and what kind of entertainment we get…they only care about making money.  To them, we’re idiots buying into this remake garbage as they laugh all the way to the bank.

Think of the good this will do, as the movies you do pay for will get the imbursement they deserve, especially if it’s an original story from an independent film company.

So, from now on, when I see a post on Facebook or Twitter regarding a remake, reboot, redux, reimagining, etc., I will repost with the link to this blog editorial, hashtagging #BoycottRemakes, and let social media do its thing.  Hell, even if it’s something I see online, I’ll share it the same way as well.

So…who’s with me?

Escape From Alcatraz

I’ve always been a Clint Eastwood fan, loving every single movie I’ve seen him in.  I admit, I haven’t seen every single one of his films, but I’m working on it.  A few months back, I watched Play Misty For Me for the first time and I thought it was pretty good.  I’ve seen nearly all the westerns he’s acted in, all the Dirty Harry films, the few comedies he’s been in, but there’s just a few more I need to see.  However, for me, the one film that’s my favorite, out of all the movies he’s ever done, is Escape From Alcatraz from 1979.

Back when my family first had gotten cable TV in 1980, one of the films that had received a lot of rotation on Showtime was this film.  I tell you, I must’ve watched every airing of it or damn near most of them.  Every single scene was watched by me intently, as I was scared out of mind about ever ending up in jail, seeing how violent it was as the guards beat you down or stuck you in a dark cell or other inmates wanting to stab you to death.  It was an eye-opener for my eleven-year-old self back then.

Well, the plot of the movie is actually based on the real life escape in June of 1962 by Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood), and his accomplices, from Alcatraz State Penitentiary.  The premise is pretty simple, about how he ends up in the prison and devises a plan to escape from the most escape-proof prison (at the time) with the help of a few other inmates.

Director, Don Siegel, had worked with Clint Eastwood a number of times before this film and it shows, as he knows how to work with Eastwood and get good performances out of him.  Siegel also does a great job at showing us the life these criminals had had living on “The Rock,” because it feels like we’re really watching criminals in an active prison.  The way he had this place filmed was amazing; he makes it look bigger than the place is in reality.

The beginning of the film is very impressive as it introduces us to Frank Morris as he’s brought to the prison and processed as an inmate, how he’s brought in, stripped of everything—including his

clothes—and escorted to his cell, naked as the day he was born.  It may be a little clichéd, but what really brings it home is the guard telling Morris, “Welcome to Alcatraz,” complete with the crack of thunder and flash of lightning.

Eastwood, as Morris, is pretty bad-ass, as he usually is in most of his character performances—saying just the right things, standing up to the prison guards, and being the guy the audience cheers for.  And as a child, I had no problem with that, seeing how much I loved this movie and didn’t really understand the background story to it all.  But as an adult, it’s weird, now, as I realize I was cheering for a hardened criminal.  Strange, how criminals get glorified in these types of movies, huh?

Rounding out the cast is Patrick McGoohan as the unnamed warden (I guess the film didn’t want to point out that it was Olin G. Blackwell who was running the penitentiary in 1962), Jack Thibeau and Fred Ward as the Anglin brothers, Roberts Blossom as Doc, Paul Benjamin as English, and Larry Hankin as Charley Butts.  All performances from this group of actors are outstanding.

There are many memorable scenes in this film, such as the scene when Morris approaches the African-Americans on their side of the yard, as well as the exchange between Morris and English.

 Also, I don’t think many will forget the scene in the wood shop, as Doc protests his loss of painting privileges in a very grisly way.

Yes, this film had an effect on me.  It had even got me into some trouble as a child.  For a few days after seeing the movie a handful of times, I sat outside one of the foundation vents outside of my parents’ garage, pretending I was a prisoner in Alcatraz.  I even borrowed one of my father’s screwdrivers (I didn’t want to mess up one of my mom’s spoons) and started chipping away at the vent, intent on being able to open it up big enough to get through it one day.  Man, I almost had that screen out of the stucco!  But, of course, my dad noticed it one day and I’d received a pretty good yelling at for my effort and he replaced the vent right away with a new screen and fresh

cement.  Also, it was years before I realized that I couldn’t perform the welding of two pieces of metal with coins that we have today.  The coins used in the film were represented as the coins available back in the 60s—silver—and it’s possible to do it with those types of coins.  You’ll see what I mean when you watch the film.  But if I learned anything from my mischief, is that I guess it was possible for them to break out of their cells by chipping away the concrete around the vent holes to enlarge them.

After watching this movie so many times over the years, I finally had gotten my wish to see the actual place—Alcatraz Island—a few years ago.  During an excursion with my wife, for our anniversary, we travelled to San Francisco for a couple of days.  One outing that was planned was to set out on the ferry that sets out to the island and took a tour of the facilities.  It was almost dreamlike to see the cafeteria, the shower area, the exercise yard, and, of course, the cells.  That part of the tour was the most surreal thing to see.  The cells that Morris and the Anglin brothers occupied have Plexiglas in place behind the bars with everything just as it was back in 1962—the bedding on the cot, the concrete around the vent all chipped away, the faux vent grill off to the side, and the dummy heads…very eerie.  I highly recommend anyone to take a tour of Alcatraz Island; it’s very enlightening and interesting.  Not only do you learn about the subject of this film, but you also hear about all the other escape attempts before Morris and the Anglins…pretty eye-opening.

Well, what’s my final “bit” on Escape From Alcatraz?

You can’t go wrong with Clint Eastwood.  He’s the man’s man, no doubt, but he puts on one hell of a performance.  The story, being somewhat true (there’s a lot of embellishment along the way), is awesome and makes you think long after the film is over.  This film is up there as one of his best—although I believe it’s the best in Eastwood’s collection of films, in my opinion—and you can’t go wrong with it.  I never get tired of watching it and it’s one of the few that I watch from the beginning to end no matter how tired I am.  In fact, it’s past due for me to have my annual Clint Eastwood movie marathon.

As an afterthought about how we see Frank Morris as a hero in this film, the story insinuates that he had close friendships with a number of inmates, some of which had had bad things done to them at the behest of the warden and/or carried out by the guards.  So when Eastwood plays out the character sticking up for his wronged friends, we, as the audience, are on his side.  Now, the real Frank Morris wasn’t a violent criminal, only ended up in Alcatraz because he was able to escape out of all other prisons he’s been incarcerated, so maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.  But most of these subplots regarding friendships and incidents during his time there isn’t confirmed and is probably exaggerated.  Nevertheless, those thoughts don’t take anything away from this film—I’m just making an observation.  Because after watching Escape From Alcatraz, you can’t help but think about the real Frank Morris and Anglin brothers, thinking whether they made it or not.  I know you’ll be thinking what I was thinking: that you hope they did make it, that they made it to mainland and were able to get away and live the rest of their lives free.

Anyway you put it, the fabled escape will remain a mystery and probably will never be solved.

Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments!

You can also tweet to me on Twitter: @CinemaBits.