Winter Wrap-up Part One

Here are three movies that couldn't be more different! As you can see I'll watch films from pretty much any genre or time period. I only took a few notes when I watched these movies back in December so this post will be a little shorter than usual.

North by Northwest (1959)
I have seen several Alfred Hitchcock movies before but so far this one is my favorite. While I am familiar with Cary Grant I believe its his first full movie I have seen thus far. Cary Grant was the first choice to play James Bond and I bet that this film was most of the reason why.
North by Northwest was probably the first modern action movie as we have several big action scenes in many cross-country locations, fun one liners, beautiful women, and spies.
I loved the feeling of paranoia throughout the movie, especially with it being centered around an ordinary everyman. This sort of reminded me of the works of Philip K. Dick and I'd love to see somebody compare Dick's "Dark Haired Girls" to Hitchcock's "Cool Blondes."
The film is great in pretty much ever aspect: directing, writing, acting, editing, and music. And on top of that it is just a blast to watch from start to finish.
I am stingy with my 10s as for me they are essentially a bonus. This is my most recent ten!
10/10

Freejack (1992)
Freejack was directed by Geoff Murphy, the man who also made the cult classic The Quiet Earth which I have on DVD but still need to see one of these days. As I have stated before, I love time travel movies, so Freejack had been on my "to see" list of movies for quite some time for that reason alone.
The basic story is that race car driver Alex Furlong (Emilio Estevez) is transported into the future seconds before a would-be fatal car crash to the future of 2009 (hehe). The reason for this is so that the mind of a dying billionaire named McCandless (Anthony Hopkins) can be placed in his body to allow him to live. Although Hopkins doesn't have a large role as most of the movie is about Furlong on the run from the police force of the McCandless corporation (led by none other than Mick Jagger!), I do find it odd that this was the first Anthony Hopkins movie to be released in the U.S. after The Silence of the Lambs.
Besides Mick Jagger's role as the police leader Vacendak we have another rock star in the cast, David Johansen, who plays Furlong's Agent, Brad. Johansen was the lead singer for The New York Dolls and also known for the song "Hot Hot Hot" under his Buster Poindexter persona. Johansen has done more acting than Mick Jagger and I had actually seen him in another movie before. Johansen had a memorable role in the middle segment of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie where he plays a hitman hired to kill a cat!
Jagger and Johansen may not be great actors, but they had fun with their roles. Unfortunately I can't say the same about the lead as Estevez is mis-cast and plays role like a stoned Marty McFly. Rene Russo does a good job as Julie, Alex Furlong's wife. However when we see her in the future 18 years later she hasn't aged at all. Now maybe this is because some anti-aging work has been done in the future but if so it is never mentioned. And I must mention that Amanda Plummer has a cameo as a gun toting nun!
There are some interesting ideas here but overall it just doesn't work as a whole. This is exactly the type of movie that needs to be re-made as it did have potential despite being underwhelming. Last summer I made a post about remakes I would like to see and if I ever do another one this would certainly be on that list. Freejack was based on the novel "Immortality, Inc." by science fiction author Robert Sheckley so perhaps the best thing to do in this situation would be to go back to the original source material. That tactic worked wonders for John Carpenter's The Thing and in the right hands (Christopher Nolan or Duncan Jones for example) a damn fine movie could still be made out this story.
5/10

Moulin Rouge! (2001)
I am not a huge fan of musicals, but I don't hate them either. I just don't tend to seek them out even though I did some tech work behind the scenes for musicals in high school and have seen a few on Broadway.
So why did I choose to watch this movie out of all the musicals out there? I am a fan of the Nostalgia Critic and saw that he did a musical review of this movie! At first I started watching it as I only avoid his reviews of things I actually plan on seeing and this didn't seem like something I would want to watch. However, after I got a bit into his 45 minute review I just had to see it for myself and figured I would get even more out of the review if I did so, which ended up being the case.
Moulin Rouge was directed by Baz Luhrmann. The only other Luhrmann movie I have seen was Romeo + Juliet (1996) which I liked but didn't love. This is movie is made in a similar weird and over the top style. 
I liked the song mash-ups such as "Like a Virgin" being sung by Jim Broadbent!
Despite how quirky and and wacky this movie is, there is a serious ending. This is not a spoiler or a surprise as we are told this from the beginning. Moulin Rouge is a fun movie that's a bit different although not something I plan on watching again.
6/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (11/20)

This week I saw four films. Two of them were fantastic and two were bad. I'm a firm believer that one cannot truly appreciate great cinema without watching terrible movies as well!

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction is the second Quentin Tarantino movie I've seen. I had watched Reservoir Dogs before and really liked it, so I was looking forward to this film and luckily it did not disappoint. Although Pulp Fiction has been heavily ingrained in popular culture to the extent that I was already familiar with some lines and and scenes, I was completely engrossed and found this to be an amazing film.
The weakest part of the film are the scenes featuring Bruce Willis' character talking to his wife as the movie's pace slows down to a near halt. I understand that the scenes in the hotel room were necessary and the pay-off was certainly worth the slow set-up. Although Tarantino managed to pull off a dialogue heavy movie where even conversations about a five dollar milkshake were fascinating, the chemistry between Butch and Fabienne just wasn't there.
It is hard for me to pick a favorite moment as I loved the entire movie but Christopher Walken's cameo and the scenes with Harvey Kitel were pure gold. Now I need to see more Tarantino movies!
9/10

Adaptation. (2002)
I usually don't give a movie a perfect score upon my first viewing but had to make an exception here. Adaptation is proof that films can be incredibly entertaining as well as great works of art with something to say at the same time.
Nicolas Cage was amazing in a dual role as the Kaufman twins, Charlie and Donald. I have only seen a few of his movies but Cage seems to be an actor who is only as good as his director and script. To be fair this is the case for most actors (with guys like Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price being exceptions) but Cage played down to the material in The Wicker Man (2006) so much that I could barely believe this is the same actor. Although I had never heard of Chris Cooper before, he won a well-deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Laroche.
I though it was pretty clever how Being John Malkovich, made by the same director (Spike Jonze) and writer (Charlie Kaufman), was incorporated into this movie. The reason for this was because Charlie Kaufman not only wrote the script, but is also main character in Adaptation. Spike Jonze has only directed three feature films thus far so once I see Where the Wild Things Are I'll have seen all his movies. Hopefully he will make some more! While Kaufman has written more movies than Jonze, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation the only films he has done that I have seen so far.
While all aspects of this movie were great I was most impressed by the writing. The title itself, "adaptation," has a double meaning as it refers to adapting material to another medium as well as how people adapt to life. In the film, Kaufman is trying to write a screenplay adaption of the book The Orchid Thief and then writes himself into the script. The book is a real book and Kaufman wrote Adaptation under similar circumstances! The movie is incredibly meta and even deconstructs how screenplays are written. Kaufman use of himself as a character in his own movie reminded me of how Philip K. Dick did the same in his VALIS novels, which isn't surprising since Kaufman is a PKD fan.
It is worth noting that although Adaptation is credited as being written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman, in real life Charlie does not have a twin and Donald does not exist. That didn't stop Donald from also being nominated with Charlie for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay!
10/10

Cyborg (1989)
Cyborg was directed by Albert Pyun, who has made tons of low-budget B-movies and direct-to-video films. Pyun is the guy who directed the 1990 Captain America movie as well as Alien from L.A., which was featured on MST3K.
Cyborg stars Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of his earliest film roles. Van Damme's character, Gibson Rickenbacker, must help a cyborg get to a group of scientists in Atlanta as she is carrying the cure for a deadly virus which has ravaged mankind. However, an evil gang leader kidnaps the cyborg to use the cure for themselves. As you could probably guess, this movie rips off Escape from New York and The Road Warrior on its way to being a generic post-apocalyptic film. The only real difference is that Rickenbacker is a martial artist. But if I wanted to see that I would just watch Bloodsport again. Although this is a bad movie it is still watchable. The fights and special effects (such as explosions and the robotics on the cyborg) were actually pretty good. I was able to see this in High Definition and was amazed with how good it looked, especially considering it was a low-budget movie made over 20 years ago. The outside scenes looked like they could have been filmed today!
What really made this movie bad was the acting and writing. While there isn't too much dialogue the acting is over the top, even for a movie like this. The basic story makes sense but I still don't understand how Rickenbacker and the girl caught up to (and actually got ahead of) the gang. The gang traveled to Atlanta on a boat while Rickenbacker followed them by foot! Rickenbacker's back-story was interesting although derivative, but had jerky editing that made the flashbacks confusing at first.
If you like bad cinema, post-apocalyptic movies, or are a hardcore Jean-Claude Van Damme fan, you will enjoy this. Otherwise just watch Escape from New York and the Mad Max movies instead.
3/10

Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (1990)
Jesse "The Body" Ventura is an interesting person. The man was a Navy SEAL, pro wrestler, actor (I enjoyed his role as Blain in Predator), governor of Minnesota, television host, and author. During Ventura's film career he made the mistake of "starring" in this truly terrible film.
Pretty much everything that can go wrong in a movie went wrong in Abraxas. The acting is awful and the dialogue is repetitive and silly. The film's story is incomprehensible, but I'll try to explain it.
An alien cop named Secundus (who has Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent) comes to Earth and rapes a woman with his hand who then gives birth to the child five minutes later. Another alien cop (these cops are called "Finders" although I don't know why) named Abraxas (Jesse Ventura) sends Secundus to space jail. These space cops can live for thousands of years but it is never explained how this is possible (are they androids?) and has no relevance to the plot. Five years later, Secundus somehow escapes to Earth so that the child (called a "comater" though again, never explained why) can give him the "anti-life Equation," a concept stolen from Jack Kirby's comics. Abraxas must stop Secundus with help from his "VD box," a rip-off of Ziggy from Quantum Leap, that is attached to his arm. Confused? Join the club.
The "VD box" is just unfortunately named. You would think that somebody would have realized that when most people hear "VD" they think "venereal disease." In this movie VD is supposed to stand for "vibrational detection," which is almost as bad now that I think about it! At least lines such as "My box has VD, trust me" and "Members of our force were taught to avoid VD" are unintentionally hilarious.
Abraxas features random music that never fits the scene and always feels out of place. The head-scratching camera work, editing, and directing make you wonder if the crew rushed the production or simply showed up on set drunk everyday. This movie is incredibly dark, and I mean that literally. Lighting is almost non-existent except for some outdoor scenes. Usually it is so dark that it is hard to see anything! James Belushi has a cameo as a school principal which he did as a favor for his wife at the time who was in Abraxas as Sonia. Despite Belushi being in this movie there is no intentional humor in this movie at all and the tone is always serious. Many B-movies realize how ridiculous they are and try to have some fun with it but Abraxas takes itself way too seriously. Oh, and while I'm at it, Abraxas liberally rips off The Terminator and shamelessly uses the word "terminate" many times. This movie failed in every way possible.
Luckily I watched the RiffTrax version which features a hilarious commentary by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Tom Servo of MST3K fame. RiffTrax usually makes fun of recent good movies so its nice to see the RiffTrax crew go back to some classic MST3K material. Although this movie is terrible, I do recommend the RiffTrax for some great laughs. Check out the RiffTrax sample for Abraxas here.
Abraxas is not a well-known bad movie like Plan Nine from Outer Space, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Troll 2, or The Room but it should be up there (or more appropriately "down there") as a craptastic classic of truly awful cinema.
1/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (9/25)

Ed Wood (1994)
Prior to viewing Ed Wood I had seen some Tim Burton movies I liked (Beetlejuice, Batman) and some I didn't like (Planet of the Apes remake, Mars Attacks). So far Ed Wood is by far his best that I have seen. I have only seen one Ed Wood movie, Plan 9 from Outer Space, and thought it was terrible. However as somebody who watches a lot of bad movies, I wouldn't call it the worst movie ever made as did have some fun, campy moments. The absolute worst movies ever made are so boring they are almost unwatchable. A few of Wood's movies were featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, although I haven't seen those episodes yet. Getting back to the movie in question, Ed Wood blew me away. Martin Landau put in an amazing performance as Bela Lugosi and certainly deserved his Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role that year. Johnny Depp was incredible as the titular character and how he didn't get an Oscar nomination is beyond me. Depp is a versatile actor and it is a shame that he didn't get an Oscar nomination until Pirates of the Caribbean. Depp has gotten a lot of wacky cartoon type character roles after the popularity of his Jack Sparrow character but he has great range as an actor and can do much more than that. Bill Murray and Jeffrey Jones are a lot of fun in supporting roles. Although the movie is about Ed Wood, people associated with him such as Bela Lugosi, Vampira, Criswell, Tor Johnson, Bunny Breckinridge all led fascinating lives and could have biopic movies of their own!
While Ed Wood was a critical success (besides Landau's Oscar it also won best Makeup) it was a commercial flop. This isn't surprising as most people wouldn't think you could make a good movie about a guy who made a lot of bad movies, but Burton still managed to make a great film.
Like most biopics and movies based on historical people and events, Ed Wood features its share of historical inaccuracies. However this was part of Tim Burton's vision as he was trying to make the movie through the eyes of Ed Wood. I think it is possible for truth to rise out of fiction and I believe it happened in this movie. While the real Ed Wood never met Orson Welles, Ed Wood did indeed idolize Welles, so I felt the scene in which they met was necessary to the movie (also it could have been a daydream since we only see those two together). Plus I think anybody who watches the film would be compelled (like I was) to do some research on the real Ed Wood as well as the other people depicted in the film. Bela Lugosi never cursed or hated Karloff, and his later years were not quite as bad as depicted in the movie. However, I wonder if Burton did this because he didn't want show Ed Wood's later years. The film covers Wood's life from just before he made Glen or Glenda to just after Plan 9 from Outer Space and while those movies were not successes, his later years were quite depressing.
Wood often gets called the "worst director of all time" which is unfair considering what he had to work with and that he never was able to focus on director since he also wrote, produced, and even acted in his films. Some people claim that the movie is too positive about Wood but since he usually gets slammed, I thought the way portrayal of Wood was fine. The film does have plenty direct criticisms of Wood like his refusal to do more than one take. Wood's optimism blinds him to these critiques and Depp sells it so well that I really wanted Wood to succeed, even though I knew that is not what actually happened.
Ed Wood was filmed in Black and White which was a great idea. Not only does it work for the atmosphere, it also gives us a hilarious meta joke in the scene in with the camera man is asked to pick a dress by color, but can't because he is color blind!
The film gives the sense that Ed Wood really loved to make movies, and from what I have read about the real Ed Wood, this certainly seems to be true. Wood didn't have the best resources but still did what he loved and for that he should be praised. It doesn't make Plan 9 from Outer Space a good movie, but the fact that people still talk about the movie and that it has almost 1,000 more votes on IMDB than Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder which came out the same year (1959) and was nominated for 7 Oscars counts for something. Plenty of people have made bad movies and didn't care about the final product, but Ed Wood did care, even though his movies weren't that good. And you have to admire the guy for giving Bela Lugosi work in his later years. Even though Lugosi was older and working with inferior material, he was still having fun being an actor as you can see from the clips on YouTube.
When it comes down to it, Ed Wood is not only about the man, but about artistic vision and creative expression. And that is why the film transcends its subject matter to be inspirational to all of us.
"Visions are worth fighting for. Why live your life making someone else's dreams?"
I think I've said enough about this movie as I can, watch it now!
10/10

Say Anything... (1989)
After watching Jerry Maguire last week I decided to see another Cameron Crowe movie. I liked Jerry Maguire a little better than this one, probably because of the sports angle, but Say Anything was still a solid movie.
John Cusack does a good job of playing Lloyd Dobler, an off-beat oddball who becomes obsessed with Diane Court. Diane's father, James Court, is played by John Mahoney (Martin Crane on Fraiser) and has a close relationship to his only daughter. Mr. Court is an interesting character as his life is falling apart (divorced, being investigated for doing bad business by FBI, only daughter about to leave home for college on fellowship) while Lloyd is wooing his daughter, and in way taking her away from him. Lloyd's sister is played by Cusack's real life sister, Joan. I always think its pretty cool when real relatives play relatives in movies and their relationship reminded me of Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko.
Crowe is a good writer and does a great job with dialogue and creating interesting characters. The film is a dramedy as it is more introspective than most teen movies, but still humorous.
The scene with Cusack holding the boombox and playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" is iconic and certainly memorable. Although when it comes to famous scenes in Crowe movies I still prefer "Show me the money!" or any scene with Spicoli and Mr. Hand.
The movie features cameos by Kim Walker (Heather Chandler from Heathers who essentially plays the same character!) and Jeremy Piven who is a real life friend of John Cusack.
Overall I liked them film as it was well written and Cusack's Lloyd was a fascinating character. While I wanted to know if the couple would end up together, the movie still didn't really grab me. Sure Mr. Court doesn't like Lloyd as he sees his daughter less because of him, but Mr. Court doesn't seem to hate Lloyd either since Diane is never forbidden to see/talk to him. Perhaps there could have been more tension in Lloyd and Mr. Court's relationship.
While Crowe had writing credits for other movies prior to this one, Say Anything was his directorial debut and its a nice first film. Crowe is certainly a good writer, but the last two movies I saw by him just aren't really my thing. I still want to see Almost Famous as I've heard that is Crowe's best. Fast Times at Ridgemont High is still my favorite movie that he has written.
Crowe might not be my favorite director, but all of his movies I've seen so far have awesome pop/rock soundtracks, which is definitely a good thing!
6/10

                                       

Major League (1989)
This weekend Moneyball came out. Although I am a huge baseball fan who loved the book and heard the movie is getting great reviews, I haven't seen it yet. Instead I finally got around to seeing Major League! It's actually sort of a fictional comedy version of Moneyball as both films are about small market baseball teams who go on improbable playoff runs. Major League was written and directed by David S. Ward, who won an Oscar for writing the screenplay for The Sting. While many comedies often put their effort into jokes, Major League focuses on the story and characters first, and lets the humor fall into place from there. The characters are interesting and likeable, which makes you root for them to win. Wesley Snipes is mostly known for action and dramatic roles in recent years, but he did a good job of pulling off a fun character. Besides Snipes, Major League also helped launch the careers of Charlie Sheen and Dennis Haysbert (Allstate Insurance commercial guy). Famous Milwaukee Brewers announcer Bob "Mr. Baseball" Uecker plays the Indians announcer and he was great. Major League is a lot of fun although perhaps a bit derivative and predictable in spots. However, it is still one of the better sports-comedy movies out there. I just want to know why this movie has two sequels? And there is even news that Charlie Sheen wants to make a fourth movie!
I have read that there is an alternate ending for Major League that was intended to be the original ending but changed after reviews from test audiences. I won't say what happens but I think they should have kept that ending. The other ending isn't that different, but makes a little more sense and would have been a cool twist.
7/10

Death at a Funeral (2010)
This movie is the American remake of 2007 British film. I love the original, but figured I should still see both. I still don't see why the remake was necessary as the humor of the original was universal and not overly "British." Just release the 2007 film in American theaters!
Unlike the original, the remake has lot of pop culture references which will date the film. Now that I think about it, the Amy Winehouse joke is already dated! We also have musical cues that tell us when to laugh, which the British film did not need. This movie made a few other changes, I guess so it wouldn't be a carbon copy of the original even though it is still the same basic story. For example, Aaron (Chris Rock) and wife are trying to conceive a child. We also have Ryan (Martin Lawrence) hitting on an 18 year old girl at the funeral. In the original every subplot related directly back to the family reuniting at the funeral. Both these subplots felt shoved in just to add something new, even though there is already enough going on in the movie.
The cast is hit or miss. Danny Glover and Ron Glass (Firefly) were great but Tracy Morgan and Martin Lawrence put in weak performances. Peter Dinklage reprises his role as the midget from the original film. The part was initially written for someone of normal height, but Dinklage auditioned and got the role! Dinklage recently on an Emmy award for his work on the TV show Game of Thrones. While I haven't seen that show he was great in both versions of this movie and I'll have to see more of his work.
The remake sticks close enough to the original story. It is still funny even though its not as good as the original. There are far worse comedies out there, but please watch the original 2007 British film as it is one of the funniest and well-written comedies made in recent years.
5/10

Double Team (1997)
Double Team is a 90s action movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme and the outrageous basketball player Dennis Rodman. I have no idea who decided to let Dennis Rodman become an actor, let alone put these two together, but that person should be fired from the film business immediately. Dennis Rodman won three Razzie awards for being in this turkey: Worst New Star, Worst Supporting Actor, and Worst Screen Couple which he shared with Van Damme. Mickey Rourke plays the villain and he's actually not bad. The cast also includes Paul Freeman who is best known for playing Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark... oh how the mighty have fallen. The action scenes are decent but the acting by the two leads is terrible. The basketball one liners are so bad they are actually kinda funny. The plot doesn't make much sense but who cares, we have explosions and a lot of glass breaking for some reason! Oh and I could I forget the ridiculous amount of Coca-Cola product placement! Double Team is a great "so bad, it's good movie" as it is awful but still fun to watch. The ending features one of the most ridiculous action scenes in all of cinema and is worth watching for that alone. But unless you are a bad movie connoisseur like myself, just see the Nostalgia Critic's hilarious review here.
3/10

Monster Mash Blogathon: Forbidden Planet (1956)

This article is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Movie, a local film critic and an acquaintance of my family. Mr. Movie hosted a popular radio show in which he shared his knowledge and love of films through in-depth discussions with his listeners. Forbidden Planet was Mr. Movie's favorite  film of all time, and he claimed to have watched it 178 times. Mr. Movie, whose real name is Steve Friedman, passed away two years ago. Mr. Movie Obit

Welcome to Day 3 of the 50s Monster Movies Blogathon hosted by Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear! So far there have been great posts, with more to come through August 2nd.

                        

Forbidden Planet (1956) is one of the classic science fiction movies, not just of the 1950s, but of all time. But is it a monster movie? I'll get to that in depth later, but the quick answer is yes, although the monster is unconventional and the focus of the film is on exploration. Before I get any further I have to address the film's iconic poster. Although it looks cool and is recognizable by many who haven't even seen the movie, it is also very misleading. Robby the Robot is not the monster of the movie and the scene depicted in the poster never takes place in the film. The closest thing to this that happens is that Robby the Robot carries the doctor for a moment, but it is not out of menace as the poster seems to indicate.

                   

Forbidden Planet was one of the first science fiction films that does not take place on Earth at all. The movies opens with the space ship, United Planets Cruiser C57-D with a hyper-drive and light speed capabilities, arriving at the Planet Altair IV. The mission of the ship's crew is to discover what happened to the colonists sent to the planet 20 years ago. Led by Commander J.J. Adams (played by a young Leslie Nielsen), the crew discovers that the only survivors are Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his lovely daughter Altaira (Anne Francis). Dr. Morbius insists that the ship leave immediately since he says the planet is dangerous, although he wants to stay there with his daughter. However, the crew has orders to investigate and bring back any survivors  

Once the ship lands, the crew is greeted by Robby the Robot, who speaks English as well as 187 other languages! This makes sense since he was created by Dr. Morbius, a linguist. While it seems strange at first that a philologist would be able to make a robot, it is later revealed that Dr. Morbius was able to create Robby because his mind was enhanced by a machine left behind by the Krell, a now vanished alien civilization that lived on Altair IV 200 centuries ago. Robby the Robot is the most well known part of the movie. Forbidden Planet is Robby's film debut, and he is credited as himself! Although Robby was expensive to create, it was certainly worth it as he isn't merely a prop but a fully developed character. Robby is often used for comic relief even though he never gets what is funny about what he says, which is clearly an influence on C-3PO from Star Wars, Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and countless other fictional automatons of the last 50 years. Robby the Robot has since appeared in many other movies and TV shows such as The Twilight Zone and Lost in Space.

                    

Robby takes the crew to the Morbius home in which we first meet Dr. Morbius and his daughter. Dr. Morbius explains that the colonists encountered some sort of planetary force which caused the deaths of all the colonists except for Morbius, his wife who he claimed later died from natural causes, and his 19 year old daughter who is now experiencing her first human contact outside of her family. Although the crew wonders if Robby the Robot had anything to do with this, we find out early on that he is a red herring as we get a demonstration that he cannot harm people. Robby is essentially bound to Isaac Asimov's three laws of Robotics.

                                 

After we find out about Morbius and the deaths of the colonists, the crew tries to get to the bottom of what really happened. In the mean time several members of the entirely male crew try to get with Morbius' daughter! I can't say I blame them as Anne Francis is absolutely stunning. I have no idea how they got away with the mini dresses Altaira wears throughout the film as they are sexy today and must have been even more provocative back in the 50s.

               

Eventually our crew gets their hormones under control long enough to discover a giant laboratory underneath Morbius' home that belonged once belonged to the Krell. The Krell were a highly advanced alien civilization who inexplicably (at first) died out 200,000 years ago. There are some animals on the planet, and Morbius says the reason behind this is that the Krell visited Earth long ago and returned with specimens. It is never revealed what the Krell looked like and the only hint we get is the triangle shape of their doors. Morbius gives Commander Adams and the ship's doctor (Warren Stevens) the grand tour of the massive Krell power system. There is a Krell computer shown which is the size of a table but described as a powerful computer. It even has a touch screen! Eventually Morbius shows off a piece of Krell equipment which they used to expand their minds, and Morbius admits that he used the machine on himself to increase his intellect. The Krell used this technology in the hopes of using their minds to create anything. As we find out later, it turns out that this ending up being their downfall.

              

Forbidden Planet is only 98 minutes, yet the first death in the movie does not occur until over an hour into the film. Of course there are plenty of hints that there was a monster such as the deaths of the colonists almost twenty years earlier. At first the monster is completely invisible which adds to the suspense. Unlike most monster movies of its time, Forbidden Planet doesn't show you the monster until late in the game which works in its favor. We don't actually see the first death although we are shown the scene leading up to it with the invisible monster entering the ship. The chief gets killed and his death is described as quite grisly since it is said his body was splattered on the ship!

                 

Eventually the monster returns, but this time the crew is more prepared as they set up a strong electric fence, stationary guns, and many armed guards. The electric fence partially reveals the monster and a few members of the crew die fighting the creature until it eventually disappears. This is the only time we really get to see the monster, as it shows up again near the end, but is mostly invisible. When Dr. Morbius enhanced his mind it caused the monsters of his id to come into existence in the physical world. The monster killed the other colonists because Dr. Morbius wanted to stay and they were pressuring him to leave. The monster returns when the crew comes to the planet because Morbius doesn't want to leave and is not pleased with the crew's advances on his daughter. It won't give away the ending, but it is a satisfying conclusion.

                

So is Forbidden Planet a monster movie? The film is science fiction first as it is primarily focused on the mystery of what happened on Altair IV and the exploration of the planet. The monster is a secondary concern. Of course the exploration of the planet leads to the discovery of the monster of the id caused by Dr. Morbius and his usage of the Krell's machines. Unlike most monster movies which tend to be about man vs. nature, the monster in Forbidden Planet is about the struggle of man vs. self. The monster is not made by humans, but by the technology originally created by the Krell which Morbius uses on himself. The monster of Dr. Morbius' id is much like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Forbidden Planet is loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, which is one of the few Shakespeare plays I actually haven't read so I can't really comment on that. There are also several Greek mythological references such as Bellerophon (the name of the colonists ship), and a line that mentions the Gorgon. Adapting elements of Shakespeare and the Greek myths to a science fiction setting is now common place, but this hadn't been done as much when Forbidden Planet first came out.

                

The special effects hold up surprisingly well. To be fair this was an expensive movie for its time, unlike most of its science fiction and monster movie contemporaries which tended to be B-movies. The matte paintings blend in so well that it is hard to tell where the set ends and the painting begins. Forbidden Planet was nominated for an Oscar in the category of best special effects, but lost out to Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments.


                  

Forbidden Planet is interesting in that it is one of the first science fiction films to be heavily influenced by the Sci-Fi literature of the 1930s through 1950s. The concept of all-male space ship crews exploring other planets outside our solar system had been done before, but this is one of the first times it had been filmed. Works such as A.E. Van Vogt's Space Beagle stories and Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles are quite similar. What is important is that Forbidden Planet made a serious, big budget movie out of these ideas at a time when most people didn't give science fiction much respect as a legitimate genre. A lot of detail went into the uniform and equipment of the crew, as well as the design of the spaceship and planet. The crew has a bunch of cool gadgets such as the mini camera/communications device/cell phone shown off by Commander Adams! Oh and don't forget the spiffy laser gun!

                       

It is impossible to understate the influence Forbidden Planet has had on Sci-Fi films and TV shows. The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien and Aliens all owe debt to Forbidden Planet for paving the way to allow thought provoking science fiction adventures to enter the mainstream. Even video games such as Halo and recent movies like Moon and Avatar should all thank Forbidden Planet. Of course Forbidden Planet's most obvious direct influence was on Star Trek as Gene Roddenberry himself had admitted. The similarities are unmistakable in both types of characters (ship's captain, doctor, engineer, etc.) and story. Although the characters don't beam down to the planet, the screenshot below shows you where Star Trek got the idea for the transporter!

                      

Forbidden Planet is groundbreaking for another reason: it features the first entirely electronic music score. This was so ahead of its time that it isn't even credited as a score but as "electronic tonalities." The eerie music is unique and fits in very well with the atmosphere of the space ship and Altair IV.

                   

Forbidden Planet also successful manages to combine a serious Sci-Fi story with humor that is never silly or feels forced, thanks in part to its witty dialogue. The cook (Earl Holliman) provides some of the comic relief as he convinces Robby the Robot to replicate 60 gallons of bourbon for himself and the crew! Other Sci-Fi classics from the 50s such as The Day the Earth Stood Still and The War of The Worlds lacked this tone, which we see all the time in Sci-Fi and adventure movies today.

                

Although stars Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis passed away in Nov. 2010 and Jan. 2011 respectively, several supporting actors such as Earl Holliman, Warren Stevens, Richard Anderson, and Robert Dix are still alive today. Forbidden Planet holds up well over fifty years after its initial release, and will continue to entertain audiences and influence film for years to come.

Weekly Wrap-Up

I'll start the Weekly Wrap-Up with movies I have seen this week but not reviewed yet. Some I have seen before and some I have not. After that I'll wrap up with the movies I have seen this week and already reviewed.

Heathers (1988)
Since my brother recently graduated from High School I wanted him to watch this movie as it is one of my favorite comedies both for its humor and how well it is made. Heathers is a satiric dark comedy about social cliques in high school, and really in life in general. Winona Ryder and Christian Slater are fantastic as the leads, but even the background characters are great such as Veronica's parents, the cops, and the minister. This time around I noticed that Heathers is even better made than I thought. Plot elements such as the Moby Dick book and the fact that Veronica can perfectly imitate Heather Chandler's handwriting are set up very early on. Also Veronica and all three of the Heathers have color schemes that follow them throughout the movie. Veronica is blue, Heather Chandler is red, Heather McNamara is yellow, and Heather Duke is green. Everything from their croquet balls, to clothes, to bedrooms and even the lighting around them follows this pattern. And when Heather Duke takes over Heather Chandler's place, she also takes over the color red! I absolutely love Heathers and its too bad its director (Michael Lehmann) and writer (Daniel Waters) haven't done much of note since. Lehmann has directed some movies but has mainly done TV work since, most recently directing some episode of True Blood. Waters wrote the screenplay for Batman Returns but has only worked on two movies since 2001. Also Heathers did not get much attention when it was first released, it now has a sizable cult following.
9/10

The Tree of Life (2011)
Before I get into my mini-review I just want to saw that I had the pleasure of watching this movie with Nate of Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear!
2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my all-time favorite movies. So when I heard that Douglass Trumbull who did the special effects for that film as well as Silent Running, The Andromeda Strain, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Blade Runner was involved with The Tree of Life I knew I had to see it! Directed by Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life reminds me of 2001 and not just for the "birth of the universe" segment. The two films complement each other and are both up to the interpretation of the viewer. The Tree of Life is about, as Douglas Adams would put it, life, the universe, and everything. I feel that an alternate title for the film could be "A Human Odyssey." As great as it was to see Trumbull back to work in a post-CGI world, the 1950s story was also done wonderfully with great performances by all, especially the child actors as it truly felt like you were watching home movies of their lives. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain put in fantastic performances as the father and mother of the family. The Tree of Life is not for everyone since its events are not linear (we have one of the biggest time jumps in all of cinema!) and everything is not completely explained and tied up with a bow at the end. However, if you want a film that will challenge you, make you think and wonder in awe, then I highly recommend you go experience The Tree of Life right away!
10/10

Dreamscape (1984)
I have watched this before but saw it again with my brother who was watching it for the first time. My opinion did not change. I still like it and still think Christopher Nolan saw it before making Inception. There are a lot of recognizable actors in this movie from Christopher Plummer to Max Van Sydow to the guy who played Norm on Cheers! By the way, I love how this poster looks like an Indiana Jones movie, I guess because Dennis Quaid looks and acts like Harrison Ford. The movie isn't like that as it is a thriller about entering the dreams of others, mostly to help them get over psychological problems and bad dreams.
6/10

The Cable Guy (1996)
I had seen part of this movie years ago and since my brother wanted to watch it I felt it was time to see the whole thing. While I found the movie quite funny at times, it felt like it needed a re-write as the plot wasn't focused and the cable guy acted out of character near the end. It was hard for me to root for or against either Carrey or Broderick since they were at times sympathetic then did things which would make you not care for them. Broderick's character is generally considered the protagonist but the movie is named after Carrey's character so who knows. The Cable Guy was directed by Ben Stiller and I actually think it could have been better if he played the role which ended up going to Matthew Broderick. Although The Cable Guy performed well at the box office, I can see why it got mixed reviews and didn't do as well as Carrey's previous films. The Cable Guy has a quirky sense of humor as well as a large amount of film references which would not appeal to everyone. Despite its flaws I still found it funnier than most comedies.
6/10

Movies I have seen this week and already reviewed:
Fright Night Part 2 (1988)
Solid horror comedy sequel. I wrote more about this movie in Summer Round-up Part 3.
6/10


Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Fun horror movie with some dark humor. Check out my full review posted Wed. June 29th.
7/10

First Blood (1982)
good action thriller that is not like the Rambo sequels. Check out my full review posted Fri. July 1st.
8/10