Category: Movie DVDs (Page 76 of 100)

Scare of the Day: “Eyes of a Stranger”

October 24, 2007 / Will Harris

When I helped pull together Bullz-Eye’s piece on TV transitions, which examined actors who tried but failed to make the transition from the small screen to the big screen, it turns out that there was at least one name that flew completely under my radar, possibly because her first shot as a leading lady turned out to be her last: Lauren Tewes, a.k.a. cruise director Julie McCoy on “The Love Boat.”

I’m not saying that Tewes’ lone headlining role in the 1981 slasher flick, “Eyes of a Stranger,” was necessarily bad enough to warrant such a sudden and dramatic conclusion to her career as a Hollywood leading lady…but, well, there’s a reason why the film is mostly remembered not for Tewes’s contributions but, rather, for the fact that the film served to introduce the world to Jennifer Jason Leigh. At the very least, it’s not going out on a limb to suggest that, even then, Leigh had the edge when it comes to range…but, then, you’ll see what I mean when you read about her character.

Tewes plays newscaster Jane Harris, who seems particularly stricken by the recent attacks on women by a nasty character who’s strangling and sexually molesting his victims. At first, it seems as though Jane’s concerns exist because she’s so protective of her deaf and blind sister (Leigh), but it soon becomes evident that there’s a horrible secret in her past which has raised her fear level. When she discovers who the guilty party is, Jane decides to play the “I Know What You Did” card by calling him and threatening him, which inevitably leads to a confrontation. The film’s gore effects are provided by the legendary Tom Savini, who offers particularly nice results to a decapitation (the head ends up floating in an aquarium), and director Ken Wiederhorn does manage to provide a few scares in the darkness, but, overall, the film’s only the slightest step up from TV movie fare. If you took away the nudity and gore, you’d find that the plot and dialogue wouldn’t even make the cut for a Lifetime production. Leigh obviously impressed someone with her work on “Eyes of a Stranger” – wow, she’s deaf and blind, but she can still make toast and coffee! – but given that Tewes slinked back to the Pacific Princess and Wiederhorn’s next project was “Meatballs 2,” it’s clear that Leigh was the only one.

In closing, we’re stuck with another film without a trailer available, so let’s watch the video for The Payola$’ song, “Eyes of a Stranger.” Paul Hyde + Bob Rock = an awesome ’80s Canadian rock song. Okay, maybe not awesome…but it’s still better than the movie that shares its title.

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Scare of the Day: “Premature Burial” / “X – The Man with X-Ray Eyes”

October 9, 2007 / Will Harris

Trying to put together a definitive box set of Roger Corman films would be a fool’s errand. Between the number of different studios he’s worked for over the years and the sheer volume of the man’s work as a director and producer, there’s just no way you could ever put together anything that could truly be called a definitive representation of his career. Still, give MGM credit for taking a shot at it with The Roger Corman Collection; at best, it’s still only a mixture of good, great, and utter dreck…but, then, that’s Roger Corman in a nutshell, anyway.

For the purposes of our Scare of the Day feature, we’ll look at two of the eight films within the set today, then hit up one more tomorrow. Today, however, has been officially declared Ray Milland Day at Premium Hollywood, which means that we’ll be tackling 1962’s “Premature Burial” and 1963’s “X – The Man with X-Ray Eyes.”

“Premature Burial” is based on a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, an author whose works were regularly plundered by Corman for his films. I say “plundered,” but I’m really only kidding; in truth, modern audiences would probably be way less familiar with Poe’s work if it hadn’t been for Corman’s adaptations of “House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Raven,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Tomb of Ligeia.” For that alone, he deserves praise, even if he hasn’t always been 100% on the mark when transitioning the stories into films.

In the case of “Premature Burial,” unfortunately, I can’t make a comparison between the two, having never read the original short story, but I will say that Corman succeeds in putting together a creepy tale of Guy Carrell, a man who’s convinced that he suffers from catalepsy. If you’re not familiar with that particular malady, here’s the scoop: it’s a condition characterized by muscular rigidity, fixity of posture and decreased sensitivity to pain…and in the days before medical technology really took off, it wasn’t too hard for someone in the midst of a cataleptic seizure to be declared dead.

Carrell is in the midst of a full-on obsession with his possible catalepsy, to the point where he even breaks off a relationship with Emily Gault (Hazel Court) because he feels he can’t give it his all. She convinces him to give her a chance, however, and they end up married…if not necessarily happily. Carrell is sure that his father was buried alive while in the midst of a seizure, and to avoid any possibility of such a thing happening to him, he designs a crypt for himself that’s equal parts Rube Goldberg and Dr. Frink from “The Simpsons.” It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Eventually, Emily convinces her husband to have his father’s remains exhumed, so he can see once and for all that it was a legitimate, peaceful death…and not to spoil it for you, but, um, that screen shot is of Carrell’s dad, and I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t look like a smile on his face. “Premature Burial” is an enjoyable Gothic horror flick, and while it’s gotten some rather unfair complaints over the years because Milland took the lead rather than Corman’s usual Poe go-to man, Vincent Price, there’s no question than our man Ray plays the role with all the intensity it requires.

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Scare of the Day: “Poltergeist II: The Other Side” / “Poltergeist III”

October 5, 2007 / Will Harris

I hadn’t really intended to focus on films that weren’t currently sitting in my “To Review” pile during the Scare of the Day feature, but given that last night found my wife and I attending a 25th-anniversary screening of “Poltergeist,” it seemed like an appropriate time to revisit that film’s two sequels, which were released as a 2-fer DVD a few years back.

I’ll go into this in more detail when I do a full review of the “Poltergeist” DVD reissue, but, for the purposes of this column, let me just say that, despite having seen the movie probably two dozen times over the course of the last two and a half decades, last night was the first time I’d ever seen the film in a theater. As such, it was the first time I’d really appreciated it as something other than just a string of scary moments and special effect sequences. Oh, it’s still a damned creepy film (even if the face-ripping scene seemed a lot creepier 25 years ago), but I’d never realized that it owes its effectiveness to the fact that it takes its time building an emotional core; by not feeling rushed, you’re given the opportunity to actually care for the characters…and that’s something neither of the film’s sequels allow for.

Given the success of the original film, it was pretty much a given that there’d be a sequel, and the good news was that Jobeth Williams (Diane), Craig T. Nelson (Steven), Heather O’Rourke (Carol Anne), Oliver Robins (Robbie), and Zelda Rubenstein (Tangina Barrons, medium at large) would all be returning for the flick. (Actress Dominique Dunne, who played Dana, was strangled to death by her boyfriend not long after the original film was released.) Although it’s great to see all of the old faces again, the bad news was that producer Steven Spielberg wasn’t constantly hanging around the set this time to help mold things into shape….and it shows.

Funnily enough, I remember really loving the film when it was first released, back in 1986. (Guaranteed, I was in the theater on opening weekend.) Looking at it now, though, it’s obvious that people were sitting on the sidelines, saying, “Okay, so what worked in the first film, and what’s the bare minimum that we can tweak it so that we can re-use it in the second film?” Perhaps that’s phrasing it a bit cynically, but, in particular, the moments of playful romance between Steven and Diane and sibling bickering between Carol Anne and Robbie which were cute and natural in the original feel utterly forced here.

The Freeling family has left Costa Verde and moved in with Diane’s mother (Geraldine Fitzgerald), but that ultimately only serves as a plot device, so that we can meet Carol Anne’s grandma, have her die, and then have Carol Anne use her gifts to speak with her from beyond the grave, and Grandma’s death occurs so abruptly – albeit quietly, no doubt because a lot of kids watched “Poltergeist” on HBO and had their allowance all ready to spend on the sequel – that there’s no virtually no emotional heft to it. There’s a subplot involving an Indian mystic (Will Sampson), but he’s all cliche, so, again, he feels like a plot device, too.

In fact, there’s only one character in this film who succeeds, and that’s why he’s the only thing you remember about this film…and why he’s over at the right, even as you read this line, screaming, “You’re gonna die in hell! All of you! You are gonna die!”

Yeah, the Freeling family really had it bad. Not only was their house built on top of a cemetery, but the cemetery was built on top of a massive underground cavern that, in the 1800s, became the final resting place of a Utopian cult led by Rev. Henry Kane (Julian Beck). Kane had assured his followers that the world was going to end, so he buried both them and himself in the cavern to wait for it; unfortunately, his prophecy didn’t come to pass, and everyone died screaming in the bowels of the earth, trying desperately to claw their way out. Being little more than a bunch of lemmings, however, Kane’s followers still clung to his every move, and the whole bunch of them were still trying to find their way to the afterlife…and it seems that only a little blond-haired angel named Carol Anne can help them.

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Bullz-Eye for the Kiddies, Vol. 3

October 4, 2007 / Will Harris

Yes, yes, we know: the delay between “Bullz-Eye for the Kiddies” entries just keeps getting longer and longer. Look, all we can say is that if you’ve got a kid, we’d like to think you’d be a little understanding about how much trouble it is to find the time to watch something on TV that you want to watch when it in no way matches what your kid wants to watch.

What’s that? You’d think it’d make a difference if what you wanted to watch was actually intended for kids…?

Yeah, you would think that…but, unfortunately, it only makes a difference if it catches their interest within the first five to ten seconds. If it doesn’t tickle their fancy in that amount of time, however, their first line of defense is to repeatedly tell you what they’d rather watch, then getting progressively more loud and more anguished with their clarification until you finally realize that even by winning the battle and watching what you want to watch, you’ve still lost the war because you can’t possibly get anything out of the viewing experience with all that racket going on.

End result: it always takes longer than anticipated to pull these columns together.

So sue me.

Curious George: Rocket Ride and Other Adventures! – It’s only appropriate, I suppose, that I begin with the item which my daughter and I most enjoy watching together. “Curious George” first started on its road to becoming a childhood staple in 1941, when H.A. Rey and Margret Rey released the little monkey’s self-titled adventure, and since then, he’s been involved in plenty of other escapades, not only on the printed page but in other mediums as well. A full-length animated feature in 2006, however, was what led to the animated television series which currently airs on PBS. This DVD features eight adventures from that show – what you’re getting here are four episodes, with two adventures per episode – plus two games and several printable coloring pages which can be accessed via the DVD-ROM. It’s actually a very cute, clever series, with narration from William H. Macy and usually at least a couple of lines per adventure that are clearly intended for the parents rather than the children; plus, most parents have fond memories from their own experiences with George, so it’s hard not to smile along. Most importantly, though, “Curious George” is educational for the kids without making adults feel like they’re losing IQ points while watching it…and, boy, does that go a long way with parents.

Baby Looney Tunes, Volume 3 / Volume 4 – And, now, on to something that my daughter has fallen in love with but that I…well, I can’t muster enough dislike for it to actually hate it, but it’s definitely depressing to me that she’ll watch this but has no interest in the original cartoons. I can only presume that her interest in the show lies in the fact that she can relate to baby-fied versions of characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the Tasmanian Devil because they’re in diapers…just like her! Unfortunately, as someone who was versed in the classics from the get-go, all I can think is, “So, what, she’s never going to like the original versions of the characters because she’s forever going to associate them with stuff that’s for babies?” Actually, I think the absolute worst part about this is that it didn’t have to be so made so disgustingly “kid-friendly”…and for proof, you need look no farther than “Muppet Babies,” an incredibly clever show that totally transcended its concept. I’ll close this write-up by offering my wife’s biggest concern: if all these baby animals are living in a house with a human “Granny,” then how long is going to take for our kid to ask, “What happened to their parents?” If I were a lesser father, I’d give my daughter some really creative answers to that question…

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Scare of the Day: “The Fly Collection”

October 2, 2007 / Will Harris

Halloween is the time of year when studios decide to empty their vaults of everything even remotely frightening and foist it upon a public who enjoys being scared. As I mentioned yesterday, the quality of the material ranges from legitimately good to downright excruciating, and as the years go on, we’re also finding the market flooded with the same material simply being reissued and re-reissued and re–re-reissued. Once in awhile, though, you get handed a film that’s either never been on DVD before or is almost impossible to find anymore, and that’s the case for 1/3 of Fox’s brand new set, “The Fly Collection,” which rounds up the fondly-remembered first two films in the saga of the Delambre family – “The Fly” and “Return of The Fly” – then also resurrects the oft-forgotten 3rd film, 1965’s “The Curse of the Fly.”

David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of the original film was actually a successful modernization of the tale of a scientist whose attempts to master the technology of teleportation go awry when his DNA is accidentally melded with that of a common housefly. Unfortunately, the special effects of a ’50s film obviously can’t compete with those of an ’80s film (especially not one made for the kind of budget that Cronenberg had to work with), so a lot of people tend to dismiss the original “Fly” because, oh, well, the guy’s got a big, fake-looking fly head.

Don’t be one of those people.

In fact, Kurt Neumann’s 1958 adaptation of the George Langelaan short story worked remarkably well for its era, with Neumann wisely choosing to avoid showing the aforementioned fly head for as long as possible…and, even when we do see it, it’s not the almost-cartoonish creature that you see on the cover of the DVD set, which is actually a shot from “Return of The Fly.” The head of the creature in “The Fly” actually looks comparatively realistic, and because of the emotional build-up to the reveal, we actually find ourselves not focusing on it nearly as much as we otherwise might have. “The Fly” is very much a tale like “The Phantom of the Opera,” with scientist Andre Delambre (Al Hedison) accidentally fusing himself with the fly in the process of testing his own invention, then pleading for his wife, Helene (Patricia Owens), to assist him in finding the other half of his experiment – the fly with a human head and hand, of course – before his brain gives in to the fly side of his being. Naturally, she’s horrified by his appearance, which he hides from her for the majority of the film, but even once she’s seen how he now looks, the bond of love between them proves stronger, which is why she finally agrees to his request to kill him and destroy both his head and hand beneath a metal press (yikes!) so that no-one will know what’s happened. Inevitably, we do see the fly with a human’s head and hand, and although the special effects may be laughable by today’s standards, the horrific, high-pitched shrieking of the creature as it’s being eaten by a spider – “Help meeeeeeeeeee!” – is still creepy stuff in 2007.