Category: Movies (Page 409 of 498)

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 Food of the Gods”

October 4, 2007 / Will Harris

After three consecutive days of offering Scares of the Day that I’ve legitimately enjoyed watching and talking about, it’s definitely time to take a dip into MGM’s Midnite Movies series. If you’re a fan of cult cinema and you’ve never taken a dip into a Midnight Movies DVD…well, then, frankly, you’re a really, really bad fan of cult cinema, because lord knows it’s one of the best imprints out there. In fact, if there’s any issue to be had with it, it’s that MGM often lets the films go out of print pretty quickly after releasing them, so when you hear that a new disc is coming out, your best bet is always to grab it ASAP.

Of course, like so many Midnite Movies, whether “The Food of the Gods” truly falls into the category of “Must Own” is gonna depend on how well you enjoy the kind of film that’s so bad it’s almost good. While both the cover of the DVD and the actual title screen of the movie would have you believed that it’s based on an H.G. Wells novel, that’s not entirely true; when you get deeper into the actual credits of the film, the actual descriptor is that it’s “based on a portion of the novel by H.G. Wells.”

Man, if that’s not an understatement.

The novel starts off by focusing on two scientists, Bensington and Redwood, who are conducting research into the growth process of living things; they create a chemical foodstuff called Herakleophorbia IV that accelerates and extends the process past its normal cycle, set up an experimental farm, and test the substance on chicks. There’s a relatively brief sequence in the book where a couple who’ve been hired to run the farm slack off and accidentally allow other creatures – wasps, rats, etcetera – to get into the food, which results in a showdown with the other creatures and the destruction of the farm. Beyond that, though, the novel’s scope encompasses several decades, exploring the effects of the food on humans and how human society evolves when some are giants and some are still normal-sized.

If that sounds fascinating to you, you’d best just stick to the book.

In the movie, an elderly couple just kind of happens upon this strange substance near their house. They live on an island, and it seems to have just come into existence naturally, so they feed it to their chickens…and when they’re on the verge of trying to maybe make a few bucks off of it, that’s when they realize that rats, wasps, and even flesh-eating worms have gotten into it as well. It’s still not a bad idea for a horror film (or monster movie, if you’re a purist), but with a budget which appears to have consisted of whatever happened to be in director / producer Bert I. Gordon’s pockets at the time he pitched the flick, the only “food of the gods” on display here is cheese. There isn’t a single sequence involving the giant rats that doesn’t instantly inspire an explosive “BWA-HA-HA-HA-” of laughter; it’s painfully obvious…albeit hilariously so…that the normal-sized rats are going after Matchbox cars, model houses, and so forth. There are Sid & Marty Krofft productions with better special effects than “The Food of the Gods,” but, then, anyone who saw the trailer for the film would’ve known what they were getting into…

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Scare of the Day: “Return of the Living Dead: Collector’s Edition”

October 3, 2007 / Will Harris

Until “Shaun of the Dead” shambled onto the scene a few years ago, if you’d asked me to name my favorite zombie movie of all time, you’d always have gotten the same answer: “Return of the Living Dead.” I mean, there just wasn’t even a second-place contender.

Why did I enjoy it so much? Well, certainly, Linnea Quigley dancing nude (save for a pair of thigh-high stockings) atop a crypt is always gonna rank pretty high on my list of reasons, but, on the whole, it’s because the film manages to start off feeling like a broad slapstick comedy, then slowly pulls back on the humor while raising the level of tension. By the time the film ends and you think back to what you’ve witnessed, you’ll realize that you aren’t exactly sure when the transition happened. That’s a testament to the abilities of director Dan O’Bannon, who’d already earned a name for himself in Hollywood through his screenplays for “Alien” and “Blue Thunder” but had never helmed a movie ’til this one. Given how successful he was at it, it’s surprising to discover that he’s only directed one other film since then (1992’s “The Resurrected”), but that fact in no way detracts from his successes here.

“Return of the Living Dead” begins in the Uneda Medical Supply warehouse, where Frank (James Karen) is training the company’s new employee, Freddy (Thom Matthews), of the ins and outs of the business before they head out to celebrate the long 4th of July weekend. When Freddy asks Frank the weirdest thing he’s ever seen in his time there, Frank replies by asking Freddy if he’s ever seen the movie “Night of the Living Dead.” Turns out that the events in George A. Romero’s classic zombie flick actually happened, but that the specifics had to be changed up and switched around, and that the basement of the warehouse actually houses some of the (un)dead bodies, which are housed in sealed barrels. (There’s a plot thread which runs throughout the film about how the U.S. Army is still on the lookout for their missing barrels, which pays off handsomely.) Inevitably, Frank feels obliged to show Freddy, and when Frank pounds his fist upon one of the barrels to assure Freddy that they’re sealed up tight, he manages to crack the seal and send 2-4-5 Trioxin gas spewing into the air. The pair pass out, and when they wake up, they realize that the gas has seeped into the warehouse and brought the various cadavers within the building back to life; even worse, it turns out that one of the bits that had been changed in “Night of the Living Dead” is that the zombies can’t actually be killed by a blow to the head! They can, however, be killed by being burned to ashes…but, even then, if the ashes mix with water and seep into the soil of, say, a graveyard, then it’s zombies a go go.

Would it surprise you to learn that that’s exactly what happens? Yeah, I didn’t think it would.