Check out this episode!
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Friday, December 19, 2014
Review: SKIDOO
Directed by Otto Preminger
1968
97 mins.
Olive Films blu-ray release, 2014
Perhaps you're the type of person that uses words like "madcap hilarity" and "groovy." Well, then I don't know what to say about your vernacular, but you'd fit right in the world of SKIDOO.
This is a film that is a giant risk on every level. From acting choices (like Jackie Gleason) to crazy writing (at one point a hallucinatory man in a light pyramid has a conversation with Gleason in a prison cell...) this film walks the line of absolute disaster and brilliant masterpiece. I think, in the end, it lies somewhere in the middle. That being said, I thought it was an avant-garde experiment well worth doing and I'm so please Olive has put it out.
The basic premise is this: Gleason is an old retired mob hitman who is called in for one more job. Problem is, he doesn't want to do that work anymore. He now has a loving wife and daughter.
Up to this point, you might think what is the big deal? Well, imagine that all this plays out like a mix between The Pink Panther and Happy Days. Gleason's daughter is a big time hippy.
I'm not getting this across well at all.
This movie is crazy. There are dancing trash cans. DANCING TRASH CANS. EVERYONE ends up on acid. Prison guards do musical numbers. Groucho Marx plays a germophobe mob boss named God. All the villains from Batman: The TV Series show up. A hippy boat army attacks God's yacht with love. Pacifist physicists make hot air balloons out of laundry.
This is the type of movie that fits perfectly within the Laugh-In culture. Completely subversive, absolutely absurd and strangely intellectual. Its about the culture wars and violence and the military and the prison system and drugs. And, did I mention that Carol Channing is genius?
After all that, you also get the soundtrack. Put together by Harry Nilsson, it is absolutely strange and absolutely catchy in a way only he can do. This is a fascinating piece and the blu-ray looks gorgeous.
So strange.
-J. Moret
1968
97 mins.
Olive Films blu-ray release, 2014
This is a film that is a giant risk on every level. From acting choices (like Jackie Gleason) to crazy writing (at one point a hallucinatory man in a light pyramid has a conversation with Gleason in a prison cell...) this film walks the line of absolute disaster and brilliant masterpiece. I think, in the end, it lies somewhere in the middle. That being said, I thought it was an avant-garde experiment well worth doing and I'm so please Olive has put it out.
The basic premise is this: Gleason is an old retired mob hitman who is called in for one more job. Problem is, he doesn't want to do that work anymore. He now has a loving wife and daughter.
Up to this point, you might think what is the big deal? Well, imagine that all this plays out like a mix between The Pink Panther and Happy Days. Gleason's daughter is a big time hippy.
I'm not getting this across well at all.
This movie is crazy. There are dancing trash cans. DANCING TRASH CANS. EVERYONE ends up on acid. Prison guards do musical numbers. Groucho Marx plays a germophobe mob boss named God. All the villains from Batman: The TV Series show up. A hippy boat army attacks God's yacht with love. Pacifist physicists make hot air balloons out of laundry.
This is the type of movie that fits perfectly within the Laugh-In culture. Completely subversive, absolutely absurd and strangely intellectual. Its about the culture wars and violence and the military and the prison system and drugs. And, did I mention that Carol Channing is genius?
After all that, you also get the soundtrack. Put together by Harry Nilsson, it is absolutely strange and absolutely catchy in a way only he can do. This is a fascinating piece and the blu-ray looks gorgeous.
So strange.
-J. Moret
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Friday, December 5, 2014
Mr. Mom - ALL STAR VIDEO
John and Matt talk about where they have been over the last few months. Then they talk about Mr. Mom's socio-economic messages. . . It's a bit weird.
Check out this episode!
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Review: MOONTRAP
Directed by Robert Dyke
1989
92 mins.
Olive Films Blu-Ray Release
I had never heard of Olive Films (weirdly, as they have released and distributed lots of good stuff now that I'm looking) until they acquired all of the titles from Jesus Teran's wonderful little indie label, Slasher Video. (You can hear my interview with Jesus here: http://allstarvideo.blogspot.com/2013/12/interview-with-jesus-teran-of-slasher.html ). Their newest release is a little seen space horror gem called MOONTRAP.
MOONTRAP is the kind of movie that has old scientists telling marines not to shoot aliens because "it's a great moment for mankind." And then in the next breath, in slow-motion, yells "Get the son of a bitch!" Or, in other words, my kind of movie.
1989
92 mins.
Olive Films Blu-Ray Release
MOONTRAP is the kind of movie that has old scientists telling marines not to shoot aliens because "it's a great moment for mankind." And then in the next breath, in slow-motion, yells "Get the son of a bitch!" Or, in other words, my kind of movie.
The basic premise is this: Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Ash (the crazy charismatic Bruce Campbell) are astronauts who find a giant alien spacecraft with a big robotic egg and decayed corpse inside. When they bring the egg back to earth, it turns out to have the terminator in it and Chekov dominates the hell out of it. But, little do they know that the terminator is a combo platter of robotic death and organic matter...
Well, the president decides it's time to go back to the moon. Chekov and Ash are the obvious choices and off they go. Lunacy follows.
Moontrap gets a lot of things right. First, space travel. I'm a huge sucker for all things space, and this film does a great job capturing the immensity of it all. Olive Films has done a wonderful job with the restoration and it truly is a gorgeous looking film. There are plenty of great effects shots that show how tiny we are in comparison to the endless darkness. Our apparent insignificance becomes all the moreso when in comparison the giant cold nothing outside.
The humor is deadpan enough that it doesn't really land anywhere, except when Bruce Campbell is doing it. His genial sarcasm both undermines any tension that could exist in the film and lifts it above it taking itself too seriously. It is a robot alien moon invasion film after all.
But, the thing that really works here is the way they play with the mythology of landing on the moon. I love the stories of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Alan Shepherd. I love how truly mysterious and strange space still seems even after multiple visits. Even in the most trivial of circumstances (Moontrap, for instance), I find myself contemplating my existence. And, I love the fictionalization of true events. Here, we see a little robot head pop out of the moon dust just as Aldrin gets back on the lander and escapes. When Koenig and Campbell return, they aren't so lucky. Now there is a fourteen thousand year old robot base that they need to deal with.
This is a film that could only have been made when it was. The late 1980s was the perfect time for combining different kinds of effects. Light boxes, models and darkly lit sets provide a semi-believable experience on the moon. Pre-CGI and post 2001: A Space Odyssey, Moontrap is able to take cues from the latter and not be hindered by the former. Likewise, it seems that our imagination about space seems to have fettered. Ever since 2003, when the Bush administration responded to the explosion of the Columbia by demanding a re-evaluation of the space shuttle fleet. This set the stage for the last mission to outer-space in 2010. And, here we are, physically grounded. Moontrap could perhaps never have been made in this atmosphere.
No doubt Moontrap is far from perfect. The slow, meticulous pacing is perfect when they are floating in space, but strange and quite dull when surviving in an oxygen igloo. (This particular scene is so useless, that it might be one of the best in the movie). Koenig is stiff and uninspiring. Seems the casting should've gone opposite, but he was the star back then, not Campbell. The villains are very interesting and have a pretty great twist, but are far from terrifying.
But, there is space, Ash, very very random nudity, and explosions. So, worth your time.
-J. Moret
Moontrap gets a lot of things right. First, space travel. I'm a huge sucker for all things space, and this film does a great job capturing the immensity of it all. Olive Films has done a wonderful job with the restoration and it truly is a gorgeous looking film. There are plenty of great effects shots that show how tiny we are in comparison to the endless darkness. Our apparent insignificance becomes all the moreso when in comparison the giant cold nothing outside.
The humor is deadpan enough that it doesn't really land anywhere, except when Bruce Campbell is doing it. His genial sarcasm both undermines any tension that could exist in the film and lifts it above it taking itself too seriously. It is a robot alien moon invasion film after all.
But, the thing that really works here is the way they play with the mythology of landing on the moon. I love the stories of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Alan Shepherd. I love how truly mysterious and strange space still seems even after multiple visits. Even in the most trivial of circumstances (Moontrap, for instance), I find myself contemplating my existence. And, I love the fictionalization of true events. Here, we see a little robot head pop out of the moon dust just as Aldrin gets back on the lander and escapes. When Koenig and Campbell return, they aren't so lucky. Now there is a fourteen thousand year old robot base that they need to deal with.
This is a film that could only have been made when it was. The late 1980s was the perfect time for combining different kinds of effects. Light boxes, models and darkly lit sets provide a semi-believable experience on the moon. Pre-CGI and post 2001: A Space Odyssey, Moontrap is able to take cues from the latter and not be hindered by the former. Likewise, it seems that our imagination about space seems to have fettered. Ever since 2003, when the Bush administration responded to the explosion of the Columbia by demanding a re-evaluation of the space shuttle fleet. This set the stage for the last mission to outer-space in 2010. And, here we are, physically grounded. Moontrap could perhaps never have been made in this atmosphere.
No doubt Moontrap is far from perfect. The slow, meticulous pacing is perfect when they are floating in space, but strange and quite dull when surviving in an oxygen igloo. (This particular scene is so useless, that it might be one of the best in the movie). Koenig is stiff and uninspiring. Seems the casting should've gone opposite, but he was the star back then, not Campbell. The villains are very interesting and have a pretty great twist, but are far from terrifying.
But, there is space, Ash, very very random nudity, and explosions. So, worth your time.
-J. Moret
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