Welcome
to the 255th Edition of my series. This week starts the annual Horror
Movie Madness contest so in the coming weeks I will have some horror,
Halloween related films and some "loopholes" as I have been dubbed the
King of the Loophole for watching movies unrelated to any genre but
counting because they are some actor, director, producer, and so on. I
know my peers in the contest would be very disappointed if I did not
have any. I am now in TALK RADIO at the Muncie Civic Studio Theater
where I play the caller Glenn. I will find out soon what I will be doing
but I'm pretty excited.
Little Shop of Horrors (1960): Check out
the year and yes this was a b-movie before it became that musical we
all love today. Roger Corman directed this film which like the musical
takes place in the very bad town of Skid Row where we have a struggling
flower shop run by Mr. Mushnick and his employees Seymour and Audrey.
Seymour then finds an unusual plant which he calls Audrey Jr. where in
the musical the plant is Audrey Two. He then learns this plant is very
bloodthirsty and is forced to do things he would not usually do. This
one was a little more creepy and Seymour becomes a little more murderous
than in the musical. Corman had this similar formula in BUCKET OF BLOOD
where a shy, nerdy person resorts to horrible acts to keep their career
going. Jack Nicholson has a very early role in this as a dental patient
who loves the pain of the dentist. Many people, including myself prefer
the musical version but credit has to be given where it is due and this
movie did make it possible for your musical. It is a pretty decent
b-movie.
Rollerball (1975): This is my futuristic film for the
week directed by Norman Jewison. Rollerball is a very extreme sport
which corporate society uses hoping to bring down the spirits in others.
James Caan plays Jonathan who has been playing for a long time but too
long in the eyes of the people who run it. The corporate government want
him to retire but he does what he can to defy them. The game being
played here seems rather similar to Roller Derby which was on the rise
in this era but had many differences. This was a very interesting
premise which I felt could have been executed better but the action was
very entertaining and the game was so much fun the cast, extras, and
stuntmen actually played it between takes.
The Baron of Arizona
(1950): This is my western for the week which was directed by
independent director Samuel Fuller. Vincent Price plays the real-life
James Reavis who spends his life trying to buy the state of Arizona. He
then finds a young girl and concocts a big story about her being
connected to aristocracy who he later marries when she grows up. Fuller
does a good job with this story and becomes a pretty underrated
filmmaker through the years and a good western. It starts out with a few
politicians talking and one of them explaining the good that came out
of what Reavis did where his story starts there.
Near Dark
(1987): This is my vampire movie of the week which was directed by
Kathryn Bigelow. Adrian Pasdar plays southern boy Caleb who then meets a
mysterious girl named Mae, played by Jenny Wright, who bites him. He is
then abducted by a van by Mae's vampire family. They keep Caleb alive
giving him a week to prove that he belongs with them. They do find that
Caleb is not easy to turn as he did not develop a killer instinct and
Mae gives him her blood. Lance Henrikson is their ruthless leader and
Bill Paxton also co-stars as one of the vampires. Tim Thomerson and
Marcie Leeds are very good as Caleb's single-father and little sister
who never give up trying to find their son. Their interactions are very
good and you really feel for them when they are on screen. This is
Bigelow's first solo directorial effort and would go onto direct the
award-winning THE HURT LOCKER. This movie was put out the same year as
the other popular vampire film THE LOST BOYS but I actually ended up
liking this one better. If anything, it has been unfairly overshadowed
by LOST BOYS and a very underrated vampire film.
Drag Me to Hell
(2009): I now bring you Sam Raimi's return to the horror genre. Allison
Lohman stars as bank employee Christine who is up for possible
promotion. She then is presented with an old gypsy woman named Sylvia
Ganush, played by Lorna Raver, who faces foreclosure in her home and has
two extensions already. Her boss leaves the decision of a third loan to
Christine and she really wants that promotion so she tells her no which
is probably a decision she regrets more than anything. Soon after that,
Mrs. Ganush puts a curse on Christine that she will apparently die in
three days. ED alum Justin Long plays her very successful and
understanding boyfriend Clay. When I was recently at my dad's house, I
had a discussion with my 16-year old niece who just absolutely hated
this movie and as much as I love her we have never always seen
eye-to-eye on these kinds of things. She felt it was rather cheesy. I
found this to be a very clever entry into this dying genre. I really
liked the twists and turns of the film. I really liked Lorna Raver's
performance as Mrs. Ganush and thought she pulled that off very well.
Obviously, some reading this will disagree and even some die-hard fans
of the genre will disagree but in my not really being into horror, this
kind of movie is how you get me to watch a horror film. Raimi's
trademark 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 appears as Mrs. Ganush's car and has
always been him his movies he directed starting with this featured
directorial debut of EVIL DEAD.
Sky High (2005): This is my
live-action Disney film which uses the formula that was very successful
in their animated film THE INCREDIBLES and expands pretty well into this
live-action film. Michael Angarano plays Will Stronghold, the son of
his very famous superhero parents Commander, played by Kurt Russell, and
Jetstream, played by Kelly Preston. He finds there is a lot to live up
to but is not sure if he has superpowers. He is then accepted to the
secret school of the title where he and his friend Layla, played by
Danielle Panabaker, learn how to use the superpowers given. In this
school, there are two types of people, you have the heroes and then the
sidekicks. He seems very destined to remain a sidekick all his life but
then slowly begins to learn his powers and that it takes more than
powers to become a hero. BRISCO COUNTY alum Bruce Campbell, NEWSRADIO
alum Dave Foley, WONDER WOMAN alum Lynda Carter, Cloris Leachman all
co-star. This was a very good look at a segregated school where
obviously "sidekicks" are looked-down upon where this movie kind of
teaches acceptance. This was also a very fun film and while I referenced
THE INCREDIBLES, I do not see it as a rip-off.
Servant of
Mankind (1940): This is my short film for the week which I found on TCM
On-Demand. This is actually a really good nine-minute history lesson
which features the accomplishments of Thomas Edison starting with the
great light bulb who only expanded there until his death. This was a
very good nine minutes and it might still be available on On-Demand but
not sure.
Single White Female (1992): I figure this is another
good way to kick off October. I will say that this movie holds its place
in history for being the first movie to be watched on the Netflix app
on my ipod touch. Bridget Fonda stars as Allie who is leaving her
boyfriend, played by Steven Weber, after he has an affair. She then
moves to an apartment and becomes lonely so she decides to look into
getting a roommate. She interviews many and should have probably chosen
one of them before she decides to take in Hedy, played by Jennifer Jason
Leigh. They become friends but Allie slowly sees that Hedy is not who
she seems to be especially after she decides to get back with her
boyfriend. Hedy becomes more and more jealous of Allie leading to a
violent climax between the two. Both of these actresses are people I
never recognize unless I see their name in the credits. Maybe because
they change their looks a lot. This movie is not without flaws but I
believe the two work pretty well together and is a good one to watch
with friends on a bored day.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920): Now I
bring you the silent version of the classic good and evil story written
by Robert Louis Stevenson. John Barrymore stars as the title characters
where most know that Dr. Henry Jekyll is a good man who wants to prove
that everybody has the side of good and evil and then show that evil can
be eliminated. He is not able to get anyone for his experiments so he
does it himself becoming the murderous Mr. Hyde who gains more and more
control of the personalities. I thought they did a pretty good job on
the transition of Jekyll to Hyde and vice versa. John Barrymore did a
pretty good job in this film and yes, he is the grandfather of Drew
Barrymore which is a big acting family where even John is a second
generation actor as his father Maurice was a theater actor.
The
Toxic Avenger (1984): I end this week with some Troma films directed by
Lloyd Kaufman. We first have a janitor named Melvin who works at the
health club. He is treated very unkindly due to his nerdy looks and many
other things. Some of these people pull a prank that goes a little too
far when he falls into a toxic bucket. When he gets out, the title
character is born and decides to fight evil very violently. If you're
looking for some great story, great acting, witty dialogue, this is not
it but if you can get a few friends together, I think you'll all have a
lot of fun. This was followed by three sequels. It in many ways defines
the phrase "so bad it's good" but it's really "so bad, it's great". He
also finds a cute blind girl who fall in love together so I suppose in
some ways this could be considered a chick flick. I see this is about to
be remade and I really don't see a remake working towards this cult
classic.
Well, that is it for this week, stay tuned for next week
where we will see the week one results of Horror Movie Madness and see
where I fall. Much of my selections will be ones regarding the contest.
So far I have the werewolf genre, Julia Styles, and many others.
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