I was annoyed they made Islamic fundamentalists the villains of United 93. That sort of thing just fans the flames as far as I'm concerned.
Sadly, it was probably necessary that they do so. However how necessary it was to do so in the case of True Lies is beyond me.
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
I was annoyed they made Islamic fundamentalists the villains of United 93. That sort of thing just fans the flames as far as I'm concerned.
But that was based on a real event. The people responsible for that atrocity were Islamic Fundamentalists. I think the makers of United 93 were therefore given little choice in who they used.
What's more, because the German government is dead set against scientology, it's no coincidence that Tom Cruise has made Germans the villains in his new film, set in World War Two...
Personally, I was deeply offended when James Cameron used an iceberg as the villian in Titanic. This kind of negative portrayal of the natural world is partly to blame for many people's refusal to take global warming seriously.
Personally, I was deeply offended when James Cameron used an iceberg as the villian in Titanic. This kind of negative portrayal of the natural world is partly to blame for many people's refusal to take global warming seriously.
Agree completely; Hollywood has a nasty habit of reinforcing these negative stereotypes. Take Klingons for example: I concede that they have bad table manners and no concept whatsoever of oral hygiene; but is that any reason to make them the bad guys in every movie?
And back on topic, two recent DVD purchases:
After The Fox
Comic farce starring the late Peter Sellars as a criminal mastermind / master of disguise who concocts a hairbrained scheme to rob a bank while filming a movie about a bank robbery. The film co-stars Britt Ekland in one of her first roles and Victor Mature as an aging movie idol who won't accept that his best days are behind him.
No Way To Treat A Lady
Rod Steiger gives an amazing performance in this quirky movie about a serial killer terrorizing a string of little old ladies. George Segal is the hapless detective on his trail, who must also contend with a new girlfriend (Lee Remick) and a domineering mother.
Twist-turny Danish movie in which characters switch identities in mid-sentence as the plot swirls around them, until eventually it disappears up it's own a***.
About Thomas Beckett aka 'that troublesome priest' who went on to be killed by Henry II, the first Plantaganet king, around 1180.
Interesting as Peter O'Toole is the king, who reprises the role years later in The Lion In Winter, a rare example of time-sensitive 'sequels', though the two, as far as I know, were not connected.
Richard Burton is Beckett, but it falls down a bit as he doesn't convince as the holy man, though he does as the king's well-intentioned Saxon buddy. In Seventh Seal terms, he's better as the knight's mate, than the knight himself.
Reminded me of The Man Who Would Be King at times.
A brave young English lad witnesses betrayal and backbiting in his skinhead peer group in the early 1980s.
A lad is released from jail and looks to rejoin his outfit, but his attempts to get them to put their lives in order and rally behind the flag are only met with disdain and contempt, and his old pal turns on him. Even his previous girlfriend rejects him.
Well, that's how the BNP might write it up. Very good film from Shane Meadows about a bunch of amiable skins who have their way of life infiltrated by an alternatively bullying and benign ex-member, just released from jail and with a racist message. Good stuff, though some plotholes at the end, with the young 10 year old's coming of age as he witnesses all the power factions. A bit like Gregory's Girl with headbutts.
One sheer long exhilirating chase - I haven't been this tense in the cinema since Casino Royale - and I have seen everything since then.
Eon and Co have got to up their game now, as they managed to do last year.
Plenty of Globe trotting - that fight scene in the room in Tangiers was cracking (no background score)- a bit reminiscent of the Rig / Emabassy tussle in CR, especially when the guy does the back flip whilst Bourne is holding his arm - as was the roof top chase prior to this, akin to Dalton in The Living Daylights
Finished off the trilogy nicely
============
There was cracking Trailer before the film for Shoot Em Up starring Clive Owen - very brooding. I told my girlfriend that that was the guy that was tipped and alomost certain (in the publics eyes) to play Bond before Craig did.
I / We both actually imagines him as Bond, with the style of scenes that were shown.
It was alright. I don't think it deserved an academy award but it was still good. The family on that show is messed up. The little girl annoys the he** out of me.
A couple of nights ago I watched Seraphim Falls. Beautiful cinematography and it starts out well; but soon enough the movie practically screams out, "Look how profound and symbolic I am!" The harder it tries, the more obvious and silly it becomes. And one can only wish Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson had called their fellow Irishman Colin Farrell to learn that doing an American accent requires more than putting on a low, raspy voice and mumbling.
An Alan Bennett script from the 80s, set in 1947 in post-war rationing Britain. All Wallace and Gromit type humour, with actors like Michael Palin, Maggie Smith, Pete Postlewaite, Richard Griffiths, Denhom Elliott, the two who turned up as husband and wife in The Singing Detective (Alison Steadman and the guy), quite a big cast.
That said, it's quite gruesome as it's about trading a pig on the black market and the butchery involved, plus Palin is a chiropodist, so there's plenty of shots of him seeing to grey, nasty looking women's feet. (That is their feet look nasty, not the women themselves as such).
There's an old story about a stage production based on Anne Frank's life, in which the actress playing Frank was so bad that when the Nazi's turned up, one wag in the audience shouted, "she's in the attic." That pretty much covers how I feel about this holocaust drama, which stars a young actor so bad he makes Daniel Radcliffe look like Brando.
There's good support from Jim Caviezel and Hristo Shopov, but this is a trite film. It even uses a Damien Rice song at an important moment in the film, which seems ridiculously out of place in a WW2 drama.
A truly stupid film that didn't entertain me in the least.
I was also drunk, but I think that watching it sober would have been even worse.
Not my cup of tea, though I've seen worse. And Paris Hilton can't act.
If you ever get a chance, try to catch the 1953 version with Vincent Price; it's a far better film and still quite effective. It was originally released in 3D but sadly the home video companies seem to have no desire to release a 3D version on DVD.
My satellite provider had a free pay channel preview weekend and I saw a few movies I had been mildly curious about:
The DaVinci Code
I never read the book and really didn't what to expect, other than the vague outline of the story so I was able to watch this without any preconceptions. I found it an entertaining adventure / treasure hunt story with some great location work. The first fourth of the film was a little hard to follow as there is a lot of exposition and a lot of characters and plot threads are introduced. Tom Hanks is a bit wooden but Ian McKellan makes up for it, stealing every scene he's in and clearly enjoying himself.
Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby
You really have to know a little about NASCAR to really appreciate this comedy. The film lampoons everything associated with the sport from the fetishistic fascination with sponsors to the predominantly southern fanbase. Will Ferrell is his usual funny self here, but he is soundly upstaged by Sasha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame) as his on track rival, the gay French F1 driver Jean Girard, and Gary Cole as his ne'er do well father who abandons his family but returns to help Ricky get his life together. The jokes are thrown at the screen in a constant never-ending barrage; many are funny, some not so much. But the movie was an entertaining diversion.
Cars
Another racing movie; this time an all CGI affair by Disney/Pixar. Normally, these aren't my cup of tea as they're too cute for my tastes, but this one was well done: the themes of the movie, that we should all slow down and enjoy life and that there are more important things than winning, were well conveyed without hitting you over the head. The animation style was very well done; and I enjoyed the "appearances" by real racing personalities including Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Schumacher.
My favorite movie of all time. My favorite non-bond Sean Connery movie also. It is an awesome movie. De Niro was great as always, especially as a villain. It was very sad though when...
Sean Connery's character is gunned down.
My favorite part of the movie is the music. The score is the best I have ever heard. It was done by Ennio Morricone, a great composer. The scene at the spoiler above would not have been as great as it was if it weren't for the music.
It just about won me over. It's very understated for the first half, doesn't overplay its hand. Rocky is mourning his dead wife Adriane, and with his sad eyes, hangdog expression and iconographic appeal and people stopping for an autograph, it's hard to not to think of Paul McCartney's recent situation.
Then again, it also seems they killed off Rocky's wife because you can't have the leading man of a modern movie with a 50-something wife, he's got to be hanging around with a younger woman.
Script pretty good, quite natural. My ex flatmate promised to not to spoil the surprise ending, hence it did have a surprise of sorts... there wasn't one. Very silly having him get into shape in a 4 minute montage though, when in the first film he was fighting fit and took half a movie it seemed to buff up.
Dire drama about a struggling writer in 1930's LA from Chinatown writer Robert Towne. Colin Farrell is fine in the lead role and Salma Hayek is very naked as the fiery Mexican waitress he has a tempestuous affair with. There's not much chemistry between the two leads and apart from Hayek skinny-dipping there's little here to recommend.
In GR Lohan gets guidance from Jane Fonda in a mawkish drama. In IKWKM Lohan is a college-girl who is abducted on a night out. When she wakes up she has no memory of her former life. Instead she is convinced she is an exotic dancer with a completely different personality.
Lohan's got talent, but films like this will do a lot more damage to her career than her alcohol-fuelled misadventures.
I went to the dollar theater and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I wasn't expecting great moviemaking, but I at least thought it might be entertaining. Man, was I wrong! Was there even a script? It's like director Gore Verbinski said to the actors, "OK, Johnny, you mince around and say a lot of incoherent stuff; the rest of you run around, scream, and fight; and I'll add a lot of cool special effects at the end. It'll all make sense--trust me!" Also, for a supposedly family-friendly Disney film based on a beloved amusement park ride, this is pretty violent, morbid, sadistic stuff. And it's nearly THREE freakin' hours long! My dollar was not well spent.
The art of editing has gone the way of the dodo. Not every thing you shoot should make it's way to the final product. Directors receive much of the accolades but I firmly believe the editor is as much if not more responsible for a good film.
Anyway, last movie for me was this little Japanese oddity from 1963 called Matango. A ship wrecked group of vacationers are stranded on a mysterious and deserted island and struggle to survive. They collect rain water but there's nothing edible on this island. Even the seagulls shun it. There are however, plenty of the island's sole speciality. Mushrooms. Lots and lots of them. However, if you eat these fungal terrors it also means a slow and terrible demise. There's some serious drug addiction overtones here but I give this one a solid 10 as greed, insanity and betrayal are all played out brilliantly by the Japanese cast. The script is solid and benefits from a growing tension, as one by one, the group dwindles.
This movie has been unfairly criticized and lumped into the rubber monster niche but it's a lovingly produced and well presented motion picture. I had a blast with it.
Down there with Spider-Man 3 and the Zorro sequel, you say then, Hardyboy?
Maybe the "Zorro sequel," but compared to POTC:AWE, Spidey 3 is Citizen Bloody Kane!
And amen to your comment about editing, Alex. Oh, for the good old days of the movie moguls--the Louis B. Mayers, the Carl Laemmles--who brought in directors to shoot the darned film and then handled the editing themselves.
This was the final nail in the coffin for Universal’s classic horror films of the 30’s and 40’s. The studio had been milking the various franchises by having their famous monsters, Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein, turning up in each other’s films. Here Universal added another of their commodities, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, to the mix. I’ve read various things about these movies and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is always treated with disdain.
I thought it would be dreadful, but it’s quite entertaining. It’s no more ridiculous than some of the later films, House of Frankenstein, for instance. Abbott and Costello make fun of the situation they find themselves in, but the film does not belittle or humiliate the monsters. Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster are considered a genuine threat. It helps that they are portrayed by the actors who had played them for Universal. Glenn Strange replaced Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster after Son of Frankenstein, and though he pales in comparison to his predecessor, his presence here adds to the feeling that you’re watching a Universal horror film into which two idiots have wandered into. Better still is Lon Chaney Jr, ever-anguished as The Wolf Man, begging strangers to lock him up and staring nervously at the sky. And seeing Bela Lugosi play Dracula again is wonderful. I’m surprised Universal didn’t include this in their outstanding DVD Legacy collection. It’s nothing to be ashamed off and there’s no need for them to try and hide it away.
This was the final nail in the coffin for Universal’s classic horror films of the 30’s and 40’s. The studio had been milking the various franchises by having their famous monsters, Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein, turning up in each other’s films. Here Universal added another of their commodities, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, to the mix. I’ve read various things about these movies and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is always treated with disdain.
I thought it would be dreadful, but it’s quite entertaining. It’s no more ridiculous than some of the later films, House of Frankenstein, for instance. Abbott and Costello make fun of the situation they find themselves in, but the film does not belittle or humiliate the monsters. Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster are considered a genuine threat. It helps that they are portrayed by the actors who had played them for Universal. Glenn Strange replaced Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster after Son of Frankenstein, and though he pales in comparison to his predecessor, his presence here adds to the feeling that you’re watching a Universal horror film into which two idiots have wandered into. Better still is Lon Chaney Jr, ever-anguished as The Wolf Man, begging strangers to lock him up and staring nervously at the sky. And seeing Bela Lugosi play Dracula again is wonderful. I’m surprised Universal didn’t include this in their outstanding DVD Legacy collection. It’s nothing to be ashamed off and there’s no need for them to try and hide it away.
I agree with you completely. Universal had rocks in their heads for not casting Lugosi as Drac until this late '40s endeavor.
Thankfully, we have both Paramount and MGM to thank for the chance to view Lugosi in his respective turn as the debonair bloodsucker. In Mark Of The Vampire (1935. An eerie film despite it's cop out ending), and Return Of The Vampire, (1944) a WWII rarity.
Bela was always treated with disadain from the powers that be at Universal. It's a great pity.
Thankfully, we have both Paramount and MGM to thank for the chance to view Lugosi in his respective turn as the debonair bloodsucker. In Mark Of The Vampire (1935. An eerie film despite it's cop out ending), and Return Of The Vampire, (1944) a WWII rarity.
.
{[] Alex. I've seen Mark of the Vampire, but not Return of the Vampire. Lugosi had a remarkable presence. My favourite of the Universal horrors is Dracula's Daughter, in which Drac's daughter tries to make a new life for herself in England after his death, but finds that her father's influence is in the blood.
I've also recently watched a couple of British horror oddities. I don't know if you've seen these Alex.
Psychomania in which the leader of a biker gang returns from the dead and wreaks havoc in his local town. The music is possibly the most unsettling thing about this movie. I think it was also the last film George Sanders appeared in.
These are the Damned. Superb film from Joseph Losey, in which a group of children are kept locked away from the world for reasons that it's impossible to reveal without giving away spoilers. It starts out as a drama in which an American tourist falls foul of a biker gang led by a sexually frustrated Oliver Reed, (possibly the only time that sentence has ever been written about Reed ) who is violently over-protective of his sister. Then it turns into an eerie sci-fi thriller in which nobody emerges unscathed.
Watched Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker mainly since I never read any of the novels and wanted to see if they're worth reading (I know I know...never judge a book by it's movie). Definitely a film geared for kids...and I have to get it high marks for keeping it that way. No foul language at all and no over the top gore. I didn't think filmmakers had the bravery to make a movie like that anymore. Fun movie, great cast - still don't know if I'll read the books though.
Comments
8-) It's just impossible to do deadpan humour on this board.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
But that was based on a real event. The people responsible for that atrocity were Islamic Fundamentalists. I think the makers of United 93 were therefore given little choice in who they used.
OK NP.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Agree completely; Hollywood has a nasty habit of reinforcing these negative stereotypes. Take Klingons for example: I concede that they have bad table manners and no concept whatsoever of oral hygiene; but is that any reason to make them the bad guys in every movie?
And back on topic, two recent DVD purchases:
After The Fox
Comic farce starring the late Peter Sellars as a criminal mastermind / master of disguise who concocts a hairbrained scheme to rob a bank while filming a movie about a bank robbery. The film co-stars Britt Ekland in one of her first roles and Victor Mature as an aging movie idol who won't accept that his best days are behind him.
No Way To Treat A Lady
Rod Steiger gives an amazing performance in this quirky movie about a serial killer terrorizing a string of little old ladies. George Segal is the hapless detective on his trail, who must also contend with a new girlfriend (Lee Remick) and a domineering mother.
Twist-turny Danish movie in which characters switch identities in mid-sentence as the plot swirls around them, until eventually it disappears up it's own a***.
Beckett
About Thomas Beckett aka 'that troublesome priest' who went on to be killed by Henry II, the first Plantaganet king, around 1180.
Interesting as Peter O'Toole is the king, who reprises the role years later in The Lion In Winter, a rare example of time-sensitive 'sequels', though the two, as far as I know, were not connected.
Richard Burton is Beckett, but it falls down a bit as he doesn't convince as the holy man, though he does as the king's well-intentioned Saxon buddy. In Seventh Seal terms, he's better as the knight's mate, than the knight himself.
Reminded me of The Man Who Would Be King at times.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
This Is England
A brave young English lad witnesses betrayal and backbiting in his skinhead peer group in the early 1980s.
A lad is released from jail and looks to rejoin his outfit, but his attempts to get them to put their lives in order and rally behind the flag are only met with disdain and contempt, and his old pal turns on him. Even his previous girlfriend rejects him.
Well, that's how the BNP might write it up. Very good film from Shane Meadows about a bunch of amiable skins who have their way of life infiltrated by an alternatively bullying and benign ex-member, just released from jail and with a racist message. Good stuff, though some plotholes at the end, with the young 10 year old's coming of age as he witnesses all the power factions. A bit like Gregory's Girl with headbutts.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
One sheer long exhilirating chase - I haven't been this tense in the cinema since Casino Royale - and I have seen everything since then.
Eon and Co have got to up their game now, as they managed to do last year.
Plenty of Globe trotting - that fight scene in the room in Tangiers was cracking (no background score)- a bit reminiscent of the Rig / Emabassy tussle in CR, especially when the guy does the back flip whilst Bourne is holding his arm - as was the roof top chase prior to this, akin to Dalton in The Living Daylights
Finished off the trilogy nicely
============
There was cracking Trailer before the film for Shoot Em Up starring Clive Owen - very brooding. I told my girlfriend that that was the guy that was tipped and alomost certain (in the publics eyes) to play Bond before Craig did.
I / We both actually imagines him as Bond, with the style of scenes that were shown.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlx4n_ibNZE
It was alright. I don't think it deserved an academy award but it was still good. The family on that show is messed up. The little girl annoys the he** out of me.
I give it a 6/10.
A truly stupid film that didn't entertain me in the least.
I was also drunk, but I think that watching it sober would have been even worse.
Not my cup of tea, though I've seen worse. And Paris Hilton can't act.
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
An Alan Bennett script from the 80s, set in 1947 in post-war rationing Britain. All Wallace and Gromit type humour, with actors like Michael Palin, Maggie Smith, Pete Postlewaite, Richard Griffiths, Denhom Elliott, the two who turned up as husband and wife in The Singing Detective (Alison Steadman and the guy), quite a big cast.
That said, it's quite gruesome as it's about trading a pig on the black market and the butchery involved, plus Palin is a chiropodist, so there's plenty of shots of him seeing to grey, nasty looking women's feet. (That is their feet look nasty, not the women themselves as such).
Roger Moore 1927-2017
There's an old story about a stage production based on Anne Frank's life, in which the actress playing Frank was so bad that when the Nazi's turned up, one wag in the audience shouted, "she's in the attic." That pretty much covers how I feel about this holocaust drama, which stars a young actor so bad he makes Daniel Radcliffe look like Brando.
There's good support from Jim Caviezel and Hristo Shopov, but this is a trite film. It even uses a Damien Rice song at an important moment in the film, which seems ridiculously out of place in a WW2 drama.
If you ever get a chance, try to catch the 1953 version with Vincent Price; it's a far better film and still quite effective. It was originally released in 3D but sadly the home video companies seem to have no desire to release a 3D version on DVD.
My satellite provider had a free pay channel preview weekend and I saw a few movies I had been mildly curious about:
The DaVinci Code
I never read the book and really didn't what to expect, other than the vague outline of the story so I was able to watch this without any preconceptions. I found it an entertaining adventure / treasure hunt story with some great location work. The first fourth of the film was a little hard to follow as there is a lot of exposition and a lot of characters and plot threads are introduced. Tom Hanks is a bit wooden but Ian McKellan makes up for it, stealing every scene he's in and clearly enjoying himself.
Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby
You really have to know a little about NASCAR to really appreciate this comedy. The film lampoons everything associated with the sport from the fetishistic fascination with sponsors to the predominantly southern fanbase. Will Ferrell is his usual funny self here, but he is soundly upstaged by Sasha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame) as his on track rival, the gay French F1 driver Jean Girard, and Gary Cole as his ne'er do well father who abandons his family but returns to help Ricky get his life together. The jokes are thrown at the screen in a constant never-ending barrage; many are funny, some not so much. But the movie was an entertaining diversion.
Cars
Another racing movie; this time an all CGI affair by Disney/Pixar. Normally, these aren't my cup of tea as they're too cute for my tastes, but this one was well done: the themes of the movie, that we should all slow down and enjoy life and that there are more important things than winning, were well conveyed without hitting you over the head. The animation style was very well done; and I enjoyed the "appearances" by real racing personalities including Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Schumacher.
My favorite movie of all time. My favorite non-bond Sean Connery movie also. It is an awesome movie. De Niro was great as always, especially as a villain. It was very sad though when...
My favorite part of the movie is the music. The score is the best I have ever heard. It was done by Ennio Morricone, a great composer. The scene at the spoiler above would not have been as great as it was if it weren't for the music.
I give it a 10/10.
It just about won me over. It's very understated for the first half, doesn't overplay its hand. Rocky is mourning his dead wife Adriane, and with his sad eyes, hangdog expression and iconographic appeal and people stopping for an autograph, it's hard to not to think of Paul McCartney's recent situation.
Then again, it also seems they killed off Rocky's wife because you can't have the leading man of a modern movie with a 50-something wife, he's got to be hanging around with a younger woman.
Script pretty good, quite natural. My ex flatmate promised to not to spoil the surprise ending, hence it did have a surprise of sorts... there wasn't one.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Dire drama about a struggling writer in 1930's LA from Chinatown writer Robert Towne. Colin Farrell is fine in the lead role and Salma Hayek is very naked as the fiery Mexican waitress he has a tempestuous affair with. There's not much chemistry between the two leads and apart from Hayek skinny-dipping there's little here to recommend.
Georgia Rule and I Know Who Killed Me
In GR Lohan gets guidance from Jane Fonda in a mawkish drama. In IKWKM Lohan is a college-girl who is abducted on a night out. When she wakes up she has no memory of her former life. Instead she is convinced she is an exotic dancer with a completely different personality.
Lohan's got talent, but films like this will do a lot more damage to her career than her alcohol-fuelled misadventures.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Anyway, last movie for me was this little Japanese oddity from 1963 called Matango. A ship wrecked group of vacationers are stranded on a mysterious and deserted island and struggle to survive. They collect rain water but there's nothing edible on this island. Even the seagulls shun it. There are however, plenty of the island's sole speciality. Mushrooms. Lots and lots of them. However, if you eat these fungal terrors it also means a slow and terrible demise. There's some serious drug addiction overtones here but I give this one a solid 10 as greed, insanity and betrayal are all played out brilliantly by the Japanese cast. The script is solid and benefits from a growing tension, as one by one, the group dwindles.
This movie has been unfairly criticized and lumped into the rubber monster niche but it's a lovingly produced and well presented motion picture. I had a blast with it.
Maybe the "Zorro sequel," but compared to POTC:AWE, Spidey 3 is Citizen Bloody Kane!
And amen to your comment about editing, Alex. Oh, for the good old days of the movie moguls--the Louis B. Mayers, the Carl Laemmles--who brought in directors to shoot the darned film and then handled the editing themselves.
This was the final nail in the coffin for Universal’s classic horror films of the 30’s and 40’s. The studio had been milking the various franchises by having their famous monsters, Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein, turning up in each other’s films. Here Universal added another of their commodities, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, to the mix. I’ve read various things about these movies and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is always treated with disdain.
I thought it would be dreadful, but it’s quite entertaining. It’s no more ridiculous than some of the later films, House of Frankenstein, for instance. Abbott and Costello make fun of the situation they find themselves in, but the film does not belittle or humiliate the monsters. Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster are considered a genuine threat. It helps that they are portrayed by the actors who had played them for Universal. Glenn Strange replaced Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster after Son of Frankenstein, and though he pales in comparison to his predecessor, his presence here adds to the feeling that you’re watching a Universal horror film into which two idiots have wandered into. Better still is Lon Chaney Jr, ever-anguished as The Wolf Man, begging strangers to lock him up and staring nervously at the sky. And seeing Bela Lugosi play Dracula again is wonderful. I’m surprised Universal didn’t include this in their outstanding DVD Legacy collection. It’s nothing to be ashamed off and there’s no need for them to try and hide it away.
Thankfully, we have both Paramount and MGM to thank for the chance to view Lugosi in his respective turn as the debonair bloodsucker. In Mark Of The Vampire (1935. An eerie film despite it's cop out ending), and Return Of The Vampire, (1944) a WWII rarity.
Bela was always treated with disadain from the powers that be at Universal. It's a great pity.
{[] Alex. I've seen Mark of the Vampire, but not Return of the Vampire. Lugosi had a remarkable presence. My favourite of the Universal horrors is Dracula's Daughter, in which Drac's daughter tries to make a new life for herself in England after his death, but finds that her father's influence is in the blood.
I've also recently watched a couple of British horror oddities. I don't know if you've seen these Alex.
Psychomania in which the leader of a biker gang returns from the dead and wreaks havoc in his local town. The music is possibly the most unsettling thing about this movie. I think it was also the last film George Sanders appeared in.
These are the Damned. Superb film from Joseph Losey, in which a group of children are kept locked away from the world for reasons that it's impossible to reveal without giving away spoilers. It starts out as a drama in which an American tourist falls foul of a biker gang led by a sexually frustrated Oliver Reed, (possibly the only time that sentence has ever been written about Reed