H.G. Wells wrote the science fiction classic “The War of the Worlds” back in the 19th century and the setting was England. It seems that a civilization had evolved on the planet Mars and the inhabitants of that planet hatched a plot to conquer our planet. Falling stars land on Earth and reveal encased cylinders that house slimy Martian creatures and Martian war machines that proceed to decimate our world. Along comes this picture to update the story to the United States in the 1950’s. The screen is filled with dazzling color film work and a different continent to disrupt [More]
Ian McDonald may be best remembered for his amazing work with the early progressive rock group King Crimson. McDonald played woodwinds, mellotron and keyboards for the group and wrote the music for “In the Court of the Crimson King”, a progressive music masterpiece, as well as being involved in the writing of many of the other classic tracks on the collection. McDonald was a self-taught saxophone and flute player. He learned them well. Witness his aggressive saxophone attack on “21st Century Schizoid Man”. Fantastic. McDonald departed the Crimson band after the first album but would rejoin on their “Red” album [More]
I started watching this western and began thinking that it was playing out as another dated take on The Old West that we have seen in countless TV shows and repetitive movies. There was a soundtrack featuring a harmonica, a jailbreak out of a Federal prison, gunplay galore and even some Gatling Gun action. It struck me as being old fashioned in an age where the Western had been electrified and shaken up by a work like Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch”. How could filmmakers fall back on all the old, reliable cliches of The Western genre and expect the audience [More]
Michael Nesmith was a very influential presence in his time on this planet. He was a memorable songwriter, produced films, pushed the boundaries of music promotional videos, and was a pioneer in pursuing the emerging trend that morphed into country rock. He will probably best be remembered as the guitar playing member on The Monkees TV show from the 1960’s. I loved his songwriting contributions to the Monkees and his acerbic personality. Mike was a forward thinking individual and envisioned many technological trends before they became mainstream. We take our wool caps off to you brother in salute to your [More]
“The Day Mars Invaded Earth” starts out promisingly enough with footage of a rover device scooted across the surface of the Red Planet. The film is in black and white so we take it on faith that we are actually on Mars. Har-har. This segment of the film is my favorite part of the movie as too soon we see the probe destroyed and we come back to earthly maters for the remainder of the film. It seems that the scientist who is chiefly responsible for the project is psychically invaded by some form of life from Mars and his [More]
Tension filled tale of a US Naval captain’s maniacal pursuit of a trespassing Soviet submarine that turns into a fatal obsession. Richard Widmark gives a strong performance as the captain who follows a logic based on sense of duty, patriotism and antagonism that ultimately pushes his adversary to desperate retaliation. The results of this quest are not good. As bleak an ending to this one as may be found in the genre of war films and speculative cinema. Some people just don’t know when to give up. In B & W.
Here is a film documentary showcasing producer/naturalist Ivan Marx’s exploration to find evidence for the existence of Bigfoot, the mythical giant creature which is said to coexist with Man but can’t seem to pause long enough to ever get examined or clearly defined. I like this grainy film for its ample critter footage of bears, cougars, etc. and scenes of the wilds of the Pacific Sierra. Beautiful country. In addition to the charming and interesting film work, we also get Marx’s running commentary about his life in Nature and his thoughts about the big hairy guy and his examination of [More]
Very creepy tale of mounting tension and dread that follows a family falling apart. The characters at first appear to be involved in a haunting but what eventually surfaces is a tale involving the rebirth of a demon who needs a young human host. The person selected as the future host is less than thrilled to be bestowed with the “honor” and therein lies the hideous rub. It is being enacted against his will and appears to be a family tradition of resurrecting evil deities but definitely to the benefit of a minute minority. Dysfunction in its highest form to [More]
I was struck immediately by two things in this movie. “Taurus” follows a spaceship journeying out from Earth to look for a new habitable planet for humans to reside on. On the trip, we become aware of the rampant similarity this ship and its crew have to earlier, similar cinematic journeys. Think of “Destination Moon (1950), “Conquest of Space” (1955), and “Rocketship X-M” (1950), to name just a few. A small crew ambles around a rather spacious space vehicle and spends the majority of their time talking about what they’ll do when they get home and other details of their [More]
Three dimensional film effects highlight the hijinx in the continuing adventures of slasher Jason Vorhees. The filmmakers trot out a new batch of interchangeable teen characters and proceed to have Jason creatively dispatch them in novel ways. It all becomes tedious and nauseating before long as objects like spears and knives thrust into the camera on their way to impaling and destroying said teens. Jason himself receives a machete to the cranium but never fear, he cannot die and his useless spirit continues on for at least seven more film adventures. Similar in nature to the “Halloween” franchise that lumbers [More]
Schlock director Al Adamson resurrected some classic Universal monsters for this low grade monster epic. Some tall cat named Zandor Vorkov plays Dracula with his voice heavily processed with reverb. Interesting effect but probably not necessary. Dracula pays a visit to Dr. Durea who runs a carnival monster exhibit upstairs but has a fully equipped laboratory in the basement to carry out his experiments. In fact, Durea is a direct descendant of the infamous Dr. Frankenstein. And we all know that the Franken-family has that overreaching desire to resurrect the dead coursing through their veins! Dracula wants Durea to perfect [More]
Produced and directed by genre icon Roger Corman, this is an interesting premise of a group of survivors of a nuclear holocaust randomly seeking shelter from the toxic elements in a mountainside residence. The home is populated by a father and his daughter. He is ex-military and foresaw this day of calamity coming and stocked his place with weapons, food and water – for three people. The uninvited guests will prove to be a burden on the limited supplies. Along with the wandering humanity, the hills are populated with mutated monsters that were once men. None of the survivors is [More]
This is a moderately interesting tale of a city family happening upon an old country home for sale, deciding to buy it, and taking the plunge headlong into strange occurrences and demonic possession. This movie is of note because of an early directorial turn by Steven Spielberg. He followed up the classic “Duel” (1971), with this effort. “Duel” was definitely better but this movie is distinguished by impressive camera work and unorthodox shooting angles befitting the twisted nature of this tale of possession. Darren McGavin is also onboard, just recently removed from his performance as Kolchak from “The Night Stalker” [More]
This is another one of those flicks I watched in my youth, 10,000 years ago, that frightened me. Watching it now, I am struck by the loveliness of some of the black and white film cinematography but bored by the dull goings on and the lumbering, costumed monster. I now remember what creeped me out all those years ago and it has to do with the beast’s predilection to behead his victims. Never pleasant in any era. So, we have a giant sea monster that walks on two legs and apparently lives in a cave near a lighthouse. The lighthouse [More]