Here we have a film with a bit of an interesting history. Produced by Roger Corman and eventual big-budget 'Fantastic 4' producer, Bernd Eichinger, this film was never officially released. Eventually, however, it gained steam under the radar as a sort of cult "so-good-it'-bad" movie, and it's currently easy enough to find somewhere online. Nowadays, with Disney making that Fox purchase, a lot of people are wondering if they can ever make the Fantastic Four into something good and not so cheesetacular. But while this adaptation IS by all means a rough movie to sit through, many argue that so far, this is the truest adaptation, between various 'F4' comics. The plot is simply enough the origin of the Fantastic Four; when Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White), Sue (Rebecca Staab) and Johnny Storm (Jay Underwood), and Ben Grimm (Michael Bailey Smith) get hit by cosmic rays on an experimental mission and turn into Mr. Fantastic (with the ability to stretch), The Invisible Woman (powers obvious), The Human Torch (again, powers obvious), and The Thing (a big rock guy with super strength), respectively. Before all that happens, however, Victor Von Doom is the victim of a horrible lab accident and becomes Doctor Doom. He's after the Fantastic Four upon learning of their newfound abilities in order to harness their powers for himself and get more powerful, or something along those lines. The whole story is simple, it does a decent job at adaptation as far as the characters and origin go, but sadly enough, none of it is good enough to save it from the painful dialogue, bad, low-budget effects, and way too many areas where it's funny, but not really supposed to be. It is, indeed, a "so bad, it's good" film. But the same could be said about any 'F4' film. At the very least, this one's something one can have a lot of fun with. If you're into these classic comics, and have an itching curiosity to see a decent but horrible 'F4' film all at once, then I highly recommend checking this out. Keeping in mind that it's unreleased, you won't have much luck with honesty on this one, and paying for your very own copy. But again, it's easy enough to seek out online. It's worth the watch, if nothing else, for a good laugh. I actually had quite a lot of fun with it. 2/5
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So, as a reviewer, is it a terrible thing that I didn't find this film to be really THAT awful? It's kinda dumb, yes, it's kinda weak, yes, but I can't find myself positively laying into it like every other critic seems to be able to do. It could even be that I had a bit of extra fun while watching this because I knew what I was walking into. It borders on "so bad it's good" for me, but it's not quite in the same realm as something like 'Troll 2' or 'The Room'. At the end of the day, it's a film I'm glad I saw, just to say I've seen it for myself. With that said, it's simply a throwaway. Knowing that Shyamalan, and Will and Jaden Smith have all done better, we can just turn to those films for a refresher on their respective talents when this gets too stupid. So, I guess this is one of those movies that's really just kinda "there", for me. I don't like it, I don't hate it, and Shyamalan has since directed a couple of good films with 'The Visit' and 'Split' (at least in my humble opinion). Perhaps it would have effected me more if I saw it when it was released, bearing in mind this is the fourth to last Shyamalan film I have to watch, and two of these titles were from before his breakout with 'The Sixth Sense'. The other, I review next. But we'll get to that later. Our story follows the badly-named Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his son, Kitai (Jaden Smith). In an attempt to bond with his son, Cypher takes him on his last voyage before retirement. However, their ship crash-lands on a post-apocalyptic Earth, full of well-evolved predators. Earth had experienced some sort of environmental cataclysm that forced the human race off the planet, and had them settle on another planet called Nova Prime. Cypher gets himself pinned while somehow Kitai survives with not even a scratch - and considering how the crash happens, it's an incredibly hard sell. Anyway, they need to send a distress beacon, but it's in the other part of the ship that's located a fair distance away. This sends Kitai on his "I'm-gonna-become-a-man" mission, putting him at odds with the savage environment, while Cypher guides him, using a communicator. The premise on the whole doesn't sound SO bad, if its not a bit typical. But the bad parts of this movie lie mostly in the dialogue, crappy CG effects, weird decisions that contradict other plot points, and the fact that this whole thing is a bit of an ego trip on Will Smith's part. He wrote the story for it, and... well, I mean, just watch the film's execution of things. It's essentially Will nodding to the audience saying "Yes, I know. I AM badass." Speaking for myself, as I mentioned before, everyone involved here has done much better. If you're looking for a good film with Will and Jaden together in it, check out 'The Pursuit of Happyness'. It's not a sci-fi flick to any degree, but Will is great in it, and Jaden even holds his own as far as a 6-ish-year-old goes. And as far as a good Shyamalan film goes, he's got several, but I'll always recommend 'The Sixth Sense' over anything else. But this, it can just be left alone. Unless we're talking about how goofy it is, no one's missing anything if they skip it. 2/5 Here we have another shining example of how Japan managed to completely outdo American animation back in the 80s. 'Akira', dated 1988, proves to be a well-paced animated thrill ride of sorts, with plenty of gruesomely effective imagery. It was one of those fairly uncommon cases of an animated film completely meant for adults, well within the tradition of movies like 'Heavy Metal'. The film starts by showing us a devastating blast in Tokyo, back in 1988, which triggers World War III, and later leaves behind the post-apocalyptic city of Neo-Tokyo. Here, we meet out two big stars, Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata/Cam Clarke (Jimmy Flinders)/Johnny Yong Bosch) and his relatively runty friend, Tetsuo (Nozomu Sasaki/Jan Rabson (Stanley Gurd Jr.)/Joshua Seth). Together, they are members of a bōsōzoku gang (the word translating roughly to "running out of control", in this case on motorbikes) called the Capsules. They head on a quick mission to bring down some of their rivals, known as the Clowns, and in the process, Tetsuo crashes his bike into some government experiment kid. Surviving the collision, Tetsuo soon finds himself with psychic and telekinetic powers with which he pretty much rages, and even goes so far as to show his other gang members that he's no longer to be messed with. These powers are compared to that of Akira; the government project that caused the cataclysmic event of 1988. Now, with the powers getting out of hand, and the potential of starting another terrible event, Kaneda takes it upon himself to try to help. This is with the aid of Kei (Mami Koyama/Lara Cody (Deanna Morris)/Wendee Lee); a medium, and part of a resistance group, who also joins in the fight. For me, this was just one of those really neat action films that goes completely off the rails whether you like it or not. It's not afraid to leave the audience agape every now and then, asking themselves what the hell they just watched. Some may remember the 'Trapper Keeper' episode of 'South Park' from Season 4, and perhaps ended up wondering the same thing at the end. Well, that episode paid homage to this film, and the final result is just about as messed up and strange. In fact, I'd even say the 'South Park' epsiode is a bit easier to follow. But in the end, the confusion to whatever is happening before our eyes here almost ends up being null and void, as long as the takeaway from this is clear. One might say that this is an allusion to the famous 'Spider-Man' quote; "With great power comes great responsibility". Or you could perhaps sooner compare it to that of 'Chronicle', as it forewarns us of the dangers of gaining, and furthermore, abusing too much power. It's a very strange and out-there film, as only Japan knows how to pull of so well. It's a bit of a far cry from the Ghibli films that I've grown to love. But it certainly works very well as its own thing. Of the massive collection of cartoons meant for adults, I'd have to probably put this one up there. I was impressed with some of the decisions made, in that they really don't hold much back - it's rated R with pretty good reason. It's not at the op of my anime list, but it's an awesome ride in its own right. 4/5 It's when a "Catching Up" opportunity like this comes along that I realize how much I regret not spending more time in front of these black and white classics, growing up. I was kind of a stubborn brat about it, and "black and white" pretty much meant "boring". I had video games to play and cartoons to watch instead. It sadly wasn't until rather recently when I started to expand my horizons a little and realize that "black and white" can more often than not mean "good story telling, strong characters, great performances and classic moments". 'The Longest Day', a 3-hour war movie I once avoided like the plague, is one of these films. The premise is really quite simple. This is a dramatic and beautifully shot portrayal of the events of June 6th, 1944 - D-Day. The characters portrayed throughout the film are often played by big, Hollywood named actors. These include the likes of John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Paul Anka, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Red Buttons, and that's just to name a few. To add to that point, and perhaps more importantly, the characters are spread out nationalities and soldiers representing pretty much every country involved with the Invasion of Normandy. The Americans, the British, the French, the Germans, you name it. This film depicts all sides, and in a surprisingly deep way. Even the Nazis are more humanized here than in most American war films. While the actors' performances were all great, what wowed me the most about this film was just how it was shot. With it's wide shots depicting various battles, often lasting for quite some time, it's a movie that holds up very nicely today. If you're like me and a sucker for the single-take action shot, this one does it beautifully! It won two Oscars, for "black and white cinematography" and "special effects", and it totally shows why. It was further nominated for "art direction", "film editing" and "best picture" that year, losing them to 'To Kill a Mockingbird', and 'Lawrence of Arabia' twice, respectively (two more movies to put on my list). At the end of the day, this probably is the best depiction I've seen so far of D-Day (to be fair, I haven't seen many). I know, being a 'Saving Private Ryan' fan, that's gotta be sacrilege, but there are a few things to keep in mind here. First and foremost, this is an American film that depicts everyone almost equally, and not just the Americans. On top of that, this manages to be a G-rated movie with no blood or gore, very unlike 'Private Ryan', but it STILL manages to get across the horrors that took place that fateful day. Not just from the beaches, but from the skies and ground as well. It just covers so much. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. It's a bold statement, but this movie wowed me so much that it may very well be my new favorite war movie. Unlike a lot of modern war films, you can rewatch this somewhat comfortably. A movie like 'Schindler's List' for example is a great film, but there's so much discomfort behind it, a lot of people will tell you they only ever needed to see it once. Being rated G and depicting all sides of one day, this could very well be an annual Remembrance Day revisit for yours truly. If you have little ones taking a history class, or you ARE a history class, showing a movie about D-Day, look no further than here... You just might have to show it over the course of a few classes is all. 5/5 Immediately following the events of the first film, 'Superman II' sees the returns of both Gene Hackman as Luthor and Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent/Superman and is regarded by some as the last really good 'Superman' movie. After Superman saves the California coastline from absolute destruction, he returns to his job as mild-mannered reporter, Clark Kent. When his boss sends Lois (Margot Kidder) on an assignment involving a bomb in Paris, France at the Eiffel Tower, Superman suits up, heads over, and throws the bomb into outer space. By doing this, he unwittingly releases prisoners Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran) from the Phantom Zone, referring back to the events at the beginning of the first film. When the three Kryptonians reach the Moon, they discover that the yellow sun increases their abilities by kicking around a couple of astronauts. They then head to Earth to conquor it. Meanwhile, Luthor escapes prison and seeks out Superman's Fortress of Solitude, where he soon learns of the escaped Kryptonian prisoners. Eventually, they meet, and Luthor offers up Superman for their revenge, as he's also the only thing that could possibly stand in their way from taking over the world. The rest of the story has everything to do with the blossoming love between Clark Kent and Lois Lane in which we see Superman make the ultimate sacrifice. I have to say, the whole thing was very enjoyable. 'Superman II' runs alongside a series of sequels that are often referred to as "better than the original". They are few and far between, but they exist, and this is definitely one of them. 'Superman' was also very good, but it kinda suffers from running too long, and even getting a little boring in some areas. 'Superman II' really feels more like I'm watching a comic book adventure come to life. The Canuck in me also has to take a little bit of delight in the fact that the Niagara Falls scenes were shot on the Canadian side of the landmark when he's largely an American hero. But that's kinda just having the cherry on top of my sundae. Otherwise, aside from a few dated effects (that were still great for 1980) it ends up being a great story altogether, and maintains that sense of humour we got to enjoy in the first film. Now, with these two movies out of the way, it should also be known that I'm not altogether a big fan of Superman. I always found him to be way too cheap. He's essentially indestructible unless kryptonite is nearby. But that said, I also have a certain respect for the hero. He was pretty much the first mainstream comic book superhero (that I know of), and he definitely has staying power. All that said though, these original movies kinda gave me this new perspective. I definitely enjoyed both of them, even if they were campy to watch. After all, the campiness of an older superhero movie like this is part of the fun! 4/5 This title dates back to 1978, and arguably pretty much marks the beginning of the Superhero movie genre. There were others before it, like the cinematic take on Adam West's 'Batman', but none of them really ended up being home runs. As per usual, I'm gonna review this one as though the reader has seen it already, so fair warning for potential spoilers ahead (for both films). First off, one of the more brilliant aspects of this movie is the opening. It starts off as a sort of early time theatrical feature, showcasing the 1930's comic. It then of course evolves to credits coming at you through that smaller screen, and transitions to the whole opening credits sequence where, of course, the epic theme is heard. Even if you've never seen a 'Superman' movie before, you know pretty much what it sounds like. It's certainly one of John William's most famous scores. The whole origin portion of the film was overall more enjoyable for me than 'Man of Steel' was. One of the biggest issues being tackled was the death of Jonathan Kent. In 'Man of Steel', he gets sucked up into a tornado as Clark just stands there because he was told to. It feels far more inexcusable, and it's almost impossible to fathom Superman NOT saving Jon, his father figure, when it would have been so easy. In 'Superman', Jonathan dies from a heart attack. So when Superman struggles with the fact that he couldn't save him, it just makes more sense. It's "I couldn't save him despite all I can do" vs "I couldn't save him because he told me not to". It's frankly far more powerful for a movie to illustrate what he simply can't do BECAUSE he's so incredibly powerful in so many ways. After the initial origin is out of the way, I have to admit that it's cool to see Superman helping people on much more of a scale than we're used to in the Superhero genre. For example, there's a scene where he saves a girl's cat from a tree, illustrating that he'll be there to help no matter how important or unimportant the task at hand is. Add to this the whole Luthor plot of luring Superman in by threatening several thousand innocent lives, and we basically see that he values life on Earth as though it was his second chance to protect a whole planet from whatever is out there. Again, 'Man of Steel' illustrated this trait of his far less so by having him basically level most of a city in a big fight in order to defeat the big villain. The old Superman would sooner move people out of the way of danger with lightning speed, whereas the new Superman seems to just be set on beating the big baddie, whatever it takes. Although, I will admit the way 'Batman v Superman' handled that situation was one of the things they did well in that movie. The performances here by pretty much everyone are spot on for the time. There's just that right amount of cheese added to it, but you're able to emote with these characters just the same. Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor is really more of a Bond-type villain in this, but he's so cold a diabolical with his plans, it's hard not to add him to the list of best Superhero movie villains. He felt more like a comic book villain and less of a deep dark theatrical movie villain, and pulling that off well is saying something. Christopher Reeve, as we all know, does very well here too as Clark, along with Margot Kidder as Lois. I suppose the elephant in the room is that climactic scene when Lois dies, Superman goes berzerk, and flies around the Earth, spinning it backwards and reversing time. It's ridiculous, and to do something like that today would be pretty much out of the question. I mean, spinning the Earth backwards would only just spin the Earth backwards, and time wouldn't enter into it. More to the point, for argument sake, if he COULD really do that, why the hell wouldn't he have just done that from the beginning of the climax? But I digress. The real surprise to me about the film was that it runs over 3 hours long. Hand to God, I didn't know that before getting into it, so the overall length kinda threw me off. It's a lot of movie to take in, especially with effects that look painfully dated, contradicting the tagline "You'll believe a man can fly". Maybe at the time it worked, but it just looks silly now. However, I cannot fault the movie for it since it actually won a Special Achievement Oscar for Visual Effects! I'm not sure, but I THINK it was the first time they made someone genuinely look like he was flying, so no matter what it looks like now, it does have this achievement under its belt, and I can't take that away with any nitpicks I have to throw at it. All in all, it's a movie to be enjoyed for it's time. 5/5 I kinda used to think that I had seen all of the classic Arnold movies. Then this one came up at a recent local Film Festival, recently, so I decided to check it out. Main reasons being that what I knew about it (once I remembered it existed) was that it was a 1980's sci-fi, action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and that it was apparently one of his most abundant one-liner films. Basically, a guy named Ben Richards (Arnie) is framed for a crime he didn't commit, and is thrown into a futuristic reality game show called 'The Running Man'. Here, he has to run a gauntlet of sorts while the audience gets to choose who gets to chase him and eventually kill him. Let me tell you, it was mostly everything I had hoped for. A movie like this is one you can look back on and be entertained solely based on the corniness of it all. Does that make it a "so bad its good" movie? I wouldn't say so. The whole idea is pretty awesome for the time, and I daresay this is one of those ideas that has potential to be remade well today... not that is SHOULD, but they could probably get away with it if they tried hard enough. By far, the most entertaining thing about this movie was, indeed, Arnold's one-liners. I mean, they are everywhere! "I'll be back" is included (as I think the 2nd movie out of 5 he ever said it) along with such famous diddys as "Here's your Subzero, now plain zero.", the ever-famous "I live to see you eat that contract, but I hope you leave enough room for my fist because I'm going to ram it into your stomach and break your god-damn spine!" and my personal favorite one that got a big genuine laugh "Hey light head! He Christmas tree!" Seriously, just watch this and try not to at least crack a smile at how goofy it is. I have to say, I also enjoyed the whole concept of the "stalkers" (being the guys who are trying to kill Richards in the gauntlet. They all have their own special abilities and entrances, much like a WWE wrestler. They all end up being pretty goofy, but it really does add to the fun factor of something like this. Not sure, really, what else to say about it. But if you ever have the need to watch something old, goofy, and not to be taken too seriously, this is definitely a good title to do that with. I had so much fun with it! It's the kind of movie you wanna invite all your friends over to watch and just have fun with, despite how off the wall ridiculous it may seem. 4/5 Going back to 1976 for this one, it may not be too big of a surprise to people that this was one I never got around to seeing. I'm not sure a lot of my friends have even seen it. But it was always a well enough known title. For those totally unfamiliar with it, it's probably a story that you've heard of nonetheless. Basically there's a population of people who live under a giant dome, and essentially live in their own pleasure paradise. Every so often, there is an event called "Carrousel"; a cult-like event where everyone who is about to turn 30 goes into a sort of arena, and get to "Renew" (in other words, they get killed off because no one in this society ages over 30, but they think they get to come back as a newborn). The whole process is this weird, trippy UFO abduction-looking deal. Only instead of going up into some sort of spaceship, they pretty much just explode one by one. Throughout this whole society, there are those who get scared near the end, so decide to run. Meanwhile, a team of soldiers called "Sandmen" (who apparently shoot worse than Storm Troopers) are meant to stop them. At one point, one of the Sandmen named Logan (Michael York) is put on a secret mission to pose as a runner, and find "Sanctuary" outside of the dome. Sanctuary being where the Runners believe they can get to if they skip Carrousel. It's an interesting film that's pretty much split into two parts. The first part involves the initial mission, and getting outside of the Dome. The second half, and frankly better half, involves what they pair manage to find outside of the Dome. It may be strange to some that I like the second half so much more. The first half is pretty action-packed while the second is more of a pleasant surprise in story-telling. I won't go into too much detail about what is found on the outside, but among what is discovered ends up being a very likable character, who's sort of crazy about cats, and you'd swear must have voiced Mr. Magoo at some point. Along with this, is the intrigue that the two have about what exactly it is they're taking in. With their limited lives in the Dome, there's so much they have never seen. All in all, it IS a pretty damn dated movie as far as the action and special effects are concerned. It's enough that you can easily laugh your ass off at someone who gets shot because it looks so silly. But I have to admit that the overall story was something I was impressed with. It's an interesting concept when you have characters who have been locked away for so long interact with what we know as the modern world. It's what made that 'Room' movie so entertaining. And games like 'The Last of Us' do it, but more as though it was a life a character never got to be a part of. Overall painfully dated to watch. Like, 'Mystery Science Theater' material. But with the story being interesting enough, and the action sequences being entertaining enough (even if the entertainment we're getting is laughing at it) that I can't help but really enjoy it in my own way. It's bad enough to be considered "so bad it's good" in some ways, but in other ways, the story is basically timeless. If you have a couple of hours to spare, get a group together and check it out. It's actually entertaining on several levels. 3/5 |