Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The World is Not Enough (1999)


Introduction:
As the millennium came to a close James Bond was about to engage in one last hurrah. While fans enjoyed the action packed adventures of Tomorrow Never Dies, most folks wanted something a little more serious this time around. Will the final result be something that may be the best of the Pierce Brosnan era, or will it turn out to be disappointment that is better forgotten.

Summary:
After a bomb blows up the powerful Sir Robert King (David Clader) in the middle of MI6 headquarters, M (Judi Dench) has had enough. She suspects that infamous terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle) is behind the bombing. The vicious man had targeted the King family previously, kidnapping the lovely young Elektra (Sophie Marceau) several years earlier. M sends her best agent; James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) to protect Electra and find out what Renard is planning next. The game is just beginning and Bond finds out he is only one of the many pieces on the board. John Cleese, Robbie Coltrane, and Denise Richards all have a part to play in a game where The World is Not Enough.

Good Points:
  • With an interesting script to work with Brosnan gives his best performance as Bond
  • The pre-credit sequence is one of the best of the entire franchise
  • David Arnold provides one of his best musical scores for the series

Bad Points:
  • A script that can’t decide what type of movie it wants to be
  • Big action scenes feel shoehorned into the film
  • Denise Richards is a nuclear scientist… uh, right. 

Overall:
This is a movie at war with itself. On the one hand it wants to be an intelligent thriller that examines James Bond’s character and provides him with some real challenges. The other side wants this to be popcorn fun with huge explosions, Richard’s jiggling chest and lots of bad puns. The film ends up collapsing into a mess, almost working on minute and leaving you bored the next.

Scores (out of 5)
Visuals:  5
Sound: 4
Acting: 3
Script: 3
Music: 5
Direction: 3
Entertainment: 2
Total:  3

In Depth Review
Each time I watch The World is Not Enough I want to like it, I really do. It has so many great elements in it. And each time it finishes I feel frustrated and annoyed at the whole darn mess. Let’s look at the good stuff first.

First off, the visual elements are top notch. Most Bond films have a ton of money on the screen and this is no exception. The set design and execution is excellent with some realistic location shooting in Turkey, Spain, France and England to ground the action. Visual effects are kept in a more realistic vein for this film, relying on excellent stunt work and in camera effects. Sure there are some computer generated effects, but most of this is grounded in reality (as opposed to the over the top antics of the next film, Die Another Day).

The other element that is always top notch is the sound effect work. There’s plenty of good stuff for action fans here, immersive explosions, gunfire ricocheting around and even huge saws cutting all around you. One of the best sequences is the finale where the sinking submarine surrounds the viewer with water dripping, running and gushing all around.

In addition David Arnold is on hand with my favorite modern Bond score. Of course you get the classic James Bond theme, but Arnold also creates two new themes for the film. One is the title theme, “The World is Not Enough”, which gets a nice rendition by the group Garbage. Shirley Manson’s throaty vocals fit well with the brassy song. Arnold uses it to great affect in the score. He also wrote a song “Only Myself to Blame” performed by Scott Walker. The song is never heard in the film itself, but the tune is used to represent Electra and becomes her theme. Arnold continues to mix his dance-influenced electronics into the music and it does some great stuff in the amazing pre-credit sequence.

I’ve always liked Brosnan as Bond, and here he gets perhaps his juiciest script. He does well with it, as Bond is put through the ringer. Elektra’s vulnerability and fragility appeal to him. He becomes a protector, beyond what M had asked of him. But as the game begins to unfold, Bond has to make hard decisions and confronting M with the truth. His final scene with Marceau is excellent, adding gravity to the role and the scene (even if it appears that some key script elements seem to be missing).

Marceau is equally good as Electra. Her relationship with Bond and Renard are the main forces that move the plot and themes along. It’s a difficult role, one that demands she be alluring, mysterious, dangerous and emotionally unstable. She keeps the character believable and has some great chemistry with Brosnan turning her into one of the best female leads in a Bond film.

Robert Carlyle does his best with an underwritten role. The character of Renard should have made The World is Not Enough into a classic. He’s got the scarred face, the immunity to any form of pain, and the will power to do just about anything to achieve his ends. The twist revealed near the end of the film puts his character into a new and disturbing light. And yet the filmmakers and script never give Carlyle enough to work with. I wonder how much of his performance was left on the cutting room floor, and how much was just never fleshed out in the script. The result is a weak villain given a good performance by an excellent actor.

Before I talk about the other lead character, let me just talk a little about the supporting cast. Judi Dench gets a bit more screen time in this film and she makes the most of it. It was also nice to have Coltrane back as Zukovsky from Goldeneye. He brings some humor to the film (and not the horrible pun variety), and makes you wish they did a bit more with his character. Samantha Bond is back as Moneypenny and gets a few good lines. Then there’s Maria Grazia Cucinotta who is credited as cigar girl, and practically steals the film as the dangerous hit-woman featured in the pre credit sequence. Sadly this was the last appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as gadget master Q. He gets to play off of Brosnan in his key gadget scene and introduce John Cleese as his protégé “R”. His scene is both poignant and clever.

Ok, I’ve put it off long enough, but I’ve got to write about Denise Richards eventually. Look, I have no problem with her being a Bond girl, honestly. She’s got the right look, she’d done a few well-known movies at the point, and she looks great in a wet shirt. Cast appropriately she could have been fine. Unfortunately someone, somewhere decided that she’d be a good fit for the nuclear scientist who helps Bond with the explosive threats in the film. She was giving the ridiculous name Dr. Christmas Jones and given dialogue that she can’t say convincingly to save her life. It’s a laughable performance that sinks the movie for a lot of people. Now, I’m very much aware of Tanya Roberts equally horrid performance in A View to a Kill. The big different here is that The World is Not Enough has some very serious themes in it, as well as a tone that is more dark and gritty than the more airy and fun Bond flicks. This character just doesn’t seem like a fit for this movie and Richard’s casting just makes it worse. Sadly, whenever people remember this film, the first thing they say – oh the one with Denise Richards, she was horrible. It’s even become one of the big jokes when talking about bad casting.

However the movie has a few other things working against it, and even if Richards wasn’t cast or the character was made less ridiculous, there would still be issues. Much like Tomorrow Never Dies, the movie isn’t sure what it wants to be. In this case there is no clear dividing line where the espionage film ends and the action film kicks in. Instead The World Is Not Enough feels like it wanted to be a darker exploration of who James Bond is, and what could actually break his frosty exterior. It feels like it wants to be the movie Casino Royale in 2005 turned out to be.

The name of the film comes from the Bond family motto, first revealed in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. There are quite a few connections to the 1969 film, including one of the few mentions of James Bond’s wife. The character of Elektra is very similar to Tracy from the older film, and with that in mind we can understand Bond’s attraction to her. The darkness in her character has potential to bring out the darkness in Bond – and their final confrontation is proof of that. Then there is Renard the man who can feel nothing, and yet feels something for Elektra. He and Bond share a coldness within, and one that makes them more similar then they’d like to believe.

All this is in the subtext, but not fleshed out well. Instead the movie has action sequences forced into it. The ski chase and caviar factory scenes are the worst of the film, feeling completely out of place and over the top. Both allow Bond to use his gadgets to get out of trouble, and show off the car. But after the amazing car chase of Tomorrow Never Dies this one just looks lame. Without those two action scenes the film would be less padded, and that would help a great deal.

The script also seems to have been horribly mutated by too many cooks. The dark edge of the main relationships is completely scuttled by a horribly confusing and ultimately uninteresting master plan. The villains goal is to destroy all the oil pipelines in Europe and Asia except for the ones owned by the King family. This is explained, but poorly. The script spends so much time attempting to force in intrigue and twists. It should have focused on the twists of the relationships between Bond Renard and Elektra. In the end, ask most folks what the main villain was after in this movie and you’ll get a blank look (even if they can even keep it straight while watching the film).

This feels like a real case of the creators getting cold feet. It is well known that Brosnan wanted to bring more of an edge to Bond’s character, to give him a little more to work with. There were hints of this in Goldeneye, but most of this was lost in the action packed insanity of Tomorrow Never Dies. I think the screenwriters came up with this great story to delve into the dark side of Bond, and when the rest of the creative team read it they were afraid. Where were the car chases? Where were the gadgets? Where is the big-breasted beauty to bed at the end of the film? Where was the levity? So a several rewrites later and you’ve got this mess of a script, with some of the worst one liners ever uttered by James Bond. The final line of the film is as groan inducing as anything Roger Moore was forced to say.

And yet I can’t completely condemn this movie. All the acting (with the exception of Richards) is very good. Marceau steams up the screen. Llewelyn gets his last bow and David Arnold knocks the music out of the park. Finally I have to talk about the wonderful boat chase that opens the film. It’s filled with excitement, thrills, a few laughs and leads into the wonderful opening credits. Cucinotta is deadly and smoking hot (and you wonder how in the world they let her die at the end of the scene and not figure out a way to keep her in the rest of the movie). It’s 15 minutes of the best James Bond action you’ll probably ever see. It’s enough for me to give it an average rating. What kills me is that I can see a really great movie in here, something that could have ended the 1990s with a bang and been something of a showpiece for the Brosnan era. 

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Tenchi Muyo (1992)


Introduction:
When it comes to huge names in Japanese animation in the 1990s, it is tougher to get bigger then Tenchi Masaki. This six episode series kicked off one of the biggest franchises of the time and inspired countless other shows. But just who the heck is Tenchi and why do we not need him?

Summary:
Teenager Tenchi Masaki (Matt Miller) was spending a quiet summer at the family shrine working with his grandfather Katsuhito (Jay Hopper). Intrigued by a legend about a cave near the shrine, Tenchi sneaks inside and starts exploring. He comes across a legendary sword and a sexy blue haired demon named Ryoko (Petrea Burchard). After chasing Tenchi around (and blowing up his school), Ryoko takes a shine to the young man. This is going to cause nothing but trouble.

You see Ryoko isn’t a demon at all, but a space pirate wanted in several star systems. Pursuing her is the princess Ayeka (Jennifer Darling) and her little sister Sasami (Sherry Lynn), as well as the intergalactic criminal Kagato (Michael Scott Ryan). Following Kagato is the bumbling Galaxy Police officer Mihoshi (Ellen Gerstell) ready to capture both lawbreakers. Throw in the mad scientist Washu (Kate T. Voigt) and a rabbit/cat hybrid that can turn into a spaceship (yeah you read that right) and you’ve got a space opera with plenty of action, laughs and cleavage to keep any anime fan happy.

Good Points:

  • Some imaginative designs for the spaceships and technologies
  • The script keeps the balance of adventure and comedy just right
  • There is a girl for any type of fan
Bad Points:

  • The overall plot isn’t terribly new or interesting
  • Tenchi himself is fairly one note
  • English voice cast is hit or miss in these early episodes
Overall:
This is the series that started the whole Tenchi franchise rolling, and that means it is a little rough in places. Some of the animation in early episodes is a bit odd looking, some the storytelling is off kilter. Even some of the characters aren’t quite there yet. But episode three seals the deal. It’s light hearted, funny, has a little skin and hints at the space adventure in the next few episodes. The rest of the series keeps that mix and the result is a good time.

Scores (out of 5)
Visuals: 4
Sound: 4
Acting: 3
Script: 4
Music: 3
Direction: 3
Entertainment: 3
Total:  3

In Depth Review

The title Tenchi Muyo can be translated a number of different ways, and since the Japanese love puns, it comes as no surprise that most of the translations fit the show in some way or other. It could mean “Heaven and Earth”, which fits Tenchi’s adventures on Earth and in space. It can be translated as “This End Up”, and was seen as a background gag in many anime from the AIC production company. Or it can mean “No need for Tenchi”. And honestly when most folks remember Tenchi Muyo it’s not because of the lead, but because of the girls.

Over six episodes Tenchi meets all the various women who will influence his life in future episodes of this particular series (and future franchise entries). The first episode put him together with Ryoko, who ends up being the party girl of the series. The second episode brings purple haired Princess Ayeka, the prim and proper love interest. It also introduces the incredibly cute Princess Sasami, who ends up being the most grounded of the girls, even if she is the youngest. The third episode presents us with Ryo-Oki, the cabbit/spaceship. Yes she’s mostly a mascot in the series, but the episode itself gives us more time with Ayeka, developing her character. Mihoshi arrives in episode four, and the villain Kagato is revealed at the same time. Episode five is where Kagato finally reveals his plot and abducts Ryoko. The final episode brings Tenchi facing down Kagato, and introduces us to Washu the scientist and “mother” of Ryoko.

So the overall plot dealing with the antagonist only gets rolling in episode 4, and that is the first problem viewers may have with this series. The first three episodes revolve around Tenchi meeting Ryoko and Ayeka, and getting into all kinds of comedic adventures with them. Sure there are chases and escapes, energy bolts flying around and even torture, but it’s all done with wink and a grin. If you come into Tenchi thinking that it will be a nonstop romp of space action and adventure, these first three episodes will come as a bit of surprise.

But the tone never really changes. This is a fun series, because it is going for a bit more humor over the action and adventure. Much of the humor is derived from three things: Tenchi interacting with aliens Tenchi interacting with aliens that happen to be hot girls, Tenchi interacting with aliens that are hot girls that are into him. Like any teenage boy, Tenchi is certainly interested in the girls but he’s a bit shy, and finds their antics alarming most of the time.

There is also plenty of humor mined from the conflict between Ayeka and Ryoko. They wouldn’t get along in the best of times, but the fact that they both fall for Tenchi just compounds the issues. As the series progresses, this relationship is warped around in all kinds of ways – even turning to a grudging respect at times. What is nice is that in this series, both women are fairly grounded, escaping some of the over the top shrillness that would make later incarnations of the series a chore to watch.

Then there’s Mihoshi, who is around for klutzy comedic relief. She’s involved in lots of physical comedy, as well as moments where she gets so flustered that she forgets a crucial instruction or action. Is it a coincidence that she's a blonde? While handled mostly for laughs, it also becomes a plot point now and again (and it worked really well into the finale for these six episodes). In later incarnations, Mihoshi would get dumber and dumber until she was basically a vegetable with breasts. Here, she’s still a likable character.

Tenchi’s father and grandfather are also around for laughs. The dad has a strange obsession with his son getting laid and tries to help out as much as he can. This character trait was dropped after this series, thankfully. The grandfather appears to be a tired old man, but is really a master warrior with a secret past. This past comes into play in the second half of this series, as well as plays into future installments. It was a unique twist that presents some interesting story opportunities.

This balance of humor and space action is what really makes the series a fun ride. But visually there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on. The creators do some wonderful things with Ayeka’s ship and technology. They are all based on living trees, and her guardians are huge cylinders of wood. Trees and nature play a large role in the series and the royal family of the planet of Jurai. Contrast this to Ryo-Oki the furry little cat/rabbit that turns into a huge crystal powered starship. The fact that the mascot doubles as a death dealing craft is something you’d only find in anime (a similar thing happened in El Hazard where the cat could turn into “living armor”). Then there are more traditional starships like those used by the Galaxy Police and the behemoth used by Kagato, with its steel corridors and labyrinthine passageways.

There are also some well-animated action scenes, especially at the end when Ryoko leads the charge into Kagato’s ship. Lots of full motion combat and very little of the cost saving panning over still frames that anime can rely too heavily on.

The English voice acting is a mixed bag. Back in the day it caused some controversy. The first three episodes are a little rough, with Miller and Burchard still getting a feeling for the characters. Darling however does an excellent job right out of the gate making Ayeka sound snobby and proper all at once. The entire cast gets better as the series goes along, and by the time they hit the second series of the OAV they will be right in the grove. However Darling, Burchard and Voigt have all been criticized for sounding too old for the young ladies they are playing. I can see that, but at the same time all three ladies make it work, and it actually ends up adding a bit of nuance to the characters. There are plenty of jokes about how old Ryoko really is and how she’s all over Tenchi. In English, the fact that Ayeka doesn’t sound much younger than the space pirate makes her comments about Ryoko’s age even funnier. Washu is short and is always trying to act like a little kid. With Voigt’s voice added to the visuals I end up laughing more than with the Japanese actress. This is all a matter of taste, but I really like the English cast, and the fact that Pioneer managed to keep nearly all of the cast for nearly all the English iterations of the franchise is a major feat.

The rest of the sound track works well enough. The musical score is typical of AIC's work, mostly synth material. The comedy music is typical stuff, and the heroic action music works well enough. The opening theme music is catchy, and the end J-pop song is cute. The sound effects are interesting because they seemed to be mined from the Skywalker sound archive, just like El Hazard.

What is hard to appreciate now is that this series was released on video, episode by episode over a span from September 1992 to March of 1993. Each episode is about 30 minutes long. This was just the way it was done in Japan back in the day, and in North America we usually ended up with two episodes per tape, not much better. I’m not sure if that lag time made the whole series seem a bit more impressive or what, but Tenchi really appealed to anime fans on both sides of the ocean.

I think a big part of the appeal was viewers putting themselves in Tenchi’s place. Not only does he have hot alien gals fawning all over him, but he gets to use a powerful sword and energy weapon and save the world from a deadly foe. There is more than a little bit of Star Wars at play here (from the energy swords to the sound effects borrowed directly from the Lucasfilm library). But the whole thing never feels stale. Sure it is familiar, but there’s enough humor to keep things light and fun. This was followed by a one-shot episode, The Night Before the Festival and then by a second series of OAVs.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (1996) - MST3K Review


Summary:

After the power goes out, Grandpa (Ernest Borgnine) tells his grandson a couple of stories about Merlin (George Milan). Merlin traveled into the present day to open a shop of mystical wonders to share magic with the world. Unfortunately his first customer is a bitter columnist named Jonathan (John Terrence) who doesn't believe in magic. Merlin loans Jonathan his book of magic spells - with disastrous results. 

Later a mysterious toy monkey is stolen from Merlin's shop. It ends up in the home of David Andrews (Bob Mendelsohn), as a birthday present for his son Michael (Struan Robertson). But every time the monkey clashes it's cymbals - something dies. Will the wizard be able to save the family and take the deadly toy back to Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders?

Movie Review:

This movie is such a mess it's hard to know where to begin. How about some questions? Do you like Stephen King stories? Did you like Poltergeist? Did you like The Princess Bride? How about that horror compilation television series like Friday the 13th the Series or Monsters? Do you like to watch old ladies explode? If the answer is a resounding yes to all of these - than this movie is made for you.

I think what happened is that director Kenneth Berton made his movie The Devil's Gift in 1984. Then at a later date (before 1996) he took edited footage from that movie, filmed a new story, and created a framing story of Merlin and his shop. Then he tried to sell it as a pilot episode. It never got picked up, so he made some more footage with Ernest Borgnine to create the Grandpa framing story for a direct to video release. Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders may have been released in 1996, but the mix of footage belies its origins - especially the 1984 footage - but I'll get to that in a moment.

So we've got an edited feature film, a new story, a framing story, and another framing story. It ends up making some sense, but honestly you can't expect a good movie out of this mess. What you can expect is one wonderful bad movie. I'm also curious as to what audience this is supposed to be for. The Merlin framing story is focused on magic and children and innocence. But the stories themselves are filled with evil and pet murder and disturbing consequences. These stories are really like the type of horror material you'd find in Monsters or Tales from the Darkside. But the Merlin framing story and the additional Grandpa framing story are targeted toward kids. I'm confused by this.

The first scenes you have in the film are the old lady drinking booze, and attempting to use her Ouija board to contact her dead husband. Instead she summons an evil spirit, you see the evil monkey and his cymbals. They crash and lightening hits the house causing it to explode. Seriously - first thing you see. Then it cuts to a kid watching the house burn on TV, while Grandpa Borgnine looks on amused. The power goes out and so Borgnine tells the Merlin saga.

The first tale about Jonathan the jerk columnist is your typical, be careful what you wish for story. Jonathan takes the magical book home and uses it to summon a demon, turn his cat into a monster and make diamonds. All this dabbling in the arcane accelerates the aging process and causes him to see a cheesy demon in a mirror. After a few panicky moments he finds a spell to turn him young. So he grabs his wife, uses some of her blood for the potion and drinks it. Of course he screws it up and turns into a baby. His wife, who's been pining for a baby the whole movie, scoops it up happily. This is so wrong on so many levels that it’s impossible to discuss them all here. Needless to say - Grandpa Borgnine is telling this tale to his grandson!

The second tale in Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders is even better. First of all it looks like the director was inspired by Poltergeist and Close Encounters of a Third Kind, because the whole family vibe going on here is very reminiscent of those films. The house itself is pure late 70's decor. Michael, the little boy is running around wearing shirts featuring Return of the Jedi and E.T.. The hair and clothes are vintage early 80's. It is so contrary to the rest of the film, which has a late 80's early 90's vibe to it, even the film stock is different.

So the monkey arrives and starts banging his cymbals and killing plants and a fly. It eventually starts working its way up the food chain, taking out the pet goldfish and poor Sparkle the dog. David goes to a psychic (who is extremely uptight and angry for some reason). She tells him he has to get rid of the toy without letting it know that is what he is trying to do. Then follows the infamous house-cleaning scene that has to be seen to be believed. The monkey does not go quietly. When it tries to take out Michael, the gloves come off. David drives the monkey to the middle of nowhere and tries to bury it. The forces of evil unleash. It pours rain; the ground opens up and tries to swallow David (or an action figure used as a stunt double in a few scenes). He escapes, only be crushed by a tree. But he's OK. You see, we still have to have the stinger, where the monkey comes back, brought into the house by a nice Grandma. Everything goes crazy, with earthquakes and flames and horror. And then Merlin (who's been inserted in this segment a few times asking people if they've seen his monkey - yeah I won't comment) finally shows up and saves the day. Again, Grandpa Borgnine has been telling this lovely story to his Grandson. WHY?

That's just the basic structure and storylines. The acting is questionable in places, but the scripts are so goofy I can't blame the actors too much. Borgnine plays the Grandpa part well, and his voice is perfect for a Princess Bride type voiceover, instead of a movie steeped in evil and horror - but he tries. The low budget is especially bad in the scenes with Jonathon, coming across like a cheap TV episode. The aging makeup is hilarious. The scenes where he is attacked by a puppetty cat had me on the floor laughing. The 80's segment is just as cheesy, but actually sports some creative editing and camera work for a low budget film. The scene where Michael is nearly run over by a car is actually edited so well that it builds tension for a few minutes. The director then ruins this with a nice goofy slow motion shot of David yelling "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!".

This whole thing, I can't really in good conscience call it a film, is a bad movie lovers dream come true. So many disparate elements coming together to create something so odd and bizarre - it was made to riffed on.

Episode Review:

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders could be my favorite episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 during the Sci-fi Channel years. The movie is a gift. The cobbled together nature provides so much fodder that you can't help but be fascinated by its entirety. It also helps the riffing, with so much going on and changing so frequently, there's always something new to point out, question or mock. Even my detailed review above doesn't do the episode justice. There are so many odd moments and effects and lines that I recommend viewers of bad films to seek it out and anyone who's never seen the episode to give it a whirl.

Mike and bots are in top form here, really letting loose with great lines right from the title screen. The "S" in "Shop" is done up in such a way that it looks like a "C". Leading Mike to quip, "Merlin Chop, 1 pound of Merlin now only $2.99". But the real joy comes from the Borgnine framing story and the moments when Mike and the bots reflect on how this story will affect the grandchild. They manage to throw those in when you least expect it. The first half of the film is pretty good, a solid 4 star effort. But once the devil monkey shows up in the 70's house the riffing escalates. There are so many great bits - Rock and Roll Martian, the housecleaning segment, the birthday party, the burial scene and of course the inserted moments of Merlin wandering the streets and showing people the drawing of his monkey. It's non-stop, and its consistently funny.

The host segments are also funny. The show opens with Mike and bots engaging in 1920's college pranks. They aren't going so well. Then Pearl receives an experiment from the Institute of Mad Science. She tests it on Mike and the bots, with Bobo as the control group. Bobo screws it up. At the first break, Tom and Crow are inspired by the angry bitter columnist. They start to review each other and it gets ugly. The next segment has Tom using Merlin's book, he wants to levitate an egg - but he turns Mike into a baby. This upsets Mike - waaaaa. The next break has a delivery of Ernest Borgnine's other children's stories show up. Mike and bots read them and are horrified. Contains the quote "They're eating his liver!" The show wraps up with Bobo acting as the devil monkey and failing. Then Observer re-enacts the housecleaning sequence with Bobo.

For me, there is nothing to dislike about Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders. The second half is better than the first half, but it ties together so well that the whole episode is gold. This may be the highlight of the season, and one of my top ten episodes. I give it five mystical magical Rock and Roll Martians out of five.


This episode is available on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection Volume 5.

Monday, July 9, 2012

The Right Stuff (1983)


Introduction:
1983 saw the arrival of a huge sci-fi film that went on to become a classic. It was filled with triumph, it had tragedy and contained the glories of space flight. I am writing, of course, about Return of the Jedi. But there was another Ewok-less space film from that same year, and sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.


Summary:
Based on the book by Tom Wolfe, the story chronicles the story of test pilot Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) and his attempts to remain the “fastest man alive”. His story is mirrored and contrasted to the journey of the America’s first astronauts. Yeager fights his battles against the demon that lives at Mach 1. The Mercury astronauts find themselves facing all kinds of obstacles, including bizarre tests, overbearing newsmen, and finally the perils of space flight itself. Will these men have The Right Stuff to finally surpass the Russians in some aspect of the space race? Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Barbara Hershey, Lance Henriksen, Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer are just part of this impressive cast.

Good Points:
  • Solid acting by the entire cast
  • A real eye for detail pulls you back into the era
  • An inspiring musical score by Bill Conti 

Bad Points:
  • Some of the humor doesn’t always work
  • The ending is very abrupt and odd
  • Clocking in at over 3 hours, it requires a bit of commitment

Overall:
When each piece of the film is examined closely, you wonder what happened. Why are some parts so focused on humor? Why are other parts intensely patriotic? Who is the focus of the film Yeager or the astronauts? Are they both? What is up with the ending? And yet for all those questions, the movie is always entertaining, always pulls me in, and allows me to easily recommend it to anyone interested in the early days of the space race. And if you do some research on the very difficult making of this movie – you appreciate that the movie is as good as it turned out to be.

Scores (out of 5)
Visuals: 4
Sound: 4
Acting: 4
Script: 3
Music: 4
Direction: 3
Entertainment: 4
Total:  4

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.   

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Super 8 (2011)


Introduction:
This movie was on my radar since it was first mentioned a couple years ago. I was interested in seeing where director J.J. Abrams was going to go after his entertaining reboot of Star Trek, and the more I heard about this film the more I wanted to see it. Alas, I managed to miss it in the theaters. Will that work out for the best or did I miss a unique theatrical experience?


Summary:
Joe (Joel Courtney) is dealing with the death of his mother as best he can. This mainly means helping his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) make a zombie movie using their super 8 camera. They get the cutest girl in school, Alice (Elle Fanning) to be in the movie, and start filming. While they are shooting at the local rail yard, the kids and the camera capture a spectacular train wreck, as well as something very large escaping from the derailed cargo.

Suddenly the army moves into the small town, locking it down. They are searching for something, and of course the youngsters find themselves drawn into a very dangerous threat. What secrets are hidden on their Super 8 film? 

Good Points:
  • All the young actors really nail their roles
  • Shoots for a truly retro-80’s family adventure feel
  • Balances adventure, mystery and some laughs really well


Bad Points:
  • Might be too dark for some viewers to be a “family” film
  • Takes its time in places and that will bore some folks
  • Some may find the nostalgia laid on a bit too thick


Overall:
Yeah I really liked this movie. It nailed all the elements I am nostalgic for when I watch Back to the Future, The Goonies, and E.T. No, it’s not a perfect fit with those flicks, but it feels like such a throwback and was done with a definite sense of appreciation (and a bit of fanboyish glee) that it just hit all the sweet spots. It may be a bit dark and a little slow moving for some viewers, but Super 8 was just what the summer movie doctor ordered.

Scores (out of 5)
Visuals: 5
Sound: 4
Acting: 4
Script: 4
Music: 4
Direction: 4
Entertainment: 5
Total:  4

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.