OT - Films that don't get enough respect
Dec 2, 2019 2:36:20 GMT
staggerstag, Toasted Cheese, and 1 more like this
Post by progressiveelement on Dec 2, 2019 2:36:20 GMT
Dune (1984)
-Yes, it's an unholy mess. None of the characters seem capable of saying anything, even something mundane, without overacting or launching into prose. It doesn't do justice to the book, it skims through way too much of it, even the revelation of why Paul can do what he can do (and more than we see him do). But this was a monumental task - bringing a highly respected but very complex book to the big screen, with a huge budget, batter it down to a running time of less than 2 and a half hours long. And when you're in the right mood, this film gets under the skin, and somehow grabs the attention all the way through. It's simply in a world of it's own, there is nothing else quite like it. Some of the FX can be pretty lousy, there's clearly some unfinished shots, but for the most part some of the visuals do inspire wonder, I love how the giant worms turn from menacing to majestic beasts the Fremen ride into battle. The director did a great job in the casting department, each actor goes perhaps beyond 100% in their roles, no slackers. Not even Sting - enjoyably demented as Feyd, Kenneth McMillan, completely over-the-top as the Baron Harkonnen. And while there's a few slow spots in the first half, once it gets going it rarely lets up - we go from escaping the downfall of House Atreides, to escaping a worm, falling in with the Fremen, teaching the Weirding Way, taming the worm, then right into the first stages of a long-running guerilla campaign Paul leads against the Harkonnens. Now - this film often gets the shaft. The most successful movie I've seen that actually comes closest to sharing this film's flaws is Bram Stoker's Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola. Visually - it's very impressive. They've picked mostly a great cast who seem to overact in every scene. And Keanu Reeves is in it too. But there are moments that, unless you were familiar with the book, just seem weird. Like the whole "blue inferno" thing.
The Keep (1983)
-Another one that's a bit of a mess, much of it down to heavy butchering in the editing department, and vital FX designers dying, so they weren't sure how to film certain scenes and were forced to improvise. It plays more than a tad loose with the book - but doesn't completely depart from it, for the most part it is somewhat faithful, just forget anything close to an explanation of what's going on. The climax is more than a tad piss-poor - the villain is memorable, but his exit made him look like a total pussy. For the most part though, this film manages to worm its way into the brain - atmosphere is thick from the start, and there's this other-worldly feel to it that often makes it perhaps creepier than intended. There's one aspect of the film that tends to get overlooked - the villain, Molasar, has a very corrupting influence, convinces Ian McKellen he's a force for good, and McKellen slowly falls under his influence, and even becomes something of a bastard in the process, and totally oblivious to the fact Molasar is using his hatred of the Nazis in the same manner Hitler and the Nazis fostered hatred against Jews, socialists, communists, gypsies, etc. Molasar is no better - he just has supernatural powers. (In the book, his powers came from corruption, chaos, degradation, basically he kinda had the Dark Side of the Force).
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
-A Roger Corman-produced cash-in on Star Wars, he also kinda gave that film a middle finger by addressing one aspect he was very critical of it by making it more blatant in his own film - whereas Star Wars "borrowed" from the likes of Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, he had the writers of Battle basically riff Seven Samurai. While the budget is all too obvious at times, as Star Wars knockoffs go, this was one of the better ones. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but retains the same level of B-movie-level entertainment Star Wars was drawing a lot of influence from. And helping it immensely was a fantastic score from James Horner.
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
-A Roger Corman-produced cash-in on Star Wars, he also kinda gave that film a middle finger by addressing one aspect he was very critical of it by making it more blatant in his own film - whereas Star Wars "borrowed" from the likes of Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, he had the writers of Battle basically riff Seven Samurai. While the budget is all too obvious at times, as Star Wars knockoffs go, this was one of the better ones. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but retains the same level of B-movie-level entertainment Star Wars was drawing a lot of influence from. And helping it immensely was a fantastic score from James Horner.
The Last Starfighter (1984)
-As Star Wars knockoffs go - this one is just too good to dismiss as such. OK, basic plot details are familiar, not to mention a whiff of Tron with the video game angle. But if I had to be brutally honest - as much as I like Tron, that film has not dated well. The Last Starfighter was different in its early use of CGI by using to actually depict a real environment and not just computer graphics (hello Wrath of Khan), or a computer world (Tron). And while at times, the graphics can be obvious, this was far ahead of it's time in how they were used. The hero's Gunstar has become something of an icon, often popping up on Best Movie Spaceships polls, it looks the business - especially as the hero's one is a prototype with tougher armour, more weapons and "Death Blossom" mode. But FX are not what the film completely relies on. We get a pretty likable cast, a memorable villain, but two standout performances that should have got more credit than they did. Robert Preston as intergalactic hustler Centauri helps kick the film in high gear when he shows up in his DeLorean-influenced Starcar. He is hilarious. Dan O'Herlihy in heavy makeup as the reptilian Grig also proves to be a big standout, and indeed, becomes a major asset when he comes to pilot Alex's assigned Gunstar. Just small moments between him and Alex when they share pictures of their families and loved ones have more of an emotional feel to it than throwing lots of FX shots in your face. He proves especially funny with his attempts to rouse Alex having the opposite effect, particularly when after liftoff, he informs Alex that they are the only ship going into battle against an entire armada of warships approaching.
Red Dawn (1984)
-It always gets dismissed as right-wing propaganda, a guilty pleasure. As a "what-if" movie, it works pretty damn well. It takes awhile before Swayze, Sheen and co go all Wolverine on the Commie bastards, but it does a great job setting up what such a scenario might have been like. It does stretch credibility a lot - like how they're able to sneak into Calumet, and get back out, despite the fact they are wanted, and nobody sees them at all...Once they decide to go guerilla, it makes for a cool war movie. No miserable Day After or Threads stuff - its just mano a mano, and it made a change that instead of the usual scenario, we had teen kids and eventually a downed fighter pilot turning freedom fighter on an occupying army. And it's not entirely unbelievable they win so many victories - these kids learned to hunt from childhood, a lot of the Soviet troops at this time would have been conscripts, just thrown into battle after shooting still paper targets. The scariest moment is when the gunships turn up and ambush them - the Puma/Hinds gunning for them, they succeed in damaging one, but with at least 3 of them in operation, running is your best option. The climax felt a bit eh to me, like they weren't sure how to end it, but it was still pretty damn sad.
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
-The first half of the film is really great stuff, full-on Twilight Zone stuff when David wakes up from a fall and somehow 8 years have passed and he hasn't aged. The discovery of a crashed alien spacecraft, and unusual brain patterns in David that show a connection with the craft eventually leads to the answers. In short - the alien craft had taken him to another universe for studies, and taken him back. It had travelled at faster than light speed, so while David was on it, only hours passed, but on Earth, 8 years had gone. The computer, "Max", had the ability to enter a dimension of hyperspace that allows it to travel back in time, but Max was unsure of the risks to David on a physical level. The ship crashed into some pylons, Max grudgingly forced to admit because he was looking at flowers. The damage screwed up some of his data, and now he needs info in David's head to restore navigation charts. So off they go on a second half - kinda typical of this time period, kid befriends alien/robot, but, while admittedly the second half doesn't quite live up to the first, it's still pretty damn enjoyable. Who wouldn't want to be a kid in control of a frickin' spaceship. One awesome aspect - when the ship has to go hypersonic speeds while in Earth's atmosphere, it transforms from its usual giant walnut-like appearance to a more aerodynamic shape, and just zooms away in the blink of an eye. Of course, the kid decides, he can't go back to his life, and asks Max to take the risk of entering hyperspace, and we see kinda why Max was concerned - just this endless formidable looking zone of giant black clouds and massive storms.
-The first half of the film is really great stuff, full-on Twilight Zone stuff when David wakes up from a fall and somehow 8 years have passed and he hasn't aged. The discovery of a crashed alien spacecraft, and unusual brain patterns in David that show a connection with the craft eventually leads to the answers. In short - the alien craft had taken him to another universe for studies, and taken him back. It had travelled at faster than light speed, so while David was on it, only hours passed, but on Earth, 8 years had gone. The computer, "Max", had the ability to enter a dimension of hyperspace that allows it to travel back in time, but Max was unsure of the risks to David on a physical level. The ship crashed into some pylons, Max grudgingly forced to admit because he was looking at flowers. The damage screwed up some of his data, and now he needs info in David's head to restore navigation charts. So off they go on a second half - kinda typical of this time period, kid befriends alien/robot, but, while admittedly the second half doesn't quite live up to the first, it's still pretty damn enjoyable. Who wouldn't want to be a kid in control of a frickin' spaceship. One awesome aspect - when the ship has to go hypersonic speeds while in Earth's atmosphere, it transforms from its usual giant walnut-like appearance to a more aerodynamic shape, and just zooms away in the blink of an eye. Of course, the kid decides, he can't go back to his life, and asks Max to take the risk of entering hyperspace, and we see kinda why Max was concerned - just this endless formidable looking zone of giant black clouds and massive storms.
