Bad Movie Logo
"A website to the detriment of good film"
Custom Search
HOMEB-MOVIE REVIEWSREADER REVIEWSFORUMINTERVIEWSUPDATESABOUT
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
March 28, 2024, 02:24:43 PM
713356 Posts in 53058 Topics by 7725 Members
Latest Member: wibwao
Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Bad Movies  |  Stuff I Seen Strikes Again « previous next »
Pages: [1]
Author Topic: Stuff I Seen Strikes Again  (Read 10400 times)
Chadzilla
Guest
« on: February 25, 2001, 03:23:38 PM »

Whatever...

I've been busy this weekend (right now I'm procrastinating at working on my novel), but I have watched one thing and glanced at some of the comment worthy entertainments my son as been sampling.

My stuff
The Twilight Zone Vol. 2

This disc contained -

"Time Enough at Last" - Of all Zone episodes this one packed the biggest punch for me (being a kid that gobbled down novels at the rate of three to five a week up until I was married, now I'm down to one to three).  Mr. Henry Bemis  is a bookworm living in a book hating world.  All he wants is a little time to read.  A nuclear war seems to grant him his wish, or does it?

"The Monsters are due on Maple Street" - Claude Akins and Jack Weston (who contribute brilliant performances) are residents of Maple Street.  A simple suburban neighborhood that looses all power after a light in the sky rips the quiet afternoon away from them.  Residents begin to suspect that one family may not be who they appear to be.  But who?  The teleplay for this Serling classic appeared in numerous American Lit textbooks while I was attending elementary and junior high and has one of the most famous zingers (seconded only by "To Serve Man" I think).

"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" - Zone had the uncanny ability to cast an actor in a role perfectly suited for that individuals acting style.  Here we have William Shatner, a man recovering from a nervous breakdown while on a place flight, seeing a man (or gremlin?) messing with an engine on the wing of the plane upon which he is returning home.  Shatner is so brilliant in the part that you forget what a self-parodying ham he is today.
     Side bar:  Most people will know this episode's remake in the uneven, albeit still entertaining, Twilight Zone-The Movie.  John Lithgow played the part on comic hyperdrive and the in flight storm reached biblical proportions.  The Gremlin looked a lot better than it did on the episode, but was not nearly as frightening.  The best things about the movie version was Carol (widow of Rod) Serling's cameo and Jerry Goldsmith's typically wonderful music.  But what some people may not know is that Richard Donner, the director of the tv episode, was not the first choice as director.  Jacques Tourneur (Cat People, Curse of the Demon) was to direct, but his apprach to the Gremlin was jettisoned and he left.  Tourneur wanted only a man in a suit with a little glitter, just enough to blend with the rain and keep him invisible, but the producers felt that the monster needed to be seen more clearly.

"The Odyssey of Flight 33" - A jetliner en route to New York gets caught up in a freakish jet stream and apparently breaks the time barrier.  Can they find there way back to their own time?  Some of the Zone's creepy episodes were such subtle slow burns that it actually hit you full force at the end.  This is one of them.  It isn't one of the blood and thunder classics, it's one of those cold wind on a dark and lonely night ones.

As you can see, for those interested in collecting the landmark episodes of TZ Volume 2 is a must have.  5 slimes, each episode is outstanding.

My son's stuff:  Half baked ideas about half baked (and half watched) movies.

Jurassic Park (1993) - This hugely popular movie is nothing more than a 50's b-movie on Hollywood money steroids.  When the dinosaurs are around it's great, when they're not then it's no better than any of those Bert I. Gordon monster mashes.  Director Steven Spielberg manipulates the contrivances with a masterful touch, but its still manipulation and the movie has no real thought behind it.  Saturday afternoon fluff.  I give it three slimes simply because Stan WInston's dinos are so great.

Godzilla (1998) - Argh!  The pain, the suffering.  I saw this on the big screen on opening day and boy was I burned!  It's a big bloated gas bag of a summer movie that, at a whopping two hours and nineteen minutes,  is far too big for its premise.  NOT a true blue Godzilla movie it is more of a remake of The Beast from 5,000 Fathoms melded with The Lost World: Jurassic Park.  It is sad that we may never see a monster movie on this kind of scale again because the production is gorgeous, especially the cinematography, and the effects are pretty nifty.  There are moments I like, mainly the first helicopter chase through the skyscrapers of New York.  The deadpan reaction by the pilot that shot down the Chrysler Building makes me laugh each time I see it.  Evidently Emmerich liked this as well because they repeated it AGAIN later in the movie (when they did this I clearly remember thinking "They've already done this and don't need to repeat it."), this constant repeating of what was already done is a BIG fault in the movie and sticks it in a time loop of sorts, with chase sequences and such constantly returning again and again.  By the ending I was tired of it and just wanting the pain to stop.  My son watches this movie every now and then, but rarely finishes it.  Not so with the Japanese Godzillas (which he knows by heart and can give detailed plot descriptions of).  Deanzilla gets a slime for some of the pre-fatigue spectacle, but I am saddened that this movie pretty much effectively nuked any chance of a "real" American produced Godzilla movie.

The pain, the suffering.

So it Goes.
Logged
Scott
Guest
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2001, 09:52:33 PM »

Godzilla 1998 was bad. I remember wishing the original one was back. Well he returned for Godzilla 2000 last summer on the big screen. Burn the 98 version.
Logged
Chadzilla
Guest
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2001, 10:48:10 PM »

Destroying any book, movie, or composition simply because upu don't like it is an extremely dangerous and disturbing philosophy to have, even in jest.
Logged
FLANGEPART
Guest
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2001, 01:50:48 PM »

Dude...i gotta be honest. I read the book version, yet have never gotten around to seeing Deanzilla. I just can't do it,man! Thank God for g-2000! Cnicken soup for my Kaiju lovin' soul. Sure, the g-98 fx might be good...but it ain't HIM,man...nah,i'm too proud to do it.
Logged
Chadzilla
Guest
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2001, 02:21:01 PM »

Ironic you should mention that.  Yesterday a co-worker gave me a lift home and we got into a discussion about the merits of G-98, a movie she and her kids absolutely loved.  I told her I just couldn't.  It wasn't a REAL Godzilla movie and it just ripped too much stuff out of other, better movies to be very recommendable.  But she was convinced that it was a really good (she said another would that began with the letter g but I can't type it, not in connection with any statements regarding Deanzilla) with an ending that made her cry.

It made her CRY!

As the centipede in James and The Giant Peach said "I think I'm gonna be sick!"

Ugh.
Logged
Warren H.
Guest
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2001, 03:42:00 PM »

Ol' JT never wanted his monsters to be seen, apparently.  In Curse of the Demon, he only wanted the demon seen as a cloud of smoke.   Now I agree that sometimes, seeing nothing can be scary.  But, sometimes you've just got to see something, especially when the actors can't convey how terrified their characters are supposed to be.
Side note:  In my humble opinion, both seeing nothing and seeing everything are not very scary in movies.  Seeing just -- something -- the barest hint of a shape in a dark room, a fleeting glimpse, just enough to let you know that you don't want to see anything more, that is scary.
Logged
FLANGEPART
Guest
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2001, 07:26:00 PM »

just realised something...your friend may have been operating along the lines of No Basis Of Comparison. When i first saw G vs King Kong, is realy got to me. I was little, and only dad likes the same kind of stuff i did, so mom sent us to the drive-in with a' i don't know why you like that weird stuff..." Sound familure? As time went by, i came to like the improving FX,but still i like the basic premis...Big monster, Big city, big fight! We..well,i..started at that time and place,and all my experiance is from then on...how  old is your friend? I'm 45.(great caliber,not as mush fun to live.) G-98 is new to them,and fits their experiance...does this make any sence? Maby its part nostalgia...okey,a lot!...but, a lot of people,kids included,said they liked something about G-2000...the old guy still has it! Well, lets hop G-fan is right, and the next film gets over here. Go,GoGodzilla!
Logged
Chadzilla
Guest
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2001, 08:59:50 PM »

She's in her forties and loves horror movies, especially Bram Stoker's Dracula (the less I say about my feelings considering that, that thing the better).  Deanzilla offered big, mindless fun to her and her kids.  It was certainly big and definitely mindless. I just thought it got boring after awhile.  I kept waiting for plot to happen, stupid me.

Frankly I can watch segments of G-98 every now and then, the thing is just so long.  Even my kid can't finish it.  I mean 2 hours and 19 minutes?  Drives me up the wall.
Logged
FLANGEPART
Guest
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2001, 01:25:55 PM »

Dig it. Hey,Chadzilla...did you ever think about the fact that the G films had an all Japanese cast was part of the reason we watched them? Part of the fun was, we had neven seen these dudes and chicks before! Sure, makes sense when you think about it. But kids don't think as mutch as do.  Non-american actors?...cool. just so long as the flick's good! works for me. Hello,nurse! Ah, i was young once....
Logged
Pages: [1]
Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Bad Movies  |  Stuff I Seen Strikes Again « previous next »
    Jump to:  


    RSS Feed Subscribe Subscribe by RSS
    Email Subscribe Subscribe by Email


    Popular Articles
    How To Find A Bad Movie

    The Champions of Justice

    Plan 9 from Outer Space

    Manos, The Hands of Fate

    Podcast: Todd the Convenience Store Clerk

    Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

    Dragonball: The Magic Begins

    Cool As Ice

    The Educational Archives: Driver's Ed

    Godzilla vs. Monster Zero

    Do you have a zombie plan?

    FROM THE BADMOVIES.ORG ARCHIVES
    ImageThe Giant Claw - Slime drop

    Earth is visited by a GIANT ANTIMATTER SPACE BUZZARD! Gawk at the amazingly bad bird puppet, or chuckle over the silly dialog. This is one of the greatest b-movies ever made.

    Lesson Learned:
    • Osmosis: os·mo·sis (oz-mo'sis, os-) n., 1. When a bird eats something.

    Subscribe to Badmovies.org and get updates by email:

    HOME B-Movie Reviews Reader Reviews Forum Interviews TV Shows Advertising Information Sideshows Links Contact

    Badmovies.org is owned and operated by Andrew Borntreger. All original content is © 1998 - 2014 by its respective author(s). Image, video, and audio files are used in accordance with the Fair Use Law, and are property of the film copyright holders. You may freely link to any page (.html or .php) on this website, but reproduction in any other form must be authorized by the copyright holder.