skip to main |
skip to sidebar
aka Cosmic Monsters. The Cosmic Monster. The Crawling Horror. The Crawling Terror.
"It may be hard for you to believe, but Mr Smith is the legendary alien from outer space."
Dr Laird (Alec Mango) is conducting experiments with magnetic fields and its effects on metals. The experiments seem to be effecting the local village, wih people complaining their televisions are breaking, amongst other things. Both Laird's assistants Gil (Forrest Tucker) and Michele (Gaby André) have their doubts about the experiments, especially when one goes wrong. Then a strange man (Martin Benson) appears asking questions, and seems to know more about it than he's letting on.
Charmingly inept dialogue and clunky direction, make this a cult classic. This has everything a 50's Sci-fi needs, aliens, cosmic rays, mad scientists and mutant creatures, perfect drive-in material.
"Thank you for telling me I'm the devil's bounty hunter."
Johnny Blaize (Nicolas Cage), a motorcycle stunt rider, becomes the supernatural Ghost Rider when Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) compells him to defeat his son and some other demons. This is due to Johnny having previously sold his soul to the demon in return for his father's life.
Based on the Marvel comic, this tale strips much of the details out and replaces them with a quirky Elvisalike performance from Cage and his dodgy wig! Great FX and the cool Ghost rider cannot make up for the lameness of the rest of the film. Clunky performances, dodgy dialogue and a revamped Johnny Blaize as a jellybean eating, Carpenters listening, Elvis impersonator?!?
aka A Man Alone. Ernest Hemingway's The Killers.
"Once I did something wrong".
Two professional killers arrive in a small town and kill gas station attendant, the Swede (Burt Lancaster). Insurance investigator Reardon (Edmond O'Brien) thinks there is more to this than meets the eye and is determined to solve the case. He weaves together the complex tale of the Swede's life, and uncovers, treachery and crime, all centred around the mysterious Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner).
An elaborate series of flashbacks, fills out the life and death of the Swede in this fine suspenceful thriller, based on a Hemmingway short story. A definitive film noir.
aka Young and Willing.
A well to do woman, Jean Raymond (Glynis Johns) is sent to prison for fraud. Once inside the various inmates, including Betty Brown (Diana Dors), relate their tales of hardship and misery. How will she take to the repressive Victorian prison, or the open prison to which she is sent to see out her sentence?
What was a true life critique of prison life, in the book, is made into a lighter and at times comedic film, with cameo's such as Sid James as an inveterate shop-lifter. An opportunity missed, but it still makes for an entertaining 90 minutes.
'Your chick was a lilyskin.'
A woman is murdered and dumped on a London common. When her identity is discovered, the police also find out that she was a 'coloured' woman passing as white. Suspicion falls on her fiance David (Paul Massie) who had just found out she was pregnant. As the Superintendant (Nigel Patrick) and his subordinant (Michael Craig) investigate they uncover various levels of finely honed racism.
A fine drama that investigates the issue of racism, and the insecurity and fear it engenders, from both sides of the coin. From the racist policeman, to the landlady distraught she let a room to a non-white. It paints a hard-hitting, complex picture, and a fascinating one about prejudice in 1950's Britain. Prejudice that even the film cannot extricate itself from at times.
"To learn how to find, one must first learn how to hide."
In a future dystopian society, all books have been banned, and any that are found are burned by the fire brigade. Guy Montag (Oskar Werner) is a respected firefighter who starts to question his life and job when he falls for book-loving Clarisse (Julie Christie). Slowly he turns and begins to read confiscated books. Will he give up all for Clarisse, or return to his book burning ways?
Based on a Ray Bradbury story, this is a fine adaption, focusing on the controlling nature of governments and the insidiousness of censorship. Its only problem is the stilled nature of the dialogue, due in part to Truffaut's inability to speak effective English at the time.
"My own brother, a Goddamn shitsucking vampire!"
A newly divorced mother of two moves with her sons, Sam and Michael to live in Santa Carla. Once settled in Michael (Jason Patric) falls in with a bike gang led by David (Kiefer Sutherland). What he doesn't know is that they are vampires, and they quickly set about turning him. Sam soon learns about his brothers newly found blood sucking tendancies, and enlists the Frog brothers (Jamison Newlander and Corey Feldman), self styled vampire killers and local comic shop workers, to help. Can they find and kill the head vampire, thus freeing Michael from the curse?
An 80's brat-pack take on the vampire tale, chock full of 80's fashions and music, but don't let that put you off. This is in fact a light-hearted adventure, that doesn't take itself too seriously and has some memorable scenes. Especially good are the Frog brothers, who got their own short lived horror comic franchise out of this.
aka Cosmic Monsters. The Cosmic Monster. The Crawling Horror. The Crawling Terror. 
