There are books that are difficult to translate into movies, and there are books that are more easily translated. I’m not exactly sure where Fear and Loathing fits in there, but it was at least fairly accurately translated. Not 100%, several things prevent it from reaching the full and complete accuracy that fans were hoping for. While some of them are choices made by Gilliam, many of them are just rights and budget concerns. However, as an adaptation of the book, it works. As something to get you interested in the greater works of Hunter S. Thompson, it is an excellent device. How does the movie hold up compared to the book? Let’s find out together, shall we?
Showing posts with label 90s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 90s. Show all posts
Friday, July 6, 2012
Movie Review: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
There are books that are difficult to translate into movies, and there are books that are more easily translated. I’m not exactly sure where Fear and Loathing fits in there, but it was at least fairly accurately translated. Not 100%, several things prevent it from reaching the full and complete accuracy that fans were hoping for. While some of them are choices made by Gilliam, many of them are just rights and budget concerns. However, as an adaptation of the book, it works. As something to get you interested in the greater works of Hunter S. Thompson, it is an excellent device. How does the movie hold up compared to the book? Let’s find out together, shall we?
Monday, May 14, 2012
Movie Review: Mobsters
We’ve probably talked about this before, but movies that took place before the fifties and featured guys in hats doing guys in hats things were very cool for about twelve minutes when I was a kid. For reasons I’ve never been quite clear on, I was very VERY into the time era that went from the 20s to the 40s when I was between the ages of 11 and 16. Maybe it was an obsession with old Warner Brothers Cartoons, maybe I got a taste of some really good Film Noir, maybe I just liked fedoras. Who can say? No, it’s probably not just the hats, I think it has to be the time period. You can’t just say “This has guys in hats” and get me interested, but you can say “It takes place in 1935” and I am THERE! Case in point, this movie. I pretty much have to put this thing into context, because without context it almost doesn’t/shouldn’t exist and in many ways it fails to make sense on its own. It’s not a good movie, but it’s too well made to be on any “So bad they’re good” lists, mostly it’s forgotten. Again, without context, you fail to understand why such talent would go to such wretched waste.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Movie Review: Miller’s Crossing
I’m going to open with a controversial statement, I’ve never been a huge Coen Brothers fan. They’re okay, but they always strike me as trying just a little too hard to be quirky, rather than just letting it happen. Even when they’re good, you can see this going on. The deliberate attempt to be quirky works so less well than tings that are just plain quirky. Miller’s Crossing has many an example of them trying to hard, but for the most part it works. I think it tends to work because the movie isn’t supposed to be funny, and as such, the quirky characters can be horrifying, rather than comedic. I’m going to tell you now, I almost never laugh as a Coen Brothers comedy. However, let us look at what is good and not so hot in this movie, shall we?
Friday, May 27, 2011
Movie Review: Ronin
You k now what I think? I think they should make the whole plane out of the stuff they make the black box out of. You know what else I think? I think that Ronin is the last great action movie of the 70s. I say that for a few reasons, but the number one is that everything just feels like the 70s here. I should expand it to the late 60s as well, but you get my meaning perhaps. It would fit right in with a night of watching great action/thrillers like The Ipcress File, The Day of the Jackal and The French Connection. You could have made this movie in 1975 and only a few changes in technology would have to be downgraded. Of course, some of those downgrades would change plot points, so lets be glad things are as they are. The point is that this is an old fashioned action movie, the sort they just don’t seem to make anymore. Of course it was old fashioned at the time, which was part of the point, I suspect. Either way, let’s talk about a great action movie…
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Movie Review: Desperado
Desperado (1995/ Columbia Pictures/ Dir. Robert Rodriguez)
This is an interesting mixture of both varieties of movie that were popular during the mid nineties. Desperado straddles the line between two-fisted action and independent/foreign art house style films. I’m not joking about that second part either, there are a lot of shots and ideas that are far more familiar to the art house scene rather than the action movie of the time. In many ways it feels like it has more in common with the art house, particularly since there was a flavor for low-budget Latin movies at the time this came out. This movie was also like another kind of import, that being the Hong Kong Heroic bloodshed, however as this connection is more obvious I won’t dwell on it.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Movie Review: Jurassic Park
I decided to re-read the book before watching the movie, which might be considered a mistake by some people. I know people who would have said I should have skipped one or the other of my experiences, but I had my reasons. I wanted to be able to compare the two products, movie and book and see what the differences were. My thoughts can be condensed, and then expanded upon. Jurassic Park: The Book is kind of a dumb diatribe against science, written by a profoundly stupid man. Jurassic Park: The Movie is a fun movie with a few weak spots. I’ll expand on those two statements, but that’s the gist of my feelings.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Movie Review: Mean Guns
Movie Review: Mean Guns
Mean Guns (1997/ Dir. Albert Pyun)
We haven’t talked about a good old fashioned bad movie in a while, and this is close to as bad as they come while still being enjoyable. Oh yes, this movie is enjoyable, but it’s terrible. You don’t watch it for the fine performances or the sparkling dialogue, you watch it because you’re fascinated that this sort of thing got made despite the fact that clearly no one much cared about the end product. It’s also interesting to see how far some people have fallen. This was shown as an HBO original movie, and it’s not even a very good one, but it has some names that people would recognize like Ice T and Christopher Lambert. They’re okay in this movie, but they cover the range of performances for actors who are just picking up a paycheck. Ice is chewing the scenery and Lambert is half asleep. Still, the movie is fun, but for all the wrong reasons.
Mean Guns (1997/ Dir. Albert Pyun)
We haven’t talked about a good old fashioned bad movie in a while, and this is close to as bad as they come while still being enjoyable. Oh yes, this movie is enjoyable, but it’s terrible. You don’t watch it for the fine performances or the sparkling dialogue, you watch it because you’re fascinated that this sort of thing got made despite the fact that clearly no one much cared about the end product. It’s also interesting to see how far some people have fallen. This was shown as an HBO original movie, and it’s not even a very good one, but it has some names that people would recognize like Ice T and Christopher Lambert. They’re okay in this movie, but they cover the range of performances for actors who are just picking up a paycheck. Ice is chewing the scenery and Lambert is half asleep. Still, the movie is fun, but for all the wrong reasons.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Movie Review: New Jack City
New Jack City (1991/Warner Bros./Dir. Mario Van Peebles)
Made in the early nineties, when the crack epidemic was still a thing the media talked about on occasion, this is the story of one inner city drug lord’s rise and fall. So how does this early 90s gangster movie hold up when trying to watch it today? Surprisingly well actually. While some might want to compare this movie to gangster epics like Scarface, The Godfather or Goodfellas, I think there are a few points that separate them. For one thing, this is way shorter, it clocks in at just under two hours while the other films I mentioned hover around three. For another, there is a completely different flavor to this film and for a third… well, let’s talk about the movie, shall we?
Thursday, December 23, 2010
TV Review: Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Hercule Poirot's Christmas
Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1 January, 1995 Carnival Films Dir. Edward Bennett)
David Suchet has been playing the Belgium Detective Hercule Poirot for about a million years on England’s ITV, which is different from the BBC in several ways that are important to them, but not to us. Mostly, they have commercials. In the 1995-96 series of episodes, they stopped doing hour-long episodes and just stuck to feature length (for TV) movies. This is the first of those movies and hey, it’s a Christmas episode! That’s so convenient, you’d think I grabbed this episode out of a stack just to review it! This is based on the 1938 novel of the same name and as far as I remember the book, it follows pretty faithfully. I haven’t read it in years and years, so I could be mistaken. I’ve looked it up and some sources claim a few characters are deleted from the book, but that tends to happen when one must condense a book for the screen anyway. I’ll mention glaring issues as I notice them.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Cartoon Review: Rugrats “The Turkey Who Came to Dinner”
Okay, just an update on what’s going on. I appear to have been kidnapped. I seem to be in a small cell with a computer and limited access. So far I’ve been beaten a few times, mainly because I balked when told that I’ll be doing holiday reviews again. This worries me slightly, because I’m kind of getting the idea that these won’t be good specials. Every time I ask what I’ll be reviewing, they just sort of laugh. What I really balked at (I like the word balked) is that I’m supposed to review commercials as well. So, yeah, sort of worried. Let’s see what they’ve assigned me to watch today…
Rugrats: “The Turkey Who Came to Dinner” (First Broadcast 21 November 1997 Nickelodeon Dir. Rick Bugental & Jim Duffy)
Hey! Rugrats, who doesn’t like Rugrats? Okay, don’t answer that one. Some people really don’t like this cartoon, which I can sort of understand I suppose. I like it though, and as such, I’m going to review the Thanksgiving episode. Over packed November schedule be damned! Let’s do one more thing so December will seem like slim pickings by comparison! This is an episode from ’97, so it’s back from before the show jumped the shark by including new babies. Before that though, I actually liked Rugrats. You must remember, when the show was new, so was the idea of winking at the adults with jokes that would go over the kid’s heads. Everyone does it now, but this was one of the first places I can remember it happening. So, yeah, I liked the show. Let’s se how this Thanksgiving special stacks up.
Rugrats: “The Turkey Who Came to Dinner” (First Broadcast 21 November 1997 Nickelodeon Dir. Rick Bugental & Jim Duffy)
Hey! Rugrats, who doesn’t like Rugrats? Okay, don’t answer that one. Some people really don’t like this cartoon, which I can sort of understand I suppose. I like it though, and as such, I’m going to review the Thanksgiving episode. Over packed November schedule be damned! Let’s do one more thing so December will seem like slim pickings by comparison! This is an episode from ’97, so it’s back from before the show jumped the shark by including new babies. Before that though, I actually liked Rugrats. You must remember, when the show was new, so was the idea of winking at the adults with jokes that would go over the kid’s heads. Everyone does it now, but this was one of the first places I can remember it happening. So, yeah, I liked the show. Let’s se how this Thanksgiving special stacks up.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Movie Review: The Immortals (Pain Box)
The Immortals (1995 Nu Image Films Dir. Brian Grant)
Because it takes place at Halloween, that’s why! What, was that? You hadn’t actually asked why we were watching a heist movie as part of our Halloween special? Well, that’s probably because you’d never heard of this before. And why would you? As far as I know, it was just a direct to video/cable movie that came and went like the wind during the mid-nineties when HBO was showing things like this about once a week. I saw it back in the day and I remembered it well enough that when I noticed it was part of a pain box set I bought it. I got this from Target, as part of a 1 disc, four movie set from Echo Bridge Entertainment. Welcome to the Pain Box Club guys! Actually, Echo Bridge can't be blamed for this movie. Like most Pain Box distributors, they didn't make this thing. They just acquired the rights to it. Interesting point though, they actually seem to own the rights to this movie, at least in North America. Most Pain Box makers just grab whatever is in the public domain and throw it out there. Not that I believe they meant to buy this and distribute it. I'm going to go ahead and assume that when they bought Alliance Atlantis, it was part of the library that they got with the sale. I can’t imagine anyone deciding to seek out this movie so they could have the rights, particularly not so they could release it on a disc with two other forgotten mid-90s gangster movies and a blaxploitation film. No, this smacks of “We have the rights to these, what’d you want to do with them?” However, that doesn’t mean the movie is horrible, we should give every movie that comes across our plate an equal chance to delight or at least surprise us. Particularly this one, as I remember it being pretty good.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Movie Review: Hamlet (review 101)
I decided, in order to make up for the abysmal showing of my 100th review, I would make up for it by showing off something special. Something foreign with an exploitative topic of a man murdering his brother so he could bang his wife and steal the inheritance. The story of a son, discovering his father murdered flies into a murderous rage. A young girl’s boyfriend takes sexual advantage of her, murders her father, and then leaves her to fall into insanity, eventually driving her to her own suicide. It’s even got a supernatural element, just in case you were afraid that this could in anyway be considered classy. A man even gets two of his old school chums murdered, more or less for the lulz.
What is this movie you ask?
Word up for The Bard bitches!
Hamlet (1996 Castle Rock Entertainment Dir. Kenneth Branagh)
Now I know what you’re asking… am I kidding? NO! I am not. Had this been written in 1975, entitled “Prince of Blood” or any of a dozen alternate titles, and made for under $100K it would be looked down on as much as any other exploitation movie. It’s got all the nasty hooks. Ghosts, revenge, sexual shenanigans, murder, a hint of incest, bad action, characters that pop in and out of the tale at random, and huge events happening off camera. Not to spoil it for you, but one of the most important side characters in the entire play dies off screen! This is not a classy play, let’s be clear on that. This is an exploitation movie, plain and simple. It just happens to get a larger budget and better actors than most exploitation flicks. Because of that, it’s a great exploitation movie, don’t get me wrong, but it is still exploitation. Not only that, but it’s a really silly exploitation movie. Let us be perfectly frank about this so called Greatest Work of the English Language. If the script for Hamlet were handed in today, zombie Louis B. Mayer would rise up from the grave and slap the taste out of Shakespeare’s mouth.
What is this movie you ask?
Word up for The Bard bitches!
Hamlet (1996 Castle Rock Entertainment Dir. Kenneth Branagh)
Now I know what you’re asking… am I kidding? NO! I am not. Had this been written in 1975, entitled “Prince of Blood” or any of a dozen alternate titles, and made for under $100K it would be looked down on as much as any other exploitation movie. It’s got all the nasty hooks. Ghosts, revenge, sexual shenanigans, murder, a hint of incest, bad action, characters that pop in and out of the tale at random, and huge events happening off camera. Not to spoil it for you, but one of the most important side characters in the entire play dies off screen! This is not a classy play, let’s be clear on that. This is an exploitation movie, plain and simple. It just happens to get a larger budget and better actors than most exploitation flicks. Because of that, it’s a great exploitation movie, don’t get me wrong, but it is still exploitation. Not only that, but it’s a really silly exploitation movie. Let us be perfectly frank about this so called Greatest Work of the English Language. If the script for Hamlet were handed in today, zombie Louis B. Mayer would rise up from the grave and slap the taste out of Shakespeare’s mouth.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Movie Review: The Dark Half
You know, we've seen us some dull title cards on this blog, but this one takes the cake. It was a nice cake too.
The Dark Half (1993 Orion Pictures Dir. George A. Romero)
This is not one of the better-loved Stephen King books, so I suppose it’s natural that the movie wouldn’t be that beloved either. Hell, I had to order a copy from England just to get a proper widescreen edition. Part of the problem was that the movie sort of flopped when it came out, which it did nearly two years after it was made, due to Orion’s death throws. The release of this movie could almost be considered a final death spasm, and as such, it wasn’t enthusiastically promoted or even properly funded. All this means that not many people saw the movie, however one cannot simply blame that as people who have seen the movie aren’t that impressed by it. This makes it much like the book, which is one of my favorites, but they can’t all be The Stand or IT now can they? Still, let us clear those things from our mind and try to focus on this movie. How does it stack up against the book or other King movies? Well, let’s see…
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Movie Review: Graffiti Bridge
Movie Review: Graffiti Bridge
Abandon all hope…
Graffiti Bridge (1990 Warner Bros Dir. Prince)
Fancy's Fun Facts: Technically, this is the end of a trilogy. We began with Purple Rain, continued with Under the Cherry Moon and now we are complete with this.
In 1990, everything started going wrong with Prince. The magic that had charmed him through the 80’s had worn off and he started a long and protracted decline. Between the name thing, the very public feud with Warner Brothers and the fact that the music really wasn’t kickin’ like it used to, the 90’s were a seriously hard time to be a Prince fan. While some may claim that the Batman album
is where it all started to go wrong, or that Lovesexy was the signal that we were going down a different path, my own signal was Graffiti Bridge. Depending on who you listen to you’ll get different reasons but the fact is that Prince had a change of heart during the whole Black Album debacle. He trashed an album that was only days away from release and produced Lovesexy as a replacement. It’s at this time that the music and the man went through something of a spiritual shift. While Prince had always had a spiritual side to his music, it started to really shine during this period. Prince also started to resemble a hippy in many ways. He started talking about love and peace and spirituality and all that jazz quite a bit during this period, and it more or less culminated with this movie. Oh this movie…
Before we begin though, I’d like to personally endorse Bombay Sapphire Gin. I’m not sponsored by them*, but I couldn’t have gotten through this movie without their fine product.
Abandon all hope…
Graffiti Bridge (1990 Warner Bros Dir. Prince)
Fancy's Fun Facts: Technically, this is the end of a trilogy. We began with Purple Rain, continued with Under the Cherry Moon and now we are complete with this.
In 1990, everything started going wrong with Prince. The magic that had charmed him through the 80’s had worn off and he started a long and protracted decline. Between the name thing, the very public feud with Warner Brothers and the fact that the music really wasn’t kickin’ like it used to, the 90’s were a seriously hard time to be a Prince fan. While some may claim that the Batman album
is where it all started to go wrong, or that Lovesexy was the signal that we were going down a different path, my own signal was Graffiti Bridge. Depending on who you listen to you’ll get different reasons but the fact is that Prince had a change of heart during the whole Black Album debacle. He trashed an album that was only days away from release and produced Lovesexy as a replacement. It’s at this time that the music and the man went through something of a spiritual shift. While Prince had always had a spiritual side to his music, it started to really shine during this period. Prince also started to resemble a hippy in many ways. He started talking about love and peace and spirituality and all that jazz quite a bit during this period, and it more or less culminated with this movie. Oh this movie…Before we begin though, I’d like to personally endorse Bombay Sapphire Gin. I’m not sponsored by them*, but I couldn’t have gotten through this movie without their fine product.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Movie Review: The Two Jakes
The opening title card!
The Two Jakes (1990 Paramount Dir. Jack Nicholson)
I seem to be doing this a bit lately. Sitting down at my desk with a movie I’ve never seen ready to pound out a review. Strange to relate, I seem to have bought a copy of the movie that originated in Canada. Everything on the packaging is in both English and French. That’s Amazon’s marketplace for you I guess. I’m not complaining or anything, I just find it a little odd. I figure it has to be okay with a movie that has the reputation of this thing. So should we start with a recap of Chinatown? Probably not. As I understand it, this is one of those sequels that’s barely connected to the original. Since this takes place in 1948 and Chinatown took place in 1937, there wouldn’t be a lot of reason for them to be connected to each other. Actually, while eleven years of movie time had passed, sixteen years of real time had passed. I’d like to take this time to point out that The Godfather III also came out in 1990 and it had also been sixteen years since the last installment. I only point this out so that I can tell the Die Hard, Rambo, Rocky, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Roger Rabbit* people that we knew a long time ago that waiting more than 15 years for a sequel was a bad idea. Although Stallone seems to have done quite well with his.
*Don’t laugh, they’re planning it right now.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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