Re: The Return of Torgo and Wooley's September Excite-o-rama!
 

I wouldn't say I'm a Sucker Punch "defender", because it's not something I want to argue with people about, but I do consider myself a Sucker Punch "enjoyer".

I have no notes for your Conan review, I think we're pretty much on the same page. My only regret is that I came to it much later in life so I don't have the history with it that you do.

It's a shame that among the thousands of 80s fantasy films made in its wake, so few figured out that a great cast and decent budget were part of the recipe. It would have been nice to have 2 or 3 more films on this level.

Also the last shot of King Conan is like an airbrushed Chevy van come to life. (That's meant to be a compliment.) Despite all of my grumblings about Arnold, he's a gorgeous man in this film.

Good Conan writeup. I also liked William Smith's brief appearance as Conan's father, especially his line "for no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts. This (points to sword) you can trust." Based on what I know about the guy, John Milius alone must have written that scene. I've been meaning to get into the Conan comic books, but I have no idea where to begin since there are so many of them. I am open to suggestions.

My next entry has a fruit and a number in the title (no, it's not a documentary about the Apple II).

https://i.imgur.com/SmMxB3M.jpg

Cherry 2000 -

Granted, I went into this one pretty blind, but I'm surprised more hasn't been written or YouTubed about how prophetic this movie is. While it may have been shocking to comprehend someone risking death to restore an AI with whom they have a long-term relationship in the late '80s, it doesn't seem that strange to me these days in which it's not unheard of for some to prefer the company of digital or digitally presented companions to real ones. It also deserves credit for being right about 2017 that some would blindly follow a cult leader and that they wouldn't bat an eyeball when he gets away with murder, but I digress. The man who is desperately seeking his titular beloved is Sam (from Anaheim) (David Andrews), whose Cherry 2000 gets badly damaged when his dishwasher malfunctions during a makeout session. As luck would have it, the only remaining replacement bodies are in a junkyard in what used to be Las Vegas, and what's more, it's in the territory of the aforementioned cult leader, Lester (Tim Thomerson). To help him in his search, Sam reluctantly hires tracker E. (Melanie Griffith) on the condition that he's also willing to get his hands dirty.

Again, I went into this one relatively cold, not to mention with low expectations due to its subpar IMDB and Letterboxd scores, and I was surprised by how much I really, really enjoyed it. The movie makes no bones about it early on that it's a futuristic western, and it has the same appeals of the most fun ones I've seen from its shootouts to its classic saloon scene in a town nobody in their right mind would visit (it's named Glory Hole, after all). I also like that the movie treats Sam with empathy rather than ridicule, which audiences even now would do. As for our hero, I'm not that familiar with David Andrews, which I think is to the movie's benefit because him being a relative unknown enhances his everyman qualities and makes Griffith's flame-haired mercenary and Thomerson's crazy-eyed villain seem even stranger. Both performers give the impression they had a good time playing their roles, which makes the movie all the more fun, and this also applies to appropriately cast Western veterans Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr., each of whom are in small and quirky roles. Besides fun, quirky is an apt description for the entire movie, especially in the production design and costumes, but it's the good kind of quirky in that it doesn't wear out its welcome too quickly. I especially like the look of Lester's compound, which reminded me of the similar retro-futurist looks of Fallout: New Vegas and the FX series Legion, and the costumes of his henchman, which made me laugh for how they resemble the guy on the cover of the Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! That welcome faces and B-movie legends Brion James Robert Z'Dar (and what a face it is, and R.I.P.) make appearances is the icing on the cake.

I'm hopefully not spoiling this movie by talking about my favorite takeaway from it, which is that even the most convincing digital recreation is no replacement for the real thing. As Johnson's Six Fingered Jake so eloquently puts it, "there's a lot more to love than hot wiring." I obviously disagree with the movie's generally low reviews, but that doesn't mean I love every single thing about it. There is a jarring transition in the middle of the movie, and even though it's supposed to be this way, I found myself asking "wait, what" very late in the game. It's also odd, and not in a good way, that Sam is reluctant to assist E. with the wet work because he ends up as someone who would fit in with the crew of mercenaries in another sci-fi movie from 1987, Predator. Granted, "the things I do for love," etc., etc., but I still raised an eyebrow. Even so, with its prescience, unique look and feel and for how fun and endearing it is, I can see the movie standing alongside my favorite cult and would-be classics of its decade. In other words, I can easily see myself rewatching it.

My rating: 4 mini CDs out of 5

My guy (or gal): Six Fingered Jake, a man who will put his life on the line to offer a helping hand or even cook you a decent meal.

You know I have never seen this. It wasn't my kind of thing when it came out but knowing that Milius and Stone had a lot to do with it makes me want to check it out.

Definitely worth a watch.

Not only is it a

Definitely check out A Monster Calls. And read the book (which was written by a woman while she was dying, and then finished by Patrick Ness because she passed away before the book was completed).

I love you for this.


Edit - I want to mention that you and I enjoyed a lot of the same things. Johnson's character/performance add a lot to the film. I also liked the way the film treated the protagonist and made me not wanna roll my eyes at him the whole time. Yet I agree about Sam's reluctance to do the hard things that would be necessary. I liked Melanie Griffith a lot in this, which I am not normally wont to do. I thought she really understood what the character needed to be and delivered just that. And I liked that she found herself with a certain longing. I especially liked Tim Thomerson as Lester, he was a hoot, and Cameron Milzer was also pretty funny.
Yup, just enjoy this movie all around, always up for a rewatch.

I strongly recommend the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard (his Horror works are also the bees knees).
When I finished the Conan stories I realized that Tolkien was not the father of my idea of Fantasy, it was Howard, overwhelmingly Howard.

You're right, I didn't even mention the score, which is very good. I think I thought my review was just getting too long.

The second in my Sword and Sorcery Double Feature (with Conan The Barbarian), we revisited one of my childhood favorites, Don Coscarelli's The Beastmaster. Released just a few months after Conan, Coscarelli had to make do with less than half the budget that Milius had for his film, but the plucky Phantasm director did not let the audience down.

The film starts as a straight-up Period Horror (Coscarelli's knack for the genre is as obvious here as it was in his previous film) as an evil priest, Mayak, and his coven of witches use dark magic to steal the unborn child of the Queen (and King) from her belly and transfer it to the womb of a cow. This effect is excellently executed and this fire-lit magic by the witches sets a dark and Horror-tinged tone for the film.


One of the witches cuts the babe from the cow's abdomen and prepares to sacrifice it, part of a prophecy to solidify the priest's absolute power in the kingdom, but the plan goes awry as the child is rescued from the witch by a brave villager. In the coming years, as the villager teaches the boy, Dar, to fight and be a man, his connection to animals, due to his time in the cow's womb, is revealed. "I see through their eyes, they see through mine. They know my thoughts and I know theirs." This comes in extremely handy throughout the film.
Unfortunately, the priest, Mayak, has allied himself with the dreaded Jun Horde, which sweeps across the landing taking everything in their path, with Mayak searching for the lost child to end the prophecy. Dar's village is destroyed and everyone but him is killed.


So, Dar, knowing nothing of the prophecy, his royal birthright, or his place in the World, sets out on a quest to find the Jun horde and... well, it's not really clear what his plan is once he finds them, considering there's like hundreds or thousands of them or something (Coscarelli does a great job of making a little seem like a lot all through the film), and their leader is this terrifying motherf*cker.


Yes, The Road Warrior permeates even Sword and Sorcery movies of this time, but I tell ya, when I was 10 years old, I thought the Jun Leader was about the baddest mother on the planet this side of The Lord Humungus and maybe more so.

Along the way, Dar will gather a cast of characters, both animal and human, around him as his quest is sidetracked by his encounter with Mayak at the Temple of Aruk and the revealing of his true destiny. Not to mention he basically just drops everything to follow Tanya Roberts around. Seriously, he absolutely drops his entire quest like 15 minutes into it after he sees Tanya Roberts' eyes. Her function in this film is to have beautiful eyes and drag our hero into his own unknown destiny. But mostly to have beautiful eyes. This was supposed to be Demi Moore but the executive producer overrode Coscarelli in favor of Roberts, so I guess he got mesmerized by these peepers too.


But it is his chance meeting with John Amos' Seth that will prove to be the most important for the movie. Everything's going along fine, trust me, but the movie needed another tentpole and Amos provides it. He has a commanding presence and flip between a withering intensity and a winning good-humor in the blink of an eye. Really, it's kind of a shame we didn't get more of him in cinema.


Ultimately, all of this comes together extremely well under Coscarelli's direction. All of this really works and the film, again as I love to say, punches well above its weight, delivering a tremendous amount of imagination in a surprisingly credible way for the time and budget. Coscarelli makes the most of what he has here, in fact, one of my favorite shots of the film is this forced-perspective miniature he brazenly hovers on as if to say, "Yeah, we couldn't afford to build a whole city and we thought a matte would look stupid, so here, we made this for you, enjoy it."


I mean, you gotta respect that, right?
And the funny thing is, the movie has a lot more to offer, still. To describe this film and not include the wonderful set-piece with the bat-winged people that worship the eagle (lucky for Dar) and liquify their prey, would be folly, and it again illustrates how frequently Coscarelli flirts with Horror in this film and how much that benefits the picture.


And my friend, Trout, who was extremely reluctant to watch the film and had to be bullied into by his wife, Amy, and I, ended up being won over by, of all things, the animal-wrangling of the film. I mean, a golden eagle just comes in and lands on Dar's forearm on queue. A huge black (air-brushed, I guess) tiger chases actors through the forest, drags people to the ground in-frame, and trots right by and gets a pat on the butt. And then there's Kodo and Podo, Dar's "two thieves", who do all kinds of shit in this movie just totally credibly, no puppets or anything, just two ferrets here owning the movie.


Really, I could go on and on. I didn't even mention the Death Guards. Or Rip Torn's Mayak. Or the actual star of the movie. But the film just has a lot to offer. Great set-pieces, lots of exciting action, interesting actors, that great Horror vibe, pluckiness, it just goes on and on. Frankly, I think this is Coscarelli's best film. I highly recommend The Beastmaster.

Re: The Return of Torgo and Wooley's September Excite-o-rama!
 

Let the record show that I pressed the thumbs-up button like 20 times, even though it only counts as one.

Besides everything you mentioned, another image that sticks with me is the climax of the film (I think), in which everyone is surrounded by an inferno. The silhouettes of the characters against the wall of flames is a great image. (Can't find any screenshots on google unfortunately)

That whole section of the movie is a great example of how Coscarelli does a lot with a little. How many Juns were there, really? How big was that set really? And yet Coscarelli makes it seem epic, surrounded by raging flames and shadowy figures. Just a great job all around.

Here ya go, Cap...

Re: The Return of Torgo and Wooley's September Excite-o-rama!
 

There ya go. That's like 5 horses and a wall but he makes it look massive.

https://external-content.duckduckgo....67a&ipo=images

https://external-content.duckduckgo....6ed&ipo=images

https://external-content.duckduckgo....d1c&ipo=images

Shit, I forgot!
And I've already got another movie on. Alright, I'll see what I can do.

A little Elric...

I also love The Beastmaster. I wrote something about it on Corrierino, but I forgot to save it, unfortunately. I admitted to enjoying it a little bit more than Conan the Barbarian, which earned me the ire of Jinnistan (miss him). The sequel, however...woof. For a while, I claimed that it was the worst movie I've ever seen and that Kari Wuhrer's performance was my least favorite female performance.

My final writeup proves that bald is beautiful...and deadly.

EDIT: Since this is the last day, I'll find some fantasy art to post.

https://i.imgur.com/49taqWY.gif
My favorite kind of vibe.

https://i.imgur.com/lgJkOVv.jpg
If this were from a real game, I'd buy it immediately. The artist is Dom Jordan.

https://i.imgur.com/fQS37rT.jpg
The artist is Larry Macdougall.

https://i.imgur.com/PKqTUGn.jpg
The artist is Michael Cooper.

Oh yeah. It's The Green Slime, bitches!

A wonderful thing happened one night in the early 1980s, when Young Wooley was a wee lad of, say, eleven. He turned on his TV one night, about two years after his parents had given up on silly notions like "bed-times" and "age-appropriateness", and there was a pale, curvaceous, awkward, funny, cleavage-spilling vamp pouring out of the TV and into his nascent sexuality and young Horror and Fantasy-afflicted mind.
Elvira had arrived.
And young Wooley was transfixed and forever changed.
And as he sat glued to the television that night and watched, stunned, as this siren faded to black with the words, "Unpleasant dreams...", he was assaulted by this:


... and another wonder was forever burned into his soul.
I believe I liked the movie, I certainly never forgot it, but I can tell you that I was still able to sing the theme song 20, 30, almost 40 years later. And I think I re-watched it even, like 15 years ago or something, though after revisiting it the other night, I cannot swear that that had actually ever happened.
Could The Green Slime hold up? Gather' round I will tell you now of my experience.

First of all, what is The Green Slime? Well, imagine if Armageddon and Aliens were the offspring (conjoined twins?) of an hermaphrodite that is half each of those films. Which is to say that an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth and a crew is sent up to land on the asteroid and blow it up with a nuclear bomb. No joke, that is the plot of this movie, 30 years before Armageddon. But also the whole ship gets infiltrated by unstoppable aliens who creep around the ducts and kill people. Of course, they start out as... well, Green Slime, but quickly build up into huge invincible alien-monsters who, silly as they may look, are also cool in my extremely stoned opinion...


This movie opens with some of the most obvious, hilarious miniatures in science fiction history. Here are some comments I made in my notes about them...

"Holy shit, some of these wide shots look like a picture of a child’s erector set on Christmas morning after dad spent the whole night putting it together."
"I would swear there were just Legos on the screen a moment ago."
"I am literally watching children’s toys fly and roll around on the screen."
"The “air tanks” slightly out of focus in the foreground are actually the nitrous oxide cartridges better known as Whippets."


... and yet… I’m not mad about it. There’s something really enjoyable about 1960s ultra-low-budget sci-fi aesthetic and, as cheap as this is, it’s just got some odd charm that I found endearing. Perhaps this would not be true if the movie were worse, but... there's actually a lot to like here. And I mean a lot. I think if you only watched the indoor/on-set scenes of this movie, you would think it was actually a pretty good movie.
For starters, the two main characters (male) are just way more interesting than they ought to or need to be. One of them I will simply refer to as The Jaw. Like this was the conversation:
Director to Casting Director: “Go out and get me a JAW!”
But The Jaw is actually kinda convincing.
And I was really digging this very adult, mature behavior and complex personal relationship between the two male leads... until it totally devolves into alpha-male dominance and beta-male failure, which I thought was actually a pretty neat subversion of my expectations, but also totally how it probably happens in real-life instead of the movies. The Jaw seems kinda heroic and selfless and maybe even misunderstood early on when there's a setup that there's some reason people actually don't want him for this mission. And it turns out, as the movie unfolds, that it's because The Jaw is just a straight-up alpha-male dick. The more pressure put on, the more he reverts to being a domineering jerk. But then his sort of second-in-command-by-default seems like a guy who has gotten an unfair rap as a beta-male and will obviously end up being heroic and shine and save the day in the end... except that he doesn't he goes into total beta-male fail. He even loses the girl and gets himself killed!
I found all of this rather clever honestly. The writers obviously never saw Pretty In Pink. And It is so obvious that the actors, at least the two leads, think they’re making a much better movie than they are… so they do.
A few other notes:
I resent that the Scientist is the stupidest person in this movie. This motherf*cker insists on playing with the damn Green Slime on the asteroid and he inadvertently brings it back onto the ship... but worst of all, he's one of these no-don't-kill-it-we-must-study-it idiots that ends up getting himself and everybody else killed. I mean, I am a scientist and I was not mad when this scientist got demolished by The Green Slime.


Neat use of reversing the film (several times but always effective) so The Green Slime looks like it’s climbing up.
Rotoscoping! Woot!
I dig that the reaction of the doctors to the threat is to protect their patients. Cuz I went through Katrina AND COVID and that’s what doctors do. I think twice in the movie, the injured in the sick bays are threatened and the doctors refuse to leave and stay by their patients and even get between their patients and The Green Slime. Because that's how we do it.
All of these things are great and I found myself really, really enjoying The Green Slime. At one point I wondered, “Is this going on too long” but then I realized it was kinda perfect. But finally, and most importantly, I had to ask myself, "Does the movie work as a Sci-Fi/Horror Adventure?" Which, if you're high enough, it totally does.

My final position is that The Green Slime may be the best movie ever made.
I recommend everyone watch The Green Slime immediately.

Looks like a must-have for any horrorthon list. Apparently, it was the subject of the original edition of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (even before Tom Servo came along). Tempting, but I'd rather watch it riff-free.

Re: The Return of Torgo and Wooley's September Excite-o-rama!
 

Well, I'm sold

:burns Stanley Kubrick t-shirt:

https://i.imgur.com/rfkEiLh.jpg

Lisa and the Devil -

Is this fantasy? Is it horror? Some movie databases label it as one of these while others label it as both. Regardless of its actual genre, I think it's a nice way to conclude my half of this thread as we head into October, don't you? After admiring a fresco of the devil, Lisa (Elke Sommer), who is touring Spain, goes off the beaten path and encounters Kojak...ahem, Leandro (Telly Savalas) - well, he also favors lollipops - who sort of resembles the figure in the fresco and who is carrying around a very realistic-looking dummy. While trying to get back to reality, she hitches a ride in a roadster with a wife, husband, and their personal driver, which to their misfortune breaks down in front of a mansion. There, Lisa meets a family who she soon learns has their fair share of skeletons in the closet and whose butler is - you guessed it - Leandro. While on her strange journey, Lisa is frequently visited by a man named Carlos (Espartaco Santoni) with whom she may or may not have a history.

I've seen six of Mario Bava's movie's now and he hasn't let me down yet, but I mention this because even if I had seen all of them except for this one, I doubt they would have prepared me. If you can't make heads or tails of my plot description, it's because I don't want to give too much away and because the movie hardly has a conventional narrative. I'm not sure if I could give a completely accurate description of everything that happens, but it all comes together in a satisfying way; besides, I'm not sure if I would want to because the mystery is the point. The production design accomplishes this as soon as Lisa strays from the group, with the empty alleyways and the mansion seeming like they belong in another dimension. The otherworldliness is at its most satisfying during her dream sequences, some of which resemble Renaissance paintings in motion and explain its fantasy label more than anything. While the movie has a "down the rabbit hole" structure, Lisa is not Alice. That's not to say Sommer never comes across as confused in her performance, but my favorite thing about her performance is that she always seems to know something the audience doesn't. As for Savalas, I wouldn't be surprised if he signed on the dotted line without thinking twice because his part lets Telly be Telly, which is hardly a bad thing. Also, considering there's quite a few moments that made me squirm in my seat, the comic relief he provides is more than welcome.

As is typical of movies with nonconventional narratives like this one, I sometimes felt like I reached a dead end and that it kept going without me. It's better than other ones like it at catching me up, and even if ruminating about it afterwards is nearly as enjoyable as watching it, I still didn't love the moments when what played on screen meant nothing to me. Despite this nitpick, this movie tells a story in one of the strangest and most provocative ways I've seen in a while about how the devil, like his archrival, also works in mysterious ways and that few, if any transgressions evade his watchful eye. Again, if you've seen enough Mario Bava movies that you think you know everything in his bag of tricks, watch this one next. I'd even go so far to recommend it if you're in the mood for something Lynchian.

My rating: 4 mustachioed dummies out of 5

My guy (or gal): Leandro. Who loves ya? This guy!

I remember nothing about either of them beyond knowing both Green Slime and Lisa and the Devil were very much my jam.

I have been "strongly considering" Lisa and the Devil for years but never pulled the trigger on it for some reason. In part, as you discuss here, I worried that the narrative would be nonsensical as Italian Horror often is. But now I don't so much mind.

Lisa and the Devil is gothic horror. It was my first Bava, because it was reported to be his best, and I have yet to find another Bava that I've liked as much.

In terms of comprehensibility, Lisa and the Devil is somewhere between Un Chien Andalou and Bava's Shock, if that makes sense.

One more batch of art:

https://i.imgur.com/WDbVs6v.jpg
Angus McKie

https://i.imgur.com/l965A1k.jpg
Keith Parkinson

https://i.imgur.com/EkYdIlu.png
Ian Miller

https://i.imgur.com/Ke5fd8P.jpg
Alan Lee

yeah, baby - you know I'm a fan.


I remember watching this on the local UHF channel for their Saturday afternoon monster of the week flick. Also Attack of the Mushroom People and The Curse of Bigfoot. The 70's were a great time to be alive.

Well, it's been fun, but it's September 30, and if Wooley's new thread is of any indication, you know what happens next:

https://i.imgur.com/qwFSPYS.gif

I knew almost nothing about Lisa and the Devil and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. That ending is really something!

It does sort of play out like a feature-length Italian Twilight Zone episode.
Speaking of, I hope we do another one of those HoF's some day.

I plan on watching Lisa and The Devil this coming month. I think I read there are two versions?

[quote=Wooley;2336689]
Oh yeah. It's The Green Slime, bitches!

[quote]
Love this poster:love::love::love:

I'm not sure. I watched the 95 minute one on Amazon Prime if that helps. It's also on Shudder, Kanopy and AMC+. Enjoy!

The original US release had a lot of weird exorcist stuff inserted (and altering the framing device of the plot) to capitalize on the popularity of The Exorcist and was released under the title, The House of Exorcism.


I've not seen it, but I have seen trailers of that version. People have said it's not a good thing.

There's a separate cut known as House of Exorcism and I'm ashamed to say I don't remember which version I watched. It's been years.


You watched the preferred version, that much I know

Yes! That refreshed my memory, thank you. I chose it for “religious horror” but I don’t know if that depends on the version I watch or not. Either way, I’ll find out once I sit down and watch it proper like.

Lisa and The Devil is one where I'd need someone to define "religious horror" for me to give an opinion of it. i.e. let's say a movie has the devil show up, but there isn't really any religion mentioned outside of its presence, would that constitute as religious horror?

ETA: given the lack of priests or the profession of any religious beliefs amongst the characters, I'm inclined to say, "no."
Now, I just noticed Superstition show up in my library, that'd probably count.
If you want to go a little out of bounds on the horror part, if you haven't seen On the Silver Globe, there's religion in there, and it veers into horror-ish elements, though it is really more sci-fi.

Right l, and I mentioned in my post that it might depend on which version I watch as one (American version) specifically was tailored to more of an Exorcist rip off, which sounds more like religious horror than the original version. *
If it doesn’t fit, it’s not a big deal as I can simply find one that does.

I'm actually not quite done yet.
Takoma.

It's so good.

I love that The Last Unicorn is supposedly a children's movie.
Like, this is what children were expected to be able to handle back in our day. This emotionally dense, mature, melancholy, often heartbreaking story.


I remember when it all went to shit. I blame The Smurfs. And Spielberg and Lucas of course. ********.
Also, how did I forget that this was an all-star cast? I remember Mia Farrow and Alan Arkin, but this cast?
Our titular Unicorn overhears from two hunters that she is the last of her kind and begins to consider this possibility. When she is doing unicorn shit in a meadow, a butterfly (played brilliantly by comedian/actor Robert Klein) comes and frolics a bit with her but she interrogates him for information about any other unicorns. After much evasion he tells her that The Red Bull of King Haggard has run down all the unicorns in the world and she is the last. So she sets out on a journey to find them and rescue them. Along the way she meets a fascinating cast of characters, for real. Mommy Fortuna alone is worth the price of admission but, of course, the Harpy (not made for children of today or even children of the 90s or 00s, but for children of my time) and the Red Bull itself make for formidably frightening foes. And seriously, like 20 minutes into the movie we are dealing with complex human issues like insecurity and envy and greed and loneliness regret and complicated ethical questions, and this is just how the movie goes. We end up with a beautifully conceived character, Molly Grue, voiced by two-time Tony-Winner Tammy Grimes, whose youth has passed her by and when she meets the unicorn she breaks down in anger and betrayal and deep sadness, crying out at the unicorn, "Damn you! Where were you when I was young?!" It's a heart wrenching moment. Kids today couldn't handle this shit.
And then the unicorn meets The Red Bull.


She finds herself in over her head and defeated very quickly and, to save her, her friend Shmendrick the Magician turns her into a human. Which is apparently the worst thing you could do to a unicorn. And then a whole new set of complex emotional ideas is introduced from this conceit. Like I said, "dense". It's really pretty amazing.

A few notes I wanted to get to.

I like the score right away. So melancholy.
And my reaction to hearing The Song? "Holy shit. I’ve remembered this song my whole life. And, of course I did, it’s America. F*cking professionals." Though, even I can’t really listen to that song “In The Sea” or whatever it's called, that's a slight mis-step.
The voice-work here is really interesting and pretty fantastic. It's from another time and is not as smooth as the voice-work of today but that was the style back then. Here I think it works and really lends an otherworldly quality (as it did in The Hobbit earlier this month). But the actors themselves make it really amazing. Mommy Fortuna is awesome. But, oh, of course she is, she’s Angela F*cking Lansbury and I'd forgotten. King Haggard? No problem, we'll just get Christopher Lee to give a menacing and yet nuanced performance. “Christopher Lee was apparently a big fan of the book, and he showed up to the recording sessions with an annotated copy of the book that he had made notes in, that he would show to the director and be like, ‘We have to have this part. This part has to be in the scene,'” Gerencer says. “So he was all about this movie, apparently.” Bungling magician? How about Alan Arkin? Need a hero? We'll just get Jeff Bridges.
And at the center of it all is the ethereal Last Unicorn, who would need to be just right to give this all the emotional heft it needs... Hey, I hear Mia Farrow's available. And she's perfect.
But the other voice-actors are just perfect as well. The voice of Gollum from The Hobbit is in this, and I had called him out as a real highlight in that film too. Great job again. Talented guy. And with a callback to riddles. Pretty awesome. Jesus, Keenan Wynn and Tammy Grimes are great as Captain Cully and Molly Grue. Lord, the Molly Grue stuff (she's the one who is so emotionally tied to The Unicorn) is just fantastic. Heartbreaking.
Not totally sure I needed to hear Mia Farrow and Jeff Bridges sing, but I guess nobody ever said a masterpiece had to be perfect.
I knew this film was Rankin/Bass like The Hobbit but it took me about 10 seconds to see that it's the same animation studio, Topcraft (which had a number of people leave to form Studio Ghibli)

Well, that's about all I have, I would direct you to this article from WIRED, entitled "The Last Unicorn Is A Work Of Art".


And it is. I have no doubt about it. I would actually compare this more to something like Son Of The White Mare than I would to most Western animated films.


This was a beautiful film and a wonderful experience.
Thanks to Takoma for pressuring me. The truth is I've had it in the queue for years and never quite pulled the trigger because some part of me remembered how emotionally powerful it is and was never quite ready for it. Glad I just ripped off the band-aid and did it.

Fantastic film. Although the harpy always scared the shit out of me.

Yup. I was hoping we'd see the harpy again as I thought there was a moment there that could be explored but I think it probably would have just bogged down the plot and themes.

Great review, and that's a great comparison.

I actually like the voice acting a lot in this film. At times it's bombastic, but for a lot of the run time it's really subdued and I love that. Especially with Bridges, because his character is kind of lost and has these vague notions of what a prince/gentleman should do but can't understand the complexity of the person he's trying to win over.

Something I've realized over many viewings is just how strong the theme of possession is in the film, and how many warped versions of it we see. Maybe the best example is Madame Fortuna's gloating that because the Harpy will always remember being captured, Fortuna will always live in her mind. But there's also the King's idea that because he loved the unicorns and they make him happy, he should be able to keep them trapped. Even Molly, who is incredibly sympathetic, has this idea that the unicorn should have somehow been "hers".

And I love that the movie ends without contriving to leave the unicorn as a human. In almost any other fairy tale, she'd fall in love with the prince and blah blah blah, but that's not who she is and it wouldn't be true to her. She would have to give up a vital part of herself to become human and in the end it's too much to ask. The way that the movie mixes magic and creatures and very human ideas about love and possession and sense of self is really fantastic.

I mostly agree with you. Obviously on-point on Fortuna and Haggard but I thought Molly's feelings were more that there had been no magic or beauty in her life and now her youth was gone. I didn't think she wanted to possess the unicorn but rather that she dreamed of life being full of beauty and magic when she was young and it never came, just hard reality, and now that it would seem to be too late, now the unicorn comes and it only reminds her of the loss. Molly's feelings were, to me, the most nuanced and heart-wrenching. I actually teared up a little over Molly's broken heart.
But I think you're right in that everyone in the movie, literally everyone, wants something from the unicorn. Fortuna, Shmendrick, Molly, Haggard, Lir, they all need the unicorn to give them what's missing in their lives and that is a lot.
And I almost feel like I have to one-up you on the ending because not only did I love that they did not leave the unicorn as a human but that she is never really the same because of the experience and there is a certain haunted quality to her among all things to be both perfectly magical again but now with a little bit of a hole in her heart, the way a human feels and no other unicorn can ever know that. So, in a way, she is alone again, and the movie kind of leaves it open as to whether she gained or lost.
It's a deep-ass film.

"Possession" might be a bit strong for what Molly wants, but it's the way that everyone seems to begin by wanting something from the unicorn and/or resenting her somewhat if she can't/won't give it to them.

Right, and I think that like a lot of complex, intense moments in a person's life, you can't silo it into being a good thing or a bad thing.

Agreed. And that is a very, very advanced thing for a "children's movie". Hell, most adults can't handle that.

That cast is insane. I only remembered Mia F and America.

It really is ridiculous. And it delivers.

Alright, I guess that wraps up my half of this shindig too.

As always, it is a great pleasure to do this with Torgo, I salute you, sir, and look forward to next September.

Thanks all for visiting and Happy October! Let's all watch some Horror Movies!

Thanks for bringing this one to my attention. Something about it called to me and I rented it on Amazon Prime immediately. And I ended up loving it. As for Barbara

Yes, for me, this gets 4 and 1/2 bunny ears! Thanks again for the heads-up.

And @Wooley thanks for giving The Green Slime a shout-out---I've loved this since it was first released in the late 60's. Cheesy, slimy, utterly insane and totally entertaining and that groovy song. Man, it rarely gets better than that for solid entertainment.

Thanks, it's been fun. It's my new favorite way to spend my movie watching time in September.

I'll come up with a good list of entries for next year. Hopefully, there are plenty of good ones left. Are we at a point where we have to hit up Rockatansky for recommendations, if you know what I mean? :D

But anyway, we've barely touched Japan yet. They have plenty of live action and animated stuff that would be a good fit for this thread.

Glad you like it. There was a now that I think about it. You should check out A Monster Calls as well if you liked this one that much.

Always happy to talk about The Green Slime.

:shifty:

Re: The Return of Torgo and Wooley's September Excite-o-rama!
 

First, Rock corrupted Takoma and now he's going to corrupt Torgo.

:devil:

Me? Impossible!
(shuts off Emmanuelle Parties with the Sleestaks while no one is looking)

Didn't want the thread to fade away without thanking you for the month's worth of entertainment and the many films added to the watchlist.
:up:

I have seen A Monster Calls and I remember liking it quite a bit but I need to revisit it, if for anything to see the similarities with I Kill Giants.

Working his way through all the T users, I see.




Watch out, Thief - you're next.

I've listened to the WTF movie episode of Thief's podcast (which I enjoyed a lot, by the way). If he can survive that, he can survive anything.

A few more posters and I can put them together like Voltron. Or Toltron, I guess. Because of the T.

There actually is a movie called Kung Fu Emmanuelle that might be more your speed. It’s directed by and stars John Liu of New York Ninja, and is maybe even nuttier. It’s available on Tubi as In the Claws of the CIA. (The Emmanuelle alternate title is pretty misleading, based on the cut I saw, but it’s still worth a watch.)

Based on that title and the plot summary on Letterboxd, the Tubi user who's in the mood for a CIA movie who knows nothing about it is in for a surprise! In Simpsons lingo, I'd call that a reverse Stockholm Affair.
I'll unashamedly admit I enjoyed what I saw of Emmanuelle in Space.

Yes, this is an old thread but it strikes me as the appropriate place to alert everyone that the bad guy in The People That Time Forgot (1977) has Frank Frazetta's "Death Dealer" hanging on his wall in the form of a tapestry. (aka Molly Hatchet's first LP cover)
Bear in mind that this film takes place in an unchartered area of Antarctica after World War I.





Also, the exterior of the same lair looks like this. Awesome, I just wish the matte painting was a little better.



We now return you to your regularly-scheduled February.

I'm building this model kit right now. Hope to have it done in a couple of weeks.

Pics please!