Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

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Trouble with a capital "T"
Most people prefer the theatrical cut, but I saw the director's cut first. There were scenes I loved that the theatrical cut didn't have (Richard Kelly wanted the director's cut to be the one played in theaters), so I like the cut more than the original.
Generally I've found I don't like directors cuts, but of course there's always exceptions.



Trouble with a capital "T"

The Beast Must Die (1974)

Director
: Paul Annett
Writer: Michael Winder (screenplay)
Cast: Calvin Lockhart, Peter Cushing, Marlene Clark
Genre: Mystery Horror



"Eight people have been invited to an island estate for the weekend. One of them is a werewolf. Can you guess which one?"


I really dug the opening scene with the manhunt chase through the woods. Cameras were everywhere high up in the trees, and implanted in the ground were listening devices...Overhead, a spotter helicopter is following the running man. Perusing him is four identically dressed men with high powered hunting rifles...And controlling all of this man hunt is a mysterious figure in a James Bond style control room.

Hot damn! I thought I had stumbled upon a long forgotten James Bond 007 movie. Especially when the runner makes it to the estate manor with all the well-to-do people casually having tea.

I liked the set up of the film: the rich guy who's hell bent on killing one of his guest because he thinks they're a werewolf. And the mystery of 'spotting the clues, with a werewolf break' ha! William Castle would be proud!

The lead Calvin Lockhart was good at playing the character Tom...he was intense, determined and self righteous. I don't think he's a great actor but he had screen presences and held my attention. The rest of the guest were there for fodder, so we don't get much on them. Which is OK...I'd say the stand out was Pavel (Anton Diffring) the man in the control room. I've seen him in many different films. I could have swore he was an enemy agent in a Bond film once, but after looking it up, I see he never did a 007 film.

The estate manor was a cool place to film and I liked the 'guess the mystery' part of the film. I suck at guessing mysteries but I like to try anyway! Peter Cushing really didn't do much in this, I'm not real familiar with his work but I though he might have a bigger role.

Some good stuff, that along with the early 1970s film, made for a fun watch.




Trouble with a capital "T"

Cherry 2000 (1987)

I'm thinking Sam from Anaheim made the wrong decision when he booted Cherry out of the plane and chose the Tracker instead, ha!...I mean Melanie just wasn't all that hot in this movie IMO, and then look at Pamela Gidley up there, could she be any cuter or what?

Though I liked how the director made Cherry seem cold and robotic in the end scene on the air plane. Even her eyes looked CG robotic, but this is before CG and that was done with lighting and by the look on the actress's face, nicely done scene as it made Sam's choice seem more believable. But still I got to think E the Tracker would get on your nerves real quick like!

I just love this movie. I seen it back on TV in the early 90s, then again a couple years ago and was surprised at how clever the film is. And true to the 1980s style of film making, the film doesn't take it's self too serious. I love 80s films for that reason, they just don't make movies like they did in the 80s.

Cherry 2000
has it all, it has ecliptic, post apocalyptic, world building...and it has themes! Apparently in the future, which was last year 2017 btw, women have become a real pain and demand contracts before having sex, ha...they even bring lawyers to the pickup bars to negotiate the deals. No wonder poor Sam decides to fall for a bot instead, as dating sounds like a pain in the future.

The dating bar, the Sky Ranch, the Glory Hole, Zone 7 out in the desert all of that was colorful and fun world building. And Lester!...what a character with his be true to yourself, self-help talk, then with all of his happy go lucky demeanor he shoots people in the head! OMG
Elaine, I mean Ginger was a fun character too.

Loved the real world sets, wholly crap that huge open pit and the large crane and the tunnel water shoot, all very cool to see! Great shooting locations. And there's some pretty impressive explosions in the film too. I swear they blew up a ridge with a shoulder launch grenade. Damn!






Trouble with a capital "T"


The Beastmaster (1982)

Director: Don Coscarelli
Writers: Don Coscarelli, Paul Pepperman
Cast: Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, Rip Torn, John Amos
Genre: Fantasy Adventure

"A sword-and-sorcery fantasy about a young man's search for revenge. Armed with supernatural powers, the handsome hero and his animal allies wage war against marauding forces."

Hell yeah! Great fun, I enjoyed it!...I've heard of this movie so many times...it use to play on cable literally everyday when I was a youngster, but somehow I never got around to watching it. Though some of the scenes like the creepy eyeball ring and the mischievous & cute ferrets were familiar to me. So I'm glad to have finally watched this after all these years.



Marc Singer was not only really good at doing the action scenes, he did the small comedy lines well too, I liked his character and his bond with the animals made the movie for me...It was great to see real animals and not CG creations. I got a kick out of his hawk call!


A topless Tanya Roberts helped as well You'll just have to watch the movie to see that scene...I'd never seen John Amos in anything other than the TV show Good Times, so I was surprised to see him here, and he's real personable and likeable too. So was Rip Torn, as the evil high priest, a great bad-guy.

Oh and I dug the shooting locations and that pyramid was pretty darn cool, what an impressive set that was. And the big fight with the flaming trench at the end, damn that was very impressive!



If you haven't seen this one, do yourself a favor and watch it, it's a blast!



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Trouble with a capital "T"

Night of the Creeps (1986)
Director: Fred Dekker
Writer: Fred Dekker
Cast: Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Steve Marshall
Genre: Comedy Horror Sci-Fi


"Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombies. Some teenagers start to fight against them."


I liked this, what a fun movie! This is my idea of a fun horror to watch on Halloween. It was witty with some great one liners, that made me laugh. I loved the way the dialogue was flippant and had a cool vibe to it.

Right at the start I loved the opening title credits, and I could tell the film had oodles of style. Then boom...right into a crazy space battle with some odd looking aliens...and they were naked! ha...Then we're plucked down in 1959 with all those cool cars and B&W film too, I loved this opening sequences.

It had good production values, everything looked pretty damn good. And for 'no name actors' the cast was actually good and likable.



It had a lot of different story components which shows the writer wanted to be creative and not just churn out a product. I mean we get all these different story elements besides the zombies. Besides the two teen boys who could have been in Weird Science, we get a tough as nails cop, who's haunted by his past and is a bit of a bad ass to boot.

I noticed when the older lady was watching TV, an old Ed Wood movie was playing, I think it was Glen or Glenda, then it cut to Plan Nine From Outer Space...Oh, if all that wasn't cool enough there's Dick Miller from Roger Corman B horror movie fame. He's the cop in the weapons cage that hands over the flame thrower. Then there's 'Corman University'. Lots of neat stuff for a movie buff to love here.

But besides all that, the story worked for me I was engaged and I had fun watching it!

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Trouble with a capital "T"

The Dragon Lives Again (1977)

Also known as:
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (1977)
Li san jiao wei zhen di yu men
(original title)

Director: Chi Lo
Writers: Shek Ke, Wei Liang
Cast: Siu-Lung Leung, Ie Lung Shen, Ching Tang
Genre: Martial Arts Spoof Comedy



A Bruceploitation movie that was made shortly after the death of marital arts star Bruce Lee. In this version another actor plays Bruce Lee as he finds himself dead and in hell! There he has to fight the bad guys of hell. The bad guys are made up of other movie characters.

If we're giving out awards for cheesiest B movie, then The Dragon Lives Again would win fist down!

This is sure one wacky film! And I liked it...What's not to like about a Brucexploitation film that has Bruce Lee, who died 4 years earlier, arriving in the underworld! OMG what an idea! I mean it's original as hell (pun warning). I loved how the film explains that when the dead arrive their face AND body looks different than they did in life, ha!

I got a laugh out of seeing all those movie characters in the underworld like Clint Eastwood, yet he's still alive so why is he there? I wonder how many of you will spot all the characters? I knew who Emanuele was and the guy in the long coat and hat is Caine from TV's Kung Fu. It was great when Bruce met Caine and says 'Hello Brother'. And then there's a nod to The Green Hornet TV show.

The best part had to be the bubble bath scene! Am I right? Heck that was better than any old Emanuele film. Curious that the actress who played her was only listed as Jenny. I bet she didn't want her real identity known, can you blame her!

It was crazy fun and the best part is the movie just went full tilt. Oh and Popeye when he eats spinach, well those of you who know the old Popeye cartoons well get that.

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Trouble with a capital "T"
@Citizen Rules

Great review of Night of the Creeps!
Thanks

That 4-panel photo image was going to be overlayed over the face of a zombie from the movie poster...But ack, it didn't work out right.



Trouble with a capital "T"


Hunter's Blood (1986)
Director: Robert C. Hughes
Writers: Emmett Alston, Jere Cunningham (novel)
Cast: Sam Bottoms, Kim Delaney, Clu Gulager
Genre: Thriller

Five rich city slickers, venture into the deep woods for a weekend hunt. There they find a group of redneck poachers who decide to kill the interlopers, perhaps mistaking them for antelope. CR

Hunter's Blood was a fun movie with whacked out red neck characters that according to IMDB are suppose to be 'inbred'...Oh my! talk about NOT being PC

Still the redneck poachers were smarter than the city boy hunters who put the dumb back into dumb-ass. These would be hunters make every mistake in the book, which I thought was a hoot!

Hunter's Blood was like The Dukes of Hazard copulated with Deliverance and had a baster movie child!...Our hunters are being stalked by people with IQs the equivalent of their boot size, and yet the hunters keep forgetting one simply rule, they're carry guns! I had to laugh when the rednecks first attack them in their camp and start kicking ass....only the rednecks came unarmed while the city boys have guns...but must have forgotten how to use them! That was hilarious and that's why I liked the film, it's good ole crazy B movie fun.

I had a good time pausing the video and commenting on just how stupid the on screen actions were. Joey Travolta is told to take off his orange vest so he's not easily spotted, good idea! BUT...the big guy has on a bright red shirt with an even brighter blue vest, does he take that off? Nope! he doesn't mind be an easy target, ha.

The fun of this B movie is watching dumb asses get killed instead of the deer!




Trouble with a capital "T"

Amélie (2001)

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
(original title)

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writers: Guillaume Laurant & Jean-Pierre Jeunet (scenario)
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus
Genre: Comedy Romance


"Amélie is an innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and, along the way, discovers love."


Loved it! It brought a smile to my face that lasted two hours...now my face hurts, ha. But that's OK because any movie that can make me happy, make me laugh and impress me with it's quirky cleverness, that movie then is worth a few sore facial muscles.

Amélie, did all that for me and more! It entertained me and wowed me with its beautifully detailed and colorful world in which our heroine lives. I loved the sets, the vibrant colors, the fluidly artistic camera work and even the music score too. So many details are packed into this movie that I can't even begin to recall them all.




Audrey Tautou as Amelie was a breath of fresh air! I loved every scene she inhabited, from the small cafe to her own apartment to the back streets and alleys of Paris.

I loved the way this film built an alternative world where this charming young Parisian woman lives life like she wants to. And she's a good person who does good, even when she's being naughty...and it has a romantic happy ending too. What more could I want from a film!

Count me as a fan of
Amélie.

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Love Amélie, such a delightful couple of hours imo.



Trouble with a capital "T"

Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)

Head Over Heels (original title)
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Writers: Ann Beattie (novel), Joan Micklin Silver (screenplay)
Cast: John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert, Gloria Grahame, Kenneth McMillan
Genre: Drama Comedy

A no frills tale of obsessive love by one lonely guy for a married woman. CR

1979's Chilly Scenes of Winter is one of the movies that seemed to have slipped between the cracks of time and been forgotten by audiences who are looking for bigger thrills...And that's a pity because this fine little movie delivers something very unique, a down to earth look at a one sided love affair.

Based on the novel by Ann Beattie of the same name, the film unabashedly examines the life of a nice-guy civil servant played brilliantly by John Heard. We see him fall in love with the perfect woman,
Mary Beth Hurt. She seems to be his perfect match too and they have brilliant chemistry together. There's this instant rapport and both are drawn together like moths to a flame.

I found the situations and the dialogue to be refreshingly honest and realistic, and void of the usual Hollywood cliche trappings. That's thanks to the source material and thanks to the director/writer who's a woman and can surprisingly tell the story of this love struck man with utter honest.


Yes this is a drama comedy but the comedy is a darker more subtle type and therefore makes one think about relationships and when too much attraction is a bad thing. One example: Charles (John Heard) constantly drives up to the house of his girlfriend and parks his car and watches her, he's part love struck and part stalker! He even goes as far as meeting her husband.

Backing up the two leads, is Gloria Grahame who plays Charles' mom. She's a woman who routinely threatens suicide and spends her days drunk in the bath tub. His stepfather is not liked by Charles even though the step farther (Kenneth Milligan) is a friendly sort of person.

I like the way this ended too, realistically and without going over the top.

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Trouble with a capital "T"

Macao (1952)

Directors: Josef von Sternberg, Nicholas Ray (uncredited)
Writers: Bernard C. Schoenfeld & Stanley Rubin (screenplay)
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix, Gloria Grahame, Philip Ann
Genre: Crime Adventure Drama

Three mysterious people arrive on board a ship at the port of Macao in the China Sea. Each has a different reason to be in this exotic port where smuggling and gambling is king. Macau's underworld crime boss who runs a night club as cover gets a tip that an undercover cop from America is on the ship and believes it must be one of the new arrivals. CR

A troubled production helmed by an abusive director and unhappy actors makes for an interesting, though uneven film production for 1952's Macau.

Director Josef von Sternberg was assigned to make the film by billionaire Howard Hughes who owned RKO studios at the time. It was part of a two picture deal along with 1957's Jet Pilot. Von Sternberg was known for his striking compositions,
utilizing Chiaroscuro...high-low lighting to create shadowing that imparted a 3 dimensional look to his sets. Along with densely packed set decor and fluid camera movement, von Sternberg created a look that exceeded the otherwise simpler aims of the film. His weakness was a personality disorder, he was out right abusive to the actors and considered them mere objects that sometimes got in his way of his ascetics goals. Josef von Sternberg was fired by Howard Hughes about a third of the way into film production. He was replaced with director Nicolas Ray.



Nicholas Ray was an accomplished director but his visual style couldn't match von Sternberg's. Ray is best known as a director who could tell an emotionally impactful story. The problem with Macao was there wasn't much of a script to work with in the first place. Robert Mitchum even wrote a couple scenes to help make more sense of the film's narrative. The overall idea of an exotic location with shady characters would seem to work well, but we get next to nothing of the character's story. It's a film with most of the connecting dialogue and subtle moments missing, leaving us with a visually exciting, but austere film.

Robert Mitchum besides being targeted by the bad guys gets to do little more than flee for his life. However those on-the-run scenes are some of the best chase scenes I've seen. When he escapes the clutches of the crime boss and hit's the crowded Macao streets, he really looks like a man fleeing for his life. And the chase on the docks through a jungle of fishing nets, damn impressive! And that's all von Sternberg's work.



Jane Russell is serviceable in her role as the shady American woman who blows into town. She's hired to sing in the nightclub casino so the crime boss can keep an eye on her and her friend (Robert Mitchum). She plays a chip-on-the-sholder type spitting out sarcastic quips along the way. She's not as good as Lauren Bacall at delivering those flippant one liners, but she's not bad. She sings pretty good too. Miss Russell sings two songs, the well known "One for My Baby" and the aptly named "You Kill Me".

Gloria Grahame has a smaller role and according to her own words she hated making this film. She had asked to be loaned out to do A Place in the Sun (1951), but producer Howard Hughes refused. According to Miss Grahame she deliberately over acted out of a hatred for Hughes. I have to say her 'over acting' was the best part of the film! It imparted a feeling of reckless devil-may-care attitude to her role as a crime moll. Actually I never noticed her overacting at all, in fact she was the best actor in the film.


Macao is an uneven film, visually striking at times and with the use of authentic looking sets, it does wisp one away to that exotic port.

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Trouble with a capital "T"

Man on a Tightrope (Elia Kazan, 1953)

Writers
: Neil Paterson, Robert E. Sherwood
Cast: Fredric March, Terry Moore, Gloria Grahame
Genre: Drama Thriller


A circus owner (Fredrick March) plans to escape communist Czechoslovakia along with his wife (Gloria Grahame) and his entire circus troupe. But before he can make his daring escape the state police begin investigating him. CR

Between making two of the greatest films: A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, director Elia Kazan made two lesser known films: Viva Zapata and this film Man On a Tightrope. Based on a 1952 novel by Neil Paterson. The movie tells the true story of Circus Brumbach who's members escaped from communist held East Germany in 1950. Some of the actually escapees appear in the movie.



Filmed on location in Bavaria Germany, the film both looks and feels real! Making films that were hard hitting personal stories was the tenant of the Oscar winning director, Kazan. The film starts out by setting up the characters in the circus. We see the circus people but not much air time is spent on actual circus performances. We do get to know what kind of people they are and how life is for these people under the oppressive thumb of communism.

Fredrick March is both the owner of the circus and a performing clown. He's grown weary of the communist run state telling him how to run the circus. According to communism, the circus belongs to the people and not to Fredrick March's character. Trouble also awaits March in the from of a blonde spitfire, Gloria Grahame. She can't understand why her husband runs things the way that he does. She knows nothing of his escape plans and spends her time ogling the muscular lion tamer.



Things kick into high gear when the state police start questioning March. Veteran actor Adolphe Menjou is effective as one of the state police who makes a blunder that is in March's favor.

Watch this one for it's amazingly true story and for it's on location shooting.

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Trouble with a capital "T"

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Director: Robert Wise
Writers: Harold Livingston
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Genre: Sci-Fi


"When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it."


Excuse me, wasn't that the story plot of the original Star Trek episode The Changeling?...I remember being so excited that ST had 'come back' and was on the big screen. Back in 1979 I seen STTMP at my local drive-in. I can't quite remember what I thought of it back then. But I image as a ST fan I approved of the movie, and yet I seem to recall thinking that it wasn't anything at all like the TV show.

There's good reason STTMP doesn't resemble the familiar television series that ran from 1966 to 1969, then went on to live long and prosper in syndication. I must have watched the original ST series more times than there were Tribbles on space station K7.

From what I read, producer Gene Roddenberry was hell bent to make the movie much, much, more serious than the often campy TV series that millions loved. I bet good ole' Gene was tired of hearing that his Star Trek TV was made for kids and that 2001 A Space Odyssey was real sci-fi. That might explain why Roddenberry ignored the pleas of the original cast members to have more characterization in the script.



From what I read all the cast members were unhappy with the focus of the film on special effects and quasi cerebral ideas. I say quasi cerebral as STTMP falls far short in it's attempt to doing something grand like 2001 or Solaris did. Let's face it, the original series wasn't always the deepest stories, and had plot holes big enough to drive a Constellation class starship through...BUT what made the show legendary was the personalities and interactions of of the Enterprise crew. Sadly that personal touch is missing in the 1st Star Trek movie.

I can't deny the special effects look great, especially by 1979 standards. But how long do I need to stare at the Enterprise in space dock? And how long do I need to see the insides of Vyager, with its endless imagery that puts new meaning into the phrase: 'enough already'.





There's scant few goose bump moments where the film makes me really care about what's going on. I just kind of watch scene by scene roll by...By far the most interesting ST character to me was Dr McCoy. Why did he leave Star Fleet, and what's up with that beard? A little of his (and the other's) backstory would have been nice, but we get little to none of that. The scenes of Spock on Vulcan would seem to be the most interesting and yet to me they were visually and emotional weak compared to the episode Amok Time.

I'll give the movie high marks to STTMP for saving the Star Trek franchise. Though I wish they would have stopped before those J.J. Abrams abominations disrupted the time line.


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Trouble with a capital "T"


Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Writers: Harve Bennett
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Genre: Action Sci-Fi


A top notch script and a new director brought the Star Trek franchise back from the brink of oblivion, with the 2nd Star Trek movie helmed by Nicholas Meyer. CR


Probably the biggest change for ST Wrath of Khan was that Gene Rodenberry who had been deeply involved in ST The Motion Picture, took a back set this time and let others do the flying. This time around, Star Trek recaptured that old flamboyant and adventurous spirit that had made the TV series so popular.


The script is full of wit, excitement and with the good old crew characterization that made the show a pop classic. Everyone looked like they were having a great time and that counts for a lot. If the first ST movie was cerebral and slow paced, Wrath of Khan was exciting with great lines and memorable scenes.



Of course what Star Trek fans didn't love the original Space Seed episode with our genetically engineered bad boy, Khan Noonien Singh, played to eugenic perfection by Ricardo Montalban. There's no doubt when Montalban is on screen that he owns the show! And yes those are his real pecs! He looks the part, he owns the part!...Though I can't understand why his surviving followers are all so much younger than him?

Shout out to a young Kirstie Alley as Saavik a cadet half Romulan half Vulcan. I thought she was great in this and a great new character too. It's too bad Kirstie didn't come back for ST III, instead her role was played by another actress.

I loved the music score it really propelled the emotional impact and excitement of the scenes. My favorite scenes was the opening shocker with Saavik in command of the 'Enterprise' and the chase battle scenes in the the Mutara Nebula between Khan in the Reliant and Kirk on board his old ship. Those were so really done!





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Maybe I don't know the back story of Space Seed well enough - but I remember that Khan was supposed to be a Sikh (of Asian Indian origin) and was the result of some sort of Eugenics program to create superior humans.

Since the program was a Eugenics one, I'd assume most of Kahn's comrades & followers would also have been Asian (and Kahn is even reported to have ruled on the Asian continent from India to the Middle East at one point in his history)... yet, not only do all his comrades in the movie seem at least a generation younger, but for some reason they all appear to be blond-haired, blue-eyed, Aryan types. (The few we saw on the TV series didn't even all look like that.)

I've never quite understood this aspect (a casting aspect perhaps) of the movie.



Trouble with a capital "T"
Maybe I don't know the back story of Space Seed well enough - but I remember that Khan was supposed to be a Sikh (of Asian Indian origin) and was the result of some sort of Eugenics program to create superior humans.

Since the program was a Eugenics one, I'd assume most of Kahn's comrades & followers would also have been Asian (and Kahn is even reported to have ruled on the Asian continent from India to the Middle East at one point in his history)... yet, not only do all his comrades in the movie seem at least a generation younger, but for some reason they all appear to be blond-haired, blue-eyed, Aryan types. (The few we saw on the TV series didn't even all look like that.)

I've never quite understood this aspect (a casting aspect perhaps) of the movie.
You're right in Space Seed they said Khan was a Sikh and a product of 20th century eugenics breeding program. On the show his followers weren't Asian but mostly white. This is a screen shot of the other genetically engineered people that the Enterprise crew thawed out from cryogenic deep freeze.




So one would expect his fellow superman and superwoman to have aged like he did. But nope they didn't.




Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Excuse me, wasn't that the story plot of the original Star Trek episode The Changeling?...I remember being so excited that ST had 'come back' and was on the big screen. Back in 1979 I seen STTMP at my local drive-in. I can't quite remember what I thought of it back then. But I image as a ST fan I approved of the movie, and yet I seem to recall thinking that it wasn't anything at all like the TV show.

I'll give the movie high marks to STTMP for saving the Star Trek franchise. Though I wish they would have stopped before those J.J. Abrams abominations disrupted the time line.


When I first saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture, I wasn't a Star Trek fan yet. My mother wanted to see it, and she asked me to go with her, so I did. I thought it was a terrible movie, and I couldn't understand why she liked Star Trek. But then she told me that this movie was nothing like the show that she remembered.

It wasn't until I saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that I became a Star Trek fan.

Also, the success of Star Wars is credited with bringing back Star Trek. Someone at Paramount saw how popular it was, and said "Don't we have one of those?"




Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Writers: Harve Bennett
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Genre: Action Sci-Fi


A top notch script and a new director brought the Star Trek franchise back from the brink of oblivion, with the 2nd Star Trek movie helmed by Nicholas Meyer. CR


Probably the biggest change for ST Wrath of Khan was that Gene Rodenberry who had been deeply involved in ST The Motion Picture, took a back set this time and let others do the flying. This time around, Star Trek recaptured that old flamboyant and adventurous spirit that had made the TV series so popular.


The script is full of wit, excitement and with the good old crew characterization that made the show a pop classic. Everyone looked like they were having a great time and that counts for a lot. If the first ST movie was cerebral and slow paced, Wrath of Khan was exciting with great lines and memorable scenes.


Of course what Star Trek fans didn't love the original Space Seed episode with our genetically engineered bad boy, Khan Noonien Singh, played to eugenic perfection by Ricardo Montalban. There's no doubt when Montalban is on screen that he owns the show! And yes those are his real pecs! He looks the part, he owns the part!...Though I can't understand why his surviving followers are all so much younger than him?


There's a funny story about Ricardo Montalban during the filming of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. When Khan drags himself over to push the button to start the Genesis device, they did several takes where the countdown didn't start. They filmed it over and over again, with him dragging himself over to the button every time, and the countdown not starting every time. Ricardo Montalban was in a lot of pain while filming this scene, and after several failed attempts, the normally overly-polite Ricardo Montalban stood up, and shocked everyone when he yelled out "Can somebody get this f-ing thing to work!"


Maybe I don't know the back story of Space Seed well enough - but I remember that Khan was supposed to be a Sikh (of Asian Indian origin) and was the result of some sort of Eugenics program to create superior humans.

Since the program was a Eugenics one, I'd assume most of Kahn's comrades & followers would also have been Asian (and Kahn is even reported to have ruled on the Asian continent from India to the Middle East at one point in his history)... yet, not only do all his comrades in the movie seem at least a generation younger, but for some reason they all appear to be blond-haired, blue-eyed, Aryan types. (The few we saw on the TV series didn't even all look like that.)

I've never quite understood this aspect (a casting aspect perhaps) of the movie.
I always just assumed the casting on the show was because it was just easier to cast mostly white people back then. I think the only explanation they gave was when Khan called himself "a product of late 20th century genetic engineering".


You're right in Space Seed they said Khan was a Sikh and a product of 20th century eugenics breeding program. On the show his followers weren't Asian but mostly white. This is a screen shot of the other genetically engineered people that the Enterprise crew thawed out from cryogenic deep freeze.




So one would expect his fellow superman and superwoman to have aged like he did. But nope they didn't.
There's a theory that Judson's Scott's character was supposed to be Khan's son, but the timeline doesn't really fit that theory if you think about it. Maybe the writers didn't think about it, and the rest of his crew are supposed to be offspring of his original crew?



Trouble with a capital "T"
... I think the only explanation they gave was when Khan called himself "a product of late 20th century genetic engineering".

There's a theory that Judson's Scott's character was supposed to be Khan's son, but the timeline doesn't really fit that theory if you think about it. Maybe the writers didn't think about it, and the rest of his crew are supposed to be offspring of his original crew?
I think the real reason Khan's crew are all young adults is for: demographics I.E. ticket sales. I bet studio heads thought if Khan and his followers were all old & gray haired, then there wouldn't be any young people in Wrath of Khan...and that would hurt tickets sales. AND if the movie had said his followers were all the offspring of the original crew of the Botany Bay then they all would have been 15 year olds or younger (except Khan) and who wants to see a ship of kids get killed? I'd say that probably explains why it was done that way.