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

I think it's 3x as gritty as those movies, if not 5x.

It! The Terror From Beyond Space

Alright, let's just do the movie Dan O'Bannon ripped off for Alien and be done with it. Be done with It.
That was supposed to be kind of a joke and then I just read that Dan O'Bannon "drew inspiration" from It for his script for Alien.
A team is sent to Mars to investigate the disappearance of the previous crew sent to Mars in this special-effects extravaganza!


Upon arrival it is determined that the sole survivor of the previous crew has murdered all 9 of his crew-mates to extend resources and live long enough for rescue. And he's telling a ridiculous story of a violent, unstoppable alien life-form as his defense. Surely, this preposterous tale should not even be considered. I mean, obviously when a lone man murders his crew, the aftermath looks like this:


Totally plausible. Alas, he is taken prisoner aboard the new mission vessel... although "taken prisoner" is basically just him walking around the ship talking to people. No hand-cuffs, no confinement to quarters, the guy just murdered 9 people, let's play chess with him, he's fine. (I'm not kidding, they literally play chess with the accused murderer while they roll their eyes at his explanation of murdering 9 people).
I don't think I'll be spoiling too much if I tell you that the guy in the rubber monster suit from the poster actually killed those 9 people and he's now hiding on the new ship headed back to Earth. Hiding until he starts killing the crew, that is.
I tell ya, this movie is a riot. Aside from playing chess with the murderer, this crew rigs a bunch of hand-grenades to a door - inside the spaceship that's months from Earth. They drop grenades down shafts willy-nilly at It. At one point, I am not making this up, they pull a bazooka on the thing. An actual, literal, Army-issue bazooka. Inside a space-ship. In space.
One thing that just had my jaw on the floor, and I get it but man how wildly different things were, the women of the crew (so progressive!) are doctors and scientists and shit... but are also along to serve coffee to the men. I mean, like, the men all sit around the table and discuss the situation and the scientist women pour them coffee. But before you get too worked up about it, don't worry, they're given more to do. They also make breakfast. And then later they save peoples' lives and treat acute leukemia with like medicine and shit.
Honestly, this movie's a hoot. Not sure if my favorite shot is of the crew-members walking down the side of the ship as it travels through space (actually pretty cool for an independent film from 1958) or if it’s the shot of the two crew-members lighting up cigarettes together. In space.
But I just couldn't get over how obviously Alien this movie is. Guy in a rubber monster-suit terrorizes crew of spaceship anyone?


And it occurred to me how much artistry can elevate a story. In the hands of... *looks up director's name*... Edward L. Cahn (holy shit this guy was the editor of The Man Who Laughs!), It! is an amusing low-budget creature-feature. In the hands of Ridley Scott (and company) Alien is something like a masterpiece of suspense and Horror. Even though they are basically the same movie.
This movie is only 68 minutes long so you can actually watch this instead of Alien if you want.

Interesting (and exciting!) catching up with the fantasy and science fiction being watched and discussed by Wooley and Torgo here. Quite a few films I've caught up with recently, or in the last few years. Trancers is called Future Cop over here. Europa Report - my rating was the same as Torgo's. Thought it was decent enough in a 'believable science-fiction' kind of way - grounded, but interesting. With The Head Hunter (and I think I'm the one that put Wooley off a bit) I found that there was an obvious connection between the film having a very low, bare budget and the amount of stuff 'unseen' in the film - I don't think that's bad, but I think films like Blair Witch do well making you not think of that, while with The Head Hunter it's forefront in our minds. For what it is, it's great and very atmospheric, but it got a low score from me. I think if I watched it again, I'd be watching from a different perspective and would probably like it more. Jabberwocky I thought worked really well when it was working, but half the time it wasn't. If that makes sense. I don't think Gilliam had completely found himself yet. There's much I like about it though.

Anyway, I'll be quietly following the Excite-o-rama - I'll throw in my favourite kind of fantasy image - that of mystery derelict spacecraft that have been abandoned for millions of years:

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Nice one, gracias!

A favorite of my teen years. Funny, at the time the idea of shooting bazookas in a space capsule didn't strike me as implausible.


Cahn has some interesting titles on his resume, I intend to look into some of them.

WARNING: This review contains spoilers for the novel, which I've marked. Hopefully, those who haven't read it will still enjoy it.

One of my top comfort food movies, this is the fantasy movie I've watched the most times. I always watched it to the finish if I caught it while flipping channels in my youth and it was a frequent pick during movie time at school or day care. The hero is Bastian (Barrett Oliver), a young man who recently lost his mother and whose despondence has led him to play hooky and be targeted by bullies. After evading his tormenters on the way to school by hiding in an antique book shop, Bastian swipes the titular book, which the shop owner may have encouraged him to do despite wanting him to leave as soon as he arrived. Bastian makes it to school, hides in the attic, opens the book and becomes instantly absorbed in the story, which is about a magical land called Fantasia that is being gobbled up by an unseen force called the Nothing. The story's hero, Atreyu (Noah Hathaway), has been tasked with stopping the Nothing by scouring Fantasia for a cure to the empress's (Tami Stronach) illness. The more Bastian reads the book, the more he discovers he is also a character in it. I've read the book on which this movie is based since the last time I watched it and I was not only surprised to discover how different it is, but also that it doesn't cover all of it. While I very much enjoyed this rewatch, I understand why author Michael Ende had issues with this adaptation.

The faint motif that plays while Bastian stares at the ouroboros on the book's cover is all it took for me to get wrapped up in this story as much as he does. Klaus Doldinger's mystical and joyous score is a key to the movie's success, the highlight being Bastian's Happy Flight, which is on par with John Williams' themes from this era. The production design also holds up, with set pieces like the Swamp of Sadness and the road to the Southern Oracle retaining their adorable and atmospheric charms. Also, despite some not-so-great uses of green screen, the same could be said of the special effects, especially in the use of forced perspective. The scene where the Rock Biter almost rolls over his new friends still made me jump back as if I thought he'd roll over me as well and I still marvel at how tiny Engywook and Urgl look in comparison to Atreyu even though he is right next to them. I also have to praise the movie for something I always forget it's so good at: scaring the crap out of me. The Nothing and its power to not only destroy, but also make entire landscapes - as the Rock Biter describes - disappear takes my mind to dark places. There's also G'Mork, who I'm pretty sure introduced me to the concept of fear in general or at least made me realize how all-consuming the emotion can be. I don't know if it's his glowing green eyes or the sensation that he could leap out at the screen at any moment, but he's still the scariest creature I've seen in a movie.

Does the movie retain what the source novel is about despite only covering the first half? Well, it's not off the mark to say that the movie's ending is like if The Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last" ended after or if Bruce Almighty ended after In other words, it leaves out For the ways the movie explores the appeal of fantasy, the importance of having hopes, dreams and fantasies and for being so darn fun and charming, I still think it's a great movie. I still think it could have been a bit truer to its source without being, umm...neverending.

My rating: 4 Auryns out of 5

My guy (or gal): The Rock Biter. He's clumsy and a (dangerously) messy eater, but he's always willing to give a big strong hand to his friends.

Awesome. There was no chance we were getting through this without one of us doing this movie. And since I'm planning to get darker and darker as the month goes on, I'm really glad it was your. Great write-up too.

Thanks. Even if you've seen the movie several times, you should read the book, which is one of the best I've read.

To get an idea of how different the book is without spoiling it, this is what Atreyu looks like in it:



There's barely any fan art of Bastian, but he is sadder and more out of shape than he is in the movie:

I've read the book and seen the film, which is a childhood favorite even if it made me cry and made me scared at points.

The sequel (which is inferior but not without moments) covers some of the stuff from the book that wasn't covered in the first film.

I always forget there was a sequel. This thread is making my watchlist grow to an unmanageable size.

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Captain's Log
My Collection

I believe there is also a third film, which I never watched.

The sequel is the source of an in-joke between me and my sister. There's a (very silly) scene where Bastion has to climb a sheer rock face or tower or something. Part of the plot is that every time he makes a wish, he gives up a memory.

Instead of wishing for a ladder or generally for handholds, he wishes for handholds one at a time, crying out "And another! And another! And another!" as he makes his way up. So anyway, if ever my sister and I are like, serving each other food or whatever, it's not uncommon to go "And another! And another!".

I also owned the Neverending Story computer game. It was the most frustrating game experience of my childhood, no contest. I never even made it past the first part of the first level. Many, many years later I would learn that it was notoriously unplayable.

Land of Doom, 1986

In a dystopian future, people have been scattered by a plague and violent gangs now prowl the land, pillaging anyone unfortunate to land on their radar. Harmony (Deborah Rennard) operates as a lone wolf, doing what it takes to stay out of the line of fire. But when she stumbles across the injured Anderson (Garrick Dowhen), he ropes her into a plan to take out the sadistic leader (Daniel Radell) of the most menacing gang.

You know the conventional wisdom: "Starve a fever, Land of Doom a cold."

With assurances from the previous review that this wouldn't be too intense, I decided to venture into the world of asymmetrical masks, ill-fitting leather gear, and impractical motorcycle decorations.

For the most part, I found this film to be pretty endearing. Like, the okay parts are okay and the stupid parts are stupid in a way that you can laugh at as opposed to being boring or offensive or upsetting.

Maybe what stood out to me the most in this film was the gender reversal of the "humanizing" trope. There are a TON of movies out there where a solitary male character ends up as the protector of a woman (or a child) who slowly lights a fire of caring in the gruff killer. In this film, that's flipped around. Anderson, injured and alone in a cave, is the one who ends up needing Harmony's help to make it across the desert. And Harmony is the one whose idea of good practice is to shoot first and ask questions later. I loved Anderson going "Harmony, no!", like she's a misbehaving puppy when she wants to kill a man who is a threat to them. As the film goes on (and Anderson inexplicably gets healthier and healthier), the two become more equal. By the end, they have formed a genuine partnership.

Actually, the development of the relationship between Harmony and Anderson was one of my favorite things here. Partly because Anderson is such a well-meaning guy, but also kind of a goober. There's a repeated joke about people seeing the two of them and deferring to Anderson, asking "Is she your woman?". The second time this happens--remembering Harmony's reaction to the first time it was asked---Anderson quickly jumps in with "We're just friends!" before Harmony can smash the guy with a rock. At the same time, Anderson's sense that Harmony should just, like, get over her aversion to men is kind of funny. At one point she bluntly is like "Well, every man I've ever met has either tried to kill me or rape me," and Anderson is like "Right, but I didn't do either of those things!". LOL. Hey, Anderson, it's almost like her deep-seated trauma isn't about you.

I'll also admit that I thought it was kind of sweet toward the end when they have been taken captive, they have a little heart to heart. It ends with Harmony wordlessly just extending her pinky finger toward Anderson and I thought it was a nice little touch. I'm going to agree with Wooley that she's the most interesting and most developed character in the film. I thought that her arc gave the movie more heft than it necessarily deserves.

However, if a riff-centric viewing is more your speed, yes, there is plenty to mock here. The outfits. The voices. Every non-main character sounds like a cartoon. I also had to laugh every time we got a shot from behind Harmony. I have to imagine at some point there was a conversation that went like this:
DIRECTOR: So we'd like you to wear this leather bikini bottom.
RENNARD: Okay.
DIRECTOR: You don't . . . have any problem with that?
RENNARD: Nope.
*ON THE FIRST DAY OF SHOOTING*
DIRECTOR: I see you're wearing the bikini bottom.
RENNARD: Yep!
DIRECTOR: . . . . over the top of a pair of cargo pants.
RENNARD: Yep!
DIRECTOR: But only over the butt part of the pants?
RENNARD: Yep!

Once the film gets into the final action showdown, I did lose quite a bit of interest. The best parts are when Harmony and Anderson are journeying across the desert, being lightly grumpy with each other. The villain just isn't interesting enough to add charge to a final showdown, and it all feels much less personal. Big explosions just don't hold a candle to Harmony gently beating a rapist to death with a large rock.

Like, oh my goodness, would I watch this movie again? I think I would.

I am thrilled that you dropped this here!
But you are not allowed to do better write-ups of movies I've already written up. This should go without saying.
Try to dumb it down a little.
*points pinky at Tak*

Blonde cargo pants smash rapist with rock.

Make Takoma smile.

That's more like it.

Here's a hint for my next entry: it's Italian and I'm not sure if anyone has seen it.

The 10th Victim -

To paraphrase Otacon from Metal Gear Solid, can love bloom in a sci-fi movie? The 10th Victim is a stylish and funny offering from Italy will certainly make you wonder. One part Prizzi's Honor, one part The Purge, it takes place in a future that ended war by instituting the Big Hunt, a program in which a supercomputer matches random participants, with one assigned as the hunter and the other the victim. It results in a world where it’s not uncommon to see multiple bystanders chase after each other, with one firing a revolver at the other, on any given day. The latest hunt pairs two veterans, Marcello Poletti and Caroline Meredith, who happen to be played by two of the best-looking people in the world at that time: Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress. The odds are in favor of Caroline, who is so celebrated that she has corporate sponsorship and a TV crew in tow that will film her victory. As per the title, it will be the tenth, which promises a major reward. Her ambitions get complicated when the pair falls for each other, which stokes a fear in Marcello that's even scarier to him than death: marriage.

Lovers of retrofuturism should stop what they're doing and watch this now. Every frame looks like what you would expect the typical MoMA exhibit would look like in the '60s... well, that, and Austin Powers, which took inspiration from this movie. Not to spoil it too much, but if you've ever wondered how Mike Meyers came up with the fembots, look no further. When I wasn't taking in the movie’s production design, I was either laughing or raising an eyebrow at its over-the-top and ridiculous moments of which there are many. There is a vibe that the movie is aware of how ridiculous it is, and even though I'm not the biggest fan of self-awareness, I make an exception for the fun and clever way this movie does it. Having legends like Mastroianni and Andress and who have dynamite chemistry certainly helps, especially since the former is essentially lampooning his playboy character from La Dolce Vita. The uncertainty as to whether Marcello and Caroline are after each other’s affections or victory in the Big Hunt stays compelling until the end and the lengths they take to outsmart each other wouldn't be out of place in the best Wile E. Coyote cartoons. What's more, that television networks and corporations are interested in the outcome regardless of the real lives at stake is scarily prescient.

I've compared this to two other movies, but if it owes a debt to one movie in particular, it’s La Dolce Vita and not just because of Mastroianni's character. It wouldn't be far off to call this movie a futuristic, sillier and, well, shorter version of that classic. After all, my main takeaways from it - besides whether a program like the Big Hunt would actually deter war, that is - are how it associates marriage and settling down with death as well as what it says about Italy's unusual attitude towards marriage at the time. If this movie's unique dystopian sci-fi tale and retrofuturism aesthetics don't win you over, its comedy surely will. Regardless of whether more or fewer wars are in our future, let's just hope that a parking violation will never have a stiffer penalty than murder (you'll see what I mean and hopefully thank me later).

My rating: 4 cups of Ming Tea out of 5

My guy (or gal): Lawyer Rossi (Massimo Serato), Marcello's dutiful assistant.

The 10th Victim has been on my watchlist for ages, but I have yet to check it out. Images from it pop up quite frequently in "guess that image" type stuff.