The Island of Dr. Moreau
(John Frankenheimer)
A double feature with this film and
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau is interesting enough to make this film entertaining. Knowing the events that took place behind the making of this film, made it somewhat enjoyable, on a humourous scale.
The themes of the film get lost almost instantly and the weirdness takes over. A man survives a plane crash and is rescued by a man called Montgomery. Montgomery takes him to an island where he can heal, rest and possibly go home. When he arrives, he is greeted by bizarre half man half creature science experiments from the insane Dr. Moreau. When one animal discovers how to take out the behavioral chips implanted in their bodies, he decides to take revenge on the humans and any other "beast" that doesn't follow his new set of rules.
It's funny, knowing that people only took roles in this film to be able to work with Marlon Brando, which turned out to be one of his last films. Right from the beginning, you can tell something is off. Is it the script? The direction? The acting? Well, it seems to be everything and more. Is it bad when the most interesting part of the film is when Val Kilmer does a pitch perfect Brando impression? His character loses his mind once the animals take over. Why? It's not explained, it just happens. A lot of this film tends to not explain things and just regurgitates images on the screen.
The animal make-up effects are great, in their twisted horrific ways. These creatures are grotesque and abominations, which works with some great and shoddy make-up effects. The blend with some CGI movements is horrible though. One manimal (is that a thing?) runs away like a cheetah, yet the early CGI movements looks absolutely hilariously awful. I can only imagine is was equally funny back then.
This film is like watching a train wreck in slow motion, it changes focus so often that the original intent is lost almost immediately. I think some of the "facts & trivia" about this film are funny, so here you go: Brando wears an ice bucket on his head while his daughter Fairuza Balk, pours ice in it. This was an on the spot idea from Brando and you don't say no to Brando. There was recently a story about Johnny Depp wearing an ear piece to be fed lines, Brando did that on this set. Sometimes he would pick up police reports and yell them to the crew, "Robbery on West 5th St". Val Kilmer was going through a divorce at the time and angered so many people on set, that once they wrapped the director proclaimed "Cut. Now get that bastard off my set." Finally, my personal favourite, Richard Stanley was the original director who was fired by the studio, he later disguised himself as a creature under heavy make-up, found his way back on set and acted in the film.
Hilarious.
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