Liz and Dick made some doozies together, but this one takes the cake. Come examine how one of history’s greatest cinematic bombs went Boom!
FROM THE VAULT
- Beware the blood of Uranus! — posted by lyzard on September 28, 2009
- Joan Chen and Rutger Hauer mistreat some dog skulls — posted by KeithA on February 25, 2011
- Anybody else remember that this is the Cabal’s 15th anniversary year? — posted by El Santo on June 29, 2014
- Brilliant minds, stupid minds — posted by lyzard on February 14, 2010
- Catch a Throwing Star from Cannon Films — posted by KeithA on June 14, 2019
Pages
- About the Cabal
- Full Index of Reviews
- Roundtables
- 01: Brainathon ’99
- 02: Bangs'n'Whimpers
- 03: Post-Apocalypso
- 04: Review All Monsters
- 05: Pretty Mad Scientists
- 06: Tainted Love
- 07: Days of Future Past
- 08: Secret Santa
- 09: Catch a Throwing Star
- 10: Four-Color Features
- 11: Big Bugs
- 12: Fish With Bicycles
- 13: Go Go Go-Go Boys!
- 14: paLe IMITATIONS
- 15: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Roundtable
- 16: Whoa… Deja Vu.
- 17: Month of the Living Dead
- 18: B-Masters Beach Party
- 19: Kinji Fukasaku – The Man No Genre Could Tame.
- 20: Home Video Holocaust – The Video Nasties
- 21: Father Dearest: Who's Your Daddy?
- 22: So Sorry…
- 23: Back to the Well
- 24: Another Month of the Living Dead
- 25: The Ottoman Empire Strikes Back
- 26: Rubber Soul
- 27: Shhhhhh
- 28: Month of the Alternative Living Dead
- 29: On Time & Under Budget
- 30: These Kids Today…
- 31: Mea maxima culpa
- 32: Stingathon ’09
- 33: 10,000 B.S.
- 34: Foot Notes
- 35: Don’t Touch That Dial!
- 36: He Conquered the World
- 37: Secret Santa’s Revenge
- 38: At the Movies of Madness
- 39: They Might Be Giants
- 40: The Other Elizabeth Taylor
- 41: The Dark Guys of London
- 42: Falling Stars
- 43: To Be or Not To Be! (Pilot Error)
- 44: Teeth and Tentacles
- 45: Brunoween
- 46: Howl of the B-Masters
- 47: It’s Alive!
- 48: Bad, Black and Beautiful
- 49: Don’t Quit Your Day Job
- 50: B-Mentia 15
- 51: Quelle Horreur!
- 52: Carradine, Thou Wayward Son!
- 53: Tall, Dark and Gruesome
- 54: Pets Gone Wild
- 55: The Bad Place
- 56: From The Bible To Barbarella
- 57: A Fistful Of Pennies
- 58: Hello, Dolly
- 59: No, Not That One!
- 60: Dr Terror’s House Of Honours
- 61: WTF!?
- 62: In The Key Of B
- 63: The Forgotten Dawn Of Horror
- 64: The Most Dangerous Roundtable
- 65: Room For One More
- 66: Were-WHAT?
- 67: The China Anniversary Syndrome
- 68: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 2
- 69: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 3
- 70: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 4
- The Links We Love
#1 by JessicaR on August 30, 2011 - 7:34 pm
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Very interesting that this had the same director as Secret Ceremony. I really dug that one, Boom! was one of those that make you question what choices you’ve made in life that led you to watching films like this. It was almost like a deliberate performance art piece in how miscast the leads were. Even then Taylor far too young and beautiful to play an elderly dying matriarch and already Burton far too much eaten up by alcohol to play a smooth faced, young gigolo. The sets and locations where beautiful, and the score was one of the few things to get the I wish I was a Felini film tone right. It’s just everything else was awful.
#2 by kbegg on August 30, 2011 - 7:47 pm
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Well said, Jessica, and BOOM!
Sorry, I was suddenly shocked by the realization that I was still alive.
#3 by JessicaR on August 30, 2011 - 8:05 pm
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Oh lawd the dialogue, it was like it was almost a deliberate parody overheated art house dialogue. I would like to see this as the 2 AM soul destroyer at b-fest.
#4 by Braineater on August 31, 2011 - 7:16 am
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THUD! That would be the sound of the audience shocked by the realization they were still alive… and no longer wanted to be.
Though Ken has a brilliant idea here: schedule it right after …tick …tick …tick.
#5 by kbegg on August 30, 2011 - 8:07 pm
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Indeed, right after Plan 9, when ZOOM!
Sorry, I was suddenly shocked to be sitting in a circle of naked hippies.
#6 by Cullen on August 31, 2011 - 12:52 am
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God, I just hate it when that happens.
#7 by RogerBW on August 31, 2011 - 3:54 am
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Entered the Treading Water portion of the film? I thought we’d been there since the beginning.
I get the impression that the producers and stars fixated on the name of Tennessee Williams and didn’t do any further research – Streetcar, Tin Roof, what could go wrong? Nobody likes to admit that a creative type just isn’t producing good material any more, and when it’s someone “difficult” like Williams they may not even notice.
#8 by Braineater on August 31, 2011 - 8:05 am
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Ken, your mention of Chico Marx makes me wonder how this movie would have been improved with Groucho as Chris and Margaret Dumont as Sissy.
#9 by Ken Begg on August 31, 2011 - 8:13 am
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With Harpo as the Witch of Capri. Wow, would *that* be a better movie!
Not funnier, necessarily, but certainly better.
#10 by lyzard on September 2, 2011 - 3:54 pm
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What, no bone-itis? I’m shattered.
I beg to disagree. The single greatest thing humanity has ever seen is Arnold Schwarzenegger getting beaten up by Miriam Margolyes.
This one runs it a close second, though.
#11 by Gentle Benj on September 9, 2011 - 7:21 pm
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My only regret…
…is that i have…
…BOOM!
#12 by B. Wood on September 3, 2011 - 2:02 pm
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First time I ever had to take notes on a review so as to be sure I remembered everything I wanted to comment on. That is an accomplishment for Ken, but even more so for everyone who worked on this film. Anyways…
-My god the 23 minute mark for the review? I cannot imagine how it must have been to actually sit through. I wonder, if we attach an accurate clock, will we actually observe a time dilation effect?
– Hey, the Mu Princess from Atragon actually had fairly simple taste in clothes. Well comapritivly.
– So it would seem the only good rich people are those who made their money via pure artistic pursuits. Or married for it.
– The only way it could be less subtle is if her name was Ritchie “Troubled” Dyinglady.
#13 by Naomi on September 3, 2011 - 11:00 pm
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Going to assume the “gigantic sea anomie” was a Freudian negligee. I certainly feel a strong sense of anomie when confronted with a gigantic sea of dull pretense.
#14 by Braineater on September 4, 2011 - 12:31 pm
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BOOM! The shock of still being alive (after this movie) has shifted the first letter of your name one space over. And added an E at the end.
Some spiritual disorientation may occur.
#15 by Naomi on September 5, 2011 - 11:12 am
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KAZAAM! The indignity of having a name that is routinely auto-corrected to an obscure sociological term meaning “normlessness.”
#16 by Braineater on September 5, 2011 - 11:53 am
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EGAD! What have you done with poor Norm?
#17 by DamonD on September 9, 2011 - 4:55 am
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I find Burton an increasingly compelling figure. I really must track down some of his good stuff one day, but his bad stuff is (as you put so well) so hypnotically BIG.
#18 by kbegg on September 9, 2011 - 5:15 am
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Damon: I find the most instructive way to watch Burton is to view on of his really horrible performance back to back with one of his great ones. I’d suggest Bluebeard (or Exorcist II), followed by The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. I think you’ll be amazed.
#19 by DamonD on September 10, 2011 - 6:19 pm
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Hey, I’m always up for an Exorcist II re-viewing, so that sounds like a good plan.