…including my contributions to the “Yay! Our website works again!” roundtable:
Baffled! (1973), in which a perky and insistent occultist dragoons a psychic who doesn’t believe in psychics into investigating the weird goings-on at a sinister English manor house…
Castaway (1986), in which Oliver Reed isn’t Tom Hanks and Amanda Donohoe certainly isn’t a volleyball, but being stuck for a year on a desert island still sucks just as much, even when you deliberately set out to do so…
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), in which you can just barely make out a few charred bits of wreckage that sort of resemble J. R. R. Tolkien’s story if you squint at them long enough…
The Man with a Cloak (1951), in which C. Auguste Dupin– who’s really Edgar Allan Poe in disguise– tries to aid a French revolutionary’s girlfriend in saving a cantankerous old man from murder at the hands of his own servants…
Phantasm II (1988), in which the kid from the first film grows up into a different actor, checks out of the mental hospital, and goes all Captain Ahab on the Tall Man’s ass…
Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983), in which several irritating people are accidentally transported to a parallel Earth in the process of being conquered by John Saxon…
Revenge in the House of Usher (1983), in which Jesus Franco hides the plot outline of the Best Movie Ever ™ under a bad, boring horror flick…
and…
Strange Days (1995), in which I rather belatedly wish you all a happy new year.
#1 by RogerBW on February 10, 2014 - 9:36 am
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I’ve no objection to the occasional SF action film, but not all the time; I think that Strange Days is better than it has any right to be. (Let’s not forget that 1995 also gave us GoldenEye and Waterworld.) Like many influential films, the people who copied it copied the wrong things: we’ve had lots of films since with sad-sack losers, but very few of them have a smart heroine doing all the cool stuff.
After I saw Bassett in this, I started looking at her other films. But smart powerful roles for black women are even rarer than smart powerful roles for women…
#2 by Joshua on February 10, 2014 - 7:01 pm
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I’m glad you mentioned the Rankin-Bass version of “The Hobbit.” I saw its original TV broadcast before I read the book, and that’s where I got the mental images of all the characters to this day. Gollum screaming “We hates it– forever!” still gives me chills to this day.
#3 by El Santo on February 11, 2014 - 10:44 am
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Oh, hell yes. Ian McKellan and Andy Serkis are great and all, but for me, John Huston and Brother Theodore are always going to be the One True Gandalf and the One True Gollum. And Benedict Cumberbatch’s Smaug isn’t a patch on Richard Boone’s.
#4 by Elizabeth the Ferret on February 11, 2014 - 12:57 am
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After reading the Hobbit review, I’m glad I’ve kept to my childhood vow to never read the Hobbit or watch any version of it (though I have read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and seen the movies). Not because I hate it, but because my one experience of the story – when my third grade class went on a field trip to see it as a stage play at the local community center – was so magical that I wanted it to be my one and only memory of it. I think if I had broken that vow and seen the Hobbit movies, it would have tarnished my memories of it forever.
#5 by Chris on February 11, 2014 - 2:50 pm
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I haven’t seen Desolation yet, just from seeing Tauriel in the trailers, and now I’m not sure I want to. From your review this doesn’t sound like much of a character arc at all for Martin Freeman’s Bilbo, which is really a shame as I admire his work, but I prefer the book and the Rankin Bass versions of the Hobbit. Given this is the lowest rating you’ve given yet for Jackson’s LOTR films, do you think you’ll bother seeing the final installment in the theater?
#6 by El Santo on February 11, 2014 - 4:49 pm
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It doesn’t seem likely, no. I may change my mind come December or whenever, not least because it’ll mean an excuse for an evening out with my parents (both of whom are pretty big Tolkienites), but I left the theater damning the completist instincts that would require me to see the third film at all.
#7 by The Rev. on February 12, 2014 - 7:26 pm
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“(By the way, pay no attention to the English-language dub. The character’s name is Harker— not Hacker— as will become obvious shortly when another character whose name is inexplicably pilfered from Dracula shows up.)”
Spitballin’ here…Dracula references because of Usher draining blood from young girls? Seems Franconian to me (not that I’m any kind of expert on him, having seen a whopping two of his movies…and having read reviews of his movies from you and Will.)
#8 by Camassia on February 13, 2014 - 4:58 pm
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Yeah, and the novel Dracula also had a young woman being kept alive by blood transfusions in it (though not for nearly as long). Also Harker’s role as the naif who goes to the castle and slowly figures out that something macabre is going on is similar to that of the Harker of the novel.
#9 by Jen S on February 17, 2014 - 5:34 pm
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Prisoners of the Lost Universe was responsible for a huge case of deja vu for me when I was rewatching a bunch of MST episodes. One of them was a film that used clips from another film under its credits, and it tripped me out to realize that I recognized it from watching it a kid. The only clear memory I have of it is the part where Carrie says “Oh no, not you too!” and stumbles into the beam, and they used that scene. It was very spooky at the time, like suddenly remembering an event but not being sure if it really happened or if you dreamed it.
Say, speaking of deja vu, this also triggered memories of my one real celebrity encounter–Richard Hatch! When I was a wee drama major back in college, he came to speak to one of our classes. The whole time I kept thinking he was looking at me now and again, but dismissed the idea.
However, afterwards as we all gathered around him to ask questions/inhale some of that sweet smell of success, Mr. Hatch noticed me, put his hands on my shoulders and KISSED ME. ON THE LIPS.
Yep, it happened! That’s all that happened (I was young and naive) but it remains my Big Celebrity Encounter and I’m always looking for an excuse to trot it out (my husband being sick of it after the fifteenth time he appeared onscreen in the BG reboot and I’d squeal and begin the story), so thanks, El Santo!