Lots of new stuff at 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting:
A Game of Death (1945), in which RKO tries to figure out how to get The Most Dangerous Game past the Production Code…
Kongo (1932), in which MGM still has the luxury of being able to say, “Sod the Code!”…
Liquid Sky (1982), in which aliens don’t screw around when they’re looking to score dope, but the movie unfortunately does…
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), in which giant robots punch giant monsters in the face again…
Predator (1987), in which Count Zaroff isn’t from around here…
Sole Survivor (1970), in which the ghosts of a World War II bomber crew would like a word with the one guy from their unit who’s still alive…
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), in which questions I never cared about are answered well enough, I suppose…
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1989), in which a made-for-cable interpretation that you probably missed even if you did subscribe to Showtime in 1989 improbably raises the bar on all the famous versions…
Torture Ship (1939), in which glands are the key to crime-prevention…
and…
Without Warning (1979), in which Count Zaroff isn’t from around there, either.
El Santo rules the wasteland-- and also 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting.
#1 by Jared on July 10, 2018 - 7:16 pm
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Re: Liquid Sky — the nearest thing to the aliens’ motivations I can think of is that of the ones in Torchwood‘s third season.
#2 by Dark Spectre of Food on July 13, 2018 - 12:57 am
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The Dolph Lundgren vehicle Dark Angel, aka I Come in Peace (1990), has the same plot as Liquid Sky. Only in that movie, the alien drug dealer wants human endorphins extracted when the people are dying from a heroin overdose, not during sex.
#3 by Chris on July 11, 2018 - 4:42 pm
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“They’re packing a stupefying amount of firepower, too: M16s and MP5s, an M60 machine gun, 40mm grenade launchers, and even a fanciful hand-held version of the M134 Minigun— a rifle-caliber electric Gatling gun designed for mounting on helicopters”.
-You forgot the M61 grenades, Billy’s 12-gauge, and the Claymore mines. It’s a wonder they fit that hip flask in there.
#4 by lyzard on July 11, 2018 - 5:54 pm
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“Pre-Enforcement Of The Production Code” is a bit clumsy, don’t you think? Doesn’t even lend itself to an acronym! 🙂
I think the lack of remakes reflects how far beyond the pale some of the, ahem, pre-Code movies were: they remade the ones where the transgressive material could be removed without tearing the entire fabric apart—as with Game Of Death, and the MGM DJ&MH, as you note; while Mystery Of The Wax Museum could become the toned-down House Of Wax. But you couldn’t remake Murders In The Zoo, for example, without turning it into a completely different film.
#5 by ronald on July 12, 2018 - 9:20 am
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“PEPCO”?
#6 by JASON FARRELL on July 12, 2018 - 12:50 pm
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I thought I had seen every DRJ&MRH in existence (even the silly Japanese one)–sounds a lot like the Palance Tv movie, in which he had no change in make up between the 2 roles, and was also shot on videotape
I knew about Fairy Tale Theater, but her Nightmare Classic this is the 1st I had heard
Is this one easily found?
#7 by El Santo on July 12, 2018 - 6:42 pm
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“Is this one easily found?”
All four of the “Nightmare Classics” movies were on YouTube when last I looked. I’ll be doing Carmilla next.
#8 by Camassia on July 12, 2018 - 11:34 pm
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Just out of curiosity, are you going to review The Last Jedi? Given the polarized reaction, I’ve been perpetually unable to make up my mind whether to see it.
Also, re your comments on how the Chinese market brought us the Pacific Rim sequel, I recently learned that the same phenomenon explains why they keep making Fast & Furious movies. That had been a big mystery to me, but apparently the Chinese fell in love with them about the same time that Americans lost interest. Also, video-game adaptations in general seem to do better abroad than in the U.S., so it looks like we can expect more of those.
#9 by El Santo on July 13, 2018 - 8:44 am
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“Just out of curiosity, are you going to review The Last Jedi?”
That’s one of those projects I’m behind on. I wrote myself into a corner on The Last Jedi, and by the time I realized that there was nothing else for it but to watch the movie again for a system reset, it was out of theaters. Juniper bought the Blu-Ray, though, so you can expect a review in either the next update or (more likely) the one after that.
#10 by DamonD on July 16, 2018 - 6:57 am
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I’m glad you touched on Arnie’s acting in Predator. I once did a whole marathon of his films over several weeks, and Dutch was the first point where it really felt like a character rather than the usual force of nature. A bit like how in most Jackie Chan films it’s Jackie, but in a few it’s an actual person (that so happens to look and fight like Jackie).
For all his herculean physique and ability, Dutch also clearly cares about his team instead of being a lone wolf. He takes a strategic approach to every situation, even when on occasion that requires brute force. From a position of confidence he becomes increasingly desperate and paranoid as time goes on, reduced to literally scrabbling in the mud in a very un-80s action hero style. He’s pragmatic and doesn’t bulldoze in. Finally, his ultimate condition makes the laudable point of showing the toll its taken upon him.
Those reasons and many others make Predator simply an excellent film.
And Optimus Prime is the voice of the Predator. And can still do the vocal clicks too. How good is that?
#11 by supersonic man on July 21, 2018 - 5:24 am
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Toxic altright/redpill fandom is hardly something that’s all that especially connected to Star Wars…
http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/batman-writer-tom-king-has-an-sdcc-bodyguard-thanks-to-death-threats-over-that-wedding
#12 by Bill CUlbertson on July 21, 2018 - 6:12 am
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In your review of KONGO, you were mildly puzzled why Flint would call his shaven headed servant “Fuzzy.” It is kind of nice that you don’t recognize that “Fuzzy Wuzzy” is a racial slur. It was started by the British and picked up by Americans to describe people of color with curly hair in “polite society.”