TYTD Reviews

I have a rather soft spot for the works of Al Adamson, and ‘Dracula Vs Frankenstein’ is one of those films that, despite its MASSIVE flaws (and it is VERY much riddled with flaws) Theres something tonally about it that just really won me over.

For a starters, the titles TOTALLY misleading. The implication from a promotional standpoint that this films going to BE ‘Dracula Vs Frankenstein’ but in reality that doesnt really happen until the VERY end of the movie and Dracula and Frankenstein arnt even really IN the movie for about 2/3rds of the runtime.

The film opens with Dracula recovering the body of the original Frankensteins monster from a graveyard before we cutaway to what is the ACTUAL plot of the film, as we’re introduced to a young stage performer by the name of Judith who’s sister Joanie has gone missing. After a chat to the police, Judith decides to head out to Joanies last known whereabouts, where she’s almost immediatley ‘spiked’ by a gang who think shes an undercover cop.

Just before this happens though we’re introduced to a couple of hippies who decide to hit a pier based fairground and stumble on an attraction known as ‘The Creature Emporium’ fronted by a carnival barking dwarf and supplied by the last in line to the ‘Frankenstein’ namesake, whos operating under a pseudonym to avoid drawing attention.

It turns out that Dr. Frankenstein, with the help of his mute and largely child like man servent Gorton has been running experiments on random women who happen to go under the pier at night. The Dr. sends out Gorton to decapitate them, then he brings the remains to the dr who sows them back together and reanimates them.

Naturally as you can imagine, it doesnt take long for Dracula to become involved and when he tells the Dr that he has his great grandfathers original creation in his possession. Well, as these stories go you better believe he gets ressurected and that both Dracula and Frankenstein then pretty much dissapear till the final 10 minutes.

Thats one of the biggest problems this film has really, it introduces the titual characters in the first 15-30 minutes, then has them pretty much dissapear (barring the occasional VERY quick cutaway) till the end! What a rip!

What is here though is fine enough fair, though it REEKS of ‘poverty row cinema’ this really wouldnt have felt out of place in the 40s as far as scripting goes. it’s a super basic 3 act structure, the pacings SUPER messy with plot points starting and stopping at random, theres no care to craft these elements together its just ‘Scene start, scene end, next scene.’ from beginning to end.

To that end, the ending itself is also a little underwhelming, I wont spoil it here, but it just kind of left me shrugging and asking if that was it.

Honestly? this whole things a bit of a runaround, but at least its a runaround that TRIES to have a bit of action thrown into the mix, even if it isnt the greatest or goriest in the world, this very much feels like a throwback to an age of cinema where you could getaway with cheap effects, low gore and women in peril as the main selling point. and in that sense I kind of found it a little endearing from a tonal perspective.

Direction is flat, lifeless and largely by the numbers. This is the kind of film that thinks having a coloured light in the shot suddenly makes it ‘Sophisticated’ Adamson was never known for particularly stunning visuals, he made films the same way Chef Boyardee makes gourmet Italian food. But I think that kind of works to his favour here as, given the cheap and cheerful nature of the script, the direction being basic and a bit all over the place only kind of enhances that feeling.

Same goes for the cine as well, which is also fairly flat, fairly lifeless and just…Bizarre for 1971, it’s a bit like when they did ‘The Munsters’ revival in the 90s. how this thing looks and feels visually feels SO out of time with the era it’s ACTUALLY being shot in. I find it quite mesmorising honestly.

As for the performances? This was the last on screen appearence of both Lon Cheney Jr. and J. Carrol Naish. Watching them both here, I was reminded of The scene in ‘Ed Wood’ where Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi laments the fact he turned down ‘Frankenstein’ before it became the next big thing. Its terrifically sad to think that THE Lon Cheney Jr. ended his career playing a mute psycho maniac who gurns his way through 70 minutes of the 90 minute runtime…But here we are.

The rest of the cast, by low budget 70’s cinema standards, do fine enough, they’re unremarkable though, nothing we wouldnt have seen from the low/no budget dregs of this era. they’re a little low on animation and they dont really use the set spaces as much as they could, but i’ve seen WAY worse in my time.

And as for the soundtrack? it’s a mixture of the most GENERIC late 60’s/early 70’s rock I’ve EVER heard in a movie before, almost comically so, combined with some of the original scores to the Universal monster movies (The Creature from the black lagoon was one I clearly picked out, but their are apparently more from other monster movies) it only really helps cement the rough and ready nature of this throwback flick.

All in all, this things a total mess, the script promises one thing and delivers another, and even then! the thing it does deliver is messy, quite incoherent, poorly plotted and paced with no real actual purpose or point established for the majority of the runtime.

The directions flat and lifeless as is the cine and the cast are a bit bland. and yet…I still kind of dug this one on tone and gaul alone. It absolutely ISNT a good movie by any stretch, but if your looking for a bizarre piece of cinema that seemed to be made with noone in mind but the director. This will more than tick the boxes. I’d say if your into ‘Poverty row’ cinema, or are into the kind of releases ‘Something Weird’ have put out over the years. you may actually kind of get on with this one. If you dont have the patience for that kind of nonsense waffle however, i’d say give this a miss.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dracula-vs-frankenstein/

For full transparency, my review here comes from the place of someone whos played pretty much every mainline mario game released outside of Japan, almost all of the sideline games (party, tennis, golf etc) and has been a fan of Nintendos games pretty much right from the beginning.

So when I say that ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ is a pretty okay film, but that your milage WILL vary massively depending on if you’ve played these games and understand the lores and references. I hope that establishes the kind of film your getting into.

I was initially quite skeptical about the ‘Illumination’/’Nintendo collaboration. Im not a big fan of the ‘Dispicable Me’ movies and I have a mixed to negative feeling towards ‘Minions’ But I figured if Nintendo managed to keep a tight enough grasp on their IP as they have in the past when licensing their games out to 3rd parties, that things would probably be alright. And thats quite literally what this is.

Its basically an origins film charting Mario and Luigi, two brooklyn based schlubs who’ve just launched their first attempt at starting their own business in plumbing. They’re not very good at it, but when an opportunity presents itself that’ll give profile to their little business, they jump at the chance and wind up in a crazy ‘otherworldly’ trip to the ‘Mushroom Kingdom’.

On the way however, Luigi ends up getting split up from Mario and winds up in the clutches of the Evil king Bowser and his minions, who’ve recently stolen a ‘Power Star’ with the intent to either give the star to Princess Peach as a gift to initiate a marriage, OR, if she refuses the gift, Bowser intends to use it to destroy the mushroom kingdom. Peach is made aware of this and so, with Mario confused but largely going along with it, the pair head out to the ‘Kong’ Kingdom to try and get help to stop Bowsers army before its too late.

The script here, iiiiiis a little bit lumpy if im being totally honest. My biggest issue with the film truthfully is that a lot of stuff just kind of ‘Happens’ and we’re expected to go along with it. The film runs at a near break neck pace and in places it almost feels like a series of ‘minisodes’ that have been stitched together into a feature rather than a coherent 3 act structured film.

This is one of the few times where I kind of wish the film had slowed down by maybe 10 minutes or so, because there are a LOT of instances where a new plot element or layer is introduced that really could have done with a little more backstory, explanation or grounding. But instead we’re just kind of told to ‘roll with it’ as we career through this thing like a runaway truck.

It has a pretty basic story to tell, which it does fine enough, but I just wish they’d let the thing breath a little more because so much is thrown at you across the runtime that it quickly starts to feel a little messy.

Outside of that, if you’re a nintendo fan, this is a total nostalgiafest, barely a single scene goes by without SOME kind of nintendo or mario reference being stratetgically placed in the background, and we’re talking some really deep cuts at that!

It has a fine enough 3 act structure all things considered and it transitions fairly seamlessly between those acts, but I feel like the 3rd act is a bit rushed (its where most of the issues around more breathing space seem to come up) and the actual end scene left me feeling a bit hollow after all the awesome stuff that had come before it. it all kind of ends with a bit of whimper after a series of collosal bangs and that was a bit of ashame.

The important thing with a film like this is the humour, structuring and whether it would appeal to kids. and; I was honestly amazed, given that this is an illumination film at the RESTRAINT that was executed on behalf of the production team in not just devolving the whole thing into crass fart jokes. Nintendo must have had a total iron grip on the production because I cannot BEGIN to tell you my relief when I realised that this thing was ACTUALLY going to have some solid humour in it.

And it does! it’s not the greatest comedy of all time, but it’s gentle, had more successes than failures for me and I laughed out loud at least more than a couple of times. One thing I do have to say though is, they do a gag where they have a character do something funny in super slow motion, and it was funny the first time, but by the 10th time it’d happened within an hour I was about ready to throw my chair through the screen.

The structuring is a little messy as mentioned and there are a few moments that I personally thought for a PG rating (given that this is probably aimed at kids aged 5-12) were a little bit intense (mild spoilers here but a scene featured in the trailers for this movie in which Luigi is stalked in a graveyard by an army of Drybones put some 15 certificate zombie movies i’ve seen to shame in terms of intense spookiness)

Theres also some weird moments with tone and humour that were kind of odd in places, but I think all parties involved realised that while kids were the target demographic for this film, sweaty nerds like me would also be keen to catch this thing.

Is the film gonna win kids over? im honestly not 100% convinced. The screening I attended had a fair few kids in attendence and throughout the film I heard a fair few proclaimations of ‘IS IT NEARLY OVER!?’ and ‘WHO’S THAT!?’ Theres a lot of slow going moments in the opening act where they establish Brooklyn only to then pretty much NEVER bother with Brooklyn. and I think kids will probably struggle to make it through all the establishing, especially if a lot of it isnt all that relevent. Despite its current 800 million dollar gross at the box office I think it’s gonna be the parents who come away from this thing more satisfied than the kids honestly.

Art direction and cine are absolutley on point, we have no instances of ‘Ugly Sonic’ here which is fantastic, almost all the characters are very closely modelled on Nintendos most recent 3d mario character models, with some very minor tweaks to Mairo, Luigi and Donkey Kong to help match the aesthetic animation styles. Its decent! and I think they really manage to bring the worlds within the mario universe to life in a pleasent, entertaining and power packed way!

Perfomance wise, The single best decision this film has is casting Charlie Day as ‘Luigi’ he’s got that wonderful panicked nervousness behind his voice and honestly, even given Charles Martine’s efforts over the last few decades, I think Day does a fantastic job and I honestly just wished he’d had more on screen time (The petition for a ‘Luigis Mansion’ movie starts NOW!)

Outside of that Jack Black is fine enough as Bowser, he brings a nice menace to the role that wasnt expected, Anya Taylor-Joy is fantastic as Princess Peach and again, genuinely surprised me as I was expecting a bit more of a retreating personality here, but to see Peach kick ass and genuinely come across as a really well rounded strong female character (and not just a ‘damzel in distress’) I thought was very entertaining and a nice development on the character.

The weakest elements here for me are Chris Pratt and Seth Rogan as Mario and Donkey Kong. and it’s not so much that they’re bad, just…they dont really bring a lot of character to the performances, I didnt personally feel like they made their characters their own, it just felt like I was listening to Chris Pratt and Seth Rogan. it maybe would have been nice to see them bring a little more than just, ‘themselves but a bit peppy’ to proceedings.

And finally, the soundtrack. And if you’re a gamer. This things INSANE. almost the entire film is made up of medlys and deep cuts from ALL the mario games and even some Nintento products. From the Gamecube boot up screen jingle, to random tracks from ‘Wrecking Crew’ and almost every single mario game from the original right up to ‘Odyssy’ this clearly had a LOT of thought and patience put into it and it’s an astounding tribute to nearly 40 years of fantastic music.

All in all? yeh! it was okay! Its not without its problems, I think the inevitable sequel will likely fix a lot of that, but considering the people involved, this could have been a lot LOT worse. Im not convinced your kids will love it personally, but if you have a love for the games or you’ve grown up with Nintendo, Id say this was worth seeing once at least.

I think my partner put it better than I ever could when, as we left the cinema she said ‘That was decent, it’s not something i’d be clamouring to watch again, but if I saw it was on one of the streaming services Im subbed to, i’d put it on in the background for a bit of a nostalgia hit.’

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-super-mario-bros-movie/

The Definition of ‘Middle of the road’ cinema, ‘Dollman Vs. Demonic Toys’ is basically a ‘free for all’ on ‘Full Moons’ part and I feel the it garners something of a set of mixed results. Where it works, it’s decent, nothing spectacular, but solid enough, where it fails? Well. It’s not quite as bad as ‘Puppet Master: Legacy’ but it’s absolutely heading in that direction.

The film basically unites 3 of ‘Full Moons’ IP’s at that time (I believe they didnt use ‘Puppet Master’ for this film as they were already tied up in a bit of a convoluted series of events in their own series at this point. But in it’s place we see characters from ‘Dollman’, ‘Demonic Toys’ and ‘Bad Channels’ unite in a story that picks up a few months after the events of all three of these series individual respective films. With tough intergalactic cop ‘Brick Bardo’ hitchiking across the US to try and locate Ginger from ‘Bad Channels’ as, the events of her own movie have left her shrunk to a mere 12 inches and currently living in someones kitchen drawer.

Meanwhile, Judith Grey is continuing to explore the strange goings on of the Demonic Toys, and after a tip off of someone breaking into the Lucky toys factory she sneaks in against her officers wishes to see whats going on, only to arrive *just* too late and a drunken homeless man gets murdered, with his blood being used to reanimate the demonic toys, who set about ressurecting their ‘master’.

Judith is let go from the force for disobeying orders and decides to follow a lead about Brick and Ginger, eventually leading to all three of them teaming up to take on the demonic toys in a 3rd act finale thats…well..it’s SOMETHING I guess…

I didnt hate this thing, but I think the broad opinion I have on this thing is basically that it feels like a cheap and cheerful rushed attempt at a cash in. Almost like they had all these elements just kind of lying around and decided, rather than waste them, to just shoot SOMETHING and try and squeeze as much profit out of the thing as possible.

The plots fine enough, its not as good as any of the films that preceeded it, but for a way to kill an hour, you could do a LOT worse from ‘Full Moon’ But thats not to say this is by any means a good film. Its SUPER overeliant on stock footage, which basically pads a good quarter to a third of the runtime, for an hour, its a pretty zippy movie, but its super basic, tonally kind of all over the place and I feel like it waters down all three of these film series in order to produce one mediocre offering. The act structuring is a little bit sloppy because of the stock footage usage, its use kind of throws the films pacing off at times as we stop to recount specific events from other movies.

Key plot points from those films are also glossed over like, What happened to Judiths kid?, what happened to Dollmans spaceship? or Debi, How did Ginger end up where she is? it could be seen as nitpicking, but a lot of these external films relied on these points as main driving elements. So to pick up a sequel where they’re largely glossed over or forgotten was a bit of a poor show to me.

The characters are also a bit out of character as well compared with the last films, Baby Oopsie has had a change of voice artist and a smartass psychopathic doll has here just been replaced with a crude, squeaky voiced pervert. Bricks softened considerably, has nowhere NEAR as wisecracking an attitude as he did in ‘Dollman’ and Judiths had a nuanced ‘firm but fair’ sterness replaced with just a flat out cold and aggressively blunt attitude.

The dialogue across the board has taken a significant step down in quality and crudeness is much MUCH more prominent. On the whole this feels like a step back in quality on the script front in almost every regard, it feels like they’ve taken some complex ideas and just dumbed them down to the point that ANYONE, whether they’ve seen the other films or not, will be able to get on board. Which neuters the film in terms of its ability to world build.

The direction feels a bit on the cheap side as well, everythings pretty much shot for function over style, it’s a blunt viewing experience that gets the job done, but lacks the distinct style that all these other movies brought to the table. it’s passable. But thats all it is really.

Direction of the cast is also kind of neglected a bit, we have the barest elements of these original characters here and they seem to have been given a basic scene walkthrough and not a lot else to work with. As such we’re relying on the performers (who all VERY much feel like they’re here for the paycheque and little else) to bring their characters back to life. Something I think they have a decent stab at…but with the script being tepid, they can only do so much.

The cine feels quite lifeless too, It had 3 films to pick a style to copy from, and they chose ‘Demonic Toys’ the least interesting looking film stylistically of the three. and it feels like a ‘Soundalike’ copy of that cinematography. cheaper, less arty, less interesting, flat underlit cine that again is here more for style over function. I cant fault it on a technical level because in that regard it IS passable. but again. thats all it is really.

OH! and *something something* Richard Band does the music *Something Something* Generic ‘Full Moon’ sound *Something Something* heard it in one movie, heard it a million times Etc. Etc…

I didnt hate this film, but I didnt love it either. by the skin of it’s teeth it managed to maintain a level of energy and narrative development that kept me on board, it’s passable. a scrape ‘C’ grade movie that, if you enjoyed ‘Demonic Toys’ you’ll probably quite like this one. If you liked ‘Dollman’ you’ll probably feel a bit underwhelmed and confused, and if you liked ‘Bad Channels’ you’ll probably just appreciate that Full Moon remembered this film existed.

By NO means an ‘essential’ watch, it’s totally skippable, but if you DO have an hour to kill and you dont have to overexert yourself to catch this thing, you may just have an okayish time with it.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dollman-vs-demonic-toys/

A rather interesting beast, ‘Dollman’ couldnt have been more of a ‘right place, right time’ kind of feature. With ‘Full Moon Features’ still fairly in its infancy as a company, the decision to make this pint sized Science fiction action thriller about a 13 inch tall grimey cop who shoots first and asks questions later, who while chasing a perp winds up crash landing on earth and gets dragged into taking on a Spanish drug cartel in a rundown part of town to protect the non drug taking locals. Well…it’s certainly a change of pace from the kind of stuff they were turning out at this time thats for sure!

But what we have here, while not outstanding in my opinion, IS a lot of fun! The scripts got a nice sense of melodrama, but is equally quite coherent in the story it wants to tell, it has clean act structuring pretty solidly written characters who do undergo some growth across the runtime, the pacings nice and nippy and at just shy of 90 minutes it never really feels like it slows down all too often.

The dialogue feels quite fresh and charismatic, its got a thin veneer of self awareness about it, but not so much that it becomes grating (a problem a lot of more modern ‘Full Moon’ and ‘Troma’ films sadly deal with)

I cant say it’s faultless, the moments where this thing does slow down a bit are largely due to repetition, theres WAY too many scenes of our leading actor sat in a space ship in the front room of our leading ladies house just idling or reading a newspaper. Getting into VERY mild spoilers here also, but I didnt feel they really utilised the space villain in the best way either. They just kind of, heavily establish who he is, have him introduce a mcguffin and then get him out of the story as quickly as possible. He was an interesting character! and it would have been interesting to see him developed a bit beyond what we ultimatley got.

Direction wise, its good! I mean, I wouldnt say this was Albert Pyuns best work (I’d lean towards ‘Nemesis’ for that) but its good and solid, it feels thoroughly grimey in almost every sequence, which is a testamony to the crew. And the action scenes, while a little fragmented due to the limitations of available shooting options, due to the fact they had to make some key cast members look increadibly small compared to others, are still really quite impressive and put you right in the middle of the action.

This doesnt feel like a ‘Full Moon’ film at ALL, and thats probably the thing thats saved it from ending up as just another mediocre notch on there filmography list.

Even the cast direction is decently handled, with the cast being largely animate, a little hammy (but for me, thats a plus) and it’s clear they were given a solid rundown of what was needed of them, while also being allowed a *little* wriggle room to flesh their characters out in their own way.

The cines rock solid as well, again, we’re not really in blockbuster/mainstream cinema terratory, but sequences are largely well composed, maintain that grimy feel across the runtime and, while having the film look a little washed out would normally be a criticism for me, here I think it adds to the dinginess to create a film that feels very styalised in a way I havent seen since the low budget efforts of the mid 70s.

Again, thats not to say its not without fault. While the lighting setups are okay for the most part, a few scenes did feel VERY lazily thrown together in my opinion, there was real scope to make the spaceship shots have a nice moody chiascuro edge to them, and they dont really explore that, it’s basically just lit to look dim, and thats about it. Which is a shame. Equally; while some of the visual effects look alright, SOME have not aged well at all. in particular a severed head show in the opening act of the film for a GOOD long while is just, hilariously awful to see nowadays. It may have passed in the VHS era…but here, no dice.

Most of the cast are solid as well though the real star of the picture for my money has to be Tim Thomerson as ‘Brick Bardo’ the titual ‘Dollman’ he’s a no nonsense cop and Tim ABSOLUTELY nails that tone and attitude across the runtime. he’s brash, sarcastic, witty, bullish and stoney, and I think he handles the role expertly and makes it his own to the point that, I dont think I could see someone else play this role and do it justice.

All in all? colour me impressed. Its not the best action sci-fi movie out there, but if you just want 90 minutes of sincerly fun escapism and a bit of a goofy movie to boot. I think this will more than do the job!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dollman/

You’d think given all the promises ‘Bubba Ho-tep’ makes based on it’s premise alone, that this would be an out and out high ranking big winner for me in terms of it being a film i’d enjoy.

Indeed Bruce Campbell Starring in a Don Coscarelli movie as either a senile Elvis impersonator who thinks he’s the king OR the genuine King of Rock and Roll who one day in the 70s swapped places with a near identical looking Elvis impersonator to escape fame and fortune. Who teams up with a black man claiming to be John F. Kennedy, to fight an ancient egyptian king who’s returned from the dead to feast on the last dregs of life energy to be found around a nursing home. SOUNDS like it could be one of the greatest movies ever committed to celluloid.

But unfortunately, by the time the credits rolled on this thing, all I was really left wondering was ‘That was it?’

I think the biggest problem I have with the movie is that it really fails to find it’s voice and tone in terms of what it wants to be. The trailers would have you believe that this is basically just some kind of goofy horror comedy with Old Elvis and JFK fighting mummies. But the actual film is unevenly paced and frequently shifts between ‘Army of Darkness’ style slapstick comedy and weirdness contrasting with elongated monologues that vary from super long scenes about Elvis’s ‘Growth on his pecker’ (im not kidding most of the first act is basically just Elvis, in bed, watching people zip in and out of room, talking about his penis and really generic points about his family members) Alongside VERY serious and poigniant sequences dealing with elderly abuse, being forgotten, life, death, mortality and legacy.

This wouldnt strictly be a problem if the film transitioned between these various shades carefully and thoughtfully. But it doesnt. We can have an elongated monologue about Elvis wondering about how he’ll be remembered and thinking about his friends in the nursing home who’ve passed on and whether they’ll be remembered. which will then hard cut to an elongated slapstick scene of Elvis fighting giant bugs. Its SO tonally weird.

The tonal inconsistencies absolutely effect the pacing, with the first act largely feeling like a SERIOUSLY painful crawl through monologues and bad comedy, with very little established, the 2nd act spends its first half meandering before it finally gets into a groove in the 2nd half and the 3rd act which *just* about managed to live up to the premise it establishes in the opening moments of the first act.

Im not kidding when I say (in my opinion) you could cut the opening act down by about 25 minutes and you really wouldnt lose a shread of the main plot of this thing. The character structuring is fine enough, its a basic hero arc, nothing really special and I *can* just about understand/believe that the reason these characters have SUCH sluggish and minimal growth is to emphisize the totally hopeless rut they’re trapped in IN a nursing home environment. But that doesnt really help make it a decent viewing experience for the audience unfortunately.

The humour, for me at least? bombed HARD. I had one laugh out loud moment which came in the 3rd act. otherwise this is just bad comedy, awkward Bruce Campbell™ physical comedy and very little else. the more poigniant moments are more interesting, but they undercut those scenes frequently and it just comes across as really half hearted and non comittal. Which is a real shame.

Directions pretty okay. It’s probably the Bruce connection, but I did spend a seriously large chunk of this movie thinking ‘Y’know, this would have been so much better directed by Sam Raimi’ Because, the more serious drama driven sequences largely feel disorienting and flat under Coscarelli’s guidence here, and the more action intense fight sequences come across as a Raimi tribute act, and as such I felt like this really lacked a sense of identity. Having seen a decent chunk of Coscarellis work, I appreciate that post ‘Phantasm 3’ things have taken a bit a dip quality wise. But here, while its definitely stylish. it’s not a style I was particularly happy with.

The cine also struggled to really ‘do it’ for me, the films main colour tone is a kind of sickly orange and the print I saw (Scream Factories Bluray release) looked washed out and lacked any kind of significant detail, compositions and sequencing is fairly basic. theres some really nice moments where they experiment with wipes and quick cuts (usually in flashback sequences) but that kind of experimentation is seriously few and far between. Given this man gave us the ‘Phatasm’ franchise, one of the most experimental and creative mainstream horror franchises to come out of the 70s and 80s. The fact that this is just…SO generic for a horror film in terms of composition, scene structuring, the edit, lighting and colour choices, is ASTOUNDING to me. Im not saying there wasnt any effort, because clealry the film looks fine by contemporary horror movie standards. but thats ALL it is, and given the calibre of the cast and crew involved in this, I absolutely expected better.

Bruce Campbell is really good fun as an elderly Elvis here, he basically brings his ‘Bruce Campbell™’ schtick to proceedings and does a fine enough job, Id really love to see him try the character again in a more consistent production ebcause I think, given the chance to NOT spend 2/3rds of the movie talking about his penis or complaining about the quality of the nursing home food, he could really have a solid character on his hands.

Ossie Davis plays John with a sincerity, warmth and believability that I personally quite got on with. In fact, thats the one thing I cant really complain about with this film, the characters are pretty interesting, well performed and spoken and actually HAVE character…it’s just a shame THIS is the movie they appeared in.

And as for the soundtrack, its easily the best thing about this film. and even saying that, it isnt one i’d actively choose to listen to.

Ultimately; this films caught between a rock and a hard place. Had this been a multi part TV series, they could have maybe worked on the ‘Serious/Comedy’ balance and smoothed things out to achieve a nicer balance and transition. had it been a short film, it could have been an entertaining, tightly packed clobber fest. As it stands as a 90 minute movie, its too short to really let the thing breath and give the characters the space they need to really define themselves, but its too long for the jokes bandwidth in this format, and as such my patience and wellwishes for this thing ran well and truely out before we even hit the midway point.

I could totally see how someone COULD like this, but…it really just wasnt for me. A fantastic pitch (and i’d watch this as a short or a series in a heartbeat) just poorly structured, paced and managed. Not one i’ll be returning to for a while.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/bubba-ho-tep/

A WILD time in EVERY sense of the word. 1989’s ‘Dr. Caligari’ is quite literally everything I could want in a movie and more. What started as an initial attempt at writing a ‘Nightdreams’ sequel quite quickly evolved into a softer and MUCH more melodramatic beast thats as captivating as it is absolutley barmy.

The whole film seems to be some kind of a comment on the pharmacutical industry and mental illness at large. But honestly, the whole thing is just such a thrill of a script, as we follow a desperate husband trying to find a cure for his unstoppably horny wife who ultmatley ends up committing her to the care of ‘Dr. Caligari’ the great grandaughter of the original ‘Caligari’ who it transpires is running an asylum with alterior motives. She’s using the inmates as guinea pigs for her sick and twisted brain experiments.

When I Say that this is everything I could want in a movie and more, I really cant understate that and this is going to be a really short review as a result. The scripts breakneck paced, absolutely all over the place narrativley, but due to the nature of the films subject that fits PERFECTLY, tonally its mad as a box of frogs with demented dialogue thats hamtastic, melodramatic and infinitely quotable. The closest I can describe this film to someone who hasnt seen it is it feels like you’ve been sex starved for a month and then given a concussion and made to watch a porn parody. Its insane. and clocking in at a BEAUTIFUL 78(ish) minutes. I feel my only criticism (that it maybe could have given us just a *tiny* bit more context as to WHAT exactly is going on. Is a futile ask and absolutley against the POINT of this thing. I loved it.

The direction is perfect, with Sayadian bringing that ‘Nightdreams’ surrealist quality and combining it with a heavy German expressionist influence by way of the Pop art movement. almost all of the set spaces are entirely shot within a black void, and almost every aspect of the production is razor focussed on delivering probably one of the clearest cinematic visions i’ve seen in a GOOD while.

Direction of the cast too is absolutely pin point accurate. I FULLY believe that Sayadian got EXACTLY what he wanted from the cast with not ONE concession to his artistic vision. it’s lively, manic, maddening and hyper animated. Back when I used to make ACTUAL movies myself. THIS. was the style and vision I aspired to make. Its just such a delight to sit through.

The cine…my god. the cine. colourful, perfectly framed, totally open to compositional experimentation. a film that challenges methodology and works an act that I can only describe as ‘Movement recycling’ taking the expressionist movement and breathing new life into it with a late 80s aesthetic. it’s gorgeous, probably one of the nicest looking films i’ve seen in a GOOD long time. I had an absolute blast with this thing.

The performances are astounding. as mentioned this is a film that trades in melodrama and campy massively over the top performances are the flavour of the day in this thing from second 1 right up to end credits. THIS. is dedication to the cause on a level I seldom see in cinema, and absolutley everyone involved in this production should be deeply proud of the performances they gave here. as frankly they’re blinking well baffling and brilliant in equal measure, and bloody good fun to boot!

The soundtracks unique jazzy and electronic. It fits the tone of the film perfectly and I really enjoyed the vibe it helped set for the production. I really hope it gets a physical release of its own someday.

All in all, If you havent guessed by now, I REALLY liked this thing. Its art house cult cinema at it’s finest, rarely if ever feeling seedy and genuinely pushing the barriers of taste and creative decency. If you havent seen this film, you need to change that ASAP. Because…I can honestly say, theres nothing quite like it out there. a cinematic revelation and im REALLY hoping the recent 4k rerelease helps reignite interest in Stephen and Jerrys Oeuvre.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dr-caligari/

Another of Columbias higher budget ‘Creature Features’ collaborating with Ray Harryhausen. And I feel that this is arguably one of the strongest outputs of this collborative period.

A simple enough plot involving astronauts returning from a mission to Venus who end up crashing back on Earth in Sicily carrying SERIOUSLY dangerous cargo, an egg containing a beast of enourmous strengh (and size!) The egg is stolen by a local boy who witnessed the crash and is taken to a local anthropologist who begins studying the creature, until it gets too large and aggressive to hold captive leading to an all out battle between the beast and the army!

Clocking in at just over an hour and 20, the script is light on it’s feet, nippy and decently paced out. Tonally it’s campy goodness, and the three acts are evenly spaced out and decently transitions too and from. With some really solid dialogue to boot. This is a damn fine script that has a LOT of action and thrilling dangers. it’s a fun ride thats seldom dull and held me right the way through to end credits.

The direction too is rock solid, theres maybe a slight overealiance on back projection and stock footage for my taste, but for the most part it’s very effective. With MORE than decent cine to back it up, this is a tight and again decently paced edit that uses a great variety of mixed shot types and B-roll to build something truely lovely.

That of course isnt even mentioning Harryhausens work, which here is absolutely phenominal and up there with some of his best efforts in stop motion. The beast creature in particular is astounding for the time with incredibly naturalistic movements AND the fact it engages with on set props. This really is incredible for the age it was made in and STILL astounds me to this day.

The performances are lively, animate and the cast utilise set space well in order to deliver a more than enjoyable time. they only help ampliphy the action of the script and really sell you on the idea that this beast is a real threat. I thought they were fantastic honstly.

Even the scores unique sounding and really adds monsterous weight to proceeding. A LOT of films from this time had fairly stocky scores, but this thing tries something different with the existing formula and I feel it really surpasses expectations.

All in all? If your gonna show someone just HOW GOOD a western creature feature can be? This would be a DAMN fine contender in my opinion for that title. highly recommended.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/20-million-miles-to-earth/

Columbia really were on a roll in the 50’s when it came to creating some of the best ‘Creature Features’ of that decade. And when paired in a solid working relationship with stop motion maestro Ray Harryhausen. Their films really did go from strengh to strengh.

‘It Came From Beneath The Sea’ may not be the absolute ‘peak’ of the Columbia/Harryhausen pairing, but I still thought it was a pretty fun ride. As we follow members of the army/navy and scientists in trying to hunt down a mysterious Cephalopod thats been attacking ships in the Atlantic.

The script is kind of so-so on this one, there isnt really a tremendous amount that happens until about halfway through the 2nd act when they throw caution to the wind and just decide to let the giant squid attack stuff more often. Up until that point all we get to see is an (admittedly very well animated) set of tenticles rise up from and crash into the ocean a few times.

Theres the usual B-movie tropes present here, but it’s nice to see Faith Domergue get a bit more of a proactive and progressive role in proceedings here as Professor Leslie Joyce (Even if they do at times revert her to the stereotypical ‘screaming woman/eye candy’ role when the script needs to buy 5 minutes or so.

The tone and pace is really solid for this kind of movie and while it IS a little flabby in places (particularly around the end of the 1st act and start of the 2nd) Id really struggle with being able to cut this thing down to a faster/stronger production AND keep it feature length. clocking in at 79 minutes, it somehow feels longer. which is a bit unfortunate.

The direction is solid enough for movies of this type, it honestly feels like someone took that era of poverty row film making and actually put some money behind it. I think this is a fabulous example of the genre to introduce people because it has that veneer of professionalism about it, without losing the charm that those B-movies have. Direction of the cast is tight too with a clearly tight relationship between the cast and crew allowing the cast to really explore their scenes and the crew to experiment in bringing the best out of the crews stage movements.

The cine too is sublime, I watched the colour version for this outing, which does lose a bit of the moodier moments. But for the black and white print at least, im surprised they’ve managed to make this film look as interesting as they have, a lot of the close quarter set spaces really lend themselves to the moodier low light constructions and it’s nice to see them play with shadows to help create a sense of unease. If I had to have a preference though, I think i’d go colour all the way.

Not only were the colour versions approved by Harryhausen, but I think, while underplaying the lighting choices, that loss is easily outweighed by the vibrance and engagement it pays back when we open things out to our location based and airy open set based sequences. they’re rich, colourful and really help take the film to the next level for me.

Throw in some fab melodramatic and campy performances from the cast and your bog standard – all orchestral scoring for movies of this ilk, and I think theres a lot to love with this movie. I dont necessarily think it would be my ‘go to’ as a way to immediatley introduce someone to the ‘Creature feature’ subgenre (I still think maybe the ‘Godzilla’ movies or something like ‘Earth vs the Flying Saucers’ or ‘The Giant Claw’ would do a better job of giving someone a ‘feel’ for what to expect. But this would absolutley be the 2nd film i’d show them as an introduction! and it’s one I can definitely recommend!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/it-came-from-beneath-the-sea/