1978 - HALLOWEEN, finally got around to watching this one

Another good looking Blu Ray.  I've put off watching this horror film for years since I am not really a horror film kind of guy.  Have to admit John Carpenter did a very good job with this film considering what he had to work with.

Carpenter essentially had to tease the audience for over an hour before he started in with the killings.  Much to my surprise there are only three dead teenagers in the original Halloween.  The acting of the cast is hit or miss.  I never thought I would watch a film where Donald Pleasence was the headliner. 
Jamie Lee Curtis is a pretty tough little cookie with a brain in her head.  The rest of the cast seems to have a rather limited range of emotions and as is expected in this genre the women are the ones who have to show some skin.

There is an unintentionally hilarious moment where Curtis discovers the bodies of her dead friends but overall the film is pretty good with the suspense and terror stuff.

91 minutes, written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill.

1980 - THE SHINING, on Blu Ray

The Shining looks great on my Blu Ray disc.  The cinematography by John Alcott really comes to life.  Say what you want about this film but Stanley Kubrick's meticulous direction and Jack Nicholson's larger than life performance make watching this film an enjoyable experience if you can call watching a horror film an enjoyable experience I guess.

There was a lot of criticism regarding Kubrick letting Nicholson go over the top so early in the film but Nicholson's performance is very impressive.  Shelley Duvall is also very good and the little kid isn't bad either.

Since I first saw The Shining on it's initial release I was somewhat lukewarm to it but I would have to say the film while no masterpiece like 2001: A Space Odyssey is a very good film.  On a technical level the film is a very impressive piece of craftsmanship.

Nicholson and Kubrick on the set

 144 minutes, screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson.

1949 - ON THE TOWN, the famous MGM musical.

This was a ground breaking musical.  Gene Kelly had been pushing MGM to expand the boundaries of the musical and actually got the studio to agree to 2 weeks of filming in New York City.

On The Town was adapted from a Broadway musical featuring a Leonard Bernstein score.  In this film version the score barely survived with only 4 songs remaining.  The Jerome Robbins choreography was replaced by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's work,  well that's Hollywood.

Frankly the film was kind of an ordeal to sit through.  On The Town is about 10 minutes too long and has one dance number too many for my taste.  The on location photography, what there is of it was kind of nice.  But overall the film seems very silly, today's film scene has not been kind to old musicals particularly musicals with a lot of dancing in them.

 

98 minutes,  screenplay by Adolph Green and Betty Comden.

1983 - SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE

Well the approach or plan was to make a science fiction film that had a B-movie sensibility sort of like Star Wars, but this film is no Star Wars and really not much of a B movie.

The actors with the exception of an extremely miscast Molly Ringwald seem like they want to give it the old college try but the screenplay is so pedestrian and more importantly unfunny that they just go through the motions from one scene to the next

The director is Lamont Johnson a rather distinguished television director who never really made the transition to theatrical films.  Johnson who directed many outstanding television films seems like a really poor choice for a science fiction film a genre he never worked in.

  

This film was shown in 3-D and as I recall brought nothing to the viewing experience.

90 minutes,  a lot of writers on this one never a good sign, David Preston, Edith Rey, Daniel Goldberg and Len Blum.

1932 - SCARFACE: The Shame of the Nation

This is a very violent 30's gangster film to put it mildly.  The film is based on the life of Al Capone and was written by the legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht, produced by Howard Hughes and directed by Howard Hawks.

Scarface is considered a classic in the gangster genre and it probably is a classic but be forewarned this is a very 1930's film with a definite 1930's vibe to it particularly in the acting and the overall pacing

I don't recall Howard Hawks directing a film like this one with lots of artsy photography and symbolism. It's very different from the style he developed later in his career.

Still, the film isn't dull, there is plenty of machine gun action and Paul Muni's performance as the sort of stupid but very violent gangster is interesting to see.

95 minutes.

2015 - SAN ANDREAS. the disaster film is alive and well

Not too much to say about this one.   The Rock must save his family from a couple of earthquakes as the big one finally hits California.  In the good old days of movies our here was always a special ops guy who had been stationed in Vietnam.  Nowadays he's a former soldier who was stationed in Iraq.  The more things change the more they stay the same.

Well anyway after numerous warnings from earthquake specialist Paul Giamatti who's big time slumming for a paycheck, the computer effects kick in and they are very superior computer effects I will grant that.

Will The Rock save his big breasted daughter and big breasted wife?  The bigger question does anyone remember Earthquake in Sensurround of which this movie is essentially a remake.

San Andreas is another film in that strange genre known as "disaster porn."

114 minutes.

1965 - THE SATAN BUG, on Blu Ray

On Blu Ray this superior thriller looks very good with ace cinematographer Robert Surtees and director John Sturges location scenes looking fantastic.

The commentary by DVD review pro Glenn Erickson has some amusing insights.  Apparently Sturges was preparing The Hallelujah Trail during the film and The Satan Bug did not have his full attention much to the annoyance of the cast.

Still, you would never know Sturges was preoccupied during the filming the film turned out to be a superior thriller.

114 minutes, written by James Clavell.

1968 - BANDOLERO, a mighty lame western

Mediocrity reigns supreme in this stupid western.  First, lets consider the cast.  Dean Martin and James Stewart are outlaws brothers.  That throws most of your credibility out the window to begin with.  Since this film was made at 20th Century Fox, the studios contract sex symbol who never could act Raquel Welch is cast as the female lead.  Finish off the fun with everyone's favorite character actor George Kennedy who at least is trying to give a credible performance.

The script is by one of John Wayne's favorite hack writers, James Lee Barrett who had credits on The Green Berets, Something Big and the Cheyenne Social Club.  The director is the poor man's John Ford, Andrew McLaglen.  For a guy who was an assistant director to John Ford and William Wellman he sure didn't absorb much in the way of directing films competently from those gentlemen.

Raquel Welch is used about the way you would expect she would be used, as a tease.  Her love story with Dean Martin is completely ridiculous and never even remotely believable.  Martin and Stewart fallback on their charm and movie star charisma but even that is in short supply.

McLaglen directs the shootouts and action scenes in such a pedestrian manner, he manages to squeeze all of the excitement out of them.  The whole movie is forgettable.

106 minutes.

1990 - FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND, Roger Corman's final film

Roger Corman attempted to make the same kind of film he had been directing his entire life a fast paced horror/science fiction film with a little social commentary.  Corman chose a book Frankenstein Unbound by an author Brian Aldiss, which apparently is a reinterpretation of the Frankenstein story.

The cast is certainly one of the better one's for a Corman movie.  Raul Julia, Bridget Fonda and John Hurt.  Unfortunately the script and story don't really come together. The plot is about a scientist in the future traveling back in time where he meets the real Dr. Frankentstein and his monster with the usual monster mayhem that results.

During the film there are certain scenes that remind me of the old Roger Corman but for the most part the film seems to lack his old style and panache.  Sure there's plenty of blood and guts and violence but the whole thing has a certain been there done that before quality to it

85 minutes.

1955 - THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Charles Laughton's superior horror film.

Charles Laughton's poetic horror film is a one of a kind film.

Shot primarily in a studio for budget reasons, the cinematographer Stanley Cortez gave it a beautiful black and white look.

Screenplay was by critic James Agee.

Memorable performances from Lillian Gish and especially Robert Mitchum.

92 minutes.

1932 - THE MUMMY, accept no substitute

The Mummy movie.  This film featured the original production team from Todd Browning's version of Dracula.  This is a much superior film to that one, because of the involvement of Karl Freund the cinematographer of Dracula.

Freund was hired as the director on The Mummy.  He had been a noted cinematographer working on Lang's Metropolis and The Last Laugh.  Freund brought plenty of atmosphere using lighting effects and editing.  This film has a slow but creepy place.

Credit for the film should also go Universal's famous makeup artist Jack Pierce who created the rotting bandage makeup that Boris Karloff wore during the flashback and early scenes in the film.

A superior 30's horror film.

73 minutes.

1974 - THE TOWERING INFERNO, the high point of the 70's disaster film cycle

Irwin Allen's formula, stick big stars in a high concept studio film project probably reached the high point in The Towering Inferno.  The film had Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway and lots of spot the star supporting talent.  Allen also had lots of stuff to set on fire as befits a film with the word Inferno in it.

The film looks a little dated today with it's rear projection and model and miniature work but the fire scenes with stuntmen being set on fire and running around the burning sets are still very effective.  The script by Stirling Silliphant as a big bag of cliches and the characterization is pretty weak (heroic architect in the Ayn Rand mode, superhuman fire chief etc), but he does move the story along for the most part.

The film was directed by John Guillermin who apparently wasn't very happy about Irwin Allen taking the credit for the action sequences.  However this is an Irwin Allen film all the way.  He had been making this film almost all his life, sticking a cast of actors who audiences could recognize in improbable story situations.

The Towering Inferno is Irwin Allen's high point.  After this film it's all downhill with films like The Swarm, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure and When Time Ran Out.

165 minutes.