A Video Review of "The Lathe of Heaven" (1980)

Copyright 2002 Glenn Walker

This production based on the Ursula K. LeGuin novel and starring Bruce Davison (Willard, Six Degrees of Separation, X-Men), Kevin Conway (Black Knight, The Funhouse) and Margaret Avery (The Return of Superfly, The Color Purple) was brought to the small screen in the early days of public television. It remains legendary as one of PBS’ greatest dramatic accomplishments.

* SPOILER WARNING *

The story is that of George Orr (Davison), a man whose dreams come true. Whatever he dreams becomes reality. After a suicide attempt he comes under the capacity of Dr. Haber (Conway) who upon learning Orr’s secret uses it to change the world.

However george’s mind doesn’t play fair. Haber tries to end racism, everyone turns gray. He wants to stop overpopulation, a plague kills six billion people. He tries for peace on earth, aliens attack the moon. In each case Haber gets a bigger nicer office and eventually his own dream institute.

A brilliant novel and a brilliant film. It is a great production considering the budget constrictions of PBS at the time. The unique synthesized score is also of note.

Definitely catch this if you can.

PROBABLY THE BEST GEEK MOVIE EVER MADE

A Video Review of "Free Enterprise"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

This movie is so chockfull of geek cool if it had more cursing in it I would swear this was the work of the master Kevin Smith.

Free Enterprise is the story of a group of friends, who happen to be film geeks, comic geeks and Trekkies, approaching their mid-life crises. There also the added feature of William Shatner who apparently is making quite a career in films portraying himself. He’s very good at that and I’m only being 50% sarcastic.

Amongst offering his standard get-a-life advice and getting help for his own woman problems Shatner wants to do a rap musical version of "Julius Caesar." Don’t laugh. It’s funny but it’s true and it pays off. Wait for it. "No Tears for Caesar" by The Artist Formerly Known as Shatner is an experience that cannot be lived without.

The for the most part unknown cast also includes big name Eric McCormack whose role and performance here is so excellent and different from his work on "Will and Grace" that it’s a shame he’s been stereotyped there. Phil LaMarr is also in the film but as his geek work as the cartoon voices of superheroes Green Lantern and Static should cement it’s no surprise he took the part. Big surprise here is the return to work of "Too Close for Comfort" star Deborah Van Walkenberg who’s actually very good although decades older.

As I said this is a geek movie. It has references overflowing from its cleavage. I can’t imagine any ‘normal’ person walking in from the street and even understanding this masterpiece. Only a geek would get everything from "Star Trek," Logan’s Run and Basic Instinct to Fellini, scary 1980s new wave music and Mighty Isis action figures from Mego. It’s a geek’s paradise and it also has a good plot, good acting and is an altogether great movie. And only a geek could appreciate the wet dream-like fantasy of meeting a hot chick in a comics shop while fighting over a "Sandman" hardcover.

The only thing I didn’t like – the threesome – seems like it was put in just to say Ha! Geeks do have a sex life, and a full one for that matter. This is bothersome. As the geeks who made the movie and the geeks they made it for well know, everybody has sex, whether everybody else knows it or not. This seems a bit too much to press the point. Regardless I hated all two minutes of the threesome. And for all you perves with your finger on the pause button, it’s not even worth your time. It’s a plot point.

Do not miss the end credits. Extra points to the geek who gets every reference. They are the best credits this side of Airplane! and in some cases funnier than the film itself which is hilarious – don’t miss. I love this movie.

Rating: *****

***** Must see
**** Worth seeing
*** So you have eight dollars you want to throw away…
** Is Adam Sandler in this mess?
* A bullet would be quicker.

HOT CHICKS IN HOT OUTFITS

A Film Review of "The Cell"

Copyright 2001 Glenn Walker

Virtual reality, cyberspace, inside the human mind, the imagination. In a sci-fi movie these are all excuses to get hot chicks in hot outfits. Mix in some hokey plot, a perverse serial killer and Jennifer Lopez, shake well and you have The Cell.

Jennifer Lopez plays a child psychologist who uses VR to enter the minds of her catatonic patients and help them. There’s your set up and the excuse for million dollar (well spent) special effects.

The concept: Vincent D’onoffrio in one of his more disturbing roles is a serial killer who likes to kill his female victims by timed remote control drowning. He goes comatose with a victim still out there, J-Lo has to enter his mind to find the girl. Detective Vince Vaughn comes along for the ride.

There’s your plot, much more difficult to explain than to understand. In the flick it flows much better. The VR scenes are both visually mind-blowing and disturbing. The evil mind of the serial killer contains such bizarre imagery if you aren’t completely under the spell of suspension of disbelief you might start thinking what kind of nutjob would come up with this twisted stuff.

And of course, the best part, a hot chick in hot outfits. Thank you, Jennifer Lopez.

TOO TRUE TO BE REAL

A Video Review of "Ed Gein" also known as "In the Light of the Moon"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

The real Ed Gein was quite a piece of work. In late 1957 he was convicted of necrophilia, cannibalism and of course murder. He was perhaps America’s first famous serial killer. He was the inspiration for both Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and to a degree probably Tom Harris’ Hannibal Lector. Who knows, he probably inspired other real serial killers as well.

The film Ed Gein opens and closes with real footage of the real man, his arrest, his neighbors and his home. In some ways this verification that it really happened is more startling than what appears at first to be just another horror movie.

Of course most of the movie is speculation because for the time Gein spent in a mental hospital until his death in 1984 he said little and, unlike predecessors like Charles Manson, never talked to the press. As far as based on truth this film suffers from the same disease as Oliver Stone’s Nixon, no one was around to witness most of the scenes depicted.

Ed Gein is ably played by the creepy Steve Railsback who also coincidentally played Charles Manson in the TV mini-series "Helter Skelter." Gein’s domineering mother is portrayed by horror veteran Carrie Snodgress (Silent Night, Deadly Night, The Fury).

It is slow at points but very involving. It is a matter knowing what’s coming and not knowing what’s coming, a kind of a twisted suspense as demented as the film’s subject. There are some disturbing images recreated by prop folks as far as Gein’s house, furnishings and ultimately Gein’s hallucinations and the murder scenes themselves. The horror is more in the truth than on the screen.

See it at your own risk. Gein may be the inspiration for today’s serial killers but he was also one of the worst as well as the first.

THE LORD OF BULLSHIT

A Video Review of "The Kid Stays in the Picture"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

Robert Evans is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Without him such classic films as The Godfather, Rosemary’s Baby and Love Story would never have been made. He ran Paramount Studios. He has been involved with some of the world’s most beautiful and famous (and not so beautiful and famous) women. The scandals of his life have been tragic and the talk of the town. He also created such dogs as Popeye and the remakes of The Saint and The Out-of-Towners. He is the inspiration for the Robert Vaughn character in S.O.B. and the Dustin Hoffman character in Wag the Dog. His personal exploits are mythic and his life has been immortalized in The Kid Stays in the Picture.

Unfortunately he is also the lord of bullshit. You can’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth. It seems like maybe he was still using the cocaine that led to his downfall when he wrote the book this film was based on. We are always treated to Robert Evans’ take, always his opinion, always his mix of myth and truth. The Robert Evans quote that opens the film states his philosophy on lying that it serves everyone differently. How true.

We start at the beginning following Evans’ career from his discovery by Norma Shearer at a Beverly Hills swimming pool to star as her late husband Irving Thalberg in 1957’s The Man with a Thousand Faces with James Cagney to his tragic downfall with the failure of The Cotton Club in 1984 surrounded by lurid cocaine and murder scandals regarding the death of filmmaker and drug dealer Roy Radin.

The details in between include his proving himself to Daryl Zanuck that he could play the bullfighter in The Sun Also Rises from which the documentary’s title is taken; Zanuck’s quote. We also see him get Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra divorced to finish Rosemary’s Baby, him bagging both Ali MacGraw and Love Story to save Paramount Studios, him battle endlessly with Francis Ford Coppola over The Godfather, the triumph of Chinatown and the failure of The Cotton Club.

The Kid Stays in the Picture is worth sitting through if only to hear Evans’ humiliating voiceover imitation of Mia Farrow. A fun drinking game can be made of how many times he says, "How could I have been so fucking dumb?" Hmmph. Easily. Did I mention he was the lord of bullshit?

No matter what was really true or really false kudos have to be granted to directors Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen because they have created a documentary so compelling you forget you’re watching a documentary. The graphics, clips and fades are extraordinary, the likes of which we’ve never seen. Bravo for making a masterpiece out of lies.


For more of my movie reviews check out:
Comic Widows at
http://www.comicwidows.com
or the Internet Movie Database at
http://www.imdb.com

Contact me at
monsura2@yahoo.com