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The Cat from Outer Space (1978)
"The Cat From Outer Space" review
I had originally written this review for my school's newspaper, so please excuse the quality.
The Cat From Outer Space is a somewhat obscure Disney movie released in 1978 starring Ken Berry (Mayberry R.F.D.), Sandy Duncan, Roddy McDowell (Planet of the Apes), Ronnie Schell (Gomer Pyle) and McLean Stevenson (M*A*S*H).
The plot revolves around a cat-like alien named Jake (voiced by Schell) who crash-lands on Earth and must recover his spacecraft from the government with the help of Frank (Berry) and Liz (Duncan), scientists working at the army base holding the UFO. Along the way, there's the typical love-plot between Frank and Liz, a bumbling spy trying to steal a spaceship and an incident in which the scientists must win a game of pool to buy enough gold to fuel Jake's ride home.
Like most live-action Disney movies before and during this time, The Cat From Outer Space is relatively benign – after all, it is a Disney movie, but with all fairness, the idea is certainly unique; the characters aren't terrible (though certainly archetypal), and there's plenty of moments worth the raising of at least one eyebrow.
Probably the best part of the movie is Jake himself, who, despite just being a cat who probably had no idea what he was doing, manages to be the best character in the movie; not being from this planet and all, he communicates with the cast with a specialized collar that grants him psychic powers, telepathy (which explains how he can talk to humans), and whenever the powers that be demand it, the ability to place people and animals in suspended animation for several minutes.
Although a rather uncommon entry in the Disney canon, The Cat from Outer Space shouldn't be overlooked. If you're a fan of old live-action Disney movies, go ahead and pick it up wherever you can find it, be it in a physical or digital format.
Quicksand (1950)
A candidate for MST3K if I ever saw one...
I'm not sure why MST3K never caught this on the radar; it's the type of movie that would be vastly improved by a riff.
Everything that was wrong with the Hays Code is shown here: a forgettable plot, pointless exposition, a slight embezzlement unrealistically leading to attempted murder, protagonists with the personality of concrete, and mediocre writing.
For what it's worth, though, Mickey Rooney does at least TRY in this movie, even though it doesn't save the film.
Bottom line, get some of your friends together and tear this film apart; you'll have more fun that way.
The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974)
Why do I consider this the worst sequel ever?
There's an encyclopedia of sequels that people consider the worst-Neverending Story III, Godzilla's Revenge/All Monsters Attack, Son of the Mask-and each of them hold valid reasons as to why they're hated. So why do I consider THIS the worst? Because it's lazy. The original Fritz the Cat was a decent adaptation of the infamous art of Robert Crumb; this, however, is like fan fiction-made worse by the fact that neither Crumb or Bakshi, the director of the first, were involved. There is pretty much no sign of effort, decency, or humor. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a film that contains GAY Hitler RAPE. I am dead serious-watch it and see for yourself. The only thing that this film offers that even comes close to good is the music of Tom Scott and the L.A. Express, and to be fair, there's not much of it.
Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
Broken Tigers
Even though I'm a large fan of Pink Floyd, and The Wall being the first album I ever listened to, I still find this movie to be overrated.
Probably the main problem that plagues this film is the symbolism-it's overly pretentious. In the iconic "Another Brick in the Wall II" segment, students are filed into a maze that leads to a giant meat grinder under the supervision of their evil Scottish teacher. What exactly LEAD into this? A simple embarrassment in front of the class.
And there's Geldof himself-it's alright when he doesn't talk, but his voice-and his grotesque face-just don't fit the tone of the movie. This said, it's actually pretty funny to see him scream "STO-OP!".
Like I said, it's just not a faithful adaptation of the album. It CAN be done-there's concert footage planned for use in the film that suits it PERFECTLY-but here, it's just mediocre at best.