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Reviews
Dirt (1965)
Strange little movie
What can I say about this? I went looking for it on the Internet after reading about the sordid details of Bobby Driscoll's life. Only 12 minutes of this were made, and it is pretty much an experimental underground 60's flick, which means don't expect a plot or anything else. The first 10 seconds feature two nuns walking down a street, with one of them supposedly Driscoll (hard to tell, the quality's bad), then cut to 5 minutes of buildings (buildings turned sideways, people walking around buildings, etc.) then cut to a woman taking a bath then cut to two women fighting in a bathtub. Strange and surreal with sudden cuts to the women staring at the camera made this feel like something out of "The Ring".
Alice Cooper & Friends (1977)
Not quite as bad as they say...
This is the video released in the 80s that contains the infamous "Chicken with Machine Guns" number and a lethargic Alice who really doesn't want to be there. The show starts off with a seemingly content Alice doing "School's Out", then cuts to Nazareth, Sha-Na-Na. and the Tubes before going back to Alice. Most of the songs Alice does are incomplete, some as short as a minute. He mumbles through "Billion Dollar Babies" and forgets the lyrics in "I Love the Dead". In the latter song, when the executioner makes him put his head in the guillotine, he shouts "I don't want to, I don't want to". Hard to tell if this was part of the script or not. Nazareth sings Love Hurts, and Sha-Na-Na, which covers 50's classics like "Yakkity Yak" and "Leader of the Pack", is the most fun to watch.
Aquaman (1984)
Movie Info and Synopsis
This is a student film created by UCLA students Thomas Farr and Jeff Klein in 1984. It was filmed on a $10,000 budget. The film stars Gordon Goodman as Arthur Curry/ Aquaman, Linda Phillips as Dr. Katey King, and Steve Dewinter as the Angler. It is sometimes referred to as a TV pilot, although this is erroneous. The film begins with animation for the first few minutes and then blends into live action. The film begins with a picture of the Earth, and the impersonated voices of Jacque Custeau and Rod Serling narrate. They relate the origin of Aquaman. A car driven by Aquamans parents, the Currys. Mrs. Curry is pregnant. They are traveling down the Pacific Coast Highway in 1961 and swerve off the road to avoid a truck carrying fish. The car plunges into the ocean, and the newborn baby is rescued and raised by dolphins. Mrs. Curry apparently give birth during the crash.
Aquaman's powers are then described. He can stay underwater for lengthy period of time and can communicate with dolphins and other marine creatures. He grows up and is sighted by Jacque Custeau while Custeau is filming a documentary called "The Reapers of the Sea". Suddenly whale poachers arrive to slaughter whales, and Cousteau watches amazed as Aquaman saves a pack of whales.
Arthur Curry uses the wealth of the sea floor to become a scientist at a marine lab. He is visiting a room of fish tanks and communicating with the fish inside them. He submerges his face into one of the tanks to better speak to a lobster about a football game on TV when he is interrupted by Katey King. She is curious as to what he is doing, and he explains he dropped a contact lens into the tank. She then reminds him that he doesn't wear contacts. They are then interrupted by the television as the Angler breaks in with a live message. He claims he will use a toxin which will kill sea life unless a ransom is paid. Arthur reflects on the time the Angler tried to kill the Mormon Tabernacle Choir by drowning them in the Great Salt Lake. The Angler then begins to have trouble speaking and must eat a banana. Arthur tell Kay that the Angler has a potassium deficiency and must eat a banana every half-hour or the Angler will die. The Angler then challenges Aquaman to stop him.
Arthur runs from the lab in a hurry and dives into the ocean. He changes into his Aquaman suit and searches for this dolphin parents. He asks them how to get to the Angler's hideout. He rides on their backs to the hideout.
The Angler's henchmen catch an image of Aquaman on a surveillance monitor, and the Angler decides to capture Katey, whom he calls "Aquman's girlfriend". The henchmen then prepare for Aquaman's visit to their hideout. Aquaman fights the henchmen with the aid of a starfish.
The Angler then fights Aquaman himself and captures him with a fishing line. The film ends with a cliffhanger ending, asking the viewers if Aquaman will escape from "The Cast of the Angler".
The Tragedy of Coriolanus (1984)
Good acting, not bad for the BBC
I don't want to be too critical of this, since it is the only available version of this play. Alan Howard does a great job in the title role, making you believe in his character, and all of the other actors do great jobs too. Of course, then there's the problem all of the BBC productions had with this cycle: the production never put in the money to make these plays seem like real films, something Olivier or Brannagh would make, so you get pretty dull sets and very little music, and of course no breathtaking battles or sword fights. Still, that's not the fault of this movie, and like I said, I'm thankful at least one version exists. The DVD comes with subtitles or you can follow along with the text if you're unfamiliar with the play like I was. It's worth checking out if you get the chance.
Antony and Cleopatra (1972)
Best version of the play
It's a crime this movie isn't on DVD yet. If you can get ahold of the 20 year + old VHS tape and you like either Shakespeare or Charlton Heston, then get it. The Richard Johnson/ Janet Suzeman version is good, especially Patrick Stewart, but that was a TV production- this is a film. No constant close-ups or backgrounds that are hard on the eyes. Instead you get lots of scenes filmed on location (by that I mean outdoors, not a set thats suppose to be outdoors), action scenes involving gladiators and a honest to goodness depiction of the Battle of Actium (ok, they reused some Ben-Hur footage in parts, but its still not bad for the time), and a musical soundtrack. The cast is great, and Heston is perfect as Antony. The actress playing Cleopatra gets criticism from some, but I think she did a great job as well. This is the definitive version of this play, all things considered.
Tales from the Darkside: Effect and Cause (1985)
Effect and Cause
Jeff brings a set of unwanted paintings to Kate's apartment, and strange things begin to happen. First, an ambulance shows up at the apartment saying someone called reporting an injury, but nothing has happened, then as the paramedics are there, Kate falls down the stairs and hurts herself. Later, a delivery boy from the grocery store shows up even though no one called him, and insists she doesn't need the groceries, but as the delivery boy reads off each item, the same item in her kitchen disappears. More strange things keep happening, and Kate questions why things seem to keep happening in reverse order (effect then cause), and things go haywire.
Tales from the Darkside: Seymourlama (1987)
Seymourlama
This was not the usual scary or ironic shows that TfDS usually did, but instead its a comedy that I found pretty funny. The basic plot is a mother, father, and their teenage son Seymour who live together, and the father and Seymour do not get along. One night an Asian man (Divine) and his female assistant come to house telling Seymour he is the new Dahli Lama of a country called Lo Poa, which Divine says is definitely different from Tibet. Seymour will now be complete ruler of this country and he starts to order his parents around and basically behaves like a tyrant. Then Divine finds out something... I liked this episode. It was nice to see Divine out of drag, although he's still in a lot of make-up. Just the way he acts is funny and this one is worth seeing.
Tales from the Darkside: All a Clone by the Telephone (1985)
all a clone by the telephone
I liked this episode quite a bit. The premise is a man named Leon (Harry Anderson) buys an answering machine that basically talks to everybody he knows and tells them what the machine wants them to hear, thereby controlling Leon's life. Eventually, the machine makes Leon so mad that Leon yanks the power cord on it, and then every other automated machine calls him constantly at his home, his agent's office, or just from phones of other people. The machine then makes a call favorable to Leon, and Leon has to beg forgiveness from the machine and offer something in return for its assistance. I like the actors in this episode and Harry Anderson does a good job. Interesting to see him in something from the 80's besides "Night Court".
The Flash: Alpha (1991)
Alpha
In this episode a female android who is being trained to be an assassin escapes from a secret government agency and goes to Central City.
She gets a job at Star Labs where she meets Tina McGee and Barry Allen (The Flash), and they begin to notice something strange about her- like her super strength and x-ray vision.
This movie seems to borrow (or rip-off) a lot of sci-fi movies. Most obvious is Blade Runner (android thinks she's human), but also there's Short Circuit (she escapes and government goes looking for her) and the Terminator (android with super human powers). In fact, if this hadn't come out before Terminator 2, I would say it ripped off that movie when the female android fights a male android sent to catch her.
Anyway, this is an OK episode, but not as good as a lot of the ones that came at end of the series.
The Flash: Good Night, Central City (1991)
Good Night Central City
Plot Summary:
A scientist invents a machine that can instantly put people to sleep and his evil cousin uses him and the machine to pull off crimes like bank robberies. In the meantime, Barry Allen (aka the Flash) get blamed for the crimes due to circumstantial evidence and an overeager Internal Affairs investigator. Unfortunately, one of the side-effects of the sleep machine is that if left on too long it kills the people who are asleep, and the whole city is in jeopardy. This is good episode, further proof that if ones like this had come early in the season or the show's schedule hadn't been so messed up there probably would have been at least 5 seasons of "The Flash". One goof in this episode though: The police recognize the identities of the two cousins in a bank robbery and hold it against Barry Allen as proof he was somehow involved. However, during the bank robbery scene, both cousins keep masks on the whole time and would be unrecognizable. Maybe they took them off and the TV show just didn't show it? Oops.
Tales from the Darkside: Auld Acquaintances (1987)
Auld Acquantices
Here's my summary of this episodes.
Two women meet each other in a museum so one can give the other a magic amulet. Turns out they're both witches with an agreement for each on to hang on to the amulet for a year so one can use magic but other has to live without it.
When I first saw the description of this episode, I didn't think it sounded very good, but when I watched it I was surprised it was better than it sounded.
Maybe not the best in the series and the surprise ending isn't very satisfying, but you probably won't regret watching this one.
Tales from the Darkside: It All Comes Out in the Wash (1985)
All Comes out
A Chinese laundromat offers a special service to wash away ones guilt, and therefore culpability, by somehow cleaning ones laundry.
One day a moderately corrupt business man hears about this offer from his friend and visits the laundry. The man can use the service as much as he wants but he is never supposed to call on the phone.
After a while, the man realizes he can do whatever he wants since his guilt keeps getting washed away but the laundry starts to charge double then triple price. The man gets greedy and calls...
The ending to this episode isn't that much of a twist but I like the theme of it anyway. Pretty good episode.
The Strange Case of Alice Cooper (1979)
desc. of film
Concert filmed in San Diego during the Mad House Rock tour. The concert was after the release of the "From the Inside" album and nearly all the songs from it are performed live, although some are cut short. The only songs that weren't done were "Jackknife Johnny" and "Millie and Billie". Of course, all the usual hits like "18" and "Only Women Bleed" are on it too, but sound different because of Alice's backup band "Ultra Latex" plays them with a different style. The concert is great and lots of fun to watch new props used with the then new songs. Unfortunately, the video only appeared on VHS sometime during the late 70's or early 80's and no official DVD has been released.