|
Hard to believe it's already been a week! First, I want to thank Frank, Metaluna, Major Tom, Caleb, Ed, Bruce, Garen, Lile, my L.A. Connection crew and everyone else who helped make this a special year for the event. Certainly, a contender for our Top 10.
The Films:
ALIEN TRESPASS: These spoofs aren't my favorite sub-genre, but this was at least reasonably colorful and mildly amusing if hardly original. The BLOB movie within a movie was easily the best bit. But, how could the filmmakers have @#@#ed up so badly as to begin their supposed "lost 50s film" with full on CGI?!! One HUGE demerit. A cut above NAKED MONSTER or the Blamire stuff, but a long way from TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN/INVASION or STRANGE INVADERS.
IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE: I would like to have seen a different 3D movie (this was its 3rd showing), but the 3D worked ok, even if there was some blurring and the print was mediocre. I've always liked the strange isolated atmosphere of the piece, but the film is still a 2nd tier 50s 'classic'.
CHRYSALIS: I didn't expect much after seeing the trailer, and it 'delivered'. Still, I didn't hate this nearly as much as most. The story has a kernel of a decent idea (and on that level alone, is far more original than the other 2 premieres), but it's an amateurish effort and feels padded at 85 minutes. We never get to see why there is this botanical research facility outside of the trite generic 'world disaster' excuse. Oh, and the quick red screen that came up was a slug for the editor to put in an insert shot for the gun, indicating that this isn't the final cut yet - CHYRSALIS - THE DIRECTOR'S CUT for SF/35?
LOGAN'S RUN: Believe it or not, I had never really seen this save for a chopped up Network showing back in the 70s. It's hardly great, but I am forever indebted to Bruce Bartoo for digging up a print! When a local revival house did a 30 year retrospective of all the films they showed the month they opened in 1978, LOGAN'S RUN was the only movie they couldn't locate! Parts of the film work well, and the cast is certainly attractive and capable (save for Farrah - eeek). Ustinov is hammy fun and the sets and costumes have that retro future vibe that I live for at the Marathon! Aside from the surprising nudity in a PG film, the most striking thing was how far Special Effects technology progressed in the next year with the twin releases of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and STAR WARS (LOGAN'S RUN actually won the Effects Oscar).
RUNAWAY: I had some cheesy 80s fun with this, but it's still a 3rd rate and rather lethargic SF action thriller. I actually saw this at a preview before it came out, and even back then, it was dated upon release. The bullet cam was pretty innovative, but Crichton fails to present a world "a few years from now" where computers are so important you need a police squad to patrol 'em! To show you how fate works, Tom Selleck was supposed to play Indiana Jones, but his TV producers wouldn't let him leave the show. Harrison Ford plays Indy, and goes on to BLADE RUNNER. Selleck gets HIGH ROAD TO CHINA and RUNAWAY! Gene Simmons is a leering baddie, and hey, I got to work with him just a year later. It's interesting that this print is so little projected that a teaser for RAMBO II was still attached to it 25 years later!!
ALIEN RAIDERS: In Hollywood, this is called a 'Calling Card' film. A director makes a small movie to show he can put together a reasonably efficient feature length movie in hopes he gets the chance to make something more substantial. As a Calling Card, this passed the test for Rock. As an SF film? Eh, pretty generic. You could have substituted Terrorists for Aliens and the effect would have been about the same. Still, this ends up in our upper crust of Premieres.
THE THING: This classic holds up. Sorry about the shortened version - I had intended to remind Garen to check on that, but I'm still EXTREMELY angry that they even bother having this version in the vaults - WTF?!! Angry It's pretty amazing that as early as 1951 so many of what would become genre conventions exist in this production.
REPO MAN: When this showed 20 years ago at the Marathon, I sensed that a decent minority of the crowd just didn't get this. If you think of cinema as a time machine (and it's no more evident than at the Marathon), REPO MAN shows you much more of what was happening in a given place and time than something like CRASH. It won't win any Oscars, but I can tell you that THIS was the underbelly of L.A. back in the day - I was there. The version of 1984 we showed last year was a solid depressing work, but, in a way, REPO MAN can be seen as the punk take on that Orwellian year. Further pangs of recognition for me was that I would soon work with a significant number of cast members - Tracey Walter, Sy Richardson, Susan Barnes, Fox Harris etc.. The highlight of the event.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS: I hadn't seen this since it showed at the Marathon at SF/6. It holds up pretty well, but the original is still a much tighter, sharper and more durable film. It's a very 70s film, with the kind of loose structure and general malaise that the decade's filmmakers exuded (this isn't a criticism). Whereas the original film had a more political undercurrent (McCarthyism), this one can be read as the outgrowth of the sexual revolution. What struck me was that Director Kaufman seemed a bit uneasy about working within SF and included too many obvious shots of the pods, the trash collectors, 'spooky' lighting and shock cuts etc. The most egregious being the credits sequence on the pod planet. Not necessary. I did really enjoy Denny Zeitlen's discordnat score. Apparently, this was so draining for him, that he's never done another movie! So, what was up with Brooke Adams' hairy armpits? A part of the Pod process, or was she just a latent 60s hippie chick? Another PG movie with fairly explicit nudity.
KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE: I wanted to schedule this at another time in the schedule, but in putting this together so many other factors came into play (such as putting Three Premieres and 3 Premiere Shorts in primetime and scheduling 2 1/2 hours for TRANSFORMERS), that it ended up in the dreaded 4am slot. I think it would have been more fun at another time. Also, once you know the gag, it could never have that sense of discovery that it had when it showed 20 years back - one of my all-time fave Marathon showings ever. Still, this is a pretty subversive movie with its kiddie imagery and the evil protagonists.
TRANSFORMERS: I watched about 45 minutes of this waiting for places to open for Breakfast. It struck me as even dumber and more foolish than when I saw it in theaters.
I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE: I didn't grow up with this film. I only saw it at SF/15 before. I still don't think it quite works, though it certainly has a mature take on a familiar theme. It comes off as a bit dreary, and they never quite "go there" with the sexual tension, which would have given it more impact. But, I have much more respect for it now, and it stands apart from most films of the time (not to mention TODAY) in terms of addressing issues on a serious basis. And, you have to wonder what 10 year old kids seeing this at a Saturday Matinee would have made out of all the drinking and carousing back in the day.
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN: The most epic and magisterial of the TREK features. It's interesting that in only the 2nd movie, the torch seemed to be ready to be passed down (box office dictated otherwise, as it did with Spock's 'demise'). Montalban's prescence added yet another bit of poignancy on the themes of aging and death in the film (hope folks caught the brief audio clip Caleb provided of his Cordoba commercial that played just before it started!). A pretty grand way to end the event in high style!
SHORTS- The Comedy Central clips were mildy amusing and mercifully brief. DUCK DODGERS was fun as always, ROBOT RINGER was just plain odd (a good thing!), STAR TREK Blooper Reel was a welcome rediscovery, but I still can't fathom how CHUBBCHUBBS won the Oscar for Animated Short. Thank you Bruce for all the Trailers and Intermission mishmash - I only wish we could have had time for more!
I'm still recovering. Back to back coast plane trips and being awake for 42 straight hours last Sunday and Monday will do that!
_________________
Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
