Bad Moon (1996)

Bad Moon (1996)

Director: Eric Red

Cast: Michael Pare, Mariel Hemingway

Werewolf movies are a tricky bunch, same as the characters in these films, the werewolf film seems to be cursed at the box office where they rarely make their money back. And I’m not talking about vampire films that include werewolves like the Underworld and Twilight franchises, I’m talking about films where the werewolf is the central character. Hell, even when they are actually good they fail! For example The Wolfman (2010) starring Benicio del Toro was an excellent werewolf movie in my book, yet it bombed horribly. In fact, if we get down to it, there hasn’t been a true blue successful werewolf film since An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Howling (1981) ripped into theaters and wowed everyone with their excellent make up effects. Maybe that’s the reason why we haven’t had a successful werewolf movie. Nobody has been able to top what was done in An American Werewolf in London (1981) in terms of makeup effects. But most of the time, werewolf movies simply aren’t that good. For example An American Werewolf in Paris (1997), made the mistake of replacing practical transformation effects with bad CGI, plus the comedy angle just fell flat. Of course, there have been exceptions. Teen Wolf (1985) made a hefty profit, but that was because its budget was a measly 1.4 million and it starred 80’s ‘it’ boy Michael J. Fox. There was also Silver Bullet (1985), which made its money back because it was based on a Stephen King novel. But putting these exceptions aside, werewolf movies are rarely successful. The film I’ll be reviewing today, Eric Red’s Bad Moon (1996), is a good example of the werewolf curse. Was it one of the good ones?

I’d say that it had potential, but failed to perform. The main problem I had with Bad Moon is that it was too damn simple. A photo journalist named Ted gets scratched by a werewolf while on an expedition in Nepal. Sadly, while Ted only gets a nasty scratch on his chest, his girlfriend gets ripped to shreds! When he returns to America, he lives an isolated life in the middle of the forest, trying to forget it all. That is until his sister visits him and tells him that he should move in with her for a while. He agrees, because he comes to the conclusion that maybe family love might cure him from the werewolf curse, which of course makes no sense at all! You’re putting your sister and her son in jeopardy! But whatever, I chalked it up to wishful thinking. Point is that his sister has a dog named Thor, and Thor detects Ted’s werewolf condition. Um…there really isn’t much more to say about the plot because there isn’t much conflict, a quality sorely missing in this film. We needed more complexity to the story; the movie is just too damn simple. The thing is that the book on which the film is based, a novel called ‘Thor’ by Wayne Smith, actually offered an innovative concept. It tells the story from the dogs’ point of view. Now I realize you can’t really make an entire movie that way, but I find the director could have exploited this angle a bit more.

Speaking of the dog, he’s gotta be the cutest freaking German Sheppard ever. ‘Primo’ (the dogs name in real life) steals the movie from Michael Pare and Mariel Hemingway who offer some of the most wooden performances ever. There’s no chemistry between them whatsoever, the whole brother/sister thing was not played off in a convincing manner, and I normally dig Michael Pare’s movies! If this was meant to be a movie about family, then they should at least have shown a strong familial bond, which just doesn’t happen here. In a way, this movie was supposed to be like the Poltergeist franchise, where family love is at the center of the whole thing. Sadly, Michael Pare’s character Ted doesn’t even come off as likable. Which of course is a huge mistake, we’re supposed to sympathize with the guy. Eric Red should have emphasized Ted’s despair and anguish a bit more; we needed a scene or two of him in true mental and emotional anguish, the director should have given us time to warm up to Ted and his family. As you can see, we simply needed more character development, we needed to complicate things. And it’s not as if they didn’t have any screen time to do it, the film only runs for a measly 80 minutes.

What else ails this film? Well, the big draw with werewolf films are the transformations, which should try and top everything that has been done before, or at the very least be good. Here’s the thing with Bad Moon, the werewolf looks cool and the creature itself was pulled off rather nicely, when completely transformed the werewolf looks imposing, only a little wooden and robotic with its facial movements. Eric Red obviously wanted to build up the suspense with the creature because we don’t see a werewolf transformation until we are way into the films third half. So we’re left expecting a cool werewolf transformation, and we kind of get it. The practical side of it actually works, sadly, somebody decided to include a few scenes of the worst computer generated effects in the world, so we get this horrible morphing transformation, by the way, I’m really glad they don’t use morphing anymore! Morphing works on certain situations but not for hairy, muscle bound creatures like the werewolf. So yeah, morphing effects aside, the werewolf transformation isn’t all that bad. Also, the gore effects are actually quite good on this one, gotta give it that! 

Everything builds up to a confrontation between Thor and Ted. If this film was going to be centered around the whole Thor vs. Ted thing, they should have built up on that a little more. Sadly, the film feels a little half assed, it could have been so much more. I think the film simply didn’t embrace its strengths which is a sad thing because usually, Eric Red makes fantastic films with strong performances. Case in point, the script for The Hitcher (1986), which Eric Red wrote or Jeff Fahey in Body Parts (1991), which Eric Red both wrote and directed. Hell, Eric Red wrote freaking Near Dark (1987), one of the best vampire films from the 80’s! Now these are films with strong characters! This is the reason why I was stumped that Bad Moon had such weak characters! Normally this is Eric Red’s strength! But whatever, every filmmaker deserves a dud in his repertoire and Bad Moon was Eric Reds. It’s worth a watch, it's far from being the worst werewolf movie ever made, but it’s nothing memorable either.

Rating: 3 out of 5   

   

Behind the Scenes Awesomeness: The Back to the Future Trilogy!

This pic is from an early version of Back to the Future, they actually shot the whole film with Eric Stoltz! But they didn't like his rendition of Marty McFly so they filmed the whole thing again, but with Michael J. Fox. 

Director Robert Zemeckis on location for Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Lensman: Secret of the Lens (1984)

Lensman: Secret of the Lens (1984)

Director: Kazuyuki Hirokawa, Yoshiaki Kawajiri

You've probably never heard of Lensman: The Secret of the Lens because for whatever the reason, this film is very obscure, it’s not talked about a lot amongst anime fans, or even science fiction fans, which is strange to me because this movie is so damn entertaining, so well animated, that it’s a pity it isn't more popular. Even finding decent pics for this review was a small task! But whatever, I’m here to spread the goodness and inform you lovers of anime out there that this is one of those movies you've never heard of that you should give a chance to. Lensman was one of the first anime movies that I watched, along with Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of theValley of the Wind (1984), that taught me that animation could be so much more than what we got in Saturday morning cartoons; something far superior and complex than a 20 minute episode of He-Man and The Masters of the Universe. Speaking of which, the animation was fantastic on this film! You could see the filmmakers were going for something special, which is something I always look for in anime films, it has to be something special. So, what’s Lensman all about and why should you take your time to check it out?

Lensman is the story of a young boy named Kim, who lives a happy life farming with his father on the peaceful planet of Mqueie. One day, a spaceship is about to crash land on their corn field, but Kim, being the excellent pilot that he is, boards the ship before it crashes and lands it himself! He quickly explores the ship and comes upon a dying member of ‘The Galactic Patrol’, who hands him a magical Lens which immediately adheres to Kim’s hand. Kim doesn't know it yet, but the Lens will give him enhanced mental abilities and telepathic powers. Soon, Kim learns that the Boskones, an evil race of beings enemies to the human race, are after this particular lens because it holds the location of the ‘Devil Planet’, home planet to the Boskones. The film is a chase sequence, as the Boskones chase Kim and his friends across the galaxy, trying to destroy the Lens. Will Kim unite with the Galactic Patrol in order to hand them the location of the Devil Planet? Or will the Boskones destroy Kim and the Lens first?

The cover for 'Grey Lensman' one of the many Lensman novels written by Edward E. Smith

Basically Lensman is this amazing property which has been around since the 1930’s when its creator Edward Elmer Smith wrote the first Lensman story and published it in the legendary science fiction magazine ‘Amazing Stories’. Since then, there have been a whole series of novels, comics (from Eternity Comics) and manga. There was even an anime series entitled ‘Galactic Patrol Lensman’ and a couple of board games. At one point director Ron Howard was developing a film adaptation through Universal Studios and Imagine Entertainment, unfortunately the project fell apart because it was deemed too expensive by Universal. But of course, it’s a whole universe were talking about here. This is a story that spans planets and many alien races. We’re talking spaceships and wars in space, of course it’s going to be expensive. If you ask me, this whole property has an amazing potential to become a successful franchise, but Hollywood has famously backed out of many a good opportunity, so it doesn’t surprise me. I guess they won’t take a chance with it because it isn’t an ultra popular property like say Marvel comics and a film adaptation could go the way of the dodo like say for example Ender's Game (2013), a film based on a well established science fiction series of novels, that went nowhere. But then again, that movie kind of sucked anyways. But Lensman is all sorts of awesome! Well, at least this anime film version is. I loved every second of it.

The thing about this film is that it feels a lot like Star Wars. This film was released in 1984, so I think its safe to say that Star Wars fever was in full force back in those days (has it ever gone away?) so it doesn't surprise me that for every character in this movie we have a counterpart in Star Wars. Hell, even one of the characters has her hair made up like Princess Leia’s famous hair do. But whatever, Star Wars rip off or not, where this film excels is in its designs. The spaceships, the aliens, everything looks amazing! For example, the Boskones are all organic beings, so their spaceships, their armor, their everything looks organic and alive. This is a unique looking universe that I’d love to see translated into a live action film. Yet while live action films usually have to deal with budget limitations, the cool thing about anime films is that they don’t rely so much on a budget. Everything is done on paper, with traditional animation. There is no limit as to where the imagination of the filmmakers can take us because they don’t have to build sets or costumes, all they have to do is draw and animate whatever cool idea pops into their heads! And in this respect, the animators behind this film really out did themselves. What I loved about Lensman is that they focused a lot on doing these long takes of action where they don’t cut and the camera moves all over the place, following our heroes around. Best example of this would be the amazing escape sequence when they rescue Buskirk and the good guys escape on these hover cycles. Awesome action! Wonderful animation. So be ready for a movie that has some amazing animation techniques that were pushing what could be done in traditional animation.

Back in those days, computer generated images where giving their first baby steps and so animators kept trying to mix computer animation with their traditional animation often times with bad results. Examples of films that tried this are films like Rock and Rule (1983) and Disney’s The Black Cauldron (1985), not bad movies on their own right, but those computer animated sequences just stick out. I personally hate it when they do this, but whatever, lets chalk it up to experimentation. Lensman: Secret of the Lens opens with Boskonian ships that look like giant pulsating brains, but rendered in computer animation. There’s also some computer animation towards the end, but again, this sequence just doesn’t look as awesome as the rest of the traditional animation. Thankfully, these CGI sequences don’t last long and the film reverts back to the awesome traditional animation that Japanese are so good at. The traditional animation side of the film is what really makes it special for me. The computer images seem crude and less detailed then the awesome traditional stuff. Obviously, animators where trying the next hot thing in animation and this is probably why we get some bits of crappy computer animation, which was in diapers back in those days. Still, those scenes are a small hiccup in an awesome movie filled with fantastic moments of animation.  

Lensman: Secret of the Lens is none stop action from beginning to end. It never stops. It’s a huge chase sequence, we go from rescuing one character, to rescuing the next. From planet to planet, with all these crazy alien creatures! There’s this character who is also a Lensman that is just so cool, his name is Worsel, he looks like a man bat or something, cool character, again, this movie is all about the uniqueness in its design. The story for this film is all about the proverbial ‘chosen one’, the farmer boy who becomes a hero, so you see why I make the Star Wars connection. Still, the concept of the Lens and the Galactic Patrol is an awesome one with enough original elements to them to keep you entertained. If you feel like checking out some cool sci-fi anime, with fantastic animation and awesome action, give Lensman: Secret of the Lens a chance, you won’t be disappointed. Or bored.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Title: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Director: George Miller

Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Hugh Keays Byrne, Rosie Huntington, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz

Mad Max: Fury Road is insanity caught on film! It’s 100% purely bonkers! It harkens back to the glory days of the 80’s, when even the craziest of ideas would get green lit by a studio. Mad Max: Fury Road is the long awaited return of Max Rockatansky to the silver screen. Oh how I had been longing for this day! You guys know how much I love post apocalyptic movies...so yeah, I was pumped for this one. I’ve re-watched these movies with a vengeance, over and over again throughout the years and I’m sure I am not alone. People love these movies! But why? Why the obsession? I think its because they are about cars, speed, revved up, tricked up engines and spectacular vehicular mayhem.  Who doesn't love a cool cinematic car crash? Much less a whole film filled with them? No other series offers that better then the Mad Max movies. People also enjoy the post-apocalyptic angle of these films, another area in which these films deliver like no other movie can. It’s no wonder these films have influenced thousands of rip offs, with thousands others using Mad Max as their blue print. And let’s not forget, this is Mel Gibson’s most iconic role, it’s the one he’ll always be remembered by. So we’re talking about a legendary series of films here. And thanks to the cinematic gods, here we are back again! Back to post apocalyptic world of Mad Max, thirty years after the last Mad Max movie! Did they wait too long to make this film? Would director George Miller capture that Mad Max magic again? Would Tom Hardy prove himself worthy of playing the role of Max Rockatansky?

This time around Max is still surviving in the post apocalyptic waste land, just like everybody else. After a nuclear meltdown destroyed humanity (as seen in The Road Warrior (1982), the world is one messed up place, with small groups of humans spreading themselves thin throughout the world. Society has been unable to rebuild itself from the ruble. All that is left is animalistic craziness, humans surviving on their basic instincts. All they care about is food, water and procreating so that humanity can live on. Immortan Joe, the despotic leader of one of these ram shackle societies, has five wives with whom he is always trying to have babies with. He feeds on freshly squeezed breast milk and he is obsessed with one of his wives, who is pregnant with his baby. Too bad for him that one of his cronies, a woman named Imperator Furiosa (Theron), decides to go her on way and steals one of Immortan Joes trucks! Her plan is to return to her childhood home, a green paradise filled with enough water and green trees for everyone. Imperator Furiosa also steals Immortan Joes five wives, including the pregnant one! Will Immortan Joe allow this? Will Imperator Furiosa make it to her home town and how does Mad Max Rockatansky fit into all of this?   

Mad Max: Fury Road was directed by legendary filmmaker George Miller, the guy behind the original Mad Max trilogy of films: Mad Max (1979), The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). He also made The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Babe Pig in the City (1998) and in a turn towards the dramatic, Lorenzo’s Oil (1992). If we look at his repertoire, most of his films show an emphasis on the visuals. Even Babe: Pig in the City, a children’s film, displays a huge amount of care in constructing a visually interesting world, something we can really dig our retinas on. This was essentially the approach that Miller took with Mad Max: Fury Road, a film with very little dialog, and a whole lot of action. It almost fells like a silent film in this way, feelings and emotion are displayed through action rather than words. When designing this film, Miller asked that the art direction be as colorful and beautiful as possible in order to set itself apart from most post apocalyptic films, which usually have a bleak color palette. This is something that is extremely evident on Mad Max: Fury Road. Even though the film feels extremely familiar, like we’re entering Miller’s post apocalyptic vision once again, the film definitely sets itself apart from previous Mad Max films. It’s the most visually striking and colorful of all the films in the franchise. There’s this awesome moment in which what is happening in the film is so visually awesome that one of the characters says “What a lovely day!” My sentiments exactly. This movie is truly beautiful to look at.

The big attraction with these films are the cars and the stunts performed with them, which are amazing as expected. The cars on this film are awesome; they are filled with skulls and spikes and whatever else they could think of. Big tires, flame throwers, machine guns, guys hanging from tent poles, they really went crazy with the car designs for this movie, seeing them in action is a delight on itself. I was worried that George Miller would succumb to computer generated effects the way that most filmmakers have, and while he does use computer effects to an extent, he doesn't do entire sequences completely rendered in a computer, which is a delight for me. Most of the vehicular mayhem happens right in front of the cameras. Of course, Miller does use computer generated technology, but he uses in an artful manner, to enhance what he has already filmed, to make it beautiful. Like a painting. He doesn't create a world inside the computer; he enhances the world he has already filmed, which is the best way that you can use cgi, and I applaud Miller for that. It shows that he wasn't about being a lazy filmmaker, where  75% of his film happens inside of a computer, no sir, Miller is a real, true blue, bonafide filmmaker who cares about shooting a film in front of the camera. He cares about constructing a shot, about creating a specific look, an atmosphere. Special effects are but a tool to enhance. So kudos to Miller, you made my day sir! You might be 70 years old, but same as Ridley Scott (who’s well into his 70’s) you sir are still making amazing films. Dare I say this is one of your best films ever? Mr. Miller, I salute you man! Your cinematic expertise shows through and through on Mad Max: Fury Road!

The thing I loved the most about this movie is that it’s so heavy metal, 80’s style heavy metal. Skulls, bones and rock & roll are infused into every strand of dna of this film! How so? Well, there’s this awesome vehicle that is basically a moving rock and roll stage, that is composed of drums and amplifiers and drummers and a crazy dude, hanging from wires, riffing on his heavy metal guitar! It doesn't get more heavy metal than that! The whole vehicle functions to stimulate the chase, like the beats of a war drum. And speaking of the chase, that’s all this movie is, it’s a two hour long chase. Honestly, I didn't feel the two hours. They felt short to me, I was having such a blast in this crazy post apocalyptic world that the two hours wheezed by. You know how sometimes while watching the old Mad Max movies you’d fast forward to the chase sequences? Well, now you don’t have to because this whole movie is about cars going at high speeds, exploding and crashing in colorful ways.

So did Tom Hardy do good as Max? I’d say yes, the only thing is that Max  feels different. Obviously it shows just how much of Mel Gibson was put into Max the character. Hardy's take on it is different. A man of even fewer words. He speaks as little as possible and when he does its in grunts. Max is more of a mystery on this film than on previous ones. He seems madder, crazier, more enigmatic. I can’t say I blame him. He has been living in this crazy, shitty world longer now. Though it is a pleasure seeing Max Rockatansky back on the screen again, if there’s one thing I can say that I didn't love about the film is that Max is not the primary focus of the film. I wanted more Max, instead the film is more about Imperator Furiosa, which isn't a bad thing either because she’s a fascinating character. But if we really get down to it, the only one of the Mad Max films which was truly about Max is the first film, which is all about him and his family and friends, and his revenge. The rest of the films in the series are about him protecting or helping someone, serving the role of savior. In that sense I'd say Fury Road is similar to Mad Max: Beyond Thundedome (1985). Still, that’s just a minor hiccup. The film is amazing. It deserves to be seen more than once, something I will be doing before it leaves the silver screen, where it should be seen and appreciated in all its cinematic, post apocalyptic glory.

Rating: 5 out of 5 

Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis (2001)

Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis (2001)

Director: Rintaro

Writer: Katsuhiro Otomo

The first thing that attracted me to this anime film is that it was heavily influenced by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) and seeing an anime version of one of my favorite science fiction films ever was too tempting to ignore. Fritz Lang’s classic silent film inspired this film from inception, right down to when it was first conceived as a manga way back in 1949 by Osamu Tezuka; who by the way is also the creator of Astro Boy. You see, Osamu Tezuka saw a still image from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) and that was enough to spark his imagination. He then wrote and drew his own sci-fi opus which he also called ‘Metropolis’, I guess as a homage to the landmark film. According to Tezuka, he wasn’t inspired by the film itself, which he hadn’t seen.  I’ve never read the manga, but supposedly it doesn’t share plot elements with the film, save for the fact that part of the story is centered around a female robot. So anyway, fast forward to 2001 where to anime juggernauts, Rintaro and Katsuhiro Otomo, decide to join forces to make a film based on Tezuka’s classic manga. Rintaro is the director behind the classic anime films Galaxy Express 999 (1979) and The Dagger of Kamui (1985). It was Rintaro who took over the directing duties for Metropolis, while Katsuhiro Otomo, the director behind Akira (1988) and Steamboy (2004) took care of writing the screenplay. What was the result of joining these two anime legends on one film? Nothing short of brilliance! 

In Metropolis, the people of the city are celebrating its magnificence! According to the architects of this advanced city, it represents the culmination of mans knowledge and intelligence. The city wide celebrations are due to the creation of a huge structure called “The Ziggurat”, a giant building that, unbeknownst to the people of Metropolis, is also a giant weapon. But, in the midst of this celebration, a rebellion is brewing and it’s all about Humans vs. Robots. You see, the rebels want to destroy the robots because according to them; they are taking their jobs away. So there’s a strong anti-robot sentiment throughout the whole city. Meanwhile, Duke Red, one of the wealthiest men in Metropolis is secretly orchestrating a coupe de tat by building a robot that will rule the entire city (and eventually the world) from a robotic, mechanical throne. Will he achieve his goals? Will his robot end up controlling the world?

The interesting part about this film is that while Osamu Tezuka said he wasn’t influenced by Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent film when he created his Metropolis manga, the filmmakers behind this 2001 film were. If you’ve seen Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) you will see parallels between both films, some images are extremely similar. It is obvious that the filmmakers were not hiding the fact that Fritz Lang’s film was inspiring them. And if you ask me, that’s awesome because Lang’s film is an amazing film to be influenced by. Yet, while there’s no denying the similarities between both films, Rintaro’s Metropolis is actually very original in its own way, it’s not a rip off or carbon copy of Lang’s Metropolis (1927) because while Lang’s Metropolis centered around classist issues, Rintaro’s Metropolis is more about power and who ends up controlling it. It’s more about what makes us humans. You see Tima the robot is always questioning what makes us human, why we are the way we are. She is this films Pinocchio, she wants to be human, but ultimately can’t. It’s also about mans obsession with destroying and controlling each other. That thirst for power, the obsession with controlling the masses. It asks the question: should all that power be bestowed upon one person? Metropolis shares this ‘abuse of power’ theme with Akira (1988), which makes sense since both films were written by the same guy. As you can see, this is a film that can’t be blamed for being shallow.

At the same time, it’s visually dazzling. It never stops amazing us with its imagery. Rintaro went for something different, which was mixing traditional Japanese style animation with computer graphics. Now normally, I don’t like this mix because to me the two don’t mix. Something feels off about movies that mix traditional animation with computer graphics, to me they just don’t go together visually. For example, Ghost in the Shell 2.0(2008), which took the original Ghost in the Shell film and added computer animation and backgrounds to it, didn’t exactly work in my book. I'd much rather watch Ghost in the Shell in its original traditionally animated form. To me, animated films should either be in traditional animation, or computer animation, but not a mix of both. Still, in the case of Metropolis I think it was handled beautifully. The film has a unique look to it, things feel retro, yet there’s robots and advanced technology. The whole film uses jazzy music, which gives an old fashion air to it. They even use Ray Charles’ ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ during a climactic scene, so there’s this merging of the old fashion with the futuristic. Another interesting visual aspect of Metropolis is that while the backgrounds are rendered in a somewhat realistic fashion, the films characters are done in an extremely cartoony style, paying homage in this way to Osamu Tezuka’s original manga. This Metropolis is a world on its own, a very unique looking film. So anyhow, in my book this is another amazing milestone in Japanese animation. If you ever feel like watching some of the best anime has to offer, you’d do good in including this one on your list.

Rating: 5 out of 5