CABIN BOY

 

Official American DVD of Cabin Boy (© Adam Resnich/Tim Burton/Touchstone Pictures/Tim Burton Productioms/Skellington Productioms/Buena Vista Pictures Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

It's not often that either a Disney movie or an offbeat fantasy movie entirely escapes my attention, which makes the film that I watched last night on the British retro TV channel Talking Pictures rather special, because it is both a Disney/Touchstone movie AND an offbear fantasy movie yet was previously wholly unknown to me.

Directed and written by Adam Resnick, co-produced by Tim Burton, and released in 1994 by Buena Vista Pictures, the movie in question was entitled Cabin Boy.

Its titular character begins the movie as a petulant, thoroughly-obnoxious spoiled brat named Nathanial Mayweather (played by Chris Elliott), son of a zillionaire and newly graduated from colleage, who is meant to board a luxurious ship to take him to his father's plush hotel in Hawaii. Instead, his insulting treatment of a village local (a pseudonymously-credited David Letterman) sees him deliberately guided onto the wrong vessel.

Namely, a sleazy fishing boat whose rough-and-ready crew, skippered by the grizzly-mannered (and looking!) Captain Greybar (Ritch Brinkley), are setting far out to sea for three months in order to catch fish and have no time for a horrified Nathanial's hysterical histrionics once he discovers this awful truth.

 

Nathanial (Chris Elliott) and Trina (Melora Walters) in Cabin Boy (© Adam Resnich/Tim Burton/Touchstone Pictures/Tim Burton Productioms/Skellington Productioms/Buena Vista Pictures Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Thanks to his desperate but disastrous attempt to redirect their boat towards Hawaii, however, they all find themselves heading instead to a mysterious ill-omened sea zone named Hell's Bucket, containing an equally-dreaded island.

In revenge, Greybar and his crew make Nathanial serve them as their cabin boy, albeit with predictably preposterous results. Both en route to the island and upon arrival there, Nathanial and the crew find themselves confronting all manner of outlandish outsiders.

They include everything from a sex-starved six-armed woman named Calli (a sly nod to Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad antagonist Kali), a scowling scolding ginormous aerial cupcake (designed by Tim Burton and voiced by Jim Cummings), the fishing boat's female figurehead (Rikki Lake) who comes alive at the most unexpected moments, a belligerent iceberg monster (as in a belligerent monster actually composed of an iceberg!), and a half-man half-shark deepsea denizen named Chocki who takes pity upon hapless, hopeless Nathanial, rescuing him from assorted maritime perils, and played, incongruously, by none other than Hollywood's erstwhile song-and-dance musicals star Russ Tamblyn!

Nor is that all. Nathanial mistakenly 'rescues' from the waves what turns out to be a round-the-world swimming competitor in the shapely shape of Trina (Melora Walters), thereby disqualifying her. Unsurprisingly, Trina is initially resentful of Nathanial's well-meaning yet nonetheless calamitous action, but as the movie's romantic interest for him, she eventually falls for his goofy, bumbling charm.

 

Calli, played by Ann Magnusson (© Adam Resnich/Tim Burton/Touchstone Pictures/Tim Burton Productioms/Skellington Productioms/Buena Vista Pictures Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Needless to say, by the end of the movie Nathanial's experiences have transformed him into a sharing, caring kinda guy, and everyone lives happily ever after – except for a vengeful giant named Mulligan (Mike Starr), that is. Mulligan is the aggrieved husband of Calli, with whom Nathanial had lately travered his rite of passage into manhood.  Not surprisingly, Mulligan is hardly best pleased about this, but he finds himself belted in every sense of the word by the newly-invigorated Nathanial in a bold, unselfishly brave bid to save his fellow shipmates from Mulligan's ire.

Cabin Boy is every shade of zany imaginable (and then some!), with Elliott giving a riotously funny performance as Nathanial, amply augmented by countless sight gags and amusing asides – I loved it!

To experience a salty snippet of the maritime mayhem awaiting you in Cabin Boy, be sure to click here to watch an official trailer for this movie on YouTube.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Confronting the iceberg monster (© Adam Resnich/Tim Burton/Touchstone Pictures/Tim Burton Productioms/Skellington Productioms/Buena Vista Pictures Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

 

THE BATTLE OF THE MODS (aka CRAZY BABY)

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hoto-still of Ricky Shayne as Ricky Fuller in The Battle of the Mods (© Franco Montemurro/Roxy Film/Ultra Film/GG Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only

On 6 December 2023, my movie watch was a strange little cinematic offering – a gritty mid-1960s Italian/German film musical overdubbed in English and variously entitled The Battle of the Mods or Crazy Baby upon release, but nowadays wholly obscure.

Directed by Franco Montemurro, and released in 1966, The Battle of the Mods stars 60s European music star Ricky Shayne as mod guitar player Ricky Fuller residing in Liverpool until his girlfriend is fatally stabbed one Saturday evening when the club where he is performing becomes the scene of a vicious mods vs rockers battle.

 

Close-up of one of Ricky Shayne's LPs with his backing group The Skylarks (© Ricky Shayne and the Skylarks/ARC Records/RCA Victor Records – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Only narrowly escaping with his life, Ricky flees to France and thence to Italy, to meet in Rome his wealthy English consul father Robert B. Fuller (Joachim Fuchsberger), with whom he has not so much a frosty as a perma-frost longstanding relationship, and also his father's mistress, Sonia (Elga Andersen), with whom he has a much shorter but much more sizzling one!

In addition, Ricky makes some friends in Paris, Genoa, and Rome, survives various hairy encounters with a diverse selection of continental roughs and toughs, meets plenty of pretty young women, sings a lot of relatively tuneful albeit instantly forgettable pop/rock songs (opening the movie with its raunchy alternative title song, 'Crazy Baby') while playing his guitar, and ends his jounreying with a new girlfriend, Martine (Eleonora Brown). And that's about it.

 

Italian publicity poster for The Battle of the Mods (© Franco Montemurro/Roxy Film/Ultra Film/GG Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only

Visually, The Battle of the Mods is a quintessential 1960s European musical flick, a movie sub-genre that generally appeals to me, but I found this particular example to be oddly unengaging, with its central character similarly aloof and emotionally detached.  Still, it passed 90 minutes easily enough, and at least I learnt of French-Lebanese singer/actor Ricky Shayne and his backing group The Skylarks, who collectively turned out to be a big act in continental Europe back in the day (especially in Germany), but not in the UK, which explains why I'd not previously heard of him, or them.

Lastly, Eurovision Song Contest fans may be interested to know that The Battle of the Mods features an appearance by Udo Jürgens, who had won the contest for Austria in the same year, 1966 (but just a few months earlier), when this movie was released.

 

Ricky Shayne playing guitar (public domain)

If you'd like to watch The Battle of the Mods for free on YouTube, pleae click here.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Publicity material for Ricky Shayne and the Skylarks (© unknown to me despite online searches – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

 

Publicity poster for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (© Steven Spielberg/DreamWorks Pictures/Amblin Entertainment/Stanley Kubrick Productions/Warner Bros Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie watch on 4 January 2024 was one of the most delightful, engrossing, and achingly poignant futuristic sci fi films that I have viewed for a very long time. Namely, A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, released in 2001 by Warners Bros Pictures, and including collaborations with Stanley Kubrick, A.I. Artificial Intelligence is set in the 22nd Century. It stars in mesmerising form (as Spielberg's first and only choice for this role) a young Haley Joel Osment (he of "I see dead people" fame from The Sixth Sense, released 2 years previously) as robot boy David, the first in a major new android (aka Mecha) lineage – a humanoid robot that can truly love, created by computer genius Prof. Allen Hobby (William Hurt).

The movie intentionally plays out like a sci fi version of Pinocchio, having been loosely based upon a 1969 Pinocchio-inspired short story 'Supertoys Last All Summer Long', written by sci fi maestro Brian Aldiss. (Interestingly, this short story's film rights had originally been acquired by Stanley Kubrick, way back in the 1970s, but after failing to achieve success in its cinematic production he finally passed it over in 1995 to Spielberg, who began working on it in earnest following Kubrick's death in 1999, and dedicated the finished movie to him.)

For after hearing his human adoptive mother Monica Swinton (Frances O'Connor) read the famous Carlo Collodi story Pinocchio to her real-life son Martin, David blindly believes the story to be true.

Consequently, after subsequently being abandoned by his mother once jealous Martin is fully recovered fron a near-fatal ailment and causes all manner of problems for him, and accompanied by loyal and self-aware Teddy, Martin's unwanted robot teddy bear (voiced by Jack Angel), David sets out to locate the Blue Fairy. During his quest, he encounters a law-fleeing gigolo android named Joe (Jude Law, providing some much-needed lightness to this movie's sometimes almost overpowering pathos).

Joe helps David look for the Blue Fairy, whom David fervently hopes will transform him into a real boy, because he believes that his mother will then love him like she loves Martin. And indeed, after being assisted by Joe and a holographic answer engine named Dr Know (voiced by Robin Williams), David does find the Blue Fairy, after a fashion – thanks to a race of immensely-advanced Mechas known as the Specialists (one of whom is voiced by Ben Kingsley).

They discover him and Teddy frozen in ice two thousand years later, long after humans have died out during a new Ice Age (so much for global warming!), and not only successfully revive them but also recreate from David's memories an interactive version of the Blue Fairy (voiced by Meryl Streep).

Moreover, these Specialists are even able to restore David's mother to life, albeit for just a single day, after cloning her from her DNA (preserved in a strand of her hair that David had clipped back when he and Teddy had lived with her, and which Teddy had kept safe ever since). Now, during this most precious day back with his temporarily-restored mother, David enjoys with her the only birthday party he has ever known, and just as the day is ending his mother tells him that she has always loved him, thus giving him the assurance that he has always yearned for, and enabling him to be finally content. Then she slips into eternal sleep, and David, for the very first time, also falls asleep, journeying at last to the land where dreams are born.

To say that I found this closing scene moving would be the understatement of the millennium, but it also brought back some very precious memories, borne sweetly upon the haunting music score of this movie, composed by the indefatigable John Williams (who received an Oscar nomination for it). A.I. Artificial Intelligence is an enchanting film that I shall long remember, and for all the right reasons.

Tomorrow is the eleventh anniversary of my own dear mother's passing, so it seemed a very appropriate, fitting time for me to present this particular movie review of mine. God bless you, little Mom, how I wish with all my heart that you were still here with me, even if it were only for 24 hours – how I would cherish those precious hours with you, forever.

If you wish to experience a very special preview of the cinematic magic and wonder awaiting you in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, be sure to click here to watch a trailer for this movie on YouTube.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

My mother, Mary Shuker (© Dr Karl Shuker)

 

 

DAY OF RECKONING

 

Publicity poster for Day of Reckoning (© Joel Novoa/Syfy – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Exactly a year ago, Google altered its algorithm, and within a day my Shuker In MovieLand blog's daily hits count, which until then had always been very respectable ever since my blog's launch back in July 2020, crashed dramatically, and despite my best attempts to counter this, has never recovered. This slump may have been entirely coincidental of course, but I've since read that when the algorithm has changed in the past, small blogs like this one of mine have apparently often suffered, by placing far lower down in search engine listings than previously, and therefore rendered less visible and visited than before.

Anyway, whatever the reason for it, the outcome is that far fewer readers access my blog nowadays than previously, meaning that although I greatly enjoy researching and writing them, for fundamental financial reasons I can no longer justify the considerable time that my lengthy single reviews and collections of mini-reviews take to prepare. Consequently, although I shall still write the occasional review or collection of mini-reviews, for the most part I shall now instead be taking Shuker In MovieLand down a different direction in 2024, adopting a new format for its entries.

Namely, rather than presenting reviews written by me, I shall be providing collections of alerts – i.e. short accounts of movies viewed by me that I feel may be of viewing interest to others too. Each alert will simply take the form of basic details (director, release date, distribution/release company, principal stars, and a publicity illustration) plus the movie's own official blurb as quoted from the back cover of its DVD/video/press release, so that readers can determine for themselves straight away whether or not it will be of interest to them. I hope that you'll like my blog content's new format, which will actually allow me to document more films in far less time than was previously true.

Meanwhile, here is what will be the last of my regularly-posted movie reviews:

On 29 July 2023, my movie watch was a very unusual 2016 monster/horror creature feature entitled Day of Reckoning.

Directed by Joel Novia, and screened on TV in 2016 by Syfy, Day of Reckoning begins with a prologue, showing what happened 15 years before this movie's main story.

Namely, tunnelling work deep underground for a mining operation, coupled above-ground with a solar eclipse, had heralded the sudden surfacing worldwide of immense droves of horrific winged and other carnivorous beasts from the infernal subterranean depths of our planet. Moreover, these monsters wreaked such devastation upon its surface and in particular upon humanity until the eclipse ended that this nightmarish 24 hours was dubbed the Day of Reckoning.

Moving now to the present day, another eclipse occurs, and the global horror happens all over again. Yet despite the previous occurrence, civilization seems no more capable of tackling this terrifying scenario than it was before.

The film follows the desperate attempts of one dysfunctional family headed by David Shepperd (Jackson Hurst) to escape the hellish beasts unleashed upon the world and, ultimately, to fight back. Their one hope of salvation is that the creatures, of which there are several different types, including a macabre semi-humanoid variety, can be killed by salt, which dissolves them into a bloody pool of ooze.

For a low-budget TV movie, the CGI creatures in Day of Reckoning are decent, especially the sky-filling hordes of dragon-like winged terrors, and also a monstrous, gigantic centipede-like entity. I also enjoyed the freakish terror bird x feathered velocitaptor lookalikes that were unleashed first during the original tunneling work.

No major-league stars feature in this movie, and all manner of unexplained aspects exist in its plot, such as how an eclipse can even be sensed by creatures that live at least 3000 ft below the surface (the depth at which the original tunneling which disturbed them had occurred), why weren't stores of salt positioned in vast quantities around the chasms from which the creatures emerged during the first Day of Reckoning so as to be ready for dropping into them if these creatures should ever re-emerge (which of course they did, 15 years later), and so forth.

But as with all such movies, it's best not to think too deeply about plotting, just go with the flow, suspend disbelief, and enjoy an interesting, novel twist on the usual monster movie scenario, as I did.

If you'd like to view an official Day of Reckoning trailer on YouTube, please click here.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Another publicity poster for Day of Reckoning (© Joel Novoa/Syfy – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

THE ASH LAD: IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING

 

Publicity poster for The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King (© Mikkel Brænne Sandemose/Janson Media/Maipo Film/Sirena Film Subotica/Norwegian Film Institute – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 21 October 2023, my movie watch was an English-dubbed Norwegian fantasy movie entitled The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King.

Directed by Mikkel Brænne Sandemose, and released in Norway in 2017, The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King was inspired by the 18th-Century Norwegian folktales of Askeladden ('Ash Lad'). It also takes its English subtitle from the fourth movement in Norwegian classical composer Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite #1 (in 1875 he wrote two such suites, originally as accompaniment music for Henrik Ibsen's 1867 stage play Peer Gynt), in which the titular hero encounters the mountain-dwelling troll king and his minions.

The Ash Lad is the nickname given by his two older brothers (Per and Pal) and his father to daydreamer Espen (played by Verbjørn Enger, whose practical abilities in every-day life on their farm seem limited to stirring the ashes in their homestead's fireplace in order to keep its fire alight – and one day he even causes disaster with this simple task, resulting in their homestead catching fire and burning to the ground!

However, Espen comes into his own when he and his brothers find themselves on a quest to rescue their monarch King Erik's headstrong daughter, Princess Kristin (Elii Harboe), who has been abducted by the biggest and meanest troll in all of Norway – the dreaded Mountain King – and earn a sufficiently sizeable reward to rebuild their homestead.

Along the way, the fraternal trio encounter all manner of untoward entities.  The first is a hideous witch, but because Espen treats her with respect and kindness, she provides him with a magical map that reveals their required route to the cave in which the Mountain King is keeping the princess imprisoned until she agrees to become his bride.

Then they meet some beautiful, seductive forest nymphs, whose true, anything-but-beautiful, deadly nature is perceived only by Espen, who rescues his two enchanted brothers in the nick of time from their lethal clutches.

Later, they do battle with the conniving Prince Fredrik (Allan Hyde), who is also seeking to rescue the princess but secretly plans to kill her after marrying her so that he can become sole ruler of her kingdom, and barely escape with their lives from Frederick and his men.

Then Espen has to free himself from the clutches of some lake-dwelling botanical humanoids who do their utmost to drown him, before the brotherly trio finally – but not least of all – confront the formidable Mountain King himself. In short, their trek across rural Norway is nothing if not eventful!

The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King's CGI special effects, though not up to Hollywood standards, are very satisfactory; and unlike the unremitting darkness of tone and content that often pervades this kind of fantasy movie nowadays if produced in Hollywood, there is much more humour and light here, and with no wokeism to speak of either, plus a traditional, uncomplicated happy ending (remember those?).

In 2019, a sequel was released, The Ash Lad: In Search of the Golden Castle, which follows on from this present movie and is based upon the famous Soria Moria fairy tale that I well remember from childhood, so I'll be sure to look out for it. Meanwhile, this present movie is a joyful, escapist family film that everyone of every age can – and should – enjoy, just like I did.

If you'd like to watch The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King in its entirety for free on YouTube, be sure to click here.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

My copy from childhood of the large-format, full-colour, beautifully-illustrated 1962 retelling for youngsters of Henrik Ibsen's original 1867 play Peer Gynt (© Oldbourne Book Co Ltd: London – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

GEMINI MAN (1976 TV show)

 

Ben Murphy as the bedenimed biker and Intersect special agent Sam Casey, aka the Gemini Man, in Gemini Man (© Michael Caffey/Alan Crosland Jr/Alan J. Levy/Harve Bennett Productions/Universal Television/NBC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Back in the 1970s, I watched virtually every sci-fi show on TV here in the UK, but somehow managed to miss Gemini Man, starring Ben Murphy (already known to me from the excellent comedy Western series Alias Smith and Jones, in which he played outlaw Kid Curry).

Directed by Michael Caffey, Alan Crosland Jr, and Alan J. Levy, originally screened in 1976 by NBC in the States ( by the BBC in the UK), and conceived as a modern-day take on the famous 1897 novel The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, Gemini Man focuses upon US secret agent/bedenimed biker Sam Casey (played by Ben Murphy) who, following a near-fatal nuclear-related accident that rendered him invisible and life-saving surgery to reverse this dramatic effect, is able with the aid of a special DNA-stabilising wristwatch to remain visible. However, if he presses one of its special buttons, he can become invisible again, for up to 15 minutes every day – but for no more than 15 minutes every day, otherwise he would vanish forever and die.

 

Sam Casey (Ben Murphy) and Dr Abby Lawrence (Katherine Crawford), from Gemini Man (© Michael Caffey/Alan Crosland Jr/Alan J. Levy/Harve Bennett Productions/Universal Television/NBC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Sam is dubbed the Gemini Man by his boss Leonard Driscoll (William Sylvester), and, assisted by brilliant scientist Dr Abby Lawrence (Katherine Crawford) who invented his unique wristwatch, he is now able to undergo extra-special assignments for Intersect, the high-tech US government think tank where they all work, that no ordinary agent, lacking Sam's extraordinary, top-secret ability of invisibility, could possibly hope to accomplish.

I knew about this intriguing show, and had even seen the official Gemini Man hardback annual on sale at Christmas 1976-1977 (a copy of which I recently purchased, in excellent secondhand condition, and only four decades late!), following the show's TV screening earlier that year by the BBC. (Speaking of which: there was also a BBC-authorised Gemini Man colouring book on sale in 1976, not to mention a BBC-authorised Gemini Man fun sticker book, and even a Gemini Man LP album, released by Power Records, but I regret to say that I don't own any of these!)

 

Front and back covers of the Universal City Studios-authorized 1977 Gemini Man annual, and front cover of the BBC-authorised Gemini Man colouring book (© Michael Caffey/Alan Crosland Jr/Alan J. Levy/Harve Bennett Productions/Universal Television/NBC/Universal City Studios, Inc./Brown Watson/BBC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Yet for reasons entirely unknown to me, I never got around to watching any of its single season of eleven 50-minute episodes. Nor even its feature-length pilot episode. Perhaps it clashed with some other series that I or my parents were watching on another TV channel?

Tragically, however, Gemini Man was never repeated in the UK, so I never did get the chance to watch it – until 15 May 2020, that is, when to my surprise and delight I discovered that all eleven episodes of this show (plus the pilot, in which Driscoll is played not by William Sylvester but instead by Richard A. Dysart) were currently available to watch free of charge on YouTube!

 

Cover of the Gemini Man LP record (© Michael Caffey/Alan Crosland Jr/Alan J. Levy/Harve Bennett Productions/Universal Television/NBC/Power Records – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

So I swiftly downloaded the full set as MP4 files, in case they were subsequently taken down from YouTube, which often happens. Now, after a mere 44 years' delay I could finally view them all, and at my leisure. I'd read that Gemini Man didn't get good reviews at the time (especially not in the States, explaining why only 5 episodes were screened there before the show was cancelled, whereas all eleven were screened in the UK), which almost guaranteed that I'd like it!

I also discovered and downloaded an official Gemini Man TV movie, Riding With Death, released in 1981, which consists of two Gemini Man episodes that had been deftly spliced together. These are Episode 1, entitled 'Smithereens', and Episode 10, entitled 'Buffalo Bill Rides Again', linked by the appearance in both of them (but in no others) of a C&W-singing trucker character named 'Buffalo' Bill Joe Hickens (played by real-life country singer Jim Stafford), who becomes friends with Sam after saving his life during 'Smithereen', with Sam duly returning the favour in 'Buffalo Bill Rides Again'. Interestingly, this movie also utilizes excerpts from a 1970 American science fiction film entitled Colossus: The Forbin Project, which I've reviewed here.

 

'Buffalo' Bill (Jim Stafford) and Sam Casey (Ben Murphy) in the Gemini Man TV movie Riding With Death (© Michael Caffey/Alan Crosland Jr/Alan J. Levy/Harve Bennett Productions/Universal Television/NBC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

A couple of days later, on 17 May 2023, I watched the movie-length pilot episode downloaded from YouTube, which proved to be a source of great fun, and great nostalgia, taking me effortlessly back to 1976 when everything felt so much simpler, and nicer. It even drew to a close with a straightforward happy ending – no angst and hang-ups like we find in today's TV shows, instead simply offering some amusing, lighthearted sci fi & spying gimmickry not to be taken seriously, just enjoyed. True, the viewing quality wasn't brilliant but it was serviceable. Consequently, I knew that I was certainly going to enjoy the 11 normal-length episodes now – and sure enough, I did!

Such a shame, then, that Gemini Man has only ever achieved one official home viewing release – namely, a French DVD box set released by Elephant Films, containing the eleven episodes plus the pilot (but not the 1981 movie), with French-language cover descriptions but the original English audio tracks. I spotted three sets for sale on ebay on 19 May 2020, all brand-new but even the cheapest was a hefty £54.99, which I felt unable to justify purchasing, especially as I already had the YouTube versions. So I decided to stick with my downloads, at least for the time being, merci.

 

The French Gemini Man complete DVD box set (© Michael Caffey/Alan Crosland Jr/Alan J. Levy/Harve Bennett Productions/Universal Television/NBC/Elephant Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Fast forward to 21 May 2020, when after much procrastination during the previous few weeks I finally decided to dip my toes into the unknown waters of online trivia quizzes – but only ones that were free to enter, offered cash prizes, and only required a PayPal account (not bank details) to pay any winnings into. So, I entered one such quiz, and ten minutes later my PayPal account had gained £52.63 in winnings, and my DVD collection had duly gained the complete Gemini Man box set. I could get to like online quizzing!

So there is the story of how I made visible in my world at long last the invisible Gemini Man, but it still seems unbelievable to me that this show was originally screened 47 years ago, when I was only 16. Judging from the associated merchandise that was available for it back then, there were high hopes that this sci fi TV show would be a success. Yet although it wasn't, it deserved to be.

 

Sam Casey (Ben Murphy) with his Intersect boss Leonard Driscoll (William Sylvester) and scientist friend/helper Dr Abby Lawrence (Katherine Crawford) (© Michael Caffey/Alan Crosland Jr/Alan J. Levy/Harve Bennett Productions/Universal Television/NBC/Universal City Studios, Inc. – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As noted earlier, all of the eleven 50-minute Gemini Man episodes, plus the feature-length pilot, and the 1981 TV movie Riding With Death, can currently be accessed on YouTube. So, click here, for example, if you'd like to view the pilot, here if you'd like to view the first of the 50-minute episodes, here if you'd like to view Riding With Death, and here if you'd like to call up all of the episodes in a single YouTube listing.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Ben Murphy as Sam Casey, the Gemini Man (© Michael Caffey/Alan Crosland Jr/Alan J. Levy/Harve Bennett Productions/Universal Television/NBC/Universal City Studios, Inc. – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

TITANS AND GIANTS AND MONSTERS – OH MY!!

 

Publicity posters for The Titan, Village of the Giants, and The Food of the Gods (© Lennart Ruff/Voltage Pictures/42/Automatik Entertainment/The Amel Company/Motion Picture Capital/Nostromo Pictures/The Post Republic/Signature Entertainment/Netflix / © Sean S. Cunningham/Carolco Pictures/Tri-Star Pictures / © Bert I. Gordon/Berkeley Productions/Embassy Pictures – all three posters reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 Time for another six of the best(?) and the rest(!) movies watched recently by me, drawn forth from the cinematic genres of science fiction and fantasy to be mini-reviewed here for your merriment and mirth during this festive season!

 

 

Publicity poster for The Titan (© Lennart Ruff/Voltage Pictures/42/Automatik Entertainment/The Amel Company/Motion Picture Capital/Nostromo Pictures/The Post Republic/Signature Entertainment/Netflix – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE TITAN

On 16 November 2023, I watched the futuristic sci fi movie The Titan. Directed by Lennart Ruff, and released in 2018 by Netflix, The Titan is set in the year 2048 with Earth vastly overpopulated and doomed to ecological destruction very soon. Sam Worthington plays US fighter pilot Rick Janssen, one of a team of volunteers submitting to a make-or-break radical, highly controversial scientific program of genetic manipulation to transform them into humanoids capable of surviving on Saturn's giant moon Titan. For if successful, it is envisaged that humanity will then migrate there and establish a new life and civilisation on this new world. Although interesting overall, I found this movie's plot oddly unengaging, probably because the entire movie concentrates upon the program to create these new humanoids, with its actual, ultimate success story, Rick, only seen in his new, flying form on Titan for all of a minute at the very end of the film. Much more of it should have been devoted to the end result, I feel, rather than to the build-up, which drags on, and on, and on... Please click here to view an official trailer for The Titan on YouTube, or click here to view the entire movie while it is free to do so on YouTube.

 

 

Publicity poster for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (© Wes Anderson/Indian Paintbrush/American Empirical Pictures/Netflix – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR

On 6 November 2023, I watched the new Netflix mini-movie The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Directed by Wes Anderson, and released in 2023 by Netflix, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is based upon a Roald Dahl short story of the same title, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular character, with Ralph Fiennes as author Roald Dahl. Henry is an inveterate gambler who has no problem with cheating if it means winning, and who learns indirectly from a mystic (Ben Kingsley) how to see without using his eyes, thereby enabling him to win every game – only to discover, however, that without the risk of ever losing now, there is no longer any thrill to gambling, So instead, he puts his ill-gotten gains to philanthropic use. Also starring Dev Patel and Richard Ayoade, and just 40 minutes long, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is visually sumptuous, a gorgeous palette of pastoral multicolour, and scenery that changes on-screen in the manner of a theatre stage production, but hampered imho by a purposefully stilted dialogue presentation that resembles someone reading in a gabbled monotone manner from a book, which grates after a while. Please click here to view an official trailer for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar on YouTube.

 

 

Publicity poster for Pixels (© Chris Columbus/Columbia Pictures/Happy Madison Productions/1492 Pictures/LStar Capital/China Film Co Ltd/Film Croppers Entertainment/Sony Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

PIXELS

On 8 November 2023, my movie watch was the very funny sci fi/fantasy-themed comedy film Pixels. Directed by Chris Columbus, and released in 2015 by Sony Pictures, Pixels stars Adam Sandler as a jaded, drifting, all-grown-up video-game arcader named Sam Brenner whose skills in and knowledge of 1980s classics like Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and Centipede become invaluable to the US President (who just so happens to be Sam's best buddy from childhood – what are the chances??) when Earth is challenged by real-life Space Invaders – a race of aliens who threaten to destroy our planet if Earth's representatives cannot beat them in a series of real-life, full-sized, full-power versions of these vintage games. The special effects are incredible, the story itself is thrilling, the characters mostly likeable (Peter Dinklage's gaming cheat Eddie – Sam's mean rival back in the day – is somewhat less so). Never having been a gamer, however, I probably missed a fair few in-jokes along the way, but I still enjoyed it very much, so I feel sure that avowed gamers would love it! Please click here to view an official trailer for Pixels on YouTube.

 

 

Publicity poster for DeepStar Six (© Sean S. Cunningham/Carolco Pictures/Tri-Star Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

DEEPSTAR SIX

On 9 April 2023, I watched on the UK's retro horror/sci fi channel Legend TV the 1980s underwater sci-ft/monster movie DeepStar Six, which I'd been wanting to watch for some time. Directed by Sean S. Cunningham, and released in 1989 by Tri-Star Pictures, DeepStar Six takes its title from the name of a deepwater US Naval facility that blows up a cavern on the ocean bottom. This in turn causes a huge sea monster to be released through the resulting fissure that destroys the facility and relentlessly pursues the survivors as they desperately attempt to escape to the surface in their vessel. The most recognisable star in this movie is Greg Evigan, previously of BJ and the Bear TV fame, who plays its hero – submarine pilot McBride. As for the monster: although often described in reviews of this film as a gigantic prehistoric sea scorpion or eurypterid, it actually looks nothing like one, at least as far as fossil evidence of such creatures' appearance is concerned. DeepStar Six is a very formulaic 'painting-by-numbers' monster movie, but is entertaining nonetheless, though it takes a heck of a while before we finally get a good look at the monster. Please click here to view an official trailer for Deepstar Six on YouTube.

 

 

Publicity poster for The Food of the Gods (© Bert I. Gordon/American International Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE FOOD OF THE GODS

My film watch on 9 September 2023 was the 1970s monster movie The Food of the Gods, as shown on the retro UK TV channel Talking Pictures. Directed, co-produced, and written by Bert I. Gordon, and released by American International Pictures in 1976 in the USA, in 1977 everywhere else, The Food of the Gods is based in only the most tenuous way upon the eponymous sci fi novel by H.G. Wells. Apart from featuring a mysterious substance that causes animals who consume it to grow to enormous size, the movie and novel have entirely different storylines. The movie is set in North America, not England, and focuses upon a group of people cut off from civilisation on a small island where the said Food of the Gods has oozed out of the ground, creating colossal highly-venomous wasps, gigantic carnivorous chickens, huge flesh-biting maggots, and hordes of murderous bloodthirsty mega-rats, most of which seem hell-bent upon targeting the elderly Mrs Skinner, played by veteran actress Ida Lupino in her penultimate big-screen role. Sadly, most of the special effects are risible, especially the close-ups of the rats attacking and killing their human victims, which also go on for far too long imho. My biggest disappointment, however, was discovering that this monster movie didn't feature Joan Collins, whom I'd been looking forward to seeing in it – only for me to remember somewhat later that it was Empire of the Ants that she'd appeared in! Doh! Please click here to view an official trailer for The Food of the Gods on YouTube.

 

 

Full cover from the official Region 1 DVD of Village of the Giants (© Bert I. Gordon/Berkeley Productions/Embassy Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS

Speaking of The Food of the Gods: on 9 December 2023, my birthday movie watch was a truly strange flick from the mid-1960s entitled Village of the Giants. As with the previous movie mini-reviewed by me here today, it was (very) loosely inspired by the H.G. Wells novel The Food of the Gods, but that is not the only similarity shared by these two films. Like the previous movie here, this one was also directed, co-produced, and written by the selfsame Bert I. Gordon, but was released in 1965, by Embassy Pictures. In Village of the Giants, a gang of unruly teenagers led by the obnoxious Fred (Beau Bridges, in one of his earliest movie roles) ingest a goo created by a child prodigy aptly nicknamed Genius (a very young Ron Howard), grow to ginormous proportions, and terrorise a small American town, until local hero Mike (Tommy Kirk) and friends come to the rescue. This movie suffers from a serious identity crisis, inasmuch as it seems to have no idea what it is meant to be, switching between such normally discrete cinematic genres as screwball comedy, Swinging Sixties musical, sci fi, thriller, and even mild teenage sexploitation flick – unfortunately, however, it doesn't succeed as any of them. Indeed, whenever they are reminded of this movie, its nowadays most famous stars apparently squirm with embarrassment, and I can well understand why! Please click here if you would like to view Village of the Giants in its entirety and free of charge on YouTube, or click here to view an official trailer for it on YouTube.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

A surprise surfacing by the giant deepwater sea monster from DeepStar Six (© Sean S. Cunningham/Carolco Pictures/Tri-Star Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)