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!
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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