Here are another half-dozen mini-reviews of science fiction and fantasy movies that I've watched of late, or very late!
THE GIANT CLAW
On 19 July 2023, after a mere 64 years since first showing my face in this weird world of ours, I finally watched (in the shape of a very decent colorized version) that classic 'so bad that it's good' 1957 monster movie The Giant Claw, directed (and also narrated) by Fred F. Sears, and released by Columbia Pictures. To be fair, the actual storyline (gigantic alien bird from an antimatter galaxy attacks and destroys numerous military aircraft over North America) and acting (lead star was Jeff Morrow, as civil aeronautical engineer Mitch MacAfee) are decent enough for a 1950s B-movie of this genre. Instead, the problem lies almost entirely with its metaphorical elephant in the drawing room or, to be more literal, its giant bird in the skyline! Owner of this movie's titular talon(s), the bargain-basement model bird utilised is not just fowl but foul – it resembles the kind of tawdry, rubber-necked, bent-beaked ultra-cheapo 'prize' that you might find yourself taking home (or dropping into the nearest garbage bin) after successfully shooting a series of floating plastic ducks at a downtown funfair! Once it makes its first appearance, any hope of taking the movie even remotely seriously thereafter is entirely lost, its mad glazed gaze staring into the camera through a pair of enormous white ping-pong ball-like eyes, and its scrawny plumage recalling an irredeemably clapped-out feather duster! In other words, The Giant Claw is precisely the kind of monstrously crazy creature feature that I just had to review here in my movie blog, especially as I'd previously read so much about it (Morrow confessed in an interview, for instance, that he had crept incognito into a cinema screening this film at its premiere and was so ashamed at the laughter and jeers that arose from the audience each time that the bird appeared on screen that he lost no time in creeping back out in case someone recognised him!; and Ray Harryhausen had originally been selected to create the bird but the movie's budget was so low that they had to use a cut-price alternative model creator in Mexico City instead). And now, finally, I've actually viewed it in all its horrendous glory. A total turkey that's strictly for the birds? Please click here to watch an official trailer for this movie on YouTube and decide for yourselves! Or click here if you'd like to watch free of charge on YouTube the entire colorized movie version that I watched on there.
THE HIDDEN
On 25 October 2024, I finally watched a classic 1980s sci fi movie that I'd long intended to see – The Hidden. Directed by Jack Sholder and released in 1987 by New Line Cinema, it's all about an evil half-insect/half-slug alien that physically occupies a human host to make him/her do its violent will, thereby turning its victim into a homicidal killer before exiting when the host is killed by police etc, and then surreptitiously entering a new human host. Its ultimate goal is to enter and control the next President of the USA, but on its trail is an indefatigable alien law enforcer in the human guise of fake FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher (played by Kyle MacLachlan), assisted by cynical LAPD cop Detective Tom Beck (Michael Nouri), who for much of the film has no idea what on Earth (literally!) is happening. He is particularly perplexed as to why hitherto law-abiding citizens are abruptly turning into mass murderers, until Gallagher eventually has no option but to tell him the jaw-dropping truth. The Hidden is a very tense, thrilling movie that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout, thereby fully justifying this claim as made in one of its posters included here, culminating in a literally explosive climax that at long last publicly exposes the alien villain in its revolting true form to an astonished, horrified human audience, followed by a most unexpected but very moving, touching finale. Highly recommended!! A follow-up film, The Hidden II, was released in 1993, in which it is revealed that the bug/slug alien from the original movie had secretly laid some eggs before being killed, and these are now beginning to hatch – uh-oh… I'll have to seek out this sequel and watch it at some stage. Meanwhile, please click here to watch an official trailer for the original movie on YouTube.
CURSE OF THE CRYSTAL EYE
My movie watch on 27 March 2024 was Curse of the Crystal Eye. Directed by Joe Tornatore and released in 1991 by New Horizons, this is one of a seemingly countless number of action/adventure movies spawned by other studios in the wake of Paramount's immensely-successful Indiana Jones blockbusters, in which a rebel character seeks ancient treasure and faces untold life-threatening challenges during his daring quest. In this particular offering, the rebel in question is ex-mercenary Luke Ward (played by Jameson Parker), who is gifted a sizeable priceless crystal that acts as an eye to guide him and his romantic-interest sidekick, namely diplomat's daughter Vickie Philips (Cynthia Payne in her final big-screen role), to the fabled long-hidden treasure of none other than Arabian Nights thief-leader Ali Baba. And guess what? Before you can say "Open Sesame", he and Vickie plus their back-up team of brawny mercenaries duly find the cave in which the ancient temple containing the treasure is concealed – but this is just the beginning, as the cave does not relinquish its splendorous contents quite so easily. Nor are they alone and unchallenged in their mission to relieve the cave of said contents... Curse of the Crystal Eye is an innocuous and mildly entertaining but instantly-forgettable adventure flick that passes 90 minutes' worth of time during a rainy spring afternoon or chilly winter evening, but signally lacks the much-vaunted fiery dragons promised in its publicity material. Shucks! Please click here to watch an official trailer for this movie on YouTube, or click here to watch the entire movie on there, free of charge..
PITCH BLACK
On 11 August 2024, I watched the sci fi movie Pitch Black, directed by David Twohy and released in 2000 by Universal Pictures. Pitch Black is the first entry in the Chronicles of Riddick film franchise, and it stars Vin Diesel as dangerous, taciturn, and thoroughly enigmatic criminal Richard Riddick. He is one of several passengers to survive the crash-landing of their space-craft on a mysterious desert planet seemingly devoid of all life forms – until an eclipse blocks out its suns. Then the terrifying bioraptors emerge from their caves – very large winged horrors that slaughter most of the passengers as they bid desperately to survive these nocturnal nightmares. A reluctant Riddick decides to help the other passengers, equipped as he is with specially-modified eyes that now possess perfect night vision – very useful during an eclipse where darkness brings forth monstrous entities of the murderous kind, Mercifully, however, these killer creatures are physically wounded by bright light, so the passengers strive frantically to equip themselves with any kind of light source (even capturing tiny bioluminescent creatures inside transparent glass jars to use as living lanterns – these creatures are actually the bioraptors' larvae), and pray that the eclipse will only be of short duration. The bioraptors are superbly designed, totally alien in form, and are seen clearly enough (even in dark scenes), frequently enough, and long enough for my interest to be maintained throughout. So much so, in fact, that I now intend to watch the other three entries (one of which is actually an animated featurette) presently in this series, with a fifth due out in 2025. Very enjoyable. Please click here to watch an official trailer for this movie on YouTube.
SYNCHRONIC
My movie watch on 8 May 2024 was the sci fi thriller Synchronic. Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Benson also wrote and co-produced it), and released in 2019 by Well Go USA Entertainment, it stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as New Orleans paramedics Steve and Dennis. They are also best friends, and are dealing with a series of grisly deaths linked to a mysterious new designer drug after which this movie is named. When Dennis's teenage daughter Brianna vanishes without trace, however, Steve learns from the drug's guilt-ridden creator its top-secret but shocking unexpected side-effect. Whereas adults with a calcified pineal gland who take a tablet of Synchronic can visualise the past and appear in it as ghost-like entities that can be injured or even killed there but physically remain in the present, youngsters with a non-calcified pineal who take a tablet are bodily transported into the past, and without a second tablet they are stuck there, forever! Steve has recently learnt that he has a pineal cancer, which has prevented his pineal gland from calcifying – and so, unlike most adults, if he takes a Synchronic tablet he can actually visit the past physically. Consequently, he uses a stash of tablets to search for Brianna in the past, but will be find her before his stash runs out, especially as Synchronic's creator has meanwhile bought up every available supply of it and destroyed them all before committing suicide? The film would have been interesting were it not so remorselessly bleak, and dark – in every sense. Not only was it overwhelmingly depressing, but also it seemed to have been shot almost entirely at night, filling the screen with shadows and near pitch-black vistas for far too much of its 102-minute running time. Even when Steve visited the past it was almost always at night. Did the studio forget to pay their electricity bill, I wonder? Synchronic offers an unusual premise, certainly, and provides a very poignant ending, but overall it was far too depressing for my tastes. Please click here to watch an official trailer for this movie on YouTube.
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM
On 12 April 2024, I sought out and, after owning it for many years, finally watched my sell-thru video of the classic 1960s fantasy movie The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, which was co-directed by Henry Levin and George Pal (with Pal also producing it), and also extensively featured marionettes created by Pal for the fairytale segments. Filmed in spectacular curved-screen Cinerama, and released in 1962 by MGM, it is basically a largely imaginary, highly romanticised history of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the two 19th-Century German brothers who famously collected and chronicled many of their homeland's traditional folktales. In the present movie, however, only Wilhelm (played by Laurence Harvey) is portrayed in this way, with Jacob (Karlheinz Böhm) presented as a highbrow law scholar who initially has neither time nor patience for his brother's fairytales, but is eventually won over to his cause, helping Wilhelm with his collating and preserving of them in published book form. Interspersed between the film's biographical storyline are three of their collected fairytales – 'The Dancing Princess' (a constricted version of 'The 12 Dancing Princesses'), 'The Cobbler and the Elves', and 'The Singing Bone', the latter two featuring some wonderful Pal puppetry/stop-motion animation, especially the dragon in 'The Singing Bone', and all three of them are sumptuously staged. A host of famous names also appear, including Russ Tamblyn, Barbara Eden, Jim Backus, Terry-Thomas, Claire Bloom, Martita Hunt, and Yvette Mimieux. This is a delightful movie very reminiscent in execution and whimsical treatment of its two sibling subjects' lives of the 1952 movie musical Hans Christian Andersen with regard to its own titular storyteller (played by Danny Kaye). Grimm by name but certainly not grim by nature, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is definitely a fun-filled, thoroughly enchanting film for all the family to enjoy. Please 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.
