Godzilla...now there was a monster movie.
The other day I was watching (for the umpteenth time) Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith on cable. This is the 6th Star Wars movie, but technically the 3rd episode in the George Lucas’ epic space saga of good and evil. Why would I watch this on cable when I own the DVDs? No comment at this point in time - too much time on my hands perhaps?
I had a recurring revelation, a minor epiphany of sorts. Yoda was jumping and spinning around the room, careening off the walls with his miniature Yoda-sized light sabre fighting Lord Sidious - looking like some character in an old Heckle & Jeckle cartoon. He was doing things that Yoda shouldn’t be able to do, considering he is an 800 year old hobbit. Even if he was the ultimate, uber-Jedi Knight...it just wasn’t right! It was the realization that I was watching a state of the art cartoon. This has occured to me before many times, like when I was watching one of the later Alien movies, or that Narnia flick, or War of the Worlds. The bottom line is that it is not credible any longer. Anything and everything can be imaged in a movie now. Making the incredible credible has become commonplace, and now...incredible!
Worse yet, even so-called scary movies are not scary any more. There indeed have been some creepy ones of late, ie, The Ring, The Grudge. But this recent genre are remakes of Japanese horror flicks. Sure, there are some special effects. But for the most part, they appeal to some of our most primitive fears: ghosts for one. The other is the devil.
I also remember as a child seeing the “original” War of the Worlds at the drive-in with my parents. It came out in 1953, I think this particular showing (at the Van Nuys drive-in) was around 1956 or so. It scared me shitless! This version starred Gene Barry (the guy who played Bat Masterson and on Burke’s Law) and Ann Robinson. Barry was Dr. Clayton Forrester, Robinson’s character was Sylvia Van Buren. Both of these actors, by the way, had minute cameo roles near the end of the 2005 Spielberg production (the grandparents standing in the doorway in Boston).
I recall sitting in the back of our ‘53 Oldsmobile and leaning my arms on the front seat to watch the movie...peering out from hands clenched over my eyes, watching the alien invaders through little slits formed by my fingers. By today’s standards, the special effects were primitive, but no less frightening to a six year old boy. For 1953, it was pretty spectacular - and scary. War of the Worlds won the Oscar in 1954 for Best Effects/Special Effects.
The 1953 version offered the Martians coming to earth inside giant meteors, crash landing outside all the big cities. A hatch slowly unscrews to reveal a shiny, glowing nozzle of sorts. This nozzle thing lights up even more and starts spitting out a death ray, microwaving everyone to ash. It is attached to a three-pointed spaceship that hovers above the ground, not those goofy looking three-legged cartoon robots that Speilberg came up with!
Spielberg did pay homage to the original in several instances. The most notable of which was the farmhouse. The two main characters in the original version take refuge in a remote country farmhouse (Tim Robbins was added to the Speilberg script). The Martian probe slinks its way down in to the basement area and Barry hacks off the mechanical head with an axe...eventually taking it to the nearby “institute” for study. While in the farmhouse, they make some contact with the living inhabitants of the spaceships. But instead of stupid looking, digital Disney characters (ala Speilberg’s version), we only get short glimpses in shadow form. Then one fleeting dimly-lit look straight into the face of the three-eyed, two-legged Martian hiding his eyes from the flashlight beam. The little monster reveals itself by placing its three-digit, suction cup fingers on the girl’s shoulder...one of my all-time best scariest movie moments. Of course, the Martians all die off from germs. At least the 2005 WOTW left that in. They also left in the opening and closing narratives...Morgan Freeman in 2005, Sir Cedric Hardwick in 1953...very nice touch.
The 1953 WOTW was a spooky, scary, exciting movie. Maybe it’s the “spooky” parts that I remember most. Maybe that is why some of these Japanese horror flicks are so disturbing. Even the original Japanese version of The Ring (called Ring-U) is creepier than the later attempt (although the new ones are all directed by the original Japanese director). That Samara chick crawling out of the television is classic. And...there’s the Naomi Watts factor! Bingo.
Hell...the 1956 Godzilla, King of Monsters was actually scary compared to the remake in 1998. That lumbering, Tokyo-destroying, 400 foot T-Rex played by a guy in a ill-fitting rubber suit was scary back then. Did you know that Raymond Burr was in that? Yup, he was.
These days, I listen to snot-nosed media types refer to the old sci-fi and monster movies as "B" movies. Well, those genres were always relagated to that status. But if Frankenstein's Monster was a "B" movie, then Monster in Law (J-Lo and Jane Fonda) should be an "F" movie! Insert any number of modern flicks in this "F" category, ie, ones with Jennifer Aniston, Jenifer Lopez,
Ashton Kutcher, or Adam Sandler as examples. They are not funny...they are not entertaining...the actors aren't talented. Maybe someday, some of these types will have the opportunity to star in a Japanese-directed horror flick...then at least they would be scary!
I had a recurring revelation, a minor epiphany of sorts. Yoda was jumping and spinning around the room, careening off the walls with his miniature Yoda-sized light sabre fighting Lord Sidious - looking like some character in an old Heckle & Jeckle cartoon. He was doing things that Yoda shouldn’t be able to do, considering he is an 800 year old hobbit. Even if he was the ultimate, uber-Jedi Knight...it just wasn’t right! It was the realization that I was watching a state of the art cartoon. This has occured to me before many times, like when I was watching one of the later Alien movies, or that Narnia flick, or War of the Worlds. The bottom line is that it is not credible any longer. Anything and everything can be imaged in a movie now. Making the incredible credible has become commonplace, and now...incredible!
Worse yet, even so-called scary movies are not scary any more. There indeed have been some creepy ones of late, ie, The Ring, The Grudge. But this recent genre are remakes of Japanese horror flicks. Sure, there are some special effects. But for the most part, they appeal to some of our most primitive fears: ghosts for one. The other is the devil.
I also remember as a child seeing the “original” War of the Worlds at the drive-in with my parents. It came out in 1953, I think this particular showing (at the Van Nuys drive-in) was around 1956 or so. It scared me shitless! This version starred Gene Barry (the guy who played Bat Masterson and on Burke’s Law) and Ann Robinson. Barry was Dr. Clayton Forrester, Robinson’s character was Sylvia Van Buren. Both of these actors, by the way, had minute cameo roles near the end of the 2005 Spielberg production (the grandparents standing in the doorway in Boston).
I recall sitting in the back of our ‘53 Oldsmobile and leaning my arms on the front seat to watch the movie...peering out from hands clenched over my eyes, watching the alien invaders through little slits formed by my fingers. By today’s standards, the special effects were primitive, but no less frightening to a six year old boy. For 1953, it was pretty spectacular - and scary. War of the Worlds won the Oscar in 1954 for Best Effects/Special Effects.
The 1953 version offered the Martians coming to earth inside giant meteors, crash landing outside all the big cities. A hatch slowly unscrews to reveal a shiny, glowing nozzle of sorts. This nozzle thing lights up even more and starts spitting out a death ray, microwaving everyone to ash. It is attached to a three-pointed spaceship that hovers above the ground, not those goofy looking three-legged cartoon robots that Speilberg came up with!
Spielberg did pay homage to the original in several instances. The most notable of which was the farmhouse. The two main characters in the original version take refuge in a remote country farmhouse (Tim Robbins was added to the Speilberg script). The Martian probe slinks its way down in to the basement area and Barry hacks off the mechanical head with an axe...eventually taking it to the nearby “institute” for study. While in the farmhouse, they make some contact with the living inhabitants of the spaceships. But instead of stupid looking, digital Disney characters (ala Speilberg’s version), we only get short glimpses in shadow form. Then one fleeting dimly-lit look straight into the face of the three-eyed, two-legged Martian hiding his eyes from the flashlight beam. The little monster reveals itself by placing its three-digit, suction cup fingers on the girl’s shoulder...one of my all-time best scariest movie moments. Of course, the Martians all die off from germs. At least the 2005 WOTW left that in. They also left in the opening and closing narratives...Morgan Freeman in 2005, Sir Cedric Hardwick in 1953...very nice touch.
The 1953 WOTW was a spooky, scary, exciting movie. Maybe it’s the “spooky” parts that I remember most. Maybe that is why some of these Japanese horror flicks are so disturbing. Even the original Japanese version of The Ring (called Ring-U) is creepier than the later attempt (although the new ones are all directed by the original Japanese director). That Samara chick crawling out of the television is classic. And...there’s the Naomi Watts factor! Bingo.
Hell...the 1956 Godzilla, King of Monsters was actually scary compared to the remake in 1998. That lumbering, Tokyo-destroying, 400 foot T-Rex played by a guy in a ill-fitting rubber suit was scary back then. Did you know that Raymond Burr was in that? Yup, he was.
These days, I listen to snot-nosed media types refer to the old sci-fi and monster movies as "B" movies. Well, those genres were always relagated to that status. But if Frankenstein's Monster was a "B" movie, then Monster in Law (J-Lo and Jane Fonda) should be an "F" movie! Insert any number of modern flicks in this "F" category, ie, ones with Jennifer Aniston, Jenifer Lopez,
Ashton Kutcher, or Adam Sandler as examples. They are not funny...they are not entertaining...the actors aren't talented. Maybe someday, some of these types will have the opportunity to star in a Japanese-directed horror flick...then at least they would be scary!
posted by James | 4:13 AM
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