What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[evbear]

The Dark Crystal:

Having pioneered the art of puppeteering through his groundbreaking TV show ‘The Muppets’, Jim Henson would continue to hone his skills until his untimely death at the age of 53. His many allies in this endeavour included the likes of the talented Frank Oz (Miss Piggy) who helped Henson create a number of iconic characters, the most famous being the enigmatic Jedi Master, Yoda. Having achieved critical and commercial success with 'The Muppets', Henson decided to explore a darker, stranger side to his storytelling. Crafting a pair of noticeably maturer fantasy epics, 'The Dark Crystal' and 'Labyrinth', which showed an altogether more serious, melancholic side to Henson, previously unseen in his work.

A joint British and American production, ‘The Dark Crystal’ was a groundbreaking animatronic endeavour. Which involved a heavily collaborative process between directors Henson and Oz, as well as producer Gary Kurtz (‘Star Wars Episode IV') and 'Muppet Show' alumnus David Odell, who was given the arduous task of shaping the complicated mythology into a workable screenplay. That he based primarily on fantasy illustrator Brian Froud's wonderfully distinctive fairy and dwarf designs, these imaginative creations helped shape the world of Thra, along with its strange assortment of inhabitants.

The story begins “In another world, another time... in the age of wonder” in a great land once protected by the guardians of The Crystal of Truth, The UrSkeks. They were the protectors of a Crystal so powerful, it could harness the strength of three suns; The Greater Sun, The Rose Sun, and The Dying Sun. Unfortunately, a thousand years ago during the great conjunction, when the three suns aligned, The Crystal cracked, scattering across the land and transforming into The Dark Crystal. This event changed The UrSkeks into two very different races, the gentle beings known as The Mystics and the vulture-like tyrants, The Skeksis, who took control over the sacred castle, banishing The Mystics away. There they harnessed The Crystal for their own villainous endeavours, reigning over the land for nearly a thousand years, ravishing it of all its beauty, and enslaving the timid race known as The Podling.

Now, as the thousand years comes to an end, another conjunction of the suns is set to occur. Fearing a prophesied end to their power, through the restoration of The Crystal by an elf like race known as The Gelfling, they arrange for their slaughter, using the crustacean-like Garthim as their army. Escaping this massacre is a small infant known as Jen, who is raised by The Mystics in the hope of fulfilling their long believed prophesy, and restoring the land and its people to what they once were.

Shot mainly at the famous Elstree Studios in England, the process of completing 'Crystal' became a mammoth undertaking for all involved. Unlike the later 'labyrinth' or 'Muppet' Movies, 'Crystal' was solely comprised of elaborate puppets, with no humans appearing on screen. Every hand or facial movement had to be primitively done by human operators using rods and cables. For more subtle expressions like eyebrows or smiles, a radio control system was implemented. The larger puppets such as Garthim were the most arduous to capture. An operator had to be inside these heavy, dangerous costumes to complete the gruelling task, which quickly tired the occupant. This resulted in the individual having to be hung on a rack every few minutes to rest, while still inside.

Too complex for children at the time, the movie has better than a lot of ‘80s fantasy fare, and even outshines its later cousin, 'Labyrinth' as the stronger of the two films. Making slightly over $40 million on release, with an estimated budget of $15 million, its limited success was partly due to the massively popular 'E.T.', released in the same year. It did however win a number of minor awards, including that year's Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, along with the grand prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and a BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects. In Japan, 'The Dark Crystal' was the highest-grossing box office release for the year - out grossing even E.T. - and held onto that position until 'Titanic' was released 14 years later.

'The Dark Crystal' is a special movie, full of inventive touches and wondrous animated landscapes teeming with life and spectacle. Along with a fantastic array of supporting characters, in-particular the movie stealing fluffball known as The Fizzgig, a friendly monster that will warm anyone's heart.

[Wes]

Originally Posted by evbear

The Dark Crystal
...

Excellent post I enjoyed reading it, and has left me wanting to see the film again (on a double-bill with Legend preferably!)

[evbear]

Thanks man, hoping to do Labyrinth tomorrow. Love Legend, must get around to seeing the directors cut at some stage.

[Wes]

Great blog by the way, just flicking thru it there. Highly recommended !

[evbear]

Originally Posted by Wes

Great blog by the way, just flicking thru it there. Highly recommended !

As to you good sir, love your Video Nasties coverage, use it as a referance all the time

[Nostalgic]

Finished Spartacus: Vangance (amazing, took a few episodes to get used to the new actor in the lead, but overall, it was as good as season 1).

And watched The Dark Knight Rises again. This has become my favourite screen interpretation of Batman, and although I was initially unimpressed with Nolan's first two offerings, seeing them again in the light of the third installment has made me appreciate them anew.
When viewed as an epic story (akin to a tv miniseries), Nolan's Dark Knight films are truly amazing, they must have knocked me for six the first time I saw them as I was a fan of Burton's fast-paced, action-oriented Batman Returns.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by evbear

the talented Frank Oz (Miss Piggy)

Two legends together:

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Except the remake is boring as hell, just like with the ring remake the cinematograpy was lovely but that was it. Not scary in the slightest and missing the lift scene was an idiotic decision. Thought the remake of dark water was plain old-fashioned bad filmmaking.

Yeah, unlike the Ring remake, the Dark Water remake looks terrible. If they've taken the lift scene out, theyve probably removed it, as it might have been "too scary" for English audiences.

That scene scared the crap out of me.

[Hawkmonger]

Now, I might be breaking a rule here. But i've just finished watching a TV series. I should post this in the TV series thread, but people visit here more often so i'll post this warning here. Don't, for any reason, watch Elfen Lied. The most unpleasent, degrading, vulger, spiteful and bad taste anime I have ever seen, and i've watched Legend of the Overfiend! Avoid!

[keirarts]

Wrong Turn 5.

If the wrong turn franchise was a person, it just pissed itself in burger king and now a gang of teenagers are throwing rubbish at it as it sits there crying reeking of booze and urine its mouth full of the 99p burger it could barely afford. Thats right it just hit rock bottom. Some rural locations near the start aside, the majority seems to be filmed in the same backlot they use for tv series like smallville and supernatural, and the plot involves three of the mountain men turning up in town and laying siege to the sherriffs office after the sherriff arrests their leader (played by Doug bradley the only interesting thing in the film) Apparently the mutant hillbillys can get away with wandering the incredibly fake looking town because the town is holding a mountain man festival (i'm not even joking) not that that matters because as soon as night falls the town rapidly empties and noone seems to notice the ruckus as the hillbillys roam the town killing teenagers in various sadistic ways that lack any sort of suspense. It's trash, but it's not fun trash,its just mean and unpleasant in the crudest sense of the word and makes even parts 3 + 4 look like the citizen kane of horror.


Silent night.

More trash, except this one is worth watching, mainly because its FUN. In fact its worth watching straight after wrong turn 4 just to illustrate the difference between 'good' bad movies and plain old bad ones. It's not as much fun as the origional silent night, deadly night (but very few things are) and I weep for a generation that thinks the title is too long and must be cut in half. But the murders are actually fun, the film dosent feel as mean spirited as wrong turn 4 and as an added bonus we have malcom macdowell as the sherriff chewing through scenery like a silver haired pac-man. worth watching.