What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)

Co-produced by Francis Ford Coppolla as a companion piece to his Bram Stoker's Dracula from a couple of years earlier and directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as Victor Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is an energetic yet faithful take on the oft filmed classic novel by Shelley. It's testament to the screen writers, Frank Darabont among them, that the film is distilled enough but also authentic to the original story allowing Branagh the director to push Branagh the actor at a frenetic pace, his Victor Frankenstein all hot and sweaty and shirtless, takes on the role in a way you could never imagine Colin Clive or Peter Cushing, (the screens two most famous Frankensteins) wishing to do, in fact they would both probably find Brannagh's take incerdibly vulgar.

Branagh assembles a fine cast. Tom Hulce, John Cleese, Helena Bonham-Carter, Ian Holm, Richard Briers amd Aiden Quinn, all give admirable support but it's the films other star - Robert DeNiro who steals the film, a bit like Karloff did in the Universal films. DeNiro, one of cinemas finest ever actors, brings something else to the role of the monster. At first a hulking mass of bloody stitiches and unquestionable horror, but as the film progresses and time moves on he softens. The wounds slowly heal, DeNiro removes the stitches and he becomes more human. The nuts and bolts of the classic Frankenstein monster are nowhere to be seen in this version and the film benefits from this meaning DeNiro can never be compared to the mighty Karloff, except for character name only. Indeed DeNiro brings a compassion to the role. His scenes with Briers, a blind man who lives in the forest, are short but rather moving and very memorable. This creature isn't out for revenge. He's a monster in name only. He wants to leave the world of men behind, a world that has no tolerance of anything different, but in this creatures case he passionately wants a bride to take with him, a companion to see out his days with. By this stage DeNiro plays the role not as a creature or monster but as a man and it's this aspect that makes Mary Shelley's Frankenstein a very good film in my eyes.

Truth be told there's not an awful lot of horror in the film. Playing out more as a Gothic piece of science fiction drama than anything truly horrible. The creature coming to life in Frankenstein's incredible looking laboratory easily rivals anything we've seen before, the set design throughout the film is flawless. The staircase in Frankenstein's mansion is a stunning piece of design which almosts begs for Dracula to descend down it with his flowing black and red cloak. In fact it's not until the final twenty minutes that the film becomes horror. The monsters revenge attack on Bonham-Carter, Frankenstein's wife, is truly savage and sets the scene for the introduction of the Bride of Frankenstein and a shocking fiery finale.

The film is book ended with Frankenstein being hunted by the creature at the North Pole and coming across a ship captained by Aiden Quinn's Captain Walton. It's through Victor's telling to Walton that we see the film play out until we return to the ice caps at the end as Frankenstein passes away, the creature having caught up with him and in a poignant moment refusing passage with Walton so he can be with his maker, his enemy, his... father, as the two finally die on an iceberg funeral pyre.

Cracking review of a brilliant and underrated film Dem. Interesting you should mention DeNiro's so much as i recall that being one of the films biggest criticisms at the time.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Cracking review of a brilliant and underrated film Dem. Interesting you should mention DeNiro's so much as i recall that being one of the films biggest criticisms at the time.

Cheers J, your comment is much appreciated.

I think it's one of the reasons the film works so well is because of DeNiro's portrayal and the fact it isn't a 'nuts and bolts' creature.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Gas-s-s-s (1970)





56/100

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)

A well-written review (as usual), but I have to disagree.

In my eyes, Branagh's version is overambitious and somehow undecided. It seems to me that he desperately tried to include as many details of Shelley's original story as possible; at the same time, I think, he wanted to create a decidedly genuine version at all costs.

It would have been a better idea for Branagh to condense the story, or to turn it into a TV series.

Having said that, it's by no means a bad film and definitely worth watching.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Prince_Vajda

A well-written review (as usual), but I have to disagree.

In my eyes, Branagh's version is overambitious and somehow undecided. It seems to me that he desperately tried to include as many details of Shelley's original story as possible; at the same time, I think, he wanted to create a decidedly genuine version at all costs.

It would have been a better idea for Branagh to condense the story, or to turn it into a TV series.

Having said that, it's by no means a bad film and definitely worth watching.

Thanks Prince.

I don't really see over ambition as a bad thing. It's certainly better than having a lack of ambition. Personally i think the film benefits from being faithful to the novel.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Cemetery Without Crosses (Une corde, un Colt...) (1969)





61/100

[keirarts]

Lost soul: The doomed Journey of Richard Stanley

I remember becoming a fan of Richard Stanley's after Palace released HARDWARE on VHS, I can remember Barry Norman giving the film a somewhat sniffy review that egged me on into seeing what is a terrific, self indulgent wonderfully overblown sci-fi horror that *ahem* 'borrowed' a little from 2000ad's Thargs future shocks. I also really enjoyed his follow up, the even more self indulgent south African horror road-trip Dust Devil. I was a little sad then to hear he had been 'removed' from Island of Dr Moreau. I also remember being even more peeved to go into my local and sorely missed flea-pit to see Island to see if anything Stanley-esque remained and ended up sort of enjoying the end result as an off the wall train-wreck that attempted to bring mass appeal to a story that was unlikely to ever find it on screen.
Wells story is just to dark to ever really appeal to a mass audience, however a director who doesn't give a toss about stuff like that is likely to bring something interesting to the table. Sadly its also the sort of mind set that sends cold waves of fear through the reptile brain of the average exec and Stanley was enough of an outsider to bring that kind of fear. It doesn't help when both your lead actors are f*****g insane. Here we get Marlon Brando who is more an affable mad uncle with an appetite for self destruction and an ability to come to the table with the maddest demands possible. We also get Val Kilmer, who comes across as the sort of alpha male dick head that probably used to spike the drinks of cheerleaders back in college, the sort of Hyena in a mans skin that can spot weakness from across the room and homes in on it with a look of hunger and perhaps a little lust. Basically the worst kind of dick imaginable outside the Nuremberg rally and a likely poster boy for the merits of ritual sacrifice.
The documentary basically chronicles an almost perfect storm of Hollywood f**k ups that show how pathetically eager Hollywood are to court new visions while refusing to let their films show any sort of individuality. Its a documentary that will frustrate with what could have been and amuse with a tale so bloody crazy it couldn't be made up. Watch it.

[keirarts]

The Jail: The women's hell

from Hollywood madness to Bruno Mattei, a director who refused to stop until death itself came to claim him. Bruno, AkA Vincent Dawn here, didn't let little things like the total collapse of the Italian film industry stop him. He just went to the Philippines and became the silver screens Col. Kurtz as he moved up stream and began churning out his own brand of extreme, exploitative yet thoroughly entertaining trash. A lot of them containing the same actors and locations. Here Bruno digs up the women in prison flick and doses it liberally with extreme sadism, nudity and sexual assault with snake. He doesn't f*** around one bit here and we get a bunch of new girls put through the wringer for a bunch of leering guards and a butch warden before the whole thing mutates into a nasty as hell take on the most dangerous game. The acting is dreadful, the dialogue is dreadful, its tasteless lowest common denomination trash yet its gloriously entertaining in a way only cult fans could love.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Lost soul: The doomed Journey of Richard Stanley

I remember becoming a fan of Richard Stanley's after Palace released HARDWARE on VHS, I can remember Barry Norman giving the film a somewhat sniffy review that egged me on into seeing what is a terrific, self indulgent wonderfully overblown sci-fi horror that *ahem* 'borrowed' a little from 2000ad's Thargs future shocks. I also really enjoyed his follow up, the even more self indulgent south African horror road-trip Dust Devil. I was a little sad then to hear he had been 'removed' from Island of Dr Moreau. I also remember being even more peeved to go into my local and sorely missed flea-pit to see Island to see if anything Stanley-esque remained and ended up sort of enjoying the end result as an off the wall train-wreck that attempted to bring mass appeal to a story that was unlikely to ever find it on screen.
Wells story is just to dark to ever really appeal to a mass audience, however a director who doesn't give a toss about stuff like that is likely to bring something interesting to the table. Sadly its also the sort of mind set that sends cold waves of fear through the reptile brain of the average exec and Stanley was enough of an outsider to bring that kind of fear. It doesn't help when both your lead actors are f*****g insane. Here we get Marlon Brando who is more an affable mad uncle with an appetite for self destruction and an ability to come to the table with the maddest demands possible. We also get Val Kilmer, who comes across as the sort of alpha male dick head that probably used to spike the drinks of cheerleaders back in college, the sort of Hyena in a mans skin that can spot weakness from across the room and homes in on it with a look of hunger and perhaps a little lust. Basically the worst kind of dick imaginable outside the Nuremberg rally and a likely poster boy for the merits of ritual sacrifice.
The documentary basically chronicles an almost perfect storm of Hollywood f**k ups that show how pathetically eager Hollywood are to court new visions while refusing to let their films show any sort of individuality. Its a documentary that will frustrate with what could have been and amuse with a tale so bloody crazy it couldn't be made up. Watch it.

While I agree with the above I found Stanley to be a particularly weak and immature individual completely out of his depth on almost every level of the project.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Oh and nice hyena reference for those who have seen the documentary.