Viewed October 14, 2006
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is really much more a Wolf Man movie than it is a Frankenstein film. In fact, it seems to ignore the continuity that was established in the “Frankenstein” series, acting as if the monster had not been seen since the end of the original 1931 film.
Lon […]
Viewed October 13, 2006
Freddy vs. Jason is exactly what you think it is: no more, no less. It’s a virtual non-stop parade of death and mayhem, with only a light sprinkling of thought and character.
Now, this is a film that was developed by focus group, if ever there was one. There’s clearly no […]
Viewed October 11, 2006
Vampire Effect is, in many ways, a typical Hong Kong actioner with little originality or truly interesting aspects to make it stand out from a sea of lookalike films.
The story tells of a vampire hunter named Reeve (Ekin Cheng) who has not had much luck with assistants (they keep getting killed). […]
Viewed October 8, 2006
Anyone who thinks Bela Lugosi was a one-hit wonder just needs to see Son of Frankenstein. Not only does it sport a ripping good story and beautiful sets, it features one of Lugosi’s greatest characters (and one that people seem to seldom remember he created): Ygor. But he’s no […]
Viewed October 4, 2006
Dracula’s Daughter is the surprisingly good follow-up to the classic 1931 film Dracula.
The story picks up almost immediately after the destruction of Count Dracula at the end of the first film. (Although John and Mina Harker have disappeared). Professor Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) is found with the […]
Viewed October 3, 2006
Faust: Love of the Damned has got to be the worst comic book based film I have ever seen. Of course, the original Faust comic book was one of the worst comics I ever read, so I really shouldn’t be surprised.
The story, such as it is, involves an artist named John […]
Viewed September 29, 2006
Okay, so maybe my Disney obsession is getting out of control. I mean, I know there’s more of the faux Bob & Doug McKenzie in Brother Bear 2, but did I need to see it so soon? Well, probably not. But it wasn’t bad and the addition of two […]
Viewed September 28, 2006
Bambi II is a film I honestly never thought they would make. I mean, it’s one thing to trot out The Lion King 2 or The Little Mermaid II or even Cinderella II: Dreams Come True. But a sequel to Bambi? Well, I prepared myself for the worst and […]
Viewed September 24, 2006
What dooms Catwoman is straying from the source material. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times (and will say it a thousand times more): stick to the source mateial and you’ll be fine. There’s a reason that characters like Catwoman have stood the test of time. […]
Viewed September 21, 2006
There are three reasons I bought Brother Bear. First, I’ve been buying a lot of Disney films lately and this one popped up during by searching. Second, it features songs by Phil Collins. Even if I didn’t like the film, there’s a good chance I’d like the songs. […]
Viewed September 20, 2006
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride wants desperately to be The Nightmare Before Christmas. But it isn’t, not by a long shot. The story is less engaging and the songs are forgettable, a pale shadow of the ones in Nightmare.
And that’s probably the biggest problem with Corpse Bride. The songs in […]
Viewed September 13, 2006
The history of the production that resulted in The Emperor’s New Groove is, by now, almost legendary. It began life as a sweeping epic film entitled “Kingdom of the Sun” and told the story of a selfish prince (voiced by David Spade) who switches places with a peasant named Pacha (voiced […]
Viewed August 22, 2006
CQ is a love letter to 1960s European cinema by Roman Coppola (son of Francis Ford Coppola). It takes place in 1969 France and tells the story of Paul, a young filmmaker who has come there to make “important” films. His major work is a document of his life, where […]
Viewed August 21, 2006
Kull the Conqueror is actually an adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Conqueror. But when filmmakers approached Arnold Schwarzenegger about reprising his starmaking role, he declined. So, rather than cast someone else as Conan (seen as untenable at the time), they changed the part to Howard original barbarian hero, […]
Viewed August 20, 2006
The Brothers Grimm has a lot in common with director Terry Gilliam’s 1988 masterpiece The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (my personal favorite of his films). They both deal, in different ways, with the power of myth. While Munchausen is more directly about the power of belief, this one deals with […]
Viewed August 15, 2006
Now, I’m not a big fan of the X-Men films. But, then again, I’ve never been a big fan of the X-Men. I’ve never been able to buy the central conceit that mutants can be compared to other oppressed groups (take your pick). The problem with the comparison for […]
Viewed August 6, 2006
The number of things that go wrong with V for Vendetta are almost too many to count. It is wrong-headed from the get-go. Now, to be fair, I was never a fan of the original comic book on which this film is based. It seemed to me to be […]
Viewed August 3, 2006
Nanny McPhee is an impressive entry in the family film genre. The basic premise is not all that original: horrible children finding difficulty dealing with life after the loss of their mother being set straight by a caring (if unorthodox) nanny. There are certainly shades of Mary Poppins in here, […]
Viewed July 25, 2006
Earlier this year, I watched both Chicken Little and Valiant. They are both CGI animated films presented by Disney that received relatively poor reviews (and in the case of Valiant, poor box office). However, I enjoyed both of those films, so I decided to give the most recent “under received” […]
Viewed July 14, 2006
There’s a warning on the cover of the Repli-Kate DVD: “A Love Story from two of the producers of American Pie!” Note that it’s not from any of the writers or the director of American Pie. Also note that the writers and director of Repli-Kate have done absoultely nothing since […]
Viewed July 4, 2006
The 1910 silent short The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is, perhaps, the oldest film version of L. Frank Baum’s famous ‘Oz’ stories. It is almost certainly the oldest one extant, as the other two made that year, The Land of Oz and Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz, are lost.
The Wizard […]
Viewed July 3, 2006
Kate Capshaw’s character, singer Willie Scott, is the perfect example of all that is wrong with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: beautiful on the outside, devoid of any value on the inside.
Now, I have read that George Lucas originally intended Indiana Jones to be more of a James Bond type […]
Viewed June 30, 2006
I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy Constantine as much as I did. Of course, that’s not saying much, as I’m no fan of Hellblazer, the comic on which Constantine is based. Maybe if I was I would like it less. I’ve certainly seen my share of scathing comments on […]
Viewed June 28, 2006
I don’t know what I was expecting from SkyHigh, but I’m certain it’s not what I got. The box notes seemed to indicate an intense look at the possibilities of vengeance and the nature of the afterlife. What SkyHigh ends up being about is just another attempt to storm the […]
Viewed June 27, 2006
I put Superman Returns at a big disadvantage before I saw it. I watched Richard Donner’s 1978 film Superman right before going to the theater. Now, normally I wouldn’t place that kind of pressure on a film. I didn’t watch any of the 90s ‘Batman’ movies before seeing Batman […]
Viewed June 23, 2006
Boy was I ready to dislike the remake of Mighty Joe Young. My every instinct told me that it couldn’t live up to the original. And it doesn’t. But it comes an awful lot closer than I expected and is a decent film in its own right.
The biggest problem […]
Viewed June 22, 2006
King Kong Lives is the little-known follow-up to producer Dino De Laurentiis’ infamous 1976 re-make of King Kong.
In a touch of realism, it picks up the story ten years after the previous film (re-capped with the actual conclusion of the previous film; Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges and all). Kong […]
Viewed June 21, 2006
King Kong Escapes from Toho Studios follows their highly successful King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). To a degree, it follows the basic plot of the original King Kong. Ship comes to island, finds giant ape, ape falls for girl, ape is brought to mainland, etc. The big difference, of […]
Viewed June 13, 2006
Bunny is a short film from Blue Sky Animation (Ice Age) about an elderly rabbit and her battle with a moth that treads a line somewhere between whimsy and gravitas. It can be found on the Ice Age 2-disc DVD.
Visually, Bunny works quite well, with the animations of the moth particularly […]
Viewed June 12, 2006
Right off the bat, I’ll point out the similarities between The Brave Little Toaster and several of the Pixar films, since it is that connection that led me to watch it. BLT presents a world where inanimate objects come to life when their owners aren’t around. A small group of […]
Viewed June 9, 2006
Cars is Pixar’s return to pure family-friendly fare after the more grown-up focus of 2004’s The Incredibles. And for me at least, it was a happy return. While I enjoyed The Incredibles (I’ve watched it three times over the course of my recent Pixar-a-thon), I’ve always preferred the all-ages films.
Cars […]
Viewed June 8, 2006
Having exhausted my supply of unwatched Pixar material, I decided to turn to their ex-stablemates, Industrial Light & Magic and watch a short film they made called Work In Progress.
It’s kind of a fantasy realization of the nature of ILM. There are three characters, Lux (a tall, thin scientist who comes […]
Viewed June 6, 2006
Red’s Dream is another early Pixar short, this one concerning the aspirations of an unbought red unicycle.
Frankly, this one lacks the polish that features so prominantly in other Pixar shorts, even the early ones. The clown that is central to the dream sequence is rather odd looking and just doesn’t appeal […]
Viewed May 18, 2006
I came across The Wesley’s Mysterious File at a local record store and it looked interesting enough that I picked it up. It led me to buy a bunch of Asian films, several of which I have already covered. But I never actually watched the film. Sadly, although it […]
Viewed April 13, 2006
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (LWW) is the best fantasy film I’ve seen in a long time. Perhaps ever. Regardless of whether you are a fan of the original C.S. Lewis novels or not, LWW entertains on every possible level: heartfelt drama, lighthearted comedy, […]
Viewed April 1, 2006
1925’s Wizard of Oz is a textbook example of how not to adapt a great book to film. The plot and characters bear virtually no resemblance to the material on which they are based and what has replaced the original is far inferior. The only thing it does moderately well […]
Viewed March 30, 2006
So I had a strange realization a few days ago. I was browsing around the Wikipedia, reading stuff about Harry Potter (I’m on a bit of a Potter kick these days) and found a list of Potter parodies. Most are pretty lame (”Kill Harry” - a mishmash of Harry Potter […]
Viewed March 26, 2006
Monster Island, an made-for-MTV movie, tries to re-create the mystique of the classic B-movie. Although it hits the right marks superficially, it still falls short.
The plot is properly simple: kids brought to an island for a party start being attacked by giant insects. When someone is captured by one of […]
Viewed March 23, 2006
By now, I should be used to M. Night Shyamalan’s peculiar ability to create a realistic and convincing world for his stories to illuminate, yet I was still surprised by Signs. I was completely taken in by the trailers and advertisements that seemed to indicate that Signs is a mystery, following […]
Viewed March 18, 2006
His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz is the only of the Oz Film Company’s silent films based on the work of L. Frank Baum that was apparently directed by Baum himself.
The basic plot of the original book, The Scarecrow of Oz, remains intact, but characters have been shifted around to […]
Viewed March 9, 2006
Oh my, what can be said about Merlin: The Return? I’m a big fan of Arthurian stories and can usually find something appealing about most of them. (For instance, I’ve been known to gush at some length about that episode of Thundercats where Mumm-Ra acquired Excalibur.) But Merlin: The […]
Viewed March 1, 2006
Dünyayi kurtaran adam (1982), also known as “The Turkish Star Wars”, earns every bit of its poor reputation, but does manage to land in that “so-bad-its-good” category thanks to the dramatic heights that it aspires to (and fails to reach).
Some of you may have already heard of “The Turkish Star Wars”. […]
Viewed February 26, 2006
Don Knotts passed away on February 24th, but the news didn’t get out until the 26th. Having only just recently acquired a set of four of Knotts’ films, I decided that watching The Ghost and Mr. Chicken was a fitting tribute. And it’s a pretty good film if you can […]
Viewed February 25, 2006
The Magic Cloak of Oz is one of a series of “Oz” based films that L. Frank Baum produced around 1914. It is based on Baum’s novel Queen Zixi of Ix, which originally was not connected to Oz (although its characters later appeared in proper Oz books).
It tells the remarkable story […]
Viewed February 21, 2006
Perhaps it is because it is the first “Harry Potter” film that is saw after having experienced the book, but Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the first film that I felt really missed essential elements of the story.
Mostly it was subtlety that went out the window. Director Mike […]
Viewed February 20, 2006
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is the film that brought down the mighty house of Square. Until making this film, Square was a highly respected and successful video game company, mostly on the strength of its “Final Fantasy” series of RPGs. The Spirits Within was to be their big crossover […]
Viewed February 5, 2006
Almost immediately after Mary Shelley published her groundbreaking novel Frankenstein in 1818, it was being adapted for performance. The play Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein hit the boards in 1823, just five years later. (Although there may have been an aborted attempt in 1821.) Since that time the […]
Viewed February 1, 2006
Okay, so it’s not fair to expect much from a “skinemax”-type superhero movie, whose main focus is (quite naturally) the sex. The problem is, I’ve seen good films in the genre, even from the people who made SpiderBabe.
A little over a year ago, my brother told me I should see this […]
Viewed January 24, 2006
(sung to the tune of “Maria” from The Sound of Music)
She kills a guy, then starts to cry.
Her costume is all red.
She’s got some kind of ninja skills
And came back from the dead.
But in the end all she wants
Is to play mommy for some kid.
What kind of tough assassin is Elektra?
She’s got […]
Viewed January 12, 2006
What do you do when you’ve just produced a groundbreaking film that captivates audiences and inspires a generation of filmmakers? Obviously, you pump out a quickie sequel using the same sets, models and as many actors as you can round up. So when RKO and producer / director Merian […]
Viewed January 11, 2006
Since I will be writing a full-blown review of King Kong for theLogBook.com, I’m going to just state a few observations about Peter Jackson’s $200M remake.
If Peter Jackson loves the original King Kong (1933) so much, why did he feel the need to change it’s fundamental theme and why does he portray […]
Viewed January 5, 2006
Tenchi Forever (also known as Tenchi Muyo In Love 2 ) is the third of three theatrical films based on the Tenchi Muyo series.
What makes Tenchi Forever a bit odd (and made it a little difficult for me to get into) is that its tone is radically different than the […]
Viewed on January 1, 2006
If Unbreakable suffers from anything, it is that despite the convoluted nature of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s storytelling, the film is very direct. It is about being a super hero and it never tries to hide that fact. But that is also one of its greatest strengths. From […]