David M. Brown's Blog, page 64
March 19, 2013
Film Review: Rapid Fire
Starring: Brandon Lee, Powers Boothe, Nick Mancuso, Raymond J. Barry, Kate Hodge
Directed by: Dwight H. Little
Runtime: 91 minutes
Studio: Lions Gate
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Review: Rapid Fire
Bruce and Brandon Lee are two of the tragedies from film history. The martial arts legend Bruce died in his early thirties just as he was about to take the world by storm with Enter the Dragon (1973). Twenty years later his son, Brandon, was tragically killed on the set of The Crow (1994), a film that was well received and may have propelled him forward for years to come. Sadly, we’ll never know just how great father and son could have been. Back in 1992, Brandon released Rapid Fire, a vehicle for his martial arts talents, inspired by the style of his father, but is this up there with Enter the Dragon?
The film begins in Thailand where mafia drug baron Antonio Serrano (Nick Mancuso) is eager to work with Kinman Tau (Tzi Ma), a lucrative drug king. Antonio leaves empty-handed, Tau unimpressed and unwilling to work with him. We then switch focus to Jake Lo (Brandon Lee), an art student in Los Angeles who is haunted by the death of his father at Tiananmen Square in China during a protest for democracy. Lured to a party, Jake witnesses Antonio Serrano murdering Carl Chang (Michael Paul Chan) who has ties with Tau and suddenly his life is in danger. He is taken into protective custody to testify against Serrano but there are plenty of people willing to silence him!
After an introduction to the two bad guys in the film, we quickly switch our attention to Jake who was once passionate about politics but having seen his father die in a protest he has lost himself in the world of art. Lured to a Chinese democracy activist gathering, Jake witnesses Serrano’s murder of Chang and all of a sudden the building is a mass of bullets and devastation. Jake is quickly taken into protective custody but Serrano has men on the inside that can get to Jake. Luckily, Jake is something of a martial artist and though his life is constantly in danger, he has some nifty tricks up his sleeve and soon begins taking out the henchmen of both Serrano and Tau.
Jake isn’t a lone crusader in his efforts of course. Inevitably, this martial arts genius finds support from two cops Mace Ryan (Powers Boothe) and Karla Withers (Kate Hodge). Ryan is the tough-talking type while Karla, initially disgruntled with Jake, soon finds those muscles very distracting! The trio spend their time avoiding death and looking to bring Serrano to justice and then move their efforts onto Tau. With Jake being a prime target, it’s inevitable that he is used as a pawn to capture Serrano and when the moment arrives it’s a violent exchange but you’ll never feel like this art student is in any real danger.
Rapid Fire is a very average action/thriller. Lee is wonderful to watch when he’s performing martial arts his father would have been proud of but acting wise he is okay rather than great as he was in The Crow. While the story involving Serrano and Tau is intriguing and has a surprise or two, it doesn’t make up for the rest of the film which is predictable to be honest. Karla is there for a bit of romance with Jake while Mace inevitably slots into the temporary father role to compensate Jake for the father who was tragically killed.
Rapid Fire is an average effort showcasing Lee’s physical talents in a film he did many of the stunts and fight scenes. He’s not as brilliant to watch as his legendary father but this is very much a springboard for what was to come. However, if you want to see the best of Brandon Lee then head for The Crow.
Verdict: 3/5
(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)
Film Review: Rapid Fire | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
March 17, 2013
Film Review: Below
Starring: Olivia Williams, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Davis
Directed by: David Twohy
Runtime: 105 minutes
Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
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Review: Below
Wolfgang Petersen’s Das Boot remains one of the tensest films I’ve ever seen so the prospect of a horror film set on a submarine intrigued me. Directed by David Twohy, Below focuses on the USS Tiger Shark which is patrolling the Atlantic in 1943. The submarine receives communication to rescue survivors from a sunken ship that went down days before. The crew find a British nurse and two sailors, one who is badly wounded. Following the trio’s arrival, the crew of the USS Tiger Shark grow increasingly paranoid and fearful that some unseen assailant is amongst them while on the surface a German warship is hunting them and trying to blow them out of the water.
The submarine is headed by Lieutenant Brice (Bruce Greenwood) who is less than keen to have survivors on board especially with one being a woman, Claire (Olivia Williams). Tensions rise on the submarine when the wounded man turns out to be German and is killed by Brice. Claire reveals that her ship was carrying patients and was a British vessel posing no threat to anyone. There is a mystery on board the USS Tiger Shark with Captain Winters (Nick Hobbs) having drowned while trying to retrieve souvenirs from a German warship the submarine had sunk days before. Claire suspects Brice isn’t being completely honest about his version of events and she finds support from Odell (Matt Davis).
Below has some of the tension of Das Boot with the USS Tiger Shark being the hunted as the Germans use sonar to locate them and drop depth charges on them. Every time I see this in films I imagine how terrifying it must have been for those that went through it. The rest of the film has some of the usual creep elements, strange noises inside and outside the submarine, music suddenly playing, a faint voice coming from the corpse of the murdered German and some of the crew believing the late Captain Winters is haunting them. The question is will the crew be picked off by this malevolent threat on board with them.
I thought Below was quite a good little horror/thriller. It kept me interested throughout and I think the blend of a very real threat above the submarine coupled with what might or might not be a genuine threat on board worked well. There may not be any great surprises in the end but there is still some good tension.
Verdict: 3/5
(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)
Film Review: Below | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
Film Review: Lust, Caution
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Joan Chen, Leehom Wang, Tang Wei
Directed by: Ang Lee
Runtime: 157 minutes
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Review: Lust, Caution
Director Ang Lee was responsible for one of the best films of the last decade in Brokeback Mountain (2005) so I was naturally intrigued when he turned his attention back to China for his next project Lust, Caution, based on a 1979 short story by Eileen Chang. I’d heard two things about the film which had divided critics, the first being the length of two and a half hours but most notable were explicit sex scenes. I was fascinated to see if there was something beyond these two factors and in Ang Lee I had high hopes for a decent film.
Set during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), the film is divided between Hong Kong in 1938 and Shanghai in 1942. The focal point is student Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) who is attending university while waiting for her father in the UK to arrange for her passage out of war torn China. Chia Chi joins a theatre group led by the handsome Kuang Yu Min (Leehom Wang) whose work is designed to inspire patriotic spirit in the Chinese who are seemingly fighting a losing battle against the Japanese. Seeing potential in Chia Chi, Kuang gahers her and a group of friends together to attempt a daring assassination attempt against Mr Yee (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), a special agent and recruiter employed by the puppet government in China masterminded by the Japanese. Chia Chi is installed in Mr Yee’s household as a new friend to his wife Mrs Yee (Joan Chen). Chia Chi’s role is to seduce Mr Yee, gain his confidence and line him up for the rest of her conspirators to assassinate him. Foiled in 1938, the group disbands but Chia Chi is reunited with Kuang in 1942 and the plot takes place once more. However, the longer Chia Chi spends as Mr Yee’s mistress the more difficult it becomes for her to balance the roles of lover and conspirator.
The film opens with Chia Chi in a cafe and making a telephone call, seemingly a coded message that causes a group of men to arm themselves. We’re quickly whisked back to 1938 where Chia Chi is a beautiful but shy student at Lingnan University. She and a friend are drawn to Kuang who is running auditions for his drama group and we suspect early on that Chia Chi is more interested in Kuang than the theatre work. Despite that, she becomes the star in a play from Kuang which inspires the audience with its proclamations of Chinese patriotism and the refusal to surrender to Japan. After the success of the play, Kuang gathers his friends in celebration and discusses the idea of doing their bit for the war against Japan. He pinpoints the ruthless Mr Yee as a key target and hatches the idea of an assassination attempt. Chia Chi, as one of only two women in the group, is pushed forward as the one to become mistress to Mr Yee and her initial resentment is difficult to hide, especially with Kuang approving of the choice. Still a virgin, Chia Chi is resigned to practicing sex with another of the men in the group, the only one with any experience and that being with prostitutes. Although the group manage to get Chia Chi – now posing as Mrs Mak – into the Yee household their plans are soon scuppered when Mr Yee and his wife leave Hong Kong and return to Shanghai. The group are forced to break up but not before having to resort to murder to protect their secrets, a barrier they have no choice in crossing.
When Chia Chi is reunited with Kuang in 1942 he has continued his political activities and become a member of the KMT that is trying to overthrow Japan’s puppet government in China. Mr Yee has now become the head of a secret police organisation in the government and actively hunts and kills resistance members. The stakes are now even higher than in 1938 but Kuang persuades to Chia Chi to once again become Mrs Mak and return to the Yee household. This time Mr Yee is quick to begin an affair with Mrs Mak and the opening occasion is uncomfortable and brutal to say the least but over time their meetings become more emotional and lovemaking somewhat tender. The longer her role continues though the more difficult it becomes for Chia Chi to continue. While Mr Yee begins to fall for her, Chia Chi finds herself with divided loyalties, warming to her lover but mindful of the trap she needs to lay for the assassination. The question is whether Chia Chi and go through the plot when the time finally comes to act.
Ang Lee hits the right notes once again with Lust, Caution. This is no Brokeback Mountain but I still found it utterly absorbing throughout and didn’t feel the film’s length to be any impediment at all. I’ve seen Tony Leung in a few films now and it was no surprise to find him delivering another terrific performance as the ruthless Mr Yee. Tang Wei is exceptional as Chia Chi/Mrs Mak and is something of a surprise that she hasn’t been cast in more films since this one. As for the sex scenes, well, they are at times quite long and explicit, there’s no doubt but they are integral to the film’s storyline. Mr Yee’s first encounter with Mrs Mak is quite violent, almost to the extent of rape, but their later encounters are more emotional and gentle liaisons, a testament to the effect this woman has had on Mr Yee. The ending of the film is fantastic, you’ll be guessing right up to the conclusion, but there’s some hard-hitting moments before the final credits so be sure to brace yourself.
Lust, Caution divided critics when it was first released but for me it is an excellent film with a tense storyline and great acting especially from Leung and Wei. The sex scenes are undoubtedly explicit but they have a purpose in the overall narrative and are not just there for the sake of it. This is in my opinion Ang Lee’s second best film after Brokeback Mountain and continues his reputation as a great director.
Verdict: 5/5
(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)
Film Review: Lust, Caution | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
Tweedlers’ Jukebox Song of the Week – Perseverance
I often remember the nineties as being something of a flat decade for music but there were many great bands around. The Britpop scene was a good place to be, of course, as well as rock bands from America. Originating in Yorkshire, the same county I live in, were Terrorvision who slowly built themselves up and in 1996 had a breakthrough with the Regular Urban Survivors album that gave them two UK Top 10 hits. The first was the wonderful Perseverance.
Tony Wright’s pacy vocals work wonderfully with the guitar riff here and though it takes a few listens to pick up the lyrics it doesn’t diminish the impact of the song. I’m not sure what the song is about to be honest other than a love/hate relationship with perseverance in general. Don’t forget the whales and dolphins. It would be a good few years for Terrorvision after this but after their popular song, Tequila, the success soon evaporated. For me, 1996 was when Terrovision were at their peak.
Tweedlers’ Jukebox Song of the Week – Perseverance | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
March 15, 2013
Guest Post: Days of Our Words: TV vs Novels – Barbara Morgenroth
We are delighted to welcome Barbara Morgenroth, author of Unspeakably Desirable, who joins us to compare television to novels.
Guest Post: Days of Our Words: TV vs Novels
Always a fan of soap operas, my dream was to work on one. My neighbor happened to be a songwriter and he introduced me to his managers. They got me a meeting at ABC and a deal to write a sample script for General Hospital.
Happy Dance!
Until they read the script and said I’d never work in daytime. To ease my disappointment, I wrote a YA novel about a 17 year old girl who becomes a star on a soap. This novel, In Real Life I’m Just Kate, now titled Just Kate, got me into daytime television and I worked in soaps for a number of years.
Having experienced both, I can now compare the two worlds of writing.
If I sit down to write a novel, I’m on my own with complete autonomy to make all artistic choices without input.
In television, you have no autonomy and everyone including the guy on the corner of 66th Street and Columbus Avenue who sells Italian Ices out of a cart has input.
Life is a little dull here when I’m writing. I’m at the computer and then for excitement I visit my neighbors.
Life in the television studio is never dull. It’s one crisis after another. Once I had to write a scene that was going to be inserted into a show that was taped three weeks earlier and was airing in two days.
When I was the headwriter for NBC’s show, The Doctors, word came from the higher ups that a character needed to be killed off. They weren’t happy with the actor, or he wasn’t happy with them, I’m not quite sure was the problem was but he had to leave. It was Alec Baldwin and I didn’t want to kill him. He’s handsome, he did his job and he was always nice to me. What more can you expect?
I thought I would have to come up with a way to kill him. No, I was told. Two guns would be fired at him from different directions at the exact same moment. You know what it looks like. A disembodied gun coming around a door.
I said to the producer “You can’t be serious. How is the gun being aimed?”
“Just write the scene.”
Okay. You don’t necessarily have to make sense in television. In my world, you have to make sense. I want to know why the characters behave the way they do and I want it to be in line with reality.
Is writing for television different than writing a novel? You bet! For years after I left television, I would catch myself writing or thinking in that soapy way. In television, you have the time pressure which doesn’t give you the luxury of thinking things through. You grab any idea and run with it. Now I think. I still write fast, but I think slow.
Most writers have a choice to make between writing for speed or writing for substance. It’s the rare writer who can do both. I know I can’t.
About Unspeakably Desirable (2011)[image error]Three women, one man. What could possibly go wrong?
French pastry was the only thing Bel Miller found unspeakably desirable until she met Asher Lau. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one who wanted him.
He’s a lawyer with a television show and a girlfriend who enjoys wrapping men up in duct tape and trussing them like a turkey. Once she catered his Thanksgiving feast, Bel figured she would never hear from Ash again. Well…by Christmas, she was sure Asher Lau and his heiress gal pal with the predilection for plumbing supplies would be out of her life. When the photos of the private sex romp go public, everyone is embarrassed but the girlfriend, now ex-girlfriend. She insists on marrying Ash as a cover story. “It was a Halloween costume!”
And then there’s that fan no one counted on. When something is unspeakably desirable, people can get really desperate.
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About Barbara Morgenroth[image error]Barbara was born in New York City and but now lives somewhere else. Starting her career by writing tweens and YA books, she wound up in television writing soap operas for some years. Barbara then wrote a couple cookbooks and a nonfiction book on knitting. She returned to fiction and wrote romantic comedies.
When digital publishing became a possibility, Barbara leaped at the opportunity and has never looked back. In addition to the 15 traditionally published books she wrote, in digital format Barbara has something to appeal to almost every reader from Mature YAs like the Bad Apple series and the Flash series, to contemporary romances like Love in the Air published by Amazon/Montlake, and Unspeakably Desirable, Nothing Serious and Almost Breathing.
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Guest Post: Days of Our Words: TV vs Novels – Barbara Morgenroth | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
Film Review: Dogville
Starring: Nicole Kidman, John Hurt, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall
Directed by: Lars von Trier
Runtime: 177 minutes
Studio: Icon Home Entertainment
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Review: Dogville
I do enjoy directors that are willing to take some risks with their films, going against the usual norms of celluloid. Lars von Trier’s Dogville is one such film offering a relatively simple storyline but the format is very unique but at nearly three hours long it was potentially a daunting prospect.
The film focuses on the isolated town of Dogville and how life changes for the locals when a woman on the run, Grace (Nicole Kidman), shows up when gunfire can be heard in the distance. She is hidden by the locals who begin to worry when police frequently show up in town asking about her and even putting up wanted posters. Grace is desperate to stay safe and agrees to win the approval of the community by working for each and every household for a meagre wage. Having the dirty work done for them, the locals are happy for Grace to stay but the more dangerous it becomes to protect her the more the townspeople start to demand further work of her. What the locals don’t know is that Grace has a sinister secret and the more she is wronged the closer they come to revealing that secret.
The first notable thing about Dogville is the way it is filmed. Narrated by the wonderful John Hurt our opening scene is of a stage with outlines of Dogville depicted as white lines on the wooden surface. It looks like a plan of the town and we do get aerial views of it during the film. The various houses are listed and the streets are named as well. The locals enter the white-lined dwellings by standing outside, opening doors in front of them that we cannot see and stepping inside. This format is used in the introductory segment and you’ll think that’s interesting but it won’t be used for the entire three hours. How wrong you will be. This is how the whole film plays out, on this one stage with the characters moving in and out of these dwellings that are nothing more than white-lined squares with some furniture inside. I was understandably concerned that this would tarnish the film but incredibly you’ll soon not notice. It’s a brave and unique way to depict the story and in the end I was in admiration.
Grace has a myriad of locals to deal with, the first being Tom (Paul Bettany) who falls for her and persuades the locals to let her stay. Grace is initially given two weeks to prove her worth and the town will then vote to decide if she can remain in Dogsville. Grace divides her day working for all the town residents, most notably Chuck (Stellan Skarsgard) and Vera (Patricia Clarkson) who have little love in their marriage but a lot of children. While Grace looks after the children she also assists Chuck in collecting apples and soon has to fight off his sexual advances. With authorities visiting the town and continually looking for grace, Dogville grows fearful for their safety and Grace has to work harder for less money just to keep her sanctuary. Chuck seizes the opportunity to take advantage of Grace, threatening to turn her over to the authorities unless she regularly sleeps with him. All the men in the town, save Tom, also take this chance to use Grace for their own gratification and these acts leave her the victim of scorned wives and lovers who see her as a seductress rather than a rape victim. Grace’s time in Dogville descends into a horrific ordeal but her secret is ready and waiting and when it emerges it is Grace that holds the advantage and the locals are all at her mercy.
Dogville doesn’t really do anything wrong throughout. At three hours many will be put off but you’ll not really feel the film’s length and every scene seems relevant. Kidman is excellent as Grace, charming on her arrival in Dogville and cruelly used by the locals in exchange for protection but by the end she has transformed completely. The film’s format with its stage setting had me worried from the start but somehow it all works and Dogville rightly draws our focus onto the characters rather than the settings. At the outset, Tom wants the locals to demonstrate their kindness and compassion by sheltering Grace from harm but everyone in the town soon sheds their mask and reveals the monster beneath. This a film of great contrasts and the twist at the end is simply magnificent and I daresay some audiences, like me, will be very pleased with Grace’s secret.
Dogville is a very different drama with a stage and hand painted outlines for houses being your only real setting but this doesn’t have a negative impact in any way. The cast are all excellent, you have the wonderful John Hurt narrating, there may be three hours to get through but it never feels too long and that ending is well worth the wait.
Verdict: 5/5
(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)
Film Review: Dogville | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
Introducing Rabble Reads – Think Metacritic for Books! #rabblereads
On Monday at 2pm EST I’ll be ‘TweetChatting‘ with Amy Holman Edelman, who is championing Rabble Reads. Her Kickstarter project is ongoing and it needs your help. Think Rotten Tomatoes/Metacritics for books, an accessible hub for everyone to see what bloggers, critics and the Goodreads audience think of both indie and traditionally published titles. Know how IMDB lets you see what the critics thought, versus the users’ combined metascore. Wouldn’t it be AMAZING to have that for books? I think so!
About Rabble ReadsRabble will provide aggregated book reviews from trusted, verified sources for both indie and traditionally published titles.
“Rabble: a website that will aggregate trusted, verified reviews into consensus, like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes do for movies. Rabble’s team, made up of zealous and intrepid book-lovers (and many of the same people who brought you IndieReader), will scour the publishing landscape, pull a sentence or two from each review (pre-vetted to insure its credibility, with a link to the complete review source) and come up with a consensus for a final Rabble score—to insure that you, the busy reader, don’t have to.
In addition to being able to see immediately where a book rates on the Rabble scale, the site will also be a brilliant place to explore. There will be lists, via the Rabble Listatron 300, that include the best to worst rated titles, author interviews, and much much, more. And for the first time anywhere, indie titles—those cool books that are being picked up weekly by the Big 5 publishers but are still mostly shunned by mainstream reviewers—will rub shoulders with traditionally published books, just like god intended.
Fact is, the publishing world is changing faster than you can say Random-Penguin-Schuster. Indie bookstores, those bastions of helpfulness which gleefully recommended the best new titles, are scarce. What’s needed, almost more than another season of Homeland (right NOW), is a great place to find out how your faves rate, and discover new authors and titles.
With your help, Rabble will be that resource.”
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Fund Rabble from just $1! How’s Rabble doing?
It’s not quite there but it’s definitely doable – we just HAVE to keep spreading the word. You can pledge anything from $1 up or – if you can’t pledge – why not share on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest and help get the word out.
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Introducing Rabble Reads – Think Metacritic for Books! #rabblereads | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
March 13, 2013
Film Review: Shark Night
Starring: Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, Katharine McPhee, Chris Zylka
Directed by: David R. Ellis
Runtime: 90 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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Review: Shark Night
Another day, another shark movie. I’ve seen a fair few of these now and amazingly Jaws remains the best despite many attempts to usurp it. David R Ellis is next in line with Shark Night. The film follows a group of university friends – Sara (Sara Paxton), Nick (Dustin Milligan), Maya (Alyssa Diaz), Blake (Chris Zylka), Gordon (Joel David Moore), Beth (Katherine McPhee) and Malik (Sinqua Walls) – who head for Sara’s holiday home on a pristine lake. After an uncomfortable encounter with Sara’s ex Dennis (Chris Carmack) and his friend Red (Joshua Leonard), the friends get down to the business of enjoying the water, drinking and partying. However, their hopes of a nice vacation are somewhat scuppered by sharks in the lake!
Many elements of Shark Night are somewhat predictable. Nick is perceived as a geek, it seems he is still a virgin and he is keen on Sara. Sara is the rich girl who dates no one due to a tough time with one guy in the past. Will Nick be the one to melt her heart? Depends on the sharks I guess. The rest of the group are merely fodder for the sharks though Malik is something of a star and one of the sources of concern for me. He is the first to be attacked by the shark while out water skiing (seen that in Jaws 2) and though Malik survives he is minus an arm. Nick pops into the water to retrieve it and there is a desperate swim to shore with Sara urging him on (seen that in Jaws, just not in the arm). Handily, Nick is a pre-med student so knows what to do to help Malik. A lot of the right advice seems to be suggested, the arm is wrapped and he is kept still but then Malik wants revenge against the shark and takes to the water with a spear! It’s unclear where the spear came from but this scene seemed an uncomfortable one for me. Malik, a modern day university student, now resembles a tribal warrior! Given that blood is seeping from that arm he survives quite a long time. I recently saw 127 Hours with a guy that removes his own arm and I believe only six hours passed between him losing that arm and being rescued with the assurance that had it been much longer he could well have bled to death. Malik’s story is one of many horrifyingly bad moments in this film.
The rest of the film isn’t much better. There is something of a plot and a reason the sharks are in a lake. It’s a saltwater lake for a start (they didn’t fall for that freshwater trap!) but there’s another reason the sharks are hunting here. In fairness the plot is something different to what I have come across before but it doesn’t rescue the film at all. The characters are not particularly interesting, the motives of the film’s villain and the outcome are predictable, the sharks are made up of very poor effects and once again they move at frightening speed and leap completely out of the water. The jumping thing isn’t impossible I understand but it is something rare and a shark leaping to take someone off a jet ski? I’m not so sure. That said, sharks have previously been in Venice in another movie so nothing should surprise me now. Maybe there’s a director out there now working on Sharks in Space.
Shark Night is an unwelcome addition to the pantheon of appalling shark movies. The effects are poor, the deaths laughable, the villainous plot though different isn’t very engaging and in the end the only luxury is that the film is short. I know most of us have seen Jaws and many times I imagine but if you want a good shark movie I’d still steer you back towards that one.
Verdict: 1/5
(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)
Film Review: Shark Night | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
Film Review: The Creature from the Black Lagoon
Starring: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva
Directed by: Jack Arnold
Runtime: 76 minutes
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Review: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
I’m not sure how many times in my life I’ve made reference to the Creature from the Black Lagoon but it’s many. I’ve never seen the film until now but I approached it with an open mind. I’m writing in an age when glitzy effects are unsurprising when they grace a film but back in the days of this film there were limitations so I knew I would certainly be going easy on the film with that in mind.
Following an expedition in the Amazon, a fossilized hand with webbed fingers is discovered, suggesting a link between land and sea animals. Dr Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) who is in charge of the expedition needs funding for further research but he wants to enlist the expertise of his friend Dr David Reed (Richard Carlson) who works in marine biology and the two men get financial backing from Dr Mark Williams (Richard Denning). The hope is that they can uncover the rest of the fossil to unlock further clues about the past but the project is somewhat disrupted by a creature in the water who doesn’t take too kindly to their presence.
The film doesn’t take long to get into its stride. Our first sight of the creature is the webbed fingers coming out of the Amazon River and we’re soon witness to Dr Maia’s research team he has left behind being taken out! Dr Maia returns to the Amazon on board the Rita along with Dr Reed, his girlfriend Kay Lawrence (Julia Adams) and Dr Thompson (Whit Bissell). Finding the research team murdered, our group of scientists believe a jaguar is the culprit but the true perpetrator is beneath the surface of the black lagoon and observing them very closely.
Creature from the Black Lagoon would have been pretty scary back in the fifties I imagine. By today’s standards it will struggle to unnerve many people but this still a film that ticks many boxes. When the research team speculate that the rest of the fossil they desire may be in the black lagoon, they take a dive in search of the remains and the creature is hiding in the weeds. When Kay later takes a dip in the Amazon the creature can’t resist moving in closer and it proceeds to stalk her underwater, occasionally reaching out to touch her feet! Eventually the researchers and the creature clash and it isn’t pretty. This aquatic Hollywood A-lister is one tough villain to take down and as the bodies start to pile up you’ll wonder how many will see those final credits.
The creature at the heart of the film is a guy in a suit but though there is little change in its expression it looks pretty good considering how old the film is. Deaths are implied in the film rather than giving us a brutal and visual denouement but you suspect financial as well as special effects restraints were in place here and for what it is I don’t think this is a bad film. Okay, it isn’t scary and the creature is more intimidating to the cast than he really should be but as an early example of a monster movie this has some good points.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon would win no prizes today as a scary horror film but putting it in the context of its time you’d have to say it must have been quite frightening when first released. It’s not a complex story, the creature isn’t the most convincing you’ll ever see but compared to some horror films released today this is still one Hollywood should be proud of.
Verdict: 3/5
(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)
Film Review: The Creature from the Black Lagoon | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
#BlogFlash2013: Day Nine – Spring
Thank you to Terri Giuliano Long for hosting another BlogFlash event. To see Terri’s post for the day (and find links for others’ pieces) visit Terri’s blog. Follow along on Twitter (@tglong and #BlogFlash2013) or Facebook.
Day Nine – Spring
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But first an apology! I have been absolutely dreadful with comments this time around, allowing my husband Dave to do them more often than not. But I want to say that I AM reading everyone’s posts and my comment delinquency is mostly as a result of hating commenting via my iPad. I am enjoying everyone’s fiction, reflections, poems, haiku and thoughts immensely! And THANK YOU for all the nice wishes I received after my “Island” post. They must have worked because I slept like a log last night!
So, onto “Spring”…
[image error]Whenever I think of spring, I can’t help but think of a “Slinky”. Remember those? I was rubbish with them (along with the yo-yo, hula-hoop, kite, skateboard – basically every ‘cool’ toy!) but I loved them. Not necessarily the swanky metal ones but those plastic rainbow coloured ones? Oh yes! I used to love the noise it made when you passed it from hand to hand (I believe the grown-up equivalent is one of those ‘rainmaker’ ornaments) and probably drove my parents round the bend with it!
I also miss my Big Yellow Teapot and my A-La-Carte Kitchen. I suspect that the Slinky is the only one I can get away with playing with under the “Retro for grown-ups” argument! And maybe some Sylvanian Families figures…?
#BlogFlash2013: Day Nine – Spring | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
