ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

If you're not a member of All Sci-Fi, registration is easy. Just use the registration password, which is —

gort

Attention members! If you've forgotten your password, just email me at brucecook1@yahoo.com.
________________________________________________

Multi-armed robots, cloned dinosaurs, and a weird little non-corporal life form that controls who lives and who dies!

Phantom picked three widely diverse sci-fi movies to review in today's Featured threads!
________________________________________________

GOG

I saw this one in February 1955 (I have a copy of the newspaper ad). It was on a double with a Judy Canova movie Untamed Heiress, of which I don't remember a frame (probably lucky, at that).

Except for the clunky multi-appendage robots and Michael Fox's chilly death (which raised my hair), I had forgotten the rest of the movie.

Snapped up the dvd as soon as it became available. It has its faults, but it isn't exceptionally bad like Killers From Space. It's okay for occasional viewing when nothing else is available.

Apart from the robots swinging their arms around like drunken boxers, the best scene in the film was the laser attack. As for those tuning forks (or whatever they were) I could never understand why someone in the room didn't throw something over them to deaden the sound.

Haven't seen Magnetic Monster lately. Liked it when I did.

I guess my favorite of those mentioned in this thread is Riders To The Stars, the 1950's version of The Right Stuff. For a kid in those days, wading through the "mush" was par for the course until we got to the good stuff in space. Never forgot Richard Carlson coming unglued when he saw that corpse float past his window
_______________________________________________

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

I can't say I actively hate this movie; just dismayed that so many opportunities were missed in favor of a cliche ridden script.

Spielberg throws another unnecessary kid into the mix. Anyone have a list of the number of children who have conveniently stowed away just to become a plot annoyance. Start with Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Moon (1929).

Pete Postlethwaite (damned if I know how to pronounce it) was a welcome addition to the movie.

Jurassic Park III reversed all the schmaltz and gave us a straight up adventure story, and this time the kid proved his value.
_______________________________________________

The Asphyx

I had no idea this movie existed until the late seventies, well after its theatrical run. It just fell under my radar.

It's extremely well crafted, the art decoration and photography is sumptuous and the acting superb.

This is another example of the failure of good intentions and a rash decision that leads to tragedy. The idea can be traced back to the string of low budget Columbia releases of the 1940's starring Karloff, Leo G. Carroll's benign scientist in Tarantula and the two versions of The Fly.

There are some real surprises here, particularly the unexpected result of Christine Cunningham's participation in her father's experiment. I certainly didn't see it coming.

The stunning final scene had me thinking about the similar fate of the creatures in John Carradine's basement in The Unearthly ("My God. What if they do live forever.") Only, here, it isn't so amusing.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)