ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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All Sci-Fi's Special of the Day includes a “lost world” movie with guys in dino-suits, an alien invasion of the Third (and very friendly) Kind, and man who never outgrows his clothes . . . because they outgrow HIM!

Season these delightful dishes generously with replies.

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The People That Time Forgot (1977)



What's that coming over the hill? Is that a monster? Is that a monster?

The People That Time Forgot is directed by Kevin Connor and adapted to screenplay by Patrick Tilley from the novel of the same name written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. it stars Patrick Wayne, Sarah Douglas, Dana Gillespie, Thorley Walters, Shane Rimmer and Doug McClure. Music is scored by John Scott and cinematography by Alan Hume.

A sequel to The Land That Time Forgot with a plot that finds Wayne as Major Ben McBride, who arranges a mission to search for his missing friend Bowen Tyler (McClure). As the party go beyond the Antarctic wastes they find themselves in a world populated by prehistoric creatures and primitive tribes.

There are a group of film fans of a certain age that were exposed willfully to the joys of Kevin Connor and Doug McClure Creature Features. Four pictures made with low budgets (see also The Land That Time Forgot 1975, At the Earth's Core 1976 & Warlords of Atlantis 1978). They were simply put together with a standard structure of humans discovering an unknown land, and who then encounter beasties and savage races. Then they try to escape said world of wonder.

Back then in the 70s, with youthful eyes, these films were magnificent things. We didn't care about clunky animatronics and miniatures, staid dialogue, and poorly constructed scenes of men grappling with a man in rubber make up. Nor did us boys pay any attention to the considerable heaving bosom factor, which is here supplied with a different kind of wonder by Dana Gillespie!

But they are a group of films that once loved, its a love that lasts forever. Yes, it's true love.

As it is, The People That Time Forgot is often thought of as the weakest of the four. Yet it's every inch the equal of "Land", primarily because the cast attack the material with great spirit. Douglas is rather splendid and not just a posh girl with a pretty face.

The film stock it's shot on is of better quality, and John Scott's score is bursting with vitality. There's also a ripper of a finale here, with the pyrotechnics department creating merry hell. Explosives aplenty.

The Santa Cruz de la Palma location used for the world of Caprona is perfectly bereft of civilized leanings. As with the other's in the series, the ideas at the heart aren't fully realized because of the budget restrictions, so we basically get some talk between characters, then a fight with a beast, some more talk, another fight with a beast, a meeting with a uncivilized tribe, a fight with a beast — and on it goes until the derring-do escape.

There will be peril and actually this one has a very noteworthy turn of events that might surprise a few of the uninitiated.

1977 of course was the year of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which changed things considerably in the creature feature stakes. Thus the Connor/McClure movies were relegated to being antique relics of monster malarkey.

Yet still they retain a quaint uniqueness. They are able to continually imbue many of us with waves of nostalgia, taking us back to a time when the likes of Connor made fantasy films with love and basic tools. The Land That Time Forgot was badly adapted to film in 2009 (C. Thomas Howell directing and starring), which begs the question on why Burroughs' Caspak trilogy has not been taken on by a big studio?

As yet the third part of the trilogy, Out of Time's Abyss, has not received a filmic adaptation, can you imagine what someone like Spileberg could do with Burroughs' wonderful source ideas?

Ah well, we can but dream, in the meantime we will happily make do with our antiquities. 7/10
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978)



It's like Halloween for grown ups!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is written and directed by Steven Spielberg. It stars Richard Dreyfuss, Fran??ois Truffaut, Melinda Dillon and Teri Garr. Music is scored by John Williams and cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond.

Suddenly planes reported missing in 1945 show up the Mojave desert, and in pristine condition. Air traffic control is alerted to something strange in the sky. Lineman Roy Neary is out on a job call and has an encounter with what can only be described as a UFO.

The government is up to something, but what?

Neary and others find they are strangely drawn to a place they have never known before. Once the destination is reached, the revelation will make history and change perceptions for ever.

1977 was the year when sci-fi went blockbuster style, as the impact of Star Wars' was still being felt at the box offices around the world. Steven Spielberg ushered in his call for tolerance, an examination of faith, the need for human interaction and just the human need — a wondrous tale of the first contact between man and an alien species.

Watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind now it's inarguably ahead of its time. It still feels as fresh as a daisy, with the director beautifully managing to craft a film that strikes a chord with the young and old alike.

I was but a mere boy when I saw it back in 77. I loved it then because of the spaceships, I laughed at the funny things Richard Dreyfuss was doing on the screen with spuds and shovels, and that ending, those beings, and the mother ship homing into the picture to stop me in my tracks.

Now I still get all that boyish entertainment, but I understand thematics and points of worth. Dreyfuss as Neary is our everyman, his obsession to find his calling is holding us in his palm.

The fabulous Melinda Dillon as Jillian Guiler; no histrionics here, a believable woman, a single mother just desperately trying to find the apple of her eye. And uber cool Truffaut as Claude Lacombe, the scientist, so restrained, so very human.

Rest assured that in a film involving beings from another planet, this film is very human indeed.

The plot is simple and straightforward, there's no saggy filler or need for twists and turn a rounds. But the mystery element is strong. Are these beings friends or foes?

One terrifying scene at the Guiler house in particular skirts the boundaries of horror. The tone of the film is never airy. There's a bubbling undercurrent of unease, even fear of the unknown.

Spielberg is canny, he may be operating from his child whimsy at heart, but his brain is mature and in gear. He dangles human peccadilloes as the three-pronged character fork digs towards destiny.

And once we arrive there at Devils Mountain, pop culture references are assured, the master magician with the beard pulls his rabbit out of the hat to deliver a finale that once viewed, is never to be forgotten. He's aided considerably by the two noble masters at his side, Mr. John Williams providing five tone wonder and Mr. Douglas Trumbull, a purveyor of remarkable and classical effects, while Zsigmond's photography dazzles the eyes and smoothes them with astute colour lens choices.

In any version, it's a wonderful movie, but I agree with Spielberg about the Special Edition cut that features the inside of the mother ship. That's a mistake. The version to go with in my book is the Collector's Edition. But as long as you let this movie into your life, no matter your age, then you will be better for it. 9/10
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The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)



So close, the infinitesimal and the infinite.

The Incredible Shrinking Man is directed by Jack Arnold and adapted to screenplay by Richard Matheson from his own novel The Shrinking Man. It stars Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton and Billy Curtis. Cinematography is by Ellis Carter and music is scored by Irving Getz, Hans J. Salter and Herman Stein.

While out at sea enjoying a break on a boat with his wife, Scott Carey (Williams) is suddenly enveloped by a mysterious mist. Thinking nothing of it at the time, Scott finds that once he returns home he starts to lose weight and appears to be shrinking.

Confounding the medical people, it's believed that he was subjected to some sort of radiation poisoning that causes him to shrink to only a couple of inches. Pretty soon Scott must battle to stay alive in his new world down in the basement.

One of the greatest sci-fi films of all time, an intelligent and scary picture that subverts the creature feature marker of 50s sci-fi.

There used to be a creature or being growing large to bring terror to the human race. But now it's a man forced to confront a world that is getting bigger — a world where the once harmless pet cat is now a monstrous threat to his life, a basement spider is now a fearsome foe, a mousetrap becomes agonizing conundrum, and climbing up a wooden crate is like trying to scale Everest.

Everyday things such as pins and scissors — so mundane to us — are now weapons of war and tools for survival. The science is strong, the prose of pesticides and radiation dangling deftly in the narrative, the fear of the atomic age knocking at the door.

Yet it's not all about the small world that Carey ultimately finds himself struggling to survive in. Matheson's literary bent takes us on a journey of substance. Time is afforded the effects of Carey's illness on his marriage, on society and the medical profession.

It's not just a physical journey, but a psychological one. Hope is dangled, both medically and in the meeting of someone of his own kind. But Scott Carey is a victim of cruel fate, a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, thrusting him into a world he can't control. Can he survive and adapt? If so, he may be opened up to some sort of revelation, where metaphysical existentialism can come crawling through the gloom to reveal itself.

Scott Carey's world is brilliantly realized by director Jack Arnold and his team, with over-sized props, nifty special effects and a miniature POV filming style that lets us in on the terror and angst of a man forced to evaluate his place in the universe.

Grant Williams is excellent, begging the question as to why his career didn't reach better heights. The mental transformation of Scott Carey is smartly layered by the actor, and his oral narration pulses with emotion and reasoning. All told it's a great production, a great film. Don't be fooled into thinking it's a piece of sci-fi schlock. It deserves better respect than that — as does, Jack Arnold in fact. 9/10
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)