Reviews by indianastar

Welcome back to Monsters Mash, The Blob my favorite of the 50s Alien Invaders the thing about this movie the creature doesn't have any goofy eyeballs or weird body part is just a blob many film goers would make fun of it because of it's goofy effect and cheap miniature sets but I think it look pretty good they how the blob kills people it is absorb people and it become more red the best thing about this movie is Steve McQueen this was the role that got him into to be an actor he played a teenager even though he was 28 at the time it like a story of Boy who Cried Wolf the kids are causing a lot of trouble and when they see the blob nobody they try to tell the adults but they don't believe them what the best thing about this movie is it 50s setting it one of the few sci-fi at the time that represent the 50s they way people talk, their cars and clothes and setting it definitely a little time capsule from the 50s now on to the sequel Beware the Blob from 1972 as in beware this movie the special effects aren't charming the characters aren't likeable (maybe the exception of Godfrey Cambridge) the blob first victim is a cat come on that's not even fair one scene that watchable is one when Cambridge is watching the first blob on tv either it making a nod to the original is like in Halloween III when they are watching the original. It makes wish you your watching the original. Anyway on to the remake it's good and the special effect are jaw dropping even though it's gory the original one didn't need that so bring on the blob bring on the gore.

Now here we are with our 20th Monster reviews The War of the Worlds from H.G. Wells to Orson Welles to George Pal to Steven Spielberg, the book was written in 1898, it showed how alien spaceship from attack earth it was terrifying concept and the idea of giant extra-terrestrials marching around in giant war machine was an awesome idea where did you think the Imperial AT-AT walkers from Star Wars came from? Then it the radio drama starring Orson Welles in 1938 the narration was done as a news report but it was so scary the way Welles tells the story caused mass hysteria through out the nation, Now on to the 1953 movie, It strays a lot from the book it change the time the book was made from the time movie was made and instead of London it takes place in California and instead of War Machine it has Flying Saucers and they are jaw dropping! the special effects are great and the sound effect the saucer made are incredible the aliens are great they didn't showed the aliens that much but using too much money on the special effect would've disguised the movies tone but they look pretty cool The War of the Worlds is a alien invaders movie and my favorite of them all.

Welcome back to Monsters Mash since the early days of science fiction UFOs has been the backbone of the genre either your a skeptic or a believer this is the UFO and this is the classic movie the plot is a blunt full scale alien invasion the stop motion effect were made by film legends Ray Harryhausen, Ray made the UFO to look like it tilts and give some chilling sound effect to give them and unearthly look, Harryhausen would have to paint the strings over and over like a chameleon today that would've been digitally removed but he had to do all the time. The final scene where the UFO attacks Washington D.C. is one of the most memorable scene in science-fiction cinema although no remakes has been made but there's two movies both made in 1996 that shared familiar plots the first one is Mars Attack by Tim Burton it's more of a monsters run em up film like Gremlins a bunch of silly goofy alien come down and attacks they even mocks the washington scene in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers it had an all-star cast Jack Nicholson, Danny Devito (whom the both work in in Tim Burton's Batman films) Glenn Close, Annette Bennning, and a young Natalie Portman. But the big one is Independence Day even though not a remake but it the closes thing the scene where the martians attack the white house is a memorable scene, it was also a in a line string of summer movies starring Will Smith. The Aliens look great not original but good anyway it just a dumb summer movie and if your is many about how we fought for our freedom lot of people complain it @$$ but if you want something more than the meaning of life your not gonna get but it shows that you can take an old idea and turn it new and that doesn't mean it's a remake.

The Thing from another world base on the book Who Goes there? by John Campbell in 1938 the book differs the movie differs a lot from only the first half follows the book and the book takes place in Antartica and the movie takes place in the Arctic neither a book and movie take place on two different sides of the world and still doesn't matter one bit a group of scientist finds something in the ice try to see is it saucer shape the blow the ice up accidentally losing the discovery of a life time but find one of the find one tube and it alien invaders but thank to some dumb@$$ putting an electric blanket around it. Unlike the book where the creature can controlled it victims taken controlled of person but here it made of vegetables and it doesn't kill a lot of people the scientist wishes for the creature to be dead but there is a great archetype mad scientist that wants to study from the creature an learn from it the way the characters overlap each other is great you forget their just actors reciting line from a script but real characters this was popular in film by Howard Hawkes he made comedy like Bringing Up, Baby and Mr. Smith goes to Washington. They film ended by setting the creature on fire and one of the greatest movie lines of all time "Keep Watching the Skies"

Welcome back to the indianastar's Monsters Mash freaking remakes, remakes are almost entirely pointless yeah you get a good but one but most of the time they are crap either they don't follow the same story lines or there's some nitpicking involve but anyway the science fiction genre if one that has the most remakes and usually rely on special effect so today on monsters mash we are gonna talk about alien invaders and their remake so today The Day the Earth Stood Still this has been called as one of the greatest science fiction film of all time even the beginning it already love able from the beginning the theme song from Bernad Herrman gives me chill by my spines everytime I hear it so we have a ufo a humanoid alien name Klaatu and a robot name Gort that's shoot a laser thats destroy anything in it's past it's immediately it's lovable and appealing to any classic sci-fi film buff the camp value disguised but the film goes way further than that Klaatu doesn't come down to kill us but to warn us to stop all wars, but he shot down and treated by hostility he wanders into somebody house just middle-class family makes friend with the young boy and scientist that shares his ambition for world peace, the robot Gort is just the icing on the cake and he also has the famous command Klaatu, Barada, Nikto nobody knows what it really means. Many people compared this movie to christ Klaatu comes down to earth he is shot by authorities resurrected delivers his message and ascend back to outer space the anti war message is the highlight of the film and even though the movie's sixty years old that message still can be used today but hollywood big shots decided to change that.


Now on too the remake as it own movie it's pretty good I think they updated the thing about world peace I like the idea of Klaatu taking control of machinery actually Keanu Reeves does a pretty good in a lot of his movies he has no emotion but it's appropriate in this movie his posture blank emotion and monotone voice is great for the role Jennifer Connoley and Jaden Smith are okay and the scientist was pretty good even though he had little screen time Gort is all C.G. as expected he's the only reconizable object from the original he doesn't have that much purpose in the movie he only exist because he cool.

Monsters Mash going through the ages of Horror we been through the silent era the 30s and 40s universal flicks and now we are in the 50s people were no longer scared of monsters movie they were obviously afraid of the horrors of real life nuclear bombs and that's when a new age of science fiction began the b-movies age monsters, monster from nuclear explosion, creation, alien invasion we had killer brain, Godzilla, killer robots and oh god! but now we come to the Creature from the Black Lagoon it is usually referred as the last of the great Universal monsters movie the creature on land was played by Bill Chapman and underwater Rico Browing but they were uncredited in the casting leaving a little more mystery to the creature the movie was shown in 3-D I hate to say this but it would look good in color but the black and white tone does look gorgeous. Julie Adams played the creatures love interest and if she didn't stayed in the water he would be find but those scientist has no business being in his lagoon.

We've just finished the universal movies of the 30s and 40s but know here one from Paramount Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the film is pronounced Jeekyll but whatever Frederic March is great as Dr. Jekyll and his alter ego Mr. Hyde the film have some great point of view shot and the transformation scenes are great the make-up was already on March's face and by using different camera shots you can see the make up coming through his face. Mr. Hyde is the one that stole the show is such a jerk he's basically do what ever he wants and nobody calls the cops how do he talks with those buck teeth the rape scene alone could've give it an X-Rating although they were no rating back then he has some great acrobatic skills he like a monkey... a monkey on drugs.

Well it's not really a horror but the concept is really terrifying it is based on the H.G. Wells novel Shape the Way and Things to Come like Metropolis it was one of the first movies to define a dystopia, H.G. Wells shows how the world will be after world war II actually this movie and the book were made before WWII that is so freaky the movie mainly takes place in London and shows 10,000 years in the future of how civilization rises and fall down and rise again the special effect are amazing for 1935 Things to Come is a great films

Now we come to the holy grail of horror movies King Kong so what should I talk about the plot just for the hell of it Carl Denham a filmmaker who takes a crew of men and the lovely Ann Darrow to Skull Island where Prehistoric creatures run amok Ann Darrow gets kidnap by the island native so she can be sacrifice to their god Kong but instead of eating her Kong falls in love with her but then he's captured by Denham taken back to civilization where he goes on rampage climb up the empire state building for one of the most famous cinematic finale ever this the stuff where legends are born I saw this when I was a little kid and I didn't know that many of the great filmmakers where inspired by this from Ray Harryhausen to Peter Jackson and I saw this in the 90s who knows what an archievement this was in 1933. I highly recommend the two disc edition that has a lot of special feature Peter Jackson and Company tries to recreate some of the scene obviously all the creatures are stop-motion it take 174 minutes worth of film to redo some of the movies scene and Peter Jackson and crew remade the lost spider pit scene these directors has to make all these new techniques and for the exception of being a talkie in the early 30s there was never any quiet moment you can hears the trees Kong's roar is made from different animals and a big score is playing all at the same time. We don't have a luxury of talking to Willis O' Brien some of it still a mystery when a new comes out you know every last thing about they new that it was for the film and not for the money. the AFI shove Citizen Kane up your butt and say that it the greatest movie of all time that too is a monumental film but look at Kong a decade before why can't that be the greatest movie ever a timeless story with great special effect along with fantasy and imagination and that's what movies are all about i'm bowing down to King Kong.

This one is a little hard to talk about is about real sideshow performers literally real sideshow performers . The plot tells the story of a little person named Han (played by sideshow performer Harry Earles who played a lollipop guild in The Wizard of Oz) who's marry to a big person named Cleopatra but she just a big b***h! all she want is his money. The thing about this horror movie is not really all that a horror movie until the freaks band together to punish Cleopatra the movie was directed by Tod Browning the same guy that directed Dracula he specially cast his actors (hence that these were real sideshow performer) where else do you see a guy that can walk with no legs? or a guy with no limbs that lit a cigarette for 1932 it was controversial at the time many it was banned for more than 40 years after Tod Browning's death many people thought it was an insult to people with physical deformities. And with a title called "Freaks" how could you not go wrong it wasn't until many years later that people saw what it's really about the normal people are the monsters Freaks is a great film the only problem was it just ahead of it times.