Lately I've been using my DVR quite a bit to record old classic monster and horror movies broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. Most of them are creature features from the 1950's and the most recent recording is 1955's It Came From Beneath The Sea. This Columbia Pictures film, directed by Robert Gordon, features an absolutely colossal octopus both enlarged by H-bomb tests and also rendered rather ornery because these same atomic bomb tests have scared off(or killed off) the creature's natural undersea food supply. Result: the gigantic octopus makes for the surface where it sinks a freighter and makes life generally miserable for those living on the western seaboard of the continental United States.
The enormous octopus in this movie is brought to life by Ray Harryhausen and his marvelous 'stop motion" effects. Kenneth Tobey portrays a U.S. Navy submarine commander who, when not putting the moves on Faith Domergue(who plays a scientist), leads the efforts to find and destroy the giant and menacing octopus. While I'm very fond of a 1977 Italian horror film called Tentacoli, aka "Tentacles" which also features a huge, killer octopus, I have always considered It Came From Beneath The Sea to be the best "giant killer octopus" movie out there. I still do.
I own both the 2003 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment DVD(the movie presented in its original black and white print and in 1:85.1 widescreen aspect ratio) and also the 2008 DVD which presents this movie in color. To see the '03 DVD for sale at Amazon click the title of this blog entry or click the link: '03 DVD
One of the things I like to do best is promote the work of the members of my message board community called Monsterland Forums. A young member of this board, a fellow Georgia resident named Evan Brehany, has written and directed a short, twelve minute film called VOTING DAY. Check it out below by clicking on the YouTube video:
I am an absolute sucker for movies that feature an ass kicking female and, having recently ordered the "Sister Street Fighter" DVD set from Amazon, I decided to add another Toei title to my DVD collection, a movie called Zero Woman-Red Handcuffs(1974), produced by Toei and directed by Yukio Noda. In this movie Rei aka "Agent Zero", played by the lovely Miki Sugimoto, is a disgraced former police officer who, stripped of her badge and incarcerated in jail because she violated her police department's code of conduct while killing a wanted criminal, is now freed and asked to become assassin while rescuing the daughter of a wealthy politician, Rei summarily dispatching the gang kidnappers any way she deems necessary. Of course Agent Zero's methods include a lot of bloody violence, courtesy of her chain and handcuffs. Check out the trailer below:
The DVD for this film, originally released by Discotek Media back in 2005, can be purchased at Amazon (click the DVD cover art below) or at Discotek Media's website: Discotek Media
I came across a short "werewolf" film called The Beast. The twelve minute long film is produced by Peter Dukes and is, I think quite good. Check it out by clicking the below YouTube video:
What with the advances in today's cinematic special effects, including "green screen" technology and CGI(computer generated imagery) I believe there is definitely something to be said about the "stop motion" effects created by Ray Harryhausen. Harryhausen's stop motion technique has brought a variety of supernatural entities and creatures to life on the big screen including several "Sinbad" films. Lately I've started watching films featuring Ray Harryhausen's "stop motion" effects rendered monsters on DVD. Two weeks ago I enjoyed 1963's Jason And The Argonauts. Last night I sat down and watched Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger(1977), theatrically released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Sam Wanamaker and the third and final "Sinbad" film in which Ray Harryhausen contributed his marvelous effects work.
Sinbad is played in this 1977 sci-fi/fantasy movie by Patrick Wayne, son of legendary actor John Wayne. Sinbad, in all of these movies, is a dashing, handsome, brave and swashbuckling character long on courage and very adept with a sword. In contrast is the movie's villain, a female sorceress and witch named Zenobia, played by Margaret Whiting, who can shape shift into animals and create creatures out of her potions with which to fight Sinbad. The cast also includes hotties Jane Seymour and Taryn Power. The creatures in this movie, like all Sinbad films, are visually marvelous and also very dangerous to our hero Sinbad and his friends. In Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger the creatures include a bronze, bull headed automaton come to life called the Minaton, several insectoid, sword wielding assassins, a giant, horned and hairy hominid called a Troglodyte, an oversized and ornery walrus and finally a hostile and enormous sabretooth tiger which is literally long in the tooth. These creatures all collectively menace the cast during their journey to Hyperboria in search of a cure to transform a prince, turned into a baboon by the film's villainess, back to his human form.
Bull headed: the Minaton- from SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER(1977)
This film can be purchased on DVD at a very affordable price at Amazon and other various internet retailers. To see this movie for sale on DVD at Amazon click the title of this blog entry or click the link: SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER DVD
Having just turned fifty years of age(on March 20th) I have made a promise to myself to try and reconnect with things I have long enjoyed in life but have lost track of lately. One of those things is my great fondness for the music of Paul Hardcastle. I first listened to this great keyboardist way back in 1985 when his songs "19" and "Rain Forest" hit the radio station airwaves. I've been listening to and enjoying Hardcastle's music ever since. I own a handful of CDs by Paul Hardcastle and plan on adding several more CDs of this recording artist during 2012.
Ridley Scott is one of my favorite movie directors and his latest directorial effort, Prometheus has really got me stoked. Rumors continue to run amok as to whether this movie is an actual prequel to the 1979 film "Alien". Either way I expect this movie, scheduled for a June, 2012 theatrical release to be a huge financial success and a hit with fans of sci fi movies. Check out the full HD trailer below:
From time to time I'm going to post quickie promos on some old film favorites of mine without the dissection and analysis that I often engage in regarding these movies. One of these movies is LEVIATHAN, directed by George P. Cosmatos and released theatrically back in 1989. I remember first watching this movie at the Midtown 8 movie theater on Monroe Drive near 10th street, the theater located in a small shopping center across from Grady High school's stadium.
LEVIATHAN chronicles the struggles of a group of undersea miners who are trapped in their facility, located three miles below the ocean's surface, with a hostile and bloodthirsty biological organism that genetically mutates anyone it comes in contact with. The organism is inadvertently brought into the undersea Trioceanic Mining facility by one of the miners after his foray into the sunken wreck of a Russian research vessel. Turns out the research on the Russian vessel involved dangerous experiments with human-fish gene manipulation. Now such a mutation is running loose in the corridors and work spaces of the Trioceanic Mining deep sea base. (no other spoilers)
The cast includes: Peter Weller, Hector Elizondo, Amanda Pays, Lisa Eilbacher, Daniel Stern, Meg Foster and Ernie Hudson. The MGM DVD of this movie(which can be bought at Amazon) presents the film in its original 2:35.1 widescreen aspect ratio. Fans of sci-fi and horror should definitely put this film in their "Netflix" queue or even consider buying the DVD. This movie is a nice showcase for the makeup and creature effects of Stan Winston and is a fun 98 minute romp of monster mayhem.
The trailer:
Here's the DVD of Leviathan(1989) for sale at Amazon: LEVIATHAN DVD
You can also see the DVD for this movie by clicking the title of this blog entry.
