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Reviews
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)
DISTURBING AND WELL ACTED
With each passing day I become more convinced that the 60s, 70s and 80s were the most creative decades of television. In the 70s, the ABC network presented a movie made especially for TV every week. The budgets were much smaller than theatrical films but the vast majority of those films were incredible. DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARKNESS was a small masterpiece of terror that has remained in the public's mind for years. It all begins when a young couple settles in an old house that they have inherited. When they begin the repairs, they remove the lid of a closed chimney without suspecting that they have released three kinds of demonic gnomes who want to take over Sally, the new owner. The most disturbing part of the story is that what happens to Sally happens to many in our daily lives, she loses objects in the house that then appear in a mysterious way, the creatures are quite creepy too, hiding throughout the house and whispering their plans to with Sally. I'm not going to spolliar but the ending is truly creepy. It is surprising how with a limited budget but with good performances, good direction and a lot of ingenuity you can achieve a terrifying atmosphere.
The Baffling Bluffs of Hugo a Go-Go (1967)
A GREAT MIX BETWEEN BATMAN AND THE GREEN HORNET
Taking advantage of the incredible success of Adam West's Batman series, this cartoon rescues all the clichés of the series. Here the hero is not a bat man but is actually a bat, just as the series has all kinds of gadgets with the bat prefix, its operation center is also a batcave and it also receives its missions from the Police Headquarters, but Here his companion is a kind of Kato (Bruce Lee) the green hornet assistant, his name is Karate and his appearance is that of a juice fighter in a judoka outfit. Like the Adam West series, there is a gallery of eccentric villains, among which the mad scientist Hugo a Go Go stands out, who is also the one who appears the most in the chapters, and the most ingenious and bizarre traps of the series also appear. That Batfink always comes out unscathed. Batfink also has two powers that he uses repeatedly, his steel wings that serve as a shield to repel bullets and his supersonic sonar radar, a Beep that emits and bounces bringing him information. The cartoon is extremely fun.
House of Wax (1953)
VERY GOOD TO BE FROM 1953
It is the early 1900s, Professor Henry Jarrod is a successful sculptor and his Wax Museum is a great success due to the meticulous quality of his creations, but one night one of his partners has a heated argument with him in his studio and this leads to in an all-consuming fire. Some time later the professor reappears, now bound to a wheelchair due to the injuries received in that fight and is preparing to reopen his famous wax museum, at the same time a series of mysterious crimes and disappearances of people are investigated by the police, and a creepy nocturnal figure appears to be responsible. Meanwhile, the museum opens its doors with some amazingly real sculptures, so much so that a woman named Sue Ellen becomes suspicious when she realizes that the figure of Joan of Arc is identical to one of her missing friends. Finally it is discovered that the professor and the murderer are the same person and that he has gone mad due to the horrendous deformations suffered in that fire and that he has managed to disguise himself using a wax mask made by himself and that he is using a horrible method of covering up. With cadaver wax to make their perfect sculptures. The film is from 1953 but even today it has very good suspense scenes, such as the professor's chase of Sue Ellen in the deserted and dark streets, Vincent Price is great in the role of the professor who owns the museum and the rest of the cast is also outstanding . It was a great movie in those years supported in large part by being the first horror movie made in 3D. Today it is a very enjoyable little gem despite the passage of time.
Batman: The Movie (1966)
A MORE AMBITIOUS VERSION THAN THE TV SERIES
After the successful first season of the series, and taking advantage of the reigning Batmania, Fox decided to make the most of its product by making a film for the cinema. For such an event our heroes must face the 4 most popular villains who have joined forces. The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler and Catwoman (played here by Lee Meriwether since Julie Newmar had previous commitments with another production) draw up a daring plan to take over a machine that dehydrates people, with this unusual device they manage to kidnap the members of the UN to request a million-dollar ransom. Like the Burguess Meredith series, Cesar Romero and Frank Gorshing shine in their villainous characters, and Lee Meriwether manages to make an excellent Catwoman who is not so different from the original Julie Newmar, even here she can play with a double character also playing a Russian journalist who falls in love with Bruce Wayne. Everything looks very colorful and more majestic than on TV and there are also more outdoor scenes, only the twisted traps that appeared in the series and the thematic hideouts of the villains are a little strange since here the 4 use a sub-husband as a lair. The movie may be cheesy and even silly at times, but even watching it today it is still extremely fun and funny.
Thriller: The Colour of Blood (1973)
SUSPENSE, ANGUST, EXCELLENT PERFORMANCES AND UNEXPECTED ENDING
This is one of those TV episodes from which an outstanding suspense movie could be made by modernizing the plot a little. The first image shows us a man carrying a baby stroller through an open field, suddenly we are surprised to see that it carries the corpse of a woman. The man in question is a disturbed serial killer who, due to a chance accident, manages to escape from the police. The individual has a weakness for red carnations and always wears one on his lapel. At the same time, the clerk of a notary's office must meet at the train station with a man who has inherited a large sum of money and a house on the outskirts of London and must accompany him to take an inventory of the furniture. Fate results in the employee confusing her client with the serial killer, giving him the money and accompanying him to the old house. The excellent performances keep the viewer in tension all the time without knowing when the murderer will attack his unsuspecting victim. Norman Eshley has a haunting presence as the criminal and Katherine Schofield has a highly enigmatic presence. But the genius of Brian Clemens ends up giving the story a surprising twist in the end. One of the best episodes of this series.
The New Avengers: Sleeper (1976)
A VARIANT OF THE MORNING AFTER EPISODE
Steed, Gambit and Purdey are invited to the demonstration of a new and powerful invisible numbing gas, to prevent it from affecting them they are vaccinated with an antidote. Later we see that a group of professional thieves who have taken over the invention manage to put an entire town of London to sleep so they can commit crimes freely, without realizing that The Avengers are the only ones awake since they have received the antidote. This episode is a story similar to The Morning After from the Tara King (Linda Thorson) era. The episode is entertaining and the bandits' chases towards Purdey, Steed and Gambit in the middle of a deserted and sleepy city are very well done and maintain good suspense. Approved episode.
The Avengers: The Morning After (1969)
STEED INSIDE THE TWILIGHT ZONE
The essence of The Avengers is present in this episode. Steed and Tara capture Merlin, a mercenary who has taken possession of some capsules that contain an extremely powerful sleeping gas. To evade them, the criminal throws one of them without realizing that he himself ends up being a victim of its effects. The next day Steed wakes up from his lethargy and tries to take Merlin to the authorities, but his confusion is supreme when he sees that all the townspeople seem to have vanished. Confused, they try to find someone in the deserted streets of the place, but the The confusion increases even more when they witness the cold-blooded murder of the only person they can find, by a group of soldiers. I'm not going to spolier the ending but what I can say is that it is a great episode with an excellent ending.
The Avengers: Game (1968)
THE SAW MOVIE IN THE AVENGERS VERSION FROM THE LATE 60'S
Many young people are unaware that today's great movies and series have been based on TV series from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Twilight Zone is a clear example of having inspired writers who have curiously copied the themes of some of its episodes. As soon as you see GAME it is impossible not to find similarity to the SAW saga. It is about a former soldier who seeks revenge for the mistreatment suffered during his days of service and begins to kidnap his superiors by putting them in perverse games where if they do not complete them successfully they are killed. The last to be captured is Steed and he is put through several games that he overcomes while Tara is trapped in a giant hourglass that will cover her if Steed does not finish the tests he is subjected to in time and successfully. The episode is good without being outstanding. A creative idea carried out correctly.
Gojira -1.0 (2023)
A BIG LITTLE MOVIE AND A LESSON FOR HOLLYWOOD
Sometimes, less is more. This is a story where humanity is above silly and exaggerated CGI. I'll be brief. The story is that of a young kamikaze who deserted and did not fulfill his duty to die for the emperor; one who, in an act of cowardice or paralyzing fear at the beginning of the film, has the opportunity to take down Godzilla and whose inaction leaves a trail of victims and a resentful man. That young man, returned to a Tokyo destroyed by American firebombs, finds himself with contempt and a family assembled by pure chance. And with a trauma of guilt that colors the entire film. What works here is that there is a script designed around the most traditional mechanism of fantasy cinema, the characters are well developed so that the audience empathizes with them, then from then on everything works perfectly, even the CGI which, unlike The multimillion-dollar Hollywood productions are not what abounds during the 2 hours of film, when they appear they are perfect, creating the necessary climate of anguish and terror, demonstrating that the formula for a good fiction and monster movie is not to overwhelm with an excess of CGI but to tell a story that has to do with human feelings and conflicts. Another aspect that goes in favor of the plot is that since it is set in the 40s we do not see weapons or crazy gadgets to confront the monster, on the contrary we have to appeal to ingenuity with the few elements that were available in those years to combat it which adds verisimilitude to the story. In addition to all this, the finishing touch is the beautiful and stimulating final message it transmits.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
POVING AND INNOVATIVE
I watched the episode of the Moonlighting series titled Its a Wonderful Job, and I loved it. Some time later I realized that the premise of that episode was based directly on this movie and I also realized that this brilliant original idea by Frank Capra had been the inspiration for countless other movies and TV series, but Capra's film It was consecrated for being the first and the invention of the original idea. The film is simple but charming, well written, well directed and well acted. The casting is outstanding, no one like James Stewart and Donna Reed could have played this beautiful couple with so much talent and conviction. This is proof that to make a moving and brilliant film you don't need big budgets, just a good, well-developed idea is enough.
The Bugs Bunny Show (1960)
A SELECTION OF THE BEST CARTOONS EVER MADE
I remember this show with great affection and strange that they don't continue broadcasting it. In reality, this program was neither more nor less than one of the best selections of the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoons but in a different format. The show began as a theatrical variety presented by Bugs Bunny and Duffy Duck, each episode was made up of 3 cartoons presented by a common thread of jokes between the protagonists and many times the other Warner characters also participated, the best of Road Runner , Duffy duck, Pepe Lepeu, Elmer, Yosemite San, the wild cat and twetty, Porky Pig and of course the great Bugs Bunny among many others. A true gem that even today is a fun series to watch despite the passing of the years due to its humor, creativity and intelligence in the scripts.
A View to a Kill (1985)
A SURPRISING MOVIE TO BE FROM THE 80'S
If we take into account that this film was made in 1985, when green backgrounds, CGI or computer editing did not exist and all the scenarios were real, the stunts done by stunt doubles, the technique was artisanal, we have to give this movie a 10. In addition to all this, the script is solid, the performances brilliant, Roger Moore was a seductive, intelligent and fun 007 at the same time, Grace Jones perfectly composes a lethal, intriguing and absolutely hypnotic villain. The action scenes at the Eiffel Tower, at the hippodrome, the chase with the fire trucks, the explosion in Sillycon Valley or the finale at the San Francisco post are incredible, exciting and full of suspense. It is necessary to highlight in the cast the performances of
Christopher Walken as the villain Zorin, the legendary Patrick MacNee as a British agent collaborating with 007, and the beautiful Tanya Roberts as the Bond girl. The music by Duran Duran is superb.
The Avengers: Split! (1968)
AN ORIGINAL IDEA NOT SO WELL EXECUTED
A secret service agent executed a colleague with a shot but later does not remember anything of what happened. The mystery appears to be connected to a hospital where he has had therapy and to an enemy agent named Boris Kartovski who was presumably killed by Steed in a previous confrontation. As always, Brian Clemens knows how to write stories full of mystery with a logical resolution at the end, the premise is original but the development is a bit slow, which produces a somewhat boring episode. At one point Tara is anesthetized and tied to a stretcher, when she wakes up she tries to scream but is quickly gagged, this scene quickly reminded me of Emma Peel, who would have been impossible to scream in any dangerous situation, on the contrary she would have made a ironic comment to her captor, evidently no matter how much Linda Thorson did a good job, her character was never on par with Emma Peel.
The Twilight Zone: Where Is Everybody? (1959)
AN INNOVATIVE HISTORY FOR THE LATE 50'S
It tells the confusion of a man who tries to find someone in an abandoned city, where it seems that all the people have disappeared from the face of the Earth except him. Today it does not seem like a very creative idea since we have seen it many times both in film and on TV, but I understand that this was the first time that a story of these characteristics was shown, which was copied subsequently so this chapter has the quality of being the creator of this premise. Earl Holliman has the power to be the first character in this anthology series and his role is very well done. The setting and music create an absolutely distressing atmosphere.
The Flying Nun (1967)
SITCOM A LITTLE DATE BUT STILL HAS A CERTAIN CHARM
The friendly and restless Sister Bertrille has the incredible ability to be able to rise and fly using the wings of her cap and having a favorable wind. This means that she can often get out of the entanglements and problems she gets into. The story goes that Sally Field was very unhappy doing this sitcom which she considered a bit silly, however that is not noticeable since her performance is extremely funny, Madeleine Sherwood brings seriousness in her role as the Mother Superior and Alejandro Rey is very funny in his role as Carlos Ramirez, the playboy owner of the San Tanco casino and one of the few who knows Sister Bertrile's secret outside the convent. The series has a fairly innocent and light humor and its episodes are quite irregular in terms of script, but in any case they can still be seen with some nostalgia and have a pleasant time in front of the television.
Friday the 13th (1980)
ONE STEP BEYOND HALLOWEN 1978
It is more than evident that this film was made due to the great influence of Halloween 1978. John Carpenter had had a resounding success in that film starring Jamie Lee Curtis, and Sean Cunninham decided to go one step further. The story is simple, a group of teenagers take a weekend off at a tourist complex located in Cristal Lake, and on the night of Friday the 13th they begin to be violently murdered one by one by a mysterious person, at this point we are not going to keep the secret of a murderer that everyone already knows, it is the disturbed mother of a child who drowned in the lake due to the carelessness of those in charge of the place and who, in the manner of Norman Bates from Hitchcock's unforgettable Psycho, He has a dual personality and speaks like his deceased son who asks him to commit the bloody crimes. What is interesting here and innovative for the time is the series of crimes, all different and each with its suspenseful preamble. The gore isn't as impressive today, but in the 80s it surely must have been brutal. The cast is quite weak, but the atmosphere and the music made this film become one of the most prolific horror film franchises.
Unhinged (2020)
ACTION AND VIOLENCE ABOUT A STUPID SCRIPT
The film starts out quite interesting and seems to promise a good development, but after the first half hour it becomes unnecessarily violent and absurd. The plot is simple, Rachel is traveling with her son on a highway and has a small collision with another vehicle, she refuses to apologize and this tiny fact causes an excessive reaction from the other driver, who not only begins to chase and harass her, But he begins a kind of macabre game to eliminate his relatives. It could have been an interesting chase movie but the scriptwriter wanted to innovate and ended up adding absolutely implausible things. The guy in question manages to steal his cell phone but there is no logical explanation as to how he gets the passwords to access his contacts, and even his bank accounts, nor the home addresses of his brother and friends. It's stupid to see how the guy kills a friend of hers in a bar and people film it with their phones, even worse that the police take so long to arrive at the scene and that they can't track his truck when everything was recorded by cameras and then broadcast on news channels. A whole series of inconsistencies to which is added the unprecedented stupidity of the protagonist who lends herself to the little game of the guy in question without warning the police in time. It is obvious that being a movie there may be loose things in the script, but Here everything is so incoherent that the result ends up being quite bad.
Hart to Hart (1979)
Robert and Stefanie at the top.
He is a millionaire and she is a retired journalist, a perfect marriage where what abounds is love, and both are fans of unraveling crimes and mysteries. Many times they come across a strange event by chance and do not stop until they find out its origin. I think Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers were at their best when they made this series, she was a beautiful and modern forty-something, and he had his second hit after It Takes a Thief. Watching it after 40 years, the show may have aged and be a little slow compared to what it is now and even its stories are somewhat repetitive, but in the 80s it was an original, intelligent series without explicit violence, the chemistry between Wagner and Powers was extraordinary, anyone would have believed it was a real marriage.
The Brady Bunch (1969)
HE STILL HAS A CERTAIN ADORABLE THING
A widower with three sons marries a widow with three daughters and to this team we add a kind maid who is almost part of the family. From the introduction song (which is a genius of creativity) we are already introduced into the show quickly. The theme of the series was simple as were the conflicts but even today it is still fun to watch. The characters were well stereotyped, and everything was resolved with a smile. They say that Robert Reed hated the series and his character, he intended a career in film and ended up typecast as the perfect family man, even so the series became a classic, a light comedy without major pretensions that managed to remain in memory. Of several generations. Obviously, despite being somewhat cheesy, it retains an appeal that makes it inevitable to stop and see it.
If one comes across it while zapping.
The Twilight Zone (1959)
SERLING A CREATIVE AHEAD OF THE TIMES
You had to have a very creative mind for someone to come up with a TV series of these characteristics in the late 1950s, and Rod Serling had it. He also had enough intelligence to surround himself with other creatives such as Bert Granet, Charles Beamount or Richard Matheson who were some of the scriptwriters of episodes of the series and who understood the concept perfectly. Each episode presented an ordinary person who was faced with unlikely situations, which put the viewer in the place of the protagonist. Some chapters also addressed topics about aliens or historical events, but there was always a twist with an unexpected ending and sometimes even with a moral. Incredibly, this is one of the few series that does not age and can continue to be enjoyed almost like the first day. Absolutely recommended for audiences of all ages.
Moonlighting (1985)
BRILLIANT SERIES WITH MANY UP AND DOWNS
It is difficult to classify this series in its entirety since the 5 seasons that it lasted were very different from each other. The first season was very short, both Cybill Sheppard and Bruce Willis were trying to find their respective roles and the series was slowly finding its way. By the second season the cast was much more comfortable, each one doing their job to perfection and an amazing chemistry began to be noticed between Bruce and Cybill, the writers were improving with each episode and the stories were intriguing and funny at the same time. Season three was undoubtedly the best, Cybill and Bruce exploded on the screen, their characters had reached perfection, the scripts were intelligent and unpredictable, the dialogues between the protagonists were brilliant and witty, during this season the relationship between the two was intensifying. Crescendo until at the end and after so many twists and turns they consummate their love relationship. In the fourth season the decline of the series begins, Cibyll becomes pregnant and makes sporadic appearances, everything falls on Bruce's men who do everything possible to cope with the series alone but without his counterpart it becomes an impossible task. The scripts also begin to decline, it was the beginning of the end. For the fifth and final season, the problems between the production, the scriptwriters and the actors are transferred to the screen and wear and tear on everyone is noticeable. The production makes one last attempt to resume the course of the first seasons but it's too late, Maddie's character becomes insufferable, David's is absolutely blurred and stops being fun. The series loses spark and to make matters worse its last episode is a real disaster. This is the sad end of one of the most entertaining and intelligent series ever made and which established Cibyll Sheppard as a great actress and catapulted Bruce Willis to fame.
The Time Tunnel (1966)
DESPITE LASTING ONLY 1 SEASON, IT BECAME A CULT CLASSIC
The prolific Irwin Allen brought a string of science fiction series to TV in the mid-1960s, The Time Tunnel probably being his most ambitious project due to the high production costs. The studio where the Tunnel scenery was set up was truly impressive. The stories were pretty straightforward like all Irwin Allen series. Two scientists are transported in time through the famous tunnel to prove that it works and prevent the United States Government from funding the project, this is how both are lost wandering through different times while a group of scientists does the same. Possible to return them to the present time. Supported by archival material from historical Fox films, Tony and Douglas go through the Titanic, Nazi Germany, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Wild West and are even transported to another planet. It is said that despite the success obtained, the series did not get to have a second season since the archival film material had run out, this was noticed at the end of the series since the last episodes dealt with invaders of extraterrestrial beings, which which allowed the scriptwriters not to have to adjust to historical facts and to have more freedom to invent stories.
One Step Beyond (1959)
FORMAT VERY SIMILAR TO THE TWILIGHT ZONE
It could be said that One Step Beyond was the mother of The Twilight Zone and that this series ended up giving shape to the one that just a few months later made the great Rod Serling famous. This series produced, written and presented by John Newland intended to recreate supposed real events of supernatural events. The stories were presented as dramas where generally the theme was about ghosts and apparitions, the production and staging were really good and as the episodes went by the cast was varied and with great actors like Cloris Leachman, Warren Beatty, Joan Fontaine and Christopher Lee among others.
The Avengers (1998)
IT WAS BAD BUT NOT SUCH AS TO DESTROY IT COMPLETELY
It was a real shame what happened to this film that could have become a saga like James Bond. To begin with, the film is not good, but it is not so disastrous for the bad reputation it has acquired. Unfortunately, the chemistry between Una Thurman and Ralph Phines did not work out despite the fact that each one was perfect for the role separately, I understand that Warner did not have confidence in this product and they modified it several times, so their argument became something strange, To make matters worse, in many countries it was not even released in theaters, but was released directly on DVD, which caused a wave of hatters who thought in advance that the film was bad. The most salvageable thing for me is that the writer printed several scenes in honor of the original series and these homages were very clear, like the scene with the flying insects inspired by the Small Game for Big Hunters episode or the scene of Emma Peel locked in a house where the stairs always led to the same place, in homage to the great episode The House That Jack Built, among others.
The Avengers (1961)
ONE OF THE MOST CREATIVE AND INTELLIGENT SERIES OF ALL TIME
The title of The Avengers was originally due because the plot was based on the search for revenge of Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) for the murder of his wife, he allied himself with the investigator John Steed (Patrick MacNee) to find the criminal . After the first season, the series changed its scheme to the adventures of John Steed trying to solve the most mysterious crimes, always accompanied by a beautiful assistant, among whom Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman) stood out. The series thus began to enjoy success in several countries in Europe and this aroused the interest of the United States who proposed to co-produce the series and broadcast it in their country. Honor Blackman was leaving the series at that precise moment and after an arduous and complicated search to succeed her is when the one who would become the most remembered avenger of the entire series appears, the one who would take the show to the peak of popularity, Diana Rigg slips into character as the fascinating Ms. Emma Peel, and all the planets seem to align to propel the series to cult status. Added to the explosive chemistry between Patrick and Diana was the technique that by then already had a high budget, the writers were inspired and wrote the best and most intelligent stories in this period, unfortunately after two glorious seasons, Diana Rigg decides leaving the series in pursuit of a film career and is replaced by the young actress Linda Thorson, the show thus begins to decline both in ratings and interest and is finally cancelled.