Semiquincentennial Movie Project #8: D.A.R.Y.L.

 

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

Week #7: South Carolina -

 

The state of South Carolina was established on May 23, 1788 

Details about South Carolina:

State bird: Carolina wren

State flower: Carolina yellow jessamine

State tree: palmetto tree 

Additional historical trivia:

Concerning the Civil War, Fort Sumpter was the site of the first shots ever fired in it. South Carolina was also the first state to secede from the Union.

The Dock Street Theater is the site of the first venue for theater ever established in the United States.

If you've eaten a peach, it's likely it came from South Carolina. The state produces more peaches than even Georgia...

The first game of golf ever played in the U.S. was played in South Carolina.

South Carolina is the only state in the Union that owns and operates the school bus system for the whole state. 

Famous people from South Carolina: Vanna White (from Wheel of Fortune), "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (of the infamous Chicago Black Sox), "Dizzy" Gillespie, "The Godfather of Soul" James Brown and Andrew Jackson (7th U.S. President). 

 

 

 

D.A.R.Y.L. (1985): 

Yet another of the kids vs. science fiction trope that got kicked off with Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extraterrestrial. This one features Barrett Oliver (and that is his real name, despite the fact that it sounds like it might have been inspired by Ryan O'Neal's character in Love Story, Oliver Barrett.) Oliver had come to prominence the year before after being cast as the lead in the fist The Neverending Story series of films. That role garnered him some attention, as he was nominated for a Young Artist Award in the category of Best Starring performance. (He was beat out by his co-star in the film, Noah Hathaway).

Oliver only had a brief career in film. He was in today's film as well as both Cocoon and Cocoon II: The Return, but by 1989, after a brief 8 year run in the industry, he apparently decided to go a different route. He is currently a photographer and his work as such has been seen in museums and even on film, but he quit the in front of the camera before he even reached the age of maturity. (He was only 16 in his last film).

D.A.R.Y.L. open with a car chase. A boy and an older man are on the run from a plethora of chase vehicles (cars, helicopters, etc.). The older man drops off the boy and continues on it's run, ultimately crashing by driving the car off a cliff. The boy, basically on the run in the woods, ends up being discovered by an older couple and ends up being taken to a children's shelter.  

 

The director of this children's shelter is Howie Fox (Steve Ryan) and his wife Elaine (Colleen Camp). They are neighbors and good friends with the Richardsons, Andy (Michael McKean) and Joyce (Mary Beth Hurt). The Richardson's have been looking to adopt a child, and this boy just might be the start. Although they are told from the beginning that the boy is suffering from a form of selective amnesia... he knows his own name, Daryl, but he can't remember anything about his parents. So basically the Richardsons  can only foster care for the boy until he remembers who he really is.

 

While with the Richardsons it becomes apparent that Daryl is rather unique. He exhibits quite a bit more intelligence than the average 10 year old, and he is polite and respectful to everyone. He also shows an uncanny ability to learn and adapt to new studies, such as becoming a phenomenal home run hitter despite not even knowing how to play baseball when first introduced to it.

 

Eventually two adults show up claiming to be Daryl's real parents, although it is not a spoiler to learn that they actually aren't... they are scientists who had developed this advanced robot, whose real designation is D.A.R.Y.L. (That stands for Data Analyzing Robot Youth Life-form). He is not a real boy, although he probably wants to be. He has developed an affinity for the couple who were raising him, and a friendship with his neighbor, a boy only called "Turtle". In other words, he has exceeded the boundaries of what he was originally developed for: that of a government utility for whatever purposes the government wants him to perform. He was NOT expected to develop a personality or garner any range of human emotions.

 

As a result, the head guy in charge of the government organization (which is never actually named, but is probably the C.I.A., given how that organization operates in these kinds of movies...) orders that the D.A.R.Y.L. program be terminated, and that Daryl be deactivated. The fly in the ointment is that one of the scientists, Dr. Stewaert (Jeffrey Sommer) has let the outsiders of the Fox and Richardson family know of Daryl's true nature. And Dr. Stewart has also gained a conscience, so he plans to fool the government entity that Daryl has been deactivated when in fact he plans on escaping the facility with Daryl.

 

Just how he expected to fool a government entity that has a reputation for knowing when an individual goes to the bathroom despite said individual even realizing there is someone with that knowledge, is anybody's guess. The final reel includes Daryl driving a car like he is in a game of "Pole Position", a video game he has previously become familiar with, and even operating a supersonic jet, which he only learned by being shown how just a bit earlier in the film.

 

If you've watched these kinds of films before you don't need me to tell you how it ends.

The movie was not a big hit at the box office, it didn't even make back it's budget of $10 million. It garnered only a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, which means half of the reviewers liked it, but half of them didn't. Vincent Camby sums up the good view by saying that "the best thing that can be said about D.A.R.Y.L. is that it's inoffensive... [but] it's pretty silly". Paul Attanasio wrote that "the script is moronic and so riddled with improbabilities that the suspense element never takes root."

My opinion is that it is flawed in some ways, but as a example of 80's children-oriented sci-fi (or fantasy) it fits in as suitable family entertainment. My only real problem is with Michael McKean as the father. I just never could see him in such a straightforward "normal" role, mainly because of characters he had played that I had seen in the past: Lenny on Laverne and Shirley, David St. Hubbins in This is Spinal Tap, Mr. Green in Clue.

Referring back to the starring role actor, Barrett Oliver actually won some acclaim for his performance as Daryl. He won the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor, beating out, among others, Fairuza Balk in Return to Oz and Jeff Cohen in The Goonies. 

Wee, until next week folks, drive safely.

Quiggy

 

 

Semiquincentennial Movie Project #7: Explorers

 

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

 

 

Week #7: Maryland -

 

The state of Maryland was established on April 28, 1788

Details about Maryland:

State bird: Baltimore oriole

State flower: black-eyed Susan

State tree: white oak 

Additional historical trivia:

Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that eventually became the national anthem while observing a battle in the Revolutionary War from a ship in Baltimore harbor.

The official state sport of Maryland is jousting. (Really! Would I lie to you...?)

The state flag of Maryland (pictured above) is the only state flag based on British heraldry.

Elijah Wood, a native, created the ouija board (and thus was peripherally responsible for The Exorcist)

Famous people born in Maryland: John Wilkes Booth (assassin of Abraham Lincoln), Babe Ruth, Robert Duvall, Frank Zappa, Tom Clancy and Spiro T. Agnew (Vice-President under Richard Nixon) 

 

Explorers (1985): 

Children in sci-fi settings became a huge thing in the early 80's. Thanks (or blame, depending on your viewpoint) to Steven Spielberg and his huge E.T. the Extraterrestrial, children focused science fiction movies became a big thing in Hollywood, although to varying success. Trying to mine the gold that Spielberg found with his mother lode proved to be a difficult project. In the space of 8 years after the release of E.T we got several movies featuring pre-teens or teens in sci-fi and fantasy settings,  the likes of which included  Flight of the Navigator,  D.A.R.Y.L., Back to the Future, Wizard, The Last Starfighter,  and SpaceCamp in sci-fi settings, as well as kid-centric fantasies like Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, The Goonies and The Monster Squad.

The movie opens with Ben (Ethan Hawke) fast asleep and dreaming of flying over a circuit board that reminds me of nothing so much as the virtual world in the movie Tron. When he wakes up he hurries to his desk to sketch out a part of his dream, a diagram of the circuit board. Even though it is 3am, he calls his best friend, Wolfgang (River Phoenix), who is some sort of child prodigy... (and if you are having trouble picturing River Phoenix as a nerd, you and I are in the same boat...)

 

The next day at school Ben is getting the crap beat out of him by the school bully, Steve (Bobby Fite).  A fellow classmate, Darren (Jason Presson), jumps in to help Ben and as a result gains an initially unwanted friend. All three are sort of outcasts, and thus in terminology of the day, "nerds". Thus the three naturally develop a friendship.

 

Wolfgang has been hard at work trying to program the stuff that Ben gave him. (Firstly, let me point out what may be a nitpick. Wolfgang is working with a primitive, by today's stands, 128K computer. You have to suspend any disbelief that what he accomplishes here could even be done with that limited capacity of power, but then the whole movie does require some suspension of disbelief in order to watch, so...) Wolfgang creates a self-contained sphere, but then the computer starts working by programming itself.

 

 Eventually the three make the sphere big enough that they can crawl inside of it, but with limited oxygen, they can only stay in it a short while. But dreams to the rescue because Ben has another dream that night which solves the oxygen issue. Now they can actually use the sphere and navigate it around. To which they include making a seating arrangement by building a spaceship out of junkyard parts, which include a left over seat from a carnival Tilt-A-Whirl.

 

Thus seated in the Tilt-A-Whirl and surrounded by the sphere the three take off. among their first encounters is a jet that investigates this "U.F.O." Charlie (played by Dante film regular Dick Miller) gains a particularly strong motivation to investigate. (Charlie essentially becomes the comic relief in a movie that already had comedic elements, but...)

 

Eventually the kids make it into space and then the weird stuff starts to happen. Something takes over the computer controls and the boys are suddenly rocketed into deep space, where it appears aliens have commandeered the fledgling ship. And here's where it really gets weird... For the next 20 or 30 minutes the kids interact with the aliens, whose primary form of communication seems to be using stuff from old TV and radio shows.

 

It turns out that the aliens way of learning about Earth had been from intercepting the broadcasts of American TV and radio. (Just so you know, from a scientific standpoint, those broadcasts continue on indefinitely in a straight line after leaving Earth. But the question that comes to my mind is why only American TV? Didn't they intercept any signals from the other nations?) 

(As a side note: One of my favorite science-fiction authors, Jack L. Chalker, wrote a short story "Adrift Among the Ghosts" which had a similar theme. In that story an alien who was convicted of a crime is sentenced to a life in space collecting some of these old radio and TV signals for posterity in the alien's own society. Check out Dance Band on the Titanic which collects the entire short story output of a prolific novelist, but only rarely short story writer.)  

The comedy of this part is relentless, but at some point the boys are finally able to communicate with the aliens on some level. But you get the idea that these aliens are a couple of rocks short of a riot.

It turns out that these particular two aliens are not the ones in charge. And they aren't exactly supposed to be playing around with the controls of the spaceship they are on.

I'll leave it at that for now. 

Explorers had several unfortunate details in it's history that made it a less than stellar box office bonanza. For one thing, it was released only a week after Back to the Future and we all know what a blockbuster that one was. Secondly, it was also released just the day before the broadcast of the first Live Aid. 

The film ran into several problems during it's production. One of the excuses for it's slapdash finish was that the studio told Dante to wrap it up forthwith because they wanted to release the film much earlier than planned. A director's cut of the film was never released primarily because much of the footage that could have been used was lost or no longer available. It was not the film that the director wanted to release, so much as the movie the studio demanded on a shorter timetable, then.

The hurried release as well as the competition from movies still in the theater as well as those released shortly after (In addition to Back to the Future, Cocoon was still in the theaters, and E.T. The Extraterrestrial had been re-released) served to help sink it. It only managed to make about half of it's budget back while in theatrical release. 

Rotten Tomatoes currently holds the movie as "48% fresh". A blurb on the website claims that "Despite dazzling effects, a terrific young cast, and tons of charm, Explorers fails to soar past its '80s kiddie flick competitors." That cast, by the way, was full of first or early castings. Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix made their feature film debuts here. Both Amanda Peterson and Jason Presson had appeared in a couple of TV movies, but were also first timers in a theatrical release. Robert Picardo, who most people will recognize as The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager got an early role here too, although you won't recognize him... he was the alien Wak and Wak's father. But he was also the character "Starkiller" in the movie playing at the drive-in when the boys fly by, so you might recognize him there...

Explorers  did not have the profound effect that people behind the scenes hoped it would have. It comes off a lot like a knock-off of a classic Spielbergian kids movie, and even the soundtrack has that feel. Jerry Goldsmith, the multi-time nominee for Oscars in the category of music, did the honors, but even that feels like something from a Spielberg movie.

Still, all in all, it's not a bad movie At least, not until they actually meet the aliens... I thought that part was a little ridiculous and a bit too long. I wish I could see the movie that Dante originally wanted to make. I have warm feelings for Gremlins and Matinee, and his segment in The Twilight Zone: The Movie ("It's A Good Life") is not at all bad. 

Well folks, until next time drive safely.

Quiggy 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Ape

 

 

 

 

 

This is my entry in the So Bad It's Good Blogathon hosted by Taking Up Room

 

Star Wars people are bonkers. I've heard that quite a number of Star Wars fanatics will buy a ticket to a movie that is going to have a preview of the newest Star Wars  movie during it's opening previews, watch the preview, then leave the movie without watching the movie they paid good money to enter the theater. That's just nuts, if you ask me.

And yet, I paid good money in 2001 to go to see Swordfish, a movie I had no desire to see, in actuality. I paid my admission with the express intent of seeing the preview of Tim Burton's new movie, Planet of the Apes. The difference is I actually stayed to see the movie. (I'm a fanatic, but I'm not insane...) Swordfish, BTW, is a terrible movie, and the only highlight, for me, was seeing Halle Berry topless. Swordfish might be someone's idea of a good entry for the So Bad It's Good blogathon, but definitely not for me.

On the other hand, the preview of Planet of the Apes was a success. that is if it was meant to attract me as a patron. Having been a fan of the older five movies, and having great hopes for the advancement of technology to make the apes look even more realistic than those of the 70's Apes  movies, I have to say I was totally entranced by that brief three or four minute preview.  And, of course, I was first in line to buy a ticket to the first showing when the movie finally hit the theaters... Literally, I was there about 30-40 minutes before the box office even opened.  

The road to this remake was a bit rocky. It had originally been slated to be produced in 1988. The original idea was to produce a sequel to the first 1968 Planet of the Apes, apparently ignoring the four sequels that followed that first movie.  The story would have taken place in a future of that timeline, with a character named Duke, who was a descendant of Charlton Heston's character, Taylor, leading a human revolt.  Thankfully we were saved from having Tom Cruise in the lead role of that pre-production. It was ditched because of a shakeup in the studio executives of 20th Century Fox Studios.

Future tries at creating the movie went through some interesting changes. Both Sam Raimi and Oliver Stone were interested, and one of the more intriguing ideas about a plot involved everything having been predicted, including the rise of the apes to power, through some kind of interpretation of a Bible Code. (Remember the popular 1997 book by Michael Drosnin, The Bible Code? Apparently this plot drew some inspiration from that book...) This version would have had Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role.

Through the various tries at getting the film off the ground, both Roland Emmerlich and James Cameron were in talks to direct. Eventually the director became Tim Burton. The script itself, however, was not completely set in stone. According to wikipedia the script was still being hashed out even as sets for the movie were being built. The good thing is that Rick Baker, makeup genius extraordinaire, had been on board from even the earliest tries at the remake. Having been a fan of Baker ever since An American Werewolf in London, I personally had high hopes for convincing prosthetics.

 

 

 

Planet of the Apes  (2001): 

Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) is the liaison between the experimental chimpanzee trainees for the space program. Basically, he works with one chimpanzee, Pericles, training him how to operate the controls of the scout ship of the space program. He has an affinity with  Pericles, much more than he really has with his co-workers, or even his commanding officers. On the space station Oberon, Leo is the connection with his charge and is Pericles' guide.

When a strange anomaly appears in the vicinity, Leo's superiors tell him to send his chimp out in a space pod to investigate. Leo objects, insisting that he be the one sent out instead of the guinea pig chimp, but is overruled. Pericles disappears. Ostensibly to do some work to try to figure out what happened Leo goes to another pod, but ultimately takes command of the situation and launches the second pod. And he too ends up losing contact with the Oberon.   

When Leo gets out of the space anomaly he has somehow been sent some 3000 years into the future. He crash lands in the jungle on a strange planet. "Strange" is the key word. He finds himself caught up in a chase as native humans are running in terror. What are they running from? Why, militaristic apes of course.

Leo

 

Leo, along with several others, ends up being captured. Limbo (Paul Giamatti), an orangutan who is a slave trader, is the ape in charge. He is not impressed with this new collection, and is especially not impressed with Leo, who doesn't seem to be as fatalistic towards his capture as the others. 

Limbo

 

Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), a chimpanzee with a decidedly liberal "all species should be treated equally" attitude, buys both Leo and a native girl, Deanna (Estella Warren), to work in her house. Ari is the daughter of a political bigwig, Senator Sandar (David Warner).

 

Deanna

Ari

 

Sandar

 

 

 

Ari is also the source of attraction for the military bigwig, General Thade (Tim Roth), although she has no love for him. Politically they are on opposite ends of the spectrum as Thade hates all humans, and would be entirely at home with the idea of exterminating every human from the planet. 

Thade

 

Leo. independent soul that he is, works at trying to escape from his captivity. He eventually succeeds, in the process taking Ari and her friend, General Krull (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), as hostages. Leo finds a device from his own time that seems to indicate that a rescue party from his old ship is somewhere nearby. It turns out that that somewhere is also the location of the legendary "Calima", the place where the religious sector of the ape society believe life began.

Chased by Thade and his adjutant, Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan), Leo heads to the remote area. There he does not find the hoped for rescue party; instead he finds the remains of the Oberon which seems to have been there for thousands of years. And the source of the name "Calima"... 

 

Ultimately, it turns out that the Oberon tried to follow Leo into the anomaly, but this anomaly is some kind of unstable wormhole that transports people through time, but cannot be controlled enough to say where the people will end up.

 

In the end, many humans come to follow Leo, whom they think is some kind of hero, and do battle with the entire ape army. That is, until Pericles arrives in his space pod.

This film was disparaged viciously on it's release. Right wing political stooges like Rush Limbaugh got in the fray by claiming the film was anti-American. At least one report I heard made a big deal out of the ending of the film. (Spoiler alert! If you want to watch this film first stop reading and come back after you've seen it.) 

You see, at the end of the movie Leo manages to escape and pilot the space pod back to his own time. Or so it would seem. But when he crash lands on Earth, he ends up near what looks like the Lincoln Memorial. Only instead of Lincoln, it is General Thade.  The ending was made a bit confusing (like how did Thade escape from his "prison" at the end and somehow also travel back in time?) But the big whine that I heard was from those same right wing stooges, like the aforementioned Limbaugh, who howled bloody murder over making their hero, Lincoln, into an ape.

The ending was the only part of the movie that was in tune with the original novel, however. Every one knows the iconic ending of the 1968 movie, but in the Boulle novel the main character also escaped from the planet, only to arrive in his own time to find that the apes were in charge there, too. I think the ending of the film was supposed to be meant as a cliffhanger, and the next film in the series would have explained what happened (as in how Thade escaped from the planet to go hrough his own time portal and create another alternate universe). . However, due to the negative reception of the first one, a follow up movie was trash canned.

There are several callbacks in this film to the original, including a cameo (uncredited, by the way) of Charlton Heston, who plays General Thade's father. He utters a line: "Damn them! Damn them all to Hell!". And Attar gets to be the center of another callback when he tells Leo "Get your stinking hands off me, you damn dirty human!"

The film, believe it or not, was actually a success, financially. It made about $250 million more than it's budget. Which means it cracked the top 10 of money makers for 2001. Not bad, considering that this year's output included the first installments of both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, the top money makers for 2001.

But critical reception sunk the film. Most critics gave it negative reviews, and John Wilson and co, at the Razzies named it the worst sequel or remake of the year. The Rotten Tomatoes rating for the film stands at 43%, but admits "this remake...can't compare to the original...but the striking visuals and B-movie charms may win you over." And that basically is how I feel. The plot leaves a little to be desired, but it was effective as a visual form. Until the CGI enhanced trilogy of recent years came along, it was a fairly good presentation of apes. Thanks to Rick Baker for his work there.  

Well folks, time to fire up the old Plymouth. Hopefully I won't run into some time portal on the way home, but just in case, I think I'll stop at the store and buy some bananas...

Quiggy

 

 

Claustrophobic Terror

 

 

This is my second entry in the Film. Release. Repeat. Blogathon hosted by Hamlette's Soliloquy and yours truly.

 

 

 

I make no bones about it. My favorite director is John Carpenter and five of his films are in my top ten favorite movies of all time. I missed out on Halloween when it first hit the theater, so my first John Carpenter movie was actually Escape from New York. Not long after I saw that, which highly impressed me, I went back and saw the aforementioned Halloween, as well as The Fog. And I also began to anticipate each new film that came out in subsequent years.  The five that occupy space in my top ten (in no certain order) are Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, The Thing, Escape from New York and Christine. 

My review of The Thing has been a long time coming as a feature film at The Midnite Drive-In. I feel certain if I hadn't gone through a lethargic period of writing during Covid that it would have long been reviewed. Same goes for Christine (and that will soon be remedied too.) Carpenter made four films with Kurt Russell back in the day, including a TV movie on Elvis, Escape from New York and it's sequel Escape from L.A., Big Trouble in Little China and The Thing. 

 

The Thing (1982):

Note: In the interest of not turning off some of the more skittish readers, I have refrained from using any pics in this review depicting the creature in it's changing process. If you really want to see them you can google images of The Thing 1982...

 

The film starts out with a dog. The dog is being chased by some guys in a helicopter. The occupants seem intent on killing the dog. When they arrive at the U.S. based camp they are still intent on killing the dog, but this is seen as an attack on the scientists and they kill the interlopers. Of course, if one or the other groups had been fluent in the other's language the US group might have been forewarned, but the interlopers only speak Norwegian and the US guys only understand English.

 

The base helicopter pilot, MacReady (Kurt Russell) and the base doctor, Copper (Richard Dysart) decide to go up to the Norwegian base and see what might have happened. They find the base in shambles, and an odd malformed body which they take back to the US base camp. The camp biologist, Blair (Wilford Brimley) is given the task of performing an autopsy on this weird body. What Blair finds inside are normal human organs, heart, liver and the like.

The crew decides to go try to find out what the Norwegians had been doing just prior to the havoc that happened at their camp. The end up finding a spaceship that appears to have been hidden under the ice for some 100,000 years. They also find the leftover remains of what may have been a body the Norwegians uncovered in the spaceship. 

 

The dog is put in the kennel with the base camps' dogs, because, after all, as far as they know, its just another dog. But this "dog", of course, is NOT a dog. Which is why those Norwegians were trying to kill it. The camp kills the odd thing as it is in the process of changing, and the day is saved. Roll credits.

 

Not so fast. The creature is able to replicate itself and disappears into the attic above the dog compound. Blair autopsies the dog thing the group killed and comes to the conclusion that the creature could assimilate any living organism, and through computer simulation estimates that if it got loose it could assimilate every living thing on the planet within a few years. As a result Blair becomes just a wee bit paranoid, since virtually any one of them could now be the thing, posing as one of them.

Blair, in his paranoia, wreaks havoc on the compound, virtually destroying any avenue that the thing could use to escape the compound: demolishing all radios, computers, sleds, etc. The crew manages to subdue Blair and lock him in the tool shed. Dr. Copper suggests that they take blood samples from each of them and compare them to blood samples held in storage in the compound, but of course, the thing has anticipated this and contaminated the samples.

 

No one knows exactly who to trust. Each of the crew immediately begins to look with suspicion upon his co-workers, and since they are isolated at the bottom of the world now, without any lines of communication with the outside world, it gradually becomes a matter of finger-pointing. Of course, everyone insists that he himself is the same as when he first came into the camp and thus not the alien creature. The one that is the creature also claims this, of course, but then why would it admit it was an alien?

In the end, virtually everyone in the crew has been killed, either because it was actually a part of the thing's assimilation process, or through misadventure. The remaining three crew members determine that the alien plans to go into hibernation again. MacReady and his remaining cohorts decide to demolish what is left of the base camp, although, since the creature can apparently survive in hibernation indefinitely, I am not sure what this would accomplish. As MacReady and Childs await the inevitable freezing to death that is coming now, they decide to share a bottle of Scotch.

 

The Thing  was a remake of a classic sci-fi film from the 50's, The Thing (from Another World). The original novella, Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr., has much more in common with the 1982 remake than it does with the 1951 original film. Basically the creature in the 1951 film, joking referred to these days as "an intelligent carrot" was just an alien form of a vampire. It killed, but it didn't kill to propagate it's species, it only killed to find sustenance off of the humans. (The "intelligent carrot" remark refers to the fact that, although it was filmed in black and white, the alien itself was orange, and had characteristics of a vegetable life form.)

What made this version of The Thing so compelling is that, like predecessors in such films as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this creature had the ability after it consumed its victims, to take over their characteristics. (Much the same way the creature in the original novella did.) Carpenter had some good help in the special effects department on this film. He brought on board Rob Bottin, with whom he had worked on The Fog, to create the special effects of the creature transformation.

BTW, if the effects in the first Alien movie had you running for the porta-potty, let me just say "You ain't seen nothing yet". The special effects are one of the reasons that the movie got such initially bad reviews from critics. Initially Carpenter was not going to direct, because at the time he preferred directing movies in which he was actively involved in the original story, and filming a previously published story was not in his interest. As such Tobe Hooper (of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist fame) was approached, but producers became disenchanted with the way Hooper was doing it. Eventually they were able to convince Carpenter to do it.

As far as Kurt Russell as the star was concerned, he wa the last of the film's characters to be cast. Not that Carpenter was reluctant to work with him but he just wanted to keep his options open. Some of the actors considered were Christopher Walken, Brian Dennehy, Scott Glenn, Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte. The most intriguing of those, in my opinion, would have been Jeff Bridges. I think Walken would have taken the character in an entirely different and not altogether sympathetic direction.

When the movie was initially released it was not well received, but in retrospect it has garnered some praise. Personally I think that it is an excellent remake. The creature in the original just never gave me the willies like the Carpenter/Bottin creation. And the atmosphere created by the film made it all that much more attractive. The claustrophobic situation, what with all the action taking place in an isolated are like Antarctica and the fact that no one can trust anyone else to be whom they seem to be has a profound effect on the terror the situation creates.  

The film barely made its original investment back and was NOT the hit that Carpenter hoped would boost his credibility. Coming in on the heels of Steven Spielberg's E,T.: The Extraterrestrial, which was a much more upbeat movie, to the say the least, of aliens, the dark and somewhat nihilistic The Thing was viewed as probably coming in at the wrong time for the political landscape. The country was in the middle of a recession, and hope for a better future was not prevalent in the film. In retrospect, however the film has been gradually gaining some more appreciative audiences. 

Watching this film in conjunction with the Philip Kaufman 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers might cause the most susceptible paranoiacs to run for the hills. Still, all in all, one of the reasons why  I consider this movie to be a good remake, not withstanding Carpenter's hand in it, is the fact that it entertains, even despite some of it's flaws.

Well, folks, time to crank this old Plymouth up and head home. There is snow predicted tonight, so my isolation may be a little discomforting...

Quiggy

 

 

 

 

Star Trek V: The Search for a Plot

 

 

 

 

This is my first entry in the Film. Release. Repeat. Blogathon hosted by Hamlette's Soliloquy and yours truly.

 

 

Star Trek, as a franchise, has had it's ups and downs.

A brief history, for those three or four people out there who have never even heard of Star Trek.  The first incarnation of Star Trek began with creator Gene Roddenberry pitching the idea around Hollywood for a science fiction series for adults. Previously science fiction had been in the realm of shows primarily aimed at kids (Captain Video, Space Patrol and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet). Roddenberry envisioned a series that, although it took place in space, would end up addressing social issues of the day. He struggled to get anybody to understand the concept until he just said "It's Wagon Train to the stars!"

The original Star Trek TV show, (affectionately referred to in these later days as Star Trek: TOS (The Original Series), had a following of devotees, but never really took off enough to keep it going, and thus lasted only 3 short seasons. But the fans refused to let it go. 

 

So for a brief period there was an animated series, Star Trek: TAS (The Animated Series) to try to appease them, but that one never really took off, lasting only 2 seasons. (You could chalk that up to the fact that it was a cartoon and most of the fans were well into adulthood, but I don't think that really encapsulates why it was not a success...) So, the fans became even more ardent, starting sci-fi conventions solely dedicated to the series, and, coupled with the astounding attention from the original series then in syndication, it sparked Hollywood's interest.

 

Thus, beginning in 1979, a series of 6 movies that expanded on the original series were released. Some were great, some mediocre and one was a dud from the outset.  The interest in Star Trek would eventually spawn several offshoots of the Star Trek universe, including the first follow up TV series, Star Trek: TNG (The Next Generation), which in turn would also spawn 4 theatrically released movies. 

 

Following Star Trek: TNG would be several other series, none of which spawned a theatrical movie release, but were nonetheless good, or even great: Star Trek: DS9 (Deep Space Nine) which lasted 7 seasons, 

 

Star Trek: VOY (Voyager), which also lasted 7 seasons, 

 

and Star Trek: ENT (Enterprise), which lasted 4 seasons. 

 

In addition, there have been numerous streaming series available if one had access to them. There have also been 3 movies featuring a new cast in the roles of the classic series characters. I refer to these as "reboots".  As well, a recent 2025 new look film, Star Trek: Section 31.

At the time of this writing there have been 14 of them. Although my rating of them differs from the consensus in many cases, most everyone agrees that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is the worst of the output. (Note: I consider it still too early to make the call on the recent Star Trek: Section 31, which currently occupies last place on a list of Star Trek movies on the Tomato-meter...) 

So just for clarity, I will rate my personal opinion of the ranking of the Star Trek movies before delving into today's review:

1.  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) {a TOS film} 

2.  Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) {a TOS film}

 

(Both of those films were, coincidentally, directed by Nicholas Meyer, who also gave us Time After Time, a film still waiting for a review on The Midnite Drive-In...)

 

3.  Star Trek: First Contact (1996) {a TNG film}

4.  Star Trek (2009) {a "reboot" film}

5.  Star Trek: Generations (1994) {a conjoining/transition film which includes TOS and TNG characters}

6.  Star Trek: Beyond (2016) {a "reboot" film}

7.  Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) {a TNG film}

8.  Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) {a "reboot" film}

9.  Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) {a TOS film}

10. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) {a TOS film}

11. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) {a TNG film}

12. Star Trek: Section 31 (2025) {a different "reboot" film} 

13. *Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) {a TOS film}*

14. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) {a TOS film}  

 (*Note: Contrary to the public opinion of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which usually ranks it much higher, the in your face, environmental, "save the whales" message just turned me off, this despite the fact that I adore movies that feature time travel. So no apologies if your opinion differs...)

 

 

 

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989):

The  beginning of the film is your standard fare for a Star Trek movie. A native of Nimbus III is digging holes on his land. Why? Who knows. All logic of this movie vanishes the moment the native sees a cloaked figure riding up to his position. The native is initially hostile and wary of this interloper, but it becomes immediately apparent that the newcomer has no hostile intentions against the native. As a matter of fact, the newcomer exhibits compassion and care for the native and asks him to "share his pain".And here is where the movie goes off track.  It seems to have a new age feel to it. And just what the hell is a "new age philosophy" doing in a Star Trek move?

 

Anyway, this newcomer, name of Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), is some sort of mystic visionary. He is also a Vulcan, and the later revelation, that Sybok is related to Spock is almost telegraphed from the very beginning. Sybok's intentions become clear. He has plans to invade the capitol city of Nimbus III. There, as the planet is a neutral site, three envoys, one a Terran, St. John Talbot (David Warner), one a Romulan Caithlyn Dar (Cynthia Gouw), and one a Klingon General Korrd (Charles Cooper) are meeting to negotiate a peace treaty.

 

Sybok's intentions are to take the three envoys hostage, thus inciting rescue operations. But Sybok's intentions are not to incite a war. Instead he desires to take command of a starship. And why, you might ask? He seeks out the mythical birthplace of life as we know it, known variously as Sha'ka'ree or Eden or any other religious mythical name. And he wants to meet "God". face-to-face. (So we went new age, which rejects Judeo-Christian myths, to actually striving to prove the existence of a Judeo-Christian mythos? Geez, Shatner, couldn't you get a grasp on what you wanted to say?)

Anyway, as usual, the only starship even remotely nearby enough to go on the rescue mission is of course the Enterprise. (OK, so we have to be used to this development. since it was the reason the Enterprise was sent to encounter the mysterious force headed to Earth in the first movie, and also to go check out the mysterious goings on with Project Genesis in Star Trek II.)

 

The problem with using the Enterprise is that it is in serious need of a shakedown. In case you didn't know the timeline, I'll give you a bit of background. In Star Trek III the crew of the Enterprise hijacked the ship to go rescue Spock, and in the process had demolished the ship. A new Enterprise was commissioned at the end of Star Trek IV. This is the one that Kirk and crew have to maneuver  to rescue the hostages, and it is not entirely ready for the mission.

Meanwhile, a renegade Klingon captain has heard about the mission and decides on his own to chase down Kirk solely for the glory of defeating the vaunted legendary Captain. One wonders why the Klingons don't have their own rescue mission mounted to save their own envoy on Nimbus IIi, but given the Klingon predilection for honor in battle, perhaps they figured the Klingon ambassador deserves his fate. It is hinted at that General Korrd must have committed some grievous error to be in the "demoted" position of a lowly ambassador...

 

When Kirk and his crew arrive at Nimbus III, they find they don't even have the ambassadors as allies, since Sybok has managed to work his mumbo-jumbo to get them on his side. He also manages to convert many members of the Enterprise crew as allies, through his "sharing" of their pain and forcing them to face their fears. The only person who refuses to submit to Sybok's ministrations is Kirk himself, who insists that his fears and pain are what makes him Kirk, and his pains are important to him.

Still Sybok does manage to get the rest of the crew, including Spock, to at least let him have his way with the ship and they travel to the Great Barrier of the universe. No ship has ever crossed the Great Barrier and returned, so no one knows what is on the other side. But Sybok is certain he will not only find the mythical  Sha'ka'ree, but will also encounter "God".

Of course the ship has to cross that Great Barrier and enter into the unknown, otherwise this whole movie would have been entirely pointless (notwithstanding that it is mostly pointless anyway...). Once beyond the Great Barrier, they do manage to encounter "God". But before you get the idea that it is a validation of the existence of a Supreme Being, this "God" turns out to be just a powerful entity whose power is somewhat limited to just the area where it resides. And apparently, there must be some greater power behind the scenes, because this "God" character is a prisoner on this planet.

 

He (it?) somehow managed to contact Sybok and maneuver the Vulcan in order to bring a starship into the vicinity so it could escape it's prison, and... do what? Wreak havoc over the entire universe? Kirk, being Kirk, asks the most obvious question... "What does God need with a starship?" This of course angers the being and it (he?) attempts to kill or at least punish Kirk for his impertinence.

 

Having lost it's way long before this point, the renegade Klingon shows up and attempts to destroy the Enterprise. He discovers that Kirk is not aboard the Enterprise, but is actually on the planet and thus aborts his attempt to destroy the Enterprise. Instead he turns his attention towards the planet, intending to take his prize defenseless.  But eventually he saves Kirk rather than kill him. The reason for this developmental change is just as egregious as the rest of the movie, but the fact is that Kirk does not really win the day at the end, but is saved by a sworn enemy. Which is even more astounding by the fact that Shatner was renowned for his attempts to make Kirk the focal point of the Star Trek universe. (He would often steal lines that were originally intended for other characters...)

Harve Bennett, the producer of the film, is quoted as saying that Star Trek V  "nearly killed the franchise". Besides the ridiculous plot, another thing that had a bad impact on the film was the subpar special effects team. Originally the production company was going to go with Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects company who had produced the effects for the previous three films. But ILM was involved in two other projects, Ghostbusters II and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, both of which used up much of the company's top talent, so the film had to seek other avenues. 

The worst special effects, in my opinion, come when Kirk and company finally arrive at Sha'ka'ree and meet "God". The wizard encounter in The Wizard of Oz was loads better, and they didn't even know what CGI was back in 1939. Much of the rest of the space scenes seem to have been done on the fly rather than actually have been done in earnest to give the viewer some bang for his buck. 

Star Trek V had high hopes upon it's release, despite the fact that it was competing  with a whole raft of big budget movies, not only including the above mentioned Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones films, but also the first Tim Burton Batman film, the second Back to the Future film, the second Lethal Weapon film and a few gems that became bigger events for the year, Look Who's Talking and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Ultimately the movie didn't even crack the top ten grossing films, making it the first of the franchise to not earn that honor. In addition it was also the lowest grossing film in the franchise.

Critics excoriated the film. Roger Ebert called it "pretty much of a mess - a movie that betrays all the signs of having gone into production at a point where the script doctoring should have begun in earnest."  Probably the best (or worst) indication of how bad Star Trek V was is the fact that it was nominated for some Razzies, an award given out to the worst movies of the year. William Shatner "won" Worst Director and Worst Actor and the film won Worst Picture. To put that in perspective here are some of the competitors that year: Worst Picture: The Karate Kid Part III and Road House. Worst Director: John G. Avildsen for The Karate Kid Part III, Rowdy Harrington for Road House and Eddie Murphy for Harlem Nights. Worst Actor: Ralph Macchio for The Karate Kid Part III, Patrick Swayze for Road House ans (big surprise) Sylvester Stallone. ("Big surprise" because Stallone was almost a shoo-in to win a Razzie whenever he was nominated...)  (And just a side note: Sorry, John Wilson, but I think Road House was pretty good. 

Star Trek movies are almost always worth at least one viewing. It takes a pretty bad movie to make me have to actually have to work at finding the energy to watch it a second time. I can do most "bad" movies twice, standing on my head... I delayed watching this movie the second time,  because it was such a bad experience 35 years ago. This is only my second time to watch it and it still was the same stinker I thought it was when I left the theater in 1989. Rarely do I recommend that you DON'T give a movie a shot, but if you haven't seen this one yet, take my advice... save your rental fee.

Until next time.

Quiggy