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Post by Duragizer on May 20, 2021 21:24:06 GMT -5
I grew up with Mars Attacks cards. Mars Attacks was serious business. I wanted those cards translated into a movie: giant bugs, heat rays, mass destruction, horrific slaughter. There are no stupid jokes in those cards, no arch self-awareness, no satire, nothing but elemental fear, anxiety, violence and revenge. This was a lost opportunity. One could make the argument that a Mars Attacks! movie played completely straight wouldn't have flown in the '90s. |
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Post by codystarbuck on May 20, 2021 21:34:21 GMT -5
I like Mars Attacks, for its big, dumb, goofy excess. Besides, Slim Whitman defeating Martians is way cool. I like Ed Wood, but it's a fantasy and burton massaged a lot of stuff to fit his fantasy vision of Ed Wood. All his films are fantasy, though. Quite frankly, though, if it hadn't been for Martin Landau, that film wouldn't have been much different from the rest of his catalog.
I liked Big Fish , but haven't watched it in years. Edward Scissorhands was fine, but not really my cup of tea. Sleepy Hollow just made me appreciate the tv movie version, with Jeff Goldblum, even more. Love Beetlejuice, still haven't see Pee-Wee, largely because I have a low tolerance for the character, having been bombarded with it long before the movie was made.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 20, 2021 21:36:12 GMT -5
I grew up with Mars Attacks cards. Mars Attacks was serious business. I wanted those cards translated into a movie: giant bugs, heat rays, mass destruction, horrific slaughter. There are no stupid jokes in those cards, no arch self-awareness, no satire, nothing but elemental fear, anxiety, violence and revenge. This was a lost opportunity. One could make the argument that a Mars Attacks! movie played completely straight wouldn't have flown in the '90s. The movie that should be done that way is Total War, aka MARS Patrol, with Wally Wood's nightmare of an invasion of the US (somewhat swiped from the Purple invasion, from the Operator 5 pulps), by an unknown force. That would make Red Dawn look like a Boy Scout Jamboree. |
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Post by Prince Hal on May 21, 2021 9:24:58 GMT -5
One could make the argument that a Mars Attacks! movie played completely straight wouldn't have flown in the '90s. The movie that should be done that way is Total War, aka MARS Patrol, with Wally Wood's nightmare of an invasion of the US (somewhat swiped from the Purple invasion, from the Operator 5 pulps), by an unknown force. That would make Red Dawn look like a Boy Scout Jamboree. Check out Invasion USA (1952) for similarities to -- and maybe even influences on -- the MARS Patrol comic and Mars Attacks cards. No giant bugs, but still, when Hedda Hopper says it'll scare the pants off you...   |
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Post by kirby101 on May 21, 2021 9:44:30 GMT -5
Those damn Commies! Gerald Mohr, star of the Sci-Fi film that scared me the most as a wee lad, Angry Red Planet.
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Post by Prince Hal on May 21, 2021 9:48:53 GMT -5
Those damn Commies! Gerald Mohr, star of the Sci-Fi film that scared me the most as a wee lad, Angry Red Planet. And the narrator of the opening for the Lone Ranger television show. (Also the voice of Reed Richards and Aquaman in the late 60s.) |
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Post by kirby101 on May 21, 2021 9:58:31 GMT -5
Those damn Commies! Gerald Mohr, star of the Sci-Fi film that scared me the most as a wee lad, Angry Red Planet. And the narrator of the opening for the Lone Ranger television show. (Also the voice of Reed Richards and Aquaman in the late 60s.) Did not know that. He was everywhere in the 50s and 60s. Died too young at 54. |
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Post by Graphic Autist on May 21, 2021 10:24:20 GMT -5
Spider-Man's webs were non-Mcfarlaned for 25 years...
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Post by profh0011 on May 21, 2021 10:41:23 GMT -5
And the narrator of the opening for the Lone Ranger television show. (Also the voice of Reed Richards and Aquaman in the late 60s.) Did not know that. He was everywhere in the 50s and 60s. Died too young at 54. To this day, when I read a FANTASTIC FOUR comic, I hear Gerald Mohr's voice in my head when Reed Richard speaks.
He was in one of my top favorite 2nd-season LOST IN SPACE episodes, "A Visit To Hades".
Recently, he became my FAVORITE Philip Marlowe, on the 50s radio show. It is CRIMINAL that he was never cast to play Marlowe in a movie or on TV.
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Post by kirby101 on May 21, 2021 10:55:36 GMT -5
You could see ad space on that forehead.
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Post by tonebone on May 21, 2021 16:19:43 GMT -5
Wait, all this discussion of Tim Burton and not a single mention of The Nightmare Before Christmas? Out of all of his films, that's the only one that I really love. My biggest problem with Burton is when he tries to "reimagine" something that another person did before him (and most likely did it better). There is one good scene in his Willy Wonka version (the greeting at the factory, where the singing dolls catch on fire and melt), but the Apes, Dark Shadows, Alice, etc. movies are just him putting his weird spin on something that already exists, like a kid taking the Mona Lisa and giving her a tattoo and pink hair. When he has an original idea to work with, he does far better. Pee-Wee, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, even the first Batman, Sleepy Hollow, and Mars Attacks (not his ideas, per se, but things that hadn't been done before on film, not counting the 1960's Batman which bore little resemblance to Burton's) have a certain "magic" to them that his adaptations just don't. Plus, I'm tired of seeing Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter chewing scenery together in his movies. Nightmare Before Christmas was directed by Henry Sellick. Burton is credited as creating the characters. I'm thinking he sketched up a bunch of character designs. I think he produced the movie, and hence it's "Tim Burton's .....". Someone else wrote the story and yet someone else wrote the screenplay. I feel like the love for this movie has given him a ton of undeserved praise, which he has coasted on for years. I am also in the extreme minority of people who HATE this movie. I felt the "Christmas but Halloween" trope wore thin very quickly, and thought the songs were amateurish and grating. My measuring sticks at the time were The Little Mermaid and Little Shop of Horrors, and it just didn't even come close to the same level of storytelling or charm. I quite like Sellick's subsequent movie, Coraline. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 21, 2021 16:37:07 GMT -5
Wait, all this discussion of Tim Burton and not a single mention of The Nightmare Before Christmas? Out of all of his films, that's the only one that I really love. My biggest problem with Burton is when he tries to "reimagine" something that another person did before him (and most likely did it better). There is one good scene in his Willy Wonka version (the greeting at the factory, where the singing dolls catch on fire and melt), but the Apes, Dark Shadows, Alice, etc. movies are just him putting his weird spin on something that already exists, like a kid taking the Mona Lisa and giving her a tattoo and pink hair. When he has an original idea to work with, he does far better. Pee-Wee, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, even the first Batman, Sleepy Hollow, and Mars Attacks (not his ideas, per se, but things that hadn't been done before on film, not counting the 1960's Batman which bore little resemblance to Burton's) have a certain "magic" to them that his adaptations just don't. Plus, I'm tired of seeing Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter chewing scenery together in his movies. Nightmare Before Christmas was directed by Henry Sellick. Burton is credited as creating the characters. I'm thinking he sketched up a bunch of character designs. I think he produced the movie, and hence it's "Tim Burton's .....". Someone else wrote the story and yet someone else wrote the screenplay. I feel like the love for this movie has given him a ton of undeserved praise, which he has coasted on for years. I am also in the extreme minority of people who HATE this movie. I felt the "Christmas but Halloween" trope wore thin very quickly, and thought the songs were amateurish and grating. My measuring sticks at the time were The Little Mermaid and Little Shop of Horrors, and it just didn't even come close to the same level of storytelling or charm. I quite like Sellick's subsequent movie, Coraline. I'm not a fan. I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate it, but I have no interest in ever being forced to watch it again. |
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Post by berkley on May 21, 2021 17:29:00 GMT -5
I was always disappointed that Burton never gave his partner, the beautiful Lisa Marie, bigger parts in any of his movies. She's in a lot of them, but never had enough screen-time to suit me.
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Post by profh0011 on May 21, 2021 17:51:32 GMT -5
Perhaps we need a 'Why All Batman Movies Suck' thread?  Sounds like an idea to me! I thought the 1989 film was the ONLY one that "worked" for me. It must have, I paid to see it 5 times. But even that had some problems. The 3 that followed ALL SUCKED BADLY. And frankly... I didn't really like "BATMAN BEGINS", so I never saw its 2 sequels.
As someone who actually started watching the Adam West show with the FIRST episode, when it first debuted... I thought the '66 feature SUCKED, at the time. I just didn't know quite what was wrong with it. When I watch it now, ONLY Lee Meriweather as Miss Kitka shines for me. (By the way-- she's a Russian criminal POSING as Catwoman, then believed dead. Her 3 partners had no idea. Only Stanley Ralph Ross, who didn't work on the movie, figured it out.)
Crazy enough, I REALLY like the 1943 "BATMAN" with Lewis Wilson. The personalities and relationships between Bruce, Dick & Alfred are the MOST authentic to the comics EVER DONE. I stand by this. Bruce & Dick are not portrayed as adoptive father & son, but instead, as they were in the comics, as adoptive older & younger BROTHERS, and PARTNERS in crime-fighting, rather than hero & "sidekick". My only problem is one I have with many such serials... that one story goes on WAY too long. I'd have much preferred a whole series of "B" movies, each with different stories & villains.
The 1949 sequel SUCKED terribly... except for Lyle Talbot, as a VERY authentic Commissioner Gordon. Also, Vicki Vale wasn't bad. I've read conflicting reports as to whether or not Vicki was created SPECIFICALLY for the serial! If so, that might explain how she was so close to the one in the comics.
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Post by Cei-U! on May 21, 2021 18:35:34 GMT -5
It's possible Vicki was created for the '49 serial. After all, Alfred was created for the '43 serial. I'll know more when I get to researching the 1949 chapter of my book.
Cei-U!
I summon the "Maybe!"
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