reiher@UCLA-CS.ARPA (06/24/84)
From: Peter Reiher <reiher@UCLA-CS.ARPA> They showed both of these trailers before "Gremlins" in the theater where I saw it. "The Neverending Story" looks very interesting, with a lot of bizarre creatures and imagery. If any flaw is apparent, it could only be that the film might end up overly cute. But then, Germans tend to mix in gloom and nastiness with their cuteness (read the original Brother's Grimm), so this may be OK. I was under the impression that it was shot in German, but there was some brief dialog in the trailer in English, and it was either shot that way or was a superior dubbing job. "2010" looks rather prosaic. All the old gang is back, and several new characters, of course, but the scenes shown can't touch the look of the original. Only to be expected. Lots of shots of black slabs tumbling through space, a somewhat hokier space child, HAL questioning orders again, a feeble attmept to summon back the image of Kubrick's shot of Dave reentering the airlock, and so on. It didn't excite me that much, but I don't have great expectations for this film anyway. The effects look OK, but they didn't show anything extraordinary. Maybe (probably) they aren't done yet. Peter Reiher reiher@ucla-cs.arpa