iannucci@sjuvax.UUCP (iannucci) (11/17/84)
This movie has just come out recently and I saw it last night.
I am not a big movie-goer, but this was probably the worst movie I have ever
seen. There was very little, if any, continuity in the plot. The acting was
ninth rate. The situations were completely stupid, and there is no tendency
at all to suspect that anything remotely like this movie could ever happen.
A comet strikes the Earth (we never see this), and everyone is reduced to
a reddish-brown dust by the fantastic heat. However two airheaded sister
survive, and the antics which follow are ridiculous. There is some gratuitous
sex and violence, too, (nothing really obscene). My main purpose in posting
this article is to warn anyone who might consider seeing Night of the Comet, to
STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS. Unless you have money to throw down the toilet and time
to waste, go see a real movie.
Gott im Himmel.
--
"Our primary weapon is surprise..surprise and fear...our TWO weapons...."
David J. Iannucci St. Joseph's University
{allegra | astrovax | bpa | burdvax}!sjuvax!iannucci Philadelphia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (11/19/84)
If "Night of the Comet" is really the worst movie you've ever seen, you haven't
seen very many movies at all. Sure, it's pretty feeble, but it's not
perniciously bad. It's just a cheap attempt to cash in on both sf films and
"Night of the Living Dead". The plot is stupid, they don't bother to
rationalize the science (much), no one except Mary Woronov acts with any
conviction, the special effects are cheap and minimal, the directing is
unfocussed, but, hey, it's just an exploitation film, and most exploitation
films are about this bad.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiherrob@ctvax.UUCP (11/25/84)
One redeeming feature of "Night of the Comet" is a classic quote for the leader of the Punk-Stock-Boy-Zombies: "I'm not crazy, I just don't give a f*ck". Maybe the producer wrote that line! B-) How long before it turns up in one of the 4Kb signature files? SPOILER------------------------ One nice touch (there were sooo few) was the waking up from a dream inside another dream. I thought that was marginally original, but what do I know? Another book/movie it ripped off was "Day of the Triffids", i.e. all those who didn't see the comets escaped an awful fate. Speaking of awful fates, watching this movie is one. ------------------------RELIOPS Rob Spray ctvax!rob
shilling@uiucdcsp.UUCP (11/27/84)
As a rule I avoid films that advertise themselves as "The night the teenagers ruled the world."
gs@mit-eddie.UUCP (Gordon Strong) (11/28/84)
Actually, the recursive dream (nightmare) idea was done much better in "An American Werewolf in London". In "Werewolf" it helped reinforce the feeling of the onset of lycanthropy. You *knew* something strange was happening. In "The Night of the Comet" it was just a chance to show a little flesh and give us a little scare. The moment I saw the scene, I immediately said "what a rip-off!, they stole this idea from John Landis". If John Landis stole it from someone else, I am unaware of it. If I want to see rip-offs, I'll go see a Brian DePalma film (in a recent movie article, the reviewer called him "A hack of all trades"). I guess I just expect a little more originality. Oh well. Gordon Strong ihnp4!mit-eddie!gs GS@MIT-XX
steven@ism70.UUCP (11/29/84)
Info on SPOILER: Sad to say, but the double nightmare trick has appeared in two films previous to _N_i_g_h_t_ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _C_o_m_e_t; Luis Bunuel's _T_h_e_ _D_i_s_c_r_e_e_t _C_h_a_r_m_ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _B_o_u_r_g_e_o_i_s_i_e and John Landis' _A_n_ _A_m_e_r_i_c_a_n_ _W_e_r_e_w_o_l_f_ _i_n _L_o_n_d_o_n.
grass@uiucdcsb.UUCP (11/29/84)
<> The recursive dream goes further back in literature. Try Gogol's "The Portrait" (c. 1850). -- Judy Univ. of Illinois -Urbana
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (11/29/84)
> Actually, the recursive dream (nightmare) idea was done much > better in "An American Werewolf in London". In "Werewolf" > it helped reinforce the feeling of the onset of lycanthropy. > You *knew* something strange was happening. In "The Night > of the Comet" it was just a chance to show a little flesh > and give us a little scare. The moment I saw the scene, > I immediately said "what a rip-off!, they stole this idea > from John Landis". If John Landis stole it from someone else, > I am unaware of it. If I want to see rip-offs, I'll go see > a Brian DePalma film (in a recent movie article, the reviewer > called him "A hack of all trades"). I guess I just expect > a little more originality. Oh well. > > Gordon Strong > ihnp4!mit-eddie!gs > GS@MIT-XX I remember watching a movie with Humphrey Bogart with a double-flashback. In the movie, the head of a group of Free-French bomber crews was flashing back to Humphrey Bogart telling a story on a ship at the time of the German occupation of France where he flashes back to being in Guinea. -Ron
clardy@smu.UUCP (11/29/84)
If you think that this movie is among the worst you have ever seen, then you just don't go to enough movies. Try 'Ator, the Fighting Eagle', for some REAL fluff.
jbtubman@water.UUCP (Jim Tubman) (11/30/84)
If you really want to know how bad a movie can be, consider the experience of an old roommate of mine, who went to see a sword & sorcery flick called "Yor". The people coming out of the early showing were telling the people in the line for the late show that it was so bad that they shouldn't go in! He went anyway, but wound up agreeing with them. Jim Tubman University of Waterloo watmath!water!jbtubman
carolyn@uottawa.UUCP (Carolyn Pullman) (12/07/84)
I really liked this movie. Since you all seem to be cutting it up I
decided someone has to stand up for it.
- It has a plot. Remember when you used to read novels? Some of them
also had plots. This one is also fairly original.
- It has well-developed characterization. You get to know the main
characters.
- It has no special effects other than makeup. It's obviously been
made on a small budget. As for the makeup being a takeoff from
"American Werewolf in London" well it isn't really. The makeup is
used to illustrate part of the plot.
- As far as it being a bad movie like "Yor": this is better than
"Yor" but really there are worse movies than "Yor". Anything with
Chevy Chase or Loni Anderson in it for instance. I mean "Ghostbusters"
had a good tune but as a movie it sucked.
Anyway I recommend seeing "Night of the Comets". I think it is an
excellent movie that is very well done. Give it a chance. If you're the
type that gags on anything that remotely resembles a horror show then
you're probably prejudiced.
Other good movies that are hard to find except at repertory cinemas
but which are excellent are:
"Picnic at Hanging Rock" : this is an Australian movie. Its cinematography
is incredible. It used to play all the time in Montreal but I haven't
seen it at all in Ottawa. It's set around the turn of the century and is
about a true event that has never been explained.
"Purple Haze": this is American about a couple of friends who were
draft age when that was an unfortunate age to be.
Anyway each to his or her own.
Carolyn