chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Zonker T. Chuqui) (10/21/84)
YA installment of movie reviews from the best that VCR has to offer--
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes- (uh, unrated?)
Schlock. Schlock. Schlock. Oh, wondrous, wondrous schlock. A great movie to
see once in your life. And only once. The acting was universally
attrocious. The scripting made the acting look good, but I think it was
written that way on purpose. Every so often everyone bursts into song just
to see if you're awake. You laugh an awful lot (awful is the operative
word) but when the movie is over you really wonder why? National Lampoon
reviews this movie a long time ago-- ~that's not funny, that's sick!~ A
great movie to watch while stoned, while drunk, or while wierd. right up
there with Reefer madness for schlock wonder of all time.
Being There-- (****)
First there was Dr. Strangelove, and we all learned to stop worrying and
love the bomb. Now there is being there, a wonderfully intense and quietly
funny attack on society. Peter Sellers (chauncey gardener) is simply superb
as the simpleton gardener who walks through a charmed life into becoming
the nations most powerful person-- all while never taking his eyes from the
TV screen. It is both an indictment of the couch potato society we've
become AND an indictment of those people who hear exactly what they want to
hear regardless of what has been said. Sellers goes through the entire
movie with a half smile-- his role is a wonder not because he pulled it
off, but he pulled it off perfectly-- just enough seriousness to make his
lines truly amusing but not so seriously that he becomes a parody of
himself. In fact, he is the only character that isn't a parody, and that
is the real strength of the movie. Another winner...
A Boy And His Dog -- (***)
truly and wonderfully intense, another winner; but not for people who can't
take grim realities. The opening lines 'World War IV lasted five days-- the
politicians had finally found a solution to urban blight' say it all. This
is not really a pleasant movie to watch, but it is compelling. Blood, the
dog half of the partnership has all of the great lines (not as strange as
you might think if you aren't familiar with the Harlan Ellison story this
is based on) and has a wry and rather twisted sense of humor. One real
plus of this movie is that it is an almost exact scripting of the story--
nothing more, nothing less. It proves that you simply don't need to rip
apart a story to fit it to the screen if you care about your product.
A Clockwork Orange -- (****)
Stanley Kubrik's movie on social commentary, this classic say a lot about
society and how it protects itself from itself-- and what happens when the
protection is worse than the problem. Malcolm McDowell is a young hoodlum--
a person who gets his jollies with 'ultra-violence'. Nothing like a random
boot to the groin for this rowdy. He rips up a few people, finally gets
caught, and gets sent to jail. He is eventually involved in an experiment
in 'curing' criminals. This wonder of Skinnerism uses drugs and violent
movies to create violent psychological reactions to urges of violence or
sex. Once he IS cured, he is released back into society where he is
immediately set upon by all of those he once considered prey. Being
completely unable to defend himself, he is at the mercy of a society now
shown to be as openly cruel and sadistic as he once was. His onetime
captors end up being his saviours in a classic case of back washing.
Another not-so-pleasant film, it has rather graphic violence and a fair
amount of nudity (especially considering when it was produced) and doesn't
pull punches. It will also force you to think differently about Beethoven.
chuq
--
From the Department of Bistromatics: Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
(Editors note: Bistromatics is NOT a typo. Bistromathics is the study of
math on an italian waiters checkpad. Bistromatics is the study of Italian
cooking on females of the human species. Please quit sending me mail)
I'd know those eyes from a million years away....