From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Mon, 1 May 2023 14:05:49 -0700 (PDT), Jack Bohn   
    wrote:   
      
   >I had extra time in April, and TCM went to an all Warner Bros. schedule to   
   celebrate their 100th anniversary. [1]  Not that Warners had the least   
   fantastical films of the Great Eight[2] -- I would guess Fox or Paramount over   
   the course of the century --    
   but it forms the least part of its "personality" and I'd find it hard to point   
   out factors which would make one of their sf films (with the exception of the   
   DC superheroes) particularly Warners'.   
   >   
   >But that's beside the point.  What I've done with my extra time is to start   
   randomly checking out some of the DVDs I've been randomly accumulating.  My   
   evening matinee began with the 26-episode anime "Last Exile" as the serial,   
   but no need to talk about    
   that here.   
   >   
   >The movies, first, the ones everyone has an opinion on:   
   >   
   >A.I. (2001)   
   >Avengers (2012)   
   >Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)   
   >   
   >The Marvel movies I checked a few favorite scenes (with audio commentary)   
   just to make sure the disk worked.  Watched all of AI.  Like ET before it, it   
   doesn't really need a rewatch.  The second disk of extras provided shorts for   
   several days of the    
   matinee.   
   >   
   >Now some only a few would see:   
   >   
   >Alice in Wonderland (1933)   
   >Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)   
   >   
   >The '33 is a star-studded adaptation before '35's Midsummer Night's Dream.    
   The only stars that will be readily recognized after these 90 years are Gary   
   Cooper as the White Knight and W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty.  Told Cary Grant   
   was the Mock Turtle,    
   my response would be, "He was?!?"  Cartoon fans might hear the voices of   
   Edward Everett Horton and Charles Ruggles as the Mad Hatter and March Hare;   
   they did "Fractured Fairy Tales" and "Aesop and Son", respectively, for   
   Bullwinkle.  Sterling Holloway as    
   the Frog footman was also the voice of Winnie the Pooh (and the Cheshire Cat   
   in Disney's).  A few others I knew were Ned Sparks, Jack Oakie, and Edna May   
   Oliver.  The costumes and special effects range from good to not.  Alice's   
   growing is a optical    
   stretching, which doesn't look great, but matches the book's description of   
   her opening out like a telescope.   
   >   
   >The '72 was made in England.  The recognizable actors are Ralph Richardson as   
   the Caterpillar, and Peter Sellers as the March Hare.  (There's a '66   
   adaptation made by BBCTV (and not destroyed!) where Sellers plays The King of   
   Hearts!)   
   >   
   >Atomic Brain (1963)  No different from non-atomic brain swapping.  About what   
   you'd expect.   
   >   
   >The Beastmaster (1982)  Hadn't seen it before, now I have.   
   >   
   >Counterblast (1948)  British.  Nazis escape prison camp near the end of the   
   war.  They are organized enough that after the war they can steal the identity   
   of an Australian doctor coming to the UK.  Their plan is to find the cure for   
   some plague that    
   they can then release on the public.  The speed at which they do suggests we   
   should have Paperclipped these guys, but where'd the story be if they   
   couldn't?  Fairly good.   
   >   
   >The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009) Midlist Terry Gilliam.  Amazing that   
   he's made enough films to have a midlist.  I'm not sure anything was said here   
   that wasn't in Baron Munchaussen.   
      
   Heath Ledger's last film. Forget the hype about /The Dark Knight/.   
      
   They had to get three friends to finish the film by doing the "inside"   
   scenes.   
      
   >In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)  A documentary on the Apollo program.    
   Shocked to see them mixing footage between missions, but in Hollywood accuracy   
   is not as important as looking cool.  DVD includes enough deleted scene   
   footage to make a B-feature of    
   its own.   
   >   
   >Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)  A parallel universe where Superman,   
   Wonder Woman, and Batman still fight for justice, but in a much darker   
   manner.  Superman is still a Kryptonian, not quite the one we know; the other   
   two have different origins.   
     Their story is made clear, but the opponents to their tyranny are references   
   to characters in DC comics that may require you to web search on your phone in   
   the middle of the movie.  I didn't, which left me with the uncomfortable   
   feeling that I was    
   missing something about some of them.  Otherwise, a very good story.   
      
   I saw it, but I don't remember it.    
      
   Since it is animated and I did /not/ buy it on DVD, I must conclude   
   that I was not impressed.   
      
   >Morons from Outer Space (1985)  British.  Dire.  The morons of the title are   
   British lower class.  From space, but of British lower class look, clothing,   
   attitude, names, interests, equipment (well, their RV is a space RV with good   
   special effects) -- I    
   suspect only the lack of a product-placement agreement caused a made-up a   
   brand name for the beer they drink.   
   >   
   >Oculus (2013)  Karen Gillan!  Er, I mean, a horror story about a mirror that   
   drives people mad.  Her family was destroyed by it a decade or so ago, her   
   parents killed and her brother blamed and put under psychiatric observation.    
   Away from its influence    
   long enough, he has come back to his senses, and has been released.  She has   
   figured out a way to destroy the mirror that its mind-bending powers won't   
   protect against.  But first, an array of video, audio, and other electronic   
   recorders will capture    
   documentary proof of its influence!   
      
   I vaguely remember this one.   
      
   >The Raven (2012)  Edgar Allan Poe is contacted by the police about a number   
   of murders containing details from his stories.  A common use of historic   
   authors, perhaps not as common as the trope of their stories having been   
   inspired by secret hidden    
   events in their lives.  Had this been done with practical effects rather than   
   cgi, the pit with the pendulum might have been scaled back, or given the   
   filmmakers insight about the time and money that would have had to been put   
   into it, but then again,    
   making sense seems less important than looking cool.   
      
   If this shows Poe doing a reading in front of an audience, then I   
   believe I saw this. Like the more recent film with Poe as a character,   
   I didn't find it (or whatever I am confusing it with) all that   
   interesting.   
      
   >The Southern Star (1969)  OK, not sf, but based on a novel by Jules Verne.    
   George Segal and Ursula Andress in an unlikely caper stealing a    
   ust-discovered diamond of that name.   
   >   
   >X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)  Corman inserted a touch of fake gore   
   at the beginning and end of what could otherwise be a Twilight Zoneish tale.    
   Almost lives up to the legends about it.   
      
   I remember seeing it /and/ buying and reading the comic version.   
      
   >Anybody else seen any of these?   
   >   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)