Extraordinary Tales - 2015

"Extraordinary Tales" - 2015
Dir. by Raul Garcia - 1 hr. 13 min.

Official Trailer #1

by Clayton Hollifield

Every once in a blue moon, I'll get to go see a movie without knowing much about it going in.  And that usually vastly improves the viewing experience.  This time, it was Raul Garcia's "Extraordinary Tales," a film that adapts five different Edgar Allan Poe stories into animation, each with a different visual approach.  Honestly, animated Poe is enough to pique my interest; it's like hearing cover versions of well-loved songs - the chance to rediscover material through someone else's sensibilities.

"Extraordinary Tales" adapts five Poe short stories; "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Masque of the Red Death."  Even more fascinating is the use of found audio sources; "The Tell-Tale Heart" features a scratchy recording of Bela Lugosi (yes, that Bela Lugosi) as the narration.  "Usher" is narrated by Christopher Lee (spectacularly so), and there's even a stray line of dialogue from Roger Corman!

Each of the shorts is visually interpreted in a vastly different style.  "Usher" is a kind of clunky CGI style that you might see in dozen different kids movies, "Heart" gives a shout-out to Alberto Breccia (although it should also give credit to Frank Miller), "Valdemar" layers an illustrative, pen-and-ink style on CGI framework (and resembles golden age newspaper comic strips in the color approach), "Pendulum" is a moody CGI approach, and "Masque" uses an elongated, emaciated, elegant style reminiscent of Egon Schiele's work (Schiele also died young from a sort of plague, the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, which added a bit of resonance to the choice to borrow from his work here).  The interstitials, which feature Poe as a raven in a graveyard, marry computer animation and paper cutout style to elegant effect.

The segments are mostly successful to me, but frequently for different reasons.  Christopher Lee's actorly, booming narration for "Usher" is compelling.  The visual approaches for "Heart" and "Masque" are spell-binding, particularly "Masque."  "Valdemar" is such a curious story that it carries itself (and making one of the characters look like Vincent Price was a bonus).  And Guillermo del Toro's voice work on "Pendulum" is fantastic.  In some regards, I guess you could say the film was uneven, in that I think only "Masque" clicked 100%, but all of the segments had something interesting to recommend them, so there weren't any lulls or dull parts.

So, "Extraordinary Tales" is good spooky fun for kids who may not have been exposed to Poe's work yet, and it's good for those of us who are a little more familiar with the material, too.  You'll certainly have your favorite segment, as do I ("Masque"), and this is a worthy, fun animated project I'd love to see more in the vein of.  I had a deja-vu moment with "The Tell-Tale Heart," and it turns out that it had been created nearly a decade ago, and I likely saw that segment at a Spike and Mike's Festival along the way.  I'm glad that Raul Garcia and everyone else involved decided to round this out to a feature-length film.

4 / 5 - Theatre

The Fast and the Furious - 1955

"The Fast and the Furious" - 1955
Dir. by John Ireland and Edward Sampson - 1 hr. 13 min.

Full Movie

by Clayton Hollifield

There is literally no reason to watch "The Fast and the Furious."  Not even if you really liked the current Vin Diesel series of films.  Not even if you like fast cars, not if you think that a short movie will be easy to get through, no reason whatsoever.  You might suspect that it might be a lark, since you've seen all six F&F movies already over and over again, that you should watch the old film that the title originated from.  Don't do it.  Watching a car broken down on the side of the highway would be more entertaining.  A nice nap would do you some good.  Have you talked to your mother lately?  I bet she'd appreciate a phone call.

In a diner somewhere in SoCal, Connie (Dorothy Malone) pulls up in her Jaguar, and some fat dude named Faber (Bruce Carlisle) wants to help her with something, but she's not interested.  The talk of the diner is a murderer on the flee, a man who drove a truck driver off the road and to his mortal end.  As it so happens, Frank Webster (John Ireland) is dining, gets itchy when they start talking about him, bops Faber in the head, and kidnaps Connie.  They take off in her car, and they get really mad at each other until she gets Stockholm Syndrome, and he falls for her as well.  In the meantime, we discover that Connie is a race-car driver (hence the Jag), and that the race she was supposed to enter has decided to ban all women drivers, because of the dangerousness of the course.  But since the race ends in Mexico, coincidentally exactly where Frank is trying to get to, he ends up entering the race under an assumed identity.

If you're a fan of movies where the woman runs hot and cold until she finally gives into to her womanly desires (in this case, her desires apparently include being kidnapped and tied to stuff, and not being allowed to race because ovaries (even though the cars never even go that fast, and even if they did, the course is lined with hay bales, which we all know is state-of-the-art safety equipment)), still don't see "The Fast and the Furious."  There are like five actual characters in the movie, so the vast majority of the film is devoted to Frank and Connie, and there's no spark whatsoever between them.  It's not impossible to get away with making a movie that's not based on much more than the sexual tension between two people (I just watched "The Thomas Crown Affair," for crying out loud), or the appeal of some awesome cars.  But the stars had better be crackling with energy and attraction, and Ireland and Malone are no Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.

Similarly, if you were hoping that the cars would be awesome, and that there might be some nifty driving sequences, refer to my recommendation in the first paragraph of this review.  There's an antique race (which does have some cool looking super-old cars), but the main race is conducted with what appear to be roadsters.  That's fine, but there's nothing that outstanding about the vehicles, certainly nothing iconic.  On top of that, parts of the race are filmed on a soundstage, with footage of the other cars projected onto a screen behind the actual car.  And the one thing that could have been cool, a wreck at the end of the film, is actually a shot of a toy car on a model set, and then a cut back to the real car gently resting against a tree.

I don't expect awesomeness out of a Roger Corman movie, there's only so far that you can stretch no budget and a ten day shoot (according to Wikipedia).  But if you're stuck with no budget and poor technical abilities, you either need to go the full Ed Wood or get really clever.  Neither of those things happened.  And honestly, if Universal Studios hadn't bought the name to this film to use on a new series of car movies (and it is admittedly a pretty awesome title), probably no one would even be mildly curious about this film.  It would have been rightfully forgotten, existing only as proof that if you are determined enough, you don't need talent, budget, or ideas to cobble together a feature length film.  And that's a positive message for most.  Instead, the new batch of movies have shined a light on a dark, best-forgotten corner of film history, revealing something that doesn't hold up.

.5 / 5 - TV

Death Race 2000 - 1975

"Death Race 2000" - 1975
Dir. by Paul Bartel - 1 hr. 20 min.

Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

First things first - "Death Race 2000" is not a good movie.  Rather, it's one of those films whose level of entertainment is inverse to it's legit cinema quality.  Do not be fooled by the rating I give this film at the end of the article, if you have a soft spot for cheesy, low-budget 1970s sci-fi movies, this is going to be a treat.  But if that sort of pleasure isn't written into your DNA, you should stay far, far away.

The story is built around the Transcontinental Road Race, a cross-country car race (the cars kind of look like the really weird Hot Wheels that you'd see in the toy section) where the racers gain points for mowing down people.  Frankenstein (David Carradine) is the star racer, much to rival racer Machine Gun Joe Viterbo's (Sylvester Stallone) chagrin.  This race is the biggest event in the country of the United Provinces (the government and economy of the good ol' U.S.A. has fallen apart, leading to this version of the year 2000).  There is a group of rebels, led by Thomasina Paine (Harriet Medin), who is suppposed to be a literal descendent of Thomas Paine.  The rebels intend to stop Frankenstein, replace him with a double, who will kill the President after winning the race.

The special effects and animation on this film are absolutely cut-rate.  Witness the cheesy semi-animated opening, the matte work at the race track, or the illustrations at the conclusion of the film.  As I mentioned before, the awfulness of these things just increase how appealing they are.  One thing they don't skimp on is explosions; when each racer in turn dies, they do so in a spectacular explosion.  Visually speaking, the rest of the film is rounded out by cool custom cars driving really fast, punctuated with pit stops full of full-on nudity, and by awesome 1970s fashions and hair.

David Carradine is kind of wooden in the lead, but it suits the character. He wears a gimp mask for a lot of the film, one that has a built-in prosthesis that makes him look like the name of his character.  This also has a very early Sylvester Stallone role (pre-"Rocky"), and he's pretty fun, even if his character is not much more than a caricature.  But then again, everyone in this movie is a caricature, from the racers to the sports announcers, to the fans.  That's the whole point.  The plot only works if everyone enthusiastically embraces the ultra-violent race as the best entertainment that this society has to offer.  Anything less than the best would be a felony.

The whole movie is unabashedly cheesy, which makes it easy to get in the spirit of things.  The cars are kind of cool (and I did like that each team was themed), and Myra's (Louisa Maritz) white fur-covered helmet might be the most awesome piece of safety equipment in the history of safety equipment.  When you dip into Roger Corman-land, you know exactly what's coming.  And "Death Race 2000" is so perfectly that, I can't really hold it's flaws against it.  It's not a good movie at all, but it's fun, mindless, and short.  That's not the worst thing I could say about a movie.

2 / 5 - Streaming

The Masque of the Red Death - 1964

"The Masque of the Red Death" - 1964
Dir. by Roger Corman - 1 hr. 29 min.

Official Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

"The Masque of the Red Death" is one of eight movies that Roger Corman directed based on Edgar Allan Poe's stories over a span of five years in the early sixties.  This, and all but one other, starred Vincent Price.  I know that Corman has a reputation for being something of a low-budget king, but you might not know that from watching this film.

Being based on Poe's work, you know the story is going to be somewhat macabre.  It's set in the 12th century, in the middle of an outbreak of a plague called the red death.  Vincent Price plays Prince Prospero, a satanist with a giant castle, in which the fortunate are allowed to stay for their own protection against the plague.  Their only form of amusement are debauched balls, where pretty much anything goes (being shot in the early 60's, the sexual content is largely implied, although heaving bosoms and dancing ladies are plentiful).  Prospero is transported through a village where an old lady has died from the red death.  One of the villagers mouths off to Prospero, the result is that he, his wife, and her father are taken to the castle for Prospero's amusement while the village is burned to the ground.  The men are locked in the dungeon, and are to be pitted against each other in battle; Francesca (Jane Asher) becomes something of an obsession for Prospero, he wants to corrupt her from her devout Christian ways.

Francesca is cleaned up and introduced at one of the balls, where Prospero humiliates his minions by demanding each one conducts themselves as animals (which doesn't actually humiliate the revelers - the implication being that they've traded their dignity for their safety inside the castle).  Prospero demands that Juliana (Hazel Court) show Francesca the ropes, she does the bare minimum.  Juliana has other things on her mind, deciding to betroth herself to Satan, something that she'd been reluctant to do before the younger Francesca showed up and clearly caught Propsero's eye.

There's a fair degree of camp to this story; it's clearly the product of another era of film-making.  Actors talk with that bizarre actorly affectation, and carry themselves similarly.  But while the acting has a high level of artifice, the setting is ornate and lush.  The inside of the castle and the costumes are fantastic, and the entire setting seems like it's from an entirely different world.  In a movie now, any crowd scene would include a bunch of dressed-down schlubs, that's simply not the case here.  Honestly, much of what made this movie enjoyable was a peek into a different era.  The super-widescreen shots taking in the scenario, used instead of close-up camera work (seriously, I think I've seen up every modern actor's nose into their skulls at some point), great use of the setting, themed stage costumes.  It's a product from when movies were supposed to grand, even if they were about a satanic prince trying to seduce a Christian to the dark side.

Even more fun: listening to Vincent Price deliver lines like, "The way is not easy, I know, but I will take you by the hand and lead you through the cruel light into the velvet darkness."  That alone makes me curious about checking out some of the other Poe films that Corman and Price did together.  There were a couple of somewhat literary visual things that are worth noting, as well.  Red Death was actually a character in the movie, a man cloaked in red.  At the end of the film, he re-united with his brothers, other color-themed plagues.  That, and the series of color-themed rooms inside the castle that ended in a black and red room housing a Satanic altar were touches that feel literary and look fantastic.

I found "The Masque of the Red Death" to be pretty enjoyable, not entirely because of the plot.  If you're accustomed to current films, this is going to feel like aliens dropped this thing off without any explanation.  It's literally contrary to every current film-making trend, from the lush colors (as opposed to the de-saturated look common now) to making the most out of one setting, an admittedly awesome castle.  So even if you're not into the somewhat simplistic plot, you can kick back and enjoy the visual treat in front of you.

3 / 5 - Streaming