cult film freak: stop-motion

Showing posts with label stop-motion. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 11/10/2019 / No comments / bruce cabot , classic , creature , ernest schoedsack , fay wray , franchise , king kong , merian cooper , robert armstrong , sequel , stop-motion , thirties

STOMPING THROUGH THE LEGENDARY ORIGINAL 'KING KONG'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLV6tnJ0lfGdUx_R0lC8u3Ifksk9Do0tmIfZmuNxgCkZRuVonNu95vSCGd28ueLStXxyBo83wN1YRvy4C6ZzqQD0PEYgIQ0LzRU-ychZIRbAIhB1jMUujlbILMfT-rkHqMHWOlmOLCkOp5/s1600/33%252B1.06.07%252BPM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="813" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLV6tnJ0lfGdUx_R0lC8u3Ifksk9Do0tmIfZmuNxgCkZRuVonNu95vSCGd28ueLStXxyBo83wN1YRvy4C6ZzqQD0PEYgIQ0LzRU-ychZIRbAIhB1jMUujlbILMfT-rkHqMHWOlmOLCkOp5/s400/33%252B1.06.07%252BPM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Fay Wray as Ann Darrow in KING KONG Year: 1933</u></td></tr>
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If
 you discovered prehistoric/extremely instinct dinosaurs roaming on an uncharted island, would
 a giant gorilla really matter? Well in this case it’s personal as the 
legendary simian is ticked off with brutal fists flying, razor-sharp
 teeth, and he’s captured Ann Darrow, the street girl turned makeshift 
actress hired by maverick cinema auteur Carl Denham to star in his next 
picture shot entirely at Skull Island, a location that doesn’t even 
appear on the map and, shrouded by a wall of thick, ominous, forbodeing fog, it's 
place you don’t want to spend your vacation…<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgphVylFKEkYuav_a_S1g04fCFwDN2MR4lovuPhVD3TuQBBs7USxAVz1iYgfMMPo-fEK7SK3OpUnamyiINaYbWv_SWe8W7qnEzbQw_jYKPHWiGFtCsRdBZ-EW7lemGgLHU3X9-dVn-IvTZN/s1600/MPW-28028.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="307" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgphVylFKEkYuav_a_S1g04fCFwDN2MR4lovuPhVD3TuQBBs7USxAVz1iYgfMMPo-fEK7SK3OpUnamyiINaYbWv_SWe8W7qnEzbQw_jYKPHWiGFtCsRdBZ-EW7lemGgLHU3X9-dVn-IvTZN/s320/MPW-28028.jpeg" width="152"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>King Kong Rates: *****</u></td></tr>
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Natives dot the shoreline and 
reside mostly behind a giant fortress protected from the unseen god they
 live to fear… And King Kong Kong might not be 
impressively aesthetic to today’s standards. His hair moves with each movement, but we can suspend cinema disbelief by blaming wind. In reality, Willis O’Brien moved Kong by hand, and those are their very own imprints.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia6wXlNcb0Oc3JMNxS1r1q373r6k0RZKQERKKDBFim2AD4RxF3YgCTXigx1fwWgz9ssO4lpHx8i27NmN7yZg-a-gq7uGl-cx2Qs_H8483eSzZO_VgGN9BB4oCr19qDOgFYPr9b6kLvRy3u/s1600/35705343540_fa13e7375b_b.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="871" data-original-width="692" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia6wXlNcb0Oc3JMNxS1r1q373r6k0RZKQERKKDBFim2AD4RxF3YgCTXigx1fwWgz9ssO4lpHx8i27NmN7yZg-a-gq7uGl-cx2Qs_H8483eSzZO_VgGN9BB4oCr19qDOgFYPr9b6kLvRy3u/s320/35705343540_fa13e7375b_b.jpeg" width="254"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Timeless beauty Fay Wray as Ann</u></td></tr>
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As later on, the famously fake looking shark in JAWS 
didn’t matter or distract from the well-told story, either does a 
model-clay gorilla... There's enough build-up to get to know the 
characters, beginning with a middleman telling Robert Armstrong’s 
headstrong director no studio will allow an actress to risk such a 
venture: So Denhman hits the New York Depression-era streets and finds 
his dame in the form of Faye Wray’s Darrow…<br>
<br>
With pale 
skin, longing eyes, a windswept countenance and an almost primal, 
haunting beauty, Wray, who even at the time was no stranger to horror 
film roles, was given her big break – she's the perfectly suited scream 
queen and boy can she holler… After the forty-five minute mark, when 
she’s kidnapped by the natives and sacrificed to a giddy Kong, her 
wailing never really ceases and, unlike the two remakes, the human 
ingénue doesn’t fall in subliminal love with her giant captor… It’s an 
unrequited, one-sided obsession, and that makes the titular ape even 
more formidable and sinister. <br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypU-_xWBSsP0U5VhfJ0GvGPDlTT-QCWXbKsqq95QpiYZsxW3kvpftiD4-_RTVERDoCINPcgO7Wc0gjmmWiUZ6WDsyZ_rg6cPpIP8IWafvoyxvOWtInWJYGjQBXSebFj54YTfz0fMDDSc/s1600/6.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypU-_xWBSsP0U5VhfJ0GvGPDlTT-QCWXbKsqq95QpiYZsxW3kvpftiD4-_RTVERDoCINPcgO7Wc0gjmmWiUZ6WDsyZ_rg6cPpIP8IWafvoyxvOWtInWJYGjQBXSebFj54YTfz0fMDDSc/s320/6.jpg" width="228"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Terrific Pulpy Artwork</u></td></tr>
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As Kong battles a giant snake, a menacing pterodactyl
 and a  romping and raging, tail-wagging T-Rex to protect his new 
discovery, he becomes a savior/bodyguard, but most likely for 
territorial reasons...<br>
<br>
Although, Bruce Cabot’s John 
Driscoll is perpetually shadowing Kong to get his lady back... One great
 camera-gliding visual has Driscoll and a weary Darrow running for 
safety as an unseen Kong approaches... And although Cabot is the heroic 
lead, Armstrong’s Denham is the main male character...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTl4kU2RbpONAO-fzZIkM2yXc2M2s72lU1_1LkgMucTWLdF5n7FWiwpRdejuh6F4g5a5fjvj7nG_OmC9IdrcywlRgn33E36_jh4CnHd9QS_3WQrL291cz-DiPofPGygM31lUBrvXYMioW0/s1600/king-kong-poster-1933-granger.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="617" data-original-width="380" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTl4kU2RbpONAO-fzZIkM2yXc2M2s72lU1_1LkgMucTWLdF5n7FWiwpRdejuh6F4g5a5fjvj7nG_OmC9IdrcywlRgn33E36_jh4CnHd9QS_3WQrL291cz-DiPofPGygM31lUBrvXYMioW0/s400/king-kong-poster-1933-granger.jpeg" width="246"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Original King Kong Poster Art </u></td></tr>
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In the modern era, never would a man responsible for 
capturing and exploiting an extremely rare species be considered a hero 
of any kind… In fact, Charles Grodin and Jack Black, basically playing 
the same guy in both sequels, were villains and/or jerks. Either way, 
“It was beauty that killed the beast" lends more cruel irony than 
anything else. But perhaps this line can be explained when, on the 
Island, Kong breaks down the native's wall that, most likely, couldn't 
be 
penetrated under normal circumstances...<br>
<br>
It took Darrow
 to give him the 
extra strength to fulfill his tragic destiny. And despite ravaging the 
native village and following the Americans to shore with loathsome 
vengeance, Kong is no match against gas bombs being hurled at his feet, 
cutting quickly from Skull Island back to New York, where Kong’s on 
display for a theater of impatient sophisticates, resulting in a barrage
 of the city leading to the famous Empire State Building standoff where 
Kong battles airplanes with machine guns, the unfair slaying of an 
iconic creature beloved by audiences, still, even though, in the 
original movie and in his original form, KING KONG was a lethal monster 
to both respect and fear.<br>

bruce cabot, classic, creature, ernest schoedsack, fay wray, franchise, king kong, merian cooper, robert armstrong, sequel, stop-motion, thirties

STOMPING THROUGH THE LEGENDARY ORIGINAL 'KING KONG'

Fay Wray as Ann Darrow in KING KONG Year: 1933 If you discovered prehistoric/extremely instinct dinosaurs roaming on an uncharted islan...

REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL KING KONG

<span style="font-size: x-large;">KING KONG<a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2019/11/classic-kong.html"> REVIEW HAS MOVED HERE</a></span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3NTGGy86e7PolsG3Hcyy1BuJhlNSCqLkz0hblt-JiBCi0m9cW7n8QmtAABE-UTf6IuwIl564Mj5q1r4m1caL7gqC-ivmR_dNv7t-0GMOplka9OBLtRACGA2Se_1eSF2CdfhuzjV502Ko/s1600/1.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3NTGGy86e7PolsG3Hcyy1BuJhlNSCqLkz0hblt-JiBCi0m9cW7n8QmtAABE-UTf6IuwIl564Mj5q1r4m1caL7gqC-ivmR_dNv7t-0GMOplka9OBLtRACGA2Se_1eSF2CdfhuzjV502Ko/s320/1.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Fantastic King Kong poster</span></u></td></tr>
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bruce cabot, classic, creature, ernest schoedsack, fay wray, franchise, helen mack, king kong, merian cooper, robert armstrong, sequel, stop-motion, thirties

REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL KING KONG

KING KONG REVIEW HAS MOVED HERE Fantastic King Kong poster

Written by James M. Tate / 10/12/2012 / No comments / 2012 , catherine o'hara , martin landau , martin short , stop-motion , tim burton

FRANKENWEENIE

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwHWA3fowxoAyxsh4I-QDlwJVkkg5L2ceb0rPK6oJBE2iLUx9dkRqagtL0THbHl0SUpRqxg37ws9oYQMJQesMovCpRy_l711RM5GcxrK6EtuIq8iZYsTbnUrTm2zRTc4QnMPyFI6kJxzV/s1600/2-Frankenweenie-081312-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwHWA3fowxoAyxsh4I-QDlwJVkkg5L2ceb0rPK6oJBE2iLUx9dkRqagtL0THbHl0SUpRqxg37ws9oYQMJQesMovCpRy_l711RM5GcxrK6EtuIq8iZYsTbnUrTm2zRTc4QnMPyFI6kJxzV/s640/2-Frankenweenie-081312-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2012 voices: Charlie Tahan, Martin Landau rating: ****</td></tr>
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Tim Burton hasn’t been this… Tim Burton in years. Gone are the overboard computer effects or quirky actors prancing without limits… FRANKENWEENIE, a stop-motion remake of Burton’s 1984 short film, is a wonderful piece of work.<br />
<br />
Based on James Whale’s theatrical version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, our "monster" begins as a family pooch. Not a weenie dog like the title implies; the energetic Sparky's more of a comic book Bull Terrier owned by melancholy Victor Frankenstein, son of middle class suburban parents voiced by Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara. Dad's all for Victor taking part in the upcoming science fair… his "weird" son is inspired by Martin Landau's progressive science teacher... just as long as he gives baseball a shot: Cut to the chase... Sparky ends up dead and Victor, using the same <strike>lightning strike</strike> template from the Frankenstein film, brings Sparky back to life. Despite being a patchwork that continuously falls apart, he’s got the same spunk and energy. But soon Victor’s classmates catch on: Wanting their own pets revived, what begins with a subtle touch ends up a GREMLINS meets GODZILLA and it’s up to Sparky, who'd been feeling no purpose as a zombie dog, to make things right.<br />
<br />
Burton provides an old-school charm, not only because of the retro stop-motion or the lovely black and white cinematography. The story has the kind of heartfelt melodrama of the good old days. And if anything else, this is a simple tale of a boy and his pet – you’ll feel the love Victor has for Sparky, which is enough to make everything else truly come <i>alive</i>!

2012, catherine o'hara, martin landau, martin short, stop-motion, tim burton

FRANKENWEENIE

year: 2012 voices: Charlie Tahan, Martin Landau rating: **** Tim Burton hasn’t been this… Tim Burton in years. Gone are the overboard co...

Written by James M. Tate / 8/15/2010 / No comments / creature , dinosaur , james francsiscus , ray harryhausen , sixties , stop-motion , western

THE VALLEY OF GWANGI

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqMLaHPAmrQEtq7JnQwJR-jiiWVcijQQXJp14DyoieyeuqriwhLSALA9QVOEYCQVDhOMdhL-VRuGzf8IFnhgbDatV1bZtpiLIheRCEdNheuRm5ce9sG5AWvib1DmF5BqrHPazGkrxx9Fo/s1600/gwangi7.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505843812654901842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqMLaHPAmrQEtq7JnQwJR-jiiWVcijQQXJp14DyoieyeuqriwhLSALA9QVOEYCQVDhOMdhL-VRuGzf8IFnhgbDatV1bZtpiLIheRCEdNheuRm5ce9sG5AWvib1DmF5BqrHPazGkrxx9Fo/s200/gwangi7.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 112px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">title:</span> THE VALLEY OF GWANGI<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">year: </span>1969<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">cast:</span> James Franciscus<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">effects: </span>Ray Harryhausen<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">rating:</span> ****1/2<br />
<br />
This late sixties "Rexploitation" is Ray Harryhausen's best special effects film. The deliciously paced plot involves cowboys driven to find their "pot of gold" with a freak miniature horse led to the title valley where dwells a giant blue dinosaur named Gwangi, a prehistoric beast that isn't very friendly. Sure the last twenty minutes rips off "King Kong", the film Ray watched as a kid, causing him to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Willis O'Brien (who conceptualized this film in the forties)... but that's like a son having his father's voice.

creature, dinosaur, james francsiscus, ray harryhausen, sixties, stop-motion, western