SUPERMAN (1978)
Article 2795 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-1-2009
Posting Date: 4-8-2009
Directed by Richard Donner
Featuring Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve
Country: UK / USA

The last surviving resident of the planet Krypton is a child sent to Earth by his father. On earth he has superpowers, and becomes a hero known as Superman. He must pit his wits against a supervillain named Lex Luthor, who is intent on causing California to slide into the ocean.

As the first big-budget superhero movie, it is no doubt beloved by fans. Though I consider it watchable enough, I have strong reservations. The movie has something of a split personality; the first half of the movie deals with his mythic origins, and it is mostly stiff, pompous and humorless; only Glenn Ford manages to lift things up a bit by adding a much needed touch of humanity to the proceedings. The second half of the movie has far too much humor in it; everyone seems to be playing it for laughs. No, I don’t object to Christopher Reeve turning the role of Clark Kent into a clumsy buffoon (quite frankly, this is my favorite aspect of Reeve’s performance, as it keeps the character from falling into blandness as well as providing a sharp contrast between Kent and Superman). But my heart did sink to see Lex Luthor played for laughs (a fault I attribute to the script rather than Gene Hackman’s performance, as I think he simply played it the way it was written to the hilt). It only starts taking itself seriously again during the special-effects laden climax, which unfortunately relies on giving Superman the power to turn back time, thereby straining credibility way too far for my taste. Yet, for all that, the movie is entertaining enough; I just wish this cinematic meal hadn’t ended up feeling like so many empty calories. My favorite moment: Superman rescues a cat caught in a tree.

STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982)
Article 2793 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-30-2008
Posting Date: 4-6-2009
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
Featuring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Country: USA

When a Starfleet vessel stumbles upon the remnants of Khan’s marooned spaceship, Khan takes it over and plots revenge on his old friend, Admiral James T. Kirk.

Whatever faults there were with STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, it must be credited for one thing; it got the ball rolling for the transplantation of the TV series to the big screen. Still, I suspect that if this movie had been no better than that one, the franchise would have quickly burned itself out. Instead, we get a solid script that manages a fine balancing act between giving us a story that was strongly reminiscent of the original series (helped no doubt by making it a direct sequel to the “Space Seed” episode) while making it special enough to warrant a full movie treatment. It also avoids being in awe of its own technology and concentrates on the human elements of the story; though the special effects are state of the art, they are there to augment and support the story. A good script helps, as well as strong performances from all of the returning cast members of the series and from Ricardo Montalban in his return to the role of Khan. It also gives us an emotionally charged ending that sets up a situation for the sequel, a case of having one’s cake and eating it, too. I remember seeing this one in the theater back when it was released, and really having the feeling that the series had truly been revived. The only problem I have is one that some people have excuses for; Chekov was not a character during the first season of the series when “Space Seed” aired, but its clearly established that Khan and Chekov know each other in the movie. Excuses notwithstanding, this always bothered me a bit. Nevertheless, it was great to have the series back.

SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED (1974)
Article 2792 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-30-2008
Posting Date: 4-5-2009
Directed by Michael Findlay
Featuring Alan Brock, Jennifer Stock, Tawm Ellis
Country: USA

A group of college students go to an island to get a photograph of the Yeti. They begin dying one by one.

I first heard about this movie from Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Movie Guide. Weldon claims at one point of the book that he never gives away the ending of a good movie. He gives the ending away to this one.

I next encountered this title after having watched the wretched INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS. That movie was directed by Ed Adlum. I looked up his full credits on IMDB, and found out he also had prominent credits in another genre movie – this one. He doesn’t direct, but he produces, writes and acts in this one.

One of the early scenes of this movie consists of couple. The man scours the kitchen for a drink and finds a beer. The woman gets into a fight with him, and he attacks her with a serrated knife, leaving her for dead. We next see him lying fully clothed in a full bathtub, drinking his beer and lazily trying to rub the bloodstains off of his shirt. The woman is, however, not quite dead. We see her crawling to the bathroom with a toaster. With her last ounce of energy, she plugs it in and dumps it in the bathtub.

Any one of the above things would have prepared me for a truly awful movie, and I was well-prepared; this is a stinker of the first order. I’m not giving away the twist ending, though practically everyone else does; I’m just going to say that an early restaurant scene in which a special meal not on the menu is prepared for one of the servants is indeed relevant to the plot. The rest is consummate silliness. Though it doesn’t quite reach the insane levels of INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS, it still earns its place in the annals of bad moviedom and gets weirder as it goes along. But then, what do you expect of a Yeti movie which doesn’t feature an ounce of snow in it?