Richard Stanleys new movie
Oct 26, 2019 8:26:09 GMT
Post by Jinxtengu on Oct 26, 2019 8:26:09 GMT
so the other day i saw the Victorian premiere of the color of out of space by Richard Stanley, which played as part of monsterfest film festival. im not going to write a full review right now because I have to type this without a keyboard, but anyway here are some quick thoughts.
In case you don't know about Richard Stanley, he made some quite cool films in the 90's. I think his film Hardware is well worth checking out and also worth re-watching today, especially for it's commentary on sexism, technology and american hegemony, im probably not selling it as well as i could. Its a cool movie with a killer robot that takes some of its inspiration from "alien", it has music by ministry and has fukin lemmy in it! (i think it might also have an iggy pop cameo, not sure. Anyway Richard also famously tried to direct the Island of Dr moreau with Marlina Brando, (heh) but got kicked off the project by holliwood-ass-hats. There's a very good doco about that that I highly recommend (and i think it might be on youtube)
Anyway Richard stanley is a funny (and still cool) director.
Also it's fairly well known that he believes in the power of the Occult.
so back to the movie,
The Color out of space is based on an Hp lovecraft story, which already makes it pretty cool to begin with. Apparently it was produced by the makers of "mandy", though if you read my mandy review you would know i thought that was shit. It stars pickelous cage.
First up I'd say that i definitely enjoyed the film more than mandy, and also more than Jim jarmushes new zombie movie. Ummm This is incidental but i was assigned a crap seat on the edge of the theater, but guess what? I just decided to sit right in the middle of the (sold out) session. No one bothered me. anyway where was i so yeah, Color out of space. I believe the film had a fairly interesting premise, but was perhaps let down somewhat by the main actors. I actually like Nicholas Cage as an actor, (I think he's basically misunderstood) as he fills the role of a theater performer for the modern age(although that's a different topic), I feel however that if his act was perhaps toned down a few notches, the movie would have been more powerful. the character he plays IN color out of space is sortof analogous to jack torrence from the shining, but he has a few too many outbursts, which is more comical than scary. I don't believe it ruins the film but, I couldv'e been better.
The other thing, the main witch girl in the movie, im not totally convinced of her as a proper wikkan, mainly in the opening scenes, i didn't think she acted like she truly believed in the rituals. I think her performance wasn't so bad, but maybe Richard should have cast some more angsty goth type, but well thats just my opinion. The film did had some good moments, some d2cent gore and also some great creatures! Spoiler alert
i particularly liked the alien cthulu dream sequence near the end of the film.
all in all, Even though i may criticize it(for thats what i generally do) I actually quite liked the film. I felt like it was almost brilliant, i mean it could've been at the same level as john carpenters "the thing", if only a bit more attention had been paid to the tonal flow of the film, and possibly the casting.
I suspect what happened was Richard had to compromise, to complete a fairly competent film with the resources and people available (and i imagine) fairly square actors must be a nightmare to direct. Possibly an all Kiwi film cast would have been better. anyhoo I really hope Mr Stanley does make more films.
after watching the movie i was walking down the street and a cars headlights shone in my eyes, and for a moment, I swear i saw the hallucinatory colors of the cthulu-esque dimension. Im not sure what it means, but then i have of corpse read the necronomicon and summoned the creatures from the void. bwahahah
In case you don't know about Richard Stanley, he made some quite cool films in the 90's. I think his film Hardware is well worth checking out and also worth re-watching today, especially for it's commentary on sexism, technology and american hegemony, im probably not selling it as well as i could. Its a cool movie with a killer robot that takes some of its inspiration from "alien", it has music by ministry and has fukin lemmy in it! (i think it might also have an iggy pop cameo, not sure. Anyway Richard also famously tried to direct the Island of Dr moreau with Marlina Brando, (heh) but got kicked off the project by holliwood-ass-hats. There's a very good doco about that that I highly recommend (and i think it might be on youtube)
Anyway Richard stanley is a funny (and still cool) director.
Also it's fairly well known that he believes in the power of the Occult.
so back to the movie,
The Color out of space is based on an Hp lovecraft story, which already makes it pretty cool to begin with. Apparently it was produced by the makers of "mandy", though if you read my mandy review you would know i thought that was shit. It stars pickelous cage.
First up I'd say that i definitely enjoyed the film more than mandy, and also more than Jim jarmushes new zombie movie. Ummm This is incidental but i was assigned a crap seat on the edge of the theater, but guess what? I just decided to sit right in the middle of the (sold out) session. No one bothered me. anyway where was i so yeah, Color out of space. I believe the film had a fairly interesting premise, but was perhaps let down somewhat by the main actors. I actually like Nicholas Cage as an actor, (I think he's basically misunderstood) as he fills the role of a theater performer for the modern age(although that's a different topic), I feel however that if his act was perhaps toned down a few notches, the movie would have been more powerful. the character he plays IN color out of space is sortof analogous to jack torrence from the shining, but he has a few too many outbursts, which is more comical than scary. I don't believe it ruins the film but, I couldv'e been better.
The other thing, the main witch girl in the movie, im not totally convinced of her as a proper wikkan, mainly in the opening scenes, i didn't think she acted like she truly believed in the rituals. I think her performance wasn't so bad, but maybe Richard should have cast some more angsty goth type, but well thats just my opinion. The film did had some good moments, some d2cent gore and also some great creatures! Spoiler alert
i particularly liked the alien cthulu dream sequence near the end of the film.
all in all, Even though i may criticize it(for thats what i generally do) I actually quite liked the film. I felt like it was almost brilliant, i mean it could've been at the same level as john carpenters "the thing", if only a bit more attention had been paid to the tonal flow of the film, and possibly the casting.
I suspect what happened was Richard had to compromise, to complete a fairly competent film with the resources and people available (and i imagine) fairly square actors must be a nightmare to direct. Possibly an all Kiwi film cast would have been better. anyhoo I really hope Mr Stanley does make more films.
after watching the movie i was walking down the street and a cars headlights shone in my eyes, and for a moment, I swear i saw the hallucinatory colors of the cthulu-esque dimension. Im not sure what it means, but then i have of corpse read the necronomicon and summoned the creatures from the void. bwahahah
