Last movie watched...

[radiator]

I just watched Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau, which covers the career (and subsequent career implosion) of Richard Stanley (director of the 2000ad 'inspired' film Hardware) and his attempts to make an adaptation of HG Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando.

What quickly emerges is the story of an affable young director with a genuine love of the source material and an intriguing - if slightly half-baked - vision for what could have been a terrific little cult indie movie, left hopelessly out of his depth when events beyond his control lead to the film ballooning in size and budget and the production spinning wildly out of control, thanks in no small part due to the cataclysmic egos of Kilmer and Brando, permanently tarnishing the careers of pretty much every single person involved (Stanley never directed another feature film). Bad behaviour, insanity, drug-fuelled meltdowns and a general sense of the lunatics taking over the asylum ensue.

And that's not even half of the story. I found this particularly interesting in light of the recent Fantastic Four movie, and the apparent similarity to the situation of Josh Trank - that of the promising young talent - apparently - out of their depth and screwed by the studio system. Let's hope we get a making of of that movie as good as this one day.

It's on Netflix - at least US Netflix anyway - and I strongly recommend you to check it out.

5/5

[ThryllSeekyr]

I just watched Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau, which covers the career (and subsequent career implosion) of Richard Stanley (director of the 2000ad 'inspired' film Hardware) and his attempts to make an adaptation of HG Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando.

What quickly emerges is the story of an affable young director with a genuine love of the source material and an intriguing - if slightly half-baked - vision for what could have been a terrific little cult indie movie, left hopelessly out of his depth when events beyond his control lead to the film ballooning in size and budget and the production spinning wildly out of control, thanks in no small part due to the cataclysmic egos of Kilmer and Brando, permanently tarnishing the careers of pretty much every single person involved (Stanley never directed another feature film). Bad behaviour, insanity, drug-fuelled meltdowns and a general sense of the lunatics taking over the asylum ensue.

And that's not even half of the story. I found this particularly interesting in light of the recent Fantastic Four movie, and the apparent similarity to the situation of Josh Trank - that of the promising young talent - apparently - out of their depth and screwed by the studio system. Let's hope we get a making of of that movie as good as this one day.

It's on Netflix - at least US Netflix anyway - and I strongly recommend you to check it out.

5/5

I was going to comment here about seeing the actual film and not the making of behind the scenes movie you speak of over a month, possibly two months ago and have always found it adequate adaption and never relied two much on the modern CGI techniques that have crept into more and more usage over the past decade.

Yes, I remember the scene with the small-monkey-like-rats at the jetty, but I think this film was largely animatronics and lots of padding covered by latex or silicone with fake hair authentically added in the right places. I applaud these special effects and how the rest of the film panned out.

Read the story when this film was in it's first circulation and it was much shorter than I thought it would be and inspiration for  Pat Mill's idea about Eugenics that was brought into light in the latest episodes of Slaine. Those animal/human hybrids may be what the Fomorians were really like.

I'll be looking out of this other film and seeing what it might have otherwise been. Not that I was dis-appointed with the result. I also like the Michael York version as well and his stubborn success in remembering that he was still human and his identity after escaping being used as a Guenie-Pig and a source for humanity. t be shared with the animals that were being experimented and not so disimilar ways.

[Tiplodocus]

I just watched Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau, which covers the career (and subsequent career implosion) of Richard Stanley (director of the 2000ad 'inspired' film Hardware) and his attempts to make an adaptation of HG Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando.

After seeing him in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I want to like Kilmer but then I get reminded of episodes like this.

[Buttonman]

Pretty decent WW2 flick When Trumpets Fade

[Buttonman]

The American remake of We Are What We Are - which is best? [spoiler]This one.[/spoiler]

[Apestrife]

Das boot. Hadn't seen it before. Took 3,5h to watch, and 6h to land: how awesome it was. Loved it.

At one point I even thought "How could they'v fallen asleep like that, considering how bad the crew quarters must smell." and then it hit me that I wasn't watching a documentary.

Cannot recommend it enough. IMO a war story that's up there with Generation kill and Apocalypse Now Redux.

[TordelBack]

Yeah, Das Boot is as good as it gets. It even shares an ending with Blakes7!

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah another big fan of Das Boot. I've always avoided the original cinema release having been introduced to it via the longer TV mini series version that my Dad had on video tape for years. There seem to be so many versions out there these days, but I really must get around to watching one again as it was quite, quite brilliant. Though whether I could bare that ending again I don't know... just thinking about it is making it awfully dusty in here... I think I got something in my eye...

[Grugz]

watched "fury" whilst in hospital (did start watching the longest day since I haven't seen that in years but my credit ran out) Fury was enjoyable not up to private ryan standards but an ok way to pass the time.
I have a stack of films to watch on my planner including x-men days of future past. 3:10 to Yuma.city of god rush hour 3 and the equalizer .

Oh, and Yojimbo's been on there for ages which is awesome and labelled as "keep"

[JamesC]

Is it the modern remake of 3:10 to Yuma? That's a great film.

[Richmond Clements]

I have Pompeii on in the background as I work. It is drokking terrible.

[Keef Monkey]

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban was pretty good, definitely feels more mature stylistically (most likely a result of the choice of director). As warned here though, it was the first one where I had to have parts explained to me because without having read the book [spoiler]all the stuff about him thinking he's seen his dad when he sees the light-up stag doesn't really make much (if any) sense.[/spoiler] The weird thing is, it took Bea probably about 20secs to explain it, so it seems like something that could have been sorted in a brief bit of dialogue, odd they didn't do that. It was a really nice bit of backstory too, shame.

They're getting better though, to the point where I'm no longer grudgingly agreeing to sit down to them and actually quite looking forward to the next one.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

The Aristocrats

The Aristocrats is a film that's about a ton of comedians and entertainers from a few different generations and backgrounds all breaking down the same joke - which is more of a plateau for obscene improv than an actual joke. Some of it doesn't work but it's snappily edited and full of enough interesting and sparkling personalities to make it a worthwhile little gem. I watched it around a decade ago via a rental video shop (!!) in my home town and went and bought it after that. As the years went by I thought of this filthy silly movie that perhaps I shouldn't like it - and it stuck out like a dirty thumb. It was only after reading Stewart Lee's brilliant biog/stand-up dissection book "How I Escaped My Certain Fate" where he claims seeing this at a comedy festival opened his eyes to the joy in taking jokes apart (which he does in the book) that Aristocrats was given new life to me. Watching it again you see a bunch of seriously funny people passionately showing - through the creative depravity of the joke - what they personally find funny and it's enlightening, inspiring and probably depressing depending on where your offence lines are drawn.

"This joke holds up a mirror to the artist"

[TordelBack]

The weird thing is, it took Bea probably about 20secs to explain it, so it seems like something tb'd tahat could have been sorted in a brief bit of dialogue, odd they didn't do that. It was a really nice bit of backstory too, shame.

That's exactly it - everything re: the three Animagi, the Marauders' Map and Harry's Patronus are beautifully set up in the movie, and it'd take about two lines from Lupin to tie them all together while he's saying goodbye to Harry. With that addition, it'd be a far more satisfying film - and it'd improve the subsequent episodes too, since these connections continue to be key plot points.

[Colin YNWA]

The Aristocrats

Saw this a good while ago now but enjoyed it immensely. As you say the joke itself isn't that great, in and of itself, but as such provides a fascinatating insight into the craft of comedy. Its wonderful to see how in the hands of different comedians it can become a very different thing, even when the thing itself is so simple.

Bit like a 6 page Dredd one off!