Movie review - "Alakazam the Great" (1961) **

Fans of the TV show Monkey Magic might get a kick out of this animated feature from Japan, which tells the origin story of Journey to the West - Monkey being king, going power crazy, and starting on his trip.

AIP picked it up and dubbed it into English, adding songs from Les Baxter - Frankie Avalon plays Monkey, with support from Dodie Smith and Jonathan Winters. It's a piece with a lot of charm and cuteness, decent atmosphere; there was a lot of plot and set up and to be honest I struggled to follow it at times. 

But there's also plenty of action and Frankie Avalon is an ideal voice over person for this sort of thing.

Book review - "Count Belisarius" (1936) by Robert Graves

The bloke who does the introduction for this says it's a shame this book isn't as well known as I Claudius because it's as good but it's not, not by a long shot. Belisarius was a great figure, an amazing general who almost got the old Roman Empire back and firing again - and might have done it, had he enjoyed a better relationship with his Emperor - but he was so remarkable that he's not nearly as relatable as Claudius. Claudius was an all time great underdog of history, and his story involved family; Belisarius is a genius with a not particularly memorable family.

Also Graves' narrator is a loyal eunuch, which is not only uncomfortable to think about but he's a dull character to, and far too much of this is repetitive: Belisarius is given inadequate support, manages to win, Justinian gets jealous (this happens in Africa, Italy, the Middle East). It also has a down beat finale of legend with Belisarius being blinded and winding up poor (something Ian Hughes disputes in his biography of the general).

The most interesting thing about it is the relationship between Belisarius and his ambitious ex hooker wife and her possible lover. I enjoyed Belisarius as a child and the stuff about the chariot riot but the second half was more of a struggle to read.

Book review - "Belisarius: The Last Roman General" by Ian Hughes

I really enjoyed Hughes books on Valens/Valentinian and Aetius, but found this less satisfactory. Its done with customary style and skill, with plenty of pictures and maps and an easy to read style, but found it hard going at times - maybe because so many of Belisarius' campaigns dragged on and on (eg Italy), his personal life was so sordid (constantly cuckolded by his wife), all the battles he fought were ultimately pointless... I think it was the character rather than Hughes' treatment. Maybe it's also because to me the Byzantine Era feels so foreign whereas the Western Roman Empire doesn't - prejudice, I know, but can't be helped.

Movie review - "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" (1957) ***

Follow up to I was a Teenage Werewolf is actually a very different type of film because it's not told from the point of view of a teenager (here, the monster) but rather the mad doctor Frankenstein character, played by Whit Bissell. On those terms - a late 50s version of a Universal mad doctor movie - this is quite enjoyable: Bissell does some solid, underplayed mad doctor acting which suits its Einsenhower era setting, and there are some cute flourishes like an alligator in the basement and a finale in colour; the monster make up is impressive; there are some choice lines of dialogue ("I know you've a tongue in your head, I sewed it myself") and moments of pure camp (eg Bissell talking about youth being the future then hearing a car accident outside which results in some conveniently dead teenagers).

Gary Conway is a teenage monster and come to think of it an interesting movie could have been made from his point of view - it might have been more typically AIP. Several plot elements were later used in Konga, also by producer Herman Cohen - the mad scientist protagonist, scientist marrying shrewish assistant who is later killed by the creature. Good fun.

Movie review - "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957) *

Another 50s AIP movie that doesn't live up to the fun promised by its title and poster - the aliens are terrific creatures, short with bald heads and pokey eyes, right out of Mars Attacks!. But there's far too little of them - they are only glimpsed here and there and pop up at the end.

Most of the time this dull movie is about teenagers running around in a small town (well, a boyfriend and girlfriend) having mystery encounters with aliens while the adults don't believe them. It's played as a comedy which lessens suspense and makes it frustrating because the comedy isn't very funny. The two leads are uninspired though Frank Gorshin pops up in the support cast.

There's wacky music and mugging from the actors a la Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow. This was remade as The Eye Creatures and actually the basic story isn't bad - it's roughly the same as The Blob - it's just badly executed. If they wanted to make it a comedy they should have given us more aliens.

TV review - "Ray Donovan - Season 1" (2013) ***

Liev Schreiber is given as splashy a starring vehicle as anything ever concocted for Clark Gable in his MGM heydey - he plays the title role, a tough as guts fixer who works in LA, solving people's problems Michael Clayton style.

Actually solving client issues occupies about 10% of the show - the rest of the time Ray deals with his family, especially his goalbird dad (Jon Voight) fresh out of the pen, but also his wife, two kids, three brothers and other associates.

It's all well acted - the cast also includes Elliot Gould, James Woods and Rosanna Arquette - and made with intelligence but was a bit grim and all the sexual abuse and molestation surviving got me down after a while. I wanted less family angst and sexual abuse victim trauma and more cool stuff. I'm not hanging out for season 2.

Movie review - "Konga" (1961) **

Enjoyably daft US-British co-pro from Herman Cohen which sort of rips of Frankenstein then throws in some King Kong antics at the end. Michael Gough is low key but solid as the mad scientist who returns from Uganda and winds up pumping his monkey full of drugs and said monkey goes on a rampage.

You'd think from the advertising that the most of the movie would center around said rampage but actually that only comes in the last ten minutes; most of this is about Gough being mad, and killing people who are on his scent, and being blackmailed into marriage by his assistant (Margot Johns); there's also this hilarious bit where he gets a crush on a young blonde student (Claire Gordon) whose friends talk in sort of jive (these are introduced way too late in the films), and lots of scenes involving disbelieving cops.

This is the sort of movie that is basically crap but impossible to dislike: you've got Gough acquitting himself very well in a Vincent Price style role, a man in a monkey suit killing people, a quite touching ending with poor old Konga hanging around Big Ben being mowed down by the British army. And it's got novelty factor for being a British monster film. Lots of fun.

Movie review - "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) ****

Undeniably a masterpiece with so many beautiful moments and scenes but - and I'm sorry if this makes me sound like a philistine - but does it has to be so long? Dragging out Jason Robards' death for ever and ever, the elongated sequence between Henry Fonda and Claudia Cardinale in bed, and all those scenes on the train... they all surely could have been trimmed?

Some of it the length is a benefit - the drawn out suspenseful attack at the train station, the murder of the homesteaders. Charles Bronson is a fantastic Western hero, good as Eastwood would have been; Claudia Cardinale is perhaps the best looking heroine in Western history; Jason Robards adds some lively humour and Henry Fonda a strong villain (with solid support from sympathetic-yet-terrible Gabriele Ferzetti). It has one of the greatest musical scores in history and an all-time great reveal when we find out why Bronson has been after Fonda all this time. 

Absolutely worth seeing but I'd be lying if I didn't admit it dragged for me every now and then.

Movie review - "My Darling Clementine" (1946) ****1/2

Mr John Ford knew how to use a movie camera - this is perhaps the most beautiful of all black and white Westerns, with its loving compositions and evocative atmosphere. The story isn't as good though it's effective, with Henry Fonda an ideal Wyatt Earp, rocking into Tombstone with his brothers and deciding to stick around and be Marshall when his brother is killed.

There is a remarkably strong support cast on display: Ward Bond and Tim Holt as Earp brothers (Holt wasn't that great an actor and his performance here isn't that inspired but he played in an awful lot of classic films throughout his career); Victor Mature in perhaps is best ever performance and definitely his greatest role as Doc Holliday; Walter Brennan as the terrifying Ike Clanton; Grant Withers and John Ireland as his sons (a terrific rogue's gallery of baddies); Linda Darnell (a much better actress than she was given credit for) as the Mexican singer-hooker; Alan Mowbray as a stage actor (a lovely little sequence); Jane Darwell as a local and J. Farrell MacDonald as the bartender. The only really damp squib is Cathy Downs as Clementine; she's not bad, just vanilla.

There's an irritating strand of racism through the story - Earp scolds people for selling liquor to Indians and makes cracks about Mexicans - but it's full of beautiful moments, and the depiction of violence consistently interesting: it comes in short, sharp bursts out of nowhere (having said that the final shoot out isn't that spectacular). Deserved classic.

Movie review - "Master of the World" (1961) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Fun AIP attempt to jump on the then-popular Jules Verne bandwagon (its based on two lesser known Verne novels) with Vincent Price having a great old time as a mad scientist who is so anti war he flies around in a big zeppelin, dropping bombs on armies. Just like in 20000 Leagues Under the Sea some innocents get caught up with the maddie and try to stop him.

To be honest this is a bit clunky, harmed by it's low budget: there is far too much stock footage of what's taking place on land (including the 1939 The Four Feathers) and scenes of our four heroes lingering in the viewing deck watching out the window (this happens a lot). 

There is also an uninspiring sub plot where David Frankham, as the annoyingly honourable fiancee of Mary Webster, squabbles with heroic Charles Bronson. I kept assuming Frankham would die or turn evil but nope he was still there in the end; ditto Henry Hull's nasty little munitions manufacturer. 

There's also some really unfunny comic relief involving a wacky French chef.

The piece has its charm, though - all those silly sailors outfits the crew (and our heroes) wear, Vincent Price in a great role, the sheer novelty of seeing Bronson be so absurdly miscast in a conventional leading man role. Richard Matheson wrote the script, which is as always for Matheson an expert piece of work. And I found the ending, where Price's crew refused to abandon him, genuinely touching. (It may have been even more so had any of them been allowed to develop some personality.) Good kids entertainment.

Movie review - "Meteor" (1979) **

The 2000 movie Gladiator was a semi-remake of Fall of the Roman Empire but with the story problems fixed up; so too did Armageddon solve the issues of this big budget flop. It's got the same concept - killer meteor is headed towards Earth, top level team of scientists get together to save the day (mostly Russians and Americans); there's also an impressive array of talent behind and in front of the camera, including Sean Connery, Natalie Wood,Henry Fonda and Brian Keith, plus some pretty nifty special effects.

But the movie has a massive problem which I think ensured it's underwhelming box office performance: the story. It starts well enough with Sean Connery being yanked off his yacht mid race and spirited away to a top secret meeting, and squabbles with the military (personified by Martin Landau), and colluding with the Russians. But far too much of the action consists of Connery and company sitting in HQ waiting for the meteors to hit and pressing buttons.

The great disaster movies had our lead characters in peril from the get go - The Poseidon Adventure had the boat crew upside down within the first 15 minutes, ditto the fire in The Towering Inferno gang. This only gets going towards the end when HQ is hit by a meteor fragment and everyone has to flail around in mud for a bit.

So despite professional acting, seeming high stakes of the concept and lots of footage of missles, plus some clever one liners, it's dull. It's funny that AIP of all studios made such a rookie error as to not focus on a few key characters in peril (which they normally always did, mostly due to low budget reasons) but maybe they were dazzled by high price talent.

Book review - "A Game of Thrones" (1996) by George Martin

Gripping fantasy/political/medieval saga which combines many things - including history of Rome/medieval England, modern day American politics, and dragons. Nothing much I can add to what's out there on the internet already, except to note than Martin likes describing colours of clothes, has a brilliant knack for memorable characters (the dwarf Tyrion, incestuous siblings, the cranky ancient Walter Frey, shallow Sansa) and great incidents. Ned Stark, on reading this after having seen the show, really seems like a bit of an idiot (honourable yet still tries to be sneaky).

Some interesting differences from the TV show - the Stark kids are genuinely young (i.e. Robb Stark is only 15), Tyrion is less good looking than Peter Dinklage - but it was a very faithful adaptation that completely captured the spirit of this book.

Movie review - "Attack of the Puppet People" (1958) ***1/2

Excellent Bert I Gordon movie - Mark McGee claims it was his best and although I haven't gotten all the way through his back catalogue yet it's not hard to see why. It's helped by an excellent performance from John Hoyt as a creepy toy maker who likes to shrink people into toys. Hoyt is a different sort of star for this kind of movie - normally you get some cackling mad scientist a la Vincent Price; Hoyt's mild mannered kiddie-fiddler-esque nutter is far more believable and scary (and Hoyt gives an excellent performance).

The influence of The Incredible Shrinking Man is again obvious (as it was in Gordon's The Amazing Colossal Man) but also The Bride of Frankenstein - particularly, the sequence where Dr Pretorious shows off his little creatures.

June Kennedy is a likeable heroine and John Agar does his normal solid 50s sci fi leading man duties. There is some great atmosphere and one or two decent effects. Unfortunately the limited budget does hurt it in the end - it really needs a big set piece, like a fight with a spider or something, and/or big finale... and that never comes. So it sort of ends - the finale is very anti-climactic.

Still, the photography is excellent, the ideas strong and it's a lot of fun to watch. (Gordon fans will also appreciate the scene where Agar and Kennedy go watch The Amazing Colossal Man at the drive in.)